2020-2021 Music Series Archives

AGAR’s 2020-2021 Season Highlights
(Owing to Covid-19, AGAR worked hard to bring virtual or social-distancing programs to you.)

Picture
Amherst County Museum Exhibit
Picture
Amherst Women Interviewed video
Picture
Women Voting Panel Discussion video
AGAR Humanities Programing: “Women Making a Positive Difference ​In Amherst County 1920-2020”  
​AGAR curated an Amherst County Museum exhibit, conducted a lecture/panel discussion, and produced a video.
(To read the full story, CLICK HERE.)
​Chamber Music Concerts
Of the eight Chamber music concerts proposed, six took place virtually online, sometimes with changed dates or personnel. Two COVID-19 cancellations were: “Sisters” and “Jewish History in Film and Music”  AGAR presented  Dudley Raine IV in a virtual viola recital of female composers on July 25, 2020.  Aaron Garber played an organ recital on 12/11/2020 which AGAR streamed.  Remaining season: “Sounds of the Seasons”/Billias and Parker 9/27/2020; ALKEMIE: “Mirroring the Other” (Medieval, Jewish) virtual performance 12/7/2020;  “In Fortune's Hands“/Brian Kay & David McCormick on 1/26/2021; LIYA String Quartet, Haydn ”Seven Last Words of Christ“ 2/13/2021; Duo Silvio/Richard Stone and Cameron Welke April/18/2021; “A Perfect Relationship”/Scott Williamson, Asherah Capellaro, CW Markham, May 2, 2021. (To read more information about these concerts, CLICK HERE.)
AGAR Amherst Java & Jazz
AGAR and 2nd Stage Amherst presented 10 Amherst Java & Jazz shows. Two scheduled performers withdrew, and were replaced, Lenaux Haley and Justin Schroder.    Virtual shows: Flat FIve  8/1/2020; Quantum Mechanics 11/21/2020; Quintana 1/30/2021;  Henson Jazz (livestream failed, cancelled, 2/29/2021); Cecilia Smith & Lafayette Harris,Jr. 5/29/2021.  Live shows at SSA were: Joseph Henson 8/29/2020; Kenneth Matthews outdoors 9/19/2020;  Quintana, outdoors live 10/24/2020; Laissez Foure 3/27/2021;  Henson Jazz 4/16/2021;  Gus Miller & Friends, 4/24/2021.  ​(To read more information about these shows, CLICK HERE.)
AGAR Community Projects
  • Seniors: AGAR expanded delivering poems with meals to homebound seniors (live Virginia poets in 2020-2021) averaging 650 pages of poems delivered twice a month. In May, AGAR began a program using Grand Pads to teach arts to homebound seniors. (To read more, CLICK HERE.)​
  • Schools:  AGAR supported music history programs in Bedford Co. Schools.  (To read the full story, CLICK HERE.)​

AGAR
​CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

Virtual YouTube Concert
Online until June 25, 2021
TICKETS: $15 Adults, $5 Students
(click on button below to order)
With ticket purchase you will receive
​a private link to the concert on
AGAR’s YouTube Channel
​and may view it unlimited times 
​until 10 pm June 25, 2021.
(l-r) Lutenists Cameron Welke and  Richard Stone
Virtuoso lutenist Richard Stone was introduced to the ensemble music of his favorite lute composer, Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750), while he was studying in London in the 1980s as a Fullbright/Lusk fellow. That was when he attended a lecture where he heard a Weiss lute concerto whose entire accompaniment was reconstructed by the lecturer, because only the solo part survived; the original orchestral parts were lost. Richard was fascinated. Upon finding that no original accompaniments existed for any of Weiss’s other ensemble music, including several lute duets, he decided "to try my hand at reconstructing the rest of them myself." The concertos and sonatas he reconstructed launched his group, Tempesta di Mare, the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, and the group’s success left no time to complete four Weiss lute duets. He put them aside for a future time -- and that time came in 2019.

​Stone said on his blog for the orchestra: "Tempesta Di Mare's 2019 Artist Recital Series included the modern premiere of four lute duets by Bach-contemporary Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687–1750). Rehearsing and previewing these Weiss duets with my partner Cameron Welke was some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing lute."

Stone, Welke, and rural presenter Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc (AGAR), enthusiastically planned a repeat of the duets for the AGAR chamber music concert series in rural Amherst, Virginia in Spring 2020, only to be frustrated by COVID-19. Now, working together, we are managing to bring this extraordinary work to you in a virtual performance, "Duo Silvio."  
Richard Stone has performed as soloist and accompanist 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.” Solo recordings include the complete Weiss lute concerti and the Fasch lute concerto. He co-directs Tempesta di Mare, the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, which records exclusively for the British label Chandos. Stone has conducted from Orlando to Taipei, leading from the theorbo in repertoire from Monteverdi to Handel, and has also accompanied many of today’s leading singers. Further recording and broadcast credits include Deutsche Grammophon, Lyrichord, PGM, Musical Heritage, Polygram, Vienna Modern Masters, ATMA, Eklecta, Centaur, Bis, Chesky, NPR, Czech Radio 3-Vltava and the BBC. Stone is professor of baroque lutes at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and an adjunct lute instructor for the Curtis Institute. He studied lute with Patrick O’Brien and guitar with David Starobin at SUNY Purchase, and with Nigel North at London’s Guildhall School as a Fulbright Scholar. 

Cameron Welke spends most of his time explaining to well-meaning strangers that the lute is, in fact, quite a different instrument from the flute. He brings a passionate curiosity and a deep creative drive to all manner of historical plucked instruments, which he plays with “expert technical dexterity, consummate phrasing and endearing expressivity“ (Chestnut Hill Local). Past and current engagements include performances with the Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Early Music City, the Baltimore Baroque Band, Vivi Cantando, and the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. He gave the modern premiere of reconstructions of lute duets by Sylvius Leopold Weiss alongside Richard Stone in the fall of 2019, and he explores Renaissance and Baroque song repertoire in his trio Sacred Monsters with soprano Kyle Leigh Carney and multi-instrumentalist Niccolo Seligmann. Cameron began his musical life as a classical violinist and a rock and jazz guitarist. He holds a B.M. in classical guitar performance from Belmont University, where he studied with Francis Perry and John Pell, and a M.M. in historical performance on lute and theorbo from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Richard Stone.

COMPOSER SILVIUS LEOPOLD WEISS (1687–1750) was born in German-speaking Grottkau, Silesia, near Breslau (now Grodków and Wrocław in modern-day Poland). He, his brother Johann Sigismund and sister Juliana Margareta all learned lute from their father, Johann Jakob Weiss, who one contemporary biographer noted as “a profound musician.” A child prodidigy, by age seven Silvius Leopold had performed for Emperor Leopold I, and in his early 30’s he won an appointment at the court of Dresden, where he remained the rest of his career as a member of its legendary Hofkapelle. Despite the lute’s being among the quietest of instruments, best suited for small audiences, Weiss became the highest paid instrumentalist on the Hofkapelle payroll. He gained an enduring reputation as the greatest lutenist of his day, bearing frequent comparison with J.S. Bach for the quality of his compositions and improvisations.
Online Event Premiers 
4pm Sunday, May 2, 2021
​This is a Virtual YouTube Concert
Online until May 24, 2021

Scott Williamson, tenor;
Asherah Capellaro, soprano; 
C. W. Markham, piano

TICKETS: $15 adults; $5 students
(click on button below to order)
With ticket purchase you will receive
​a private link to the concert on
AGAR’s YouTube Channel
​and may view it unlimited times 
​until 10 pm May 24, 2021.

​A Perfect Relationship highlights the work of Kander and Ebb, Stephen Sondheim and Kurt Weill. Also featured are scenes by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jule Styne and Eric Idle, writer of the Monty Python musical, Spamalot.
 
The program shares its title with Jule Styne’s song, “A Perfect Relationship,” from Bells Are Ringing. “Ironic wit, situational comedy and double entendre have always been features of the American Musical,” says Williamson. “The balance of humor and lyricism, of entertainment and drama help make the musical comedy the beloved form of live art it is. Our program aims to reflect different colors of this prism, from classic ballads like Weill’s “September Song” to contemporary classics such as Sondheim’s “Ladies who Lunch,” Williamson added.
 
In addition to those mentioned above, songs from Weill’s Lady in the Dark, Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, Sondheim’s Into the Woods and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song round out the program.
Picture

​Scott Williamson thrives in a genre-defying career as a creative artist, performer, director, producer, curator and scholar. Known for his “innovative collaborations,” “visionary programming,” and “intelligent, passionate” stage presence, Scott has impacted thousands of lives across six generations of students, artists and audiences on four continents and twenty countries. He recently founded Collective Euphonia, a multi-genre, interdisciplinary ensemble of artists. A 2019-2020 Fulbright Scholar, Scott spent the season on the faculty of West University in Romania where he worked in Music and Theatre, International Relations, American Studies and the Center for Trans-Disciplinary Research. He has appeared regularly with AGAR since the 2015 premiere of Romania: Revolution, 1989.
​
General and Artistic Director of Opera Roanoke from 2010-2018, he created the company's Apprentice Artist program and produced notable company premieres. An internationally recognized tenor, the Times of London called his debut at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, “brilliant.” Scott's repertoire spans over a millennium of western music and he has participated in more than 100 premieres. Guest Curator in Music at the Taubman Museum of Art, his work is featured in The Mountain Lake Symposium and Workshop: Art in Locale. His poetry has appeared in Atlanta Review and Tupelo Quarterly. Dr. Williamson serves on the faculties of Washington and Lee and Hollins Universities. 
Picture

​Asherah Capellaro developed a passion for the arts at a very young age, performing and training at the Wayside Theatre in Middletown, VA from age 11. She has also trained since childhood as a pianist and went on to earn a B.M. in piano performance. After college, Asherah joined the Opera Roanoke Apprentice Artist program as a conductor and singer, assisting as Chorus Master, singing in the MainStage chorus and covering the role of Clorinda in Cenerentola.
 
While earning her M.M. in vocal performance at Westminster Choir College, she appeared in the title role of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortiléges and sang with the Boccherini Center’s international training program Canta in Italia in Lucca, Italy. Asherah was last seen at AGAR in the premier reading of Romania: Revolution 1989 by Aaron Garber, singing the roles of Mother and Elena Ceausescu. In her “day jobs,” Asherah directs the middle and high school choirs at North Cross School in Roanoke, directs the music at St. Mark’s UMC in Daleville, and teaches private voice lessons. When she’s not busy making music, Asherah enjoys being green and trying to save the planet, cuddling with her two ridiculous cats, and playing video games.
Picture

​Bedford native C.W. Markham started playing piano and singing Broadway tunes at age 6 and has never stopped.  As an organist and choral singer, he is also involved in music in churches and temples throughout Central and Southwest Virginia. From 2010 to 2020, C.W. was the Director of Development with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his time at the RSO, he lived in Philadelphia, where he served in administrative roles at The Curtis Institute of Music, the Painted Bride Art Center, and Opera Company of Philadelphia. 
 
C.W. is currently a panelist for the Virginia Commission for the Arts and is a past president and board member of Roanoke’s Association of Fundraising Professionals.  He holds a master’s degree in art history from Temple University and a bachelor’s degree in humanities from the University of Richmond. When he's not making music, C.W. is an Account Lead at 5Points Creative, a marketing and advertising agency in Roanoke.
(Photos by Tony Zeljeznjak)
Virtual YouTube Concert
available now until
11 pm April 3, 2021
TICKETS:
$15 Adults
$5 Students
With ticket purchase
you will receive a private link
to the concert on
AGAR’s YouTube Channel
​and may view it unlimited times
from 4 pm February 21 to
11 pm April 3, 2021.
Joseph Haydn composed this work for orchestra in 1786, and made the reduction for string quartet in 1787. This version is now the more popular.

LIYA string quartet members are (above l-r)
Yevgeiy Dovgalyuk and
Chrsti Salisbury Howell, violins;
David Feldman, cello; and 
​Domenico Luca Trombetta, viola.

Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc (AGAR) and LIYA String Quartet had planned to bring you this concert in Grace Episcopal Church, Massie's Mill, Virginia, during Lent 2020 when COVID-19 interfered.
​We are pleased to be able to bring it to you now.
Picture
Domenico Luca Trombetta
Domenico Luca Trombetta (viola) is a native of Catania, Italy. He was admitted into the Istituto Musicale V. Bellini of Catania after a few years of private music instruction. He transferred his studies to the Conservatory of St. Cecilia, Rome, to complete his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Viola Performance with highest honors under the instruction of Margot Burton. During this time, he was also a student at the Perosi Academy of Biella (Italy) studying with Simonide Braconi, the principal viola of La Scala Theater of Milan. Before completing his master’s degree, he studied with Bruno Giuranna, at the Lugano Conservatory (Switzerland). Mr. Trombetta has appeared as the featured soloist in solo concerts and recitals and has performed around the world with numerous chamber ensembles, orchestras, and world-renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Yuri Temirkanov, Marc Soustrot, Ennio Morricone, Nicola Piovani (Music of Life is Beautiful), Lu Ja, and Steven White. He has appeared in concerts with Uto Ughi, Boris Belkin, Robert Cohen, Luisa Castellani, Andrea Bocelli, and Yo-yo Ma. Mr. Trombetta holds a D.M.A. from James Madison University and is currently Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of the String Programs at Liberty University. In addition to his performances with James String Players, James String Quartet, and LIYA String Quartet, Mr. Trombetta is also a frequent performer with Opera on the James and in concert with his wife, soprano Adelaide Muir Trombetta. 
​​
Picture
Yevgeniy Dovgalyuk
Yevgeniy Dovgalyuk (violin) a native of Riga, Latvia, began studying violin at the age of six. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance from the University of Maryland as well as Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from George Mason University. Winner of numerous performance awards, Dr. Dovgalyuk, has served as Concertmaster with many orchestras throughout his career. Most recently he has accepted the Concertmaster position with the Lynchburg Symphony. Yevgeniy is a regular substitute with the National Symphony Orchestra and joined the NSO on their Russia Tour in March of 2017. He also performs with the Fairfax Symphony, National Philharmonic, and Alexandria Symphony, among others. He is actively involved with Liya Music Camp International in USA and Ukraine where he serves as the Music Director, as well as Liya Christian Ministry, in memory of his sister. He is an assistant violin professor at Liberty University and plays violin with the LIYA Quartet.


Picture
David Feldman
David Feldman (cello) performs frequently as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. He holds multiple cello performance degrees, studying under Alan Weinstein of the Kandinsky Trio at Roanoke College, and Brian Hodges at Boise State University, for whom he was a teaching assistant. He is an alumnus of the Castleman Quartet Program, Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Chautauqua Institution, completing additional studies under Peter Rejto, David Ying, and Steven Doane. Mr. Feldman has been a member of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra since 2008 and has performed as a concerto soloist with the Boise State University Orchestra, the New River Valley Symphony, and the Shenandoah Conservatory Orchestra. His popular music ventures include appearances with Charles Billingsly, D.J. Spooky, Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, and the Trans Siberian Orchestra, where he was a featured soloist in 2011. Feldman also remains active as a recording studio musician, having worked with artists both nationally and internationally. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Cello at Liberty University since 2015.

Picture
Christi Salisbury Howell
Christi Salisbury Howell (violin) holds a Bachelor of Music in violin (2006) from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University; pursued violin studies at the Eastman School of Music (1997-2000) with Mitchell Stern and Ilya Kaler; and studied privately with Manhattan School of Music violin teacher Burton Kaplan (2002-2003.) She was a violin teacher on faculty at the Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red Bank, New Jersey (2001-2007) while working with mentor and noted teacher Irina Kowalsky. Now in Lynchburg since 2007, Christi is active as a teacher and performer. In addition to her private studio at Salisbury Strings she is an artist in residence at the University of Lynchburg, a violinist in the Liya Quartet, concertmaster of the James Chamber Players, performs regularly with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra and continues to freelance with various ensembles, colleges and churches throughout central-southwest Virginia.​ In June 2017 Christi entered the world of historically informed music practice by studying Baroque performance at Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and since enjoys performing with the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra on Baroque violin. In 2019 she founded Blue Ridge Baroque to bring historical music performed on period instruments to Lynchburg and its regions.  Recently in March 2020 she performed the Bach D minor Partita on Baroque violin at St. Paul's Episcopal Church. 


​“In Fortune’s Hands:
​Troubadours Past and Present”

Virtual Concert Premiere
January 24, 2021, at 4 pm
Link stays up until
​February 7 at Midnight

Tickets:
$15 General Admission
$5 Students

​Amherst Glebe Arts Response 
IN COLLABORATION WITH EARLY MUSIC ACCESS PROJECT PRESENTS
Picture
Brian Kay
Picture
David McCormick
​Brian Kay is a favorite of audiences in Amherst, where he performed twice for AGAR at Second Stage as the lead singer of Ayreheart. He also plays with Grammy-winning Apollo’s Fire. Before the pandemic, Brian performed with David McCormick for AGAR and Early Music Access Project at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Clifford. 

​David McCormick, another favorite, was one of the founders of Three Notch’d Road in Charlottesville, and now plays with Alkemie Medieval Music Ensemble, is Artistic Director of Early Music Access Project and Executive Director of Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. 
 
For In Fortune's Hands: Music of Troubadours Past and Present, McCormick and Kay plan to take on the history of music, while pulling down historic and replica instruments from Kay’s wall. “We are always using instruments played long ago, said McCormick “But sometimes we are mixing them digitally to make a modern sound.”
 
Kay said in rehearsal, “I am singing the oldest song ever found with both its text and musical notation.  It is called The Epitaph of Seikolos, and was carved into a first or second-century tombstone in Tralles, near what is today Aydin, Turkey. I’m going to sing, and play on a replica of an ancient lyre I made” says Kay, “Lyres were made with turtle shells. Lutes and later instruments I play kept their turtle shell shape, and have a curved back. I was able to find a turtle shell for sale in a taxidermy shop and made my lyre from that.”
 
Another ancient instrument Kay will pull from the wall is a modern copy of the world’s oldest surviving lute, which is from Egypt. McCormick will play an instrumental solo on viele, an early ancestor of the violin, from Codex Faenza, one of the earliest European purely instrumentalist pieces, preserved from 1400 in a library in Faenza, near Ravenna, Italy.
 
Kay will perform with the Muslim oud, very similar to the lute, brought to Andalusia, Southern Spain, when the Moors conquered the area in 711 A.D. and began musical collaborations with Spanish noblemen at Court.  He will also play a solo on theorbo, a long-necked lute with a second pegbox, developed in Italy in the 16th century.
 
As a celebration of the post-12th night Season, Kay and McCormick will sing and play pieces that were favorites in last year’s concert, from the “Cantigas de Santa Maria” (Ode to St Mary, the Mother of Jesus), a collection of 420 thirteenth- century songs written in the medieval Galician-Portugese language.

Free Concert
​Watch Now until
​Jan. 2, 2021 at 11 pm
​
Amherst Glebe Arts Response presents Roanoke Organist Aaron Garber in a VIRTUAL concert of Christmas Carol favorites.

AARON GARBER, Roanoke composer, conductor and organist will offer a solo virtual Christmas concert on the extraordinary Bedient Pipe Organ at Emmanuel United Methodist Church (EUMC) in Amherst. The concert will be Broadcast on the Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) YouTube Channel from Dec. 20, 2020 at 4 pm until Jan. 2, 2021 at 11:59 pm. The concert will be free of charge with a virtual tip jar (see button below), and any money collected will be shared by AGAR and one of EUMC’s charities, Amherst Cares. The concert will be made up of Christmas carol favorites.

​Mr. Garber has worked with AGAR before on his opera, “Romania Revolution 1989” and with AGAR and Amherst County High School with the Amherechos on a premiere of a song he set to an Emily Dickinson poem for AGAR’s NEA “BIG READ” project on Dickinson’s poetry. “His offer to do this virtual concert,” says Lynn Kable, Director of AGAR, “is extremely kind and will be especially enjoyable for those of us who can’t hear a Christmas concert in our own churches in the middle of this pandemic!”
 
Works on the concert will include: 
  • Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
  • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
  • Sing We Now of Christmas 
  • Away in a Manger
  • O Holy Night 
  • What Child Is This?  
  • Silent Night 
  • Mary, Did You Know?
  • Jingle Bells
  • Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
  • Do You Hear What I Hear?
  • Little Drummer Boy
  • Angel's We Have Heard on High
  • Carol of the Bells
  • Deck the Halls
  • O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
  • Joy to the World
The prices listed are only for Virginia residents. Only ticket buyers will receive  a private link to view the concert.  Ticket holders may watch/re-watch a recording of this program through December 20. 
This program is being streamed through YouTube. 
This concert is in collaboration
​with the
Sweet Briar College
Janet Lowrey Gager Community Concert Series
  The concert will be transmitted
from Memorial Chapel
at Sweet Briar College
via AGAR’s YouTube Channel.
​You can view this concert by clicking the link below.
 In this recital of music of the seasons pianist Anna Billias will play works by Grieg, William Grant Still,
​Lu Wencheng, and Debussy, and will be joined by baritone Gregory Parker, for songs by Bizet, Schumann, Vaughan Williams, Argento,
​and Rorem.
Anna Billias was trained as a concert pianist at the Prokofiev State Academy of Music in Donetsk, Ukraine, and graduated with advanced degrees in both performance and instruction for piano, and completed her doctoral studies at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.

Dr. Billias has performed in numerous concerts at Sweet Briar College; Hampden Sydney College; Lynchburg College; Liberty University; Randolph College; Eastern Mennonite University, Shenandoah Conservatory; James Madison University; in London, England; and in Paris, France with Gregory Parker; Crimea, Russia; and Donetsk, Ukraine. She has performed in Lynchburg for fundraising events for the Forte Chamber Music Festival, Opera on the James and for the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra. She has served as a jurist for musical events in Amherst, Lynchburg and Charlottesville, and regularly volunteers her time performing at local retirement communities.

In her spare time, she is the music director at a local church in Lynchburg, VA and runs a growing private piano studio. Dr. Billias enjoys serving as an accompanist for the Rockbridge Youth Chorale in Lexington, VA and giving concerts in the Shenandoah Valley. She is the proud mother of three children, and her husband, Christopher, is a Judge in the 25th Judicial District of Virginia.

Gregory Parker, has performed as a baritone soloist in numerous oratorio and recital presentations as well as with opera companies in Alabama, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia. In June 2018, he performed a recital of contemporary American art songs on the Dimanches Musicaux concert series at the American Cathedral in Paris with pianist, Anna Billias. In addition to studying with James McKinney, author of The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, he has worked with internationally acclaimed pedagogues Horst Günter and Richard Miller.
​
He holds the Bachelor of Music degree and the Performer’s Certificate in Voice from Samford University, the Master of Music degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. 
Please join Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) for the first concert of the 2020-2021 season of chamber music and jazz using both live-streamedand “virtual” concerts online.  

This concert includes a classical piece by J.S. Bach, “Suite No. 3 in C Major” and two contemporary works by living American composers/violists, Jessica Meyer’s “Delta Sunrise” and Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s “Sonoran Storm.”

Dudley Raine IV was scheduled to play a live concert for AGAR this past April with his New York based Opus87 piano quartet. That performance was cancelled because of the COVID-19 shutdown. Dudley said last week: “I am really pleased to be able to share a concert live with an audience, even if it has to be virtually and through facebook live. It’s been five months since my last actual live concert, so this is going to be a real treat for me!”

“I wanted to make a program that felt like good music.” Says Dudley, “This is music that feels like it has a lot of relevance today. I chose two works by actively performing violists that were written within the past few years.  Nokuthula is was born in Los Angeles and Jessica lives in New York.  I find Jessica’s piece introspective.  

She wrote it on a plane from New Orleans to New York — it makes me think of the anticipation of going home, thoughts swirling around. It reminds me of a lake in Maine in the morning. Nokuthula’s piece speaks for itself — it’s turbulent, upbeat! A rock concert for one instrument!

“AGAR is pleased to again be able to show off the talents of Dudley, who was raised in Lynchburg, and graduated from EC Glass before he left for New York, where he graduated from Manhattan School of Music and works as a professional violist and teacher of viola,” says Lynn Kable, President of AGAR. 

This concert will be live-streamed via Facebook Live at noon on Saturday, July 25. The concert is free but in case anyone wants to make a donation AGAR will put up a “virtual tip jar” to help offset cost. 

In order to access the concert, you may go to the Amherst Glebe Arts Response facebook page. You will find an invitation and instructions to join the concert on the 25th. You can “like” the Amherst Glebe Arts Response page and you will receive notifications of AGAR’s seasonal activities and virtual live-streamed concerts that are upcoming. ​

We look forward to you joining us onFacebook Live this Saturday, July 25, 2020 at Noon!

Don’t worry if you can’t join us then, the concert will be available later on  AGAR’s Facebook page.

AGAR AMHERST
​JAVA & JAZZ

Online Event Premiers 
6 pm May 29, 2021
and ends
​11 pm May 31, 2021
TICKETS: $10 adults; $5 students
(click on button below to order)
With ticket purchase you will receive
​a private link to the concert on
AGAR’s YouTube Channel
​and may view it unlimited times 
​until 11 pm May 31, 2021.
​Cecilia Smith has performed across the United States and internationally as a leading vibraphonist of the four-mallet technique. She is an avid composer and arranger with six internationally released albums, and she has recorded and performed with renowned artists such as Gary Bartz, Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson, Milt Hinton, Randy Weston, Marian McPartland (“Piano Jazz” NPR), Donald Harrison, Billy Pierce, Mulgrew Miller, and Cecil Bridgewater. She has performed at venues throughout the United States and internationally, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Smith received a Joyce Award for her multimedia work Crossing Bridges, and she has performed at TEDxBEACONSTREET. She is the 2016 Ziegfeld Club Elizabeth Swados Inspirational Awardee for her work as a teaching artist. Smith is the Artistic Director of the Mary Lou Williams Resurgence Project, for which she received a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterpiece Award, and she is also a teaching artist for a number of nonprofit arts organizations and social service agencies. She is a graduate and former faculty member of Berklee College of Music, Smith currently lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

AGAR IS THRILLED TO WELCOME CECILIA SMITH BACK TO AMHERST, VIRGINIA: Cecilia has received numerous compositional grants including being a part of AGAR’s Big Read Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Cecilia composed music based on quotes from Zora Neale Hurston's Hurricane Chapter "Their Eyes Were Watching God." that were performed by Cecilia herself on vibes, jazz students in Amherst Public School System in Virginia (2014) and local jazz professionals Lew Taylor on piano, Larry Scott on drums and Bob Bowen on bass. Members of the Amherechos chorus sang several of Cecilia’s Mary Lou Williams Resergence Project choral arrangements.

In 2000, Ms. Smith was asked to present a concert devoted to compositional work of Mary Lou Williams at Our Lady of Victory RCC where several senior church members had known Ms. Williams. Her research led her to a multiple year Artist-in Residence at New England Conservatory of Music's – Jazz Studies Department where she was able to further study, lecture and perform MLW's work. Mary Lou Williams became Cecilia's passion. And Cecilia's desire to expose audiences to Ms. Williams' compositional work evolved into The Mary Lou Williams' Resurgence Project (MLWRP) In 2005 the MLWRP presented the Sacred and Secular Music of Mary Lou Williams, a concert that included a big band, choir and vocalist, at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Following the DC concert, Subsequently this concert was presented, incorporating local musicians into the big band and using local choirs, at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA (2006); the Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington, VT (2007) and at Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC (2010). The National Endowment of the Arts awarded the MLWRP an American Masterpiece Award for this performance.

Photo of Cecilia Smith by Gulnara Niaz.
Respected as a pianist’s pianist by many musicians and fans, Lafayette Harris, Jr.’s 9th and newest CD: You Can’t Lose With The Blues (Savant) went to #1 on the Jazzweek Jazz charts in Feb. 2020. In fact it was the #3 most played CD in all of jazz radio for 2020! The recording features Lewis Nash and Peter Washington and was produced by Houston Person. In his career he has performed with the Duke Ellington Legacy Orchestra, Houston Person, Max Roach, Ernestine Anderson, Stanley Turrentine, Archie Schepp and many others. He was the last pianist for Mr. Roach and Ms. Anderson. Lafayette is featured on Houston Person recordings including the Oct 2014 release: “The Melody Lingers On”.His original composition: “You Can’t Lose With The Blues” closes the record out. Also Harris is prominently featured on Mr. Persons 2017 CD “Rain or Shine.”

After earning his degree at Oberlin Conservatory (‘85) Lafayette arrived to NYC in 1985 and by the early 90’s had become a regular in NYC clubs as well as on the European jazz festival circuit. From 2011 to 2013 he taught and performed in Asia and made many new fans in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Seoul, Fukuoka and Fukushima. Lafayette conducted and played in the smash hit Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk (1995-1999) and played in several other Broadway shows including The Color Purple (2005-2008).

Photo of Lafayette Harris, Jr. by Hollis King.
TICKETS: $10 Adults, $5 Students
(Audience members will receive a free cup of coffee — or soda or water — with the entrance fee.)
​
  • Advance tickets can be purchased online through either lynchburgtickets or through Eventbrite (click on the either button below) .​​
  • Or at the door beginning 30 minutes before event (cash or checks only; first come first served. ​​

Doors will open at 2:30 pm. 
Baines Books and Coffee will be open
from 2:30-3:30 pm. 
Quiche and sandwiches 
available for purchase. 

Audiences are asked to wear masks
​while not eating or drinking,
​and will be seated at socially distanced tables inside.

Gus Miller’s jazz specialty is singing old favorites of the 1930s through the early 1960s such as Summertime, Fly Me to the Moon, Moon River, and the musical theatre favorites of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Performing with Gus Miller will be Larry Scott, drums; Gary Meisner, piano; Glenn Buck, saxophone; and Bob Bowen, bass.
McGustivus “Gus” Miller started singing as a baritone “Crooner” at the age of fifty. He says that he never sang in school or in church as a young man. In fact, Gus says he set out to play piano, “….But I didn’t have the aptitude. My teacher said, ‘Have you ever thought about singing?’ My music teacher had started out as a singer. She took me around to hear people like Lew Taylor, and I started to sit in with him. She’d say, ‘I have a guy I think you’ll really like!’… and I started to sit in!” Soon, Gus Miller was headlining performances at the Academy Center of the Arts, Jazz Street, Montana’s, and the Roanoke Hotel. Gus says he finds singing “therapeutic—it keeps me from being introverted.”

Gus grew up in Lynchburg, graduating from Dunbar High School before moving to Amherst in 1966 for two years to work for the telephone company. He worked for WSET as a technician for 12 years, and for the Harris Company as well, before establishing his own business.
​
Lynn Kable of AGAR says, “We are very pleased to welcome Gus back to Amherst, especially after scheduling him to perform in spring 2020 at Ernest Deane’s recommendation, and then having to cancel and reschedule him to sing in April of 2021 after the pandemic! We are all looking forward to this concert!”
For more information,
call (434) 989-3215 or email
[email protected]

Second Stage Amherst
194 Second Street
​Amherst, VA 24521
TICKETS: $10 Adults, $5 Students
(Audience members will receive a free cup of coffee — or soda or water — with the entrance fee.)
​
  • Advance tickets can be purchased online through either lynchburgtickets  or through Eventbrite (click on the either button below) .​​
  • ​​At the door beginning 45 minutes before event (cash or checks only; first come first served. ​​
The band plans to play many of Henson’s original tunes aimed at cheering folks up during a mid-winter pandemic. The theme “Music from the Heart,” Henson says, “are songs we'll play that have a particular meaning for me personally. For example, my song ‘Freefall’ was written to encourage people to come alongside anyone they know might need a friendly ear.” 
Doors will open at 5:30 pm. 
Baines Books and Coffee will be open
from 5:30 to 8 pm. 
Quiche and sandwiches available for purchase. 

Audiences are asked to wear masks
​while not eating or drinking,
​and will be seated at socially distanced tables inside.

Second Stage Amherst
194 Second Street
​Amherst, VA 24521
For more information,
call (434) 989-3215 or email
[email protected]
Band members: Joseph Henson (saxophone), Daniel Kelly II “D.K.” (drums), Neal Perrine (bass),  
​Jon Werking (piano) and Lauren Muenstermam (vocalist).
Joseph Henson (Saxophones) is director of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Liberty University. From 1997-2018 Henson served as tenor saxophonist in The U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, based in Washington, DC, and was the Enlisted Musical Director from 2015-2018. During his tenure with the Blues, he shared the stage with many jazz legends including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dr. Billie Taylor, Freddie Cole, and Chris Potter. Henson’s compositions and arrangements for the band, including Things Ain’t What they Used To B and Live at Blues Alley can be heard on several Army Blues recordings.  Tonight’s concert will feature many of Henson’s latest tunes.
 
Daniel Kelly II “D.K.” (drums) has been sharing his talent since the young age of two. His playing styles include Gospel, Jazz, R&B, Rock, Latin, and Classical and has been showcased on both the east and west coasts, as well as around the world. Kelly has performed with the Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Band in the John Moawad Jazz Festival at Central Washington University and Vancouver, BC, and the Christopher K. Morgan and Artists Showcase at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, MD. During the summers of 2014-2016 and 2018, he performed in the Shenandoah Summer Musical Theatre Pit Orchestra as a percussionist/ drummer. Some show titles included The Addams Family, The Wiz, Man of LaMancha, Mary Poppins, The Secret Garden, and City of Angels to list a few. He has also performed with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and The Virginia Symphony, as well as participating in the Guitar Center’s Drum Off Competition. Kelly is currently enlisted and performing with the Virginia Army National Guard band.
 
Neal Perrine (bass) is a recent alumnus of James Madison University’s jazz studies program. He began playing electric bass at the age of 12, and upright bass at the age of 15 falling in love with jazz while in high. Perrine has gotten the opportunity to study bass with Eddie Gomez, Ben Williams, Mimi Jones, Marco Panascia, Lauren Pierce, Sam Suggs, and Karine Chapdelaine to name a few. He performs all over Virginia and has gotten the privilege to perform with jazz greats and local legends such as Nate Smith, Robert Jospe, Devonne Harris, John D’Earth, Bob Hallahan, Charles Owens, Luis Perdomo, Randy Johnston, and Stephanie Nakasian.

Jon Werking (Piano) is a pianist, composer, and producer who has been working in the New York Metropolitan area for over 20 years. He has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan during his career. His musical experience includes performing and recording in many diverse genres of music including Rock, R&B, Jazz, Country, Latin, Contemporary Christian, Classical and more. Besides being an accomplished pianist, he is also a prolific composer/arranger and producer. As a pianist Jon has worked with many great vocalists such as Toni Braxton, Patti Austin, Deborah Cox, Donna Summer, Angela Bofil, Rob Evan, Roberta Flack, and Phyliss Hyman. He's also performed with the vocal groups Destiny's Child, The Manhattan Transfer, The New York Voices, and the Saturday Night Live Band. Jon was a member of the Bill Evans superband and has performed with Michael and Randy Brecker, Steve Gadd, Chuck Loeb, Dennis Chambers, Will Lee, Buddy Williams, Omar Hakim, Mark Egan, Victor Bailey, Bob Berg and more.
​
Lauren Muensterman (vocalist) grew up in Colorado for most of her life before coming to Lynchburg. She was the Liberty University Jazz Ensemble vocalist for three years. Lauren admires and draws inspiration from vocalists such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Anita O' Day, Dinah Washington, and Peggy Lee.
Washington, DC-based Laissez Foure celebrates 15 years of bringing New Orleans-inspired jazz to the public. Now this versatile combo brings two solid sets of Dixieland to Amherst inspired by Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Fats Waller. You’ll hear authentic instrumentation such as tuba, C-melody sax, banjo, washboard and cornet. 
TICKETS: $10
(Audience members will receive a free cup of coffee — or soda or water — with the entrance fee.)
​
  • Advance tickets can be purchased through lynchburgtickets (click on button below) .​
  • ​​At the door beginning 45 minutes before event (cash or checks only; first come first served. ​
 Doors will open at 5:30 pm. 
Baines Books and Coffee will be open
from 5:30 to 8 pm. 
Quiche and sandwiches available for purchase. 

Audiences are asked to wear masks
​while not eating or drinking,
​and will be seated at socially distanced tables inside.

Second Stage Amherst
194 Second Street
​Amherst, VA 24521
For more information,
call (434) 989-3215 or email
[email protected]
Free Virtual YouTube Concert
recoreded live Jan 30,
for Youtube broadcast.

Concert remains up on Youtube until Feb 27
at NOON EST
Lynchburg‘s beloved Quintana
All-Stars Jazz Band
​play a VIRTUAL evening of straight-ahead jazz.

Band members are
L-R: Ed Mikenas, bass; 
Glenn Buck, keyboards;
Ernest Deane, trumpet; 
Malcolm Dentler, drums;  and ​Al Mallet sax.

Premiere of Ed Mikenas’ newest piece,
​“99 in the Shade.”
SONGS PERFORMED INCLUDE:

​"In a Mellow Tone" -- Duke Ellington

"Black Coffee" -- Sonny Burke

 "99 in the Shade" -- Ed Mikenas

 "Old Devil Moon" -- Burton Lane

Chega de Saudade ("No More Blues)
​--Antonio Carlos Jobim

 "Cute" -- Neil Hefti

 "Shiny Stockings" -- Frank Foster

​Ernest Deane (trumpet and flugel) was born in 1941 in Lynchburg, where he grew up and played in jazz bands while at Dunbar High School. He credits his lifetime love of jazz to a cousin, Thomas Fitch, who let him listen, at age eight, to records by artists from Charlie Parker to Gene Krupa and Louie Bellson. Ernest has played in combo bands in Virginia and North Carolina, currently The Houseband of VA and Quintana. He earned a Bachelor of Music from Virginia State U. and assisted music students at Linkhorne Middle School.

Al Mallet Jr. (alto and Soprano saxophone) has been a freelance musician for the past 60 years. He was a club musician in Washington, DC in the 1980s. In Lynchburg he has played with jazz groups including the Jives, the Twisters, Youth for Truth, and at Court Street Baptist Church. Mr. Mallet was a founding member of Quintana, formed by Phil McCarren 10 years ago.

Malcolm Dentler (percussion) hails from New York City. He proudly serves in the music ministry at St. Mark’s Baptist Church. Malcolm teaches percussion every Sunday at John Kortmulder Mindful Mountain Yoga, Second Stage Amherst.

Ed Mikenas (Bass) is organist/choir director for Amherst Presbyterian Church. He taught bass at Radford University, is the jazz ensemble coach for VES, and is adjunct bass professor University of Lynchburg.  As a NYC studio bassist, he recorded and performed with artists including Skitch Henderson, the Larry Elgart Big Band, Esther Phillips, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Martha and the Vandellas, Scarlet Rivera, Rodney Dangerfield, Danny and the Juniors, and Mama Lion. He was bassist for the Joffrey Ballet Company,  La Mama Experimental Theatre, and Broadway shows including Grease, Pippin, Godspell, and The Magic Show.

Glen Buck (keyboards) originally from Utica, NY, and early began playing with his father, a well-known musician in central New York. He studied classical saxophone and music education at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY, and later graduated from Vanderbilt University. He received a Doctorate in Special Education from University of Florida. He is a professor of special education at the University of Lynchburg (1993-present) and continues to play in bands throughout central Virginia. Mr. Buck enjoys his time with Quintana because of his love of jazz music! 

(l-r) Worth Profit, drums;
Ed Mikenas, console steel guitar, Darbuka, and Hang drum;
Andy Aeschbacher, bass

Ed Mikenas (console steel guitar) is a multi-instrumentalist who has been the organist and choir director for Amherst Presbyterian Church since 2007. He taught bass at Radford University for 19 years. He is the jazz ensemble coach for Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg and is adjunct bass professor at the University of Lynchburg. He graduated from SUNY Potsdam with a BS in music education, and has a Master’s degree in Music Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, NYC. In New York, Ed played venues that include Saturday Night Live, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and the Apollo. He played in the pit for Grease, Pippin, Godspell, and the Magic Show on Broadway and was a musician and actor off Broadway with the La Mama Experimental Theatre.  

Worth Proffit (drums) is another multi-isntrumentalist well known in the area playing blues with Dennis Johnson in Jump Street and currently as part of Proffitt & Sandige, both powerful acoustic blues duos. Worth studied blues with Mississippi blues heavyweight Lonnie Pitchford and North Carolina jazz legend, Brother Jusef Salim. Worth's blues projects have received numerous awards, including: 1997 International Blues Challenge, Charlotte, NC (Jump Street) and 2004 International Blues Challenge, Sedalia, VA. Worth branches out into electric guitar territory as well, playing rock 'n' roll and electric blues with Bill Hudson, Jack Sutherland, Malcolm Dentler, Roy Slaughter. Larry Scott and others. He has been playing gospel guitar for two Lynchburg area churches since 1996: Saint Mark in Amherst and Saint Mary in Lowesville.  

Andy Aeschbacher (bass) is a native of Buffalo, NY and a lifelong musician proficient on electric bass. Andy is well known on the local music scene as a solid, reliable player able to handle many different musical situations. Currently he plays in several local music groups such as The Quantum Mechanics, Quintana, Feng Sway, The MP3 Trio, Code Blue, Hill City Jazz, Laurabella Trio, The Introverts, Deanie Blues Band, The Dog Boys and Jimmy Rushing & the Prematures. He is also a full-time piano tuner/technician offering quality piano tuning to owners of fine pianos.
​​

(l-r) Ed Mikenas, bass; ​
Glenn Buck, piano;
Ernest Deane, trumpet; 
Malcolm Dentler, percussion; 
and Albert Mallet, sax.

Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased through Lynchburg Tickets by clicking on the logo below.
Picture
CLICK ABOVE FOR TICKETS

Tickets may also be purchased at the event
starting at 1:30 p.m. (cash & checks only). 

Ticket price includes one cup of coffee (or soda)
from Baine’s Books & Coffee. 
​Food also is available for purchase.

(Bringing your own chairs and a
​small table is appreciated.) 
Ernest Deane (trumpet and flugel) was born in 1941 in Lynchburg, where he grew up and played in jazz bands while at Dunbar High School. He credits his lifetime love of jazz to a cousin, Thomas Fitch, who let him listen, at age eight, to records by artists from Charlie Parker to Gene Krupa and Louie Bellson. Ernest has played in combo bands in Virginia and North Carolina, currently The Houseband of VA and Quintana. He earned a Bachelor of Music from Virginia State U. and assisted music students at Linkhorne Middle School.

Al Mallet Jr. (alto and Soprano saxophone) has been a freelance musician for the past 60 years. He was a club musician in Washington, DC in the 1980s. In Lynchburg he has played with jazz groups including the Jives, the Twisters, Youth for Truth, and at Court Street Baptist Church. Mr. Mallet was a founding member of Quintana, formed by Phil McCarren 10 years ago.

Malcolm Dentler (percussion) hails from New York City. He proudly serves in the music ministry at St. Mark’s Baptist Church. Malcolm teaches percussion every Sunday at John Kortmulder Mindful Mountain Yoga, Second Stage Amherst.

Ed Mikenas (Bass) is organist/choir director for Amherst Presbyterian Church. He taught bass at Radford University, is the jazz ensemble coach for VES, and is adjunct bass professor University of Lynchburg.  As a NYC studio bassist, he recorded and performed with artists including Skitch Henderson, the Larry Elgart Big Band, Esther Phillips, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Martha and the Vandellas, Scarlet Rivera, Rodney Dangerfield, Danny and the Juniors, and Mama Lion. He was bassist for the Joffrey Ballet Company,  La Mama Experimental Theatre, and Broadway shows including Grease, Pippin, Godspell, and The Magic Show.

Glen Buck (keyboards) originally from Utica, NY, and early began playing with his father, a well-known musician in central New York. He studied classical saxophone and music education at Nazareth College, Rochester, NY, and later graduated from Vanderbilt University. He received a Doctorate in Special Education from University of Florida. He is a professor of special education at the University of Lynchburg (1993-present) and continues to play in bands throughout central Virginia. Mr. Buck enjoys his time with Quintana because of his love of jazz music! 
Please join Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) for a
Java & Jazz
socially-distancing concert outside at Second Stage Amherst;
​a mask is required

In the event of rain the
concert will be moved inside.
Audience is limited to 40 members.
Please call 434-989-2846 to
reserve your spot!

Reserved and walk-in tickets are $10 each and are to be paid for (cash & checks only) at the door starting 1:15 p.m. Remaining reserved tickets will be released to walk-ins for purchase after1:45 p.m. Ticket price includes one cup of coffee (or soda) from
​Baine’s Books & Coffee. 
Food also is available for purchase.
(Bringing your own chair and small table is appreciated.)
Rick Peralta, guitar, who is originally from the San Francisco bay area, has been a professional musician in the Washington, DC, area for more than15 years. An accomplished jazz and classical performer, he has supported GRAMMY and TONY Award-winning artists and has toured the Mid-Atlantic region as a member of Back to Zero, a top-cover band in the DC area. Rick also plays with other groups including the Laissez-Faire Jazz Quartet and with MIN, a flute and guitar duo. Rick holds a Maters’ degree in Music in stage and studio guitar from Howard University.
Ken Matthews, sax, resides in Maryland where he heads a New Orleans jazz quartet that has played regularly in the Washington, DC, area for more than 12 years. Ken is originally from Lynchburg where he played in various EC Glass high school bands as well as while he attended Virginia Tech.
Vertical Divider
Please join Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) for a
Java & Jazz
socially-distancing concert inside at Second Stage Amherst;
​a mask is required

The concert is being moved inside because of predicted rain, therefore the audience is limited to 30 members. Please call 434-989-2846 to reserve your spot!

Reserved and walk-in tickets are $10 each and are to be paid for (cash & checks only) at the door starting 5:15 p.m. Remaining reserved tickets will be released to walk-ins for purchase after 5:45 p.m. Ticket price includes one cup of coffee (or soda) from
​Baine’s Books & Coffee. Food also is available for purchase.

Joseph Henson and his band
​will present
“A Showcase of Artistic Resilience,”
playing a mix of traditional jazz standards such as Over the Rainbow and I Can't Get Started with You. They will also play a few originals taken from Joseph’s
​very recent Covid shutdown recordings. The band will play two sets; the first one will begin at 6 p.m. with a short break between sets.
Picture
Joseph Henson, saxophone
Joseph grew up in South Carolina where he attended the University of South Carolina as a music major. While working on his Master’s of Music at the University of North Texas he played in the One O’Clock Lab Band for three consecutive years and studied with Neil Slater, Jim Riggs, and Dan Haerle. From 1997-2018 Henson served as tenor saxophonist in The U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, based in Washington, DC, and was the Enlisted Musical Director from 2015-2018. During his tenure with the Blues, he shared the stage with many jazz legends including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dr. Billie Taylor, Freddie Cole, and Chris Potter. Henson’s compositions and arrangements for the band, including Things Ain’t What they Used To B and Live at Blues Alley can be heard on several Army Blues recordings. Joseph is the director of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Liberty University and leads his own small group that plays acoustic and electric jazz. His album Transformation can be found at https://josephhenson.bandcamp.com, and his recent albums Shock Wave and Groovesonic will soon be available there as well.
​Learn more at https://www.josephhensonjazz.com/
Picture
Neal Perrine, bass
Neal is a recent alumnus of James Madison University’s jazz studies program. He began playing electric bass at the age of 12, and upright bass at the age of 15 falling in love with jazz while in high. Neal has gotten the opportunity to study bass with Eddie Gomez, Ben Williams, Mimi Jones, Marco Panascia, Lauren Pierce, Sam Suggs, and Karine Chapdelaine to name a few. He performs all over Virginia and has gotten the privilege to perform with jazz greats and local legends such as Nate Smith, Robert Jospe, Devonne Harris, John D’Earth, Bob Hallahan, Charles Owens, Luis Perdomo, Randy Johnston, and Stephanie Nakasian.
Picture
Jay Ware, drummer
Jay is an award-winning performing artist, educator, arranger, and music advocate. Completing his undergraduate studies at Mars Hill University with a double major in Music Performance and Music Education, he holds the Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Appalachian State University. Jay has performed or recorded with over 200 artists, including: Grammy Award winner Delfeayo Marsalis, Grammy nominee Donny McCaslin, Wycliffe Gordon, Jason Marsalis, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Mary Wilson and The Supremes, Pulitzer-Prize winner Gunther Schuller, the Broyhill Chamber Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra and many others. He has performed at Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Music Festivals, Charlotte Jazz Festival, Cheraw Jazz Festival, American Bandmasters Association, CBDNA, MENC, Percussive Arts Society Days of Percussion nationwide, as well as special appearances on various television and radio broadcasts. He is in high demand as a versatile performing artist, guest conductor, adjudicator, and has offered masterclasses at universities and schools all over the U.S.
Picture
Dwight Spencer, guitar
Dwight  
​is a performing artist and educator who has received recognition for his work on educational programs in magnate schools and art programs. He completed his undergraduate studies and graduate degree while performing alongside many of the jazz industry’s biggest artists such as Marian McPartland, Marvin Stamm, Bill Watrous, Russell Malone and John “Bucky” Pizzirelli. Dwight has performed at the world-renowned Piccolo Spoleto Festival, The Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus, as well as in many theatrical companies. He has recorded and played with numerous groups including Dennis Edwards and the Temptations, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, and The Platters. He has also played with Los Angeles recording and performing artist Bob McChesney. Dwight is also an endorsing artist for Heritage Guitars, Yamaha Acoustic Guitars, and Stephen Holst Custom Instruments.
Join band members Josh Barling, trumpet; Justin Berkley, saxophone;
Eric Hollandsworth, bass; Matthew Billings, piano; and Tanner Odle, drums;
​with special guest artist Alison Berry, vocalist.
Please join Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) for the first Java & Jazz concert of the 2020-2021 season. This concert will be live-streamed via Facebook Live at 7-9 p.m. this Saturday, August 1.
 
The band will play two sets; the first one will begin at 7 p.m. followed by a short break and will begin again around 8:15 p.m. 

This concert is free but in case anyone wants to make a donation AGAR will put up a “virtual tip jar” to help offset cost via PayPal.

In order to access the concert, you may go to the Amherst Glebe Arts Response facebook page (the link is below). You will find an invitation to join the concert
on August 1. Please “like” the Amherst Glebe Arts Response page to
receive notifications of AGAR’s seasonal activities and
​virtual live-streamed concerts that are upcoming. 
Picture
​Josh Barling, trumpet
Inspired by greats such as Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis at a very young age, Josh began his musical journey in Italy during his seventh-grade year. While his technique does cover numerous styles from classical to jazz and beyond, jazz is what became Josh’s focus. Truly understanding that jazz is the ultimate language of improvisation, he continues to study and learn all he can and is constantly striving to further enrich and immerse himself in the beauty of trumpet playing and the universal language of music.

Having played professionally in both Dallas and San Antonio, Texas, Josh has been fortuitous enough to have played with many professionals including the Commodores. In addition, he has performed with the Dallas jazz orchestra, Pete Peterson Big Band and the San Antonio Jazz Orchestra.
​
Josh continues to pursue his jazz musical career in Lynchburg where he currently resides and performs regularly with his group Flat Five as well as a variety of groups of all genres.
Picture
​Justin Berkley, saxophone
A native of Lynchburg, Justin has played the saxophone in several of the area’s premier groups. Justin has been privileged to study the saxophone at VCU under Marty Nau, and at Virginia Tech under Chip McNeill. A trained clinician, Justin spends most of his days in behavioral health settings while moonlighting as a contributing musician to area big bands, jazz groups, and funk bands.
Picture

​Eric Hollandsworth, bass
Eric grew up as a cellist in Roanoke studying with Peggy McHenry, Dr. Kenneth Lurie and Alan Weinstein. It was during his studies with Weinstein that he was introduced to jazz that began his life-long love affair with the likes of Davis, Monk, Mingus and Hubbard. By his early twenties, Eric had made upright and electric bass his main instruments. He became a sought-after theatre pit orchestra bassist performing regularly with several professional and community-based theatres. He also performed with the award-winning show band Cheaper Than Therapy.

Starting in the early 2000s, Eric toured with regional and national blues acts from Maine to Georgia. During this time he performed with Billie Sutton & Road House, Eli Cook, Proffit and Sandidge, Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes, Jackie B and the Backburners, and fronted as well as played bass for the power blues/rock trio South29.
​
Eric is currently performing with acoustic groove band Solar Hearts, the Sway Katz Jazz Orchestra, blues guitarist Tommy Cox in the Tommy Cox Band, the Eric Hollandsworth Quartet, Americana group Carrington Kay, jam/groove band The Mad Anthonys, and modern jazz combo Flat Five Jazz. In 2016, Eric became an endorsing artist for Spector Basses.
Picture
​










​Matthew Billings, piano
Matthew is a multifaceted instrumentalist, programmer and sound designer who has been involved in the music scene in several cities since the beginning of his professional career. He initially began his musical education as a student of jazz piano composition and performance and further studied and majored in audio engineering. Matthew’s expertise opened the doors for being contracted regularly as a studio programmer, engineer and performer. His current list of live performance and programming credits  include the Xerox International Jazz Festival, Buffalo Museum of Science, NYC Chain and Downtown Short Film festivals, as well as artists up and down the east coast. Currently, Matthew resides in Lynchburg  working as a freelance musician, engineer and designer.
Picture
​Tanner Odle, drums
A native of Wenatchee, Washington, Tanner moved to Lynchburg in 2013 to be an early member of the Liberty University Jazz Studies program. He then began teaching and performing throughout Central Virginia. Tanner developed a love for music at a young age and has since become a full-time purveyor of beats. His influences come from a spectrum of genres that include Max Roach, Art Blakey, Benny Greb, Nate Smith, and John Bonham among others.

Picture
​Special guest artist Alison Berry, vocalist
Allison has been performing music, both vocal and instrumental, for almost twenty years. Throughout grade school and college, she participated in many musical theater shows, school and local bands, and various other musical stage showcases. Her love of jazz, swing, and big band music started at a very young age while watching classic films with her grandfather, an Austrian WWII veteran. From there, Allison fell in love with collecting vinyl records, starting with her mother’s Paul Anka and Bobby Vinton 45s and adding hundreds more albums by the likes of Della Reese, Louis Prima, and Johnny Mercer. Allison’s main vocal influences include Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forrest, Jo Stafford, and Ginny Simms. She is thrilled to join Flat Five and to have the opportunity to learn and grow as a performer.
AGAR’s programs in 2020-2021: Funding has been provided by Virginia Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act economic stabilization plan of 2020; The Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts,
​the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation; Centra; Amherst Woman’s Club;
and Amherst County Board of Supervisors CARES.
Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR)  |  156 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst, VA 24521 
US Mail:  PO Box 117, Clifford, VA 24533   |   (434) 989-3215
Email: [email protected]   |   Facebook: AmherstGlebeArtsResponse