LVC Faculty Trio to Perform with Music Department Friends

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L-R Hsieh, Butts, Fung

ANNVILLE, PA (09/01/2010)(readMedia)-- The LVC Faculty Trio of Beverly Butts (clarinet), Dr. Eric Fung (piano), and Ai-Lin Hsieh (cello) will be joined by several Music Department colleagues for a free and entertaining public concert on Sunday, September 12, at 3 p.m. in Lutz Recital Hall of the Blair Music Center. As part of the duet "Road Trip" composed for them by Dr. Scott Eggert, LVC professor of theory and composition, Butts will be joined by Tom Strohman as they each play three instruments for the piece. Butts '78, adjunct assistant professor of music, will play the Bb clarinet, the Bass clarinet, and Eb soprano clarinet while Strohman '75 will play the Soprano, Alto, and Tenor saxes.

Eggert will be on hand to share his inspiration for "Road Trip's" five movements including "Free Breakfast," "On the Road," "New Traffic Patterns Ahead," "Expect Delays," and "Speed Zone."

Prior to the international debut of Eggert's "Road Trip" the audience will be treated to several selections that highlight the individual and combined talents of the LVC Faculty Trio and their professorial colleagues. Butts and Fung will open with "Vals Venezolano and Contradanza" for clarinet and piano by Paquito D'Rivera followed by "After You, Mr. Gershwin!" by Bela Kovacs. They will next join with Hsieh as the "Faculty Trio" for selections from Max Bruch's "Acht Stucke."

Fung and Butts will combine again for the introduction of LVC's new oboe instructor, Jill Marchione, with "Trio in G Minor" by Paul Gilson. The concert's grand finale will thus commence with the debut of Eggert's "Road Trip."

Eggert's compositions are often inspired by the travels taken with his partner, Dan Massad (LVC artist-in-residence) to Europe and throughout America. For example, Eggert's solo cello work "Uccello," Italian for "bird," was created after a four-week visit to Rome where he notated birdsong fragments, and his wind ensemble work "Noctis Equi" employed a daily dusk peal of church bells he heard while staying in Athens. Eggert received the idea for "Road Trip" during a more economical trip with Dan throughout the United States during the summer of 2009. With no intention of composing a duet prior to the trip, the composer became interested in the array of traffic signs the couple encountered along the way; some of which found their way into the piece and the movements listed above. Most obviously, Eggert noted that the road signs marked changes of tempo, such as "slow traffic ahead" and "watch for gusty winds" which he noted "seemed perfect for two wind players."

The Wisconsin-born Eggert's previous compositions have been described as having "a unique style with an enormous emotional range and an extremely sophisticated harmonic language. Every note has meaning, importance, and direction" (Dennis Parker) and Diane Munroe personally wrote "Thank you for adding sheer joy to my life with your piece!" A member of the LVC music faculty for 27 years with degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Chicago, and University of Kansas, Eggert has employed a variety of musical means for various works including his monumental organ work, Mycenae: Graveshaft V; a trio for clarinet, violin, and cello, Six Wooden Blocks (2006); a four-movement Sextet (2007); a string duo, Songbook (2008). In 2010 Eggert received a commission for an organ solo from the American Guild of Organists. The resulting work, Hurly-Burly, will be premiered at the District III AGO Convention in June, 2011.

Performing Artists

Beverly Butts, a graduate of LVC and Michigan State University and doctoral candidate at New York University, has been the Principal Clarinet of the York Symphony Orchestra since 1985, a member of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra since 1983 and their Principal Clarinet since 1992, a frequent performer with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and also has been a Concerto soloist with the Maryland, York, and Hershey Symphonies. Butts has appeared with the Baltimore Chamber, Millbrook, and Shippensburg orchestras, and with the Symphony at Deep Creek.

Butts teaches clarinet, woodwind methods, conducts the clarinet choir, and teaches classes in clarinet literature and pedagogy at LVC. She has adjudicated for the York Youth Symphony and served as a clinician and soloist for Pennsylvania District Band. She has also given numerous master classes for high school and college students and participated in the Maryland Public Television educational music video, Bob the Vid Tech: Music to My Ears.

Dr. Eric Fung, an LVC assistant professor of music with three degrees from the Eastman School of Music and a doctorate from the Julliard School, was the second-prize winner at the Thirteenth International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and became the first Chinese awarded the title "Bach Prize Winner" in the competition's 50-year history. Prior to this important achievement, he was the recipient of the first prize at the Corpus Christi Young Artists International Competition (1996), second prize at St. Louis Symphony Concerto Competition (1997), and first prize at the Juilliard School Concerto Competition, which led to his performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Lincoln Center in 2000. Subsequent to the performance, the New York Times praised his pianism for being "mature, refined, and elegant." The Hong Kong Economic Review called him "unique among the contemporary Chinese pianists, for the aesthetic of his music can be traced back to the study and passion for Bach's works."

Fung's doctoral thesis "Neglected Treasure: Johann Sebastian Bach's Overture in the French Manner, BWV 831: A Study in Motive, Harmony, and Voice Leading" is an unprecedented study of the composition; such a study also exemplifies his interest in searching a new sensibility in the performance of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music through analysis and research. In the past several years, he has been invited by various professional societies to give lectures and seminars on analysis and performance.

As an active solo and chamber performer, Fung appeared in various music festivals, such as the European Piano Forum in Berlin (Germany), the Puigcerda International Classica Musica (Spain), and the Philadelphia Bach Festival. In 2003, he returned to his native Hong Kong to perform at the Hong Kong Arts Festival as an Exxon-Mobil Artist. The following year, he made his piano recital debut at the Carnegie Hall performing Bach's Goldberg Variations and Beethoven's Eroica Variations.

Dr. Ai-Lin Heish, an adjunct professor of music at LVC and graduate of Shoo Chow University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Maryland, began studying piano at the age of five and the cello at eight in her native Taiwan. Heish was the principal cellist in the Shoo Chaw University Orchestra, and has been active in the Yin-Qi Christian Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. In 1997, Hsieh was chosen to perform a cello octet with Mistislav Rostropovitch in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2003, Hsieh's performance in Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante with the University of Maryland Philharmonia Ensemble received critical acclaim from the Washington Post. She was a contracted cellist in the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and a cello instructor in a D.C. Youth Orchestra program and at Montgomery College, Md. Hsieh's mentors include such prominent performers and pedagogues as Steven Doane, Evelyn Elsing, Kenneth Slowik, Peter Wiley, and David Soyer.

Jill Marchione, an LVC adjunct instructor of music with two degrees in Oboe Performance from Indian University, was a member of the Evansville Philharmonic and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and performed regularly with the Indianapolis Symphony and Opera. In 1991, she became principal oboist with the Royal Symphonic Orchestra of Seville, Spain. During a nine-season tenure there she appeared as soloist with the orchestra, performed and recorded with such soloists as tenor Placido Domingo and guitarist John Williams, and participated in the Casals Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Currently, Marchione is Principal Oboist with the York Symphony and plays regularly with the Harrisburg Symphony, Theatre Harrisburg, and the Allegro Chamber Orchestra of Lancaster. She has appeared as soloist with the Harrisburg Singers, the Lancaster Chamber Singers, the Susquehanna Chorale, and the Dickinson College Community Orchestra. In addition to teaching at LVC, she teaches privately and other area colleges.

Tom Strohman, an associate professor of music at LVC with degrees from LVC and Towson University, directs the College's Jazz Band and Sax Ensemble, teaches Orchestration, and gives private instruction in Saxophone and Jazz Studies. As a freelance musician, Strohman has performed for entertainers Patti Page, Al Martino, Sonny and Cher, Eddie Fisher, The Four Aces, Della Reese, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Vinton, and with the Gene Krupa and York Symphony Orhcestras.

As a solo jazz performer, he has had the pleasure of working with Bobby Rosengarten, Ira Sullivan, Buddy DeFranco, Al Grey, Steve Gilmore, Bill Goodwin, Derek Smith, Steve LaSpina, David Schnitter, John Blake, Jonny Coles, Steve Rudolph, and John Von Ohlem.

Since 1974, Strohman has been a member of Third Stream, one of Pennsylvania's finest contemporary bands. In addition to releasing five recordings, the group has performed in concert with Herbie Hancock, Stanley Turrentine, Livingston Taylor, Jeff Beck, Deodato, Spyro Gyra, Vassar Clements, and Phil Wilson. He was inducted into the Central PA Friends of Jazz Hall of Fame in 2009.