Happy Lemon Newsletters (PDFs)
2008 Newsletters
2007 Newsletters
2006 Newsletters
2008 Performances
February 10th, 4 p.m.
Wit, Whimsy, and Warmth - Music by Karen Amrhein
String Quartet No. 2
Violin and Piano Sonata
String Trio
Dance Card (for Piano)
Hyun Sook Park, Piano
Central Presbyterian Church
7308 York Road
Towson, Maryland 21204
www.centralpc.org
January 26th, 2 p.m.
Symphony of Seasons
Harlan Parker, Conductor
PMEA District 7 Orchestra Festival
Dallastown Area High School
700 New School Lane
Dallastown, Pennsylvania 17313
(717) 244-4021
www.dallastown.net
2007 Performances
November 30th, 7:30 p.m.
Princess Paliné and Friends
Autumn (from Symphony of Seasons - arranged for quintet)
Concert Suite from Princess Paliné
Princess Paliné (for Narrator and Chamber Ensemble)
The Christmas Mirror (for Narrators and Chamber Ensemble)
Central Presbyterian Church
7308 York Road
Towson, Maryland 21204
www.centralpc.org
April 1st, 3:00 p.m.
Event Horizon
Peabody Camerata
Gene Young, Director
Griswold Hall, Peabody Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
www.peabody.jhu.edu
February 4th, 6 p.m.
Event Horizon - Quintet
Third Millennium Ensemble
Pamela Helton, Director
Strathmore Mansion
North Bethesda, Maryland
www.thirdmillenniumensemble.org
Fanfare Magazine "Want List" 2005
Still Life, a CD of Karen's chamber music that was released in January 2005 on the MMC Recordings label, has been chosen by Fanfare Magazine as a "Want List" selection for 2005. Each autumn, the editor of Fanfare invites his reviewers to choose their favorite five albums for the year. Still Life is among William Zagorski's five picks:
"Karen Amrhein's collection of works on MMC showcases a young and still evolving composer with a strong musical profile and an abiding respect for, and mastery of, techniques of the past. She is a striking miniaturist and a superb contrapuntalist, but one who exploits that often dour and forbidding device in the most ingratiating of ways. Her aphoristic music is enlivened by an attractive sense of whimsy and delight at being alive, and listening to it in chronological sequence, I have the sense of a composer who is not merely developing at a fast pace, but doing so explosively."
Visit the Recordings page for more information.
CD Release - October 2005
A new compact disc entitled Short Stories is now available (as of October 1st, 2005) from Happy Lemon Music Publishing. Short Stories includes eight of Karen's chamber and orchestral works, four of which are available for the first time. Featured works include the title piece Short Stories for Piano Quintet (recording made possible by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council), Semi-Suite for Orchestra, Olympiad for solo violin, and the String Quartet No. 1. Performances are by Nicholas Currie, the Mariner String Quartet, and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirk Trevor, conductor.
Visit the Recordings page for more information.
2006 Performances
June 10th, 7:30 p.m.
Little Nemo in Slumberland
Missouri Symphony Orchestra
Kirk Trevor, Conductor
Columbia, Missouri
www.mosymphony.org
May 20th, 6 p.m.
May 21st, 1 p.m.
Little Nemo in Slumberland
Harford Ballet Company and Orchestra
Harlan Parker, Conductor
Amoss Center at Harford Community College
Bel Air, Maryland
www.harfordballetcompany.org
April 15th, 7 p.m.
Two, for Moonlight
The Billington and Gonzalez Duo
The Barnacle Historic State Park
Coconut Grove, Florida
www.lgem.com
2005 Performances
December 3rd, 7:30 p.m.
December 10th, 7:30 p.m.
The Christmas Mirror
Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra
John Carroll School
Bel Air, Maryland
410-838-6465
www.ssorchestra.org
2004 Performances
December 4th, 7:30 p.m.
“Winter” from Symphony of Seasons
Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra
John Carroll School
Bel Air, Maryland
410-838-6465
www.ssorchestra.org
December 3rd, 7:30 p.m.Little Nemo in SlumberlandPeabody Wind Ensemble Baltimore, Maryland 410-659-8100 x4415 www.peabody.jhu.edu
October 3rd, 3 p.m.Serenade for Small Orchestra Holyoke Symphony Orchestra Holyoke Community College Forum Holyoke, Massachusetts www.narhams.org/holyoke/
May 5th, 10th, 14th, 17th, and 21st“ Autumn” from Symphony of SeasonsHewlett Packard Symphony Orchestra Palo Alto, California www.hpsymphony.org
April 22ndString Quartet No. 2Mariner String Quartet Towson Unitarian Universalist Church Towson, Maryland
www.marinerstringquartet.com
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Featured
excerpt from The Christmas Mirror
Mr. Carleton Reese Ellsworth-Weatherspoon
and his wife Eileen were to spend Christmas aboard the steamer from Westmoor Tarrington to Sudbury-on-Cheswick.
As on many another occasion, Mr. Ellsworth-Weatherspoon - after the manner of his wife and their social circle,
known simply as Mr. Reese - and Mrs. Eileen had disposed of their daughter Eleanor, not wishing her underfoot and spoiling the festivities.
Indeed, to say "as on many another occasion," is not to overstate the case, sadly enough.
For Miss Eleanor was to Mrs. Eileen and Mr. Reese little distinguished from the family silver: quite out of fashion,
to be certain, yet fine for trotting out when the situation demanded. It is an unfortunate truth that Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth-Weatherspoon
saw the inside of a steamer trunk (and the interiors of the most fashionable salons) more often than the exterior of their own daughter.
Typically, Eleanor simply remained behind in the immense city-house on 5th and Cresmont, surrounded by maids and man-servants sensitive to her every whim.
And yet she felt quite alone. Here, like a hot-house rose, she was watered and fed with toys and treats beyond all reckoning.
But like the plant that is given an abundance of warm sun and sweet rain, yet never feels the proper pruning of a gardener's sheers,
she had produced more briars than blossoms - and had grown quite prickly to the touch.
The servants, well acquainted with that fact, sought her company with as little desire as did her own mother and father.
And if the domestics felt her presence with a greater frequency than her parents, it was only because these lacked the steamers and salons
with which to make their escape. Still, avoiding their mistress and her imperial edicts was, in any case, an unhappy solution.
For it was merely to invite a cloudburst of tantrums upon their heads. And her tantrums were truly a terror to behold.
Far better the incessant mewling of the kitten, than the terrible roar of the slighted lioness.
Thus it was with heartfelt thanks that the residents of No. 7 Cresmont Avenue saw their little empress made ready for a holiday away from the city.
How came this pleasant situation to be? As it happened, about a fortnight earlier a simple yet elegantly penned invitation had arrived by post.
The letter, from Mrs. Rigelia Shingleston, bid her great-niece, Miss Eleanor, come visit for the holidays. The Ellsworth-Weatherspoons had consented -
not from regard for the servants it should be understood - but with perhaps a little spark of decency, or compassion, or merely curiosity in the cold embers
of their parental hearts.
© Karen Amrhein. All Rights Reserved.
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