Hello Everyone and a Happy Spring to all!

 

A few updates about our 2008 season.

 

1.       MAY CONCERT: “HEALING FOR THE NATIONS”.  As you know it is on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 8:00 pm at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC (www.nationalshrine.com).  Screen Actor Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters” and “Congo”) will participate as Narrator (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001368/).  Bill Kurtis of A&E, who has hosted our programs before, including last September 11, has confirmed as cohost.  Miss America 2000 Heather French Henry, although not definitely confirmed, will probably also serve again as cohost.  Our own hero Adrian Cronauer will serve as announcer and participate in the narrations.  Also narrating are several members of Congress.  Since my last update, more Ambassadors have joined our Honorary Committee.  That Committee now includes the Ambassadors of: Austria, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Oman, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the Vatican, and Yemen.  The Papal Nuncio to the USA chairs the Ambassadors’ Committee.

Our Congressional Sponsors include House Majority Leader Congressman Steny Hoyer, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Joseph Biden, Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Congressman Bob Filner, and Chair of the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

The Basilica is huge and seats 5,000.  Last September we had 1,000 in the audience.  So, our publicity work is cut out for us!  It is led by the indefatigable and gifted Sharon Hodges who also designed our concert flier attached.  Please feel free to use it in spreading the word amongst your friends, and particularly, your professional colleagues and organizations in DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia.  I am reminded of the vigorous work of Gwendolyn Kurtz, RN (Soprano).  Gwen sent emails and letters about our Patriot Day concert last September to many nursing organizations and medical centers.  It brought forth fruit and contributed to the turnout.  This is a great example for many other professions amongst us.  You may Google your Social Work, Dental, Psychology, etc., etc., Associations in the DC area and contact them.  Sharon recommends that you always call in advance and indentify a POC (Point of Contact).  Then address your message to that person and follow up with them.  If you want, you may copy VA-NMMG at vanmmg@hotmail.com for additional support and assistance in follow up. 

Admission to the concert is free.  Early arrival is highly recommended since the concert is taped for broadcast.  We will have a fabulous Preconcert program starting at 7:00 pm. 

2.       MAY REPERTOIRE.  Finalizing it was a balancing act.  We address the patriotic occasion, in addition to global brotherhood and sisterhood.  The audience is expected to reflect these two dimensions.  We will hopefully have our veterans-military audience.  In addition, however, there is the international population from the various embassies and their expatriate communities.

Another factor is that the program is shorter than usual.  We start at 8:00 pm, in order to allow time for participants in the American College of Physicians to attend.  Their main meeting begins the next morning (Thursday) and some will arrive Wednesday night and come to our performance.  We want to give them time to take the commuter buses from their hotels for transportation to the concert.

An additional consideration was whether or not to include music from the respective countries represented.  Initially, we wanted to perform selections from each of the nations included in our Ambassadors’ Committee.  Eventually however, it became clear that the evening would not accommodate that – we now have 15 nations.  Since the focus is on Middle East Peace, we ended up using two songs representing the major players in that region: “Hava Nagila” (Israel) and “Bilady” from Egypt.

The program starts with “Alle Menschen Werden Brüder” from Beethoven ‘s 9^th.  Don’t worry, it is not the original – and not in German.  We have a very simple but beautiful English language arrangement “Hymn to Joy” that we performed in our overseas concerts.  We proceed to the First Movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Both pieces are universally acclaimed and so we’ll not worry about playing national pieces.  Of course, we have just played the 5^th in November.  We proceed to Thomas Jefferson’s “The God Who Gave Us Life” – not only an American ideal, but indeed a universal one.  We then play the collage of beautiful tunes that we performed a couple of years ago.  I won’t bore you more with the thought process but you can see the progress of the program below.  It all culminates in a sing along of the beautiful “Let There Be Peace on Earth” with children of US military personnel and veterans, as well as of foreign diplomats waving the flags of their nations. 

 

REPERTOIRE IN PERFORMANCE ORDER

 

		CHORUS	ORCHESTRA
1	National Anthem	-	+
2	Hymn to Joy (Beethoven arr. Henderson)	+	+
3	Fifth Symphony -- First Movement (Beethoven)	-	+
4	God Who Gave Us Life (Jefferson/Thompson)	+	+
5	Skaters Waltz (Waldteufel) (Melody theme only)	-	+
6	Barinkay's Aria (Als Flotter Geist ) (Strauss)	+	+
7	Poliushko Polie (Meadowlands) (arr. Knipper)	+	+
8	Duet from Merry Widow (Lehar)	-	+
9	Tahiti Trot (Tea for Two) (Shostakovich)	+	+
10	Beautiful Blue Danube (Strauss) (Melody theme)	-	+
11	This Is the Moment (Wildhorn and Bricusse)	+	+
12	Hava Nagila (arr. Beckhard)	+	+
13	Bilady (arr. W. Wahby)	+	+
14	1812 Overture Finale (Tchaikovsky)	-	+
15	Battle Hymn of the Republic (arr. Wilhousky)	+	+
16	Oh What a Beautiful Morning Finale (Rogers & Hammerstein)	+	+
17	Armed Forces Medley (arr. DoD)	+	+
18	Veterans Hymn “Welcome Home” (Wahby)	+	+
19	Grand Old Flag (Cohan)	+	+
20	Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa)	-	+
21	Let There Be Peace on Earth (arr. Ades)	+	+

 

Music will be sent out soon.  A Music Inventory Form is available on our website www.medicalmusical.org, click on “Music Request”.  You can fill it out and email it from there or print it and fax to 703-931-1573.  For questions contact:
CHORUS: Helen Camper, email: clovemusic@aol.com.
ORCHESTRA: Lisa Phinney, email: pyttipanna@comcast.net.

 

3.       PRECONCERT.  Trying to finalize the Preconcert repertoire.  Would those of you who have items to perform at the Preconcert please send me the titles, duration and any specific requirements?  If you have already proposed an item, please confirm – just to ensure we don’t miss anyone.  Please understand that there are numerous factors that determine the Preconcert program.  

4.       MAY HOTEL. The Crystal City Hilton (www.crystalcitynationalairport.hilton.com).  For reservations: Call 1-800-HILTONS (1-800-445-8667) and identify yourself as a member of VA-National Medical Musical Group.  For online reservations: www.crystalcitynationalairport.hilton.com, use MMG as Group/Convention Code.  Our rate applies May 9 through 16, 2008.  Reservations deadline is April 9 – MAKE YOUR RESERVATION NOW!  Once our room block is filled, the rate reverts to the normal non-discounted rate.  If you would like to have us try to match you up with a roommate, please send an email to Lisa Phinney at pyttipanna@comcast.net.  Remember that you must be duly registered as a VA-NMMG member for 2008 in order to obtain our rate at the hotel.

5.       MAY REHEARSAL SCHEDULE.

• SATURDAY, MAY 10: 2:00 – 5:00; 7:00 - 10:00 pm at the Hilton Crystal City, 2399 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, VA, Tel: 703-418-6800.  Close to the Crystal City Metro Stop on the Blue/Yellow line.  Our rate for parking at the Hilton is $9.00/day, a 50% discount.
• SUNDAY, MAY 11: 2:00 - 5:00 pm and 7:00 - 10:00 pm at the Hilton.
• MONDAY, MAY 12: 7:00 - 10:00 pm at the Hilton.
• TUESDAY, MAY 13: 7:00 pm. Dress Rehearsal (casual dress) at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan Ave., NE, Washington, DC, 202-526-8300, www.nationalshrine.com.  Free parking at the Basilica, or you may use our group bus transportation from the Hilton departing at 5:30 pm (Sorry, there is a charge!  See below). If you wish to use Subway Metro transportation to the Basilica, the stop is Brookland-Catholic University on the Red line.
• WEDNESDAY, MAY 14: 7:00 pm PRECONCERT, and 8:00 pm CONCERT at the National Shrine.  Buses depart the hotel 5:30 pm.  Bus charge: $20 – it is subsidized by VA-NMMG.  This charge covers all four trips Tuesday and Wednesday.  
• POST CONCERT BANQUET: To be announced.
  
  

6.       OVERSEAS TOUR “BEAUTIFUL BALKANS 2008”.  The package is ready and reservations open this Friday, March 28.  The trip is to Croatia, with optional excursions to Montenegro and Slovenia.  We modeled the trip after the successful Greece design – the basic trip anchored in a good hotel in a major city, with multiple day trips and excursions from there.  Our city for the Basic Tour (November 3 – 10) is Dubrovnik, Croatia (http://wikitravel.org/en/Dubrovnik).  Our hotel in Dubrovnik is the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik.  It is a 5-star hotel with excellent location and amenities (http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/DBVHIHI-Hilton-Imperial-Dubrovnik/index.do). Optional Excursions include Montenegro, Medugorje and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina and more.

The Optional Extension (November 10-13) is to another city, Zagreb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb), also in Croatia – again with Optional Excursions from there, including Slovenia.  Our Zagreb hotel is the 4-star Palace Hotel (http://www.palace.hr/eng/index.html).

I am following up with the trip brochure.  Please review it, and you will se that we have made every effort to plan the absolute best amenities for the most cost effective price.  Note that there is a significant Early Bird Discount of $110 per person, if you register by May 3, 2008.  Also if you register a new traveler who has never been with us previously, you earn a free Optional Excursion of your choice per new traveler, as long as space is available on that particular Excursion.

7.       2008 REGISTRATIONS. I invite you to register for the 2008 season.  Registrations are good for one calendar year, and you must be duly registered in order to qualify for the concerts, hotels, trips, etc.  As you probably know, we have kept our registration fee low at $75.00 for lo these many years despite inflation and rapidly escalating expenses.  However, I would encourage all to continue to be as generous as you can – and have been – in contributing to VA-NMMG, over and above that Registration fee.  Thank you all who made contributions!  Donations are tax deductible – see the updated categories on the Registration Form.  For registrations using a credit card, go to our secure site www.medicalmusical.org, click on “Join” and “Donate”.  You may also print the form posted on the website and mail it with your check to VA-NMMG, 1627 Preston Road, Alexandria, VA 22302.  Please do not use the Washington, DC, address.   

8.       NON COMMISSIONED OFFICERS ASSOCIATION “AMERICAN PATRIOT” AWARD.   At a standing room only ceremony at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 6, NCOA gave VA-NMMG one of its prestigious 2008 American Patriot Awards.   NCOA Executive Director Richard Schneider delivered the citation, offering abundant praise to VA-NMMG for its patriotism and service to America’s military and veterans over the years.  Gene Overstreet, NCOA President offered wonderful acclaim and presented us a beautiful plaque. There were many military and veterans leaders and personnel in the warm and enthusiastic audience.  I gratefully accepted the award in your name and expressed heartfelt appreciation for that outstanding recognition. Their award is only the most recent link in a long and illustrious chain of NCOA’s support of VA-NMMG over the years, and we are very thankful.  We will post the plaque and pictures of the event on our website. 

Incidentally, NCOA also offers a splendid “Medallion of Honor and Remembrance” for WWII Veterans.  If any member of your family is one of the Greatest Generation, please let us know.  We will forward their names to NCOA so that they would receive that Medallion.  Incidentally, see the NCOA articles about their medallion and also about our 9/11 concert on www.medicalmusical.org, click on “Reviews”.

9.       Star Marie Anderson (Soprano) is a multitalented person – a Nurse Anesthetist who is also a financial advisor, amongst many other things.  Star Marie has helped raise sizeable funds for her local symphony orchestra in Minneapolis.  She has provided an outstanding and very informative piece on “How to Maximize Your Gift.  Minimize Your Taxes.”  It helps all of us who want to contribute to charitable organizations such as VA-NMMG.  I am going to share Star Marie’s article with you in our next update.  Thank you Star Marie!

 

10.   PERSONALIA.

a.             Frugoli ”Products” of VA-NMMG.  Al (Bass) and Heather (Horn) Frugoli shared pictures of their lovely children Connor and Aisling.  We consider the Frugoli children the next generation of VA-NMMG!  See the beautiful pictures at http://bp3.blogger.com/_S-5goot9DPw/RsnoUXejOLI/AAAAAAAAAI0/FbEJPNBgPic/s1600-h/IMG_0930.JPG.  Al and Heather: Take good care of these precious gifts and bring them soon to sing or play with us!  Al and Heather’s email is c/o Grandma Susan (Tenor): sfrugoli@verizon.net.

b.             Dr. Jacob Lozada (VA-NMMG Board) has been elected to two strategic positions.  First, to the National Board of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) (www.aarp.org).   Also, as President of the Association of University of Puerto Rico Alumni and Friends Abroad (UPRAA) (www.upraa.org).  Dr. Lozada is a graduate of the U of Puerto Rico where he was awarded a BA in science.  He has also been awarded a MA degree in Health Administration from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in education from Walden University.  Dr. Lozada served in the U.S. Army Medical Department retiring with the rank of Colonel.  After a successful military career, he served in the private sector as a Principal and an International Managing Consultant providing a wide array of management consulting services in the U.S. and Latin America.  Jake was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 24, 2001, following his nomination by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary at the Department of Veterans Affair (VA).  After his assignment at VA, he was appointed to serve as Special Assistant for Diversity Strategy to the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).  Congratulations Jake for two well deserved honors and opportunities to serve and contribute even more!  We are very proud to have you serve on VA-NMMG Board and also chair the Committee for our May Concert.  Dr. Lozada’s email is prjake44@verizon.net. 

c.             Ellis Island Medal of Honor.  I, your humble correspondent, have been awarded a 2008 Ellis Island Medal of Honor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island_Medal_of_Honor).  When I reviewed the names of other awardees over the years, I thought there must be a mistake!  At any rate, I am humbled and very gratified by this honor.  A higher prize for me, however, is to be one of VA-NMMG’s members and workers.  It is a privilege and a delight to partner with every one of you in sharing our “Music with a Message” with fellow citizens and, also, with people of many other nations overseas. 

Now, in our May concert, we will do that right here at home.  God bless you all.

 

 

 

 

Dick Schneider, NCOA Executive Director presents a 2008 NCOA Patriot Award to VA-NMMG.

 

 

We will post the NCOA’s plaque on our website soon.