Join us for a night of Chamber Music in Jonsson Performance Hall featuring:

Laura L. Brandenburg, harp
Don Bailey, flute
Gayane Manasjan, cello
Michael McNicholas, percussion

Program:

Arthur Foote (1853-1937), At Dusk for Flute, Cello, and Harp (1920)

Boris Pigovat (b.1953), The Silent Music (Nerot Neshama) for Cello and Harp (1997)

Megan Metheney (b.1979), Mon Souffle (my breath) for Harp and Cello (2021)

Ian Clarke (b.1964), Hypnosis for Flute and Harp (1994/2007)

Joseph Jongen (1873-1953), Danse lente, Op.56b (c.1917)

Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), The Garden of Adonis for Flute and Harp, Op.245 (1973)

Largo
Allegro
Adagio – like a solemn dance
Allegro
Allegretto
Andante molto espressivo

INTERMISSION

Alan Hovhaness, Starry Night for Flute, Xylophone, and Harp, Op. 384 (1985)

Herman Beeftink (b.1953), “Spring” from The Seasons (2014)

Pascal Proust (b.1959), Prélude et Danse for Flute and Harp (1995)

Benjamin Godard (1849-1895), “Allegretto” from Suite de Trois Morceaux, Op.116, No. 1 (1889)

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), Sonatine en Trio for Flute, Cello, and Harp (1905)

Modere
Mouvement de minuet
Anime

Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000), Upon Enchanted Ground for Harp, Flute, Cello, and Giant Tam Tam, Op.90, No.1 (1951)

Bios:

Laura Logan Brandenburg, DMA, served as Harp Instructor on the Texas Christian University School of Music faculty from 2001-2020. In addition, she maintained an active pre-college studio through the TCU Music Prep Department, teaching Suzuki harp students age five through young adult. She currently teaches and coaches private students of all ages in her home studio. A highly regarded freelance harpist with over four decades of professional experience, Laura enjoys a wide variety of collaborative performance opportunities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She has been a frequent sub with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1990 and has most recently served as Principal Harp with the Lewisville Lake Symphony. She held the position of Principal Harp with the Richardson Symphony Orchestra from 1990 – 2010 as well as Principal Harp in the Oklahoma City Philharmonic from 1995 – 1997. She is founder, director and member of the Octavia Harp Ensemble, performing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and beyond for more than 25 years. Octavia released two CDs on the Traditional Sounds label, “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “Moonlight Sonata.” Laura delights in performing with Cindy Horstman and Kimberly DeRosa as The Dallas Jazz Harp Ensemble, presenting concerts and educational programs of original tunes and jazz standards arranged for harp trio. Other recent adventures on harp include collaborating with Jeff Walters as The Logan/Walters Harp Duo, performing all original transcriptions and arrangements for two harps. Laura has been performing with flutist Don Bailey since 2017. As a duo, they are uniquely committed to exploring and transcribing new music for flute and harp that expands the boundaries of the repertoire while feeding the artistic soul. Their video CD “Breathing Room” is set to be released in 2021.

Laura has been privileged to work closely with many fine contemporary composers and has been the honoree of two commissioned works for harp and organ: Passacaglia by Joel Martinson was premiered in 1995 and Legend by Charles Callahan was premiered in 2000. In 2016, she had the pleasure of performing the winning composition of the American Harp Society in Dallas Composer Competition, Sketches for Harp by Israeli composer Na’ama Tamir.

Active as a camp clinician specializing in harp ensemble repertoire, Laura presents workshops locally and nationally for several organizations. She has been honored to serve in various positions on the American Harp Society Board of Directors, and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Harp in Worship Conference.

She considers her greatest life’s work to be her two sons, Ethan and Luke, who fell asleep to the sound of harp music every night and never once complained.

A 20-year resident of New York City, Don Bailey recently returned to Dallas, where his career began with SMU’s Voices of Change and the Dallas Bach and Chamber Orchestras. He has enjoyed a diverse career as a performer, professor, festival planner, and board member of several arts organizations, including the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. He was solo flutist for Cunard Cruise Lines and currently tours with pianists Dianne Frazer, official pianist for the National Flute Association, and Donald Sulzen of the Munich Piano Trio, with whom he has recorded. He has performed at festivals in Aspen, Colorado, Nice, France, and Spoleto, Italy, among others, and at several National Flute Association conventions. In May 2020, he will join the faculties of the Ischia and Naples (Italy) Chamber Music Festivals.

Don has recorded for Summit, Genuin, Parnassus, International, and Albany Records. American Record Guide praised his debut CD, Voyage: “impeccably controlled sound…full of artful colors and nuances…exceptional attention to detail…unfailing precision.”  Fanfare said his Tribute CD was “…a delight from beginning to end…a brilliant technique and a bristling sense of excitement.”

While serving as archivist for composer Gian Carlo Menotti, Don co-curated and performed on the chamber music concerts at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.  Soon after, with members of the Dallas Symphony and Dallas Opera orchestras, he recorded Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, released December 2007 by Albany Records.

Don has been interviewed for Flute Stories, “101 Inspirational Stories by the World’s Best Flute Players”, The Flutist Quarterly, “The Musical Road Less Traveled”, A Flute in My Refrigerator, “Celebrating a Life in Music”, and he was the cover interview of the September 2008 issue of Flute Talk.

He completed his graduate studies at the University of North Texas and continued studies at the Aspen Music Festival and Académie d’été in Nice, France. His teachers include the distinguished flutists Julius Baker, Harold Bennett, Michel Debost, Charles Delaney, Geoffrey Gilbert, Alain Marion, Judith Mendenhall, George Morey, Marcel Moyse, and Albert Tipton. (http://donbailey.net)

Cellist Gayane Manasjan Fullford is a versatile and prolific performer. She has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist throughout the United States including such cites as New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Austin, Birmingham, San Juan-Puerto Rico, and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. She has also performed throughout Japan and Iceland. She has performed extensively in Vermont where she co founded the Killington Music Festival. An active teacher, Ms. Manasjan maintains a private studio and has given masterclasses at Rice University, the Sakuyo College of Music in Japan, and at the Reykavik College of Music in Iceland. Born in Hollywood, California, Ms. Manasjan is a recipient of an award from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and holds degrees from the Juilliard School and California Institute of the Arts. Her principal cello teachers include Channing Robbins, Ron Leonard, and Leonard Rose. She has also worked with members of the Juilliard, Hungarian, Cleveland, and Vegh String Quartets. A former member of the Ft. Worth Symphony, she has performed for decades with the Dallas Symphony. She was principal cellist of the Dallas Chamber Orchestra from 1982 through 1995. Ms Manasjan is Artistic Director of Art Music, an annual chamber music concert series, now in it’s eleventh season, in Dallas.

Michael E. McNicholas, a member of the Dallas Winds almost since its inception. Officially joining the percussion section in 1987, serving as Principal Percussionist from 1989-1991, and rejoining the percussion section in 1995.

In addition to the Dallas Winds, Michael performs regularly with the Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, as an Associate Musician with the Dallas Opera Orchestra, Lawton Philharmonic, East Texas Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, Casa Mañana, Dallas Theater Center, Theater 3, and is an active freelance musician.

Since the Summer of 2001, he’s been Principal Percussionist with Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theater, based in Logan Utah, and serves as Orchestra Manager. Previous Summers he’s performed at The Barter Theater, Abingdon Virginia, and Galveston Island Outdoor Musicals.

Not being particularly adept at, or all that fond of teaching. Michael pursued a parallel career as a stage-technician. Serving as Technical Director of the Dallas Winds, he’s also Stage-Manager for Voices of Change, Stage-manager for Dallas Chamber Music Society, and has worked at just about every major venue in DFW. He also owns DFW Percussion Rentals, LLC, a backline company providing percussion equipment, orchestral backline, stage-management services, and instrumental transport/cartage services to ensembles and venues in Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

Michael received his Bachelor of Music degree from Southern Methodist University, Dallas Texas. His teachers included. Douglas Howard, Principal Percussionist of the Dallas Symphony, and Kalman Cherry, Principal Timpanist of the Dallas Symphony. He also holds a “Certificate of Advanced Studies” from the Royal Academy of Music, London, England. His teachers included. Nicholas Cole, Former Principal Percussionist of the Royal Philharmonic, and Stephen Quiqley, Principal of the Royal Philharmonic. In 2015 he was appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy.
Friday, November 12 at 8:00pm

Jonsson Performance Hall, JO 2.604
Jonsson Performance Hall is on the north mall inside Erik Jonsson Academic Center (JO) in room number JO 2.604.