Rappahannock Concert Association Artists
2023 ~ 2024 Season
The Wren Masters
Named after their favorite performance space, William & Mary’s Christopher Wren Chapel, the Wren Masters specialize in the historical performance of 17th and 18th century music on period instruments: recorder, baroque violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord. The musicians of this baroque ensemble are current and former members of the W & M Music Faculty and the Governor’s Musik of Colonial Williamsburg.
- Brady Lanier performs on viola da gamba and Baroque cello with The Governor’s Music, Colonial Williamsburg’s resident Baroque chamber ensemble.
- Ruth van Baak Griffioen, who taught at William & Mary and has performed throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, plays the recorder.
- Susan Via plays the Baroque violin. She is a member of the William & Mary faculty, has performed with a number of ensembles across the country and served in other faculty positions.
- Harpsichordist Thomas Marshall teaches organ and harpsichord performance at William & Mary, has been harpsichordist for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and plays with many chamber ensembles and the Virginia Symphony.
This performance is supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Bobby BlackHat Band
Combine the influences of Chicago, Memphis, Piedmont, and Delta style blues, along with a little gospel, and you get the Toe Tappin’, Finger Poppin’, Hip Shakin’ Blues experience of Bobby BlackHat. You never know what’s gonna’ happen at a Bobby BlackHat show!
Bobby BlackHat, Virginia’s Blues Ambassador, award winning recording artist, harmonica player, vocalist, songwriter, comedian, producer has been playing harmonica for over 46 years. He has opened for music legends: B. B. King, Taj Mahal, Patty Labelle, Ramsey Lewis, and Maze.
In 2016, the Bobby BlackHat Band advanced to the finals of the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. Bobby was awarded two 2016 VEER Music Awards for “Best Blues” and “Song of the Year.”
This performance is supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Tamburitzans
The story of the Tamburitzans began in the early 1930’s when Dr. A. Lester Pierce’s intrigue with the folk instrument sparked an idea which has endured as one of the world’s finest, longest-running multicultural song and dance live stage shows of its kind. The group of three young musicians found a permanent home at Duquesne University in 1937 in the form of a work scholarship program. In 2014, the Tamburitzans became an independent non-profit organization and the student musician and dancer pool was expanded to all Pittsburgh-based universities. The Tamburitzans currently has 30 members, all full-time students in the Pittsburgh area.
The Tamburitzans ensemble expanded its repertoire throughout the past eight decades to include a wide variety of folk dance and music representing international cultures. Eighty plus years, several international tours, hundreds of performers, and hundreds of thousands of audience members later, the Tamburitzans’ show is an annual tradition for some and a delightful new surprise for others. The students travel by tour bus on weekends to dazzle audiences across the country with elaborate costumes and incredibly versatile musicians, singers, and dances.
Two Rivers Chamber Music
Two violins, a viola and a cello come together in the Two Rivers Chamber Music to produce a sound that is layered, sophisticated, and complex. The quartet play from a wide repertoire of traditional classical works and modern, pop and jazz standards.
Two Rivers Chamber Music was founded in 2013 by Michael and Matthew Polonchak, identical twin brothers who began playing the violin at age five. By age six, they were playing with the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program. When they were eight, they reached the high-school level orchestra. Since earning their music degrees, the brothers have performed with a wide variety of orchestras, ensembles and artists.
The other members of the quartet are classically trained musicians who regularly perform with premier ensembles and symphonies throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Washington Saxophone Quartet
The Washington Saxophone Quartet, otherwise known as WSaxQ, is the most widely heard saxophone quartet. Since 1997, recorded arrangements of the quartet have aired regularly throughout the United States on NPR’s broadcast of “All Things Considered.” If listening to the WSaxQ on the radio, listeners are generally surprised to discover they’ve been hearing four saxophones! The instruments evoke the refined sounds of a string quartet, the rich harmonies of an organ prelude, and the excitement of a jazz sax section.
The ensemble taps into a rich repertoire, from early music to newly commissioned works, and draws on a wealth of experience to reach listeners of every age and background. A concert program could include “A la Gigue” – Organ Fugue in G Major by J. S. Bach; String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 2 by L. V. Beethoven; and “Four Dance Episodes” by Aaron Copland.
The WSaxQ members are Reginald Jackson, soprano; James Steele, alto; Rich Kleinfeldt, tenor; and Rick Parrell, baritone. The members have graduate degrees in music, and have appeared as recitalist and soloist with orchestras, wind ensembles and military bands throughout the United States and Europe. This performance is supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Peter and Will Anderson Trio
“The Anderson Brothers Play Irving Berlin” on June 29, 2024.
Peter and Will Anderson are identical twin American jazz saxophonists and clarinetists, composers, and arrangers. For their RCA performance the trio includes a guitar.
A New York Times reviewer wrote this: “Pete and Will Anderson are virtuosos on both clarinet and saxophone.” The Seattle Times reviewer opined: “Everything they play sounds fresh, creative and in the moment [they make] everything they do sound easy-which of course it isn’t…These guys flood the room with joy.” In 2014, Mike Joyce from the Washington Post reviewed the Anderson Trio album, Reed Reflections and said, “their saxophones and clarinets elegantly converge, converse and engage in delightful counterpoint… the arrangements imaginatively unfolding in ways that consistently bring fresh perspective to classic jazz tune.”
Since completing their degrees at The Juilliard School, Peter and Will have led performances at the Blue Note Jazz Club, the Kennedy Center, the New Orleans Jazz Festive, Seattle’s Triple Door, and DC’s Blues Alley. In 2016, Jazz at Lincoln Center selected the brothers to be featured performers in a concert honoring the music and life of clarinetist Benny Goodman.
Anderson ensembles have performed in over 35 U. S. states, toured Japan, and been featured four times in New York City’s famed “Highlights in Jazz” series. The brothers worked together to create, produce and star in five off-Broadway show runs: Le Jazz Hot, The Count Meets the Duke, The Fabulous Dorseys, and the Joy of Sax. They have released eight albums and can be heard and seen in the major motion pictures Revolutionary Road, Killers of the Flower Moon, Boardwalk Empire, and The Marvelous Ms. Maisel.
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