Music Under the Stars
Nostalgia overcame me this evening. It happens when I attend “Music Under the Stars” at the Toledo Zoo’s Amphitheater. I’m pushing 60 but nothing has changed at this summer evening pops concert series since my childhood. Toledo Concert Band leader Samuel Szor has been conducting them for the past 57 years. The MC is Gordon Ward, the “Walter Cronkite” of a local TV station from decades past. How many more years can these two keep going?
The program featured big band music. Perfect for the 1936 WPA built amphitheater. Not because the space is art deco, in fact the stone façade surrounding the stage is Italianate. But because the jazz music fits the time period when it was built. Thoughts of FDR, public works, cities and jazz filled my mind.
The amphitheater holds about 5,000 people using bench seating. Perhaps 2,000 attended but spread out so it seemed like a full house. Overall, an aesthetically pleasing space that keeps me coming back every year.
Sunday was the last concert of the season. It’s shortened season because of sponsor cutbacks. The mood was a little like the last night at the proms, especially when the last number was played, Stars and Stripes for Ever.
The program featured big band music. Perfect for the 1936 WPA built amphitheater. Not because the space is art deco, in fact the stone façade surrounding the stage is Italianate. But because the jazz music fits the time period when it was built. Thoughts of FDR, public works, cities and jazz filled my mind.
The amphitheater holds about 5,000 people using bench seating. Perhaps 2,000 attended but spread out so it seemed like a full house. Overall, an aesthetically pleasing space that keeps me coming back every year.
Sunday was the last concert of the season. It’s shortened season because of sponsor cutbacks. The mood was a little like the last night at the proms, especially when the last number was played, Stars and Stripes for Ever.