Original February 15/16 concerts postponed due to weather.
Photo © Laura Sells Doyle
Ricochet Duoʼs ‘GREATEST HITS’ is a concert program for piano and percussion that will bring together works by a wide-range of living composers and explore the crossover between classical and contemporary styles.
This concert emphasizes rhythm and the incredible variety of interlocking piano and percussive sounds that will merge and creatively coalesce. Many of the works included were written in the last ten years and reflect the shifting trends in much of what we see and hear around us, and all the pieces explore the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of sonic and rhythmic possibilities. These fresh and carefully chosen compositions are sometimes percolating, sometimes wistful, and utilize myriad textures such as minimalist repetition, playful polyrhythms, bold dynamic contrast, and vibrant electronic colors to create their unique soundscapes.
Piano by Nature is looking forward to presenting both concerts at the beautiful Hand House and warmly invite you to join us for a memorable evening of music, refreshments, and post-concert conversation with our stunning artists.
Doors will open 30 minutes before the performance, and we recommend arriving early to avoid check-in lines. PBN requests a donation of $20 per concert ticket; $5 for children aged 15 and under or call and volunteer—we’ll offer free admission! Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
In an effort to improve ticketing and reservations, we have just started using eventbrite.com and you will have the option of purchasing tickets through them. Make your reservations via Eventbrite here. Reservations are still encouraged due to limited availability. You can also reserve your spot via email at pianobynature@gmail.com or by phone at 518-962-8899. We look forward to seeing you there!
Pianist Rose Chancler and percussionist Jane Boxall joined forces to form Ricochet Duo in 2008 after Rose advertised on Craigslist: “Seeking classical musicians for collaboration.” Jane, a UK expat, was living in Illinois but planning a move to Vermont and shortly thereafter the two began their collaboration with a concert on the Piano by Nature series in Elizabethtown, New York.
Ricochet Duo continues to be dedicated to celebrating the music of the 21st century and actively promotes the works of living composers. They have performed in numerous venues including Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Vermont’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, the Chautauqua Institution, Augsburg College, Eastman School of Music, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and the Plattsburgh State University of New York. Ricochet Duo was also one of only nine music and dance ensembles performing on the New York State Artist Roster of 2015.
This Piano in Nature concert was featured in a Lake Champlain Weekly article entitled “So Much to Play With” by Benjamin Pomerance.
Click through the images in the gallery or download/view a PDF version here.
‘C’ by Hannah Lash for vibraphone and piano 2011
‘Empathy’ by Ivan Trevino 2017
‘Matres Dance’ by John Psathas 1991
‘Play Like a Girl’ by Vermont-based composer Eve Beglarian 2017
Eve Beglarian is an American composer most known for her work in combining acoustic instruments with electronic processing and other electronic elements. Beglarian has composed orchestral, choral, and chamber works, and also has a number of works for piano, one of her most popular being Play Like a Girl, a piece written to be played with piano and toy piano, or only one of the two depending on performance circumstances. Beglarian often writes pieces inspired by or related to various social issues, and Play Like a Girl is no exception, which plays with the idea of “girly” keyboard instruments using a piece by the Bulgarian’s Women’s Chorus as the main melody. Beglarian’s Play Like a Girl is a series of variations on the Bulgarian folk song Kaval Sviri (which many may recognize as the popular theme song from Xena: Warrior Princess)
‘She Quietly Enters’ III from ‘Pidgin Cycles’ by Joshua Clausen
Clausen said “The title of this work refers to a musical ‘pidgin’ language, a metaphor I use to describe my aesthetic choices. In linguistic studies, ‘pidgin’ refers to improvised systems that evolve in border communities when two cultures with different language systems attempt to communicate; they discover and use those overlapping zones of expression that allow for some kind of meaningful exchange. I pursue similar expressive resonances in musical language.”
Described by Public Radio International as “powerful” and “poignant,” Joshua Clausen’s works frequently fuse strong rhythmic textures and intricate patterning with narratives from history, mass culture and current events.
Nobility of Homophones!! for toy pianos by Olivia Kieffer 2017
‘Less Is More’ by Molly Joyce 2017
Less is More was written in the spring of 2017 for the Passepartout Duo for the inaugural Eighth Blackbird Creative Laboratory, with commissioning support from Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting. The work was written in New Haven, CT, and premiered in June 2017 at Besant Hill School in Ojai, CA. Joyce said: “With this work, I wanted to engage in perhaps two artistic ‘guilty’ pleasures of mine: pulse and light, and thus I also composed a lighting part for the piece which I aimed to have equal importance to that of the live performers. I wanted to observe what would happen musically, visually, and overall aesthetically if I lay my two ‘guilty’ pleasures out in the open, with minimal tactile material yet perhaps maximal capacity for interaction and synergy. I therefore hope that through exploring such a minimal yet boundless interaction, I am able to truly uncover what is less and what is more.”
Jane Boxall is an adventurous percussionist, working across diverse musical genres. Jane is actively and consistently working as a soloist, collaborator, and session player. She has performed in concert halls, art galleries, cafes, castles, kindergartens, hospitals, universities, forests, and festivals from Cyprus to San Francisco, India to Quebec, and Manhattan to France. She is dedicated to new music, specializing in contemporary art music on marimba and vibes, and rock and hiphop drumkit for original artists. Born in England and raised in Scotland, Jane completed her BA and MA in Contemporary Music at the University of York (UK), and her Doctorate in Percussion Performance at the University of Illinois.
“Killer technique and inspired musicality” ~ Drum! magazine
“She is pure fire” ~ Virago magazine
With pianist Rose Chancler, Jane is a founding member of Ricochet Duo; in 2011, Jane co-founded the non-profit music camp Girls Rock Vermont. Jane’s compositions for percussion ensemble are widely performed from Texas to Hong Kong; her studio recordings have received radio airplay across the United States, on the BBC, and on the Dutch radio stations Concertzender and Radio Mona Lisa. Jane’s recordings of Nancy Van de Vate’s marimba compositions are released on the Naxos label. Jane has shared stages and bills with Bradford Reed, Sheesham&Lotus, Vernon Reid, Myra Flynn, Gregory Douglass, The Life and Times, Brzowski, Cage, The Slackers, Les de Merle and Danny Seraphine. Jane has appeared with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, Prairie Ensemble, and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. In 2012, Jane premiered Garry Jones’s Concerto for Park Bench and Orchestra with the Event In A Tent Festival Orchestra – “I’ve never heard a park bench played so passionately,” stated the composer.
Jane is one of a very limited number of marimba artists worldwide to have developed a ten-mallet technique. Her 2012 album, Zero to Eight Mallets, has been enduringly popular with percussionists and non-percussionists alike. An album review in the Percussive Arts Society’s magazine Percussive Notes stated: “Jane Boxall’s CD is an eclectic mix of 100 years’ worth of music masterfully performed on marimba…Throughout the recording, Boxall’s performance is consistently excellent.” Of the 0-8 mallet concert program, composer and percussionist Brian Johnson opined: “it is highly interesting, entertaining, and intelligent.”
Jane is deeply committed to the development of art music for percussion, and continues to seek and create innovative and adventurous programs. In 2013, Jane was the recipient of a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, which enabled her to undertake the inaugural “Portable Percussionist” tour on foot from Canada to Massachusetts. Jane commissioned local composers to write “portable” concert pieces then hiked the Long Trail through the state of Vermont, stopping along the way to perform solo percussion recitals. Composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz commented: “Jane Boxall’s Portable Percussionist was a brilliant presentation. She held the audience spellbound with the simplest of materials — rocks, sticks, pots, and even the zippers on her pack. One composition student later said, ‘My mind was completely blown. I have to re-think everything about composing’.”
Currently, Jane is touring internationally as a concert artist, session drummer, and clinician. Jane plays and endorses Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Coe Percussion marimbas, and District Drum Company snare drums.
“a gymnast’s flexibility and a surgeon’s precision” Lake Champlain Weekly, 2020
“impressive [indrukwekkende]” Radio Mona Lisa, Netherlands
“Jane’s rhythmic sensibility is innovative and refreshing, which solidifies her as one of the most mindful and intuitive players in my book.” Gregory Douglass
“Jane brings absolute technical mastery to everything she does. What makes her exceptional is that she brings absolute presence, heart and feel too.” Michael Chorney
“A consummate musician. A joy to see live.” Alison Mazer
“Skill is necessary in a musician, but it’s not sufficient. Jane plays with power and joy, and you feel it whether you’re onstage with her or out in the audience.” Raphael Worrick
“A quintessentially natural performer. . . Incredible presence. Her body sings with movement and pure joy.” News-Gazette, Champaign IL
Rose Chancler is a frequent performer as soloist, collaborative artist, and teacher. She has played hundreds of concerts across America, including performances in over thirty states. Currently, Rose is focused on performing chamber music and presenting concerts in NY State’s Adirondack Park as a founding member and Artistic Director of the dynamic series Piano by Nature in Elizabethtown, NY. Farther out, she also performs with UK marimbist Jane Boxall as a part of the unique ensemble Ricochet Duo. This duo performs regularly throughout the US, with notable concerts including the NYS Presenters Network Artist Roster Showcase at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Flynn Center in Burlington, VT, and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, among many. Rose has also enjoyed a long collaborative association with virtuoso double bassist Volkan Orhon, with performances including BassEurope recitals in Prague, Czech Republic, the Friends of Chamber music series in Tucson, Concert Artists Guild in Pittsburgh, and the American String Teachers Association’s convention spotlight concert in Louisville, KY. Her collaboration with Orhon has also resulted in two highly-acclaimed CD releases of violin and cello masterworks on the Centaur label. Rose has performed the North American premieres for both of the Concertos for Contrabass written by South American virtuoso Andres Martin, with the composer as soloist, and she has also performed with bass luminaries Esra Gul, Guisseppe Ettorre, Jeffery Turner, Linda McKnight, Han Han Cho, and many others in a multitude of International String Bass conventions in Ithaca, NY, Fort Collins, CO, Rochester, NY, San Francisco,CA, Oklahoma City, OK, and Penn State at State College, PA.
Closer to home, Rose enjoys performing as a member of Metamusic with SUNY Plattsburgh faculty members Dan Gordon and Marilyn Reynolds, focusing on regional concerts that present well-written and less-heard original music for saxophone, violin, and piano. To date, Metamusic has toured locations in New York, Texas, and most recently, throughout Finland. Rose has also performed yearly collaborations with violinist Linda Rosenthal and others through the Lake Placid Chamber Music Seminar, and many additional chamber music performances with a variety of artists and instruments including cellist Jeffrey Solow, saxophonist Harvey Pittel, flutist Carol Wincenc, Broadway’s George Hearn, and more. Rose has also worked for many years as music director of the Book and Blanket Players, a summer youth musical-in-a- week camp for ages 8-18 in Keene Valley, NY.
Rose has held teaching positions at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the University of Iowa School of Music. She has been a faculty accompanist and coach at the Chautauqua Institution for many years, and also the acclaimed Meadowmount School of Music. She has served on the faculty of Plattsburgh State University of New York, and now maintains a private studio in Westport, NY. Rose holds a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and master’s and doctoral degrees in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School in Rochester, N.Y
Please consider sending a donation to Piano by Nature to help us continue to support our artists and deliver exceptional live music to the North Country and beyond. You can mail a check to Piano by Nature, 32 Champlain Ave., Westport, NY 12993. Or donate online through the Donate button below (using your Paypal account or credit card). If you have questions or ideas, feel free to call Rose at 518.962.8899. I’d love to hear from you.
Piano By Nature’s programs are made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts. We are also supported by the Essex County Arts Council’s Cultural Assistance Program Grant with funding provided by Essex County. And we’d also like to thank our many patrons and donors for their generous contributions over the past 16 years—you are keeping live music ‘alive’ in the North Country!
