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Jorja Fleezanis to Headline 2009 White Pine Festival

Artistic lineup also includes the Miró Quartet, pianists Skip James and Angela Jia Kim, trumpeter Charles Lazarus, and poets Matthea Harvey and Roger Bonair-Agard

By Jennifer Haugh

The White Pine Festival is pleased to announce its 2009 artistic lineup, which includes musicians Jorja Fleezanis, the Miró Quartet, Layton “Skip” James, Charles Lazarus and Angela Jia Kim, and poets Matthea Harvey and Roger Bonair-Agard.

This year's festival will take place in Stillwater and Hudson June 17–21 and again bring nationally renowned musicians, poets and other artists together for a series of unique events designed to give audiences a new perspective on art and the world around them.

Retiring Minnesota Orchestra Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis’ festival performance will be one of her last in the state before she leaves to join the faculty at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music this fall.

With poet Roger Bonair-Agard, a national slam champion, acting as festival host and presenting workshops and lectures throughout, other festival highlights include:

Pianist Angela Jia Kim Wednesday, June 17 Trinity Lutheran Church 115 4th St N, Stillwater, Minn. 7:30 p.m.

Pianist Angela Jia Kim, praised as an "imaginative interpreter...beguiling us with fine shadings" (Fanfare Magazine, March 2006), will open the festival with works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, plus Liszt’s rousing and technically challenging Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D flat major.

Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons Thursday, June 18 Phipps Center for the Arts 109 Locust St, Hudson, Wis. 7:30 p.m.

Former Children’s Theatre Company Artistic Director Jon Cranney and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Principal Keyboardist Layton “Skip” James will join forces for a multimedia performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons that combines keyboard virtuosity with stunning visual art and poetry.

Jorja Fleezanis, Karl Paulnack and Michael Steinberg Friday, June 19 Trinity Lutheran Church 115 4th St N, Stillwater, Minn. 7:30 p.m.

Minnesota Orchestra Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis appears onstage with her husband, the musicologist, lecturer and writer Michael Steinberg, and pianist Karl Paulnack. Together, the three will discuss and perform Ernest Bloch’s emotionally stirring Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano, looking at this important work through the lenses of both music and poetry in one of Fleezanis’ last public performances in Minnesota before she moves to Indiana.

Jazz with the Charles Lazarus Group Saturday, June 20 Phipps Center for the Arts 109 Locust St, Hudson, Wis. 7:30 p.m.

Minnesota Orchestra trumpeter and returning festival artist Charles Lazarus, hailed by New York Newsday for his “bedazzling technique and a refined sense of musicianship,” will bring his jazz quartet, the Charles Lazarus Group, to the Phipps Center for a memorable night of music and poetry with festival host Roger Bonair-Agard.

Miró Quartet and Matthea Harvey Sunday, June 21 Trinity Lutheran Church 115 4th St N, Stillwater, Minn. 4 p.m.

The critically acclaimed Miró Quartet and poet Matthea Harvey—winner of the 2009 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award—will close the 2009 White Pine Festival with a once-in-a-lifetime performance of music and poetry that will be featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today through support from the Poetry Foundation.

Tickets

Combination tickets good for all five featured evening performances are now on sale for $60. Tickets can be purchased online at www.whitepinefestival.org, or over the phone at 1-800-838-3006. Individual event tickets will be available starting May 4 at $15–25 for each performance ($10–18 for students).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

[High-resolution photographs and extended biographies are available at www.whitepinefestival.org.]

ROGER BONAIR-AGARD is a national champion slam poet admired both for his captivating stage presence and evocative writing. A New Yorker originally from Trinidad, much of his work deals with politics, cultural identity and the notion of home. A talented poet in any context, Bonair-Agard truly comes to life before an audience, and his charisma made him one of the most popular performers at both the 2007 and 2008 White Pine Festivals.

The MIRÓ QUARTET, founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory and a returning White Pine Festival favorite, is one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups. This dynamic ensemble has quickly earned a reputation as one of the nation’s foremost string quartets, known equally well for their mature interpretations of traditional repertoire and their enthusiastic support of contemporary composers.

JORJA FLEEZANIS was concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra for 20 years, the longest tenured concertmaster in the orchestra’s history. This fall, she takes a new post as professor of music with Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

MATTHEA HARVEY is the author of Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form (Alice James Books, 2000), Sad Little Breathing Machine (Graywolf Press, 2004) and Modern Life (Graywolf Press, 2007), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a New York Times Notable Book and recently earned her the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. She is a contributing editor to jubilat, Meatpaper and BOMB and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

LAYTON “SKIP” JAMES has been principal keyboard artist with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1969. He is also a conductor and composer internationally known for his cadenzas for Baroque and Classical concertos. James was also a featured artist at the 2007 and 2008 White Pine Festivals.

ANGELA JIA KIM, pianist, is known for her lyrical eloquence and color palette at the keyboard, moving audiences and critics worldwide. Fanfare Magazine praised her as an "imaginative interpreter...beguiling us with fine shadings" (March 2006). She has been described by critics as “a superb colorist” and playing that is “full of life and fantasy.”

CHARLES LAZARUS has played trumpet with the Minnesota Orchestra since 2000. An avid proponent of original music and is active as a soloist and composer, his eclectic career includes performances ranging from pop and rap to jazz and classical ensembles and beyond.

KARL PAULNACK has been described by the Boston Globe as "a firecracker of a pianist" and "master of his instrument." Paulnack has partnered vocal and instrumental soloists, chamber groups, symphony orchestras, conductors and opera companies in nearly a thousand concerts throughout North America and Europe. Paulnack has served as director of the Boston Conservatory’s music division since 2002.

MICHAEL STEINBERG, musicologist, writer, lecturer, critic, teacher, chamber music coach and narrator, has served as program annotator and artistic advisor to several major American orchestras. His long and distinguished career includes a 12-year stint as music critic of the Boston Globe and as visiting professor and lecturer at seven different New England colleges and universities.

About the White Pine Festival

THE WHITE PINE FESTIVAL is an annual series of world-class artistic and intellectual events set amid the natural beauty of Stillwater, Minn., and Hudson, Wis. The third annual festival will take place June 17–21, 2009.

The White Pine Festival explores challenging ideas from a wide range of artistic and intellectual perspectives, including music, literature, visual art, history, poetry, nature, science and philosophy. Festival participants are encouraged to view art and the world in new ways, and to approach the task with the vitality, humor and candor one finds in conversations among close friends.

For more information visit www.whitepinefestival.org.

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