Grove Music Festival

Next at Grove Festival: Dan Fichera, Sara Caswell May 25, 2010

Pianist Dan Fichera returns to Midland Oct. 22 for a recital sponsored by Grove Music Festival.

Fichera, right, will perform works by Schumann and Chopin in an 8 p.m. concert at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson Ave., Midland. The concert commemorates the 200th anniversary of the births of the two composers.

Three weeks and a day later, on Nov. 13, violinist Sara Caswell brings her quartet to Midland for the 11th annual Grove Festival jazz concert. The music starts at 8 p.m. in Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church.

Tickets are $10 at the door, $5 for students.

Fichera, now living and concertizing in Spain, helped inaugurate the very first Grove Music Festival as a member of the Chagall Trio. He has performed here frequently since, most recently in 2008.

He spent his early years in Midland, and made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall upon winning the Artists International Competition in New York City.

He earned degrees from Mannes College of Music, New York City, and DePaul University in Chicago, and carried out additional studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., where he won the Alice K. Whitney award. His principal teachers include Nina Svetlanova and Alexander Eydelmann.

Classically trained, Caswell leads her own jazz quartet and is co-leader of the Caswell Sisters Quintet, with her sister vocalist Rachel Caswell.

She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Pops,in Carnegie Hall and on national TV. She is part of the Randy Newman Project, led by vocalist Roseanna Vitro and pianist Mark Soskin.

She tours with violinist Mark O’Connor as a member of his American String Celebration, has toured with violinist Darol Anger’s Four Generations of Jazz Violin, and has performed or recorded with Gene Bertoncini, Charlie Byrd, Skitch Henderson, Bucky Pizzarelli, Lynne Arriale, and John Clayton.