Acclaimed flute and guitar ensemble, Duo Sequenza, will present “South Shore Suite” by Jorge Muñiz, as an Audience-Interactive Concert Experience at the Potato Creek State Park Nature Center Auditorium on Sunday, August 6 at 2:00 pm Eastern. This all-new musical adventure is free to the public as an Arts in the Parks and Historic Places event, through the financial support of the Indiana Arts Commission and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Sign language interpretation will be provided.
“South Shore Suite” is a series of short pieces portraying a journey across NW Indiana on the South Shore Rail Line. Each serves as a “musical postcard” set amidst the region’s unique geography and evokes the colorful legends of historical personalities. Included are Princess Mishawaka, Lake Michigan, Mount Baldy, Diana of the Dunes, and John Dillinger’s Run. A Prologue (South Bend) and Epilogue (Chicago) represent the terminal points of our nation’s last surviving interurban electric commuter railroad.
The August 6 program is a bold musical project designed to be both family and sensory friendly. As an artistic event of exploration and discovery, lively creative interplay with the artists and composer will deepen the participants’ understanding and appreciation of contemporary classical music. The core question to be addressed is “Sound is all around us…but what exactly makes it music?”
Duo Sequenza has toured throughout the U.S. and into 11 Asian and European countries. Honored to win a European Debut concert at the Palais de l’Athenee in Geneva, they were one of only 30 artists selected from a pool of more than 1300. Specializing in chamber music works by living American composers, many of which were dedicated to them, Duo Sequenza’s dynamic performances have received enthusiastic ovations from audiences and acclaim from critics. Debra Silvert, hailed as “a gem of a flutist,” and Paul Bowman, “among the best guitarists in the world,” are committed to developing new audiences for contemporary classical music while promoting the work of living composers.
Maestro Jorge Muñiz, Associate Professor of Music at IUSB and winner of the First Grand Prize of the European Young Composers Competition, as well as many other international awards, composed “South Shore Suite” for Duo Sequenza, who premiered it in January 2017 at the Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso, IN, where they are the Chamber Music Ensemble in Residence. The August 6 event at Potato Creek State Park will be the World Premiere of the “Interactive Concert Experience” version of the piece. Muñiz, Silvert, and Bowman have continued their collaboration with the goal of developing a larger, more diverse audience for fine art music, believing that chamber music, especially that written for flute and guitar, is uniquely engaging to new listeners.
“Classical music suffers from an image of being elitist, stuffy, and boring when it’s really anything but!” said Silvert. “We are so excited excited to be presenting a program that has the potential to create brand-new contemporary classical music fans!”
