ATLANTA—“Brilliant, just brilliant!” said Bob Clarke, a retired 46-year Minister of Music, responsible for music at a church in Georgia. He caught his first glimpse of Divine Performing Arts (DPA) in Atlanta with his pianist wife, Ida-Anne Clarke.
The orchestra left deep impressions in the hearts of the musician couple. During the intermission, they chatted with several orchestra members and learned more about some of the Western and Chinese instruments that they had not seen or heard from for a while.
“I thought they were excellent, especially one of the drummers,” Mr. Clarke said. “In fact, the young ladies who were there with him very seldom looked at the music, they looked at the director to know what was going on. … It shows that they have worked hard for the last seven or eight months to get ready for this.”
Mr. Clarke explained that most of the performances they have seen have been orchestral, so this Christmas gift from their daughter was the first chance for them to see such a show.
“It’s a completely different genre,” Mrs. Clarke said. “The athleticism was remarkable, and how they sustained that; and the change of costumes was just remarkable, just so remarkable.”
Mrs. Clarke was also thrilled by the “excellent musicianship” of the orchestra and the techniques of the pianist and the vocalist.
“And then the visuals, the choreography, the precision, the artistry, and then the screen where they brought in from like, outer space, and then they emerged from the background. It was so dramatic!” Mrs. Clarke said.
After the first half of the show, she was moved to tears by the “Persecuted on a Sacred Path”, which tells a story of a father who is persecuted to death for practicing Falun Gong in China.
Mr. Clarke’s favorite pick was the “Dance of the Snow-Capped Mountain”, a piece celebrating Tibetan hand-drum dance.
“It brought us all up to a big conclusion, and it was very nice.”
For information please visit divineperformingarts.org
