Samples
Delta Festival Ballet Twenty-Nine and Growing
by: James Levick
When Maria and Georgie Giacobbe finished their dance training
with Gerry Fenasci of New Orleans in 1943, they looked to
more. Parents Leona and Lawrence Giacobbe, feeling that the
teenaged girls were too young to continue their studies in New
York, they allowed them to open the Giacobbe School of Dance in
the back yard. Little sister Lee and brother Joseph
Giacobbe were accompanied by other neighborhood children in
classes and became the first of the thousands that would
eventually study at the well-respected establishment.
Now, more than fifty
years later, it is clear that Joseph Giacobbe has made impressive
leaps from his humble beginnings in a backyard of Metairie,
Louisiana. After his early training at the family studio,
Joseph Giacobbe continued to study dance in New Orleans and
Chicago during his high school years. There he developed
special interest in flamenco dancing. He met his wife, Gwen
Belle Bernadas, in an advanced Tulane University dance class, and
they went on to perform together as soloists in TERESA Y SU
COMPANIA ESPANOLA at Jacob's pillow and with the New Orleans
Opera.
In 1967 Joseph
co-founded Delta Festival Ballet, along with his sister Maria
Giacobbe, as a community dance organization. The company
was chartered by the state of Louisiana in 1969 and it has
continued to grow rapidly, becoming one of Louisiana's only fully
professional, resident ballet companies in 1981. As
Artistic Directors and founders of Delta, Joseph Giacobbe and
Maria Giacobbe have spent nearly three decades making Delta a
remarkably stable, innovative and professional entity with a
repertoire of more than fifty ballets and divertissements,
ranging from nineteenth century classic productions, such as Sleeping
Beauty and Giselle, to popular rock ballets, such as Tommy.
Delta performs for more than 25,000 people each year with its
regional tour of Nutcracker, appearances at various
workshops and festivals in the area. Spring mimi-tours
productions of Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel,
are planned for 1998.
[rest in the magazine]
The Fort Smith Symphony A New Era Begins
by: Jean Hurley
The past and the future exist in
perfect harmony in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The proof of that
lasting legacy between old and new can be found on opening night
at teh Fort Smith Symphony. This year holds a special magic
for the patrons, however, an experience that doesn't come along
often to Symphony supporters.
Just imagine this:
the Civic Center Theater is full, its audience sits, not quietly,
because their sense of celebration has created a noisy, bouyant
chatter throughout the house. Mayor Ray Baker waves and
smiles at the Symphony Board President, Robert Kanak. they
both know (along with eveyone else), that this opening is
special, one that their orchestra has encountered but a few times
in its lengthy history. A new Maestro is about to enter the
scene. Tonight is John Jeter's debut as conductor of
Arkansas' oldest Symphony Orchestra. It is from Fort Smith's rich
tradition of the past that John Jeter's steps out upon the
podium, lifts the baton, and a new era has begun.
In the beginning, the
orchestra was the vision of Mr. and Mrs. William Baily, whose
dream was to establish a symphony tahat would help to define the
culture of a thriving community. that was in 1923.
They started what today's Mayor Ray Baker (nicknamed "the
pied pipier of the arts"), continues to champion: advocaticy
and significant monetary support from City Hall to nurture
performing and visual arts in Fort Smith. In the Civic
Center Theater tonight, that line of committment extends its
proud heritage to John Jeter, a conductor who brings unique
talent and his own for the Fort Smith Symphony.
[more of the article in the
magazine]
East Texas Symphony Music of the Spheres
by: Elizabeth Ellison
In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the space race, the
East Texas Symphony Orchestra (ETSO) located in Tyler, Texas,
presents the "Harmony of the Spheres" 1997-98 concert
season. This orbit through the musical heavens began on
September 20 with trumpeter Doc Severinson, former "Tonight
Show" band leader. Severinson is a Grammy Award
winning trumpeter and Pricipal Pops Conductor of the Phoenix
Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and
the Milwaukee Symphony. He played trumpet seletions in a
diverse medley of musical style from many of the musical greats:
George Bizet and Gioacchino Rossini to Cole Porterjust to anme a
few.
The East
Texas Syphony is especially proud to annouce the opening of its
new twenty-one million dollar venue, Vaughn Auditoriumm on the
Univeristy of Texas at Tyler Campus. All regular
performanceswill be presented in the new theater, whose acoustics
promises to heighten and elevate the orchestral experience for
all music devotees, especially for the debut of concert pianist
Keith Weber on November 15. Mr. Weber is a visiting
Professor in Collaborative Musicianship at the University of
Minnesota and an accomplished organist. He has frequently
appeared with the Tyler Civic Choralem the Texas Baroque
Ensemble, the Dallas Bach Society, the New Texas Festival, the
Victoria Bach Festival, and the Music Festival at Round Top,
Texas.
To further
celebrate a sky of stars and planets, the ETSO will
perform,"The Planets", by Gustav Holst in
January. This suite for large orchestra will be accompanied
by a NASA slide show of the cosmos.
[more of the article in the magazine]
Centaenary
College of Louisiana Annouces Appointment of Mark Zeltser The Russians are Coming
"New bright star in the sky of Salzburg
Festival", "The Titan of Keyboard" are just two of
the accolades that music critics in Salzburg, Austria and New
York City have bestowed on pianist Mark Zeltser. Now the
gifted musician moves to Centenary College as Professor of
Music. His tenure begins in January 1998.
Zeltser's
experience as a teacher began in the place he himself was a
student: the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. This is
the school of Bella Davidivich, Vladimir Feltsman, Lev Vlasenko,
Rodion Schedrin, Viktoria Postnikova and Mark Zeltser. He
won several piano competitions including First Prize at the
National Piano Competition in Moscow; Grand Prix at the
Marguarite Long/ Jacques Tibault International Competition in
Paris; and the Busoni Prize at the Busoni International
Competition in Bolzano, Italy.
[more of the article in the magazine]
Christoph Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony
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