Today’s Email Announcements

HCW to Host Chuck Lieberman March 10

High Country Writers is delighted to welcome Chuck Lieberman, local humorist and author of The Annals of the North Carolina Jewish Christmas Growers Association, Volume One – The Early Years. The meeting will take place at Watauga County Public Library at 10am on March 10th. The meeting is free and open to the public. Lieberman will discuss how his book came to be written, read from selections from his book, followed by a question and answer session and book signing.

Chuck Lieberman moved to Boone in 1979 with his professor/wife and son, Justin, who was then two. In 1980, lacking employment, he moved to a farm in Deep Gap where he made a foolish and unsuccessful effort to grow Christmas trees, about which he knew nothing. That effort continues to this day. At a certain point his wife left him, his son went to jail and then became a drug addict, and Lieberman got a job as a rural mail carrier. Those were the glory years.

Now things are calmer.  Chuck served as President of the Boone Jewish Community for eight years and is remarried to a very compatible lady who indulges Chucks passion for Scrabble and drags him on trips around the world.

For the past 26 years Chuck has written of his misadventures as a Jewish Christmas tree grower in a weekly column in the Watauga Democrat,  the newspaper of record in Boone.  Some of these columns have dealt with the meetings of the NC Jewish Christmas Tree Growers Association. Some have dealt with past days as an Artillery man in Vietnam. Some are concerned with a certain spaceship that visits his farm on an irregular basis. Occasionally some Lieberman’s columns are actually true, or nearly true, or at least partially true.

Chuck Lieberman’s book, The Annals of the North Carolina Jewish Christmas Growers Association, Volume One – The Early Years, was published Nov 2015, and is available for purchase on www.amazon.com and locally at Boone Bagelry, on Hwy 105, also known as the Waterwheel Bakery.

High Country Writers has been “energizing writers since 1995!” Regular meetings are at the Watauga County Public Library on the second and fourth Thursdays of most months from ten until noon and speakers’ presentations are co-sponsored with the Library. HCW members present writing skills workshops the first Thursday of the month, and have recently partnered with the Watauga County Arts Council in hosting these workshops. For more information and a current calendar, visit the website: http://highcountrywriters.tripod.com/. Guests are welcome.

Jazz Ensemble II to Perform March 2

With a nod to the blustery month of March, Jazz Ensemble II opens its March 2 concert with Troy Andrews’ “Hurricane Season.” That composition and others will be performed beginning at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free.

The 21-member Hayes School of Music ensemble is directed by Rod Berry.

Arranged by John Wasson, “Hurricane Season” features the powerful sound of a New Orleans brass band.

The groove continues with “Hay Burner” by Sammy Nestico, which features solos and instrumental pairings of the saxophone, trombone and trumpet sections.

Next on the program is “Nancy (With the Laughing Face)” written by Phil Silvers and Jimmy Van Heusen, which Frank Sinatra made popular in 1945.

The long-time Hoagie Carmichael favorite “Georgia on My Mind” is next on the program. The jazz ensemble will perform Sammy Nestico’s arrangement, featuring soloist Luke Taylor on saxophone.

The ensemble continues with the Horace Silver’s funky jazz sound of the 1960s with “The Jody Grind” arranged by John Clayton.

“Early Autumn” by Ralph Burns and Woody Herman and “Leapin’ Lizards” by Andy Farber round out the performance. Farber’s composition, influenced by Count Basie features solo sections that  allow the ensemble’s musicians to showcase their talents as the concert ends.

ASU to Test Campus Emergency Siren March 2

Appalachian State University will test its campus siren warning system Wednesday, March 2, at 11:55 a.m.

Examples of the tones that are used in an emergency or during tests can be heard at http://em.emergency.appstate.edu/siren-warning-system.Appalachian uses the “hi/low” tone for emergencies; “discontinuous air horn” for tests of the system; the “alert” tone for all-clear signal; and the “wail” tone for tornado warnings.  For more information about the university’s AppState ALERT voice/text/e-mail notification system, visit www.emergency.appstate.edu.

Faculty Recitla with Organist Joby Bell Set for March 1

Joby Bell, professor of organ at Appalachian State University, will perform masterworks for organ during a March 1 recital. His performance begins at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Rosen Concert Hall. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Bach’s “Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott BWV 651” opens the program. Composed later in life, Bach’s composition is one of a set of 18 chorales known as the “Leipzig Chorales” that represent Bach’s most mature writing for the organ. The first chorale in the set, based on the Lutheran hymn “Come Holy Ghost,” is an aural representation of the fire of the Holy Spirit. The hands play “fiery” broken chords and function as an accompaniment to the actual chorale melody, which is played slowly on the pedal.

“Freu’ dich sehr, O meine Seele” by Georg Böhm is next on the program. Although usually included among the dramatic, pre-Bach, “third-generation” North Germans, Böhm exhibits French and Italian influence in his writing, with heavy ornamentation and somewhat reserved changes of texture. This influence extends into this chorale-based composition, which was originally written for the harpsichord.

The work of French organist and composer Marcel Dupré is featured with “Prelude and Fugue in A-flat, Op. 36, No. 2.” Dupré’s music often invokes a dark quality of the high Gothic architecture of Parisian churches and instruments, but this composition, after a somber opening, gives an artistic nod to the genius of Bach.

The program concludes with Brahms’ “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24” transcribed for organ by Rachel Laurin. The 25 landmark variations from the original work for solo piano are each only a single page long, which Brahms organized into small groups or “suites.”

 Auditions for “Tom Dooley” Set for March 1, 3 in N. Wilkes