News Archives 2005
Below is a listing of news articles from the 2005 concert season of Music
at McClellan.
Anniston Star, June 2, 2005
Miracles bring Motown Sound to the Longleaf Series
By Brett Buckner, Star Staff Writer
Their songs have forged the soundtrack for generations: "You Really
Got a Hold on Me," "The Tracks of My Tears," "I Second
That Emotion," "Tears of a Clown" and "Ooh Baby Baby"
— just to name a few.
And it all began back in October 1960 when the Miracles, led by a then-unknown
Smokey Robinson, gave Berry Gordy’s fledgling Detroit record company,
called Motown, its first gold record with the single "Shop Around."
To read the full Anniston Star article of June 2, 2005>>
www.annistonstar.com/entertainment/2005/
as-music-0602-bbuckner-5f02d4319.htm
Anniston Star, May 31, 2005
Bringing juggling to the world
By Kate Moser, Star Staff Writer
An aunt gave Georgia juggler Ron Anglin a Chinese yo-yo when he was
8 years old, and he’s never been the same since.
Anglin said he taught himself to play with the yo-yo, called a “diabolo.”
The diabolo is said to have been invented thousands of years ago in China.
It makes a whistling sound as it spins. When he was 35 years old, Anglin
joined the Atlanta Jugglers Association, and one of the members pointed
out to him that he was spinning the diabolo backwards.
To read the full Anniston Star article of May 31, 2005>>
www.annistonstar.com/news/2005/as-world-0531-0-5e31l3627.htm
Birmingham News, May 31, 2005
Army base's new mission: a revival through the arts
MIKE CASON, News staff writer
ANNISTON - Backers of redevelopment at Fort McClellan plan to use music
and the arts to help bring the sprawling old Army base back to life.
A four-week concert series has kicked off at the old fort's Longleaf
Park, a cluster of Spanish-Colonial buildings are being renovated as an
arts center to contain a theater, restaurant and banquet hall, and officials
are considering converting an old motor pool area into a full-blown arts
district.
The supporters even shortened the name to McClellan in an effort to spread
the word that it's a community, not a base. "When you think fort,
you think of an enclosure, and we're trying to open it up," said
Dan Cleckler, executive director of the Joint Powers Authority, the nonprofit
organization formed to redevelop the base.
To read the full Birmingham News article of May 31, 2005>>
www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/
base/news/111753110045960.xml&coll=2
Anniston Star, May 26, 2005
The stage is set . . . Tuxedo Junction kicks off the Longleaf Series
By Bill Edwards, Star Staff Writer
When it comes to mixing classical and jazz, the problem is not that there’s
too much music, it’s that there’s not enough.
That’s what Christopher Confessore, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra’s
resident conductor, found when putting together the program for Tuxedo
Junction, the opening program on this year’s Music at McClellan
series.
The show starts at 8 p.m. Saturday. The weather forecast is favorable,
with only a 30 percent chance of isolated rain.
The program, named after the famous song and the sort-of-famous area
in the Ensley neighborhood of Birmingham, brings together members of the
symphony with jazz cats from the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. But Confessore
discovered that there were no arrangements that brought a symphonic sound
into the realm of jazz. The basic challenge: Symphonic groups have lots
of people, jazz groups have only a comparative handful. When the former
plays the latter’s music, everybody has to have something to do.
To read the full Anniston Star article of May 26, 2005>>
www.annistonstar.com/entertainment/2005/
as-music-0526-bedwards-5e26e0615.htm
Anniston Star, April 27, 2005
Name your tune at Music at McClellan
By Joseph Lord, Anniston Star Staff Writer
Jazz, R&B, show tunes and classical music — organizers of
Music at McClellan 2005 are convinced they’ve got something for
everyone.
“We’re about trying to reach as many people as possible,”
said Paul Ferrone, executive director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.
Resuming the series that drew a combined 6,000 patrons last year, groups
of artists and the orchestra will perform outdoor concerts at McClellan
on four consecutive Saturday evenings this summer.
Individual adult tickets are $20.
The first of the four concerts, set for May 28, is dubbed “Tuxedo
Junction,” and features performers from the Alabama Jazz Hall of
Fame, including Cleve Eaton and Foxxy Fatts.
The second concert, on June 4, will feature The Miracles, known for R&B
songs such as “Shop Around” and “Tears of a Clown.”
The third concert, on June 11, is called “Broadway Under the Stars”
and features Kristi Tingle-Higginbotham and Summerfest Performing Ensemble,
performing songs from Broadway hits such as “Cats,” “Annie
Get Your Gun” and “Wicked.”
The last performance, on June 18, will feature the Alabama Symphony Orchestra,
performing well-known classical arrangements such as Tchaikovsky’s
“1812 Overture.”
Vendors selling food, beverages and other goods will be set up during
the concerts, said Pete Conroy, chairman of the Music at McClellan Committee.
Patrons also may bring picnic baskets.
“It’ll be sort of a romantic setting,” Conroy said.
The Alabama Symphony Orchestra was pleased with last year’s turnout,
Ferrone said. With similar successes in the future, the orchestra may
consider becoming more of presence in Anniston, he said.
Already, “This is the most significant presence we have outside
of Birmingham,” Ferrone said.
Tickets for children younger than 12 are $5. Children younger than 3
are admitted free of charge.
Organizers also are offering a package of four adult tickets for $60
that can be used at any of the events, said Josephine Ayers, chairwoman
of the concerts’ box office committee.
Tickets are available today via the Web site, www.musicatmcclellan.org,
or by calling 310-0852. Starting May 9, tickets also will be on sale at
Golden Springs Pharmacy, the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce, Jacksonville
State University and the Quintard Mall office.
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