Windsock

Lunasa Tonight!

On Friday March 7, EMHS is hosting the internationally known group, Lunasa. The Lunasa concert is being held as a fundraiser for the EMHS Touring Choir. This summer, the Touring Choir plans on traveling to Europe while singing in churches along the way. Mr. Hartzler, director of Touring Choir, said, “Lunasa is an outstanding cultural experience to hear music we don’t usually hear.”

Lunasa, which is named after an ancient Celtic harvest festival, has been recently called an “Irish music dream team” by Folk Roots. The sounds of Lunasa are from Irish decent with touches of jazz. On the Lunasa website, member Sean Smyth, said, “ I had a vision of the type of music I wanted to create. In my books, the most influential band was the Bothy Band, who were flute, popes and fiddle based.” From that vision, Lunasa has become the musical quintet it is today. Lunasa consists of a fiddle, flute, bass, guitar and whistles, which all combine to create a one of a kind sound.

October of 1997, Lunasa released their first CD, entitled “Lunasa,” which received rave reviews. In fact, their CD became a top seller in Ireland, ranked a top ten favorite. Lunasa continued to amaze their audiences through world tours of the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, UK, France, and Holland. In 2007, the group celebrated 10 years of Lunasa.

Tickets can still be bought in advance by calling 540-432-4931. Advanced tickets cost $15/adults and $12/students. Tickets at the door are $18/adult and $15/students.

See below for a youtube clip!

- Rose Jantzi

District Auditions

Music is an undeniable talent at EMHS. Through the music departments, we are given the opportunity to compete with local musicians to earn a spot in district choirs, orchestras, and bands.
    The Jr. Regional Orchestra is an auditioned contest for 6th through 9th graders. Kathleen Leigh and Melissa Jantzi both qualified to be a part of the orchestra. They will be participating in one day marathon of learning the music and putting on a performance all in the same day. Melissa Jantzi said, “ The Jr. Regional Orchestra, though an intense day, is a great learning experience. It will be educational to get a new view from a different director.”
    District band is the same sort of auditioned group for middle school and high school band members. Mr. Buchanan, EMHS’s band director, said that District band is a great “chance to get together with instrumentalist from the area and work with nationally know directors.” The Concert and Symphonic bands are both filled with the top ranked auditioned musicians. This year, we had seven students participate in District band: Zander Pellegrino, Rhianna Cockrell, Malinda Bender, Christophe Langouet, Matt Layman, James Souder, and Rose Jantzi. Reflecting on his experience in District band, Christophe said, “It {District band} gives you an experience to play under pressure.” He went on to say that, “ Even if you don’t make it, it’s a great experience to get to know new people.” The top few of each instrument group in the Symphonic band also get the opportunity to try out for states. This year, James Souder, a junior tenor sax player, earned 3rd chair at States.
    District choir is also an auditioned group, which was held at EMHS this year. Twenty six students from EMHS made the District choir. Janelle Dean, a junior who participated in District choir, said that one thing she learned from the director this year was how a warm up of the voice, which may seem to be a pointless exercise at first, really did an effective job of warming up the voice. This year, EMHS also had five persons make All-States: Tucker Wheatley, James Souder, Janelle Dean, Brook Hostetter, and Helen Furry.

- Rose Jantzi

Musical Review: Like a Dream

At the opening to this musical, the narrators ask if you would like to hear a story. You may wonder at this point if it was worth spending your money on. My answer to that question: yes, very much so. It is a crime not to. For all its flaws, this is a well done musical adventure, full of humor and fun.

Now, to get those nasty flaws out of the way. I will spare you the plot summary, and go into the review itself (the story is that of Joseph, son of Jacob, in the book of Genesis. It is all there for your reading pleasure.) Now, as can be expected from a school that emphasizes its choir program, the singing was great. Tucker Wheatley, in the title role of Joseph, performed superbly, clearly enunciating, hitting his notes well, and with good volume (how much of the volume was the sound technicians, I am not sure). Laura Anderson and Brook Hostetter as the narrators also had sterling performances (good endurance). Aaron Brydge has my vote for the most memorable solo not featuring Tucker, with “Canaan Days.” The singing was superb. However, the dancing wasn’t. True, it did show practice and effort, but it still felt forced at times. Especially the rainbow scene, which was synchronized well but didn’t feel natural. It felt like the dancers were put onstage just to do something to fill space (the fabric wheel certainly added to the feel of the musical though). The period dancing felt like all period dancing: dated (do you ever do "The Monkey" anymore? Yeah, I thought so). Still, it felt less jarring the second time I saw it, so it still works pretty well, and adds to the somewhat “strange dream” quality that the musical emits. During Pharaoh’s number, the bodyguards provided a nice contrast to the crazy 50’s theme.

Costumes were well done, with the narrators' “oooo, sparkly” sequin shirts being the most eye grabbing. The period costumes fit well, with the best being James Souder’s Elvis costume (one problem with Pharaoh: no Elvis lip! True, it is pretty hard to do right, but that would have completed the look for me). One thing to note is that (Egad!) Tucker’s midriff is visible through a large portion of the play (Again, Egad!). Considering our rather strict dress code, and other complaints leveled at the production, this surprised me a little bit. But it fits perfectly, so kudos to you, Tucker. Last, but not least, the Calypso number. I will tolerate the song (good job, James), but the sombreros made me gag. Enough said.

As much as I bashed it, the musical is a solid production, and deserves to be seen. We may not be doing one next year, so you should show your support for this type of theater at the school.

-Joe Phillips (pictures by Sarah Schaeffer)

Music Review: Ollabelle

It can be easy to forget that there is such a variety of music out in our world that, like a hidden treasure, is waiting to be found. As put by Miles Davis, "Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is." I believe that the musical group Ollabelle can easily fit into the category of good music.

Ollabelle is a five-person New York-based band that celebrates rural American roots music. This group first came together because of their love for music. All five of the members come from different geographic locations, ranging from Sydney, Australia, to Canada. One aspect of their music that I admire is that none of their songs sound the same. Sometimes I find myself listening to what seems to be the same melodic tune by an artist, but with Ollabelle that is not the case. Their music ranges between a mix of electric blues, gospel, bluegrass, and country genres.

In their self titled album Ollabelle, quite a few of their songs have a Christian slant to them. This made me wonder if they consider themselves a Christian group. In one of their latest blog entries on their myspace page, they said that they are not a predominantly Christian group. They went on to say that in saying that Ollabelle is not a Christian group does not mean there are not individuals in their band who would consider themselves Christian. Rather, they had never intended to be a Christian band.

Ever since the first time I had listened to the music of Ollabelle, I found myself instantly interested in listening to their songs again and again. I have never heard a group that has a style similar to Ollabelle, making their music new and exciting for me to listen to. But no matter how much I praise the music of Ollabelle, the only way for you to truly understand the beauty of this group is to listen to them for yourselves. So I encourage you to take the time to listen to the unique sounds of Ollabelle.

- Rose Jantzi

To see the album and listen to parts of songs on amazon, click here.

Here is a clip of Ollabelle performing "Get Back Temptation" live: