Damselfly Trio
The Damselfly Trio is a chamber ensemble
dedicated to the music of living composers and poets/writers. The group
recently held a performance residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, where
they worked with composers Pierce Gradone and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. In 2018, Damselfly toured North Carolina and Ireland featuring their concert
program “The Little Songbook Project,” which included the premiere of Buaine
na Gaoithe, a new work by the Irish composer Ryan Molloy and poet Martin Dyar. In
addition to concerts, Damselfly presented outreach events in Craven County
public schools and in other local community organizations in North Carolina and
Ireland.
"The Little Songbook Project" is a collaboration with the Damselfly
Trio and a diverse collective of composers and word-makers (poets, writers,
text artists). A central focus of the project is to give voice, sonically and
in words, to artists of all walks of life and experience. In each book, the
performers reflect on earlier works for their unique instrumentation, and
juxtapose these with new pieces written for Damselfly.
Building on works by George Crumb (Federico’s Little Songs for Children),
Tania Leon (Journey), Ursula Mamlok (Der Andreasgarten) and
others, Damselfly commissioned Pierce Gradone, Lindsey Jacob and Ricardo
Zohn-Muldoon for new works for Book One in 2018-19. The new compositions
feature poetry or text by Nichole O. Nichols (Jacob), Juan Rulfo (Zohn-Muldoon)
and Stephanie Anderson (Gradone). Book Two commissions will include new works
by Valerie Coleman, Katharina Rosenberger, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Jesse Jones.
For more information, please visit:
https://www.damselflytrio.com/
Chelsea Czuchra, flute
Chelsea Czuchra is an active performer in
Europe and North America as a freelance orchestral player and collaborative
musician in the realms of new music, various world musics and improvisation.
Current projects include the Cochlea Duo with Lindsay Buffington, harp,
commissioning new works for flute and harp, "The Little Songbook
Project" with Liz Pearse, soprano and Cochlea Duo, and an ongoing project
commissioning works for vocalizing/moving flutist. For different commissioning
projects, Czuchra has received grants from the Nicati-de Luze Foundation, Basel
City/Land, and the Swiss Interpreter’s Society.
Czuchra
has performed at the Zeiträume Festival Basel, Edinburgh Fringe Festival,
soundSCAPE Festival, PASIC, Vancouver Int’l New Music Festival and Darmstadt
Festival. She has performed with chamber music ensembles at universities
including University of Kentucky (Lexington), University of Tennessee (Knoxvillle),
Berea College, University of Southern California, UCSB and CSU-LA among others.
Radio appearances include KXLU in LA, Radio X in Basel, Switzerland and Relevant
Tones at WFMT Chicago.
Czuchra
studied at UNCSA with Philip Dunigan, NC Governor’s School, Purchase College
(BFA) with Sandra Miller and Stefani Starin and at the California Institute of
the Arts with Rachel Rudich. Other flute mentors include John Fonville, Dorothy
Stone, James Newton, Marianne Stücki and Lisa Cella.
Based
in Basel, Switzerland since 2000, Czuchra maintains an active teaching
schedule, working with flutists of all ages in the Swiss and international
communities.
Lindsay Buffington, harp
Lindsay Buffington enjoys an active freelance
career in Switzerland and abroad, and plays regularly as a soloist and with
groups including orchestras, chamber groups, choirs and big bands. She has
performed with the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Walter Orchestra,
Mädchenkantorei Basel, Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein, Ensemble Boswil,
Ensemble Paul Klee, Basel Sinfonietta, The Sparkling Diamonds, Camerata Musica
Luzern, Ajay Mathur Band, Sinfonietta de Lausanne, Orchester Spiez, and the
Instrumental Ensemble Goldau among others. She is a co-founder of Deux en
Harpe, with the Swiss harpist Céline Gay des Combes and Cochlea Duo, flute and
harp.
Buffington
attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied harp with
Rebecca Anstine Smith, former principal harpist at the Kennedy Center Opera
House. Following two years of studies at the university, she spent 2005-07 at
the Conservatory of Lausanne in Switzerland, studying with the French harpist
Chantal Balavoine Mathieu. She returned to the University of Maryland to finish
her Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, in December 2007.
Buffington
returned to Lausanne in 2008 to study with Mathieu and complete her Master of
Music in Performing Arts at the Conservatory with the highest honors in 2010.
She received the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy in 2012 at the Hochschule
Luzern-Musik, studying with Swiss harpist Xenia Schindler.
Buffington
teaches harp at the Musikschule Horw and Musikschule Hochdorf in Kanton Luzern,
is a private harp teacher at the International School of Basel, and and as a
substitute teacher in music schools throughout Switzerland. Past employers
include the Musikschule Stadt Luzern, Musikschule Werdenberg and Musikschule
der Region Thun.
Liz Pearse, soprano
Liz Pearse is a
musician of many pursuits. As a performer, her uniquely colorful and versatile
voice has led to performances of wide-ranging works from medieval to modern,
and though she is known as a specialist in contemporary vocal repertoire, she
also deeply enjoys a well-aged song. Pearse has recently begun a long-term project
commissioning and performing works for singer at the piano (though she still
enjoys the collaborative process), and presents her second full-length recital
of such pieces, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Poulenc’s Le
bestiaire featuring newly-commissioned animal portraits, in 2019.Pearse is one-fourth of Quince Ensemble, a
treble-voice quartet dedicated to "charting bold new directions in vocal
chamber music" (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune). Their third album, Motherland,
was released by New Focus Recordings in spring 2018.
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Tickets and ticket prices, please visit:
You may also call the UNCW Box Office at 910.962.3500.
Box Office is open Monday-Friday 12 - 4 p.m.
Any remaining tickets will be available one hour prior to performance at the Cultural Arts Building.
UNCW students may obtain tickets in advance by going to the UNCW Box Office (located in Kenan Auditorium) Monday-Friday 12 - 4 p.m.
Present your UNCW ID at time of purchase.
Don't forget! The box office closes 15 minutes after the start of a Department of Music event.
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For more information or to join our email list, contact us
or call 910-962-3415 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.)
Directions to Beckwith Recital Hall:
Plenty of free parking, in front of the Cultural Arts Building and across the street.
Parking for patrons is free at the Cultural Arts Building in front of the building and across the street:
• weekdays after 5:00 pm
• anytime on weekends and holidays.
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DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC CONCERT GUIDELINES FOR UNCW STUDENTS
Arrive on time: at least 10 minutes before start of concert
• Arrive at the concert venue at least 10 minutes before the posted concert time.
Concert attendance and program stamping
Programs for students registered in Department of Music classes are stamped by the ushers at the end of the performance.
• If you leave before the concert ends, your program will not be stamped.
• If ushers should run out of programs, ask them to stamp your ticket stub at the end of the concert. Let your teacher know what happened.
Use of electronic devices during performances
• use of computers, tablets, phones is not allowed during performances. Anyone using an electronic device will be asked to put it away. Noncompliance may result in being asked to leave the event.