Plainfield Masonic Temple to host Robert Burns Night; more cultural events planned for later in year

A Robert Burns Night will take place at Plainfield Masonic Temple, Jan. 18.

To celebrate the life and art of Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), Robert Burns events are held, every year, on or around the time of his birthday, which is Jan. 25. One of them, this year, will take place Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. at the ballroom of the Plainfield Masonic Temple.

“There’s an opening ceremony, and songs that are sung, and poetry that is read,” says organizer David Gerald Palladino-Sinclair, a musician and music teacher who is also a contributor to NJArts.net. Burns poems to be read, he says, will include “The Selkirk Grace” — “and of course the ‘Address to the Haggis,’ where the haggis is paraded around with bagpipes and lauded as, like, the national food of Scotland.”

The event will offer a cocktail hour, and a three-course meal. Performers will include five Highland dancers, two tenors, and harpist Richard Spendio. “He’ll bring his Celtic harp and he’ll kind of play music in the background,” says Palladino-Sinclair, who lives in Bridgewater. “So there will be a lot going on, that evening.”

This is Palladino-Sinclair’s third annual Burns Night. The first two were at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown. “That venue got a little small and now we’ve moved it to the Masonic Temple in Plainfield, which has a big ballroom, which the lodge is restoring,” he said. “We want to put great spaces to use.”

Tickets and information are available at Eventbrite.

The event is being presented by Palladino-Sinclair’s new company, Paladin-Sinclair, which defines its mission as “enhancing the cultural lives and social sophistication of its individual and organizational clients through a host of managed arts, educational and social events.”

“What I’ve noticed, over the years,” says Palladino-Sinclair, “is a decline in manners and civility and interest in finer things, as, I guess, the world becomes a bit more insular. People are staying in their homes. They’re not getting out, they’re not socializing as much. Young people aren’t being taught social skills.

“So, No. 1, as a teacher, and No. 2, as an artist, I wanted to try to do something to maybe stem the tide a little and provide a way back to a bit more civility. The whole idea of this Paladin-Sinclair company is that it’s really dedicated to enhancing our cultural lives.”

An informational meeting will take place for the new Rampant Lion Band, May 10.

Upcoming events that Palladino-Sinclair will be involved in at The Plainfield Masonic Temple will include a presentation and discussion on “Understanding Dress Codes,” Jan. 31, with dinner included; and an organizational meeting, May 10, for a band that he is forming, to be called The Rampant Lion Band. Click HERE for information.

The Rampant Lion Band is described as a “Precision Dress, Drill & Deportment Military-style Band.”

“I’ve been involved in bagpiping and I’ve run pipe bands in the past, and I’ve seen that they’re not only fun and a musical outlet, but they’re great social organizations, too,” says Palladino-Sinclair. “They’re almost like families. So what I wanted to do is expand that into kind of an adult drum corps/community band.

“Say, for example, you used to play clarinet in high school … you pull it out of the basement and you get involved in this organization, almost like a community band. But it’s marching, too, and it has, like, a military flavor to it. So it will have bagpipes, but it will have brass and woodwinds, and color guard — like a military color guard where we’ll teach young people how to have respect for the flag and drill with swords, that kind of thing. But we’ll also have, like, a high school front, or color guard, where young people or whoever can come in and twirl flags on parade.

“Then there will be offshoots of that, like a jazz band that will form from that, and a swing band … we want to make it into a versatile musical organization.”