The Thomaston-Upson Classical Music and Opera Club

            The idea for a classical music and opera club came to Dwain W. Penn during the fall of 2000.  With the “science fiction” year 2001 approaching, Penn wanted to share his passion for music with the community using Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie “2001, A Space Odyssey” as a catalyst.  The soundtrack of this 1969 movie has several timeless pieces that Penn was familiar with including the obsequious opening bars of Thus Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.  Penn knew the entire piece from which the opening was ripped and perhaps disembodied from the public’s psyche.

            Therefore, with his arsenal of music CDs at hand, growing every month, Penn started the meetings on the second Tuesday of each month with January 9, 2001 set as the inaugural event.  Penn spent about $40 on refreshments expecting quite a host of friends and acquaintances to attend the gala.  No one did.  Undaunted, Penn signed the formal document to charter the club and set into motion a series of events and inventions over the next five and a half years.

            Within a month of the first meeting, Marji Davis-Williams, a newspaper reporter saw the announcement for the inaugural meeting and was intrigued by the premise of creating a classical music and opera club.  She interviewed Penn and wrote a feature article for The Thomaston Times which appeared in the February 9^th edition, the day after the February 8 meeting.

            The article was helpful to stir up interest and attendance blossomed to three ladies in March – Laurel Trawick, Diane Googe and Debbie Selph who never returned to subsequent meetings.  They perhaps came because of their appreciation for music or to see Penn in person, a member of a dying breed of men who loves life by loving music and romance.

            Attendance was sparse at best, and never more noted than on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when the community chose to stay at home and follow the horrible events that unfolded that morning in New York City and Washington, D.C.  Penn decided not to cancel the meeting just in case some poor soul needed an escape from the onslaught of heartbreaking news coverage.

            Each meeting attempted to be unique with themes based on that month’s holidays and observances or birthdays of prominent composers.  The April 2002 meeting was moved to the fourth Tuesday to accommodate Penn’s premiere of his portrayal of Beethoven at the R.E. Lee auditorium.  The fourth Tuesday of that year was the 23^rd, the historically suggested birthday of Shakespeare, whose sonnets were featured in the program.

            The monthly meeting was moved to certain nights of the week trying to find a niche agreeable to most folks’ social calendars.  However, Penn found it difficult to compete with television programs such as Survivor, especially when local resident Judge Pascal English appeared on the series.

            In 2003, Penn started the series “A Summer of Song” inviting local talent to perform at the meetings.  The first performance in July was by Glenda Grant.  But sadly no one showed up to hear this exquisite soprano.  August of that year, Penn filled in singing spirituals to a quartet of visitors.  Finally, in September, attendance jumped to two dozen when Kevin and Lynn Dangler from Grayson, Georgia, came to sing Judeo-Christian songs.

            The following year, Penn tried the summer series again, himself opening the events in July with his rendition of a few operatic arias.  It was during this meeting, he introduced the idea to organize the Bernard P. Fife Opera Company based on the premise of a classic Andy Griffith Show episode in which Don Knotts joined the choir and was reduced to lip-syncing to someone else’s voice.  Penn wanted to assemble a group of wanna-be singers to lip-sync the operetta Amahl and the Nightvisitors by Menotti.  The idea never bore fruit.  However, he was successful prior to terminating the meetings in 2006 in allowing a few voices to sing along with a recording of the choral movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

            August 2004, Grant returned to a modest attendance and thrilled those present with her exceptional talent and vocal range.  Pat Dodson of the Thomaston First United Methodist church closed that summer series out with a September concert in the church’s music room.

            The year 2005 had a few high spots in its meetings as Penn saw the handwriting on the wall that poor participation from the community meant the club would be shut down eventually.  The April meeting that year was moved to a concert by the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra performing in a Pike County Arts event in Zebulon.  The summer series started out in July, for the second year in a row, with Penn performing spirituals to a quintet of visitors, who obviously enjoyed being subjected to extreme pain and cruelty!

            The August meeting hosted a portion of the Middle Georgia Shaped Notes Singers, a group Penn had become acquainted with back in March 2000 and faithfully followed their annual itinerary across the region.  They had an audience of seven despite their very professional vocal talent.  Their appearance that month was rewarded later with an invitation to sing for the Upson Historical Society.

            Keith Johnson came to sing in September to formally close the brief history of the Summer of Song series.  And despite repeated announcements in local papers the club was looking to disband, attendance remained unchanged with only a few folks attending here and there.  Max Holliman and Jerry McDonald were the two strongest supporters of the club.  Max didn’t want it to end and even offered to follow me should I decide to move the meetings to a local nursing home. 

2010 – A year of two bicentennials of great composers

            Early in January, Penn learned that two giants of classic music were being honored for the bicentennial of their birth – Frederic Chopin and Robert Schumann.  Based on this knowledge alone, Penn has decided to reconvene the club for two special meetings:

            Tuesday, February 16, 7 p.m., to honor the memory of Frederic Chopin, born February 22, 1810.  Excerpts from the movie A Song to Remember about Chopin will be shown.

            Monday, June 7, 7 p.m., to honor the memory of Robert Schumann, born June 8, 1810.  Excerpts from Schumann’s Spring Symphony will be featured.

            Both meetings will be held in the lower level of the Thomaston-Upson Archives, 301 South Center Street, Thomaston.  For more information or to discuss plans for further club meetings, call Penn at 770-567-4113.