Music from Brazil

Yesterday, I posted about the concert we went to at the Downey Theater on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to a concert at Redeemer Covenant Church of Downey. It was a group of young performers from Brazil. These young performers were filled with energy and we got to witness them display their talent in several ways. There was dancing, singing, and instrumentals. It was a great experience.

The performers are students at Art and Social Transformation in Brazil. This program takes any young artist, especially from low income families or at risk communities and develops their talent to meet their full potential. At the end of summer each year, certain pupils that have shown that they can make a living by using their talents are chosen to participate at Cal Arts Annual 3-week CAPSA program in Los Angeles. You can read about the program here. Afterwards, they travel throughout the United States giving concerts. Redeemer Covenant Church is one of those places that is chosen each year.

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life." 
~Ludwig van Beethoven

The opera singer

It's been a while since I've walked around the Downey farmers market, and I was surprised to discover several new vendors and street performers. Above is Amita Raj, the opera singer. She entertained passers-by with a variety of operatic and other songs. (I enjoyed listening to "My Heart Will Go On.")

Amita has been singing for many years. She sings here nearly every Saturday, elevating spirits and adding a touch of class to the  market.

The sounds of fall

October is the first full month of fall and one of the ubiquitous activities of fall is a marching band performing at halftime at a football game. I used to play in band in high school and I know you need to put in lots of hours practice to pull off a great performance. These Downey High band members are putting in those extra hours to be the best they can be and entertain the fans this Saturday. You should buy a ticket and see them perform.

They still have flag twirlers too.

Humans of Downey - Lars

"I am the same as everyone else because I get up each morning and look at the world just like everyone else and I interact with others. I feel hurt when I hear things said about me that I think are unfair. I feel good when nice things happen. I feel energized and happy when I see people treating each other nicely.

"Although, let me tell you two stories to show how I am unique. My parents were both musical and we had a piano in our home, which I love to tinker with. Then, I received piano lessons as a gift for my 8th birthday, and even at that age I knew I wanted to be a musician.

"As a 12-year-old, I was a good singer. I played Amahl in the Christmas musical called "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti. This was in Orlando, Florida, where I was growing up at the time. So, I was in front of audiences at the age of 12, singing soprano and playing an acting part. Although, I didn't take that any further. In the same year, being a promising piano student, I tied for first in a statewide piano competition. This allowed me to play several times with the Florida symphony. All as a 12-year-old."

~ Lars

PS Downey Symphony will be performing a Lars Clutterham composition in January, 2018.

Dance the night away

There were three stages for music performances at the Downey International Food and Music Festival this year. At each one, people were dancing and swaying to the music (in this case, The Little Mermaid's Under the Sea).

And it wasn't just the crowd enjoying the music. The musicians also looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Family concert in the park

If you were one of the several hundred concert-goers that attended the Downey Symphony concert at Furman Park this evening, you enjoyed an hour of beautiful music in a peaceful atmosphere. The theme of the night was "Broadway Film Tunes." As always, Downey Symphony was superb in its delivery of these familiar tunes.

They also performed their usual tribute to service men and women by having audience members stand if they or a family member was in the branch for which the theme song of that branch was playing. An audience favorite.

The concert was made more enjoyable because of the family atmosphere, which was demonstrated by another standard of these concerts. Sharon Lavery, the music director, announced that she had run out of energy and needed the help of the children of the audience to come up and conduct the symphony for the last tune, which was a John Phillip Sousa classic march.

The Wiseguys are back!

This past Wednesday night, we were swinging to the sounds of the Wiseguys—an 18-piece big band orchestra. The lead singer did a great job of keeping the show going—he has a Frank Sinatra sound, it felt a little like we had stepped back in time. The whole band was fun to watch—clearly all the band members are having fun up there.

One cool thing was the live feed on Facebook. It would be a great way to catch their show if you couldn't make it to the venue.






"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." 
~ Victor Hugo

Be our guest

This week's Concert in the Park at Furman Park featured the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wingband, which is one of my favorites and a regular in the concert series. The park was crowded as usual. With tunes that ranged from the melancholy "Shenandoah" to a medley of tunes from Disney's Beauty and the Beast, the band wowed the crowd to an enthusiastic response.

Wrapping up

One last look at last week's Memorial Day Ceremony at the Downey Cemetery...

Two of my favorite parts of the ceremony are the gun salute and playing of Taps at the end of the ceremony. The crew of veterans who perform the gun salute was smaller this year, but no less effective.

The crew of trumpeters has remained the same for several years, and they enjoy a few minutes of cameraderie before the ceremony starts.

Humans of Downey - Emmanuel

"I'm the only musician in my family. People will ask me, 'Oh, do you have family that are musicians?' Many of my colleagues at USC, their parents are musicians. But for me it was the opposite where I was the first one. It was more like seeds were planted in me: a jazz seed, a classical seed. The story my parents like to tell me is, every time I went to sleep when I was young, they would play me different kinds of music. So, it was little things here and there. My second grade teacher was and still is a radio disc jockey for KKJZ, a jazz station from CSULB. I've always had a fascination for classical music. I went to the music center when I was young. These little things just grew out of me, they found me.

"I started playing the trombone in the fourth grade. I went to an after-school music program where they taught you music theory for the instrument you chose. People will ask me, 'Why did you choose the trombone?' But I didn't choose the trombone, it chose me.

"Here at the Downey Theater is the first time I played in a stage concert. It was the first time I conducted also. People will also ask me, 'How did you choose conducting' Again, it chose me. It was at an 8th grade concert, the jazz portion of the winter concert. At the time I was the class president. My band director told me he had something for me to do. He said, 'Come direct the band.' I had no clue what to do but I did it and the seed was planted. The bulk of my conducting training was at the Bard Conservatory of Music in New York. Currently, I am working on my master's degree, taking conducting classes, and playing trombone for the USC orchestra."

~ Emmanuel

PS I met Emmanuel after a recent concert of the Downey Symphony at The Downey Theater where he played trombone.

Only just begun

The Downey Patriot recently published an account by Downey resident Kathy Perez of a Carpenters tour she took. The tour covered numerous Downey locations that were a part of the Carpenters' lives, such as their family home, their school, and their church. The story reminded me that not too long ago, I spotted this electrical box that is decorated to commemorate Karen and Richard Carpenter and their spot in Downey's history.

The best days of my life

The summer concert series at Furman Park started a couple of weeks ago, and I made it by there this week for the second concert of the summer, featuring  Knyght Ryder.

With classic rock tunes from the 80s and 90s, such as Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69," the band had the crowd (young and old) hopping. It was fun to see so many people out and enjoying the music!

Busking II

When we were in Paris, France, we also were entertained by buskers as Pam was in Downey. These two gentlemen, Brice and Felix, were playing some classical music as we passed them by when we were leaving the Louvre museum. We thoroughly enjoyed their playing and thanked them by putting some Euros in their violin case.

Busking

When I hear the term "busking," I usually think of touristy thoroughfares such as the waterfront in Victoria, British Columbia, which is typically covered with buskers year round.

Wikipedia says, "Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities, though "busking" is particularly associated with singing or playing music. In many countries the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world by men, women and children and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers."

But Downey, too, has its regular busker, Felix Hackenberg, who performs regularly at the farmers' market. Check him out yourself, Saturday mornings.

76 trombones led the big parade

Well, there aren't 76 trombones in this practice session, only 5. Still, it was a pleasant few moments I spent at Furman Park listening to the trombone section of the Warren High School band. Interesting how they all pointed toward the center to hear each other and get a better feel, or ear, for the contribution of the trombones to the sound of the band.

How did you practice your musical instrument? I used to go out by the pool and sit on the diving board to play my clarinet in quiet.

Humans of Downey - Augie

"I'm retiring tomorrow after 27 years here. What I'm planning to do after tomorrow is play more Latin jazz. I play percussion in a Latin jazz band, and the leader of the band moved to Las Vegas. He plans to open a club or work with others that have clubs, and we are going to play there.

"If he opens his own club or gets a contract to play in the other clubs, then I plan to move there myself. I'm thinking of getting a town home of something where I don't have to cut the grass."
~ Augie

Seriously!

"...We are serious about entertainment…but we don’t take ourselves too seriously." "Playing songs that don't suck!" These are just a couple of ways that Mojo Sonic describes itself.

What with one thing or another, this third concert in this year's Concert in the Park series was the first one I made it to. And I was glad I did! The band members were having fun (and definitely playing up to my camera!), and as a result, the audience was too. (More on the audience in my next post.)

Mojo Sonic plays a wide variety of favorites from the 70’s through today.  And even if your favorites weren't part of their playlist, their energy was contagious. I hope we'll see them again.

Made me smile

Richard Schmieg and his friend were making a music video yesterday in downtown Downey near the Farmer's Market. It's called "Make You Smile," and as Richard said, what better way to make people smile than to dress up as a banana.

Richard is just one of many musicians who will be performing next Saturday at the third annual Make Music Downey festival.

Sunday morning worship

It's not unusual during the spring and summer to see Sunday morning worship services being held in the park. Worship tends to come naturally in the peaceful surroundings and morning sunshine.

The sun wasn't very accommodating this Sunday morning, with a lot of clouds left over from our unseasonable rainstorms last week. But these three, Carlos, Carlos, and Jose (from left to right), were practicing their music anyway.

Street music

At the weekly farmers market in downtown Downey, there is usually a street musician entertaining the crowd. I enjoyed this man's music very much. Unfortunately, I lost his card, so I can't tell you his name. Perhaps someone who knows can comment?

Update May 22, 2015: The musician's name is Felix Hackenberg.