TGIF, May 24, 5:30pm
Our Friday concert this week features the accomplished and lively Greg Dufford, clarinet, and Peggy Lyon, piano, performing music by Tanayev and Khatchaturian. Sanctuary doors open at 5:15 pm and the concert begins at 5:30. The concert is free with donations accepted.
Program
Gavotte, from Concert Suite, Sergei Tanayev, 1856-1915
Concerto for Violin, Aram Khatchaturian
I. Allegro con fermezza, 1903-1978
II. Andante sostenuto, transcription by Gregory Dufford
III. Allegro vivace
The Artists
The accomplished musicians Gregory Dufford and Peggy Lyon have been performing together for more than 19 years and they have also recorded five CDs together.
Gregory Dufford
As clarinetist/bass clarinetist for the San Francisco Opera Orchestra from 1980 to 1998, Gregory Dufford performed with many of the world’s finest opera singers. His performing experience went well beyond the opera stage to include 13 years as Principal Clarinetist of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. During that period, the group produced seven CDs on various labels and premiered works by Elliott Carter, John Cage, John Harbison, and others.
Gregory also performed with and was a founding member of several other chamber music ensembles in the San Francisco area, such as the Anchor Chamber Players, the Stanford Woodwind Quintet, and the Beaumont Ensemble. He also held teaching positions at Stanford and San Francisco State Universities.
After moving to Evergreen, Colorado, in 1998, Gregory taught full-time at Metropolitan State College and coached chamber music for the Evergreen Chamber Orchestra and at various schools.
Peggy Lyon
Peggy Lyon is a concert pianist whose playing has been described as “radiating beauty and an inner intensity of feeling which is simply overwhelming.” She has performed solo recitals in Austria, Peru, and major cities in the western United States, and has given world premieres of works by David Baker, Eugene Kurz, and Istvan Hornyak. She has also performed concertos with orchestras in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, in Pullman, Washington, and in Denver, Evergreen, and Golden Colorado. She has recorded ten solo CDs.
Peggy’s award-winning specialty is giving concerts with commentary about the music and the composers. Her talks are informative and humorous, and they are unique for including outrageous pronouncements of critics.
Peggy studied piano and voice at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She has a Masters in piano performance from Washington State University and a Masters in voice performance from the University of Denver.
Peggy has just released a book, Composers Talk of Many Things, a lighthearted entertainment about the ordinary and extraordinary details of composers’ and critics’ lives. The book is available from Amazon.