Adult Musicians Rekindle Passion For Their Craft in DCC Early Music Ensemble

Release Date May 2, 2007

Poughkeespie, N.Y. – It’s not their day job. Flutist Frank De Leeuw is an economist and consultant. Viola da gamba player Howard Pepperman is a computer programmer. Violist Jeremy Duckles tunes and restores pianos. Violist cellist Nancy Hull, who first picked up her instrument as an adult, ran a health food store. Together, with the guidance of professional early music specialist Kumiko Imamura, they have become the Dutchess Community College Music School Early Music Ensemble.

On Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 4:00 p.m., the DCC Music School Early Music Ensemble presents its first full concert, playing music of Bach, Telemann, Devienne, and Boismortie in the Ritz Lounge in Dutchess Hall at the main campus in Poughkeepsie. Admission is free. For information, contact Music School Director Julie Wegener at (845) 431-8916 or email Wegener@sunydutchess.edu.

The Early Music Ensemble is a program of the DCC Music School, part of DCC’s Office of Community Services. The Music School provides a wide range of classes, plus individual and group lessons on a noncredit basis. Students range from babies and their parents through senior citizens.

The members of the Early Music Ensemble are adult students who have come back to music after going in different directions. “Their common background is love for music as well as eagerness to improve performing,” said Imamura, a harpsichord and continuo player who trained at Rutgers University and the Manhattan School of Music. “Each person really wants to play well, not only playing notes technically well, but also communicating with the audience through music. Each has been playing his or her own instrument for many years. They patiently have been hanging in there, never giving up, and now they are giving their own concert, not playing one piece at a student recital.”

In her role as director of the ensemble, Imamura suggests literature and helps to guide and shape the music, especially the nuances of baroque performance practice – “How music used to be played in 18th century,” said Imamura.

For these adult musicians, the Early Music Ensemble has represented an opportunity to come back to music and renew its importance in their lives. For instance, De Leeuw had played flute from elementary school through college, then gave it up during his career as a full-time economist. Flute came back into his life when he shifted to part-time consulting 15 years ago. Duckles had studied viola at Mannes College in New York City and at the Manhattan School of Music, where he also learned piano tuning. For years, his successful business tuning and restoring pianos took precedence to playing the viola, but a revitalized interest in musical performance brought him to the Early Music Ensemble at DCC.

Imamura will conduct a summer session of the Early Music ensemble starting later in May. Another session will be offered in the fall. The program is open to string players and wind players, including recorder, guitarists, singers, and pianists interested in harpsichord playing. The ensemble may have on and off-campus performance opportunities. Placement auditions for the Early Music Ensemble and other chamber ensembles for children, teens, and adults will be held Saturday, June 30, and Saturday, September 1.

The DCC Music School will be expanding chamber music ensemble opportunities this fall with a grant through the generosity of Amateur Chamber Music Players and the Clinton B. Ford Fund of its ACMP Foundation. This organization promotes chamber music activities for amateur musicians. For more information, contact DCC Music School Director Julie Wegener at (845) 431-8916.

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