Rossini Club Event Calendar
Rossini Club’s March 8th concert
Featured performers are internationally known cellist Marcy Rosen*, accompanied by pianist Diane Walsh performing Chopin’s Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
The Iris Ensemble* of the Portland Conservatory of Music will sing, under the direction of director Maria Belva*, selections from their coming April tour of Italy!
Jonathan Prak* on piano will play music by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.
*Guest
Guest Bios for March 8th Program
Marcy Rosen, cellist, has performed in recital and with orchestra throughout Canada, England, France, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, and all fifty of the United States.. She made her concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eighteen and has since appeared with such noted orchestras as the Dallas Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, and the Tokyo Symphony at the famed Orchard Hall in Tokyo. She was a founding member of the Mendelssohn Quartet, which toured internationally for 31 years, and she is a founding member of the quintet La Fenice (oboe, string trio and piano) which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. Since 1986 she has been Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival in Maryland, and as a long time participant at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont she has taken part in twenty-one of their “Musicians from Marlboro” tours. In recent seasons she has given Master Classes and appeared on stage in Beijing and Shanghai in China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and in Cartagena, Colombia. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. Ms. Rosen is currently Professor of Cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the Faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. Her performances can be heard on recordings from the BIS, Bridge, Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, CBS Masterworks, Musical Heritage Society, Phillips, Nonesuch, Pro Arte, and Koch labels.
The award-winning Steinway artist Diane Walsh has given solo and chamber music concerts in major venues in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Russia, China and New Zealand. Diane has appeared with the San Francisco, Indianapolis, Austin, Rochester, American, Delaware, Springfield and New Bedford symphonies, Orpheus and St. Luke’s chamber orchestras, and the Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin radio symphonies. She was soloist with the Portland Symphony in 2017 and 2019, and was a guest artist at the Portland Chamber Music Festival in 2017 and 2018. She led the Skaneateles (N.Y.) Festival as Artistic Director from 1999 to 2004. 
Ms. Walsh has performed Beethoven’s Variations on a Waltz of Diabelli well over 200 times in the Broadway production of 33 Variations, a play by Moisés Kaufman starring Jane Fonda, and in three other productions in Washington, La Jolla and Los Angeles. A frequent chamber music partner, she is a member of the La Fenice quintet and the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio, and has appeared at many summer festivals, including Bard, Marlboro, Chesapeake and Santa Fe. She has released eighteen recordings of repertoire ranging from Bach to Corigliano. Ms. Walsh was an Associate Professor at Mannes College of Music in New York City for 32 years, and in 2015 was a Visiting Artist at Colby College. She lives in Scarborough with her husband, the writer Richard Pollak.
The Iris Ensemble is the oldest group (grades 9-12), which is part of the Girl Singers of Maine. It is sponsored by the Portland Conservatory of Music and is under the direction of Maria Belva.
Portland Conservatory of Music website
The concert takes place Sunday, March 8th, at 3:00 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland.
Suggested donation $10/5 seniors (students are admitted free of charge).
Enjoy a brief reception after the concert where you can meet our performers.
There are no tickets for the performances. Admission is at the door with a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for seniors. Performances are free to students.
Limited parking is available behind the cathedral, as well as limited street parking (typically off of Park Street).
Rossini Club’s April 19th concert – Cancelled
UPDATE – Due to the Corona virus pandemic, we will be cancelling this concert to practice social distancing and continue to keep everyone safe. We hope to see you another time at one of our concerts in the future. Be safe and healthy Maine.
Previous schedule for this concert:
Our featured artist will be pianist April Masse,* who will perform Ballade, Op. 6 by Amy Beach
Royal River Chamber Players** will play Johann Christian Bach’s Quintet in F major, Op. 11 as well as two selections by Gabriel Pierné
Mark Rossnagel, pianist, will perform a selection of Rachmaninoff preludes
Soprano Shaunna Lucas, accompanied by Eric Peppe, will perform Adelaide’s Aria from The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove and selections by Puccini and Verdi
*Guest
**Royal River Chamber Players: Nan White,* flute; Meg Lewis,* viola; Hugh Maynard,* oboe; Ginny Stelk, cello; Tony DeBruyn,* clarinet
Guest Bios for April 19th Program
Royal River Community Players is a non-profit community theater located in Yarmouth, Maine. We were founded in the Fall of 2016 by a group of like-minded theater enthusiasts who decided it was time to have a performance group that wasn’t “just for kids” nor “just for adults”. Our goal is to produce plays and musicals that the whole family can participate in, watch, and enjoy. Royal River Chamber Players Website
The concert takes place Sunday, April 19th, at 3:00 p.m. at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland.
Suggested donation $10/5 seniors (students are admitted free of charge).
Enjoy a brief reception after the concert where you can meet our performers.
There are no tickets for the performances. Admission is at the door with a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for seniors. Performances are free to students.
Limited parking is available behind the cathedral, as well as limited street parking (typically off of Park Street).
Rossini Club’s May 17th concert – Cancelled
UPDATE – Due to the Corona virus pandemic, we will be cancelling this concert to practice social distancing and continue to keep everyone safe. We hope to see you another time at one of our concerts in the future. Be safe and healthy Maine.
Concert details still to come on performer’s, music and further details.
The concerts take place at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland.
Suggested donation $10/5 seniors (students are admitted free of charge).
Enjoy a brief reception after the concert where you can meet our performers.
There are no tickets for the performances. Admission is at the door with a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for seniors. Performances are free to students.
Limited parking is available behind the cathedral, as well as limited street parking (typically off of Park Street).
UPDATE: Because of the unprecedented situation due to the COVID-19 coronavirus, we sincerely regret to announce that the Rossini Club has decided to cancel this spring’s Scholarship competition that was to have been held on May 30th.
We encourage music students and teachers to follow Rossini Club on Facebook, and/or visit the website for any future updates, and we encourage everyone to apply in 2021. Best wishes to you all!
The Rossini Club holds an annual scholarship competition for students who are Maine residents and registered as music majors at any accredited music school, college, or university for the fall semester of the year they are applying for the scholarship.
The Scholarship Competition will take place at the Woodford’s Congregational Church in Portland, Maine on May 30th.
Thanks to the continued generosity of our donors, the total prize amount for each category may amount to more than $2,000 (the judges may reserve the right not to award a prize).
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Students are eligible to apply for a scholarship if they are residents of Maine, are over seventeen years old and are planning further study in an accredited music school, college or university as of the fall of the year when they are applying for the scholarship. Previous first place winners of the scholarships may not apply.
WHAT IS EXPECTED AT THE AUDITION?
Applicants will perform selections from at least two contrasting musical periods for at least 10 minutes, but not to exceed 15 minutes.
Vocalists must perform entirely by memory; pianists and instrumentalists must perform at least one selection from memory. Applicants are required to provide an original/published copy of the music to the judges.
Applicants in each competition must perform at least two compositions representing two different periods as follows: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and/or 20th/21st Century.
HOW TO APPLY
More information about the scholarship is located on the How to Apply page here.
PAST WINNERS
View our past scholarship winners here.
Portland Rossini Club Outdoor Concert
We are still active, planning small outdoor concerts for this Summer (and possibly September) and virtual concerts for the later Fall, Winter and (we hope not) Spring.
Enjoy music al fresco with performers from the Rossini Club! We are planning small outdoor concerts for this Summer (and possibly September) and virtual concerts for the later Fall, Winter and (we hope not) Spring.
Our first summer outdoor concert will take place at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 at the home of member Ruth Matt in Portland. The audience and performers will be appropriately socially distanced and follow protocols for safety.
Performers include Eleanor Lehman, violin; Ruth Matt, piano; Leah Neuchiller, piano; Barbara Graustein, cello; and Scott Eaton, piano.
The approximately hour-long concert will include a variety of pieces from Bach to Vaughan Williams.
Safety procedures for the concert:
Instrumentalists will play from the porch while audience members will be in the garden (on the lawn) and a few may be seated on the big porch in the shade. You are asked to bring a lawn chair, and wear a mask. You may wish to bring a hat or sun shade, and a water bottle as there will be no refreshments. Also please note there will be no restroom facilities available.
Reserve your spot now!
Suggested donation at the door of $15 for under 62, $10 for 62 and older, and free for students. Handicapped accessible. When you have RSVP’d and been accepted, directions will be sent with parking instructions and a program that you can print out to bring with you.
Rossini Club looks forward to enjoying some music with you.
Photographs from the Garden Concert
