JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
Sixth Floor Trio at Rosen Concert Hall August 9
Concert To Raise Money for Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies at ASU
The Sixth Floor Trio performs at ASU’s Belk Library in 2009.Returning to the High Country by popular demand after its performance at last year’s Marvin Hamlisch concert in Banner Elk is the Sixth Floor Trio. The trio performs “A Little Night Music: Bluegrass, Klezmer and More” at Rosen Concert Hall, located within the Broyhill Music Center on the ASU campus, at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, August 9.
Tickets are $40, and all proceeds from the concert will support an endowment for a distinguished professorship and director of ASU’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies, which formed in 2002.
The Sixth Floor Trio is comprised of Teddy Abrams, Harrison Hollingsworth and Johnny Teyssier. The trio formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, where all three members studied.
Abrams conducts, composes and performs as a clarinetist, pianist and sometimes as a saxophonist. He is currently the Conducting Fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami. He began working with Michael Tilson Thomas at age 11 and has soloed with the San Francisco Symphony and performed with Manahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, John Adams and Time for Three.
Hollingsworth is currently based in New York City as the principal bassoon of the NYC Ballet and is a master’s candidate in orchestral conducting at The Mannes School for Music. While at the Curtis Music Institute in Philadelphia, Hollingsworth also developed a strong affinity for bluegrass and joined a local band on the fiddle.
Teyssier began playing clarinet at age 11 and is now pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Teyssier has played recitals throughout the United States and Europe and was the 2007 winner of the Ico Ardán Award in Ireland and the 2008 winner of the Juventus Prize in France.
The trio opened for Marvin Hamlisch in 2009 at a fundraiser for the Temple of the High Country. It was the trio’s first performance together in its current configuration.
“They were just so spectacular…and everyone wanted to hear them, to come back,” said Stan Etkin, who along with his wife Ruth is chairing the concert fundraiser.
The trio performed classical and Klezmer music for the 2009 benefit and even threw in a few bluegrass numbers, to the delight of the audience. The trio returns to the High Country this week through August 9 to develop new repertoire, work on an innovative folk music video project, perform as part of Lees-McRae College’s production of Ragtime and for the August 9 benefit concert.
Proceeds will contribute to matching funds for a grant from the Leon Levine Foundation. A steering committee has been tasked with raising $200,000 for the matching grant by December 31. Together with the grant, matching funds and other sources, the committee hopes to establish an endowment of $1 million for a distinguished professorship and director of the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies.
“It’s a guarantee that there will always be someone there,” said Ruth Etkin.
Located administratively within the College of Arts and Sciences, the center seeks to strengthen tolerance, understanding and remembrance by increasing the knowledge of Jewish culture and history, teaching the history and meaning of the Holocaust and using these experiences to explore peaceful avenues for human improvement and the prevention of future genocides.
For tickets or more information, call Ruth or Stan Etkin at 828-963-5167 or mail checks (made payable to the ASU Foundation/memo: Sixth Floor Trio) to Ruth and Stan Etkin, 241 Woodwinds Drive, Banner Elk, NC 28604.
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
