Four-time Grammy Award-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, and acclaimed concert guitarist, recording artist, arranger and University of NC School of the Arts faculty Joseph Pecoraro recently stopped by WFDD's Studio A to give us a live preview of their new holiday CD This Little Light.
You can hear them together performing several selections from that recording live in concert on Tuesday, December 18 at 7:00pm in the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church 1225 Chestnut Drive in High Point. Also performing will be internationally renowned collaborative pianist Warren Jones who, like Tony Griffey, also grew up in High Point. Amazingly this world-class performance is free. A love offering will be taken at intermission and proceeds from the event will benefit Open Door Ministries.
Joe and Tony sat down to chat with Triad Arts host David Ford.
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On Triad Arts Weekend (1:00 p.m.):
The Nutcracker, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanovwith a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has become one of the Triad’s most cherished holiday traditions with nearly a half dozen different productions going on this season. The Piedmont Dance Theatre’s tenth annual production is Saturday night, December 15 at 6:30pm, and Sunday afternoon the 16th at 2:00pm at Keppel Auditorium on the Catawba College campus in Salisbury.
Rebecca Massey Wiley’s unique family production features live music, comedy, and outstanding dancers: Dan Wiley as the mysterious Drosselmeyer, Erica Wesselman, the Sugar Plum Fairy, Samuel Chester, her cavalier, and William Hoppe as the Nutcracker.
Salisbury Symphony conductor, and WFU orchestra director David Hagy conducts. This year he celebrates his 25th season with the Salisbury Symphony. He spoke with David by phone from Venice, Italy. They began talking about Tchaikovsky’s phenomenal musical score, and his use of the then mysterious instrument the celeste.
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Imagine being entrusted with exhibiting hundreds of works of art simultaneously in one space, and having to make absolutely sure that each work be given an equal chance to shine. It's all in a day’s work for Green Hill Center for NC Art Director of Curatorial and Artists Programs Edie Carpenter.
Edie has curated more than 25 exhibitions for Green Hill Center including the mother of all exhibitions: the annual Winter Show invitational survey exhibition of NC art in all mediums. Winter Show runs through January 13, and all of the 400 works are for sale just in time for that perfectly unique, North Carolina-centric gift on your holiday shopping list.
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Exquisite Miniatures II Traveling Exhibition is on display at the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center’s Welborn Gallery. The YCAC opened September 18, 2010, and it’s quickly become a vital fixture in the community, connecting people to the arts and to one other.
The Muppets Christmas Carol is scheduled for December 15, and the Community Chorus production of Handel's Messiah (Yadkinville chorus)will be Sunday, December 16. On January 26, YCAC will have an evening showing of the movie Bottleshock, in coordination with the Yadkin Valley Wineries Winter Reds Weekend.
The exhibit of all new miniature works by renowned miniature painting artists Wes and Rachelle Siegrist will remain on display there through Saturday, December 22. The tiny Siegrist paintings are so exquisitely crafted that they are often mistaken for photographs. Viewed under magnification the paintings convey a feeling of an enormous canvas.
Together the Siegrists have been capturing the essence of the natural world in miniature for decades. They spoke with David Ford by phone from their home studio in Tennessee.
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Understanding Classical Music with Peter Kairoff at the Keyboard. This week Peter explores the music of Claude Debussy
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It was not the Pilgrims who brought European music to America, but the Moravians. These German-speaking, music-loving Christians came to America, and brought the musical traditions of Haydn and Mozart with them. In fact, when Benjamin Franklin wanted to hear Haydn’s Creation, he had to hop on a horse from Philadelphia to the Moravian community outside of town to hear it!
On its 35th anniversary season, The Piedmont Chamber Singers are celebrating our Moravian musical heritage with A Moravian Christmas, Friday night, December 14 at 7:30pm in Calvary Moravian Church, and Saturday, December 15 at 7:30pm in Kernersville Moravian Church.
On the program will be Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, fondly nicknamed the Little Organ Mass. Piedmont Chamber Singers Artistic Director Wendy Looker spoke with David by phone from her studio in Greensboro.
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Live in Studio A!
Joining us this week in Studio A we have Chicago based singer/songwriter Emily Hurd. Her 2011 release Long Lost Ghosts received critical praise, and her song Help me to Understand was featured on the CBS crime series NCIS. For her ninth studio album Any Given Day she recorded a collection of original Christmas songs.
Back in October Emily performed with her band at the Community Arts Café in Winston Salem. She visited Studio A for a performance and conversation about songwriting and working with her new band.
