This program is called Attachments and
Detachments: tragedy to triumph. A journey of the human emotional
trek.
Dianne Davies will be performing Jan
Mittelstaedt's piece Masks
in 4 movements:
I Laughter
II Tears
III Anger
IV Joy
The first three movements depict "the
masks of emotions we wear to cope with and cover up the truth below.
The piece concludes with Joy when we make peace with who we
really are, take off all the masks and share our true self with the
world we experience true JOY.
Next, Jeff
Winslow's piece Ghosts and Machines is a masterpiece in 4
movements of Jeff's own grieving process at the loss of his beloved
brother. Finally, music that gives Davies the vehicle for emotional
expression of her own personal loss and recovery. Each movement has
its own character “ghost” that musically depicts the
emotions, questions and pain often felt or denied in the process of
letting go of a loved one.
Lastl, Davies will perform Lisa Marsh’s
piece Along the Road. This jazzy piece is based on the
Buddist Proverb “If we are facing in the right direction, all
we have to do is keep on walking.”
More about Masks:
I Laughter in this case is a
cover for the let downs and embarrassments in life. Not the simple,
but the long lasting shame that accompanies a situation or
relationship. II Tears is the mask of manipulation to get
what we want without asking honestly. III Anger is the
emotion that burns and internalizes when we can’t face our own
grief.
More about Ghosts & Machines:
I Hijinks represents the
“tricks” our memories or “ghosts” can play on
us. Perhaps we remember inaccurately or choose to remember things
the way we want to. In a sense, we make our own reality. II
Dirge the pain of death, loss and grief is penetrating and
inescapable. III Scherzo is a funny movement and enacts a
Poltergeist ghost. This ghost reminds us of the dark humor that gets
us through times of intense fear and loss. IV 4th
movement replicates the time of dies irae “day of wrath”.
This brings up many of the questions we all struggle with in the
grieving process. What happens when we let go of a loved one that
has passed on. It means the hole in our heart is healed but there is
a thick, permanent scar.
More about Along the Road:
This piece was written when one of Lisa
Marsh's daughters (in her teens at the time) was going through a
rocky time in life.
Dianne Davies:
Dianne is hungry for the stage. Her career includes teaching and
performing polar opposites. Half of her time is spent on her musical
comedy routine called *.Dianne Davies has Fallen off her Bench.*.Her
show is classically funny with traces of Victor Borge, Carol Burnett,
Liberace, P.D.Q. Bach, Igusdesman & Joo, Weird Al and The Piano
Guys.From .Soleful. playing with her feet to even performing upside down
and backwards she can make any crowd laugh.Also, Dianne and her two
teenage sons, Kaleb and Joshua form .The Davies Family Trio..(Piano,
drums and bass)As a family, they perform comedy and musical spoofs.
The other half of her time is spent on devouring brand new, fresh music
by live, local composers. Cascadia Composers have consumed Dianne's
attention. She helps coordinate the "In Good Hands" concert that
connects live composers with young piano students. It has become her
passion to share this new music with the next generation. This program
Attachments & Detachments is music made personal. This program is not
for the faint of heart or those who just want to be entertained. Music
means everything and has the power to change us.
For the boring facts: Dianne Davies has a B.A. in Music and Education
from Lewis and Clark College. She holds memberships in MTNA Music
Teachers National Association, OMTA Oregon Music Teachers, Mu Phi
Epsilon and NFMC National Federation of Music Clubs.She has a private
piano studio in Beaverton and has been teaching for 25 years.She was the
house pianist for HSO Hillsboro Symphony Orchestra for 5 years and was
the featured soloist in Shostakovich.s Concerto No. 2, Saint-Saens
Carnival of the Animals and Tchaikovsky.sConcerto No. 1.
Lisa Marsh:
Lisa Marsh is a member of the adjunct piano faculties at Marylhurst
University, Portland State University and Portland Community College. As
Director of the Coordinate Movement Program for Pianists at Portland
State University she specializes in retraining injured pianists. Her
additional background in somatic education includes 19 years as a
Registered Nurse in the fields of Neurosurgery and Emergency Medicine, 8
years of piano technique study at the Taubman Institute of Piano and 5
years of study of the Alexander Technique and Body Mapping with Barbara
Conable. She is also an Andover Educator Sponsoring Teacher.
Ms. Marsh is principle Keyboard with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra,
and pianist with the Onyx Chamber Ensemble and the Marsh- Titterington
Piano Duo. She composes regularly and is a member of Cascadia Composers.
Jan Mittelstaedt:
Jan Mittelstaedt holds a BS in education from
Bucknell University,
a BA in music from
Marylhurst University,
and a MM in composition from the
University of Portland,
She has studied composition
with Sister Anne Cecile Daigle at Marylhurst University and with Dr.
Walter B. Saul II at the University of Portland and independently.
An independent teacher of piano and Nationally Certified in piano by the
Music Teachers National Association
(MTNA),
Jan
Mittelstaedt is on the syllabus adjudicating staff of the
Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA).
Ms. Mittelstaedt is the composer of numerous educational pieces for
piano. She also composes chamber music and sacred compositions. In
1993, she participated in the Ernest Bloch Composers Symposium with her
/Saxophone Quartet/ and in 1994, she was chosen Composer of the Year by
the
Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA).
Her composition for flute and piano,
/Journey Through A Shadow/, was performed at the OMTA state convention
in June of that year.
She is a member of the
Oregon Federation of Music Clubs,
Mu Phi Epsilon,
and the
Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC),
Her biography is
included in the /Marquis Who's Who of American Women/ and /Marquis Who's
Who in America/.
Jeff Winslow:
A fourth-generation Oregonian, studied music and electronics at the
University of California at Berkeley, getting serious about composition
in the mid-90's as High Modernism finally relinquished its death grip on
the world of art music. His work has been performed by FEARnoMUSIC and
the Portland Vocal Consort, and also at Cascadia Composers, Seventh
Species, Cherry Blossom Musical Arts, and Oregon Bach Festival concert,
as well as several other locations around the region, often with the
composer at the piano. A recent piano work, "Leid ohne Worte (lieber
mit Ligeti)" received honorable mention from the Friends and Enemies of
New Music, a New York-based composers' group. He is one of seven
founding members of the Cascadia Composers, a chapter of NACUSA centered
on the lower watershed of the Columbia River.
Art Resnick
Art Resnick is a professional jazz pianist and composer who has
toured and recorded with some of the best know jazz dignitaries in the
world. Although Art's career has been exclusively jazz, he has always had
a love of classical music, especially modern classical music. While
teaching classes at San Diego State University he earned a BM degree in
classical piano performance. As a composer he is mostly autodidact with
some course work and studied with R. Murray Schafer (soundscapes),
Robert Shallenberg (U of Iowa, electronic music), Dan Lee Mitchell
(Harry Partch instruments at SDSU), Robert Priest and Tomas Svoboda in
Portland, OR. He was named the 2015 composer of the year by the Oregon
Music Teachers Association and will debut a piano trio in June.
Cynthia Gerdes
Cynthia Gerdes writes music for traditional instruments in a
twenty.first.century style which can be described as western classical
tradition extending into "now." From a conversation among backyard birds
to a sonic snapshot of Idaho history, from caricatures of human
behaviors to tangos, Gerdes' compositions explore ways of expressing the
vernacular while combining it with depth and lightness, humor and
insight. In recent years Cynthia's music has been performed by
Portland's new music performance group FearNoMusic; at the Composer's
Symposium, Performers. Choice Concert at the Ernest Bloch Festival at
Newport, Oregon; at Portland State University and in concerts sponsored
by the Cascadia branch of the National Association of Composers USA.
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