Cherry Grove enjoyed its 12th annual "OceanAires," the classical concert that is the brainchild of Isaac Steven Vaughan, on June 12, at the Community House, under the auspices of the Arts Project of Cherry Grove. An impressive array of talent played exactly 12 pieces during this enchanting evening, billed as "the Dirty Dozen," and arrived, in theme, ostensibly unscrubbed, unshaved and direct from the beach, in colorful vintage bathing attire-or less. Philomena, glamorous in leopard skin print and then garbed as "Miss OceanAires," kept proceedings moving apace with her inimitable irreverent narration, and distributed Ricolas-just like Carnegie Hall-before the first half and saltwater taffy before the second.

Terrific over-the-top variations, by composer and violist Seth Bedford, on Thomas Augustine Arne's English anthem "God Save the Queen," a first work ever commissioned especially for OceanAires, and played by most of the instrumentalists involved, greeted new Homecoming Queen Beach DeBree in style. Here, flautist Chris MacDonnell and Vaughan, on accordion, played a long, striking cadenza-to mock glares from the others-and Laura Ann Giusto AKA Laura the Lifeguard, on trumpet, added to the merriment.

Pianist W John Bainbridge, in snorkeling gear, played a refreshing allegro first movement from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata Number 12 in F major, K. 332. The flippers had to go: they crimped Bainbridge's pedaling. Nimble-fingered Vaughan took us trippingly through Frédéric Chopin's Valse "Minute", familiarly called the Minute Waltz, Opus 64, Number 1. A shirtless Clarence "Kye" Perry treated us to the compelling strains of Ernesto Lecuona's popular Suite Andalcia: "Malagueña." Christopher Vassiliades completed the quartet of solo pianists with flair, with a lively allegro quieto fourth movement, from Meyer Kupferman's "Sonata Occulta," based on Macedonian dance and reflecting the composer's jazz and classical roots.

Eric Coyne, assisted by Gene Rohrer at the keyboard, lent a robust bass to Plunkett's jolly drinking song, "Lasst mich euch fragen," from Friedrich von Flotow's opera "Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond" (Martha, or the Richmond Fair) and, with low C, confidently descended into contrabass territory. With Rohrer, soprano Sherri Rase ably executed the increasingly complex coloratura variations of composer and legendary mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot-García's "Havanaise," in Spanish. Tenor Curtis J. Strohl joined Rase and Rohrer for Leonard Bernstein's "Oh, Happy We," the first act duet from "Candide," characterized here by the added frisson of the singers' role reversal, as Rase sang the hero, Candide's part and Strohl, the heroine Cunegonde's.

To Shirley Ritenour, aided by Vaughan, went the honor of opening OceanAires' second act, for which she brought formidable dramatic soprano tone to "In questa reggia," the protagonist's fiendishly challenging entrance aria, from Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot," without neglecting the pathos of the murder and rape of the Princess' ancestor, Lo-u-ling, at the end of the second verse, and earned a well-deserved standing ovation. For Samuel Barber's "Dover Beach," Brent Weldon Reno, billed as a baritone tenor and boasting the vocal colors of both, and a string quartet comprising violinists Fred Chang and Christopher Minarich, violist Bedford, and cellist Kurt Behnke, movingly limned the sea, the famed white cliffs, and the chaos of war, with intimacy and immediacy. The quartet also played a sprightly third movement scherzo:prestissimo and dulcet trio:moderato from Alexander Borodin's String Quartet Number 1 in A major. MacDonnell, Vaughan and Behnke completed the concert by collaborating on excerpts from Claude Bolling's "Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano Trio," in which "Baroque and Blue" battled, then blended, the flautist beginning with what sounded like a measured, ordered classic contribution, until blue notes and swing rhythms crept in and, for a time, dominated. The players continued with the suite's sweet, slinky and syncopated "Javanaise" movement.
Ruth and Susan Freedner, hilariously dressed-by Jeffrey (Gefil Tefish) Wallach-in beachwear of yesteryear, assisted as stagehands.

Keep an ear open for OceanAires 13, marked "molto misterioso," next summer.