The Friday Noon Concert Series
Dr. Ceylon Mitchell, Flute
Dr. Elizabeth Hill, Piano
Erin Murphy Snedecor, Cello
Friday, April 26, 2024
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - RSVP required
(limited seating available)
Program
"Chiquita Blues!"
Paquito D’Rivera, Invitación al Danzón
Leo Brouwer, Sonata
Tania León, del Caribe, soy!
Leo Brouwer, La región más transparente
Tania León, Ritual
Leo Brouwer, El Cazador de Historias
Paquito D’Rivera, The Cape Cod Files
Dr. Ceylon Mitchell II (he, him his) serves the arts ecosystem as a multi-hyphenate arts leader: contemporary classical flutist, educator, and entrepreneur. On a mission to celebrate marginalized identities in music, especially Black and brown voices, his diverse repertoire spans from Western European classical to living cultural traditions across the Americas. He has performed in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with Robert Glasper, and the Music Center at Strathmore as an Artist in Residence. An avid chamber musician, Dr. Mitchell leads his own music collective, Raíces Negras, celebrating Black and Latine voices with contemporary classical, jazz music, and everything in between. As a music educator, Dr. Mitchell is the woodwinds department chairand a flute faculty member with Levine Music, the Washington D.C. region’s preeminent center for music education. He serves as the Flutes on the Brink ensemble music director and Potomac Valley Youth Orchestra flute choir director. Featured on Voyage Baltimore, the Southern Maryland Chronicle, Canvas Rebel, and other publications ,achievements include the Strathmore Artist in Residence,a Comcast RISE Program Grant, a Prince George’s County Forty UNDER 40 Award in the Arts & Humanities, and numerous artist fellowship grants. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland School of Music, under the tutelage of Dr. Sarah Frisof, and serves on the Flute Society of Washington board of directors. Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, he resides in Baltimore, MD with his wife and two sons.
A recognized leader in chamber music and contemporary music advocacy, pianist Elizabeth G. Hill has led and performed in the D.C. area’s most prominent ensembles, and is known for herwork as a performer, educator, and lecturer. A highly-regarded artist, she has performed lecture-recitals and concerts across the United States and in Europe, including for the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Center for Jewish History in New York, The Music Center in Los Angeles, and the Robert-Schumann-Haus in Zwickau, Germany. She currently performs in numerous ensembles within the DC-metro area, and is the pianist for the National Philharmonic. Elizabeth dedicates her career to bridging cultures together through music, and realizes this vision through her leadership within two prominent chamber ensembles. Her duo, Meraki, which she co-founded in 2016, is dedicated to awakening cultural compassion through music. Meraki is an awardee of Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program for their collaboration with composer, Jerod Tate. Their debut album, Within, was recently released by Equilibrium Records. Elizabeth is also the pianist for Balance Campaign, a group whose focus lies exclusively on commissioning and performing works by marginalized composers. Balance Campaign is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2023 Classical Commissioning Grant for their current collaboration with award-winning composer, Jeffrey Mumford. An active pedagogue, Elizabeth is a private piano teacher in the Washington, DC area, and is a member of the Collaborative Piano Faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute. Raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Elizabeth holds degrees from Mary Baldwin College (B.A.), James Madison University (M.M.), and The Catholic University of America (D.M.A.).
Erin Murphy Snedecor is a collaborative cellist based in Brentwood, MD who strives to forge new paths for interdisciplinary and multi genre art. Her work spans the realms of classical, contemporary, pop, rock, electroacoustic, and folk, and she would be hard pressed to pick a favorite. A fervent advocate for new music, Erin engages in both the performing and leadership of two contemporary music ensembles. As cellist and Co-Director of Balance Campaign, the DC-based ensemble commissions and performance of new works by historically excluded composers. Balance Campaign is a recipient of the 2023 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant, and will be collaborating with composer Jeffrey Mumford on a new work for mixed chamber ensemble. Erin is also the cellist and Co-Director of earspace, a North Carolina-based contemporary ensemble that curates multi-sensory programs that live outside of the typical concertexperience.earspace has been in residence at the UNC Chapel Hill and presented by Carolina Performing Arts. In 2019, the ensemble gave the North Carolina premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s delicate masterwork, Schnee at The Fruit in Durham. In addition to her classical projects, Erin is known for her ability to perform in a myriad of genres. Erin is a longstanding member of Annapolis indie rock band Pompeii Graffiti, appearing on 4 studio albums and performing in local and touring performances. She is also half of theindie/folk duo Black Rhinoceros, and a composer and songwriter as her solo moniker, Zooxanthellae. In 2021, Zooxanthellae released an eponymous EP of original electroacoustic pieces, available on Bandcamp and through subscription with District Kollective. In 2023, Erin was an Artist-in-Residence at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, MD, where she mentored with bassist Michael Bowie, folk artist Cathy Fink, and banjo player Marcy Marxer. Erin received her Master of Music at University of Maryland studying with David Teie, and her Bachelor of Music at Ithaca College under the instruction of Elizabeth Simkin and Heidi Hoffman.
