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THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
November 7, 2005
Supporters of the arts honored at Alli Awards
Recipients include Beach composer and Peninsula developer
BY TERESA ANNAS
• Reach Teresa Annas at (757) 446-2485 or teresa.annas@pilot online.com.
Adolphus Hailstork, a renowned composer who lives in Virginia Beach, received the Vianne B. Webb Award on Sunday for longtime involvement in this region’s cultural community.
He was among 10 recipients of the annual Alli Awards , sponsored by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, which collected 26 nominations. Arts supporters gathered at the Ferguson Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University in Newport News for the awards ceremony.
Last month, Hailstork premiered his cantata “Crispus Attucks” at Norfolk’s Attucks Theatre. Since the early 1970s, he has been showered with commissions, performances, grants and recordings of his many works, including choral and chamber works, operas and symphonies. The New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra have performed his works.
Hailstork is a resident composer and professor of music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The Webb Award for Lifetime Achievement is named for a local fine-arts advocate who died in 1992.
The awards also recognize local media, businesses and individuals that support the arts.
The media award went to reporter Joe Flanagan, whose “Joe’s Job” features on WVECTV often have promoted local arts and culture.
Business awards went to Robert L. Freeman Jr., a Newport News developer honored for incorporating public art into that city’s landscape. Contemporary sculpture has been installed throughout his “new urbanism” community of Port Warwick, where an outdoor art show also was staged last month. Freeman worked with the city to create the Newport News Public Art Foundation.
Also honored was the Olde Towne Business Association in Portsmouth. Its 117 members give money each year in support of arts events in the city.
Individual awards were given in professional and volunteer categories. Professional honorees included Paul Trible, president of CNU, for spearheading the creation of the Ferguson Center, which features two world-class theaters and a performing arts series in its second season.
Frank Garcia, director of bands at First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach, was recognized for his program that partnered with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra to provide students with a highlevel artistic experience.
Four volunteers were given awards , including Shirley Hatten of Newport News, for organizing projects for Peninsula arts groups.
Jim Thompson of Hampton, a photographer, received an award for assisting arts groups in his city and for helping with projects such as a downtown outdoor sculpture exhibit called Art Market. He is chairman of the Hampton Arts Commission.
Cornelia Frost of Virginia Beach was honored for coordinating fundraisers and helping with administrative work at the d’Art Center in Norfolk.
Mary Whitney of Portsmouth received an Alli for her continuous volunteer service to the Portsmouth Museums since 1989. She has given more than 7,000 hours on behalf of the Courthouse Galleries.
The Alli awards, which began in 1987, are given yearly. Anyone in the region may submit a nomination. The awards are based on having made a substantial contribution to the arts, whether in volunteer efforts or cash gifts.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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