Music at Penn Alps is pleased to open its 12th season with a performance by two leading musicians with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal Oboist James Gorton and Principal Harpist Gretchen Van Hoesen. The husband and wife duo frequently performs in the Pittsburgh area and beyond. Gorton was previously Principal Oboist with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Van Hoesen has been Principal Harp for the New York Lyric Opera, the New York City Ballet and numerous other orchestras.

Pianist Joan DeVee Dixon of Frostburg State University joins Scott Pappal, horn, and Jennifer Pappal, violin, of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Dixon, a four-time recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award, has worked closely with such contemporary American composers as George Rochberg, Stephen Paulus and Emma Lou Diemer. Scott Pappal is a member of the Altoona and Johnstown Symphony Orchestras and the Laurel Brass Quintet. Jennifer Pappal performs regularly as First Violin with the Altoona and Johnstown Symphony Orchestras and is very active in the central Pennsylvania area as a freelance violinist.

Pianist Gila Goldstein returns to Penn Alps from New York City after a performance for the International Piano Festival in 2002. Her CD of piano works by Israel’s leading composer, Paul Ben-Haim, is a significant addition to the few commercial CDs available of Israeli classical music. Her appearances include Merkin Concert Hall, the 10th London International Jewish Music Festival, the Gardner Museum, the Israeli Embassy, the Musée de Louvre and the Tel-Aviv Museum. A native of Israel, she serves on the faculty of the Choir Academy of Harlem and has performed with the Boys Choir of Harlem. This concert is being underwritten by the Irene and Peter Halmos Foundation.

Tenor Michael Forest of Winchester, Virginia, joins soprano Máire O’Brien and pianist Mark Riggleman for an evening of song at Penn Alps. Forest, in nine seasons with the Metropolitan Opera, has frequently appeared as a soloist at the Kennedy Center with the Choral Arts Society of Washington and the Washington Chorus. O’Brien has sung with the New York City Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, the Baltimore Opera and the Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center. Riggleman is music director of the 92nd Street Y Music School in New York City and performs as a soloist and accompanist in New York, Europe and throughout the United States.

Newberry’s Victorian Cornet Band recreates the sounds of the American small-town band popular in the late 1800s. Modeled after the bands that once played regularly in quaint outdoor bandstands scattered throughout America, this one-of-a-kind ensemble is composed of professional brass musicians from Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey who specialize in playing historic instruments. The band’s repertoire includes marches, serenades, songs and opera arias popular during the Victorian era.

Russian-born Ilya Finkelshteyn, Principal Cello of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, is a former member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the Juilliard School, he has won the Juilliard Concerto Competition and appeared as a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall. He has also won prizes in the Russian Cello Competition and the Chautauqua Concerto Competition. Other appearances include the Aspen, Marlboro and Peninsula music festivals.

The Grammy-nominated Eaken Trio recently marked its 16th season of critically acclaimed concert appearances across the United States, Europe and Canada. Its members are John Eaken, violin; Andrew Rammon, cello and Gloria Whitney, piano. The ensemble has recorded under the Naxos and Catalpa Classics labels and is heard regularly on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and All Things Considered. In residence at Dickinson College from 1991-2000, the Trio continues to provide residencies through a program recognized by Chamber Music America as one of the five most successful in the country.

A truly international trio, the Merling Trio brings together musicians from Polish, Japanese and Dutch backgrounds. Violinist Renata Artman Knific, cellist Bruce Uchimura and pianist Susan Wiersma Uchimura made their debut as the Merling Trio in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1993. They have collaborated with orchestras under the batons of such notable conductors as Simon Rattle and Daniel Barenboim. The trio is now in residence at Western Michigan University. Bassist Tom Knific, a faculty member of Western Michigan U., will join the Trio for this evening’s performance of a composition commissioned by the Merling Trio.

The Ceciliana Quartet celebrates the union of words and music, performing secular and sacred music for two sopranos and continuo from the late Renaissance through the Baroque. The rich vocal texts, combined with the clarity and intimacy of period instruments, are the impetus for this ensemble’s creation of nuove musiche, new music from the past, for today’s audiences. The musicians of the Ceciliana Quartet are Sarah Berger and Ah Hong Matejicka, sopranos; Daniel Rippe, viola da gamba and Bozena Jedrzejicza , harpsichord.

Violinist Ricardo Cyncynates, Assistant Concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra, joins pianist Anna Balakerskaia for a memorable evening with the classics. Born in Brazil, Cyncynates assumed his post under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovic in 1987. He has performed extensively as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Balakerskaia, a native of Russia, is a three-time winner of the Best Accompaniment Diploma from the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. An adjunct artist professor at George Mason University, she teaches at the Levine School of Music.

“Appalachian Eloquence” is how Tony Ellis describes the music he and his band, the Musicians of Braeburn, perform. Their eclectic repertoire draws from the Appalachian and Celtic traditions, with traditional songs and original music written in the same vein. Ellis has played at the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe and his music has been featured in numerous television productions including Ken Burns’ Baseball for PBS. The Musicians of Braeburn, consisting of Gary Puckett on guitar, Debbie Norris on clarsach and Louise Adkins on a small chaplain’s pump organ, enhance the folksy qualities of Ellis’ original melodies and traditional tunes.

Lyra, a community of professional musicians with connections to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, was formed to explore and popularize Russian choral music. Its members – choir conductors, opera singers, instrumentalists and teachers – are united by their passion for ensemble singing. Lyra’s eclectic repertoire ranges from ancient songs of the Orthodox Church to works by the Russian masters to folk songs to selections from operas, while retaining a focus on works by composers of their native land. Although the full choir consists of about 25 singers, Lyra usually performs in small groups of five or six people selected to maintain the harmony of the choral sound.

Pianist Franko Richmond of Key West presents an exciting evening of his “global fusion” music that crosses cultural borders by blending elements of jazz, Latino and classical music.

Ms. Roldán has been a member of the Conservatory’s piano faculty since 1976. The president of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the American Liszt Society, she was a co-director of the 1992 International Piano Festival at Penn Alps.

Student recitals through this new program: Local music teachers and their students have the opportunity to perform recitals in the Great Hall and use its 7-foot Yamaha grand piano. The Schrock Fund provides financial support for this program.