Musician

Barbara Ann Lawson, a homemaker, gospel musician and retired garment worker, died of cancer Sunday at Sinai Hospital. She was 68 and lived in the Pimlico section of Northwest Baltimore. Born Barbara Ann Tillie in Washington, she moved to Baltimore as a child and attended Clifton Park Junior High School. A seamstress, she formerly worked at the old Raleigh and London Fog clothing firms. She also worked at the Kmart on Wabash Avenue and was an Avon cosmetics saleswoman. "She was very devoted to her grandchildren," said her husband, Sidney Anthony Lawson, a bartender.

Violinist Ellen Pendleton Troyer has struggled for years with the constraints of wearing evening attire for physical, sometimes-strenuous performances. And she considers herself luckier than her male counterparts, who have a stricter dress code of bow ties and evening jackets adorned with tails. "Our issues with the dress stem from a functionality standpoint," said Troyer, who plays first violin with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. "What we do is quite physical. There is a lot of sweating under the hot lights.

A Parkville musician was so filled with emotion following the shooting of a Perry Hall High School special education student that he wrote a song. Greg Wimmer posted his tribute, "Daniel, We Pray," online, and not only has it already been circulating widely through social media, the victim's pastor played it during a church service this weekend. Daniel Borowy, 17, a special education student, was shot last week on the first day of school. He's been hospitalized since in critical condition, though he is expected to survive.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which has slipped back into deficit territory partly because of pension fund obligations, has planned a concert to do something about that. The program has what should be a big draw -- music by celebrated film composer John Williams. Proceeds will benefit the BSO musicians' pension fund, and since Williams is donating his services, that gives those proceeds all the more potential. Williams, who has earned five Oscars and nearly 10 times that many nominations, will lead the BSO in selections from his scores for such hits as "Star Wars" and "E.T," not to mention the sagas of "Indiana Jones" and "Harry Potter.

Albert Sigismondi, a musician who played in numerous local bands and was president of the local guild for area musicians for 10 years, died Thursday of kidney failure at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital. He was 75.Mr. Sigismondi of Pikesville once said that his beloved saxophone and clarinet were "all I need for my bread and butter." He played with area bands at weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs for nearly four decades."He was equally at home playing in a jazz group, show band and or a Dixieland band," said Jack Hook, a musician and long-time friend.

As the world's only full-time, classical percussion-soloist, Scottish-born Evelyn Glennie bewitches audiences worldwide with her talent. And this weekend, as a featured soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Glennie is expected to mesmerize Baltimore as well.Ms. Glennie is respected among some of the world's most heralded musicians as a percussionist of great skill. Yet what seems to fascinate those who first learn about her is that Ms. Glennie cannot hear. By age 10, she had lost all hearing.

Services for Irvin N. Dashiells, a musician and retired jewelry salesman, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Leroy M. and Russell C. Witzke Funeral Home, 1630 Edmondson Ave., Catonsville.Mr. Dashiells, who was 78, died of cancer Monday at his home on Hartmont Road in the Catonsville area.He retired in 1974 after many years of selling jewelry, which he would take to customers' homes.He taught music, played saxophone and led bands after being certified as a saxophone teacher by the Kaspar School of Music while still in his teens.

Services for Carroll M. Roby, a tenor soloist, drummer and band leader who operated a moving business before retiring about five years ago, will be held at 10 a.m. today at the McCully Funeral Home, Mountain and Tickneck roads in Pasadena.Mr. Roby, who was 85 and lived on Locust Road on the shore of Bodkin Creek, died Wednesday of heart failure at North Arundel Hospital.He once owned Roby Moving Co., which he started in 1928.A native of Baltimore and a graduate of Southern High School, he was a drummer and vocalist for other band leaders and led bands from the 1920s until a little more than five years ago.His bands played at social events in the Baltimore-Washington area and performed on the Old Bay Line ships and at nightclubs, including Miller's Supper Club.

Vaughan Mason's personalized license plate displays his lifelong credo for success: "FAILURE." Before you raise a jaundiced eye, keep in mind that he's a musician who is still getting paid for work he did in the 1970s and '80s. And if you were part of the nightclub or roller-skating scene then, chances are you're familiar with one of his efforts: Bounce. Roccccccccccccccck. Skate. Rolllllllllllllllllllllll. Bounce. It's been almost 27 years since Mason recorded the pulsating ode to roller-skating, "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll," which took him from living on the sofa of a friend's brownstone apartment in Brooklyn (five houses down from Spike Lee, no less)

Jason Patrick Heeney, a chef and musician, died in an automobile accident Wednesday in Annapolis. The Glen Burnie resident was 22. Mr. Heeney was a passenger in a Honda that struck a telephone pole at Bay Ridge Avenue and Bank Street. Mr. Heeney and the driver, Ryan James Wiseley, 21, also of Annapolis, were pronounced dead at the scene. Born and raised in Annapolis, Mr. Heeney was a 2000 graduate of Annapolis High School. "He started out working as a door guard and waiter and later moved up to cooking at Riordan's in Annapolis.

Chris Dunn called the class to order with a simple instruction: "One, two, ready, strum. " A torrent of E minor chords - or close enough - from nearly a dozen guitars filled the room at the Commodore John Rodgers Elementary/Middle School near Patterson Park. The smallest kids could barely get their right arms around the body of the instrument, but they found a way to strum as energetically as the others. For the next 90 minutes, Dunn darted from student to student, making sure they had their fingers on the correct fret, offering words of encouragement.

Former Baltimorean Craig Strydom intentionally attended the 85th Academy Awards wearing his father-in-law's tuxedo, the one with the tiny tear in one leg. The music journalist chose not to mend the small rip. He figured it would keep him grounded if the film that his work inspired, "Searching for Sugar Man," didn't win an Oscar. He needn't have worried. The fairy tale story that began in the mid-1990s in Strydom's native South Africa captured the top prize Sunday night for best documentary.

Of all the cities Chris Tomlin plays, Baltimore is one of his favorites. "I don't know what it is, but it seems like there's nights where you feel really connected to the people immediately," Tomlin said. "There's other nights where you have to work at it. At Baltimore, you never have to work at it. " Tomlin, 40, is returning to Baltimore on Friday, to perform at 1st Mariner Arena . It's the third stop of his Burning Lights tour, promoting the album of the same name that topped the Billboard 200 chart - only the fourth Christian rock album to do so. "It's pretty crazy," Tomlin said.

Rosemary E. Allulis, a lawyer and world traveler who was also a photographer and musician, died Tuesday of liver cancer at her Villa Cresta home. She was 52. "She was a genius. She had a fast mind and was such a good writer," said Sidney Friedman, a partner in the Pikesville law firm of Weinstock, Friedman & Friedman, where Ms. Allulis had worked since 2008. "Whenever you gave her an assignment, she immediately turned it around. She was so good she could have clerked for a Supreme Court justice," he said.

(UPDATE: "Jimmy Kimmel Live" begins at midnight, not 11:35 p.m. Thanks for heads up, Alex.) Dan Deacon, arguably Baltimore's best known electronic musician, will make his national TV debut tonight on "Jimmy Kimmel Live. " He will perform the "America" single "True Thrush" with an ensemble. The show starts at 11:35 p.m. midnight , but in typical late-night talk show fashion, he won't perform until the end of the show. The studio audience will use the Dan Deacon smartphone app during the performance.

Billy Woodward is living his dream. He has performed in Japan, toured Memphis, and has recorded in Sun Studios, Elvis Presley's original recording studio. For Woodward, Presley has always been a musical influence. "I was immediately drawn to his raw performance style," the 30-year-old St. Leonard native said. "He had an incredible hunger that translated in the way he sang. " His band, Billy Woodward and the Senders, was created through Craigslist and has opened for Fitz and the Tantrums and G. Love.

William M. Reid, a former educator and musician, died of multiple organ failure Thursday at Sinai Hospital. The Columbia resident was 84. Mr.Reid was born and raised in Hampton, Va., where he graduated from George P. Phenix Elementary-High School. His college studies at Hampton Institute were interrupted when he was drafted into the Army in 1943. After serving for three years in the Army Band, he continued his college education at Hampton, where he earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1950.

Across the nation, consumers snapped up TVs, toys and other mass-produced goodies last week, as the holiday shopping season expanded into "Black Thursday" (aka Thanksgiving). But closer to home, authors, artists and musicians have been toiling over works that, given as gifts, are more apt to say, "Baltimore pride" than "Doorbuster special!" In the spirit of local enterprise, we've rounded up locally themed gift ideas that sample the offerings this year from Baltimore's arts and culture scene.

A Parkville musician was so filled with emotion following the shooting of a Perry Hall High School special education student that he wrote a song. Greg Wimmer posted his tribute, "Daniel, We Pray," online, and not only has it already been circulating widely through social media, the victim's pastor played it during a church service this weekend. Daniel Borowy, 17, a special education student, was shot last week on the first day of school. He's been hospitalized since in critical condition, though he is expected to survive.