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The performances at Music at McClellan’s scaled-back concert series this year have been anything but scaled back, and the series will end this weekend on a classical note.
The last concert will be 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the Monteith Amphitheater at McClellan with a variety of music from the chamber music division of the Etowah Youth Orchestra.
Tom Potts, chair of the Longleaf Arts Council, which organized the series, said this year’s concerts have gone well and featured a variety of performers.
“It’s been mostly just regional folks we all knew who were high quality,” he said. “We’ve had steel drums, jazz, acoustic guitar, folk, now finally a little classical music.”
For the upcoming concert, the orchestra will be broken up into smaller groups based on instrument.
“There’ll be a wide mix of selections,” director of the orchestra, Michael Gagliardo, said.
Gagliardo said a string group will play selections from Bach as well as some current pop music and Broadway musical songs. A saxophone group will play music by several Russian composers, and a brass quintet will perform Baroque period music along with a set of spirituals. A woodwind section will also play traditional music as well as more modern pieces. Each group will play for about 20 to 25 minutes, Gagliardo said.
“The audience will be hearing sampling of different components of the youth orchestra program,” he said.
Although the orchestra is based in Etowah County, several students in the group live in Calhoun County. Gagliardo said there are students from Jacksonville, Anniston and Weaver in the groups performing.
“In the past few years, the Etowah Youth Orchestra has branched out to be more of a regional orchestra,” he said. “What we wanted to do in doing this performance, we wanted to collaborate with the Longleaf Art Council and the Music at McClellan series.”
Gagliardo said he wants young musicians in Calhoun County to know they have the opportunity to be a part of the orchestra.
“One of our main missions is to do whatever we can to get arts organizations to think regionally,” Potts said.
Potts said one of the long-term goals at Longleaf is to have art councils across the region share their schedules and work with other counties.
This year the Music at McClellan series was scaled back by design, while the amphitheater is renovated, Potts said. The new stage and back stage area are almost ready, and the hillside where the audience sits has been terraced.
“The land was a little too soft and the holder grass had grown way too long,” he said. “We couldn’t put people in the area so we’re doing a more intimate set of concerts.”
Potts said they have been mostly advertising the shows on Facebook and through word-of-mouth. The concerts this year were free and the audience has been sitting on the stage while performers play with their back to the future finished amphitheater seating area.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Potts said. “You get the performers’ perspective.” After some of the music series’ past locations became unavailable, Potts said the council decided to go with the Monteith Amphitheater for its new home.
“It has a lot of historical significance most people don’t know about,” he said. Some of the first racial integration of the Army took place on the stage, said Potts, including the commissioning of Buffalo Soldiers.
“Joe Lewis fought an exhibition fight; Bob Hope and Marlene Dietrich did a USO show. I grew up here, and I didn’t know all this stuff,” Potts said.
Monteith was abandoned in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and Potts said it has been a huge effort to get it back. He encourages people who haven’t seen the renovations to come to the free concert on Saturday to get acquainted.
“Bring a lawn chair and a cooler and imagine the possibilities,” he said.
Read more: Anniston Star - Concert series set to end on classic note >>
Reprinted by permission from the Anniston Star
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Monteith landscaping finished
By Cameron Steele; csteele@annistonstar.com
Two men pulled back the large sliding, metal doors on the front of the renovated Monteith Amphitheater at McClellan.
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The open doors revealed a majestic; albeit dusty; sight: new rows of freshly seeded dirt terraces rising up around the amphitheater's oval-shaped stage.
"See? There's room … for 4,000 (people)," said Pete Conroy, one of those men and co-chair of Music at McClellan.
As Conroy climbed the terraces, he stopped on each level, gestured to the landscaping around him and described his vision.
It's a vision of an "acoustically brilliant" amphitheater complete with fine-dining tables set up on the lowest terrace near the stage, fixed, padded seating across the middle of the slope, and a natural grassy setting at the top where families can pick their favorite spots to spread picnic blankets for the shows.
It's a vision that's closer to becoming a reality than ever before, Music at McClellan officials said.
As recently as a month ago, the newly landscaped grounds at the amphitheater were full of pine trees, poison ivy and, beneath the overgrowth, old concrete from the site's days as an Army amphitheater that could seat 12,000 soldiers.
But thanks to a year of careful but diligent work from Calhoun County Landfill Director Butler Green, the Monteith Amphitheater's outdoor seating has finally taken shape.
Tuesday saw the final touches of landscaping as Ashville-based contractors spent three hours seeding the dirt terraces to keep them from eroding throughout winter weather.
For $3,000, paid for with appropriations from the Calhoun County Commission, the contractors spread a special mixture of water, grass seed, fertilizer and lime, then covered the mixture with finely cut hay to prevent any erosion, Green said. The process is called "hydroseeding" and will help the new amphitheater terraces keep their forms until next spring.
Sherri Sumners, president of the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce, said she's followed the amphitheater landscaping since its beginning stages.
"I'm glad to see it coming along." said Sumners, who visited the amphitheater Tuesday to view the completed terraces. "It looks really good."
And Conroy, one of the key volunteers behind the Monteith Amphitheater's renovation since 2005, said he hopes the "real" final touches can begin by the time the grass has grown in next spring.
That's when he, Green and other Music at McClellan members plan to seed the terraces one last time, set up an irrigation system, install concrete sidewalks and seating, and finally hang scaffolding for stage lighting and sound equipment.
After that, Conroy said, it's show time again for Monteith Amphitheatre, which — in its Army entertainment heyday in the early 20th century — hosted a number of legendary events, including a Joe Louis fight exhibition, musical acts and nationally acclaimed Broadway shows.
The plans are in place, the vision is great, and all that's left is a little something called money, Conroy said.
"We are desperately seeking funding. This is not a project that's forgotten," he said.
Music at McClellan members estimate they need about $1 million to complete the amphitheater renovation, something they hope to have done by this time next year.
Conroy and Jacksonville State University theater technical director David Keefer said they don't think that's a futile hope, especially because the amphitheater's renovation story is one of generous gifts.
To cover most of the building's renovation costs, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R Tuscaloosa, helped Conroy, Green and other amphitheater proponents Josephine Ayers and Robert Downing obtain a $493,614 Small Business Administration grant through the Calhoun County Commission two years ago.
Assistance to help cover landscaping costs eventually came in the form of $100,000 from the Joint Powers Authority, as well as additional funds from the county commission and a few private donors.
That funding has transformed the site from a bramble-surrounded, padlocked Army building into a 21st century theater flanked by outdoor terrace seating and an open, mountain-dotted view of the horizon.
With $1 million more, the empty hillside and empty stage will be ready for audience members and performers, Keefer said.
"I'm just waiting for that first show," he said, noting that the 4,000-seat capacity will enable the amphitheater to attract well-known acts from around Alabama and out of state, too.
Those big acts could mean big bucks for Calhoun County in the future, but for now, Conroy and other Music at McClellan members are content to celebrate Tuesday's terrace hydroseeding.
"It's like the icing on the cake," Conroy said.
Contact Star Staff Reporter Cameron Steele at 256-235-3562.
Reprinted by permission from the Anniston Star
Friday, June 10, 2011
Concert series set to end on a classical note
By Alison Gene Smith, asmith@annistonstar.com
They’ll be Bach.
|
The performances at Music at McClellan’s scaled-back concert series this year have been anything but scaled back, and the series will end this weekend on a classical note.
The last concert will be 6-8 p.m. Saturday at the Monteith Amphitheater at McClellan with a variety of music from the chamber music division of the Etowah Youth Orchestra.
Tom Potts, chair of the Longleaf Arts Council, which organized the series, said this year’s concerts have gone well and featured a variety of performers.
“It’s been mostly just regional folks we all knew who were high quality,” he said. “We’ve had steel drums, jazz, acoustic guitar, folk, now finally a little classical music.”
For the upcoming concert, the orchestra will be broken up into smaller groups based on instrument.
“There’ll be a wide mix of selections,” director of the orchestra, Michael Gagliardo, said.
Gagliardo said a string group will play selections from Bach as well as some current pop music and Broadway musical songs. A saxophone group will play music by several Russian composers, and a brass quintet will perform Baroque period music along with a set of spirituals. A woodwind section will also play traditional music as well as more modern pieces. Each group will play for about 20 to 25 minutes, Gagliardo said.
“The audience will be hearing sampling of different components of the youth orchestra program,” he said.
Although the orchestra is based in Etowah County, several students in the group live in Calhoun County. Gagliardo said there are students from Jacksonville, Anniston and Weaver in the groups performing.
“In the past few years, the Etowah Youth Orchestra has branched out to be more of a regional orchestra,” he said. “What we wanted to do in doing this performance, we wanted to collaborate with the Longleaf Art Council and the Music at McClellan series.”
Gagliardo said he wants young musicians in Calhoun County to know they have the opportunity to be a part of the orchestra.
“One of our main missions is to do whatever we can to get arts organizations to think regionally,” Potts said.
Potts said one of the long-term goals at Longleaf is to have art councils across the region share their schedules and work with other counties.
This year the Music at McClellan series was scaled back by design, while the amphitheater is renovated, Potts said. The new stage and back stage area are almost ready, and the hillside where the audience sits has been terraced.
“The land was a little too soft and the holder grass had grown way too long,” he said. “We couldn’t put people in the area so we’re doing a more intimate set of concerts.”
Potts said they have been mostly advertising the shows on Facebook and through word-of-mouth. The concerts this year were free and the audience has been sitting on the stage while performers play with their back to the future finished amphitheater seating area.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Potts said. “You get the performers’ perspective.” After some of the music series’ past locations became unavailable, Potts said the council decided to go with the Monteith Amphitheater for its new home.
“It has a lot of historical significance most people don’t know about,” he said. Some of the first racial integration of the Army took place on the stage, said Potts, including the commissioning of Buffalo Soldiers.
“Joe Lewis fought an exhibition fight; Bob Hope and Marlene Dietrich did a USO show. I grew up here, and I didn’t know all this stuff,” Potts said.
Monteith was abandoned in the late 1960s or early 1970s, and Potts said it has been a huge effort to get it back. He encourages people who haven’t seen the renovations to come to the free concert on Saturday to get acquainted.
“Bring a lawn chair and a cooler and imagine the possibilities,” he said.
Read more: Anniston Star - Concert series set to end on classic note >>
Reprinted by permission from the Anniston Star
Rediscovery of the Monteith Amphitheater
Rediscovery 
Of the many things that have been happening at McClellan, one of the most
exciting was the recent endeavor to rediscover an old outdoor theater.
Known as the Monteith Amphitheater and with a capacity for 12,000 people,
it hosted a Joe Louis fight exhibition, nationally acclaimed broadway
shows, and musical acts including Percy Grainger. It was also a birth
place for integration where in 1942 the 92 infantry, being among the first
African American divisions, was inducted into the US Army.
The Future
With an amazing past, a similar future may be around the corner. Already
funds have been secured to restore the historic stage building and plans
are underway to reopen the amphitheater. With some luck and your help,
the future Music at McClellan may find itself where it began years ago!
To see more historic
photos of the Monteith >>
Visit the Music
at McClellan news archives
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Policy & Information Center
