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Nine Trees of KL Ave Sent Underground

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Nine Trees of KL Ave Sent Underground

The Connecting Chords Kalamazoo Project has commissioned several local composers to create chamber music pieces inspired by locations; ‘Music In Place’ in Kalamazoo. From the day I drove into Kalamazoo for the first time, I fell in love with two roads where the 100- 200 plus year old trees offered a beautiful canopy for all to appreciate; Oakland Drive & KL Avenue. The subject of my piece is focused on the nine trees that were removed to grounded stumps, leaving the future life of these trees to continue underground. Our road was amidst a sewage pipe project back in 2017. Unrevealed circumstances led to their removal. We returned from a week long trip to Mississippi, to experience the sun’s blinding glare as a result of these trees’ absence. Sick to the core of my being, I vowed to write a piece for these trees! I am writing a piece for these trees!

AUTHOR

LAJarski
Laurie A. Jarski, composer, cellist, singer/songwriter guitarist, and owner of Broughton Music Center & Northville Center for Music & Art, is a professional cellist in the Presence of Three Trio, Red Willow Dream, the Battle Creek Symphony, and principal cellist with The National Women’s Music Festival Orchestra under Nan Washburn. She studied composition with Anthony Iannaccone and Ramon Zupko, and cello with Winifred Mayes (Asst. principal cellist in the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy) and Nina Deveritch (Master Class pupil of Pablo Casals). Laurie has composed commissioned works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, choir, and a variety of chamber ensemble pieces, the larger ensemble and orchestral compositions include, ‘God Rest Ye! Orchestral Renderings’; 2015, ’Funky Blues for Cello Quartet’; 2012, ’The Star to Every Wandering Bark’ for Choir, Chamber Orchestra, and Percussion; 2010, Travel Modalities for 16 Celli; 2008, An Amethyst Remembrance for Mezzo Soprano, Chamber Choir and Orchestra; 1995. In Laurie’s compositions, the interplay of antiphonal, rhythmic, and colorful fabric is woven around lyrical song-like melodies, a natural extension of Laurie’s folk music origin, as singer/ songwriter from age 9 and onward. A natural tendency to have percussive attributes cross over to instruments not usually slated as percussion, is of particular interest, and visa versa. Instrumental role switches, provide some interesting sound textures! In a recent work; Rhythm Cordia for Solo Cello, Laurie further blurs the idiomatic lines between cello and guitar, with a variety of pizzicato techniques, and col legno variations embedded into the piece. Current compositional endeavors are women focused. The first project involves writing two pieces honoring two pioneering women (Lois Schaefer, flutist of The Boston Symphony, and Winifred Mayes, cellist of Philadelphia Orchestra), of the professional orchestra world (at a time led by men, 1950’s & forward). The first piece will be a piano quintet for piccolo, flute, cello, & bass, and the other, an orchestra work featuring the flute and cello within the orchestra. Laurie’s most recent compositional concept, is to compose a piece exploring the powerful rhythm of speech possessed by some of the great women now, and in our history; Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Kiran Bedi, Hillary Clinton, Viola Davis, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Michelle Obama, Michelle Bachelet, Queen Elizabeth II, etc.

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