WXEL radio becomes WPBI with close of sale to APM
FORT LAUDERDALE – Classical South Florida, the American Public Media radio subsidiary, said it has completed the purchase of WXEL-90.7 FM.
The Boynton Beach-based radio station’s new call letters are WPBI. The Minneapolis-based company bought WXEL radio last year from Barry University in Miami Shores for about $4 million. The Federal Communications Commission approved the license transfer in May.
“This is an exciting day for public radio listeners across South Florida,” said Doug Evans, Classical South Florida’s general manager and president, in a news release. “We’re excited about the opportunity to serve the Palm Beaches and the Treasure Coast with high-quality public radio programming, and to strengthen the reach and quality of public radio throughout South Florida.”
Classical South Florida also operates WKCP-89.7 in Miami, which broadcasts classical music 24 hours a day. The buyout of WXEL was opposed by some members of the community who were concerned that the takeover would mean the elimination of the station’s local programming.
WPBI’s broadcast lineup retains its pre-transfer schedule of local shows, including Classical Variations with Joanna Marie; Listening to Movies (with Caroline Breder-Watts); South Florida Artsview; Jazz Impressions (with Stu Grant); and Florida Forum (with Ann Bocock).
Boca Museum’s 60th all-juried show set for June 29
BOCA RATON — The Boca Raton Museum of Art’s annual all-juried competition will open June 29 and last through Sept. 11, museum officials said.
As the state’s oldest annual juried competition, the exhibition reinforces the museum’s commitment to Florida artists and has introduced the work of thousands of emerging, under recognized, and well-established young and mid-career Florida artists working in all media.
The exhibition features 101 paintings, sculpture, photography, video, and installations. More than 1,800 artworks by 600 artists were submitted for consideration.
The juror for the 60th Annual All-Florida Exhibition is Valerie Ann Leeds, adjunct curator of American art at the Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Mich. She has also has held curatorial positions at the Orlando Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Leeds is an expert on the work of Robert Henri, a leading figure in the early 20th-century American art movement known as the Ashcan School.
Museum hours are: Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The first Wednesday of every month sees extended museum hours of 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Master Chorale names Towson’s Karen Kennedy as director
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Master Chorale of South Florida has named a new artistic director for its ninth season.
Karen Kennedy, an associate professor and director of choral activities at Towson University in suburban Baltimore, will succeed Joshua Habermann as leader of the 80-member community chorus. Habermann left the choir earlier this year to become director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus.
In addition to her work at Towson, Kennedy has worked extensively in Hawaii. She spent six years in Honolulu, serving as associate professor and director of choral activities at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. For four years, she served as director of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus. She holds a doctorate in choral conducting from Arizona State University.
The chorale also named Jeffery Stern its associate conductor. Stern is a third-year doctoral student and teaching assistant at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where he conducts the university men’s chorus, Maelstrom. Stern earned a master’s in music at the University of Minnesota in 2009.
Matthew Steynor, director of music at Trinity Cathedral in Miami, will return as the group’s rehearsal accompanist, the chorale said. The British-born Steynor has been the choir’s accompanist since the 2007-08 season.
The chorale’s upcoming season will include three performances of J.S. Bach’s Magnificat on a holiday-themed program (Nov. 18-20), accompanied by the Miami Symphony Orchestra.
For more information or to volunteer, please contact Nancy Gates-Lee at 954-770-2805.
PB Opera’s Aprea signs on through 2013-14 season
WEST PALM BEACH – Palm Beach Opera has renewed the contract of Artistic Director Bruno Aprea through the 2013-2014 season.
Aprea, 69, has served as maestro for the Palm Beach Opera since the beginning of the 2005-06 season, and has conducted more than 20 productions with the company.
“The Palm Beach audience is a cultivated audience that desires, justly, something much more than ordinary, pleasant entertainment,” Aprea said in a news release. “Next season will surely maintain the same level as the last.”
Aprea began his musical career as a pianist after studying under his father, Tito Aprea, at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in his native Rome. His work has taken him all over Europe, South America, South Africa and Israel. In 1977, he won the Koussevitzky Prize at the Tanglewood Festival, making him the second Italian conductor after Claudio Abbado in 1958 to win it.
Palm Beach Opera was founded in 1961 and will mark its 50th anniversary season at the Kravis Center beginning Dec. 16 with a production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, one of the most popular operas in the world. Also on tap are Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette from Feb. 24-27, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor from March 23-26, and two gala 50th-anniversary concerts of operatic selections on Jan. 20 and 22.
Flagler Museum gets federal grant for furniture survey
PALM BEACH — The Flagler Museum has received a $42,800 conservation project support grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the primary source of federal support for the nation’s museums and libraries.
The funding will be used toward conducting a detailed furniture conservation survey of the more than 400 objects in the museum’s furniture collection. This survey will serve as an important planning tool in organizing conservation treatments and priorities, evaluating needed resources, and developing public exhibits.
The objects in the collection, ranging from the 1600s to the 1920s, are primarily wood and original to Whitehall or to the Flagler family. The survey will be conducted by F. Carey Howlett, a conservator and consultant with 35 years of experience. Howlett has served as the director of conservation for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and has led projects at Westover Plantation, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The Flagler Museum, once Henry Flagler’s Gilded Age Whitehall estate, was completed in 1902, and is a National Historic Landmark open to the public. The museum, which sees over 90,000 visitors annually, features guided tours, changing exhibits, and special programs. For information on hours and admission, please call the Flagler Museum at (561) 655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us.
Delray’s Arts Garage hosts ceramics exhibit
DELRAY BEACH – The Creative City Collaborative’s new Arts Garage has added an exhibit of ceramic art that will run through July 30.
Clay from Earth, hosted by guest curator Jeff Whyman, features the work of 13 artists in ceramics, including Jim Leedy, who has been regarded as the first abstract expressionist ceramist.
Leedy was chosen to represent the United States in museum exhibitions during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. “In the last 50 years, ceramics have catapulted from craft to the fine art world,” Leedy said in a news release. “The movement over the last 20 years has been tremendous.”
The Collaborative is a nonprofit organization created to build the cultural infrastructure that celebrates Delray Beach as a “creative, authentic, and intimate city.” For more information about Creative City Collaborative, including hours and admission, contact Calisha Anderson: calisha@delraybeacharts.org, or visit www.delraybeacharts.org.
FAU shows featured as part of Boca’s July Fourth celebration
BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic University and the city of Boca Raton will collaborate on a special Independence Day celebration on July 4.
The festivities will begin at 4 p.m. on the Fourth (a Monday) with a special staging of the musical comedy The 1940’s Radio Hour in the University Theatre on FAU’s Boca Raton campus. At 6 p.m., family activities and games will be held in the fields just east of the University Theatre, followed at 7:30 p.m. with a concert of patriotic music by the Florida Wind Symphony, directed by Kyle Prescott.
Fireworks begin at 9 p.m.
The 1940’s Radio Hour, presented by FAU’s dance and theater department, will be performed by professional actors and FAU graduate students. The show is a behind-the-scenes look at a New York City radio station and its entertainers during Christmas 1942. The music includes period favorites such as Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy and Strike Up the Band.
Tickets for the revue are $20, and admission to the other events is free. There will be free parking and food vendors on site. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and chairs for their own comfort. For more information on the fireworks or other festivities, visit http://ci.boca-raton.fl.us/rec/specialevents, or call 561- 393-7806.
— Briefs compiled by Katherine Concepcion and Greg Stepanich