Trio of performers takes the stage Sunday at UPEI
David Parker, Frances Gray, Morgan Saulnier to perform
The horn of plenty will be very much in evidence when David Parker stars as the featured performer during the second UPEI concert of the season, A Cornucopia of Music.
The concert is Sept. 22, 7: 30 p. m., in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall on the UPEI Campus. Tickets are at the door ($ 15 for adults and $ 12 for seniors and students).
Works for horn and piano by Saint- Saëns, Strauss, Dukas and Poulenc and a solo for horn alone entitled Appel Interstellaire by Messiaen will form part of the program.
Pianist Frances Gray will perform solo in an Intermezzo and a Capriccio from the intimate romantic music of Brahms.
The concluding work welcomes flutist Morgan Saulnier to join in an engaging trio for this unusual combination of instruments. The Ballade, Pastorale and Dance by Eric Ewazen makes a lot of demands on each of the performers but shows the brilliant talent of this American composer.
Parker, a hornist, is a regularly featured soloist and chamber musician and appears in chamber music series throughout the Maritimes, including the Scotia Festival of Music, Dalhousie University’s Faculty Series, the Music Room, Music at Three Churches in Mahone Bay, University of New Brunswick’s Music on the Hill and the Charlottetown Festival. He holds degrees in music from Acadia University, the University of Toronto and Boston University. He was formerly a member of the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Sinfonietta. He has performed with the Toronto Symphony, the Boston Lyric Opera and the Boston Pops Orchestra and has been principal hornist of Symphony Nova Scotia, and instructor of horn and brass chamber music at Dalhousie University since 2000. He also coaches the winds and brass of the Youth Orchestras of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Gray, a pianist, is well known for her solo and chamber music performances, broadcasts, adjudicating and teaching. She has three solo CDs, all nominated for ECMA classical music awards, and has performed throughout Canada, the U. S., England, Belgium, Russia and Australia. She is pianist/ keyboardist with the P. E. I. Symphony Orchestra, with whom she has performed many times as concerto soloist. With degrees from McGill University and Indiana University, she was also awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and spent a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She has been a long- time valued professor of piano and theory at UPEI and has frequently adjudicated county and provincial music festivals and competitions in the Atlantic Region.
Saulnier, a flutist, holds a masters degree in flute performance from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a bachelor of music from UPEI.
She has performed throughout Atlantic Canada and in 2006 placed third in the woodwind category at the National Music Festival of Canada. She has also appeared as soloist with various ensembles, most recently performing Ibert’s Flute Concerto with the MUN Chamber Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with the P. E. I. Symphony Orchestra and UPEI Wind Symphony. A member of P. E. I.’ s new music group, eklektikos, and the P. E. I. Symphony Orchestra, Saulnier has performed in several master classes across the country, receiving guidance from Michel Debost, Susan Hoeppner, Camille Churchfield, and others.
While maintaining a busy performance schedule, Saulnier is in high demand as a flute and piano instructor in Charlottetown. She is also a sessional instructor of flute at UPEI.