Poetry and music mark close of Summer Music Festival

Monday, August 19, 2013
Akal Dev Sharonne

The 2013 Greencastle Summer Music Festival concludes its 13-week series of "friends making music for friends" this Wednesday evening, Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church.

The free concert features the North Carolina-based flutist Akal Dev Sharonne, who has been hailed by the Boston Phoenix for her "superb playing." She will be joined by cellist Eric Edberg, the festival's founder and organizer, and pianist John Clodfelter, both of the DePauw School of Music faculty.

Poet Joe Heithaus, Professor of English at DePauw, will read from his own poetry as well as the 12th-century mystic poet Rumi.

The program will include music by Telemann, Louise Farrenc, Michael Harrison and improvisations.

"Having Akal Dev here is the fulfillment of a longtime dream," Edberg said. "We met almost 20 years ago at an improvisation workshop, where among other things she introduced me to the poetry of Rumi and the joys of improvising to poetry.

"She's a fantastic organizer who has started several concert series, and she inspired me to start our summer festival here. I've met so many other musicians through her, and now I am thrilled to introduce her to John Clodfelter and Joe Heithaus, both magnificent artists, and for us to work together."

Akal Dev Sharonne wins accolades wherever she goes. From the mountains of Southern France, to major metropolitan centers, to the coastal plains of North Carolina, audiences are moved by her powers of expression, beauty of tone and delightfully engaging manner.

She is equally at home as a recitalist in Boston's famed Jordan Hall; as a soloist with the Boston Pops; as a chamber musician in Carnegie Recital Hall. She was on the roster of North Carolina's prestigious Visiting Artist Program for three years and has toured throughout the Carolinas.

Sharonne has appeared as soloist with orchestras in New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Her versatility extends to expertise in East Indian music and other genres of musical improvisation.

She has been the recipient of Meet The Composer grants, in recognition of her improvisatory compositions, and has received fellowships from the Regional Artist Project of NW North Carolina for innovative proposals. Ms. Sharonne is the artistic director of The Pioneer Valley Chamber Players, in residence in western MA during the summer months, and was the founding artistic director of the Chisti Chamber Players and the Columbia Chapmber Players in upstate New York. She also directs "A Musical Feast" in her hometown of Boone NC.. She maintains a private teaching studio in Boone, NC, accepting a limited number of talented and dedicated students each year.

John Clodfelter originally began music study in piano performance. While a student at DePauw University, Clodfelter discovered his love for collaborative piano. This was further nurtured in his studies at Indiana University.

Since 1996, Clodfelter has worked at DePauw University as a staff accompanist and vocal coach. In the summer of 2005, he received a grant to study in Vienna, where he studied with Walter Moore and Carolyne Hague at the Univerität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wein.

His teachers include Karen Taylor, Lorna Grifft, Evelyne Brancart and Hans Graff in piano performance, Rostislav Dubinsky, Leonard Hokanson, Walter Moore and Carolyne Hague in accompanying and coaching.

Joseph Heithaus won the 2007 "Discovery"/The Nation Prize for a group of sonnets about poison plants that are now the central thread of his first book, "Poison Sonnets" (David Robert Books 2012).

Professor Heithaus earned a Ph.D. and an M.F.A. from Indiana University and his work has appeared in numerous journals including Poetry, The Atlanta Review, The North American Review, The Southern Review and Prairie Schooner.

His poem "Indiana Flight" is etched in the stained glass mural of British artist Martin Donlin in the Indianapolis International Airport and with the other, so called, "airpoets," he's publshed "Rivers, Rails, and Runways," and "Airmail" (San Francisco Bay Press 2008, 2011).

His poem "What Grows Here" can be found painted on a barn just outside of Greencastle on West Walnut Street.

He's taught literature and writing at DePauw since 1996.

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