Baroque Concert Series at Lopez Center

Lopez will welcome a number of world-class musicians in a series of performances at Lopez Center for Community and the Arts, beginning August 23.

Three concerts of Baroque music will be presented by participants in the third biennial Lopez Island Performance Seminar, organized and hosted by Sand Dalton. Attending the seminar are over a dozen oboe and bassoon students and several faculty members from all over North America and Europe.

Monday, August 23, the gala opening concert will present renowned Baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai, with the spotlight on music by J.S. Bach. Also performing will be oboist Washington McClain.

On Wednesday, August 25, Jeffrey Snedeker will solo on natural horn in a program featuring G.F. Handel’s Water Music. Snedeker is Professor of Horn at Central Washington University and a noted lecturer, performer, and author, and played at the 2002 Lopez Performance Seminar.

The third concert, on Saturday, August 28, will be a festive evening of virtuoso music of the Baroque for oboe band, played on period instruments. Featured soloist will Washington McClain, outstanding Baroque oboist.

All performances begin at 8:00pm. Tickets for the first two concerts are $12 at the door, $10 in advance (half-price for youth). Suggested donation for the August 28 concert is $8. Advance tickets can be purchased at Islehaven Books, fish bay mercantile, Blossom, and Lopez Center.

Baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai, a native Bostonian, spent ten years in Europe as a member of Musica Antiqua of Cologne, with whom she toured and taught all over the world. In addition to maintaining a full performing schedule, she is on the faculties of the University of the Arts in Berlin and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Washington McClain was born in Mississippi and received his music degree from the University of Chicago. Formerly with Tafelmusik of Toronto, he now lives in Montreal, where he is pursuing a career as a Baroque oboe soloist and chamber musician. He teaches at the University of Indiana and is a sought-after instructor at early-music workshops.

Dalton is a premier maker of Baroque and classical oboes. He has performed and recorded with many ensembles such as the Boston Baroque, Seattle Baroque, and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of Vancouver, B.C. He has been on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the University of British Columbia, and Longy School of Music, and has taught at early-music workshops in San Francisco, Vancouver, Amherst, and Longy.

Margaret Gries of Central Washington University will once again add harpsichord accompaniment. A string ensemble of other fine guest musicians, led by Lopez violinist Celia Rosenberger, will support the double reed players all week as musicians-in-residence and will perform with them in the concerts.

Dalton said he’s able to convince these top-echelon musicians to come to the island “because it’s Lopez in summer, and it’s fun. [Lopez Center] is such a good space, we should be able to make some nice noise.”

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