Duo Diez Presents "10 String" Caribbean Music to Conclude the 2012 Summer Festival

Duo Diez

With ten strings to play, guitarist Espen Jensen and violist Donna Lively Clark, known as Duo Diez, have developed a rich and varied repertoire. Their free 7:30PM Wednesday August 15th performance at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church, the final concert in the 2012 Greencastle Summer Music Festival, will showcase music from Haiti, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

“This summer has been a wonderful experience, with our biggest audiences ever and far more donations than we’ve received in previous years.  The theme of bringing the community together with ‘friends making music for friends, old and new,’ has obviously resonated with all of us,” says DePauw music professor Eric Edberg, the festival’s founder and artistic director. The purposely varied repertoire of the last two summers, which has included folk, jazz, rock, and improvised music art times, has helped bring in new audiences.  “Most importantly, it’s the sense of a community gathering to connect with each other, experiencing music as performers and listeners, that has energized all of us,” Edberg believes.  

For the 12th and final program of the series, Edberg says he’s delighted to present Duo Diez. “Espen and Donna have a shared passion for Caribbean and Latin American music, and are creating a new repertoire through their research, transcription, and arranging.  It’s exactly what classical musicians need to be doing: innovative, engaging programming at the highest artistic level.”  

The program opens with music of Haitian composers Ludovic Lamothe and Justin Elie followed by an Afro Cuban Suite including music of Ernesto Lecuona. Then more Haitian music with the premiere of Dr. Jensen’s arrangements of five traditional songs presented as a suite. The concert concludes with El Gran Mambo by Puerto Rican composer Dan Román. Both performers have close connections to Haiti which have led to their interest in the music of the Caribbean. Ms. Clark has taught viola in Haiti, Dr. Jensen has done extensive research on Haitian music. Using this unique combination of viola and guitar which have a similar tonal range, the base and lead lines can be exchanged, leading to arrangements that offer intricate interplay and uncommon tonal beauty.

Both musicians are known for their interpretation of twentieth century music and their compelling performances of Latin American music. Fans of this duo find the enthusiasm and expertise of the artists to be what turns a great repertoire into a memorable listening experience.

Donna Lively Clark earned a full scholarship to study at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the renowned William Primrose and has also studied with William Lincer, Georges Janzer, and Alan de Veritch. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Indiana University and a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Butler University. An active and well-known performer, teacher and clinician, she has served as visiting professor of viola at Indiana University and Ball State University. Other significant teaching engagements include the Viola Camp at Pepperdine University; the National String Workshop at University of Wisconsin-Madison; Butler University, École Saint Trinité in Port au Prince, Haiti and as the viola professor for the Bicentennial Youth Orchestra of Argentina. Ms. Clark makes her home in Indianapolis where she performs in the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, with various ensembles including Duo Diez and the Lockerbie String Quartet and as a soloist. Every July she can be found in the Pacific Northwest playing in the Bellingham Festival Orchestra. As a recipient of two Lilly Foundation Creative Renewal Fellowships, she lived, studied, performed and recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These recordings of both traditional and original works appear on a CD, Una Viola Porteña, A Tribute to the Heart and Soul of Argentina, on the Centaur label. The second fellowship enabled her to do extensive research on the history of the Holy Trinity Music School in Port au Prince, Haiti where she has taught viola and chamber music.

A native of Norway, guitarist Espen Jensen is a recording artist currently living in the United States. He is the winner of several awards, among them First Prize in the 2001 Competition in Performance of Music of Latin America and Spain as well as First Prize in Indianapolis Matinee Musicale. In 2002, Dr. Jensen released his début solo CD, the much-acclaimed Nocturnal Variations. Soon after, he released his second album, Elogio de la Danza y la Canción, featuring music of the Caribbean, of Latin American and of Spain. Other albums are in the making: one featuring premiere recordings of contemporary Norwegian music of the guitar and a second with Duo Diez’s Haitian music. Dr. Jensen holds the degree of Candidatus Magisterii (cum laude) from Agder College-Conservatory in Norway (1998). From Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music, he has earned a Master of Music (2000) as well as a Performer Diploma (2003) and a Doctor of Music in Guitar Performance and Literature (2012). Dr. Jensen’s dissertation topic was Haitian Music. His guitar instructors include Ernesto Bitetti, Luis Zea, Jan Erik Pettersen, and Bengt Martinussen. Dr. Jensen currently teaches classical guitar at Indiana University where he also serves as the artistic director of the Latin American Popular Music Ensemble and associate director of admissions for the Jacobs School of Music.

Clarke and Brahms Tonight at Gobin!

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival, dedicated to “bringing the community together with friends making music for friends,” continues its celebration of musical and personal relationships 7:30 PM Wednesday night August 8 in a concert featuring two works, Rebecca Clarke’s 1919 Sonata for Viola and Piano, and great Quintet for Clarinet and Strings by Johannes Brahms. DePauw music professors Nicole Brockmann (viola) and Darcy McCoy (piano) and clarinetist Gareth Guest, who has performed almost every year in the festival’s 8-year history, are the featured performers. 

The free concert in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church is the eleventh of the summer; the final concert on Wednesday August 15 will feature Duo Diez playing Latin American music arranged for guitar and viola. 

“The response from the community to this summer’s concerts has been amazing,” says DePauw music professor Eric Edberg, the festival’s founder and organizer. “We’ve been averaging over 100 people in attendance, and have never raised so much money.  Making and listening to music can be a deep experience of human connection and interaction, as well as an aesthetic experience, and it appears all of us involved with these concerts have embraced that.”

Brockmann and McCoy have played many concerts together.  “They are both such extraordinary players,” says Edberg, “and it has been a joy to see their musical partnership grow over the years they have been working together at DePauw.”  They are performing a sonata the then 23-year-old Rebecca Clarke composed in 1919 for a competition sponsored by her close friend and neighbor, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. The story is that it tied for first place and was the favorite of the judges, but the prize was awarded to Ernest Bloch,  because there was a fear the public would assume favoritism if an unknown woman won over one of the most famous male composers of his day.”

Gareth Guest has had a dual career as a nuclear and physicist and a professional clarinetist and has performed in Greencastle many times.  79 years old, he says this may be his last public classical performance.  “We hope that’s not true,” says Edberg, “because he’s playing beautifully, with soul and insight. I’ve been making music with Gareth for almost 30 years, since I met his daughter Allison, to whom I was married for many years.  This concert is a very special celebration of our musical family, of which I feel so blessed to be a part.”  The Brahms Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, considered by many to be the composer’s greatest work of chamber music, was written after Brahms had declared himself retired from composing.  Then he heard the clarinetist Richard  Mühlfeld play, and began composing again, writing this piece, a trio (for clarinet, piano, and cello), and two clarinet sonatas.  “Sometimes we think great composers compose just to compose, but that’s rarely the case.  Almost always a composition is the result of a relationship between a composer and a performer or performers, and that’s the case with this piece.“ Joining Guest in the Brahms performance are his daughter Allison Guest Edberg, a violinist and violist who has taught at DePauw and is now the Education Director of the Lafayette Symphony and concertmaster of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Regan Eckstein, a Lafayette-area violinist, Nicole Brockmann, and Eric Edebrg.

Violist Nicole M. Brockmann enjoys a multifaceted career of performance, teaching, and scholarship.  She has been a member of professional chamber ensembles including the Brooklyn Chamber Players, the Lumina String Quartet, and the West Virginia Piano Quartet, and has performed at venues across the country and abroad, including Merkin Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall in NYC, SUNY Stony Brook, Brooklyn College, Ohio University, Emory & Henry College, Montana State University, and the Penn Alps (MD) Summer Festival. She has taught and performed professionally at summer festivals including the Blue Mountain Festival (NJ), Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp (VT), and the Lumina String Quartet Summer Festival (CT), and is an alumna of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, The Quartet Program, and Encore School for Strings. Her orchestral experience includes three years as Principal Viola of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra (CT) under Gustav Meier, as well as extensive and varied work in the NYC metro orchestral and studio recording scene.

A frequent adjudicator and collaborative performer, pianist Darcy McCoy has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Stewart Graduate Performance Grant, Young Artist Grand Prizes from the Lawton Philharmonic and the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra, and the Gail Boyd de Stwolinski Award for achievement in performance and scholarship. With special research and performance interest in contemporary and Hispanic music, Dr. McCoy has performed as a featured guest artist of the American Association of Retired Persons, Oklahoma Music Teachers Association, Musical Research Society, and universities and symphony orchestras throughout the Midwest.

Amercian Songs and Arias with Jennings, Stanton, and Hopson Wednesday

Kerry Jennings

It’s an evening of American songs and arias at 7:30 PM Wednesday August 1 as the Greencastle Summer Music Festival returns to Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church for its tenth free concert of the summer.  Tenor Kerry Jennings and pianist Amanda Hopson, both DePauw School of Music faculty members, will be joined by baritone Charles Stanton in performing music by Richard Hundley, Kurt Weill, Gian Carlo Menotti, Tom Cipullo, and Aaron Copland.

The Festival is supported by gifts from individuals, families, and businesses who share a commitment to the mission of “bringing the community together with friends making music for friends.” Jennings and Stanton’s performances this week have been underwritten by a gift from Jane Irwin in memory of her late husband, the beloved DePauw voice professor Stanley J. Irwin.

Festival founder and director Eric Edberg, also a DePauw music professor, says he’s delighted to present this program.  “This is our only all-vocal recital of the summer, and it’s fantastic to have Kerry and Charles, outstanding singers with national careers, make music for and connect with the Summer Music Festival family. Amanda is an outstanding artist who has played for us a number of times.  She and Kerry are in the midst of recording a CD of American music, and we’re fortunate to hear some of that repertoire this week.”

Jennings (www.kerryjennings.com), “sang as if he opens his heart to his audience and out pours the passion of his love,” according to Artsong Update.  He says “the repertoire for this concert includes some of the first songs I sang as a student by Richard Hundley, an impassioned lyricist who loves to caress the words with beguiling melody. It also includes a favorite aria by Kurt Weill and something new by one of New York’s favorite song composers, Tom Cipullo.”

The Washington Post has written that Charles Stanton’s “impressive versatility of characterization commands attention from audiences of any musical genre."  In discussing his portions of the program, Stanton (www.stantonsings.com) explains, “The repertoire I have chosen is some of my favorite American repertoire because of the historic and poetic importance. Copland has such a distinct ‘American’ sound. His writing created a new kind of nationalism in classical American writing. Barber has such gorgeous and achingly beautiful melodies; it seems remiss to leave him out of any American concert. With Menotti,  The Old Maid and the Thief was originally composed as a radio show. His writing is beautiful, accessible, and infused with countless comedic moments.”  

Tenor Kerry Lee Jennings holds the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from the University of Washington and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland at College Park. His teachers have included Julian Patrick, Carmen Pelton, François Loup, and Gran Wilson. Kerry enjoys a career that encompasses opera, oratorio, recital, and chamber works. On the operatic stage, performance highlights have included over twenty lead and supporting roles comprised of early, standard and contemporary repertoire. Dr. Jennings has won many awards for his singing and was a District Winner and Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions. He recently joined the faculty at DePauw University where he teaches Voice, English and Italian Diction, and directs the Opera and Musical Theatre scenes programs.

Charles Stanton

Baritone Charles Stanton is the newly-appointed Vice President of the Arts Council of Indianapolis. A classically-trained singer, Charles holds the Master of Music degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He also completed additional advanced studies in voice at Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Houston. Charles is an arts advocate and fundraiser and has raised more than 37 million dollars for various causes. Having moved to Greencastle in October of 2011, Charles established the Greencastle Cultural Calendar on Facebook which helps to connect the community to local and regional cultural events. During the last five years, Charles has been featured on the cover of the Opera America magazine, has performed more than 20 world debuts of new works, and has directed numerous world and regional premieres. Upcoming appearances include those in Houston, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

Amanda Hopson

Amanda Asplund Hopson is a summa cum laude graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, where she earned the Bachelor of Music degree in piano, studying with Dr. Sharon Kleinhuizen Jensen. She earned Master’s and Doctoral degrees in piano at the University of Texas at Austin, where her principal teacher was Danielle Martin. While in Texas she studied pedagogy with Martha Hilley and Amanda Vick Lethco and performed with the New Music Ensemble, working with visiting composers such as John Corigliano, William Kraft, and Joan Tower. Since moving to Indianapolis in 1998 she has worked extensively as a freelance artist, specializing in song accompaniment. She performs frequently as a master class accompanist for artists such as Elly Ameling, Leonard Hokanson, and Nathan Gunn and has been heard in recital with former King's Singer Gabriel Crouch and Metropolitan Opera soprano Lise Lindstrom. Amanda teaches piano, is Senior Staff Accompanist and serves as Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at DePauw University.

The Festival continues on Wednesday August 8 with a program including the Rebecca Clarke Sonata for Viola and Piano performed by Nicole Brockmann and Darcy McCoy and the Brahms Quintet for Clarinet and Strings featuring Gareth Guest. 

Rushing and Healton This Week--at DePauw!

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival moves to Thompson Recital Hall in the Green Center for the Performing Arts at DePauw University this week for a special concert featuring young percussion virtuoso Josiah Rushing and clarinetist Daniel Healton. The free Wednesday 7:30 PM concert, co-sponsored by the DePauw University School of Music, is only the second in the Festival’s eight-year history to feature a current  DePauw music student (Rushing will be start his senior year this fall), and features a diverse array of compositions with elements of jazz, French impressionism, and extended techniques for both instruments.  


“Every summer we present rising young artists,” explains festival founder and artistic director Eric Edberg, a DPU music professor.  “Josiah, who was the top American contestant in the 2011 Percussive Arts Society competition, is one of the most spectacular percussionists I’ve ever heard--and he just finished his junior year! He’s been a winner of the School of Music’s Concerto Competition every year, and Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwanter praised him highly during this year’s Music of the 21st Century Festival.  He’s an amazing performer with an athletic and energetic stage presence. I decided to book him while we have the chance, because he’s going to have a major career.”

Rushing will be performing with his friend Daniel Healton, a Ft. Wayne Symphony clarinetist.  “I’m delighted about this duo recital,” says Edberg, “because it was Joe Schwanter who reminded us over and over this spring that ‘the best way to spend your life is making music with your friends.’  Josiah’s amazing performances of Schwanter’s music are why I invited him to perform this summer, and it was Joe who inspired the motto for this summer’s festival, ‘Friends making music for friends.’  It’s perfect that Josiah is bringing a friend to make music with!” 

This concert is being held at DePauw so that the School of Music's collection of percussion instruments can be used for the performance. "I'm grateful to Dean Mark McCoy for agreeing to co-sponsor this event," Edberg says, "because it can only take place where there is the amazing array of instruments Josiah needs to work his special magic." Rushing says the program, including music by Billy Holiday, Libby Larson, Claude Debussy, and others, features “the varying timbres created by both percussion and clarinet. At whatever dynamic or intense texture of the percussion, the clarinet can cut through and compliment the many timbres of percussion. The duets and solos of this program show off what each instrument can do in these different settings and styles.” 

A rising star in the new-music and percussion worlds, marimbist/multi-percussionist Josiah Rushing has toured China as part of the DePauw Percussion Ensemble, studied samba in Brazil,  and will spend the fall of 2012 performing and studying in Paris, France.  Top American contestant in the 2011 Percussive Arts Society competition, he is a three-time winner of the Concerto Competition at the DePauw University School of Music, where he studies with Amy Lynn Barber.  Praised by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Joseph Schwantner for his “energetic and exciting” playing, Rushing is a versatile musician whose repertoire extends from Bach to Debussy to jazz.  His commitment  to new music has led him to work with composers including Joan Tower and Alan Jay Kernis.  A dedicated music educator, Josiah directs the middle-school percussion summer education programs at Western High School.  

Daniel Healton is an Indiana-born clarinetist from the Kokomo area.  He began his musical studies at the age of 11 on the saxophone, and very quickly made the switch to clarinet.  Currently Mr. Healton is a very active performer and educator around the state.  Along with his position as assistant band director at Western High School he maintains a 3rd/bass clarinet position with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic as well as regular playing and teaching engagements throughout the Midwest.  Mr. Healton holds Bachelors degree in clarinet performance from Indiana University.  His teachers have included Howard Klug, Elizabeth Crawford, and Michael Lowenstern.

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival returns to Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church on Wednesday August 1 with a concert featuring vocalists Kerry Jennings and Charles Stanton.

Improvising/Classical Pianist John Kamfonas Wednesday and Thursday This Week

25-year-old improvising and classical pianist John Kamfonas, fresh from a study and concert tour in India, returns to the Greencastle Summer Music Festival this week in two free events open to the public, a 7:30 PM Wednesday concert and a 7:00 PM Thursday evening workshop, both in the sanctuary of Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church.

Kamfonas, based in New York City, was such a hit with audiences last summer that one concertgoer offered to fund his trip to Greencastle this year. Wednesday's concert will include music composed on the spot, in addition to music by Bach, Liszt, and American composer John Corigliano.

On Thursday, Kamfonas will play for and speak to the Kiwanis Club at lunch and offer a free improvisation “playshop” at Gobin on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM.  Both Wednesday’s concert and Thursday's workshop are free and open to the public.  

The festival, dedicated to bringing the community together with “friends making music for friends,” offers free events, funded by donations from community, every Wednesday evening through August 15.  Thursday evening's workshop will be an informal, fun event in which Kamfonas will play and talk, local musicians of any level of experience can join in, and everyone is welcome to sit in and listen.

“John is a unique artist, part of a new era of young classical musicians who are influenced by indie rock and world music, and who make their own music, in their own voices, in addition to playing great music of the past,” says the festival’s founder and director, DePauw music professor Eric Edberg.  “John’s personal creativity, combined with a world-class virtuoso piano technique and outstanding musicianship, give his performances of classical pieces a special energy.  By improvising in concert, he connects not only to great improvising pianists like Keith Jarret but also to great improvisers of the past, including Bach and Beethoven.”  In Thursday's Kiwanis talk and evening workshop, Kamfonas will inspire and empower others in confidently following their intuition both in life and music.

Embracing his penchant for improvisation alongside his passion for the classical repertoire, pianist John Kamfonas has given wide-ranging performances including a fully improvised solo piano concert at Columbia University, solo and collaborative harpsichord performances with Manhattan School of Music’s Baroque Aria Ensemble, and solo concerts featuring both composed works and free improvisations in cities around the US. John’s recent solo engagements include performances in U.S. cities such as Syracuse, Philadelphia, New York City, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Other summer festival performances include appearances at the International Academy of Music in Tuscany, Italy, Aspen Music Festival, PianoSummer at New Paltz, and Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, where he had the honor of performing in the final young artist gala concert held at the Central Conservatory of Beijing. John recently participated in and helped organize the Bootstrap Arts Festival, a multi-disciplinary arts festival sponsored by the New York Foundation that staged numerous events featuring dance, poetry, music, and visual artwork in venues around New York.

Saxophonist/Author Presents Music from Around the World Wednesday at Gobin

Saxophonist/Author Presents Music from Around the World Wednesday at Gobin

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival continues at 7:30 PM on Wednesday night in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church with a diverse program of saxophone and piano music inspired by flamenco guitar music, South Indian (Karnatic) music, shakuhachi (Japanese) flute, and ragtime. 

Ball State University music professors George Wolfe (saxophone) and James Helton (piano), joined by Wolfe’s student Preston Duncan, are the performers.  Wolfe is also an educator and author who has served as director of Peace Studies at the Ball State Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. Copies of his 2011 book The Spiritual Power of Nonviolence will be available for sale and signing after the performance.  

The festival presents free concerts (supported by donations from community members) every Wednesday through August 15. Nearly two hundred people packed the church for the July 4 concert, which included a wide variety of music, readings, and an audience singalong. Festival founder/director Eric Edberg says the purpose of the concerts is clear: to give community members an opportunity to connect with each other in events that celebrate friends making music for friends, old and new.

“George Wolfe has been a musical and personal friend for many years now,” Edberg says, “and this is his third or fourth appearance in the festival.  He’s one of the most extraordinary musicians I know--an amazing classical instrumentalist, expert in the music of other cultures, and a great improviser with whom I’ve performed many times. I’m really looking forward to sitting back and enjoying George and his friend and colleague James Helton make music together. I’m also enjoying reading his book, which I just purchased.”

"Composers from around the world have written for the saxophone, making the saxophone a truly multicultural instrument," adds Wolfe. “I think the audience will really enjoy the wide variety of music in this program.”  

About the Performers:

Saxophonist and peace educator/activist George Wolfe, praised by critics for playing that is "brilliant and moving,” has performed extensively throughout the United States and concertized in Europe, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Canada, India, Korea and Japan. Author of The Spirituality of Nonviolence: Inerfaith Understanding for a Future Without War (2011), Wolfe also received the Ball State University Outstanding Creative Endeavor award for his CD Lifting the Veil, and has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the United States Navy Band, the Saskatoon Symphony, the Chautauqua Motet Choir, The Indianapolis Children's Choir, and the Royal Band of the Belgian Air Force. Invited to give master classes at the Paris Conservatory, Indiana University, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Wolfe has been artist-in-residence university/conservatory programs in Arizona, Austria, Canada, and Costa Rica. In addition to his concertizing and teaching, he frequently lectures on topics related to peace education and the role of the arts in the fight against social injustice. National conservative commentator David Horowitz has named him one of the "101 most dangerous academics in America."

Pianist James Helton has been heard throughout the U.S. as recitalist, collaborator, and orchestra soloist. He has had the pleasure of working with Pulitzer Prize winning composers George Crumb, William Bolcom, Lucas Foss and Joseph Schwantner in concerts broadcast over public radio and television. For New World Records, Helton collaborated with the Blair Woodwind Quintet on works by composer Michael Kurek. Strongly committed to inspiring creativity and artistry in both amateur and future professional musicians, he served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Vanderbilt University before assuming his current position at Ball State University, where he teaches piano and coordinated the accompanying program.  

The festival will continue on Wednesday July 18 with classical/improvising/rock pianist John Kamfonas of New York.

Thanks for a Great Forth of July!

The Forth of July Greencastle Summer Music Festival variety-show concert was a spectacular success!

Joe Ferguson was counting heads (not easy to do, especially when there is a big crowd and people keep coming in after the show has started) and was able to identify at least 181 people! And here I (Eric) was afraid that we might have just a handful of folks.

The blisteringly hot weather made an indoor, air-conditioned event particularly inviting.  But with our overall attendance the largest it's been in our eight summers, it seems clear that there's another factor at work:

Friendship and community are at the heart of what we are doing as we gather together, making and listening to music performed by professional musicians. In today's society, in which our ubiquitous technology can be so isolating, community performing arts events (our concerts, the great ParkFest series, and the Putnam County Playhouse) help fulfill our need for human connection.  

What better way to connect than through music?  Singing patriotic songs together was a wonderful experience.

Many thanks to all the performers, to everyone who attended, and to everyone who is supporting these events with financial contributions.

This week: a fascinating, diverse program with music from many cultures, performed by saxophonist George Wolfe and pianist James Helton.  7:30 PM, Wednesday July 11, in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church.  More information to be posted soon.