Copious Notes

Musicians in the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Singers and UK Chorale settle onto the stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for the Our Lincoln performance Feb. 2, 2009. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

The presentation of Our Lincoln at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in February was undeniably a big deal for Kentucky arts and humanities.

Artists who live and work here were presented on one of the nation’s most ­prestigious stages along with hometown kids who have made good and a few international stars, such as violinist Mark O’Connor. A production conceived and produced in Central Kentucky went to an international arts showplace and acquitted itself admirably.

I sat with a Washington cameraman who went on at length about how great the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra is. It was one of numerous anecdotes about seasoned Washington arts observers who were impressed with Our Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln played by Jim Sayre of Lawrenceburg, left, and Henry Clay played by George MGee of Georgetown put the finishing touches on their costumes outside the entrance to the Kennedy Center.

But it is understandable that this might be lost on people who weren’t among the 1,463 people who saw the ­performance, given while the state was in the throes of an ice storm. ­Overseeing recovery ­efforts forced Gov. Steve Beshear to cancel his plans to attend.

But now Beshear and anyone else who would like to see the show can catch it in Michael Breeding’s PBS-quality DVD, which has just been released.

After raising the money to get the program to ­Washington, the Kentucky Humanities Council had to go back to the well for an ­additional $6,500 to produce the DVD, with the total costs to be recouped through sales.

What we can now see is that Breeding and his crew captured the proceedings in stunning detail, with shots that take the viewer onto the stage with the performers and also relay the grandeur of the occasion.

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First Presbyterian Church will be combining its music and missions ministries in its new concert series, which starts in September. The concerts will be free, with expenses covered by individual donors. An offering will be taken at each performance to benefit a designated organization, and during the concert, the organization will make a presentation about its work.

Angela Brown. Photo by Roni Ely | Columbia Artists Management Inc.

Here’s the lineup:

Sept. 18: Soprano Angela Brown, a star at the Metropolitan Opera and other houses (beneficiary, Central Music Academy). 8:15 p.m.
Nov. 20: Tom Trenney, organist and silent film improviser (Living Waters for the World). 8:15 p.m.
Feb. 13: American Spiritual Ensemble, professional vocal group dedicated to preserving the negro spiritual (Step by Step). 7:30 p.m.
April 16: Bowl and Bunns, a Cincinnati-based jazz quintet (Baby Health of Lexington). 8:15 p.m.

For further information or to contribute, contact First Presbyterian director of music and arts Marlon Hurst at (859) 252-1919, ext. 110.

Click here to see a pdf of the series brochure.

The Downtown Lexington Corporation’s Kentucky Star awards will be presented tonight to two well-known, active artists in Kentucky and a well-known entertainer from the early 20th Century.

The awards, which will be presented in a 6 p.m. ceremony at the Downtown Arts Center, will go to University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and American Spiritual Ensemble director Everett McCorvey; author, activist and playwright Silas House, and magician and hypnotist William Preston Slusher.

McCorvey, who lives in Lexington, has directed the opera program at UK since 1991. During his tenure, the opera program has risen to national prominence and UK Opera Theatre has become one of Lexington’s most popular performing arts groups. McCorvey is also a well-known tenor-soloist and founded the Spiritual Ensemble, which performs throughout the U.S. and Europe.

House, who lives in Lily, is a best-selling author of novels such as The Coal Tattoo and Clay’s Quilt. He has two forthcoming books: Something’s Rising: Appalachian’s Fighting Mountaintop Removal, due March 17, and Eli the Good, due in September. House is also a music journalist and anti-mountaintop removal activist. His second play, Long Time Traveling, produced by Actors Guild of Lexington, will open at the Downtown Arts Center April 23.

Slusher was born in Pineville in 1915 and became a self-taught magician, initially touring around Eastern Kentucky and eventually becoming known nationwide.  He also became known as a impressario, booking entertainers such as Bob Hope and Tex Ritter at Fort Meade, Maryland during World War II. He eventually helped launch some of the first summer outdoor musicals in Kentucky.

The stars will be honored with their names in stars on Main Street in front of the Downtown Arts Center.  The ceremony is free and open to the public.

The Lexington-based American Spiritual Ensemble, directed by University of Kentucky Opera Theatre director Everett McCorvey, will be featured on the Bob Edwards Weekend show at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday on WEKU-FM 88.9.

This is the same interview that Edwards featured on his weekday morning show for XM and Sirius satellite radio March 13.

The American Spiritual Ensemble, based in Lexington and directed by University of Kentucky voice professor Everett McCorvey, will be on The Bob Edwards Show Friday morning on XM and Sirius satellite radio.

Bob Edwards.

Edwards, a Louisville native, invited the ensemble to appear on his show after hearing it perform on the UK Opera Theatre and Kentucky Humanities Council’s Our Lincoln performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. on Feb. 2. The Spiritual Ensemble is dedicated to the preservation of the Spiritual, and it is made up of 25 singers from around the country, most professional singers, many with college posts. The group has several annual tours, including a summer trek to Spain.

Edwards’ show  airs 8-9 a.m. EST on XM Channel 133 and Sirius Channel 196. The show is also available for Download on Audible.

Everett McCorvey directs the American Spiritual Ensemble in a performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

By any measure, the Lexington-based American Spiritual Ensemble has had a pretty good winter tour. During the 22-city journey, the ensemble has played the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the Our Lincoln performance, sung in Gettysburg on the 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, performed at one of the stops of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, and recorded an interview and performance for Bob Edwards show on Sirius XM satellite radio. An air date for the show has not been announced.

As it does most years, ASE brings the show home. The 25-voice ensemble performs at First Presbyterian Church at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 25). If you have not heard the Spiritual Ensemble before, you really shouldn’t miss their program, which resulted in involuntary mass sock removal at Our Lincoln.

One person whose socks were knocked off was Edwards, who had producers invite the ensemble of mostly professional opera singers to be on his show after hearing them at the Lincoln program, which he hosted.

UK symphony violin players Ella Chang, left, and Jihee Kang make a portrait together on the stage of the Kennedy Center concert hall. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

Check out Jonathan Palmer’s slide show from Our Lincoln.

WASHINGTON – Last February, the Kentucky Humanities Council and the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre claimed Abraham Lincoln as the Bluegrass State’s own through music and words in the Our Lincoln concert at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

Monday night, the same artists staked that claim on a national stage: the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.

The performance of Our Lincoln at the Kennedy Center was a chance for the artists involved, including the Lexington Singers and the UK Symphony Orchestra, to play on the stage of one of the most prestigious arts venues in America. It was also a chance for Kentucky to show off.

“When I heard about this, I said, in one fell swoop, you could change a lot of people’s minds about our state,” Robert Brock, artistic director of Kentucky Repertory Theatre, said, recalling receiving his invitation to portray Lincoln’s law partner, Billy Herndon, in the show.

Brock’s performance was one of numerous pieces meant to portray the 16^th President, usually associated with Illinois, from a distinctly Kentucky perspective. The performance was created as part of the celebration of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth in Hodgenville.

Our Lincoln included Augusta’s Nick Clooney narrating Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, UK alum and Metropolitan Opera tenor Gregory Turay singing a new musical setting of The Gettysburg Address, Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry reading her poem about a Lincoln portrait in her house, and excerpts from River of Time, a forthcoming opera about Abraham Lincoln by UK composer Joseph Baber.

The program was narrated by national radio host and Louisville native Bob Edwards, and it was attended by a who’s who of Central Kentuckians including Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry, and U.S. Reps. Ben Chandler and Hal Rodgers.

“This is a proud night for the State of Kentucky because of what we are about to show the nation,” University of Kentucky President Lee Todd said to about 400 people at a pre-show reception in the Kennedy Center.

The crowd included Kentuckians who made the trip to Washington, expatriate Kentuckians living in Washington, people invited by their Kentucky friends and pure concertgoers.

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Dear President Obama,

During your campaign and since your election, you have talked extensively about Abraham Lincoln and boosted the arts as a way to share our culture and tell our story.

Has Kentucky got a show for you.

Mark Golson and Denisha Ballew in a scene from Jospeh Baber's forthcoming opera, River of Time, about Abraham Lincoln's Kentucky years, at the Our Lincoln event in February 2008. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Joseph Rey Au.

This weekend, approximately 375 musicians, actors and other artists are making a journey from the Bluegrass State to Washington D.C. to present Our Lincoln, a show that tells the story of the life and legacy of the 16th President in music, theater, poetry and other disciplines. The performance is at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday. You have been sent several invitations to this event, and everyone connected with the program seems to understand they may not know if you are coming until the last minute, and there are a lot of people and events vying for your attention.

Generally, I would not be so presumptuous as to offer the President of the United States advice. But as an arts journalist who is often asked by people if I think they’d like something, I can honestly say, I really think you’d like this show.

I was part of the audience of 1,500 people who saw Our Lincoln in Lexington last February. As it was being assembled, it was billed to me as a “Kennedy Center Honors-like show.” It seemed ambitious, and like any sort of ambitious project, there is an element of risk. There were a lot of moving parts to the production that seemed like they could implode.

But the Our Lincoln soared, truly becoming one of the most unique and inspired productions I have seen since becoming the arts reporter here in 1998.

There are a number of things about Our Lincoln I think you’d dig:

~ A lot of great music, including Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, which will be performed by the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Washington regular John Nardolillo and narrated by Nick Clooney — you may have heard of his kid. There are also quite a few ensembles and soloists that I will not enumerate at the risk of having someone say, “You didn’t mention me in your open letter to the President!” But they are outstanding talents that belie the less-flattering Kentucky stereotypes.

~ One act I will mention is the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of distinguished singers dedicated to preserving the spiritual as an important element of American History. They are as interesting as they are stirring.

~ There are excerpts from River of Time, a forthcoming opera by University of Kentucky composer Joseph Baber about the early years and motivations of a young man who would become President. Thought that might interest you.

~ The lawyer in you would probably also be intrigued by the excerpt from One Man’s Lincoln, Wade Hall’s play about Lincoln’s law partner, Billy Herndon, from Kentucky Repertory Theatre.

On display through all of this is the power of the arts to enlighten and enrich us, something you have spoken about on several occasions. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate show for you to see so early in your historic administration.

Respectfully,

Rich Copley

Gail Robinson's widower Henno Lohmeyer, left, talks to Angelique Clay following the memorial service for Robinson at First Presbyterian Church in Lexington. Photo by Matt Goins.

One of the highlights of the memorial for Metropolitan Opera star and University of Kentucky voice professor Gail Robinson was a peformance of the Easter Chorus from Mascagni’s Cavalieri Rusticana by Robinson students Darla Diltz and Angelique Clay, now a UK voice professor, the University of Kentucky Opera Chorus, the American Spiritual Ensemble and organist Schuyler Robinson.

Click the play button, below, to hear the performance, recorded by Matt Goins for LexGo:

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