Weekly Update

mpPIANIST MENAHEM PRESSLER

LEGENDARY FOUNDER of the fabled Beaux Arts Trio, now 91, appears in Carmel this coming Sunday. Click the ad, left, for details. Pressler recently had major surgery to treat a dangerous aortic aneurysm.

WHY IS THE GERSHWIN PRIZE ONLY FOR POP ARTISTS?

GADFLY NORMAN LEBRECHT rightly demands to know. Click HERE

MJF NEW JAZZ IN SCHOOLS PROGRAM

MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL has created a new free concert series for Monterey County school students, grades 3 through 12, called What is Jazz? MJF traveling clinicians, plus dancer Micha Scott, will appear with members of the MJF High School All-Stars. The one-hour program will be performed twice at Pacific Grove Middle School on Nov. 4, Sherwood Hall Salinas on Nov. 5, Robert Stanton Theater King City on Nov. 6 and with a single performance at Breadbox Theater in Salinas on Nov. 7. More information at 373-8843.

LAST SUNDAY’S JAZZ JAM

IN MEMORY OF JAN DENEAU, it drew a large complement of Monterey Bay jazz artists of every instrumental and vocal discipline. Lee Durley was MC and welcomed Scotty Wright, Dave Morwood, Bob Blankenship, Kenny Stahl, Biff Smith, Eddie Mendenhall, Thelma Howard, John Dryden, Jim Vanderswaan and many more. The Embassy Suites lounge was packed to overflowing.

IS ‘EQUITY’ IN THEATER REAL?

AND DOES IT extend to women actors? Click HERE

PHILIP PEARCE REPORTS ON PRIVATE LIVES

YET ANOTHER VICTIM of the recent Monterey-area power outage was the Listening Place readers’ theater October 18th performance of Private Lives. Like a lot of other prospective patrons I showed up to face a notice on the museum’s front door. Closed. No Listening Place show. But a week later I became part of a full house of fans who enjoyed a lively, well-acted version of the 1930 Noel Coward comedy. Private Lives was an assigned script analyzed in a play writing class I took many years ago and I thought then, as I still do, that on the page this is a tiresome exercise in comedic triviality. But since that classroom work I’ve seen the play five times and have always had to admit I was charmed and entertained. Last Sunday’s Listening Place version, though it necessarily omitted some of the fisticuffs and horseplay, was, again, charming!

FOREST THEATER GUILD SETS AUDITIONS

WALT DEFARIA has announced auditions for The Borrowers-The Musical, with music by Stephen Tosh, when the Guild returns to the Forest Theater after its renovation is completed next year. Auditions are by appointment only and will be held at the Carmel Youth Center, corner of 4th & Torres, Saturday Nov. 7 from 9:30 to noon and from 1pm to 3pm, and on Sunday, Nov. 8 from 1pm to 4pm. Appointments may be made by calling Stacy Meheen at (831)760-0127 or email [email protected]. Singing and acting roles range from 16 years to all adult ages. For more information call deFaria at 624-4345.

PERFORMING ARTS PEOPLE

WELL-KNOWN Monterey Peninsula pianists and keyboard teachers Renée and Lyn Bronson have richer backgrounds than many know about. Click HERE

FRESH REVIEW

PHILIP PEARCE mentions Private Lives (above) and covers Tortilla Curtain. Click HERE

Scott MacClelland, editor

Weekly Update

Valdes tribute to IrakereIT’LL SELL OUT

COMING TO the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz next Tuesday, CHUCHO VALDÉS, living legend of Afro-Cuban jazz for the last four decades, brings his Afro-Cuban Messengers in their revival of his spectacular charts written for his original Irakere band and refashioned by Valdés. This is the same material being released today of his performance at the Jazz in Marciac festival in France on a new Jazz Village CD, “Tribute to Irakere (Live in Marciac)”. See our CALENDAR

TWO NEW STAGE OPENINGS

AT PACREP, it’s Moll Flanders. On the Western Stage, it’s Tortilla Curtain. Click our CALENDAR, or for PacRep, the display ad, left.

REMEMBERING ANGELO DIGIROLAMO

THE BRUCE ARISS Monterey Wharf Theater presents “Seasons of Love: Remembering Angelo,” a Broadway review show to honor Angelo DiGirolamo, founder and owner of the theater. This show is filled with Angelo’s favorite musical numbers performed by past Wharf performers spanning over 30 years. It will be an evening of love and remembrance, of laughter and music. The show includes local theatrical luminaries Erin Helm, Keith Wolhart, Stacy Meheen, Phyllis Davis, and Jared Hussey. Seasons of Love runs for two performances, Oct 23 and 24, at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, or to reserve tickets by phone, call the Wharf Theater at 649-2322.

THE SCHEHERAZADE INITIATIVE

LAST NIGHT at Carnegie Hall, Carmel’s Susanne Mentzer joined other featured artists and an orchestra of musicians from the New York Philharmonic, the Met Opera Orchestra and others as part of Music for Life International and the United Nation’s Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. Susanne sang the Maurice Ravel song-cycle, Shéhérazade, followed by Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. To read more, click HERE

Class MusicSAVING YOUR KIDS FROM DRUGS
ELAINE G strikes again, right.

PERFORMING ARTS PEOPLE

JAZZ PIANIST/COMPOSER Eddie Mendenhall will play at this Sunday’s Jazz Jam tribute to the late Jan Neveau. Click HERE

TWO FRESH REVIEWS

MONTEREY SYMPHONY from Sunday. Click HERE

PAPER WING FREMONT’S HYDE. Click HERE

Scott MacClelland, editor