Music of the 20th and 21st century

The Remsen Arts Center presents a concert by Chesapeake Chamber Group, a four piece ensemble. on Aug. 16, at 7:30p.m. at 9627Main St., Remsen.

REMSEN, N.Y. >> The Remsen Arts Center presents a concert by Chesapeake Chamber Group on Friday, Aug. 16, at 7:30 p.m. at 9627Main St., Remsen.

The Chesapeake Chamber Group is a four piece ensemble featuring Matthew White, clarinet; Craig Vandewater, bassoon; Darlene Vandewater, oboe; Mary Ratcliffe, piano. There will be solos, duets, trios and quartet performances by the whole group. All of the music is either 20th- or 21st- century.

Mary Ratcliffe has played piano since childhood. After completing an undergraduate major in music at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, she studied musicology at the University of Michigan, and worked at the UMpublic radio station. She began a career teaching in public schools, primarily as a science teacher. During this time she continued to work as a collaborative pianist, playing for students and professionals in auditions, recitals, and pit orchestras of musicals. Since her retirement, Ratcliffe has devoted herself to chamber music, performing with the Chesapeake Chamber Group and the Dorsey Hall Trio, as well as other musicians. Her teachers have included Elaine St. Vincent, Don Boyd, and Amy Klosterman. She is thrilled to have had opportunities to perform in masterclasses for Anne Koscielny, Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet, the Eroica Trio, and the piano/cello duo of Wu Han and David Finckel.

Darlene Vandewater has been an oboist since grade school, and studied for a degree in Music Education at Towson University. Her oboe teachers included Paul Covey, Lloyd Shorter and Leslie Starr. Vandewater was a member of the Graceful Occasions wind trio and has performed in the Susquehanna Symphony, the Newark Symphony and the Immaculata Symphony. She has been honored to per

form with Baltimore Symphony members in a chamber group for a Baltimore Symphony board meeting, and in a woodwind quintet at the Meyerhoff with BSO members. She performs in pit orchestras for musicals and operas and in small ensembles, solos at area churches and other freelance work. Vandewater teaches oboe privately.

MattWhite is a graduate of the Ithaca College School of Music, and has studied with Stanley Hasty, Robert Marcellus, and Richard MacDowell. A programmer by day, White performs with several chamber groups including Kuro Winds, the CSMA clarinet ensemble, and the Chesapeake Chamber Group. Other groups he has played in are the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

Craig Vandewater studied at SUNY Stony Brook and Yale with Arthur Weisberg, his principal teacher. He completed his doctorate at Stony Brook and has taught at the University of Texas (El Paso), the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and the Ross School of East Hampton. He was the solo bassoonist of the Peconic Chamber Orchestra and the North Shore Pro Musica of Long Island. He was also a member of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, the El Paso Symphony, and the Symphony of Long Island, and has performed with the Glens Falls Symphony. Craig Vandewater was the bassoon coach at Vermont Music & Arts Center for 12 years, and at Summertrios ChamberMusic Workshop in Pennsylvania for 14 years. He also instructs privately.

General admission is $10, members pay $8, and students pay $5.

PHOTO COURTESY REMSEN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER From left are Matthew White, Darlene Vandewater, Mary Ratcliffe, and Craig Vandewater.