Clarinetist/physicist performs at Gobin

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Gareth Guest and John Clodfelter

Gareth Guest, who has had a duel career as a clarinetist and nuclear physicist, will be joined by pianist John Clodfelter in a program of "Mostly French" works in the sixth program of the Greencastle Summer Classical Music Festival at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Gobin United Methodist Church.

Admission is free, and the Festival's major corporate underwriter is York Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Greencastle, with other significant support from DePauw University, Fine Print Books, and the Walden Inn. "I can't emphasize enough how grateful we are to York, our other sponsors, and Gobin for making the series possible," says Eric Edberg, the Festival's director.

Guest, 74, worked his way through Vanderbilt University playing in jazz groups and big bands in the Nashville Area, going on to earn a doctorate in nuclear physics from the University of Wisconsin. While working for the federal government in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, he was principal clarinet of the Oak Ridge Symphony; after moving to California, first working for General Dynamics and than as a partner in Applied Microwave Plasma Concepts, Guest continued daily practice as well as regular classical and jazz performances.

"It's the best therapy," says Guest. "Life wouldn't be the same without making music."

Festival director Edberg says of Guest, "His performance on the series two years ago was one of the most talked-about concerts of that season. He plays with incredible technical assurance, soulful musicality, and does some of the most intelligent and interesting phrasing I've ever heard. Every detail has been worked out. He's a wonder to me; he plays on a high professional level, yet his professional career has been in another area.

And at age 74, he's continuing to perform and writing a textbook on microwave plasma--whatever that is!"

Wednesday's concert includes music by Saint-Sa'ns, Debussy, Milhaud, and Szalowski. Guest's collaborator John Clodfelter originally began music study in piano performance. While a student at DePauw University, he discovered his love for collaborative piano. This was further nurtured in his studies at Indiana University. Since 1996, John 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, Austria, where he studied with Walter Moore and Carolyne Hague at the UniveritŠt fŸr Musik und darstellende Kunst Wein. Mr. Clodfelter's 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.

Next week's concert on July 25 features Mœsica Ficta. "They are our big-ticket item this summer," explains Edberg. "I'm thrilled we are able to present them with the sponsorship of DePauw University."

Founded in Bogot‡, Colombia, Mœsica Ficta has earned an international reputation for its passionate performances of Renaissance and Baroque music from Latin-America and Spain. Its innovative and creative programs reflect scholarly research and have generated wide popular and critical acclaim. The ensemble has performed at major international early music festivals throughout Europe, Latin America, the USA, and the Far East, and venues such as: Inter- American Development Bank (Washington, DC), International Press (Japan), Cleveland Museum of Art (USA), Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), UNESCO, Caja Madrid (Spain), University of Hong Kong (China) and Banco de la Repœblica (Colombia). Musica Ficta has recorded for Arts Music (Germany), Centaur (USA) and Milan-Jade (France) labels.

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