Fun for Funds

On Saturday, September 23, 2017, the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) and the AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee presented a wonderful musical event, kindly sponsored by DACOR, an organization of Foreign Affairs Professionals, which was hosted at the DACOR-Bacon House, a historic and elegant mansion in the heart of Washington, DC.

Many AAFSW members and guests enjoyed a “Musical Trip Around the World” featuring Deborah Miller, lyric soprano and AAFSW Membership Chair, and Jennifer Heemstra, pianist and 2016 AAFSW SOSA winner.

Deborah Miller is an experienced, adept, and versatile artist whose repertoire spans five centuries of classical music. She holds a Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Texas, and in addition has studied voice in Europe and in New York. She has performed over twenty leading opera roles (including Aida, Violetta, Mimi, Fiordiligi, Rosalinda, Pamina, Donna Elvira, Nedda, and the world premiere of Phaedra in “Hippolytus”). She has sung hundreds of concerts and oratorios in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, England, New Zealand, New York, California, Texas, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC, and was sponsored by the US Information Service on a recital tour of several islands in the Caribbean. She has won prizes in many international singing competitions both in the United States and in Italy. On September 11, 2010 she appeared with the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in the multicultural concert “Ode to Freedom.” She frequently performs for senior centers and community organizations. She is married to Ambassador Terry Miller, and they have three children, all of them professional musicians. She is the reigning Ms. Senior Virginia USA, and won 2nd runner-up in the national Senior USA Pageant in Las Vegas last May.

Jennifer Heemstra, professional pianist and entrepreneur, received the College of Music Distinguished Alumni Award from Michigan State University this May. In December 2014, she founded the Kolkata Classics trust which provides health services for trafficked women, educates children from the slums to the elite and exposes the citizens of Kolkata to high quality classical music. She has put on 62 concerts and performed for and worked with over 60,000 adults and children. For her work, she was presented with the Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad in 2016. Recently Heemstra founded an American NGO/501(c)(3), the Pitch Pipe Foundation, which sends musicians abroad to drive social change. Initially focusing on Trafficking in Persons in South Asia, Heemstra plans for the foundation to expand to every corner of the globe. Before moving to India, Heemstra was a lecturer and staff accompanist at Case Western Reserve University and frequently concertized with members of the Cleveland Orchestra. Heemstra earned her Master of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Michigan State University.

The September 23, 2017 AAFSW fundraising event showcased songs from many countries, including Italy, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Ghana, India, Korea, the Philippines, Tahiti/USA, the U.K., and North Africa, sung by Ms. Miller in the original language. Ms. Miller and Ms. Heemstra explained why they chose each particular song and some of the stories behind the lyrics. Ms. Miller expanded on the idea that “every song is a love song,” with examples such as romantic love, love for a culture, love for children, love for community, love for a land itself, love for guests and strangers, and even love for drama.

The Musical Trip Around the World started with a song from Italy: “Io son l’umile ancella”: “I am but a humble handmaiden of The Creative Genius.” The Spanish song praised the unique multicultural flair of the region of Granada. The song from Ireland claims Ireland was “a little bit of Heaven that fell into the ocean” while the song from Norway addressed separation from loved ones. The German song “Von Ewiger Liebe” compared the strength of iron and steel to everlasting love. “Notre Amour” was the French song that described a lighter version of eternal love: charming, sacred, and infinite like the path of the setting sun over the sea. The music from the Czech Republic dealt with impossible love: a river nymph in love with a human.

One of the highlights of the evening was the song from the Akan tribe of Ghana, “Sansa Kroma,” which reminds Akan children that the whole village is their family. The audience participated in a musical dialogue with the singer, using simple traditional instruments! The song from the region of Northern Africa (Arabia) captured the “otherness” in its music and its lyrics expressed the deep hospitality of the region. “When I Bring to You Colored Toys” is based on a Nobel Prize-winning poem from India, translated into English. “Arirang” is a very ancient song from Korea, which expresses going through a mountain path as a metaphor for the hardships of life. The Philippines were celebrated with “Pakiusap,” a Tagalog romantic ballad: “Open your window and have mercy; I promise my heart for eternity.” From the one act opera “Trouble in Tahiti,” the American song “Island Magic” expresses all the drama of love as the singer recounts the details of “a terrible awful movie.” The Musical Trip Around the World ended with a song representing Great Britain: “If I Ruled the World,” from the musical Pickwick.

AAFSW is grateful to DACOR for sponsoring this AAFSW Fundraising event and to all our guests for supporting AAFSW and for enjoying this musical trip around the world with all of us at the beautiful DACOR-Bacon House. Many thanks go to the AAFSW Program Chair, Sheila Switzer, the AAFSW Scholarship Chair, Sherry Barndollar Rock, and the AAFSW Office Manager, Barbara Reioux, for all their work with organizing this amazing event. Lastly, the AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee would especially like to thank our very talented performers, Ms. Deborah Miller and Ms. Jennifer Heemstra, for such a wonderful fundraising event, benefiting AAFSW, which was made possible by their gracious and gratis participation in this highly enjoyable musical evening full of melody, delicious food, and great company!

Dr. Joanna Athanasopoulos Owen, AAFSW President
AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee Chair

In a completely sold out event, the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) and the AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee hosted a very successful Valentine’s Day celebration on Friday, February 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the University Club of Washington DC. Nearly 100 guests enjoyed a magical musical arrangement offered in three parts by renowned pianist, Aphrodite Mitsopoulou, as well as the ambience of the University Club, a stylish mansion in the heart of Washington, DC where the diplomatic, international and local university communities frequent. To commemorate Valentine’s Day, Ms. Mitsopoulou gave us an international and Greek piano musical interpretation of the four international natures of Love: Storge (affection), Philia (friendship), Eros (being passionately in love), and Agape (unconditional charity).

Aphrodite Mitsopoulou was born in Greece and started her musical studies in the National Conservatory of Athens. In 2007, she received her Soloist’s Diploma from the Conservatory of Art and Technology, obtaining the First Unanimously Excellent Award and the Highest Honors for Outstanding Performance. Ms. Mitsopoulou earned her Master’s Degree in 2009 on a partial scholarship from the Boston Conservatory. Some of her notable teachers include Valery Sagaidachny, Janice Weber, Anna Ouspenskaya and Thomas Mastroianni.

Ms. Mitsopoulou received the first Prize in 2004 at the “Golden Muse” Competition for her interpretation in Greek and Contemporary Music. Further, the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society offered Ms. Mitsopoulou a lifelong honorary membership for her artistic and academic profile. Having received an O1 visa awarded to artists for extraordinary ability, Ms. Mitsopoulou has resided in the United States since 2010.

Highly trained as an educator, Ms. Mitsopoulou has worked as a faculty-selected tutor while at the Boston Conservatory and currently maintains an active teaching and performing schedule (www.pianowitz.com). Ms. Mitsopoulou is responsible for the Pre-K curriculum and musical program in St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church Bilingual School in Falls Church, Virginia. Her students compete successfully in national and international competitions such as the AAMS International Competition, The Lion’s Scholarship of Virginia Music Scholarship Foundation, The Golden Key International Competition, the NVMTA Judges Recitals, and the Baroque Competition.

Ms. Mitsopoulou has performed as an accompanist and solo performer in various events. She performed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 2016 for the event entitled “From Romantics to Greek Composers of the 20th Century,” which was co-sponsored by the Greek Embassy. She holds a special permission from the Hellenic Center in Greece to perform rare compositions. Ms. Mitsopoulou’s other performances include recitals in the Church of the Holy City with the participation of the DC Chamber music orchestra members, the Loudoun Choral Society, the Woman’s Club of Arlington, the Kreeger Museum, the Bahai’ Center of Sterling, and the Steinert Hall in Boston.

After our guests enjoyed drinks and appetizers in the elegant Keefer Memorial Library of the University Club, we all proceeded to the ballroom and dining hall, which was decorated with red roses in red heart-shaped vases for the occasion, all of which were later gifted to our guests. Ms. Mitsopoulou welcomed the guests with the beautiful piano sounds of international love tunes. Ms. Mitsopoulou’s first piano arrangement included: Il postino (Luis Bacalov), Romeo and Juliet (Nino Rota), Cinema Paradiso (Andrea Moricone), La Vita e Bella (Nicola Piovani), Over the Rainbow (Harold Arlen), Moonriver (Henry Mancini), To a Wild Rose (Edward Mc Dowel), Memory (Andrew Lloyd Weber), Never on Sunday (Manos Hatzidakis), Milise mou (Manos Hatzidakis), and Theme from “Zorba the Greek” (Mikis Theodorakis).

Following this first piano arrangement, our guests enjoyed a delicious dinner of their choice, which included: chicken chesapeake, grilled shrimp capellini, and lemon ricotta agnolotti. Then, Ms. Mitsopoulou indulged us with a mini piano recital. The first piece was by Franz Liszt (1811-1886): Étude No. 6 in A Minor. When Franz Liszt was twenty years old, he heard the great violinist Niccolò Paganini playing in Paris and he was absolutely mesmerized. When Paganini played, people swore they could see the sparks flying from his bow. Liszt, after being utterly inspired by Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, decided to create a piece equally difficult for the piano by trying to imitate the technical difficulties of the violin and, especially, how to switch effortlessly from the one technique to the other (pizzicato, double stops, etc). As Ms. Mitsopoulou explained, this étude shows the possibility of the human body and spirit.

Ms. Mitsopoulou continued her mini piano recital with the Eight Dances from the Greek Islands by Yannis Costantinidis (1903-1984). The Eight Dances from the Greek Islands is a work with intense nationalistic and folkloric elements. Each dance has a different rhythmic and melodic pattern, representing the style of each island. The meter (5/4, 7/8), the notation, the grace notes, and the harmonic and dynamic changes create a unique color for each dance. Most Greek dances are performed in a circular way with the dancers holding each other’s hands to symbolize the continuation of the generations. As Ms. Mitsopoulou noted, for a Greek, it is hard to listen to this work without remembering the color of the Greek seas, its volcanic rocks, its wild beauty, and the feeling of freedom.

Last but not least, Ms. Mitsopoulou played Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849): Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31. As Ms. Mitsopoulou explained, the second of the four Scherzi of Chopin is one of the most celebrated pieces of the pianistic repertoire. The B flat minor scherzo was composed and published in 1837, five years later than the first one. Originally, the work is in B flat minor but its bigger sections are either in the relevant key of D flat major or in A major (middle section); it creates a large range of emotions for the listener. One of Chopin’s students, Willhelm von Lenz, wrote for the sotto voce of the opening that “For Chopin it was never questioning enough, never soft enough, never sufficiently weighted (tombe).”

After Ms. Mitsopoulou received a standing ovation for her mini piano recital, our guests enjoyed their delectable dessert: forest red fruits in a handmade chocolate nest. Ms. Mitsopoulou concluded her program with light dancing love tunes for piano. Our guests danced the night away to the sounds of: It’s Now or Never (Elvis Presley), Strangers in the Night (Bert Kaempfert – Frank Sinatra), Are You Lonesome Tonight (Elvis Presley), When I Fall in Love (Nat King Cole), You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder), Fly Me to the Moon (Frank Sinatra – Bart Howard), The Way You Look Tonight (Jerome Kern), Unforgettable (Irving Gordon), Yesterday (John Lennon and Paul McCartney), Always on My Mind (Elvis Presley), Feelings (Morris Albert – Frank Sinatra), You are My Sunshine (Johnnie Davis), Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da (John Lennon and Paul McCartney), Take a Chance on Me (Tony Anderson – Abba), Careless Whisper (George Michael), Woman in Love (Barbra Streisand), How Deep is Your Love (Maurice Gibb), Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (Elton John), The Winner Takes It All (Benny Anderson), and My Funny Valentine (Richard Rodgers).

AAFSW would like to thank all our guests for supporting AAFSW and for enjoying a romantic Valentine’s evening with all of us at the beautiful University Club. AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee would especially like to thank our very talented pianist, Ms. Aphrodite Mitsopoulou, for such a successful fundraising event, benefiting AAFSW, which was made possible by her gracious and gratis participation in this lovely musical evening full of melody, dance, and great company!

Dr. Joanna Athanasopoulos Owen, AAFSW President
AAFSW Fun For Funds Fundraising Events Committee Chair