Archive - Spring 2013 A Little Lunch Music Schedule (photos)
Spring 2013 Schedule - A Little Lunch Music
Artist bios are below this schedule.
January 17: smooth-world-Gospel-jazz pianist David Banks and friends (website)
~Sponsored in part by Bette Wegener
January 24: pianist Tzu-yi Chen
~Sponsored by Ruth Wright
January 31 (11:50-1:10): Pangaea Chamber Players (website), violinist Sylvia Wehrs with pianist Susan Hoskins
~Sponsored by Nick and Carolyn Davis (Pangaea) and Richard and Anne Amacher (Wehrs/Hoskins)
February 7: pianist Jeremy Samolesky
~sponsored by Malcolm and Ruth Crocker
February 14: violinist Robin Scott with cellist Ahrim Kim
~sponsored by Carol and Gene Bramlett, Paul and Margaret Kouidis, Taylor and Lucy Littleton (in memory of Louvica Davis)
February 21: clarinetist Evan Lynch and flutist Alina Windell; additional music from percussionist Doug Rosener and saxophonist Patrick McCurry
~sponsored by Jim and Sue Haygood
February 28: pianist Barbara Acker-Mills
~sponsored by Jim and Sue Haygood
March 7: The Woodfield Trio, Variation I, with guest saxophonist Angel Negrin
~sponsored by Jim and Sue Haygood
March 14: Spring Break (no performance)
March 21: Nathan Davis (website)
~sponsored by Gene and Phyllis Stanaland
March 28 (11:50 - 12:50): the Eagle Saxophone Quartet and the Tiger Saxophone Quartet, each with percussionist Andrew Sykes
~sponsored by Jo Krebs
April 4: pianist Julia Tucker
~sponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Auburn University (website)
April 11: harpist Cindy Harris with flutist Patrick McCurry; additional music from pianist Christina Fallows
~sponsored by Betty & Bob Hare and Linda and Seth Anderson
April 18: S. Raj Chaudhury and the Auburn Indian Music Ensemble
April 25: vocalist Marc Karam
~sponsored by Gary Mullen
May 2: soprano Christina Burroughs with pianist Nicole Agostino
~sponsored by a friend of the series
May 9: guitarist Katie Holmes
~sponsored by Jeff and Carol Jakeman
May 16: Mary Slaton
~sponsored in memory of Carol Kent by her husband George
Artist Bios in Alphabetical Order (in progress)
DR. BARBARA ACKER-MILLS holds a PhD in psychology and a Master of Music in piano from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She played Prokofieff's 3rd Piano Concerto with the SUNY Binghamton orchestra after winning its concerto competition. While at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Dr. Acker-Mills studied with acclaimed performer and pedagogical award winner Barbara Lister-Sink who said that Acker-Mills “demonstrated admirably at Salem that a petite frame is no deterrent to commanding and powerful playing.” Dr. Acker-Mills teaches in the music department at Auburn University, has a private teaching studio, and is a member of The Woodfield Trio.
An active soloist and chamber musician, pianist NICOLE AGOSTINO has performed recitals across the U.S. In 2011 she toured the southeast as a guest artist giving recitals and lectures on J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and has recently recorded the work. Nicole is a doctoral candidate in performance at Florida State University. She holds a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Music, both in performance, from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She currently teaches music at Southern Union Community College and is a staff pianist at Auburn University. In 2008, she held a piano faculty position at the renowned Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan.
The AUBURN INDIAN MUSIC ENSEMBLE comprises students in a semester long class where they learn fundamentals of Indian classical and semi-classical music. This music is based on the system of ragas (melodies) and talas (rhythms). The vocal performances of the group feature a variety of traditional instruments such as harmonium (organ), tabla (drums) and tanpura (drone).
DAVID BANKS has recently returned to the world of music, blending of the fervor of Gospel and the musical improvisation of jazz. Dr. Banks is a classically trained musician with over 45 years’ experience in musical styles including jazz, Gospel, R&B, country, and top-40. He has opened for or played with such greats as the Yellowjackets, Ramsey Lewis, BB King, Shirley Caesar, The Hawkins Singers, the Duke Ellington Orchestra (Mercer Ellington), Roy Ayres, the Bar-Kays, Maynard Ferguson, and many more. Dr. Banks is currently an assistant professor at Tuskegee University and is married to Barbara Banks. A 1999 Auburn University graduate, he served as course instructor, advisor and director of the AU Gospel Choir as a graduate student.
Trained in classical and semi-classical traditions of North Indian music, DR. S. RAJ CHAUDHURY has been performing and teaching college students for over 20 years. He has directed Indian music student ensembles at UCLA, Kansas State University, Christopher Newport University and now at Auburn University. A vocalist by training, Dr. Chaudhury plays harmonium, tabla, and tanpura. In 2009, Chaudhury became the Associate Director of Auburn Universtiy's Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and has a background in physics education.
Among pianist CHEN TZU-YI’s many orchestra credits are performing with the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Saint Petersburg Symphony and the Utah Symphony. In June 2012 she performed Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto in Taiwan with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include first prize at both the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Piano Competition and at the International Piano Competition of Mauro Paolo Monopoli in Italy. She has appeared as a recitalist throughout Taiwan and in broadcasts in Hong Kong and Germany. She earned a master's degree and taught at Karlsruhe Music University in Germany and studied at the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance. Miss Chen is currently an Artist Diploma student at Columbus State University on full scholarship. She studies with Alexander Kobrin.
Inspired by natural phenomena and the abstraction of simple stories, NATHAN DAVIS "writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes). His music has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Claire Chase, Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Steven Schick, La Jolla Symphony Chorus, Miller Theater, and the Ojai Festival (for eighth blackbird and sound sculptor Trimpin), and presented at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and at festivals around the world. He has received awards from Meet The Composer, Fromm Fund, Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, ASCAP, and the ISCM. CDs of his music include The Bright and Hollow Sky, one of TimeOut NY's top 10 classical albums of 2011. As a percussionist, he is a core member of ICE and has premiered hundreds of pieces, working with luminaries and fostering emerging composers. He has recorded for the Nonesuch, Tzadik, Mode, Kairos, New Albion, and Bridge labels. Also a dedicated instructor, Nathan has teaches percussion and leads ensembles at Dartmouth College. An Auburn native, Nathan lives in NYC with his wife, actress Sylvia Milo. www.nathandavis.com
The EAGLE SAXOPHONE QUARTET is an Auburn University Department of Music chamber group. Soprano saxophonist Sarah O’Keefe from Kennesaw, Georgia, is a junior in zoology with a focus on biodiversity and conservation. Alto saxophonist Eric Shaw is a senior in aerospace engineering from Hoover, Alabama. Tenor saxophonist Logan Pouncey and baritone saxophonist Tyler DeCastra are freshmen in music education. Logan is from Mobile, Alabama, and Tyler is from Homewood, Alabama. The group is under the instruction of saxophone instructor Dr. Michael Pendowski.
As a child, CINDY HARRIS always wanted to play the harp. Her musical beginnings included teaching herself to play a small organ. Then, she advanced to the accordion, the actual instrument her mother played in her German high school marching band. Mostly self-taught, Cindy played the organ for local venues and in church while she was growing up in Ozark, Alabama. Not until years of marriage and a family did her “harp dream” become a reality when her husband Jim purchased a Musicmaker kit and built a 36-string walnut harp that she used later with the orchestra at Lakeview Baptist Church and for weddings, banquets, and at bedsides. She studied with harpist Suzie (Brown) Ballam, formerly of Auburn, and has participated in Southeastern Harp Weekend (2005, 2009) and Liturgical Harp Retreat in Amicalola Falls, Georgia (2007). She is a member of H’arpeggios, a local harp ensemble. Cindy currently performs on a Lyon and Healy Chicago 40 pedal harp.
KATIE HOLMES is a fifteen-year-old classical guitarist and pianist. A freshman at Auburn University at Montgomery, she has been playing guitar since the age of four, studying privately since age seven with Dr. Andrew Zohn of Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. She has won guitar competitions in Georgia and North Carolina, and received the Presidential and Honors Scholarships at AUM. She has performed as a percussionist with the Prattville Pops, and as a pianist with the Prattville Community Chorus, as well as playing guitar for musical events hosted by First Presbyterian Church in Prattville. She currently serves at the pianist for First Presbyterian Church in Montgomery. Katie plans to attend Columbus State University in fall 2013 to study at the Schwob School of Music.
Pianist SUSAN HOSKINS is a native of Georgia and a graduate of Auburn University. She is on faculty at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music, and freelances in the Columbus area. She has a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin where she studied solo piano with Lita Guerra and collaborative piano with David Garvey, long-time pianist with the great Metropolitan Opera singer Leontyne Price. Upon graduation, she worked as a vocal coach and accompanist at the “Mozarteum” Hochschule fur Musik in Salzburg, Austria. As a collaborative artist, she has played recitals and concerts as well as national and international competitions in Germany, Austria, France, the Czech Republic and the United States. She and her husband have recently returned to the Columbus area as he retires from a 21-year career in the US Army.
Dr. MARC KARAM is an associate professor of Electrical Engineering at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, and a member of the French Alliance of Montgomery. An American citizen, Marc was born in Lebanon in 1969, immigrating to the United States in 1992. His knowledge of classical French songs stems from the fact that Lebanon has historically been very open to French culture. Marc grew up listening to French, English, and Arabic songs. His major language at school and college was French. Marc has a fondness for French “oldies,” such as songs by Yves Montand, Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Lucienne Boyer, Tino Rossi, Charles Aznavour, and Jacques Brel. Marc has recorded four CDs, religious in nature, focusing on the prayers of the Rosary. His recordings are interspersed with religious hymns, some composed by him, others drawn from the great treasury of Sacred Art. Marc has presented his CD’s live in the context of prayer concerts at churches in Montgomery and Mobile.
The music of saxophonist and flutist PATRICK MCCURRY crosses boundaries between jazz and classical, pop and art, secular and sacred. Born and raised in Alabama and having returned home to Auburn, Patrick blogs in support of good music in and around his community. He coordinates a weekly art-music series, A Little Lunch Music, at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Patrick performs with a chamber group, The Woodfield Trio, and holds a Masters degree in Chamber Music Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. There, his instructor and mentor was James Houlik, international concert saxophone maestro. He studied jazz improvisation, composition and arranging while earning his undergraduate degree from Loyola University New Orleans.Concert saxophonist ANGEL NEGRIN has performed as an orchestral saxophonist with the Alabama Symphony, Youngstown (Ohio) Symphony, Greenville (Pennsylvania) Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Opera Center in works by Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Ravel, Gershwin, et al. In addition to performing as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Angel has presented masterclasses and lectures at the university level. He has served on the faculties of Samford University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Montevallo, and Birmingham-Southern College. Angel received the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he studied applied saxophone with James Houlik, chamber music with Stephen Pollock, and applied oboe with James Gorton and Scott Bell. He went on to receive the Master of Music degree from Youngstown State University while studying saxophone with Dr. James Umble. Other principal teachers include Dr. Connie Frigo, Robert Faub, and Terry Millard.
Formed in 2012, the PANGAEA CHAMBER PLAYERS is a new group working to expand the boundaries of traditional chamber music. Comprised of flute, oboe, cello, and piano, the ensemble performs both traditional and contemporary works. Most recently, they have recorded a CD, Purple Line, which will be released under the Blue Griffin label. Purple Line features works for flute, cello, and piano by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Phillipe Gaubert (1879-1941), Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), and Ned Rorem (b. 1923). In addition to their recording, the Pangaea Chamber Players have performed these works, among others, at a number of universities including Oklahoma State University, the University of Missouri – Kansas City, and Kansas State University. Members of the Pangaea Chamber Players include Virginia Broffitt, flute, Celeste Johnson Frehner, oboe, Meredith Blecha-Wells, cello, and Jeffery Brown, piano.
Dr. DOUG ROSENER is currently Associate Professor of Percussion and Associate Director of Bands at Auburn University. He has performed with orchestras including the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sinfonia of Colorado, the Colorado Ballet Company Orchestra, The Colorado Springs Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the Columbus (Georgia) Symphony. Dr. Rosener has recorded CDs with the North Texas Wind Symphony, North Texas Chamber Players, the Colorado Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and has been a regular drummer with professional musical theater companies. He has served as an adjudicator at Percussive Arts Society International Conventions as well as high schools and universities nationwide, and has been a featured clinician at the Society’s Days of Percussion events in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Alabama. He received his Bachelor's degree from Penn State University, his Masters from the University of North Texas, and his Doctorate from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Known for his passion for both solo and collaborative piano performances, JEREMY SAMOLESKY, a native of Manitoba, Canada, has appeared in concert as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Austria, China, Malaysia and Singapore, including a recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C., which was broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.” Samolesky achieved the rare distinction of graduating with two doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He studied Piano Performance and Literature under the direction of Barry Snyder and Accompanying and Chamber Music with Jean Barr. He also holds the Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Washington and the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Manitoba. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Area Coordinator at Auburn University, where he has been teaching since fall 2007.
Violinist ROBIN SCOTT holds the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra’s violin fellowship. He is concertmaster for that group as well as for the New York Classical Players. Recent highlights include debuting with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and touring with Musicians from Marlboro. Among his top awards are winning the 2010 California International Young Artists Competition. As a soloist he has appeared with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, France’s Orchestre National de Lille and others. He has performed with Indiana University's "Violin Virtuosi," touring France and appearing at Carnegie Hall. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory and completed an Artist Diploma at Indiana. AHRIM KIM is principal cellist with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and currently holds its cello fellowship. She is a founding member of the Klimt Trio, awarded the Harvard Musical Association’s Arthur Foote Award in 2011. Her honors include the Cassado Prize at Japan’s Gaspar Cassado International Cello Competition. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, the Salzburg Mozarteum, and the Kennedy Center, and as soloist with the Boston Pops, the Houston Symphony Orchestra and others. She has performed with the New York Classical Players and will soon be touring with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Before college, Kim studied at Juilliard and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music.
MARY SLATON is known throughout the southeast as one of the region’s premier piano-lounge soloists. Over the years, she has entertained many with her extensive knowledge of popular music. Among Memphis venues, Mary has performed at the Hilton and the Hyatt Regency. In Atlanta, she has played the Omni Hotel, the Hilton, the Atlanta Country Club and others. At home in the Auburn-Opelika area, the Terra Cotta, the Saugahatchee Country Club and the Marriott have featured her. Mary holds piano degrees from Memphis State University and from the University of Montevallo. She teaches privately and at Southern Union Community College.
ANDREW SYKES from Tempe, Arizona, is currently a sophomore studying percussion performance at Auburn University. He has played in groups such as the Mesa Community College Band and Percussion Ensemble, the Macy’s Great American Band that plays in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Phoenix Youth Symphony which includes side by side performances with the Phoenix Symphony. While at Auburn, he has played in the Auburn Marching Band, the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band, the Auburn Community Orchestra, the jazz combo, and the Jazz Band.
The TIGER SAXOPHONE QUARTET is an Auburn University Department of Music chamber group. Soprano saxophonist Orie Cecil is a junior in aerospace engineering from Hazel Green, Alabama. Alto saxophonist Joshua Gillen and tenor saxophonist Franz Cau are sophomores in music education. Joshua is from Opelika, Alabama, and Franz is from Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Baritone saxophonist Wade Allen is from Huntsville, Alabama, double-majoring in music performance and business. The group is under the instruction of Dr. Michael Pendowski.
Auburn native JULIA TUCKER entered Auburn University at age 15 after playing piano for eight years. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano Performance studying with Dr. Jeremy Samolesky. She is assistant organist and a scholarship singer at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in Auburn, choir accompanist at Trinity Lutheran Church, and a Choral Scholar at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. She will be attending Syracuse University in Fall 2013 as a graduate teaching assistant pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance.
At 18, violinist and Auburn native SYLVIA WEHRS is a junior at Columbus State University. There she has been awarded a scholarship to study violin with Distinguished Turner Chair, Sergiu Schwartz. Ms. Wehrs has won the Music Teachers National Association competition in Alabama at the junior and senior levels and placed first with the Alabama Music Teachers Association in both violin and piano. She was a winner in the Auburn Community Orchestra's concerto competition and has played with that group since she was eight. She now performs with the Columbus and LaGrange Symphonies, as well. Growing up in Auburn, Ms. Wehrs studied violin with her mother, Dr. Lorna Wood, and with Patricio Cobos. She also studied piano with Dr. William Summerville, Dr. Wayne Moore, and Dr. Jeremy Samolesky of Auburn University. For the past three summers, she has participated in the Bowdoin International Music Festival.
Active in solo and chamber recitals as well as with orchestras, flutist DR. ALINA WINDELL has performed with the Lagrange Symphony Orchestra, the South Florida Symphony, the Lynn Philharmonia, and the Bloomington Camerata Orchestra. She has participated in music festivals such as the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland, the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca in Italy, and the Duxbury Music Festival. Dr. Windell completed her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Pedagogy with Christina Jennings at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She studied with renowned flutist Carol Wincenc while pursuing her Masters degree at Stony Brook University. She earned her Bachelors degree from Indiana University. Dr. Windell currently teaches both music at Southern Union Community College and flute privately.
Based in Auburn, Alabama, THE WOODFIELD TRIO was formed in 2009 to be a regular performing chamber group for A Little Lunch Music, the weekly free-concert series at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn. Its members are saxophonist and flutist Patrick McCurry, who coordinates the series, and pianist Barbara Acker-Mills. The group’s original personnel included series founder and cellist Charles Wright. The trio continues to appear with a guest cellist, and occasionally invites others to perform. Repertoire includes music for traditional piano-trio, pieces for flute and basso continuo, and music adapted or composed for its instrumentations. Patrick holds degrees in chamber music and jazz. Barbara holds a Ph.D in psychology, leads a private studio and teaches music at Auburn University.
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