2023  Concert  Schedule  —  FINAL

Date             Venue  /  Host                        Location                                     Concert  Theme
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Jan     30       Milltown Public Library, Milltown NJ                        —        Folk Song Boomers

                       ––––––––––––––––––––––      Women’s History Month      ––––––––––––––––––––––

Mar     1         Springhill, Erie PA                                                              —          She Did It Her Way

Mar     2         Concordia South Hills, Pittsburgh PA                        —          She Did It Her Way

Mar     5         Dover Public Library, Dover DE                                  —          She Did It Her Way

Mar   11         Bloomfield Public Library, Bloomfield NJ                —          She Did It Her Way

Mar   12         North Oaks, Baltimore MD                                               —          She Did It Her Way

Mar   18         Pines Village, Whiting NJ                                                 —         She Did It Her Way

Mar   26         Middlesex Public Library, Middlesex NJ                  —          She Did It Her Way

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Apr   12         Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ                                     —           The Moon, The Stars and You

Apr   22         Mahwah Public Library, Mahwah NJ                         —           When Love Was Nifty

Apr   29         Ardsley Public Library, Ardsley NY                            —            MidCentury Melodies

May   19         Concordia South Hills, Pittsburgh PA                       —            Crooners, Swingers and Idols

May   20         Homewood, Frederick MD                                             —            She Did It Her Way

May   30         Daughters of Miriam, Clifton NJ                                —            The Moon, The Stars and You

June     7         Ardsley Seniors, Ardsley NY                                         —            Crooners, Swingers and Idols

June   18         Searstone, Cary NC                                                          —            Vintage Guitar Roadshow

June   19         Penick Village, Southern Pines NC                              —            Juke Joint Jive

June   20         Springmoor, Raleigh NC                                               —             MidCentury Melodies

June   22         Arbor Acres, Winston-Salem NC                                  —            Crooners, Swingers and Idols

July      8         Old Bridge Public Library, Old Bridge NJ              —            The Moon, The Stars and You

July    14          Matawan Aberdeen Library, Matawan NJ            —            The Moon, The Stars and You

Aug    10          Sea Isle City Library, Sea Isle City NJ                      —              Crooners, Swingers and Idols

Aug    25           Kirkland Village, Bethlehem PA                                —            When Love Was Nifty

Aug     31          Wesley Enhanced Living, Doylestown PA             —             MidCentury Melodies

Sep     26          Westfield Public Library, Westfield NJ                 —             Poets of the Prairie

Oct       4           Greendale Mens Club, Worcester MA                     —             The Moon, The Stars and You

Oct       4           Elms @ Briarwood, Worcester MA                           —             In The Mood

Oct       5           RiverMead, Peterborough NH                                     —             Crooners, Swingers and Idols

Oct       7           Ventress Memorial Library, Marshfield MA        —            The Moon, The Stars and You

Oct       8           Fuller Village, Milton MA                                            —             Crooners, Swingers and Idols

Oct     19            Springhill, Erie PA                                                         —             He Did It His Way 

Oct     20           Concordia South Hills, Pittsburgh PA                    —             The Moon, The Stars and You 

Oct     21            Homewood, Frederick MD                                            —             MidCentury Melodies

Nov      4            Avalon Public Library, Avalon NJ                            —             The Moon, The Stars and You

Nov      8            Heath Village, Hackettstown NJ                                 —             Crooners, Swingers and Idols

 Nov    16            Pine Run, Doylestown PA                                              —             MidCentury Melodies

Nov    30            The Culpepper, Culpepper VA                                    —             Crooners, Swingers and Idols

Dec       2            North Oaks, Parksville MD                                          —             Great American Cabaret

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                             ©  2023 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

Concert  Themes

Popular program themes for VintageMusicConcerts

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© 2023 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - 1936

With the addition of new themes and several updates, VintageMusicConcerts now offers 24 programs in its concerts. Each theme traces a musical, romantic or historic idea with amusing anecdotes, memorable melodies and sophisticated lyrics. Audiences discover their favorite songs and fondest memories are seasoned with wit and warmth, while hosts find themed concerts are easy to promote.

VintageMusicConcerts present hand-crafted jazz, ragtime, swing & pop tunes and vintage acoustic guitars for an authentic back-in-the-day sound. You can't get these great old-time sounds out of some box with plastic knobs.

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Vintage Guitar Roadshow
For an authentic, back-in-the-day sound, concert offers great American ragtime, jazz and swing tunes of the 1920s, 1930s & 1940s paired with vintage acoustic guitars from the same decades. Program explores 20th Century popular music and the current market for guitars used by performers of that time.

MidCentury Melodies

Johnny Mercer - 1950s

A concert of great tunes from the 20th Century's juicy middle — before musical tastes were stained by disco, bossa nova, bubble gum and stadium singers. We will explore the hit tunes of Jo Stafford, Tony Bennett, Vaughn Monroe, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer, Patti Page, Nat King Cole, Dinah Shore, Dave Barbour, Rosemary Clooney, Edith Piaf, Bob Wills, Barbara Cook and others.

Crooners and Swingers

Concert of romantic ballads and pop songs foisted on American ears by heart-throb crooners, teen-aged idols and Rat Pack swingers during the Eisenhower Era. These songs were hits for a post-war sock-hop generation, a time when people dated, dined & danced to their favorite tunes as they aired on radios, juke boxes or at the movies. You’ll be glad to hear them again.

 

Moon, Stars and You 

Concert will summon wine-dark skies, cheerful stars and the pale moon on high for romantic insight and inspiration with classic love songs, including: Blue Moon, Fly Me To The Moon, It’s Only A Paper Moon, Moonglow, As Time Goes By, Moon River, How High The Moon, Moonlight Bay, Stars Fell On Alabama, Beyond The Sea, Blue Skies, Moonlight in Vermont, Get Out and Get Under The Moon, Moonlight Serenade, Old Cape Cod, Polka Dots and Moonbeams and, of course, everyone's favorite, Stardust. 

 

Big Band Idols

Concert of songs immortalized by vocalists, musicians and band leaders who fronted Big Bands, jazz combos and society orchestras during the Swing Era.

Irving Berlin's memorable masterpiece - 1920

Ragtime Rascals

Concert offers hot sweet jazz renditions with the memorable tunes, clever lyrics and rapid rhythms loved by flappers, doughboys and bootleggers and spread by radio, talkies, 78s and tin lizzies.

When Love Was Nifty
In the decade before Elvis and his rowdy friends arrived, American pop music began shifting its focus to appeal to both adult interests and youthful ideas of romance.

She Did It Her Way
Concert celebrates lives, romances, careers and hits of female vocalists and recording artists such as Peggy Lee, Billie Holiday, Patti Page, Dinah Shore, Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford, Judy Garland, Bessie Smith, Mildred Bailey, Helen Forrest and others.

He Did It His Way
Concert celebrates lives, romances, careers and hits of male vocalists and band leaders such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Gene Autry, Johnny Mercer, Artie Shaw and others.

Great American Cabaret

Back in the day couples dated, dined and danced at cabarets, supper clubs, hotels, restaurants and night clubs, so our concert offers the standards, ballads and jazz hits of saloon singers, ballroom bands and jazz combos.

Radio Ramblers
Americans once used console, tabletop or portable devices to hear music, news, drama, comedy, games, sports, shopping and gossip of the day, so our concert salutes the shows, songs, singers and emcees of radio's heyday.

Juke Joint Jive
Memorable toe-tappin' hits favored by lindy hoppers, stage door johnnies, zoo suiters, swingshift maisies, jitter buggers, drugstore cowboys & bobby soxers.

Speak Easy Jazz

Concert of record, jukebox and radio hits by the artists who were progenitors of American jazz: Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Isham Jones, Paul Whiteman, Mildred Bailey, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Richard Whiting et al.

Composer Jimmy McHugh and
lyricist Dorothy Fields - 1933

Sunny Side Of The Street

Concert of mirthful, upbeat romantic songs that will smother you with unsolicited love advice, repair or improve your personality, poke fun at society's upper crust and beat back the blues. 

 

Legendary Love Songs
Concert offers musical fountain of amorous lyrics, catchy tunes and dewy-eyed tales to ignite old flames, evoke moonlit nights, recall romantic affairs, and submit to pangs of heartthrobs & heartaches — memorable moments each kiss was an inspiration.

Torch Song Embers
Concert features bittersweet, dreamy, wistful and memorable songs for those of us who still idolize the One Who Got Away, who can't forget some misbegotten lover, who romanticize a long-ago tryst that broke our heart, and those who remain stubbornly smitten with an unforgettable but sweet love song.

Kingston Trio Redux

The Kingston Trio changed the course of pop music from the late 1950s to late 1960s. They became America's most envied, imitated & successful pop group as they gathered a repertoire from many sources — urban blues, rural folk, calypso, folk rock, Broadway show tunes and Americana — and spun clever arrangements into commercial success on college campuses, in coffee houses and hit records.

Broadway Song Mementos

Tunes Great White Way producers used to advance story lines, tout ingénues and draw income from sheet music, records, juke box, movies and radio airplay.

Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) and admirer - 1930s

Hollywood Song Souvenirs
Song selection gave movie makers ways to turn celluloid dramas & zany comedies into hits. You’ll be surprised how many tunes you remember.

Bye Bye Blues
Concert features the jazz and swing hits popular in the era between the world wars. Young people claimed these tunes as their own because the songs were danceable and had clever lyrics and memorable melodies. What's more, they were performed by vocalists and big bands who gained popularity with simultaneous appearances in recordings, radios, jukeboxes and movies.

In The Mood
Concert offers a bouquet of romantic tunes from the war-torn 1940s that gave pop music emotional depth and evoked nostalgic moods to resonate with folks on the Home Front & Front Lines. Back in the day escapism was a priority for listeners and this Vintage Music Concert will help you get away from it all.

Composer George Gershwin and his
brother lyricist Ira Gershwin - 1920s

Tin Pan Alley Cats
Songs and histories behind hit songs by great lyricists and composers, including George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish, Johnny Black, Johnny Mercer, Frank Loesser, Duke Ellington, Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Richard Rodgers, Larry Hart, Cindy Walker, Sadie Vimmerstedt, Peggy Lee and other great American songwriters.

Folk Song Boomers

Concert of pop, topical, folk, traditional and protest songs that became popular radio hits and sing-along anthems for America's post-war generation that came of age in the 1950s and 1960s.

Dustbowl balladeer Woody Guthrie - 1943

Poets of the Prairie

With songs and stories, this concert will explore the cultural impact of several late 20th Century American and Canadian composers, performers and recording artists, including: Woody Guthrie of Okema, Okla., Goebel Reeves of Sherman, Texas, Bob Dylan of Duluth, Minn., Gordon Lightfoot of Toronto, Ontario, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan and Ian Tyson of Victoria British Columbia.

 

 

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Copyright © 2023 — Ken Lelen — All Rights Reserved