A Russian Christmas.

Posted on by Thor

On December 11th, the Maitland, Presbyterian Church (341 N Orlando Ave, Maitland, FL 32751) presented A Russian Christmas. Russia is well known for producing talented composers like Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. This concert presented sounds of the holiday season with a Russian flair. June Flowers, who organizes music a presentations around Central Florida, asked me to come and sketch the performance. June introduced me to Elizabeth St. Hilaire who is a visual artist and also a violin player. I made sure to get Elizabeth’s pinch hair in the sketch. 

The Artistic Director and Conductor was Eric W. Mendez. Most arrangements were purely instrumental, but Cantique de Noel featured soprano Laura Bertshinger. Her performance elicited a standing oration. The Emcees for the night were Sent in a columnist Scott Maxwell, and Margaret Patten. Scott mentioned an article he had just written about 101 of the things that make Central Florida unique. I had just read that article and pulled it out of the paper because it contained so many sketch opportunities.  That article listen the Maitland Symphony Orchestra as one of the unique 101 gems. 

The concert was free, but of course donations were encouraged. This concert was certainly a way to warm up to the Christmas season. I slipped away during A Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson. I wanted to avoid the crush of the crowd when the concert ended.

Cirque De La Symphonie

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Merrill Lynch was a primary sponsor for the Cirque De La Symphonie concert on March 30th. Terry invited quite a few of her clients to the concert and the VIP reception held beforehand at the Bob Carr. I started sketching the buffet while Terry entertained clients. Within moments the line for Food grew. I was faced with a wall of people’s backs and an occasional glimpse at the spread. Outside, the sun set causing the sky to flash orange. For the longest time I left the middle table empty because I couldn’t catch a glimpse of it. Carol Connor joked that by the time I finished the sketch, the food would all be gone so leaving the table empty might be correct. When my sketch was done, the line had died down so I quickly ate a small plate of food as the lights flashed to get people seated in the theater. Merrill Lynch financial advisers purchased tickets for their clients to attend the concert. David Shilhammer announced that it was the largest number of tickets ever sold to a single corporate sponsor.

At the concert, Cirque and the Orlando Philharmonic collaborated in a thrilling program featuring music by Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and others. Acrobats, contortionists, jugglers and strongmen performed and aerialists soared overhead as the orchestra supplied the musical suspense. Elena Tsarkova did an amazing act in which she performed quick costume changes on stage in a matter of seconds behind a glittering curtain. I have no idea how it was done but every woman should see this act to realize it shouldn’t take long to get dressed to go out.

When Elena performed as a contortionist, Terry leaned over and said, “I bet you would like to sketch her.” She was right.

Chang and Tchaikovsky

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I went to a rehearsal of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. All the doors of the Art Centre were locked except the stage door which was the last one I tried. Guest conductor, Alasdair Neale, already had the orchestra hard at work. All the instrument cases were lying out on folding tables in the wings. I sat at the end of a table next to a huge cello case. Fearing I might knock the case over while sketching, I moved my chair away a bit. Sarah Chang, the solo violinist, never performed while I worked on the sketch. The security guard stopped and looked over my shoulder when I was first blocking in the sketch. I stiffened thinking he would insist I move out into the public seating. He lost interest and moved away.

The brooding emotional drama of the Fifth Symphony is classic Tchaikovsky. Rossini’s genius for melody and comedy permeates his popular Semiramide Overture. For pure American lyricism, no work outshines Barber’s Violin Concerto, performed by the incomparable Sarah Chang. I was impressed by several really gorgeous horn section solos. Periodically the conductor stopped the orchestra to go over subtle diction and tone he wanted emphasized.

The orchestra took a break just as I started adding color to the sketch. I was amazed at how many times I was asked to add more hair to player’s manes. By the time everyone was back in place, I had all the large washes defining the stage in place. I added washes to the players as they started to perform again.

There is a performance tonight, Saturday January 26 at 8 pm and another performance Sunday January 27th at 3 pm at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre.