Seoul is the bustling capital city of South Korea and an excellent gateway city to the rest of South Korea and Asia. The techie, prosperous city has been called “The Miracle on the Han River” due to its transformation from the destruction caused during the Korean War to a thriving city. These are my favorite things to do in Seoul.
Drummer Dafnis Prieto, a native of Cuba, brings his percussive virtuosity and Latin jazz So o Si Quartet to SUNY Oswego’s Hewitt Union ballroom at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23. Since his arrival in New York 15 years ago, the two-time Grammy nominee and MacArthur Fellow has gained an international following as an innovative jazz instrumentalist and composer. Prieto has released five albums and created music for dance, film and his own bands. He is best known for the high energy of his live performances.
The season opener for SUNY Oswego’s Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series will feature an evening of Johannes Brahms and a return to Central New York for violinist Jeremy Mastrangelo at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17, in Sheldon Hall ballroom. Mastrangelo, a Syracuse native and associate concertmaster with the now-dissolved Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, will offer the three violin sonatas of Brahms, according to Mastrangelo’s host, pianist Juan F. La Manna of the SUNY Oswego music department, who will offer a preconcert talk at 7 that evening.
SUNY Oswego’s Ke-Nekt Chamber Music Series this season will offer star power and a wide array of instrumentalists and styles, including classically trained musicians who cover Radiohead and Led Zeppelin, a renowned much-studied trumpeter/composer, a homegrown orchestral violinist and a respected bassoonist. All performances in the Ke-Nekt series will take place at 7:30 p.m. on selected Wednesdays in Sheldon Hall ballroom. Each event’s host will deliver a preconcert talk at 7.
Whenever John and I visit a new area we check to see if they have free tours, Global Greeters, culinary experiences and/or chocolate tours. While the culinary experience and chocolate tours are not free they add an interesting facet to our travels. When we were in Boston we signed up for the Back Bay Chocolate tour offered by Boston Chocolate Tours, (www.bostonchocolatetours.com). It is just one of their tours. They also offer shopping that includes chocolate stops and cupcake tours. It is all yummy.
Four local veteran actors are being prepared by director Sherri Metz for the upcoming production of the farce, “Who’s On First?” The play will be presented in the Frances Marion Brown Theater in the Arts Center at Fort Ontario September 12, 13, 19-21. Metz, who directed such recent hits as “Don’t Drink The Water” and “Caught In The Net” selected Peter Mahan, Julia Preston-Fulton, Knathan MacKenzie-Roy and Tammy Lynn Wilkinson for the on-stage performers.
Cast members of the upcoming Oswego Players’ production of Jack Sharkey’s comedy, “Who’s On First” rehearse a scene of the play. The play, directed by Sherri Metz, will be performed on the stage of the Frances Marion Brown Theater in the Arts Center at Fort Ontario on Sept. 12, 13, 19 and 20 with a matinee on Sept. 21.
It is so easy to drive by places day after day and not notice what is along the way. In my case it was the 1812 Peace Garden on Oswego’s Leotta-Seaway Trail Park. I knew about the War of 1812 Bicentennial Peace Garden Trail because when John and I were in Batavia we visited theirs. It is only right that there is one in Oswego where so many significant events of the “Forgotten War” took place. Oswego’s was developed in 2003 by City Engineer Anthony a. Loetta, the Jay Saternow family and several community volunteers.
SUNY Oswego music faculty member and concert pianist Robert Auler has joined forces with composer and friend Jonathan Pieslak to publish “Shards,” a collection of piano solos featuring widely divergent influences. Auler, who has taught at Oswego for 11 years — and whose global performance career added China and South Africa in just the last year — met Pieslak in graduate school at the University of Michigan.
Global Greeter Network, www.globalgreeternetwork.info, is a wonderful way to find a free person-to-person tour. Greeters are volunteers who love their city so much they volunteer to give free two-hour tours. They take visitors to parks, shopping, or lesser known neighborhoods. Greeters are not professional guides, so greeters do not take their guests to museums leaving that to professional guides.
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