, associate professor of at EMU, will perform on piano, giving a recital that will encompass the romantic sounds of Rachmaninoff and Medtner to the modern sounds of Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

“These pieces have a lot of humor and capture a special mood,” said Mackey.

Mackey will perform Nicolai Medtner’s “Fairy Tales,” Igor Stravinsky’s Etude No. 4, Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 2, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue Op. 87, No. 7, and a group of Preludes from Op. 23 and Op. 32 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

“There is a unique contrast with each piece, almost whimsical and mischievous in nature,” Mackey said.

In addition to teaching at EMU, Mackey directs the during the and tours as a soloist with the .

Admission

Admission to the concert is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund. For more information contact , office manager, at 540-432-4225 or mathewsl@emu.edu.

Learn more about music at EMU:

• undergraduate music studies
• music faculty
• student music ensembles

, a baritone, will perform Bach’s “Cantata No. 203, “Six lieder for baritone, violin and piano” by Spohr and American folk song settings by Kohn.

He will be assisted by colleagues , violin, and , piano and harpsichord.

Richardson is currently assistant professor of music at 草莓社区 where he teaches voice and conducts ChoirWithoutBorders. He completed his undergraduate work at Covenant College and holds his master of music degree from The Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University where he graduated Pi Kappa Lambda and was awarded the Annie Wentz Prize in Voice. He will be a featured soloist in a Mozart work at the 19th annual at EMU in June.

Admission to the program is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.

Dr. Mackey will perform “Sonata in B minor” by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Hungarian composer’s birth and selections of Claude Debussy and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Mackey teaches applied piano, pedagogy, and music theory at EMU as well as private piano. She has performed in solo and chamber music settings in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, and she is currently on the Tour Roster of the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Mackey performs in solo and chamber music settings in the United States and Europe and currently tours as an artist for the Virginia Commission of the Arts and serves as director of the Virginia Baroque Performance
Academy. She gave a concerto performance at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in June, 2010.

Mackey also performs in the Gee-Mackey Duo with cellist David Gee. They performed a concert tour in Spain and Morocco in 2008 and perform widely in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

A graduate of The Juilliard School with her doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, she also holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree from the University of Michigan.

Admission to the program is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.

Musica Harmonia

Group members are Joan Griffing, violin; Lynne Mackey, piano; Diane Phoenix-Neal, viola; Les Nicholas, clarinet; and Beth Vanderborgh, cello.

They will perform by “Piano Quartet No. 1 in g minor, K 478” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; “Fairy Tales (Marchenerzahlungen), Op. 132” by Robert Schumann for clarinet, viola and piano; and “Letters to the World,” a piano quartet by Gwyneth Walker.

Dr. Martha G. (Marti) Eads, professor of language and literature at EMU, will read the poems that Walker’s work is based upon.

Working for peace and understanding through music

Musica Harmonia was newly formed in 2007. The musicians, who met through the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C., come together in this ensemble with a goal to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration.

They all have experienced life in many countries of the world including Brazil, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the USA.

Admission info and more

Admission to the concert is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.

Learn more about music at EMU:

• undergraduate music studies
• music faculty
• student music ensembles

The music department shines the performance spotlight on one of its own, , pianist, in a faculty recital 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23 in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.

Dr. Mackey, an associate professor of music, will present a program of music by Spanish composers as well as composers of France, the United States and Argentina who were strongly influenced by the culture and musical idioms of Spain.

Selections

Program highlights include Book I of the "Iberia Suite" of Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz, French composer Maurice Ravel’s "Alborada del gracioso" from "Miroirs," Cry of the Mothers" by American composer Amy Rubin and "Sonata for Piano" (1952) of Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. Mackey will also play "Valses Poeticos" of Enrique Granados and "Danza de la Pastora" of Ernesto Halffter.

About Lynne Mackey

Mackey performs in solo and chamber music settings in the United States and Europe and currently tours as an artist for the Virginia Commission of the Arts and serves as director of the Virginia Baroque Performance Academy.

She holds a graduate degree from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. She has appeared with the Grand Rapids and Flint Symphonies as well as with the Lynchburg Symphony in Virginia. Upcoming engagements include a concerto performance at the 2010 Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in June this year.

Mackey also performs in the Gee-Mackey Duo with cellist David Gee. They performed a concert tour in Spain and Morocco in 2008 and perform widely in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.

More info

Admission to the recital is free. Donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.

The EMU Chamber Singers and Chamber Orchestra will share their musical gifts as part of this fall’s musical ‘gala.’ Photo by Matt Gillis

EMU’s music department will showcase its choral and instrumental groups in a concert 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, in Lehman Auditorium.

The EMU Chamber Orchestra will play “Simply Symphony,” a short work for strings that British composer Benjamin Britten wrote based on songs and instrumental pieces he had composed as a child. EMU junior Benjamin Bergey will conduct the 30-member chamber orchestra.

The EMU Jazz Ensemble, directed by James W. (Jim) Warner, will perform “Yardbird Suite” by Charlie Parker, arranged by Roger Pemberton; “A Day In The Life Of A Fool” by Lui Bonfa, arranged by Frank Mantooth’ and “To God Be The Glory,” arranged by Aaron Weitekamp.

Ken Nafziger, professor of music
Lynne Mackey, associate professor of music

The EMU Chamber Singers will present a collection of popular songs from the 1970s-80s by Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Dolly Parton and Carly Simon and a spiritual that figured prominently in the anti-war movement.

Kenneth Nafziger, professor of music, will conduct the Chamber Singers, the EMU Choir Without Borders and Lynne Mackey, pianist, in Ludwig von Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasia,” considered by some as a “practice piece” for the writing of his “Symphony No. 9.”

Admission to the concert is a suggested donation of $10 to benefit the EMU music student scholarship fund.

For more information, call 540-432-4225.

A dedicatory concert in honor of a Steinway piano recently gifted to the department by Bob Gillette of Suffolk, Va., and refurbished by a gift from Mrs. Geraldine Sherwood of Fairfax, Va., will be held 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, in the Recital Hall on ground floor of Lehman Auditorium.

The 1911 Steinway grand piano that has been completely refurbished is the first permanent grand piano for the Recital Hall stage, according to Joan Griffing, EMU music department chair, noting that previously the grand piano from the primary piano teaching studio had to be moved to this location.

“With the addition of this beautifully refurbished Steinway, our Recital Hall is now an improved performance space,” Dr. Griffing said. “Having an instrument of this high quality is a real bonus to our students, faculty and guest artists who wish to perform in this setting.”

“The 1911 Steinway is a model ‘A,’ known for its rich tone and unique resonance,” added Dr. Lynne Mackey, associate professor of music.

Musica Harmonia players (l. to r.) Beth Vanderborgh, cello; Joan Griffing, violin; Diane Phoenix-Neal, viola; and Lynne Mackey, piano, will perform in the dedicatory recital for EMU’s Steinway grand piano.

The concert will feature performances by Musica Harmonia – Joan Griffing, violin; Diane Phoenix-Neal, viola; Beth Vanderborgh, cello; and Lynne Mackey, piano; with special guests Christy Heatwole Kauffman, viola; and Brian Wahl, bass. They will perform the “Sextet for Piano and Strings” by Felix Mendelssohn and “Midnight Child” by Los Angeles jazz and film composer Charles Washington.

EMU university piano student Phillip Martin will play selections from the solo piano repertoire.

Admission to the program is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music scholarship fund.

For more information, call 540-432-4225.

Lynne Mackey and James Richardson agree the concentration takes advantage of the EMU music department’s strengths like the close one-on-one relationships between students and faculty, the Mennonite music heritage, and the creativity and collegiality of the professors.

James Richardson

Lynne Mackey

Mackey, a pianist, and Richardson, a baritone, said the new interdisciplinary concentration grew out of brainstorming by the faculty. Both give much of the credit to department chair Joan Griffing.

"The new concentration is for students who are talented in music but interested in other academic areas as well," said Richardson. Added Mackey: "Incoming students sometimes don’t want to have to fit into one of our music major categories – performance, education and church music."

How does it work?

An example of a student who is switching to a music major with interdisciplinary studies concentration is Charise Garber, a biology major who is a gifted pianist. Now she gets to work with a music faculty advisor to create a major that combines her interests.

In addition to a core set of music classes, each student in the interdisciplinary concentration will take courses in a discipline outside of music. Faculty from both the music department and this other discipline will advise the student. The student will present a senior project that combines music with the other area of interest. Examples of possible collaborative pairs are music and missions, music and psychology, music and business. The possibilities are many, and provide the student with diverse options.

These additional options provide expanded opportunities for study and work in music and related fields. Each is intended as entrance level work for graduate study, and for entering a music-related career.

Learn more about the new concentration…

More about our faculty

Mackey, an associate professor of music, teaches courses in applied piano, pedagogy and music theory. She is also involved in EMU’s annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival as the primary pianist for the noon concerts and as director of master-class offerings in baroque performance.

A resident of Staunton, she taught previously at Mary Baldwin College and the University of Mary Washington. She has performed in the U.S. and overseas in solo and chamber music settings. She is on the "touring roster" for the Virginia Commission for the Arts and was awarded a one-year residency in contemporary music at the University of Virginia. Her performances of new works for the piano include three New York premiers.

She and her husband Bill Wellington have one daughter, Sophie, who sings in EMU’s Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir. Mackey, a graduate of the University of Michigan, earned a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music.

Richardson, an assistant professor of music, teaches voice, vocal pedagogy, music appreciation and film music. He directs ChoirWithoutBorders and teaches a course for the Adult Degree Completion Program in connection with the Bach Festival. A native of Harrisonburg, he graduated from Eastern Mennonite High School and Covenant College. He earned a master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and plans to start a doctoral program soon.

Before coming to EMU, Richardson was a high school music teacher. He also performed as a soloist, most recently at Westminster Choir College and on a tour of Ukraine with Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church and Westminster Brass. Richardson and his wife Dana, whom he married on the day of his college graduation, have three young children.

An eclectic and entertaining program awaits listeners when music professor and pianist Lynne Mackey presents a unique recital 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Mar. 21, in Lehman Auditorium at EMU.

In her program, titled "NEW?? A Century of Piano Experiments," Dr. Mackey will perform pieces that require a variety of techniques, inside and outside the piano, to present some inventive uses of the instrument.

A recital highlight will be excerpts from John Cage’s "Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano." This piece requires the piano be "prepared" with more than 60 bits of hardware – screws, bolts, pieces of jar rubber, etc. – fit between the strings at strategic points. This preparation "completely transforms the piano," according to Mackey, "producing a phenomenon of percussion and unconventional sounds."

Other selections will include the "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" of Frederic Rzewski and Ann Silsbee’s "Doors," both requiring unusual techniques. The Rzewski piece utilizes large and small clusters of tones to imitate the driving sound of the mill machinery, Mackey noted. The "whimsical piece" of Ann Silsbee is "a musical dialogue involving non-traditional gestures and knocking on the piano frame, resulting in a visual choreography of arms and elbows at the keyboard," she noted.

She will also play pieces by composers Henry Cowell, Charles Griffes, Emma Lou Diemer and Robert Evett.

Mackey joined the EMU faculty as an associate professor of music the fall of 2008. A graduate of the University of Michigan, The Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music, she has long been involved in performing contemporary music. She has coached repertoire with composers such as Joan Tower, George Crumb and Samuel Adler, and her performances include three New York premiers.

In addition to her work as a soloist, Mackey performed this past season in the US and overseas with cellist David Gee in the Gee-Mackey Duo, and also traveled to Brazil to perform concerts and masterclasses with the chamber ensemble, Musica Harmonia.

Admission to this recital is free of charge. Donations are welcomed for the EMU music scholarship fund.

Joan Griffing

Lynne Mackey

The performers are Joan Griffing, violin; Lynne Mackey, piano; Diane Phoenix Neal, viola; and Beth Vanderborgh, cello.

Griffing, professor of music at EMU, is chair of the music department, and Mackey is an associate professor of music.

The ensemble will perform the popular Faure “Piano Quartet” and the beloved Faure “Elegie for Cello and Piano.”

Other short works will be the Martinu “Madrigal No. 1 for Violin and Viola” and “Cantilenas Nos. 1 & 2 for Viola and Piano” by Brazilian composer Guarnieri.

Musica Harmonia was newly-formed in 2007. The musicians, who met through the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C., come together in this ensemble with a goal to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration.

They traveled to Brazil in November, 2008, and performed alongside Brazilian musicians and gave master classes at two Brazilian universities.

All have experienced life in many countries, including Brazil, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the USA.

Admission to the program is free; donations to the EMU music student scholarship fund are welcomed.

David Gee, cellist, and Lynne Mackey, pianist, will perform music of French, Spanish and Russian composers. Their repertoire will include “Suite Francaise, Op. 114” by Paul Bazelaire, “Elegie, Opus 24” by Gabriel Faure, “Siete Canciones populares Espanolas” by Manuel de Falla, and “Sonata in G minor” by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

David Gee, cellist; Lynne Mackey, pianist

The duo formed in 2004 and has performed in the U.S. and abroad, most recently in southern Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco.

Dr. Mackey is associate professor of music at EMU. She holds a BS degree in piano from the University of Michigan, a master of music in piano from The Julliard School and a doctor of musical arts in piano from Eastman School of Music. She is an accomplished musician with numerous solo and chamber music performances along with prior teaching and academic administrative experience. Mackey continues to serve on the Virginia Commission for the Arts touring roster.

Gee, from Columbia, S.C., Gee, performs with several orchestras, including four years with the National Orchestra of Granada, Spain. He graduated with honors from Purchase College, where he received the president’s award for outstanding undergraduate achievement. He received a graduate degree from Yale University, where he was named a Ellen Battel Stoeckel scholar.

He was recently on the faculty of the Chamber Music Festival at the University of Virginia and is a listed artist on the tour roster of the South Carolina Arts Council.

Admission to the concert is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music department student scholarship fund. For more information, call (540) 432-4225.

This ensemble formed in 2007 with a goal “to promote peace and cultural understanding through musical collaboration.”

All five musicians have experienced life and performed in countries including Brazil, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Group members are Lynne Mackey, pianist; Joan Griffing, violinist; Diane Phoenix-Neal, violist; Beth Vanderborgh, cellist; and Luciano Carneiro, bassist.

Now, “Musica Harmonia” is launching an effort to promote appreciation of classical music with two local programs, one of which is especially designed for children and their parents.

The chamber music ensemble will perform the playful “Trout” Quintet by Franz Schubert 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.

Folk Music and Storytelling

Bill Wellington, folk musician and storyteller from Staunton, will tell lighthearted anecdotes designed for children and their parents between movements of the Schubert piece. He describes his role in the performance as “a cross between Danny Kaye and Leonard Bernstein.” Wellington has entertained audiences, including youngsters, for more than 30 years and is creator of Radio WOOF, a unique series of audio recordings for children.

Dr. Griffing described the Schubert work as “an evocative tale composed in 1819 of a fish caught by a wily fisherman.

“We encourage children and parents to come together to this fun, yet educational program that aims to promote an early appreciation for classical music,” Griffing said.

Brahms and Brazil

Bass player Luciano Carneiro, who currently lives in Brazil, will present an hour of music and conversation 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19, in Martin Chapel. He and Lynne Mackey will perform an arrangement of the Brahms’ “Sonata in E Minor for cello and piano” in addition to some shorter pieces by Brazilian composers.

Carneiro will also talk about his music and his international experiences.

Griffing said the ensemble members met at the annual Eastern Music Festival held each year at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., and decided to collaborate in additional settings. “We hope this is only the beginning of working with more musicians from around the world,” she said.

Griffing is chair of the music department at EMU and concertmaster of the annual Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. Dr. Mackey is associate professor of music at EMU and performs regularly as a lecture-recitalist.

Dr. Phoenix-Neal is assistant professor of music at Fayetteville (NC) State University, where she directs the FSU community string ensemble and founded a string program for children. Dr. Vanderborgh, a member of the Guilford College faculty, is principal cellist of the Greensboro (NC) Symphony Orchestra and the Winston-Salem Symphony. Dr. Caneiro is professor of double bass at the Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Brazil and plays with several symphony orchestra in his native country and in the US.

More Info

The ensemble plans to give additional programs in January at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community, Mary Washington University, Guilford College and Fayetteville State University.

Admission to both programs is free; donations will be accepted. For more information, call the EMU music department at 540-432-4225.

Joan Griffing, music professor and department chair, and Lynne Mackey, associate professor of music

Joan Griffing, violinist, and Lynne Mackey, pianist, will play a varied repertoire including music by Piazzolla, the Argentinian composer known for his tangos, and Milhaud, a French composer influenced by his visits to Brazil.

They will be assisted by Leslie Nicholas on clarinet and Lisa Wright on cello.

Dr. Griffing teaches violin and viola, coaches chamber music and conducts the EMU orchestra. She is also concertmaster of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra and the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra and is a violinist with the Virginia Symphony and the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C.

She earned her bachelor and master of music degrees from Indiana University and her doctor of musical arts degree in violin performance from Ohio State University.

Dr. Mackey has performed in solo and chamber music settings in the United States and the Netherlands and is currently on the tour roster of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is a member of the Gee-Mackey Duo with cellist David Gee, a duo formed in 2004 that performs widely in the Mid-Atlantic states.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Mackey holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music.

Admission to the program is free; donations are welcomed for the EMU music student scholarship fund.