Program Notes for Jazz in the Garden

. . . about the Earl MacDonald Jazz Quartet

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EARL MACDONALD - piano, leader

Earl MacDonald lives jazz, as a performer, composer and educator. Currently the director of jazz studies at the University of Connecticut, the Winnipeg native earned degrees in jazz performance and jazz studies from McGill University and Rutgers, where he apprenticed with Kenny Barron. He is dedicated to music education, participating as a clinician, guest conductor and teacher at summer camps, in addition to his position at UConn. From 1998 – 2000, MacDonald was the musical director, pianist, and arranger for the Maynard Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau Band. As music director he was responsible for programming and rehearsing this world-renowned ensemble. In 2002, MacDonald won the Sammy Nestico Award, for outstanding big band arranging. MacDonald is currently a member of the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop in New York City. His compositions are featured on the recent CD, UConn Jazz featuring Earl MacDonald, recorded by the University of Connecticut Jazz Ensembles. His new sextet, the Earl MacDonald 6, garnered first place in the 2004 Hartford Advocate Reader's Poll for "best jazz group". Their debut recording, "Echoes In The Night" was released in January 2005. Visit Earl MacDonald's web site at: www.earlmacdonald.com

DICK OATTS - alto saxophone

Alto saxophonist Dick Oatts is perhaps best known for his work with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra (recently renamed the Vanguard Orchestra), which performs every Monday night at New York City's Village Vanguard jazz club. Other big bands with which Dick has performed include the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Lester Bowie, Joe Lovano, Sam Jones-Tom Harrell, Paquito D'Rivera, Tito Puente and Gunther Schuller. He has been a featured soloist with the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band, Rome Radio Big Band, Berlin RIAS big band and the UMO Big Band in Helsinki. Dick is a Steeplchase recording artist, with four CD releases as a leader: "All of Three", "Standard Issue", "Simone's Dance", and "Standard Issue, Vol. 2". He also has a new CD on the Red label, with bassist Dave Santoro entitled "Meru". Dick has recorded and toured with many small group leaders. For 25 years Dick has appeared at college jazz festivals throughout the United States and around the worl, as soloist and clinician.

DAVE SANTORO - bass

Dave Santoro, a native of Connecticut, is active in both the New York and Boston jazz scenes. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a sideman with many of the most prominent artists in contemporary jazz. His performance and recording credits include Pepper Adams, Joey Baron, Bob Berg, Jerry Bergonzi, Nick Brignola, the Bob Brookmeyer / Clark, Terry Quintet, Joey Caldorazzo, Mick Goodrick, Steve Grossman, Tom Harrell, Brad Mehldau, Sal Nistico, Dick Oatts, Red Rodney, John Scofield, and the Village Vanguard Orchestra. His own quartet, The Dave Santoro Standards Band, has recorded three compact discs on the Double-Time record label. Dave Santoro directs combos and teaches jazz improvisation at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.

TOM MELITO - drums

Tom Melito imparts a balance of "ease and energy" from his drums. Musically, he resides in the heart of the rhythm and from there lends his talent in a self-effacing manner that gives the music its simpatico. He grew up in a musical household whose visitors nurtured Tom's early love of jazz: Bobby Hackett, Dave McKenna and Stan Getz. His influences include Jo Jones, Max Roach and Philly Joe Jones. Tom has performed with Herb Ellis and Steve Davis; he has backed jazz greats Steve Grossman, David Liebman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Harry "Sweets" Edison, and singers Chris Connor and Kenny Rankin. Of his performance on Ken Peplowski's CDs, Down Beat Magazine said, "?Melito rounds out a rhythm section that never fails."

. . . about the Authors & Artists

Priscilla Squier Bakke, is a third generation photographer and artist. Her grandfather Albert Squier traveled and photographed the western coasts and mountains of South America and Canada. He was a well known lecturer and presenter of travel lectures using lantern slides which he painted himself. Her father Donald Gordon Squier was a portrait painter who painted many political notables in Washington DC and the North Shore of Massachusetts. His works hang in public building and private collections throughout the country.

Priscilla began her art training at a young age as her father's protégé. Later, she studied at the Massachusetts School of Art and The University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts.

She began working for photographers in high school, hand coloring prints and continued this cottage industry while her children were young. Later as a single parent, she joined the staff of Continuing Education at the University of Connecticut where she helped to build and coordinate a degree program for returning adult students. After a successful career at the University of Connecticut, she turned her attention and talent to work of her heart.

Priscilla has long been an ardent lover of the natural environment. She celebrates her love of the landscape in her pastels, a medium which allows her to express both the brilliant and subtle color of the scenes around her, whether it is in the maritime province of New Brunswick, the coast of southern Georgia, or scenes of the Northeast corner of Connecticut.

Delia Berlin has lived and worked in this area for almost thirty years. Born and raised in Argentina, she grew up in Buenos Aires with her companion parrot Cata, a most influential mentor and friend. Her interest in birds is still undiminished. She wrote two books about pet parrots. She lives in Windham with her husband, artist David Corsini, and her parrots Eureka and Maybe. Formally trained in Physics (MS UCONN 79) and Family Studies (MA UCONN 83), Delia is Director of the Willimantic Center of QVCC.

Emine Cichowski, "I make pots because I have nothing else I would rather do. The excitement and anticipation of pots unknown in the beginning keeps me going. Sometimes, there is a certain "magic" in a few of them that is reassuring of the process. I feel constantly driven to recapture that moment and the feeling that accompanies it.

An idea for a piece might begin with a concept, a design, a fantasy, a myth, an image from a dream, or spontaneously trusting my unconscious. I characteristically engage these creative starting points with a sense of excitement and urgency. The sense of myself as maker is very much alive, influenced by my temperament, Turkish heritage and present rural environment.

I believe that the potters craft of centering the clay is enacted in all aspects of life. Bringing into center all of the elements of experience, and the creation of forms out of that centered condition, I try to practice what I preach and bring the spirit of wholeness into myself and into my work. This is the discipline of centering: to find the whole in every part. It's difficult.

I'm a student on the path, in search of center."

Bruce Clements, since 1967 Bruce Clements has written twelve books for young adult readers, on of which, I Tell a Lie Every So Often, was a National Book Award Finalist. The sequel to that book, A Chapel of Thieves, was chosen by the Washington Post's "Book World " as one of 2003's ten best novels for young adults. He is the 2004 Connecticut Children's Writer of the Year.

A Graduate of Columbia College, Union Theological Seminary, and the State University of New York at Albany, he served as professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University. In that Post he served terms as Chair of the English Department and of the University Senate. He is a member of Windham Board of Education, and President of the Board of the Children's Law Center.

His next book, What Erika Wants, will be published in September, 2005. Proceeds from the book will go entirely to the Children's Law Center of Connecticut, which provides attorneys at no cost to children trapped in adult power struggles.

Mr. Clements is currently at work on a novel for adults, After You, Nothing Was the Same, and is Editorial Consultant for a practice book for Attorneys now in preparation, Representing Children in Family Court.

David Corsini, is a folk artist who makes assemblages from found materials. While he had collected objects for many years, he began making assemblages only after his retirement from UCONN in 1997. His recent assemblages with metal and glass are designed for gardens and yards. He is a regular participant in Open Studios and lives in Windham Center with his wife Delia Berlin.

Linda Gebhardt studied art during her college years in Minnesota, but it was while living in St. Petersburg, Florida that she taught herself to work in stained glass. When she enrolled in her first class, Linda discovered that she knew more about stained glass than the professor. For the past 25 years, she has been teaching students at EastConn, Quinnebaug Community College, and at adult education classes throughout the region. Linda makes art in her studio in Windham Center.

Gilbert Hite, (DBA " Turning 70 ") "The warmth, color and grain of wood held a special fascination for most of my adult life. Gradual improvement in technique paralleled my metamorphosis from carpenter to woodworker. It also provided a profound sense of satisfaction and equanimity as the medium yielded to my will? particularly since I found that pounding nails was a civil way to cater to my frustrations with university administrators. In my retirement after 46 years in higher education, I muse about what they did to cope with me!

For the first four years, it was my pleasure to give my turnings to family (wife first), former students, friends and charities as fast as they were made. Still not an accomplished turner, since I seemed to do more sanding than turning, the effect of the dust on my wife prompted the move from my garage to a rented workshop. The associated expenses prompted the birth of "Turning 70 ". Why "Turning 70"? Well, there are about 45,000 turners in the world and the English language no longer offered a unique word or phrase that was not thoroughly worn. That is, until I peered down at my birthday cake! The name also relates to contemporary idiom, turning seven days a week and getting nothing done. But what fun! Yet, if you watch and listen closely you will see a tear in my eye and hear a quiver in my "thank you" as a patron walks joyfully away."

Gilbert works out of his shop at 31 Moulton Court, in Willimantic.

Sandy Hale is a photographer whose eloquent and evocative images have been widely exhibited and recognized. She has had individual exhibitions at local institutions such as The University of Connecticut at Storrs and Artworks Gallery in Hartford, and at institutions as far away as the Haida Gwaii museum, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Sandy has also participated in group exhibitions including those at Real Art Ways Gallery, Hartford; Center for Visual Arts, Santa Fe; and Banff Mountain Photography. Her work is included in the permanent collections of Ounce of Prevention Funds, Chicago and the William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut. Sandy makes her home in Windham Center.

David A. Johnson has been making a living as an illustrator since he was 19, which makes it a long time now. Newspapers- the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, etc.- have often employed him.

Similarly his drawings have enhanced the text of many national magazines, corporate, professional and academic journals. In recent years he has provided the art for a number of children's books and videos, which have been highly regarded. He is beginning to write and adapt stories he also illustrates. His mother was a child's librarian in Connecticut and her father was a publisher, So books are in his blood!

His books include Old Mother Hubbard, Abe Lincoln, On Sand Island, The Boy Who Drew Cats, and The Bremen Town Musicians. He uses ink and watercolors.

Maggie Kendis was born and raised in Los Angeles. She studied art at San Francisco State College, then graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine in 1970. Her main focus was in printmaking. She also spent time studying watercolor at the Laguna Beach School of Art, and photography at the Institute Allende in San Miguel. On returning to California, Kendis began working with various interior designers and architects, doing painterly batiks for many clients such as Bank of America, Kapalua Bay hotel in Maui, as well as many residential commissioned works from San Diego to Palm Springs. In 1980 she moved to Lebanon, Connecticut where she continued to do commissioned batiks for various hotels and hospitals. Over the last several years, she has concentrated mainly on monotypes, linoleum prints, pastels and painting.

Wally Lamb His novels, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, were #1 New York Times bestsellers, New York Times Book Review "Notable Books of the year", and Oprah's Book Club selections. Lamb has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, The New England Book Award, and the Poets and Writers "Writers Helping Writers" Award. A nationally honored teacher of writing, Lamb is currently the volunteer facilitator of a writing workshop for incarcerated women in Connecticut's york Correctional Institution. From this program has come Couldn't Keep It To Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters, an anthology of autobiographical essays by incarcerated women, edited and introduced by Lamb. In December of 2004, Wally Lamb received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Center for the Book. He lives in Connecticut with his wife Christine and their three sons. He is at work on his third novel.

Kenneth Langworthy has been turning wood for the last 10 years. Originally self taught on a lathe provided by Connecticut's Department of Rehabilitation Services when he became legally blind, he has developed his own unique style. Ken has an intimate relationship with the natural materials with which he works. Because his sight is limited, Ken turns using sound and touch. Since he must look closely at the wood to see it, he is particularly sensitive to the wood grains and patterns in his turning. His tactile sense is so well developed that his pieces are a delight to touch. His finishes are often described as soft because they are so smooth to the touch.

Ken joined the Central Connecticut Wood Turners Club in the mid nineties. Through CDW, he feels he has gained increasingly sophisticated skills, however, Ken is a creative wood turner. He doesn't like to follow the rules. He believes in developing each turning according to the nature of the piece of wood with which he is working. He has modified his original lathe into a piece of equipment which out performs most other wood lathes. Thus it can handle the demands he requires for the work he does.

One of his great delights is in the turning of paper thin translucent lamp shades through which warm light flows creating the ambiance of candlelight. Ken turns lampshades from almost any kind of wood. The patterns and pin points of bright light in his shades are a wonder to anyone who appreciates the subtlety of natural designs. He is also intrigued by off access turning, which is another challenging style of wood turning, but, of course, Ken loves challenge.

Ken is a member of The Central Connecticut Wood Turners and the American Association o f Wood Turners. He is also a member of The Quiet Corner Artist Association and the Marlborough Artists Association. He has exhibited in the New England Wildlife and Wood Carving Show, Sharon Art Gallery, Peterborough, N.H. and Gateway Gallery, Corinth, N.Y. His work is on permanent display at the Dodd Center and the Branford House at University of Connecticut, the Westerly Public Library and Joshua's Trust, as well as in private collections.

Barbara McClintock "My very first memory is of lying on stomach on the floor, a crayon in each hand, drawing large, colorful circles. My Mother's biggest fear was of running out of paper for me to draw on. I sat in

front of the TV and drew through stacks of paper. If paper ran out, she salvaged envelopes and pieces of cardboard she'd thrown away for me to draw on. I filled up the margins of church bulletins on Sundays, drew on strips of wall paper, napkins, any surface that wouldn't get me in trouble, and sometimes ones that did.

When I was nine, my sister, mother, and I moved to North Dakota. My stories and drawings took new shapes and forms as I rode my horse through field and past haystacks?I was a Sioux, I was a cowgirl, I was a pioneer. I attended Jamestown College in North Dakota, and moved to New York when I was nineteen to begin my life as a children's book author and illustrator.

My books have won numerous awards, including three New York times best books, two Time Magazine best books, two NY Public Library 100 Recommended Books, two Parents Choice, an ASA Notable Book, a NEBA, starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, SLJ, Kikus and Horn Book. The Minneapolis Children's Theater made a ballet/opera of Animal Fables From Aesop. I have also designed sets and costumes for their production of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I've illustrated two videos for Rabbit Ears Video Productions, and my artwork has appeared in The New York Times and The New Yorker. Five of my books are in French and German editions. I now live in Windham, CT with my son Larson, my friend David Johnson, and two cats."

Pat Miller is a self-taught visual artist living in Willimantic who creates box art, photographs, and cartoons. In work both serious and entertaining, she creates miniatures that allow her to indulge her fascination with tools and small things, using found objects along with a wide range of media, including wood, metal, fabric, acrylics, glass, paper, lights, photographs, mirrors, polymer clay, and model railroad scenery. Her landscape photographs reflect her interest in color and composition, while her animal photos, especially her series of frogs and chipmunks, convey some of the quirky sense of cynicism, unabashed silliness, and love of language.

Miller has exhibited her work with Quiet Corner Artists, The Windham Regional Arts Council, and the Windham Area Arts Collaborative, as well as at the Norwich ArtSpace Gallery. She has had one-woman shows in several local businesses, and at Quiet Corner Artists shows. She has received two juried First Prizes and four People's Choice Awards. Her works are in private collections across the United States as well as in England and Scotland. She earned a B.A. from the College of Wooster (OH) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Connecticut.

Wayne Norman has been heard statewide as color analyst for University of Connecticut basketball and football broadcasts since 1979 on a network of stations that includes WILI. He worked with Joe D'Ambrosio to call UConn's 2004 and 1999 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championships. He will broadcast his 1000^th UConn game on the network this fall. Wayne is the play-by-play voice of WILI's broadcasts of Eastern Connecticut State University baseball, winners of four NCAA national championships, most recently in 2002. He has also been the color commentator for the New England Sports Network telecasts of the Norwich Navigators, the former New York Yankees "AA" affiliate, now a San Francisco Giants franchise, and he has broadcast countless high school baseball, football, basketball, American Legion baseball games and Windham High School's 1979 State Championship Softball game. In 2003 he teamed with WILI's Jong Tuite to broadcast play-by-play for a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

Wayne is now a published author, with the March 2005 release of "Hoop Tales: UConn Huskies Men's Basketball", which tells stories from the last fifty years of Husky Hoops.

Wayne is a fifth generation Californian, growing up in Hollywood and Glendale, before moving to Trumbull, CT in 1965. Four years at UConn introduced him to Eastern Connecticut, where he has lived ever since. His radio roots came at UConn's WHUS, and he worked at WADS in Ansonia before coming to WILW.

His book is available at the UConn Coop, Walden Books, Amazon and B&N.

Debra Richards began D.R. Designs about four years ago. Here's what she said about that: "When I started beading, having my own business was the farthest thing from my mind. All I wanted to do was make some well-made necklaces that wouldn't fall apart. I am almost totally self-taught – I have never taken a beading class.

All of my pieces are one of a kind, with the exception of the strands of pearls I string and hand-knot. With them I vary the clasps. I have never reproduced a piece. My hope is that people that buy my jewelry enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoy making it."

Lydia Rudolph has been involved in some form of art or crafts since childhood. She currently concentrates on watercolor, though she has worked in pastel, acrylic and photography.

Lydia studies watercolors with Patricia Browne of Hampton, CT.

Shirlee H. Sheathelm works from her studio in Windham Center. She is a graduate of Michigan State University. She holds a Master's degree in Drawing and Painting, Certification in Art Education and a Sixth Year in Group Process.

She taught art for thirty-six years for the Mansfield Public Schools. During this time she was the recipient of the Mansfield Teacher of the Year award, as well as other local and state honors. She feels teaching was the ideal profession for her as it combined her two great loves: art and the opportunity to interact with people.

Since her retirement she serves as a volunteer for the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and is the current president of The Windham Regional Arts Council and a member of the steering committee for the Windham Regional Arts Collaborative. Retirement now provides the time and opportunity to give herself fully to her own creative process.

Shirlee is an enthusiastic participant in the Artists Open Studio, exhibits locally and works in a variety of media. Her subject matter reflects her personality, and especially her zest for living.

Kelli Thompson was born in Wichita, Kansas and is currently living in Windham, CT. The artist is a recent graduate of the Fine Arts Program at the University of Connecticut, concentrating in printmaking. Her preferred printmaking method is monotype. This monotype is executed by using hand-cut stencils to create the image. Using the female figure as a subject, the artist's work focuses on the historical and contemporary implications of women in society.

Carol Tollefson At Tollef Pottery we use hand-building methods, often with wheel-thrown components, to create original, one-of-a-kind sculptural pottery. All pieces are made of stoneware and fired in a gas kiln at our studio in Mansfield, CT. The studio and gallery are open for visitors. Please call ahead. Tollefso@charter.net or 860-429-3445."

Janice Law Trecker Janice Law is the pen name of Janice Law Trecker who wrote the Anna Peters series of mystery novels, as well as several history books, short stories and contemporary novels. Her last two novels, The Lost Diaries of Iris Weed and Voices were finalists for the Connecticut Center for the Book Fiction Award. She teaches part time at UConn and lives with her husband, Jerry, in Hampton, CT.

Annie Wandell "Two of my favorite subjects are buildings and streets. Some have noticed that I seldom include people in these scenes, and I suppose this means something, but I don't consciously exclude people. At the same time, I don't feel I have to include them in order to make the painting complete.

Oddly enough, I also like to do large portraits, so perhaps that makes up for the lack of people in the street scenes! These portraits are not done in the traditional format. They are oil paintings done on wood, which has been carved out according to the lines of the subject. I have also used this same format at times when my subject has been buildings.

Store window reflections are another of my favorite subjects. In these paintings, there is a curious juxtaposition of objects and people, which can make an interesting painting. At times passersby will simply be ghostly shapes reflected in the window, or they may have things superimposed over them in a curious way.

I really like that these paintings have some mystery and humor, which I hope the viewer will find intriguing.

I have been painting for about 30 years, and have exhibited in many juried shows and have even won a few prizes! My work is in private and public collections in the United States and abroad. If you would like to visit my studio, it is open every fall during the Artist Open Studio Weekends."

Andrea Wisnewski has been drawing pictures ever since she was a little girl growing up on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Her family moved to Connecticut where they had their own mini farm. Andrea attended The Portland School of Art in Maine and the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT where she received her BFA in 1985. Her company, Running Rabbit Press has produced numerous illustrations over the years for newspapers, magazines and publishers. A technique that she developed imitates the look of a woodcut but is actually a papercut. Her first children's' book, A Cottage Garden Alphabet has been published by David R. Godine, 2002. Andrea lives in Storrs with her husband Chris, daughter Allison and their three Welsh Corgis.

Rhonda Withington of White Crane Design Studio says this about herself: Since I was a little girl there has always been a creative energy within me. That energy has been focused on jewelry and photography in the last twenty years. My inspiration comes from nature- her seasons, shapes, colors, and textures.

Each piece of handcrafted 99.9% pure silver jewelry is meant to make the wearer feel beautiful and elegant. Designs using stones and/or beads use only natural undyed materials. The completion of a lapidary apprenticeship has added an entirely new dimension to my jewelry design. New designs and concepts and the ability to create is truly what feeds my soul.

Richard Wolf is an artist, writer, biographer, illustrator and educator. Richard has a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Cranbrook Academy and has spent more than 30 years in the field of art education. He has retired and is emeritus professor of art at Eastern Connecticut State University.

In addition to his teaching career, Richard has exhibited his art in a wide variety of solo and group exhibits. His works are prized by a large number of individual and institutional collections. He has recently published an illustrated biography of the great Russian composer, Dmitri Shostakovich, a publication which he both wrote and illustrated. Richard has also designed sets for the Windham Theatre Guild and contributed his creativity and vision to the work of a number of community-based arts organizations in the Windham area.