"A Victorian Christmas with Dickens," Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton perform an illustrated concert of Victorian music with excerpts from the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens, 1 pm, Dec. 14, 2013, at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, hosted by the Dickens Fellowship North of Boston.
_____________________________________________________________
You are invited to participate on Dec. 14, 2013, 1 p.m., at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, 15 Sylvan St., Danvers, Mass., (http://www.danverslibrary.org) when the Dickens Fellowship North of Boston will host a special, family-friendly musical/historical program, "A Victorian Christmas with Dickens," presented by musicians and historians Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton.
This illustrated Victorian Christmas music program, featuring excerpts from Dickens' various Christmas stories, will use period American and British music. Songs and instrumentals will be performed live by the husband-and-wife team, in costume, and with period-appropriate instruments and style.
Members of the Dickens fellowship will also lead games and dances at special points in the program. Families are encouraged to attend in Victorian costume.
***
Previous audiences found the Daltons to be "engaging, scholarly, delightful, warm, intelligent, flexible, humorous, talented, versatile, enthusiastic, personable, joyful".."Simply put, Jim and Maggi Dalton are a national treasure." The couple specializes in American 19th- and 20th-century music, history, and culture from parlor and stage, performed in historically-informed style. Their programs feature period and period-appropriate instruments.
The Daltons have toured nationwide and have been featured often on commercial and NPR public radio, on television and in major-market newspapers and magazines.
Praised as "extraordinarily versatile," their performances feature repertoire drawn from the Middle Ages to contemporary music; and popular traditions including blues, jazz and Tin Pan Alley/Great American Songbook programs.
Honored by several state arts agencies, the Daltons have released four recordings and compose and perform original material. They designed a full spectrum of programs which they have performed throughout the United States, appearing at nationally-known historic sites such as Colonial Williamsburg; at colleges, in concert series, at festivals, at historical societies, for organizations of every description. More information may be found on their Website: singingstring.org.
As artists-in-residence at various community and educational centers, they have presented series which address American history and various other topics in the humanities, using music as the core of each session. Jim Dalton is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory. Maggi Smith-Dalton has published two books of regional history, and wrote a weekly column on Salem history for the Boston Globe from 2010-2012.
Jim Dalton and Maggi Smith-Dalton are founders and directors of the American History and Music Project, and the Salem History Society, both of which are administered by the Institute for Music, History, and Cultural Traditions, a 501c3 Nonprofit Cultural, Educational, & Scholarly Organization.
