I want to applaud two recent musical productions in the Bangor area performed entirely by local talent. When my wife, Esther, and I came to Maine 25 years ago, there was a lot about the greater Bangor area that appealed to us, but we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would probably have to make periodic trips to Boston to attend various performing arts events.

Thus we were pleasantly overwhelmed by the wealth of performances – many of a world-class caliber – provided in this area by the Maine Center for the Arts, Bangor Symphony Orchestra, Penobscot Theatre, and others. In the quarter of a century we have been here, we have never made a trip to Boston to go to the theater. And most of these fine productions have been capably reviewed in this newspaper.

However, in the past several weeks, there have been two productions that for sheer enjoyable entertainment were right up there with the more widely known and more extensively promoted and reviewed performances. The first was the Black Bear Men’s Chorus sharing the stage with the Athena Consort on April 30 as part of the University of Maine’s School of Performing Arts schedule.

The second was last weekend’s “Music Off Broadway” sponsored and produced by the Bangor Rotary Club as a fundraiser for children’s programs offered by three local charities. In both cases, completely local and very talented vocalists, accompanists, and music directors put on a fast-moving evening of appealing songs with enthusiasm, wonderful humor, and good harmony.

My only regret in leaving each of these two shows was a genuine disappointment on behalf of all of the music lovers in this area who for some reason missed the opportunity to witness either one or both of these foot-stomping, smile-on-your face, evenings of fun entertainment.

Charles F. Rauch, Jr.

Glenburn