LIP Reaches 80,000 Attendees at Summer Concerts

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Gala Musical Evening with the Wileys

Maestro David Stewart Wiley
Soprano Leah Marer Wiley
Flutist Julee Hickcox

A Gala Musical Evening with the Wileys Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7pm

Talmadge Hall, Hollins University, Roanoke Va

Benefiting Community School’s Yamaha MIE Music Lab and featuring favorites from hit Broadway musicals, Italian opera showpieces, and jazzy duos for flute and piano.

Tickets $25.00 available at:
www.communityschool.net or 540.563.5036
www.jeffersoncenter.org

David Stewart Wiley at Smith Mtn. Lake

Once again, Maestro David Stewart Wiley has put together two exciting musical events to occur at Smith Mountain Lake during the Labor Day Weekend.

September 2, 7:00 p.m.
“Duo Piano Fireworks: From Sea to Shining C” will be presented on Friday September 2, 7:00 p.m. and will feature Tracy Cowden from Blacksburg and David Stewart Wiley on duo pianos.

 Hear two grand pianos, 176 keys dueling in harmony, as they kick off the Labor Day weekend with some exciting piano fireworks.  Maestro David Stewart Wiley and piano virtuoso Tracy Cowden have collaborated together in planning this special program.  Favorites for two pianos include the Rachmaninoff Romance, Grieg Norwegian Dance, selections from Petrouchka, a Hungarian Dance and the Haydn Variations by Brahms, plus a memorable Gershwin Porgy and Bess Fantasy and piano music from Maestro Wiley’s new score to our locally filmed “Lake Effects” movie starring Jane Seymour.   If you like piano music, you will love this concert for dueling duo pianos.

September 4, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, September 4th at 3:00 in the afternoon, the halls of Trinity Ecumenical Parish will again be reverberating with three vocal stars, Philip & Tara Bouknight and Leah Marer Wiley joining Maestro David Stewart Wiley in an afternoon of favorites, “Labors of Love: from Boheme to Bernstein”.

 This special program features classic ”Labors of Love”  from beloved hit musicals and the silver screen, along with popular opera arias, duets and trios.   Following last year’s sold out concert, the Wileys and the Bouknights return with an all-new program for three voices and piano that features the musical expressions of love, and love’s labor’s lost!  Classics include duets from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Mozart’s Don Giovanni & Marriage of Figaro, Bizet’s Carmen, Copland’s The Tender Land, Bernstein’s Candide & West Side Story, and Puccini’s La Boheme.  Theater classics include beloved themes from Gone with the Wind, Rent, My Fair Lady, and many other expressions of Amore.

Get your tickets early, for this popular afternoon concert during labor Day weekend is sure to sell out.

Both performances will be held at Trinity Ecumenical Parish, Rt. 122 at Lakemount, Moneta.

Tickets are $20 each performance or $35 for both performances
Available at the SML Visitors Center, Print-n-Paper and The General Store
Or send check to SMAC, P.O. Box 70, Moneta, VA 24121
(Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope)
For further information Call Marty 297-0965 or 540-309-1676
E-mail: martyyb@moneta-va.com

Photos

Click a photo to see (or download) a larger version.

David Stewart Wiley Records for “Lake Effects”

By Gene Marrano for The Roanoke Star Sentinel

Besides rehearsing for an upcoming concert that features Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Ode to Joy – a presentation featuring several hundred performers, including a chorus – the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra laid down some tracks for the movie “Lake Effects” last Sunday. The independent film, featuring actress Jane Seymour, was filmed on location at Smith Mountain Lake.

RSO conductor and Music Director David Wiley and collaborator Kazimir Boyle wrote original pieces for the movie score. Wiley said he had been involved in discussions for almost two years with Sarah Elizabeth Timmins, the young producer of Lake Effects, about the project. Timmins came to an RSO pops concert as a guest and asked Wiley afterwards about contributing to the soundtrack.

“It seemed really like a wonderful possibility,” said Wiley, who splits his time now between the Roanoke Symphony and the Long Island (NY) Philharmonic. “It’s all come together and we’re all terribly excited.”

Seven short selections were recorded; Wiley isn’t sure how much of the music recorded by the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra will survive the editing process but is hoping for 5 to 10 minutes worth. Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” was also recorded by the RSO for the film, which employed many local actors, extras and production personnel.

Wiley has scored arrangements for musicians like Bruce Hornsby and Billy Joel but had never been involved with a movie project. One of his early mentors, the late Leonard Bernstein, often talked about his work for “On the Waterfront,” the Marlon Brando flick from the early 1950’s. “One of his great scores, in addition to ‘West Side Story’ …” noted the curly-haired maestro.

Scoring for movies is “a very different art,” says Wiley, who “loved the script” for Lake Effects. “I think it’s going to be a wonderful film.” Wiley also used scenes from the movie as inspiration as he wrote the score. “I needed to find music that supported the characters and the feel for this.”

Walking around the set at the lake also helped provide motivation. He’s not aware of other regional orchestras being involved in such a project; usually studio orchestras from big cities like Los Angeles, New York or Seattle are contracted for symphonic movie soundtracks. “Our players are excited to try new and different things,” said Wiley, “and they worked very closely with us to make this possible.”

He had met Jane Seymour (an early “Bond girl”) in 1993, recalling the veteran actress as “incredibly gracious and warm … the antithesis of the Diva,” but did not get to meet her during the Lake Effects shoot. Wiley said he has probably staged at least thirty concerts over the years that featured music from films. “I’m a huge fan of movie scores … and classic films. This is another joy for me in that regard.”

Sarah Elizabeth Timmins is “the driving force behind [Lake Effects] and an incredible lady,” said Wiley, “her energy and enthusiasm … was infectious from the beginning. This was a really collaborative project.” Finding new ways to bring their music to audiences – like the pops series and now the Lake Effects sound track – is one reason Wiley thinks the RSO has been successful and stable. “We are constantly refining our business model for what we do.” Going to the movies “is a new experience for [the RSO players]. It’s always a fun process.”

Wiley also hopes Lake Effects will help attract more film business and visitors to the region. “Projects like this don’t come along very often. When they do, they bring attention to the beauty of our area and the diversity of music in our region – this can be a real tourist destination – I think that is a ‘win-win.’ The Symphony, I think, is part of that. We contribute to the quality of life; we’re a local business. I am hopeful that it will bring attention nationally and internationally to our region.”

The new RSO season starting this fall will be announced in the next few weeks. “I think this is an exciting time for us,” said Wiley, “Our community is going to be, I hope, excited and inspired by some of the things we have planned for next year as well.”

Boz Scaggs and RSO a good harmony…

By Seth Williamson, Special to The Roanoke Times

When Boz Scaggs said, “Thanks, we’ve had a ball!” he apparently wasn’t kidding.

The rock star whose career stretches back to the late 1950s played a pops concert with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on Friday night.

The encores kept coming and coming as the singer and the 3,000 paying customers in the Salem Civic Center didn’t want the night to end. It was nearly 10:30 before Scaggs and his six-piece band left the stage.

Maestro David Stewart Wiley and the orchestra have done a lot of shows with singers dear to the graying baby boom generation. But none has sounded as good as Scaggs did. His light baritone was as supple and expressive as it was when he hit it big in the ’70s with a string of top 20 singles.

The concert followed the usual picnic-at-the-pops format, with a short set by the orchestra to kick off the night, including a big band medley, arrangements from “Evita” and “A Chorus Line,” and Wiley’s own “Blue Ridge Spirit.”

Scaggs’ material was bluesy and tight. He brought along lead and bass guitars, drums, a keyboard man who doubled on a Hammond B3 organ, and a tenor sax player who also played soprano sax and synthesizer. Monet Owens did a tremendous job on backing vocals.

Starting with “Runnin’ Blue,” the band — with occasional sweetening from the RSO strings — ran through hits such as “Jojo,” “Some Change,” “Slow Dancer” and “Sick and Tired.”

Of course, everybody was waiting for his two mega-hits, “Lido Shuffle” and “Lowdown,” both of which had the crowd clapping and singing along.

Scaggs has always been good with ballads and love songs, and in this category were “Harbor Lights,” “Look What You’ve Done to Me” and George Gershwin’s “How Long Has This Been Going On.”

Owens got the first standing ovation with her version of the Bonnie Raitt hit “Something to Talk About,” but the ovations got more frequent as the evening progressed.

The long set of encores included “Georgia,” “What Can I Say” and “We’re All Alone” before Scaggs and his band finally called it quits in front of an audience that didn’t want to see him go.

Seth Williamson produces “Morning Classics” on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.