Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble Feb. 19th on the Epiphany Concert Series: Chamber Music & Chocolates

Feb. 15, 2012 - PRLog -- Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble returns to the Epiphany Concert Series to perform works of Johannes Brahms, W.A. Mozart, George Gershwin and Louise Lincoln Kerr on Sunday February 19, 2012 at 4:00 PM. The concert, part of the Epiphany Concert Series, will be held in the sanctuary of Church of the Epiphany, 2222 S. Price Road, Tempe, 85282. Tickets for the concert only are $10, $5 for children 12 and under. Tickets for the concert and the Valentine’s Chocolate Delights reception following the concert are $15 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under. Proceeds benefit the church’s “Chill the Choir” air conditioner replacement fund.

Seventh Roadrunner members Katherine Shields, viola and Andrew O’Brien, piano will be playing Sonata in F minor Op. 120, no. 1 by Johannes Brahms and selections from Five Character Pieces for Solo Viola and Piano by Louise Lincoln Kerr. Clarinetist Cyndee Chaffee, Music Director of Tempe’s King of Glory Lutheran Church,  joins the two for Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio K. 498. Cyndee and Andrew will perform three songs arranged by famed clarinetist  Richard Stoltzman from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess: My Man's Gone Now, Summertime, It Ain't Necessarily So

Louise Lincoln Kerr was an Arizona composer and patron of the arts who founded the Kerr Studio, now known as the ASU Kerr Cultural Center. Kerr was also a founder of the Phoenix Chamber Music Society. Her Five Character Pieces for Solo Viola and Piano were edited by Carolyn Waters Broe and Epiphany’s own Miriam Hickman.

The Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble was founded in 2010 by Andrew O’Brien, Katherine Shields, and clarinetist Brian Viliunas. The ensemble performed on the Epiphany Concert Series in May of 2011.

Katherine Shields, viola, is a member of the Arizona Opera Orchestra and Music Director of the San Tan Orchestra, a community orchestra in Phoenix’s East Valley.  She is Director of the Chaparral MusicFest Chamber Music Workshop (Prescott, AZ) and faculty for the Silverton Fall Color Chamber Music Fest in Silverton, CO. A native of Chicago, Katherine holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master’s from Arizona State University and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). She is the violist of Quartet Sabaku, a string quartet on the Teaching Artists Roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Andrew O’Brien, piano, received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Solo Performance from Arizona State University where he studied with Robert Hamilton. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and earned his Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied piano with Gabriel Chodos and chamber music with Benjamin Zander. Andrew is adjunct faculty in piano and music theory at Scottsdale Community College and maintains a teaching studio in Phoenix. He is staff pianist for Desert Foothills United Methodist Church and serves as second vice-president of competitions for the Arizona State Music Teachers’ Association. He is a member of the College of Examiners of Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

Cyndee Chaffee received a Bachelor of Choral Music Education, followed by a Master of Music degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Oklahoma-Norman. She
did post-graduate clarinet study with Paul Zonn at the University of Illinois in
Champaign-Urbana and studied clarinet privately in Germany with Hans Deinzer
and Suzanne Stephens. From 1990-1992 Cyndee had the opportunity to live in
London and sing with The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Chorus under the
direction of Neville Marriner and The London Symphony Chorus with Richard
Hickox. Cyndee was Professor of Clarinet at Northwestern College
in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1996 until she moved to Tucson in May 2002 to
serve as Director of Music at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley. She is the former Artistic Director and Founder of The Catalina Community Chorus and The Clarinet Ensemble of Greater Oro Valley and a charter member and singer of The Tucson Chamber Artists. Cyndee resides in Phoenix and serves as Director of Music at King of GloryLutheran Church in Tempe, AZ and is a clarinetist in the Tempe Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

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Church of the Epiphany is an Episcopal congregation whose mission is to worship God, to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, and to further God’s work through service to God and the community. Serving the communities of Ahwatukee, the East Valley, and beyond.