MARK AUERBACH
SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield Symphony Orchestra celebrates Frank Sinatra with the Sinatra Centennial Pops on February 13 at Springfield Symphony Hall. Steve Sigmund is guest conductor for the celebration, which features Steve Lippia, who has performed pops standards with orchestras nationwide. The program will include some of Sinatra’s greatest hits, as his career traversed radio, television, concert halls, and films.
Steve Lippia has become one of the most prominent, in-demand vocalists and has quickly established his place among the finest interpreters of “standards” and traditional pop music in the nation. Lippia has headlined in highly successful, extended engagements at the major resorts in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, and he’s been a guest artist with numerous symphony orchestras coast-to-coast. He has performed at New York’s Birdland Jazz Club with the Nelson Riddle and Woody Herman orchestras, and he completed a European Jazz Festival tour, in which he also performed on a Finnish TV2 nationally-televised specil. Lippia grew up in Southington, CT.
Steve Sigmund, guest conductor of the Springfield Symphony’s Sinatra Pops.
Miami-based guest conductor Steve Sigmund, who is music director for Steve Lippia, toured with Ray Charles for 16 years, and has played in the world’s most prominent venues and for many musical luminaries: The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Moscow National Symphony, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, Arturo Sandoval, Rosemary Clooney, Willie Nelson, Patti Austin, and Michael McDonald, among others.
The public may love Sinatra’s music, but so do the musicians. Springfield Symphony Maestro Kevin Rhodes, who spoke to us from Germany where he’s conducting the Stuttgart Ballet’s orchestra, says “I’m certainly a fan of Sinatra. I’m probably equally a fan of him as an actor and as a singer…and I think it is that very comment that informs what I think makes him special as a singer. In spite of gaining fame first as a singer, for me, he is an actor who sang. It is his way with the actual words, the lyrics of a song which make his performances so unique. He gave the lyrics context.”
Steve Lippia sings Sinatra’s greatest hits at the Springfield Symphony Pops.
Steve Perry, Principal Tuba player with both the Hartford and the Springfield Symphony orchestras, is a Sinatra fan.
“I love hearing the different parts of his career,” said Perry. “When he was young, he had this voice that had such a sustaining ability with the melody line. He always had an incredible feeling for rhythm where he phrased with rubato within the rhythmic framework. Frank also knew exactly what he wanted from the band and appreciated their ability. He had favorites, one of which was trumpeter Conrad Gozzo from New Britain, CT. As he got older, and his voice got more fragile from smoking and drinking, his great arranger Nelson Riddle worked out the music where Frank would sing with a limited vocal range of about an octave. Because of the great arrangements, it was difficult to tell”.
The Westfield News Group, publishers of The Westfield News, The Longmeadow News, The Enfield Press, and the Pennysaver, is one of the sponsors of this concert. The Westfield News Group has also sponsored programs by The Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative, Chester Theatre Company, North Hall Arts Featival in Huntington, Longmeadow Chamber Music Society, and Longmeadow Cultural Council events this year.
By the way, all ticketholders are invited to a post-concert party at the Springfield Sheraton Hotel’s MVP, where they can meet orchestra members and Steve Lippia.
For details on tickets and parking options around Springfield Symphony Hall: 413-733-2291 or www.springfieldsymphony.org.
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
