Welcome to another installment of Music in Mid-Ohio online!
This is an extension of our MiMO broadcast season, presenting favorite locally produced performances. The coronavirus has many future concerts postponed, but not even this horrible virus can stop the music.
I’ve been going to concerts and working around concerts for fifty years. I’ve seen a few artists who could capture audiences with the first two notes. Beverly Sills could do that. So could Van Cliburn.
So can Orlando and Orlay Alonso.
Orlay Alonso lives in Central Ohio. He’s a big part of the Classical 101 family, through our radio series Musica Cubana. People flock to his concerts for the fire of his playing...and the charisma keeps audiences coming back. His older brother Orlando is himself a stunning young artist. His cool balances his kid brother’s hot. I love them both.
Here are the Alonso brothers in concert a few years ago, playing Piazzolla’s Nightclub: 1960.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVURIWWRWrw
Do you feel the dance moves? Can you smell the wine spilled on the floor? Do you see the gorgeous women? It’s all in this music.
P.S. Orlay is the organist at Indianola Presbyterian Church. You pray, you listen to Christopher Dent’s splendid choir, and you leave the church swinging when Orlay plays the Ritual Fire Dance as a recessional. That kept me coming back!
We'll all be back hearing live music soon. In the meantime, enjoy Music in Mid-Ohio online.
