An Organ Recital

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Houses of Worship, Music Leave a comment
bccorganrecital-5-of-24

Last weekend I went to an organ recital at the Briarcliff Manor Congregational Church. I’ve been to some local events in the past and was not always impressed by the performances. I will not quickly forget a performance of Hande’s Messiah. The singers were whoever showed up and wanted to sing. I read that the orchestra was anyone who wanted to play. No auditions necessary.

But this was very different. The two performers clearly knew what they were doing and delivered an excellent performance. The organ is an amazing instrument, but it looks exceedingly difficult to play.

I really enjoyed it.

bccorganrecital-2-of-24

bccorganrecital-3-of-24

bccorganrecital-4-of-24

bccorganrecital-6-of-24

bccorganrecital-7-of-24

bccorganrecital-8-of-24

bccorganrecital-9-of-24

bccorganrecital-10-of-24

bccorganrecital-11-of-24

organrecital-1-of-11

organrecital-5-of-11

organrecital-6-of-11

organrecital-7-of-11

organrecital-8-of-11

organrecital-9-of-11

organrecital-10-of-11

organrecital-2-of-11

organrecital-3-of-11

organrecital-4-of-11

organrecital-11-of-11

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Rokinon/Samyang AF 75mm f1.8 FE

An Evening at Rinis

by Posted in Music, People Leave a comment
rinis-1-of-5

A friend recently invited me to go to a place called Rini’s in Elmsford. It’s an Italian restaurant that on certain nights has entertainment. On this night the entertainment consisted of a trio: one guy singing; one guy on drums; and another on keyboards who was clearly the leader of the group. It seems that way back when there was a group in The Bronx called “The Earls” who sang doo wop. I gather that this was largely an African American genre, but that there were a few successful white groups, one of which was The Earls. They had a hit with a song called “Remember Then“, which I had actually heard of. One of the members of the group was “T.J. ‘Butch’ Barbella”. He was the guy on the Keyboards who led the group, which I discovered was called “The Streets of the Bronx Band“. He started out as a music director and composer and wrote the score for Robert De Niro’s film A Bronx Tale. He was the music director for The Duprees, the Earls and the singer Dion. He wrote the original music for The Dukes, a 2008 movie about a once-famous band struggling to cope with changing times. Yesterday was a special day for him: it was his 80th birthday. The audience drank, ate, watched the band and danced (not me). The band was OK if a little heavy on the bass, so much so that sometimes I couldn’t make out the words. Everybody seemed to have a great time.

rinis-2-of-5

rinis-3-of-5

rinis-4-of-5

rinis-5-of-5

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Rokinon/Samyang AF 75mm f1.8 FE

Taghkanic Chorale Performance: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Posted in Music, People Leave a comment
taghanicchoraleconcert-8-of-4

Last December we went to a performance of the Taghkanic Chorale in Croton-on-Hudson. The performance featured American masterworks, Eric Whitacre’s stunning Five Hebrew Love Songs for Choir and Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, a choral setting of beloved poetry by Robert Frost. The second half of the program begins with shorter works by three renowned British composers: Benjamin Britten, John Tavener and Howard Goodall, and the performance concluded with much loved seasonal arrangements. Not on the programme was a performance by a talented, young violinist (whose name I unfortunately forget).

taghanicchoraleconcert-9-of-4

taghanicchoraleconcert-10-of-4

taghanicchoraleconcert-11-of-4

Taken with a Sony RX100M3.