Start Spreading the News: Va Symphony Takes on Sinatra

January 26, 2016

This is a story about two men. The first is a seasoned professional. The second is not quite in his rookie year, but pretty new to the game. Sketch the Venn diagram and they have a lot in common – talent, love of the music and commitment.

For two days at the end of this month, they will be sharing the stage along with many other talented musicians when the Virginia Symphony Orchestra presents “Sinatra Centennial” on Friday, January 29 at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News and Saturday, January 30 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk.

This is really a story about three men. The third is Francis Albert Sinatra, “Old Blue Eyes.” He would have been 100 on December 12, 2015. Sinatra left behind an amazing body of work, over 1,500 recordings in almost 50 years. Frank Holden of the New York Times said, “Frank Sinatra gave pop music a beating heart.”

I saw Sinatra in concert. I was 16-years-old in the summer of 1967. I knew who Frank Sinatra was, but I was listening to Bob Segar, the Beatles and Motown. I had seen the Beatles in concert the year before, and I thought I was too cool for school. My Aunt Paula couldn’t go see Sinatra at the last minute and gave me the tickets. They were front row center at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Old Blue Eyes made a fan out of me. Frank Sinatra had the gift of telling a story each time he sang a song, making it sound like it was the first time he was telling that story, and he was telling it just to you.

Steve Lippia, the seasoned professional, has the gift too.

I spoke to him by phone from his home in Las Vegas, but he is on the road over 200 days a year. Steve sang in a rock band. He has sung with barbershop quartets and choral groups, but his true love is the American classics, as sung by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Nat King Cole. He loves singing with a full symphony, like the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. “A symphony just adds so many more tools to the palette of the artist,” he said

Steve Lippia talks to the audience. “Frank did that too. We are going to perform a great timeline of Sinatra’s work, from the early years singing with the Tommy Dorsey band, to his later years. I like to tell the audience a little bit about the music.”

The young professional in this story, sharing the stage with the Steve Lippia and the rest of the VSO, is Adam Gandolfo, Second Trumpet.

Adam has been with the VSO since 2013 and this is his first “real” job since graduating with a Master’s Degree from Eastman School of Music. Adam may be young but he has the talent, love of music and commitment. This guy has the battle scars to prove it. He plays that trumpet so much, up to five hours a day, that he has a scar on his upper lip.

Adam Gandolfo is from my home state of Michigan. I went to the VSO’s Holiday Brass concert in December. I love that big, rich sound that comes from brass plus percussion. As the musicians and conductor, Dr. Paul Bhasin, introduced themselves, I noticed there seemed to be a large contingent from Michigan. Was it a good old boys network? Did Michigan musicians invite other Michigan musicians into the VSO?

Adam Gandolfo says not true and not possible. It’s tough getting a position playing with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, one of the top 50 orchestras in the country. The audition process is still fresh in Adam’s mind. The auditions are blind. The musicians, sixty to seventy of them, perform behind a curtain for a panel of judges. The musicians are not allowed to speak and are only identified by a number during the first several rounds. It is not until the final round, when the field is narrowed down to two or three, that they come out from behind the curtain and perform with a member of the symphony to see if it will be a “good fit.”

Adam guesses that maybe there are so many horn players from Michigan because of the “strong” marching band programs in the public schools. Adam didn’t take up the trumpet until middle school. He was not a child prodigy and did not come from a musical family. He learned to play the trumpet at school. He was ready to quit when he got to high school. “Band is not cool,” he said. His mom, who Adam credits with his success, bribed him with a 6-pack of Mountain Dew Code Red. If he stuck it out a year, he could have the forbidden drink. By the end of the year, Adam had a mentor in his high school band teacher, Mr. Pethoud, and he loved playing the trumpet.

Let’s all give a shout out to teachers and moms.

The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with Adam Gandolfo playing second Trumpet, conductor Benjamin Rous, and vocalist Steve Lippia will come together for two nights to “celebrate Sinatra with a musical retrospective of his career.”

“The trumpets and the rest of the brass drive the Big Band sound and add incredible energy,” said Lippia said.

The respect between singer and musicians is mutual.

“We’re excited to play with a vocalist like Steve Lippia,” said Gandolfo said. “It adds just that much more energy.”

The seasoned performer and the young trumpeter are thinking the same thing: t’s going to be two great nights.

For more information and how to purchase tickets, click here.