By: Merrie Turner
New Year’s Eve Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville was the MC for the PBS special live
concert of the Vienna Philharmonic from Vienna’s Golden Hall of the Musikverein Hall.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/from-vienna-the-new-years-celebration-2026-about/17381/
They played a piece with various whistle instruments blowing, not letting me forget the MIT
Whistleblower case in the Massachusetts Superior Court. On New Year’s Day I became
aware that Rogers and Hammerstein’s, “The Sound of Music” broadway musical is really
coming to Boston this week on January 6, 2026 at the Majestic Theatre. We will have to
wait until February 3, 2026 for the next Court Hearing in the case scheduled in Courtroom 710
of Middlesex County Superior Court. The newest Judge assigned to the case is the honorable
Ashe Z. White who we need to keep in our prayers.
Friends are asking me if there is any link between the shooting of the MIT Professor
Nuno Loureiro and the case of Dr. Babakinejad the MIT Whistleblower against the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While I won’t speculate, it’s interesting to note that
the storage unit where the shooter committed suicide is down the street in Salem, NH from the
home of my host this summer at their West Newbury, MA guest house. The husband was the
Trump Republican Campaign Director for their county in West Newbury and the wife’s father
owns the Boston Broadside conservative newspaper. These facts beg the questions of
whether they were on the shooter’s list of targets and are there other perpetrators at
large.
One summer I lived near Vienna, Austria assisting Ben and Vera Carlson, opera singers, with
their ministry.” I have memories of the beauty of the fields of golden sunflowers which were
nearly as tall as the charming clock towers in the quaint village. We went on to sing together in
Benny Hinn’s Washington, DC Healing Crusade held at the Washington, DC Convention Center.
We only saw the Von Trapp family estate at a distance, but Maria’s granddaughter,
Elizabeth later sang for me at an Event that I hosted following 911 at The Mayflower Hotel
in Washington, DC. She and her husband own and operate the Von Trapp Lodge Resort in
Stowe, Vermont. www.vontrappresort.com This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Sound
of Music Broadway Musical as noted by Life magazine.
Written By Merrie Turner