Piano

When Gail Blakeman first started giving piano lessons in 1965, she used a $50 upright piano purchased by her father-in-law. In 1971, she upgraded to a baby grand piano, which cost roughly the same as the Volkswagen her husband purchased the same year. “I think the Volkswagen lasted about 10 years,” her husband, Bill Blakeman, said. The piano, on the other hand, still gets daily use at the Blakeman house, where students still show up before and after school for their weekly lessons and Gail Blakeman practices her own favorite pieces.

The Centre College Music Program will present its annual Fall Musicians Showcase concert on 4 p.m. Saturday in the Audrey R. Gillespie Recital Hall on campus. The event is free. The concert will feature 16 student musicians performing works by Chopin, Mozart, Scarlatti, Ravel, Bach, Hindemith, Strauss, Mendelssohn, and others. Student performers include: Jenny Anderson (flute), Davis Cherry (piano), Lisa Cloud (piano), Candace Davis (violin), Emery Denby (baritone), Matt Dillinger (trumpet)

The Wincheer Music Club, affiliated with the National and Kentucky Federations of Music Clubs met Tuesday evening, Feb. 27, at Rose Mary C. Brooks Place. Gail Blakeman, president, gave the welcome and introduced the program. Program sponsors were Billie Pace, Opal Gravett and Gail Blakeman. The program topic was "Give My Regards to Broadway" and a brief summary of each musical was given by Blakeman prior to being performed. Mattie Johnson gave a tap dance rendition of "Give My Regards to Broadway" by George M. Cohan with Billie Pace as accompanist.

Belinda Karnes has been with The Advocate-Messenger since March 2009. Prior to her employment with The Advocate-Messenger, Belinda was Supplier Development Coordinator for Trim Masters, Inc. General Offices and Technical Center in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she worked for sixteen years. Belinda currently lives in Moreland with her husband, Bryan. She enjoys traveling, fishing, and playing piano. Email bkarnes@amnews.com

The Winchester Music Club, which is affiliated with the National and Kentucky Federation of Music Clubs, met on Tuesday evening, Nov. 17 at the First Baptist Church on Lexington Avenue. Dr. William Cooper, president, presided at the meeting and welcomed the guests. Gail Blakeman read the Collect and everyone sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth" by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson with Dr. Cooper as accompanist. "Grace and Liberty," a piano solo by Dr. James Cocksman III, was shown via DVD. Dr. Cocksman was NFMC's 2009 piano winner.

June 25, 1984 Jamie Childers and Stacie Borders placed third at the recent Bluegrass Area 4-H Area Talent Show with their clogging routine. The annual Cub Scout Day Camp will be held Aug. 6-8 at the McKee Scout Reservation in Montgomery County. Included in the program are swimming, archery, crafts, hiking, cooking and campfires. Leslie Cayton recently was awarded a scholarship from the Daniel Boone Music Club to attend the Stephen Foster Collins Middle School Instrumental Camp.

Setting up for a recent gig at Two Roads Caf, Mike Perros of The Mike Perros Trio was all smiles as he remembered how the group got together. "I went to college with Bob (Bryant, bassist)," says Perros, drummer for the group. "I'd seen him over the years, and I gave him a call. I told him I had an off-the-wall request. " Perros says he knew Bryant was a professional musician and that he might not be interested in playing with a non-professional group. But he wanted to see if he could pull a group together, for a good reason.

Richard Ferreira doesn't really remember a time when he didn't have an instrument in hand ? or his hands on an instrument. He taught himself to play the accordion at the age of 10, when his parents gifted him with a button accordion. "I had music bursting in me," he explained. "I was hearing music all around me. "I was making my own tunes right at the beginning. I was already composing by age 10. I'm completely self-taught. I was a very disciplined student, even when I was teaching myself.

STANFORD - When he was bout 8 years old, Stuart Underwood's mother, Helen, decided that her son should take piano lessons. "Mom wanted me to learn how to play the piano, at least at a fundamental level," said Underwood. "She wanted me to have at least some basic musical training, whether I ever used it later on in an occupation or even as a pastime. " With his mother's sister, Virginia Crain, as his instructor, Underwood spent "many, many hours on that piano bench" in his home on Buckner Street in Perryville.

When Gail Blakeman first started giving piano lessons in 1965, she used a $50 upright piano purchased by her father-in-law. In 1971, she upgraded to a baby grand piano, which cost roughly the same as the Volkswagen her husband purchased the same year. “I think the Volkswagen lasted about 10 years,” her husband, Bill Blakeman, said. The piano, on the other hand, still gets daily use at the Blakeman house, where students still show up before and after school for their weekly lessons and Gail Blakeman practices her own favorite pieces.

A couple of land owners are worried a proposed amendment to a subdivision regulation will hurt the property value of dozens of farmers and they plan to make their concerns heard at the next Jessamine County/Wilmore Joint Planning Commission meeting. The proposed amendment will be read and voted on in a forum open to the public in the courthouse first-floor chambers 7 p.m. on Nov. 13. If approved, the amendment would change the existing language for lot dimensions, and shrink the depth of a tract of land from 7.12 times the width to 5.51 times the width.

Centre College's Norton Center for the Arts will present Geri Allen & Timeline, a group that has gained standing ovations throughout the country with its tight combination of jazz piano, bass and drums, and tap percussion. The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Weisiger Theatre at the Noron Center for the Arts. Geri Allen & Timeline consists of a diverse group: award-winning jazz pianist Geri Allen, bassist Kenny Davis, drummer Kassa Overall, and tap-dance sensation Maurice Chestnut, who brings colorful percussive footwork and musicianship in the vein of Savion Glover and the late Gregory Hines.

Andy Cooper has done it all. “When you get to be 77 years old, you’ve been on a lot of road. A lot of road,” he said. Cooper, a Lancaster resident, is wheelchair bound after a stroke in 1990 paralyzed the left side of his body. He was diagnosed with cancer in December but he still drives himself to chemotherapy every Wednesday. “I make myself go, I don’t get worried about it,” Cooper said. “I’m going to die anyway. If you’re going to live to 70 you’d better hope you lived some good laughs and good days.

Belinda Karnes has been with The Advocate-Messenger since March 2009. Prior to her employment with The Advocate-Messenger, Belinda was Supplier Development Coordinator for Trim Masters, Inc. General Offices and Technical Center in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where she worked for sixteen years. Belinda currently lives in Moreland with her husband, Bryan. She enjoys traveling, fishing, and playing piano. Email bkarnes@amnews.com

The Winchester Music Club, which is affiliated with the National and Kentucky Federation of Music Clubs, met on Tuesday evening, Nov. 17 at the First Baptist Church on Lexington Avenue. Dr. William Cooper, president, presided at the meeting and welcomed the guests. Gail Blakeman read the Collect and everyone sang "Let There Be Peace on Earth" by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson with Dr. Cooper as accompanist. "Grace and Liberty," a piano solo by Dr. James Cocksman III, was shown via DVD. Dr. Cocksman was NFMC's 2009 piano winner.

Richard Ferreira doesn't really remember a time when he didn't have an instrument in hand ? or his hands on an instrument. He taught himself to play the accordion at the age of 10, when his parents gifted him with a button accordion. "I had music bursting in me," he explained. "I was hearing music all around me. "I was making my own tunes right at the beginning. I was already composing by age 10. I'm completely self-taught. I was a very disciplined student, even when I was teaching myself.

Wesley Village will host a violin and piano concert at 1:15 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 18. Violinist Lauren Basney made her solo New York debut at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2004. Since then, she has performed throughout the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia, returning to Carnegie in October and November 2007 and in May 2008. In the U.S., she has performed at such venues as Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Merkin Hall, Columbia University, the National Arts Club, St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, the Lafayette Avenue Church, Grace Church, as well as the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of Wesley Village residents Dr. Dale and Edith Dunkelberger.

June 25, 1984 Jamie Childers and Stacie Borders placed third at the recent Bluegrass Area 4-H Area Talent Show with their clogging routine. The annual Cub Scout Day Camp will be held Aug. 6-8 at the McKee Scout Reservation in Montgomery County. Included in the program are swimming, archery, crafts, hiking, cooking and campfires. Leslie Cayton recently was awarded a scholarship from the Daniel Boone Music Club to attend the Stephen Foster Collins Middle School Instrumental Camp.