Fort Myers, Fl (September 5, 2008) – The schedule for Shell Point Retirement Community’s seventh annual Fine and Performing Arts Concert Series of 2008/2009 has been announced by Dawn Boren, director of resort services for Shell Point Retirement Community. This series will feature five concerts including:
- The Canadian Brass – Thursday November 13, 2008 at 7:30pm
- Chanticleer – Tuesday January 27, 2009 at 7:30pm
- Butch Thompson, Pianist & the Chapman Family Singers – Thursday February 26, 2009 at 7:30pm
- Cherish the Ladies – Thursday March 17, 2009 at 7:30pm
- Peter Richard Conte, Concert Organist – Thursday April 16, 2009 at 7:30pm
“The residents at Shell Point appreciate the arts and cultural choices available to them right here in our community,” said Boren. “Each year, the line-up of the series is comprised of new and various musical offerings that are sure to please all who attend.”
Tickets for the concerts are $35 each, or a season ticket of all five concerts can be purchased for $125, for a savings of $50. Tickets are currently on sale. To purchase tickets or receive additional information about the concert series, please call (239) 454-2067 for payment information on individual or group packages.
Shell Point Retirement Community is a continuing care retirement community located in Fort Myers just off Summerlin Road, two miles before the Sanibel causeway. Shell Point is a nationally recognized leader in the retirement industry.
November 13, 2008 – Thursday: THE CANADIAN BRASS
The virtuosi of Canadian Brass have made the brass quintet an exciting vehicle for serious concert music. The quintet —for more than 35 years— has a long history of recording classical repertoire. They have a special affinity for Baroque music, which requires the brilliance and musical structure that has become the Canadian Brass’ trademark.
Their more than 60 recordings to date include works by Purcell, Vivaldi, Gabrieli, Pachelbel, Beethoven and Wagner — all in meticulously crafted transcriptions that are setting new musical traditions in brass performance.
January 27, 2009 – Tuesday: CHANTICLEER
Called “the world’s reigning male chorus,” by the New Yorker magazine, Chanticleer will perform more than 100 concerts in 2007-08, the GRAMMY Award-winning ensemble’s 30th Season. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for their “tonal luxuriance and crisply etched clarity,” Chanticleer will tour to 22 states across the United States this season, including appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In January 2008, the ensemble performed at prestigious venues in major European cities: Paris, Luxembourg, Bruges, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Vilnius. Chanticleer has been named the 2008 “Ensemble of the Year” by the editors of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts, the first time a vocal ensemble has been so recognized.
Chanticleer—based in San Francisco–has developed a remarkable reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its seamless blend of twelve male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as “an orchestra of voices.”
February 26, 2009 – Thursday: Butch Thompson, piano & the Chapman Family Singers
In a career spanning over 40 years, pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson has earned a worldwide reputation as a traditional jazz and ragtime master. He has performed with many symphony orchestras, including the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Widely know for his 12-year stint as house pianist on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, he continues on the show as a frequent guest.
Born and raise in Marine-on-St. Croix, a small Minnesota river town, Thompson was playing Christmas carols on his mother’s upright piano by age three, and began formal lessons at six. He studied clarinet in high school and led his first professional jazz group as a teenager. After high school, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band of Minneapolis, and t 18 made his first visit to New Orleans, where he became one of the few non-New Orleanians to perform at Preservation Hall during the 1960s and ‘70s.
In 1974, Thompson played on a number of the first Prairie Home Companion broadcasts. By 1980, the show was being nationally syndicated, and the Butch Thompson Trio was the house band, a position the group held for the next six years.
Performing all over the world, Chapman Family Singers dazzles crowds with their suave style, clear melodious voices and unique family blend. To hear them is purely delightful for all ages.
March 17, 2009 – Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day: CHERISH THE LADIES
When describing Cherish the Ladies – the critics say it best…“It is simply impossible to imagine an audience that wouldn’t enjoy what they do”, the Boston Globe, “An astonishing array of virtuosity”, the Washington Post, “Expands the annals of Irish music in America…the music is passionate, tender and rambunctious”, The New York Times – and for over two decades, Cherish the Ladies have proven themselves worthy to live up to these accolades and in doing so have become one of the most engaging ensembles in the history of Irish music.
Taking their name from the name of a traditional Irish jig, the group initially won recognition as the first and only all-women traditional Irish band. In a relatively short time, they soon established themselves as musicians and performers without peer and have won many thousands of listeners and fans of their music. With their unique spectacular blend of virtuosi instrumental talents, beautiful vocals, captivating arrangements and stunning step dancing, this powerhouse group combines all the facets of Irish traditional culture and puts it forth in an immensely humorous and entertaining package.
Cherish the Ladies have appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at Pops, C-Span, PBS and National Public Radio in the United States and on BBC and RTE radio and television overseas. At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, they were chosen to represent Irish music and culture at the Official Cultural Olympiad.
The girls continue to blaze forward and enchant audiences worldwide.
April 16, 2009 – Thursday: Peter Richard Conte, Concert Organist
Peter Richard Conte is Grand Court Organist of the world famous Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia’s Macy’s department store. When not touring, he performs on the six-manual, 28,000-pipe instrument twice daily, six days per week. The Wanamaker Organ is the largest fully-functioning musical instrument in the world; Mr. Conte was appointed Grand Court Organist in 1989, and is the fourth person to hold that title since the organ first played in 1911.
Mr. Conte is highly regarded as a skillful performer and arranger of organ transcriptions. He has been featured several times on National Public Radio and on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight.” His monthly radio show, “The Wanamaker Organ Hour,” airs on the first Sunday of each month, at 5 PM (Eastern), and can be heard via the internet at WRTI.ORG.
