2012 MAPLEROCK JAZZ FESTIVAL FEATURES JAZZ VIOLINIST ZACH BROCK

Ashland University’s award-winning Jazz program is proud to present the 2012 Maplerock Jazz Festival slated for Friday, March 16.  Along with free performances by area high school jazz ensembles in the afternoon, the event presents a main stage concert at 7:30 p.m. in Hugo Young Theatre featuring guest artist and jazz violinist Zach Brock and his trio The Magic Number.  The afternoon performances are free and open to the public while tickets for the evening concert are available through the Ashland University Box Office at 419.289.5125, 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, or online (additional fees apply) at www.ashland.edu/tickets.

One of the most virtuosic and emotive voices of contemporary jazz violin, Zach Brock has followed a path which embraces not only jazz, but also classical, world, and popular music. From critical acclaim as a bandleader to international exposure in collaborations with Stanley Clarke, Grazyna Auguscik, and Frank Vignola, Zach continues to gain admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike. Zach’s repertoire includes re-workings of songs by Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, Phil Markowitz, and Zbigniew Seifert, in addition to an evolving catalogue of his own compositions. His latest CD The Magic Number offers a telling glimpse of why Zach is being heralded as “the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation.” (Neil Tesser, Chicago Examiner)

The Magic Number is an acoustic trio with Zach on violin, Matt Wigton on bass, and Fred Kennedy on drums, as well as wordless vocals and pitched percussion. The group’s unusual instrumentation allows for a wide variety of sounds, from sparse to dense, and the group’s repertoire is a mix of Zach’s original compositions with original arrangements of modern and classic jazz and pop standards.

The Jazz Festival's afternoon performances begin at 1:30 p.m. with Ashland High School Jazz Band B, followed at 2:00 p.m. with Rittman High School Jazz Band; Lakewood High School Jazz Band at 2:30 p.m., and conclude with Ashland High School Jazz Band A at 3:00 p.m.

Fresh off their spring tour of Spain, the evening concert begins with several selections performed by the Ashland University Jazz Orchestra led by Ashland University Associate Professor of Music Dr. Scott Garlock.  Works performed will be selected from jazz favorites including Satin Doll, In the Mood, Come Rain or Come Shine; along with newer arrangements such as Semi-Mental Journey, Besame Mucho and Tio Jorge.  Immediately following the AU Jazz Orchestra, Zach Brock and The Magic Number will headline the evening concert.

Tickets for the evening concert are $12 for adults; $5 for senior citizens, non-Ashland University students and Ashland University faculty and staff; and free for Ashland University students.

BENNETT AND DRAGANOVA PRESENT FACULTY RECITAL

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a faculty recital with soprano Dione Bennett and pianist Pavlina Draganova on Sunday, February 26 at 5:00 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert program offers a "World of Colors" through the Latin rhythms of Xavier Montsalvage, the jazz fusion of Ricky Ian Gordan, the classical musings of Robert Owens, H. T. Burleigh, John Carter and Rosephanye Powell. Bennett will also highlight the poetry of Langston Hughes.

An established pedagogue, Bennett is in her eighth year at Ashland University and is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). She expects the conferral of her doctorate in May from the University of Illinois where she studied with professor Cynthia Haymon. Further study has taken her to Graz, Austria with the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) where an Austrian newspaper said she was “the discovery of the evening”. A performer in such operatic roles as Micaela (Carmen), Bess (Porgy and Bess); Mimi (La Bohéme); Suor Genevieffa (Suor Angelica); and Lucy (Treemonisha); and such oratorio’s as Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mass in C, Schubert's Mass in G, Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ, and Mozart's Vespers, she has been featured with the Warren Philharmonic, Akron Symphony, Ashland Symphony, Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Eastern Illinois Symphony as well as Cleveland Opera and Opera Western Reserve. As an avid recitalist, she paired with pianist John Wustman singing Brahms, Berlioz, and Burleigh as well as a journey of the development of spirituals.

A native of Bulgaria, Mrs. Draganova is a staff accompanist at Ashland University and the principal pianist of Ashland Symphony Orchestra. She earned her first masters degree in piano performance from Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia studying with Stela Dimitrova and the prominent Bulgarian piano duo Konstantin and Julia Ganev. After moving to the United States, she graduated with a masters in piano performance from The University of Michigan where she was a student of Louis Nagel. Mrs. Draganova has been on the faculties of the Music High School, Plovdiv; The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv; and Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia. An active performer as a collaborative and solo musician, Pavlina has performed in major cities in Bulgaria, Michigan and Ohio, and appeared as a soloist with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra under Maesto Dobrin Petkov. As a member of the Michigan Music Teachers Association she performed at the organization's 120th State Conference.

FACULTY PIANO RECITAL FEB. 12

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a faculty recital with pianist Pavlina Draganova on Sunday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The concert program begins with J. S. Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" followed by Beethoven's Sonata Nr. 21 in C Major, and "Reflections in the Water" from Debussy's Book 1 of "Images."  After a brief intermission, Pavlina performs Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme by Corelli, Op. 42 and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody in A minor. 

A native of Bulgaria, Mrs. Draganova is a staff accompanist at Ashland University and the principal pianist of Ashland Symphony Orchestra. She earned her first masters degree in piano performance from Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia studying with Stela Dimitrova and the prominent Bulgarian piano duo Konstantin and Julia Ganev.  After moving to the United States, she graduated with a masters in piano performance from The University of Michigan where she was a student of Louis Nagel.  Mrs. Draganova has been on the faculties of the Music High School, Plovdiv; The Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts, Plovdiv; and Pancho Vladigerov State Academy of Music, Sofia.  An active performer as a collaborative and solo musician, Pavlina has performed in major cities in Bulgaria, Michigan and Ohio, and appeared as a soloist with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra under Maesto Dobrin Petkov. As a member of the Michigan Music Teachers Association she performed at the organization's 120th State Conference.

FACULTY FLUTE & PIANO RECITAL SLATED FOR FEB. 5

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a faculty recital with flutist Jane Berkner and pianist Kim Bakkum on Sunday, February 5 at 3:00 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

Jane Berkner and Kim Bakkum have been performing together since 1997 appearing in concert venues across the Midwest, as well as Sere Musicale and Corofest Assisi in Italy. They have performed for the National Flute Association and with the Singers Companye at the National Gallery in Washington, DC; and in 2007 released a CD together, “In Cynthia’s Garden”.  For their faculty recital at Ashland, they will perform works by Paul Taffanel, Fikret Amirov, Shulamit Ran, Daniel Dorff, Carl Reinecke and Michael Garson.

Jane Berkner is on the music faculties of both Ashland University and the University of Akron, and has performed with the Akron, Ashland, Canton and Youngstown Symphonies, the Ohio Ballet Orchestra, O’Neil Chamber Players and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. Currently performing with guitarist Stephen Aron in the duo AronBerkner, they are presenting concerts across the United States, and will be playing and teaching at Suonare in Italia in Assisi, Italy during the summer of 2012.  Recognized for her expertise as a flute choir director, she was coordinator of the National Flute Association’s High School Flute Choir from 2001 to 2006, and is the director of a summer flute choir camp for adults at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.  She is also arts and enrichment director for the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and currently serves on the board of directors of the Ohio Arts Presenters Network.  www.janeberkner.com

A Montana native, Kim Bakkum is an active pianist in the Akron-Cleveland area of Ohio.  She holds a masters in piano performance from Western Michigan University, and has done extensive studies in art song and opera in Graz and Vienna, Austria.  She has been on the faculties of the University of Montana, the University of Akron and Kent State University.  She has performed with Cleveland Opera on Tour, Porthouse Summer Theatre, O’Neil Chamber Players, Canton Players Guild, the Wiener Symphoniker Percussion and Flute Seminars, and was coordinator of piano studies for the Western Michigan High School piano camp.  She has been chairperson of the Independent Music Teachers Forum for the state of Ohio, and is a popular adjudicator and clinician throughout the state.

THOMAS REED PRESENTS CLARINET/SAXOPHONE RECITAL, JAN. 15

The Department of Music at Ashland University presents a faculty recital on Sunday, January 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Elizabeth Pastor Recital Hall featuring Music Department Chair and Professor of Music Thomas Reed on clarinet and saxophone with pianist Pavlina Draganova.  The performance is free and open to the public.  

The program begins in the Baroque style with J. S. Bach's Partita in A minor in four movements, then jumps to the Romantic era with Reed's arrangement of Georges Bizet's Minuet and Carillon from the play "L'Arlesienne," and Fred Hemke's arrangement of Robert Schumann's "Three Romances." Pieces from the twentieth century include Vincent David's arrangement of Claude Debussy's "Rapsodie," and Louis Cahuzac's "Cantilene," with the concert concluding with Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in three movements. 

COMMUNITY CONCERT BAND AND UNIVERSITY WIND ENSEMBLE PRESENT CONCERT WITH GUEST VOCALIST STEPHANIE SIKORA

The Ashland Area Community Concert Band (AACCB) and Ashland University Wind Ensemble present their annual Winter Festival Concert, under the direction Ashland University Director of Bands Leonard Salvo along with guest artist, soprano Stephanie Sikora, on Thursday, December 8, 7:30 p.m. at the University’s Hugo Young Theatre.  The concert is free and open to the public.

The 60-piece Wind Ensemble begins the concert with “A Festival Prelude” by Alfred Reed which opens with robust fanfares followed by a warm and melodic middle section then ending with a majestic processional march.  The ensemble continues with “Ghost Train” by Eric Whitacre, one of the most popular and performed composers of our generation.  This first movement of the three movement tone poem “Ghost Train Triptych” depicts a supernatural machine that roars out of the night through forgotten towns and empty canyons. The music’s eerie sounds and driving rhythms beautifully captures the supernatural spirit combined with the essence of a steaming locomotive.  The third piece of the program, “Perthshire Majesty” by Samuel Hazo, is a lush Scottish ballad which won the 2003 National Band Association’s Revelli Memorial Composition Contest.  Closing the first half of the concert, the Wind Ensemble performs Reber Clark’s “Hymn of St. James” which is a composition for band based on the hymn “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”

After a brief intermission, the Ashland Area Community Concert Band begins their program with “Fanatic Winds,” a lively concert work with a youthful character by English composer Thomas Doss; followed by two movements of Clare Grundman’s exquisite symphonic settings of four beloved English folk tunes in “English Suite;”  and James Swearingen’s “The Light Eternal”, a dramatic and emotional work based on the hymn “God of Our Fathers” that tells the story of the S.S. Dorchester that sank off the coast of Greenland.  Soprano Stephanie Sikora then takes the stage with the Concert Band to perform Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s “Tonight” from the American musical “West Side Story.” The concert closes with Robert Sheldon’s “A Most Wonderful Christmas” which includes some of the most popular Christmas selections of all time such as “Winter Wonderland,” “I’ll be Home for Christmas,” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.”

Stephanie Sikora is currently in her nineteenth year as head of the voice area in the Department of Music at Ashland University. She has sung over 100 performances with Cleveland Opera on Tour, as well as appeared in main stage productions with Cleveland Opera, and as a guest soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Festival. Additional credits include performances with the Reading Symphony, Canton Symphony, Mendelssohn of Pittsburgh, Ashland Symphony, Akron Lyric Opera Theatre, Firelands Symphony, The Singers’ Club, and fourteen years as a member and frequent soloist with the Robert Page Cleveland Singers.

WINTER FESTIVAL CONCERT FEATURING JAZZ ORCHESTRA, BRASS AND PERCUSSION ENSEMBLES

From the award-winning Ashland University Jazz Orchestra to the University brass and percussion ensembles, Ashland University’s first of two Winter Festival concerts will offer a full slate a musical treats. Free and open to the public, the concert is scheduled for Monday, December 5, 7:30 p.m. at the University’s Hugo Young Theatre. 

The concert will begin with the Ashland University Brass Ensemble directed by brass and horn instructor Michael Metcalf performing Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” followed by Morten Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium”, and “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” as arranged by Chris Woods.

Percussion instructor Jeffrey Neitzke will then direct the Ashland University Percussion Ensemble performing “Hitzacker Wasserspiele” by Matthias Kaul, “Ogoun Badagris” by Christopher Rouse, and two movements of James Tenney’s Three Pieces for Drum Quartet.

The concert will conclude with the Ashland University Jazz Orchestra (AUJO) directed by Dr. Scott Garlock, associate professor of music.  In addition to Bob Mintzer’s big band hit “Slo-Funk”, the program will be selected from a repertoire of holiday favorites including Paul Ferguson’s arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne”, Tom Kubis’ “Jingle Bells”,   John Berry’s “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow”, and Bryan Kidd’s “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Vocal soloists Katie Vargo and Jacob Haury will be featured in “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” as Vargo also sings with the “Here Comes Santa Claus” medley.