On Wings of Love.
Sunday….Sunday, the day to relax.
Yeah, more like, the day to do massive amounts of homework and fight off the intensive urge to nap the day away. However, this Sunday, although there was homework and napping involved, was different from most Sundays. This Sunday I attended On Wings of Love. Actually I was apart of On Wings of Love, which is even cooler!
On Wings of Love was a concert to benefit Angel Food East. Angel Food East has been providing and delivering free, individual, nutritious hot meals for people living with HIV/AIDS in Ulster County for the past 15 years. Meals are provided to those regardless of age, gender, race, religious affiliation, economic situation or sexual preference. This independent, non-denominational program is run from a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Kingston (where the benefit concert took place.) The program costs approximately $40,000 a year to run and is funded solely by grants and donations. This concert was the 6th On Wings of Love Benefit Concert, and through these shows, over $14,000 has been raised.
The night had many amazing (as well as impressive I might add) performers who donated their time and talents for this cause. I would like to start off with our emcee being Ron Nyswaner. If that name sounds familiar to you, it may be because he wrote the screenplay for Philadelphia, a 1993 film revolving around HIV/AIDS, homosexuality, and widespread attitudes concerning gays and homophobia. This movie starred actors such as Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, and Antonio Banderas.
Let me talk about the OWOL 2008 chorus! I sang in the On Wings of Love chorus, because I was asked to by the show director, Liz Toleno. Liz is busily enjoying her life by being a musical director, accompanist, vocal coach, and flut/piano teacher in The Hudson Valley and then some. Also, Liz works here at SUNY New Paltz as well, working as an accompanist in my Voice 1 class as well as working in the pit for the musicals. At any rate, I received an e-mail from her a while back, describing this benefit concert and what it entailed. I was free so I accepted full-heartily! I feel like I never have time to do events outside of campus, so now that time allowed, I really wanted to get involved!
The OWOL chorus opened up with the choral arrangement of “Everlasting Melody.” The soloist in the beginning was by an eleven-year-old boy named Thomas Netter, who had a smiley disposition on his face and the gift of song in his heart. He was phenomenal! He hit these high notes like no other! He was singing in my section with the altos. Darn tootin’ impressive! Here’s a video on YouTube of ANOTHER chorus singing “Everlasting Melody,” because, well, I couldn’t tape myself doing it now could I? 
I just want you to get a feel for what it sounds like! It’s quite catchy and I feel this chorus does a nice job with it
The next performer I’d like to talk about is Kevin Archambault, who sang “I’m Not Afraid of Anything.” He has several Off Broadway credits, such as Love Letters, Young & Beautiful or Hello I’m Old. National Tours include: West Side Story, Bye Bye, Birdie. Here’s actually a video of his song.
Sorry I’m so far back, and the zoom isn’t at its best. The reason I’m sitting all the way back there is because after the On Wings of Love chorus sang the opening number, we all dispersed for any seats available in the back.
There were other famous performers, such as James Dybas, who was featured in eight original Broadway shows, in regional theatres and cabaret throughout the country, on TV & in films. He’s a 6 time recipient of the Los Angeles Drama-Logue Award, and is a longstanding member of Actors Equity. He sang a Medley of “At Long Last Love,” “Give Me the Simple Life,” and “Feeling Good.” It was full of emotion and the crowd loved him.
Another wonderful WONDERFUL duo, who I wished I taped, was Aysa and Ron Morehead. I actually searched them on google, to see if they had a resume of their work, but I found Ron’s myspace? It’s actually pretty informative of what he’s been involved in, his family, and well, his life. So if you wanna check it out, here it is.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=121763337
An act that I DID tape was the Cast of Anything Goes from Coleman High School singing a choral arrangement of “Blow, Gabriel, Blow.” So here, you can see it and hear it.
Well, the OWOL ended the concert by us singing “Make Them Hear You.” It’s a really beautiful song with touching lyrics, that can definitely pertain to this cause. Here’s a version of it on Youtube, that I felt did it justice. This is from Wayzata Choirs in MN. They don’t have visual, but the music is BEATIFUL! JUST LISTEN!
I just want to mention, that because this event did take place in Kingston, I did have to drive to it. Luckily I have a car. It’s approximately a 28 minute drive. However, I could have carpooled with people if I didn’t have an auto-mobile. I did drive a freshman in the Theatre Department here named Annette Storckman, who takes singing lessons with Liz Toleno. I’m really glad I was able to get to know her via transportation. We also sang the same part together in the concert. It’s always nice meeting new people and learning from them. For example, she was writing in a personalized, decked-out, marble notebook about ideas for screen plays, and I couldn’t help but be inspired. Even though college can be so busy, the work load didn’t crush her creativity. It makes me just want to sit down and write in my journal for hours with music blasting. Ya know? Plus, she worked at The Renaissance Fair, so I was asking about the audition process and how she liked the experience. I hope to talk with her more in the future.
On that note, On Wings of Love was a giant success and a wonderful benefit to be apart of. I was honored I could make it and be involved.
(If you would like to volunteer please contact Angel Food East @ 845-331-6538. Drivers, cooks, and helpers are always needed.)
