Detroit, Mich. - The Woodland Trio announces a Pre-Tour Performance April 10, 2002 in the Schaver Music Recital Hall in Old Main, located on the corner of Hancock and Cass Ave. The concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. This world premier along with important works of impressionistic music will be free of charge and open to the public.

Trio members Kerstin Allvin, harp, Jeffery Zook, flute, and Caroline Coade, viola are all Detroit area professionals. Jeff and Caroline are regular members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, while Kerstin is principal harp with the Flint Symphony and extra with the DSO.

This special concert will preview the music that the trio has been invited to perform at several venues in Morocco and will feature the premier performance of James Hartway's Images of Mogador, a three movement work that was commissioned by the Printemps Musical des Alizès in Essaouira, Morocco. Hartway, an award-winning composer is a Distinguished Professor of Music at Wayne State University in Detroit where he is Divisional Director of Music Composition and Theory. There will be a post-concert reception in honor of Hartway's thirty years of teaching at the university.

For further information on the Woodland Trio's performance or other WSU Department of Music events, please call (313) 577-1795.

Background/Program Notes

Early in 2001 James Hartway was notified that a concert featuring several of his art songs, and his Scenes from a Marriage for one piano, four hands was to take place as part of the first ever classical music festival in Essaouira, Morocco. Two outstanding French musicians, soprano Chantal Cazaux, and pianist Stephan Etcharry were to perform the works. Dr. Hartway attended the three-day festival, and received a standing ovation for his music; and, as well, was invited to return in 2002 with a new work for this year's Printemps Musical des Alizès.

Mr. Andrè Azoulay, economic advisor to the king of Morocco, commissioned the new composition, which is titled Images of Mogador. It is a three-movement work for harp, flute, and viola based on the composer's first impressions of the country of Morocco and the city of Essaouira.

The first movement of the work is an adaptation of native African music that is popular in Morocco. Trance Music is an earthy, rhapsodic, yet rhythmic movement in somewhat free form.

It is impossible not to be impressed by the overtly religious aura, the devotion of the participants, and the many profoundly beautiful mosques in this country. From the Minaret attempts to capture the sincerity, passion, and mystery of faith.

Le Souk is a perpetual motion tour and shopping spree through the market place. The excitement, unpredictability, and colorful/clashing bargaining dialogue are all in evidence in this virtuosic closing movement.

The world premier performance is scheduled to take place April 18-20, 2002 in Essaouira, Morocco at the Printemps Musical des Alizës Festival. The Woodland Trio with Kerstin Allvin, harp, Caroline Coade, viola, and Jeff Zook, flute will be the performers. The Trio is sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Morocco and Dr. Hartway is funded in part by a Global Travel Grant from Wayne State University. The harp will be provided by Camac Harps of France.

In addition to the premier performance in Essouria, the Woodalnd Trio will also play a concert at the prestigious University of Al Akhawayn in Ifrane following the festival.

The Woodland Trio has been heard performing throughout the Metropolitan Detroit area since 1999. Their 2001 schedule includes concerts at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Carngie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Henry Ford Mansion, Dearborn, Border's Books Music Series as well as concerts in Canada.

Jeffery Zook has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra flute section since 1992 and is on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music. Mr. Zook has been a prizewinner in many competitions, including the National Concerto Competition sponsored by General Motors, the William Byrd National Concerto Competition, the National Flute Association Young Artists Competition and the National Endowment for the Advancement of the Arts' Recognition and Talent Search. He was guest piccoloist with the Boston Symphony on a tour of Japan under conductor Seigi Ozawa. He made his solo debut with the Detroit Symphony in 1982, and once again in January 2001 in a concert featuring Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in C with Neemi Jarvi conducting.

Violist Caroline Coade joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1996. Before coming to Detroit, she was a substitute for the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and was principal viola with the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She spent two summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, and performed chamber music concerts as an artist-in-residence at Pennsylvania's Laurel Festival of the Arts in '93. Coade was on the faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia from 1994-1996, where she taught viola and chamber music in the school's Music Preparatory Division. She currently is an adjunct faculty member at Wayne State University, Detroit.

Kerstin Allvin has won numerous awards and competitions and has performed at Carnegie Recital Hall and at the historic Carmel Mission in California. She toured Japan as a soloist, giving concerts at the prestigious Suntory Hall in Tokyo and was invited to play the inaugural concerts at Nogi City's new concert hall, and for Toyota City's Sister City Association. She has been featured soloist with the Toyota, Ohmiya City, Pontiac-Oakland, Flint, Warren, Adrian Symphonies and the Lyric Chamber Ensemble of Detroit. She released a compact disc of original material entitled "Origins" on JBX Records which received national airplay, securing a position at number five in the Jazz/New Age category in "JAZZIZ" magazine. She has also released a classical solo compact disc with music of Rota, Bach, Debussy, Tournier and Hartway. Miss Allvin was interim Principal Harpist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on their European tour in Octber 2001 and also at the Detroit Symphony's summer home, Meadow Brook Music Festival in 2000.

In October 2000, Kerstin and Jeffery released their first compact disc together, Comfort and Joy, A Holiday Celebration of Music for Flute and Harp. Included on the disc are classical, traditional and original music for harp and flute with members of the Woodland Ensemble.

As a professional composer, James Hartway has received more than forty commissions from major musical organizations and educational institutions; and has written over eighty works. He has been asked to compose works for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the American Artist Series, the Meadow Brook Music Festival, the American Guild of Organists, the Michigan Opera Theater, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, the Scarab Club, and various chamber music groups and soloists; and he has served as composer-in-residence for the Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East in Bennington,Vermont.

Hartway's music has been recorded, choreographed, and performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and China. He is a recipient of an Arts Foundation Award of Michigan and has received a Resolution of Tribute from the Michigan Senate. In October of 1992 Professor Hartway received Wayne State University's highest honor by being elected a lifetime member of the Academy of Scholars and was made Distinguished Professor of Music by the Wayne State University Board of Governors.

The mission of the Department of Music is to foster the professional and academic development of performers, creative artists, scholars and educators. The Department serves a diverse student body in the heart of Detroit's Cultural Center. To accomplish this, the Department offers a comprehensive curriculum in a technologically current facility; provides students with significant opportunities to interact with an internationally recognized faculty; assists student development through performances, internships, and scholarly presentations; enhances student artistic experiences through affiliations with premier musical institutions.