Interlude - August 4
August 4, 2020
Andrews Sisters exhibit online, new talent show submissions and more
Welcome back to Interlude, your twice-weekly portal to all sorts of fun, enriching and educational material, available free online from local, national and global artists and presenters.
Talent Show draws from far and wide
Our final batch of At Home Talent Show entries is composed entirely of singers, but that’s where the similarity ends. Check out these numbers:
- Sydney Johnson, a Hoosier currently nannying for some cute kids in Spain, sings “Ave Maria” by Beyoncé.
- Noah, a young Carmel man with autism and visual impairment, teams with Raion Ramsey, his New Orleans-based vocal coach, for a long-distance duet on "Say Something" by A Great Big World.
- 14-year-old Ali Boice, named 2019 Kentucky Country Music Association New Country Entertainer of the Year (ages 13-16), sings "Champion" by Carrie Underwood.
- Diane Tipton, a retired speech therapist, sings "Stay Awake" from Mary Poppins.
- OK, it’s her second entry, but wow: Local soprano Molly Hotek belts “Johnny One Note” from Babes in Arms.
- Center staffer and veteran performer/producer Ellen Kingston offers a pandemic-inspired adaptation of “Clap Yo’ Hands” by the Gershwins.
Andrews Sisters exhibit now online
Our friends at the Great American Songbook Foundation are celebrating National Sisters Day by sharing the new online version of their recent gallery exhibit, The Andrews Sisters: Queens of the Jukebox. Travel back to the 1940s, put a nickel in the jukebox, and jitterbug to songs of an original American girl band.
How did three small-town women from Minnesota become one of the best-selling bands of all-time? What is the "Andrews sound"? Did new technology make the Andrews sisters stars? How has their legacy influenced musicians today? There's only one way to find out: Jump and jive into the Andrews Sisters online exhibit.
Images and artifacts for this exhibit are taken in part from the Robert Boyer Collection housed in the Foundation's Songbook Archives.
This week in Center history ...
August 3: National treasure Tony Bennett is born in 1926. The beloved singer has performed three times at the Palladium – August 2011, November 2014 and May 2019 – each time to sold-out houses and multiple standing ovations. On his most recent visit, he was inducted into the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame.
August 5: The comic strip Little Orphan Annie debuts in 1924 in the New York Daily News. The strip inspired the Tony-winning Broadway musical Annie, which has been presented by the Center and its Resident Companies in various forms over the past decade, including Civic Theatre in 2017. Actress-singer Andrea McArdle, who originated the title role on Broadway, performed at the Palladium in February as a member of 4 Girls 4: Broadway’s Leading Ladies in Concert.
August 6: In 2015, Harry Connick Jr. plays to a packed house during the Center’s Fifth Anniversary Season. A celebrated keeper of the Great American Songbook flame, he would repeat the feat in November 2018.
August 8: In 2012, saxophonist/bandleader Dave Koz makes his Palladium debut, launching an informal tradition of annual appearances. His guest on this occasion is singer Monica Mancini, daughter of famed composer Henry Mancini.
This guy keeps tooting his horn
Håkan Hardenberger of Sweden’s Malmö Symphony Orchestra is considered one of the world’s finest classical trumpeters. During the pandemic lockdown, he has been posting weekly selections from Belgian composer Theo Charlier’s 36 Études Transcendantes, a pillar of the trumpet repertoire. Judging from the comments on YouTube, trumpeters the world over are blown away by the beauty of the pieces and the technical prowess of the performances.
Hardenberger kicks off his video of Charlier No. 1 with an explanation of the project, and you can see the rest of the series on the symphony’s YouTube page.
