Saturday Serenades

Happy Fourth of July! This holiday looks different for all of us today, but check out A Capitol Fourth on PBS channels - virtual performances and televised fireworks will get you in the spirit! 🇺🇸 🎶🎻💥🎆

We will be taking a summer hiatus from #SaturdaySerenade for a few weeks, but we had to share this video from 2009 of Glenn’s Electric Slugger version of God Bless America:

“The song is ended but the memory lingers on.”  
-Irving Berlin

This week's Saturday Serenade, Amazing Grace, was inspired by fathers - those who are with us, and those who are forever in our hearts. 

The piece is an inspiring (socially-distant) group effort with help from the Cuesta Chamber Singers. Many thanks to our dear friend John Knutson, Director of Choral Studies at Cuesta College, for arranging and directing this piece, and to David Becker, also a music instructor at Cuesta College, for producing the video. 

Thank you for listening,

Jan and Glenn

This week's serenade was inspired by a spontaneous "classic Glenn" moment, from 4 years ago in Düsseldorf, Germany. We had pulled Aidan and Katherine out of school for 3 weeks so they could join us on the National Symphony Orchestra European tour. It was best thing we ever did and we will always cherish those beautiful days we had together. Glenn and the kids were on their back from picking up Glenn's violin from the concert hall when they saw a violinist playing on the street. Glenn asked the kids to video as he quickly unpacked his violin and surprised the violinist by playing and harmonizing to "My Way." The street violinist did not miss a beat. He stood up from his chair and the two of them played the rest of the song together. This is one of those moments I wish I could have seen in person. Glenn transcribed the arrangement from the video the kids took - you can view the video from four years ago: https://youtu.be/CY8TsK5frYU

Thank you for listening,
Glenn and Jan

From Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro," this aria was featured in the movie The Shawshank Redemption during a scene where Andy, the main character, plays this song over the prison intercom system. The sheer beauty of music mesmerizes everyone in the prison yard and provides a brief moment of hope, peace, and freedom. To quote Red: “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. I’d like to think it was about something so beautiful, and makes your heart ache because of it.” Music heals, Jan and Glenn

We're taking a little break this week, but we'll be back next week with another Saturday Serenade! In the meantime, enjoy this throwback performance from Glenn and his Electric Slugger. We miss baseball and the Washington Nationals! ❤️⚾️🎻

Please take a moment to listen to #SaturdaySerenade No. 6, "America the Beautiful," in honor of #MemorialDay. The Memorial Day concert on the Mall with the National Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra Musicians is always a highlight of our year. Our dear friend, Eileen Brady also shared her thoughts on the annual concert as well:

We gather to hear stories of the dead, to hear music of loss and love.

It’s not exactly a “fun time,” but the annual National Memorial Day Concert means a great deal to my family and to thousands of others who converge on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 

After watching the broadcast for years on PBS, my family was able to attend in person after we moved to the Washington, D.C., area. One spring day, our friend and neighbor Glenn Donnellan invited us to be his guests at the Memorial Day concert, and that experience was just one of many unique and amazing adventures Glenn has provided for my family.

Since 1997, Glenn has played violin for the National Symphony Orchestra, providing the swelling sounds that accompany readings of first-person accounts of those who have been forever changed by war on what has often been called “America’s national night of remembrance.” 

Unlike the celebratory atmosphere of the Capitol Fourth concerts, which are similar in setup, the Memorial Day concerts are somber affairs. Actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna host the productions, and both have said that once they became involved, they pledged their future time as well because of how much the event means to them. The concerts are also broadcast to troops serving around the world via the Armed Forces Network.

We were honored to be Glenn’s guests, seated on blankets near the stage, surrounded by wounded warriors and their supportive families, the chiefs of the military services, celebrities, and elected officials of the U.S. government. We could have reached out and touched Gen. Colin Powell, Katie Holmes, Forest Whitaker, or countless others who were there to speak for the injured and fallen. 

But the true stars of each concert have always been the war veterans and those still serving. Seated as guests of honors, the men and women of the U.S. military are hugged and thanked and offered gratitude for their service. Their injuries are often visible, though sometimes their imperceptible burdens are released with the tears that run down their cheeks. 

My husband was (and is still) serving on active duty, and Glenn Donnellan wanted to honor his service and that of other military members we knew. So he shared his gifts with them. 

My favorite part of each concert is when the NSO plays the Armed Forces Medley, which was first performed in public in 1990 during the first National Memorial Day Concert. Backed by armed forces choirs, the official songs of each military branch are played while veterans of those services are asked to stand.

My husband is a Navy veteran who now serves in the Air Force, so he stands twice. One year, he was featured prominently on the live PBS broadcast as he stood during the Air Force song, and our phones quickly filled with voicemails and texts from friends and family all over the country who recognized him while watching at home. A few even noticed he was wearing a Navy shirt while standing for the Air Force Song. 

We moved away in 2012, and that year’s National Memorial Day Concert was our last in-person show, so it was doubly disappointing that shortly after it began, the concert was canceled due to sudden severe weather, and we were asked to evacuate the area.

We continue to watch the Memorial Day and Capitol Fourth concerts on TV, scanning the screen each time looking for Glenn and his wife, Jan Chong, also a violinist. 

Glenn has been recovering since 2019 from brain surgery, and he continues to fight to regain his health and has started performing to help heal the hardships of so many affected by the pandemic.

For this Memorial Day, Glenn and Jan have dedicated this week’s performance of “America the Beautiful” to the members of the armed services for their service to our country and to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Message from Glenn:  Thank you all for listening and thank you for your support. This series has really helped me in my playing. It feels like we are only on week 3 instead of week 5! Pietro Mascagni wrote Intermezzo in 1890 for an opera competition in Rome, Italy which he subsequently won. It became his most famous work and he received 40 curtain calls at the premiere, then it went on to be performed over 1400 times in Italy before his death in 1945.

Enjoy!
-Glenn

May 9 — Thank you all for tuning in and inviting us into your homes.  This week’s Serenade, Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, celebrates and honors all our mothers.  We hope our music can provide some comfort and healing during these unprecedented times when we cannot be together with our loved ones. Happy Mother’s Day!

Music heals, Glenn and Jan

May 3 — Thank you all for tuning in and inviting us into your homes. Today’s serenade is a tribute to all healthcare workers on the front lines everyday, braving the dangers of COVID-19, as well as the many men and women who saved Glenn’s life, treating and caring for him at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medstar National Rehabilitation Hospital.  Thank you for your courage, dedication, selflessness, strength, and for making a differences in our lives every minute, every day. YOU ARE OUR HEROES.

With great admiration, respect, and gratitude, Glenn and Jan

April 25 — Thank you all for tuning in and inviting us into your homes. We are honored and grateful to perform for you during these difficult times of uncertainty and isolation. Thank you for lifting our souls by listening, giving us a sense of purpose, and reigniting our passion to make music again. This is as healing for us as it is for you. Fifteen years ago, Glenn arranged this version of “O Mio Babbino Caro” from the opera "Gianni Schicchi” by Giacomo Puccini for our first National Symphony Orchestra Teddy Bear children's concert at the Kennedy Center. This aria is sung by the main character’s daughter to convince him to let her go to the next town to marry her lover. Enjoy! Please tune in for next week’s very special tribute.  Music heals lives.

April 18 — Long before I held a violin in my hands or knew that I wanted to be a professional musician, singing and listening to music made me feel good. I remember piling into the back of our old Chevrolet station wagon with my sisters for the two-hour ride between Delta Junction and Fairbanks in Alaska. We made the weekly commute for my oldest sister’s piano lessons. My sisters and I would sing our hearts out in the back of the car to our 8-track tapes of Karen Carpenter or sing songs from “The Sound of Music,” a favorite in the Chong household. Starting our series with “The Sound of Music” was the perfect choice during these challenging and isolating times. As in the Sound of Music, music brought our family closer — my sisters and I used to perform together. The power of music has a way of helping us feel more connected to each other and to the world around us. No matter where we are in the world, we can speak and understand music. Our hope is to uplift your sprits and elevate your emotions as well as ours as we share our music with you. —Jan Chong