Though each was born in America, it was at the Hochschule fur Musik, Koln in Cologne, Germany that violinist Timothy Braun and cellist Erik Asgeirsson met and decided to collaborate with international colleagues on a chamber music project.  Having since performed jointly in numerous German venues, most notably the Philharmonie Koln, they currently perform as a duo and have formed a trio with pianist Agapi Triantafyllidi.

Born in Los Angeles, Californiain 1985, violinist Timothy Braun has performed as a solo chamber musician in North America and Europe as well as in Australia and South Africa.  Recently he has given recitals in such prestigious halls as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw,Budapest’s Bela Bartok Palace of the Arts and Pretoria’s ZK Matthews Great Hall. In recent summers he has been invited to highly acclaimed chamber music Music Festivals in the United States, including the Itzhak Perlman Chamber Music Program (New York), Kneisel Hall Festival (Maine), Music@Menlo (California), as well as the Pan Pacific Festival (Sydney) and Viana do Castelo (Portugal). He has collaborated with violinists Mihaela Martin, Jamie Laredo, violist Matthias Buchholz and cellists Ronald Leonard, Merry Peckham, Claus Kanngiesser and Paul Katz.  His principal mentors have been Robert Lipsett at the The Colburn School in Los Angeles and Mihaela Martin at Hochschule fur Musik Koln.

Twenty-four year old cellist Erik Ásgeirsson has amassed a staggering list of professional credits on the world stage. Since well before his enrollment at the Eastman School of Music at age sixteen, Ásgeirsson’s ascent as a rising star has been swift and steady. Praised by Der Westen (Germany, 2009) for his “refined magic of tone colors… exquisitely beautiful melodies and enormous virtuosity”, he has been featured as soloist in the major concerto repertoire with orchestras of Germany,Miami and his native Michigan. Ásgeirsson has also been recorded and presented internationally as recitalist and chamber musician at venues in the U.S, Canada and Europe – among them, Italy’s Amici Della Musica and Gustav Mahler Festivals, France’s Festival Music Alp and Germany’s “Romanische Nacht” Festival, Forum Neue Musik and Philharmonie Koln Lunch series. His recent performances at the Lucerne Festival Academy, with composer-conductor Pierre Boulez, were live-streamed online to a world-wide audience.  He holds a Masters degree in Cello

Pauline Martin’s Washington debut captured the Washington Post headline Pauline Martin’s Dazzling Debut. The Canadian born pianist continues to earn world-class recognition for solo and chamber music performances, recordings and national broadcasts in Canada, theU.S. and Europe. Martin has been a featured performer and teacher at such festivals as the Ann Arbor,Sarasota, Summer Serenades (Maryland) Festivals, Mackinac Island, Grove (Michigan), Winter Days (Scnadinavia) and Aria International Festivals.  As concerto soloist, she has appeared with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New American Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra London Canada, among others. Pauline Martin has recorded for theNaxos, Koch and CRS labels and, as founding member of the St. Clair Trio, is a recipient of the prestigious Chamber Music America/WQXR-FM award for its outstanding CD, “Old Acquaintances” (Koch) as well as a first-round Grammy nomination for “Hobson’s Choice”(Koch).  Recent releases include “A Postcard fromEurope” with clarinetist George Stoffan and the Naxos CD: “Imaginary Creatures” (works by James Hartway).  She performs regularly with violinist Yehonatan Berick: the Berick and Martin Duo.

Scott and his quartet are accomplished musicians of wide acclaim, having played with artists including Vincent Herring, Kenny Garrett, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride, Don Braden and Bruce Barth. Scott alone has been recorded on more than sixty CD’s. Scott’s list of credits also include: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly Thad Jones/Mel Lewis), Manhattan Jazz Orchestra, The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (led by Jon Faddis), John Fedchock NY Big Band, Gotham Jazz Orachestra (Mike Holober)

Be sure not to miss out on this amazing opportunity to hear world class jazz arrangements and improvisation!

Coming to Midland May 13, from left, William Billingham, Angela Mannino and Paul Corona.

Grove Music Festival presented its first all-vocal concert last May, to a crowd that kept demanding more. The festival is delighted to present a return performance by Angela Mannino, soprano, Paul Corona, bass-baritone, and William Billingham, piano.

The music starts at 8 p.m. Friday, May 13, at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson Ave., Midland. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Both singers recently completed the Opera Center program at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Angela Mannino made her Met debut in Alban Berg’s Lulu, and sang roles this summer at Wolf Trap and Opera Grand Rapids. She returns to Wolf Trap this summer to sing Colombina in The Curious Women.

Paul Corona sang the role of the Physician in Debussey’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Met in the 2010-11 season. Last summer he had roles in Marriage of Figaro at Ravinia and La Fanciulla del West at Lyric.

William Billingham has served as an assistant conductor for Lyric Opera of Chicago since 1995, working with many of the world’s leading opera singers and conductors. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Southern California. Dr. Billingham started his opera career in Germany as a repetitor in the opera houses of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf.

Pauline Martin and Yehonatan Berick

The Berick & Martin Duo performs in Midland March 20 in a presentation by the Grove Music Festival.

Violinist Yehonatan Berick and pianist Pauline Martin will play works by Schumann, Beethoven, Fauré and Saint-Saens in a 3 p.m. recital at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson Ave. Admission is $10 at the door.

A prize-winner in the Naumberg competition, Berick is in demand in North America, Europe and Israel as a violinist, violist and teacher. He currently is professor of violin at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Martin is a founding member of the award-winning St. Clair Trio and has presented world premieres of works by George Crumb, Lucas Foss, Leslie Basset and others. This is her third appearance at Grove Music Festival.

Works on the program are Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 94; Beethoven’s Sonata in G Major Op. 96; Fauré’s Sonata in A major, Op. 13, and Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28.

Also coming up at Grove Music Festival is a return engagement for singers Angela Mannino, soprano, and Paul Corona, baritone, with pianist William Billingham. Associated with Chicago’s Lyric Opera, the three first performed here last May.

Their recital is scheduled at 8 p.m. Friday, May 13, also at Chapel Lane.

Sara Caswell

Jazz violinist Sara Caswell, right, brings her quartet to Midland Nov. 13 for the 11th annual Grove Festival jazz concert. The music starts at 8 p.m. in Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church.

Ike Sturm, music director of the jazz ministry at the “Jazz Church,” St. Peter’s in Manhattan, is bassist in the quartet, which also includes pianist Paul Johnston and drummer Jared Schonig. Tickets are $10 at the door, $5 for students.

While in town the quartet will also work with Midland string students the evening of Nov. 12 and with the Dow High School Jazz Band the morning of the concert.

In addition to leading her own quartet, Caswell is co-leader of the Caswell Sisters Quintet with her sister vocalist Rachel Caswell.

Classically trained, Sara Caswell earned degrees from Indiana University, where she was a student of Josef Gingold, and Manhattan School of Music, where she studied jazz with David Baker.

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.

Ike Sturm is a bassist, composer and bandleader in New York. In addition to serving as music director, he was commissioned by Saint Peter’s Church to compose a Jazz Mass for choir, strings and jazz septet. The studio recording was released in 2009.

The son of composer and arranger Fred Sturm, Ike Sturm has performed with Gene Bertoncini, Donny McCaslin, Bobby McFerrin, Ben Monder, Ingrid Jensen, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler and has played on four Downbeat award-winning recordings as well as recordings with Steve Reich. He plays regularly with bands in New York.

Ike Sturm studied jazz and classical bass and composition while earning degrees at the Eastman School of Music and also studied with bassist Dave Holland.

Paul Johnston is active as pianist, teacher, and composer.  He has performed with Clark Terry, Benny Golson, Nancy Wilson, Monica Mancini, and Bernadette Peters.  

A native of Pittsburgh, he studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Indiana University, where he completed a master’s in jazz studies and a diploma in piano.  Johnston is on the faculty at Eastern Illinois University.

Jared Schonig earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and won a number of Downbeat student awards.

Now living in Brooklyn, he plays on and off Broadway and has performed and/or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Fred Hersch, Wycliffe Gordon, Dave Liebman, Charles Pillow, Bob Brookmeyer, Rudy Linka, Peter Eldridge, and the Grammy-award-winning vocal jazz group The New York Voices.

He is co-founder of “The Wee Trio,” a collaborative project with vibraphonist James Westfall and bassist Dan Loomis.

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.

Chicago Lyric Opera members, from left, William Billingham, Angela Mannino and Paul Corona.

The 2010 Grove Music Festival chamber music series continues Friday with a vocal program by members of the Chicago Lyric Opera.

“Opera Arias, Art Songs and Broadway” starts at 8 p.m. May 21 at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 Jefferson Ave., Midland. Tickets are $10 at the door, $5 for students.

The concert is the second in the 13th annual Grove Music Festival spring chamber series. About 60 people turned out Sunday afternoon to hear a recital by the American Romanian Festival Quartet, a string quartet from the Detroit area.

Performers in the Friday evening concert are Angela Mannino, soprano; Paul Corona, baritone; and William Billingham, piano.

Mannino comes to the Grove Festival fresh from her Metropolitan Opera debut as the 15-year-old girl in Alban Berg’s Lulu, a role she performed earlier at Lyric. Also at Lyric she has had roles in “Manon,” “Tosca,” “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “The Marriage of Figaro,” and “The Abduction From the Seraglio.”

Corona was a 2006 Grand Prize Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. His roles at Lyric include Dr. Grenvil in “La Traviata,” Pistol in “Falstaff,” the Bonze in “Madama Butterfly” and Sciarrone in “Tosca.” He has also performed with Chicago Opera Theater and made his Ravinia debut last summer in Kurt Weill’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” and as Marullo in “Rigoletto.”

Billingham has served as an assistant conductor at Lyric since 1995, working with many of the world’s leading opera singers and conductors. Also active as a recital accompanist and chamber musician, he holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Southern California. He started his opera career in Germany in the opera houses of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf.

The program includes arias by Mozart and Donizetti, art songs by Schubert, Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Ralph Vaughn Williams and others, and several songs from Broadway.

The American Romanian Festival Quartet: From left, Marian Tanau, Eva Stern, Paul Wingert and Kyoko Kashiwagi

The 2010 Grove Music Festival chamber music series features a string quartet based in the Detroit area and a vocal program by members of the Chicago Lyric Opera.

The 13th annual spring chamber series takes place on two successive weekends, May 16 and May 21, with both concerts at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church. Tickets are $10 at the door.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, May 16, The American Romanian Festival String Quartet will perform works by Haydn, Smetana, Samuel Barber and contemporary Romanian composer Theodor Grigoriu.

Quartet members are Marian Tanau and Kyoko Kashiwagi, violin; Eva Stern, viola; and Paul Wingert, cello.

Tanau and Wingert are members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Stern plays regularly with the DSO and is on the faculty at Eastern Michigan University. Kashiwagi studied in Tokyo, at the Juilliard School in New York City and at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, where she earned an artist diploma.

The American Romanian Festival completed its third season in 2009 with eight concerts in southeast Michigan and five in Romania, in addition to movie and lecture series, an art exhibit and other events. Its mission is to bridge the cultures of America and Romania and foster mutual understanding.

Chicago Lyric Opera members, from left, William Billingham, Angela Mannino and Paul Corona.

At 8 p.m. Friday, May 21, members of the Chicago Lyric Opera will present a wide-ranging vocal recital. Performers are Angela Mannino, soprano; Paul Corona, baritone; and William Billingham, piano.

Mannino comes to the Grove Festival fresh from her Metropolitan Opera debut as the 15-year-old girl in Alban Berg’s Lulu, a role she performed earlier at Lyric. Also at Lyric she has had roles in “Manon,” “Tosca,” “L’Elisir d’Amore,” “The Marriage of Figaro,” and “The Abduction From the Seraglio.”

Corona was a 2006 Grand Prize Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. His roles at Lyric include Dr. Grenvil in “La Traviata,” Pistol in “Falstaff,” the Bonze in “Madama Butterfly” and Sciarrone in “Tosca.” He has also performed with Chicago Opera Theater and made his Ravinia debut last summer in Kurt Weill’s “Mahagonny Songspiel” and as Marullo in “Rigoletto.”

Billingham has served as an assistant conductor at Lyric since 1995, working with many of the world’s leading opera singers and conductors. Also active as a recital accompanist and chamber musician, he holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Southern California. He started his opera career in Germany in the opera houses of Heidelberg and Düsseldorf.

The program includes arias by Mozart and Donizetti, art songs by Schubert, Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Ralph Vaughn Williams and others, and several songs from Broadway.

The concert was a presentation of the Grove Music Festival, a local non-profit organization that sponsors professional chamber music, jazz and piano performances.

Scheduled next are two concerts booked in May. On Sunday, May 16, at 3 p.m. The Romanian String Quartet performs. The quartet’s leader is Marian Tanau of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

On Friday, May 21, 8 p.m., the festival presents a vocal recital by members of the Chicago Lyric Opera: William Billingham, piano; Angela Mannino, soprano; Paul Corona, baritone. Both concerts are at Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church.

A resident of Midland, Trepanier was artist in residence at Saginaw Valley State University from 2005 to 2008 and performed as a soloist with the Saginaw Bay Symphony in 2008.

She has also performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in Korea, Bolivia, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the United States, and in a number of festivals, including Wiener Musik Seminar, Aria Summer Music, Bowdoin Summer Music, and the Chautauqua Institute.

Ms. Trepanier was a finalist in the Grace Welsh Competition and the KBS Broadcast Young Artist Competition, and winner of the Michigan State University Honors Competition. After completing undergraduate work in Korea, she earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Michigan State.

Mijung Trepanier

Pianist Mjung Trepanier will perform music of Haydn, Schumann, Schubert and Ravel in a solo recital on Sunday, March 7, in Midland.

Sponsored by the Grove Music Festival, the recital begins at 3 p.m. in Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, 5501 N. Jefferson Ave. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, at the door.

On the program are the Haydn Piano Sonata No. 52 in E-flat Major; Schumann’s Arabesque Op. 18; Ravel’s “La Valse,” and Schubert’s Piano Sonata D. 960 in B -flat Major. 

A resident of Midland, Trepanier was artist in residence at Saginaw Valley State University from 2005 to 2008 and performed as a soloist with the Saginaw Bay Symphony in 2008.

A review in the Saginaw News said that performance was “luminous in tone and attentive to musical detail. Her technique and musicianship were of the highest order.”

She has also performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in Korea, Bolivia, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the United States, and in a number of festivals, including Wiener Musik Seminar, Aria Summer Music, Bowdoin Summer Music, and the Chautauqua Institute.

Ms. Trepanier was a finalist in the Grace Welsh Competition and the KBS Broadcast Young Artist Competition, and winner of the Michigan State University Honors Competition. After completing undergraduate work in Korea, she earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Michigan State.