A review at the 2016 Casselberry’s Latin Jazz Concert & Art Festival

Review written by Nathan Wertheimer

Casselberry, FL – Many hundred of people came out to Secret Lake Park to see Grammy Award Winner Latin Jazz extraordinaire Nestor Torres perform live on stage for this free concert. You don’t have to be Hispanic to enjoy this music. Everyone was welcome to attend this event. Many speakers spoke in both English and Spanish.

Nestor Torres was inspired by the aftermath of the Pulse Shooting in Orlando and wanted to perform at this year’s Casselberry Latin Jazz Concert. So he contacted Linda Moor, who works for the City of Casselberry, who got the ball rolling. This was not his first time he has performed at this Latin Jazz Concert. Back in September 2012, Torres performed at this concert in the City of Casselberry.

There were many special guests invited to the private pre-concert reception. During this reception, Casselberry City Mayor Charlene Glancy called Torres a friend of Casselberry. Torres was deeply touched by the moving words by Mayor Glancy. Torres briefly spoke about his music and what it meant to him. After his short presentation he went to prepare for the concert.

Before the concert even begun, the crowds started showing up with their folding chairs to get their best spot on the lawn in front of the stage. To open the concert there was opening Jazz band gave attendees of great smooth jazz music. It is estimated that was around 6,000 concertgoers attended this night concert. This is one of the biggest gatherings for one of these concerts at Secret Lake Park for the city. Torres tend to move around to the music with his flute. Look for Torres to come back in the future to perform a live concert for this city again.

What make this event possible are the great sponsors like El Sentinel, 107.7 HD-2 WLOQ Smooth Jazz, and Telemundo. Also there were many vendor booths such as the Casselberry Chamber, Cricket Cell Phone Service, Florida Council Compulsive Gambling, independent food services, Tijuana Flats, and arts and crafts items.

Besides this concert going on there is also a Latin Art Exhibit Esperanza Neuvo-Phoenix Rises at Casselberry’s City Hall located at 95 Triplet Lake Drive. Artwork can be viewed Monday thru Thursday 8am – 5:30pm. This art exhibit will continue until November 2016. Some of the many artists include Pedro Brull, MPilar Vargas, Pablo Hernandez, Jose M. Feliciano, Yasir Nieves, Felipe Morales, Julsan, and Jose Sanchez. Many of these works of art are paintings on canvas and 3-D sculptures depicting the Latin Culture.

The City of Casselberry looks forward to see you at next year’s Latin Jazz Concert. For more information on this Latin Jazz Concert, please visit
http://www.casselberry.org/index.aspx?NID=656

Photos courtesy of icflorida.com. Bottom photo is a painting by Pedro Brull. Top photo is Nester Torres performing at this year’s Latin Jazz Concert.

Review: Marina Jurica performed the “Weather Cabaret”

Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park, FL — On Tuesday, November 3, 2015, It was the third and final performance for the “Weather Cabaret” featuring Marina Jurica, a WFTV Meteorologist and actress/singer. Roughly about forty theatergoers and a few of Jurica’s closest coworkers showed up to see her live on stage. Even Chief Meteorologist Tom Terry, and Anchor/Reporter Carla Ray, from WFTV were even in attendance too.

The Cabaret Series was performed in the lobby of the Winter Park Playhouse where there is plenty of space to enjoy this musical performance. If you have never been to the Winter Park Playhouse you don’t know what you’re missing. This is a quaint place to watch live musical theater. Ticket prices are very reasonable. Plus, there is plenty of parking on the street in the evening show.

To set the Weather Cabaret mood, Jurica came out on stage in front of the lobby window with a gentleman playing the piano in the background. The musical songs were divided up into four seasons such as Fall, Winter, Springs, and Summer. Between songs she gave the audience a perspective of why she picked the song she was singing. Jurcia hit many high tunes with voice and was very entertaining to watch and listen.

One of the audience favorite song was “Let it rain, let it rain” and even the audience got a chance to sing along with Jurica. At the end of the Cabaret everyone gave her a standing ovation for her performance. Jurica will be back on stage in the near future. Stay tuned for more information.

The Weather Cabaret ran through select days in the month of October/November 2015 at Winter Park Playhouse, 711 Orange Avenue Suite C, Winter Park, FL 32789, Ticket prices vary, Call 407-645-0145 or visit http://www.winterparkplayhouse.org