Appalachian State University’s Hayes School of Music will present guest artists Heartland Baroque on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. in Broyhill Music Center’s Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.
Heartland Baroque presents “The Winged Lion and the Unremembered Sea,” a program telling the story of Venice with the sounds of its most renowned 17th-Century musical masters, and in the words of famed humorist Mark Twain. Selections from The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869, chronicle Twain’s time in Venice as he journeyed through Europe with a group of Americans. Juxtaposed against this is the baroque period, when Venice is the veritable musical capital of Italy and is often considered one of the most alive and artistically innovative cities in the entirety of Europe. Venice’s baroque musicians paint the landscape of the city with vivid and sacred colors.
Twain’s inventive (and often wry) descriptions of her gondoliers, churches, ancient bridges, art and piazzas give tender testimony to Venice’s cultural significance. Take an imaginative and compelling walking tour of Venice with Mark Twain as our 19th-Century guide, hand-in-hand with the most-revered Venetian composers of the 17th-Century: Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Alessandro Grandi, Dario Castello, and Biagio Marini. Heartland’s guest artists, celebrated soprano Molly Quinn, along with esteemed narrator Dennis Delamar, will be featured in texts of Mark Twain and in works honoring Venice and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Venice’s “protector of the waters.”
About Guest Artist, Molly Quinn, Soprano
Hailed for her “radiant sweetness” by the New York Times, Molly Quinn has garnered praise for her thought-provoking and delightful interpretation of music from the medieval to the modern. She has collaborated with notable musicians and arts organizations around the globe including The Knights NYC, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, The Folger Consort, The Bang on a Can All-Stars, TENET, Trinity Wall Street, Ascension Music, Clarion Music Society, Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue and Concert Royale, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble VII, The Helicon Society, Quicksilver Ensemble, and Acronym.
Molly has also garnered acclaim for her work crossing genres in classical, folk, and contemporary music. Molly was dubbed “pure radiance” by the Los Angeles Times for her work with The Bang on a Can All-Stars in Steel Hammer. The production traveled to Abu Dhabi in 2017. Other highlights of the past season include her Kennedy Center Debut as the title role in Dido and Aeneas, and the role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Clarion Music Society, where Opera News dubbed her “A lovely and feisty companion.” She has been featured in projects by notable presenters including The Lincoln Center White Lights Festival, Moscow’s Gold Mask Festival, BAM Next Wave Festival, Bang on a Can marathon, San Francisco Early Music Series, and Carnegie Hall’s Venetian Festival.
She is a festival soloist at The Staunton Music Festival, and staff musician and featured soloist at The Carmel Bach Festival. She was a featured soloist on Trinity wall Street’s Grammy Nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt. She has performed as a soloist in such noted international venues as Shostakovich Hall in St Petersburg, Teatro National de Costa Rica, The Arts Center of NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Vancouver’s Chan Centre for the performing arts, and San Cristobal Cathedral in Havana, Cuba.
About Guest Artist, Dennis Delamar, Narrator
Charlotte actor, director and retired NC public school teacher, Dennis Delamar joins Heartland Baroque to bring life to Mark Twain’s words from The Innocents Abroad published in 1869, chronicling his time in Venice as he journeyed through Europe with a group of Americans. Companies featuring Delamar’s work on stage include Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, Opera Carolina, Charlotte Symphony, Charlotte Repertory Theatre, CPCC Summer Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Porthouse Theatre, Theatre Charlotte, Theatre Raleigh and ECU Loessin Summer Theatre.
Favorite roles include Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, John Adams in 1776, the Duke in Big River (a gracious nod to Mark Twain), Dr. Dysart in Equus, Dr. Parker in Batboy: the Musical, Vanya in Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Grandpa in You Can’t Take It With You, Georges in La Cage Aux Folles, Father in Violet and Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34thStreet. Metrolina Theatre Association named him best director for his productions of Clybourne Park, The Pillowman, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, The Full Monty, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and I Am My Own Wife. He has appeared as Jacob/Potiphar in the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Samuel Ludlow in the AMC TV mini-series Turn: Washington Spies.
About Heartland Baroque
Bound by a passion for playing instrumental music of the 17th and 18th-Centuries, Heartland Baroque is an ensemble made up of respected early music specialists from all over the United States. Its members Martie Perry and David Wilson, baroque violins, Keith Collins, dulcian, Barbara Krumdieck, baroque cello, and Billy Simms, theorbo, hail from North Carolina, Indiana, California, and Maryland, and often perform together in other well-known historically-informed period instrument ensembles around the country.
Heartland Baroque dives into the Baroque musical world with vigor, showing off the immediacy and technical brilliance, the vivacity and profundity, the lilt, complexity, and spontaneity of its composers. Heartland performed one of the featured concerts in the 2018 North Carolina HIP Music Festival and most recently, the group was awarded a residency at the esteemed Avaloch Farm Music Institute. Heartland Baroque has also performed concert tours in North Carolina, and has presented fringe concerts at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals as well for the Early Music Festival for Grace. The group’s debut CD, “The Benevolent Monarch,” will be released in September of 2018.
About the Hayes School of Music
The Hayes School of Music prepares young musicians for professional lives as performers, composers, music educators, music therapists, conductors, and music industry professionals, ensuring the next generation of musical leadership for the state, region, and nation. Noted for quality instruction by national and internationally recognized faculty musicians, the school offers seven undergraduate degree programs and three graduate level programs.
About Appalachian
Appalachian State University, in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The transformational Appalachian experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and embrace diversity and difference. As one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina system, Appalachian enrolls about 18,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.
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