When Jo Barker, president of the Performing Arts Association of Linthicum, and the association's board were planning this season's schedule more than a year ago, they wanted to bring in something unique to celebrate Linthicum's centennial.
"We arranged to have both an orchestra and chorus together present a program of great music," Barker recalled.
Neither she nor PAAL's board could have realized how extraordinary the current performances of this concert would be with a bonus of two maestros - one maestro conducting before intermission, and the other after.
This year, Linthicum residents have been celebrating their region's birth 100 years ago, when, after tracks were laid for the Baltimore-Annapolis Short Line Railroad, four land-owning members of the Linthicum family became real estate entrepreneurs developing a suburban town.
A continuing series of centennial events is winding down after the concert offered by PAAL, in its 27th season of bringing concerts to north Anne Arundel County. The celebration will conclude Nov. 15 with a centennial gala scheduled at the Hilton Hotel on West Nursery Road.
On Oct. 12 at the Chesapeake Arts Center, the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Anna Binneweg, and the Arundel Vocal Arts Society was under director JoAnn Kulesza. Both conductors were appointed to head these musical organizations in the summer of 2007.
Binneweg expressed LSO's appreciation at being invited to perform at PAAL's concert. She began the program with "Overture to the Flying Dutchman," Richard Wagner's masterpiece that evokes the wind-swept seas the Dutchman sailed.
If the musicians lacked intensity in the opening performance, they were fully engaged in their second offering, Georges Bizet's boldly colored, highly dramatic "Carmen Suite No. 1." The performance peaked with the familiar "Toreador" melody. Notable solo work included a haunting oboe solo by Maggie Dozier, who earlier delivered a fine English horn solo in the Dutchman Overture.
The transformation Binneweg brought to the Anne Arundel Community College Orchestra since her arrival in fall 2006 has been acknowledged on campus and beyond. Perhaps a similar shift is in store for the LSO.
After intermission, Kulesza encouraged the audience to have a good time at this celebration. Londontowne musicians accompanied the Arundel Vocal Arts Society choristers in a joyous program of opera and operetta works dominated by waltz melodies.
