It has already been a long cold winter and it’s not over yet. Those looking for some fun with music to brighten their day are in for a treat. Cabin Fever/Winter Serenades offers music for the whole family in a friendly atmosphere, followed by a warm social hour with light refreshments, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. This series of informal concerts is free but contributions to the Brockport Ecumenical Food Shelf, located at St. Luke’s, will be welcome at the door.
Concerts will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday February 24 and Sunday, March 31, and at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 11. St Luke’s Episcopal Church is located at the corner of Main and State Streets in Brockport.
Saxophonist and Brockport music teacher Andrew Stoker will take the community on a tour of saxophone music from around the world during his performance on February 24. In collaboration with pianist and Houghton College professor Sharon Johnson, he’ll present a program of diverse music written and arranged for saxophone and piano from both sides of the Atlantic… the United States, Brazil, France and Ireland.
The saxophone, invented in 1840, most prominently viewed as a jazz instrument, has a somewhat lesser known, but very rich classical repertoire. Stoker and Johnson will perform a number of lighter works that showcase many diverse styles, which have popularized the saxophone around the world.
Mr. Stoker has taught in Brockport for the past 20 years. After 15 years at Brockport High School, he transferred to the Fred W. Hill School and began working with beginners to help them create their first instrumental sounds and find their “voice.” As a woodwind specialist, he has been heard in many venues in the region and in North Carolina, on the radio and on several albums, as a member of the Kilbourn Saxophone Quartet, as a pit musician, a performer with top-40 bands, with jazz ensembles, in jazz combos and as a soloist with orchestras.
Dr. Johnson, a native of North Carolina, is associate professor of piano and collaborative piano at Houghton College. Along with pianist Nancy Davis, Dr. Johnson performs regularly around the country as a member of Music By Two, a piano duo, finalists in the 2016 American Prize Competition. She is active in premiering new works and has been heard in a multitude of venues, as well as on Minnesota and Chicago Public Radio.
Stoker and Johnson first met in Greensboro in 1999, where Mr. Stoker was working on his Master of Music degree, and Dr. Johnson was a full time collaborative pianist in the region. Mr. Stoker headed to Brockport to begin teaching, Dr. Johnson went to Minnesota to work on her doctorate, and paths crossed again years later.
On Monday, March 11, The Yale Russian Chorus, a renowned a capella choir that has been practicing musical diplomacy around the world since the Cold War will perform. They are currently touring the United States, visiting Rochester on the way to Chicago. This event is co-sponsored with St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Chris Wilson, guitarist and popular singer songwriter, a Brockport native with an international following, has been rescheduled for Sunday, March 31, after his previous appearance was called off due to the snowstorm in January.
Cabin Fever, like Summer Serenades, is free to the public and completely funded by many generous local donors. Thanks to the Greater Brockport Development Corporation’s music planning committee – Gary Skoog, Bill Andrews, Terry Carbone, Jacquie Davis and Patty Kutz – for believing that music is important in the community, and to Brenda Tremblay, Kathy Kristansen and the members of St. Luke’s for helping to make these community events happen.
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