The holiday season is here and Hampton National Historic Site is getting ready for its annual celebration. I recently spoke with Board Member Gayle Economos about Holidays at Hampton 2024.
‘Tis The Season!
If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering “how on Earth is it December already?” Time waits for no one and Hampton National Historic Site is getting ready for the holidays. Recently, I chatted with Gayle Economos about Hampton’s 2022 holiday celebration and the site’s ongoing commitment to telling the stories of all people who lived there, both free and enslaved.
Photo Credit: Tim Ervin Photography
Dealing with anxiety and stress at the holidays
This time of year, many people experience cultural pressure to be “merry” all the time even if life isn’t going so well for them or they have difficult memories of holidays past. Recently, I spoke with Alexandra Wykowski, Associate Director of Clinical Services at Behavioral Health System Baltimore, about the reasons people may struggle with their emotions during this season, signs of depression and anxiety to watch for, and resources by which one might seek help.
Home for the Holidays – and Potentially Missing Ten Million Dollars!
Baltimore actress Kay-Megan Washington has scored something most performers only dream about – a major role in a movie! “The Christmas Lottery” begins airing on BET, BET Her, and streaming services on December 12. Ms. Washington is a fabulous singer-actress and I recently spoke with her about her role as the family matriarch as well as what types of music bring her joy.
A Musical Message of Peace
The holiday season is almost upon us, so of course that means choral concerts, especially Handel’s Messiah. Recently, I spoke with Columbia Pro Cantare’s Executive Director, Elladean Brigham, about the group’s upcoming performance of the famous work as well as their Chamber Chorus seasonal offering, A Christmas Noel.
Hallelujah! The BSO is Recording Messiah!
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concert Artists of Baltimore Symphonic Chorale are presenting their annual performances of Handel’s Messiah December 2-4, with concerts at both the Meyerhoff and Strathmore. Maestro Edward Polochick has conducted Messiah with the BSO since 1982, and I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of singing it with him many times since the late 1990’s. Recently, we got together to chat about his interpretation of the piece, finding clues to what Handel wanted in a “skeletal” score composed in just under three weeks, and great news regarding a collaboration with Naxos Records.
Here’s an extended version of the interview Maestro Polochick and I recorded for broadcast:
And here’s a more in-depth conversation about Maestro’s concept of the work, its evolution over the decades, the “tricks” we singers do to achieve certain sounds, and the chorus he loves to hate – or does he?
A “Heifetz Band” of alumni all-stars
The Heifetz International Music Institute, with its training method designed to unlock and express the emotional power of classical music, is giving a Holiday Homecoming Concert on the eve of its 20th anniversary. Here is the institute’s founder and artistic director:
Happy New Year!
I love the way we celebrate the New Year—and other festive occasions—with a happy accident. Sparkling wine came about when the wine was bottled too soon, before the fermentation process had been completed. Contrary to popular belief, the monk, Dom Perignon, didn’t invent champagne. He actually did his very best to rid “the devil’s wine” of its bubbles because the pressure caused bottles to explode or corks to fly off, wasting vast quantities of precious wine (the muselet—the wire frame that fits the cork to the bottle—was only invented in the 1840s). Gradually, as the process of bottling bubbles was refined and thanks to some skillful marketing, champagne came to represent upward mobility, sumptuous grandeur, festive occasions, rites of passage—and exclusivity. As you know, sparkling wine may only be called champagne if it comes from the Champagne region of northeast France.
While I have always enjoyed champagne, or even its poor second cousin, sparkling wine, I am learning a lot more about the intricacies of it thanks to the New York Times bestseller, The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It by Tilar J. Mazzeo. It’s an extraordinary story of a small, plain, young widow who, against all odds in the aftermath of the French Revolution and in the clutch of the Napleonic wars, made a resounding success of her wine business. The book was a Christmas present, and so it made perfect sense to celebrate the New Year with a distinctive bottle of Veuve Clicquot, or “Widow Clicquot.” I hope your celebration was as enjoyable!
Holidays are what (and when) you make them
Happy Thanksgiving! If you’ve had WBJC on since 10 this morning (and of course, I hope you have) you might have noticed that I’m working. If a holiday falls on a weekday, I’ll be here unless I ask for vacation time in advance, and you know what? That doesn’t bother me one bit. Many people (both listeners and friends) are shocked to hear that – when told I’ll be at the station on a day when most folks are off, some express such sympathy that I laugh. When I got into radio, the program director of the first classical station I worked at gave me an invaluable piece of advice: “If you’re serious about this business, you’d better give up the idea of having all of your weekends and holidays off, even if you’re management.” Not everyone in my life was thrilled to hear that, and my non-traditional work schedule has been an issue in more than one of my relationships over the years. Given that many jobs now require one to be connected to the office via electronic devices 24/7, I find all of this quite odd. If I have a choice between spending Thanksgiving Day playing great music in a nice, quiet radio station or having to check work email a dozen times a day while at the beach, I’ll take the former, thanks.
Since I also sing and do theater, I lose quite a few non-holiday evenings and weekends to performances, too. I hate having to turn down dinner invitations or miss friends’ shows in such cases, but my love of being onstage (and the realization of what a privilege that is in today’s world, especially if one is getting paid) still wins out at this point. To that end, I’m thrilled that my birthday celebration is being pushed back a couple of days this year because – hooray! – I have a gig on the actual date.
My friend Madeleine Gray, a fabulous mezzo, said it much better, so I’ll defer to her:
http://divamum.blogspot.com/2012/11/so-about-this-working-on-holidays-thing.html
Have a wonderful holiday, and thanks for listening!
Top 5 – Halloween Candy
I’ll fully admit it: Halloween is my favorite holiday!
To me, it’s the culmination of Fall… the leaves have changed, the air is crisp and the costume is on! My mother used to sew my costumes from scratch and my fave for several years in a row was the devil costume complete with my face done up like Gene Simmons from KISS. Yeah, we were a weird family… But now, I live vicariously through the kids out having a good time in their costumes. I don’t get any Trick-or-Treaters out in the sticks, so I miss out on buying gads of candy that I’m forced to finish off when the last doorbell has rung.
My favorite Halloween candies:
- SweetTarts – those wonderful little 3 packs, impossible to eat only one
- Smarties – for some reason, I must eat these is color-matched pairs
- plain M&Ms – again, color-matched pairs… can we say OCD?
- mini packs of Junior Mints – great for sneaking into movies or the operating room theater
- mini Snickers – just enough to really satisfy
Because I just have so little control over these demonic confections, I tend to stock up on things that I hate and won’t eat, or I have a twinge of righteousness that makes me buy healthier treats.
That house that gets avoided by ToTers serves up:
- Candy corn – I really hate this stuff! I remember how disappointing it was to have this land in my plastic pumpkin. According to this article, candy corn is labeled “the fruitcake of Halloween” by Serious Eats, deservedly so
- licorice/Twizzlers – if I were forced to choose between licorice and candy corn, I might be able to choke licorice down
- Milk Duds – do they even make these anymore?? Nasty things
- Good’n’Plenty – sorry, candy covered licorice was only good for sucking on till you got to the licorice, then spitting out.
- mini raisin boxes – healthy choice, but those little mini boxes are a HIT with kids nowadays… who knew??
So what are your Top 5 favorite candies? Can you name 5 you’d like to see disappear? Post below, I’d love to see where candy corn rates.