Concert Review—

Little House: The Concert That Roared Thanks To Chapin & Many Musical Friends

By Janis Gibson

Several hundred people were treated to a wide array of musical talent last Sunday afternoon when The Little House That Roared presented its second annual concert, featuring Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Tom Chapin and local rising young stars.

Prior to the performance, Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel in Newtown, which sponsored the program, said that last year’s Little House debut concert, held at the synagogue, was about proof of concept and that this year’s presentation, moved to the Newtown High School auditorium, was about visibility.

Based on the comments overheard in the hallway after the show — most frequently along the lines of “I came in support of some neighbor’s kid, but I’m amazed at what I saw; I’m definitely coming back next year!” — the concert was a resounding success.

Attendees were greeted with the guitar playing and singing of NHS senior Trixie Santaya as they picked up their tickets and checked out the tables offering samplings from some of the performers, T-shirts supporting the event, and a drawing featuring a guitar donated by Main Street Music of Monroe and signed by all of the performers.

In his comments before the show began, speaking of both the talent about to be showcased and the nascent success of The Little House That Roared, Rabbi Praver reminded the audience, “Anything good in life begins with ‘I think I can.’”

The Korey Brodsky Band, featuring 12-year-old Korey Brodsky, kicked off the show with a couple of rousing bluegrass numbers with quick pickin’ and fancy fiddlin’ that elicited hoots and hollers from the audience.

The adult backup members of Korey’s band then remained on stage to perform with Alex Lempel, an NHS honors sophomore and principal cellist with Danbury Community Orchestra. One of the band members commented that the beauty of an event like Sunday’s was the ability to collaborate with different kinds of musicians. Quiet during Alex’s playing, the audience erupted with cheers when the piece was completed.

Audience appreciation for what was seen and heard was ample for every performer.

Jake Tolson, an NHS junior and frequent performer in local theater productions, then took the stage and sitting at an electronic keyboard, sang an original composition titled “You Are The Sun.” The maturity of his lyrics and the pleasant tune marks him as a young musician to watch.

The classic guitar playing of 15-year-old Yossi Kohrman-Glaser on a couple of Bach movements held the audience rapt. He was followed by The XY Chromotones, a male a capella group with a breezy style and fun-to-listen-to harmonizing.

The Broadway belting style was demonstrated by NHS senior Katie McMorran, who has also been seen in a number of community and high school productions.

Violinist Sam Weiser then showed why he already has a recording contract at age 16. He played three numbers, demonstrating his versatility on his instrument, as the only Manhattan School of Music precollege student ever to double major classical violin and jazz violin. After playing “Inchworm” with a piano accompanist, he showed a sense of humor about himself while introducing a Bach movement. He was then joined by some of the early band musicians in a toe-tapping, hand clapping rendition of “Gypsy Swing.”

When Daria Musk came on stage, her exuberance was infectious. She said she was “excited to back on the NHS stage” and laughed at “being back in the choir hall, my home for four years.” She sang a short set, including an original composition, an interesting interpretation of James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s World,” placing an emphasis on the line “But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl,” and “Ghost” from her forthcoming CD.

Tom Chapin opened his set with a “Locally Grown,” a number on his about-to-be-released children’s CD, and immediately got the audience involved in a sing-along of the chorus. The teachers in the crowd and students who recently completed their CMTs next laughed in recognition to some of the lines in on “Not On the Test” (videos of both songs can be seen on www.TomChapin.com).

Variously playing the guitar, banjo and autoharp, Chapin wound down his set with a tribute to his late brother Harry, who died in an auto accident 30 years ago this summer, singing Harry’s “Cats In The Cradle” with a lot of assistance from the audience.

He then invited the various string players to join him on stage for a rousing rendition of “City of New Orleans,” during which each player was given a few moments to shine. He closed by including all of the show’s participants in what has become known as the Chapin family anthem, “Circle,” which Harry wrote for Tom when he hosted the TV show Make A Wish back in the 1970s.

After the show, Chapin said it was “a lot of fun” and that he enjoyed hearing and playing with so many talented young musicians.

 A delighted Rabbi Praver said he was “really happy to be able to showcase the local talent and to have them perform on the stage with someone like Tom Chapin, to learn what it is like working an audience. That is not something you can learn in a classroom,” he continued. “You learn by doing, which will help them in their musical careers.”

The experience, he added, “was a good one for everyone involved, the performers and all the volunteers whose efforts made the show possible, and that is was good for the synagogue to be involved with the community. We look forward to doing this again next year.”