As per usual around Westmoreland, we collect more great content than we can keep up with the editing! The Second Annual Jean Lutterman Memorial Concert was on Sunday, February 11th, and featured current and former members of our music staff (and extended family). We’ve started the tradition of holding this yearly concert, both to celebrate Jean and her contributions to our musical life, and to celebrate our wonderful and diverse music staff, who all contribute to cultivating a high-caliber music program at Westmoreland; and so it is also the yearly music-staff appreciation concert. (you can tip the staff here)
Soprano Laura Choi Stuart joined this year! Laura is staple in Washington DC’s classical music scene, and also just so happens to be a member here at Westmoreland, as well as a former soprano section leader with the choir. We enjoy roping her into all kinds of projects, and benefit from her skills and her kindness. She sang “The Dream City” by Gustav Holst - one of a set of 12 settings of texts by Humbert Wolf (this, an encore from January’s Epiphany Festival, celebrating Holst at 150), and later sang “Down East” from the eminent American composer (and congregationalist) Charles Ives.
Mezzo-Soprano Mikayla Mindiola is presently the alto section leader at Westmoreland, and soon to be graduate of the vocal performance masters program at George Mason University in VA. She opted to present a trio of selections from Schumann’s Frauenliebe, a song cylce based on poems by Adelbert von Chamisso. The audience enjoyed Mikayla’s explanations of the poems (and we enjoyed hearing a preview of her degree recital!)
Baritone Dr. Stanley Livengood only flexed his vocal muscles during this concert, but we’re accustomed to his versatility as singer, conductor, pianist, organist, and all-around helpful member of the team. He’s our regular bass section leader, teacher to many others, and conductor of the NoVA Lights Chorale. We delved into French and German with his selections: “L’invitation au voyage” by Henri Duparc, and “Ständchen” by Richard Strauss, stories of love and longing.
Time for the instrumentalists…
Barbara Bulger Verdile is another versatile figure in the Westmoreland music community; We rely on her most often as rehearsal accompanist, but she frequently participates in the concerts as pianist, organist, flautist, singer, and moral support. We share her with several other choirs and church music communities in the area and are glad she took this opportunity to pull out such great repertoire. Ravel’s Ondine, from Gaspard de la Nuit was truly amazing to hear live, and a set of walzes - Waltzer-Capricen, Op. 28 Nos. 1, 3, 7 and 9, by Countess Maria Theodora Paulina (Dora) Pejačević a remarkable figure in music and public life of Croatia at the turn of the 20th century.
Our dear friend, the Maestro Stephen Czarkowski contributed two works for cello and piano. In addition to teaching (and visiting Westmoreland), Maestro Czarkowski is the music director and conductor of The Apollo Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the York Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor of Opera Camerata. The first was a beautiful arrangement of the Salut D’Amour by Edward Elgar, and later the stunning first movement from the sonata for cello and piano by Samuel Barber.
Director of Music Alec Davis found a comfortable place at the piano for this year’s concert, accompanying others as well as himself, with an eclectic trio of selections. Opening the concert with the Graceful Ghost Rag, a piece of modern ragtime by American composer William Bolcom, and later played and sang (Billy Joel-style) Hero and Leander from the song cycle Myths and Hymns by Adam Guettel, a guilty favorite. He closed the concert with Chopin’s Ballade No. 1.
Please enjoy these videos, and next time you see one of these performers or any of the other music staff at Westmoreland, thank them for contributing to our musical life.
