Volume I No. 8| February 18, 2019
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ARTS NEWS
& PROFILES
FROM
FLORIDA'S
TREASURE COAST & BEYOND
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Meet the people who make this a great place to live and visit!
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It's never too late to teach some old dogs new tricks.
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Thank you, Friends and Supporters of Arts Blast!
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My Cheerios and coffee seem to taste better when I open my morning emails and find new subscribers for ARTS BLAST!
This week I’m ISO (in search of) sources of information on arts/culture/entertainment events in St. Lucie and Martin counties to the south and southern Brevard County to the north. Indian River County, I’m not ignoring you but since this is my home turf, I’d like to think I know most of the arts folks here. As I find out fairly frequently, however, that isn’t the case. There’s always a new face, a new voice waiting to be discovered, so bring it on, IRC. Let's spread the word.
I’m excited about the spring blockbusters coming to the stage in Vero Beach in March. I love the old favorites — still waiting for Carousel and Oklahoma to come back. Riverside Theatre brings in My Fair Lady and Vero Beach Theatre Guild has A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum — both opening March 12 and closing March 31. You know what comes next: Don't wait to buy your tickets!
Look for a couple of new features coming up in the next week or two but I’m not giving any hints or making promises. My target subjects just might turn me down. Let me know if there’s someone in your arts circle who should be featured in ARTS BLAST!
This is the final week for thank-you ads in ARTS BLAST! Limited advertising is available for arts-related organizations, individuals and businesses.
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Arts Blast! is dedicated with love and gratitude to Helen Miller, Angelina Christaldi, and Pop.
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THIS WEEK
Aaron Collins' SCSO Turns 10 - Jon Putzke's Theatre-Go-Round -
Suzanne Connors' Fiber Art - Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra - Gifford Youth Orchestra &
The Drinking Gourd
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The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra
has had to sidestep some bumps and potholes on the road to this year’s 10th anniversary but nothing that could stop its artistic director, conductor, and founder, Aaron Collins. It was born, in a way, out of necessity. Collins was conducting a 150-piece choir and needed an orchestra but had almost no budget. No problem!
“I went to work recruiting talented musicians from high schools, colleges, other performing ensembles, and then filling holes with my professional colleagues,” Collins said. “After the concert, still on an adrenaline high, several musicians joked, saying we should do it again. Twenty-four hours later, I was a man on a mission.” The challenge was “to create something new, innovative, and different.” Mission accomplished, but not without some struggles.
Brevard county is home base for both Collins and the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra but in 2011, he set his sights on Vero Beach. He remembers well that first concert, Chopin's Piano Concerto and a symphony from Schubert. ”We had twelve people in the audience. It was discouraging, like many things were in the beginning.” Things have changed since then. Collins and his musicians have presented more than 300 events in Vero Beach, with an average audience these days of 350-400. Twenty-nine of today’s musicians have been with the orchestra since its inception and many current patrons were in the audience at the first concerts, Collins said.
He considers his Symphony for Everyone program his star achievement to date. It allows anyone to attend any concert, whatever their financial situation. Collins said, ”It has allowed more than 10,000 economically challenged individuals and families to attend a live symphonic concert. Some of our patrons are experiencing live music for the first time and it is awesome!”
Collins takes special pride in the organization’s four outreach programs for area youth: The Mentorship Program; the 18 & Under Club that allows all students 18 and under free admittance to all concerts; the Youth Orchestra, for pre-college age musicians; and the Quartet Movement, educating advanced music students about the Art of Chamber Music.
He wasn’t a child prodigy but he did work hard at everything he did. Collins said he conducted his first group at 12. “It was a life changing experience and I am eternally grateful for that opportunity.”
Collins said, “I was a dreamer and if I did not have a great team of supporters and devoted musicians that believed in our mission, then we would not have made it. But, when your heart is fully invested in it and you surround yourself with people who care and believe, nothing can stop you.”
The
10th Anniversary Gala concert
is at Scott Center for Performing Arts, Melbourne, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m., and at Trinity Episcopal Church in Vero Beach Feb. 24 at 3 p.m.
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Jon Putzke's Theatre-Go-Round
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J
on Putzke’s
Theatre-Go-Round Dinner Theatre
has made the rounds of venues over time, beginning 11 years ago at Coppertops at the Best Western on SR 60 in Vero Beach. In all, there have been 38 productions spread out over a dozen more venues. In true show business form, three of the four professional company members have stuck with Putzke through it all, and the fourth has been in the group four years.
Putzke said the theme for productions is based on availability of appropriate songs. Then they're assigned to the vocalists best suited for the content and keys. “Then the story line is written and finally the show is put into rehearsals … and it all culminates at the final rehearsal before the opening performance.”
The latest setting for Theatre-Go-Round is a prize location, the Costa d’Este Beach Resort on Ocean Drive, Vero Beach, but getting there wasn’t a completely smooth road. Putzke said, “When we were given 20 days’ notice that the Quilted Giraffe was closing, we began looking for our next location.” With negotiations begun with Costa d’Este, TGR took up temporary residency in the 17th Street Plaza for a few months and finally a deal was struck. “We found it to be the mutually beneficial location for the both of us and a partnership was formed.”
Theatre in one form or another has been Putzke’s life for more than 50 years, from Chicago to Kentucky to West Virginia before Vero Beach, where he is also president of Vero Beach Theatre Guild. Finding himself and his career where they are now isn’t a complete surprise to the entrepreneur. Along the way there were some paths not followed but for the most part, he says, “I’m as close to where I had hoped to be when I chose theatre as my career early on in my life.”
The current
Theatre-Go-Round
show at
Costa d’Este Beach Resort
is True Colors of the ‘80s, Feb. 24 and March 3, 10 and 17. Dinner service begins at 4 p.m. The $65 ticket includes dinner, the show, tax and gratuity.
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Our Mission: To illuminate lives using the power and inspiration of Art and Culture, driving economic vitality through advocacy, collaboration, education and outreach.
772-770-4857
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Aya Fiber Studio’s
Suzanne Connors began sewing when she was 12 years old. That initial connection with fabric and color followed her through college and into her life as a nationally known fiber artist. First came weaving, she said. “I particularly enjoyed tapestry weaving and creating wall art using texture.” Then it was on to silk painting, then Shibori. “Then I took an indigo dyeing workshop; one technique leads to another and another…..”
If you’ve ever tie-dyed a t-shirt, you were venturing into Shibori, “but only the tied parts,” she said. Shibori is much more complicated, with stitching, folding and clamping on a pole. The real thing is on the long list of workshops coming up at Aya.
An average day for Connors could be a day of solitude, creating art in her studio, or one that has her surrounded by up to a dozen students learning a variety of fiber art techniques.
Workshops at Aya can last one day or five and they’re taught year round. There are 44 on the 2019 schedule, about 30 percent of them taught by Connors. The others are with guest Master Artists she brings in to teach advance fiber techniques. Some have come from Israel, the UK and Australia, she said.
Her workshops range from basic sewing and garment construction to surface decoration and quilting. Materials are natural fibers — silk, wool, cotton, linen — and natural dyes, used in traditional Japanese dyeing techniques as well as batik.
Connors’ Aya Fiber Studio logo is an Ashanti image of a fern, commonly used on Adinkra cloth, a fabric hand printed in Ghana, traditionally made for royalty to wear. “It’s a symbol of endurance and resourcefulness,” she explained.
Connors is president of the Florida chapter of SPIN (Silk Painters International) and is forming a South Florida Surface Design Association group. Her studio is on the waterfront in The FishHouse Art Center in historic Port Salerno.
Aya Fiber Studio
was recently named the top fiber destination studio in the southeastern United States by Fiber Art Now magazine.
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Diana Feuer
Mary Ann Hall
Viola Pace Knudsen
Mia Lindberg
Joan Earnhart
Edgardo Abello
Francis Mesaros
Michael Robinson
Walford Campbell
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Barbara Landry
Lila Blakeslee
Beth-Anne Fairchild
Barbara DuPont
Deborah Morrell Polackwich
Dorothy Napp Schindel
Carol Staub
Terry Green
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The Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra
plays only twice a year for the public, always at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center. The orchestra that began with about 25 musicians 11 years ago is now close to 60 strong, with working and retired professional musicians, music teachers and outstanding music students. Most live in Vero Beach, Music Director Page Howell said, but “some come from St. Lucie County and Brevard County. A number of the members are seasonal residents.”
You wouldn’t have to pull strings to be a strings player with the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra. There are currently a few openings, but sorry, wind and brass players. Those sections are full, according to Howell.
The orchestra’s three co-founders, Tom Fritz, Paul Spiwak, and Linda Spiwak, wanted to start an orchestra that would give area musicians an opportunity to play great music, Howell said. “They also wanted to provide the Vero Beach community classical music concerts for free.”
Howell is also the founder and conductor of the Treasure Coast Wind Ensemble and chairs the VBHS Performing Arts Department. That leaves him little time for anything else, he said, but he tries to squeeze in some classic TV shows and is “an avid Star Trek fan.”
Howell, with Concertmaster Matt Stott, will lead the orchestra in works by Mendelssohn, Charles Ives and Beethoven in the first concert of the 11th season, Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.
There’s no charge to attend the performances, but donations go into the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra’s fund that supports the VBHS orchestral program and helps students in their post-high school pursuit of music education. Joel Gatwick, president of the VBCO board of directors said, “Because the Vero Beach Chamber Orchestra runs solely on the support of donors, we appreciate any tax-deductible gift you may wish to make to the Orchestra.”
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The Gifford Youth Orchestra
plays scheduled, public concerts several times a year, usually at the Gifford Community Center in Vero Beach. A few weeks ago, the young musicians were in the spotlight in A Night in the Garden for the Garden Club of Indian River County.
The Gifford Youth Orchestra has been guiding youngsters from three to late teens along a musical path for 15 years. Lessons for young students are available in strings, piano and voice. A new addition is the availability of violin lessons for adults.
Crystal Bujol, co-founder of GYO, knows from experience that music changes lives. She said, “One hundred percent of our students who have graduated high school are either now in college or have graduated from that, too.”
Saturday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m., there will be a very special presentation by the GYO Tigers. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” is a slideshow with live music by GYO musicians interwoven into the visual presentation. The event is at the Gifford Community Center, 4855 43rd Ave., Vero Beach.
An actual drinking gourd is a gourd with a neck that’s been hollowed out and used for scooping water. The drinking gourd of folk history and song refers to the Big Dipper constellation, which points the way to the north. It’s believed to have been part of the Underground Railroad system used to lead slaves to the north from the deep south in the 1800s.
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ROAD TRIP!
It’s been a good ten years since my only visit to the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine but I clearly remember being awestruck at almost every turn. The Lightner isn’t like any museum I’d ever seen and I’m ready for a return trip.
Outside, you’ll want to sit in the courtyard and take in the architectural elements as well as the gardens. Inside, you’ll find three floors of Victorian-era collectibles. Louis Tiffany’s stained glass, mechanized musical instruments, stuffed birds, a shrunken head, and a small mummy are among the eclectic collection. There’s a science and industry room, a Victorian-village setting of shop fronts, and a model steam engine. The Ballroom Gallery is a grand display of paintings, sculpture, and furniture.
The building that houses the Lightner Museum is a piece of history on its own. It was built by Henry Flagler in the late 1800s as the Alcazar Hotel. The museum includes the hotel’s spa and Turkish bath.
Gary Mormino, Professor of History Emeritus at USF St. Petersburg, is a Florida Humanities speaker at the Lightner Museum Feb. 21, 5:30 p.m. Registration is required and can be done online. The program will be in the handicap-accessible historic Alcazar pool.
If You Go:
75 King Street
Saint Augustine, FL
904-824-2874
Open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Last admission is at 4:30 p.m.
Ballroom Gallery closes at 4:30 p.m.
Seven days a week, 364 days a year - Closed Christmas Day
There are self-guided tours and tours by reservation for adults and children.
Be there at 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. any day for a demonstration of the antique mechanized musical instruments.
It’s always a good idea to call any attraction for updates before setting out on a Road Trip.
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On The Calendar
This is not a complete list of events on the Treasure Coast.. Check the Easy Links section below for more.
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Indian River County
Feb. 18
4:30 p.m. - Award-winning stage director and choreographer Rob Ashford: A Life of Opening Nights is the speaker in Vero Beach Museum of Art’s 2019 International Lecture Series.
vbmuseum.org
Feb. 21
11 a.m. The Laura Riding Jackson Writing Center on 14th Avenue in Vero Beach has a Quick Write and a Bite from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
lauraridingjackson.com
Feb. 21
2 p.m. Part 2 of “America’s Untold Story” will be shown by the Friends of the North Indian River County Library in the Library meeting room. This documentary uncovers the untold history of the early days of St Augustine.
www.sebastianlibrary.com
Feb. 21
5-7 p.m. Rain or shine, there’s a Concert in the Park with Fred Goodnight at Vero Beach Museum of Art. Ticketed event. Bring a chair, full bar available.
vbmuseum.org
Feb. 21
7 p.m. Live From Vero Beach: Karla Bonoff and Jonathan Edwards at the Emerson Center. http://musicworksconcerts.com
Feb. 21
Watch mural artist Derek Gores work on a 14th Avenue mural before a special reception at
Gallery 14
at 5 p.m.
Feb. 23
Follow the Drinking Gourd, a slide show with live music by student violinists and pianists of the Gifford Youth Orchestra incorporated into the presentation is at the Gifford Community Center, 4855 43rd Ave., Vero Beach. Dr.
Crystal Bujol
will be the narrator.
http://www.gyotigers.org
Feb. 23
9:30 a.m. Suzanne Fox leads Laura Riding Jackson Foundation Adult Writers Workshop "MEMOIR: PICTURING OUR LIVES.”
www.lauraridingjackson.com
Feb. 23
10 a.m. Ardi Schneider’s “Anatoly Anole, The Boastful Brown Lizard” and other Florida lizards are at the Audubon House Education Center.
www.PelicanIslandAudubon.org
Feb. 24
3 p.m. Atlantic Classical Orchestra’s Chamber Music Series at Vero Beach Museum of Art, The High and Low of It. Ticketed.
vbmuseum.org
Feb. 25
4 & 6 p.m. Kimberley Strassel is the speaker in The Distinguished Lecturer Series at Riverside Theatre.
http://riversidetheatre.com
Jill Kerwick's multi-media art is on display in “Leaving Home and Other Stories” at the
Center for Spiritual Care in Vero Beach
through Feb. 22
. The exhibit is open to the public Saturdays 1-4 p.m. and by appointment.
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March 3
The Treasure Coast Chorale’s concert at First Baptist Church of Vero Beach will honor the city’s centennial.
www.treasurecoastchorale.org
McKee Botanical Garden
has the fabulous Seward Johnson sculpture exhibition throughout the garden
until April 28
. See the
website
for hours and ticket information.
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St.Lucie County
St. Lucie
- The Port S. Lucie Art League meets the
third Friday of each month
at the Community Center, 2195 Airoso Blvd., PSL. The meeting is at 1 p.m followed by an art demo.
St. Lucie
- Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens is host to
T
he Fort Pierce Jazz & Blues Society
for Wednesday Jazz Jams on alternate Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. There is a cover charge.
The Jazz Market is
every Saturday
, rain or shine, along the waterfront in downtown Fort Pierce.
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Martin County
March 1 Bach's Children Music School
offers A Musical Feast
March 1
, 6:30-9:30 p.m., at Huizenga Center, Palm City Presbyterian Church. Expect food, music, a silent auction, and guest artists The Rowdy Micks. Tickets at BCMS.inc@gmail.com or 772-266-8636.
March 11
Jazz in the Sanctuary brings FDO - The Big Swingin' Band to Episcopal Church of the Advent, 4484 SW Citrus Blvd., Palm City.
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The Melbourne Chamber Music Society
brings the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet to St. Marks United Methodist Church, Indialantic, FL,
Feb. 22
. Concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and last approximately two hours.
March 7
The
Space Coast Symphony Orchestra
offers a free concert of music by Andrew Lloyd Webber at Space Coast Seafood Festival at Daily Park. Parking is $5.
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Copyright
©2019 Willi Miller's ARTS BLAST!, all rights reserved.
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