Artburst: music, dance, theater, etc

Karen Bentley Pollick is a native of Palo Alto, California where she was concertmaster and conductor of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco. She then attended Indiana University where she studied violin with Josef Gingold, coached string quartets with Rostislav Dubinsky and graduated with a Masters of Music Degree in Violin Performance in 1987. Other violin teachers include Nathan Milstein, Yuval Yaron, Glenn and Harold Dicterow, and David Balakrishnan.

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Impossible Animals (1989) is scored for violin and computer-synthesized voices. It is based on an earlier work commissioned by the Hamilton College Chorus in 1986. There are also versions of the piece for four voices (1989), oboe (1990), trombone (2003), and five winds (1994), all with computer-synthesized voices.

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In our small, selective department, you will have plenty of opportunities to perform on and off-campus, whether as a soloist, in a chamber ensemble, in a large ensemble, or as part of the cast or orchestra for an opera or musical theatre production. Our students often take top prizes in prestigious competitions, including National Association of Teachers of Singing, Birmingham Music Club, Alabama Music Teachers' Association and Federation of Music Clubs, just to name a few. Visit them at: http://www.montevallo.edu/music/

Artburst began as a performance outreach of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham. It is now its own organization (a non-profit corporation), but continues to present performances at the Unitarian Church. Our performances usually are on Sundays at 7:00 pm (but check the individual annoucements, since this does vary). This year admissions are normally $8.00 and $4.00 for students and seniors, though the pricing will vary depending on the performer. We will try to offer some free concerts, if we get enough support otherwise.

Diane McNaron's page: http://dianemcnaron.com/training.html Across the US and abroad, for thirty-five years, Diane McNaron has brought the highest standards of performance and production to her work as a singer and producer/director. From the genre of Twentieth-Century art song to political cabaret, from full-scale opera productions to benefits for shelters, from controversial speakers' events and rallies to a CD endorsed by the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, McNaron has combined her extraordinary voice, musical commitment and creative style as a stage director to forge a unique career.