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 P.O. Box 332 Machias ME 04654 phone: 207-255-4249 info@machiasbaychamberconcerts.com |
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Performers for 2009 Season
June 30 - Butch Thompson Trio
The Butch Thompson Trio routinely performs on the "Prairie Home Companion", as broadcast on National Public Radio. The trio consists of Butch Thompson, piano; Jimmy Mazzy, banjo and vocals; Eli Newburger, tuba. The program will be announced from the stage.
Jimmy Mazzy, recently voted the number one Trad Jazz banjoist and number two male singer in the Jazzology readership polls, has made more than 30 recordings independently and with Stomp-Off Records. Among his many acknowledgements and awards, Eli Newburger won the 1999 Mississippi Rag reader’s poll for best traditional jazz tuba player, and twice previously, the Jazzology Magazine poll. Butch Thompson, piano, is one of the most prominent musicians in traditional jazz. In 1974, he joined the staff of National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, an association that continues to the present. In addition to performing as a soloist with his trio, and as leader of his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals, his writings on jazz have appeared in various magazines including Down Beat and The Mississippi Rag. His recordings include the Grammy-nominated “Doc Cheatham and Nicholas Payton” on the Verve label and most recently, “‘Taint Nobody’s Business” with Butch Thompson’s Big Three.
July 7 - James Campbell Trio
In 1997 James Campbell, clarinet, received Canada’s highest honor, The Order of Canada, in recognition of over 25 years of performances throughout North and South America, Europe, Japan, China and Australia. He has soloed with over fifty orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony and has collaborated with many of the world’s great musicians, including five television programs with the late Glenn Gould, performances with Aaron Copland, as well as concerts with the Amadeus, Guarneri, Fine Arts and Vermeer String Quartets. His discography contains over 20 albums, including his Juno award-winning album, “Stolen Gems” and his recording of the quintets of Mozart and Weber, which received Music Magazine’s top chamber music award. Other releases include the Brahms clarinet sonatas with the late Leonard Hokanson and “After Hours” (a cross-over album) with jazz pianist Gene DiNovi. James Campbell is the Artistic Director of The Festival of the Sound (in Parry Sound, Canada) and is Professor of Music at Indiana University’s School of Music.
Irina Muresanu, violin, has won international acclaim as an out-standing young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician having already achieved top prizes at the Montreal International, Queen Elizabeth Violin and Washington International Competitions. She is also the winner of the Pro Musicis International Award, the Presser Music Award and the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association. An active chamber musician, Ms. Muresanu has appeared at Bargemusic in New York, Strings in the Mountains festival in Colorado, Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii and the Reizend Music festival in Netherlands. Ms. Muresanu’s discography includes the recently released Guillaume Lekeu and Alberic Magnard late Romantic violin sonatas. She currently serves on both the faculties of the Boston Conservatory and the Music Department at MIT. She was appointed Artist-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Division as a member of the Boston Trio. A native of Bucharest, Romania, she received the Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory in 1999.
Nova Scotian-born pianist Paul Stewart made his orchestral debut in 1981 with the Toronto Symphony. He has since performed repeatedly with the Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver symphonies, the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa and I Musici de Montreal. In recital, Mr. Stewart has been heard throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. The recipient of numerous awards, in 1991 Mr. Stewart was a prize-winner at the Glory of Mozart International Piano Competition, and his career has been generously supported by the Canada Council. Well known in Canada for his radio and television appearances, and internationally through the BBC, he has also been heard in partnership with such distinguished artists as Maureen Forrester, Jessye Norman, Ben Heppner and Pinchas Zukerman. Paul Stewart is Professor of Piano at the University of Montreal.
Tuesday, July 14 - Nor'Easter String Quartet
Artists: Trond Saeverud, violin; Lynn Brubaker, violin; Marisa Solomon, cello; and Laura Gallucci, viola.
Trond Saeverud
violin, is a violinist and conductor. He has been a frequent soloist with orchestras in Norway and Denmark, has produced CD's with orchestras in both countries, and regularly premieres and records new works dedicated to him. Concert tours in Japan, the United States and Europe have been combined with positions as concertmaster of several Scandinavian orchestras. Saeverud had a very successful London debut in 1992 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His New York debut was as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Lincoln Center. The New York Times described his playing as "a warm-toned affectionate account." Saeverud has produced nine CD's. His last release, HIKA, was chosen as "Strad Selection" in the May 2002 issue of The Strad, which wrote: "... a gem of a disc...outmost fragility...shimmeringly beautiful...makes every phrase speak." Currently, Saeverud and his artist wife, Joan, live in Robbinston, where she exhibits in her own art gallery and he is the artistic director of an international music camp and festival.
Lynn Brubaker
violin, is a chamber and orchestral musician with experience throughout the United States. Orchestras she has worked with include the San Diego Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Fredonia, NY Chamber Players, the Toledo Symphony, the Eastern Music Festival, and the New Hampshire Music Festival. As well as co-concertmastering the Bangor Symphony, she is active as a chamber musician, performing in the Biss/Brubaker Duo, and Bangor Symphony ensembles. She maintains a private teaching studio, has taught at the University of Maine at Machias, and has started a violin project at the Elm Street Elementary school. She resides in Machiasport, Maine.
Marisa Solomon
cello, received her performance degrees from the Oberlin College and San Francisco Conservatories. Her summer festivals include the Aspen Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, SpoletoUSA, Festival de due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, and the Breckenridge Music Festival in Colorado. She has held positions in the Florida Orchestra, Tampa Bay Chamber Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Victoria Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony. Marisa is also the cellist in the Cormier Trio as well as a member of the Bangor Symphony. She lives in Bangor with her husband, Jack Burt, professor of trumpet at the University of Maine at Orono, and their two sons, Ben and Lucas.
Laura Gallucci
viola, is a full time private music teacher and freelance musician. She teaches a studio of nearly 60 students of violin and viola at RDL Strings in Bangor. She is Interim Principal Viola of the Bangor Symphony, and has freelanced with the Mount Desert Island Chorale Orchestra, Maine Grand Opera, and a variety of orchestras at Maine Center for the Arts. She is the co-founder of the hard folk band St. Huckleberry, in which she has played electric viola, violin, fiddle, bass and piano. She and her husband, singer / songwriter Michael Gallucci, have co-written and recorded more than 75 original pieces of music. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music at which she studied with violist James Dunham of the Cleveland Quartet.
Tuesday, July 21 - Paragon Ragtime Orchestra
Based in New York City, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra specializes in the authentic recreation of “America’s Original Music,” the sounds of early musical theater, “silent” cinema, and ballroom dancing. The Orchestra is the world’s leading silent film accompanist, having played for more than five hundred screenings around the world using its thousand-title collection of original film scores (c.1895 to 1929). In 1988 the Orchestra made its formal debut at New York’s Lincoln Center, the first concert ever presented there by such an ensemble. Since then it has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, the Smithsonian Institution, the Chautauqua Festival, the Brucknerhaus (Austria) and the American Dance Festival. In late 2003 the Orchestra premiered Rick Benjamin’s reconstruction of Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera Treemonisha. Since 1989, the Walt Disney Company has relied on the Orchestra for the recorded theme music at its Main Street, U.S.A. attractions, and in 1992 it proudly served as “Ambassador of Goodwill” for the United States at the World’s Fair in Seville, Spain. Over the years the Orchestra has been heard on the soundtracks of several notable films and television programs and has a large discography. CD recordings are on Vanguard, New World, Dorian, Rialto and Newport Classic Ltd. labels.
Tuesday, July 28 - 40th Anniversary Celebration with founder Tom Wolf and Friends
Artists: Thomas Wolf, flute; Frederick Moyer, piano; and Emily Martin, soprano.
Soprano Emily Martin is attending the University of Colorado in her first year as a DMA student in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy studying with Julie Simson. Emily has been performing professionally for the last 10 years with such companies as The Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Palm Beach Opera and Opera Grand Rapids. Her numerous roles include Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte, Liu in Turandot and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. Emily holds a BA in Vocal Performance from Boston University, graduating cum laude, and has also received an Artist Diploma at The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. During more than 25 years as a full-time concert pianist, Frederick Moyer has established a vital musical career that has taken him to forty-one countries and to such distant venues as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Sydney Opera House, Windsor Castle, Carnegie Recital Hall, Tanglewood, and the Kennedy Center. He has appeared as piano soloist with world renowned orchestras including the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the St. Louis, Dallas, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Houston, Boston, Singapore, Netherlands Radio, Latvian, Iceland and London Symphony Orchestras, the Buffalo, Hong Kong and Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras, the National Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, and the major orchestras of Australia. His 22 recordings on the Biddulph, GM and JRI labels comprise works by over thirty composers and reflect his affinity for a wide variety of styles. His recordings include David Ott's Second Piano Concerto with the London Symphony, a work commissioned by Moyer. Many other composers have written for him including Louis Calabro, Donal Fox, Kenneth Frazelle, Gordon Green, David Kechley, Ned Rorem, Andersen Viana and 1996 Pulitzer Prize winner Geroge Walker. Moyer commissioned Walker's Piano Sonata No. 4 and presented it in its first recording in 1986. Moyer's enthusiasm, exacting artistry, and adventurous programming have made him a favorite among audiences of all ages. In recital, his delightful commentary from the stage brings the audience into the heart of the musical experience. His wide-ranging interests have led him to undertake many unique and ground-breaking projects. He was the first to make a commercial recording using the Bosendorfer 290 SE Recording Piano. He has written many software programs to aid with practicing, analyzing, recording and performing music. Currently he is working on a recording of piano concerti where the orchestra is created with a computer using "sampling" techniques. He is a member of the Jazz Arts Trio, (piano, bass and drums) which plays note-for-note transcriptions of improvisations by the great jazz piano trios of Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Erroll Garner and others. Moyer's activities have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the United States Information Service, the Alcoa Foundation, the Astral Foundation, the Paul Green Foundation, Affiliate Artists, Concert Artists Guild, the Western States Arts Federation, the US China Arts Exchange and the Korean Cultural Foundation. Thomas Wolf has had a distinguished career as musician, educator, consultant, author and administrator. A soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of sixteen, he spent sixteen seasons as the principal flutist and company manager of his Uncle Boris Goldovsky’s touring opera company. A co-founder of Bay Chamber Concerts in 1960, he currently serves as its Executive and Artistic Director. He has performed with the Vermeer, Muir and St. Lawrence String Quartets and appears at the Montana Chamber Music Festival and Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Canada. He is currently Chair and CEO of WolfBrown, a consulting firm he founded in 1983 to assist arts organizations, foundations, government agencies and corporate giving programs. Thomas Wolf holds an Ed.D. degree from Harvard University and has taught at Harvard and Boston Universities. Wolf is the author of Presenting Performances and other books and serves as an Overseer of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He is listed in the International Who’s Who of Musicians.
Tuesday, August 4 - Saint Lawrence String Quartet
Artists: Geoff Nuttall, violin; Scott St. John, violin; Lesley Robertson, viola and Chris 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.
Geoff Nuttall, the first violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, was born in College Station, Texas but moved to London, Ontario in Canada at the age of eight. A graduate of the University of Toronto, where he was a student of Lorand Fenyves, he has appeared in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada. Following many summers of study at the Banff Centre for the Arts, he recently served on the Jury for the International String Quartet Competition held at the Center. Mr. 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 studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Michael Tree. A founding member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, she has also performed with a wonderful array of artists including the Ying String Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, Musicians from Marlboro and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ms. 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 Saint Lawrence String Quartet, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and recipient of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Recent broadcasts include CBC radio, NPR’s “Performance Today” and A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts.” Appearances as soloist include orchestras in Calgary, Cincinnati, Grand Rapids, Montreal, 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.