Student Concerts

2010-2011 Season:

(Additional Performances To Be Announced)

Truth in Jazz Orchestra

11:15 AM, Thursday, September 9, 2010
Reeths-Puffer Rocket Center
Reeths-Puffer High School

http://www.tijo.org/)

Fronted by West Michigan's legendary drummer, Tim Froncek, this group of 16 of the area's top musicians plays charts from the classic era of the big bands, up to today's best charts from the hottest writers. The band was organized by Dave Collee, Ed Spier, and Matt Lintula, who wanted a group able to play pro-level big band literature, and have fun doing it! Michigan's foremost jazz orchestra, "Truth In Jazz," is perhaps the best jazz band in the state and one of the best in the country, with professional musicians from all over Michigan. Many members have performed with the top big bands in the United States and toured around the world.

The Verdehr Trio

Friday, October 1, 2010 Mona Shores High School

http://www.verdehr.com/index.htm

An acknowledged leader in the field of new music, the Verdehr Trio for over thirty years has concentrated on molding and defining the personality of the violin-clarinet-piano trio. The Trio has over the years created a large repertoire by commissioning over 200 new works from some of the world's most prominent and exciting composers--known and unknown, young and old, from this country and abroad. These efforts are entitled The Making of a Medium because, in a real sense, this is what has happened over the years.

A handful of earlier trios by Bartok, Stravinsky, Milhaud, Khachaturian, Berg, Krenek, Poulenc and Ives showed the potential tonal and musical possibilities of this grouping. Now, with more than 230 total works in this genre, the violin-clarinet-piano trio has become a viable chamber music medium whose substantial literature may be recognized together with other major mediums as the piano trio, woodwind and brass quintets and the piano quartet. To round out its repertoire with Classical and Romantic works, the Trio has rediscovered as well as transcribed 18th and 19th century pieces for inclusion in its concert programs.

The Verdehr Trio has performed throughout the world: in seventeen European countries, the former Soviet Union, in South and Central America as well as in Asia, Australia and in almost all of the United States. Among major concert halls where the Trio has appeared are Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Vienna's Brahmssaal, Sydney Opera House, London's Wigmore Hall, Auditorio de Madrid, Dvorak Hall in Prague, IRCAM Centre in Paris and Leningrad's Philharmonic Chamber Hall. The Trio has also played at various international festivals--the Spoleto Festival, Prague Spring Festival, the Vienna Spring Festival, Warsaw Autumn, the Grand Teton Music Festival and at numerous international clarinet festivals. Recently the Trio received a Creative Programming Award from Chamber Music America.

In addition to trios, the group has also commissioned Trio Concertos from Buhr, David, Ott, Skrowaczewski and Wallace and performed these with Vienna's Tonkunstler Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, Prague Chamber Soloists, Vancouver CBC Orchestra, Grand Rapids and Flint, Michigan Orchestras as well as with the National Orchestra of Spain and the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra. Most recently, Double Concertos for violin and clarinet by James Niblock, William Wallace, Dinos Constantinides, Paul Chihara, Ian Krouse and Richard Mills have been completed.

To complement its commissioning efforts the Verdehr Trio has embarked upon three projects to make the repertoire known and accessible to musicians everywhere. The first is a series of CD recordings of the new works written for the Trio: The Making of a Medium CD Series on Crystal Records. The second and parallel project is The Making of a Medium Video Series consisting of half-hour programs featuring prominent composers and their works written for the Verdehr Trio. These include interviews and discussions by the composers as well as a complete performance of the work. Hosted by Martin Bookspan, these are available in a variety of video formats from the Instructional Media Center at Michigan State University in cooperation with the Michigan State University Press. Series I includes composers Leslie Bassett, Alan Hovhaness, Karel Husa, Thea Musgrave, Ned Rorem and Gunther Schuller. Series II, hosted by Peter Schickele, includes trios by Alexander Arutiunian, David Diamond, William Bolcom, Betsy Jolas, Libby Larsen, Philippe Manoury, Gian Carlo Menotti, Peter Sculthorpe, Peter Schickele and Joan Tower. A third project, The Making of a Medium Music Publishing Series, has recently been inaugurated in cooperation with the Michigan State University Press to help disseminate the repertoire and information about the Trio recordings.

The Verdehr Trio is in residence at Michigan State University. An article about the Trio appears in the new Groves Dictionary of Music and the Trio won an Adventuresome Programming Award from ASCAP and Chamber Music America.

10:00 AM & 12:30 PM, Mon./Tues., March 29 & 30, 2010 at the Frauenthal

Indianapolis Opera Ensemble Student Concert Series presents

Fight for the Future: Johnny Appleseed v. Paul Bunyan

Mother Earth is worried. She depends on people to take care of her. Johnny Appleseed gets it right, but his dreams of a green earth are threatened to be cut down by the axe-wielding, forest-chopping Paul Bunyan. Bunyan, the original macho man, takes and takes some more, without a thought for the consequences of his actions. Fast forwarding to the future, the great-great-great grandsons of these American legends are still battling as Big Business Bunyan continues his family’s tradition of waste and greed. Even Snow White and Rip Van Winkle get in the action as they awaken from their years of slumber to a world of shopping malls and Starbucks. Set to music from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, the show is fun, but the message is serious. It’s not just about recycling anymore!

The Players

Soprano Jacqueline Brecheen, from Hammond, Louisiana, received a bachelor’s degree from Southeastern Louisiana University and a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. While at IU, she performed the roles of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Just Jeanette in Too Many Sopranos. She spent the summer of 2010 as an apprentice artist with Central City Opera in Colorado, where she sang the roles of Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld, Celie in Signor Deluso, and Isabelle/Madeline in Face on the Barroom Floor. She was a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s 2009 New Year’s Eve in Vienna concert and Faure’s Requiem in 2010. Ms. Brecheen will make her Indianapolis Opera debut as Peep-Bo in the company’s 2010 production of The Mikado, and will sing Micaela in The Tragedy of Carmen in March 2011.

Mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein, from Michigan City, Indiana, earned a bachelor’s degree from Butler University and a Master of Music degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. With CU opera, she performed Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Maria in West Side Story, and the Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen. In the summer of 2010, Ms. Gornstein was a studio artist with Opera New Jersey, learning the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Recent opera credits include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with the Loveland Opera Theatre and the title role in Princess Ida with the Empire Lyric Players. She made her IO debut while attending Butler University, singing Kaetchen in Werther in 2003. She will appear in IO’s October 2010 production of The Mikado as Pitti-Sing, and in the spring will perform the roles of Carmen in IO’s The Tragedy of Carmen and Annina in La traviata.

Tenor Daniel Anderson, from Springfield, Missouri, completed his undergraduate degree at Louisiana State University and received a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has sung leading roles such as Alfredo in La traviata and Candide, and has been a featured soloist for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Anderson spent two summers as an apprentice artist with Wolf Trap Opera. In the summer of 2010, Anderson was a studio artist with Central City Opera. He will make his IO debut as Don José in the company’s March 2011 production of The Tragedy of Carmen, and will also perform the role of Gastone in IO’s La traviata in May.

Baritone Thomas Gunther, from Muscatine, Iowa, completed his undergraduate degree at Simpson College; then he received a Master of Music degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, followed by an Artist Diploma from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His roles include Figaro in Il barbierie di Siviglia, Marcello in La bohème, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Falke in Die Fledermaus and Billy Bigalow in Carousel. In the fall of 2010 he will perform the title role in Gianni Schicchi for Soo Theatre Project, and Marco in Gianni Schicchi and Silvio in Pagliacci for Bel Cantanti Opera in Washington, D.C. Mr. Gunther will make his IO debut as Escamillo in The Tragedy of Carmen in March 2011, and will sing Marquis d’Obigny in the company’s May production of La traviata.

Coach/accompanist Dana Sadava, from Sparks, Maryland, trained as a pianist at Oberlin, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree; then she received master’s degrees in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan and the San Francisco Conservatory. She was assistant conductor at Banff Opera as Theatre, Festival Opera, the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute, and the University of Michigan, and was music director of the Comic Opera Guild. She was also assistant conductor of the Community Women’s Orchestra and Hot Springs Music Festival, and music director of the new music ensemble Zero Blue. She will make her IO debut as orchestra pianist in the company’s March 2011 production of The Tragedy of Carmen.

Student/school reservations coordinated through MAISD, Arts & Special Projects

For more information, contact MCCA at 231-722-6520.

For more information about Student Concerts, contact Julie Stuberg at

julie@stuberg.com