“Most of my childhood memories are of that Suzuki group: sitting under the grand piano in Mr. (Lacy) McLarry’s studio, watching other kids’ lessons, going on buses to play for kids’ schools, playing the Bach Double Violin concerto with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra. I made lifelong friends in that group.”

Mary excelled in violin and later completed an undergraduate degree in violin performance from Rice University, a master’s degree from Queens College-City University of New York,
and played with training organizations like the National Orchestral Association in New York, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra in Europe, and the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.

“I came to town to join the Kansas City Symphony in 1989. The symphony season is only 42 weeks, and Lamar Hunt, Jr., who was a flutist in the symphony at that time, wanted to start a group that would perform for Kansas City audiences in the summer, when there was nothing else going on for musicians or audiences in the way of classical music. He set up Summerfest as a non-profit organization. Then we and Debbie Clark (harpist), Rebecca Bell (harpsichord), and Nancy Lutes (bassoonist), performed a short season of concerts in the summer of 1990.

We played mostly baroque music then, and a lot of 19th and 20th century music with flute and harp.” In 1991, the group added more people, including Jane Carl (clarinet), Nancy Beckmann (violin) and Marion Arthur (oboe), so they could play a greater variety of repertoire. They played at numerous venues, including Avila College and Westport Presbyterian Church, always seeking ways to increase appeal and audiences. The post-concert receptions were an integral part of the Summerfest concert experience. According to Mary, “We owe St. Mary’s church thanks for this brilliant idea! They had the best receptions in town.” It provided the perfect setting for interaction between audience and musicians that became the Summerfest trademark. Thanks to the dedication of Mary (who, 22 years later, is still the resident grant writer and a very active artistic advisor), Summerfest is thriving today. She and Jane Carl, now with the flutist Shannon Finney, serve as the Artistic Advisors, along with cellist Alexander East who serves on the artistic committee. “The organization has matured a lot in these two decades. When we began I had no idea that Summerfest would be such a huge part of my life here in Kansas City. I thank our excellent musicians and wonderful audience, Kansas City’s generous foundations and individual donors, the Summerfest board of directors and volunteers and our many friends for making Summerfest the success it has become.”

As part of our Summerfest Musician Spotlight, featured musicians are asked to answer a few fun questions about themselves. Here are Mary’s responses:

SF: Tell us about your life outside of work and music.
MGG: I like to work in the garden when the weather is nice. I am a fair-weather gardener. I like to run. My husband, Jim, and I did a half-marathon last year for the first time. We also like to travel. Our most recent international trip together was to China to visit friends. I would love to travel more.

SF: What is on your iPod/MP3/CD Player:
MGG: I listen to a lot of books in the car when I drive to work. My favorite lately is Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. It’s narrated by the family dog. I also like David Mitchell’s later books, Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green.

SF: Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
MGG: On my deck, when it’s sunny, 70 degrees, no wind and no bugs.

SF: What quality do you most admire in others?
MGG: Graciousness.

SF: If you had chosen another profession, what would it be?
MGG: Visual artist or writer.

It was by this last avenue that the Summerfest artistic committee discovered Dave Grusin’s “Three Latin American Dances,” which is programmed for concerts on July 21 and 22, 2012. The piece is written for violin, cello, and piano and is featured on an album called “Amparo.” Collaborative artists on the album are Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, Chris Botti, James Taylor, and Lee Ritenour.

Dave Grusin describes his “Three Latin American Dances” as a mini-suite, which he wrote for Guarneri String Quartet violinist Arnold Steinhardt for a performance they both participated in to benefit a student violin program in Harlem. The three movements are evocative of the tangos of Argentina, the dance music of Venezuela and the Nineteenth Century salon music of Cuba.

Dave Grusin, himself a pianist, is perhaps best known as a film composer, having written the scores for over 60 films including Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, Heaven can Wait, The Graduate, The Goodbye Girl, and On Golden Pond.

In the last decade, Mr. Grusin has spent more time composing classical and jazz compositions, touring, and recording.

“I started playing in Summerfest a long time ago now, not the first year, but shortly after that. I was the new clarinetist in town, and Summerfest wanted to program works with clarinet. I was lucky that they called me. It’s become a labor of love for all of us who have been involved for so many years.”

And why does she stay involved?

“Many musicians think of chamber music as being the apex of the musical experience, and I would have to agree. Much of that has to do with the intimacy of the experience for both the performers and the audience, which is not only about the performance, but also about the preparation and the rehearsals for that performance. Some of the greatest works ever written fall into that genre.”

“To me, the Brahms Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, is one of those truly great works. I first heard this piece as a freshman at the University of Michigan on a recording by Richard Stoltzman and the chamber group Tashi, and I played it over and over, probably driving my roommate crazy, so I’ve had a long love affair with this piece that continues to this day. Brahms wrote all of his clarinet works late in his life, after he had given up composing. He was inspired to come back and write some of his most beautiful and mature works after hearing clarinetist Richard Mulhfeld play. The two became friends, and the musical world became much richer for it.”

Summerfest will conclude their 22nd summer festival, July 28th and 29th, with Johaness Brahm’s Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, perhaps his most important contribution to chamber music in which he showcases not only his knowledge of music history, but his fascination with gypsy music in his use of the clarinet and violin.

Jane Carl received her degrees from the University of Michigan. She has been a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra in Detroit, and performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has performed regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, performing as acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003. She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony. She was the artistic chair and host of ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, held in Kansas City. Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing and the 2009 ClarinetFest in Porto, Portugal. In the fall of 2009, she became the Chair of UMKC’s Instrumental Studies Division.

Just for fun, Carl answered a few questions for our readers:

Summerfest: What would be an interesting tidbit about you?
Carl: I have way too many pets.

Summerfest: What’s on your IPod/MP3/CD player?
Carl: NPR podcasts of “The Moth” and “This American Life”

Summerfest: What qualities do you most admire in others?
Carl: Honesty and integrity

Summerfest: Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
Carl: Crystal Lake, Michigan when the water is warm in August

Summerfest: If you chose another occupation, what would it be?
Carl: Writer

Summerfest: How did you choose your instrument?
Carl: I really wanted to play the drums or the saxophone, but they had too many of those, so my band director put me on the clarinet.

Summerfest: Where else are you performing in the coming months?
Carl: I’m playing a Weber’s Concerto for Clarinet, No. 1 with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra at Unity on the Plaza on June 8, which I’m excited about. I haven’t played a Weber concerto with orchestra since college, and then I played the second concerto, so this will be an interesting experience for me. Before that, I’m playing a chamber music concert in St. Louis on April 18 with the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis with several members of the St. Louis Symphony and others. This will be a fun concert because it’s a concert devoted to winds (and piano). Apparently, I don’t get enough chamber music just playing it in the summer.

Summerfest strings will go into Alta Vista Charter School, on the Westside, and Académie Lafayette, near UMKC, to help students prepare for their spring concerts. Luis Portillo, string ensemble and Mariachi director at Alta Vista Charter School says, “I want my students to know and hear professional musicians.” Summerfest gives Luis’ students this opportunity.

Julie Munro’s middle school and high school band students at Alta Vista will also benefit from coaching from Summerfest musicians on clarinet, flute, trombone, trumpet, and horn.

Summerfest wind and brass coaches will also be helping band students at Cristo Rey Kansas City, a Catholic college prep high school near Linwood and Broadway. Summerfest violinist, Mary Grant, is working with teachers at Cristo Rey to explore the possibility of starting a string program at the school in 2012-13. Students from Cristo Rey come from all over the Kansas City metropolitan area to participate in this school’s innovative corporate work study program. Many of these students have had previous instruction in string ensemble programs in other schools. Cristo Rey would like to make a string ensemble elective available to those students interested in further pursuing their passion for music. In order to do this, however, instruments must be obtained for student use, as most of Cristo Rey’s students come from situations of economic need.

After a recent visit to Cristo Rey, Mary is enthusiastic about working with students at this school: “It’s been great talking to the teachers at Cristo Rey. I even got to talk to one student who hadn’t been able to play the violin since he left middle school. I had my violin with me, and I let him try it. He played it for a little bit. He remembered exactly how to play. He said he missed playing music. The teachers at Cristo Rey understand the importance of arts and creativity in education and have an intense personal concern for their students’ success.”

This is true for all the teachers Summerfest has had the privilege to work with at the three Kansas City, Missouri schools.

Groups of Summerfest musicians will perform at the three schools for school-wide assemblies at the end of the school year. These performances will highlight the partnerships Summerfest has forged with the students at these schools.

Mary Grant showing students how to play a violin.

by Mary Grant

I’ve always wondered which instrument I would have chosen to play had my mother not told me I’d be learning violin at the age of 3. My older sister had started to play the violin with a teacher at the college who was starting one of the first Suzuki programs in the country. Naturally I wanted to try the violin, too. I’m sure I didn’t know that there were other instrument options!

This is what I thought about when a group of Summerfest volunteers and I took a violin, viola, cello, clarinet, trumpet, flute and trombone to Académie Lafayette after school one day so that children could try different instruments for themselves. These children were interested in participating in the school’s band and string programs.

I tried unsuccessfully to persuade them all that the violin was the best instrument — the instrument that all the “cool kids” played — but some saw right through that story and gravitated
eventually to other instruments. One girl kept going back to the cello. Another boy kept trying the violin and then the viola. He said he liked the deeper sound that came out of the viola’s lower strings. Then there was the child who could easily get a sound out of every instrument: wind, brass, or string. She told me that her father played many instruments. She was having a hard time deciding among the eight we featured.

Anne Calvert, an English teacher and string program coordinator at the school, was thrilled with the turnout at Summerfest’s first ever “petting zoo.” Académie Lafayette is a French
language charter school in Kansas City, Missouri. Summerfest would like to partner with other charter schools in Kansas City, Missouri as well to encourage children to enjoy music-making in their band or string programs. Children at these charter schools do not have access to the music resources available to children in the public school districts. Académie Lafayette’s band and string programs are made possible through dedication and support by parents and local foundations.

1. Tell us about your life outside of work and music.
I enjoy sharing meals with friends; I love outdoor activities (but not so much in July!); cooking and baking are two of my passions; I am a voracious reader (and listener) of books; I am looking forward to getting to know  my new custom-made flute, which just arrived; I wish I traveled to foreign lands more often…though I was lucky enough to make a trip to Qatar in 2009.

2. What would be an interesting tidbit about you?
I got my first motorcycle when I was 5 years old.

3. What’s on your IPod/MP3/CD player?
Books on CD! And music, a fairly eclectic list including the Gypsy Kings, Ella Fitzgerald, kd lang, Black Eyed Peas, Eric Clapton, Prince, Rihanna, and the Bach Cello Suites.

4. Where else are you performing this summer or are you?
I will be performing and teaching in the artistic and lovely Door County, Wisconsin at Birch Creek Music Center.

5. Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
At the ocean…preferably on the Pacific coast of Washington.

6. What is your one desert island must have?
A friend.

7. What good book have you read most recently?
So many I could not possibly pick just one! But the recent short list would have to include: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Room; The Help; Guns, Germs and Steel; The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore; The Hunger Games trilogy; Blood, Bones, and Butter; The World to Come; I suppose I must stop…

8. Is there a particular web site or blog you visit often?
I am a something of a rabid tennis fan…there are about 4 tennis sites that I visit daily.

We are excited by the opportunity provided by our new venue for audience growth. The convenient location, the beautiful and acoustically lively performing space and the strong parishioner base are all assets that we expect to make our concerts even more accessible to lovers and aficionados of chamber music. We are grateful to be continuing a tradition at Country Club Christian Church to support and present quality musical programs to the community.

This past October, we discussed with Rev. David Diebold, Minister of Music at CCCC, the possibility of entering into a partnership with the church. When the Summerfest Board of Directors unanimously agreed to pursue the partnership, Rev. Diebold wrote, “This is exciting news! I am truly glad you decided to come to Country Club.” John Church, President of the Summerfest Board of Directors, expressed confidence in our decision and said, “This move is a big opportunity for Summerfest to present ourselves to new audiences.”

Mary Grant, violinist and one of the founders of Summerfest, expressed her approval of the new venue, “Country Club Christian has a beautiful sanctuary and its tiered seating will allow our audiences to better see the musicians while still providing an intimate concert experience.”

Each concert will continue to be followed by the “Meet the Musicians Receptions” for which Summerfest has become known.

John Church, Summerfest Board President, added his thoughts, “It is with much regret that we leave the nurturing sanctuary of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church where we have performed since the genesis of Summerfest Concerts 22 years ago. The support of the community of St. Mary’s has been invaluable to the development of Summerfest. However, the current funding climate is such that we need to grow our audience base to maintain our enviable financial stability, and that growth requires that we embrace change, even when that change is emotionally difficult. We have expressed our gratitude to the community of St. Mary’s even knowing that we can never thank them enough. We owe special thanks to Richard and Betty Herndon who have managed our receptions at St. Mary’s for the last 22 years. It will be a considerable source of consolation for us if our St. Mary’s patrons would visit us in our new performance space.”

For 2012 season information and additional information on Country Club Christian Church, please visit our website at www.summerfestkc.org.

Thomas Albert attended the public schools of Lebanon, Pennsylvania and Wilson, North Carolina. In 1970, he received the degree Bachelor of Arts (Magna Cum Laude) from Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) in Wilson, where he studied with William Duckworth (founder of Post-minimalism and Time Curve Preludes for piano). He received a Master of Music in 1972 and Doctor of Musical Arts in composition in 1974 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign studying with Paul Martin Zonn (internationally heralded as an innovator both in composition and in clarinet performance) and Ben Johnston (best known for experiments in just intonation tuning to traditional instruments through his system of notation).

Since 1974, he has been a member of the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University, in Winchester, Virginia. From 1989 to 2004, he was Associate Dean of the Conservatory; from 2004 to 2008 he was Chair of the Theatre Division.  He is currently Professor of Music (composition and musical theatre) and holds the Harold Herman Chair in Musical Theatre.  He has served as music director and conductor for more than 100 musicals and revues.

Albert’s music is stylistically postmodern, exhibiting influences of Ives, Copland, Crumb, minimalism, and 20^th century American pop music.  Since the mid-1990s, his works have been mostly composed for the combination of instruments known as the “Pierrot sextet” (after Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, with percussion instead of Schoenberg’s singer). His compositions have explored the application of the Fibonacci series (a numerical series in which each number is the sum of the previous two numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, and so on) to musical structures. Early works included A Maze (With Grace), composed in 1975 after “Amazing Grace,” and Devil’s Rain, composed in 1977.  In 1976 he composed a one-act opera, Lizbeth, based on the legend of Lizzie Borden. The work was a finalist in the 1988 National Opera Association’s chamber opera competition.

But his best known work is Thirteen Ways, commissioned in 1997 by the chamber group “eighth blackbird” out of Chicago, Illinois.  The 28 minute piece, premiered in February 1998 at the Shenandoah Conservatory. As Summerfest Annotator Andrea Granade describes, “One of the greatest shifts that occurred in the twentieth century was the advent of recorded sound.  Anyone who has been shocked at the sound of their voice on an answering service can relate to the shift in perception recordings prompted among musicians.  It provided new ways of hearing the world.  Suddenly music of the past was available with the drop of a needle (or the push of a button) and old and new, strange and familiar, began to collide. The resulting fascination with the perception of sound was concurrent with a similar series of explorations in literature.  Wallace Stevens’ celebrated poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” carried out just such an experiment in short vignettes that each tell us that what we see and hear arise from where we place our attention.  Thomas Albert, in his spirited setting of Stevens’ poem for flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin (viola), cello, percussion, piano, accomplishes a similar feat.”

Thirteen Ways (1997)

For flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin (viola), cello, percussion, and piano

Inspired by “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens

Movements:

I. Leaden, bleak;
II. Aloof, persistent;
III. Nimble, capricious;
IV. Sensuous, relaxed;
V. Freely, like a birdsong;
VI. Subdued, but urgently;
VII. Exuberant, but increasingly stodgy;
VIII. Steady, rhythmic;
IX. Spacious, detached;
X. Orotund, discordant;
XI. Driving, relentless;
XII. Seamless, expansive;
XIII. Serene

Adapted from Mr. Albert’s website, www.thomasalbert.net.

The July 9th and 10th Summerfest program opens with contemporary composer Elizabeth Brown taking us to the Italian Coast in Liguria. It is in this place in 1999 that Elizabeth Brown brought the world, Liguria. Summerfest annotator Andrew Granade writes the following about Summerfest’s first program:

“Written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, Liguria is colored by influences from around the world and throughout time, especially this quiet town where cultures come together and, as the composer notes, there is a very present sense of melancholy.  It opens with a splash where all five instruments slowly enter with different themes.  These melodies exist over a regular pulsing in the piano line and over the course of the work’s ten minutes, slowly spread out in different layers as hints of music half remembered from Mozart or Italian opera or our dreams impose themselves on the themes.  The melodies bend and twist before falling away and leaving you in a graceful new world.

“Following Liguria are two pieces which reimagine great works of English literature: Lester Trimble’s dialogue between the Medieval and modern world in Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales and Henry Purcell’s love songs from plays, “Sweeter than Roses” and “Music for a While.” Whether or not we fully realize, most of us have had some sort of exposure to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. There have been a variety of stage and screen adaptations including operas, movies or even references like in the movies Se7en (1995) and A Knight’s Tale (2001). Chaucer’s Tales are both modern and ancient and thus as Trimble wrote his Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales, he did not want to forgo the deep relationships with the medieval world that could inform his music, so he careful imbedded several anachronisms throughout the score, from the use of the harpsichord as the work’s primary instrument to the adoption of Chaucer’s original Middle English text, to be sung by native Kansas Citian Gwen Coleman Detwiler.

“Henry Purcell is, without question, one of the greatest composers to set the English language.  The beauty of his melodies and the gracefulness with which the rhythms match natural declamation make his songs perennial favorites of young singers everywhere.  Take, for example, Sweeter than Roses Purcell wrote the song in the final year of his life for Pausanias, the Betrayer of His Country, a play by Richard Norton.  As usual, Purcell was asked to contribute love songs to the stage production, and he responded with this song and “My Dearest, My Fairest.”  But Sweeter than Roses is not a straight forward love song, as might be expected at first glance.  In the play, Pandora, the main character and a faithless mistress, is awaiting a visit from her new lover.  As she begins to sing about a first kiss, both music and lyric become more charged, and we realize that Pandora is seducing her new conquest as she sings of all becoming love to her.

“Music for a While contrasts strongly with Sweeter than Roses. One of Purcell’s four contributions to a 1692 production of John Dryden’s version of Sophocles’ Oedipus, Music for a While is not a charming love song.  Purcell wrote the song for the prophet Tiresias as he summons the ghost of the murdered Laius to learn the origin of the curse that afflicts Thebes.  In order to showcase the pervasive power of music in this setting, Purcell relies on a ground bass pattern much as in his celebrated aria “When I Am Laid in Earth.”  He starts the work with a full statement of the ground bass before the voice enters and begins spinning a web through the strands of the bass pattern. Purcell paints the text with pure musical illusions and creates a masterful telling of Dryden’s text.

“The first weekend’s performances will end with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s powerful Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478 that shifted notions of the chamber music genre away from an amateur pastime to one with striking musical meaning, a transformation even in the composer’s lifetime. In 1785, Mozart was at a high point in his career. He had played several string quartets for Haydn to favorable results earlier in the year. Mozart received a commission for three piano quartets from his publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister.  Unlike string quartets, piano quartets were actively sought by amateur pianists, and Hoffmeister was hoping to turn a nice profit. But when Mozart delivered the Piano Quartet in G Minor, Hoffmeister thought that that this, the K. 478, was too difficult for amateurs and thus the public would not purchase it. Thus he released Mozart from his obligation of completing the set. This view was widely held of Mozart in his lifetime that he was a greatly talented composer who wrote very difficult music.

“Piano quartets at the time were used to having the strings serve as accompaniment. Mozart’s masterstroke was to bring the strings to the level of the keyboard and into the musical conversation.  The work is in three movements:  I. Allegro, in G Minor, II. Andante, in B-flat Major, and III. Rondo (Allegro,) in G Major. It serves as a fitting ending to the season opener.”

Summerfest will perform its 21st Season of chamber music concerts in July on Saturdays in White Hall, 4949 Cherry, on the UMKC Campus, and Sundays at historic St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 13^th and Holmes, in downtown Kansas City.  Performances will be at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, July 10, 16, 23, and 30 and repeated at 5:00 p.m., Sunday, July 10, 17, 24, and 31.

Season tickets are still available at $80 for a four-concert package and $60 for a three-concert package.  To make chamber music affordable for everyone, these subscription packages include major savings and benefits including: selection of all Saturdays, all Sundays or any combination thereof for their package purchases, ticket discounts, savings on single ticket prices, and free ticket exchange. A $5 handling charge will be added to each subscription order.

Single tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors. $10 student tickets are available with a valid student ID.  Youth 18 and under are admitted free of charge.  A $2 handling charge will be added to each individual ticket. Tickets can be ordered by calling the Central Ticket Office, 816-235-6222, or stopping by the office located in the Performing Arts Center, 4949 Cherry, on the UMKC campus.  For more information or to order tickets online, please visit www.summerfestkc.org.

All Summerfest concerts feature the complimentary “Meet the Musicians” reception immediately following the performance.  These gatherings have become a trademark of the Summerfest brand and a draw for returning audience members.

A Western Pennsylvania native, Melissa received piano performance degrees from the University of Michigan, Yale School of Music and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.  Melissa came to Kansas City in 1988 to teach at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.  She moved to Nashville to be the Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Piano for the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches courses in collaborative piano. She has performed as a collaborative pianist in Russia, Argentina and throughout the United States.  Melissa regularly performs in Middle Tennessee with Alias Chamber Ensemble, the Nashville Symphony, the Nashville Ballet, and on numerous other chamber music and song recitals.  She has also been an official pianist for national and international music competitions and conferences.

“I moved in 1996, but have returned to Kansas City every summer because I enjoy performing with all of the Summerfest musicians,” Melissa said.” Every year I catch up with people, and many have kept up with my family, too.  When I first started playing, my son, Jacob, was only a year old.  He entertained himself at receptions at St. Mary’s by walking under the tables and peeking out from under the tablecloths.  Now he’s 18 and headed off to Yale in August—I think he grew up at Summerfest!”

“This summer I’m excited about playing more contemporary music, especially Thirteen Ways by Albert.  It’s always great to play a traditional chamber music work like the Faure Piano Quartet or Schubert’s Trout Quintet, but it’s also very exciting to play in a larger ensemble and experiment with more contemporary sounds.”

Outside of her performance schedule and teaching at Vanderbilt, Melissa has also produced several publications and recordings.  They include Tonadillas by Granados (ViolaSound), a recording and transcription for viola/piano with Monisa Angell; Michael Slayton’s Le soir tombe; and J. Mark Scearce’s Magritte Variations on Centaur. Forthcoming recordings include music for winds and piano by Peter Schickele and trios for oboe, horn, and piano by Damase, Reinecke, and Michael Rose.

Melissa enjoys living in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband, Daniel Schafer, and two sons, Jacob and Vladimir.

In contacting Melissa for this article, she agreed to answer 10 fun questions for our readers:

1. SF: Tell us about your life outside of work and music.
   MR: I’m about ready to send my youngest to college this fall, so my life outside of work and music has revolved around teenagers most recently.  I am looking forward to exploring a bit more now that I’ll have some time to myself!
2. SF: What’s on your IPod/MP3/CD player?
   MR: Brahms
3. SF: What do you eat before you perform?
   MR: Pasta
4. SF: What quality do you most admire in others?
   MR: Honesty
5. SF: If you could live in an era, which one would it be?
   MR: Early 20^th Century
6. SF: What is your ideal classical concert program?
   MR: Varied chamber music ensembles, just like Summerfest’s programs!
7. SF: Where is your favorite place in the world to “just be?”
   MR: Radnor Lake Natural Area, in the middle of Nashville
8. SF: What is your one desert island must have?
   MR: Chocolate
9. SF: What good book have you read most recently?
   MR: My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
10. SF: How did you choose your instrument?
    MR: My sister, who is 5 years older, played the piano.  Of course I wanted to do everything she did!