REviews

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“Victor Vanacore? He’s my man!”
Ray Charles

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“I like to sing different songs now an then. With Victor he makes it possible. He plays the piano, can write music on the spot, can rehearse all within 5 minutes and I can sing it that night. We have traveled     the world together. I knew when we stopped traveling and he started his own project it would be a short time before he would be on the stage by himself. How proud I was to be in the audience at the Hollywood Bowl and watch Victor perform by himself.”
Johnny Mathis

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“Victor Vanacore knows the power of music.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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"Victor Vanacore brought his arrangements, dancers, and his own energy and excitement to Stockton for 2 performances of  Hot, Hot, Hot with the Stockton Symphony.

The atmosphere was tremendous as was the show and the crowd reaction."

David Hyslop,
   Interim General Manager
   Stockton Symphony

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"As the second act began, Vanacore, a great artist,  conductor and arranger, led the Napa Valley Symphony in a marvelous  piece he’d created. It was the blending of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” with an old favorite, a samba called “Brazil” — a surprising  mix that worked like a charm."
Ev Parker
   Napa Valley Register

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“What an absolute knockout! Thanks so much for creating a milestone concert for the Rutgers University music department.”
Ralph Bowen
Director of Jazz Studies
Rutgers University

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“Fine work by the enthusiastic conductor, Victor Vanacore.”
Jen Graves
Tacoma New Tribune

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“His arrangements were universally acknowledged by the musicians as being particularly good.”
Spokesman Review

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“At the Hollywood Bowl concert the orchestra was smartly conducted by Victor Vanacore.”
Zan Stewart
Los Angeles Times

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“One of the enjoyable aspects of Sunday’s show was that the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Victor Vanacore seemed to have something important to do.”
On Wisconsin Magazine

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Victor Vanacore was honored as the hometown boy done good, but the truth is that he was much better than good.
John Mangan
New Haven Register

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“On Friday at the Hollywood Bowl a trimmed down Los Angeles Philharmonic was conducted efficiently by Victor Vanacore.”
Don Heckman
Los Angeles Times

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“Ray Charles sang in front of the superb arrangements of his conductor Victor Vanacore.”
The Hollywood Reporter

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Lola, as children of the Disco Age will recall, could merengue and do  the cha-cha. And though Omaha Symphony audiences will not hear Barry  Manilow's "Copacabana" this weekend, the verse from that song says much  about the delightful program they will hear and see.  "Hot! Hot! Hot!" — the symphony's pre-Valentine's Day concert — warmed  a bitterly cold evening Friday with 15 spicy samples of dance music  from the Caribbean and Latin America. In the process, guest conductor  and pianist Victor Vanacore exposed the underlying beat that  continuously renewed the Latin influence in American popular music from  the 1950s into the 1990s.  Meanwhile, the husband-and-wife dance team of Andrzej and  Jennifer Przybyl added their own vivid flavors as they expertly glided  and twirled through one sultry dance after another. Omaha-area residents  can taste the resulting south-of-the border brew at the Holland  Performing Arts Center again at 8 p.m. today and 2 p.m. Sunday. The orchestrations by Vanacore, a Grammy-winning arranger and  musical director, brought a succession of pop-music images to mind: Desi  Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo in "I Love Lucy") from the 1950s, Herb Alpert and  the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s, the U.S. disco stars of the 1970s and  Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine in the 1980s. Swap out "disco" with that style's original name — the "Latin  hustle" — and the connective tissue becomes even more audible. That fact  was one of many interesting tidbits offered by Vanacore, who wears his  love of music on his sleeve through an easy rapport with the audience  and a relaxed, smiling yet passionate presence at the piano. He sprung several musical surprises, beginning with a swinging  version of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" that segued into  the 1980s hit "Hot Hot Hot." The midcentury jazz standard "What a  Difference a Day Makes" became "La diferencia que hace un dia!" with a  merengue beat. The slow, romantic section of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody  in Blue" became the basis for "Samba in Blue." Vanacore's musical choices should remind listeners how easily  one can spot the iconic Spanish melodies and cadences but how difficult  it can be to separate their sometimes subtle variations for particular  dances. Ditto with the dances, though the popularity of "Dancing With  the Stars" undoubtedly will make that task easier for concertgoers who  also are fans of the show. The Przybyls took the stage every other song, including the  encore of "Disco at the Pops." While Polish native Andrzej stuck with a  black shirt, pants and shoes throughout, Jennifer dazzled the eyes with a  succession of brightly colored dance outfits — red, black, yellow,  blue, brown and gold and finally pinkish red. Concertgoers will enjoy a succession of musical solos and duets  from both local performers and Vanacore's traveling colleagues. One of  the latter, trumpeter Joseph Scannella, announced bullfight-inspired  passages in two numbers with a clear, strong tone. Symphony violinists  Ann Beebe and Keith Plenert, meanwhile, evoked the romance of a Spanish  or South American countryside in Isaac Albeniz's "Tango in D Major." Guest percussionists J.B. Ferguson and Joey Gulizia, both of  Omaha, were featured on a broad range of rhythm instruments. Rounding  out Vanacore's backup band were electric bassist Lou Shoch and the  conductor's son, drummer Victor Vanacore III.  "Hot! Hot! Hot!" should remind Omahans once more of the impressive  virtuosity of styles that makes their symphony such a valuable asset.
  By Todd von Kampen

WORLD-HERALD Correspondent

Published Saturday February 11, 2012

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“Victor Vanacore worked with us in Charlotte and I recommend him  without reservation. His charts were just what we needed. Highly  cinematic. He gets it. Drop the light classical and give Victor a test drive. His charts are excellent and the addition of his conducting adds a spark to the evening. Our most complete pops show in years. After the Vanacore show there was a buzz outside the hall. Board  members remarked that friends were contacting them about what a great  evening they had and how exciting the orchestra sounded. Victor’s understanding and insights into the cinematic use of  orchestration breathes life and excitement into the the concert hall,  audiences and players alike.

His charts are genuine, hip, cool and draw the audience into the show and empower the orchestra to entertain across the lights. This is the sound of the American Pops Orchestra as it should be heard in the 21st century. Real estate is location, locaton, location. Orchestra Pops is  presentation, presentation, presentation. Victor Vanacore’s arrangements  present the orchestra in a fresh, effective, enthusiastic,  authentically creative palette of variations and colors."

David Mills
   Charlotte Symphony, Aspen Music Festival

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"Victor Vanacore Marries Dance, Symphony for 'Hot! Hot! Hot! Show."

Tony Sauro
   Record Staff Writer

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The Glendale Renaissance Orchestra started the second concert of its  inaugural season with a strong beat set firmly by Victor Vanacore, guest  conductor for a night of pops music. Leading both the Renaissance Orchestra and his touring group of  musicians and singers, the personable arranger/conductor/pianist  presented "Red White and Blues, The Star Spangled Rhythms of America".  And as the music kept coming, the beat just got better in the two-hour  show at Glendale's Americana at Brand on Thursday night. Vanacore and his group of five back-up musicians and two singers  melded smoothly with the mostly pick-up local freelancers that made up  the Renaissance Orchestra. The good-sized crowd enjoyed the outdoor  concert from seats located in the Americana central park to hear a  scrapbook of pops hits that straddled 60 years with music arranged by  the conductor. The mélange incorporated musical favorites in styles that ranged  from Detroit soul and early rock to TV theme songs, a Glenn Miller hit  and a Jackson 5 medley. With a solid beat from drummer Simon Carroll,  the program opened with Barry Manilow's hit "Bandstand Boogie" featuring  singers Alexx Daye and Tony Galla. Daye, whose voice has a sultry timbre, came on strong in all the  various styles but her Dianna Ross tunes showed what she can do. Her  solo in the South Beach Soul singing songs of Gloria Estefan kept the  audience toe-tapping. Tony Galla maintained a good quality voice in all his numbers with  his "Mack the Knife" solo a standout. Likewise his "Jailhouse Rock" was a  hit with the crowd as Galla suggested Elvis but kept his personal  style. The two singers basically stood at the side of the band and  performed as back-up singers world do. It is an effective tool because  it kept the music at the forefront and allowed the memories of the old  hits to sink in. They both maintained strong singing personalities in  spite of the obvious parodies. Vanacore has presented this program around the country with some of  the nation's leading symphonic orchestras. His traveling corps of  musicians included Jim Studer, keyboard; Lou Schoch, bass; Simon  Carroll, drums; Victor Vanacore, III, Latin percussion; and Thom  Rotella, jazz guitar. As a conductor, Vanacore is super-casual (he gulped water from a  plastic bottle while at the podium), and is very funny, in a really nice  kind of way. He is also a strict taskmaster when it comes to orchestra  leadership. He didn't ask the orchestra, but rather required them to  follow his accurate beat, communicating directions to the musicians in a  very stern manner. The result was some fine playing even with, as  Vanacore reported to the audience, little rehearsal. Everything worked  fine, although "Stars and Stripes Forever" could have used a bit more  polish. By the end of the evening, Vanacore had the audience literally  dancing in the aisles. A medley of disco tunes brought a contingent of  young couples plus a few from the senior set to the front of the stage  where their enthusiastic dancing added even more zip to the evening.
  Bill Peters

  The Glendale News-Press    

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GRAND RAPIDS -- It's a long way from here to Havana. And in mid-January, it would be, oh, so sweet if Caribbean breezes were blowing this way. But it was hot, hot, hot at DeVos Performance Hall on Friday for the Grand Rapids Symphony's Pops Series show titled "Hot! Hot! Hot! A Night at the Copa." This was something different. Guest artist Victor Vanacore, pianist, composer and raconteur, led the orchestra   in a program with more Latin dances than you can shake a stick at, featuring a pair of dancers to shake a leg throughout. Some 1,117 were in the audience to enjoy Andrzej and Jennifer Przybyl,     husband and wife, dancing the cha-cha, jitterbug and Latin hustle. Vanacore created the show flavored with bits of music by Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Santana, George Gershwin, Gloria Estefan, Aaron Copland, Chic Corea and many more -- thus proving the old adage, if you steal from one it's plagiarism,     but if you steal from many, it's masterful research. Pondering how the Grammy Award-winning arranger put the pieces together could boggle the mind. Rewriting "Rhapsody in Blue" as a Brazilian     samba or casting "Fanfare for the Common Man" as a salsa wouldn't have occurred to Gershwin or Copland in their wildest dreams. The Grand Rapids Symphony, clearly enjoying the wild ride, gave an impressive   performance, especially given just a single rehearsal to pull it together.   They did a nice job with an Isaac Albeniz Tango in D major and blew the roof   off with a medley titled "Viva El Mambo."         

The Przybyls, professional dancers and competition champions from  Detroit, were mesmerizing with the merengue and scorching with the mambo among nine dances, not to mention seven eye-catching costume changes for Jennifer Przybyl. Friday's audience had a good time, clapping along with the theme           from "American Bandstand" and enjoying the encore, a disco  medley including "I Will Survive" and "Last Dance." Vanacore was here in 2006, in a lower-key capacity, at the Grand Rapids Symphony's Picnic Pops with vocalist Steve Lippia and a swinging  show titled "Simply Sinatra."

This one was simply sizzling.

    The Grand Rapids Press

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From Audience Members' iReviews:

After attending last Friday's Grand Rapids Symphony "Hot! Hot!  Hot! A Night at the Copa," I dusted my guitar off after nearly 22 years in storage. Featured that evening was Latin music and dancing, with tunes arranged and conducted by Grammy Award Winner, Victor Vanacore. Professional dancers Andrzej and Jennifer Przybyl, husband and wife from the Detroit  area, "wowed" us with the salsa, merengue, mambo, cha-cha,  tango and samba! It was spectacular to see them with their perfectly executed dancing. I did not witness a mis-step the entire evening and Betsy enjoyed Jennifer's costumes! My favorite pieces of the evening were: Vanacore's arrangements of he Star Spangled Banner, Oye Como Va (Santana), Jarabe Tapatio (Mexican  Hat Dance) and South Beach Soul. The encore was a fun medley of "I  Will Survive," "The Last Dance," and "YMCA!" I learned so much listening to Mr. Vanacore chat between pieces. He was intelligent, funny, and extremely talented! Program notes outlined his career accomplishments which include: keyboardist, arranger and conductor for the Jackson Five back in the 70's, along with directing,  arranging and touring with such greats as Johnny Mathis, Barry Manilow and Ray Charles. Impressive!!

That's it for today's post. I'm off to practice my guitar.

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We decided to risk the change in dynamics and took the boys along  to Saturday night's not-to-miss performance.  Victor Vanacore, a Grammy winning composer, conductor, and pianist, who has worked with Ray Charles, The Jackson 5, Johnny Mathis, and Barry Manilow, brought his show of salsa and mambo music to our little corner of the world.  He wowed us with his enthusiasm and energy.  He inspired us with  his dedication and excitement.  He made us want to move to the Caribbean to hear more of this delightful sound.We were banking on this delightfulness, of course.  We hoped  that by taking them to hear salsa and mambo, we'd up the odds of them actually enjoying the show, much more so than if we took them to a traditional night with straight-up classical tunes.  It was the perfect opportunity to ease them in with something a little more uptempo  and fun.  Our youngest plays my old steel drum band CD endlessly, so we knew he'd like it. Our eldest loved it, too.  He's taken piano for years and is learning the drums at school, so he has a good deal of appreciation for just how much practice goes into getting those notes exactly right.  Our second son pretty much just endured           it, dropping his head to his hands every now and then, wondering when this was all going to end.  Because we're not above a little bribery, we indulged him with Sierra Mist and lifesavers at intermission.  This           simple act went a long way towards boosting his spirits and may have given us another chance at taking him again. In the end, however, there was an entirely unexpected bonus to the night.  As we watched Victor Vanacore play and lead and thoroughly enjoy himself, my eldest son remarked "I think he's having the most fun of anyone here." I think he was right.  You couldn't  help but to be awed by this man's verve.  He loves his job, he loves his job, he loves his job.  It was that evident.  I'm fairly certain that given the choice to go back and do it all ove again, he'd end up in exactly the same place.

The opportunity to see that lesson in practice--find your passion,  follow your dream, develop your strengths--was priceless.  Our boys didn't have to listen to a lecture from us about the value of           finding your passion.  They saw it with their own eyes.  We didn't sit them down and say "Work hard boys.  Follow your hearts and you will find your calling." Nope.  We didn't have to say a thing.  As our boys sat there watching and listening,  they got to experience Victor Vanacore radiate love for his profession first-hand.  They heard him talk about the early struggles and they heard him talk about winning a Grammy.  And they watched him conduct and play with joy that was palpable. Thank you Mr. Vanacore. That lesson alone was worth every bit of cajoling it took to get the oxfords buttoned, the khakis worn, and the loafers on.

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         It has been years since I've been to the symphony. I loved to go when I lived in Portland. I took my boys to the kids' concert series there when they were little-The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, OR. Loved it. Then, we moved to Paducah, KY and I remember going a few times. The concert hall there was incredibly cold and drafty as I recall and had seats that were so uncomfortable you almost couldn't sit through a performance! DeVos place in Grand Rapids is very nice, however, and I had no idea what a treat I was in for! This performance  was part of the Fox Motors Pops series, guest conducted by Victor Vanacore, themed Hot!Hot!Hot! Night at the Copa. I am now obsessed with Victor Vanacore. He's high energy, talented, happy, fun, and just a spectacular pianist and performer. 

Such personality! Mr. Vanacore knows how to connect on a deeper level with an audience. You can           tell that he loves his work. He has a good time doing what he does. I can honestly say that I've never had a better or more lively time at the symphony! Victor Vanacore has worked with Ray Charles, Barry           Manilow, Johnny Mathis, the Jackson Five, and many more big names. Google him sometime and you will be impressed with all that he has done! The guy's a genius. The program included music by Carlos Santana,  Gloria Estefan, Chick Corea, and many other greats which Mr. Vanacore has tweaked and arranged brilliantly. I was just enthralled! Believe me, I will be watching and listening for his work from now on! Mr.  Vanacore does have a CD out called American Standard Time. Check it out! To top it all off, two extremely gifted dancers, Andrzej and Jennifer Przybyl, husband and wife, National Champions from Detroit, mesmerized all of us throughout the concert with their Latin dance moves. Oh, they were hot, hot, hot!!! If you love watching Dancing With the Stars, you would have gone completely crazy for these two! It was eyecandy of the highest caliber! The combination of glorious sound and the magnificent dancing were nearly orgasmic... hehe! I'll never tell. All of that rapture built up a powerful appetite. So,  Patricia and I capped off the day with a scrumptious meal at Red Lobster. Haven't been there in ages. Not sure how many points that added up to be-yikes! Made it back to the Little House on the Frozen Tundra. Surrounded by my dogs and cats and warmed by a rip-roaring fire, I think I'll call it a night! Hopefully tonight I can finally finish reading The Shack. News at 11.
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