Sunday, May 1, 2022 2:00 pm

World Tour of Music

The Art of French Music with Urban Troubadour

Akron-Summit County Public Library
60 South High Street
Akron, OH 44326

Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO) closes out its 2021 World Tour of Music residency and culminating concert with Urban Troubadour, a collective of Northeast Ohio’s finest musicians. The concert takes place on Sunday, May 1, 2022 at 2 pm at the Akron Summit County Public Library, 60 South High Street, Akron, OH.

Admission is free, but online registration here is recommended or call 419-853-6016.

Also, don’t miss the introductory library workshops  that discuss and present some music of the French Impressionists. These talks will provide a context for the big concert at The Akron-Summit County Public Library on Sunday, May 1st.

Founder and flutist Jane Berkner, recently named Outstanding Artist in Music in the 2019 Akron Arts Alive Awards, will be performing with pianist Eric Charnofsky, as well as musicians Jody Guinn, harp; Amber Rogers, viola; and Derek Snyder, cello.

With the Firestone Symphonic Choir (35 students)
Megan Myer, Director

 

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

JANE BERKNER has been described by Flute Talk Magazine as “an outstanding musician” and
“versatile performer”. She is the founder of Urban Troubadour, bringing roving concert events to
venues all around Akron, and was named Outstanding Musician in the 2019 Akron Arts Alive Awards.
She has performed with the Akron, Ashland, Canton and Youngstown Symphonies, the Ohio Ballet
Orchestra, O’Neil Chamber Players and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio, as well as for touring shows
at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, and Blossom Center’s Porthouse Theater,
and with Music Unites in Zurich, Switzerland. Along with guitarist Stephen Aron, the AronBerkner
Duo has presented concerts across the US and Europe and released a CD, “Tropicale” on the Clear Note
label. Their performances in Italy led to the formation of a summer music festival in Assisi. She has
performed with Singers Companye at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, and has been invited to
perform for National Flute Association conventions in Atlanta, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Charlotte,
Chicago, Orlando, and New Orleans. Ms. Berkner taught at The University of Akron for 25 years. She is
currently the Director of a summer Flute Choir Camp for adults at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

AMBER ROGERS has performed across the United States. Amber is an avid chamber musician,
advocate of modern music, music education, and community involvement in classical music. Amber’s
interest lies primarily in performing chamber music, working with composers to premiere their work,
and getting the community involved in classical and new music. She has had the opportunity to work
with and premiere works by many composers including Carson Cooman, Hannah Lash, Alan Tormey,
David Gerard Matthews, Chris Massa, Ash Madni and Ryan Stewart.
Also experienced as an administrator, Amber has produced and directed chamber and new music
productions, and community and education outreach programs and performances in Pennsylvania,
New York, Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has also sat as a member on many Pennsylvania
nonprofit arts organization boards. Amber was a founding member of Eclectic Laboratory Chamber
Orchestra and a founding member and director of Black Orchid String Trio and is intimately familiar
with the operations and tribulations of grassroots arts nonprofits.
In addition to her small ensemble endeavors, Amber is also the Principal Violist of the Butler
Symphony Orchestra and freelances with Erie Chamber Orchestra, Music on The Edge, OvreArts,
Resonance Works, Pittsburgh Opera Theatre, Erie Philharmonic and many other ensembles.
Amber’s primary instructors have been Toby Appel, John Graham and Warren Friesen. In masterclasses
and festivals, she has had the opportunity to study with Pinchas Zukerman, Misha Amory, Jorja
Fleezanis, Peter Slowik, Vartan Manoogian, Zvi Zeitlin, Patricia McCarty and Thomas Turner.

DEREK SNYDER has appeared as soloist with orchestras in both the United States and Europe,
and as a chamber musician has collaborated with members of some of the country’s most exciting
ensembles, including the Cavani and Cleveland String Quartets, and the Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal
and Baltimore Symphonies. In addition to being a founder and cellist in the nuevo tango band the
Oblivion Project, he is a member of DadBand, performs often with the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra
and is a board member of the Cleveland Cello Society.
His arrangements of the music of Graham Nash and Bootsy Collins have been performed by the
Contemporary Youth Orchestra with the composers. He has created numerous transcriptions and
arrangements for cello ensembles, focusing primarily on the music of Dave Brubeck and Astor
Piazzolla. His arrangements of music by Brubeck can be heard on the Naxos label as performed by the
Yale Cellos and are published by Cellocelli Music. (Derek is also the founder of Cellocelli Music, www.
cellocelli.com, a source for unique and contemporary sheet music and recordings for string players).

JODY GUINN is the principal harpist of the Akron Symphony Orchestra and is currently serving as
second harp in the Cleveland Orchestra, having traveled with them on numerous tours to Europe, New
York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. She
has also recorded numerous works with them, most notably two Wagner operas on the Decca label. She
played with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, touring Japan, California and New York, and recorded
several orchestral works on the Telarc label. She has been privileged to work under the batons of
composer/conductor John Adams, Pierre Boulez, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Paavo Jarvi, Jahja Ling and
Franz Welser-Most, and has also performed with the Three Tenors, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles, singer
Josh Groban, Clay Aiken, Wynona Judd and Jackie Evancho. Jody received a Master of Music degree
in harp performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with world renowned harpist
Alice Chalifoux. She and Nancy Lendrim, principal harpist of the Toledo Symphony, formed the Salzedo
Harp Duo, presenting concerts and master classes across the country, and releasing a CD on the Azica
label titled “Short Stories”. Ms. Guinn is on the faculties of Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory
of Music, Case Western Reserve University, the Preparatory Department of the Cleveland Institute of
Music, Cleveland State University and Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

ERIC CHARNOFSKY enjoys a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, classroom music teacher,
and lecturer. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed throughout North America, concertizing
with members of major American orchestras. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he also holds degrees
in solo piano performance and composition from California State University, Northridge, where he
received the Outstanding Bachelor’s Degree Graduate award in music. Originally from Los Angeles,
Mr. Charnofsky currently works as an Instructor at Case Western Reserve University and taught
at the Cleveland Institute of Music for sixteen years. He has worked as a classical radio announcer,
pre-concert lecturer for the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, Associate Faculty member at the
Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, rehearsal pianist for Lyric Opera Cleveland, convention
accompanist for the National Flute Association, and he appears on recordings on the Capstone, Albany,
and Crystal labels. His 2016-released CD with flutist George Pope features works by seven living
composers, including Mr. Charnofsky’s own “Four Characters.” A reviewer on clevelandclassical.com
recently wrote: “Eric Charnofsky is a superb partner at the piano, undaunted by the most complicated
keyboard writing — including his own.” His compositions have been performed in several major U.S.
cities, and he was named “Composer of the Year” for 2012 by the Ohio Music Teachers Association.
Mr. Charnofsky’s radio program, “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music,” airs Monday afternoons on
WRUW-FM in Cleveland.

Register Here To Ensure A Seat