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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 25, 2015)
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2015 9 A ‘’Tis the Season’ for music Welcome new pastor Sunday at Lutheran Church at City Lights on Dec. 10 It’s About Time Productions presents “‘Tis the Season” at City Lights Cinemas on Thursday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. This one-night-only presenta- tion will offer performances by some of Florence’s finest acts in an evening of tradition- al and contemporary holiday music and dance. Tickets are $12.50 for nomembers or $10 for mem- bers, with a portion going to the local Military Museum. Youth Helping Youth Fundraiser Faith Fellowship Foursquare Youth Group 10-3 Saturday, November 28th Precious Moments, Snowbabies, Avon, Hallmark, Danbury Mint, Christmas Villages, Drummer Boy Collectibles and more! PHOTO BY JOE HENRY 1624 Hwy. 101 • Florence (Next to A&W) Resurrection Lutheran Church will install its new Pastor Randy Benscoter and his wife Carlene (above left) on Nov. 29. A farewell celebration was held last Sunday for retired Pastor Dan Wurster and his wife Kaylyn (above right). (Half of the donations will be used for World Vision, as well as the purchase of shoes and clothing for local teens) A LICE B RAUER C HRISTIAN P RESCHOOL Happy Thanksgiving! From our Family to Yours! Meggan Haslett, Director 541-603-1562 PHOTO BY DEBORAH HELDT CORDONE The community is invited to join members at Resurrection Lutheran Church on Sunday, Nov. 29, for the 3 p.m. installa- tion of new Pastor Randy Benscoter. Concordia University Pastor John Eggert will officiate, with Circuit Visitor Pastor Jim Markus conducting the Rite of Installation. Visiting pastors are invited to participate in the processional (red stoles) and offer greetings and blessings to the new pastor. Benscoter replaces Pastor Dan Wurster, who faithfully served the church and the Florence community for the past five years. He is moving to Athol, Idaho, with his wife Kaylyn. He retires after 42 years in the Lutheran ministry and will be greatly missed by the congregation. Benscoter and his wife Carlene are relocating to the Florence area from McCall, Idaho, where he served at Our Savior Lutheran Church since 2002. He comes with 36 years of experience in ministry, a bachelor’s degree in education from Concordia Teachers College in Chicago and a Master of Divinity from Concordia Theology Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. Benscoter has served con- gregations in Idaho, Montana and Alaska as well as done mis- sionary work in Papua New Guinea for nine years. He and his wife love to con- duct biblical sight tours in Israel and tours of the steps of Apostle Paul in Turkey, Greece and Rome. They are currently researching for a reformation sight tour in Germany. Carlene is a registered nurse and served as director of nurs- ing at the local medical facility in McCall. Resurrection Lutheran Church is a mile south of the bridge at 85294 Highway 101. It is affiliated with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Normal worship services are Sundays at 10 a.m. with a pre- ceding bible study at 9 a.m. —Submitted by Deborah Heldt Cordone One night on road to Carnegie at FEC ‘Ken Lavigne concert’ Review B Y B URNEY G ARELICK The sounds of upbeat music from piano and double bass rang out as Ken Lavigne walked out clapping his hands and encouraged his audience to join him Nov. 21 on stage at the Florence Events Center. Let me tell you folks.... Have a Safe and Wonderful Thanksgiving. Dressed in concert black, Lavigne sang full out one of Luciano Pavarotti’s favorite songs, the Neapolitan tune “Funiculi, Funicula” written in 1880 by Luigi Denza and Peppino Turco. It is risky to perform works favored by famous and well- loved singers. But Lavigne has a powerful voice and amazing timbre and carried it off well. The audience continued to clap along at the appropriate times and the piece ended to resound- ing applause. Lavigne had a good start to an evening of songs of mixed ethnicity and genre. Between selections, Lavigne took the audience along on his Road To Carnegie Hall with tales of his dream to get there, his struggles at times with the dream and the many on his team that assisted with his eventual performance on stage there. And tales they were. Lavigne is an accomplished and multi-talented performer who has honed his many talents to near perfection. He is as intriguing as a storyteller as he is as a classically trained singer. His true-to-life stories were compelling and his fun sense of humor often peppered them with spontaneous laughter from his audience. One audience member said she would have opted for more singing and less talking. After hearing Lavigne talk about his personal singing dream, another attendee was challenged to question if she had any dreams and discovered that she did. No doubt Lavigne’s storytelling tal- ents became thought-provoking throughout the hall as he sang Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion’s 1965 hit from “Man of La Mancha” — “The Impossible Dream” — beautifully. Early in the program Lavigne again took a big risk singing Maruo Malavasi and Andrea Sandr’s “Dell’amore non si sa” which was made famous by Andre Bocelli. Lavigne had a bit of trouble reaching some of the high notes in this one. It may have been that his voice wasn’t warmed up enough because the rest of the evening he nailed all of the many high notes that were to come. One outstanding period in the evening was when Lavigne spoke of his discovery of Robert Goulet as a Broadway singer in “Camelot.” Lavigne performed Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's “C'est Moi” as well as anyone has. But it was his surprising musical the- ater presence and animation that caused him to delightfully shine during this song. Any singer is only as good as his backup band and Casey Ryder on both double bass and guitar and Patrick Courtin on keyboard were barely notice- able. They were that good. Attention is focused on the solo performer and except for a couple of mini-solos along the way, the two instrumentalists played so well that they didn’t stand out. That’s a good thing. Singers do not always per- form a piece exactly the same way every time and musicians must be attuned to every nuance, pause, breath, entrance and possible hiccup a singer may make. And they must do it perfectly. Courtin and Ryder did just that. Lavigne was admittedly inspired to classical training by Luciano Pavarotti who Lavigne believes is the greatest male opera voice of all time. Pavarotti ended every con- cert singing the 1898 Neapolitan song “O sole mio” written by Giovanni Capurro and Eduardo di Capua. Lavigne took another risk singing this one but was totally up to the task and received a standing ovation for his efforts. There were some wonderful Elvis Presley interpretations, some actual 1940s style croon- ing and more but space runs out to report on it. Lavigne, Ryder and Courtin were impressed with Florence and very much wish to return. When they do, be sure not to miss them. Ken Lavigne was one of Seacoast Entertainment Association’s 2015-2016 series concerts. Don’t miss SEA's next exciting concert with award-winning guitarist Jesse Cook, on Friday, Jan. 29 2016. Join SEA for the pre-concert talk at 6:15 p.m. and the per- formance at 7 p.m. For tickets, call the FEC box office at 997-1994. 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