Vermont Virtuosi is Vermont’s new chamber music ensemble!
Laurel Ann Maurer, Artistic Director
Vermont Virtuosi continues its 2013-2014 season with a concert for soprano, flute, and guitar. “Poetic License” will feature flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, soprano Gail Whitehouse, and guitarist Peter Matthews performing the History of the Tango by Astor Piazzolla, plus music by John Corigliano, Toru Takemitsu, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Louis Moyse. The concert will also include a world premiere for soprano, guitar, and bass flute by Vermont composer Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, who set one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Songs from the Portuguese.
Concerts will take place in two locations:
Friday, November 15, 7:30 p.m., Bethany Church, 115 Main Street, Montpelier; and Saturday, November 16, 7:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 81 Saint Paul Street, Burlington.
Admission is free. Donations accepted. (Suggested donations: $10, general admission, and $5, students and seniors.)
For more information, visit www.laurelannmaurer.com or call 802-881-9153.
Laurel Ann Maurer has been lauded by the New York Times as “A secure technician and an assured communicative interpreter.” According to Fanfare Magazine, she is “superb in every way.” And The Salt Lake Tribune proclaimed Maurer to be “... stellar in both tone and technique. She is a master of coloration and interpretation.” Ms. Maurer has performed and given master classes throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, and Khachaturian Hall in Yerevan, Armenia. Ms. Maurer is a Miyazawa Artist and plays Miyazawa flutes exclusively.
Soprano Gail Whitehouse, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Mercyhurst University, where she studied voice with Louisa Jonason and developed a passion for opera. Currently, she studies with Jill Levis. In 2009, she joined the Vermont Choral Union, whose repertoire covers five centuries of sacred and secular music. In 2010, Gail joined Oriana Singers of Vermont, with whom she has been a soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Handel’s The Ways of Zion do Mourn, among others. Earlier this year, Burlington Ensemble and Oriana Singers performed Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, in which Gail sang the role of Second Woman.
Classical guitarist Peter Matthews is active as a performer and teacher. He has performed and recorded with the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, with the vocal ensemble Counterpoint, and with his wife, flutist Wendy Matthews, in the Matthews Duo. He has appeared on Innova and Albany Records. Peter holds an MM in performance from the University of Akron School of Music where he studied with Stephen Aron and was a prize-winner in the Stroud Competition. After pursuing post-graduate studies at the University of Arizona, he was on the faculty of the University of Akron School of Music and Western Reserve Academy. Currently he teaches in the Northeast Franklin Supervisory Union in Vermont where the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education recognized him for his work.