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March
2010
In This Issue – Music in Westover
WVCA is an all-volunteer,
• Blue Groove Soundz
community-based organization • Swanson Orchestra Program
• Levine School of Music
WVCA Officers 2008 - 2009
• Neighborhood band Still Standing
• Free Trees Coming Soon
Robert Orttung, President
• Don’t forget: Easter Egg Hunt: Sat. April 3, 10:30 Reed School Green
Caron Ward, Vice President
Kay Bailey, Secretary Music Store Opens in Westover
John Marsh, Treasurer
Neighborhood Conservation Delegates
Jenny Molloy
John Marsh
Civic Federation Delegates
Caron Ward
Tom Tibor
Amy Risdall
John Marsh
Westover Village
Civic Association
Contact Information
WVCA
Box 5604
Arlington, VA 22205
wvcapres@yahoo.com
www.westovervillage.org
For advertising or to submit items Gary Foreman and some of the records at Blue Groove Soundz.
for consideration, contact John
This special issue of the Westover Village Voice celebrates the explosion of
Marsh at 703.534.0215. Advertising
fees for bimonthly newsletter: music rocking the Westover neighborhood. Residents have been enjoying the
$25 per run, $60/ three runs, $100/ bands and nightlife in the Westover Beer Garden. Now they can buy vinyl records
year. and CDs at a new music shop located just below Arax and the cleaners on
Washington Blvd. When they are not listening to music, Westoverians are making
their own! Several residents have their own bands, including Bill Cleary’s Star
Dust Dance Band, Still Standing, and many more. Still learning how to play?
Then there is the Levine School of Music, located in the Westover Baptist
Church. And, of course, the incomparable Swanson Middle School bands and
orchestras. See all the details on the following pages.
Visit us at http://westovervillage.org or email wvcapres@yahoo.com
Blue Groove Soundz Sells Vinyl, CDs in Westover; Big Plans
Tired of downloading music and looking for some human contact? Never really
figured out how to work an Ipod? Gary Foreman has the place for you. Four
months ago, he opened Blue Groove Soundz in the basement spot below
Arax. The entrance is on the side of the building next to the cleaners and don’t
be put off by the metal grate. The shop itself is filled with a vast collection of
records and CDs. In particular, there is a huge selection of jazz, soul, and
classical, as well as rock and a variety of everything else as well.
The records and CDs are both new and used and cover a range of prices. If you’re looking
for some Coltrane, Miles, or Dizzy, you’ve definitely come to the right place! The store is like a
labyrinth. As you keep walking through it, you find more and more rooms and music.
In the next few weeks, Foreman plans to open a listening room where you can bring in
music or listen to some of his. He also has record players set up so you can try out the stock. Even
if you threw out your record player twenty-five years ago, it’s no problem, because you can buy
another one! Music enthusiasts say that with the right equipment, you get a much better sound with
vinyl.
Despite the proliferation of on-line music, record companies never stopped pressing discs,
so you can likely find some of your favorite contemporary artists as well.
Foreman is a photographer and his work brought him to the Washington area from Chicago,
where he owned a book and record store. There he began stockpiling as many records as he could
so that he could eventually open a store like the one in Westover. He lives in the neighborhood, so
Westover was the perfect place to launch his new venture. His business has been growing quickly,
mostly by word of mouth and on-line through Craig’s List.
In April he is planning some collaborative efforts with Devin at the Westover Market’s Beer
Garden. He knows some DJs who will help to entertain Westover’s music aficionados. Plans
include evenings featuring Latin music and funk.
Swanson Music Department Trains the Middle School Masses
The Swanson Music Department currently is training
400 students in orchestra, band, and choral groups.
All the concerts are advertised on the Swanson web
site and are open to the public.
Under Mr. Hartman’s direction, the orchestra
has grown considerably. When he arrived in 2002,
there were 25 members playing violins, violas, and
cellos. Now there are two orchestras with 70
members overall. All of Swanson’s groups have won
numerous awards at local competitions.
Swanson is also home to the Arlington Youth Symphony which brings together musicians
from Arlington high schools and beyond. The group gives musicians a chance to play in an
ensemble that includes strings and woodwinds, which are usually separated at the high school
level. Maestro Hartman has been conducting the Symphony for the last two years. It is the
descendant of a group that began playing together in the 1980s.
The students practice once a week and give two performances a year, usually in the spring
and toward the end of the school year. The next performance will be on Friday March 19 at 7pm in
the Swanson auditorium. It is open to the public and admission is free. The program includes
Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, Holst’s Jupiter from The Planets, Gliere’s Russian Sailor’s Dance, and
Del Borgo’s Essay for Orchestra. The Westover community is invited to come out and support the
next generation of musicians.
Visit us at http://westovervillage.org or email wvcapres@yahoo.com
Levine School of Music Welcomes Students of All Ages
The Levine School of Music, housed in
the Westover Baptist Church, teaches
musicians from the very young to very
not-so young. Some percussionists
have no memory of a pre-Obama
America. Meanwhile, the average age
in the New Horizons Band, is north of
50ish.
The school offers lesson on 22 instruments and voice, according to Director Tina Dove.
Today one-third of the students are adults and two-thirds are kids, many of the same ones who are
actively involved in their school music programs. The adults make up a quickly growing segment of
the student population, with about half of them coming back to music after having taken lessons as
kids and half arriving without any musical background at all.
At the school, 75 percent of the classes are individual instruction and the rest are group
classes. The groups include a high school wind ensemble, beginning piano, middle school vocals,
and guitar, among others. Dove hopes to start cello classes in the near future. The school offers
both Suzuki and traditional teaching methods. It prides itself on offering students teachers that best
suit their temperament and goals, from those who are interested in casually learning to play to those
who prefer a more structured, disciplined teacher.
With its accomplished instructors, master classes, and faculty performances, the school
provides students with more than just lessons. It incorporates them into a real music community.
The school is in operation six days a week, going as late as 9 pm Monday to Thursday. On a
recent Friday afternoon, there were numerous studios filled with instrumentalists of all types honing
their skills. In a small studio upstairs was a young lady perfecting a violin piece, while below a bunch
of young boys learned about rhythm while banging on drums. In one of the bigger rooms, an entire
orchestra prepared for an upcoming performance. All the equipment in the school is first class –
Steinway and Boston pianos!
So if you have been thinking about learning to play piano, guitar, violin or something more
exotic, there is no excuse not to become a Westover musician. If you practice, practice, practice,
maybe Devin will invite you to play in the Westover Market Beer Garden!!
Neighborhood Band Still Standing Rocks Westover
Still Standing is a group of six friends and
musicians who have been playing together for ten
years. They came together to play for a
millennium New Year’s party for a lark, and with
some notable improvements in personnel, have
been at it ever since. Musically, the only
restrictions on repertoire the band members
impose on themselves are that they play only
music that, as one of the members observes, “we
really like.” There are essentially no limits: “Any
style or any genre is fair game as long as we
really like it and can figure out how to play
it.” They cover everything from Roger Miller to KT
Tunstall, from John Prine to Talking Heads, but
end up playing mostly classic rock and blues.
Visit us at http://westovervillage.org or email wvcapres@yahoo.com
The band, originally a quartet made up of Westoverian guitarists Jim St. Pierre and John Marsh, along with
bassist Scott Baron (who actually hails from across the river), and a drummer who has since moved on, was
greatly improved when Nora Marsh, John’s sister, moved back to Arlington from the West Coast and, much to the
astonishment of her skeptical brother, turned out to be a truly fine lead singer. Other improvements were the
replacement of the band’s original, unlamented drummer by Westoverian Phil Catania (a veteran of that classic
1960’s outfit, The Groovy Tree), and the addition of percussionist and Westoverian Carlos Contreras. A true
neighborhood band, Still Standing, has played lots of Westover events, including a number of McKinley School
silent auctions, McKinley Road block parties, the recent Westover Library opening (pictured on the previous page)
and, of course, the Westover Market Beer Garden. They practice when they can, in the back room of a house on
McKinley Road, so if you are out walking on a weekday night and hear the strains of a rock n’ roll song wafting
through the evening air, it just might be Still Standing preparing for their next gig.
Sign up for Free Trees
Westover has lost many of our wonderful large canopy trees due to infill and the recent snow and wind storms.
We need more large trees to provide cooling shade, help clean the air, reduce noise levels, provide homes for
birds and absorb storm water runoff. To encourage this renewal, Arlington County Parks and Natural Resources
Division is this year offering a variety of tree whips for residents. The tree whips are approximately three to five
feet in height and are potted in two-gallon containers. Due to limited quantities, there is only one tree per
household and the deadline for requesting the tree is April 28. This year, volunteer Tree Stewards are available to
answer your questions and assist you in selecting the Right Tree to fit in the Right Place in your yard. To reserve
a tree for your yard or contact a Tree Steward, please contact our neighborhood tree coordinator Robert Orttung
at wvcapres@yahoo.com.
The following large shade trees are being offered. These should be planted at least 10 feet away from any
overhead wire or building, with consideration for other trees, underground utilities, and sidewalks.
• American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) – This is a large and spreading shade tree with showy white,
cream, olive and gray bark. It can get to 80 feet high with a 60 foot spread. It is very adaptable to wet or dry
soils and likes full and partial sun. Photos: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/p/plaocc/plaocc1.html
• Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) – This large shade tree adapts well to dry, wet and flooding area as well
as tolerating full sun to partial shade. Leaves are a dark green on top and whitish green underneath, resulting
in a bicolor effect in the breeze. It matures at 60 feet tall and also has a 60 foot spread. It is a truly
• excellent provider of food and shelter for wildlife of all
kinds. Photos at
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/q/quebic/quebic1.html
• River birch (Betula nigra) – This is a rapidly growing
shade tree with outstanding ornamental bark that can
handle dry or wet sites and full sun to partial sun. It can
be single or multiple trunked. At maturity, it can be 60
feet tall and 40 feet wide. Photos at
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/b/betnig/betnig1.html
A smaller tree that can be planted closer to overhead wires,
but provides less cooling shade and air cleaning assistance
is also available in limited quantities.
• Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) – This is an
upright large shrub or small multi-trunked tree, having
excellent semi-evergreen waxy foliage, with fragrant
creamy late spring flowers. It can mature to 20 feet tall
by 15 feet wide. It prefers partial sun in moist, rich,
acidic soils for best performance, but can adapt to sunny
or shady conditions in a variety of soils. Photo at
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/m/magvir/magvir1.html
Again, the deadline to reserve your tree is April 28. For
more information or assistance in selecting the right
tree for your yard, contact Robert Orttung at
wvcapres@yahoo.com.
Page 2 of 2
Check out the WVCA’s
always expanding
web site at:
www.westovervillage.org
Westover Village Civic Association
Membership Form – 2010
Annual Dues $15 Payable to WVCA
Membership dues pay for newsletter costs and fund many of the community activities and projects
Sponsored by WVCA throughout the year.
New Member Membership Renewal Information Update
Number of people in household______ E-mail address:_____________________________________
Names
Address:__________________________________________________________________________
Mail form with payment to: WVCA, PO Box 5604, Arlington, VA 22205
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