Quartet wins big in Banff; Tosca duo gets TLC
JUPITER ORBITS A PRIZE After six days of concerts, the New England Conservatory's Jupiter String Quartet won the prestigious 2004 Banff International String Quartet Competition on Sunday night, bringing home a $20,000 prize (in Canadian dollars, which is $15,531 US) and earning a recital tour of Canada. The quartet will perform today at NEC's Jordan Hall at the school's opening convocation. The foursome -- Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violins; Liz Freivogel, viola; and Daniel McDonough, cello -- also will receive custom bows made by the renowned Michael Vann, and a Banff Centre residency, which includes producing a CD.
FOOD GUYS GET SOME SIZZLE The champagne will be flowing at Tosca's in Hingham on Monday when executive chef Kevin Long and GM Chris Sugrue star in TLC's "A Makeover Story: Love a la Mode." The show's host and Newbury Street hottie Gretchen Monahan (the owner of G-Spa, Grettacole, and Grettaluxe) took the boys all over Boston for the needed updates to their style, clothes, and appearance, which, we're told, even included some waxing. Their stops included Origins in the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Zenga on Newbury Street, and the G-Spa. The whole "reveal" occurred at the XV Beacon hotel.
ELSEWHERE AROUND THE DIAL A crew from MTV was in town over the last week filming locals at several nightspots, including karaoke night at An Tua Nua for a show that will air later this year, or at least that's all they would reveal. . . . The Federalist's chef, David Daniels, held court on Labor Day morning on the "Today" show.
STARS WILL BE OUT IN THE BERKSHIRES Readings from Nathaniel Hawthorne's works and performances by actors Jane Fonda, David Strathairn, and Marisa Tomei will highlight the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company's autumn gala planned for next month at several locations in the Berkshires. Hosted by Mike Wallace, "Hawthorne Revisited" is written and produced by Gordon Hyatt (Nathaniel Hawthorne Bicentennial project director and Shakespeare & Company trustee) and directed by Shakespeare & Company's founder and artistic director, Tina Packer.
JIMMY FUND HITS BIG The final numbers are in for this year's WEEI Jimmy Fund Radiothon and with $1.565 million pledged in a single day it was the largest fund-raising effort in Jimmy Fund history. The amount raised is about 50 percent more than last year when the night at the ballpark included Ben Affleck. The total included gifts from Yankees honchos Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner, Major League Baseball commish Bud Selig, comic actor Seth Meyers, and more than 8,000 others. Among the celeb callers chiming in were Affleck and Jim Belushi, Senator Ted Kennedy, former New England Patriots QB Steve Grogan, and Meyers of "Saturday Night Live," who donated his $100,000 "winning hand" from television's recent "
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