Musician returns home, brings ensemble
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Audio clips: Aspen Ensemble
Special to the Journal-World
Members of Aspen Ensemble are (clockwise from bottom) Victoria Chiang, Michael Mermagen, David Perry, former Lawrence resident Rita Sloan and Nadine Asin.
In some ways, the Aspen Ensemble is a mix-and-match musical montage.
There are five members in the group — a violinist, a violist, a cellist, a flutist and a pianist — but the members never are all on stage at the same time.
“One of the things we pride ourselves in as a group is really varied programs,” says member Rita Sloan. “We play everything from Bach to something written last week. ... We’re all over the map. One of the reasons is these different combinations of the instruments.”
The ensemble will bring its varied repertoire to the Lied Center for a concert at 2 p.m. today. The program includes works by Beethoven, Dvorak, Bohuslav Martinu and Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Tickets range from $12 to $28.
Sloan, a piano professor at the University of Maryland, is a part-time Lawrence resident. Her husband, David Gottlieb, is a Kansas University law professor, and Sloan lived here for about 20 years starting in 1979.
The Aspen Ensemble gets its name because the five players met while being involved in the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. They work in various parts of the country — four players serve on university faculties — and get together only to tour.
But Sloan says there’s a connection among the members that doesn’t suffer because of geography.
“I guess it’s because we get along so well, and we work together in the summer, so we have a basis for what we’re doing,” Sloan says. “We have fun when we get together. We enjoy each others’ music.”
Sloan, who was a freelance pianist and part-time teacher when she lived here, says this will be her first time to play in Lawrence since she left nearly a decade ago.
“This will be fun,” she says. “I get back a lot, but not to play.”
Josh Ritter :: Besides the fact that he wrote a song called "Lawrence, KS" without ever having been to Lawrence, there are plenty of reasons to dig on the poetic verses of Josh Ritter ... More info
Comments
lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy
Post a comment
(Requires free lawrence.com registration.)