News : Red Cedar to perform for Historical Society fund-raiser

The Red Cedar Chamber group will perform for a Historical Society fund-raiser.

Red Cedar Chamber Music and the Benton County Historical Society bring Strum & Jam, an exciting Rural Outreach concert for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and guitar, to Wesley United Methodist Church at 516 2nd Ave.in Vinton, Iowa at 7 p.m.on Friday April 27.

Flutist Jan Boland, guitarist John Dowdall, violinist Miera Kim, clarinetist Maurita Murphy Mead and cellist Carey Bostian join forces to perform an engaging and soulful 20th-century quintet and then break into trio configurations for 18th and 19th-century pieces by Haydn, Mozart and Kreutzer. The concert also features Maurita Murphy Mead and her sleek clarinet on beautiful and dynamic choros from the streets of Brazil.

Tickets are $10. For tickets and information call 319/472-5109.
Red Cedar Chamber Music‘s Rural Outreach concerts are sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts, the James & Norma Jean Rosborough Foundation and The Iowa Arts Council with additional support from Alliant Energy. The Vinton performance of Strum & Jam is supported by Vinton businesses and the Benton County Historical Society.
This concert is named after the quintet Strum & Jam written in 1993 by Oregon composer Bryan Johanson. Johanson’s piece is fueled by high energy strumming in the guitar and also by reflective moments where peaceful melodies are passed among the instruments. Composer Johanson designed the work so that every instrument has featured solos. He frequently pairs the flute and clarinet and violin and cello as duos with the guitar adding melodic and rhythmic commentary, making sure every performer gets the chance to “jam”. The piece closes with a lively Irish-style jig featuring the violin.
The classical trios by Mozart, Haydn and Joseph Kreutzer offer beautiful melodies, touching slow movements and rousing finales. Clarinetist Maurita Murphy Mead’s fifteen-year fascination with the vitality and improvisatory character of the Brazilian choro brings soaring melodies and infectious rhythms straight from the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
The musicians also pepper the performance with lively commentary designed to entertain and educate audience members about these diverse musical styles.

Jan Boland and John Dowdall began performing as a duo in 1979 and formed Red Cedar Chamber Music 1997 to explore chamber music for flute, guitar and other instruments. Red Cedar Chamber Music’s first recording, Czech Chamber Music, received a Critics' Choice award from the American Record Guide, which stated, "Chamber music should be just like this—intimate, bonding, and conversational."

Flutist Jan Boland, the executive director of Red Cedar Chamber Music, holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the Universityof Iowa. Guitarist John Dowdall, the artistic director of Red Cedar Chamber Music, holds a Master’s degree in musicology from the Universityof Iowa. They have each been awarded a Solo Recitalist Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts and together have appeared in concert at festivals in Europe, Canadaand the U.S.Their concerts and ten recordings on the Fleur de Son Classics label feature musical interpretation on both modern and historic 19th-century flutes.

Miera Kim is associate principal second violin of Orchestra Iowaand Instructor of Violin at CornellCollege. She studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Universityof Iowa. Native to Iowa City, Miera was a student of Doris Preucil. Carey Bostian is principal cellist of Orchestra Iowaand conductor of the Iowa City Community String Orchestra. He has a DMA in cello performance from the Universityof Iowaand an MFA in orchestral conducting as the last student of James Dixon. Miera and Carey perform together as College Street Music and are frequent guest artists with Red Cedar Chamber Music. They are featured with Jan Boland and John Dowdall, on Red Cedar Chamber Music’s new compact disc of music by Iowacomposer Harvey Sollberger, scheduled for release in 2012.

Maurita Murphy Mead is Professor of Clarinet at the Universityof Iowa. She has receiving many invitations both nationally and internationally to perform Brazilian music, for which she has a strong passion. Her compact disc recordings Red Hot & Brazilian and Over the Fence (Walking Frog Records) have won international critical acclaim. Dr. Mead is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and MichiganStateUniversity.

Red Cedar Chamber Music’s newest compact disc, Gaspard Kummer - Chamber Music for flute, guitar and strings, is distributed worldwide by Naxoson the Fleur de Son Classics label. It features music Red Cedar Chamber Music performed on the opening evening concert of the 7th International Convention of the British Flute Society in ManchesterEnglandin August 2010. In a review of the Kummer compact disc in Flute, The Journal of the British Flute Society (Dec. 2010), Robert Bigio notes, “Red Cedar Chamber Music is a fine collection of players of period nineteenth-century instruments who performed so successfully at the BFS convention this summer. These excellent players produce gorgeous sounds and play this delightful music with elegance, affection and great musicality. This is a wonderful CD which has given me much listening pleasure.”

For more information about all Strum & Jam performances visit www.redcedar.org or www.culturalcorridor.org or call 319/377-8028.

About Red Cedar Chamber Music 2011-2012

Currently celebrating its fifteenth season, Red Cedar Chamber Music continually strives to reach, challenge, and expand audiences that rarely have the opportunity to attend chamber music performances. Red Cedar musicians inform and entertain audiences, engaging them with lively commentary about the music, composers and instruments.

Red Cedar was honored in May 2007 as one of only four organizations nationwide to receive a three-year Residency Partnership Program grant from Chamber Music America providing $15,000 annually for Red Cedar’s educational performances in Eastern Iowa from 2007-2010. In the September/October 2010 issue of Chamber Music, the national magazine of Chamber Music America, Red Cedar was featured for its innovative educational work connecting elementary students with living composers.

Red Cedar Chamber Music is a self-presenting, not-for-profit organization, with a core ensemble that participates in all Red Cedar performances. Core ensemble members and Red Cedar founders, flutist, Jan Boland and guitarist, John Dowdall, are working with Red Cedar's board of directors and the community to ensure that Red Cedar Chamber Music will be providing wonderful chamber music in Eastern Iowa and beyond for generations to come.

Collaborations are at the very heart of Red Cedar‘s existence. Since it was founded in 1997, Red Cedar has partnered with numerous major arts and human service organizations in Eastern Iowa, and across the nation.

Audiences are treated to equal doses of the antique and the avant-garde, with concerts featuring 19th-century music on period instruments and newly-commissioned works for modern instruments. Red Cedar’s Community Connections program brings chamber music into the nooks and crannies of Eastern Iowa, when and where people normally congregate. Community Connections is sponsored by the James and Norma Jean Rosborough Foundation, Chamber Music America, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, the Iowa Arts Council, the City of Marion, the AEGON Transamerica Foundation, Rockwell Collins, the Giacoletto Foundation and numerous local corporations and individuals. Red Cedar’s Concert Series brings exciting guest artists from across the country to perform high-quality, but little-heard chamber music and newly-commissioned music. Red Cedar’s Rural Outreach program brings live performances to small communities throughout Eastern Iowa receives accolades and ongoing major grant support from the James and Norma Jean Rosborough Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, which has provided funding for the program for six consecutive seasons and printed a feature article on the Rural Outreach program in its 2007 Annual Report. Selections from Red Cedar Chamber Music’s live concerts are featured on Performance Today, a syndicated National Public Radio program broadcast on over 260 radio stations nationwide.

Red Cedar Chamber Music’s nine compact discs, recorded exclusively for Fleur De Son Classics, are available for worldwide download through distribution by Naxos. Gaspard Kummer Chamber Music for flute, guitar and strings, released in April 2011, was reviewed in the Dec. 2010 issue of Flute The Journal of the British Flute Society and editor Robert Bigio wrote, “Red Cedar Chamber Music is a fine collection of players of period nineteenth-century instruments who performed so successfully at the BFS convention this summer. These excellent players produce gorgeous sounds and play this delightful music with elegance, affection and great musicality. This is a wonderful CD which has given me much listening pleasure.” Red Cedar’s first recording, Czech Chamber Music, received a Critics' Choice award from the American Record Guide, which stated, "Chamber music should be just like this-intimate, bonding and conversational." This was followed by Vintage Viennese, which was lauded by Soundboard Magazine as "a terrific recording in terms of musical pleasure and performing excellence." Audiophile Audition, a nationally syndicated public-radio program, added, "All three performers are top rate." The Red Cedar Collection, featuring seven new compositions commissioned for the dawn of the 21st Century and classical music inspired by the Blues was characterized by Fanfare as presenting “First-rate music in lovely performances recorded to perfection.” The Fanfare reviewer also noted “The duo really can swing.” Red Cedar’s Three Guys Named Mo draws on the rich reserve of music for flute, viola and guitar composed in and around Viennain the early nineteenth century, featuring music by W.A. Mozart, Simon Molitor and Francesco Molino. The American Record guide noted, “This is all lovely, well-crafted music, which the Red Cedar Trio plays with elegance and ease, achieving a wonderful balance as an ensemble—If you want music that will make you smile, find this disc.“ Red Cedar’s Czech-Inspired compact disc, features music by Jerry Owen and a group commission by 15 Iowacomposers, inspired by the music of Anton Dvorak and Iowa’s Czech heritage. Gramophone magazine of Englandpraises Czech-Inspired for being a collection that “teases the ear but delivers the kind of musical pay-off that all light music should strive for” and calls the group commission a “project almost dazzling in its simplicity that has obviously struck a rich compositional vein.” Red Cedar’s Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Chamber Music at Schönbrunn, released in September 2007, features music for flute, guitar, fortepiano, violin and cello by Beethoven’s primary rival as a composer and piano virtuoso in early 19th-c. Vienna. According to Music Library Association Notes, “Red Cedar Chamber Music performers, led by its core duo of flutist, Jan Boland and guitarist, John Dowdall, sound almost as if they are dancing as they play this charming and impressive music, particularly on their delightful rendition of the Potpourri. Boland is particularly to be noted for her ability to wrestle sweet and beautifully in-tune sounds from the rather difficult nineteenth-century flute. Very highly recommended to all classical collections.” The American Record Guide calls the Hummel disc “An exceptional and superb recording, with great depth and breadth.” The Flute Network adds, “this disc displays grand technique and a cantabile style that allows the listener to sit back and bask in this sunny and romantic performance.” Fireflies: Chamber Music by Andrew Earle Simpson, released in April 2009, features music composed for Red Cedar by Andrew Earle Simpson. Christopher Chaffee finds the Red Cedar Trio’s “warm, rich tone” refreshing in his American Record Guide review of Fireflies and notes that the Trio “plays this music with elegance and impeccable skill”. Red Cedar’s newest compact disc, featuring music by Iowacomposer Harvey Sollberger commissioned by Red Cedar, will be released in 2012.

For more information visit www.redcedar.org or call 319/377-8028.