Crane School of Music Hosts 'Women in Music' Concert Featuring Lauren Pelon

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Guest artist Lauren Pelon will perform on a variety of ancient and modern instruments in a concert at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music on March 20.

POTSDAM, NY (03/04/2016)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will host a unique upcoming concert celebrating music composed by or for women. The internationally acclaimed musician Lauren Pelon will perform on Sunday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m., in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.

In her program, "Women in Music: Someone Will Remember Us," Lauren Pelon will trace the story of women in music and perform music from around the world. The concert celebrates music written by, or for, women. Crossing the boundaries of time, distance and culture, Pelon sings and plays approximately 25 ancient and modern instruments -- some of which were traditionally played by women, while others were forbidden.

"Women in Music: Someone Will Remember Us" melds Pelon's original compositions with her arrangements of music from ancient Greece, medieval Europe, and contemporary Africa, America and Estonia. She performs on the lute, lyre, hurdy-gurdy, recorders, gemshorn, pennywhistles, ocarina, Kiowa courting flute, eagle bone flute, cornamuse, krummhorn, schreierpfeife, shawm, rackett, concertina, an electric wind instrument and the MIDI-pedalboard.

"From Garrison Keillor's 'A Prairie Home Companion' to the steppes of Russia and the hills of Kazakhstan, Lauren Pelon has entertained audiences with her story of women and music throughout history. Her virtuosity on so many instruments and her rich voice remind us of the power of music to transcend time and culture," said Jill Timmons, the director of the Lively Arts Series in Portland, Ore.

This concert is free, and the public is invited to attend.

About the performer:

Lauren Pelon has performed throughout the U.S. and in China, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Russia, Kazakhstan, Australia and New Zealand. She is noted for her versatile use of a diverse array of instruments, but Pelon has also won recognition for her lovely soprano voice, and for her compelling compositions and arrangements of music from many countries and cultures. Pelon has performed with symphony orchestras, the Philadelphia String Quartet, on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion," and at the Russian Institute for the History of the Arts in St. Petersburg. She was the recipient of the 2001 Artist of the Year Award from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council. More recently, she received the 2010 Artist Initiative Award and the 2014 Arts Tour Minnesota Grant Award from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

This performance is sponsored by The Crane School of Music and the SUNY Potsdam Women's and Gender Studies Program.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

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