Oct. 17, 2003 – The St. Croix Landmarks Society is presenting a series of six recitals in its 18th annual season of classical music performed in the candlelit ambience of the 250-year-old Whim Museum Greathouse.
The 2003-04 Candlelight Concert Series comprises a solo classical guitarist, a solo pianist, a piano duo, a soprano with piano, a violinist with piano, and a clarinetist with piano.
Each of the recitals will be presented on two evenings, with identical programs. And regular concertgoers need to take note of a change in times this season: The Friday performances will begin at 8 p.m. and those on Saturdays will start at 7 p.m.
The schedule:
Friday, Oct. 17, and Saturday, Oct. 18 – William Feasley, classical guitarist
Friday, Nov. 21, and Saturday Nov. 22 – Barbara Lister-Sink, piano
Friday, Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 10 – Katherine Jacobson and Leon Fleisher, piano duo
Friday, Feb. 20, and Saturday, Feb. 21 – Kehembe (Valerie) Eichelberger, mezzo soprano, and Raymond Jackson, piano
Friday, March 12, and Saturday, March 13 – The Weilerstein Duo: Donald Weilerstein, violin, and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, piano
Friday, April 2, and Saturday, April 3 – Marguerite Baker, clarinet, and Jeffrey Chappell, piano
The artists
Classical guitarist William Feasley's appearance is in connection with the observance of Sept. 15-Oct. 15 as Hispanic Heritage Month. The first guitarist to be awarded the Peabody Conservatory's coveted Artist Diploma, he also received a gold medal in the 1987 Panhellenic Guitar Competition in Athens. Selected to play for Andrés Segovia at the master's historic last class at the University of Southern California in 1986, he was later featured on the CBS special "Eulogy of Segovia."
Feasley made his debut in 1980 with the San Francisco Ballet, performing Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" for Lou Christenson's ballet "Don Juan." He has toured with the Russian Chamber Orchestra and performed with New York's Bachanalia Ensemble and Washington's 20th Century Consort. He in currently artist in residence at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and is on the faculty of the Levine School of Washington, D.C.
Pianist Barbara Lister-Sink has performed and recorded extensively as soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared with principal players of most major American and Dutch orchestras and during a six-year residency in The Netherlands was keyboardist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1986, she returned to her native North Carolina to become dean of the School of Music at Salem College.
Lister-Sink's pioneering 1996 video "Freeing the Caged Bird — Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique" won international acclaim. She was a presenter and performer at the First World Congress of Arts and Medicine in New York City. She is listed on pianowomen.com as one of 75 living female concert pianists of international note. The 2000 Centennial Edition of Piano & Keyboard magazine cited her as one the most influential American teachers of the 20th century.
Pianists Katherine Jacobson and Leon Fleisher have collaborated often; last spring they performed a series of concerts of solo and one piano/four hands works on tour. He was her teacher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Jacobson tours extensively as soloist and duo-pianist and has appeared with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and Toronto's Royal Conservatory Orchestra. She currently teaches piano ensemble at the Peabody and at Goucher College.
Fleisher was part of the generation of American pianists that included Van Cliburn, Byron Janis and John Browning. In 1964, he was diagnosed with Focal Dystonia, a repetitive motion injury that caused the fingers of his right hand to fold up involuntarily, leaving the hand nearly useless. He turned to teaching and conducting and even played concerts featuring music written for just the left hand. Having undergone numerous treatments to regain the use of his right hand, he celebrated his 75th birthday conducting, playing and teaching master classes at the 2003 Aspen Music Festival.
Kehembe Eichelberger and Raymond Jackson also are frequent collaborators. Mezzo soprano Eichelberger heads the voice department at Howard University and pianist Jackson is Howard's performance chair. Their concert is a celebration of February as Black History Month.
Eichelberger has performed at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap Farm Park and with the Washington Opera and Australia's Victoria Opera.. Her recordings including the "Wade in the Water" series recently nominated for a Peabody Award. Jackson, who holds three degrees from the Juilliard School, combines love of the European classical repertoire with an advocacy of works by composers of African descent. He founded The Raymond Jackson Scholarship and Mentoring Program for pre-college gifted African-American pianists and the Raymond Jackson Music Forum for music teachers and students.
The Weilerstein Duo consists of partners in work and life Donald Weilerstein on violin and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein on piano. She is a former member of the Athena and Schumann Chamber Players, has performed worldwide and is on the piano and chamber music faculties of the New England Conservatory. He was a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet and its first violinist for 20 years, has performed and taught at major American and European music festivals, and is on the strings faculty at the NEC.
The duo has performed to international acclaim and has won praise for their recordings of the complete works of Ernest Bloch for violin and piano and the complete sonatas of Robert Schumann. They also perform with their daughter Alisa, a cellist, as The Weilerstein Trio.
Clarinetist Marguerite Baker and pianist Jeffrey Chappell are based in the Washington, D.C., area. Her credentials include having been a member of the U.S. Navy Band, as well as having performed with the Kennedy Center Orchestra and the National Symphony. She is principal with the Baltimore Opera Orchestra; plays with the National Gallery Orchestra and the Maryland Symphony; is a founding member of the Atlantic Winds woodwind quintet; and is a clarinet and woodwind ensemble instructor.
He has performed worldwide, including with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in concerts at Carnegie Hell and Wolf Trap Farm Park, and in substitution for Claudio Arrau on four hours' notice, playing the Brahms Second Concert without rehearsal — to critical acclaim. He is an award-winning composer whose recent works integrate techniques of classical composition with elements of American popular music. He is on the faculties of Goucher College and the Levine School of Music.
Series information
Individual concert tickets are $30 for St. Croix Landmarks Society members and $35 for others. A season subscription with guaranteed seating is $180 for society members and $210 for others.
Additional support-level options for season subscriptions are: Friend, $225 for the series with guaranteed seating and admission to artists receptions; Donor, $275 for the series with guaranteed second-row seating and admission to artists receptions; Patron, $350 for the series with guaranteed first-row seating, admission to artists receptions and a year's membership in the society; and Individual Sponsor, $1,000 for the series with all Patron benefits plus prominent mention in all concert series promotional materials.
Meet-the-artist receptions are held following each of the Saturday night performances.
Main room seating is guaranteed for all those purchasing a series subscription and is available for those purchasing individual concerts by advance reservation based on availability. The surrounding rooms offer additional seating. Ticket holders may switch their seats between Friday and Saturday as availability allows.
This season's Candlelight Concert Se
ries corporate supporters are The Buccaneer Hotel, Budget Rent-A-Car and The Williamsburg Snap and Candle Co. The series also receives support from the V.I. Council on the Arts/the National Endowment for the Arts.
To learn more, visit the St. Croix Landmarks Society Web site, send an e-mail to the St. Croix Landmarks Society, or call 772-0598.
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