For a group that generally performs some of the deepest, richest works of the choral music canon, the Durango Choral Society sure knows how to let its hair down.
At its Cabaret fundraiser Saturday night, singers who often are lost in a blur of faces onstage got to show their stuff in a variety of Broadway and popular music offerings that had everyone in the audience tapping their toes and wiping away a tear or two. Margi Coxwell made sure everyone was in the mood before the show started with some piano musings.
A miniature version of the choral society (about a quarter of the usual 100 singers) opened the show with Cole Porter’s “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” and closed with his “Anything Goes.” They had me at the first note.
Diane Welle continued her generosity to local groups by glamming up the members of the Durango Women’s Choir in black and sparkly gowns, with a dollop of red in the form of opera gloves. Wowsers! After a perky “Get Happy,” they segued into “Embraceable You,” with Cyprus Café owner Alison Dance on a solo. I knew she had a CD out, but hadn’t heard her sing live, and she is good.
If you closed your eyes, you could actually picture Lori Fisher as one of her favorites, Billie Holiday, on “Fine and Mellow,” and Megan Lopez completely camped it up in “Nobody Makes a Pass at Me,” from “Pins and Needles.” Talk about some tricky lyrics to memorize, and it was clear why the DCS chose her to receive its scholarship toward her degree in music education from Fort Lewis College.
Then the women were back on stage with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” complete with feathered “lioness” masks designed by new choral society Executive Director Dawn Spaeder, and made with the help of Jan Patton, Debra Lehl, Katrina Hedrick and Louanne Crawford.
Gemma Kavanagh, accompanied by Scott Hagler, showed how “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Misérables” can make grown men cry before the women sang us off to intermission with “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.” With Erin Sinberg as the soloist, they used all different kinds of ways to write that letter, including Liza Tregillus madly texting her husband, Peter, in the audience.
After more food, Mandy Gardner and Curtis Storm went for it on “Please Don’t Touch Me,” before a lively rendition of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” segued into Spaeder showing that decorating masks and executive directoring aren’t all she can do on “Le Jazz Hot.” The latter gave DCS Conductor Linda Mack Berven a chance to get out from behind the baton and play the piano.
Kavanagh returned with the Women’s Choir (she’s a member) and one of America’s all time favorites, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which left people asking, “Judy who?”
Mack Berven has told me what a treasure a great tenor is, and she has one in Storm, who touched every heart in the audience with “What You’d Call a Dream,” before we got to business.
“Who wants to give us money?” said Mack, and virtually everyone put some money in her bag as well as bidding for a chance to conduct a song at the Christmas concert and to be the secret Santa at the event. The generosity was spurred on by Sinberg singing “She’ll be Good to You” from “Chicago.”
Fun, fun, fun for the more than 115 people in the audience at Durango Arts Center, where Diane Panelli, Theresa Carson and Jon Mark made everyone at home. Kathy and John Riebau and Abby Bowen served as house managers, and in addition to their comedy act, Steve and Shauna Blaylock took care of the technical stuff.
Michelle Hegenwald has been the food czar for the choral society for many years – she and her husband, Frank, even came back early from the Bahamas to work on the party. Lehl and Ralph and Michele Brawley joined in to prepare a cornucopia of delights with some help from Norton’s Catering.
On the savory side, that included antipasto trays, chicken skewers with pesto cream, honey-spiced chicken wings, Italian meat trays, pork tenderloin crostini, salmon poached with herbs, shrimp Wellingtons, sweet and sour meatballs, spicy shrimp cocktail, artichoke-green chile dip, spinach dip bowls, deviled eggs, fruit, vegetable and cheese platters and a bruschetta station.
Sweets were not forgotten, although I don’t know who still had room for an assortment of brownies, chocolate-drizzled mini-eclairs and Boston cream puffs.
Steve and Marti Kiely made sure the singers were fed before the event.
And last, but so far from least, is Stan Crapo from Star Liquors, who once again generously sponsored a community event in a relationship that spans years.
Bravo to all involved – and save me a ticket for next year.
HHH
Breaking out their jackets (again!) for their birthdays are John “J.T.” Zink, Luke Meyer, Evelyn Black, Anna Kidd, Carol Simmons, Brianna Sandhaus, Donald Yale, Judy Olson, Robert Manning, Shelley Hatfield, Joyce Fontana, Sage Remington, Janet May, Margery Runyon, Kristi Ramsey, Rose Bartol, Elsa Caudle, Jan Emmanuel and Josh Van Blarcum.
Special greetings go out to Joan Spicer.
HHH
At the end of April, the Durango Branch of the American Association of University Women hosted the state convention at the Sky Ute Casino and Resort in Ignacio.
It’s a big deal to get a state convention down here for any organization – folks from the Front Range seem to think we live in Outer Mongolia – so we try to do it up right when it happens. The theme was “From Pioneer Women to Women Pioneers,” and focused on the stalwart women who have called the San Juan Mountains home.
Durango Mayor Pro-Tem Sweetie Marbury wrote and delivered a beautiful welcome to the area (the Durango Area Tourism Office should hire her).
More than 60 women came to conduct their business, much of which consists of advocating for women’s issues and supporting women in educational endeavors, and to hear an inspiring keynote address by national President Carolyn Garfein, who is stepping down after serving two two-year terms.
I drove down to Ignacio just to hear her speak, and I’m glad I did. She was thoughtful, inspiring and realistic.
She reminded attendees that AAUW has a long heritage of opening doors for women, including the very first study the organization sponsored, proving that a college education didn’t have a negative effect on women’s fertility. From being the first activists to picket the White House for the vote to purchasing a gram of radium for Marie Curie’s research, AAUW has been there in historical events for women’s equality.
Garfein has 10 dreams she’d like to see come to pass by 2030: for women to narrow the pay gap from today’s 77 cents to the dollar to 90 cents to the dollar; to see 75 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies compared with today’s 21; a gender-balanced Congress compared to today’s 18 percent female senators and representatives; to have 50 percent of all doctoral candidates in computer sciences, engineering and physics be women; for our granddaughters to be able to graduate from college without shouldering enormous debt; five female Supreme Court justices; the elimination of bullying and sexual harassment; and for AAUW itself, to be cited in the press more often than any other organization when it comes to women’s equity; membership in the organization tripled; and AAUW to cross the 250,000-donor mark.
Other speakers at the event included Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, and Yvonne Bilinski, who is the director of the Native American Center at Fort Lewis College. The Durango Heritage Celebration put on a historical fashion show during lunch, the guests enjoyed a tour of the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum, and, after dinner, members of the local chapter presented their “Women of the San Juans,” a scripted presentation of the noted and notable women from our area.
HHH
Nothing says happy anniversary like the birds singing in the trees for Jim and Ruth Micikas, Phil and Ellen Patterson, Art Meyer and Judy Roy-Meyer, Bob and Marion Wengler, Don and Tracy Cornutt (25!), Roy and Gwen Cook and Lee and Bethany Bieth.
HHH
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