Alumnus returns to lead pops concert
Hingham native son Nick Palmer was once a student at the South Shore Conservatory, located in his hometown. Now he is directing an orchestra of 60 professional musicians at the opening concert of the conservatory’s summer series, Evening Under the Stars.
Regarded by peers as one of the country’s best young conductors, Palmer is both brilliant and practical, said Beth MacLeod, the conservatory’s director of performance. “Nick has a skill that not every conductor has,’’ she said. “He is really time efficient.’’
The players in the festival’s orchestra, many of whom also play in the Boston Ballet and the Boston Pops, appreciate his qualities. “He knows what they need to do, and doesn’t waste any time. And they always get a concert they can be proud of,’’ MacLeod said.
A graduate of Harvard with advanced degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Iowa, Palmer is music director of the Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky and the Altoona Symphony in Pennsylvania, in addition to his work for the Evening Under the Stars music festival.
Palmer and MacLeod combined to program an orchestral pops concert, generally the best-selling event of the summer series, that mixes classical and popular favorites, such as the “Toreador Song’’ from Bizet’s opera “Carmen’’ and the songs of Lennon and McCartney. The program will also include Strauss’s “On the Beautiful Blue Danube,’’ the Piano Concerto in G Major by Maurice Ravel, music from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,’’ Leroy Anderson’s “Trumpeter’s Lullaby’’ (on which South Shore faculty trumpet teacher Dana Oakes will solo), music from the movie “E.T.’’ by John Williams, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,’’ and John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.’’
Young pianist Tian Lu, the winner of last year’s Duxbury Music Festival solo competition, will perform the Ravel piano concerto.
The same concert will be performed in Duxbury tomorrow to lead off this year’s Duxbury Music Festival, also produced by the South Shore Conservatory, at Duxbury’s Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m.
The rest of the Evening Under the Stars lineup includes old favorite the New Black Eagle Jazz Band, performing traditional New Orleans jazz on July 25; new addition Celtic band MacTalla Mor, featuring vocals, bodhrán drum, piano, and highland bagpipes on Aug. 1; and “Some Enchanted Evening,’’ a musical theater event featuring arrangements of Rodgers and Hammerstein music, on Aug. 8.
Scaled for recession-era pocketbooks, the series is aimed at selling tickets and containing costs, MacLeod said. While the festival has included a musical theater classic such as a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera in past summers, this year the conservatory found the American show music equivalent to high opera in a concert version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s best-loved songs from shows such as “Oklahoma’’ and “South Pacific.’’ “People love that,’’ MacLeod said.
The program offers singers from the conservatory’s opera company, Opera By the Bay, the chance to explore well-known favorites within their own styles and musical sensibilities.
Performers include faculty members Lorna Jane Norris, Jennifer Mulqueen, and MacLeod, and tenor Neil Harrelson and bass George Cordes, who performed at the festival last year. Accompanying pianists are faculty member Stephen Deitz and Elizabeth Cordes.
“I think we instituted a couple of changes that are fun without being costly,’’ MacLeod said. Those changes include new food and drinks at popular prices: Fenway Park’s famous Sausage Guy, Nona’s homemade ice cream, and beer on tap.
“It’s a feel good evening,’’ MacLeod said. “Get a beer, bring your friends. You’re guaranteed to leave smiling.’’
Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox2@gmail.com. 