Grand Valley State University will kick off its 2004 Fall Arts Celebration on September 14 with a lively evening of jazz, classical music, and Gershwin starring its own ensembles in residence. Featured in the Artist-Faculty Showcase concert are Avatar Brass, the Perugino String Quartet with pianist Aviram Reichert, and the Faculty Jazz Trio all favorites of GVSU audiences.
The Artist-Faculty Showcase is Tuesday, September 14 at 8 p.m. in the Louis Armstrong Theatre of the Performing Arts Center, Allendale. Admission is free; a public reception follows the concert. The event is sponsored by a gift of the Gearhart Family
Avatar Brass
Avatar will perform music by George Gershwin. Members of the
quintet all artist-faculty members in GVSUs Music
Department are trumpeters Richard Stoelzel and Justin Emerich,
horn player Michael Atkinson, trombonist Jeremy Moeller, and tubist
Jacob Cameron.
Formed in 1993, Avatar is comprised of five of Americas finest brass musicians whose combined experience includes performances with the New Orleans, Baltimore, New World, Charleston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Concerts have taken the members of Avatar all across the globe, from Carnegie Hall, across Asia, the White House, and to the Russian Kremlin. Avatar Brass has released two compact discs on the Klavier label, Magnetic Rags and Liturgical Fanfares.
Perugino String Quartet
The Perugino String Quartet will perform Ravels String
Quartet in F Major. Musicians members of the Grand Rapids
Symphony as well as the GVSU music faculty are violinists Eric
Tanner and Diane McElfish and cellist Stacey Bosman Tanner. The newest
member of the quartet, introduced in this concert, is violist Barbara
Corbato. Performing with Perugino will be pianist Aviram Reichert,
associate professor of music at GVSU and medalist in the 1997 Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition.
In residence at Grand Valley since 1997, highlights of string quartets tenure include a 1999 performance at Lincoln Center as part of the prestigious Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. In addition to appearing the past four summers at the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck, Perugino annually performs about 15 concerts throughout Michigan.
The GVSU Faculty Jazz Trio
The Faculty Jazz Trio will close the Artist-Faculty Showcase with
the sounds of jazz. Members of the ensemble are Kurt Ellenberger, jazz
piano, Tim Froncek, drum set (Froncek was named 2004 Jazz Musician of
the Year by the West Michigan Jazz Society), and newest member Rob
Hartman, bass.
The members of the GVSU Faculty Jazz Trio have performed in a wide variety of musical settings including performances with such legendary jazz artists as Kenny Wheeler, Billy Eckstine, Della Reese, Dizzy Gillespie, Arturo Sandoval, Woody Herman, Randy Brecker, and Bobby Shew.
For a list of other Fall Arts Celebration events, see www.gvsu.edu/fallarts or call (616) 331-2180.
