DATE: Friday, May 2, 1997                   TAG: 9704300206

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 08   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   44 lines

FIRST SUNDAY FEATURES CONCERTS AND SPECIAL CHORAL PRESENTATION

First Sunday in Portsmouth activities for May 4 will include the annual Music for An Olde Towne afternoon concerts at 3 p.m. followed by a special choral presentation at Monumental United Methodist Church at 5:30 p.m.

The Portsmouth Community Arts Center has not scheduled any special activities for the day to support the Music Study Club's Olde Towne concerts; however, two galleries plan art openings with receptions. Other galleries and antique stores will be open as usual for the First Sunday celebrations.

The Olde Towne Gallery, at High and Court streets, will open an exhibition of three-dimensional hanging structures by Beth Fratarcangelo, a former accountant and a longtime resident of the artists' and musicians' colony of Claremont on the James River. A reception for the artist is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. with Frantarcangelo's husband, Robert Richardson, providing music. For more information, call 397-2787.

Art Atrium, 629 High St., plans an opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m., for Frank Jennings Jr., whose work will be displayed through the month. The show, called ``Music in Our LIves,'' will feature his original oil paintings.

Music for an Olde Towne Afternoon will feature Mary Barnes of Portsmouth, singer-guitarist at the Hill House, 221 North St.; Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, who plays the hammered dulcimer and flute, at the Leitner home at 215 Glasgow St.; and Helmet Speckheuer of Norfolk, who plays accordion and harmonica, at Glasgow Street Park between Dinwiddie and Court streets.

The concerts will start at 3 p.m. and each artist will perform the same program three times as the audience moves from one location to another.

The 18th annual outdoor program is sponsored by the Portsmouth Music Study Club. Tickets for admission to all concerts are available at each location and cost $5 for adults, and $3 for students. In case of rain, all concerts will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church at the corner of Washington and London streets.

``Lord Nelson Mass'' by Franz Joseph Haydn will be presented at 5:30 p.m. at Monumental United Methodist Church, corner of Dinwiddie and Queen streets, by the Chancel Choir under the direction of Michael Regan.

The choral work, composed in 1798, will be accompanied by strings, trumpets and organ in Haydn's rarely done orchestration.

The Monumental performance is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the performance.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu