The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra bills its 28th season, 2025-26,  as one of “Bold Voices, Eternal Resonance.” It’s hard to beat Beethoven for eternal resonance. And as for bold voices, Bartok certainly comes to mind. But for a surprise entry opening night Thursday at the Easton Church of God, music director Michael Repper turned to a 19th-century composer whose music is largely new to 21st-century listeners.

 Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) was one of the first European women to make her mark as a composer of orchestral music. But her Symphony No. 1, performed by the MSO, and her entire classical canon – including seven other symphonies along with piano sonatas and chamber works – was all but forgotten after her death. Never mind that she was hailed as the “Female Beethoven” and in popular demand for her Romantic repertoire, especially in her native Germany.

The evening opened with Bela Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances he created as a way to overcome post-World War I depression. Inspired by tunes he heard during trips to Transylvania, the piece runs seven minutes or so, played orchestrally. In such a short span – one of the bits is 30 seconds start to finish – the tunes fly by almost indiscernibly one from another. Better to consider them a single folk instrumental ranging in tempo and temperament from fast to slow, gleeful to wistful. While strings set the tempo, reeds rule the temperament – especially flutes (led by Mindy Heinsohn) – which moved Bartok to get over his funk.

The Bartok appetizer whets our palate for a main course. And Emilie Mayer does not disappoint. For a first symphony, each of the four movements are mature, diverse in style and way ahead of her time, having debuted in Berlin in 1847. The opening adagio/allegro energico morphs from contemplative to bombastic. Energetic for sure.  The slower second movement gives us and the players time to catch our breath before it grows in emotional intensity. A satisfyingly lively and rhythmic scherzo leads to a finale testing every part of the orchestra to peak at the climatic close of what for me and most of the audience was a triumphant debut, sadly, for a long dead and neglected composer. My suggestion going forward is to bring Mayer back to musical life with one of her later pieces: Repper mentioned her “Faust Overture” – if not for this season, perhaps next.

After intermission, the “male” Beethoven, one of Mayer’s early classical music heroes, proved his “eternal resonance” in a spirited performance of his Symphony No. 7, which the master himself called one of his greatest works. 

The odd-numbered genius can hardly be surpassed in Symphonies 5, 7 and 9, compared to which even the estimable No. 4 is a dud. And for my money (which I am not betting on) his Symphonies 7 and 9 outrank even the fabled 5th. There is not a moment in the 7th that permits your attention to wander for one note. It must be a thrill for someone who can play for a living to perform with a full and entirely capable orchestra of fellow musicians by a conductor who knows how to lead.

So the particulars: The distinctively familiar opening, with a single note repeated thrice, establishes the movement’s prevailing theme, picking up the pace feverishly to a dramatic finish that would bring a less informed audience to its feet in bravo appreciation. The second movement allegretto settles into an almost lullaby cadence before bursting into a declarative resolution offset by the playful exuberance of the presto scherzo to follow.  

  The allegro con brio finale begins as if it’s at the fantastic finish line, though it’s way too soon to go home. Bow-to-string lightning bolts and thunderous drumbeats are about to strike, led by concertmaster Kimberly McCollum and associate Paula Sweterlitsch, along with violist Yuri Tomenko, cellist Katie McCarthy, bassist Chris Chlumsky , and timpanist Barry Dove. 

Coming up in early November is “Echoes of Greatness” with guest conductor George Jackson leading the MSO in a program of Mozart and Mendelssohn symphonies and a Beethoven overture.

MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY SEASON OPENER

Easton Church of God, Thursday night. Upcoming performances of the same program, 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, Epworth United Methodist Church, Rehoboth Beach; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, Ocean Pines, Md. midatlanticsymphony.org

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic now living in Easton.

 

Fred Calleri was born and raised in Maryland but after earning a degree in illustration and graphic design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1993, he moved westward with a final landing spot Flagstaff, Arizona where is lived for several decades.

But when the opportunity came up at the Zebra Gallery to have his work in a gallery in his home state, it proved irresistible.

In our short interview with Fred, he talks about the influence on his art from of classic illustrators like N.C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell, and J.C. Leyendecker, but found a way to find his own vision of that kind of nostalgia with a slight but noticeable distortion in his figure.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about Fred and the Zebra Gallery please go here. 

Next week, the Spy’s Craig Fuller and Maryland Public Television’s Steve Schupak will take to the Avalon stage next week to present a special screening of MPT’s stunning new airborne documentary. It’s a stunning study of the state of maryland with it’s diversity from a bird’s eye perspective in all four seasons. But one reason that the region might have a special interest in attending is the remarkable contribution made by famed local aviator Hunter Harris and the use of his historic biplane to capture the Eastern Shore in ways impossible to imagine for the audience.

We could up with Hunter last week to get a sneak preview of what will be a special evening for the Spy readers,  MPT viewers and the Mid-Shore.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information please go here. 

Maryland by Air – Conversations with Craig Fuller
Wednesday, September 24 · Avalon Theatre, Easton MD
Doors 5:30 PM · Show 6:00 PM · Free Event
Info: [email protected] · 410-822-7299

This year, the Spy is expanding its commitment to the Chesapeake Film Festival by co-producing a monthly podcast with CFF Executive Director Cid Walker Collins and her dedicated team of volunteers. The series will feature in-depth conversations about the films being presented throughout the year, offering listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the creative forces behind them.

In this episode, Irene Magafan, the CFF’s new board president, talks with filmmaker, storyteller, and CFF Vice President, Monda Raquel Webb. Monda has built her career around uncovering the “little known stories” that rarely make it to the big screen—voices from our mothers, grandmothers, and community elders whose lives shape history but often remain untold.

This podcast is approximately 22 minutes in length.  For more information and to purchase tickets for the Chesapeake Film Festival, please visit this link.

Almost since the Spy started in 2009, we have reached out to some of the Mid-Shore’s most respected leaders as they transition off or retire from critically important positions in our region. From college presidents to successful nonprofit directors, the Spy Exit interviews has captured a moment of time in our collective history that time and again offers real lessons in leadership and imagination.

We continue this series with outgoing Academy Art Museum board chair Donna Alpi during a particularly important time in its history. Credited with guiding the AAM through the challenges of staff leadership changes, its innovative partnership with the Air Bridges project, and the extraordinary perseverance of the board and curatorial staff to bring the Bugatti: Reaching for Perfection exhibition, the largest and most resource-intensive undertaken in AAM history, Donna shares her experiences and lessons learned as she prepares to handle over board leadership to Talbot County’s Christine Martin this month.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here.

 

As remarkable and important as the Water’s Edge Museum collection of Ruth Starr Rose paintings and prints may be, its provenance is even more so. Dating back to a time when women had just recently won their right to vote and when Jim Crow laws sought to deny all human rights to African-Americans, Rose – a white woman – created, as she put it, “a record of the life of Negroes of the Eastern Shore. It had never been done,” she wrote, “and is still unique in the annals of art.”

While art depicting people of color is no longer “unique” to this collection at the museum located on the Tred Avon’s edge in Oxford, it most likely was the case in 1933 when she wrote about her work. Moreover, it’s hard to imagine that anyone else could have achieved such a legacy. In the early decades of the 20th Century it was rare for black artists or women artists of any color to gain much notice. And her access to an isolated community with every reason to mistrust white strangers is itself remarkable. There were black artists whose success at the time was hard-earned – from Jacob Lawrence in fine art to Paul Robeson in performing arts – they won their notoriety in metropolitan capitals of the United States, principally New York City.

By comparison, Rose, the daughter of staunch Wisconsin abolitionists, won the trust of all-black communities of Talbot County at a time when the Eastern Shore – before any Bay Bridge was even dreamed of – was a geographic backwater. Yet she made friends with residents of The Hill in Easton, the historic neighborhood of free African-Americans dating back before the Civil War, as well as Unionville and Copperville settled by veterans of the war that won their emancipation.

Rose attended their AME churches regularly and developed her appreciation of spirituals performed by people she regarded as friends and neighbors. Among the oil portraits she painted were those of Isaac Copper, namesake of the founding family of the village bearing his surname, and Bernard Moaney, whose descendant, George Moaney, narrates the five-minute video “The Afterglow of Ruth Starr Rose” by Talbot Spy that can be seen on the Water’s Edge website, You Tube or talbotspy.org. He’s also a founding member and genealogical adviser to the museum.

Even in major museums of the world, George Moaney notes, “You don’t see a black person in their paintings except in the background as servants” or, more recently, in portraits of celebrities and political figures, notably Muhammad Ali and President Barack Obama. Before 2015, when the Rose collection surfaced, “Our family didn’t even know these images existed.” The unveiling of the works by Rose (1887-1965) marked, he said, “the first time I had seen on the Eastern Shore black and white people coming together for a cultural event.”

Of her 1933 color serigraph “Jonah and the whale,” featured four years later at the Paris International Exposition, Rose wrote: “Long ago the slaves sang, ‘If the Lord delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale, He will deliver me.’ And these words came too: The Negro race has been delivered from dangers and torments worse than Jonah knew. They have been given a vision of the freedom that can finally be complete.”

But there is much more to see and experience at the Water’s Edge Museum. In its special exhibits gallery, “Black Watermen in the Chesapeake” opens later this month. In the hallway just outside, pause to view “Victoria Park as a Civil Right.” In 1848, about a decade into her 63 years and seven months reign – surpassed only by the 70-year monarchy of Elizabeth II – Queen Victoria granted an “urban botanical garden” for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, part of the British Empire until 1981. The garden, she wrote, serves as open space “for the healthful enjoyment of air and space” for the people of the Caribbean island colony – now a nation.

Be sure, then, to step outside to the Water’s Edge botanical garden. Replete with flowers, plus basil, bell pepper, cucumber and tomato plants, the fruits of which are composted. Besides the staff, the garden is tended, in part, by visiting elementary to middle school children who “learn about environmental justice that is denied to those who live in food desert neighborhoods,” said Sara Park, co-director of Water’s Edge along with Ja’lyn Hicks.

Water’s Edge was awarded a certificate of recognition from the Talbot County Council for the “pictorial history and artifacts on display [portraying] a resilient people who lived their lives, and loved and fought for their country and continued to forge ahead, despite the obstacles and hardships faced.” Council member Keasha Haythe, who had attended the museum’s anniversary celebration earlier in February, commented on the recognition: “Thank you for telling these stories. Having a grandfather who was a waterman, it’s important to tell stories of the heritage, history, and diversity that we have in Talbot County.”

Coincidentally or not, this occurred at the same council session in which a motion to rescind the county’s declaration supporting the goals of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was defeated. However, following Trump administration threats to deny federal funding for expansion of the Easton Airport, the council voted in June to delete all mention of DEI goals in its official statements.

Nevertheless, Kay Brown, the museum’s assistant director, continues her work as manager of the Middle Passage Port Marker Project. Oxford is the only UNESCO-documented Middle Passage port on the Eastern Shore with no sign declaring that this is where slave ships docked to deliver its human-bondage cargo for sale. It’s a distinction shared in part just across the Tred Avon River where the Bellevue Passage Museum is planning and raising funds to build a space to tell the story of one of the country’s oldest African-American waterfront communities, which became self-sufficient following the Civil War abolition of slavery. The goal is to add on to one of the few remaining historic buildings available, located next to the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry dock. For now, the museum is a virtual one where you can view photos, artifacts and documentation of Bellevue’s own water’s edge past. In partnership with the museum in Oxford, the two would comprise a ferry-linked match in presenting an immersive educational and heritage tourism experience.

***
For more on slavery to self-sufficiency and the Eastern Shore’s witness to both, the Harriet Tubman Freedom Center in Cambridge is exhibiting “Harriet: A Taste of Freedom” through Sept. 30. Curated by Larry Poncho Brown, a Baltimore-based artist, through interpretive works by 40 artists whose visions know no bounds as they are both local and international. The art ranges from portraiture to abstract imagery. In that sense, it’s almost as varied as Tubman’s remarkable life’s work – starting as a runaway slave herself who returned time and again to free family and other fellow slaves in Dorchester County to freedom at least as far north as Philadelphia. And she literally fought for freedom in the Civil War, having recently been promoted posthumously to the rank of general.

While you’re at it, and especially if you haven’t already visited, drive a few miles out of town to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park. The visitors center there serves both as a stand-alone attraction with exhibits and films changing from time to time with the goal of orientation as a gateway to the multi-state Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway. Tubman is quoted as saying, “I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

FROM RUTH STARR ROSE TO HARRIET TUBMAN

Water’s Edge Museum, 101 Mill St., Oxford. watersedgemuseum.org; Bellevue Passage Museum, online only bellevuepassage.org
Also, “Harriet: A Taste of Freedom,” Harriet Tubman Freedom Center, 3030 Center Dr., Cambridge, through Sept. 30 (possibly extended through December); harriettubmanfreedomcenter.com; Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitors Center, 4068 Golden Hill Rd., Church Creek, nps.gov/htu

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic and editor now living in Easton.

 

 

This year, the Spy is expanding its commitment to the Chesapeake Film Festival by co-producing a monthly podcast with CFF Executive Director Cid Walker Collins and her dedicated team of volunteers. The series will feature in-depth conversations about the films being presented throughout the year, offering listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the creative forces behind them.

In our third episode, Irene Magafan, the CFF’s new board president, sits down with casting director Kimberly Skyrme. With notable successes such as House of Cards and True Lies, Kimberley talks describes her accidental start in casting, passion for storytelling, championing diverse talent, mentoring newcomers, and empowering women and locals in film.

This podcast is approximately 30 minutes in length.  For more information and to purchase tickets for the Chesapeake Film Festival, please visit this link.