A Little Lunch Music is an informal performance presented by Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and musician Patrick McCurry, series coordinator. You can sit and listen to the entire performance, dine in the Museum Café from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., browse the shop or explore the galleries.
If you are interested in supporting this program at JCSM, contact Noemí Oeding at 334-844-1675. These events are updated frequently with schedule information as it becomes available. Please check back with us for musician photos and bios.
Matthew Hoch is Associate Professor of Voice at Auburn University, where he teaches applied voice, diction, vocal literature courses, and serves as coordinator of the voice area. Prior to coming to Auburn in 2012, he spent six years as Assistant Professor of Voice at Shorter College, where he taught applied voice, vocal literature, and served as Coordinator of Vocal Studies. Dr. Hoch’s students have gone on to successful careers in both classical and musical theatre genres and have won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), the Music Teachers National Association, the American College Theater Festival, and others.
Jeremy Samolesky, a native of Manitoba, Canada, currently serves as Associate Professor of Piano at Auburn University, where he teaches piano and serves as Piano Area Coordinator. Known for his passion for both solo and collaborative performances, Samolesky has appeared in concert as soloist and chamber pianist throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, including a full recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., which was broadcast nationally on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.
After working on a Latin jazz project for the late percussionist Al Lewis, Coleman Woodson, Jr. (saxophones); Tom Sellers (keys and key bass); and Ben Johnson (drums) decided to get together weekly and work on their jazz repertoire by choosing challenging material, avoiding tunes already known by any one member. The goal was to stretch their musical boundaries by working on compositions that would provide growth for each individual and for the group. Pleased with the results and personal camaraderie, the Woodson Sellers Johnson (WSJ) Trio was born, The group then started booking selective performance dates to showcase this material. Each member’s personal tastes for improvisational music are on display when the group performs, creating a unique collective sound that honors the American jazz tradition while paying tribute to the music of their jazz heroes, Horace Silver, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chet Baker, and many others.
Michael Pendowski is currently the Director of the Jazz Ensemble and Instructor of Saxophone at Auburn University. Previously he taught at Eastman School of Music, VanderCook College of Music, Northwestern University, DePaul University, Harper Community College, and Wheaton-Warrenville High School. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music with a doctorate in Jazz and Contemporary Media, and of Northwestern University with Degrees in Conducting and Music Education.
Soprano Jin Lee is a two-time Alabama regional winner and national semifinalist in the student auditions of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Twice she won Emerging Artist Distinction at the Vann Vocal Institute in Montgomery and has earned second place awards at Alabama Music Teachers National Association performance competitions.
MATTHEW WOOD is Associate Professor of Low Brass at Auburn University. His duties include maintaining the trombone, euphonium, and tuba studios as well as conducting the trombone choir and tuba/euphonium ensemble.
JOSHUA PIFER pianist, pedagogue, and chamber musician is currently Lecturer in Piano at Auburn University, and has also held positions at The Florida State University, Wittenberg University, and Miami University. In the summer, Joshua is faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan, and he has served as faculty at the Orfeo Music Festival in Vitipeno, Italy.
Violinist GUY HAARRISON has held principal positions with the Jackson Symphony (MI) and Lubbock Symphony (TX) Orchestras as well as Associate Concertmaster of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra (MI). Originally from Australia, he performed regularly with both the Adelaide and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras before moving to the United States. Dr. Harrison has performed with the Arkansas, South Bend, Saginaw, Traverse, Northwest Indiana and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestras, and has toured extensively in Australia, as well as the USA, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, and New Caledonia.
On October 20 from noon to 1:00 pm in the auditorium, the series will present Musa, a piece by pianist and composer Donald Tipton from Columbus, Georgia. Tipton composed Musa with eleven movements, six of which are inspired by six paintings in the permanent collection of the Columbus Museum.
DONALD TIPTON received his Bachelor of Music from Columbus College in 1980 but has worked as a video producer and commercial photographer with special expertise in underwater image making. His most recent film, “Dreaming into Blue,” makes use of Donald’s own music for it’s film score. “Music has always been a part of whatever I do,” Said Donald. “It seems natural for me in interpret the visual in a musical context.”
Soprano JENNIFER PIAZZA-PICK has been active in oratorio, concerts, and opera in the United States and Europe. She was a member of the House Chorus at the Nationaltheater Mannheim in Mannheim, Germany for five years, where she performed in over 50 different productions. She sang several small roles with the theater as well, including Turandot’s handmaiden in Turandot, first Mädchen in Le Nozze di Figaro, and the first soprano solos in Schumann’s Requiem für Mignon. She has also performed with Ithaca Opera, Long Beach Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Theater of Lucca, Opera Piccola of San Antonio, and the Princeton Festival. Her operatic roles include Nannetta in Falstaff, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, the First Lady in The Magic Flute, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Minnie Lansing in The Village Singer, and Mrs. Gobineau in The Medium.
CHERYL CELLON LINDQUIST, pianist and coach, is a collaborator who has worked with an array of singers, instrumentalists, choirs, chamber ensembles, and symphony orchestras. Dr. Lindquist has served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and was a featured accompanist at the Songfest Music Festival at Pepperdine University and at the Acadèmie Internationale d’Été de Nice in Nice, France. She has collaborated with Martin Katz, John Wustman, and Dalton Baldwin through a variety of masterclasses and festivals. As a champion of new music, she has worked with such notable composers as Tobias Picker, John Harbison, Krysztof Penderecki, and Jake Heggie.
Praised for her vibrant sound, flutist ALINA WINDELL has captivated audiences throughout the United States and abroad. In the summer of 2016, as a winner of the National Flute Association (NFA) Convention Performers Competition, she was invited to play in the Newly Published Music Concert at the NFA Convention in San Diego, CA. She also performed as an Artist in Residence and faculty at the Orfeo Music Festival, in Vipiteno, Italy, and played newly composed chamber music at the International Double Reed Society annual conference at Columbus State University in Columbus, GA.
An active proponent of new music, Dr. SUSAN HATCH TOMKIEWICZ has commissioned, premiered and recorded many new solo, electronic and chamber works for oboe and English horn by such composers as Brian Cherney, Brooke Joyce, Bruce Pennycook, Jeremy Baguyos, Matt McCabe, John Lato, Nancy Galbraith and Fred Cohen.
An Auburn native, TAYLOR PIERCE has played and studied guitar since 2002. He studied jazz at the University of North Texas and spent summers studying music at Berklee College. Taylor has been part of the Auburn music scene since 2009, supporting other musicians and as a member of the Auburn Knights Orchestra.
Andrew Wilder was born into a musical family with 10 brothers and sisters who have all studied classical music extensively, and with parents who are both professional classical musicians. He has performed and studied throughout Europe, the United States, and South America. Upon completing high school, he traveled to Europe to study in the Istituto Musicale Pareggiato Della Valle D’Aosta in Aosta, Italy, and in the following year, the Conservatorio Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Swizerland, where he completed two artist diplomas in guitar performance under the instruction of Lorenzo Micheli. Wilder has studied privately with Matteo Mela, Denis Azabagic, and Paul Galbraith, and has performed in master classes in Europe and the United States with professors Aniello Desiderio, Zoran Dukic, Sussana Prieto, Carlos Perez, Roland Dyens, Rene Izquerdo, Johannes Moller, Massimo Lonardi, and others.
The idea of a club for music in Auburn occurred to a group of women who gathered to play recorders. The first organizational meeting was in the home of Helga Wilmoth in 1979. Those who attended that first meeting included Dorothy Bennett, Patsy Johnson, Julia Norton, Marilyn Schaeffer, Carol Bramlett, Carol Schafer and others. At first, meetings were held in members’ homes or else in a church or a recital hall. Programs featured members of the club or the Auburn University music faculty. The stated objectives of the Auburn Music Club were “to encourage interest and participation in all areas of music and to promote music in the community, homes, and local schools.” At one of the first meetings, Carol Bramlett organized a group of singers to meet and perform for the club or for schools and nursing homes. Thus was founded the AUBURN MUSIC CLUB SINGERS.
