2012-2013 to 2016-2017 Music Series Archives
Treasures from the City of Ladies
The program is titled Treasures from the City of Ladies, the “The Treasury of the City of Ladies” being a work of early feminist writer and poet Christine de Pisan. The program will be centered around two AGAR-commissioned songs arranged by Elena Mullins to the poetry of Christine de Pisan. The rest of the concert will consist of instrumental and vocal works by other early woman composers. These include: Hildegard von Bingen, Comtessa de Dia, Francesca Caccini, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Barbara Strozzi, and Jacquet de la Guerre, female composes who wrote between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The performers are Elena Mullins, soprano, David R. McCormick, vielle and baroque violin, and Anthony Harvey, Theorbo and lute.
Elena Mullins, DMA teaches early music performance and conducts a choir at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and performs regularly with well-known early music ensembles Alkemie, Apollo’s Fire, and Three Notch’d Road. Dr. Mullins was recognized as one of the country’s most promising early music performers by Early Music America in 2015. (See biography below) Ms. Mullins has arranged two songs to the poetry of Christine de Pisan (also spelled de Pizan) a very early woman’s rights activist, writer and poet who lived from 1364 to c. 1430. De Pisan was born in Italy, then moved to France with her father and married a French courtier when she was fifteen. She had two children. Her husband died ten years after the marriage and left Christine to support her two children, her mother and a niece. De Pisan wrote prose and poetry, and is reputed to have been the first woman writer in that part of Europe to have earned a living exclusively as a writer. (Her bio from Brittanica.com follows this article, below.) ______________________________________ Christine de Pisan FRENCH WRITER WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica LAST UPDATED: 1-8-2016 See Article History Christine de Pisan FRENCH WRITER BORN 1364 Venice, Italy (continued next page) DIED c. 1430 NOTABLE WORKS “The Book of the City of Ladies” “Le Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc” “L’Avision de Christine” “Le Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V” VIEW OTHERS KNOWN FOR: biography poetry Christine de Pisan, (born 1364, Venice [Italy]—died c. 1430), prolific and versatile French poet and author whose diverse writings include numerous poems of courtly love, a biography of Charles V of France, and several works championing women. Christine’s Italian father was astrologer to Charles V, and she spent a pleasant, studious childhood at the French court. At 15 she married Estienne de Castel, who became court secretary. Widowed after 10 years of marriage, she took up writing in order to support herself and her three young children. Her first poems were ballades of lost love written to the memory of her husband. These verses met with success, and she continued writing ballads, rondeaux, lays, and complaints in which she expressed her feelings with grace and sincerity. Among her patrons were Louis I, duke of Orléans; the duke of Berry; Philip II the Bold of Burgundy; Queen Isabella of Bavaria; and, in England, the 4th earl of Salisbury. In all, she wrote 10 volumes in verse, including L’Épistre au Dieu d’amours (1399; “Letter to the God of Loves”), in which she defended women against the satire of Jean de Meun in the Roman de la rose. |
Christine’s prose works include Le Livre de la cité des dames (1405; The Book of the City of Ladies), in which she wrote of women known for their heroism and virtue, and Le Livre des trois vertus (1405; “Book of Three Virtues”), a sequel comprising a classification of women’s roles in medieval society and a collection of moralinstructions for women in the various social spheres. The story of her life, L’Avision de Christine (1405), told in an allegorical manner, was a reply to her detractors. At the request of the regent, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, Christine wrote the life of the deceased king, Charles—Le Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V (1404; “Book of the Deeds and Good Morals of the Wise King Charles V”), a firsthand picture of Charles V and his court. Her eight additional prose works reveal her remarkable breadth of knowledge.
After the disastrous Battle of Agincourt in 1415, she retired to a convent. Her last work, Le Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc (written in 1429), is a lyrical, joyous outburst inspired by the early victories of Joan of Arc; it is the only such French-language work written during Joan’s lifetime.” (End of Brittanica.com article) Elena Mullins, Soprano (soprano on this concert) Elena Mullins, soprano and arranger, has wide-ranging interests in the field of early music. Elena has sung with Three Notch'd Road, The Newberry Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Generation Harmonique, and Quire Cleveland, and has attended the American Bach Soloists Academy, Urbino Early Music, Madison Early Music Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, and Settimana Musicale del Trecento in Arezzo. She is currently the director of the Case Western Reserve University Early Music Singers. Elena takes a scholarly interest in the performance practices of early repertoires, reaching back as far as the twelfth century; in 2013 she co-founded Alkemie, an ensemble specializing in medieval music for voices and instruments. A voice student of Ellen Hargis, she holds a DMA in Historical Performance Practice from CWRU and a BA in Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music. In addition to singing and conducting, Elena is an avid performer and teacher of baroque dance, and served on the faculty of the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute last summer David R. McCormick (vielle, baroque violin on this concert) Violinist and Charlottesville native David McCormick earned degrees in music education and performance from Shenandoah University and Case Western Reserve University, including specialized training in chamber music and historical performance. He is Artistic Director of Three Notch'd Baroque Ensemble of Charlottesville. David is co-founder of Three Notch’d Road and Alkemie, an ensemble that specializes in medieval and renaissance music for voices and instruments. David has also performed recently with the Duke Vespers Ensemble, The Columbian Consort (GWU faculty baroque ensemble), and the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia. David recently performed solo Bach and Biber for the lunchtime series at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, DC. David currently teaches violin and viola in Charlottesville and for the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra String School, where he also serves as ensemble conductor. Anthony Harvey (lute and theorbo on this concert) Anthony Harvey is Artistic Director for Middleburg Musick, Development Director for AGAR's Amherst Music Series and teaches at James Madison University. He performs regularly as soloist and as a continuo player on theorbo, baroque guitar and baroque lute. He currently performs with North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Vermillian, Three Notch’d Road, The Washington Bach Consort, Chatham Baroque, and co-directs James Madison University's The Valley Collegium among others. Mr. Harvey holds multiple degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied theorbo and baroque lute with Richard Stone. He has also previously served on faculty at Washington College. |
Washington, DC’s “Modern Musick” returns
Musicians from Modern Musick will play selections from Antonio Vivaldi, George Freideric Handel, C.P.E. Bach and Arcangelo Corelli. The program also featured a Chiquitos work, Sonata XVIII from Chiquitos manuscript.
The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in Santa Cruz department in Eastern Bolivia. In the 17th and 18th centuries, European Jesuits used a fusion of European baroque and Amerindian music in their missions to try to convert native American tribes, particularly the Chiquitanos in Bolivia. The missionaries brought composers and conductors to South America to conduct this work, when they realized the importance of music to the tribes there. Father Johann Mesner and Father Martin Schmid, two Jesuit missionaries skilled in music went to the Chiquitania. Schmid and the tribes developed choirs and orchestras who could perform Baroque operas on handmade instruments. They successfully produced instruments including violins, harps, flutes, and organs and composed and copied many baroque works in the missions. Chiquitos music was lost for many years, but was rediscovered in the 1980’s by a Polish priest and musicologist, Father Piotr Nawrot, at the time when six of the missions, now all secular municipalities, were also restored. They were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1990. Chiquitos music is now played in festivals in South America on a regular basis. Musicians from Modern Musick who played the concert include: Risa Browder, concertmistress, baroque violin I. Leslie Nero, violin II; John Moran, Artistic Director and baroque cello; and Anthony Harvey, theorbo. The concert is presented by Amherst Glebe Arts Response (AGAR) in collaboration with St. Mark's. Ms. Browder plays on at 17th century baroque violin, while Mr. Moran plays on a baroque cello. They are well-known recording artists, both in the USA and internationally. MODERN MUSICK MUSICIANS John Moran, Baroque Cello Artistic Director JOHN MORAN, a native of the Washington, D.C. area, appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician on baroque and classical cello and viola da gamba on both sides of the Atlantic. He received his professional training at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Schola Cantorum (Basel, Switzerland). After a decade in Europe where he appeared regularly with groups such as The Consort of Musicke, English Baroque Soloists, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and Ex Cathedra, he returned to America where he has played with the Violins of Lafayette, Capriole, Trio Riot, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the New York Collegium, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Washington Bach Consort, among others. |
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He is artistic director of the Washington, DC-based period instrument orchestra Modern Musick and is on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Recording credits include Dorian Recordings, Bridge Records, Virgin Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, ERATO, ATMA Classique, Hänssler Classic, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Musica Oscura. Also a musicologist, Dr. Moran is a contributor to the revised New Grove Dictionary of Music (2001) and reviews books on musical topics for various journals. He is writing a historical monograph on the cello for Yale University Press. He is president of the Kindler Cello Society of Washington. Other interests include bicycling, linguistics and architecture. He and his wife, violinist Risa Browder, have two sons who pursue musical and artistic interests.
Risa Browder, Baroque Violin Concertmistress RISA BROWDER holds a Mus.B. from Oberlin Conservatory and an ARCM from the Royal College of Music in London. She did post-graduate study at Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland. Ms. Browder is Concertmistress of Modern Musick. Her performances include appearances with Folger Consort, Washington Bach Consort, Smithsonian Chamber Players, REBEL, English Concert, London Baroque, Consort of Musicke, London Classical Players, Academy of Ancient Music, Hanover Band, Florilegium, Musiciens du Louvre, and Purcell Quartet. Ms. Browder’s recording credits include Chandos, Hyperion, Dorian, Virgin Classics, Erato, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI. Leslie Nero, Violin LESLIE NERO was professionally active for 15 years in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, playing in several orchestras. Upon returning to the Washington metropolitan area, she began playing as a freelance violinist and violist with both modern and baroque ensembles. She often performs with Opera Lafayette, Modern Musick, the Folger Consort, the Vivaldi Project, the Bach Sinfonia and the Washington Bach Consort. She also enjoys teaching violin to many eager fourth- and fifth-grade students in the Alexandria City Public Schools. Anthony Harvey, Theorbo Lutenist Anthony Harvey is artistic director of Middleburg Music and teaches at James Madison University. He performs regular as soloist and continuo player on theorbo, baroque lute and baroque guitar. He has recently performed with North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Vermillion, Three Notch’d Road, Modern Musick, the Washington Bach Consort and Chatham Baroque and co-directed JMU’s Valley Collegium. |
Peggy Howell & Cantata
Sunday, February 12th, 2016
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Peggy Howell, organist, was joined by Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir of Central Virginia in a program of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Böhm. In the Böhm, Cantate sang stanzas of the choral Freu dich sehr in alternation with organ verses. Ms. Howell will play several chorale-preludes from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein; Cantate will follow by singing the chorales. The French 20th-century blind organist and composer, Jean Langlais, composed the beautiful but little-known Messe d’Escalquens for treble choir in 1936. Cantate sang the mass, which has organ accompaniment, and Ms. Howell also played several movements from Langlais’ 24 Pièces pour orgue ou harmonium. Following the lyrical organ work, Aria by Andrew Carter, contemporary English composer, Cantate ended the program with Carter’s Bless the Lord: Badgers and Hedgehogs, Butterflies and Moths, Grannies and Grandads.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Peggy Howell, organist, was joined by Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir of Central Virginia in a program of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Böhm. In the Böhm, Cantate sang stanzas of the choral Freu dich sehr in alternation with organ verses. Ms. Howell will play several chorale-preludes from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein; Cantate will follow by singing the chorales. The French 20th-century blind organist and composer, Jean Langlais, composed the beautiful but little-known Messe d’Escalquens for treble choir in 1936. Cantate sang the mass, which has organ accompaniment, and Ms. Howell also played several movements from Langlais’ 24 Pièces pour orgue ou harmonium. Following the lyrical organ work, Aria by Andrew Carter, contemporary English composer, Cantate ended the program with Carter’s Bless the Lord: Badgers and Hedgehogs, Butterflies and Moths, Grannies and Grandads.
"Nowell Sing We!" a Twelfth Night Medieval Celebration performed by "Alkemie"
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) presented "Nowell Sing We!" a Twelfth Night Medieval Celebration performed by "Alkemie," a group of well-known young early music artists. The performers were Tracy Cowart, mezzo-soprano and harp, Elena Mullins, soprano & percussion, Sian Ricketts, soprano & recorders, David McCormick, vielle, and Niccolo Seligmann, vielle & percussion. The performance took place at (NOTE LOCATION CHANGE DUE TO SNOW) Amherst Presbyterian Church, 163 Second Street, Amherst, VA 24521.
According to ALKEMIE’s Sian Ricketts, their “Noel Sing We!” program takes its inspiration from the celebrations of Twelfth Night and Epiphany, celebrations that have officially marked the end of the Christmas season since the sixth-century Council of Tours. She says, “In many Christian traditions, these days observe the culmination of the journey of the three wise men or magi, august personages who travelled to bring gifts to the newborn baby Jesus. Our program presents festive and contemplative medieval repertoire from across the Western Christian world that tells the story of the conception, birth, veneration, and celebration of Christ.” The highly eclectic music on the program ranges from early English carols still sung today, to little known Czech monastery works from the Codex Spécialník collection of the medieval and early Renaissance periods; fourteenth century Spanish Llibre vermel, sacred works written for one, two, and three voices, with texts in Latin, Occitan, and Catalan; and fifteenth and sixteenth Spanish villancios with dance-like rhythms, rhyming texts, and closed musical structures.
A Family Christmas Concert by the popular James String Quartet, the principal musicians of James Chamber Players. Music will include a piece by Elgar and arrangements of season favorite carols and songs. Family audience participation is encouraged as we sing-a-long to holiday favorites. Also enjoy trimming the tree and cookie fest afterwards.
Presented by:
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR)
James Chamber Players and
Amherst Presbyterian Church
According to ALKEMIE’s Sian Ricketts, their “Noel Sing We!” program takes its inspiration from the celebrations of Twelfth Night and Epiphany, celebrations that have officially marked the end of the Christmas season since the sixth-century Council of Tours. She says, “In many Christian traditions, these days observe the culmination of the journey of the three wise men or magi, august personages who travelled to bring gifts to the newborn baby Jesus. Our program presents festive and contemplative medieval repertoire from across the Western Christian world that tells the story of the conception, birth, veneration, and celebration of Christ.” The highly eclectic music on the program ranges from early English carols still sung today, to little known Czech monastery works from the Codex Spécialník collection of the medieval and early Renaissance periods; fourteenth century Spanish Llibre vermel, sacred works written for one, two, and three voices, with texts in Latin, Occitan, and Catalan; and fifteenth and sixteenth Spanish villancios with dance-like rhythms, rhyming texts, and closed musical structures.
A Family Christmas Concert by the popular James String Quartet, the principal musicians of James Chamber Players. Music will include a piece by Elgar and arrangements of season favorite carols and songs. Family audience participation is encouraged as we sing-a-long to holiday favorites. Also enjoy trimming the tree and cookie fest afterwards.
Presented by:
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR)
James Chamber Players and
Amherst Presbyterian Church
The James String Quartet
On Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 3 pm, The Bower Center for the Arts and Amherst Glebe Arts Response (AGAR) presented an exciting program by James String Quartet, ranging from 19th century classical string quartets to the premiere of a new work featuring jazz trumpet. The concert will take place at Bower Center for the Arts, 305 North Bridge Street in Bedford.
Featured in the concert was the world premiere of the entire piece "Passages" by Larry Andrew Williams, a living composer from California. “Passages” is a work for jazz trumpet and string quartet, one section of which reumpet soloist Chris Magee and the James String Quartet played in their Bedford concert last May. The Bower’s Sara Braaten was impressed by the piece, and asked that the group perform the entire work this fall, a request they are now happy to fulfill! The quartet will also play Ludwig Beethoven's Op. 95 "Serioso," Astor Piazzola's "Oblivion," and Tchaikovsky's "D Major String Quartet" Musicians in the James String Quartet are Christi Salisbury, Concertmistress and Violin I. Joseph Nigro, Artistic Director and violin II, Domenico Luca Trombetta, viola, and David Feldman, cello. In addition to their concerts, the James String Quartet are section leaders of the James Chamber Players, and are artists in residence at Lynchburg College. Trumpeter Chris Magee is a popular jazz musician and is a Lynchburg College professor who lives in Bedford. The concert was partially funded by grants from National Endowment for the Arts/Art Works, by Virginia Commission for the Arts and by Greater Lynchburg Community Trust. More information follows about Trumpeter Chris Magee and Composer Larry Andrew Williams. |
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CHRIS MAGEE/Solo Trumpet/ Passages
Chris Magee (Guest Artist, Trumpet) has played lead trumpet for such artists as Wayne Newton, The Temptations, TheFour Tops and the O’Jays, and he was staff trumpeter and arranger at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Chris is a native of Harrisonburg, Virginia and resides in Bedford. He received the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from James Madison University and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Iowa.brass methods. He teaches music at Lynchburg College where he directs the Jazz Ensemble and teaches trumpet, Music Appreciation and courses in world music, music appreciation, conducting and brass methods. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Music at Northeast Lakeview College in Universal City, Texas, and directed the jazz ensemble at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Larry Andrew Williams / Passages Larry Andrew Williams is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, bandleader, born in Highland Falls, NY Feb 7, 1955 in the West Point Academy Hospital, and was brought up in his earliest years by his Chinese-born mother, while his father finished a stint in the Army in Greenland. Larry began playing the trumpet at eight years old, taking lessons from his father, later in high school. His first gig was with the orchestra for the play, "Anything Goes" at Rollins College 1971, when he was only 15. Larry became the youngest Musicians’ Union member at that time. Later that year he performed in the 1076-piece marching band for the grand opening of the Disney Magic Kingdom theme park. A completely self-taught composer and arranger, Larry's passion for composition began to develop after he enlisted in a US Army Band, while he was stationed in Germany in the mid- to late- 1970s. He returned to the USA, working for the Walt Disney Co. at various stints from 1985 to 1992. He formed the Rhythm Method band with Mark Piszczek and Christopher Cortez, and played at the Kool Jazz Festival 1986, then at the Orlando Jazz Fest 1987 with his own group, the Leading Brand. Larry has resided in Los Angeles, CA since 1999, is now married to sweetheart Eileina Dennis (whom he met in Rome, Italy at a McDonald's). |
A Poet's Love:
Songs for Tenor & Wappenguitar
Scott Williamson, Tenor
Anthony Harvey, Wappenguitar
Tenor Scott Williamson is artistic director of Opera Roanoke. In his return to AGAR this fall, Williamsonwill perform Robert Schumann's most famous song cycle Dichterliebe, “A Poet’s Love.” He will then perform Benjamin Britten’s Songs from the Chinese, six "Shi Jing" poems by anonymous Chinese authors, and Britten’s English Folk Songs –Volume VII. Mr. Williamson’s tenor vocals will be accompanied by guitarist Anthony Harvey.
AGAR and Emmanuel United Methodist Church will present the concert in the church sanctuary. After the performance Emmanuel UMC with assistance from AGAR and several other local churches will host a “soup and salad supper” for a donation to raise funds for holiday baskets for Amherst families in need. According to Lynn Kable, producer of the AGAR Amherst Music Series, “Scott Williamson is a favorite of Amherst audiences. He first performed for us as the heroic student in the premiere of Aaron Garber’s Chamber Opera “Romania: Revolution 1989. Last season he came back and sang Franz Schubert’s song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (The Lovely Maid of the Mill)) with Anthony Harvey accompanying. |
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Anthony Harvey will be accompanying Williamson on an instrument he acquired in anticipation of this concert, a 14-string double-necked guitar known as a Wappenguitare. Mr. Harvey’s wappenguitare was made in Nuremberg in 1874 by Max Zimmer. Harvey had it restored to concert-playing condition in May 2016.
Mr. Harvey has specially transcribed Dichterliebe for the wappenguitare. He says, “It will showcase that the guitar is equally as capable as the piano to accompany Schumann's masterpiece, Dichterliebe. This style of guitar was invented in Schumann's lifetime to give guitarists a similar range of notes as are available to pianists, a range not found on a 6-string guitar. It was primarily used to accompany the voice. This concert is will provide an exciting return to the concert stage for my newly repaired wappenguitare.” |
Richard Stone, lutenist
Lutenist Richard Stone has performed as soloist, accompanist and conductor worldwide. The New York Times called his playing “beautiful” and “lustrously melancholy,” while the Washington Post described it as having “the energy of a rock solo and the craft of a classical cadenza.” Notable solo engagements have included a two-season nationwide tour of the Bach lute suites, and performances of lute concerti in the Czech Republic at the Prague Spring International Music Festival and in Germany at the International Fasch Festival with Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, in Boston with the Handel & Haydn Society, and in Cleveland with Apollo’s Fire. Commercial recordings include Johann Friedrich Fasch’s lute concerto, the world premiere release of the complete lute concerti of Silvius Leopold Weiss, lute suites by Weiss and new theorbo music by David Loeb. He founded and co-directs the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare. Stone has conducted from Orlando to Taipei, leading from the theorbo in repertoire from Monteverdi to Handel. He teaches baroque lute and theorbo at the Peabody Conservatory.
Stone is a highly regarded baroque vocal accompanist on lute, archlute and theorbo and has accompanied many of today’s best-known vocal artists, including Christine Goerke, Lorraine Hunt, Julianne Baird, Christine Brandes, Jeffrey Thomas, Drew Minter and Nigel Rogers. He has also appeared with such leading ensembles as the Taverner Players, the Consort of Musicke, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Glimmerglass Opera, Apollo’s Fire, the Handel and Haydn Society, the New York Collegium and the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Stone’s performances with Tempesta di Mare are carried regularly on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Recording and broadcast credits include Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Lyrichord, PGM, Musical Heritage, Polygram, Vienna Modern Masters, ATMA, Eklecta, Centaur, Bis, Chesky, NPR, Czech Radio 3-Vltava and the BBC.
Stone graduated With Highest Honors from SUNY at Purchase. He studied lute with Nigel North as a Fulbright Lusk Fellow at the Guildhall School in London, and with Patrick O’Brien at the Mannes College of Music in New York. October 30, 2016 4PM St. Marks Episcopal Church Amherst VA
Stone is a highly regarded baroque vocal accompanist on lute, archlute and theorbo and has accompanied many of today’s best-known vocal artists, including Christine Goerke, Lorraine Hunt, Julianne Baird, Christine Brandes, Jeffrey Thomas, Drew Minter and Nigel Rogers. He has also appeared with such leading ensembles as the Taverner Players, the Consort of Musicke, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of Saint Luke’s, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Glimmerglass Opera, Apollo’s Fire, the Handel and Haydn Society, the New York Collegium and the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Stone’s performances with Tempesta di Mare are carried regularly on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Recording and broadcast credits include Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos, Lyrichord, PGM, Musical Heritage, Polygram, Vienna Modern Masters, ATMA, Eklecta, Centaur, Bis, Chesky, NPR, Czech Radio 3-Vltava and the BBC.
Stone graduated With Highest Honors from SUNY at Purchase. He studied lute with Nigel North as a Fulbright Lusk Fellow at the Guildhall School in London, and with Patrick O’Brien at the Mannes College of Music in New York. October 30, 2016 4PM St. Marks Episcopal Church Amherst VA
Naomi Amos & Noemi Lee
Amherst Glebe Arts Response (AGAR) will present a family-friendly four-hand piano program featuring Lynchburg piano duo Naomi Amos and Noemi Szigeti Lee. The audience is invited to remain after the performance for a “Meet the Musicians” reception and light refreshments hosted by the Church.
“One of the more interesting pieces for people, I think will be the jazz-based 'Snazzy Sonata,'” said Lee. (Snazzy Sonata was composed by living composer Judith Lang Zaimont, born in Tennessee.) Lee continued, “I think young people will really enjoy our playing Mother Goose Suite, which Maurice Ravel composed on themes from fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Mikhail Glinka’s piece Capriccio on Russian Themeshas a big Russian sound, sometimes a march motif. And of course everyone loves the Mozart piece we will play, Mozart’s Sonata in D Major K381. It is so light, fast and lively! It will be an exciting program to perform for a new audience in Monroe, in a different venue for us.”
Naomi Amos is taken with Bethany United Methodist Church in Monroe: “I think that the intimacy of this delightful church will enhance will enhance the musical experience for every member of the audience!” She also commented that four-hand piano music, in which two pianists play together at one piano, is a lesser-known and interesting format for playing concerts on piano. Amos’ program notes also stress the influential nature of the composers’ work, both on other composers of their generations, and on their students.
Both women are active locally both as concert musicians and as teachers. Noemi Lee served as music and choir director at St. Thomas More Church in Lynchburg, was instructor and staff accompanist at Sweet Briar, Virginia School of the Arts, and Randolph College, and is now an instructor at Lynchburg College. Naomi Amos is music director for congregation Agudath Sholom’s High Holy Days services, and teaches piano at James River Day School and in her home studio. In spring 2011, she joined the Westover Honors Program faculty at Lynchburg College, where she teaches an honors seminar on the arts in the Depression era and an arts colloquium on the History of Popular Song.
“I am grateful to be able to play again with AGAR” said Romanian-born Noemi Szigeti Lee, who last played for AGAR on Aaron’s Garber’s chamber Opera “Romania: Revolution 1989." “The Romania piece was close to my heart – it was wonderful to know that people here were interested in the events of my own life so far away.” September 18, 2016 4PM Bethany UMC Monroe, VA
“One of the more interesting pieces for people, I think will be the jazz-based 'Snazzy Sonata,'” said Lee. (Snazzy Sonata was composed by living composer Judith Lang Zaimont, born in Tennessee.) Lee continued, “I think young people will really enjoy our playing Mother Goose Suite, which Maurice Ravel composed on themes from fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. Mikhail Glinka’s piece Capriccio on Russian Themeshas a big Russian sound, sometimes a march motif. And of course everyone loves the Mozart piece we will play, Mozart’s Sonata in D Major K381. It is so light, fast and lively! It will be an exciting program to perform for a new audience in Monroe, in a different venue for us.”
Naomi Amos is taken with Bethany United Methodist Church in Monroe: “I think that the intimacy of this delightful church will enhance will enhance the musical experience for every member of the audience!” She also commented that four-hand piano music, in which two pianists play together at one piano, is a lesser-known and interesting format for playing concerts on piano. Amos’ program notes also stress the influential nature of the composers’ work, both on other composers of their generations, and on their students.
Both women are active locally both as concert musicians and as teachers. Noemi Lee served as music and choir director at St. Thomas More Church in Lynchburg, was instructor and staff accompanist at Sweet Briar, Virginia School of the Arts, and Randolph College, and is now an instructor at Lynchburg College. Naomi Amos is music director for congregation Agudath Sholom’s High Holy Days services, and teaches piano at James River Day School and in her home studio. In spring 2011, she joined the Westover Honors Program faculty at Lynchburg College, where she teaches an honors seminar on the arts in the Depression era and an arts colloquium on the History of Popular Song.
“I am grateful to be able to play again with AGAR” said Romanian-born Noemi Szigeti Lee, who last played for AGAR on Aaron’s Garber’s chamber Opera “Romania: Revolution 1989." “The Romania piece was close to my heart – it was wonderful to know that people here were interested in the events of my own life so far away.” September 18, 2016 4PM Bethany UMC Monroe, VA
Celebrate Shakespeare with Sonnets and Song
Enjoy an evening celebration of Shakespeare’s Sonnets at the Library. Featured in the event will be the Amherst County High School Amherechos, singing the world premiere of two settings of Shakespeare’s sonnets composed by Virginia composer Aaron Garber.
The Belles of Amherst, an all-female chorus, will also sing several songs set to poetry. Poet Laureate Emeritus of the State of Virginia, Ron Smith, will speak about Shakespeare’s sonnets. He will be introduced by LuAnn Keener-Mikenas, a poet from Madison Heights, who was the awarded the Library of Virginia Poetry Prize in 2013. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend. Copies of Shakespeare’s sonnets will be available for those attending. There will be short reception after the event with light refreshments and a chance to meet the poets Ron Smith and LuAnn Keener-Mikenas, choral director Melanie Coleman and composer Aaron Garber. |
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The year 2016 marks the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616. AGAR and ACPL have been celebrating Shakespeare’s life and works during the entire year, with events ranging from presenting lectures and films to planting herbs and exhibiting costumes.
Ron Smith will also speak about Shakespeare’s sonnets at the Amherst County High School on the 20th in English classes. Last year Mr. Smith first came to Amherst to speak about Edgar Allan Poe and Poetry. AGAR is pleased to bring him back to Amherst this school year. Ms. Keener-Mikenas won the Library of Virginia Poetry Prize for her book of poems, titled “Homeland,” She has previously spoken for AGAR and the Library about Emily Dickinson. AGAR has commissioned two works previously from Mr. Garber, most recently the 2015 chamber opera “Romania: Revolution 1989.” Three years ago he wrote a song for AGAR’s BIG READ project to a poem by Emily Dickinson, also performed by the Amherechos. September 20, 2016 7PM Amherst County Public Library - Amherst Branch |
Eleanor Encore
Dear Friends:
Husband and wife theatre creators Jim and Linda Zablonski will reprise their play "Eleanor the First Lady of Radio" this coming Sunday, August 9 at 4 pm at Second Stage Amherst, corner of Second Street and Washington Street in Amherst.
The play was written and directed by Jim, who was seeking a challenging role for Linda to play. "We came across material about Eleanor Roosevelt that caught our interest – and then, as we read more of her writings, lectures, radio broadcasts, that interest snowballed. Eighty percent of the script is made up of Eleanor’s words. I want people to enjoy her words,-- I’d like people to walk away thinking they have to go learn more about this woman.”
Linda Zabloski says: “The many layers of her personality surprised me. I think Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong person. She had really a lot of powerful convictions that are relevant today. She said she was shy, but she stood up for what she believed. She went down in a coal mine because she wanted to relate to the lives of working people, During World War II, she went on the battlefield with the Red Cross. She touched the untouchables of that day. Politicians, and Presidents’ wives didn’t do that sort of thing then…. I think she was the first “First Lady” to take up causes.
Jim continued: “She was First Lady, but she had compassion for the poor and the underprivileged. I began to get some insights about her – her childhood abuse – that was really what it was. I had known she was a political force, but none of her personal issues. I want the audience to understand that things and people are not always what they seem. We look at someone like Eleanor and we think, ‘She was rich and she was popular and she had no needs.’ However, she was very lonely; she carried a lot of baggage.”
Linda adds, “She grew up in a wealthy home, but she went through many sad and lonely times in her youth. She wasn’t beautiful or popular with her peers as a young woman. But who knows any of the names of those rich girls who were so mean to her?”
Dr. Zabloski said that NBC called Eleanor Roosevelt “The First Lady of Radio” because she did so many broadcasts for them. He said, "She broadcast the December 7, 1941, announcement about the Japanese attacks at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She was not uncontroversial. She was wiling to take a stand.”
To make Mrs. Roosevelt's "studio" look more real this week in Amherst, Bob Langstaff of WAMV Radio in Amherst is again lending the station's vintage microphone for the performance. Mr. Langstaff told audiences in April that his microphone is the same model that one sees in the old photographs of Mrs. Roosevelt during broadcasts.
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) produced the project in April. "It was a busy time of year, with many families on spring break, and many people have told us they wanted us to bring it back. We are happy to be able to join with Second Stage to present it so everyone has a chance to see it! It's particularly a wonderful time for Mrs. Zabonski's students from the Amherst Middle School Drama group to see her play this challenging role," says AGAR producer Lynn Kable.
Linda and Jim Zaboski have been theatre professionals since their teens. As adults they are also educational professionals, Jim on the faculty of Liberty University and Linda at Amherst Junior High School. Linda Zabloski said, “I want us to share with people a complete picture of the time period -- to give them a way to make history come alive! I would hope that after they see the play they will want to go and read about Eleanor Roosevelt. I am a teacher and that what I care about.
Tickets are $10 and proceeds will go towards bringing Christopher Semtner, curator of the Poe Museum in Richmond to work in students in September as a presenter in AGAR's project "Edgar Alan Poe: Central Virginia's Gothic Son."
Husband and wife theatre creators Jim and Linda Zablonski will reprise their play "Eleanor the First Lady of Radio" this coming Sunday, August 9 at 4 pm at Second Stage Amherst, corner of Second Street and Washington Street in Amherst.
The play was written and directed by Jim, who was seeking a challenging role for Linda to play. "We came across material about Eleanor Roosevelt that caught our interest – and then, as we read more of her writings, lectures, radio broadcasts, that interest snowballed. Eighty percent of the script is made up of Eleanor’s words. I want people to enjoy her words,-- I’d like people to walk away thinking they have to go learn more about this woman.”
Linda Zabloski says: “The many layers of her personality surprised me. I think Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong person. She had really a lot of powerful convictions that are relevant today. She said she was shy, but she stood up for what she believed. She went down in a coal mine because she wanted to relate to the lives of working people, During World War II, she went on the battlefield with the Red Cross. She touched the untouchables of that day. Politicians, and Presidents’ wives didn’t do that sort of thing then…. I think she was the first “First Lady” to take up causes.
Jim continued: “She was First Lady, but she had compassion for the poor and the underprivileged. I began to get some insights about her – her childhood abuse – that was really what it was. I had known she was a political force, but none of her personal issues. I want the audience to understand that things and people are not always what they seem. We look at someone like Eleanor and we think, ‘She was rich and she was popular and she had no needs.’ However, she was very lonely; she carried a lot of baggage.”
Linda adds, “She grew up in a wealthy home, but she went through many sad and lonely times in her youth. She wasn’t beautiful or popular with her peers as a young woman. But who knows any of the names of those rich girls who were so mean to her?”
Dr. Zabloski said that NBC called Eleanor Roosevelt “The First Lady of Radio” because she did so many broadcasts for them. He said, "She broadcast the December 7, 1941, announcement about the Japanese attacks at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She was not uncontroversial. She was wiling to take a stand.”
To make Mrs. Roosevelt's "studio" look more real this week in Amherst, Bob Langstaff of WAMV Radio in Amherst is again lending the station's vintage microphone for the performance. Mr. Langstaff told audiences in April that his microphone is the same model that one sees in the old photographs of Mrs. Roosevelt during broadcasts.
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) produced the project in April. "It was a busy time of year, with many families on spring break, and many people have told us they wanted us to bring it back. We are happy to be able to join with Second Stage to present it so everyone has a chance to see it! It's particularly a wonderful time for Mrs. Zabonski's students from the Amherst Middle School Drama group to see her play this challenging role," says AGAR producer Lynn Kable.
Linda and Jim Zaboski have been theatre professionals since their teens. As adults they are also educational professionals, Jim on the faculty of Liberty University and Linda at Amherst Junior High School. Linda Zabloski said, “I want us to share with people a complete picture of the time period -- to give them a way to make history come alive! I would hope that after they see the play they will want to go and read about Eleanor Roosevelt. I am a teacher and that what I care about.
Tickets are $10 and proceeds will go towards bringing Christopher Semtner, curator of the Poe Museum in Richmond to work in students in September as a presenter in AGAR's project "Edgar Alan Poe: Central Virginia's Gothic Son."
2014-2015 Season
DELIGHT OF THE SOUL: MUSIC OF J.S. BACH
Agave Baroque perform vibrant and expressive sonatas from history’s most revered composer, J.S. Bach, exploring Bach’s life in music and his profound influence. Musicians are: Aaron Westman, and Natalie Carducci, baroque violin; William Skeen, viola da gamba, Kevin Cooper, lutes; and Anthony Harvey, Theorbo. September 14, 2014 4PM St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Amherst VA
JAMES STRING QUARTET
James String Quartet continues it's season of "Firsts" with Mozart’s String Quartet No. 1 in G Major, K. 80; Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 49; and Brahms’ String Quartet No. 1 in c minor, Op. 51. Quartet members are Christi Salisbury, violin I; Joseph Nigro, violin II; Luca Trombetta, viola; and David Feldman, cello. Amherst Presbyterian Church will host a "Meet the Artists" reception and supper after the concert. Donations will benefit Child Fund International. Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $2 for students. November 16, 2014 4PM Amherst Presbyterian Church
THREE NOTCH’D ROAD
“Almost Twelfth Night 2015 with Three Notch’d Road." After last season’s great success, Charlottesville’s Baroque Ensemble returns to play more music of the season. Fiona Hughes and David McCormick (baroque violins); Anne Timberlake (recorders); Jennifer Streeter (harpsichord); Jeremy Ward (bass violin); and Anthony Harvey (lute). January 4, 2015 4PM St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Amherst VA
SONGS AND ARIAS OF THE ITALIAN BAROQUE, and more . . .
February 15, 2015, 4 PM
The trio presents a program of passion and pain, exploring life, love and loss through the beautiful melodies of Strozzi, Monteverdi, Caccini, plus Purcell and Handel. Internationally renowned soprano Laura Heimes, with Mark Shuldiner on harpsichord, and Anthony Harvey on theorbo, lute, and guitar. Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $2 for students.
The Women of St. Mark’s Church will host a supper and reception for audience members to meet the artists after the concert. The dinner will be held in the parish hall of the church; a voluntary donation will be collected for Amherst Cares, a program for food-insecure children.
ROMANIA: REVOLUTION 1989
AGAR has commissioned Roanoke Composer Aaron Garber to compose this Song Cycle about the Romanian uprising against dictatorship in 1989 for tenor, bass and four-hand piano to premiere at St. Mark’s Church in April. Aaron Garber, composer and music director; Scott Williamson, tenor; Philip Bouknight, baritone; and four-hand pianists Noémi Szigeti Lee and Melia Garber, both born in Romania and now Virginia residents, church musicians and college-level piano adjunct faculty.
The trio presents a program of passion and pain, exploring life, love and loss through the beautiful melodies of Strozzi, Monteverdi, Caccini, plus Purcell and Handel. Internationally renowned soprano Laura Heimes, with Mark Shuldiner on harpsichord, and Anthony Harvey on theorbo, lute, and guitar. Tickets for the concert are $10 for adults, $2 for students.
The Women of St. Mark’s Church will host a supper and reception for audience members to meet the artists after the concert. The dinner will be held in the parish hall of the church; a voluntary donation will be collected for Amherst Cares, a program for food-insecure children.
ROMANIA: REVOLUTION 1989
- April 26, 2015, at 4 PM, Premier!
- May 2, 2015, at 3 PM
- May 30, 2015, at 7 PM
- May 31, 2015, at 3 PM
AGAR has commissioned Roanoke Composer Aaron Garber to compose this Song Cycle about the Romanian uprising against dictatorship in 1989 for tenor, bass and four-hand piano to premiere at St. Mark’s Church in April. Aaron Garber, composer and music director; Scott Williamson, tenor; Philip Bouknight, baritone; and four-hand pianists Noémi Szigeti Lee and Melia Garber, both born in Romania and now Virginia residents, church musicians and college-level piano adjunct faculty.
COUNTERPOINT FOR OBOE, BASSOON, RECORDER, AND FLUTE
May 17, 2015, at 4 PM
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Amherst
Music for wind trio and continuo by Telemann, Vivaldi and C.P.E. Bach and those they inspired of the early classical era. Musicians: Meg Owens (baroque oboe), Gwyn Roberts (baroque flute, recorders), Stephanie Corwin (baroque bassoon), and Anthony Harvey (archlute and theorbo).
MEET THE ARTISTS: The Women of St. Mark’s Church will host suppers and receptions for audience members to meet the artists after each concert taking place at St. Mark's Episcopal. Dinners will be held in the parish hall of the church; a voluntary donation will be collected for Amherst Cares, a program for food-insecure children.
MEET THE ARTISTS: Amherst Presbyterian Church will host a supper for audience members after the November 16 concert. The dinner will be held in the parish hall; a voluntary donation will be collected for a children's charity.
St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Amherst
Music for wind trio and continuo by Telemann, Vivaldi and C.P.E. Bach and those they inspired of the early classical era. Musicians: Meg Owens (baroque oboe), Gwyn Roberts (baroque flute, recorders), Stephanie Corwin (baroque bassoon), and Anthony Harvey (archlute and theorbo).
MEET THE ARTISTS: The Women of St. Mark’s Church will host suppers and receptions for audience members to meet the artists after each concert taking place at St. Mark's Episcopal. Dinners will be held in the parish hall of the church; a voluntary donation will be collected for Amherst Cares, a program for food-insecure children.
MEET THE ARTISTS: Amherst Presbyterian Church will host a supper for audience members after the November 16 concert. The dinner will be held in the parish hall; a voluntary donation will be collected for a children's charity.
AGAR TO PRESENT NEW PLAY ABOUT ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
ELEANOR, THE FIRST LADY OF RADIO
Friday, April 10, at 7 pm Saturday, April 11, at 2 pm and 7 pm Sunday, April 12, at 4 pm Amherst Glebe 156 Patrick Henry Highway Amherst, VA A play written and directed by Jim Zabloski. The role of Eleanor Roosevelt will be played by Linda Zabloski. Tickets: Adults $10, Students $2, Children under 8 – free. Advance Tickets can be purchased at lynchburgTickets.com. Reservations important – limited seating. AGAR will present the premiere run of “Eleanor, the First Lady of Radio,” a play about the life, experiences and opinions of Eleanor Roosevelt, written and directed by Dr. James (Jim) Zabloski, PhD. featuring his wife Linda Zabloski in the title role of Eleanor Roosevelt. The play will be presented on April 10 at 7 pm, on April 11th at 2 pm and 7 pm, and on Sunday April 12, at 4 pm at the Amherst Glebe, 156 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, VA 24521. Tickets are $10 for adults and $2 for children and students and are available through LynchburgTickets.com. Seating is limited, and reservations are strongly advised. Further information can be obtained at 434-989-3215. Dr. Jim Zabloski says, “Linda and I were looking for a strong woman character, and we came across material about Eleanor Roosevelt that caught our interest – and then, as we read more of her writings, lectures, radio broadcasts, that interest snowballed. Eighty percent of the script is made up of Eleanor’s words. I want people to enjoy her words,-- I’d like people to walk away thinking they have to go learn more about this woman.” Jim says “I did not find any stage plays about Eleanor herself and her unique situation. Her husband President Franklin Roosevelt is mentioned very little in our play. That was by design. We wanted to stay away from the acts of his presidency that most people know. About 80% of the dialogue is from her broadcasts, lectures, and talks. We wanted this to be about Eleanor.” He continued: “She was First Lady, but she had compassion for the poor and the underprivileged. I began to get some insights about her – her childhood abuse – that was really what it was. I had known she was a political force, but none of her personal issues. I want the audience to understand that things and people are not always what they seem. We look at someone like Eleanor and we think, ‘She was rich and she was popular and she had no needs.’ However, she was very lonely; she carried a lot of baggage.” Linda Zabloski says, “She grew up in a wealthy home, but she went through many sad and lonely times in her youth. She wasn’t beautiful or popular with her peers as a young woman. But who knows any of the names of those rich girls who were so mean to her?” Linda Zabloski says: “The many layers of her personality surprised me. I think Eleanor Roosevelt was a strong person. She had really a lot of powerful convictions that are relevant today. She said she was shy, but she stood up for what she believed. She went down in a coal mine because she wanted to relate to the lives of working people. During World War II, she went on the battlefield with the Red Cross. She touched the untouchables of that day. Politicians, and Presidents’ wives didn’t do that sort of thing then…. I think she was the first “First Lady” to take up causes. |
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Dr. Zabloski continued, “NBC called her 'The First Lady of Radio' because she did so many broadcasts for them. She broadcast the December 7, 1941, announcement about the Japanese attacks at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She was not uncontroversial. She was willing to take a stand.”
Linda Zabloski concluded, “I want us to share with people a complete picture of the time period -- to give them a way to make history come alive! I would hope that after they see the play they will want to go and read about Eleanor Roosevelt. I am a teacher and that what I care about." AGAR’s Lynn Kable has been dusting the Amherst Glebe living room for the performance. She is delighted to be working with Linda and Jim Zabloski. Kable says she is excited about borrowing a vintage microphone from WAMV Radio in Amherst. She says, “Bob Langstaff, the station’s general manager, hardly ever lets that antique out of his sight, because he loves it and still uses it in the studio. He’s letting us use it and we bought an antique stand for the performance – so it’s a ‘win-win.’ Ware’s Antiques also found us a period typewriter and telephone. AGAR’s setting and prop shop is having too much fun again!” BIOGRAPHIES FOR JIM AND LINDA ZABLOSKI Growing up, theater provided Linda Zabloski a safe place to express both her humor and her enthusiasm for learning. She directed childrens’ theater during her teens (The Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown) and performed in every high school production her school presented (Music Man, The Princess and the Pea, Grass Harp, Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild, for which she won the all county best actress award). She also taught summer drama classes for the town recreation program. Realizing that teaching would give her a stage and an audience, she pursued an education degree and she has taught for 28 years. She and her husband led a drama program for adults in Hollywood, Florida. Linda enjoys both back stage work and acting. Currently, Linda has co-directed the Amherst Middle School drama production, and directs the talent show at her school each year. Linda also enjoys cooking and reading. And of course, spending time with her son, Ross, a teacher at Franklin County High School, a recent graduate of UVA, his wife Holly, a middle school teacher, and her son Taylor, a senior at North Carolina School of the Arts who is majoring in film production. Jim Zabloski has been on stage and involved in theater since the age of 14 when he starred in his first high school role in Barefoot in the Park. From there he starred in Arsenic and Old Lace, The Perfect Idiot, and acted in Teahouse of the August Moon in Youngstown Playhouse. As comfortable on stage as he is behind it, in 1990 he began writing 5-7 minute sketches, and some of these were published with Baker Book House in a series titled Power Plays. He taught weekly drama classes for more than 10 years in Florida, in addition to acting and writing sketches. With more than 75 sketches written and performed, he successfully moved into writing and directing a half dozen full-length plays. One, A Time to Build, was performed for two consecutive years in Hollywood, Florida, to a total estimated audience of 3,000. That play had a large cast of over 100, included a choir, soloists, and a full orchestra. Eleanor: The First Lady of Radio marks Jim’s return to the theater after nearly a decade hiatus. |
2013-2014 Season
Final Amherst Music Series Event
Barroco de Oro: Latin American and
Mediterranean Quartets
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Clifford
670 Patrick Henry Highway
Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Washington's Modern Musick returns to Amherst to illustrate how music composed in Latin America influenced composers of the period in Southern Europe: The concert features John Moran, (baroque cello), Risa Browder (concertmistress, baroque violin); Leslie Nero (baroque violin) and Anthony Harvey (theorbo, baroque guitar).
Mediterranean Quartets
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Clifford
670 Patrick Henry Highway
Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Washington's Modern Musick returns to Amherst to illustrate how music composed in Latin America influenced composers of the period in Southern Europe: The concert features John Moran, (baroque cello), Risa Browder (concertmistress, baroque violin); Leslie Nero (baroque violin) and Anthony Harvey (theorbo, baroque guitar).
Twelfth Night 2014 with Three Notch’d Road,
Sunday, January 5, 2014, at 3:00 pmThe exciting young Charlottesville Baroque Ensemble will play seasonal music. Musicians are: Fiona Hughes (baroque violin), David McCormick (baroque violin), Anne Timberlake, (recorders), Mark Shuldiner (harpsichord), Jeremy Ward (baroque Cello), and Anthony Harvey (lute, baroque guitar).
Sunday, January 5, 2014, at 3:00 pmThe exciting young Charlottesville Baroque Ensemble will play seasonal music. Musicians are: Fiona Hughes (baroque violin), David McCormick (baroque violin), Anne Timberlake, (recorders), Mark Shuldiner (harpsichord), Jeremy Ward (baroque Cello), and Anthony Harvey (lute, baroque guitar).
Sacred and Profane: Virtuoso Countertenor arias and cantatas
Music of Italian baroque composers Barbara Strozzi from Venice, Nicola Antonio Porpora of Naples and Danish-born Dieterich Buxtehude. Musicians: Countertenor Charles Humphries, Anthony Harvey on archlute, theorbo and baroque guitar, Amy Domingues on viola da gamba, and a harpsichordist.
Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 6:30 pm.
Family Intergenerational Discussion of Emily Dickinson Poetry at Amherst County Public Library, Amherst Branch, 382 South Main Street, Amherst. Discussion, poetry writing and visual art activity. Co-Sponsored by AGAR and the Amherst County Public Library.
Sun, Mar 16, 2014 2:00 pm.
Discussion of Poetry and Poets writing during the U.S. Civil War Period. Discussion will include Emily Dickinson, whose poetry is the subject of THE BIG READ. Program will take place at the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society/Hamble Center, 154 South Main Street, Amherst, VA 24521. The Hamble Center is the metal building in back of the main Museum.
This event is co-Sponsored by AGAR, the Amherst County Museum and the Amherst County Public Library.
Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 6:30 pm.
Family Intergenerational Discussion of Emily Dickinson Poetry at Amherst County Public Library, Amherst Branch, 382 South Main Street, Amherst. Discussion, poetry writing and visual art activity. Co-Sponsored by AGAR and the Amherst County Public Library.
Sun, Mar 16, 2014 2:00 pm.
Discussion of Poetry and Poets writing during the U.S. Civil War Period. Discussion will include Emily Dickinson, whose poetry is the subject of THE BIG READ. Program will take place at the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society/Hamble Center, 154 South Main Street, Amherst, VA 24521. The Hamble Center is the metal building in back of the main Museum.
This event is co-Sponsored by AGAR, the Amherst County Museum and the Amherst County Public Library.
TWELFTH NIGHT WITH THREE NOTCH'D ROAD 2014
On Sunday. January 5, 2014 at 3:00 pm, Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) will present a unique event featuring a lively young Charlottesville Chamber Ensemble. “Twelfth Night 2014 with Three Notch’d Road at St. Marks Episcopal Church, 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst” will celebrate the Twelfth Night of Christmas with an interesting mix of American carols and European Baroque tunes. The concert will be followed by a supper to benefit Amherst Cares, sponsored by the Women of St. Marks, and an evening “Burning of the Greens” sponsored by St. Mark’s at a local farm.
“The concert is a family friendly program” says David McCormick, a violinist with Three Notch’d Road. “There will be chamber arrangements of tunes that most people recognize, plus some rather rowdy dance music of the period. We are on the revelry side of Twelfth Night with this concert!” The music will feature baroque carols we still sing today such as arrangements of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” and “What Child is This?” On the program will be dances from the English Dancing Master, contra dance tunes that were popular both at Court and across the Countryside. McCormick compare these to the Beatles, a group whose music pleased both Queen and teens in 20th Century England. In addition Three Notch’d Road will play Terpsichore by Pretorius, an early German baroque composer who borrowed many of the tunes from this work directly from the French Royal Band. Three Notch’d Road will also play Pastorale from Corelli’s Christmas Concerto. McCormick says this piece is also recognizable to many people all over the world from seasonal concerts. Traditional French Christmas carols are the basis of the Noel Symphony, by Michel Corrette, an 18th Century organist and composer. Finally, the ensemble will play Winter from a set of four seasons works by Giovanni Antonio Guido. |
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Guido was an Italian composer who lived in France from 1675-1728. McCormick says, “It’s an unusual piece – you hear the influence of Vivaldi. Also, it is based on a poem, and the sound is evocative of winter scenes. The first violin has a lead role like in the Vivaldi Four Seasons. A group of American traditional seasonal carols will complete the concert. Three Notch’d Road had three founders: two violinists, David McCormick and Fiona Hughes, and recorder player Anne Timberlake, who has recently had a baby and is on a Holiday leave of absence for this concert. In Fall 2011 members of the group had moved back to Virginia and were looking for early music opportunities to play regularly with others. They found each other. “There was really not another early music ensemble in Central Virginia,” says McCormick.
David McCormick concluded our interview by saying, “I am really looking forward to coming to Amherst – Three Notch’d Road has never played in Clifford or Amherst before – in fact I have never even been there! And I grew up in Charlottesville. We are trying to expand our audiences outside of Charlottesville. We’ve had success in Charlottesville itself, and we play frequently in Richmond and Staunton, but we are excited to go into new towns and venues and to meet new audiences.” Members of Three Notch’d Road playing at the St. Marks Twelfth Night 2014 concert are David McCormick and Fiona Hughes on violin, Cynthia Black on viola, Anthony Harvey on theorbo and Jennifer Streeter on harpsichord. Tickets are $10 for adults and $2 for students and children. They can be purchased at LynchburgTickets.com or at the concert door one half hour before the concert on January 5th. Information at 434-989-3215. The concert will be followed by the supper hosted by the Women of St. Mark’s for a love offering to benefit Amherst Cares in the St, Marks parish hall. Those who wish to go to the St. Marks burning of the greens ceremony to end the 12 days of Christmas will leave the church for a local farm at about 5:30 pm.. The “greens burning” of Christmas wreathes and trees will be accompanied by a final Christmas carol sing and a cup of hot chocolate or tea or coffee around the bonfire. The community is urged to attend. |
James River State Park Fall Festival and
The Belle of Amherst
"BELLE OF AMHERST"
"The Belle of Amherst" is a play by William Luce. Performances will take place November 8, 9, and 15,16 at 7 pm and November 10th and November 17th, Sundays at 3 pm. The play will feature Richmond actress Sally Southall, who has performed locally with Endstation Theatre Company and the Renaissance Theatre. The Director is Bonnie Sue Stein from New York.
All performances at the Amherst Glebe, 156 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, VA 24521. Information: 434-989-3215.
Tickets $10. Please get tickets in advance -- very limited seating. Tickets available through www.LynchburgTickets.com.
To read a blog about the creation of Ms. Southall's dress to portray Emily in "THE BELLE OF AMHERST," please see costume designer Tanya Bukach's notes about her historical research and work methods at www.tbukach.wordpress.com
"The Belle of Amherst" is a play by William Luce. Performances will take place November 8, 9, and 15,16 at 7 pm and November 10th and November 17th, Sundays at 3 pm. The play will feature Richmond actress Sally Southall, who has performed locally with Endstation Theatre Company and the Renaissance Theatre. The Director is Bonnie Sue Stein from New York.
All performances at the Amherst Glebe, 156 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, VA 24521. Information: 434-989-3215.
Tickets $10. Please get tickets in advance -- very limited seating. Tickets available through www.LynchburgTickets.com.
To read a blog about the creation of Ms. Southall's dress to portray Emily in "THE BELLE OF AMHERST," please see costume designer Tanya Bukach's notes about her historical research and work methods at www.tbukach.wordpress.com
Sacred and Profane: Virtuoso countertenor arias and cantatas performed by Charles Humphries
English counter-tenor, Charles Humphries, returns to Amherst in 2013 to bring an exciting new program titled “Sacred and Profane.” The sacred will be musically represented in works of Dietrich Buxtehude, Danish born composer of vocal, organ and chamber works, who supported himself as a church organist. The profane is represented by the life of Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi, who was rumoured to have supported her composition work with activities as a courtesan. Strozzi was one of the most prolific composers of secular vocal music in Venice in the 17th Century, and her songs were the first by a woman composer to be published separately, not in a collection with others. For the past two years, Charles Humphries has been performing and studying the work of Strozzi in collaboration with the National Cathedral in Washington.
Charles Humphries studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Charles Brett, Michael Chance and James Bowman and was later awarded the role of Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He continues his studies with Paul Farrington. Charles Humphries appears regularly as a soloist, not only alongside the recognised baroque ensembles of Britain, but also in his own right throughout the UK and Europe. These appearances include venues such as the Barbican Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels as well as the cities of Copenhagen, Oslo, Prague and Warsaw. Conductors that he has worked for as a soloist include Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Robert King, Paul McCreesh,Nicholas McGegan, James O'Donnell, Trevor Pinnock, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Operatic engagements have included the role of Delfa, Giasone (Cavalli) at the Megaron in Athens, the title role in Pompeo Magno (Cavalli) at the Varazdin Festival of Baroque Music in Croatia, Lichas Hercules at the Hans-Otto Theater inPotsdam, the title role in Lucio Silla at the Händel Festival in Karlsruhe, the title role in Tamerlano for the Britten-Pears School and The Sorceress for The King’s Consort. Recent solo concert highlights have included working alongside The King’s Consort, Gabrieli Consort, Ulster Orchestra, Northern Chamber Orchestra and Concerto Copenhagen. Last season (2004-2005) allowed him to make his Slovenian debut in televised performances of George Frideric Handel's Judas Maccabaeus and he performed a solo recital of Purcell's music for the Riga Domfest. Charles Humphries recently sang the role of Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare for the Norwegian National Opera to great acclaim and performed at the English National Opera where he was covering the character Hamor in G.F. Handel'sJephtha. Future engagements include appearances on the BBC Proms series in London (May and August), guest appearances with The King’s Consort in Halle and Dresden, concerts of arias and duets in Latvia (August), several works from the Italian Baroque repertoire, Monetverdi 1610 Vespers in Vilnius (October), Solo Alto Voice in Acis and Galatea with The King’s Consort (November) Messiah in Lübeck (December). Charles Humphries' recordings include Jephtha and Judas Maccabaeus (K & K Verlagsanstalt), Messiah (Capriccio) and Antonio Vivaldi Cantatas (ASV), and Gloria/Dixit/Dominus/Gloria for Philips with Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting. His future recordings include Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers with The King’s Consort. Future projects include Acis and Galatea, Italian repertoire, Purcell and G.F. Handel Odes, Monteverdi Vespers recording with The King’s Consort, a concert performance of A. Vivaldi's l'Olympiad with Sancera in Latvia, recital of solo Bach Cantatas in Lithuania, Messiahthroughout Northern Germany and Denmark and a tour of G.F. Handel's Heroic Arias for Farinelli productions throughout the Baltic States. Since moving to the USA, Mr. Himphries has sung with the Washington Bach Consort (J Reilly Lewis), Bach Sinfonia (Dan Abraham) and the Washington Cathedral Choral Society near Washington, DC, where he is based. Across the United States he has appeared throughout Southern California in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County, centrally, Memphis and Austin and on the East Coast in New York City. He also teaches and coaches. Accompanying Mr. Humphries are three extraordinary young musicians. Harpsichordist Mark Shuldiner is coming to Amherst from Chicago, where he lives. Mr. Shuldiner is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory Historic Performance Program. He has recently played harpsichord, celeste, and organ for staged productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Stephen Stubbs. While having a rigorous performance schedule, Mark has also been apprenticing with Northfield-based harpsichord maker, Paul Irvin. Amy Domingues of Arlington returns to Amherst Music Series for the first time this season, playing viola da gamba, and Anthony Harvey, who last played for AGAR with Gwyn Roberts and Meg Owens in October, will accompany on theorbo. |
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Both Domingues and Harvey hold multiple degrees from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and are frequent players with early music ensembles on the East Coast. English counter-tenor, Charles Humphries, returns to Amherst in 2013 to bring an exciting new program titled “Sacred and Profane.” The sacred will be musically represented in works of Dietrich Buxtehude, Danish born composer of vocal, organ and chamber works, who supported himself as a church organist. The profane is represented by the life of Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi, who was rumoured to have supported her composition work with activities as a courtesan. Strozzi was one of the most prolific composers of secular vocal music in Venice in the 17th Century, and her songs were the first by a woman composer to be published separately, not in a collection with others. For the past two years, Charles Humphries has been performing and studying the work of Strozzi in collaboration with the National Cathedral in Washington.
Charles Humphries studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Charles Brett, Michael Chance and James Bowman and was later awarded the role of Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He continues his studies with Paul Farrington. Charles Humphries appears regularly as a soloist, not only alongside the recognised baroque ensembles of Britain, but also in his own right throughout the UK and Europe. These appearances include venues such as the Barbican Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels as well as the cities of Copenhagen, Oslo, Prague and Warsaw. Conductors that he has worked for as a soloist include Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Richard Hickox, Robert King, Paul McCreesh,Nicholas McGegan, James O'Donnell, Trevor Pinnock, Rinaldo Alessandrini and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Operatic engagements have included the role of Delfa, Giasone (Cavalli) at the Megaron in Athens, the title role in Pompeo Magno (Cavalli) at the Varazdin Festival of Baroque Music in Croatia, Lichas Hercules at the Hans-Otto Theater inPotsdam, the title role in Lucio Silla at the Händel Festival in Karlsruhe, the title role in Tamerlano for the Britten-Pears School and The Sorceress for The King’s Consort. Recent solo concert highlights have included working alongside The King’s Consort, Gabrieli Consort, Ulster Orchestra, Northern Chamber Orchestra and Concerto Copenhagen. Last season (2004-2005) allowed him to make his Slovenian debut in televised performances of George Frideric Handel's Judas Maccabaeus and he performed a solo recital of Purcell's music for the Riga Domfest. Charles Humphries recently sang the role of Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare for the Norwegian National Opera to great acclaim and performed at the English National Opera where he was covering the character Hamor in G.F. Handel'sJephtha. Future engagements include appearances on the BBC Proms series in London (May and August), guest appearances with The King’s Consort in Halle and Dresden, concerts of arias and duets in Latvia (August), several works from the Italian Baroque repertoire, Monetverdi 1610 Vespers in Vilnius (October), Solo Alto Voice in Acis and Galatea with The King’s Consort (November) Messiah in Lübeck (December). Charles Humphries' recordings include Jephtha and Judas Maccabaeus (K & K Verlagsanstalt), Messiah (Capriccio) and Antonio Vivaldi Cantatas (ASV), and Gloria/Dixit/Dominus/Gloria for Philips with Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting. His future recordings include Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers with The King’s Consort. Future projects include Acis and Galatea, Italian repertoire, Purcell and G.F. Handel Odes, Monteverdi Vespers recording with The King’s Consort, a concert performance of A. Vivaldi's l'Olympiad with Sancera in Latvia, recital of solo Bach Cantatas in Lithuania, Messiah throughout Northern Germany and Denmark and a tour of G.F. Handel's Heroic Arias for Farinelli productions throughout the Baltic States. Since moving to the USA, Mr. Himphries has sung with the Washington Bach Consort (J Reilly Lewis), Bach Sinfonia (Dan Abraham) and the Washington Cathedral Choral Society near Washington, DC, where he is based. Across the United States he has appeared throughout Southern California in San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County, centrally, Memphis and Austin and on the East Coast in New York City. He also teaches and coaches. Accompanying Mr. Humphries are three extraordinary young musicians. Harpsichordist Mark Shuldiner is coming to Amherst from Chicago, where he lives. Mr. Shuldiner is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory Historic Performance Program. He has recently played harpsichord, celeste, and organ for staged productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Stephen Stubbs. While having a rigorous performance schedule, Mark has also been apprenticing with Northfield-based harpsichord maker, Paul Irvin. Amy Domingues of Arlington returns to Amherst Music Series for the first time this season, playing viola da gamba, and Anthony Harvey, who last played for AGAR with Gwyn Roberts and Meg Owens in October, will accompany on theorbo. Both Domingues and Harvey hold multiple degrees from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and are frequent players with early music ensembles on the East Coast. |
Grand Tour: Music of the Travelled Gentry
Music of Telemann, Bach, and other composers heard by an imagined member of the English gentry making "The Grand Tour" of Europe in the late 1740's. Gwyn Roberts (Director of Tempeste di Mare, Baroque Orchestra of Philadelphia on traverso, alto and sopranino recorder) Meg Owens (baroque Oboe) and Anthony Harvey (theorbo). Sunday, September 15, 2013 4PM
Poet-Tree: THE BIG READ
Emily Dickinson in Amherst Virginia. This event was suggested by a former BIG READ Grantee to AGAR. Poems by Emily Dickinson will be laminated and hung from branches of a large tree by the Jan Osinga Walking Trail that goes around the grounds of the Clifford Ruritan Center. Walkers, other visitors and members will be invited to take down and read poems by Emily Dickinson. The Clifford Ruritans will hold their Sorghum Festival October 5-6 and the Poet-Tree will be available to all attending. Visitors will be invited to write a poem responding to Emily Dickinson's poems on the tree and to leave their own poem in the "Amherst Poet" sealed plastic receptacles on the tree. Event Location: Tree on Walking Trail of the Clifford Ruritan Center, 755 Fletcher's Level Road, Amherst, VA 24521 Date: Sun, Sep 15, 2013 – Tue, Oct 15, 2013 Book: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson THE BIG READ: EMILY DICKINSON AROUND THE CAMPFIRE Emily Dickinson Poetry Reading and Discussion Around the Campfire at James River State Park. AGAR volunteers will leave printed poetry of Emily Dickinson and information about Poetry Foundation online poetry of Emily Dickinson at the Contact Station where campers and cabin-renters enter the James River State Park campground. AGAR will also leave Emily Dickinon poems and information about online Dickinson poetry at the Campground Visitors' Center. The Dickinson poetry discussion led by AGAR volunteers will be the main event of the weekly Welcome Campfire on September 20, 2013. (James River contact is Joaane Absher Park ranger and Volunteer Coordinator, ([email protected]) telephone: 434-933-4355. James River State Park, Department of Conservation and Recreation of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Park URL and directions) Event Location: Campfire at Frog Hollow Amphitheatre at Red Oak Campground, James River State Park, Directions at Contact Station Entrance, 184 Park Road, Gladstone, VA 24553 Date: Fri, Sep 20, 2013 Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm Book: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson |
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Opera on the James Young Artists Concert
The Opera on the James Tyler Young Artists Series singing An Evening of Musical Delights and Surprises will be the next presentation of the Amherst Music Series of Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) The concert will take place at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Clifford, located at 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst at 7:30 pm on Friday October 11th, The performance will feature five artists who are in residence with the Opera on the James Tyler Young Artists’ series in Lynchburg this fall . The singers, chosen through national auditions, will perform engaging music from opera, operetta, classical song and Broadway. They are Soprano Raquel Suarez Groen,Mezzo-Soprano Danielle Bond, Tenor Chase Taylor, and Bass-baritone Brandon Coleman. The singers will be accompanied by Thomas Getty, Resident Coach of Opera on the James Tyler Young Artist Program. This free performance is a gift to the Amherst Community, a co-presentation of Opera on the James, AGAR, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
Before the performance, the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) of St. Mark’s will host a “Meet the Artists” supper in the church parish hall for a suggested donation to Amherst Cares, a program serving food-insecure children in Amherst County. The performance itself has free admission. Reservations are required because of limited seating in St. Mark’s Church and the need to cook enough food. Any unreserved tickets will be given out at the door ten minutes before the performance. For reservations, email [email protected], or call 434-989-3215 and say how many performance reservations are requested and whether you will come to the reception/supper, which begins at 5:30 pm. Soprano Raquel Suarez Groen will sing the role of Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica forOpera on the James later this fall. In New York she has sung major roles with New York Lyric Opera, Opera Williamsburg, DiCapo Opera Theatre, and the Marina Arroyo Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Music from Manhattan School of Music, and has been an Artist in residence at Syracuse Opera and DiCapo Opera Theatre. She has also studied and performed in Canada, Italy, Israel and China. Tenor Chase Taylor has performed with Harlem Opera Theater, Empire Opera, and Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City. Nationally he sang for Glimmerglass Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Cincinnati Opera. Last season he was Met Opera National Council Auditions New England Regional Finalist. He earned a graduate professional diploma from Mannes College of Music/The New School, where he also had a graduate assistantship. He also holds a Masters of Music from Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and a BA in Music from North Carolina School for the Arts. |
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Bass-baritone Brandon Coleman will sing the role of Marco in Gianni Schicchi at Opera on the James in Lynchburg in November, and will finish the season singing the role of Crown in Porgy and Bess for Syracuse Opera. Mr. Coleman has also sung with Central City Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera North, Sarasota Opera, Opera New Jersey and Di Capo Opera. Mr. Coleman is a graduate of the University of Hartford-Hartt School of Music and studied at the Academia Internazionale della Musica.
Mezzo-soprano Danielle Marcelle Bond has performed roles such as Carmen, Dido in Dido & Aeneas, Faust’s Siebel, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Amahl’s Mother, Flora in La traviata, and a Reporter in the world premiere of Stephen Schwartz’sSéance on a Wet Afternoon for Opera Santa Barbara. She made her company debut with Los Angeles Opera in Eugene Onegin & with Long Beach Opera in Ainadamar. This season, she has performed with Long Beach Opera in the US premieres of Stewart Copeland’s Tell Tale Heart and Gabriela Ortiz’s Camelia la Tejana, as well as Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth as Second Witch. Her performance as one of the two narrators of Peter Lieberson’s King Gesar with Long Beach Opera was lauded as “exceptionally fine” by Opera West. Solo concert work includes Los Angeles Bach Festival’s Mass in B Minor, Santa Barbara Master Chorale’s Magnificats of JS & CPE Bach and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater. She has served both as company member and composer for the Grand Canyon Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Bond originally hails from New Jersey, studied voice at Indiana University and Arizona State University, and now makes her home in Los Angeles. Accompanist and vocal coach Thomas Getty has been a regular music staff member at Central City Opera in Colorado for 17 summer seasons. He also served as principal coach for Utah Symphony and Opera in Salt Lake City and Anchorage Opera in Alaska, where he was later promoted to Assistant Artistic Director. Mr. Getty has also provided music accompaniment for Pittsburgh Opera Center, Rutgers University, and American Repertory Ballet Company. Originally from Metuchen NJ, Mr. Getty holds a Bachelor degree from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts, and a Master degree in coaching and accompanying from Westminster Choir College of Rider University. This is the fourth year that Opera on the James will sponsor the Tyler Young Artists Series. The singers will appear in community and educational concerts and will also play roles in the Opera on the James presentations in November. A special community performance at St. Mark's by the Young Artists who are appearing with Opera on the James for their fall opera in Lynchburg. Selection of opera favorites to be announced. |
Amherst Chamber Music Series to Begin
Amherst Glebe Arts Response (AGAR) will begin its Amherst Chamber Music Series at St. Mark’s Church Clifford, 670 Patrick Henry Highway withThe Grand Tour: Music of the Traveled Gentry on September 15, 2013 at 4:00 pm. The program will feature well-known musicians of the early music world, Tempesta di Mare recorder and traverso virtuouso Gwyn Roberts from Philadelphia, Washington DC area leading baroque oboist Meg Owens and Middleburg Musick’s Anthony Harvey.The program follows the trip of an imagined 18th Century voyager as he travels through Europe to complete his education, hearing concerts of works by Telemann, Dornel, Bach, and Vincent.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS FOR “GRAND TOUR”: Meg Owens, Baroque Oboist, appears regularly with many American Baroque orchestras, including American Bach Soloists, Opera Lafayette, Tafelmusik, Washington Bach Consort, Mercury Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, and the National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra. Recent concerts include solo appearances with REBEL, Four Nations, Chatham Baroque, the Sebastian Chamber Players, and the Berkshire Bach Society. Her scholarly pursuits center around the oboe band tradition at the courts and chateaux of Louis XIV, leading to recreations of, and lectures about, the music of the Philidor family of wind players. |
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Gwyn Roberts, who plays recorder and traverso, says she “leads a rather improbable life performing, teaching, coaching, directing and communicating about the music I love.” American Record Guide called her “a world-class virtuoso”, and her most recent solo recording earned a five star rating from BBC Music Magazine. Together with lutenist Richard Stone, she is a founding director of Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, “one of America’s great period instrument bands” (Fanfare), and leads the ensemble in performances from Oregon to Prague and annual recordings for Chandos. Other recordings include Deutsche Grammaphon, Dorian, Sony Classics, Vox, PolyGram, PGM, Newport Classics, and Radio France. On faculty at Peabody Conservatory and the University of Pennsylvania, she studied with Marion Verbruggen, Leo Meilink and Marten Root at Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands).
Anthony Harvey is Artistic Director for Middleburg Music and teaches at James Madison University. He performs regularly as soloist and as a continuo player on theorbo, baroque guitar and baroque lute. He currently performs with North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Vermillian, Three Notch’d Road, The Washington Bach Consort, Chatham Baroque, and co-directs James Madison University's The Valley Collegium. He previously founded and performed with Charm City Baroque. Mr. Harvey holds multiple degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied theorbo and baroque lute with Richard Stone. He has also taught at Washington College. Anthony has previously performed for AGAR on H.Biber’s Mystery Sonatas, Renaissance Music for Shrove Tuesday, The Fox and the Hound, Purloined Weiss and Leider and Airs de Cour. |
"Clippings" Premiere at Second Stage Thursday August 29th at 7:30 pm
AGAR will present a new play Clippings, concerning sexual abuse, physical abuse, and domestic abuse around the world towards women. The characters in the play represent events in America and Africa. This play was written and will be performed by Royal Shiree of Lynchburg, in part when she was a fellow at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Ms. Shiree will be the only actress in the work, but the text will be reflected in music and live dance. There will be one performance on Thursday, August 29th at 7:30 pm after the Farmer's Market at the Former Amherst Baptist Church, now Second Stage / Amherst in the "ABRACADABRA" summer series, corner of Washington and Second Streets in Amherst, Virginia.
GRAMMY-NOMINATED MUSICIANS PERFORMING IN AMHERST, VA IN JULY
Grammy-nominated composer/ musician Ronn McFarlane and his ensemble Ayreheart will open Amherst Glebe Arts Response’s (AGAR) Amherst Music series with a special performance in the Abracadabra Series at Second Stage / Amherst, (formerly the Old Amherst Baptist Church), corner of Second and Washington Streets, (194 Second St.) in Amherst, VA on Sunday, July 21st at 4 PM. Ayreheart performs new music on historic instruments.
Ronn McFarlane says Ayreheart’s original music has “Elements of the many kinds of music I love: Folk, Classical, Jazz, Bluegrass, Celtic and others. The combination of lutes, fretless bass, and a variety of percussion instruments, along with the occasional appearance of violin, mandolin, colascione, and vocals blends the old and new to create the unique and timeless sound that is Ayreheart.” According to McFarlane, who now lives in Oregon, playing in Amherst is like returning home. “I grew up in Maryland and West Virginia. I feel that a lot of the music I’ve written connects with the land. I love both sides of the country, But this is where I have my roots, my memories are from here.” He continued: “I’ve played the lute literature from Medieval to Renaissance and Baroque -- 40,000 pieces – it’s a huge instrumental repertoire. The lute pretty much died out two hundred years ago and nothing new has been written for the instrument. As I came to know the lute I found it could do much more -- that it could play modern styles -- folk ,Celtic, bluegrass and even jazz. My music is an amalgam of all the styles of music that I love and have been influenced by in my life. The music lives in the present.” Mcfarlane says that at thirteen, upon hearing “Wipeout” by the Surfaris, he “Fell wildly in love with music and taught myself to play on a ‘cranky sixteen-dollar steel-string guitar.’ I kept at it, playing blues and rock music on the electric guitar while studying classical guitar.” In 1978, he finally settled on a very early stringed instrument, the lute. McFarlane taught at Peabody Conservatory, played with the Baltimore Consort, and still plays classical lute, as he can be heard doing on television this season for Showtime’s The Borgias. Recently, however, McFarlane finds playing only historical music on his lute too confining, so he has formed Ayreheart to highlight his interest in creating his own new music. McFarlane says about Ayreheart’s music, “So many people say ‘I didn’t know a lute could do that!’ I am doing things that most people consider unusual. One of my personal heroes is Bela Fleck. I admire how he has taken the banjo on from its bluegrass roots and redefined its possibilities. What I am doing for the lute mirrors that same kind of work. Ayreheart is integrating several kinds of lutes along with modern instruments and vocals. We are working in multiple musical genres.” In addition to Ronn McFarlane on lute and vocals, Ayreheart musicians include Willard Morris on colascione, fretless bass, keyboard, violin, and mandolin; Brian Kay on vocals and lute; and Mattias Rucht on percussion. Lynn Kable, producer for AGAR says “I find Ayreheart particularly suitable for an early performance at Second Stage / Amherst in the Abracadabra Series because this beautiful old Amherst Baptist Church building is being re-purposed to serve new needs in the arts, humanities, and the community. Ayreheart is re-purposing old instruments to play new compositions for modern Amherst audiences!” Ayreheart is the first performance of the AGAR Amherst Music Series 2013-2014, funded in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The former Amherst Baptist Church is currently owned by Amherst County, and the Board of Supervisors has been trying to come up with ways of using the building. A group of Amherst County citizens has coalesced around the concept of forming a community center. The County has given them permission to utilize the building and grounds from July until November for activities such as arts, humanities and crafts performances and exhibits, a farmers’ market, and community meetings. They will try to establish possibilities for using the building longterm. Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) is also serving as the fiscal and administrative producer for the ABRACADABRA summer series of Second Stage/ Amherst. |
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McFarlane says about Ayreheart’s music, “So many people say ‘I didn’t know a lute could do that!’ I am doing things that most people consider unusual. One of my personal heroes is Bela Fleck. I admire how he has taken the banjo on from its bluegrass roots and redefined its possibilities. What I am doing for the lute mirrors that same kind of work. Ayreheart is integrating several kinds of lutes along with modern instruments and vocals. We are working in multiple musical genres.”
In addition to Ronn McFarlane on lute and vocals, Ayreheart musicians include Willard Morris on colascione, fretless bass, keyboard, violin, and mandolin; Brian Kay on vocals and lute; and Mattias Rucht on percussion. Lynn Kable, producer for AGAR says “I find Ayreheart particularly suitable for an early performance at Second Stage / Amherst in the Abracadabra Series because this beautiful old Amherst Baptist Church building is being re-purposed to serve new needs in the arts, humanities, and the community. Ayreheart is re-purposing old instruments to play new compositions for modern Amherst audiences!” Ayreheart is the first performance of the AGAR Amherst Music Series 2013-2014, funded in part by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. The former Amherst Baptist Church is currently owned by Amherst County, and the Board of Supervisors has been trying to come up with ways of using the building. A group of Amherst County citizens has coalesced around the concept of forming a community center. The County has given them permission to utilize the building and grounds from July until November for activities such as arts, humanities and crafts performances and exhibits, a farmers’ market, and community meetings. They will try to establish possibilities for using the building longterm. Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) is also serving as the fiscal and administrative producer for the ABRACADABRA summer series of Second Stage/ Amherst. |
SOUTHERN WOMEN POETS TO READ AT AMHERT GLEBE
LuAnn Keener-Mikenas of Madison Heights, Virginia and Florence Nash, or Durham North Carolina, will read their poetry and discuss it with audience members at the Amherst Glebe for AGAR on Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 3 PM. The event is free of charge to the audience.
Mrs. Nash is an independent writer/editor and is the Director of Poetry Workshop OLLI at Duke University in Durham. Her published poetry collections, from which she will read for AGAR, are Crossing Water (1996) and Fish Stories (2010). She was awarded first place in 2011 and second place in 2012 at the Flyleaf Poetry Competition in Chapel Hill. Her poetry has also been awarded at Breadloaf Writers Conference, and she was one of five showcased “emerging poets” at the Milennial Gathering at Vanderbilt University. Florence Nash Received the Bluementhal/North Caorline Writers Nerwork Writers and Readers Award. Florence Nash is a member of the Black Socks poets. She has been guest lecturer in creative writing seminars at Duke and a visiting poet in Duke’s Talent Identification Program, at UNC Memorial Hospital, and at Duke Medical Center’s Osler Literary Roundtable.
LuAnn Keener-Mikenas is an award-winning author of two collections of poems, Homeland, recently published by Louisiana Literature Press and her first book, Color Documentary (Calyx Books 1994).
Her honors include the Lily Peter Prize for Poetry (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville), a Virginia Prize for Poetry, the Writers at Work Prize for Poetry from Quarterly West, Chelsea’s 1st Place Award for Poetry, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for Poetry, as well as the Americas Review Prize for Poetry. Keener-Mikenas is also the recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship and many fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. “Icarus Swims” from Color Documentary inspired an art song: “A Revisitation of Myth” by New York composer Joelle Wallach. “Leonardo: The Adoration” received a Pushcart Nomination. Keener-Mikenas’s poetry has been increasingly concerned with the environmental crisis and the remaking and spiritualization of our relationship with the natural world. Her work has appeared in journals such as Poetry, Shenandoah, Quarterly West, Chelsea, New Orleans Review, Louisiana Literature as well as in anthologies including Entering the Real World (Virginia Center for Creative Arts 40th Anniversary Anthology); Southern Poetry Review (Guy Owen prize winners); The Mind’s Eye (textbook); A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women’s Poetry; Buck and Wing: Southern Poetry at 2000; Worlds in Our Words: Contemporary American Women Writers; and The First Yes: Poems About Communication.
Mrs. Nash is an independent writer/editor and is the Director of Poetry Workshop OLLI at Duke University in Durham. Her published poetry collections, from which she will read for AGAR, are Crossing Water (1996) and Fish Stories (2010). She was awarded first place in 2011 and second place in 2012 at the Flyleaf Poetry Competition in Chapel Hill. Her poetry has also been awarded at Breadloaf Writers Conference, and she was one of five showcased “emerging poets” at the Milennial Gathering at Vanderbilt University. Florence Nash Received the Bluementhal/North Caorline Writers Nerwork Writers and Readers Award. Florence Nash is a member of the Black Socks poets. She has been guest lecturer in creative writing seminars at Duke and a visiting poet in Duke’s Talent Identification Program, at UNC Memorial Hospital, and at Duke Medical Center’s Osler Literary Roundtable.
LuAnn Keener-Mikenas is an award-winning author of two collections of poems, Homeland, recently published by Louisiana Literature Press and her first book, Color Documentary (Calyx Books 1994).
Her honors include the Lily Peter Prize for Poetry (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville), a Virginia Prize for Poetry, the Writers at Work Prize for Poetry from Quarterly West, Chelsea’s 1st Place Award for Poetry, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for Poetry, as well as the Americas Review Prize for Poetry. Keener-Mikenas is also the recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship and many fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. “Icarus Swims” from Color Documentary inspired an art song: “A Revisitation of Myth” by New York composer Joelle Wallach. “Leonardo: The Adoration” received a Pushcart Nomination. Keener-Mikenas’s poetry has been increasingly concerned with the environmental crisis and the remaking and spiritualization of our relationship with the natural world. Her work has appeared in journals such as Poetry, Shenandoah, Quarterly West, Chelsea, New Orleans Review, Louisiana Literature as well as in anthologies including Entering the Real World (Virginia Center for Creative Arts 40th Anniversary Anthology); Southern Poetry Review (Guy Owen prize winners); The Mind’s Eye (textbook); A Fierce Brightness: Twenty-five Years of Women’s Poetry; Buck and Wing: Southern Poetry at 2000; Worlds in Our Words: Contemporary American Women Writers; and The First Yes: Poems About Communication.
AMY DOMINGUES: Cello Thoughts and Garland of Hours
On February 12, 2013 at 7:00 pm, Washington DC composer and cellist Amy Domingues will play at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Clifford, in the third concert of the Amherst Chamber Music Series. Domingues will play Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite no. 2 in D minor on a baroque cello, then a 20th century piece by Armenian-American Alan Hovhaness on a modern cello, and a 21st century new work she has composed. The second half of the program will consist of works for Domingues’ alternative music trio Garland of Hours. The trio consists of Domingues, her husband, Stefan Bauschmid, and, on guitar, singer/songwriter Mary Timony. Domingues says “Mary is a remarkable musician and very innovative guitar player. She brings her own stamp of creativity to our sound.”
Amy Domingues began studying modern cello at age nine, and has also been playing early music on viola da gamba since 2008. She holds degrees from James Madison University and Peabody Conservatory of Music. Among her accomplishments are composing the score for the film The Weather Underground, nominated for an Academy Award as Best Documentary Film in 2003. The music was created collaboratively with two friends, director Sam Green and musician/composer Dave Cerf, with whom Domingues played in the neo-classical group, Threnody Ensemble. Domingues formed alterative trio Garland of Hours in 2003 as well, before deciding to again further explore early music. In 2012, she became a founding member of Corda Nova, an ensemble that is researching and performing European music of the 17th century.
The Amherst Music Series is produced by Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst 24521. Tickets for this concert, celebrating Shrove Tuesday, are $10 for adults and seniors and $2 for students. The series is supported by grants from Virginia Commission for the Arts and Sam’s Club. The concert will be preceded by a supper beginning at 5:30 pm, hosted by the ECW Women of St. Marks., during which a “love offering” will be collected. Proceeds from the supper will all go to Amherst Cares, a backpack program serving food-insecure children. For tickets and information, visit LynchburgTickets.com, www.amherstglebeartsresponse.org or call 434-946-0116.
Amy Domingues began studying modern cello at age nine, and has also been playing early music on viola da gamba since 2008. She holds degrees from James Madison University and Peabody Conservatory of Music. Among her accomplishments are composing the score for the film The Weather Underground, nominated for an Academy Award as Best Documentary Film in 2003. The music was created collaboratively with two friends, director Sam Green and musician/composer Dave Cerf, with whom Domingues played in the neo-classical group, Threnody Ensemble. Domingues formed alterative trio Garland of Hours in 2003 as well, before deciding to again further explore early music. In 2012, she became a founding member of Corda Nova, an ensemble that is researching and performing European music of the 17th century.
The Amherst Music Series is produced by Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst 24521. Tickets for this concert, celebrating Shrove Tuesday, are $10 for adults and seniors and $2 for students. The series is supported by grants from Virginia Commission for the Arts and Sam’s Club. The concert will be preceded by a supper beginning at 5:30 pm, hosted by the ECW Women of St. Marks., during which a “love offering” will be collected. Proceeds from the supper will all go to Amherst Cares, a backpack program serving food-insecure children. For tickets and information, visit LynchburgTickets.com, www.amherstglebeartsresponse.org or call 434-946-0116.
VIRTUOSO GWYN ROBERTS
TO PERFORM IN AMHERST CHAMBER SERIES
Purloined Weiss will be the second concert on the Amherst Chamber Music Series, featuring Gwyn Roberts on traverso (baroque flute) and recorder and Anthony Harvey on baroque lute. The concert will consist of rarely-performed works by 18th century composers Johann Sebastian Bach and Silvius Leopold Weiss. The featured flute concertos were most recently been performed in 2002 when Ms. Roberts did recordings for Chandos. The concert will take place at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 670 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, Virginia on Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 4 pm. Concert tickets are $10 for adults and $2 for students and can be purchased online at lynchburgtickets.com. Following the concert the Women of St. Mark’s will host a dinner and “meet the musicians” reception for a suggested donation of $10 per person, with all proceeds to be donated to Amherst Cares for the benefit of food insecure children. Since space is limited, meal reservations are requested at 434-989-3215 or [email protected]
“Purloined Weiss” will feature rarely-performed and exciting eighteenth century works by Johann Sebastian Bach, known in his time as a composer and extraordinarily skilled keyboard player, and another composer equally famous at the time for his virtuosic improvisations for the lute, Silvius Leopold Weiss. Weiss, although less known today, was much in demand for Court weddings and ceremonies, and has sent down to our time lute works respected for both their quality and quantity. He was in his lifetime the highest paid musician in Dresden, the highest paying court in Europe. What, one might ask, was stolen or “purloined” from Mr. Weiss? The story is told that Silvius Leopold Weiss was brought home to visit Johann Sebastian Bach by his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. The elder Bach and Weiss were reported to have bonded and enjoyed improvising together. One evening Weiss played his latest composition, a sonata for solo lute, while J.S. Bach improvised another melody around the lute part at his keyboard. As he improvised, the elder Bach made notes -- and as it turned out he put these notes to good use. Shortly afterwards Johann Sebastian Bach began to perform a piece he called Suite in A Major for Violin and Harpsichord. The harpsichord part of this work was, note for note, the same as Weiss’ earlier Sonata in A Major, but the violin part was drawn from Bach’s original keyboard improvisations. The concert Purloined Weiss will present both composers’ versions of their “original” works, Weiss’ for solo lute and Bach’s duo version played on traverso and lute. Another interesting aspect of the concert is the contribution of Richard Stone to music that will be played, with his permission. Weiss’ music was stored in a library in Dresden, Germany, where he had served as a court musician. In February, 1945, near the end of World War II, the central city of Dresden was carpet-bombed by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Much of the music collection was destroyed. However, there were lute-only parts of some works that had been preserved in London. In the last years of the 20th Century lutenist Richard Stone decided that he would re-construct the Traverso (flute) parts to the London copy of Weiss’ Concerto in B Flat Major and another Weiss work, the Concerto in F Major. He re-constructed traverso parts for both works, and Gwyn Roberts, his artistic partner and also his wife, joined him in the premieres in 2000 in Prague. These two works, played by Ms. Roberts and Mr. Harvey will complete the concert at St. Mark’s. |
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It was Anthony Harvey’s idea to build a concert around the similar works by Weiss and Bach. Ms. Roberts is a founding director with Richard Stone of the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, called “one of America’s great period instrument bands” by Fanfare. The orchestra is often featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms Roberts directs the early music program at the University of Pennsylvania and teaches at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. When Anthony Harvey entered graduate school at Peabody Conservatory, Ms. Roberts became his ensemble teacher, while Mr. Stone was his teacher of lute and theorbo. Mr. Harvey says both Roberts and Stone contributed greatly to his development as a musician and as a musicologist. Today’s concert was Harvey’s idea. He says,”This concert is a way of paying homage to the knowledge and passion for baroque music that Gwyn and Richard passed down to me. They have been some of the greatest mentors and source of inspiration in my life.”
BIOS OF PERFORMERS Gwyn Roberts, (recorder and traverso) leads a rather improbable life performing, teaching, coaching, directing and communicating about the music she loves. American Record Guide called her “a world-class virtuoso”, and her most recent solo recording earned a five star rating from BBC Music Magazine. Together with lutenist Richard Stone, she is a founding director of Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra Tempesta di Mare, “one of America’s great period instrument bands” (Fanfare), and leads the ensemble in performances from Oregon to Prague and annual recordings for Chandos. Other recordings include Deutsche Grammaphon, Dorian, Sony Classics, Vox, PolyGram, PGM, Newport Classics, and Radio France. Soloist engagements include the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Recitar Cantando of Tokyo, the Washington Bach Consort and the Kennedy Center. She is in demand as a masterclass teacher, with recent engagements at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Amherst Early Music Festival, the Hartt School of Music and the Oregon Bach Festival. Currently on faculty at Peabody Conservatory and the University of Pennsylvania, she has also taught recorder and directed ensembles at Swarthmore College, Haverford College and the University of Delaware and at numerous workshops and summer festivals. She studied recorder with Marion Verbruggen and Leo Meilink and traverso with Marten Root at Utrecht Conservatory (Netherlands). Anthony Harvey (baroque lute and AGAR Amherst Chamber Music Series Program Development Director) performs regularly as soloist and as a continuo player on theorbo and baroque lute. He currently performs with Corda Nova, based in Washington, DC. Previously he founded and performed with the ensemble Charm City Baroque. Mr. Harvey has served on the faculty at Washington College where he taught lute, musicology, and co-directed the early music consort. He is currently serving as a guest lecturer in Barqoue Performance at James Madison University. Mr. Harvey holds multiple degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied theorbo and baroque lute with Richard Stone. He has recently founded Middleburg's Musick in Middleburg, VA. He has previously worked with AGAR as theorbo player for the three-part concert of H. Biber’s Mystery Sonatas and last August on The Fox and the Hound. Anthony was co-producer with AGAR of a program of Renaissance Lute Music featuring British countertenor Charles Humphries. |
The Fox and the Hound: Music for Horn
Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 4:00pm Music by 17th and 18th century composers Jean-Joseph Mouret, Georg Philippe Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Stradella, Carl H. Graun and Pietro Boni.
The program will feature Paul Hopkins, who plays the baroque natural horn. His pieces will be interspersed with works featuring performances by favorite early music players in both the United States and Europe, Baroque cellist John Moran and Baroque violinist Risa Browder.
Mr. Hopkins shared his thoughts about the concert: “The natural horn is really a family of instruments. The horn that I will play in the Amherst concert is a baroque horn that was in use from 1710 until about 1760 in Europe. The first time a horn like this would have reached the colonial Americas would have been in the mid-18th Century. We chose the music we are performing to outline the transformation of the horn from a signaling device on the hunting field to an instrument used to perform concert music that people listen to for enjoyment, for fun. The first piece, by Mouret, is really a collection of theatre music fragments – it was originally played by hunting horn players who were brought into a theatre for the occasion. The second piece I will play is by Telemann. It’s one of the early concert pieces that uses the horn, and some of the music still references hunting calls. It is a trio sonata for a hunting horn, but people would listen to it as a concert movement for enjoyment. The Graun, the third piece I will play, is a fully developed concert work, The middle movement is a vocal-sounding piece, almost like an aria, and it no longer has to do with hunting music. “
John Moran, who will play Baroque cello for The Fox and the Hound, specializes in historic music from the seventeenth through the twentieth century, also playing cello and viola da gamba. He performed and recorded with numerous groups in Europe for ten years, playing with Les Musiciens du Louvre, The Consort of Musicke, and English Baroque Soloists. Since 1994 he has lived in Arlington. He is a regular member of REBEL, a New York based baroque ensemble and is the music director of Modern Musick, a Washington period-instrument ensemble. He has also appeared with Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort, the Folger Consort, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players.
Risa Browder, who will play Baroque violin is the concertmaster of Modern Musick in Washington, DC. She has performed with Folger Consort, Washington Bach Consort, Smithsonian Chamber Players, REBEL, English Concert, London Baroque, Consort of Musicke, London Classical Players, Academy of Ancient Music, Hanover Band, Florilegium, Musiciens du Louvre, and the Purcell Quartet.
John Moran and Risa Browder are married and teach at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. They both graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and did graduate work at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland, and in London, where he studied musicology at King's College London and she received an ARCM from Royal College of Music. They have both recorded with major companies such as Virgin Classics and Deutsche Grammophon.
Anthony Harvey of Middleburg returns to AGAR to play theorbo. He performs regularly with the Washington, DC, Baroque ensemble, Corda Nova and previously performed with Charm City Baroque. Mr. Harvey served on the faculty at Washington College where he taught lute, musicology, and co-directed the early music consort. He has recently founded an early music performance series called Middleburg's Musick.
Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 4:00pm Music by 17th and 18th century composers Jean-Joseph Mouret, Georg Philippe Telemann, Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Stradella, Carl H. Graun and Pietro Boni.
The program will feature Paul Hopkins, who plays the baroque natural horn. His pieces will be interspersed with works featuring performances by favorite early music players in both the United States and Europe, Baroque cellist John Moran and Baroque violinist Risa Browder.
Mr. Hopkins shared his thoughts about the concert: “The natural horn is really a family of instruments. The horn that I will play in the Amherst concert is a baroque horn that was in use from 1710 until about 1760 in Europe. The first time a horn like this would have reached the colonial Americas would have been in the mid-18th Century. We chose the music we are performing to outline the transformation of the horn from a signaling device on the hunting field to an instrument used to perform concert music that people listen to for enjoyment, for fun. The first piece, by Mouret, is really a collection of theatre music fragments – it was originally played by hunting horn players who were brought into a theatre for the occasion. The second piece I will play is by Telemann. It’s one of the early concert pieces that uses the horn, and some of the music still references hunting calls. It is a trio sonata for a hunting horn, but people would listen to it as a concert movement for enjoyment. The Graun, the third piece I will play, is a fully developed concert work, The middle movement is a vocal-sounding piece, almost like an aria, and it no longer has to do with hunting music. “
John Moran, who will play Baroque cello for The Fox and the Hound, specializes in historic music from the seventeenth through the twentieth century, also playing cello and viola da gamba. He performed and recorded with numerous groups in Europe for ten years, playing with Les Musiciens du Louvre, The Consort of Musicke, and English Baroque Soloists. Since 1994 he has lived in Arlington. He is a regular member of REBEL, a New York based baroque ensemble and is the music director of Modern Musick, a Washington period-instrument ensemble. He has also appeared with Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort, the Folger Consort, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Players.
Risa Browder, who will play Baroque violin is the concertmaster of Modern Musick in Washington, DC. She has performed with Folger Consort, Washington Bach Consort, Smithsonian Chamber Players, REBEL, English Concert, London Baroque, Consort of Musicke, London Classical Players, Academy of Ancient Music, Hanover Band, Florilegium, Musiciens du Louvre, and the Purcell Quartet.
John Moran and Risa Browder are married and teach at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. They both graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and did graduate work at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland, and in London, where he studied musicology at King's College London and she received an ARCM from Royal College of Music. They have both recorded with major companies such as Virgin Classics and Deutsche Grammophon.
Anthony Harvey of Middleburg returns to AGAR to play theorbo. He performs regularly with the Washington, DC, Baroque ensemble, Corda Nova and previously performed with Charm City Baroque. Mr. Harvey served on the faculty at Washington College where he taught lute, musicology, and co-directed the early music consort. He has recently founded an early music performance series called Middleburg's Musick.