Culture Vulture – Symphony fetes, fine art, Fringe(s) and all that jazz

By C.S. Gilbert

Our not-so-little South Florida Symphony Orchestra, born right here in Key West in 1998 (which makes both the orchestra and Maestra Sebrina Alfonso true Conchs), can sure throw a good White Nights party! The Marriott Beachside ballroom was aglow with white, silver and candlelight and, best of all, the party-goers arrived aglow themselves.

Prelude to the party was a wonderful, happy-hour concert around the corner at the Tennessee Williams Cabaret. Performing was SFSO’s popular Blue Door Quartet, always a treat. But then they were joined by yet another violin, a cello and piano for the most exciting Septet by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Zwilich is one of Alfonso’s favorite living composers, and it’s obvious why.

Your Vulture is actually salivating for the upcoming performance, second of the symphony’s master concerts: Doublespeak and Hidden Meanings Jan 30, 7:30 p.m. at TWT. Seats start at $25. If you’re a fan, the symphony is well worthy of attention. Never heard SFSC before? Try it! “It’s going to be one of our best programs yet,” promises Alfonso — Liszt, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and one Christopher Taylor I look forward to learning about in one of Ed Pitts’s incomparable pre-concert music lectures. For tix: 305-295-7676. Questions? Phone SFSO at 954-522-8445.

For all who would dine, dance and have a fine time, in addition to hearing wonderful music up-close-and-personal, there will be additional dinner-concert White Nights. Stay posted. You might even see me in my white tuxedo.

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So pleased TSKW and friends Got Hammered last week, opening their nascent new space at Simonton and Eaton to hammer blows and celebration and admiration Tuesday night (I was occupied helping entertain Kenneth Morris, Jr., Frederick Douglass’s great-great-great grandson, to mark National Human Trafficking Awareness Month – although hospitality host Rick Boettger ran out early to get a look at the new space. But we worry that once they move, and the Coffee Mill dance studio moves to the old Harris School, the monthly Walk on White will be but a pale shadow of its original, vibrant self.

But this week — ah! two extraordinary openings: Upstairs the disquieting and heartbreaking Without a Face, with Michael Philip and Sherry Read destigmatizing mental illness (“They told me I couldn’t come home until I lost 50 pounds. I’ve been here 23 years”); downstairs A Different Light: Gay Artists and the Making of Key West, brilliantly curated by Dianne Zolotow. Do not miss these wonderful shows; they run till Feb. 14.

The Thursday walk also offered strong opening for Harrison Gallery’s 28th year, featuring new work spotlighting feathered friends by Cindy Culp and Bonnie Burkee.

******

Key West Fringe replayed its FRINGE Benefits trio of short, classic plays at 8 p.m. at The Muse, upstairs at Kelly’s, on Jan. 21. Theater fans are advised to keep an eye peeled for future announcements; this interesting 40-minute entertainment of excellent performances will, we hope, be reprised yet again.

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Finally, I’ve got a bone — or more precisely a ‘bone – to pick, as in Harry Schroeder’s annual Bones ‘Bones trombone-centered jazz concert on the UU stage with the regulars, perennial beloved guest Joe Dallas Sr. and special (getting to be regular) guest, wonder boy Tim Mayer on sax and flute. It was a grand evening . . . but where was the standing room only audience they deserved?

Schroeder – trombonist, arranger, recovering English professor and Konk Life music critic — is a remarkable talent, a linchpin in the Paradise Swing Band and his own Paradise Jazz Ensemble, which (damn) we couldn’t get to last week. He and friends put on a hell of a show. Watch for their appearances.

Till next time — ‘bye, gotta fly!

 

 

Fringe benefits_Gilbert_blast only to Jan 21

 

Everybody can use Fringe Benefits, right?

 

Key West Fringe will on Tuesday present a special performance of its FRINGE Benefits program, which debuted during the Art! Key West festival last month — “classic ten to fifteen-minute short plays by some of the greatest writers of all time — Strindberg, Pinter, Beckett,” they report.

The program includes: Victoria Station by Harold Pinter, starring Peggy Montgomery and Wayne Dapser; The Stronger by August Strindberg starring Annie Miners with Peggy Montgomery; Catastrophe by Samuel Beckett starring Ross Pipkin, Melody Moore, Tammy Shanley and Peggy Montgomery; and a scene from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand performed by Ross Pipkin.

This year’s plays are directed by Peter King and produced by Tammy Shanley and Janet Bengel.

Curtain goes up on the 40-minute show at “The Muse,” the relatively new performance space upstairs at Kelly’s Caribbean, on Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $5. For more information contact Janet Bengel at 703-625-0065 or visit www.keywestfringe.org.

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