WESTFIELD – It has taken two years forThe Musical Club ofWestfield to create the theme, write the script and to enlist the actors and performers. On Sunday, April 21 at 3 p.m., welcome to the Presbyterian Church in Westfield, 140 Mountain Avenue at East Broad Street. Enter a television studio for a quiz show. Two “experts” scramble to answer the host’s questions about musical families. Musicians perform the compositions of spouses, siblings, relations and best friends. Come early for strolling musicians and leave with a Mozart kugel to enjoy. The $10 ticket donation helps fund scholarship awards for college music majors from Union County.
Music keeps a family together, or not. Brothers George and Ira Gershwin wrote a paean to discord “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off.” Papa Leopold Mozart dragged his children Wolfgang and Nannerl around Europe. Later, Wolfgang went on to invent new musical expressions in “The Marriage of Figaro” and his son, Franz Xaver Mozart, founded the first music conservatory in Ukraine. There are stories about the Mendelssohn brother and sister Felix and Fanny, Johann Sebastian Bach who taught music to his second wife and to his 20 children, the widow Clara Schumann who was pursued by family friend Johannes Brahms, husband and wife Gustav and Alma Mahler, the Yakymenko brothers. Both Rossini and Irving Berlin wrote comic songs about the troubles in relationships.
Come and join us in the fun and festivities featuring these musical geniuses who did, or did not, get along with their families and friends. For detailed information, see the Musical Club of Westfield’s website: Westfieldnj.com/mcw.
