Please save those unused items you find while spring-cleaning for the Rochester Historical Society. A Yard Sale is planned for Saturday April 28 from 9AM until 3PM at the East Rochester Church/Museum, 355 County Road, Rochester. Yard sale items may be dropped off at the East Rochester Church/ Museum on Fridays in April from 9am until noon. Electrical items will not be accepted.
The Occasion Singers – Broadway Night Revue
On April 14th at 7:30pm, the Occasion Singers will take the audience out for a night on Broadway! The elegant a cappella vocal ensemble has put together an all Broadway Revue which will include selections from America’s favorite Broadway hits: “For Good” from Wicked, “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, from Funny Girl, and “Seasons of Love” from Rent. As always, this group will deliver intricate harmonies and memorable melodies along with lots of laughter and fun. The ensemble is directed by Cassandra Morgan with singers Christopher Saulnier, Rui Moniz, Eric Bosworth, Melanie Hannack, Denise Bastos, and Caroline Blais.
Tickets are $10.00 for MAC Members and $12.50 for non-members. Please stop by the Center or call 508-748-1266 to reserve your seats.
The Dixie Diehards – An Evening at Preservation Hall In New Orleans
On Saturday April 28th, at 7:30pm the Marion Art Center will present a Spring Cabaret night entitled ” An Evening at Preservation Hall in New Orleans” featuring the Dixie Diehards Dixieland Jazz Band.
Preservation Hall in New Orleans opened its doors in 1961 as a sanctuary to protect and honor New Orleans Jazz which had lost much of its popularity to modern jazz and rock & roll. Its founders wanted a place where New Orleans musicians could play New Orleans jazz – a style they believed should not disappear. Today, the Dixie Diehards exemplify this on-going commitment to keep this vibrant and unique style of American music alive. The concert will feature a sampling of musical styles that influenced what has evolved into the popular Dixieland style of the turn of the century through the 1950’s. Some of the dominant influences covered will be street marches, ragtime, gospel and early blues tunes among others. Hit tunes from popular composers of the day will include Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, and Louis Armstrong among others.
The Dixie Diehards will be making their seventh appearance at the Art Center. Their concerts have been well received by a growing audience of traditional New Orleans jazz enthusiasts.
Tickets are $10.00 for MAC Members and $12.50 for non-members. Please stop by the Center or call 508-748-1266 to reserve your seats.
The Marion Art Center is located at 80 Pleasant St. (corner of Pleasant St. and Main St.) in Marion, MA. 02738. Reservations are highly recommended. Tables are available for reserved parties of 4. Guests are invited to bring their own refreshments. The doors will open at 7:00 PM.
“Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.” -Paul Simon
Music has a steadfast place in the lives of almost everyone with as many manifestations as there are audiophiles. For some, there is no greater excitement than to crank up a favorite song on the radio with the windows down, singing at top volume, driving at full-speed. Others may hunker down in a favorite chair, with a special playlist, headphones and a book, creating a custom soundtrack for a fictional world of prose or verse.
For some, music becomes as necessary as air, a language of sound without words, emotion as English. ORRHS junior Mike Bliss has been speaking in saxophone for about seven years and this month gained recognition for his talents earlier this month at the Berklee College of Music High School Jazz Festival.
He received two Outstanding Soloist awards for his work with the ORRHS Jazz Band and Jazz Combo, and was one of four people in his class to receive an Outstanding Musicianship award. ORRHS participates in the festival every year and this was his third time performing. Despite his growing experience, he remains humble about his accomplishments.
“I wish our whole group had won an award. We played really well,” Bliss said.
His musical roots are the result of familial inspiration.
“My brother started playing [alto] saxophone about three years before I did. My dad wanted me to play the trombone, but I wanted to try sax because I thought my brother was cool,” Bliss said.
Today, his brother, Travis, studies music at the New England Conservatory of Music, a school Mike is considering in the future.
“I’m also thinking about NYU, the Manhattan School of Music, and Berklee,” he said.
At ORRHS, Bliss arranges much of the music played by the five-piece Jazz Combo, and is avidly studying the music of saxophonists Chris Potter and Kenny Garrett. This summer, Bliss is attending the Eastman School of Music camp for two weeks in Rochester, New York.
“I’m hoping to make some new friends and make some more connections in the business so I can start putting myself out there,” he said.
Keren Setkin is another ORRHS musician who has discovered a passion for music that few understand, nurturing a talent she didn’t know she had. The sophomore flutist from Westport, who attends ORRHS through the School Choice program, performed with the Massachusetts Music Educators’ Association All-State Festival in Boston during the first weekend of March.
Auditions for All-State were open to the top 50 percent musicians in their district festivals. As a freshman, Setkin was the number three flute player in her district last year, and was the number one flutist this year; that’s not too shabby for someone who has been studying flute for only five years.
“I was actually always attached to a reed instrument. We owned a flute and my mom suggested I pick it up, so I did,” Setkin said.
At first, playing the flute was a nice way to spend her time, but she didn’t feel that draw to music until she started studying under her current teacher, John Curran.
“From the moment I met him, he was very inspiring and he was really encouraging to push me into new things. He really pushes you to be the best you can be,” she said.
Her hard work has been paying off. Setkin has been involved with several performance groups in the last few years, including the Rhode Island Music School, founded by the Rhode Island Philharmonic. She has played in their orchestra, chamber, senior wind, and flute ensembles. Last year, she was a member of a youth orchestra made up of musicians from the United States and Canada, and played in New York City, at Carnegie Hall. After winning several awards for her talents, she realized her penchant for music wasn’t born out of mere interest or folly, but something deeper.
“That’s when I realized that music was really my thing,” she said.
In May, she will be auditioning for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. “They are one of the best youth orchestras in the country. And I’m scared,” she admitted.
She is also auditioning for the National Youth Orchestra of New York, a touring orchestra that performs all over the world.
Though she still has two years left at ORRHS, she is already making plans for her post-high school life.
“As far as college, I definitely want to go into music. My top two choices are U.T. Austin and Oberlin. I would love to go into music performance. A lot of people say classical music is dying and I completely disagree with that, and I think performance is the way to go for me,” she said.
By Eric Tripoli
Calling all local non-profit organizations! Old Rochester Community Television in Marion will be offering their spring Free PSA Days on April 9 and 10 to any groups looking to promote upcoming community events. Since 2008, ORCTV has offered this service twice a year, in April and October.
“This gives local non-profits a chance to talk about their mission and one or two major events,” said ORCTV’s Executive Director Kimberly Miot.
Those interested in taking advantage of the free PSA days can schedule a half-hour appointment with the ORCTV production team and record a message between one and five minutes in length.
“Some groups come in and have one person read from one piece of paper. Others will want to add photos, videos they shot elsewhere, voiceovers, backdrops. They can make it as simple or as complicated as they want,” Miot said.
And if a non-profit is stuck on how exactly to produce their segment, the ORCTV team is there to help
The popular event, which attracts regular and new organizations, helps bring awareness to the activities of local community groups in a unique way.
“We normally run all the spots in a row for the first few weeks so their messages get a lot of exposure, and then spread them out as their events approach and pass,” Miot said.
Time is growing short to sign up. Miot said she will be closing sign-ups on April 3. For more information, groups can visit www.orctv.org.
By Eric Tripoli
Three members of the Marion Conservation Commission met on the evening of Wednesday, March 28, and they made quick work of the evening’s agenda. The Commission scheduled a site visit to a home on Allen’s Point Road, to determine whether or not they can consider approving the paving of the home’s driveway. They need to verify that amendments made to the building plans in past meetings are being satisfied before the land is paved.
The Commission then decided to continue the public hearing regarding the project of John P. and Craig F. Lawrence of 5 Pawkechatt Way, who would like to construct some additions to the property, two decks, a pump house and a gazebo. Commission member Wendy Carreau was unable to vote due to direct involvement with the project, leaving the hearing without a voting quorum.
Lastly, the Commission voted in favor of granting a third three-year extension permit to the Kittansett Club for three fairways on the golf course, and voted in favor to grant the Club a certificate of compliance for the construction of new maintenance facilities.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission will be on Wednesday, April 11 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Eric Tripoli
Human beauty in many of its forms is on display in a portraiture photography exhibit at the Marion Art Center.
Neil Alexander – a photographer and documentary filmmaker who co-owns studio in New Bedford – is the artist behind at least two-dozen photographs on exhibit on the first floor of the center. This photo collection, entitled “Portraits”, features Alexander’s commissioned works during the past 40 years, with the oldest photo taken in 1973.
Visitors have been “incredibly positive” about the exhibit so far, according to Deborah Bokelkamp. Alexander was chosen because Sippican Elementary School’s own exhibit featured self-portraits from the young students – and the center wanted to complement those works with a professional exhibit, she said.
Alexander’s exhibit showcases every kind of person, young and old – including close-ups of older Creole tradesmen (that had been commissioned by the New Orleans Museum of Art), a pregnant woman, wedding photos, children out in nature, and a father and a baby.
Although his primary background is architecture, “I’m equally comfortable with both disciplines, whether working with people or working with buildings,” the photographer said.
While Alexander converted entirely to digital photography in 2004 – many of the photos displayed were the product of older, larger cameras. For example, one photo of Dr. Charlie Parsons in 1973, working in an Aucoit boatyard, was taken using a large format camera (with four by five sheet film),. Another photo of the backs of children peacefully watching a canal in Italy was taken with 120 film, according to Alexander.
“Portraits can be many things. You can even have people with their backs to the camera instead of looking at the camera,” he added. The children in the photo in Italy – who happen to be children – also appear in another more recent photo.
An additional photo that caught the eye was of Dave Dukes, “the grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan” in his office with a white dog aptly in the corner. “Let’s just say it is not a German Shepard,” he said. Alexander said he took the photo for a magazine assignment, and his high school friend happened to know the man.
The Marion Art Center is located at 80 Pleasant Street. For more information on the exhibit, visit www.marionartcenter.org.
By Laura Fedak Pedulli
Peter Shaughnessy has been appointed president/principal of Bishop Stang High School, North Dartmouth, in a new governing structure to take effect July 1, 2012. He will succeed Theresa Dougall, the current president, who will retire at the end of June.
In the new governing model Shaughnessy will become the school’s chief administrative officer, a position which will consolidate the responsibilities formerly shared by two administrators, school president and school principal. Shaughnessy has been principal at Bishop Stang since 2010 following a year in which he served as the school’s athletic director and as a theology teacher.
The appointment of Shaughnessy was approved by Bishop George W. Coleman and announced by diocesan School Superintendent Dr. Michael Griffin.
In his announcement Griffin said, “Mr. Shaughnessy has demonstrated excellent school leadership and a clear commitment to the mission of Catholic education at Bishop Stang. I am confident that he will work well with all constituencies of the school, and will successfully guide Bishop Stang High School into its next era of growth and development.”
Dougall has been president of Bishop Stang since 1994 and in total has served the school for 44 years in teaching, coaching and administrative roles. She is also a graduate of the school.
“Mrs. Dougall touched the lives of thousands of young people, both by her direct service to them as a teacher and coach, and by her institutional leadership that ensured their experience of an excellent education grounded in Catholic faith,” said Griffin.
Prior to coming to Bishop Stang High School, Shaughnessy was an assistant principal at St. Francis High School in Wheaton, IL and was Theology Department chairperson, a campus minister, theology teacher, and varsity tennis coach at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, IL.
He currently serves on the school board of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, the state football committee of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and the board of directors of the Massachusetts Secondary Schools Administrators Association.
“It is an honor to be named the next president/principal of Bishop Stang,” Shaughnessy commented. “I look forward to working with the Stang family to continue our rich tradition of excellence, and to provide our students a dynamic Catholic education that rigorously prepares them for the challenges of college, the workplace and life.”
Shaughnessy attended Canisius College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and English literature and played four years of NCAA Division 1 college tennis. He holds master’s degrees in theology and pastoral studies, both from Loyola University of Chicago, and one in educational leadership & administration from Benedictine University. Originally from Buffalo, NY, he currently resides in New Bedford with his wife, Anabela Vasconcelos Shaughnessy, a 1994 Stang graduate, and their four children.
In April, retiring Bishop Stang President Dougall will be honored by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) with its Outstanding Secondary Educator Award. In 2002 she received the Distinguished Administrator Award for the Diocese of Fall River. Under her leadership, Bishop Stang High School was named a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in 1996.
During her years as president, Dougall also served on the NCEA Secondary Department’s Executive Committee from 1999-2006.
As she prepares to leave at the end of the school year, Dougall said she is “confident that the academic excellence, mission effectiveness and family atmosphere that distinguishes Bishop Stang High School will continue and only be enhanced with Mr. Shaughnessy as president/principal.”
It only takes firefighters minutes to respond to an emergency, but how long does it take for the department to buy a new truck? Five years.
The Mattapoisett Fire Department welcomed the newest member of its fleet, a dazzling red engine, on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 27 to its station on County Road. Dozens of people gathered to commemorate the new addition.
“It’s an all around great asset to the town,” said Fire Chief Andrew Murray.
The new engine, deemed Engine 1, will replace the old truck, which has been with the department since 1987. At 25 years old, it was the oldest truck in the building. According to Murray, it took nearly 20 percent of the truck’s life to replace it.
“It takes quite a bit,” said Murray. “It’s no used car lot, that’s for sure.”
The plans for a new truck must pass through a variety of committees before it is sold to a builder, Murray said. A Truck Design Committee, formed by the department, must present to the finance committee, capital committee, board of selectmen and at the Town Meeting. From there, the truck is placed on the ballot so residents can vote. If approved, the plans are sold to a builder who brings the plans to fruition.
Despite the long process, Murray assures it’s well worth the time and effort.
“We have an extremely dedicated group of members here and now we have the equipment to do our jobs better and safely respond,” said Murray. “The new truck helps cut our response times down, it’s less accident prone, it handles itself better and brakes better.”
The next truck in line for an upgrade is Engine 4. It came to the station in 1996 and is 16 years old. Murray says the department will try to prolong the life of this truck as long as possible.
By Katy Fitzpatrick
Rhythms, tones and tempos: the elements of music are not necessarily that different than spoken language. And when you put them together, their symbiotic nature is especially apparent – and beautiful.
The Elizabeth Taber Library sponsored a special event on Saturday, March 24 that illustrated the power of merging live music with storytelling.
The audience that benefited was a group of 49 preschool age children (and their parents), who attended the program aptly entitled “Symphony Tales”. These youngsters sat in a semicircle on a rug while a storyteller dramatically recited the popular children’s book Scritch Scratch a Perfect Match that was accompanied by a live, musical performance from New Bedford Symphony Orchestra (NBSO) cellist Shay Rudolph.
“I’ve never seen so many children sit so quietly… There was an emotional aspect of the reading that really came out through the music. It was really wonderful,” said parent Sharon Bartholomew, who attended the event with her five-year old daughter. “The children were mesmerized.”
“It was a fabulous turnout. The children were just in rapt attention with the storytelling and cello playing,” echoed Elizabeth Taber Librarian Rosemary Grey. She said when the children each had an opportunity to play on the cello after the main performance, “they were thrilled.” Also each family received a signed copy of Scritch Scratch from local author Kimberly Marcus, who also participated in the event.
The program was more than just for entertainment value, however, as it was designed to reinforce literacy skills in children.
“Through music, you show the patterns of language. Musical language has the same kind of rhythms, tones, tempos and breaks. Instead of punctuation, it has pauses,” Grey said. During an exercise at the event, children communicated with the instrument itself, which asked questions they could recognize even when not put to words.
“It shows how much music and language can follow the same sets of patterns. There is a new theory emerging in literacy practices, that you can increase literacy by observing and connecting patterns, and the meaning of patterns,” Grey explained.
Indeed, the music at the event was composed by NBSO Director Dr. David MacKenzie to imitate prosodic elements in the text such as stress, pitch and tempo.
“The concept of linking the prosody in text and music is based on current research that shows that the development of music perception skills strongly contribute to the development of linguistic skills, phonemic awareness and phonological memory in young children,” according to a press release describing the event.
“We are taking all of these ways of learning – overlapping and weaving them together to help increase literacy in this population. But it’s really a lot of fun,” said Grey.
For the children themselves, the event was both fun and unforgettable.
“It was wonderful, Ella is still talking about it,” said Sharon Bartholomew of her five-year old daughter, who is now asking for a little musical accompaniment with her bedtime stories. “It was beautiful. I wish we could go to something like this every weekend.”
For more information about “Symphony Tales”, visit the NBSO website at www.nbsymphony.org
By Laura Fedak Pedulli
The Old Rochester Regional High School gymnasium was a lively center of activity on Tuesday, March 27, as students and staff left their classes and studies to donate blood to the American Red Cross. The Annual Blood Drive at ORR is always sponsored by the school’s National Honor Society chapter, which has a number of community service projects for the school year. It occurs every March during school hours.
Students and staff were able to register for the Annual Blood Drive during the previous week. Volunteers from the National Honor Society manned a table in the high school’s main lobby, where students and staff could pick a time slot and receive information about donating blood. The volunteers filled out notecards to be distributed during homeroom, which served as passes for students going to the gymnasium.
Students who are at least 17 years old could register, and according to Massachusetts law, students who are 16 years old could register with a permission slip signed by a parent or guardian. All blood donors had to meet the weight requirement of at least 110 lbs, although many students were required by their age to meet additional weight requirements.
On the day of the Blood Drive, members of the National Honor Society volunteered in the gymnasium by signing in the blood donors, distributing snacks or sitting with donors while they recover from the loss of blood. Each donation consists of a pint of blood, although some students and staff who are especially healthy are asked to make double donations. The donation itself takes about ten minutes, and donors are required to rest afterwards for at least fifteen minutes.
Statistically, only three out of every 100 Americans donate blood. According to the American Red Cross, the most common reason a person cites for not donating blood is fear of needles. Judging by the number of students and staff who registered to donate blood at the Annual Blood Drive, the Old Rochester Regional community might be an outlier for this statistic. The ORR National Honor Society chapter made a goal of donating 80 pints of blood, but the actual total is not yet available.
In other school news, the guidance department will be hosting a College Admissions Seminar on Thursday, April 12. The seminar, which will begin at 6:30 pm in the high school’s media room, will be for parents and guardians of current sophomores and juniors. As part of the seminar, a guest speaker from the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority will address program attendees regarding the college search and application process. There will be an opportunity for parents and guardians to ask any questions that they might have.
The school calendar for the 2012-2013 school year has been released. Students, parents, and guardians may download it from the Old Rochester Regional High School website as well as download the revised 2011-2012 school year calendar. Visit www.orr.mec.edu for more information.
By Anne Smith