Category Archives: music

Vox Concordia This Sunday

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VOX CONCORDIA
Sunday, February 18 @ 11:00 am
Pine Street Baptist

Vox Concordia is the select treble choir of Virginia Commonwealth University and is open to students of any major who sing soprano or alto. Vox Concordia is Latin for “voices together in one heart.” These diverse singers, with majors in music, criminal justice, international studies, psychology, and more, unite in an inclusive choral community to make music that reflects the diversity of our world. In addition to performing the classics of treble repertoire, Vox Concordia often sings works written by women and living composers from underrepresented cultures with texts that address contemporary issues. Vox Concordia has sung in the Richmond area for community organizations such as the Lewis Ginter GardenFest of Lights, senior living communities, and for VCU sports games. The choir is conducted by Lisa Fusco, Adjunct Instructor at VCU.

It’s Folk Festival Weekend!

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Great music with great weather!

Details and schedule can be found here:

https://www.richmondfolkfestival.org

My advice: plan to stay a while, see international acts that do not normally come through the area, explore, don’t become obsessed with ‘headliners’, take a few minutes at some point to walk over to Belle Island or other river park areas and give your ears a break with some nature, bring a light jacket and hat for when the sun goes down and the temperature drops (warm today and tonight but cooler temperatures move in on Saturday).

Of course, for Oregon Hill residents, its also a time to be neighborly and tolerant while also trying to maintain normal life.

From Venture Richmond’s festival organizers:

Info:
Oct 7-9
Hours
Fri 6-10pm
Sat 12-930pm
Sun 12-6pm

RPD will have 3-4 officers in vehicles circulating the neighborhood ticketing/towing illegal parkers.
PD Brooks Traffic will be setting out large signage around the neighborhood saying ““RESIDENTIAL PARKING ONLY, VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED”

If you happen to see a vehicle illegally parked, feel free to call the non-emergency hotline – the officers roaming will have a direct tie to that.
(804) 646-5100

Richmond Folk Festival This Coming Weekend

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With beautiful weather, the festival season is here in Richmond, VA.

Many people are looking forward to fun events after a tragic pandemic year, and the Folk Festival is a Richmond favorite. It’s taking place this coming weekend and it’s noteworthy that it is free admission (though they do ask for donations).

Although it is celebrating its 17th year, this Folk Festival will be a bit more national artist-based than past years, which is understandable given the difficulty traveling with pandemic concerns.

It does not look like they are checking vaccination records for attendees, but they are taking some COVID-19 precautions.

BEEX: The Early Years 1979-82

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This punk rock vinyl sold out it’s first pressing in like 1 1/2 weeks, which is pretty amazing and this review includes a nice O Hill mention…

Top-tier slept-on shit from Richmond, Va., in the era when punk was a poetic art student thing. Beex played dark and catchy clean-guitar punk with a singer named Christine Gibson whose ominous croon splits the difference between Patti Smith and Exene Cervenka.

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…And there’s something very Richmond about the nihilism in these songs about suicide cults, vicious dogs, and absentee dads. It feels more like Oregon Hill than the Lower East Side, anyway. Get this record and find out where it started.

Rumput and All the Saints Theater Company, Sept. 13th

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Though All the Saints Theater Company may be best known for founding the annual Halloween Parade that goes through Oregon Hill, they are Richmond’s one and only premiere subversive puppet theater.

On Monday, September 13th, they will performing with Rumput, a local group, at the Firehouse Theater, on Broad Street.

The Rumput performance will include traditional and experimental stringband music by Indonesian composers, newly commissioned scrolling artwork by Javanese artists, and original cinematic shadow theater.

Using their larger than life puppets blessed by the paper mache gods, All the Saints will perform their “Moon Shadow Cabaret,” an exploration of the darkness that seeks the light of the sun. This performance is for all ages, made with adults in mind.

All proceeds go to supporting artists in Indonesia, now the epicenter of the COVID pandemic.

Virtual Richmond Folk Festival Begins

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Unfortunately, the pandemic has forced this year’s Richmond Folk Festival to ‘go virtual’.
From The Richmond Free Press:

The 16th Annual Richmond Folk Festival, a celebration of music and culture from around the globe, will take place virtually Oct. 9 through 11.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, people can enjoy the festival through a special television program, radio broadcasts and online streaming.

Music from Jamaican reggae, Chicago blues, Altai throat singing, kosher gospel, Gypsy jazz, Indian slide guitar, Gulf Coast boogie-woogie, Ireland and Dominican bachata will be featured from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 11, on Virginia Public Media radio stations 107.3 and 93.1 FM. The music is by performers from past Richmond festivals.

From 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the festival will broadcast “All Together Now,” a two-part television celebration of Virginia artists, including Butcher Brown featuring J. Plunky Branch, Cora Harvey Armstrong, Kadencia and Jared Pool & Friends. The performances were filmed at Richmond’s Spacebomb Studios in partnership with VPM, and will be interspersed with performances from the festival’s Virginia Folklife Stage from the past. It will be broadcast on VPM Plus Channel 57.1 WCVW digital HD and livestreamed on VPM’s Facebook page and VPM’s YouTube page.

An interactive art installation by artist Kevin Orlosky will take place on Brown’s Island, the site of the festival in the past. Public participation is encouraged, with people wearing masks and socially distancing. People can paint a rock that represents something they miss, mourn or are looking forward to doing again after the pandemic. The rocks will become part of Mr. Orlosky’s stone labyrinth that, when viewed from above, will form a hand.

Artist Shannon Wright of Richmond, an illustrator and cartoonist whose work has been featured in major publications, books and online sites including The New York Times, created the official poster for the festival.

Details about the festival, performers, schedule, activities and where to listen or watch it are available on www.richmondfolkfestival.org.

As one of the handful of people who attended the very first folk festival (rainy) night in Richmond, back when it was National Folk Festival, I am delighted to see that it is soldiering on, as I very much enjoy the outside music it usually brings to the area. And while neighborhood relations have not always been harmonious, I know many Oregon Hill residents will be sad that they will not have the full festival just down the hill this year. It deserves support. (And talk is cheap- if you can afford it, do purchase a folk festival poster or t-shirt at Plan 9 Records or online).

A Trumpet Blast From The Past

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Photo of ad supplied by Todd Gfeller‎.

Music writer John Wirt remembers:

A big crowd showed up. Wynton’s father, Ellis, was teaching jazz at VCU then. The show included a drumming performance by Wynton’s younger brother, Jason. Ellis Marsalis died earlier this year in New Orleans from the coronavirus.