The Rob Mathes Holiday Concert
December 20, 21, and 22, 2024
Hello All,
I am so thrilled you are reading this and are here with us at The Performing Arts Center. This concert has been such a tonic and joy for us onstage and yet it means nothing without people to play for and an audience to receive it. Where are we now, three decades or so later?? I'd like to believe we're better musicians and perform the songs with an intensity built from experience; an understanding that each note and gesture means something. I want to keep doing different things. This year we have a String Quartet and a bunch of new arrangements. I have also started a video series at The Power Station studio in NYC (Straight Up at the Power Station). Hopefully, it will continue to build the audience and engender a new appreciation for my work and this music event entering its 4th decade. I started teaching songwriting students at BerkleeNYC, which has been a miraculous thing and given me so much joy and light!
Rehearsing this material has been powerful this year because I have traveled so far from where I wrote a good bit of it (William The Angel was released in 1994, exactly thirty years ago.) I sing the lines "Decking these halls, I daydream. Imagine it's 4BC. I'm in Bethlehem and the stars so bright that I wander unable to sleep" and I question a number of things.
"Why am I so obsessed with this story??? What is it that inspired me so?? Isn't the Holiday endless now? Isn't it capitalism's central moment? Doesn't "O Holy Night" start playing in 700 different versions on November 1st??" Well, that may be true but the message!! The old carols!!! Ahhhh....! And consider the Hanukkah story of Judah Maccabee restoring the temple! Humans live by stories. Maybe the answer to many of our ills is a gentle hope and a grace, a coming together.
Pie-eyed naïveté?? Perhaps.
Food Rescue US has kept 49 MILLION pounds of food out of landfills and provided millions of meals to hungry people in the last decade. That seems to me to be a coming together; a gentle, yet strong and steady, mission and hope, so this year we support Food Rescue US again. Donate to Food Rescue US via Venmo @FoodRescue_US or visit them in the lobby to learn more and contribute!
Happy Holidays everyone. You bless us by your presence (more than you know!)
Rob
Band Members:
Bass: Will Lee
Guitar: Billy Masters
Keyboards: Rick Knutsen
Percussion: Gunnar Olsen
Alto Sax: Aaron Heick
Tenor Sax: Andy Snitzer
Bass Trombone: Jeff Nelson
Trombone: Mike Davis
Trumpet 1: Jeff Kievit
Trumpet 2: Tony Kadleck
Vocalists: Vaneese Thomas, James “D-Train” Williams & Ian Cron
String Quartet: Jonathan Dinklage, violin; Erin Benim Mayland, violin; Yuko Naito-Gotay, viola; and Adele Stein, cello
Choir Director: Dianne Ellis
Choir of Saints & Friends
Sopranos: Emily Alogna, Jenny Alogna, Sharon Alogna, Devon Ellis, Rosie Isiyel, Anna Jacobson, Mary Marcell, Emma Mathes, Lily Mathes, Sarah Mathes, Kathryn Mena, Lauren Mian, Liz Queler, Katie Stallard, Karen Walker, Barbara Zay
Altos: Kelley Alogna, Sharon Alogna, Dianne Ellis, Cheryl Engelhardt, Bonnie Kelley-Young, Charlotte Knutsen, Frances Knutsen, Kati Mac, Janna Mathes, Valerie Maze-Keeney, Eve Steier, Vreeland Tuncer, Karen Yancey
Tenors: Austin Alianiello, Nick Arakas, David Callahan, Charles Dear, Philip Dear, Aarush Dey, Dave Lefkin, Matthew Sullivan, Peter Valenton, Danny Young
Basses: Darrell DeMakes, Mark Demmerle, Keith Dennis, Ayush Maini, Rich Mathes, Chaim Sciamma, Rory Young, Matt Zay, Frank Zingg
Production:
Stage Manager: Ray Dobson
Sound & Lights: Chris Greco & Rory Young
Marketing and Production Coordination: Jenifer Howard
Video: Bob Conover
Food Rescue US - Fairfield County:
This year's Rob Mathes Holiday Concert benefits Food Rescue US - Fairfield County, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating hunger and food waste. In Connecticut, it is estimated that 17% of residents experience food insecurity and current inflation rates have left many families struggling to make ends meet. Through their proprietary app, Food Rescue US – Fairfield County engages over 4000 volunteers and 350 food donors to deliver nutritious excess food to 280 local social service agencies serving the food insecure. Since launching in 2011, Food Rescue US has prevented over 49 million pounds of food waste, distributing an average of 370,000 meals per month.
Donate to Food Rescue US via Venmo @FoodRescue_US or visit them in the lobby to learn more and contribute!