ALL-FEMALE WIND SEXTET FREQUENCY 49 PRESENTS

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1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SAN FRANCISCO, January 7, 2016 MEDIA CONTACT Carmen Lemoine ALL-FEMALE WIND SEXTET FREQUENCY 49 PRESENTS AMERICANA American Wind Music Works by Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Vernon Duke, Bill Douglas, and William Grant Still JANUARY 29 OLD FIRST CONCERT SERIES AT OLD FIRST CHURCH IN SAN FRANCISCO The vibrant woodwind sextet Frequency 49 opens the new year with an all-american program of standard and little-known chamber works as part of the Old First Concert Series on January 29 at 8 p.m. at Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento St, San Francisco. The program features Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Samuel Barber s gorgeous Summer Music and Aaron Copland s spacious Duo for flute and piano. The ensemble will also perform African-American composer William Grant Still s Miniatures, based on folk songs of the Americas, Bill Douglas s crowd-pleasing Quartet written in 2011, and Three Pieces by Vladimir Dukelsky. Better known as Vernon Duke, Dukelsky was the musical genius responsible for much-loved jazz standards including April in Paris and Autumn in New York. We wanted to present a concert of captivating standards like the Barber and the Copland while also introducing audiences to great music by composers too seldom heard, said 1

2 Jeannie Psomas, clarinetist with Frequency 49. In particular, the Duke, Douglas, and Still are little gems we feel deserve a place in the canon. The performance takes place on Friday, January 29 at 8 p.m. at Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA All General and Senior tickets purchased in advance online will receive a $2 discount. Concert tickets are $18 General (including online discount); $15 for seniors; $5 for full-time students; and free for children age 12 and under. Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at CALENDAR EDITORS: ###### Frequency 49 Americana: American Wind Music Samuel Barber Summer Music, op. 31 Aaron Copland Duo for flute and piano Bill Douglas Quartet for flute, oboe, bassoon and piano Vladimir Dukelsky Three Pieces for woodwind quartet and piano William Grant Still Miniatures Friday, January 29, 2016, 8 p.m. Old First Concerts Old First Church 1751 Sacramento Street San Francisco, CA Tickets: $18 General/$15 Seniors/$5 Full Time Students/Free Children 12 and under ###### About Frequency 49 Frequency 49 is a female San Francisco Bay Area-based wind and piano chamber ensemble dedicated to broadening awareness of compelling woodwind repertoire new and true through performances of the highest artistry. In distinctive programs featuring flexible instrumentation, the group explores the interdependent relationship between color and sound unique to its particular combination of instruments. Highly sought after by composers, they have premiered music by groundbreaking American composer Robert Pierzak, hip-hop/classical fusion artist Joowan Kim, and jazz musician and educator David Hart. Members of the group have performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. More sound clips and information available at 2

3 About the Performers Carmen Lemoine, flute Carmen Lemoine wants to live in a world where education is free to all, pantyhose don t exist, people aren t afraid to be honest, Unti winery is her next-door neighbor, a train will shuttle her across town in 15 minutes, and all you need is love. Until that day arrives, however, she has dedicated herself to mastering the art of the flute. She holds tenured positions with the Santa Rosa, Marin and Santa Cruz symphonies, performs frequently with the Louisville Orchestra and recently appeared as guest principal flute with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in New Zealand. Equally at home in small ensembles of contrasting styles, she is a member of Ensemble Mik Nawooj, a hip-hop/classical fusion group recently featured in the Wall Street Journal as well as Frequency 49, a female wind sextet she founded. She is also a regular performer at the annual conventions of the National Flute Association. When she s not fluting, you may find her introducing eager, young minds to the wonderful worlds of woodwind chamber music, musicianship and music theory at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her next project the podcast Why Don t I Like Classical Music? hits the airwaves June Co-hosted with the brilliant musicologist Dr. Brooke McCorkle, each episode will deliver digestible morsels of music history in an accessible, conversational style. Dr. Lemoine earned degrees in flute performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.M. and D.M.A.), where she studied with celebrated artist and teacher Bonita Boyd, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M. M.), studying with San Francisco Symphony principal flute Timothy Day. Adrienne Malley, oboe (on maternity leave for Spring 2016) Adrienne Malley is a freelance oboist and instructor in the Bay Area. She performs with many ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Symphony Silicon Valley, and the regional symphony orchestras of Berkeley, Monterey, Napa Valley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, and her Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers have included Nancy Ambrose King, Mark Ostoich, Harry Sargous, and Shelley Heron. An avid chamber musician, she is also a founding member of the Divisa Ensemble, a chamber ensemble comprised of mixed wind and string instruments. To learn more, visit Jeannie Psomas, clarinet Jeannie is principal clarinet with the Reno Chamber Orchestra as well as the second clarinet with the Fresno Philharmonic. She has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and many of the regional orchestras throughout the Bay Area and Nevada, including the Monterey Symphony, Modesto Symphony, California Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, and the Reno Philharmonic. Born and raised in the Sunset District of San Francisco, Jeannie completed her Bachelor of Music at the Eastman School of Music, where she toured with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and studied with both Kenneth Grant and Jon Manasse. Jeannie graduated with her Master s degree in clarinet 3

4 performance at the San Francisco Conservatory in 2012, where she studied with Luis Baez and was awarded Departmental Honors. When Jeannie isn t performing, teaching, or frantically practicing she enjoys going to her favorite local yoga studio in the Outer Sunset and rooting for the Giants. Yueh Chou, bassoon Dr. Yueh Chou is the bassoon instructor of San Jose State University s School of Music and Dance. She is known for her work on Modern and Historical Bassoons. She holds a Certificate Diploma on both Baroque and Classical Bassoons from the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag, the Netherlands; a B.M. from the Juilliard School; and earned both Masters and Doctorate degrees in Music with minors in Baroque Bassoon and Music Education from the University of Southern California. Dr. Chou teaches Bassoon and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division and Chabot College in Hayward. Leslie Hart, horn Leslie Hart recently earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. She is an active freelance horn player in the San Francisco Bay area and the Director of Instrumental Music at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California. Having lived throughout the United States and abroad, Ms. Hart has performed with numerous orchestras including Opera San Jośe (California), Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (New York), the Orquesta Sinfonica de Aguascalientes (Mexico), and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (Bangkok). Dr. Hart was the Professor of Horn at Mahidol University College of Music (Thailand), horn faculty at Nazareth College and Roberts Wesleyan College (New York), and taught in numerous capacities as a graduate teaching assistant at the Eastman School of Music. Dr. Hart has presented clinics in Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Hong Kong, and the United States, including the 2009 and 2011 International Horn Symposiums. Publishings include articles on cadenza improvisation in Mozart s Horn Concerto No. 3, K. 447 and improvisation in orchestral excerpts, and her dissertation topic describes a curriculum for improvisation in a collegiate horn studio. Margaret Halbig, piano Pianist Margaret Halbig moved to the Bay Area in 2011 and joined the accompanying and vocal coaching staff at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Margaret performs regularly with the Silicon Valley Music Festival. An advocate of new and contemporary music, Margaret has been the pianist for Wild Rumpus since its inception in Additionally, Margaret is a founding member of Firesong, a contemporary chamber music trio with soprano Vanessa Langer and clarinetist Sophie Huet dedicated to the programming and commissioning of the next generation of vocal chamber works. Other recent projects include Opera Outreach and recording an album of contemporary cello and piano works with Ojai-based cellist, Virginia Kron. Margaret earned her DMA from the University of California Santa Barbara under Robert Koenig and holds performance degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory and the University of Evansville. Her primary teachers include Jonathan Feldman, Robert Weirich, and Anne Fiedler. About Old First Concert Series Old First Concerts, established in 1970 as a year-round concert series, continues to present an astonishing array of programs performed by outstanding musicians from the San Francisco Bay 4

5 Area and beyond. Old First Concerts has a distinctive niche within the local musical community with a solid history of creating and programming an incubator space for emerging and established musicians and ensembles of all genres. The musical content (our curatorial mission) is artistdriven on every level, with no restrictions placed on the musicians' artistic vision. --end-- 5