Epiphany Concert Series presents ‘Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble’ February 10

Feb. 6, 2013 - PRLog -- Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble performs works of Robert Schumann, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and Samuel Barber on Sunday February 10, 2013 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. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted to benefit the church’s air conditioner replacement fund.

Seventh Roadrunner members Katherine Shields, viola and Andrew O’Brien, piano will  play Märchenbilder or Fairy Tale Pictures, for Viola and Piano, Op. 113 and Fantasia on ‘Greensleeves’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Soprano Cynthia Elek and Andrew O’Brien will perform Samuel Barber’s eloquent Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Ms. Elek and Ms. Shields will perform Four Songs for Violin and Voice, Op. 35, by British composer Gustav Holst.

Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble was founded in 2010 by pianist Andrew O’Brien, violist/violinist Katherine Shields, and clarinetist Brian Viliunas. It is an ensemble member of Chamber Music America, has performed in Arizona and Colorado, and serves as Artistic Directors of the Silverton Fall Color Chamber Music Fest in Silverton, CO. In 2013 Seventh Roadrunner Ensemble  is privileged to be premiering works of American composers Zachary Bramble and Bill Douglas in 2013. This performance marks the ensemble’s third appearance on the Epiphany Concert Series.

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

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 a member of the College of Examiners of Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music.

Soprano Cynthia Elek holds a Masters of Music in Opera Performance from the University of Maryland College Park's Opera Studio, where she worked with director Leon Major, and a BA from Oberlin College, where she studied voice, piano and theory in the Oberlin Conservatory. Ms. Elek taught voice on faculty at University of Alaska Anchorage and was a founding member of Arioso Chamber Ensemble, where she specialized for 10 years in Baroque and contemporary repertoire for soprano and instruments. Her many appearances with Anchorage Opera included roles in Il Trovatore, Hansel and Gretel, Rigoletto and The Marriage of Figaro. She was a featured soloist with the Anchorage Symphony Pops and with Columbia (MD) Pro Cantare's Czech Republic tour. Currently a juried artist on the Arizona Commission on the Arts Education-based music roster, Ms. Elek presents arts-integrated workshops and classroom residencies for the Kennedy Center's Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers program and for Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through The Arts. She will be presenting a professional development workshop on Jerome Kern's Showboat for the Washington Opera and Kennedy Center in spring 2013.

For concert information phone 480-980-6516 or see www.epiphany-tempe.org