Walt Strony Captivates the Audience at EMCATOS Season Opener Weekend Responding gamely to the ongoing challenges posed by a recalcitrant cordless mike, Walt Strony turned in a dazzling performance for the opening fall double-header concert weekend.. Walt treated the audience to innovative new arrangements drawn from the traditional as well as some unexpected corners of the theatre pipe organ repertoire. Eastern Pipes Nathan Avakian charms Young Organist Concertgoers A large Babson crowd was treated to a spectacular concert by Nathan Avakian at the annual January EMCATOS young artist concert. Nathan displayed an amazing command of organ technique in playing unusual, contemporary, arrangements and demonstrating his skill on the piano as well as at accompanying silent films. It will be fun to see how Nathan s technique, already virtuosic, evolves even more as he gains maturity. Spring 2012 A Sporadic Publication of the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society Jelani Eddington, a perennial EMCATOS crowd-pleaser, returns to the console of the Shanklin Music Hall Mighty Wurlitzer on the afternoon of April 1, 2012. Jelani can always be counted on to present an innovative and musically exciting program. His concerts usually sell out fast, so order your tickets early to avoid being left out. Order your tickets now at the EMCATOS website www.emcatos.com, or by calling Sally at (508) 674-0276. Boston area cabaret singer Jan Peters celebrates her return to the Boston area with a concert at the Shanklin Music Hall. She will be joining forces with Dave Wickerham at the console of the Shanklin Wurlitzer on the afternoon of June 3. Tickets for this concert will be available after April 3 at the EMCATOS website www.emcatos.com or by calling Sally Evans at (508) 674-0276. Dave Wickerham s amazing organ talent combined with Jan s voice almost guarantees a sellout so please be sure to buy your tickets early.
President s Message -Spring 2012 Not that I m complaining, but it s difficult to believe that spring begins in less than two weeks. The past winter was kind to us. We ve had some very successful events since the concert season began. Walt Strony brought his particular brand of great music to Babson and the Shanklin Music Hall in November. Both concerts were well attended. Once again we enjoyed the hospitality and generosity of the Shanklin Family at our annual Holiday Celebration. Jon Ortloff supplied great music for the event and Hart s Turkey Farm once again delighted our taste buds with their usual great fare. Young organist Nathan Avakian played to a full house at Babson in January and Bernie Anderson cued a couple of great silent comedies at our Appreciation Event in early February. We ve been very busy and have much to show for it. For fifty-six years EMCATOS has enjoyed a productive and successful history. We hold Charter #1 in ATOS and have always strived to present the best entertainment to the public. Your Board of Directors, however, has begun to think seriously about the future of our beloved organization. While our membership numbers have remained relatively stable, the average age of an EMCATOS member has increased. While older members have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, they have also accumulated a set of aches and pains that prevent participation in some of the more physical activities necessary to keep an organization such as ours vibrant and effective. Believe me, this is not an indictment of us older members (of which group I am a member) but a statement of fact. Charlie Briggs has been asked to chair a long-range planning committee to chart a course for the future of EMCATOS. Charlie Briggs, Bob Evans, Dick Handverger, Dick Hill, Alan Kalf, Don Phipps, Lawrie Rhoads, Norman Shanklin and Ed Wawrzynowicz are the members of the committee. The group will consider: o Methods of attracting new members to EMCATOS o Long-Range plans for organ maintenance (Babson and Zeiterion instruments) o Increasing concert attendance o Other areas of concern to the membership Progress reports from the group will be published regularly in the Eastern Pipes. If you have any concerns or suggestions please send them to Charlie Briggs. E-mail address: ceb21wal@aol.com or call Charlie at 781-844-5996. Your input is important. Sally and I wish you and yours a great spring and summer, and look forward to seeing you next season. We are working on a great lineup of artists for you. Bob Evans, President Contact Bob at bob@organloft.org or (508) 674-0276
180 People Appreciate Audience Appreciation Day New Jersey silent film specialist Bernie Anderson nimbly put the Babson Wurlitzer through its paces by accompanying a silent movie double-feature at the first EMCATOS Audience Appreciation Day. Bernie has gained a significant following in the New Jersey area by accompanying silent films and his performance left the audience enthralled. The large turnout helped to establish the case for future EMCATOS presentations of silent films. Juan Cardona Jr. to Play for April 15th Social at the Shanklin Music Hall. Juan Cardona Jr. returns to the console of the Shanklin Music Hall Wurlitzer after an absence of a few years. Juan is the staff organist at the Bardavan Opera house in Poughkeepsie, NY, and has also been the staff organist at the Thomaston Opera House in Thomaston, Connecticut. Juan was a frequent accompanist to silent films for the EMCATOS Silents in the House series. David Baskeyfield to play at Hanover Theater on May 6 David Baskeyfield, a doctoral student at the Eastman Rochester School of Music,will play for a combined EMCATOS-AGO social at the Hanover Theater on May 6. A classically trained organist, Baskeyfield has participated in master classes by a number of wellknown European and American organists, and is the winner of organ competitions including the Miami International Organ Competition and the AGO National improvisation Competition in 2010. He comes to the world of the theater organ by way of Dr. William Porter of Eastman Rochester, and has played for the RTOS on a number of occasions. Announcing the Name that Event Contest. Your EMCATOS board is trying very hard to move EMCATOS into the twenty-first century, and give the organization a sprightlier image. One starting point is the social. To many minds, the word conjures up the fustiness of mounds of cucumber and watercress sandwiches in a drab church social hall. We need a new word! The simpler membership meeting lacks oomph and has all the warmth of a corporate cubicle farm. There has to be a better word or phrase out there somewhere. Put your thinking caps on and submit your ideas to the Board today; a prize will be given to the person who comes up with the winner. Gentlemen, Start your thesauri!
Jim Duncan Bruce Netten Fourth Annual Member s Day Held Thanks to the efforts of organizer extraordinaire and master catherd Linda Duncan, twelve EMCATOS members practiced, rehearsed, worried excessively, and produced a thoroughly enjoyable program at Babson on March 4th. Linda Duncan Charlie Briggs Bill Mitchell Roger Austin Bob and Sally Evans Bernie Kobel Ed Surette Len Beyersdorfer Marjorie Deshaies Dorothy Hill Gary Gong
Editor s Notes We ve lost count of the number of people who, when told about the existence of EMCATOS and of the Theatre Pipe Organ, come back and say I never knew that a group like yours existed. This is altogether too many people, for an area as large and musically sophisticated as that of Metropolitan Boston. Then there are the people who upon hearing the word organ,, hearken back to the days of their childhood with pained memories of countless hours of endless sermons in a stifling church punctuated by the sound of dull as dirt diapasons as the retreaded pianist put in a herculanean effort at accompanying the wretched congregational hymn singing from a mistuned, wheezing organ.. To these people, experiencing the sound of light music, played to tremulated tibias, is like having a veil lifted from their eyes and ears. I never knew that you were out there, they say. Or at Oscar time, when The Artist, a silent movie, walks off with most of the honors, and when Hugo, a movie which is a paean to the golden age of the silent movie, wins many of the technical awards. We in the theatre organ community have been doing these things for years, and yet, I never knew that you were out there, they say. Well, we are out here. The pitiful part is that precious few people know of us. Our mailing list which we have guarded and carefully grown over the years, is starting to shrink and shrivel from the ravages of old age. Altogether too many people on that list have grown too old to come to our concerts and events. We re having difficulty in getting people to work on projects and concerts. Without a new infusion of active new members, we re in serious trouble of losing critical mass. How do we reverse this trend? We ve formed a committee to look into our long range future, and to date the best answer we ve come up with is advertising on public media. We need to get awareness and name recognition for EMCATOS before a demographic that is very similar to our own; it is our hope that the money paid to advertise, which may be considerable, will be an investment in getting more people in the door and and getting more of their posteriors onto our seats. Once they are in the door, their membership and their mailing list presence should soon follow. We realize that we are all babes-in-the-woods in the rough and tumble world of a major market media buy. If there is anyone out there among our readership who has had this sort of experience in a prior life, or who knows someone who has had this sort of experience and would be willing to share it, please contact Bob Evans, Charlie Briggs, or myself. We could certainly use and welcome your advice. Due to a a communications misfire, the Fall issue of the Pipes never got printed or mailed out to our membership. It did, however, get published via the Web. To those members without computer access who missed out on this issue, we offer a sincere apology, and a promise to not let this egregious error happen again. *** Dick Handverger Contact Pipes editor Dick Handverger with breaking news at rahandverger@verizon.net or at (508) 533-2302
Keeping the Theatre Organ in Public View - EMCATOS Members Keep the Music Playing Several thousand showgoers at the Hanover Theatre have now experienced the sound of the mightiest Wurlitzer in New England, thanks to EMCATOS vice-president Len Beyersdorfer. Len has been playing in at least one or two shows per week at the Hanover, preceding each performance with fifteen to twenty minutes of theatre organ music. Those audience members who love the sound of the Wurlitzer sit transfixed at their seats; the others help the Hanover by boosting bar sales. Over the course of the couple of seasons that Len has been playing in for Hanover events the number of people who have heard this instrument has become roughly equivalent to the number of people who have attended EMCATOS concerts over the past fifty or so years. We have picked up a few new members thanks in part to Len s presence at the Hanover console and this has become a win-win for EMCATOS. For the most part the audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. At the other end of the state and at the other end of the age spectrum, the school program at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford continues to introduce school-age children to the sound of the Wurlitzer. Over the twenty years that this program has been in existence, somewhere around 400,000 of public-school students in the New Bedford school system will have among their childhood memories the sound of the theatre pipe organ. The program has been in the capable hands of EMCATOS member Ken Duffie over its entire lifetime; organists for the programs have included Ken Duffie, Ed Wawryznowicz, Rick Sylvia, Charlie Briggs and many others too numerous to mention. Taking its cue from the Hanover Theater, the Zeiterion has announced that next season they will begin to play in selected events with the sound of their Wurlitzer. It is interesting to note that some of the audience members hearing these musical intoductions will remember the sound of this instrument from their school days in the New Bedford system. Hanover Theatre, Worcester Providence Performing Arts Center Shanklin Music Hall Stadium Theater, Woonsocket Zeiterion Theater, New Bedford Knight Auditorium, Babson College Stoneham Town Hall
Theatre Organ Radio Returns to the ATOS Website Persistence. Perspicacity. Persuasion. EMCATOS member Dick Hill has lots of all three of these, and by using the right combination of them, Dick was able to restore Theatre Organ Radio to the ATOS website. Working assiduously from 55 years of EMCATOS archival concert recordings, Dick has now managed to compile a little over 20 hour-long programs. There are lots more programs in the can as well. To listen to any of these programs, either link to the ATOS website or call Dick to make arrangements to borrow a CD at an EMCATOS event. Dick has now started, as an experiment, to capture video of EMCATOS socials and concerts. We have seen some of his early results and they are quite promising. 2012-2013 Socials Being Planned Planning is now underway for the 2013 socials season. We are trying to incorporate variety and to expand the number of venues. If you would like to play at an EMCATOS social or would like to make a recommendation for a local artist, please do not hesitate to call me at (508) 533-2302 or email me at rahandverger@verizon.net. Your suggestions are always welcomed. Dick Handverger
Hanover Theatre to be transformed into Blackpool Tower Ballroom as Phil Kelsall makes his premier Worcester appearance. Perennial EMCATOS crowd pleaser Phil Kelsall will be joined by Worcester area ballroom dancers on the stage of the Hanover Theatre on the night of April 18th. Tickets for this event, sponsored by the Hanover Theatre, are on sale at the Hanover Theatre Box office or through www.thehanovertheatre.org. The Hanover Theatre has just concluded a silent film series with Clark Wilson presiding at the console; Film classics Phantom of the Opera and The General were both well attended by enthusiastic crowds. EMCATOS Holiday Bash a Success Under the skillful direction of Jim and Linda Duncan, the EMCATOS annual Holiday Bash was held at the Shanklin Music Hall.. Jim Duncan provided pre dinner seasonal music on the Music Hall s Mason & Hamlin grand piano. Hart s Turkey Farm catered a traditional holiday dinner while EMCATOS member Jon Ortloff presented a concert on the Shanklin Music Hall s Wurlitzer. In a short ceremony, EMCATOS members Charlie Briggs and Dick Handverger were honored with the EMCATOS Member Extraordinaire award. A large Thank You is due to the Shanklin Family for once again hosting and sponsoring this event. EMCATOS Officers and Directors President: Bob Evans Vice President:Len Beyersdorfer Secretary: Linda Duncan Treasurer: Jim Duncan Board of Directors: Charlie Briggs, Dick Handverger Norm Shanklin,Roger Austin, Dave Hawkins, Dick Hill, Don Phipps,Ken Duffie, Bruce Hager, Ed Wawryznowicz. Alternates to Board: Bill Mitchell Lawrie Rhoads Eastern Pipes Editor: Dick Handverger