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Home , Mercer University, Robert McDuffie, Ward Stare

ORC HES TRA

April 27, 2021 7:30 p.m. Grand House

Ward Stare, conductor McDuffie C ent er for St rings Program

Mercer Orchestra April 27, 2021 | 7:30 p.m. Grand Opera House

Ward Stare, Conductor Townsend School of Music Concerto Competition Winner: Sara Scanlon,

Robert McDuffie Center for Strings Award presented to Louise Barfield by Amy Schwartz Moretti, Robert McDuffie and Ward Stare

String Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962-)

Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Major, Op. 101 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) I. Allegro moderato Arr. John Webber II. Adagio III. Rondo (Allegro) Sara Scanlon, Cello

Verklärte Nacht Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Violin I Anna Black, Concertmaster (Senior – Eagle, ID) Naomi Fan (Sophomore – Marietta, GA) Hayoung Choi (Sophomore – Daejeon, South Korea) Allyson Cohen (Junior – Narberth, PA) Augusta Schubert, Principal Second Violin (Junior – Woodway, TX) Virgil Moore II (Freshman – Lynchburg, VA) Caitlyn Clingenpeel (Sophomore – Centreville, VA) Chelsea Cline (Junior – Honolulu, HI)

Viola Seido Karasaki, Principal (Second-Year Artist Diploma – El Cerrito, CA) Carlos Walker (Freshman – St. Petersburg, FL) Alec Luna (Sophomore – Orlando, FL)

Cello Luis Parra, Principal (Senior – San Felipe, Venezuela) Constantine Janello (Junior – Morton, IL) Lichi Acosta (Senior – Rafaela, Argentina) Juliana Moroz (Sophomore – Winnipeg, Canada) Peyton Magalhaes (Senior – Vilnius, Lithuania) Sara Scanlon (Junior – Milford, CT)

Bass Dylan Reckner, Principal (Senior – Ambler, PA) Artist Biographies The heart and soul of concert pianist, Louise Barfield, evolves from the roots of ’s Deep South, the heritage of New York’s ancestry, and the artistic culture of Europe and South America. Her inspirations reflect the enviable influences of such masters of the keyboard as Adele Marcus, Ania Dorfmann, Guido Agosti, David Milliken, Gladys Pinkston, and Daniel Ericourt. The renowned conductor, Maestro Adrian Gnam, describes her as, “... one of America’s finest pianists, possessing a marvelous sound, innate musicality, prodigious technique, and magical stage presence.”

Louise Barfield’s early musical training began at the age of six when she entered the Preparatory Department at the Wesleyan Conservatory of Fine Arts in Macon, Georgia as a student of Gladys Pinkston. After receiving an Artist Certificate from the Conservatory at the age of eighteen, she was the recipient of The Dimitri Mitropoulos Award for study with internationally known concerts pianists, Ania Dorfmann and David Milliken at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. Following graduation, Ms. Barfield was awarded a full scholarship from The William G. Helis Foundation to study at the renowned Juilliard School of Music in where she received a Diploma and Master of Music Degree in Piano Performance. As a scholarship student of the acclaimed concert pianist and pedagogue at Juilliard, Adele Marcus, Ms. Barfield was invited to perform at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City at the request of Adele Marcus in a special concert before many of New York’s elite musicians. Receiving Juilliard’s distinguished recognition, the designation of “Exceptional”, Adele Marcus spoke of Ms. Barfield as “... having achieved splendid acclaim for the artistry she brings to her profession.”

Following graduation from The Juilliard School, Ms. Barfield was awarded two successive Fulbright Grants for study in , Italy with Maestro Guido Agosti at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. She has participated in The Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts, Ambler Music Festival in Ambler, Pennsylvania, and Artist Biographies the Aspen School of Music in Aspen, Colorado. She has also collaborated with the celebrated French pianist, Daniel Ericourt. Ms. Barfield is the recipient of an official appointment from the The National Association of the Partners of the Americas in Washington, DC as Cultural Ambassador and Artist-in- Residence to Brazil to perform and teach international students attending the Escola Americana di Recife. In addition to concerts in the and in Europe, Ms. Barfield’s musical career grew to include a deep love for teaching children, especially at Camp Glen Arden in Tuxedo, North Carolina, where she founded and directed the Performing Arts Program. During a lifetime of teaching young musicians, Ms. Barfield has guided many talented pianists into prestigious music schools and rewarding music careers. Among her many award-winning students, prominent musician, Chuck Leavell, pianist for The Rolling Stones and The Allman Brothers Band, says “When she sat down at my piano, I nearly fell over backwards. She is an immaculate player. No doubt about it, she had a profound influence on my musical life.” In addition to private teaching in Macon and , Ms. Barfield has been featured in Master Classes through Zoom video conferencing to talented pianists in England, Spain, United States, Greece, Australia, and Hong Kong.

Few musicians are called on to meet the challenge facing Louise Barfield when she read in a Rome, Italy newspaper that she was the guest artist on the prestigious Castel Sant’Angelo Concert Series in less than two hours. Stunned by a director’s error, she performed to an oblivious full house and a standing ovation. She rose to another challenge when returning home on the interstate from a concert she performed in Georgia. Stuck from behind by a tractor trailer truck travelling over one hundred miles an hour with a driver sound asleep, she suffered numerous spinal injuries resulting in three surgeries, muscle atrophy in both hands, paralysis in her right hand, over three years of , and a threatening end to her performing career. After five years of silence, Ms. Barfield’s inexhaustible love and dedication led her back to the concert stage. It was at the Grand Opening of Little Carnegie of the South, a non-profit concert hall and art gallery, founded by Ms. Barfield in Macon, Georgia, that she gave her first performance after the accident.

Ms. Barfield is a former faculty member of Marymount International School in Rome, Italy, and in Macon, Georgia, and Artist Biographies was the first Artist-in- Residence at Christ Episcopal School in Asheville, North Carolina. Listed in Who’s Who in America and the World’s Who’s Who of Women, Ms. Barfield has been featured in magazines includingSouthern Living, Georgia Journal, Macon Magazine, The Eleventh Hour, Georgia Backroads, and Audio Journal. Ms. Barfield is also featured in the book,You-Turn: Changing Direction in Midlife by California based author, Dr. Nancy Irwin. The book focuses on forty-three individuals across the United States whose courage and commitment to new dreams make them inspiring role models for people of all ages. Ms. Barfield was also featured in an oil painting by Macon artist, Catharine Burns Liles, commissioned by Southern Bell for the 1988-1989 Macon Telephone book cover performing Concerto No.2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the Macon Symphony Orchestra. Often featured on radio and television broadcasts, Ms. Barfield was the recipient of the 2005 Macon Arts Alliance Cultural Award given in honor of those “who have made significant contributions to the arts and cultural life of Macon and Bibb County.”

When she founded Little Carnegie of the South in 2002, Ms. Barfield’s vision was and continues to be the presentation of aspiring and established performing and visual artists to the Macon community. Little Carnegie of the South, at 1962 Forsyth Street in Macon, includes a formal concert hall, an art gallery, Carnegie Out Back, an outdoor stage for Rock, Folk, Bluegrass, Classical, and Jazz concerts, Carnegie Café, a bistro type performance area for children and teens, Camp Carnegie, Intermezzo, an adult music appreciation course, Bravo Opera, Bambini de la Musica, Piano Pizzazz, individual piano lessons for all ages and levels, and Stars of Carnegie. During its eighteen successful years, Little Carnegie of the South has presented over one thousand five hundred musicians and artists from Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, New York, California, Missouri, Ohio; Prague, Czech Republic, Rome, Italy, and Athens Greece. Little Carnegie of the South was recently awarded the 2020 Best of Macon designation in the field of “Instrumental Music Instruction”, sponsored by the Macon Award Program.

Ms. Barfield is the designer of an internationally circulated World Peace Commitment Flag and HIDE-A-HAND, The Invisible Keyboard, an invention to improve the ability to read music. She is the Founder and Director of THE TRILOGY in Macon which includes Little Carnegie of Artist Biographies the South, The Helen Gustin Logan House designed by Neel Reid, a Museum of seven antique grand pianos, showcasing five Steinway grands dating from 1866 to 1944, and The Helen Logan Clisby Barfield House.

Ms. Barfield is a former member of The Macon Morning Music Club where she served twice as President, The Junior League of Macon, The National Society of the Colonial Dames in The State of Georgia, P.E.O. Chapter O of North Carolina, Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity, The Macon Community Concert Board of Directors, and served as The Macon Symphony Orchestra Staff Pianist.

Louise Barfield is the mother of two children, a son, Joseph Clisby White, who travels the United States as an RN working in Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Units of Level 1 Trauma Hospitals, and a daughter, Louise Logan White, an international and published Fine Art Photographer living in and New York.

Ms. Barfield is the author of her forthcoming autobiography,CHILD OF PASSION, The Life and Courage of Concert Pianist, Louise Barfield.

Sara Scanlon, age twenty, developed her love of music and passion for playing cello at age four. She made her solo debut in April of 2016, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Sara has been a featured soloist on NPR’s nationally broadcasted program “From the Top” and was a semifinalist in the 2014 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Sara also had a solo performance at the Orford Musique’s - Gala du Prix as a finalist for the Orford Music Award. A native of Milford, Connecticut, Sara was the winner of the Chappaqua Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Greater New Haven Concert Orchestra’s Concerto Competition, and the Hamden Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Sara studied with Clara Kim and Richard Aaron at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division and is currently studying with Julie Artist Biographies Albers, Leo Singer, and Richard Aaron at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. In addition to her solo work, Sara is a sought-after chamber musician. She was selected and performed in the Finckel-Wu Han Chamber Music Program as part of the Aspen Music Festival, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Fabian Concert Series, and will be performing in the 2021 Rome Chamber Music Festival.

Grammy-nominated conductor, Wa r d Stare, hailed by the Tribune as “a rising-star in the conducting firmament” and praised for “inspiring musicians to impressive heights” by The New York Times, enjoys a multi-faceted career as a musician. In demand as a guest conductor, Stare has conducted the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Sydney (Australia), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Germany), Pittsburgh, Grant Park (Chicago), Atlanta, Detroit, and , as well as the New World Symphony and Calgary Philharmonic. Stare recently completed a highly successful 7 year tenure as Music Director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Stare made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 2017, conducting nine performances of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, with Grammy- winning mezzo-soprano in the title role. Stare’s frequent collaborations with the Lyric Opera of Chicago began in 2012, conducting a production of Hansel and Gretel, returning in 2013 for Die Fledermaus, and again in 2014 to lead Porgy and Bess to rave reviews. Stare served as resident conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2012 and, in 2009, made his highly successful Carnegie Hall debut with the orchestra, stepping in to lead H. K. Gruber’s Frankenstein. Stare has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with the SLSO and returns frequently as a guest.

As a passionate advocate for arts education, Ward Stare has served as a Distinguished Artist at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer Artist Biographies University since 2012. In the fall of 2016, Stare recorded Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and String Orchestra, by R.E.M. bassist and songwriter Mike Mills, with the ensemble and its founder, Robert McDuffie. Stare is an enthusiastic collaborator and performer of new music, including the world premiere performance of ‘Pravda’, by Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal and the regional premiere of Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis’ Flute Concerto, performed by Marina Piccinini.

In the Spring of 2019, Stare and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra released their first recording, American Rapture, featuring the world- premiere recordings of Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon’s ‘Harp Concerto’, with Yolanda Kondonassis as soloist, and Patrick Harlin’s ‘Rapture’. Higdon’s Harp Concerto has been nominated for two Grammy Awards- Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Jennifer Higdon) and Best Classical Instrumental Solo (Yolanda Kondonassis and Ward Stare). Ward Stare was trained as a trombonist at The Juilliard School in Manhattan. At 18, he was appointed principal trombonist of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and has performed as an orchestral musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the , among others. As a soloist, he has concertized in both the U.S. and Europe.