Sounds of Lyons

MinTze Wu, founder and director of Sounds of Lyons in 2009, is a violinist of many passions. She has been heard on stages from the pubs in Poland, opera houses in Italy, concert halls in Australia, US, Taiwan, and the remote villages in Newfoundland. She had performed as a member of Azmari Quartet, Sarasota Opera, San Diego Symphony, and Australian Chamber Orchestra, and from 2004-2007 she was a full-time faculty at Northern Kentucky University. She has been active in presenting, performing, and creating music projects inspired by different genres, cultures, and traditions. A graduate from Cleveland Institute of Music, she has pursued an interesting career exploring possibilities of expression in classical music, with notable projects such as Peer Gynt, Death of the Pugilist, Metamorphosis, Carmen Fantasy, You Better Watch Out, The Kiss, Earth Program, and the Passage series. On her bucket list are hiking Colorado Trail, dance Tango, and make pottery.

Alfredo Muro is an international concert guitarist, interpreter, composer, arranger, and improvisor. He has been described as a Latin guitar virtuoso, but his musical styles and tastes are far more versatile, ranging from standing classical repertoire to jazz. His forte is South American music in its many guises: folk, jazz, Brazilian, classical. Whatever the style, it’s the emotional content of his music that carries the day.

Award-winning director Jem Moore has more than 50 short films, music videos, and documentaries to his credit, and has had his feature documentaries screened at festivals throughout the USA, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia. He is the co-founder of Cloudgate Studios, specializing in high-quality aerial cinematography from remote control multi-rotor helicopters, or ‘drones’. After a long and successful career as a musician, with 15 albums and performances at the largest folk festivals and acoustic venues in North America, he moved on to a career in aviation, first as an airline pilot, then as a private jet pilot in Asia. Most recently he has published a children’s book that has been garnering rave revues. In his spare time he loves to hike, hang glide, play Irish flute, and drink sake

Michael Graham has been hailed by the San Francisco Classical Voice for his “almost painfully pretty…expressive richness”, and by the San Jose Mercury News as “super-good”. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, where he was a founding member of that institution’s secret chamber music society, Skull and Bows. Mr. Graham is a former member of the Chagall String Quartet, winner of a rural residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the San Francisco-based new music group Adorno Ensemble. He is currently a member of the Oakland Symphony, and appears regularly with such ensembles as the Grammy-award-winning New Century Chamber Orchestra and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Graham is committed to exploring music beyond the classical genre, and has performed and recorded with artists ranging from Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg to John Densmore of the Doors. He can be heard on New Century’s recently released albums “Live” and Together”, and on Van Morrison’s latest recording, “Astral Weeks Live from Hollywood Bowl.”

Shannon Pennell Johnson's singing spans the whole gamut of musical styles as will be evident in both the "Crazy about You" and "Celebrating Lyons II" concerts. Shannon has sung with the Ars Nova Singers in Boulder,CO for the past decade and also sings with the trio "The Songbirds" in her hometown of Lyons, CO. Teaching music with children is something very close to her heart. She teaches wee little ones in a program she designed called "Little Bird" at Mayama Movement Studio. Her formal education includes a degree in vocal performance from Ithaca College and extensive work in the Estill Voice Training System. She loves music that pulls on the heart strings. Rachmaninoff's vocalize never fails to bring a tear to her eye. Shannon is thrilled to take part with Sounds of Lyons since the Carmen debut in 2013.

Matthew Dane serves as Principal Violist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston and Associate Principal for Arizona MusicFest. Dane has appeared as soloist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, ROCO, and the St. Martin’s Chamber Choir among others; his chamber performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today and BBC’s Channel 3. A committed teacher, Dane has served on the faculties of the University of Colorado, Metro State College of Denver, and was tenured at the University of Oklahoma; he now actively maintains a private studio in Boulder. His 4-year old twin boys Will and Nate will hopefully come to the Sunday morning concert by the river. Matt’s favorite beer is from Lyons- Oskar Blues G’Knight.

Julie Adair thinks that smiling children, shiny happy people, and roller skates make the world go 'round. At age 6, Julie dreamed of auditioning for the role of Annie in NYC. The role was granted to an older girl by the name of Sarah Jessica (you know the one) who according to Julie back then, "didn't have the right hair" for the part. In 8th grade, Julie got her first job recording children's albums. After that, she enjoyed performing in various choirs and attended the Westminster Choir College in Princeton over the summer in high school. She has performed in musicals, with a jazz band, and as vocalist/songwriter for folk bands in Austin and Denver. Her favorite musical project has been performing with the Songbirds, a local band that hosts a yearly children's performance.

Triple-prized winner of the 2013 Lionel Tertis Competition, including Yuri Bashmet’s President Of The Jury Prize, Taiwanese-born Canadian Chieh-Fan Yiu has established himself as one of the most exciting young violists on the international stage today. As a soloist, he has performed with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Art Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, and Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Yiu has collaborated with such esteemed artists as Colin Carr, Nicholas Cords, Tessa Lark, Paul Neubauer, and the Emerson Quartet. He has performed all over the world in festivals such as Music@Menlo, Moritzburg, Verbier, Aspen, and Sarasota Music Festivals, and in venues including Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, and Carnegie Hall. He holds his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, and he is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in Stony Brook University.

Daniel Silver is a versatile performer whose career encompasses a full range of musical activities from recitals, solo appearances, chamber music, teaching and orchestral playing. His performing has garnered international critical acclaim. The Washington Post praised his "sense of freedom and extraordinary control.” From 1980 to 1987 Mr. Silver served as Principal Clarinet of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and was a frequent concerto soloist during his tenure. In the United States, he has been Principal Clarinet for the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Washington Chamber Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. His solo appearances have taken him across the world, including appearances in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. His festival credits include Tanglewood (Massachusetts) and Aspen (Colorado) and he now spends his summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. Currently he serves as Associate Professor of Clarinet at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His past teaching posts include the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Intrigue by sounds of Do Re Mi, pianist Dr Yu-Chi Hsu began her music journey at age five in her native city Tainan, Taiwan. Along her voyage, she discovered an outlet to an otherwise quiet personality by passionately serving in churches with her love of piano and collaborative performance.In 2009, Hsu received her Doctoral degree on Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she studied under Professor Anne Epperson. She also holds two Master of Music degrees in Collaborative & Piano Performance from New England Conservatory in Boston. In 2008, Dr. Hsu served as a staff pianist at the Butler School of Music in UT Austin. Since 2010, Dr. Hsu has been an active performer and a part-time Assistant Professor in the Graduate Institute of Collaborative Piano of Tainan National University of the Arts. In her spare time, Hsu is huge fan of TV Series Grey’s Anatomy and Suits. She loves baking and making healthy juice drinks. Her most memorable musical moment and career highlight is meeting and learning from the late legendary Bernie Greenhouse (cellist from Beaux Arts Trio). She is a founding member of BenFeng Music Studio and has been an active performer with the BenFeng Music Festival since 2013.

Violinist Margaret Soper Gutierrez has enjoyed a multi-faceted musical career. After receiving performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, she moved to the Washington, D.C. area and performed and toured extensively with both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Margaret was a member of the Maia Quartet, the faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Iowa. Prior to her family’s move to Denver, Margaret was Artistic Director of the University of Memphis Suzuki String Program and on the faculty of the UM School of Music. Margaret taught violin for two years at the University of Colorado in Boulder and is currently on the faculty at the University of Northern Colorado School of Music. Her major teachers include Donald Weilerstein, Charles Castleman, David Updegraff and Doris Preucil. When not teaching or performing with the Colorado Bach Ensemble, the Colorado Ballet and Opera Colorado orchestras or the Colorado Chamber Players, Margaret enjoys spending time with her husband and two children, cooking, gardening and hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

Bonnie Richards has lived in Lyons since 1988. After retiring from teaching writing and working with the McNeill program and Norlin Scholars at CU, she spends a lot of time singing in various choral groups, including Rocky Mountain Chorale, The Renaissance Project, Colorado Music Festival and Boulder Bach Festival. She also sang with the Quarry Gals, here in Lyons. Her latest mantra is “Be here now and be free!” She took part in the Carmen production in 2013 and gave a stellar performance.

Ann Marie Morgan, a leading performer of the viola da gamba in the United States and frequent soloist with orchestras, performs with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras under the baton of Bach specialist Helmuth Rilling, and was a soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival under Rilling. Further performances followed with the Baltimore Symphony, the Washington Choral Arts Society, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and the Bethlehem Bach Choir, as soloist at the Bach Festivals of Boulder, Colorado and Winter Park, Florida as well as with the Hartford and New Jersey Symphonies and the Westminster Choir. Other chamber music credits include the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble and she has performed and recorded for the Baltimore Consort. She is a member of the Oberlin Consort of Viols, Apollo’s Fire, and is a founding member of Les Cordes du Roy. Morgan has recorded on the Dorian, Onda and PGM labels and has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today broadcasts and Minnesota Public Radio.

Violist Erika Eckert is currently Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has also been a faculty member of the Brevard Music Center since 2011, and previously a faculty at Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin Wallace College, and the Chautauqua Institution in New York. As co-founder and former violist of the Cavani String Quartet, Ms. Eckert performed on major concert series worldwide, garnered an impressive list of awards and prizes, including first prizes at both the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Competition, and appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and National Public Radio. In recent seasons, Ms. Eckert has performed as guest-violist with the Takacs String Quartet, Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra, the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Bach Festival, and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Eckert serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Viola Society and appeared in an Academy Nominated Documentary, Rehearsing a Dream.

Sandra Wong started her life journey in upstate New York, displaying a deep love of music as a youngster. She began studying the violin at age seven with the intention of becoming a concert violinist, but then upon discovering the fiddling, shifted her focus on connecting other people and cultures through music as a way to build community and express our common humanity. Opening this door with an exploration of Irish, Old-time and Bluegrass music, her folk music journey has moved her into her current livelihood of teaching, performing, recording and collaborating with other musicians from a diverse range of musical genres. In 1999, Sandra opened another door when she discovered a 14th century Swedish folk instrument called the nyckelharpa and fell in love, and It has become an integral part of her musical expression. Sandra has toured nationally and internationally as a solo artist and in collaboration with various musicians. She has released two solo albums; “It’s About Time” and “Joy”, and two collaborative albums; “Frolic and Romp” and “Sunny Side Up”. A percentage of all Sandra’s CD sales and proceeds from concerts supports responsible projects working to create sustainability on our Planet Earth.

Steve Mullins has earned a bachelor’s degree in American Folk Music, a master’s in musicology, and a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Colorado. He has taught Latin America music, World Music, World Music Theories, and American Indian Music at CU, and currently teaches World Guitar at Front Range Community College. His doctoral dissertation is entitiled Flamenco Gestures: Musical Meaning in Motion . Steve has been featured in a cover story in World Rhythm Magazine. He has been a columnist for Mandolin Magazine since its inception in 1999, with over 45 published articles. His compositions have been heard in settings as diverse as television commercials, documentaries, national public radio, silent movies, multi-media flamenco shows, and dancing horse performances at the National Western stock show. He teaches mandolin and flamenco guitar at the Olde Town Pickin Parlor in Arvada Colorado.

Cellist Sarah Biber has played across the United States, Australia and China. In recent collaborations with dance, she has been featured with the Paul Taylor Dance Company performing solo Bach for the company’s first performance with period instruments (hailed as "bracing" and "nuanced" by the New York Times); with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance at the premiere of Treize en Jeu” an evocative 45 minute ballet for 13 dancers set to Franz Schubert’s Trio in E Flat Major. Sarah earned her doctorate from Stony Brook University with Colin Carr after double-degree studies at Oberlin Conservatory and College. In Australia, Sarah performed in the Opera House with the Sydney Symphony under numerous conductors including Gianluigi Gelmetti and Vladmir Ashkenazy. Sarah has attended or been a fellow at numerous festivals, including Tanglewood, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and the International Baroque Institute at Longy and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. As cellist of Kentucky’s premiere period ensemble, she collaborated in a performance of a Vivaldi Concerto, called “Passionate and insightful” and aired on NPR’s Performance Today. In 2012, Sarah was appointed professor of cello at Montana State University. She recently relocated to Golden, Colorado.

Two-time Juno-winning banjoist, composer and instigator Jayme Stone makes music inspired by sounds from around the world, bridging folk, jazz and chamber music. His award-winning albums both defy and honor the banjo’s long role in the world’s music, turning historical connections into compelling music. The Other Side of the Air (2013) is a travelogue of imaginary landscapes and faraway lands. The album traverses the Cinnamon Route through Persia and India, revisits and reinvents melodies Stone collected in West Africa and includes a Concerto for Banjo and Chamber Symphony. Room of Wonders (2010) explores music from Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Brazil, Italy and North America. The repertoire includes a movement from Bach’s French Suite, a Moorish sword-fighting dance and Stone’s lush, edgy originals. Africa to Appalachia (2008) is a boundary-crossing musical collaboration with griot singer Mansa Sissoko that explores the banjo’s African roots and Stone’s adventures in Mali. The Utmost (2007) draws inspiration from Japanese poetry and Brazilian literature and includes a tiny symphony that takes place inside an imaginary lightbulb. Stone is the consummate collaborator, unearthing musical artifacts and magnetizing extraordinary artists to help rekindle these understudied sounds.

Described by The Redstone Review as “a Celtic angel…with all her heart in it,” and by Sing Out! as “lovely, with a light, bouncy energy…her voice often acting as an instrument in itself,” folksinger Beth Gadbaw grew up singing harmonies with her triplet sisters in a musical household in Western Colorado. Gadbaw came of age singing in Irish pubs and English folk clubs, and is a former Fulbright scholar and award-winning singer and teacher. She lives in Lyons, Colorado with her husband and two daughters. Well-deserving of accolades for Gadbaw’s singing and songwriting skills, Gadbaw's debut solo album The Green Fields and the Mountains High is a compelling collection of traditional and original songs in English and Irish Gaelic. Some tracks, including the lively opener The Birds in the Spring, are richly accompanied by guitar, fiddle, and Gadbaw’s rhythmic bodhrán drum. Irish flute and Celtic harp also make appearances throughout the record. Other tracks, in the old Irish style known as seán nos, are sung acapella. Gadbaw’s own Thomas Watson is a captivating guitar-driven ballad taken from the letters of her New York Irish grandmother’s great uncle, who came to Montana via Troy, New York from Ireland during the Great Famine. Another Gadbaw original, Grania’s Song, is a bold, beautifully melodic, anthem-like homage to Irish Pirate Queen Granuaile, and is accompanied only with bodhrán and hand claps. Beth Gadbaw’s music can be heard on RTÉ’s Raidió na Gaeltachta and Radio 1, as well as on Colorado Public Radio, Folk Alley, and more. She performs as a solo artist, with high-energy traditional band Take Down the Door, and ethereal Celtic harp and vocal duo Gadbaw & Krimmel.

For several years Brooklyn-based guitarist Grant Gordy has been a major voice on the American "acoustic music" scene, and one of the most highly regarded young instrumentalists of his generation. Having held the guitar chair in the legendary David Grisman Quintet for six years, he's also worked alongside such musical luminaries as Edgar Meyer, Steve Martin, Aoife O'Donovan and Darol Anger. Grant has performed all over North America and Europe, everywhere from Carnegie Hall to Montreal Jazz Festival; Jazz at Lincoln Center to Bonnaroo. His music has been heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts, and he's received attention from international music periodicals such as Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Japanese bluegrass publication Moonshiner, Just Jazz Guitar and Flatpicking Guitar Magazine

Described by SF Weekly as a “collision of Django Reinhardt and David Grisman,” Taarka is the new acoustic “supergroup” (Flagstaff Live) “presenting masterfully deep americana and gypsyjazz string band music!” Led by the husband-and-wife team of David Pelta-Tiller (mandolin, tenor guitar, vocals) and Enion Pelta-Tiller (five-string violin, vocals) Taarka fills out its unique sound with award-winning bassist Troy Robey and prodigious young guitarist Mike Robinson, Taarka is bringing their otherworldly, energetic music to venues across the US, Canada, Europe and Mexico. Taarka’s live shows strike a balance between well-crafted songs and spirited instrumentals these days, expanding on its beginnings as a purely instrumental string band putting a modern spin on Gypsy and Eastern European folk music. Taarka has drawn from wide-ranging influences over the past 10 years. Sophisticated listeners would be able to distill flavors of Western and Eastern folk traditions, jazz, rock, bluegrass, old-time, gypsy, Indian, and Celtic music all in a string band setting. Their fifth studio Obispo Mozart Festival and The Millpond Folk Festival and many more.

Flutist, Dalcroze Eurhythmics instructor, and Suzuki educator, Emma Shubin has been joyfully making music since the age of six. She is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy where she studied music, creative writing, and photography. A proponent of integrative education, Emma is the co-founder and director of the Colorado based non-profit Integral Steps, which strives to bring integrative education and balanced development to individuals, families, and communities through music, movement, psychotherapy, ecology and creative arts. Emma can be found enjoying the Rocky Mountain Region from her home in Louisville, CO where she works on various projects from composing and recording, performing and collaborating, to community engagement and integrative education and artistic events. She travels throughout the year performing all genres of music, giving workshops and masterclasses on audience engagement, Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Integrative education, and she teaches Skype/FaceTime and private lessons from Boston to Boulder and beyond. She is the co-executive director of Integral Steps and currently serves as the coordinator for new programming and an instructor with the Dalcroze School of the Rockies.

Kathleen Schmidt is a lyric mezzo-soprano specializing in medieval chant, Renaissance polyphony, and Baroque opera and oratorio. She is an accomplished performer of sacred and choral music, and has directed choirs and led educational programs to increase the impact of early (pre-Classical-era) music as a vibrant, living genre. She is currently the artistic director of Denver Early Music Consort. Besides being a classical vocalist, she is also a professional photographer and media designer.

Peter Schimpf is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He has taught courses in music history, world music, music appreciation, and the history of Rock and Roll, and he is the founder and director of the MSU Denver Early Music Ensemble. He earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University in musicology, and has a BM in performance from California State University Sacramento where he studied guitar and lute with Dr. Richard Savino. As a performer on period instruments, he has performed with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Colorado Music Festival, Seicento Baroque Ensemble, and the Denver Early Music Consort.