Community Outreach: Events & Activities

A partnership between Hill and Hollow Music and SUNY Plattsburgh has made possible an exciting residency by Le Bon Vent February 3-6, to offer to our community an array of outreach concerts and educational activities. Residency highlights include:

•     Lecture-Performance -“Musical Migrations and the French Diaspora” (free and open to the public)

      Thursday February 5 at 7:00 p.m. at Krinovitz Recital Hall - SUNY Plattsburgh

•     Mini-Concert - “From the King’s Court to a Cajun Kitchen” ($10 or $20 with 5:30 p.m. dinner)

      Friday February 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Lake Forest Senior Living Community

•     Concurrent Music Workshops Led by Members of Le Bon Vent (all free and open to the public)

      Wednesday February 4 at 6:30 p.m. on SUNY Plattsburgh campus

      -     “Jazz Improvisation for Guitar” with Adam Larrabee at E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium

      -     “Yoga Voice” with Cristi Catt at Myers Fine Arts Building, Room 300

      -     “The Other Clarinet” with James Falzone at Myers Fine Arts Building, Room 314A

      -     “Fiddling Styles and Tradition” with Ruthie Dornfeld at Myers Fine Arts Building, Room 232

      -     “Hand Percussion” with Taki Masuko at Myers Fine Arts Building, Room 320

      -     “Arranging Traditional Music” with Jeremiah McLane at Myers Fine Arts Building, Room 212

•     Concurrent Music Workshops Led by Members of Le Bon Vent (all free and open to the public)

      Thursday February 5 at 3:00 p.m. on SUNY Plattsburgh campus

      -     “Improvisation From the Ground Up” with McLane, Falzone, Larrabee, and Masuko

            at Myers Fine Arts, Room 300

      -     “Fiddling Styles and Tradition II” with Ruthie Dornfeld at Myers Fine Arts, Room 320

•     Final Workshop With Le Bon Vent  (free and open to the public)

      Friday February 6 at 3:00 p.m. at Krinovitz Recital Hall

      -     “French Culture: Language and Music” with Cristi Catt and Jeremiah McLane

•     In-School Performances will be given at Saranac and Morrisonville Elementary Schools

Le Bon Vent (The Good Wind) performs the next concert on the Hill and Hollow Music series commemorating the Champlain Quadricentennial on Sunday February 8 at 3:00 p.m. at the Church in the Hollow on Route 3 in Saranac.  “From the King’s Court to a Cajun Kitchen” celebrates the traditional music of France and the lands touched by French culture.   When the “Good Wind” blows, a song in medieval French dialect might mingle with a New England dance tune; a bourrée might be accompanied by instruments from North Africa; and a bagpipe tune from Louis XIV’s royal court at Versailles might find its way into a jazzy Parisian waltz.  It is certain that much of the music on this program—folksongs and dances from Auvergne, Brittany, Limousin, and Provence — were familiar to the original French settlers in Québec, Acadia, (Maine and Nova Scotia), and Louisiana.

The six members of Le Bon Vent, all well-known musicians in their own right, offer a diversity of instruments and sonorities: Ruthie Dornfeld on violin and viola; Cristi Catt on vocals; James Falzone on clarinet and tin whistle; Adam Larrabee on guitar and mandolin; Taki Masuko on percussion; and Jeremiah McLane on accordion and piano.  Together they combine traditional scholarship and virtuosity with an ear for improvisation and experimentation.  The result is a daring blend that incorporates folk, medieval, jazz, and classical music.  Falzone and McLane are also composers: a few of their original compositions will be performed as well, creating a lively program with broad appeal.

Le Bon Vent has recently been heard in Burlington’s Flynn Space, Boston’s Intercultural Institute, and Montreal’s Maison de Culture (in a concert that was broadcast live on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) across Canada).  The Director of Radio Canada’s Espace Musique wrote: “The music of Le Bon Vent is a fresh spring breeze that ruffles our feathers with boldness, finesse, and subtlety.”

Hill and Hollow Music is a key participant in the Champlain Quadricentennial, interpreting the theme “Vive la France!—From the Old Country to the New World” with performances of French and Franco-American music.  Throughout the year a variety of music and dance events—drawing on medieval, renaissance, baroque, traditional folk, and contemporary traditional—tell the story of French exploration and settlement in our region from 1609 onward, and illustrate the diversity of French culture in North America, one that continues to thrive and evolve in our present day.

General-seating tickets at $15 for the February 8 concert of Le Bon Vent may be obtained in advance by mail or at the door.  Significant member discounts and subscription rates are available.   For more information please call 518-293-7613 or visit on-line at www.hillandhollowmusic.org.

More About the Artists . . .                                                   

Cristi Catt (Cambridge, MA) — vocals — has performed in concerts and theatrical productions internationally, including appearances at Tanglewood, the Holland Festival, the Flanders Festival, and the Bergen Festival in Norway.  A Los Angeles Times reviewer praised her “stunning solo excursions ... as radiant and exciting as any singing I’ve heard all season.”  She has recorded on the Telarc label with Tapestry and has also appeared with leading early music ensembles such as Ensemble PAN, La Donna Musicale, and the Boston Camerata.

Ruthie Dornfeld (Seattle, WA) — violin, viola — has earned a reputation as one of America’s best and most versatile violinists, with a command of Irish, Appalachian, Québécois, French, Hungarian, and Brazilian fiddle styles.  She has performed and taught at festivals, schools, and music camps throughout the U.S., Europe, Russia, and Brazil.  She currently performs with guitarist John Miller and in the French cabaret group Rouge.

James Falzone (Chicago, IL) — clarinet, tin whistle — has performed in concert halls and jazz clubs throughout the United States and abroad with Allos Consort, as well as with musical luminaries Steve Lacy, Richard Stoltzman, Theodore Bikel, Joe Maneri, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Ran Blake.  James’s debut recording The Already and the Not Yet was hailed by acclaimed jazz writer and critic Larry Kart as “a work that speaks a unique, potent musical and spiritual language.”  James teaches at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.

Adam Larrabee (Boston, MA) — guitar, mandolin — teaches at the New England Conservatory, performs with Enigmatica and Andromeda, and has composed works for The New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Festival, the Milton Academy Chamber Orchestra, and the Virginia Commonwealth Classical Guitar Ensemble.

Taki Masuko (Somerville, MA) — percussion — came to Boston in 1979 after playing percussion in the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.  He is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, and performs in Balmus, Hourglass, and Sabana Blanca, a musical group specializing in silent film accompaniment.

Jeremiah McLane (Sharon, VT) — accordion, piano — is musical director of Le Bon Vent.  He has toured the U.S. and Europe at such venues as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Londong’s Royal Festival Hall, Le Carrefour Mondiale de l’Accordéon (Québec), the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, St. Chartiers Festival (France), The Sidmouth Folk Festival (England), and Mémoires & Racines Festival (Québec).  He has composed music for theater and film, including Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, and released four CDs, including Smile When You’re Ready (1996), nominated by National Public Radio as a “favorite pick of the year.”  His CD Hummingbird, with Ruthie Dornfeld, won the Bravo! Award from the French magazine TradMag in 2002.  He also performs with Nightingale and The Clayfoot Strutters.