chamber music concert

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

MARIAN ANDERSON STRING QUARTET

Founded in 1989 and named after the legendary contralto, the Marian Anderson String Quartet won the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Competition in 1991, becoming the first African-American ensemble in history to win a classical music competition.  The Quartet’s artistic endeavors have taken them to Alice Tully Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Kilbourn Hall, the University of Southern California and the Chateau Cantanac-Brown in Bordeaux, France. The Quartet’s distinguished history includes performances presented by the Da Camera Society, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  The Quartet’s members comprise Marianne Henry, violin; Nicole Cherry, violin; Diedra Lawrence, viola; and Prudence McDaniel, cello.

MARIANNE HENRY | First violinist, Marianne Henry, has toured extensively as a founding member of the Marian Anderson String Quartet. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, she holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance, from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. She received a second Master’s degree in String Quartet Performance at The Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas. Henry is a devoted teacher of violin and chamber music as well as a performer. She has served on the faculties of the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City, New York City College and California State University, Los Angeles. Henry has been a soloist on KUSC Radio’s Sundays at Four, a featured soloist with the List-Glenn Festival Chamber Orchestra, the South-Central Chamber Orchestra and the Afro American Symphony. She has been involved in a myriad of other orchestra work, which includes The Phantom of the Opera, the Academy Award Orchestra, and The American Music Awards.

NICOLE CHERRY | Second Violinist Nichole Cherry is a native of the Washington DC area discovered her dream job in music after hearing the Marian Anderson String Quartet perform nearly 20 years ago at the world-renowned Lincoln Performing Arts Center in New York City. A graduate of the Juilliard School with a master of music degree in violin performance, Cherry performs concerts and educational seminars playing and exploring the essence of European classical music and collaborating with some of the world’s most established artists. Noted for her ability to play in many styles, Cherry has shared the stage with a diverse list of esteemed artists, such as members of the Audubon String Quartet, Cleveland String Quartet, Colorado String Quartet and famed pop diva Whitney Houston. Cherry has also toured internationally, performing and giving presentations throughout the world. In the United Sates, she has performed in such venues as the Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. Her past performances in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia include a tour as a featured soloist in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and South Africa.

DIEDRA LAWRENCE | A founding member of the Marian Anderson String Quartet, dedicated teacher, and eloquent public speaker, violist Diedra Lawrence, has shared her passion for chamber music through both her instrument and the spoken word. A native of New York City, Lawrence received her Bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Master’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. She has held teaching positions at the City College of New York, the Bowdoin Music Festival and California State University, Los Angeles. Lawrence has been a guest artist with the Southwest Chamber Ensemble, performed as a concerto soloist for both the List-Glenn Chamber Music festival and the Symphony Camerata and has performed live on KUSC Radio’s Sundays at Four. She has also served as a grant panelist for the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

PRUDENCE MCDANIEL | Prudence McDaniel, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Drake University, Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music, and an Artist Diploma from Duquesne University. McDaniel has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States and in Portugal. Through participation in the Minority Orchestral Fellowship Program, McDaniel was a section cellist with both the Houston and New York Philharmonic Orchestras. She has also been principal cellist with River Cities Symphony Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and an Associate member of the Columbus Symphony.

GATEWAYS BRASS COLLECTIVE

Through dynamic performances and inspirational educational programs, the Gateways Brass Collective (GBC) inspires artists and audiences of all backgrounds.

The Collective was founded in 2018 and includes Courtney Jones, DMA and Herbert Smith, trumpet; Eric Davis, DMA and Larry Williams, French horn; Isrea Butler, DMA, trombone; and Jerome Stover, DMA, tuba. In addition to participation in the Gateways Music Festival and maintaining active performance careers, each member of the Collective teaches at the collegiate level and regularly delivers educational clinics and masterclasses for students in elementary through high school, college/conservatory, and beyond. Their love for music is equally matched by their dedication, passion, and commitment to community and learning.

Accomplished in multiple genres, GBC members have performed with orchestras and big bands, as soloists, on Broadway, on commercial recordings, with indie bands, and more. They have performed with the Count Basie Big Band and Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New Jersey Symphony, Cab Calloway Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Mingus Big Band/ Mingus Dynasty, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, David Byrne, Aretha Franklin, Sharon Jones, and the Dap-Kings, Johnny Mathis and Bernadette Peters, among many others. Their work has also been featured on Netflix, Lifetime Network, CW Network, and movie soundtracks. Members have been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards.

The GBC strives to support diverse communities, encourages everyone to be a part of the larger musical discourse, and welcomes opportunities to collaborate with artists from all backgrounds.

ISREA BUTLER, DMA, TROMBONE | Butler has obtained multiple degrees in trombone performance from the Eastman School of Music (BM and MM) and Rutgers University (DMA). His teachers include John Marcellus, Ralph Sauer, George Roberts, Tom Ervin, Michael Powell, and Weston Sprott.

As well as being a founding member of the Gateways Brass Collective, he has played all four chairs in the world-famous Count Basie Orchestra and with many of New York City’s top jazz ensembles. In addition, he has played trombone and tuba for eight Broadway productions. Currently, he is the Music Department Head at Valdosta State University. He was the Music Department Chair at North Carolina Central University and Professor of Trombone from 2017-2021. He served as the Director of Bands and music program coordinator at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Director of Jazz Studies and Low Brass at the University of Mary. Butler was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Trombone at Jackson State University where he taught trombone, conducted the University Brass Ensemble, Jazz Combo, and taught Graduate Music History. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, Juilliard School of Music’s Music Advancement Program (MAP), and Rutgers University. His students have gone on to perform, teach and study at graduate schools such as Indiana University, Berklee College of Music, University of Northern Iowa, Rutgers University, Eastman School of Music, University of Memphis, Towson University, and Montclair State University.

Butler has been the conductor of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble, HBCU Trombone Choir, Associate Conductor of the Brighton Symphony, and Eastman Trombone Choir and Brass Guild. He studied conducting with Brad Lubman, William Weinert, Mark Scatterday, and Kynan Johns. While in New York, he was a frequent performer in numerous Broadway shows and many other prestigious musical performances. He has toured, recorded, and performed with many of the country’s leading jazz orchestras including the legacy orchestras of Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Mingus Big Band, Glenn Miller, Birdland Big Band, Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, and the Jimmy Heath Orchestra. Also at home playing classical music he has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, and the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra. Butler is a Conn-Selmer clinician and performing artist.

COURTNEY JONES, DMA, TRUMPET | The newest directions in 21st-century trumpet performance are being explored and defined by Jones, an award-winning Bach solo performing and recording artist who has also emerged as a leading figure in contemporary performance, chamber conducting, pedagogy, and service to inner-city youth through music outreach programs and mentorship.

Jones is in high demand as a clinician and adjudicator and transcends stylistic boundaries when performing throughout North America and internationally. In addition to his solo career, he has performed with the Golden State Pop Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony, the Macao Orchestra, the Pasadena Orchestra, the Debut Orchestra, the Inspiravi Chamber Orchestra, the Orchid City Brass Band, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Long Beach Opera, the Chamber Singers of Iowa City, and the Salt-River Brass Band. His feature film and television credits include music performed for “Glee,” “Notes from Dad,” “Cougar Town,” and “Criminal Minds.”

Jones completed his Doctor of Musical Arts and taught at University of California at Los Angeles, served as Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the University of Iowa and Lecturer of Music at Columbus State University. He is currently the Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Artistic Director of Jazz and Chamber Ensembles at Florida Atlantic University.

HERBERT SMITH, TRUMPET | Smith’s varied teaching experience has included teaching musicians and non-musicians of all ages. He began his Artist in Residence work with the now disbanded Rochester Chapter of the Aesthetic Education Institute, and he is frequently involved in residencies with the Rochester City School District and many school districts in the surrounding area. Herb also conducts masterclasses and lectures on trumpet technique, endurance and sound production; works with high school bands and orchestras as teacher and soloist; and gives individual lessons in his private studio.

As a composer Smith has been commissioned to write pieces for brass ensembles, high school choirs, jazz ensembles and trumpet ensembles, all the while composing for his own jazz trio. Herb’s composition “The Twelve Tones of Christmas” for trumpet, piano and voice, was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Recently, Smith was commissioned to write a ballet for the Garth Fagen Children’s Ensemble. The six-part work of more than 40 minutes spanned many styles including Reggae, classical, Jazz and Funk. A four-voice piece for high school choir was premiered in 2014 at the Finney School in New York. Smith composed a fanfare for the dedication of the new auditorium at Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women in Rochester.

Smith’s orchestral conducting debut took place with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in January 2019, where he leads a program aimed at dismantling the musical hierarchy of classical music and making it accessible to youth. He is a faculty member at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he directs two jazz bands and is frequently requested to conduct all-county big bands in upstate New York.

JEROME STOVER, TUBA | Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Jerome Stover currently serves as Assistant Professor of Tuba at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Additionally, Dr. Stover is an active teacher and clinician in the Houston area, and has previously taught at the University of Hawaii, Rochester College, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. As an ensemble member, Dr. Stover has performed with the Chicago, Boston, Houston, Detroit, Oregon, Jacksonville, Alabama, New Mexico, Korean Broadcasting System, and New World Symphonies as well as held the post of interim principal tubist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Stover has been featured with the Honolulu Symphony, the Yale University and University of New Mexico Schools of Music, and the International Tuba and Euphonium Association. Dr. Stover holds degrees in music from Indiana, DePaul, Yale, and Boston Universities.

LARRY WILLIAMS, FRENCH HORN | Multifaceted performing and recording artist, teacher, and administrator, Larry Williams is currently Principal Horn of the American Studio Orchestra, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Piedmont Symphony Orchestra, and the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. Williams has performed with orchestras throughout the US, including the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New World Symphony Orchestras. He is also a member of several chamber ensembles, including the Lyric Brass Quintet, and Rodney Marsalis' Philadelphia Big Brass. Williams served on the faculty of The Peabody Conservatory, Florida International University and was appointed Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Williams currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Horn at Washington Adventist University and is Artistic Director of DMV Music Academy. Williams is a Yamaha Performing Artist/Clinician.

OTHER ARTISTS

JUDY DINES, FLUTE | Flutist and Washington, DC native Judy Dines is a member of the Houston Symphony since 1992 and performs locally in the Greenbriar Consortium, The Foundation for Modern Music and is a lead musician with the St. Cecilia Chamber Society. Outside of Houston, Dines is a member of the Ritz Chamber Players and principal flute of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Dines attended Temple University in Philadelphia and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore before moving to Houston.

KELLY HALL-TOMPKINS, VIOLIN | Winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize and featured in the Smithsonian Museum for African-American History and Culture, Hall-Tompkins is a violin soloist entrepreneur who has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “the versatile violinist who makes the music come alive,” for her “tonal mastery” (BBC Music Magazine) and as a New York Times “New Yorker of the Year.”

She has appeared as co-soloist in Carnegie Hall with Glenn Dicterow and conductor Leonard Slatkin, in London at Queen Elizabeth Hall, at Lincoln Center and with the Symphonies of Baltimore, Dallas, Jacksonville, Oakland, recitals in Paris, New York, Toronto, Washington, Chicago, and festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, Santa Fe, and in France, Germany and Italy.

As founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a pioneer of social justice in classical music, bringing top artists to over 100 concerts in homeless shelters coast to coast from New York to Los Angeles, and internationally in Paris, France. Music Kitchen commissioned and will present the world premiere of Hall-Tomkins’ Forgotten Voices Song Cycle in Association with Carnegie Hall.

Hall-Tomkins earned a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music under the mentorship of Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. While there, she was concertmaster of both of the school’s orchestras. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honors in violin performance with a minor in French from the Eastman School of Music studying with Charles Castleman. While at Eastman, she won the school’s prestigious Performer’s Certificate Competition.

SAKURA MYERS, PIANO | Described as an artist with “hands of steel, a heart of lava, and courage of a lion” by Dr. Cornell West, SAKURA most recently made her debut with the New Jersey Symphony under the baton of Mark Laycock, performing J.S. Bach’s Piano Concerto for Four Pianos BMW1065. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. With innovative programming that seeks to cross-pollinate varying musical styles, SAKURA continues to cultivate a new, untapped audience among the most unlikely of listeners. Second place winner of the Josef Suk International Piano Competition in Prague, Czech Republic and winner of the Rising Star Award for her artistic excellence and creative merit as a concert pianist from the Thomas Study Music Guild, SAKURA is a young emerging concert artist whose “intensity and stellar technique” inspire soulful performances leaving audiences indelibly spellbound. With “profound power”, she communicates incisively and challenges concert-goers with her daring sense of style. In her pursuit to translate the beauty, intellect and brilliance of Western Classical Music in non-traditional events, SAKURA played with singer Sumayya Ali for the debut collection of New York-based designer Nzinga Knight at New York’s Fashion Week, performing an all-new arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise. SAKURA also acted alongside Clarke Peters and Colman Domingo in Spike Lee’s “Red Hook Summer.” Sakura holds a Master of Music Degree from Manhattan School of Music.

TROY STUART, CELLO | Troy Kenneth Stuart, gifted American cellist and highly respected pedagogue, has shared his passion for the cello and chamber music through his teaching at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (Preparatory and Conservatory), Baltimore School for the Arts, Third Street Music Settlement (NYC), and the Maryland Talent Education Center. He has also served on the faculties of Opus 118 (NYC), Schwob School of Music (GA - Visiting Professor), and Morgan State University. In recent summers, Stuart has taught at Apple Hill Chamber Music Center, Reveille Music Camp, Kinhaven, and Musicordia.

Highlights from recent seasons, as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician: performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto at Eastman School of Music with the Gateways Chamber Orchestra, presenting a duo recital with violin virtuoso Tai Murray at the Harvard Club in NYC, appearing in the Dorot Series in NYC―a concert of viola quintets (with Todd Phillips, Katherine Cho, Cynthia Phelps, and Maureen Gallagher), and a recital on the Four Seasons Series in San Francisco. For ten years, Stuart was a founding member of the Ritz Chamber Players. He has toured nationally, recorded, held residencies in Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Florida, and was featured on the international FOX-TV broadcast of the NAACP Image Awards.

In 1988 Stuart was invited to participate in the internationally televised (CBS) Kennedy Center Honors in honor of violinist/conductor Alexander Schneider, where he performed alongside Isaac Stern, Jamie Laredo, Michael Tree, Sharon Robinson, and Pamela Frank. In 1993, concert pianist and Gateways Music Festival founder Armenta Hummings Dumisani invited Stuart to participate in the then newly formed Gateways Music Festival where he continues to serve as principal cellist.

Stuart is a graduate of Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore School for the Arts, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Major teachers included Richard Kapuchinski, Steve Doane, Norman Fischer, and Ronald Thomas. He has coached chamber music with Apple Hill Chamber Players, Isidore Cohen, Abraham Skernick, Timothy Eddy, Isaac Stern and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Vermeer, Lydian, Audubon and Smithson Quartets.

Stuart is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Freidberg Lecture/Artist Award, and the Martell Cordon Bleu Award, presented by actor/musician Dudley Moore and the Seagram Company Ltd.

TITUS UNDERWOOD, OBOE | Emmy Award-winner and principal oboe of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Titus Underwood serves as associate professor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and teaching artist for Aspen Music Festival and the National Youth Ensembles program at Carnegie Hall. Underwood has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Puerto Rico Symphony and San Diego Symphony. Additionally, he has played principal oboe in Chineke!, Gateways Music Festival and Bellingham Festival of Music orchestras. A 2021 recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence award, Underwood received his Master of Music from The Juilliard School and bachelor’s from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Underwood teaches and mentors at the National Alliance for Audition Support program administered by the League of American Orchestras, the Sphinx Organization, and New World Symphony. His latest project includes a short film he directed entitled A Tale of Two Tails.