Singer/songwriter Willie Nelson.
AEG signs Willie Nelson, Yes for Sunset Cove
AEG, the Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment presenter, has added more national acts to the roster next month at the Sunset Cove Amphitheater.
Country music legend Willie Nelson will appear at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, with tickets ranging from $35-$60, and the Canadian identical-twin indie group Tegan and Sara will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21. Tickets are $20.
Also, the British classic rock group Yes performs at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28. Tickets are $35-$60.
“We’re concentrating on bringing shows to the people, locally and affordably,” said John Valentino, an AEG Live vice president.
Sunset Cove, which opened in 2008, is located in South County Regional Park, about 2½ miles west of U.S. 441 at 12551 Glades Road.
For more information, call 561-488-8069 or visit www.pbcgov.com.
Violinist Megan McClendon.
Delray String Quartet replaces second violinist
Laszlo Pap, a founding member of the Delray String Quartet, has left the group after six years to pursue solo interests, he and quartet founder Don Thompson said Friday.
“He wants to do showcase things,” Thompson said. “And so we’ve parted. But we’re all still friends.”
Pap confirmed that in an e-mail message late Friday.
“The official word pretty much covers it,” he wrote. “I’ll pursue other interests.”
Pap’s replacement at second violin is Megan McClendon, an alumna of the New World Symphony who holds degrees from the Peabody and San Francisco conservatories of music. McClendon, a native of Dallas, plays with the Florida Grand Opera and teaches at Miami-Dade College.
This season, the quartet is playing in three different venues, a major expansion from previous seasons, which were restricted to the quartet’s home at the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach.
Its next program includes music by Haydn (Quartet in D, Op. 76, No. 5), Glazunov (Quartet No. 5 in D minor, Op. 70), and George Gershwin (Lullaby). Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5, at St. Thomas Episcopal in Coral Gables, 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at All Saints Episcopal Church in Fort Lauderdale, and 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, at the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach. Tickets for church venues are $20; $35 at the Colony. Call 213-4138 or visit www.delraystringquartet.com for more information.
The Cleveland Orchestra at the Knight Concert Hall.(File photo by Roger Mastroianni)
Cleveland Orchestra goes on strike
Editor’s note: This item has been updated to reflect new developments.
The Cleveland Orchestra has gone on strike, management said early Monday, putting the Ohio orchestra’s Miami residency, which is set to begin this week, in question.
“The board is very disappointed that the musicians have decided to go on strike,” Dennis LaBarre, president of the orchestra’s board of trustees, said in a statement. “While we recognize the musicians’ incredible artistry, the board is fully committed to ongoing prudent cost control. It is only with long-term financial stability that the orchestra can preserve artistic excellence.”
The two sides are scheduled to meet at noon Monday for negotiations. Orchestra management said it has asked federal mediators to assist in the talks.
Last month the union formally terminated a month-to-month contract extension under which they had been working since September. The two sides have not been able to come to an agreement about salaries.
Local 4 of the American Federation of Musicians turned down a three-year contract in which the base scale portion of their compensation would be reduced by 5 percent in the first year, with a restoration in the second year and a 2.5 percent increase in the third year.
In 2009, median compensation was $140,200 a year. The proposal would have reduced that figure to $134,100, with benefits including a ten-week paid vacation and 26 weeks paid sick leave.
The orchestra played its scheduled concerts last week, reports showed, and at one performance Thursday handed out leaflets to the audience, making their case for a salary freeze instead of a cut proposed by management.
“We have every reason to believe that with mediation, good will and good judgment will prevail at the bargaining table,” orchestra executive director Gary Hanson said in a statement. “In the event of an extended work stoppage, we have plans to reschedule any concerts which are canceled.”
The first two concerts in the residency were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and were to feature violinist Leila Josefowicz in the Violin Concerto of the contemporary British composer Thomas Adès. Also on the program were the Symphony No. 2 (in D, Op. 73) of Johannes Brahms, and the tone poem Don Juan, by Richard Strauss.
Further concerts were set for Jan. 28-30 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Arts in downtown Miami.
For more information, go to www.clevelandorchestramiami.com.
Johnny Maestro and The Brooklyn Bridge.Johnny Maestro cancels Maltz appearance, but show will go on
Johnny Maestro has fallen ill, but his best buddies are filling in Monday night at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter.
Maestro had been scheduled to sing at 7:30 p.m. Monday, but illness will keep him off the stage, officials said. In his place, doo-wop colleagues Joey Dee of Joey Dee & the Starlighters, Frank Mancuso of The Imaginations, Steve Horn of The Five Sharks, Anthony Passalacqua of the Fascinators and Tommy Mara of The Crests will perform a tribute concert to honor Maestro.
The Crests was the group for whom Johnny Maestro sang lead before forming his own group, The Brooklyn Bridge. With The Crests, he was perhaps best known for his lead vocal on the 1958 hit Sixteen Candles.
Maestro’s friends will be singing hits made popular by the Crests and Brooklyn Bridge, including Step by Step and The Worst That Could Happen, as well as some of their own hits.
Current Johnny Maestro ticket holders may exchange their tickets for identical tickets to the tribute concert, or receive a refund. Patrons who purchased a $75 meet-and-greet ticket will receive a refund of the $20 surcharge, but will still be invited to meet the performers of the All-Star Doo-Wop Night.
To exchange tickets or for more information, call 561-575-2223 or 800-445-1666.
— Compiled by Skip Sheffield and Greg Stepanich