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Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival
Presented by the Redlands Community Music Association, Inc.
Tuesday, July 5 – Community Sing prior to concert, concert at 8:15 p.m.
The Debussy Trio chamber ensemble performs at Redlands Bowl
Marcia Dickstein has a two-part mission: to establish the harp as a respected integral part of the chamber music repertoire, and to bring the music to children and families everywhere. With the other two parts of The Debussy Trio - flutist Angela Wiegand and violist David Walther –, Dickstein will advance this mission with a concert for the Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival on Tuesday, July 5.
“Playing chamber music is the high point for a musician because you are your own boss and you can carry on much more musical discussion,” Dickstein said in a recent telephone interview. “When The Debussy Trio started, except for Debussy’s Sonata for harp, flute, and viola, the chamber repertoire was scarce.”
In 1987, Dickstein, Wiegand, and Walther set about correcting this situation, and since then have commissioned much of the music they perform.
For the Redlands Bowl concert, The Debussy Trio will perform an innovative program with styles from French Impressionism to American jazz-fusion and works of famed film composers in addition to works by Vaughn Williams and Aaron Copland.
“The music is modern, but it’s also very melodic and romantic,” she said, adding that much of it is fun, but not heady. “Award-winning soprano Karin Mushegan will sing several works with us, adding more dimension to the sound.”
A departure from the standard small chamber ensemble, The Debussy Trio uses instruments from different instrumental families.
“It’s a mixed ensemble, so the instruments offer different colors, adding incredible depth and texture,” Dickstein said. The flute provides the soprano line, the viola contributes a warm, mellow texture, and the harp offers the continuo and chordal lines.
For Dickstein, performing is not enough; she also wants to enrich the lives of children and families by taking The Debussy Trio to them.
“Public education has a tremendous arts void, and I truly believe a whole generation was lost to fine music,” she said. “Children don’t listen to chamber music because it’s not available to them,” so The Debussy Trio takes the music to the children, performing for over 250,000 children and adults in outreach concerts throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Scandinavia.
Dickstein tells the story of performing in South Central Los Angeles in 1992, during the riots.
“We were scheduled to perform at an all-black high school deep in the riot area. We were told not to go because it was too dangerous, but we insisted. There we were, three very white people with a room full of high school kids. After the first concert, a group of very big kids came up to us. They told us they really loved the music, and asked to sit through the second concert.”
As part of this outreach effort, The Debussy Trio will present the first of the Children’s Summer Festival Workshops at 3 p.m. in the First Congregational Church at 2 W. Olive Avenue in Redlands. The workshop is free of charge to all children, ages 4 through 10.
This concert begins at 8:15 p.m. following the Community Sing led by Curtiss Allen, Sr. Like all Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival performances, it is free of charge, and a free-will offering will be collected at intermission. The ushers for the program will be representatives from Bethany Reformed Church and from The Spinet. The intermission speaker will be Carol Robinson, Redlands Community Music Association’s Hero of the Arts.
The Redlands Bowl is located in Smiley Park on Eureka Street just south of Brookside Avenue in Redlands. For information and directions, call (909) 793-7316 or visit the Web site at www.redlandsbowl.org.
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