Three mountain area musicians are taking their show on the road, and joining three Fresno area musicians to present a concert of chamber music, from Mozart to the modern era.
The concert is Saturday, Nov. 17, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno.
The group will be performing works by well-known composers, as well as new music by two mountain area composers who have degrees in composition.John Kilburn, of North Fork, has composed works for small ensembles and full orchestras, as well as music for modern dance and films. Kilburn won an award for his score of “Living Death Valley,” and has taught Digital Audio classes at the University of Sound Arts in Hollywood and done consulting for major studios, including Lorimar Pictures.
Barbara Ulman, of Coarsegold, specializes in writing art songs and choral music. Some of her works have been performed on the East Coast, as well as in California. She writes music that is accessible and lyrical, yet contemporary sounding.
Along with the newer music, the program will include music by Mozart, von Weber and Tchaikovsky. An interesting pairing will be Tchaikovsky’s piano solo “Romance” followed by the 50’s song derived from that work titled “Always You.”
The mountain area performers are Christel Biasell, soprano; John Kilburn, guitar; and Barbara Ulman, piano.
The Fresno musicians are David Fox, cello and piano; Jennifer Lewis, mezzo soprano; and David Lorey, flute.
There is no charge for admission; donations will be welcome to defray expenses.
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno is located at 2672 E. Alluvial Ave. (between Willow and Chestnut) in Clovis.
A little background on the musicians:
Christel Eisenhower Biasell loves her full time position as Music Educator for Yosemite Unified School District, teaching music in kindergarten through 12th grade. During the first ten summers of her 18 years there, she was also the coordinator and music director for the annual summer concert at Calvin Crest Conferences, near Oakhurst. Before that, she taught private voice lessons in Fresno, was choral director for the Good Company Players’ performances of “Gypsy” and “Singing in the Rain,” played the role of Laurie in Good Company Players’ “Oklahoma!,” and sang with The Twelfth Night Singers.
David Fox is a pianist, cellist, and music presenter. He studied piano with Aube Tzerko (lineage Beethoven – Czerny – Schnabel) and cello with Laurence Lesser and Gabor Rejto. At age 15 he was a pianist in the trio that won the Coleman Jr. Chamber Music Competition. He plays in multiple ensembles and has brought a number of chamber groups to Fresno for performances and teaching. For more than 30 years he has played with the Rogue (River) String Quartet, which has gradually shifted to more musical adventures and fewer physical adventures. He has written a suite for string quartet.
John Kilburn has been composing and performing a wide variety of eclectic styles, including Classical, Jazz, Brazilian, Rock, and Electronic music for the past 30 years. He enjoys fusing instruments and styles from around the world to create unique blends of acoustic and electronic music for his film scores and original songs. He studied piano as a young boy, and guitar as a teenager, and later went to Rio de Janeiro to study Brazilian rhythms. He earned a B.M. in music composition at Western Washington University. With friends, he created a non-profit community center, The North Fork Studio, bringing cultural and educational opportunities to the local community.
Jennifer Lewis studied voice with Rebecca Sarkisian and Steven Kikugawa. She was a vocal music major at Fresno City College until switching to English. She is currently working on her M.A .in English at California State University, Fresno. She performs often as soloist and in vocal ensembles at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno. Her mezzo-soprano voice has been described as “smooth — like butterscotch.”
David Lorey has enjoyed playing flute since he was young. He also plays electric bass guitar. He works as a consultant on organizational strategy with arts nonprofits and is the strategic advisor for Music@Menlo, the San Francisco Bay Area chamber music festival.
Barbara Ulman, a pianist since childhood, earned a B.A. in psychology from Harvard/Radcliffe while also studying piano chamber music at the nearby Longy School of Music. In 1989 she completed a second B.A., at CSU, Fresno, in music theory and composition. There she studied piano performance with Bob Bennett, and music composition with Robert Gerster, James Winter, and Jack Fortner. She continues to be an active chamber music player, for fun and for public performance. Her many years as choral singer, and also pianist for solo singers and for choruses created a special affinity for the human voice. She composes art songs and music for small ensembles and for chorus.
