PARTY ON!
On June 21, BMC’s Centennial season kicked off with a Gala Concert, featuring 16 Student Awards alumni, from Joanne Donnellan (1961) to Madeline Slettedahl (2011) – the payoff on 50 years of recognizing and rewarding budding virtuosos. The festivities continue with BMC’s Centennial Night Beat Season:
• Three more multiple-Student Award champions,
• A Cabaret Evening of Cole Porter perennials,
• An opera diva from New York, and
• A boutique of outstanding talents from Western.
ALL-STAR LINEUP
September 10 – SUSAN TANG, pianist (BMC Awards 1997, 1998)
Assistant Professor at NE Illinois University and Artistic Director of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival, Susan Tang holds B.Mus., M.Mus. and DMA degrees from the Eastman and Manhattan schools of Music. Of all her performances — Ravinia Festival, Carnegie-Weill Hall, the Far East, North America, Colombia — she takes special pride in that gig as pianist-actor with the outrageously avant-garde Mabou Mines Dollhouse.
Dr. Tang will play a program of Chopin, Ives, Ligeti and Albeniz.
October 8 and 24 – A SWELL PARTY WITH COLE PORTER*
They’re b-a-a-ack! The Cabaret cabal returns in a new musical comedy revue with the songs of Cole Porter. Music direction Scott Henderson.
Book by Scott Henderson, Martin Bray and Larry Rosen.
With: Sherrie Kahn, Martin Bray, Megann Schmidt, Ben Buchanan and Martha Benedict as Elsa Maxwell. (rated PG-14 for sophistication.)
*(Firehouse PAC. Sorry, no Take-a-Teen passes.)
DEC. 3 – JEREMY BERRY, violist (BMC Awards 2001, 2002, 2003)
Let the Revels begin! We have been lucky enough to steal Jeremy Berry for a day or two from the renowned Calidore Quartet, and his duties as Visiting Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University. A graduate of both The Juilliard School (B.Mus.) and Colburn Conservatory of Music (Artist Diploma), Mr. Berry has soloed in concertos with the American Youth Symphony and Bellingham Festival of Music, and took first place in the Marrowstone Festival Concerto Competition. Other appearances include the Aspen, Sarasota, Verbier and Kneisel Hall Festivals, the Itzhak Perlman Program, and Youth Orchestra of the Americas. Jeremy Berry began his viola studies with Elizabeth Stuen-Walker at the age of five.
APRIL 7 – WESTERN TREASURES
Every year we bestow the Virginia Glover Awards on three Western students, chosen in competitive audition. But the awards concert is often more about the joy of collaboration, as the recipient’s friends pile on for an exhilarating classical jam session, full of virtuosity and fun.
MAY 5 – JEREMY DESCHANE, pianist (BMC Awards 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)
In addition to sweeping our Enid Carrick Awards, Jeremy Deschane twice won the WSTMA Young Artists Competition, and presented an award-winning piano trio performance at the 2012 MTNA National Convention. Solo and chamber appearances have taken him across the U.S., and he has appeared with orchestras in Bellingham, Seattle, Ellensburg and Rochester. His teachers have included Jeffrey Gilliam, Rebecca Penneys at the Eastman School of Music, and John Pickett at Central Washington University, as well as master classes and lessons from such artists as Leon Fleisher, Malcolm Bilson, Stephen Drury and Gil Kalish, and studies at the Icicle Creek and Chautauqua Festivals. Jeremy Deschane lives in Seattle.
JUNE 2 – KATHERINE COPLAND, soprano
At Manhattan School of Music, Katherine Copland was Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. Other lead roles in New York include The Judgment of Paris (Eccles), the Brahms Requiem, Messiah, Simon Boccanegra, Carmen, and Sir John in Love; in Italy, La rondine, Anna Bolena, Madama Butterfly, and Le nozze di Figaro (both the Countess and Susanna). Ms. Copland grew up in Bellingham, and earned a B.Mus. degree from the University of Washington. She now resides in New York City.
SEASON PASS: 6 concerts for $60.
Online until Sept 10 or at the door (Sept. 10 Night Beat).
TAKE-A-STUDENT: One teenager accompanied by an adult is admitted free to all 5 Night Beat concerts at First Congregational Church. Because of space limitations at Firehouse PAC, the offer is not valid for the Cole Porter show in October.