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.
This message brought to
you by these sponsors:
C ROSS R OAD A SSEMBLY
A&W R ESTAURANT
D AVE ’ S L ANDSCAPING
F LORENCE P HARMACY
W ESTERN L ANE A MBULANCE
S IUSLAW V ALLEY F IRE
S IUSLAW S CHOOL D ISTRICT
R HODY E XPRESS
R IVER C ITIES T AXI
S HAWN F LEMING C ONSTRUCTION
F LORENCE H EATING & S HEET M ETAL
F LORENCE P OLICE D EPARTMENT
R ESURRECTION L UTHERAN C HURCH
S IUSLAW N EWS
CONCEAL CARRY
CARRY
CONCEAL
PERMIT CLASS
CLASS
PERMIT
Oregon
–Utah
Oregon
–
Valid
in 35
Utah
- Valid
34 States
States
Wednesday, December 16th
1pm or 6pm
Walk-ins Welcome
Florence Event Center, 715 Quince St.
OR/Utah–valid in WA $80
or Oregon only $45
shauncurtain.com ~ ~ shauncurtain@gmail.com
FIREARMTrainingNW.com
FIREARM TrainingNW@gmail.com
360-921-2071