Lark String
Tannery Pond Center presents our Winter Coffeehouse Concert Series: Lark String, Classical
January 19 | 3 PM
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 Day of Concert, FREE for Youth 18 and younger.
For advance price tickets, please visit the TPC box office, or call (518) 251-2505, or purchase online thru Eventbrite. We have limited tickets available for "Day of Event" which will be sold on a first come first serve basis. We will also begin a wait list of names at the event window for tickets not picked-up. Tickets not picked up by 10 minutes prior to the event will be issued to wait list customers.
Lark String is preparing some selections from composers like Bach, Vivaldi, and Mozart with the rock musicians they influenced. More detailed program offerings will be listed in the coming weeks. Listen to some of their selections HERE.
Michael Emery
Senior Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College, Michael Emery directs the vibrant string program, working with talented students on solo, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire. Through the annual Skidmore String Festival, which he initiated in 2005, the Skidmore community has enjoyed residencies by several highly acclaimed quartets, including the Brentano, Manhattan, American, Ying, Talich, Meccore, and Dover. Mr. Emery blends performance with teaching to create an active musical career. He has collaborated in chamber music with many international artists, including Ruggiero Ricci, Elizabeth Pitcairn, André-Michel Schub, and Emanuel Ax, and has performed in the
Sibelius, Ludwig Spohr and Paganini International Violin Competitions. Mr. Emery has coached and performed in several international summer music festivals including the Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi and InterHarmony Music Festivals in Italy, Luzerne Music Center and KentMusic in New York, and Mahler Conservatory in Vienna. He is concertmaster and frequent soloist with orchestras in New York and California, and has performed as soloist and concertmaster in Asia, as well as several major European cities. Mr. Emery has performed in collaboration with many contemporary composers, including Gunther Schuller, Jennifer Higdon, Joan Tower, Ezra Laderman, Lowell Liebermann, Tommie Haglund, Richard Danielpour, and John Corigliano.
Mr. Emery earned his MM in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student with Erick Friedman and Raphael Bronstein, and served as concertmaster of the Manhattan Symphony. At MSM he was selected to perform in masterclasses with Ruggiero Ricci and Henryk Szeryng, and as the violinist for the sonata class with Misha Elman’s longtime collaborative pianist, Joseph Seiger.
Jessica Belflower
Jessica, violin 2, is an orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and educator. She is Assistant Concertmaster of Fenimore Chamber Orchestra, Principal Second Violin for Kinderhook's Concerts In the Village, and a member of Glens Falls Symphony. She frequently performs with the Albany Symphony, Albany Promusica, and Vermont Symphony. Jessica also loves playing operas and musicals and is the violinist for Playhouse Stage Company, and can be found in the pit orchestra at Proctor’s Theater. Her proximity to New York City has allowed her to perform in renowned halls, including a piano quintet at Carnegie Hall, and symphony concerts at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Symphony Space. Equally at home in the pop music sphere, Jessica toured the West Coast with Andrea Bocelli, was featured nationally in John Tesh's PBS television special Piano •
Gospel • Dance, and has played with Josh Groban, Rocktopia, and Il Divo, among others. As an educator, Jessica is the violin faculty at Bard Simon’s Rock, works with Empire State Youth Orchestra, and maintains a private violin studio. She holds a Master's degree in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, under the tutelage of the Takács Quartet, and a Bachelor's degree from Arizona State University, where she studied with Dr. Katie McLin. Jessica lives in North Greenbush, NY with her son, Walden, and husband, James.
Stephani Emery
Stephani, violist, is a sought after chamber music player and has toured with orchestras and chamber groups throughout Europe and the United States. She currently divides her performance time as Assistant Principal Violist with the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, and Principal and Assistant Principal violist with such groups as the Orchestra Santa Monica, Schenectady, Catskill, and Skidmore College Orchestras. She is currently the Personnel Contractor for the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Catskills Symphony,
and Schenectady Symphony Orchestra. Originally from California, Mrs. Emery now resides in Saratoga Springs, NY with her husband, Michael. She teaches viola and violin in her studios in Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs. Mrs. Emery is Professor of Violin and Viola, and Music Director of the String Ensemble at the Adirondack Community College in Glens Falls, NY.
André Laurent O’Neil
André, cello, engages in many diverse musical projects, ranging from performing on period instruments (including the viola da gamba and fortepiano), to teaching modern cello, playing chamber music, and composing. He is Principal Cellist of the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, Affiliate Artist at Union College, Cello Instructor at Schenectady County Community College School of Music, and plays with Musicians of Ma’alwyck. In the early music field he is baroque cellist and gamba player for New Trinity Baroque, with whom he performs in Atlanta (US), Belgrade (Serbia), and London (UK). During the pandemic André released a CD recording of all six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Solo Cello Suites, about which Atlanta’s EarRelevant mused: “What shines through these unhurried and ruminative performances of the Suites is O’Neil’s obvious love and deep understanding of these iconic works.” André loves gardening, hiking, cross-country skiing, and creative writing.
