The Shadow
Luca and Arlene DiCecco have been awarded the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council’s Arts Legacy Award for 2022. The annual event recognizes individuals or entities who have given a lifetime of dedication to the perpetuation of the performing arts. A dinner and performance were held at Garth Newel Music Center in Hot Springs to honor the couple. The location was chosen because the couple was instrumental in establishing the center.
As co-founders of Garth Newel Music Center with Christine Herter Kendall, they established an extraordinary and ongoing institution devoted to the performance and education of chamber music. Garth Newel Music Center celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Arlene was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved with her family to London soon after the second World War. Her accomplishments and degrees include a Licentiate from the Royal Academy of Music and study at L’Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her only sister, also a talented and accomplished musician like Arlene, was a singer of note in London.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut to a very gifted musical family, Luca was one of six children. His father was a violinist and conductor who founded the Waterbury Symphony, and his mother was a pianist. His brother Bruno is also an accomplished cellist. He began his musical education with the violin at age nine, later turning to the study of cello. He earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and A Performer’s Award from Indiana University, then studied at L’Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. Teaching has always been an important part of Luca’s career. He has served at various institutions of higher learning, including the University of New Hampshire, University of South Africa, Illinois State University, Duke University, the State University of New York, and the University of North Carolina.
The two met in Rome and began a romance of music, travel, teaching, and administrative leadership. At the time, Arlene was a British Arts Council Award winner from London and Luca was a Fulbright Scholar from the United States. As performers in the Ciompi Quartet at Duke University and the Rowe Quartet, first at the State University of New York and then at the University of North Carolina, they have performed in Europe, South America, South Africa, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
While making the presentation, Arts Council Executive Director Tammy Scruggs-Duncan praised the couple’s work saying, “the life’s work of these two individuals has left a monumental impact on our community and the music world in general. You can see their touch in the masterful hands of these remarkable professional musicians, the budding talent of the young students, in the love & pride that glows on the faces of their family and inside all of us who may have closed our eyes and been transported by tonight’s beautiful music for a brief time to a place above the mire of our tumultuous world.”
Others who spoke during the ceremony included Arts Council Vice-President, Sandra Minter, Eugene Sullivan, Chairman of Garth Newel’s Board of Directors, Meade Snyder or Snyder & Snyder, and Jaime McArdle, director of the Alleghany Mountain String Project.
McArdle introduced her students Madison Barnett, Sidney Donnan, and Isabella Fisher who performed for the DiCeccos along with Garth Newel veterans Jeannette Fang and Fitz Gary.
In their acceptance speech, The DiCeccos spoke eloquently of the power of music and the natural beauty of our area. Mr. DiCecco stated, “There is a feeling that we get from the beauty we see around us. We’d like everyone to know that the music that is performed here can all be understood if you simply use your imagination or recognize the empathy and importance of your own soul. That music is there for an enormous range of emotional and thoughtful happenings in life, drama, and sweetness. Anything you can think of to describe those feelings in life is music.”
Mrs. DiCecco thanked the Arts Council, Garth Newel personnel, and their family who had come from various states to attend the event.
The Arts Legacy Award was established in 2009 to honor individuals and institutions who have spent a lifetime perpetuating the performing arts through teaching, studying, performing, mentoring, financially backing, developing, and executing programs, or otherwise supporting the performance arts of music, theatre and dance.
The Arts Council accepts nominations for this award year-round. Past recipients include Jeffrey Stern, Dr. Calvin McClinton, Jean Mitchell Shepard, Stephen Allan Tucker, Susan Parker Potter, Sandra Dodd Minter, Nell K. Fleshman, R. Dean Andrews, Westvaco Corporation (WestRock), Horton Beirne & The Covington Virginian Inc., Ginger Leitch , Frances Parker Rupert, Sara Lu P. Snyder, The Alleghany Foundation, Founding Members:- Lily Albert, Harold & Carla Bell, Hubert & Mary Emma Cox, Nelson & Mary Lee Coxe, Mary Frances Mays-Davis, Margaret McCaleb, Harold & Nita Miller, R.L.& Greta Persinger, Charles & Virginia Stumpp.
