Strings on the Bay “Beethoven Bash” is happening on July 20th

News

Strings on the Bay, the annual summer chamber music series at Bay de Noc Community College, continues at 7:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, July 20^th, at the First Presbyterian Church, 819 First Avenue South in Escanaba, MI. This performance is the second of three concerts this summer and features a trio from the Detroit area. The “Beethoven Bash” is a belated 250th birthday tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven that you won’t want to miss.

Joining music director and violinist, Paul Lundin, is Wayne State University piano professor, Robert Conway and Detroit free-lance cellist Chas Helge. Helge holds music degrees from Western Michigan, the University of Indiana and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. Conway, also the staff pianist for the Detroit Symphony, has played for Strings on the Bay twice before and has been requested back by audience members. The program, all music by Beethoven, will feature Helge and Conway performing the Third Cello Sonata, Conway playing the ever popular “Fur Elise” and then Lundin joins them for the “Archduke” trio. The trio was composed and first performed by Beethoven and friends in 1811. Due to his increasing deafness, it was the last public performance on the piano by the great composer. Please join us for this evening of truly great music!

Tickets are available through the Bay website, www.baycollege.edu/on-campus/events/music.php[BROKEN LINK], the Besse Center box office, or at the door of the church. Admission price is $5 for students and Bay employees and $10 for adults. The final program in the series will be on August 10th at 7:30 p.m. EST also at the First Presbyterian Church in Escanaba.

Musician Bios

Paul Lundin is currently living in SE Michigan where he is a freelance violinist. He studied at the University of Iowa where he earned Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Violin Performance. While living in Wisconsin, he performed with the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Waukesha, and Green Bay Symphonies and held the post of Concertmaster for the Racine Symphony from May of 2000 until 2008. In addition to performing, he was a sabbatical replacement at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point (2001) and was adjunct instructor at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin for 8 years. Formerly, he was a fulltime member of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra from 1992-1999, was on the faculty of Northwestern State University and Centenary College and concertmaster of the Longview (Texas) Symphony. He received critical acclaim as soloist in Longview playing Erich Korngold’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” in 1998. Mr. Lundin is a native of Upper Michigan where he continues a musical presence as Director of Strings on the Bay, a professional chamber music series sponsored by Bay de Noc Community College in Escanaba, Michigan. This, in conjunction with the Manistique Community Concert Committee Summer Concert Series, is a post he has held since 1994.

Robert Conway, piano is an associate professor of piano at Wayne State University, where he is also the director of the piano area. Since 1989, he has performed regularly as orchestral keyboardist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has been a soloist with them on several occasions. In 2013, he performed the solo piano part to Symphony No. 4 by Charles Ives in Carnegie Hall as part of the Detroit Symphony’s presentation of the complete symphonies of Ives. He has served as a musical representative of the United States as an Artistic Ambassador of the United States Information Agency on a tour of South Asia and the Middle East in 1997, as well as acting as a Department of State Cultural Envoy to Jamaica in 2005 and Azerbaijan in 2008. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has appeared at numerous national and international festivals, performed concertos with many orchestras, collaborated with prestigious composers, given countless premieres and is featured on several recordings on numerous labels. In 2009, he performed as part of the American Romanian Festival in Timisoara and Sannicolau Mare, Romania. Conway received a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the New England Conservatory and master's and doctoral degrees in piano performance from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers were Theodore Lettvin, Rudolf Kolisch and Eugene Bossart.

Chaewon Helge is a Detroit-based cellist and strings teacher. Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1990, she was adopted and at age 6, first started playing the cello in a Suzuki strings program in Wayzata, Minnesota. She continued taking lessons, eventually moving to Michigan and studying at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Chae completed a B.M. from Indiana University and a M.M. from Western Michigan University as well as doctoral coursework at the University of Oklahoma. In the last five years, Chae has been a member of the Fort Smith Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, Traverse Symphony Orchestra, as well as sitting principal and assistant principal of the Warren Symphony and Oakland Symphony. Besides performing in a wide variety spectrum of solo and chamber genres ranging from praise bands to string quartets, Chae is also a Suzuki cello/violin instructor and a music historian. Chae's research includes women in music and canonization, Hollywood orchestration technique (specifically the scores of Star Wars), and the topic of their dissertation, the great British cello virtuoso Beatrice Harrison (1892-1965). In her spare time, Chae enjoys playing video games, cooking, and spending time with their tuxedo cat Miss Bap.