Concert Report: The Musical Wicked

My favorite aspect of musical would be the lively characters, and their whimsical personalities that effectively engage the audience. Princess Winnifred’s character was especially interesting, and her personality contradicted what one would usually associate with a princess. Rather than elegant and poised, her flawed and childish personality made her seem more 3-dimensional and ultimately, brought the

On Friday, February 12th, I visited the Wimberley Theatre located in Wimberley, TX to watch Lend me your tenor. This play is known to fill the theatre with laughter and that’s exactly what the actors did. You would have never known this small little playhouse in such a small town would give an amazing showing of such a magnificent play. The actors were perfect and had the audience on a rollercoaster of laughter. In this play the famous tenor Tito Merelli, has agreed to play Otello for one night only at the opera company. a hilarious series of mishaps, he passes out after an accidental overdose of tranquilizers. Believing the famous tenor star is dead, the opera manager has his assistant, Max, an aspiring singer, to replace Merelli. Things go

was interesting for the audience to interact in a way to express what they feel

On Wednesday, February seventeenth, I had the pleasure of attending Noteworthy’s concert at the Meyer-Mclean Theater. Noteworthy is an a capella group from Brigham Young University, and is composed entirely of female students. Though only one of the girls is a music major, all share an incredible love of music, and it showed in their thoughtful, energetic performance.

My aunt Kelli sent the music from a brand new musical: Wicked. I immediately fell in love. Every time I got in the car, I would request the CD, especially my favorite song: Popular. Have you ever seen a 3 year-old girl belt a Broadway song? It's a sight to behold.

Musicals were originally developed in the 20th century with the purpose to entertain, however, they have surpassed this and have accomplished to entwine with the emotions of an audience group through the manipulation of certain musical elements. One of the musicals that correspond to an unadulterated musical is The Wicked. The wicked is based on a book by Winnie Holzman with the Music and Lyrics written by Stephen Schwartz. The musical focuses on the basis of an unlikely friendship and who struggle with opposing viewpoints, personalities and rivalry. This friendship is shown through the pop melodies with an addition of sophisticated musical theatre song construction.

I had been wanting to read Wicked for a long time. I finally found a copy at a thrift store (must be everyone is hanging onto their copies), but had a list of other books to read first. With all of those out of the way, it was finally time to get around to Wicked. It seemed really strange at first with the weird names and the clock puppet with two *ahem* "thingies". However, once you get used to the format of it, it's really easy to get into. In all my years I never would have stopped to think about the past of the Wicked Witch of the West (or the East for that matter). Who would have thought that Glinda and the Wicked Witches were roommates at boarding school, or that the witch is so mean because her lover was killed? I sure wouldn't have thought that far into their backstories. I remember Richard Armitage saying in an interview that when he takes on a role, he writes a biography for the character to better become that person. This book takes on that ideal and really almost makes you more sympathetic to Elphaba than to Dorothy. It should be interesting to watch the movie again now that I "know" more about the characters!

The Kingwood Pops Orchestra held a concert on February 20, 2016 from 7:30 to 9:30 in the Nathaniel Center. The performance was a mixture of orchestral and vocal, but mainly orchestral due to the fact that the guest soprano, Megan Stapleton, was only featured in four songs out of the fourteen that were performed. Which were all well known songs such as Hooray for Hollywood, James Horner: Hollywood Blockbusters, Embraceable You from Girl Crazy, Highlights from Jurassic Park, Lara’s Theme from Dr.Zhivago, Bond, Explosive, Over the Rainbow from Wizard of Oz, Theme from Rocky, Academy Award Medley, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy from South Pacific, Exodus, Up Where We Belong from Officer and a Gentleman, In His Eyes from Jekyll and Hyde, and lastly Up is Down from Pirates of the Caribbean.

The story (score by Lin-Manuel Miranda and a book by Quiara Alegria Hudes) tells the tale about the historic Washington Heights community in New York City. Explored are the people, culture, and what it is like to live in this area. Several story lines weave throughout the musical where, at its heart, it is people navigating life and its ups and downs.

‘Mamma Mia, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and many more have made the impact. Broadway plays old and new, have been a part of many people’s lives throughout history. Even from its beginnings, Broadway and all of its productions have had a massive impact on society’s art and culture.

The Philadelphia Orchestra Percussion Group performed at Widener University on October 23, 2016. The concert lasted approximately one hour and a total of five pieces were performed. The pieces they performed were called, Music of Pieces of Wood, Gainsborough, Seoul Spirit, Zones, and Little Rhumba. The group consisted of five performers, Chris Deviney, Don Liuzzi, Angela Nelson, Phillip O’Banion, and Victor Pablo. The performers used a variety of percussion instruments throughout the concert; however, some of the instruments that were used in most of the pieces were the timpani, marimbas, chimes, cymbals, and bass drums.

The first half of the concert was only instrumental. There were two violins, two violas, and two cellos. They sat on stage with the violins one my right, then the violas in the middle, and the cellos on the end. The violins played a few songs solo. The second half of the concert was only the choir and a piano. Their performance started with the song Daybreak. The song Daybreak also had a few girls playing percussion, one of them had a tambourine. Using SHMRG, the Harmony of most of the choirs songs were very homophonic. The Melody of most of the songs were mainly slow, though a couple songs were very fast, and upbeat.

I remember first picking up the saxophone in 6th grade. Every concert and every practice session led up to this moment. Years of performances and trials shaping me into the best musician I can be. It all led up to this one audition, the audition for UNC Charlotte's music department. To do what I love for the rest of my life all rode on this one audition.

The concert I attended was called the Faculty and Student Recital, which took place in the Cisco Auditorium on April 11, 2017. The music that was on the program was mostly what is called “classical” music, as well as a Chinese Folk Song, an electronic composition, and variations on an Indian Tala. In the classical pieces, the instruments that were used were the violin, the piano, the cello, and the oboe. In the electronic composition, the computer was used to make music. In the Chinese Folk Song, the piccolo was used to imitate the unique timbre of a Chinese flute. In the Indian tala, drums from Ghana were used to imitate the rhythm and sound of Indian drums. The piano, the violin, the cello, and the piccolo all originate

On Thursday April 25, 2013 , I attended a jazz vocal concert at the Music Concert Hall. The first vocal ensemble opened up the performance with a slow rhythmic song called Blue Skies. It began with vocals and I noticed a light auxiliary percussion and drum rhythm. Also, the bass guitarist used walking bass and the piano and electric guitar joined in as well. The first song also consisted of two soloist Regina and Chantel who took the front stage to show off their chops. After the solo performances they fell back into the vocal sections and finished off the song as a complete band. The second performance had a piano opening which led to vocals joining in at the same time as the rhythm section. This performance