Registration is open for 2016-2017 Violin, Viola, and Cello. Slots are filling fast. Contact us via Facebook for information on scheduling a sample lesson. Happy practicing!

The Music House: JOB's Victorian on 5th; Spring Series

The Music House: Spring 2013 Series

Saturday, January 26, 7:00 p.m.  Ensemble Vermillian

Frances Blaker, recorders, David Wilson, violin, Dan Smith, theorbo

Barbara Krumdiek, cello, John O’Brien, keyboard

Ensemble Vermillian was founded by sisters Barbara Blaker Krumdieck and Frances Blaker to explore the potential for color and texture possible in the virtuosic compositions for cello and recorder written in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Based in Davidson, North Carolina and Berkeley, California, the members of EV have traveled to meet, research, rehearse, and perform together since 2000. Having studied at conservatories in Denmark, the Netherlands, Ohio, and Indiana respectively, they use a blended approach to rearrange and reinterpret Baroque music to create a sound that's both resonant and relevant.

Saturday, February 9, 7:00 p.m. The Kickin’ Grass Band of Raleigh, NC

Jamie Dawson, mandolin-Lynda Dawson, guitar and lead vocals- Hank Smith, banjo,

Pattie Hopkins, violin and vocals and Patrick Walsh-bass and vocals

The Kickin Grass Band takes the stage, and suddenly you’re captivated by pure, strong voices telling true‐to‐life stories spiced with innovative bluegrass instrumentation. You fall in love with the rootsy, Americana style, and can’t wait for more. In 2012, they released their fourth album, Walk With Me which represents an exploration of life’s passages, a close-to-home chronicle of heartbreaking loss and hopeful beginnings. “There were life-altering events for all of us, both individually and as bandmates and close friends,” explains Lynda Dawson. “We felt strongly that we needed to capture and express the emotional journey we had endured through our music, especially now that we’re on the other side looking back.”  To take in the album as a singular experience is to travel with the group from a questioning uncertainty to an understanding acceptance. The message: the big answers may be beyond our grasp, but our communal search for them binds us together. If you look hard enough you may just find an answer—and a comfort—in the people who walk with you.

Saturday, March 2, 7:00 p.m. Carol Ingbretsen-Jazz singer

Carol Ingbretsen , a Raleigh native and ECU School of Music graduate, is a highly talented and versatile vocalist who performs in a variety of musical situations and styles.  Carol has been a featured soloist with The North Carolina Symphony, The Carolina Ballet, The Cary Community Choir, and the Sandhills Community Chorus. Professional chorus appearances include Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians, The National Opera Company, and The Raleigh Oratorio Society.  Carol is a member of the North Carolina Master Chorale’s 22-voice professional chamber choir.  An accomplished jazz vocalist, Carol has appeared with many of the best jazz musicians in North Carolina and is the featured singer for The Tar River Swing Band of Rocky Mount, and The John Brown Jazz Orchestra.  

Sunday, April 7, 3:00 p.m.  Beverly Biggs and Elaine Funaro, harpsichords

Elaine Funaro, harpsichord, is a frequent performer at international early music festivals and Artistic Director of Aliénor, a non-profit organization that sponsors a world-wide competition for new harpsichord music. While she is regarded as one of the leading performers of new music for the harpsichord, Funaro’s repertoire spans the entire history of the instrument. Funaro has premiered pieces on five continents, performing in Amsterdam, Rome, Manchester, Berkeley, Boston and Tokyo. In addition to her many solo recitals, including concerts at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, Funaro has played with numerous symphonies and chamber music ensembles. She has recorded for the Arabesque, Centaur, Gasparo, Wildboar and the Classic Concert labels.

Beverly Biggs, harpsichord, is Artistic Director of Baroque & Beyond – North Carolina, a period music concert series based in Chapel Hill. Prior to moving back home to North Carolina, she lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest where she was founding artistic director of two period music organizations. Biggs has recorded CDs from the baroque, classic and early romantic periods on harpsichord and fortepiano, with other instruments, exclusively for the Bravura Discs label. She has toured throughout the western United States and Canada in solo and duo performances, played with symphony and chamber orchestras, and performed hundreds of concerts with period-music ensembles. Biggs owns an Italian virginal, Flemish and French harpsichords, and several period pianos

Saturday, May 4, 7:00 p.m. Patrick Ball/Shira Kammen

Patrick Ball is one of the premier Celtic harp players in the world and a captivating spoken word artist.
In playing the ancient, legendary brass-strung harp of Ireland with its crystalline, bell-like voice, and in performing marvelous tales of wit and enchantment, he not only brings new life to two cherished traditions, but blends them in concert to create “a richly theatrical and hauntingly beautiful performance.”

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of the early music Ensembles Alcatraz and Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings,   she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, Kitka, as well as the Oregon, California and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals. 

Sunday, May 19, 5:00 p.m. Je t’aime!...An Afternoon of French Song

Serena Hill-LaRoche, soprano-Michael LaRoche, baritone-Catherine H. Garner, piano

Je t'aime!... An afternoon of French Song is a program designed to explore the rich history of the mélodie, from the early romantic composers through the turn of the century and well into the mid-20th century.  Song groups, cycles and individual selections will demonstrate the progression of styles and settings that have defined this treasure of western culture.  Performed in the ideal space for musical intimacy, you will experience the marriage of text and music in the manner that it was originally conceived by these French masters. South Carolina based soprano Serena Hill LaRoche (Coker College faculty member) and baritone Michael LaRoche (ECU graduate) collaborate with pianist and ECU faculty member Catherine Garner in duets and songs by Chausson, Fauré, Liszt, Poulenc, Dupont, Boulanger, Chaminade, Debussy and Satie.  

Suggested donations:

$20 per concert/$100 for the series

Seniors-$15 per concert/$75 for the series

Students-$5 per concert/$25 for the series

All concerts include a wine tasting.

Reservations Required!

Email (themusichouseingreenvillenc@embarqmail.com) phone [(252) 367-1892]

DBR Grill Out and Improv Workshop: Nov. 9, 2012

Improv Workshop and Porch Cook-Out @ The West Side Cello School in West Greenville

Where: 104 Manhattan Ave.
             Greenville, NC 27834

When: 5:30pm,  Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Vote. Then energize West Greenville. Play and Eat with DBR and other area strings. DBR will be talking music and helping us all become more comfortable with using our many diverse voices.

Happy Halloween!

No lessons on Wed. 10.31.12 in observance of Halloween.

Reminder: Students on the half semester payment plan, the remainder of your balance is due Nov. 1, 2012.

Happy practicing!

104 Manhattan Ave.; Violin House Update; DBR Events

The year is off to a great start. We're running cello lessons in the violin house as renovation work is winding down at Paris Ave. One of our violin teachers, Azusa Chapman, is busy getting her studio up and running in the front room @ the Violin House. We welcome Ms. Chapman to our family as she settles into her 9 to 5 as managing director of The Four Season's Chamber Music Festival in Greenville. She'll be giving violin lessons in the Violin House as time permits and as her studio grows.

We have a number of students participating in the DBR Connecting Crossroads event @ East Carolina University the week of November 5-9. We'll have a cookout/porch event at the Violin House on Nov. 6th starting at 5:30. Please come out to eat and to meet DBR while he discusses what music might mean for west Greenville and Higgs.

Registration and Brief Spring Update

We have a few spots opening up for the Summer and Fall. If you're interested in a free sample lesson, please drop me a line at chris.nunnally@gmail.com.

Congrats to our senior Charlie Hill for his acceptance to UNC-Charlotte and N.C. State. Decision pending. The gaming world is about to get a brilliant mind, while we lose a very fun cellist. We'll miss you Charlie.

Congrats to all of the Eastern Youth Orchestra auditionees. Everyone did an excellent job.

Check us out on facebook and "Like" us to follow our West Greenville Project. Things are moving right along. Won't be long before music once again fills 108 Paris Ave.

Cheers!
-CWN

Finally on the West Side

Well, we've finally moved. Although the physical studio is still coming together, we are excited about our new space located above Gawlick Violin Co., @ 402 Evans St. in Greenville, NC. The studio is above the shop and should provide our parents, students and siblings an exciting place to gather before, during, and after the lessons. I will soon post on places to visit, to shop, and to eat Downtown Greenville.

Happy Practicing!