The Wedgewood Resort in Fairbanks, off College Road near the Johansen Expressway, will be home to an "absolutely remarkable collection of vehicles spanning the 1889-1938 era," including a 1919 Pierce-Arrow touring car, according to a press release. The 30,000-square-foot facility, opening June 1, will show "over 60 historically significant American automobiles and (showcase) the interesting heritage of the automobile during Alaska's post-Gold Rush era. The museum's collection includes a number of rare and one-of-a-kind cars, several of which formerly resided in the famed Harrah's Automobile Collection in Reno, Nevada.
A few of the specimens will be unrestored, rusty flower pots. But according to Willy Vinton, president of Fairbanks' antique car club and museum manager, "Our goal is to maintain all of our cars in running condition, and visitors will be able to view repair projects taking place in the museum's shop." You can also expect to see some of them driving around the resort on summer evenings.
More information is available at the Wedgewood's Web site, www.fountainheadhotels.com. You can also call 1-907-450-2100 or e-mail museum@fdifairbanks.com.
Well-deserved floral tribute
Grant Cochran led the Anchorage Concert Chorus and Anchorage Youth Symphony in Francis Poulenc's tricky "Gloria" on Tuesday night. Given the difficulty of the music and a relatively short time for preparing it, the performers impressed me with their mostly trouble-free reading of a score whose dancing-on-the-clouds effects are often elusive and always tricky.
The chorus shined particularly in the big moments, the opening "Gloria in excelsis Deo" and the sledgehammer start of the finale "Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris." Soprano soloist Stephanie Williams delivered the beautiful, seamless lines of stratospheric notes demanded by the composer with complete competence.
While accepting the applause of the crowd, which mostly filled the ground floor of Atwood Hall, Williams and Cochran were each presented with bouquets, per custom. Cochran drew some extra cheers when he handed his flowers to concertmaster Geurim Kim and insisted that she keep them.
It was more than a gesture, the young orchestra had done an admirable job.
Before joining the chorus for the "Gloria," the Australia-bound Youth Symphony performed Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Russian Easter Overture" with Linn Weeda conducting. The audience gave this work the most enthusiastic ovation of the night, rising to their feet as soon as it was done.
That was an acknowledgment of both the rousing sound of the work and the nice playing heard from the many solos in the score, including: violin (Kim), cello (Jamnah Morton), trombone (Trevor Clayton), flute (Jung-Joon Kim) and cell phone (someone in the audience).
Actually the last-named isn't in the score; I just checked.
But that didn't deter the eager cell phone players, one of whom further extemporized at the end of the "Gloria." Show some respect, people.
Also on the program were performances by the Elementary Honor Orchestra, led by Kathryn Hoffer, and the Anchorage Junior Youth Symphony, under Donald Curry, which essayed some beefy arrangements of Brahms, Bach and Wagner. Feel free to add comments at adn.com/artsnob.
If you missed the program, you can hear some of what it sounded like by clicking on Bill Roth's audio slide show with more photos at adn.com/arts.
The next AYS performance will be April 28. The Concert Chorus will join the Anchorage Symphony for Brahms' "German Requiem" on May 2.
Art on the trail
If you head up to the restart of the Iditarod Race in Willow today, stop in the Community Hall between sleds and take a look at the artists' tables.
Among those with new work to display is former Iditarod musher Rose Albert, who will have four original oil paintings. She also will be introducing a new artist (new to us anyway) Roger G. Goodall who makes Tlingit drums.
History on stage
New plays drawn from Alaska history are in vogue this year. Cyrano's has a string of them running throughout the year. Juneau's Perseverance Theatre is likewise looking to the past for upcoming offerings, including Daily News contributor Maia Nolan's "Eight Stars" next month. Now comes word that the Anchorage Museum has commissioned two one-act historical plays to be presented this summer. The pair will run twice a day in conjunction with the "Pay Dirt" exhibit about the Gold Rush era, May 30-Aug. 2.
Anchorage author Joan Kane's piece, "The Gilded Tusk," is about a young woman in Oregon who tires of waiting for her husband to return from his gold seeking in Nome and sets out to find him.
Thomas Moran of Fairbanks has written "Wheelman," a fictionalized account of the hardy stampeders traveling to Nome by bicycle.
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com