A Solstice Concert with Deb Stevenson & Lee Kesselman @ Schweikher House

645 Meacham Road,Schaumburg IL 60193

18 December, 2022

Description

Join us for an intimate Solstice Concert in the living room of the historic Schweikher House. Doors open 2:30, performance at 3pm. Light refreshments will be served. Together the duo will perform British composer Michael Head’s “Three Pieces,” a baroque oboe concerto by Benedetto Marcello and the amazingly virtuosic yet soulful Sonata for oboe and piano by French composer Francis Poulenc. Kesselman will also play as a solo pianist. His repertoire will include Franz Liszt’s popular Romantic showpiece, Liebestraum. He will also play song transcriptions by George Gershwin and his own Notturno (Night) from his recently composed Suite for Piano. In this wonderfully intimate setting, these musician friends will share with you stories of the pieces, the composers and themselves - creating a special performance that you soon won’t forget! Deb Stevenson, oboe, is the founder of the Metropolis Oboe Quartet (www.metropolisquartet.com) and is co-founder of The Mozart Journey - a collaboration with the St. Charles Singers to perform and record the sacred choral works of Mozart. Her newest project Rendezvous Arts (www.rendezvousarts.org) was conceived during the 2020 pandemic and marries chamber music and visual art. Groups frequently performed with are the Metropolis, Lake Forest and Milwaukee Symphonies, Ars Viva, Handel Week and the Apollo Chorus. She can be heard on recordings with the Chicago, Metropolis, Lake Forest and Milwaukee Symphonies, the St. Charles Singers, Stevie Nicks, Faith Hill’s Christmas Special, the Apollo Chorus, and for GIA music. Deb teaches at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute, Wheaton College, North Park University, Loyola and Vandercook College. She has a master’s degree in oboe performance and attended Northwestern University, Boston University, Northern Illinois University and the University of Louisville. Her teachers were Grover Schiltz, Ray Still, Larry Thorstenberg, Carl Sonic and Marion Gibson. Lee R. Kesselman served on the music faculty at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn from 1981 - 2021. A native of Milwaukee, he holds undergraduate degrees in piano and composition from Macalester, and a master’s degree in conducting from the University of Southern California, where he studied collaborative piano with Gwendolyn Koldofsky. In addition to teaching and composing, Mr. Kesselman is active as a conductor, pianist, clinician and lecturer. Kesselman was chosen the Outstanding Faculty Member at the College of DuPage for 1994-95. Mr. Kesselman has accompanied many of Chicago’s finest singers in recital, playing chamber music or accompanying vocalists for his entire life. Kesselman served as department chair of the COD music program and curated the Music Fridays @ Noon series since its inception. He was Founder and Music Director of the New Classic Singers, a professional choral ensemble, and directed the DuPage Chorale and College of DuPage Chamber Singers. As a composer and arranger, Kesselman has written over 100 works for chorus, with additional works for solo piano, solo voice, orchestra, instrumental chamber music, and wind ensemble. In 2021-22 he performed as pianist with the Band of Five wind quintet on the Rendezvous Arts series in works of Mozart and Poulenc.