Winner 2009 Sally Paxson Davis Memorial Vocal Scholarship

Isabella Jayme, 2009 Sally Paxson Davis Memorial Vocal Scholarship recipient

Congratulations to Isabella Jayme for winning this year’s Sally Paxson Davis Memorial Vocal Scholarship.  Isabella is a student of voice coach, Stephanie O’Dea at Darlington Arts Center in Garnet Valley, PA.  Isabella’s song choices were Handel’s Bel Piacere and Goodnight My Someone from Music Man.  Accompanying Isabella on piano was Dawn Stevens.

Annual Sally Paxson Davis scholarship auditions are held at Darlington Arts Center every fall and is open to voice students ages 14-20 in the Delaware Valley region.  The scholarship covers voice lessons at the center for the Spring 2010 semester.

Following in the footsteps of her mother, Adele Warden Paxson, Sally was currently serving as chairman of the board of  The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Founded in 1934 by Sally’s grandmother, Helen Corning Warden, The Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) has become known as the world’s premier full-scholarship opera training program. (excerpt taken from AVA website)

Congratulations and thank you to Stephanie, Isabella and Dawn.

 

Music Blurb: Keane at Tower Theater, Philadelphia

Richard

Quick pictures from a splendid evening.  I’ll recap later cuz there’s so much to tell….especially after you meet the band!!

Keane, Tower Theater

Tim

Tom Chaplin

 

Daughter Wins Athena Scholarship

Congratulations to Isabella for winning the senior division at the 2009 Athena Scholarship competition at Darlington Arts Center.  Isabella’s current voice teacher is Joshua Graves. 

Her two song choices were: Nina by Pergolesi and I Attempt From Love Sickness by Purcell.  A word about the Athena Scholarship at Darlington Arts Center:

In honor of former director Athena Sophocles, this scholarship is awarded for private music lessons at Darlington and is granted solely on the basis of ability and talent to Middle and High School students. Auditions are held in the spring of each year.

Thank you to Joshua and Dawn Stevens (accompanist) for their talents, time and guidance.

 

The Whigs and Dead Confederate at The NOTE

Another outing to see and hear new music as presented by one of the greatest inventions of all time, satellite radio.

The Whigs and Dead Confederate will be playing at The Note in West Chester, PA.  It should be a great up-close and personal show.  Although once again folks our age will be the minority in a crowd teeming with beer smitten college kids, I’m sure I’ll find a way to enjoy myself.  How can I not with my cool hubby.

The Whigs

Right Hand On My Heart

Like A Vibration

Dead Confederate, The Rat

 

Music Blurb: Peter Bjorn and John

Putting all recent Obama Inaugural Festivities aside, their really hasn’t been much for me to blab about other than another music blurb. Oh, yeah we’re planning our first ever ski/snowboard trip. WhooHoo! Now on with the music…

I love Peter and John’s new song, Nothing To Worry About. I was never a true fan… I just knew that one with the whistling, Young Folks. But I can’t wait for their new album coming out in March.

Nothing To Worry About

 

Update

Everything’s ok in every department and that’s all I’m going to say. Ok, spoke too soon… dental insurance not covering my daughter’s fillings. Ahhhh. But I’ve brushed my ill feelings aside for now and will deal with it in the New Year.

Until, then I will continue to enjoy the holiday season with this:

KEANE, You don’t See Me

You Don’t See Me: Live at Largo LA from keaneofficial on Vimeo.

Cheers!

 

Music Blurb: The Return of Beirut

The much anticipated release of new music from one of the most talented bands I’ve ever heard is about to be unleashed. BEIRUT’s mastermind, Zach Condon, and his mega-multi-member band took a break early 2008 canceling a European tour over the summer. But all for good. We’ll be hearing the new stuff in the coming months. Did I mention it’s a double EP, March of the Zapotec/Holland? Yessssssssss.

Until then, enjoy this…

Beirut, A Sunday Smile

and fall in love with this…

Beirut, Prenzlauerberg

According to Zach, Beirut will be playing a few surprise shows in smaller venues in New York. If anyone out there gets word of when and where please let us know.

Visit Beirut, read the news.

 

HSM3 vs Twilight

jacobblackslilwolfgirl @ flickr

Two daughters. Both hooked on the Twilight series. Both begging me to reserve tickets for the movie due to come out mid November. Utter the name Edward and their minds cartwheel to another dimension only die hard Twilight fans can relate to. Both are on their third round of reading the series, one round totaling well over two thousand five hundred pages.

Are they on their way to complete satisfaction or utter disappointment? Will the big screen transport them to the Forks, WA they know so well? They can’t get enough of Paramore’s Decode, a song off the movie’s soundtrack. They can never get their fill of fansite photo montages of Edward and Bella, not to mention, all the dark, foreboding wallpaper that creeps across their desktop. Only time will tell.

How about that HSM3. A world apart from Twilight. Did it live up to my daughters’ expectations? My second has seen it. Apparently, Zac Efron was as cute as ever, but the singing, she said, was too much. She wanted more dialogue. She suggested that just when the conversations got meaty they broke into song. Well, it is a musical isn’t it?

Her final word on HSM3: “Now that I think about it, it was pretty annoying.”

My eldest daughter is watching the movie as I write this post. Will she regret having spent eight of her own dollars? Will sneaking in a handful of Halloween treats be more momentous than the movie itself? I have a feeling this is a chapter in their lives they’ll be sweeping under the rug. HSM fan turned Twilight fan. Tween turned teen. That’s what it is. And it’s only the beginning.

As a mom on the brink of parenting two teens, I cherish this post. I am delighted that Edward is just a character in a book and that Zac doesn’t live next door and that hunky vampires don’t really exist and that my daughters don’t truly believe they’ll fall in love with one for real. I think back to when I was fourten, fifteen and the all the good and bad choices I had at my fingertips and the same choices that my girls will be toying with soon and, OMG, I’m glad our arguments at the moment concern what movie, when, where, with who and how good.

Stay tuned for a true Twilight fan opinion on the long awaited Twilight movie.

 

Music Blurb: Republic Tigers

Somber posts lately.  How ’bout I lighten things up a bit with this video featuring Republic Tigers with Buildings and Mountains, one of my new favorite songs.

Okay, not so light.

 

I Found It! Photo with Michael Hutchence Among Other Things…

Thought I’d never find it. After a couple of cross country moves, throwing things in boxes and not labeling them…I think we’ve got quite a few boxes we haven’t rummaged through since we moved out to New Mexico in 2004. Four years later and many states away, some still lay unopened. I wonder what’s in them? I’ve found clothes I could’ve been wearing and my children could’ve been wearing if I had known the boxes existed. Unassembled lamps that our living space desperately needs. Tools. Kitchen junk drawers haphazardly thrown in a box. And, oh yeah, pictures. Envelope after envelope of family photos. Great photos, too. Photos from 35mm film. Whew, remember when?

1997 Y100 Sonic Session w/ INXS

We spent an evening looking at all the pictures.

I got a serious dose of nostalgia when I stumbled upon this photo of me with Michael Hutchence of INXS. It was taken by two good samaritans at an invite only studio performance with Philly’s Y100 in 1997. Not a month had passed when we found these pictures in the mail. Thanks to the Franklins for taking the pic and actually sending us two copies. Sad thing is, I am 11 years older than I am in the picture. Sadder still, Mr. Hutchence died two months after the photo was taken.