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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2009 > May > 15 > Entry
Highlights, lowlights and night lights…
Hmmm… Sorry I’ve been away for a few days… Been busy! But here are a few highlights, lowlights and just plain old light lights from the last week or so on the arts scene…
Onward and upward, Charles: If there were an orchestral version of a Viking Funeral, this would’ve been it.
The Schuster Center stage was packed on Tuesday afternoon, May 12, with nearly 100 musicians from two different symphonies. The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra — one professional and seasoned, one composed of passionate, talented amateurs — joined forces to pay tribute in a public concert to a common leader who had left their midst.
Maestro Charles Wendelken-Wilson died two weeks ago at age 71, having left a deep and abiding imprint on Dayton arts and music. He bridged the DPO from its community-orchestra beginnings to the tight professionalism it boasts today, and later went on to provide the MVSO’s players with the on-task drill-mastering they needed and craved. He ran the Dayton Opera’s orchestra, spun classical music on WDPR-FM and affected countless lives and careers as the flinty, demanding taste-maker who undergirded the local classical community for more than four decades in the adopted city he seemed to love.
A few years ago, I got the chance to work briefly with him when I emceed the Dayton Opera’s “Opera Goes to the Movies” program. Charles calmed my nerves with good humor and grace, and later gave a lesson in how it’s done as he put the orchestra through its rehearsal paces — singing the soloists’ parts himself, insisting on getting everything right, and rarely, if ever, needing to look at the music. I realized I was getting a rare, up-close glimpse of a master at work.
The DPO-MVSO memorial show was moving and strong. No doubt he would have approved. As a listener, I’d like to see the two entities find another, less-tragic, time to play together.
That sinking feeling: Speaking of tragic, there were a couple of moments when the student cast who performed Wright State’s “Titanic: The Musical” got the show so right that you couldn’t help but have a bit of a lump in the throat.
The show premiered Thursday, May 14, and was neatly done — the singing was fine and the staging impressive, especially with conveying the sense of the tilting, sinking ship on a stage that never moved. Actually, the WSU crew might’ve been more entertaining than the source material, which struck me as a bit underwhelming compared to the energy and grit they brought to it.
Um, just ‘fess up: Speaking of underwhelming, the Dayton Art Institute might’ve done a little better on releasing the news that it had canceled a big show of Georgia O’Keefe and other modern women artists because of the financial downturn. The museum sat on announcing the decision for nearly a month before folks started figuring it out.
Hello, a month? Note to struggling local arts groups: Everybody understands things are tough, and that you have to make changes. When you hide ‘em, or seem to, it just looks bad. Think about it.
Speaking of timely announcements: Kudos to the up-and-coming Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which in its fourth year received more than 60 nominations from publishers around the world who want their titles to be considered for the award — the only prize in the United States that recognizes literary fiction and non-fiction that examines the idea of peace. And all right here, done by volunteers. Bravo. Visit daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.
And speaking of surprises: We were pleasantly surprised to get nearly 400 entries to the “Light Up Dayton” photography contest, in which the DDN, the city and the Downtown Dayton Parnership sought pictures of the lit-up skyline on May 1. It was cool to see our city viewed and interpreted through so many different eyes that see the best the place has to offer. Cool.
Watch for the contest winners to be published in this section before the end of the month.
And speaking of contests: We got about 600 entries to the DDN’s Short Story and Poetry Contest this year, the 13th. Takes a while to read all that. Watch for winners in July.
Finally, hope you make it to Urban Nights tonite! Hard to decide what to see, this year. Tons going on. Seeya there.
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