Rossini Club Event Calendar
The Public Concert Series of The Portland Rossini Club Now in its 152nd Season
Sunday, September 25, 2022 at 3:00 pm
The Rossini Club ushers in the 2022-23 season with their opening concert featuring music for violin and piano, performed by Eleanor Lehmann and Leah Neuchiller; a selection of music from classic Broadway composers Rodgers and Hammerstein, performed by Danielle Vayenas and the Club’s new President, Jonathan Prak; and piano pieces performed by award-winning Portland Conservatory of Music student, Logan Peters.
The program includes:
Eleanor Lehmann, violin and Leah Neuchiller piano
Adoration, and The Deserted Garden by Florence Price
L’ Abeille (The Bee) by François Schubert
Danielle Vayenas, soprano and Jonathan Prak, piano
Musical theater selections by Rodgers and Hammerstein
It Might As Well Be Spring – State Fair
Out Of My Dreams – Oklahoma
We Kiss In A Shadow/I Have Dreamed – King and I
If I Loved You, Mister Snow, and You’ll Never Walk Alone – Carousel
Climb Every Mountain – Sound of Music
Logan Peters, piano, winner of the 2022 Ocy Downs competition
Sonata In B minor, Hob.XVI, No. 32 by Franz Joseph Haydn
1. Allegro Moderato
2. Menuet
3. Finale – Presto
General Lavine – Eccentric (From Preludes Book 2) by Claude Debussy
(
Prelude in G Major, Op 53, No.3 by Nikolai Kapustin
Location of event:
The Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland
Suggested donation $15/$10 seniors
Students are admitted free of charge
For more information: (207)318-7465
Performing Members AND GUEST
ELEANOR LEHMANN, VIOLIN (VIOLA):
Eleanor began her musical studies on violin at the age of 5 with John M. Ray in San Francisco, California. She then attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Jack O’Brian (Griller String Quartet) and Marion Ford. In 1963, she received a degree in music education and performance from San Francisco State University and joined the teaching force for the public school system of S.F. as a music teacher for one year. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband were offered an opportunity to move to Mexico City where she taught violin/viola at the Conservatorio Nacional de Mexico and performed with many of the professional orchestras of the region. In 1975, she along with her family spent a year living in Holland where she was active in the musical community of Nijmeggen as violist in chamber orchestras and as soloist. In 1986, she returned to California where she played the viola in the Merced, Modesto and Stockton Symphonies. In 2003, she moved to Maine and began teaching both violin and viola in her studio and at the Portland Conservatory of Music. In 2007, she initiated violin classes at USM, Portland, for the Osher-Lifelong Learning Institute. Today, she is an active member of both the Portland Rossini and Marston- Kotzschmar Music Clubs of Portland, and served as President for both.
LEAH NEUCHILLER, PIANO:
Leah studied piano from the age of 9 and began college as a music major at Brandeis University, where she studied with the French pianist Evelyne Crochet. She went on to a career as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, but playing the piano continued to be a passionate avocation. Music once again became central to Leah’s life when she moved to Maine in 2006 and began studying piano with Laura Kargul and earning a Masters of Music degree in piano pedagogy at USM. Leah has had a second career as a piano teacher, teaching at the French School of Maine, the Friends School of Portland, and her home studio in Cumberland Foreside. She has been a member of the Rossini Club since 2012.
JONATHAN PEKDEY PRAK, PIANIST:
Jonathan Prak is a Saco native currently living in Portland. He’s been playing the piano since he was 6 years old and studied with the late Colette Kelly of Québec, Canada. Jonathan studies with Dr. Laura Kargul at the Osher School of Music of the University of Southern Maine. He has won numerous awards, including Rossini Club’s Lucia Wright Piano Scholarship in 2015 and 2016. He recently participated in a masterclass with instructors Steve Pane and Lily Funahashi on works for two pianos, and appeared as a guest soloist for the Portland Rossini Club before becoming a member. He loves playing works by Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev, just to name a few. Jonathan is proudly the current President of the Portland Rossini Club. Outside the world of music, Jonathan has a knack for learning languages, and enjoys adventures, traveling, and running.
DANIELLE VAYENAS, SOPRANO:
Danielle recently appeared in Sound of Music at Maine State Music Theater as understudy for “Mother Abbess”/ensemble, and has also performed with organizations such as Opera Maine, Longwood Opera, Heartwood Theater, Biddeford City Theater, Portland Players and more. Some of her roles have included the title role in Carlisle Floyd’s opera, Susannah, “Micaela” in Carmen, “Mimi” in La Boheme, “Mother” in Amahl and the Night Visitors, “Jenny” in Company, “Mrs. Nordstrom” in A Little Night Music, “Lady Thiang” in “The King and I”, and “Widow” in Zorba. Danielle has performed as concert soloist in Maine with groups such as the Oratorio Chorale, Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, Maine Music Society, Bowdoin Chorale, ChoralArt and Lincoln Festival Chorale; and in the greater Boston area with the Salem Philharmonic, the Masterworks Chorale, and the Paul Madore Chorale. She has performed many oratorio works, from the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak and Verdi, to Mozart’s Mass in c minor; Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and other concert works. She has studied voice with David Goulet, leading to NATS awards in Maine and Boston, and with Malinda Haslett, and has coached with Kathleen Scott. Danielle joined the Rossini Club in 2015.
LOGAN PETERS*, PIANIST:
Logan is a 17 year-old junior at Falmouth High School. He began playing piano when he was eight years old and enjoyed playing blues and jazz, but above all else, he enjoyed composing his own music. In 2016, at the age of 10, he won First Place at the Bagaduce Composer’s Competition for his piece Hunting on a Full Moon, and earned the opportunity to perform the piece at the 2016 Blue Hill Pops Festival. In the spring of 2020, Logan discovered his love of classical music, and by September that same year began studying classical piano at the Portland Conservatory of Music with accomplished instructor, Naydene Bowder, with whom he continues his studies today. Since then, he has won several awards, culminating in the Ocy Downs Piano Competition. In addition to classical music, Logan still enjoys playing jazz and performs with the Falmouth High School Jazz Band. When he is not playing piano, Logan enjoys singing with the Falmouth Jazz Singers, Chamber Choir and Chorus. Logan is also an active member of Boy Scouts, holding the rank of Life Scout, while he continues to work towards becoming an Eagle Scout. *Guest performer
Click here for all Past Performances
The Public Concert Series of the Portland Rossini Club in its 152nd Season
Sunday, November 27th, 2022 at 3 p.m.
Portland Rossini Club Program
Sopranos Luette Saul and Jazmin DeRice* will perform duets by by Chausson, Brahms, and Viardot
Clarinetist Stephen Schiffman and Ladies of Note will play Mozart’s Quintet in A major, K. 581
Soprano Stacy Geyer*, assisted by pianist Jonathan Prak, will sing five Italian art songs by Marcello, Caccini, Bononcini, Scarlatti, and Legrenzi
*Guest
Location: The Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland
Suggested donation $15/$10 seniors (students are admitted free of charge)
For more information: 207-318-7465
Click here for all Past Performances
The Public Concert Series of the Portland Rossini Club in its 152nd Season
Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 3 p.m.
Pianist Mark Braun will play works by Duke Ellington and Ludwig van Beethoven
Pianists Leah Neuchiller and Ruth Matt will play the first movement of Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Scheherazade, Opus 35 Arranged for piano/four hands
Pianist Logan Peters* and Ladies of Note will perform the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E flat major
Pianist Jonathan Prak will perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, and Sergei Prokofiev
*Guest
Location of event:
The Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland
Suggested donation $15/$10 seniors
Students are admitted free of charge
For more information: (207)318-7465
Performing Members And Guest
Susanna Adams, viola: Susanna made the switch from violin to viola in 1999. She is a graduate of Smith College and holds masters degrees from Harvard and Berkeley. She obtained a B.S. in Music Education from U.S.M. in 1997. She is a member of Maineblend, the Woodfords choir, and the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra where she plays viola. She is co-chair of the Advisory Council of the Portland Conservatory of Music. Susanna has been a member of Rossini Club since 2009 and currently serves as Program Chair.
Katherine Berry, cello: At the age of ten, Katherine began studying with the late Katherine Hatch Graffam, Rossini Club member and principal cellist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. When she was 16 she played with the Portland Symphony Orchestra under Arthur Lipkin and Paul Vermel. She graduated from The Northern Conservatory of Music in Bangor in 1971. While attending college she played in the Bangor Symphony with Peter Re. She studied cello with Marian Heller of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, who was cellist with the now well known Portland String Quartet. A resident of Portland, she currently plays in the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra under Robert Lehmann. She enjoys playing cello and playing basketball with her three grandchildren.
Mark Braun, piano: Mark grew up in Minneapolis, MN, moved to Chicago at age 28 and arrived here in Maine on the winds of the blizzard of ’96. He has been an active member of both the Marston-Kotzschmar Club and the Portland Rossini Club since 1996. In past years, he has played a variety of music, including solo, four-hand and eight-hand piano compositions, and chamber music, including works for French horn and piano, clarinet and piano, trios for piano, French horn, and violin or clarinet, as well as works for voice and piano. He writes his own program notes, finding that the process helps him to better understand and interpret the musical works he’s performing. He serves on the Board of the Portland Conservatory of Music. In his professional life, he is an internist and geriatrician in solo practice in Scarborough.
Eleanor Lehmann, violin: Eleanor began her musical studies on violin at the age of 5 with John M. Ray in San Francisco, California. She then attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Jack O’Brian (Griller String Quartet) and Marion Ford. In 1963, she received a degree in music education and performance from San Francisco State University. After years of teaching and performing in California, as well as in Mexico City, and in Holland, she moved to Maine in 2003 and began teaching both violin and viola in her studio and at the Portland Conservatory of Music. In 2007, she initiated violin classes at USM, Portland, for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Today, she is an active member of both the Portland Rossini and Marston-Kotzschmar Music Clubs of Portland, and served as President for both.
Ruth Matt, piano: Ruth studied piano for 13 years between the ages of five and eighteen. As a teenager she accompanied choirs, instrumentalists, musicals, and the local ballet society in Princeton, NJ. At Cornell University, she accompanied private voice lessons and musicals. While her major was in Spanish Literature and her career is now in investments and financial planning, music has always been a passion and inspiration. She enjoys collaborating with other musicians on any instrument with a current focus on piano duets. Ruth was a student of the late Richard Roberts. She and her husband have lived in Portland since 1988, and have one son, Peter. She joined Rossini Club in 2011.
Leah Neuchiller, piano: Leah studied piano from the age of 9 and began college as a music major at Brandeis University, where she studied with the French pianist Evelyne Crochet. She went on to a career as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, but playing the piano continued to be a passionate avocation. Music once again became central to Leah’s life when she moved to Maine in 2006 and began studying piano with Laura Kargul and earning a Masters of Music degree in piano pedagogy at USM. Leah has had a second career as a piano teacher, teaching at the French School of Maine, the Friends School of Portland, and her home studio in Cumberland Foreside. She has been a member of the Rossini Club since 2012.
Jonathan Pekdey Prak, piano: Jonathan Prak is a Saco native currently living in Portland. He’s been playing the piano since he was 6 years old and studied with the late Colette Kelly of Québec, Canada. Jonathan studies with Dr. Laura Kargul at the Osher School of Music of the University of Southern Maine (USM). He was a featured soloist for the USM Annual Scholarship Gala in 2014 and 2021 and was selected to perform for the USM Honors Recital in 2014 and 2015. He has won numerous competitions and scholarships such as the Bob Crewe Foundation Scholarship, Federal Pell Grant, Chester Cook Scholarship, Newell A. Augur Scholarship, Anne Gannett Piano Scholarship in 2015, Lucia Wright Piano Scholarship 2015 and 2016, Brian McGorrill Memorial Scholarship in 2018, and Hanna Powell Scholarship in 2022. Jonathan participated in masterclasses with instructors Steve Pane and Lily Funahashi on works for two pianos, along with participating in a chamber group for a composition masterclass with Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz. He has appeared as a repeated guest soloist for the Portland Rossini Club before becoming a member. He loves playing works by Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev, just to name a few. Jonathan is proudly the current President of the Portland Rossini Club. Outside the world of music, Jonathan has a knack for learning languages, enjoys adventures and traveling, and running.
Logan Peters, piano: Logan is a 17 year-old junior at Falmouth High School. He began playing piano when he was eight years old and enjoyed playing blues and jazz, but above all else, he enjoyed composing his own music. In 2016, at the age of 10, he won First Place at the Bagaduce Composer’s Competition for his piece Hunting on a Full Moon, and earned the opportunity to perform the piece at the 2016 Blue Hill Pops Festival. In the spring of 2020, Logan discovered his love of classical music, and by September that same year began studying classical piano at the Portland Conservatory of Music with accomplished instructor, Naydene Bowder, with whom he continues his studies today. Since then, he has won several awards, culminating in the Ocy Downs Piano Competition. In addition to classical music, Logan still enjoys playing jazz and performs with the Falmouth High School Jazz Band. When he is not playing piano, Logan enjoys singing with the Falmouth Jazz Singers, Chamber Choir and Chorus. Logan is also an active member of Boy Scouts, holding the rank of Life Scout, while he continues to work towards becoming an Eagle Scout.
Click here for Past Performances
The Public Concert Series of the Portland Rossini Club in its 152nd Season
Sunday, February 19th, 2023 at 3 p.m.
Pianist Sydney Patton will play two Brahms Intermezzos as well as a Brahms Rhapsody
Seth Blank, on French Horn, assisted by pianist Mark Braun, will perform works by Franz Strauss and Paul Harris
Our guest artist will be pianist, Brian Liu, winner of Rossini Club’s 2022 Lucia Wright Scholarship. He will perform works by Scriabin and Kapustin.
Location of Concerts:
The Cathedral Church of St. Luke, 143 State Street, Portland, Maine
Suggested donation $15/$10 seniors (students are admitted free of charge)
For more information: 207-318-7465
Performing Members And Guest
Seth Blank, horn: Seth has played horn since elementary school in New York. He participated
in a wide variety of symphonic, opera, chamber and solo work while attending Boston University
for both undergraduate and Medical School. Since settling in Maine in 1992, he has played with
the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, the Maine State Ballet Orchestra and the Centennial
Brass Band and substitutes in the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra. Seth is a physician in the
Portland area and has been a member of Rossini Club since 2004.
Mark Braun, piano: Mark grew up in Minneapolis, MN, moved to Chicago at age 28 and
arrived here in Maine on the winds of the blizzard of ’96. He has been an active member of both
the Marston-Kotzschmar Club and the Portland Rossini Club since 1996. In past years, he has
played a variety of music, including solo, four-hand and eight-hand piano compositions, and
chamber music, including works for French horn and piano, clarinet and piano, trios for piano,
French horn, and violin or clarinet, as well as works for voice and piano. He writes his own
program notes, finding that the process helps him to better understand and interpret the musical
works he’s performing. He served on the Board of the Portland Conservatory of Music. In his
professional life, he is an internist and geriatrician in solo practice in Scarborough.
Brian Liu, Piano: Originally from Southern California, Brian has won top prizes in regional,
state, and national competitions such as US Open Music Competition, MTAC Panel Honors and
Masterclass, and SYMF. He has participated in masterclasses with artists such as Henry Kramer
and Marina Goshkieva, and taken dual-enrollment classes with Saddleback College in California
to advance music studies. He formerly studied with USC faculty Dr. Gliadkovsky and Shanghai
Conservatory alum Claudia Xi, and is currently studying with George Lopez at Bowdoin
College. He is the first prize winner of the Rossini Club’s 2022 Lucia Wright scholarship.
Having a passion for classical music, Brian loves performing and sharing music to audiences and
hopes to continue music as a way to connect with people. He is privately working on FractMuse,
a lifelong project utilizing AI/algorithms to generate compositions from musical motifs and
patterns. He is studying piano and computer science at Bowdoin College.
Sydney Patten, piano: Sydney began studying piano at the age of six to please her mother. She
very quickly fell in love with the instrument and with classical music. At Skidmore College, she
minored in music with a concentration in piano performance. She began to compose music
secretly never sharing any of her compositions until she had graduated from college. While
living on the North Shore of Massachusetts, she began composing music inspired by birds at
Crane’s Beach. During that time, she served as the Vice President of the American Women
Composers.
Her greatest inspirations for composition continue to be wildlife and sea creatures in Maine and
especially on Mount Desert Island. Some of her favorite subjects have been piping plovers,
eagles, seaweed, jellyfish and great white sharks. She continues to study classical piano music
which also influences her work. Sydney lives with her husband, Bill Patten and their dog,
Patapouf in Falmouth Foreside, Maine. Other interests include skiing, gardening, and anything
to do with France. She has been associated with the Royaumont Abbey for many years where
she now organizes master classes in a variety of disciplines. She is past President of Rossini
Club.
The Public Concert Series of the Portland Rossini Club in its 152nd Season
Sunday, March 5th, 2023 at 3 p.m.
The Program of music and singers has not been set as of today.
Once available the event will be updated.
Location of Concert:
Portland Conservatory of Music, 28 Neal St., Portland
Suggested donation $15/$10 seniors (students are admitted free of charge)
For more information: 207-318-7465
