My wife, daughter, and I attended the Music Faculty Recital this evening in the Experimental Theater at the Brookdale Performing Arts Center in Lincroft. The two-hour show was a mix of modern and classical piano, steel drum Calypso, and ensemble jazz performed by professors from Brookdale Community College's Music Department. The department has been putting on these recitals each semester for roughly fifteen years and this one was a hit, as always. I especially enjoyed Carly McIlvaine's soprano performance of Exultante, Jubilate by W. A. Mozart. Ms. McIlvaine was accompanied on piano by Helen Benham, my daughter's class piano instructor at Brookdale. Ms. Benham also performed the works of Gilman Collier, who attended the event and will soon celebrate his 80th birthday.The Brookdale Big Band will be performing at the Main Theater of the Performing Arts Center on Saturday 4 April 2009 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $17 general admission, $15 seniors, and $5 students. Check the school calendar for further details.
I recently attended the Brookdale Big Band concert on April 4. The Band and Conductor were outstanding and very entertaining. The musical selections and the performance was wonderful. It was extremely professional and an absolute joy to listen to. However, I felt the vocalist significantly weakened the performance. Her lack of stage presence and poor microphone technique made the performance painful to watch and listen to. A vocalist of the same musical caliber as the band would have made the entire night complete.
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