The mother-and-child theme has been part of Ann Agee’s art going back to a 1999 porcelain figure recently revived for the Rena Bransten Gallery’s RBG at 50-Focus on Ceramics exhibition in San Francisco. She’s frequently returned to the form, but recently Agee has taken a different approach, making Madonnas with a feminist touch.
“Madonna of the Girl Child” has grown into a significant body of work, and on March 7 the Currier Museum will begin showing five of the largest figures from it. Also on display at the exhibition, running through June 5, are two relief works done in porcelain, welded steel and epoxy resin, “Offering Madonna” and “Donatello Riff Madonna.”
In a recent phone interview Agee said she made the first piece out of curiosity in 2019, then a few more to fight a bout of altitude sickness. Occasionally she’d ask herself why she was focusing on religious icons. It was, she decided, a good way to look at and comment on their inherent oppression.
As she walked through churches on a trip to Italy, the clash between depictions of violence like the crucifixion and the gentle nature of the Madonna got her thinking.
“So many horrific things that were the guides to how to live your life … don’t do that, watch out for this,” she said. “Then you see the Madonna, and it’s … have a child, and everything is peaceful.”
Amidst this warmth and maternal comfort, however, something stark stood out to Agee.
“It’s always a boy child,” she said. “I wanted for myself a Madonna that held a girl child and publicly showed the interest that a mother could have in her. That this child, this girl, could deserve your hopes and dreams in the same way that your boy child could. Slowly, it became a little bit of a campaign.”
The upcoming Currier display is a departure for Agee, who usually displays her Madonnas in groups of mixed sizes. It will be held in the Manchester museum’s Welcome Gallery, which is a space between other spaces.
“There’s a sprawling staircase, it spreads out to both sides, and there are banisters of a different material,” she said. “I decided to keep it really simple, and have the work stand up to all that’s architecturally going on in that room, and the movement of people coming and going.”
The five pieces are the largest ones she’s done, Agee said.
“I’ve enjoyed slowly learning how to make things bigger,” she said. “Last summer I was sitting on someone’s deck and looking out into this grass and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to just have a big red figure in the grass there?’ So I made one in red, and then I made one in pink.”
She was further inspired by a trip to Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy. “I was looking at all the white marble sculptures that are in the garden there. They’re not really that big, but they’re one color. There’s all this stuff around them, and they hold their form. That’s basically the shift in these Madonnas, they’re big and they’re a solid color.”
The works, however, further Agee’s “campaign” for a feminist reinterpretation of religious iconography. More than a simple exploration of motherhood, “Madonna of the Girl Child” is a critical commentary on the way these traditional symbols have reinforced gender roles. Agee’s art usurps an image steeped in patriarchal culture.
This shift is a deliberate act of reclaiming this symbol for women. Agee wanted to present a vision where a mother could hold and nurture a girl child with the same devotion and aspirations traditionally reserved for sons. In this new context, the Madonna figure becomes a symbol not just of motherhood but of equality.
Ann Agee: Madonna of the Girl Child When: Friday, March 7, through Thursday, June 5 Where: Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester More: annageestudio.com
Featured photo: “Offering Madonna” by Ann Agee. Courtesy photo.
The N.H. Secretary of State’s office has a “New Hampshire Town Meeting Voter’s Guide” on its website, sos.nh.gov, which explains the basics of town meeting and town elections including what to bring to the polls to register to vote on site on Election Day, which is Tuesday, March 11, for many area towns. The site also explains updates to voter registration requirements which no longer allow applicants to complete affidavits to prove qualifications to vote; to register, applicants must bring proof of identity, citizenship and residence, the website said.
Exploring the trades
The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance is accepting applications through March 14 for the second week of its Career Exploration program, which runs during April school vacation, Monday, April 28, through Friday, May 2, for ages 16 to 21, according to an Alliance newsletter about the program. The program has locations in central New Hampshire (including Canterbury, Andover and Warner) and the Seacoast, the newsletter said. The program offers applicants exposure to historic preservation activities including traditional construction techniques, wood window restoration and more with mentors who are focused on these specific trades, the newsletter said. See nhpreservation.org/internship-program.
Poetry finals
High schoolers competing in the statewide 2025 Poetry Out Loud program will attend the finals at Representatives Hall at the Statehouse in Concord on Friday, March 14. The 11 participants, who have each memorized a poem for recitation, will compete for a spot at the national championships in Washington, D.C., in May, according to a press release. The competition begins at 5 p.m. and is open to the public and livestreamed on the N.H. State Council on the Arts’ Facebook page, the release said. See nharts.dncr.nh.gov/programs/poetry-out-loud. The finalists include Deepsun Adhikari of The Derryfield School in Manchester; Summer Brackett of Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, Susanna Hill of Nashua High School South and D’Aleczandria Johnson of Hopkinton High School, the release said.
Nature on Zoom
The NH Audubon will present “Butterflying New Hampshire’s Woodlands” via Zoom on Wednesday, March 12, at 6:30 p.m. with Levi Burford, Errol Count Circle Coordinator, to discuss the species of butterflies that live in the state’s woodlands. The NH Audubon will also host a nature book club the second Thursday of each month starting in March with The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer for the session on Thursday, March 13, at 6 p.m. Both events are free but require registration at nhaudubon.org.
Friday, March 7, is the final day to buy tickets for the Red River Theatres Oscar After Party Trivia Night Fundraiser, which will take place Friday, March 14, 5:30 p.m., at Pembroke Pines Country Club in Pembroke. Tickets cost $125 per person for the evening of food, music, movie trivia and more. See redrivertheatres.org.
Goffstown Public Library will present The Human Library on Sunday, March 9, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. The event features people who serve as “Books” to discuss their experiences with adversity due to race, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, culture, profession and/or lifestyle, according to a library press release. See humanlibrary.org for more about the concept, which was “conceived in 2000 by a Danish youth organization,” the release said. The event concludes the library’s 2025 Community Conversation Series, the release said; see goffstownlibrary.com/communityconversations.
Save the date: According to nhmapleproducers.com, New Hampshire Maple Weekend, when sugar houses open their doors to the public for tours, samples and more, is slated for Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16. Peterson Sugar House in Londonderry, for example, will be open those days from noon to 4 p.m. with samples of ice cream with maple drizzle and more, according to a press release. See the NH Maple Producers website for other participating sugarhouses.
The Milford Garden Club will have a program on “Automatic Plant Watering Systems” with Richard B. Kahn of Kahn Landscaping on Monday, March 10, at 10:30 a.m. at First Congregational Church Parish House, 10 Union St. in Milford.
A look at Symphony NH as its music director prepares to pass the baton
Though it doesn’t take cues from the movie Conclave, the process of finding a successor to Roger Kalia, Music Director of Symphony NH, is similar in spirit.
“You’re really looking for someone who is the face of the organization,” search consultant Nick Adams said recently. “How they interact with a whole host of fairly disparate groups of people … you want to have a system that allows you to see that person in these different environments.”
Kalia announced his departure in early 2024. When the final notes of Aaron Copland’s American Symphony fade at his last concert on May 10 at Concord’s Capitol Center for the Arts, the maestro will have spent six years leading the state’s largest orchestra. By then, four or five potential new conductors will be finalized.
What happens next is an interesting twist on filling an outgoing leadership role. Each candidate will have an opportunity to perform for the classical music community over the course of the 2025-26 concert season. At the end, one will become Symphony NH Music Director.
Adams, who served as Operations Manager at Symphony NH from 2007 to 2014 and now heads the Boston-based Cantata Singers along with his search efforts, believes the season-long audition is the best way for a community to choose a potential conductor. They’ve considered 10 candidates thus far.
“What we were looking for is are they able to take an art form that’s hundreds of years old and program it in a way that … speaks to people who already know the language of classical music and orchestras, but also package it and involve composers and other music in a way that might bring new 21st-century audiences in.”
Symphony NH Executive Director Deanna Hoying values this long hello as a way to see how potential Music Directors will bond with the orchestra. To that end, the search committee will attend rehearsals to evaluate chemistry between them and the candidate.
“You want to know how these folks work with the musicians,” she said by phone in late February. “Are they efficient in how they use the time that they have? How do they work with our librarian? Watching how they work, how they treat people in that environment is really important, because our musicians are our most valuable asset. Many of them have been with us for decades.”
The selection process that culminated in 2019 was the result of a national search for a Music Director. Kalia lives in Evansville, Indiana, where he leads that city’s orchestra, and traveled to Nashua for his work there. The current effort is focused on finding a candidate based in the region.
Deanna Hoying. Courtesy photo.
“Working with a Music Director who doesn’t live here; I think one of the things they realized is the value of having them be a little bit closer is, one, you just get to see them more, and that helps a lot,” Hoying said. “People have connections to these artists.”
They began with an element of uncertainty, wondering if they could attract enough candidates, and they built safeguards into the process in case they needed to expand at some point.
“We felt like, ‘let’s start with what we actually want, which is somebody within a two-hour drive of New Hampshire,” Hoying said, adding the net would widen “if we felt that we didn’t have enough in the pool.”
Fortunately, she continued, “We had so much wealth of talent that we didn’t need to do that. What blew us all away was that we had so many incredibly talented people who are local … because you don’t know until you throw the net out what you’re going to get.”
Kalia and Hoying came to Symphony NH in the same year. After moving to Manchester from Louisville, where she worked with their orchestra, Hoying reached out to then director Mark Thayer to offer her services. She started as a grant writer in the spring. Kalia began his tenure that fall.
When the pandemic arrived, the organization turned from celebrating a new leader to wondering how it could survive.
“Roger started and didn’t even get through his first season, dear guy,” Hoying said. “In spring, it’s like, ‘Guess what? We’re going to have to pivot.’ He and I talked about pivoting a lot and we did it a lot as more information became available. We got through Covid; we did the livestream shows.”
Emerging from months of virtual programming, there were still plenty of restrictions to address.
“Everything was changing, sometimes very rapidly, and we were always having to respond,” Hoying recalled. “What’s everybody feeling now; how is this going to work? We knew there might be a percentage of our pre-Covid audience who may never come back.”
During that time, Thayer left to work for the symphony in Elgin, Illinois. He recommended Hoying, whose role had expanded into development, as his replacement. She accepted, but asked to begin as Interim Executive Director. “I wanted the board to feel like they had some agency, and to make sure they were comfortable with me,” she said. “And that I, in all honesty, was comfortable doing the job. I mean, this is a big job.”
The upcoming 2022-2023 season marking Symphony NH’s centennial year was an immediate challenge as she moved into her permanent position. “Covid really upended planning, but we were able to put together a season that really celebrated, as we called it, looking back.”
This included longtime partner organization the Nashua Choral Society performing Mozart’s Requiem with the local Nashoba Valley Chorale.“We looked to our past for inspiration,” she recalled. “We celebrated the hundredth at the brand-new Nashua Center for the Arts, which was lovely. We were one of the first shows; I think they had been open all of three weeks.”
That connection with Nashua’s newest venue became more critical with the closing of Keefe Auditorium, the site for many concerts in the past. In an interview last fall, Roger Kalia spoke of the challenges presented by losing the Keefe and its larger stage, while at the same time praising the Nashua Center.
“We had a dedicated audience at the Keefe, and that is a little bit challenging in the sense that we’re going to miss that,” he said. The new venue, Kalia added, “is acoustically really good, and close to the audience, in the sense that the seats are very close to the stage. It’s intimate music-making, and I really enjoy that.”
Symphony NH. Courtesy photo.
He went on to say that while the Keefe was the state’s largest auditorium, its 1,400 seats were sometimes hard to fill. “The Nashua Center has 700, and every seat is essentially filled. As a musician, you enjoy that, when you see a full audience sitting there.”
The relationship will continue when the Symphony NH Brass Ensemble is among the performers gathering to celebrate the center’s second anniversary on Tuesday, April 1. The Nashua Community Music School String Ensemble, Ukestra, Ruby Shabazz, Y Dance in Motion, Peacock Players and Actorsingers will also appear.
A statewide entity — the name was changed from Nashua Symphony Orchestra in 2012 — Symphony NH has expanded its reach in recent years, with multiple concerts in Concord, Derry and Manchester, in addition to Nashua’s St. Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, where the annual Holiday Brass concert was held last December.
All parties in the search expressed that finding a Music Director who lives in the community comes with an underlying priority: selecting a candidate who will also be of the community. Nick Adams recalled a search committee member telling him that one of their evaluation metrics is, “Would I like to have a bagel and coffee with this person at the corner cafe? They’ll tell me about their musical selections and what inspires them. It’s an excellent way to think about it.”
Hoying concurred, saying, “there are definitely a lot of elements to this job, and Music Director is equal parts being on stage and working with the musicians and then really having that presence in the community … when they go into a local coffee shop, people know who they are.”
Part of classical music’s enduring nature comes from centuries of maestros reinterpreting important works, she continued, citing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as an example. “Everybody brings their own take to it, so I think that’s where you want to kind of generate that interest and this level of approachability. You’ve got to be able to connect with your audiences. Otherwise … that’s where I think you miss the mark.”
Further, she continued, “What I look for in a candidate is someone that’s got a very clear vision of what an orchestra can be in the 21st century, knowing that we do still have a lot of challenges. We are still competing with inflation and content on streaming services and all those things that keep people from coming out. What is the vision of the orchestra in the future, and how do we welcome everyone to our family, to our concerts?”
The committee hopes to choose finalists soon.
“Our current field of semifinalists is 10 people,” Adams said. “I tell Deanna all the time, ‘Your next music director is in this pool.’ The number of applicants that we had that are just really talented and are interested in this position is — it’s a very deep pool. I think a host of them will be really exciting for the community to see. What is most encouraging to me is I think the future is really bright.”
It’s a rich and varied list, he continued. “There’s certainly some that bring different kinds of strengths to the table, but each of them has been really able to present a compelling picture of what their music directorship would look like. So I think at this point we’re really looking at whatever the perfect fit is for the southern New Hampshire community…. There’s a lot of reasons to be excited.”
Next up for Maestro Kalia What: “Serenade for Winds,” a unique concert that focuses on the orchestra’s wind section. When: Saturday, March 8, 7:30 p.m., Nashua Community College (505 Amherst St., Nashua) Tickets: $10-$40 at symphonynh.org
Kalia described the program: “Although less common in concert halls than full symphonic orchestras with winds, today’s concert wind ensemble has a lengthy history, rooting itself in the European tradition of Harmoniemusik. Emerging in the late 18th century, Harmoniemusik was a form of chamber music written specifically for wind instruments. These ensembles, typically composed of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons — the common instrumentation of the wind section for court and theater orchestras — were initially associated with the courts of European aristocracy. They provided lively outdoor entertainment or underscored formal banquets, serving as a sonic emblem of both elegance and status. Composers like Mozart and Haydn were among the first to elevate the genre, recognizing its potential beyond mere functional music.
“The growing prominence of the wind ensemble coincided with a broader interest in exploring the unique tonal palette of wind instruments. While strings dominated the symphonic repertoire, winds offered a range of colors — from the playful chirping of flutes and clarinets to the noble warmth of horns. By the early 19th century, advancements in instrument design allowed for greater technical and dynamic capabilities, inspiring composers to craft more ambitious works for winds. The wind ensemble transformed from a courtly entertainment medium to a standalone artistic force, paving the way for masterpieces such as those featured in this program.
“I would also mention that Mendelssohn was only 15 years old when he wrote his Overture for Winds. A very impressive achievement!”
Indiana wants him
Maestro Kalia talks about his final Symphony NH concerts
Roger Kalia’s tenure as Symphony NH’s Music Director draws to a close with three more concerts, the final in May. In a phone interview on Feb. 24 he talked about his final three concerts and shared memories about his time leading the orchestra, once again intimating that classical music fans may see him again.
Though he’s not participating in the search for his successor, Kalia offered his thoughts on becoming the Music Director at Symphony NH through a similar process.
For my year, they had, I think, eight or nine candidates. So it was a little bit bigger. I think it was over a year and a half rather than just one season. All the finalists conducted a concert, and then during the week we’d meet with search committee members and all sorts of community members. It’s an intense process.
Roger Kalia. Courtesy photo.
“Serenade of the Winds”happens Saturday, March 8, at Nashua Community College.
There are three incredible works in this concert that really are probably the most famous pieces from the wind repertoire, I would say. When Mozart was writing these pieces, he was really kind of opening up a … I don’t want to say new genre, but a new way of writing for chamber music, and the focus was on wind instruments. The Mozart is one of the most famous works; it’s called the Gran Partita. It’s full of elegance, charm. It has a stunning slow movement, which is an adagio. It’s a seven-movement work, and we’re doing the first three movements and the finale…. We’re also doing the Dvorak Serenade for Winds, which is a joyful work that’s infused with a lot of Czech folk music, which is where he was from [and] it features, once again, all of the wind instruments of the orchestra, and really highlights the principal winds…. We’re opening the concert with a work by Felix Mendelssohn called the Overture for Winds, a very youthful, energetic piece, that really highlights his gift of melody and drama….
I feel that it’s important to highlight our wind musicians because they’re incredibly talented and it gives them more of a soloistic feature…. A lot of orchestras, I think, don’t program these works often just because … the strings aren’t playing. I think Symphony NH is unique in that, I feel especially during my tenure, we’ve done a lot with chamber works, and I call them that because they’re smaller works, it’s not a full orchestra. We did it during Covid especially.
With music from West Side Story and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, “It’s All Overtures” on Saturday, April 19, will appeal to even casual fans of classical music.
They’re all shorter pieces, let’s say 5 to 10 minutes. We’re doing nine or 10 overtures on this program, all pretty popular ones. I mean, talk about accessible and familiar pieces. You think about Rossini, the William Tell Overture, the one made famous by the Lone Ranger, something I think everyone would know. West Side Story with Bernstein … Maestro was an Oscar-nominated movie with Bradley Cooper. Because of that, Bernstein’s music has … been in the spotlight a little bit more. I think a lot of people know the Marriage of Figaro Overture by Mozart. It’s light, it sparkles, it’s fast, virtuosic.
The concert will also feature a piece by Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix’s older sister — a rarity, a 19th-century female composer.
It’s a great work, eight to nine minutes, and it sounds a lot like early Beethoven. It’s so melodic and rich. So I’m excited to feature that work. It deserves to be heard and celebrated. She faced a lot of barriers, [but] this overture now is getting played everywhere, the Overture in C. I think it’s a hidden gem, and it’s a fun one. The orchestra is featured, especially the woodwinds. There’s some beautiful clarinet solos and oboe flute solos.
For the all-American “Rhapsody in Blue” concert on May 10, Kalia bids adieu to Symphony NH with a program featuring pianist Fei Fei.
I’ve always loved conducting the music of American composers like Gershwin and Copland. Appalachian Spring has always been one of my favorite works, but rather than do that, I wanted to do a grand, majestic work like the Symphony No. 3…. It captures the spirit of America, the optimism of our country. It culminates in the triumphant Fanfare for the Common Man. I’m a former trumpet player and this is one of the great brass works in the repertoire…. Fei Fei, I want to say this will be our fourth time collaborating on Rhapsody in Blue…. She performs it with a unique twist … she really brings out the jazz elements, and she is so exciting to watch.
On becoming Musical Director of the Terre Haute Symphony on July 1.
I’m looking forward to working with their [outgoing] music director next month on … a decades-of-pop concert [featuring acts like] Frank Sinatra; Earth, Wind & Fire; Metallica; Led Zeppelin. It’s going to be a fun show with a singer [and] not to get off track here, I grew up a huge metal fan, and I was a big Metallica fan when I was in high school, and I love conducting rock shows with an orchestra, it’s so much fun. Audiences just go crazy. It’s not your typical classical audience where they’re just sitting there. They’re up, moving around, dancing, it’s great to see. Terre Haute, as with Symphony NH, they’re open to innovative programming. So I’m looking forward to all of these different innovative programs that we’re going to be putting on, the variety of music.
Though he’s leaving, it’s not goodbye forever.
I’m still going to be in touch with everyone from Symphony NH. Even though it’s a job, I’ve made a lot of personal friendships…. Deanna, who’s been my partner the last four years since she took the job as Executive Director, she’s been great to me. We see eye to eye on programming, and she’s all about … expanding the repertoire and making it more inclusive, and being about the community and reaching new audiences. I hope to continue that in a community like Terre Haute. I know they’re open to it. They’re open to innovation and making the orchestra accessible and community engagement is the key. I think that’s going to be a big part of my tenure there.
Finally, a favorite memory.
One of my most proud moments with the orchestra was the New Hampshire Concerto that we did last year, where we collaborated with four student composers from four different universities in New Hampshire, and they created a multi-movement work that was about New Hampshire, about the topography, the geography, the history, whatever it had to do with New Hampshire. It was really special to give those kids an opportunity to work with a professional orchestra, and I’m actually hoping to bring that model to my other orchestras now because I think it was so successful. Because it celebrated not only new music, but connected with the local community, the state of New Hampshire. Which is what this is all about, community engagement. It was also an opportunity to showcase our focus on music education, giving student musicians opportunities.
Symphony NH upcoming concerts
Serenade of the Winds Saturday, March 8, 7:30 p.m. at Nashua Community College, Judd Gregg Hall Auditorium, 505 Amherst St., Nashua A concert dedicated to the orchestra’s wind instruments, the program includes Mendelssohn’s Overture for Winds, Op. 24 in C Major (1824), select movements from Gran Partita, Mozart’s Serenade No.10 in B-flat Major, K.361, (1781) and Dvořák’s Serenade, Op.44, B.77, D minor (1878)
Hollywood Hits Saturday, March 29, 7:30 p.m. at Stockbridge Theatre, 22-98 Bypass 28, Derry Sunday, March 30, 3 p.m. at Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 S. Main St., Concord Blockbuster movie themes from Gone with the Wind, The Magnificent Seven, Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, James Bond, Rocky, The Pink Panther, Moon River, Dances with Wolves, Ben Hur and more.
It’s All Overtures Saturday, April 19, 7:30 p.m. at Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua Well-known overtures, from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro to Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story.
Rhapsody in Blue Saturday, May 10, 7:30 p.m. at Capitol Center for the Arts, 44 South Main St., Concord, Maestro Kalia leads his last concert, with guest pianist Fei-Fei. It’s an all-American affair with works of Aaron Copland, Florence Price and George Gershwin. The program includes Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924), Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement (1934) and Copland’s Symphony No. 3 (1944-46)
Illuminated Ensembles – Chamber Favorites Sunday, May 18, 4 p.m. at Bank of New Hampshire Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord The final concert in the Illuminated Ensembles series, with the Symphony NH Woodwind Quintet performing an evening of classical chamber music.
Orleans’ story is one of hurdles faced and cleared, including one so monumental it’s a miracle they’re still making music.
The first challenge came two years after the band formed in 1972, when the record label didn’t hear a hit on their second album and dropped them. They bounced back after the A&R head at Asylum listened to “Dance With Me” and “Let There Be Music” from the rejected LP. He caught something, and bought the re-recording rights.
Lance Hoppen made the trio his brother Larry co-founded a quartet 10 months after forming. In a recent phone interview, he explained why two enduring hits were non-starters until they landed on the ears of Asylum’s Chuck Plotnick. “With his input, they were re-sculpted,” he said. The first “opened the door at radio, and ‘Dance With Me’ basically went top five.”
The latter, he continued, “was now a hit record, as well as a hit song.”
Now a wedding standard, the ballad began as a riff that guitarist John Hall played at rehearsal.
“Larry said, ‘That’s a good one, you should finish that,’” Hoppen recalled. The song was atypical of a band that got its name from the Allan Toussaint and Meters covers it favored. Hall’s co-writer wife Johanna, who’d later pen the smash “Still The One,” wrote the lyrics.
“John said to her, ‘Is that it? Is that all it is?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, that’s what it is’ — look what happened to that,” Hoppen continued. “Some things just come out of the blue; no way could we have predicted it would be a hit, especially in light of the mainstream of our material.”
Orleans’ biggest hit came two years later, when a neighbor of John and Johanna Hall who was splitting with her husband asked if they could write a song about relationships that didn’t end in breakup. Joanna jotted the words to “Still the One” on the back of an envelope and gave it to John, who said in a 2021 interview that he wrote the music in 15 minutes.
Hall departed for a solo career in 1977, and the band’s final charting single, “Love Takes Time,” came two years later. But label problems of a different kind choked their momentum. Infinity Records made a big bet on an album of live recordings from Pope John Paul II that flopped. MCA took it over, and let Orleans’ 1980 follow-up record wither on the vine.
In July 2012, Larry Hoppen died by suicide. Reeling from tragedy, Lance was at the same time mindful of the band’s many business commitments.
“I just changed the question; it was not, are we going to continue, it was how,” he said. “So I called John.” Hall had wanted back into the band after serving two terms in Congress, and now he was needed, if only to fulfill obligations.
With the help of various alumni, they continued through November, concluding with a memorial concert in Nashville.
“I raised some money for his kids, that’s what that was for,” Lance said. “I was sure we were done, forty years, this must be it … then I got a phone call.”
A promoter putting together a Sail Rock Tour asked Orleans to be the house band for Christopher Cross, Robbie Dupree, Gary Wright and others.
“We were resurrected in that manner, and the years kept flowing,” Lance said. “It was a really high hurdle, under duress, and we made it.”
More than a dozen years later the band soldiers on. The current lineup includes Lance Hoppen and his brother Lane, Brady Spencer, Tom Lane, and Tony Hooper. Hall retired from touring due to health concerns but still joins on occasion. Lance hopes he and his longtime band mate will return to the studio one more time before calling it a career.
“We have … a retrospective collection and some new cuts,” he said. “John and I are kind of like, ‘Well, it’s come up again, are we going to finish this thing or what?’ There are a couple of tracks that … have been there for a long time. If we just finish them, we’ll have something to put out, and it’ll probably be the last thing we do.”
Orleans When: Thursday, Feb. 27, 7:30 p.m. Where: BNH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $69 and up at ccanh.com
Go, Oscars! Yay, the movies! Huzzah for a beloved form of entertainment that feels like it’s, you know, Going Through It right now! I will never give up on the Oscars even in what feel like the oddball years like this one where the movies felt fewer and quieter. And thus, when the Oscar telecast begins — Sunday, March 2, 7 p.m., on ABC and Hulu — I will be planted in front of my TV. And here’s what I’ll be cheering for:
• Conclave for the win! Of the nine out of 10 of the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen, Conclave (available for rent or purchase and streaming on Peacock), the stand-out cast movie about cardinals picking a new pope, is my favorite. And it features Isabella Rosselini in, like, three scenes for which she was also nominated in Supporting Actress (and is maybe my fave in that category). If Conclave can’t win, my next pick would be The Substance(available for rent or purchase and on Mubi), featuring Demi Moore’s excellent comic performance as a performer willing to go to sci-fi lengths to stay in the spotlight (Moore definitely being my pick in the Lead Actress category). The other films in the category in the general order of my wanting them to win: Nickel Boys (available for purchase), the tale of two boys stuck at a segregated reform school in 1960s Florida; Wicked(available for purchase), the gem-colored adaptation of the musical; Anora(rent or purchase), a dramady about an exotic dancer and her relationship with the goofy son of a rich, shady Russian family; A Complete Unknown (in theaters), a biopic of Bob Dylan’s early years as a performer; The Brutalist(purchase), the story of an architect trying to recover from World War II; Dune: Part Two (rent or purchase and streaming on Max), a movie about Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and sand, and Emilia Pérez (streaming on Netflix), a crazy musical that is problematic in multiple ways but might still get Zoe Saldaña a Supporting Actress win. I haven’t seenI’m Still Here yet — a movie about a Brazilian family living through a military coup in the 1970s.
• Make it Sing Sing’s night! Colman Domingo, the standout in my opinion in the Lead Actor category, would be the big win for this movie, which totally deserved but didn’t get a Best Picture nod. The excellent and hopeful story of an acting troupe in Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Sing Sing (available for rent or purchase) is also nominated in Original Song and Adapted Screenplay, where it would also be my pick to win.
• Yay to animation! The Animated Feature category is solid, even if I might have swapped out something — Inside Out 2 (rent, purchase and on Disney+) maybe — for Transformers One (rent, purchase and Paramount+), a surprisingly pretty and smart origin story. My pick here is the sweet, lovely The Wild Robot (for rent or purchase and streaming on Peacock), though I won’t be mad if Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix) or the beautiful, contemplative, wordless Flow (rent, purchase and streaming on Max) takes it. I haven’t seen Memoir of a Snail(rent, purchase and on AMC+).
• Hurray for accessible documentaries and international films! Once upon a time, nominees in what is now the International Feature category would seem to appear from nowhere and then not be available for viewing until deep into the summer. But now, many of those movies and this year’s Documentary Feature nominees — which didn’t include critical faves like the bittersweet Daughters (Netflix), the charming Will & Harper (Netflix), which also deserved a song nomination, and Dahomey(purchase, rent and streaming on Mubi and which is still on my to-watch list) — are available to watch now. In Documentary (confession: these are also on my to-watch list), the readily available nominees are Black Box Diaries (Paramount+), a Japanese journalist’s investigation into her rape accusations; Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (rent, purchase and on Kino Film), about the “U.S. government’s jazz ambassador program in Africa,” according to the film description, and Sugarcane (Hulu), a look at the abuse of children at an Indian residential school in Canada. Porcelain War, about three artists in Ukraine, is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston on Feb. 27 and is slated to screen elsewhere in the Boston area in March. No Other Land does not yet have U.S. distribution and doesn’t appear to be viewable at home in the U.S.; a New York Times story from Feb. 19 said this documentary directed by Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers will self-distribute in U.S. theaters.
In International Feature Film, nominees include Flow, Emilia Pérez and I’m Still Here as well as (also on the to-watch list) The Girl With the Needle (rent, purchase and on Mubi), loosely based on the true story of a Danish serial killer in the early 20th century, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig (rent or purchase), about a lawyer and his family in Iran.
• Let’s hear it for Kieran Culkin. I hope the road trip dramady A Real Pain (rent, purchase and on Hulu) wins for both of its too-few nominations — Supporting Actor (for Culkin) and Original Screenplay. My runner up Original Screenplay might be The Substance or it might be September 5(rent or purchase), about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics and ABC Sports’ coverage.
• Watch Hard Truths! The Mike Leigh-written and -directed Hard Truths (rent or purchase) received no Oscar nominations but it did get a slew of nominations elsewhere, including the Indie Spirit Awards (for International Feature Film). The movie, whose story admittedly can sound like a real bummer (a woman struggles with fear, anxiety and depression in a way that basically throws a cloud over the lives of everyone around her) is actually a great watch with excellent performances, especially from Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Also nominated in Indie Spirit categories but not Oscar are Amy Adams for the dark, funny, early-childhood-grind movie Nightbitch(Hulu); June Squibb for the thoughtful and funny Thelma (rent, purchase and on Hulu); Justice Smith in I Saw The TV Glow (rent, purchase and streaming on Max), what feels like a cautionary tale about rewatching the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Janet Planet, nominated for First Feature (rent, purchase and on Max), a great tale mother-daughter tale, and My Old Ass(Amazon Prime), nominated for screenplay, a bittersweet movie about an 18-year-old meeting her decades-older self. None of these movies are Oscar nominated but Oscar nominations are just one list (which you can find via the Oscar landing page at abc.com) among several great lists (Indie Spirit Awards at filmindependent.org and Screen Actors Guild Awards at sagawards.org, to name two) of movies you may have missed and can now catch up on. Yay movies!
The first thing Jim Renna wants you to know about kitchen knives is that the sharper a knife is, the less likely it is that you’ll cut yourself.
“There’s more injuries on a dull knife than a sharp knife,” he said, “because you’re using more pressure on a dull knife.” And if the knife slips while you’re cutting, all that pressure you’ve been applying to an onion gets directed to your hand or fingers.
Renna has been a chef and cafe owner for 30 years. He has recently expanded his business to sharpening blades, particularly kitchen knives, at Kitchen on Demand Knife Sharpening (3 Executive Park Drive, Bedford). Last spring, Renna bought a new toy.
“I purchased this unit back in June,” he said, proudly nodding at his sharpening machine. “This is a Tormek T8. It’s water-cooled. It’s got all types of jigs for axes and scissors, pocket knives, just all different kinds of anything that needs to be sharpened. I did a lot of practicing, reading up and watching a lot of videos online, so for five months that’s all I did was practice, because I didn’t want to start advertising until I knew what I was doing and everything was going to be perfect.”
After decades of using knives professionally, Renna knew there is much more to kitchen knives than most home cooks think about.
Different styles of knives, for instance, are not interchangeable with each other. Each is designed for a particular use.
“You’ve got your paring knife,” he said, “which is a smaller one. You’ve got your boning knife with a thinner, more flexible blade. Then you’ve got your regular chef knives, which everybody uses for cutting. And you’ve got your serrated knives for bread and things like that.” He said that when choosing a chef’s knife, for instance, a cook should look for one that fits well in their hand and is heavy. ”So you want a heavy, balanced knife that you don’t have to apply a lot of pressure to,” he said. You’ll get safer, more exact cuts.
Renna said most home cooks don’t get their knives sharpened nearly often enough. “The recommended [frequency] is six to eight months,” he said. “Most people do like five years. Most people don’t even think to have them sharpened.”
Each knife has an ideal angle that it should be sharpened at.
“Most kitchen knives are sharpened at a 15-degree angle,” Renna said. “But a customer just brought a knife in that’s supposed to be sharpened at a 20-degree angle, so that’s a big difference. Shun [brand] knives are at 16-degree angle, so that’s a one-degree difference, but it does make a lot of difference.” Renna’s sharpening unit has several ways to ensure an exact angle when he sharpens a blade, but it gets even more complicated — as he sharpens blades on the grindstone wheel of his sharpener, the wheel wears away slightly. He needs to measure the wheel regularly and work its new size into his calculations.
One other thing Renner wishes more home cooks knew about is the difference between honing and sharpening.
If you have a round “chef’s steel” in a knife set — the type you see television chefs running their knives along — its job is not to sharpen a knife. It hones it. As you put a knife to work, the microscopic edge of the blade gets bent out of shape.
“Honing straightens the edge of the blade,” Renner said. “If you use [your chef’s steel] often, your old knives will stay really sharp for a long time. There’s a skill to it, and [cooks] should find out how to use it.” He gives the example of a barber running a straight razor along a leather strop. The leather isn’t grinding away at the blade; it’s pulling the edge into line.
Kitchen on Demand Knife Sharpening
3 Executive Park Drive, Bedford The cost to sharpen a blade is $1.50 per inch of blade, or scissors for $7 each. Turnaround is about 24 hours, or over the weekend for a Friday dropoff. Visit the Kitchen on Demand page on Facebook.
