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Vacation matinees at The Grand

ELLSWORTH — Th e Grand will host vacation week matinee screenings of the hit animated Pixar movie “Onward” at 1 p.m. every day from April 19-23.

Teenage elf brothers Ian and Barley embark on a magical quest to spend one more day with their late fa-ther. Like any good adven-ture, their journey is fi lled with cryptic maps, impos-sible obstacles and unimagi-nable discoveries. But when dear Mom fi nds out her sons are missing, she teams up with the legendary man-ticore to bring her beloved boys back home.

Admission is $1, payable at the door. Th e screenings are being sponsored by the city of Ellsworth. Masks are required (except for eating) and 6-foot social distancing is required between family and friend pods.

For more information, visit www.grandonline.org or follow Th e Grand on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Th eGrand1938.

Piano recital scheduled April 2

WINTER HARBOR — Pianist George Lopez will present a recital program at Hammond Hall on Friday, April 2, at 7 p.m. as part of the Winter Harbor Music Festival’s 2021 season.

As the Robert Beckwith Artist-in-Residence at Bow-doin College, Lopez has been a dynamic performer and educator for over 25 years. He is known on several con-tinents for his thoughtful and expressive performances of the standard repertoire as well as being a champion of newly-written works. He recently premiered a piano concerto composed espe-cially for him and is com-fortable in styles of music ranging from jazz and rag-time to more contemporary improvisational styles.

Limited in-person seat-ing is available. Masks and distancing are required. Visit the festival’s website for up-dated safety requirements and streaming/in-person in-formation.

Reserve in-person and virtual tickets at www.win-terharbormusicfestival.com/events.

Glances

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ArtsBAR HARBOR — When

in-person church services ended at Church of Our Fa-ther about a year ago because of the pandemic, parishioner and pianist Tony Sousa and his wife, Joanne, wanted to do something to keep their com-munity together.

Music and Chatter was born from a conversation with fellow parishioner Jim Vallette, who, along with the Sousas, did not want to see the Wednesday service go by the wayside. A short time aft er beginning to fi lm the Sunday services for the Mount Desert Island Episcopal Church com-munity due to COVID-19,

Tony and Joanne also began recording the Music and Chat-ter shows from their home in Hulls Cove. 

“Our living room is the recording studio,” said Tony, who hosts and plays music for the half-hour show while Joanne fi lms them. “We record with a phone — a high qual-ity phone. Th ey have beautiful quality.”

Each Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m., a new episode airs on the MDI Episcopal You-Tube channel. At the begin-ning of each episode of Music and Chatter, Tony says hello to viewers and then tells every-one what number episode they are watching. It was May 12, 2020, when the fi rst one went out to their community audi-

ence. Nearly a year later, the audience spans from Mount Desert Island to Africa and throughout the United States. 

“Th e largest following we’ve had on any particular Wednes-day night, we had 450,” said Tony in a conversation with the Islander. “One of the neat things about YouTube is once it’s on there, it’s on there for-ever.”

Guests range from fel-low musicians within the MDI Episcopal church fam-ily, which encompasses four churches in communities around the island, to people Sousa knows from here or elsewhere. 

“Tony is a natural host, a gracious man with a network of talented musicians who reg-ularly perform at assisted liv-ing communities and churches and restaurants,” said Vallette in an email to the Islander. “Tony and friends have struck the right notes from the begin-ning. Music and Chatter has become its own community that cares for each other and the world and, through the gift of music, helps us sort through troubling times.”

While Valette refers to the pandemic and a tense political climate, the Sousas also faced a personal tragedy last year in October with the death of their son, Chris Buzzell, in an automobile accident. In one episode that aired in July, Tony plays a piece he created called “Progressions,” that he explains is inspired by Buz-zell and their conversations around chord progressions. Aft er Buzzell’s death, Tony dedicated one of the shows to him, playing songs by the Bea-tles and Paul Simon, among others, as well as another version of “Progressions.”

Th ere are some shows that are simply Sousa and his piano, but many feature musicians from the community that may highlight the season or simply their talent. 

“Most musicians these days have nowhere to play,” said Tony. “I’ve been here for 30 years so I know a lot of people.”

Guests have included singer Karen Lloyd, trumpet player Emma Stanley, pianist and singer Roberta DeMuro, lo-cal band Leavin’ Tulsa featur-ing Jim Vekasi and Jayme Lou, singer Sara Jones, violinist Spencer Tate and many more. 

“We mix it up from classi-cal music to country-western,” said Tony. “We try to line (art-

ists) up so we have them (ready to play). If we have to practice, we can do that.”

Shows are prepared about two weeks in advance and take a few hours to put together be-tween fi lming, editing and pro-duction. 

“It’s like a job, but it’s a fun job,” said Tony, whose career before retiring was in struc-tural engineering. “Music and science go together; it’s a nice mix.”

Valette was a big part of the production for most of last year, editing and putting to-gether each episode. Recently, he turned that over to Roger Samuel, who is a member of St. Savior’s Episcopal Church. 

“Jayne Ashworth is the tire-less and amazing leader of our MDI Episcopal broadcast team and helps with everything,” added Vallette. “Many viewers will not be able to come to our churches for a myriad of rea-sons as we reopen for live ser-vices. Others have health con-cerns that will keep them from coming and hearing live music anywhere else. So, I imagine/hope this series will continue on YouTube.”

Details of how to continue the production are being dis-cussed, according to Sousa, who would also like to see it continue. “We’ve enjoyed it and I think the community has enjoyed it too.”

Tony and Joanne also began ence. Nearly a year later, theT d J l b N l l h

Music and Chatter episodes strike the right noteSECTION 2 OF 3 Mount Desert Islander THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021

By Sarah Hinckleyshinckley@mdislander.com

Music and Chatter host Tony Sousa plays piano in most of the half-hour shows that air on the MDI Episcopal YouTube channel.

Musical guest Karen Lloyd sings a Christmas song in the fi rst episode of Music and Chatter using a computer program that allowed her to harmonize with several versions of herself. 

Fred Benson plays a mandora for one of the Music and Chatter episodes. He and host Tony Sousa used to play for the residents of Birch Bay Village before the pandemic. Now the assisted living community watches Sousa and others play music on the show that airs on YouTube weekly.

Mount Desert Island High School graduate Emma Stanley sings Auld Lang Syne with her friend Josh Dyum playing guitar for the fi rst Music and Chatter episode of the new year in January.

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