Lincoln and Sheri attended the opening of PS/21, the new performing arts center for Columbia County, New York. This is the brainchild of Judy Grunberg, a woman of great generosity, who envisioned and organized this project known as Performance Space for the 21st Century. Events this summer take place in a magnificent tent, which, in beauty and acoustics, rivals some of the best new concert halls around the country. Soon a permanent theater of four hundred seats will be erected on this hilltop north of the Village of Chatham, presenting a variety of music, dance, theatrical, and community events. Sheri will be singing with Lincoln, along with bassist Otto Gardner and other musicians, at the Friday Night Swing Dances this summer: July 28, August 4, and August 18.

The Mayorgas will make a new recording late in the summer of their concert program, "American Snaphots -- Two Hundred Years of American Music". Guest artists on the recording will include violinist Arnold Steinhardt, bassist Otto Gardner, and percussionist/drummer Sam Zucchini. Let us know if you would like details on how you can participate in this project, and enjoy the heady benefits of membership in the TownHall Recordings Society!

The San Francisco Opera Company recently gave a gala birthday party in tribute to Lincoln's friend, violist Tom Heimberg. Tom has been with the opera company for more than thirty years, as a musician and also as orchestra manager. Tom and Lincoln, along with violinist and Chatham resident Arnold Steinhardt, have been friends since they played together in the Bancroft Junior High School Orchestra in Hollywood. On Lincoln's trip to California last month, he visited Tom, and also the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum which this month will publish Tom Heimberg's oral history. The photo above is of Tom and Lincoln in 1951, making a recording on Lincoln's 1948 Webster Wire Recorder. Some of us remember wire recording, the forerunner of tape recording. It worked fine until the wire snapped on rewind, and became hopelessly snarled!

The remarkable jazz clarinetist, Evan Christopher, met recently with Lincoln to rehearse "Louis In New Orleans," Mayorga's composition based on a memoir of Louis Armstrong about growing up in New Orleans. The piece, commissioned by L'Ensemble, and originally scored for singer, violin, piano, and bass, was adapted by the composer for jazz clarinet, in the Dixieland style. According to Lincoln, Evan Christopher, who plays in the traditional New Orleans style, "took to the piece like a duck to water!" Watch this newsletter for details about forthcoming performances.

Evan, whose international jazz career takes him to Switzerland's Montreau Jazz Festival and to Brazil this fall, has performed and recorded with many distinguished musicians, including Lincoln' good friend, pianist Dick Hyman, whose enthusiastic recommendation was responsible for the meeting of clarinetist and composer.

Lincoln has been on the advisory board of PS/21 since the inception of the project. He will be assisting in the planning of musical programming for future seasons.

On Tuesday evening, August 1, at PS/21, Lincoln Mayorga will present a talk, with demonstration, about film music, the philosophy and the process. From important films, he will show great classic scenes that were great because of the music, which carried the emotional content and suggested thoughts and images not shown. Included will be excerpts from dramatic music which he wrote for the television series "Fame," illustrating the process from before the music is written.

The featured motion picture, presented in its entirety, will be "The Competition," with Richard Dreyfus and Amy Irving. This 1980 film is about the struggles of young concert pianists in a serious international piano competition, and how love and ambition come into conflict. Lincoln recorded piano music of Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scarlatti, and other composers for the sound track of "The Competition." "The Competition Piano Solo Album" is available on TownHall Records.

Golden Anniversary Event: The dynamic duo of Bruce Belland and Lincoln Mayorga will present a nostalgic and humorous view of Twentieth Century Pop. These two, known in web circles as 2 History Making Hitmakers 2, will celebrate their 50th anniversary at this concert, Sunday afternoon August 20, at PS/21. Bruce and Lincoln signed with Capitol Records in August of 1956, Bruce as lead singer, and Lincoln as pianist and arranger for The Four Preps. Bruce has had a remarkable career as a singer/songwriter, actor, comedian, and television producer, and Lincoln's checkered career has taken him from the studios of Hollywood to concert stages all over the world, and the saloons of Chatham! This is an afternoon not to be missed. Bring your handkerchief for tears of laughter, joy, and nostalgia!

For additional LINCOLN MAYORGA information, please visit www.lincolnmayorga.com.