Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, June 29, 2002

Karrin Allyson

Kansas native KARRIN ALLYSON lives in New York City, a place she's always wanted to move. "I always wanted to live here," she laughs, "but I've spent more time on the road than here in my new home."

She grew up surrounded by music and started taking piano lessons at six years old - her mother was a classically trained pianist; her two sisters also took piano lessons. She studied classical piano at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, where she found the music of Carole King and Joni Mitchell, and moved on into funk, rock and, finally, jazz. Her first album, I Didn't Know About You, created such a stir she found herself on the Playboy Reader's Jazz Poll, next to Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Horn. Concord Records signed her to a deal in 1992 and her sixth album with them, From Paris To Rio, was Pulse! magazine's #1 Vocal Album of 1999.

Her seventh album for Concord is called BALLADS: Remembering John Coltrane. The critics are saying things like "…A true original; her voice is beautiful but more importantly, it's interesting… there is no better female jazz singer right now than Karrin Allyson," and "Spell-binding. Flawless rhythm. Cool, savvy musical insight."

Playing with Allyson tonight are Danny Embrey (guitar), Bob Bowman (bass), Paul Smith (piano), and Todd Strait (drums).

Julliard String Quartet: Joel Smirnoff, Ronald Copes, Samuel Rhodes, Joel Krosnick.

The JUILLIARD STRING QUARTET has been around for awhile now, winning awards, garnering recognition amongst musicians and laymen alike, and being celebrated for performing diverse works of folks like Beethoven, Schubert, Bartok, and Elliott Carter.

This season, the Quartet will be playing concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Arizona. They'll give master classes at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and will head up to Calgary to continue their performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets. Last season, they headed to Japan for a 7-city tour and a television program filmed live at Tokyo's Kioi Hall.

The Quartet was the first ensemble to play all six Bartok quartets in this country, and they also rescued the quartets of Arnold Schoenberg from obscurity. They've been particularly ardent champions of 20th century American chamber music, premiering more than 60 compositions of American composers.

The members of the Juilliard String Quartet are: Joel Smirnoff (violin), Ronald Copes (violin), Samuel Rhodes (viola), and Joel Krosnick (cello). Smirnoff has been a member of the Quartet for nearly 15 years, was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 6 years, and has had several works composed specifically for him. Copes joined the Quartet in 1997. He performs at music festivals throughout the country and appears in solo recitals across the U.S. and Europe. Rhodes has been with the Quartet for 32 years, and is a faculty member at The Juilliard School. He's played in recitals at the Library of Congress and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Krosnick has been with the Quartet for 28 years, and has recorded most of the great quartet literature, as well as performing throughout the world. He has been the chair of the cello department at The Juilliard School since 1994.

16-year old violinist BELLA HRISTOVA was born in Bulgaria and began playing violin when she was 6. When she came to the United States in 1999, she started studying with Stephen Shipps at the Meadowmount School of Music in New York state and the University of Michigan School of Music. Her awards and recognitions are countless. In 1999, she won First Prize at the International Enesco Competition in Bucharest, Romania. One month later, she won the Grand Prize in the Michigan American String Teachers Competition. And the recognition continues: 2001 Grand Prize Winner of the International Kocian Competition in the Czech Republic, a performer on the NPR show From the Top with pianist Christopher O'Riley, and Concertmaster of the Michigan Youth Orchestra at the University of Michigan. In the upcoming 2002-2003 season, Bella will play the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the Brahms Concerto with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in Washington state. Tonight she'll be accompanied by Robert Conway, the resident pianist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Bella will be accompanied this evening by Robert Conway.

STEPHANIE DAVIS: At her home in Montana these days there are calves in the bathtub and on the porch; new ones are arriving daily and they're born wet and vulnerable to the cold, which is what it's been around there this week. They bring'em in, dry'em off, see to it they have a good healthy breakfast and take'em back out to their mothers. There's a reason to set the calving for Februray and March: by next fall most will weigh in the neighborhood of 650 pounds. There are people on the ranch who haven't slept much these past few days and who would welcome a return of the mild weather, but Stephanie is personally pleased to see the winter start. She claims it's easier to write songs when it's cold and the coyotes are howling. That would be if she had any time to write songs. . . . .

PETER OSTROUSHKO's latest album is Meeting on Southern Soil, with Norman Blake. There are eight previous, all beautiful and most interspersed with wry humor, with song titles such as Rumba de los Holsteins, Whalebone Feathers, B-O-R-S-C-H-T, Sluz Blues, Too Tight Polka, Corny Dog Ramble, and Puppy Belly Dance. The Pig's Eye Reel, and Unknowingly She walked With Grace Among Tall Men.

Asked how many albums, besides his own nine, that he had played on, he said: "Played on... well... Hard to say, exactly... five hundred is the number that comes to mind. It would be right around that..." He's currently working on a project of old live tracks of the Mando Boys, and he's also transcribing music of the great Irish fiddler John Dougherty to put in book form. He recently took a trip to Ireland, particularly to County Donegal and to the archives in Dublin, to track down his works; said he liked Ireland a lot more than he expected to.

CINDY CASHDOLLAR was born in Woodstock, New York. She started in music at a young age, learning guitar at age 11 when she was captivated by the Delta blues, and mastering the dobro later on. She started touring with bluegrass masters John Herald, Levon Helm, and Rick Danko of The Band, and she later recorded and toured with Leon Redbone. She's won 5 Grammy Awards, and has recorded with artists like Manhattan Transfer, The Dixie Chicks, George Strait, Willie Nelson, and Reba McEntire, among others. She can also be heard on Bob Dylan's Grammy-winning Album of the Year Time Out of Mind. With 3 instructional videos for steel guitar and dobro issued on Homespun Tapes, Cindy is regarded as a talented educator (as well as performer), and she frequently conducts guitar and dobro workshops across the nation. Cindy worked with the Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel for 8 years, cutting 6 albums and learning more about the steel guitar in the process. In early 2001, Cindy left Asleep at the Wheel and since then she has been a featured guest on Beausoleil's 25th anniversary tour, as well as becoming a member of a new group, Hen House.