PeoriaStory

Heartland Festival Orchestra's Invitation to Dance

WASHINGTON, IL -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra's October 22 program "Invitation to the Dance" was fabulous, with classical dance music and ballet dancers on stage.

Along with Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky was the world premiere of "The Popcorn Hat" by Jeff Beal, a new musical piece based on Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Stories." It was a clever musical composition featuring the two dancers Lauren Pschirrer and Mengjun Chen who also brilliantly danced to selections from Swan Lake, and Pschirrer to the Firebird Suite (1919).

Students from Peoria Ballet danced to selections from the Nutcracker Ballet, and were terrific. Meanwhile the orchestra sounded wonderful, rich and full. 

The audience cheered and applauded the dancers, and at the close of the program rose for a standing ovation, well deserved.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

 

Cher Show is terrific

PEORIA, IL -- The Cher Show opened on June 4 at the Peoria Civic Center Theater, and plays again on June 5.  Don't miss it!

This show embodies everything a fine Broadway production should have.  The huge cast is terrific, all fine singers and dancers. The costumes are incredible and very sexy. The settings are brilliant, flashy, imaginative. The script is very clever. Even the musical numbers are just right, not too long.

The show is an  A-plus,  It cleverly follows the life of Cher, as a person, as a performer, as a feminist.

Only one thing  is missing -- no printed programs, so we don't know whether this is an Actor's Equity company.  Given their skill levels, I suspect they are.

Of course they got a standing ovation, well deserved.

  -- Elaine Hopkins

Incredible Gershwin

WASHINGTON, IL -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra's final concert of the season on May 25 at Three Points Auditorium, was an incredible event, with three works by George Gershwin, and his Rhapsody in Blue performed by a brilliant pianist, Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner.

Winner of the 2022 Concert Artists Guild Competition and other awards, he was a compelling soloist and performer on the Rhapsody concerto, backed by the large orchestra. The audience leaped to its feet, and he played a brief solo for an encore.

The other Gershwin works, An American in Paris and Lullaby were also engaging. In addition the orchestra played a Duke Ellington Medley of classic pieces, with artistic director/conductor David Commanday explaining that Ellington and Gershwin were friends and equally interested in jazz.

This was one of the most exciting of the Heartland Festival Orchestra's many concerts. The sound was terrific and the fast pace of the jazz/classical works left only one reaction: Wow!

  -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Beethoven the Magnificent

PEORIA, IL -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra's all Beethoven concert on April 6 occurred at an unusual place, Venue Chisca, a converted warehouse with crystal chandeliers in Peoria's Warehouse District.

There was no stage, so the audience was seated next to the orchestra while it played an all Beethoven program, Symphony No. 1, the Coriolan Overture, and to top it off, Symphony No. 5.  The sound in the venue was fabulous, and the Beethoven pieces were wonderful. 

Artistic director/composer David Commanday enlivened the event even more with commentary on Beethoven's music before and after the pieces, and between each movement of the symphonies. He also gave the audience permission to applaud between the movements, and it did.

"My purpose is to 'break the mold' of the classical concert -- to create an un-concert...setting up a new scene for a performance adventure. This is a first in Central Illinois," Commanday wrote in the program. He succeeded.

The only problem -- the chairs were somewhat uncomfortable, with straight backs. Still, the music made up for that.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Heartland Orchestra and the animals

EAST PEORIA, IL -- The Heartland Festival Orchestra's 'Musical Fables' program on March 2 included two famous and beloved pieces, with narration and animals, and a brilliant modern Concerto for Two Pianos in D Minor by Francis Poulenc.

Two pianists, Victor Cayres and Paul Johnston, played the exciting Poulec piece and Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens, in which 13 animals are portrayed in sound and in poetry narrated by radio personality Greg Batton. It was brilliant.

The other selection was Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, also expertly narrated with melodies for each creature in the story.

Hearing these familiar animal pieces played by expert musicians was a joy.  The audience at the Illinois Central College auditorium was filled with children as well as adults for this  lovely event.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

UKRAINIAN TRIBUTE

PEORIA, IL. -- An unusual classical music concert, Ukrainian Tribute, on Feb. 25 at the Moss Avenue Presbyterian Church, drew a large audience and a standing ovation.

The concert program asked "No culture of its own?" and proved that Ukrainian music and composers have much to offer, despite what Russia has claimed.

The eight pieces, from 20th and 21st century composers, were beautiful, strong, and exciting, though most were full of huge chords in minor keys, reflecting the wars and oppression that Ukraine has experienced.

Pianist John Orfe led four other musicians performing the pieces. The concert program provided helpful information on the composers and their music. Hearing this music made for a unique experience, never to be forgotten.

 -- Elaine Hopkins