In 1979, Staples High School’s Candlelight Concert was already nearly 4 decades old.
To some people, 1979 seems like almost yesterday. But musicians from that year’s production are old enough to have grandchildren on stage tonight and tomorrow, for the 83rd annual “Staples Music Department gift to the town.”
The 1979 Candlelight Concert.
It’s unlikely there will be any grandkids — not this year, anyway. Give those ’79 alums a few more years.
But Candlelight will welcome them, whenever they’re ready. It’s one of Westport’s oldest and proudest traditions.
From the opening “Sing We Noel” processional to the rousing “Hallelujah Chorus” finale, it’s timeless.
Yet the Candlelight Concert changes with the times, too. Over the years, the symphonic band was added to the program. So was a production number.
The 1983 production number — 40 years ago, this weekend.
This year, for the first time in over 40 years, a special commissioned piece — by alums Jake Landau and Emily Garber — will be premiered.
Also new: choral director Lauren Pine makes her Candlelight debut.
If you’re lucky enough to have scored tickets: enjoy! But whether you’ll be there or not: If you have any Candlelight Concert memories to share, click “Comments” below.”
“Sing We Noel” processional, 2011. (Photo/Lynn Untermeyer Miller)
==================================================
50 years ago this week:
A severe ice storm led to a significant “power failure the likes of which can’t be remembered in Fairfield County,” the Westport News report.
Connecticut Light & Power said that 90% of Weston lost electricity at some point; 1/3 of Westport customers were impacted. It took up to a week for some customers in the state to regain power.
Though the movie “The Ice Storm” is not based on a true story, it takes place on Thanksgiving weekend in 1973 — exactly 50 years ago.
1107 Hope Street, Stamford, after the 1973 ice storm.
(“06880” is your hyper-local blog — the place to go for news and views on yesterday, today and tomorrow. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
I sang in the Staples Christmas concerts of 1953 through ’56 with John Ohanian. The first time I heard the choir in 7th grade, I vowed I’d be part of it.
The Candlelight Concerts were certainly a high point in the Staples musical calendar in the late 1960s. A couple of off-beat reminiscences: in 1968, the Production Number took a more serious turn and enacted a scene from “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” The next year, we were back to the “Twelve Days of Christmas” — Mr Weigle had a hard time getting the Choir to take it seriously!… He also liked to turn the Hallelujah Chorus finale into something of a spectator sport: as the momentum builds with repetitions of “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords”, Handel breaks the suspense with a crescendo high “A” held for two bars by the first trumpet, culminating in a dramatic downward riff of four sixteenth notes — a difficult lick for a high-school trumpeter. First thing at the first rehearsal following the four Candlelight Concerts in 1968 (two-a-day in those days), Weigle congratulated the trumpet player, who had gone four-for-four that year!
I love the 2011 picture my daughter Grace is on the far left! Wanna feel old? She just turned 30!
Ice storm —
50 years ago, I was sitting for a final exam in German at Wesleyan, about 45 miles northeast of Westport, during that ice storm. We could hear tree limbs snapping outside the classroom window. About half-way through the test, word came that all finals were cancelled, and that we should walk home very carefully through the storm. One good friend was hit by a falling tree limb and broke her arm. Very scary! The venerable elm trees on the lawn in front of the historic “College Row” of buildings were particularly vulnerable due to their iconic “vase” shape, and have never been the same since.
The major of all Ice Storms occurred on the night of January 18th, 1974. I was married the next day in New Canaan which was especially hard hit again. The book was based on the Thanksgiving storm but the worst was the aforementioned.