Performers for 2010 Season

July 5, 2011

Paul Sullivan

A concert from the local Grammy Award-winning pianist.

Paul Sullivan has enjoyed a richly varied and distinguished career as a composer and a pianist.

As a soloist, with his trio, and as a member of the Paul Winter Consort, he has played concert tours in most of the United States and Europe, as well as Croatia, Israel, Costa Rica, and Japan. He has performed among the dunes of the Negev Desert, in Leonard Bernstein’s living room, and on the stages of many of the world’s finest concert halls. He has also performed with some legendary orchestras, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, the Boston Pops under both Arthur Fiedler and Keith Lockhardt, and several regional orchestras around the US..

As a jazz player he has worked in some of New York’s most prestigious clubs, including Sweet Basil, The Village Vanguard, and Bradley's. He has played with a wide variety of jazz masters from Benny Goodman to Tommy Flanagan, as well as Red Mitchell, Lou Donaldson, George Mraz, Gerry Hemingway, Marc Helias, Gene Bertoncini, Luciana Sousa, Cafe, Jane Ira Bloom, Pheeroan AkLaff, Eddie Daniels, Richard Stoltzman, Nana Vasconcelos, Glen Velez and many other luminaries. His 13 CDs have sold over 300 thousand copies and have won 3 Indie Awards. He His music has been broadcast internationally, as well as on all the major American networks, including National Public Radio. He received a Grammy Award for his work on the Paul Winter Consort CD, Silver Solstice.

Paul had a 3 year engagement as the Music Teacher at the Brooklin Elementary School in Brooklin, Maine. In this role he introduced his town's children to the world of professional music. He and all of the children of the school had appearances with Noel Paul Stookey, Sarah Lee Guthrie, and David Grisman, as well as being featured on several television shows and performing at the Maine State House.

In the theater he has worked as a musical director, pianist, and conductor for many Off-Broadway and Broadway shows. He played keyboards and shared the conducting duties for the original production of the musical Nine, which won a Tony Award for Best Musical.

He has also worked extensively in the dance world, playing piano for Merce Cunningham’s classes, and writing music for the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. He has also enjoyed a long friendship with the Pilobolus Dance Theater, for whom he has written over 15 scores.

Through the years, Paul has also written music for a number of corporate clients. Recently he wrote more than an hour of musical cues for stage productions created for IBM's Golden Circle Awards. He has also created music for video companies, software companies, and telephone companies. His compositions have been used in advertising for a broad spectrum of clients.

In performance, Paul Sullivan creates a relaxed and intimate feeling with his audience through his pleasant and quirky observations about music and life. His warm and inviting personality, coupled with his world-class musicianship, wins over new listeners immediately and usually makes them life-long fans.

Education

Sullivan grew up in Boston and got his first professional training at the St. Paul Choir School in Cambridge with Theodore Marier and John Dunn. He went on to Phillips Exeter Academy and from there to Yale, where he received his BA in music in 1977. He also created and taught a course at Yale in Electronic Music.

He and his family live on the coast of Maine.

July 12, 2011

Time for Three

An eclectic Top 10 string trio.

The groundbreaking, category-shattering trio Time for Three transcends traditional classification, with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The members -- Zachary (Zach) De Pue, violin; Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, violin; and Ranaan Meyer, double bass -- carry a passion for improvisation, composing and arranging, all prime elements of the ensemble’s playing.

What started as a trio of musicians who played together for fun while students at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute for Music evolved into Time for Three, or Tf3 for short -- a charismatic ensemble with a reputation for limitless enthusiasm and no musical boundaries. Violinists Zachary De Pue and Nicolas Kendall first discovered their mutual love of fiddling in the country western and bluegrass styles. Then bassist Ranaan Meyer introduced them to his deep roots in jazz and improvisation. After considerable experimentation, the three officially formed Tf3. The ensemble gained instant attention in July 2003, during a lightning-induced power failure at Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts. While technicians attempted to restore onstage lighting, Ranaan and Zach, who were both performing as members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, obliged with an impromptu jam session that included works as far afield from the originally scheduled symphony as “Jerusalem’s Ridge,” “Ragtime Annie,” and “The Orange Blossom Special.” The crowd went wild.

To date, the group has performed hundreds of engagements as diverse as its music: from featured guest soloists on the Philadelphia Orchestra’s subscription series to Club Yoshi’s in San Francisco; from residencies at the Kennedy Center to Christoph Eschenbach’s birthday concert at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany and from the Windpower Expo to the Boston Pops. Their website is www.tf3.com

July 19, 2011

Epic Brass

A virtuosic brass quintet.

Heralded for its “virtuosity, versatility and verve,” Earl Raney’s award winning Epic Brass Quintet will leave the rafters ringing with their infectious sense of fun! Founded in 1983 and a featured favorite at Bay Chamber Concerts, this Boston-based ensemble combines elegant musical artistry with a youthful flair and brilliance, which captivates audiences worldwide. Come hear their wide-ranging repertoire that reaches from Bach to Gershwin, Baroque quintets to Dixieland Jazz!

Earl Raney is Artistic Director and Solo Trumpeter of the award-winning Epic Brass Quintet. He has given over 2000 performances in 46 states, with appearances at venues including the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall, and Carnegie Hall. Internationally, Earl has concertized in Austria, Bermuda, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Poland, Scotland, Switzerland, US Virgin Islands, and the Far East. Raney can be heard on numerous recordings for the Ars Nova Digital and Bridge labels. In addition to his chamber music career, he has performed as principal trumpet with several New England area orchestras, the Taipei Festival Orchestra in Taiwan, R.O.C., and serves as an active church musician. Earl is a roster artist for the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New England Foundation for the Arts. Deeply committed to music education, he is Trumpet Instructor at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School and performs as a clinician at colleges and high schools throughout the country and abroad. Balancing a dual career as trumpeter and conductor, Raney is Assistant Professor of Music in Performance at Wheaton College where he serves as conductor of the Southeastern Massachusetts Wind Symphony. He is also Adjunct Professor of Music at Atlantic Union College where he conducts the Atlantic Wind Symphony. Earl has served as conductor of the Great Woods Chamber Orchestra, the Atlantic Union College Symphony Orchestra, and as Director of the Thayer Performing Arts Center and Community Music School in South Lancaster, MA. Raney holds a master's degree in orchestral conducting from Boston University and most recently conducted the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic National Band in Reykjanesbaer. Earl Raney has a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting & Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance from Boston University, Boston, MA.

Heralded by the press for their "virtuosity, versatility and verve" (Muskegon Chronicle) Earl Raney's Epic Brass Quintet is one of the most dynamic chamber music groups on the concert stage today. Founded in 1983, this Boston-based ensemble combines elegant musical artistry with a youthful flair and brilliance, which captivates audiences worldwide. Since winning the prestigious Alliance Auditions (Northeast Chamber Music Competition) in 1986, the quintet has blazed a trail across forty-six states with performances at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall, and Ambassador Auditorium. The quintet is also a perennial favorite at summer chamber music festivals across the country, including their headline performance at the celebrated Castle Hill Festival, where they thrilled thousands at the Fourth of July festivities. Internationally, the group has concertized in Canada, Bermuda, Austria, Germany, France, England, Scotland, Poland, and the Far East. The Epic Brass is regularly featured on radio and television programs nationwide, including live performances on Boston's WGBH "Morning Pro Musica", San Francisco's KQED "West Coast Weekend Show", Pittsburgh's WQED, Seattle's KING "Live By George", and National Public Radio's "Performance Today".

Drawing from diverse musical experiences, members of the Quintet have also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, New World Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Boston Lyric Opera. The quintet is praised for its richly varied repertoire which spans Renaissance to twentieth century compositions, including graceful Elizabethan dances, rollicking opera overtures and red-hot Dixieland jazz. In addition to their virtuosity as performers, Epic Brass members are also talented arrangers who supply a constant array of original and innovative arrangements to the group's eclectic repertoire. Their inspired musicality breathes new life into the traditional brass literature and makes twentieth-century works accessible to listeners of all ages. Selections from their repertoire (orchestrated by Boston composer/arranger Kenneth Amis) are being performed with symphony orchestras nationwide, including the Boston Festival Orchestra before an audience of twenty thousand.

The Epic Brass is deeply committed to music education. The ensemble has presented over 2000 concerts, master classes, and workshops for young musicians, including their EBQ Summer Institute for Brass Quintet at the Thayer Performing Arts Center (MA).The quintet is on the roster of the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council and has appeared as guest artist for VH1 “Save the Music”, Young Audiences of Connecticut, the Great Woods Educational Forum in Mansfield (MA), the Newbold Music Festival in Bracknell, England, and the New England Summer Arts Program in New Hampshire.

The group has seven recordings on Ars Nova Digital: Music of the Masters (works by Scheidt, Handel, Charpentier, Bach, Gabrieli, Tessarini, Susato, Haydn, and Rimsky-Korsakov), Star Spangled Pops! (a collection of popular music by American composers), Going Home (an anthology of sacred classical masterworks, folk hymns, and African-American Spirituals), Joy to the World! (a Christmas recording with the Atlantic Union Collegiate Choir), International Treasures (favorite classical and popular melodies from around the world), Christmas Classics (25 all time "hits" spanning four centuries), and High Flyin' Horns! (a young person's introduction to the brass family with narration by the group's director, Earl Raney).

For nearly thirty seasons the Epic Brass ideology has remained faithful to the words of Raney, "Music can be a study, but should primarily be a joy. Our most successful concerts are when audience members leave the hall whistling our music!"

July 26, 2011

Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble

Some of New Orleans' best jazz players perform some of the best-loved standards from the birthplace of jazz.

DAVID BOEDDINGHAUS, piano

Identified two decades ago by jazz writer Al Rose as New Orleans’ leading pianist, Boeddinghaus studied at Indiana University and boasts a prodigious solo repertoire.

CHARLIE FARDELLA, cornet

A virtuoso cornetist in the tradition of a century ago, Fardella is considered in New Orleans to a “musician’s musician” who can play all styles of early jazz.

JOHN JOYCE, drums

A founding member, Julliard graduate Joyce has performed with groups as varied as Pete Fountain and the New Orleans Philharmonic. Musicologist Joyce, who edits The Jazz Archivist, is music director of the LRJE.

FRED LONZO, trombone

A founding member of the LRJE and veteran of the Young Tuxedo and Olympia brass bands in New Orleans, Lonzo is the city’s leading exponent of the New Orleans “tailgate” style of trombone playing.

FRED STARR, clarinet/saxophone

A founding member of the LRJE, Starr is a veteran of the river boats and the biographer of America’s first great composer, New Orleanian Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

MIKE PETERS, banjo and guitar

Few players today equal Peters for virtuosity on the rare plectrum banjo. An authority on early jazz guitarists as well, he is writing a biography of the great French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

ROBERT NUNEZ, tuba

Classically trained Nunez is principal tubist with the Louisiana Philharmonic. He comes by his jazz naturally, in that his great grandfather, Alcide “Yellow” Nunez, was a much-recorded pioneer clarinetist of the period 1915-22.

Jazz critic Al Rose called the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble “The most authentic group on the scene today…I haven’t heard that sound for 40 years.” For 31 years the LRJE has been performing classic New Orleans jazz in absolutely authentic formats and on period instruments for audiences around the world. The seven/nine members of the New Orleans-based Ensemble can trace their musical or family genealogies to the earliest days of jazz. Veterans of years on Bourbon Street, Mississippi steamboats, and in local brass bands, the LRJE players are drawn from all the racial and ethnic groups that make up the New Orleans melting pot. Among them are former members of the bands of Lous Armstrong, Pete Fountain, and Duke Ellington. Although their oldest player is 72, this is not a band of out-of-practice veterans playing a simplified repertoire for tourists. The LRJE has led in the rediscovery of lost musical treasures by King Oliver, the New Orleans Owls, Armand Piron, Sam Morgan, and Jelly Roll Morton. The Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble has performed at the Grammy Awards, given the prestigious Doubleday Lecture/Concert at the Smithsonian Institution, and with symphony orchestras from Boston to the Pacific. It has appeared at the major jazz festivals, including New Orleans, Chicago, and Atlanta and toured France, Japan, Poland, Hong Kong, and Russia. The Penguin Guide to Recorded Jazz praises its six recordings and gives one of them its highest possible rating….five stars.

August 2, 2011

Gene Nichols and Duane Ingalls

"Negotiating Worthless Instruments"

Performers:

Gene Nichols, Euphonium, Whistle, Theremin, Saw, and more!

Duane Ingalls, Guitar, Harmonica, Percussion, and more!

August 9, 2011

St. Lawrence String Quartet

A concert by one of America's most beloved string quartets, and a perennial favorite of the Machias Bay Chamber Concerts.

Geoff Nuttall, violin; Scott St. John, violin; Lesley Robertson, viola and Christopher Costanza, cello

According to Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker Magazine, “the St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making...but for the joy they take in the act of connection.” The Washington Post calls their spontaneous music-making “emotionally high charged but never out of control.” The St. Lawrence String Quartet has established itself among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. Recent tours of Europe have included London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris’ Theatre de Ville and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The foursome is passionately committed to performing and expanding the works of living composers as well as playing traditional repertoire. The group’s initial recording of Schumann’s First and Third Quartets, released in May 1999 was the first in a series with EMI Classics and received the coveted German critics award, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, as well as Canada’s annual Juno Award. BBC Music Magazine gave the recording its “highest rating,” calling it the benchmark recording of the works. In October of 2001, EMI released the St. Lawrence’s recording of string quartets of Tchaikovsky and in 2002 their recording of “Yiddishbbuk” featuring the chamber music of the celebrated Argentinean-American composer, Osvaldo Golijov. The St. Lawrence String Quartet is Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University and records exclusively for EMI/ANGEL.

Christopher Costanza, a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, was a winner in 1986 of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York and a recipient in1993 of a Solo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has performed solo and chamber music performances in over forty of the United States, throughout Europe, Canada and the Caribbean. A participant in numerous summer festivals, including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle and Vancouver, he has also participated in several Music from Marlboro tours and in radio broadcasts on WFMT in Chicago, National Public Radio in the U.S. and on the CBC in Canada. He is a former member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians and Chicago String Quartet, resident faculty quartet of the Taos School of Music in New Mexico. He is a faculty member at Stanford University in California.

Hailed by the New York Times as “intensely dynamic” with “stunning technique and volitality,” violinist Geoff Nuttall began playing the violin at the age of eight after moving to London, Ontario from College Station, Texas. In 1989, he co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Bay Chamber Concerts’ resident quartet, and a world-renowned foursome that has performed well over 1,500 concerts throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. He has appeared in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada and following many summers of study at the Banff Centre for the Arts, he was appointed to the Jury for the International String Quartet Competition held at the Center. Nuttall has been a recipient of grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. He is a faculty member at Stanford University in California.

Lesley Robertson, viola, studied at The Curtis Institute of Music with Michael Tree. A founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, she has also appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and as a guest with the Tokyo String Quartet, the Ying String Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet “Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center” and "Musicians from Marlboro. She has performed at some of the world’s most renowned concert halls including Amsterdam’s Conzertgebauw, New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, as well as more unusual venues such as Hanoi’s “The French Opera House," Luxembourg’s Bourglinster Castle and at the White House for President and Mrs. Clinton. Robertson plays on a viola made in August 1995 by fellow Canadian John Newton. She is on the faculty at Stanford University in California.

Scott St. John, violin, the newest member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, is a graduate of The Curtis Institute and recipient of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant. He was also a Prizewinner in the Munich International Violin Competition, winner of the Young Concert Artists Award and First Prize winner of the Alexander Schneider Violin & Viola Competition. Impressive debut performances with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra/Keith Lockhart and Toronto Symphony/Jukka-Pekka Saraste resulted in re-invitations. Other solo performances include those with orchestra in Calgary, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, Montreal, Philadelphia, Toledo, Utah and Winnipeg. Recital and chamber performances include Japan’s Casals Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. “Salon Parisien,” on CBC Records, is his newest recording release. He has been heard on CBC radio, NPR’s Performance Today and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts.