Spotlight Concert Series feat. Trombonist Greg Luscombe

Join MSO principal trombonist Greg Luscombe and pianist Brian Ray for a special performance in The Green Room.

Featuring works by Leonard Bernstein, Jacques Casterede, Arthur Pryor, Lars-Erik Larsson, Tommy Dorsey, and Eugen Reiche.

General Admission $10 | $5 at door with Student ID
Doors at 7pm | Performance 7:30pm

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble.


About the artists:
Greg Luscombe has served as the principal trombonist with the Memphis Symphony since 1989. He also served as the Orchestra Personnel Manager for two seasons. Since August of 2008, Mr. Luscombe is also Professor of Low Brass at the University of Mississippi. Mr. Luscombe has been a featured soloist on various subscription concerts with the Memphis Symphony. He recently performed in recital at Henderson State University, University of Northern Alabama, and at the University of Tennessee (Martin). Last season, he performed the David Concertino with the Dyersburg (TN) Community Orchestra. This season, he will be performing the Grondahl Concerto with the Germantown Symphony Orchestra in April. Mr. Luscombe has also performed and recorded with the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony and the Mexico City Philharmonic. He has also done a variety of commercial work including theatre engagements and recordings. He also performs professionally on euphonium and bass trumpet. Mr. Luscombe was recently invited to perform as a guest artist on a recital series at the Eastern Trombone Workshop (ETW-2011) held annually in Fort Meyer, Maryland – one of the largest events for trombone in the world. Mr. Luscombe is married to Beth Luscombe, a member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra viola section.

In addition to private piano instruction at Rhodes College, Brian Ray is the departmental collaborative pianist and also teaches piano classes at the University of Memphis. He has been a soloist with the University of Memphis Orchestra and the Memphis Civic Orchestra and has performed extensively as an assisting pianist in voice recitals. His most recent collaborative ventures have included art song recitals of works by Richard Hundley, Samuel Barber, Libby Larsen, and Rebecca Clarke. He has been a student of Allison Nelson and Joan Gilbert. His areas of research include the piano works of Joseph Marx, piano repertoire of the 20th century, works for piano ensemble, and harpsichord.

Spotlight Concert Series: Lenore McIntyre, Shelly Sublet, and Tingting Yao

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a special performance of the Spotlight Concert Series, featuring Lenore McIntyre, Shelly Sublet, and Tingting Yao of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Doors 7pm | Performance 7:30pm
Admission $10 (or $5 w/ student ID)

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble.

Program:
J.S. Bach: Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor BWV 1060
Brahms: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise Opus

About the artists :
Lenore McIntyre has been a core member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Violin section since 2005 and will celebrate her 15th Season in 2020 as Assistant Principal Second Violin of the MSO. As a celebrated violinist in the United States and Canada, she has brought exceptional musicianship and virtuosity to many Solo and Chamber Music performances. Lenore is enthusiastic about performing the Classical repertoire as well as modern day compositions. She has performed on stage for world premieres of some very relevant compositions by modern composers Jennifer Higdon, Mason Bates, D.J. Sparr and John Corigliano.

Tingting Yao is currently Staff Pianist at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. Before joining the staff of the University of Memphis, she was a freelance pianist in Oklahoma City area, the University of Oklahoma, and University of Central Oklahoma.

Shelly Sublett has been Solo English horn and assistant principal oboewith the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 1985. She has also held theposition of second oboe and English horn with the American Sinfonietta andthe Tennessee Summer Symphony. Her recordings are available on the Pro Organo label.

Spotlight Concert Series ft. flutist Elise Blatchford and pianist Adrienne Park

Join flutist Elise Blatchford and pianist Adrienne Park for a special performance titled TINY GIANTS for bass/alto flute, piccolo, piano, and toy piano. The program features works by John Cage, Sergei Prokofiev, Joan Tower, Stephen Montague, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and William Grant Still.

Tickets: $10 | $5 with student ID at the door
Doors at 7 pm | performance at 7:30 pm

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble.


About the artists:
Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for her “superb command of color and nuance,” Elise Blatchford is the Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music and interim Principal Flute of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

A chamber musician, soloist, orchestral musician, and teacher, Ms. Blatchford is a flutist who embraces the independent, the experimental, and the DIY. She was selected by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) to be a 2017 fellow of their Ensemble Evolution program at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity.

As a founding member of the woodwind quintet The City of Tomorrow, Ms. Blatchford won the gold medal of the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition in 2011, and received a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grant in 2014. The quintet has commissioned new works from composers Hannah Lash, Nat Evans, and John Aylward, among others.

As a recitalist, Ms. Blatchford frequently programs music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and has been an invited guest at venues across the U.S., including Indiana University, University of Oregon, and Yale University.

Also at home in the traditional orchestra world, Ms. Blatchford will serve as interim Principal Flute for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 season. She has performed with the Oregon Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. With YOA, she toured extensively throughout South America, the Caribbean, and mainland China; made an appearance at Carnegie Hall with Valery Gergiev; and recorded with Philip Glass.

A devoted and energetic pedagogue, Ms. Blatchford works to instill versatile musicianship in her students, so that they can create sustainable and varied careers. She has given master classes at New England Conservatory, Williams College, Longy School of Music, and Skidmore College, among many others. She holds degrees in flute performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory.

A Powell Artist, Ms. Blatchford performs on a 14K gold handmade Powell flute.

Adrienne Park is the Principal Pianist of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and has performed with IRIS Orchestra, the Memphis Chamber Music Society and with PRIZM Ensemble. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed recitals with violinist Joshua Bell, cellists Shauna Rolston and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, bassist Edgar Meyer, flutists Paul Edmond-Davies and Timothy Hutchins, the percussion group NEXUS and composer Steve Reich. In the fall of 2011, Adrienne was invited to appear as a soloist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra performing Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos in d minor under the direction of Mei-Ann Chen with Steinway Artist Victor Santiago Asuncion. She has been on faculty at the University of Mississippi as a collaborative pianist for the instrumental department since 2011 and has been a faculty member of the Piano Discoveries Camp since its inception in 2007.

She enjoys playing a wide range of chamber music and contemporary music for the piano, celeste, harpsichord, synthesizer, toy piano and percussion. With percussionist David Carlisle, Adrienne co-founded DivaDi, a duo who performs eclectic and exciting repertoire that often draws from multiple styles of music. DivaDi was a guest artist at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis in 2009, performing Carlisle’s percussion duet “Mad Cow.”

She recently created a new chamber series at the University of Mississippi entitled Sonic Explorations. The inaugural concert in 2013 presented instrumental and vocal works by British composers Gerald Finzi and Rebecca Clarke and an arrangement of “Eleanor Rigby” by David Carlisle. The second installment featured instrumental chamber works by Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. This season Sonic Explorations will be opening with two world premieres for piano and percussion intertwined with arrangements of suites by Bach for vibraphone, marimba and piano.

At the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Adrienne was the faculty pianist for the fall and winter residencies from 1994 to 2000 and for various summer instrumental master classes. In 2007 at Banff, she gave the world première of a horn trio by Wolfgang Plagge with hornist Frøydis Ree Wekre and violinist Mark Fewer.

While living in Vancouver, British Columbia, she worked with Kokoro Dance Company and composer Robert Rosen for the productions of Sunyata, Truths of the Blood, Sade, Part II, Encounters with the Goddess and Dance of the Dead. She also worked with Joe Ink Dance as a member of a contemporary quintet and with John Korsrud’s Hard Rubber Orchestra, a contemporary big band.

Adrienne studied with Abbey Simon and Ruth Tomfohrde at the University of Houston, where she received a Bachelor of Music and graduated summa cum laude. She also studied with Robert Silverman at the University of British Columbia, where she received a Master of Music and graduated with first class standing. In addition, she was a frequent Resident Artist at the Banff Centre’s Music and Sound Program, directed by Isobel and Tom Rolston.

Spotlight Concert Series ft. Andrew Crust and Members of the MSO

Join Andrew Crust, Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and a chamber orchestra comprised of members of the MSO for a special evening of music at the Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The program was selected by Andrew Crust and features works by Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler, and Richard Wagner. Mezzo-soprano Stephanie Doche will perform as soloist for the Mahler selections. Also a talented visual artist, Andrew Crust will be displaying some of his artwork available for purchase at the concert.

Doors open at 7 pm | performance starts at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $10 | $5 at the door with Student ID

Program:
Gustav Mahler, arr. Riehn – Kindertotenlieder
Alma Mahler, arr. Crust – Die Stille Stadt
Richard Wagner – Siegfried Idyll

Stephanie Doche, soloist

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble.

Artist Bios:
ANDREW CRUST is the newly-appointed Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (beginning in 19/20) where he will conduct a large number of subscription concerts, Kids concerts, Pops, as well as the innovative Annex Series and Tea and Trumpets Series each season. He is a versatile conductor with broad experience conducting orchestras, ballet and opera across North and South America and Europe.

Crust was Assistant Conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra from 2017-2019 where he conducted over thirty-five concerts each season. He also served as Conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony Program. As the Assistant Conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine from 2016-2018, he conducted a variety of concert series, helped coordinate the orchestra’s extensive educational programs, and helped lead a program for concertgoers under 40 called “Symphony and Spirits”.

Crust was the Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) in the summers of 2017 and 2018, assisting Michael Tilson Thomas on an Asian tour, as well as Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop and James Ross at Carnegie Hall and in a side-by-side performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also served as Cover Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and Nashville Symphony, Assistant/Cover Conductor of the Boulder Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of Opera McGill. As a winner of the 2018 Ansbacher Fellowship, selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Crust was invited to the Salzburger Festspiele throughout August 2018 with full access to all Festival performances and rehearsals. Furthermore, Crust was the only American invited as a semi-finalist for the 2018 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival‘s Young Conductors Award, and worked with the Austrian Ensemble for New Music in May of 2018.

Praised for her “fervent, commanding vocal prowess,” French-American mezzo-soprano STEPHANIE DOCHE (rhymes with posh) was a Handorf Company Artist with Opera Memphis for the 2018-2019 season. While in Memphis she sang the roles of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, and Toledo in the professional premiere of new American opera, The Falling & the Rising. Stephanie is also an Encouragement Award recipient for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, West Tennessee district.

In 2018, Stephanie garnered recognition for her “boldly convincing” performance as Idamante in Idomeneo with Opera NEO in San Diego. Other operatic highlights include Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Mére Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, and La Suora Zelatrice in Suor Angelica. Stephanie performed as Meg March in Little Women with UT Austin Butler Opera Center under the guidance and praise of the opera’s composer, Mark Adamo.

Impassioned with a desire to connect through creativity, Stephanie loves introducing opera to new audiences. As a Handorf Company Artist, Stephanie was a core member of 30 Days of Opera, an annual event that presents free opera in Memphis and its surrounding areas every day in September. Also in 2018, Stephanie performed in the premiere of the new children’s opera, Jack and Jill and the Happening Hill, with Salt Marsh Opera. During this community outreach, Stephanie and company presented the opera to over 5,000 students in Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Stephanie has been a featured soloist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, University of Texas Wind Symphony, Rocky Ridge Music Center, and the Austin based chamber ensemble, prismatx, with whom she performed Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire.’

Stephanie was born in France to an American mother and Canadian father. When she was four years old, Stephanie and her family moved to Rochester, New York, where she was raised.

Spotlight Concert Series: Troika String Trio

Join the Troika String Trio for a concert featuring works by Franz Schubert, Franz Joseph Haydn, John Harbison, and Scott Joplin in the Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The Troika String Trio features Memphis Symphony Orchestra musicians Jessie Munson (violin), Beth Luscombe (viola), and Mark Wallace (cello).

Tickets: $10 | $5 at the door with student ID
Doors at 7 pm | performance at 7:30 pm

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble. Regular symphony-goers and those who are new to classical music are all welcome.