Allegheny Ensemble Joined by Early Keyboard Artist Toth

SALISBURY, MD---The Allegheny Ensemble presents its annual Salisbury University spring concert “Grand Tour” 7 p.m. Friday, March 11, at Asbury United Methodist Church, 1401 Camden Ave.

The ensemble is joined by early keyboard artist Gwendolyn Toth, one of America’s leading early music performers, as well as violinists Kristin Bakkegard and Paul Bagley. A student showcase performance with violist Alanna Imes also is featured. The concert features early music from France, Germany, Italy and Austria.

Toth, who is based in New York City and director of The Art of the Early Keyboard (ARTEK), performs on the harpsichord, lautenwerk, organ, fortepiano and clavichord. Her interpretations have been acclaimed for their spirit and intelligence, and her technique is founded on historical performance principles of fingering, articulation, and phrasing.

Comprised of cellist Jeffrey Schoyen and violinist Sachiho Murasugi, the ensemble is named for the Allegheny River, which flows through the Pittsburgh area where the musicians originally played together. They reunited as a trio upon moving to the Eastern Shore.

Conductor and music director of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the Salisbury Youth Orchestra, Schoyen teaches cello and bass at SU. He has given concerts throughout the United States, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador, and received a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant to study in London with William Pleeth. He is also a Tanglewood Gustav Golden Award recipient. Schoyen honed his cello skills at the New England Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Mellon University, before earning his D.M.A. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Murasugi has performed extensively as a professional orchestral and chamber musician. She has been concertmaster of the Filarmonica del Bajio in Mexico, and a member of the West Virginia Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and Springfield Symphony. She received the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant in chamber music and has performed in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Museo del Prado, and the Music Center at Strathmore. She is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and holds a D.M.A. from Ohio State University. Currently she is currently concertmaster for the SSO.

Sponsored by the Music, Theater and Dance Department, admission is free with advance registration at the online box office.

For more information call 410-548-5588 or visit the SU website.