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Doors open at 7pm | Concert begins at 7:30pm
Tickets: $15 advance | $20 at the door ($5 student tickets available at the door)
Crosstown Arts presents the Mahogany Chamber Performances series finale, featuring dazzling duo repertoire by Latin and Black composers at Crosstown Theater. Come hear the musical prowess of Memphis’ very own Adam Sadberry (flute), Frances Cobb (harp), and a rare chance to hear repertoire for two pianos featuring Artina McCain and Adrienne Park. Featuring works by Astor Piazzola, Aldo Lopez Gavilan, Valerie Coleman, Carlos Salzedo, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, and more!
The Mahogany Chamber Performances is a series of three chamber music concerts curated by Dr. Artina McCain, spotlighting Black and other underrepresented composers and performers.
Artina McCain, piano
Described as a pianist with “power and finesse” (Dallas Arts Society), “beautiful and fiery” (KMFA Austin) and having a “sense of color, balance and texture” (Austin Chamber Music Center) Artina McCain, has a built a three-fold career as a performer, educator and speaker. Recent performance highlights include guest appearances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Oregon East Symphony, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, her credits include performances at the Mahidol University in Bangkok, Hatch Recital Hall in Rochester and in 2022 her debut at Wigmore Hall in London.
Dedicated to promoting the works of Black and other underrepresented composers, McCain curates Black Composers Concerts for multiple arts organizations and is an American Prize winner for her solo piano recordings of these works. Recently, she won a Gold Global Music Award for her recent solo album project Heritage. Currently, she is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at the University of Memphis. Artina McCain is a Yamaha Artist.
Frances Cobb, harp
Frances Grace Cobb, harpist extraordinaire, recently moved back home to Arkansas to become the Director & General Manager at the Conway Institute of Music. In addition to running the business side of things, Frances performs regularly with many groups in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Before moving home to Arkansas, she relocated to Northern Colorado in 2014 after accepting the position for Principal Harp with the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to playing in various orchestras, she served on Faculty at the University of Northern Colorado, and as the Director of the Loveland Academy of Music, and performed regularly with her chamber group, Synesthesia. She achieved her Masters of Music from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music where she received a full scholarship and graduate assistantship for the harp department and assisted her teacher Gillian Benet Sella. While living in Cincinnati, Frances played principal harp with the Kentucky Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Queen City Chamber Opera, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and also had the opportunity to perform as principal harpist with the Cincinnati Symphony on several occasions. Prior to Cincinnati, Frances attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where she graduated from the Blair School of Music with a Bachelor of Music in harp performance and minor in piano primarily studying with Marian Shaffer. Frances spent 15 summers at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival where she played and taught alongside Mrs. Shaffer. She began playing the harp at age six with members of her own family at her home in Little Rock, Arkansas. The love of the harp has been passed down through three generations of the Cobb family beginning with her grandmother, Ruth Moore Cobb, who studied and toured with Carlos Salzedo.
Adam Sadberry, flute
Memphis Symphony Orchestra acting principal flutist Adam Sadberry is known for his radiant, lyrical playing, and he’s committed to expanding the Black diaspora in the classical music world through promoting equity, representation, music education, and commissioning music that tells stories of the Black diaspora – in other words, creating musical journalism. Adam is motivated to continue the legacy of his late grandfather L. Alex Wilson, an important journalist and unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement.
Adam has performed with orchestras around the country including the St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphony, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with the Clear Lake Symphony, Conroe Symphony Orchestra, Cordancia Chamber Orchestra, and the Detroit Chamber Orchestra, and he has also made guest appearances at Oakland University, University of Memphis, University of South Florida, National Flute Association, and the New York Flute Club to give recitals, masterclasses, and presentations. Adam’s presentation Using Your Identity to Create a Relevant Voice in Music lays a foundation for using one’s experiences and perspectives as a catalyst for generating change through music.
Along with maintaining a private flute studio, Adam teaches and mentors through non-profit organizations that provide free private lessons and resources to underserved communities including The Key Change and Raise the Bar. He is also proud to formerly teach through the Memphis Music Initiative, an organization that “invest[s] in youth through transformative music engagement, creating equitable opportunities for black and brown youth in Memphis”. Adam is on the boards of the Umoja Flute Institute and the International Society of Black Musicians, organizations that provide resources to musicians of African descent.
Adam’s education includes receiving a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and being a fellow with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He is indebted to all of his former teachers and mentors including Bonita Boyd, Anne Harrow, Jennifer Keeney, Amanda Blaikie, Sharon Sparrow, and Jeff Zook. He currently receives coachings from Keith Underwood. In his spare time, Adam enjoys roller skating, being in nature, and eating as much food as his body can handle.
Adam can be heard playing on the soundtrack of Disney’s The Lion King (2019).
Adrienne Park, piano
Adrienne Park has a wide breadth of experience performing as a pianist in chamber music and symphonic settings. She has been Principal Piano with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 2004. She was the faculty collaborative pianist for six years at the Banff Centre for the Arts and has performed with the Memphis Chamber Music Society for fifteen seasons. She has appeared with many renowned artists in recital, including violinists Joshua Bell and Andrew Dawes, cellists Shauna Rolston and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, bassist Edgar Meyer, flutists Paul Edmund Davies, Timothy Hutchins and Tara Helen O’Connor, bassoonist Frank Morelli, saxophonist Nikita Zimin, horn player Frøydis Ree Wekre, and the percussion group NEXUS.
Adrienne is Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano and the Curriculum Coordinator of Keyboard Musicianship at the University of Mississippi. She is also the Artistic Director of the Sonic Explorations Chamber Series at UM and enjoys playing a wide range of chamber music and contemporary music on the piano, celeste, harpsichord, and toy piano.
She studied with Abbey Simon and Ruth Tomfohrde at the University of Houston and with Robert Silverman at the University of British Columbia. While at the Banff Centre, she had the privilege of working closely with Isobel Moore Rolston and Tom Rolston.
