The Daily Orange 12/5/06

Aiken interacts with audience during strong holiday show
Heather Mayer
Posted: 12/5/06
The scene couldn't have been more fitting just weeks before Christmas. The snow settled lightly on the grass in front of Turning Stone Casino and Resort, reflecting the decorative Christmas lights. Inside, the event showroom was a full house. People of all ages sat at assigned tables looking out onto the stage patiently awaiting the featured guest, "American Idol's" Clay Aiken.

String instruments played quietly as part of the Utica Symphony Orchestra's warm-up before Aiken's arrival. Unlike a traditional pop star concert, families sat together and sipped Diet Coke and coffee in the elegant theater.

The poor setup of the tables, which packed people tightly together, made it difficult to hear the strings and flutes over side conversations. The orchestra continued with a combination of "Good King Wenceslas" and "Dreidel, Dreidel," a nice touch to celebrate Hanukkah.

Once the last notes of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" played, audience members stood up and began screaming and applauding Aiken as he entered the stage. Aiken's orange collared shirt seemed more like Syracuse University spirit than Christmas spirit, but the girls and women in the front row cooed at him nonetheless.

Aiken performed a long list of Christmas songs, including "Noel," "Walking in a Winter Wonderland," "Merry Christmas with Love," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Grownup Christmas List." In between songs, Aiken interacted with the front-row fans and the loud, outspoken fans sitting in the back.

After being told his zipper was down by one fan, he transitioned from pop singer to comedian, making the audience laugh about his recent encounter with Kelly Ripa on the "Regis and Kelly Show." Aiken poked fun at himself and how he offended Ripa by placing his hand over her mouth during the show.

"Don't put your hand over someone's mouth," Aiken said. "It's very rude."

Aiken was extremely interactive with his audience members, sending them into fits of laughter, cheering and applause. He made the night for one young fan, Erin Squairs, 15, of Liverpool. The singer asked the audience what a "fermata" (a held note) was, and called forth Squairs, a veteran pianist, to play a fermata on stage. Squairs, a diehard fan, couldn't believe her eyes or ears.

"I thought, how is he talking to me?" she said.

The dialogue with the audience seems to be what makes Aiken's fans come back for his shows. The show ended with an encore of "All is Well," sending the crowd to another standing ovation for Aiken. This Christmas show is part of Aiken's third annual tour, and he uses it to help promote charities events including UNICEF, in which he is actively involved.

Aside from one perturbed male audience member who expressed his opinion that Aiken should pay attention to people in the back row, the crowd loved Aiken's performance in conjunction with the Utica Symphony. Squairs gave Aiken "two thumbs up."
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© Copyright 2006 The Daily Orange

The Citizen's Voice

Wilkes-Barre, PA
December 10, 2006

12/11/2006
Aiken injects holiday performance with humor
BY GERI ANNE KAIKOWSKI
STAFF WRITER


Clay Aiken brought a surprising dose of humor along with holiday song and spirit to his Christmas concert before a sold-out crowd at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in Wilkes-Barre on Sunday night.

The 2003 “American Idol’’ runner-up poked fun at his recent mouth-covering incident with morning television talk show host Kelly Ripa by incorporating it into a set of rules that he reminded the audience of during breaks in his Christmas song list.

He told the crowd not to be rude and if they did have the urge to say something wrong, they should “incorporate the Clay Aiken hand-over-mouth method,’’ and then put his hand over his own mouth to demonstrate.

“It is very effective at shutting up people who talk too much,’’ he said to a cheering audience.

Taking another poke at the brouhaha over Ripa’s protest, he asked the audience to support the local arts.

“I got my start in the local arts community,’’ he said. “I think every celebrity did, except Britney Spears.’’

Then he paused and added, “And Kelly Ripa.’’

Aiken, sporting a longer and lightened version of his new hair style and wearing wire rimmed glasses, teased the audience by opening the button on his blue pinstriped suit jacket stating, “Don’t read anything into this. I’ve just gotten a little fat recently.’’

Aiken brought a refreshing contrast to a traditional holiday concert by mixing the more familiar Christmas standards, such as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing’’ and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’’ with some newer selections like “My Grown-Up Christmas List’’ and “Merry Christmas with Love,’’ which were as equally received as the more well-known tunes.

The American Idol finalist’s vocals are well-suited to the histrionics of Christmas carols, especially when he held the notes on such classics as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.’’

He was accompanied by the Lee Vincent Holiday Orchestra, comprised of musicians from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic as well as symphonies from Allentown and Binghamton, N.Y.

In-between songs, Aiken teased several concert attendees in the third row for bringing binoculars to the show by asking them, “Just what did you hope to see, my nose hair?’’

He also poked fun at the male members of the audience by asking them if they were coerced into coming to his concert, telling them not to worry that, “What happens here stays here. No one will ever know you attended a Clay Aiken show.’’

The Diamondback
The University of Maryland Independent Daily Newspaper

Playing with an Idol
Rebecca Wise
Posted: 12/11/06
When singer and American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken took the stage at Baltimore's Lyric Opera House on Wednesday, he had a little help. But the "help" did not come as backup singers or recorded music, but a full and awe-inspiring 51-piece orchestra led by university professor Ed Walters.

Even Simon Cowell couldn't complain about this one.

Aiken was supported by a group of local musicians - loosely called the Ed Walters Orchestra - during both his Wednesday concert in Baltimore and his Thursday concert in Norfolk, two dates on his Christmas tour. The singer performed a full repertoire of beloved holiday classics for adoring - and mostly female - audiences.

Walters, who was the original director of the university's Scholars music program and who now teaches clarinet, also serves as a contractor for Wolf Trap and the National Theater. Through his association with the Lyric Theater, he was asked to put together a team of musicians for Aiken's concert. Walters turned to his reliable group of professional musicians, but made sure to include some university students in the experience.

"I have a lot of what we call seasoned professional players," he says. "I always like to mix in some young people with that. They don't have so much experience, but they're still very talented - they just haven't done a lot. I thought I would mix even more [students] in with the orchestra, except that they're so busy in school."

Three graduate and doctoral students played with the orchestra: Kim Buschek, Danny Villanueva and Sarah Pohl.

Pohl, a graduate student in viola performance who played violin for Aiken's concerts, said this was a unique opportunity for her.

"He's a very nice guy," she says of Aiken. "It's been fun. [It's like] nothing that I've ever done before, playing for a pop star."

Villanueva, a doctoral student who plays percussion, echoes Pohl's sentiments.

"It was great," he says. "It was a lot of fun. ... Everybody just took care of us, and it was a blast."

Walters and the students agree that, if nothing else, Aiken was extremely nice. And indeed, Aiken charmed the orchestra members at rehearsal: dressed in plaid pajama pants and a hoodie (hair longer and wilder than ever), text-messaging while belting out "Grown-Up Christmas List" and cracking jokes in his very Southern accent about his lack of technical music knowledge. The singer certainly made a good impression.

"He's a very friendly guy," Walters says. "Everybody got to take a picture with him. He was clowning around with us at rehearsal. ... He's a really down-to-earth country boy."

Of course, interaction with the celebrity was limited, as the orchestra members had a job to do - and had little time to learn and perfect their music.

"The frantic part about it is, you don't get much rehearsal time because it's expensive. ... We have to rehearse our portion of the concert in two hours," Walters explains. "Which is enough time ... but you have to have people that really know what they're doing."

Villanueva says although the orchestra had minimal time to rehearse the music with Aiken, their talent and his attitude made the performance a hit.

"I thought he sounded great, and he worked very well with the audience," he says. "I think he conveyed the fact that he was having a good time and having fun with his music."

Though Aiken's career is not as sparkling as first-season Idol winner Kelly Clarkson's surprisingly fantastic one, he has at least made a name for himself in the pop-music world. His 2003 album, Measure of a Man, went platinum, as did his 2004 Christmas album, Merry Christmas With Love. Aiken is currently promoting his new album, A Thousand Different Ways, composed mostly of cover songs with a few new singles mixed in.

Walters calls Aiken's voice "exceptional" and says the singer could go even further with a little luck. However, Walters says the music business depends as much on the business as on the music, as evidenced by the myriad of untalented but well-managed artists out there.

"I think he's got a great voice," he says of Aiken. "Now, that doesn't mean he's gonna have a great career. They have to get the right music for him and promote him in the right way."

Walters and his orchestra members are no strangers to fame. Throughout his career, Walters has worked with artists including Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Sting, Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Bernstein.

"Nobody's worked with [Aiken]. They haven't seen him, so they're sort of excited about it," Walters said before rehearsal on Wednesday. "But on the other hand, we've seen a lot of people."

Walters says while many artists with whom he works are "best known from a distance," he is often pleasantly surprised, as with Aiken. For example, when he worked on an album for Christina Aguilera, he was impressed.

"If you're talking about talent, she can really sing," he says.

Villanueva says he thoroughly enjoyed his pop-star experience and hopes he can do it again sometime.

"I wish that more people came to town needing orchestras," he says. "It was a lot of fun."

Contact reporter Rebecca Wise at wisedbk@gmail.com.

Grand Rapids, MI De Vos Hall
December 19, 2006

Energetic Aiken has right touch for holiday show
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
By Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk

Claymates everywhere slept easy Tuesday night.

Diehard fans of Clay Aiken go online each night their "American Idol" favorite has a concert to listen to that evening's pirated, cell-phone recording. They need to know if their guy hit the high note of his encore, "All Is Well."

Those, of course, are only the midlevel fans.

The most serious of West Michigan's Claymates, of course, didn't have to check the Internet about their boy's debut in DeVos Performance Hall. They were there, taking in his show with the Grand Rapids Symphony.

A sellout audience -- mostly female, plenty taking improper flash photos and/or making illegal cell-phone recordings -- filled the 2,446-seat hall for "A Clay Aiken Christmas."

Aiken was a hoot and a holler, full of Southern charm, telling stories, cracking jokes, bantering with the audience.

He also sings rather well.

But beyond the songs, it's the whole package -- the easy grin, the down-home demeanor, the good ol' boy charm -- that made the former special-education teacher from North Carolina the kind of celebrity who makes headlines just by clapping his hand over Kelly Ripa's mouth.

The 28-year-old singer, who referred to himself as the "Scandal King," did not disavow that action.

It needed to be done," he told the cheering audience. "And I'd do it again. Hopefully with less publicity."

Dressed in black suit and shirt with a chocolate brown tie and cowboy boots, Aiken sang 13 songs in 81 minutes on stage with the Grand Rapids Symphony, led by his pianist and musical director, Jesse Vargas.

Soft and soulful versions of Christmas hymns such as "The First Noel," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful" fell easily from his tenor voice.


His buoyant delivery also worked well with such breezy tunes as "Winter Wonderland" and "Sleigh Ride."

But Aiken was at his best with intimate melodies such as "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "The Christmas Song," singing the latter with a Nat "King" Cole flair.

One of his finest of the night was "Mary, Did You Know?" which Aiken sang with an earnest appeal.

What was especially touching about "My Grown Up Christmas List" was that Aiken said he was singing it for his younger brother, who turned 21 on Tuesday and is a Marine serving in Iraq.

The Grand Rapids Symphony opened the concert, part of its SymphonicBoom Series, with 30 minutes' worth of holiday music, a couple of medleys as well as variations on "Little Drummer Boy."

Some were recycled from the Holiday Pops earlier this month and played better.

Associate conductor John Varineau shrewdly picked several medleys and arrangements -- a cinematic version of "Sing We Now of Christmas" and a whimsical variation of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- all with a bit of glitter, a little snap and plenty of solos all around to show off the orchestra. It's always smart to dress up when you have company over.

Aiken, in turn, was the gracious guest, full of praise for the orchestra. His several plugs of the evening included a couple of mentions of the Grand Rapids Symphony's recent Grammy Award nomination for its recording "Invention & Alchemy," with harpist Deborah Henson-Conant.

"Cause I've never had one of those nominations," he said with a pretend pout. "I feel really bad."

Nor did he win "American Idol," but that hasn't stopped Aiken from becoming a star in the world of entertainment.