“It’s been an exhausting week,” said the Rev. David McEntire, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Lakeland, speaking to his congregation during Sunday morning worship. “We’re kind of worn out.” Like many of his fellow United Methodists, McEntire was left wondering about the future of his denomination in the wake of a strife-filled […]
Author Archives: Cary McMullen
Posted inPeople
Lakeland Methodists Anxiously Watching Conference on LGBTQ Issue
Policies always have personal consequences, and for Arden Mitchell of Lakeland, a longstanding policy of the United Methodist Church prevented her father from performing her wedding ceremony. When Mitchell married her wife in a religious ceremony in 2012 and then again in 2013 when the state of Florida made same-sex marriage legal, her father, the […]
Posted inPeople
LkldNow Founder Barry Friedman Presented Cygnet Award
LkldNow founder and editor Barry Friedman was awarded the first Cygnet Award of 2019 on Tuesday by the community improvement organization Lakeland Vision. The award recognizes businesses and community organizations whose mission or activities align with the strategic goals of Lakeland Vision. Friedman was presented the award at the intermission of the Imperial Symphony Orchestra […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Spectacular Finale: Pianist Rita Fandrich to Perform with Imperial Symphony Orchestra
If you have one last big performance to give, you might as well perform something memorable. When pianist Rita Fandrich was asked by the Imperial Symphony Orchestra to be a guest soloist, the longtime Lakeland resident chose to perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2. The fiendishly difficult Saint-Saëns concerto, one of the French master’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Imperial Symphony to Present Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’
The symbolic struggle between light and darkness is employed by numerous world religions, as well as in Freemasonry – a society to which the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791) belonged. So it’s fitting that in his last opera, “The Magic Flute,” he brings this struggle to life in a fantastical story that has […]
Posted inBusiness
CRA Approves Grant for Swan Brewing Expansion
City Commissioner Stephanie Madden is partial to The Bean, a coconut-and-coffee-flavored blonde ale brewed by Swan Brewing Company and served at its beer garden on Lake Wire. She is even more a fan of what the craft brewery and taproom has done for an out-of-the-way corner of downtown Lakeland. “I have been a big fan […]
Posted inCity Hall / Local Gov't
City’s Funding for Arts: Stable and Fair?
Arts are generally regarded as important to the health and economic climate of a city, and Lakeland city commissioners devote a quarter of a million dollars a year to helping non-profit arts organizations stay afloat. But like all questions of using taxpayer funds, commissioners have to make tough decisions about which organizations are supported. In […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Symphony, Choral Society Collaborate for Handel’s ‘Messiah’
There are numerous stories about George Frideric Handel’s majestic oratorio, “Messiah.” By Handel’s own account, he wrote it in 24 feverish days. After a performance, a nobleman remarked that the audience had enjoyed the work. “I should be disappointed, my lord, if I merely entertained them,” Handel is said to have replied. “I desired to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Classical Guitar Master (and Beach Boys Fan) Angel Romero to Play with the Imperial Symphony
If you’re a teenager from Spain who has been in California for only a few years, and you’re a prodigy on the classical guitar, and it’s the early 1960s, whose music do you listen to? Why, the Beach Boys, of course. Now the unusual and enduring friendship between Sir Angel Romero – recognized as one […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Maestro and Student Reunited: Aaron Marsh Leads Copeland in Symphony Concert
Imperial Symphony Orchestra Conductor Mark Thielen has shared the stage with a wide range of artists over the years, but this week marks the first time he and the ISO will perform in concert with a rock band led by a former student of his.
