Voice of the Whale

Endangered: The Voice of the Whale, an engaging musical journey presented by Chamber Music Wilmington, will be performed at UNCW's Beckwith Recital Hall, in the university's new Cultural Arts Building.  

Friday, April 25, 2008   —  performances at 9 and 11am
for registered audiences

"Thank you" to
The Harry Chapin Foundation, The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation,
The Center for Marine Science at UNCW and Glenda Flynn
for your financial support that made this program possible .

The Chamber Trio Vox Balaenae formed in 1998 as the educational outreach of the American Music Festival and Chamber Music Wilmington. The trio is comprised of three professional musicians: Barbara McKenzie, piano; Emanuel Gruber, cello; and Elizabeth Ransom, flute. This dynamic trio has performed to standing ovations throughout the Southeast. They have been invited for guest appearances at many venues, among them the Reynolds House and the North Carolina Museum of Art. In addition the trio travels throughout the state and performs for student audiences.

VOW Curriculum guide (pdf format) by Brenda Wheat, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Watson School of Education.

and listening maps (pdf format).

About the artists:

Flutist Elizabeth Ransom is known to audiences in the southeastern United States as a soloist and chamber musician, and she has also performed on several occasions in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and France. She can be heard performing in the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Carolina Chamber Symphony, and the Ransom-Pecoraro Duo (flute and guitar). She has also been a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony’s Bolton Woodwind Quintet which received national and international acclaim for its innovative arts-in-education programs. Ms. Ransom studied with Philip Dunigan at the North Carolina School of the Arts, with the late Severino Gazzelloni in Siena, Italy, and as a Fulbright scholar with Ingrid Koch at the Hochschule f ü r Musik in Hamburg, Germany. She currently serves on the music faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and she has taught flute at Davidson College, Lenoir-Rhyne College, and the New England Music Camp.

Pianist Barbara McKenzie has been hailed by critics as “a discovery which has charmed us all” (Le Matin). Since 1980 Ms. McKenzie’s career has taken her into the concert halls and international music festivals of Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy. She was selected by the NEA to tour as a musical ambassador for the U.S. State Department in eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and for debuts in Leningrad and Moscow. As conservatory prize winner and graduate of the Peabody Conservatory she has been recipient of many awards and prizes as pianist of the McKenzie-Ware Duo, including the International Chamber Music Competition in Paris, the Young Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York and the International Brahms Competition in Hamburg. Upon returning to her native North Carolina after living a decade in West Germany, she was selected as artist-in-residence by the North Carolina Arts Council. In this capacity, she founded the American Music Festival in 1990 and in 1996 co-founded The Chamber Music Society of Wilmington.

Emanuel Gruber- cello
Soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Emanuel Gruber started his cello studies with the distinguished Romanian pedagogue Paul Ochialbi. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv and under the auspices of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation completed his musical training with Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Neville Marriner, Rudolph Barshai, Shelomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman, Miriam Fried, Philippe Entremont, Jean Bernard Pommier, Tamas Vasary, Janos Starker. He is the winner of Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchersta and Concert Artists’ Guild in New York. Mr. Gruber was principal cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and co-principal of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He was member of Sequoia Quartet, Camerata Trio, Tel Aviv Piano Quartet and leader of the Israel Cello Ensemble. He is founding member of the Tel Aviv Chamber Music Society and currently teaches cello and chamber music at East Carolina University. Previously, he taught at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and was visiting professor at Indiana University, School of Music in Bloomington. He teaches periodically at Barcelona School of Music, the International Cello Seminar in Israel , the Canetti International summer course, Summit Music Festival in N.Y., International Academy of Music in Italy and Burgos International Music Festival in Spain.

He performed in many festivals including Bath, Salzburg, San Sebastian, Northwestern ( Portland), Eilat ( Israel), Musike (France), Musical Spring (St. Petersburg ), Rostropovich ( Riga). He was a jury member at the Second Davidoff International Cello Competition in Kuldiga, Latvia, and at the Music Competition in Salou, Spain.

Mr. Gruber recorded for CDI, Israel (“The Heart of Cello”), for EMS, Belgium (“Festival of the 20 th Century”), for Beit Hatefutsot, Israel (In Hassidic Style), for Erasmus, Holland (Clarinet Trios with Camerata Trio) and for Eroica, USA (The complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven) Emanuel Gruber plays a David Tecchler Cello made in Rome in 1706.