As I watched Rain — A Tribute to The Beatles Monday night at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center, the enjoyment I was experiencing watching a packed house on a Monday night brought this thought to me: Music brings people together and reaches them like perhaps nothing else.<\/p>\n
I saw people tapping their toes, clapping their hands, standing and whistling for more.\u00a0Now, tapping one\u2019s toes to music is hardly an over the top reaction, but in the case of one person I have seen on many occasions, this was the first time I have witnessed such a reaction, subtle as it may be.<\/p>\n
Rain was an outstanding show and worthy of all the accolades we spoke of leading up to the show.\u00a0The Beatles music is universal and quite varied.\u00a0From the early Beatles music to their later years and finally their last recording, Abbey Road<\/em>, their music reached nearly everyone \u2026 and it still does today.\u00a0It\u2019s really amazing that music written and recorded 50 years ago speaks to so many across generations.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if I have ever witnessed an audience enjoy a concert more at the Niswonger in our 10 years.\u00a0The production was amazing and wasn\u2019t it fun to see some of those old commercials many of us grew up with in the \u201860s?<\/p>\n The memories continue to be made at the Niswonger as we zoom through a season of outstanding performances leading right up to our Ten Year Gala Celebration with Bernadette Peters and The Boston Pops on April 1.\u00a0Every day we are selling tickets to the concert and After Glow reception at Wassenberg Art Center.\u00a0Get yours today.\u00a0Some good seats still remain for this once-in-a-decade concert.\u00a0April 1 is just 3\u00bd weeks away!\u00a0 Don\u2019t miss out on this one.\u00a0The Niswonger will be all decked out like never before and the finale of the concert will be amazing fun!<\/p>\n Before the gala, we have two other outstanding concerts for you to enjoy in the month of March.\u00a0This Saturday, Artrageous takes the stage in a one-of-a-kind concert event.\u00a0It may be the most fun you will have in some time.\u00a0I see this concert being very interactive and fun for kids and adults. I understand we will create waves throughout the audience and create our own light show.\u00a0Sound like fun?\u00a0 I\u2019ll see you there! Tickets for Artrageous begin at just $15.<\/p>\n And if you care to try your hand at painting, stop by Wassenberg Art Center this Saturday afternoon before the concert.\u00a0They will have tables set up and ready for you to try creating your very own painting.\u00a0They also have a nice art display for you to enjoy.\u00a0We appreciate their partnership in this event, as well as our Afterglow reception following our gala concert.<\/p>\n We follow Artrageous with our Broadway & Beyond concert, featuring J. Mark McVey and Heartland Sings from Fort Wayne.\u00a0This is a Community Concert show that will feature all the Broadway and American favorite classics you love. A chorus will back up soloists and J. Mark McVey, an amazing singer who is best known as Jean Valjean from the Broadway sensation Les Miserables<\/em>. The concert will be worth it just to hear Mark sing, but you will also experience great instrumentalists accompanying these wonderful arrangements created just for our show.\u00a0Broadway & Beyond is Saturday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. — the same start time as Artrageous this Saturday.<\/p>\n Not to push you too far out, but we are looking for food vendors for Fountain Park summer music concerts.\u00a0Contact The Van Wert County Foundation to include your non-profit organization in the lottery to choose food servers.\u00a0More on Fountain Park to come once Mother Nature decides it\u2019s time to get warm and stay warm!<\/p>\n Finally, congratulations to the Lincolnview H.S. Choir, Van Wert Women\u2019s Chorus and Freshmen Chorus, and the VWHS Band on receiving superior ratings at district contest this past weekend.\u00a0The Crestview and Lincolnview bands should also be commended on fine performances.\u00a0 Those receiving superior ratings now qualify for state competition this spring.<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I watched Rain — A Tribute to The Beatles Monday night at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center, the enjoyment I was experiencing watching a packed house on a Monday night brought this thought to me: Music brings people together and reaches them like perhaps nothing else. I saw people tapping their toes, clapping their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 18:43:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}