Wowee! Our first ever WDP show with a full symphony! July 16 and 17th, 2009 live with the Grand Rapids, MI orchestra! Conductor John Varineau was most accomodating at rehearsals and a funny/nice cat to boot. He did a great job incorporating our quirky needs and helped us rock a crowd of 4300 on our first night! Thanks to our own sax player Mike Acosta's arrangements and scores and also Larry Goldberg's, we were ready to go from the outset. It was a thrill to perform for the first anywhere "Moondreams" and also a very neat arrangement and medley of Buddy's apartment songs. It was fabulous to sing "Raining in Heart" exactly as done on the recording and "True Love Ways" was great as well. Fantastic to hear "Bopper's Wedding" and "Chantilly Lace" with a full orchestra as well as Ritchie's "Donna," and "La Bamba." A great experience all around and many thanks to the great GRS staff for taking such good care of us! Enjoyed the visit to the historic Frank Lloyd Wright house in town and playing golf at the public course was great too. Michigan has mosquitos the size of alligators and was truly the only unpleasant thing about our trip. I was highly impressed by the community spirit in Grand Rapids, the culture and arts present and would recommend a visit anytime (except dead of winter!). Thanks to the entire GR Symphony for providing a world class experience. Roll Over Beethoven, John
Ray performing
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