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arts@barnstablepatnor.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL DIPERSIO
Paul DePersio with his beloved baby
grand.
Musicians,like any other
group of people,comein all
different shapes and sizes,
with different motives and
different objectives.
It'snotuncommontofind
musicianson Cape Codwho
arestrugglingto make ends
meet playing all the local
venues, bars and restau-
rants, beefing up their re-
sumes for the much lauded
and highlydesirable record
contract that willgalvanize
their musical dreams and
aspirations andmakethem
career musicians, not sim-
ply hobbyists.
There are also musicians
who are perfectly happy
playing the local venues
and have no desire for the
peripheral and contractual
obligationsthat come along
withrecord contracts. In fact, some musiciansmake an explicit point
to not make any money at allwiththeir musicfor fear that the money
proposition would poison the good-hearted fun of playing. Paul Di-
Persioisjust such amusician. "Hike beingthe phantom piano player,"
said DiPersio. "I pop in and pop out and nobody really knows my
name. That's the way I like it. And I play for food. Once money is
involved with the music, I tend to lose interest."
DiPersioisacareerheatingand air-conditioningcontractor,husband
to hiswifeMona, and father to their five children. He alsohas been a
piano-playing hobbyist for over 40 years. It wasn't until roughly his
40th year playing music, though, that it donned on him, through a
moment of musical inspiration, that he could turn his long held love
for piano music into a medium that could touch people beyond the
members of his family.
As the story goes, two years ago around Christmas time, DiPersio
was listening to a John McDermott album full of sad stories of war
and forlorn soldiers and their families, when he began to meditate on
the subject of injured soldiers returning home from the war in Iraq.
As an Air Force veteran himself, the urge suddenly came to him to
help these soldiers and to help them with a force that has helped him
for many years - music and playing the piano.
The idea was to create an album full of DiPersio's piano music,
distribute the album nationwide to various veteran organizations
and have all the proceeds of the album dedicated to the Homes for
Our Troops Organization (www.homesforourtroops.org).
That was roughly two years ago and now, two years later, DiPersio
has successfully completed the album, distributed the album on a
large scale Eastern initiative with hopes of expanding to the West
and ultimately nation-wide. He has also become the in-house piano
player for Blackstone'sRestaurant,the glamorous upscale restaurant
that caters to patrons on the grounds of the Indian Pond Country
Club in Kingston.
Belowisaconversation Ihad with DiPersio about hislife, his music,
and his album. He talks like a man who has lead a meaningful life and
he tells a good story to boot...
Can you talk a little about
the military association of the
album?
Homes for Our Troops is an
organization for severelyinjured
soldiers that comeback from the
war and they'llend up at Walter
Reed Hospital in Washington.
And what will happen is they
will need a house retrofitted
specially for them and in many
casesthe organizationwillbuild
abrand new home for the soldiers. Since I've started this project ,
other veteran's organizations have asked me to become involved,
which of course I am more than willing to accommodate. There
are all kinds of different veteran's organizations that want to get
involved. So it's really great. I think I might actually make a dif-
ference in the lives of some of these soldiers.
•
So, you learned to play music in the Air Force?
I went into the Air Force in 1959 and I played all the while when
I was in the Air Force. I had an opportunity to use the piano in the
officer 's club which my commanding officer made available to me,
so I used to spend endless nights and weekends playing the piano
there. My commanding officer who essentially allowed me to play
the piano in the quarters, took a bit of a risk. It wasn't exactly an
easy thing to do - let a guylike me sit around and play the piano all
night. He was ahigh-rankingofficial and arespected thirty-mission
pilot over Germany in WWII. He was a Cape Codder who was tragi-
callykilled in a car accident coming out of hisdrivewayin Falmouth.
And without him and his blessing, I would have never learned to
play. So, in a way, I dedicate the album to him as well.
Did you have any formal piano training?
No. I actually can't read music at all. I wouldn't know any note
on the scale. What I did was... we had tape recorders then not
CD's,so I would get tapes of pianists and imitate the tapes again
and again and again. I probably burned through about fifty tape
recorders. I did that for about four years straight.
What do people say when they f ind out you 're a musician?
People simply don't believe that I'm a piano player. I was at
a construction site the other day and this man was amazed. He
heard my ad on the radio and said to me, "Who are you? What
are you doing?" I think that is a result of how conditioned people
are. Society says that if you work with your hands, you can't
be involved in any artistic activities. But here I am, putting up
ductwork, and making a living for myself, and the ad comes over
the radio, "the piano stylings of Paul DiPersio". I get a real hoot
out of it, let me tell ya.
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:2
i Oil MU8JG by Nicholasaniith Put yourself in
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Maritime Museum
offers impressive
exhibit
By Kathleen Manwaring
kmanwaring@barnstablepatriot.com
RESCUE AT SEA - In this powerful print of a painting by Winslow Homer, a half-
conscious woman is carried to shore by a surtman using the Breeches Buoy. The
image accurately captures the drama of such rescues.
Through the years, Cape Cod
has been many things to many
people: vacation spot , summer
sanctuary, birthplace, home. Yet
for centuries, Cape Cod wasknown
as the "Graveyard of Ships" as the
number of wrecks along its sandy
shoals numbered well into the
thousands.
"ForThose inPerilonthe Sea,"an
exhibit at the Cape Cod Maritime
MuseuminHyannis, offers atribute
to those times of turbulent seas
and lost ships as it chronicles the
evolution of Cape history as seen
through exploration of shipwrecks
to the building of lighthouses.
The exhibitisaseries of artifacts,
paintingsand strikingphotographs
mounted along the walls of the
museum'smainroom.At its center
is a fully restored Race Point Surf
Boat from the 1930s.
The exhibit beginswiththe wreck
of the Sparrow-Hawk , a vessel
as old as the Mayflower that ran
aground in 1626 on what is now
known as Chatham Bar. In a glass
case flanked by photos and infor-
mation about the wreck are several
pieces of salvage including a deep,
black ballast stone.
The wreck of the Jason in De-
cember of 1893 left one survivor,
Samuel J. Evans of England. His
photo, accompanied by the keep-
ers' notes (some even signed with
the familiar surname"Bearse") and
written descriptions of the wreck
are sobering.
Truly powerful, however, is the
section pertaining to the wreck of
the Portland during what came to
be known as the Portland Gale.
More than 200 people perished
in 1898 when the Portland sank.
Bodies and debris washed up on
the shores of the Cape for several
weeks after the wreck on Stellwa-
gen Bank.
The photos of the ship's rem-
nants - one wheel and wood
planking - along with the images
of a badly damaged Provincetown
following the storm, are startling.
The engine room bell from the
Portland, restored and polished,
hangs on the wall above a model
of the ship. One can only ponder
what that bell looked like when it
was taken from the water.
The number and severity of the
wrecks along Cape Cod motivated
the building of numerous light-
houses. Honoring them and the
men of rescue crews are prints of
well-known paintings by Edward
Hopper and Winslow Homer.
Hopper 's "The Long Leg" and
"Lighthouse at Two Lights"exem-
plify the solitude and loneliness of
those who kept the lights, as well as
the symbioticrelationship between
sailing vessel and lighthouse, two
independent objects incomplete
without one another.
Homer's"The LifeLine"isapow-
erful homage to the men on rescue
crews who risked their own fives to
save the lives of others. Depicting
a surfman in a Breeches Buoy car-
rying a half-conscious woman to
shore over wind-whipped waves,
the painting evokes the true drama
of perilous rescues.
Rounding out the exhibition is
the wall of hope , telling the tales
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:2
ARTS NOTEBOOK
Pizzarelli's Boch in town
Back in the good old days, there
was a jazz concert under the tent
on the Hyannis green the evening
before the Boston Pops concert.
Some may remember the night a
young John Pizzarelli delighted
the audience.
The stylish jazz guitarist and
singer will be back in Barnstable
Aug. 5, this time at Cape Cod
Community College as part of the
Boch Center 2006 season. This
year's series will be split between
Mashpee High School and the
college's Tilden Arts Center.
Shows in Mashpee will include
Melissa Manchester (July 15), the
satirical Capitol Steps (July 22),
and the ViennaChoir Boys (Dec. 9).
In addition to Pizzarelli, the college
willhost Sandy Duncan (Aug. 26) in
aBroadway tribute,and thePrague
Chamber Orchestra with pianist
Menahem Pressler (Oct. 22).
Tickets go on sale May 15. Call
508-862-2580.
Nice Touch
There might be a ticket or two
available to see the well-received
documentary on the Cape Cod
Baseball League. Touching the
Game, Saturday night at Cap'n
Kidd Restaurant in Woods Hole.
This is another entry in the Woods
Hole Film Festival Dinner & a
Movie series. For reservations, call
Adam at 508-548-8563.
Doobies due
The Doobie Brothers will roll
into the Cape Cod Melody Tent
in Hyannis June 16. Meanwhile,
Etta James won't bejoining Susan
Tedeschi for a show on June 23;
refunds are available until April
29 at point of purchase.
Tickets are on sale at 617-931-
2787 and www.melodytent.org
Votingherself off the
island
The title character of Still Life
with iris just wants to go home,
but it willtake the help of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart and Poe's An-
nabel Lee to get her there. Anna
Heick and Katherine Doherty are
members of the Regis CollegeThe-
atre Company, which will present
the award-winningplay for allages
today at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and
tomorrow at 2 and 7:30 p.m. at
Harwich Junior Theatre. Call 508-
432-2002 , ext. 4, for tickets.
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:2
The seventh art for
the seven villages
Professor brings
foreign films and
culture to the Cape
By Heather Wysocki
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
As a 5-year-old, Lore Loftfield
DeBower, professor and head of
language and literature at Cape
Cod Community College, wanted
two things: to speak French, and
to see a Gothic cathedral.
Now, as an adult French teacher
who ministers at her church, she
has accomplished those things.
But her early experiences with
international culture brought her
a lifelong love for places all over
the world.
"I want to go everyplace. Where
wouldn'tyou want to go?"she said.
She hasn't been everywhere yet, so
DeBower turns to what the French
call the seventh art, film, to show
her the places that interest her.
Debower always loved film. But
it was during her time in France
that she experienced the French
tradition of watching and discuss-
ing foreign films.
"I wanted to bring this 'salon
culture'" to the Cape, she said.
DeBower offers free showings
of films from all over the world at
weeklyinstallments of 4C'sForeign
Film Series. Each Tuesday, a film
is shown at 3:30 p.m. In Lecture
HallA of the Science Building,with
students and the public welcome
to attend.
Though DeBower has lived in
CAPE COD COMMUNITY COLLEGE PHOTO
SALON CINEMA -Cape Cod Community
CollegeProfessor Lore Loftfield
DeBower shows films from all over
at 4Cs.
and visited sites throughout Eu-
rope, Asia, North Africa, and Cen-
tral America, she doesn't limit her
showings to films from any certain
place. This year's four remaining
films are from Switzerland, France,
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:2