The concert title “saying large things with small voices” comes from the text of one of my favorite books, A Time of Our Singing by Richard Powers. Indeed, chamber music speaks with a small, intimate voice, but the impact can be huge.
But for now, join us for intimate simplicity of chamber music in October. One frequent concert-goer expressed it best when she said, “Chamber music lets me be part of the experience instead of an observer.”
Relevant and beautiful things can be found by looking back in time. Chamber music can say large things with small voices. The heritage of chamber music is important, so we travel far and wide to dusty libraries and private collections to find musical gems unavailable in modern edition – this time by Italian composers. Music of Mauro Giuliani (the best guitarist/composer of his time), Francesco Molino (an Italian who gives us aViennese Waltz), and Anton Diabelli (a German composer who sorely
wanted to be an Italian, so he simply changed his name!), is performed on
period instruments (circa 1830) – a wooden flute and gut-strung viola and guitar. This masterfully-crafted and enchanting music recalls Vienna’s golden age.
Guest artists are Lisa Ponton (viola) in the first phase of the concerts, and NY violist David Miller for the second phase.
A series of rural outreach concerts immediately precede the Cedar Rapids main-stage concert. You can catch Red Cedar Wednesday, October 13th, in Solon – on Thursday, October 14th, in Tipton – and on Friday, October 15th, in Epworth.
Saying Large Things with Small Voices is sponsored by the Giacoletto Foundation.
Outreach concerts are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the James & Norma Jean Rosborough Foundation, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Alliant Energy Foundation.
As always, these concerts are preceded with oodles of (mostly free) mini-concerts in the community. See the schedule at left. Don’t miss this one!

Red Cedar Chamber Music
Summer Festival 2010
Two fabulous flute and guitar duos – from Tacoma, Washington and Mobile, Alabama – delighted and entertained Eastern Iowa audiences in July at Red Cedar Chamber Music’s 2010 Summer Festival.

The Rubicund Duo and the Heim Duo performed a very cool Grand Finale Festival Concert at Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion. Flutist Erica Coutsouridis and guitarist Meredith Connie are the Rubicund Duo and first-time festival participants. Erica is a Cedar Rapids native and her family enjoyed hearing her dynamic Duo in concert for the first time. Annette Heim and Bret Heim are familiar faces to Festival groupies and we love having them back with their always-fresh repertoire. These participants worked hard for a week at Cornell College in masterclasses, coaching sessions and business-of-the-arts classes.

Incredible chef Andrew Hogue from Catering by LJ’s. Andrew and his team donated a fabulous buffet to the Saturday-night festivities – and our listeners went away smiling! Huge thank-yous to Craig and Priscilla at Campbell Steele Gallery for hosting the Grand FInale Summer Festival 2010 Concert!

Cornell College is the official Summer Home of Red Cedar Chamber Music.

The new Kummer CD is here!
We love our recording engineer (Peter Nothnagle), our record label (Fleur de Son Classics) & our guest artists (David, Loretta and Doug). Together we recorded, edited and mastered a compact disc recording and completed production in 10 weeks – just in time to take it with us to England for our British Flute Society concert. Thank you all!

The music? Trios and a quintet by Kaspar Kummer, whose music we dusted off in the Library of Congress and in a private collection of Matanya Ophee. Our listeners love Kummer’s music, too (see comments on page 6) and heard this music on our Kaspar the friendly . . . series of concerts in June. (Kaspar and Gaspard are interchangeable first names for this composer.)

We think you’ll like it, too. (By the way, the awesome cover art makes use of Cedar Rapids’ own Stan Wiederspan’s original art.) To obtain your copy, please send $20 to Red Cedar Chamber Music, PO Box 154, Marion IA 52302, and we’ll pop your CD in the mail. Or, stop by our office and pick up your copy in person for $16. Look on the "sound studio" page of this website for more information.

We Welcome We welcome new board member Thomas E.S. (Ted) Miller! Ted is Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids. We love that he loves music! He is a true aficiando of classical music. He and his wife Sally have already hosted a fantastic soiree for Red Cedar Chamber Music. Welcome aboard, Ted (pun intended.).

Red Cedar goes to Great Britain As we write this newsletter, we are changing money, updating our iPhones, and making last-minute preparations to leave for England. Red Cedar Chamber Music has been invited to perform on the opening night concert of the British Flute Society’s 7th International Convention on August 19, 2010. The venue is the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Red Cedar Chamber Music was invited to play two large works by Kaspar Kummer for flute, guitar and strings. We'll give you a full report when we return! (Plans call for recording the concert and posting it on YouTube.)

Summer Festival 2007
July 15-22, 2007
Professional flute & guitar duos came from Chicago (McKenzie Duo), Philadelphia (Janson/Bozenhard Duo) and Mobile (Heim Duo) to the campus of Cornell College for ten days of study with Red Cedar artists Jan Boland & John Dowdall.

Participants recieved coaching, participated in masterclasses, & received inspiration from guest speakers to sharpen their music business skills. Festival concerts included a Parlor Concert hosted in Sara Gaarde & Rich Hileman’s home in Mt. Vernon, and at the Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City. Duos departed armed with musical ideas and business savvy to make their musical dreams becme a reality in their home communiities.

Professional flute & guitar duos came from Chicago (McKenzie Duo), Philadelphia (Janson/Bozenhard Duo) and Mobile (Heim Duo) to the campus of Cornell College for ten days of study with Red Cedar artists Jan Boland & John Dowdall. Participants recieved coaching, participated in masterclasses, & received inspiration from guest speakers to sharpen their music business skills. Festival concerts included a Parlor Concert hosted in Sara Gaarde & Rich Hileman’s home in Mt. Vernon, and at the Old Capitol Museum in Iowa City. Duos departed armed with musical ideas and business savvy to make their musical dreams becme a reality in their home communiities.

A Message from our new Board Chair
Mary Ann Peters, Chair 2010-2011

Red Cedar Chamber Music, in its Fourteenth Season, continues to be an ensemble that is embraced by the entire Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Corridor and going strong!
Red Cedar Chamber Music has put together a realistic working budget for FY11 while maintaining its high quality programming – through difficult times. We’ve suspended a recording project, slashed operating and marketing costs, frozen salaries and musicians fees and effectively reduced the budget by 19%. We need your support more than ever.

I hope you can help.

The Board determined not to reduce its outreach nor diminish in any way its artistic focus through this period. This season’s Series just may be the best yet!

2010-2011 Concert Series
Saying Large Things with Small Voices
October 16, 2010 at First Presbyterian Church
Home Sweet Home at Brucemore
February 25 and 26, 2011
Setting Sun to Rising Moon
May 21, 2011 at First Presbyterian Church.

So please come to concerts, and if you can, send a donation. Your participation, even more so than the amount, is what counts!

Mary Ann Peters

Internship . . .We enjoyed an internship with Sarah Gierach, a sophomore music major at Coe College, who spent the summer helping with many phases of the music business activities necessary to run our not-for-profit organization. She helped with guest artist management (housing and travel), festival preparation, concert-site CD sales, videotaping concerts, and assisting with the Kummer recording project. And she launch Red Cedar on YouTube (check us out ... just search for “Kummer Quintet” or “Red Cedar Chamber Music.”) Thank you, Sarah! You are a delightful self-starter, and I think we learned as much from you as you did from us!

Kaspar the friendly . . .
Kaspar the friendly . . . brought back the “ghost” of long-forgotten composer Kaspar Kummer through his beautiful music in Eastern Iowa in June, 2010. We flew in some of our favorite period instrument players (playing rare early instruments that would have been used in Kummer’s time) and had a blast convincing both rural and urban audiences of the value of this beautiful music. Kaspar the friendly . . . was also heard in Rural Outreach concerts in Marengo, Fairfield and Vinton.

Following a week of concerts, the musicians spent three days in beautiful King Chapel at Cornell College recording Kummer’s music to compact disc. Kaspar the friendly . . .was sponsored by the Giacoletto Foundation. Thank you! We are also most grateful to our guest artists sponsors Joan Lipsky and Alice Hoffmeier. Guest artist housing was generously provided by Suanne & Max Huffman (Suanne spoils our artists!) and the Coe College Alumni House.

Audience Comments:

Caspar the Friendly
June, 2007


“Red Cedar has always given excellent performances, but this evening’s concert has been outstanding! Kummer’s music is an ‘awesome find’. BRAVO!” A.H.

“Elegant, filled with spirit. The artists’ enjoyments are contagious and uplifting- and, as always, Red Cedar keeps reaching to enlarge its repertoire, keeping their music fresh. Fresh is a good word for it all.” T.M.

“All five of you put your body and soul into the music and become one with it – I will relive that as I listen to your upcoming CD.” E.P.

“Thanks for bringing us Kummer – such lovely music and beautifully (and lovingly) performed. This CD will be a must for me.” W.S.

W

illiam P. and Gayle S. Whipple Endowed Fund
by Jan Boland
A few years ago, we were honored to be invited to lunch with Bill Whipple to celebrate his 94th birthday with his son, daughter-in-law and grandson.
Lunch was informal and the six of us had just been seated for lunch at Meth-Wick Community when Bill turned to me and said he wanted us to know that he had designated a sizable amount of an endowed fund through the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation to help Red Cedar Chamber Music. We were overwhelmed by his generosity, and also honored by his faith in us as a young organization. He observed that we had taken a very difficult career and made something wonderful. He emphasized that he was impressed that we had chosen our Board of Directors carefully – selecting board members who understand the
importance of financial responsibility.

Bill passed away this summer at age 96. His memorial service was touching. I looked around and saw a representation of the many lives he had touched. He believed in giving others the chance to fulfill their dreams. He certainly did that for John and me – first in 1987 in his position as Chair of the Hall Foundation, which awarded us a five-year grant, helping in a big way to launch our first series of educational chamber music concerts for Seniors and Kids. Then again in 1997, when we incorporated as Red Cedar Chamber Music, Bill – as an individual – became a major supporter of our Chamber Music Now program for young aspiring musicians.

In 2002, his grandson William, a fine young pianist, joined us for a series of concerts. Bill wanted to learn first-hand what it took to prepare for these concerts (and to enjoy hearing his grandson at the piano). We were astonished that Bill, at age 89, sat in on every minute of 15 hours of rehearsals! He said, “I had no idea how much preparation time it took to launch a concert.” And I had no idea anyone could sit through 15 hours of rehearsals!

The Giacoletto Foundation: As life-long learners themselves, John & Lawrence Giacoletto both achieved great success in their academic and professional careers. Earning their Bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and earning over two dozen patents, the Giacoletto brothers were dedicated to continual learning. The Giacoletto Foundation seeks to honor their memory by providing funds to not-for-profit organizations which support lifelong learning.

Red Cedar Chamber Music is grateful to enter its fourth year of partnering with the Giacoletto Foundation to bring chamber music to Cedar Rapids & Marion. Lifelong learning is also a goal of our organization. Our interactive educational concerts reach adults when and where they normally congregate – like senior citizen centers and workers in the workplace. Thank-you to the Board of Trustees for your support!

Upcoming Events:

October 1 (Fri.) 10 a.m.
Music for Emerson. At Granger House, Marion, IA. Free

October 1 (Fri.) 2 p.m.
Music for Seniors. At Granger House, Marion, IA. Free.

October 3 (Sun.) 3 p.m.
Music in Libraries. At the Fairfax Library, Fairfax, IA. Free.

October 5 (Tues.) 2 p.m.
Music for Seniors. At Summit Pointe, Marion, IA. Free.

October 5 (Tues.) 7 p.m.
Music in Libraries. At the Spring- ville Library, Springville, IA. Free.

October 13 (Wed.) 12:15 p.m.
Music in Libraries. At the Cedar Rapids Library at Westdale. Free.

October 13 (Wed.) 7 p.m.
Rural Outreach Concert. At Sts. Peter and Paul, Solon, IA. Free. Call 319/644-2394.

October 14 (Thurs.) 9 a.m.
Music for Kids. At Starry Elem. School, Marion, IA. Free.

October 14 (Thurs.) 7 p.m.
Rural Outreach Concert. At St. Mary’s Church, Tipton, IA. $5.

October 15 (Fri.) 12 noon.
Production Floor Performance. At Rockwell Collins. Free.

October 15 (Fri.) 7 p.m.
Rural Outreach Concert. At Divine Word College, Epworth, IA. Free.

October 16 (Sat.) 8 p.m.
Main Stage Concert. See article at top of newsletter.