Critic’s Choices
Super Diamond in Lodi
If you’re wondering who is that man wearing platform shoes and blinding sequins at the Grape Festival, you may want to check out the Super Diamond concert Thursday night.
Fortuna native Randy Cordeiro is a live impersonator of Neil Diamond, who not only dresses like him, but also has the same throaty vocal style. Cordeiro started the gig as a fluke by dressing as Diamond for a party. In 1989, he started performing Diamond as a solo performer, and would sing songs by other artists that he felt sounded like Diamond. A few years later, he added a band to back him up and create the Neil Diamond concert experience. The group performs classics such as “Holy Holly,” “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Sweet Caroline,” and “Song Sung Blue.” The band has played everything from state fairs and corporate parties to small clubs and larger halls. They have performed sold-out shows at venues such as the House of Blues in Los Angeles, the 4th and B in San Diego, the Fillmore and Bimbo’s 365 club in San Francisco, and the Fox Theater in Boulder. Super Diamond has also appeared on national television and on syndicated radio.
St. John’s Performing Arts Guild Concert In Lodi
A variety of local performers will present a concert Sunday at St. John’s Episcopal Church to benefit the purchase of a vintage 1920s Baldwin concert grand piano. The piano was contracted by the concert committee for community groups that frequently use the church for public concerts.
The program will consist of five performers who will perform solos and duets from selections including “Der Herr Segne Euch,” by J.S. Bach, “Four Impromptus, Opus 90,” by Franz Schubert, “Sonata for Bassoon and Piano,” by Paul Hindemith, “Sonata for Piano, Four Hands,” by Francis Poulenc, and selections by Aaron Copland including “The Dodger,” “Simple Gifts,” “I Bought Me a Cat,” “Zion’s Walls,” and “At the River.”
The performers at the concert will include pianist Robin Knutson, the organist at St. John’s and a piano and organ teacher in Lodi; pianist Dane Berg, the pastoral musician at First Baptist Church in Lodi; bassoonist Joan Berg, a former member of the San Francisco Symphony, baritone Randy Knutson, St. John’s music director and Stockton Master Chorale member; and Christine Wied, St. John’s choir soprano and member of the Master Chorale. Wied was also the soloist at the July 4th celebration at Lodi Lake in 2003. Randy Knutson has also performed in the Stockton Opera’s 2004 “La Traviata” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors.”