Please join the Friends of the Robbins Library as we welcome a group of extremely accomplished musicians performing as the Azalea Chamber Music. They are a flexible ensemble of professional musician colleagues and friends who have been performing together for many years. They have performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Classical Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Boston Lyric Opera orchestra and many others. Their individual biographies are below.
The members of Azalea Chamber Music believe in the power of music to foster dialogue and create positive change in the world and enjoy engaging with communities to share music and ideas. They are strong proponents of music education and collaboration, dedicated to teaching students of all ages and abilities.
Our musicians have planned a fun, varied program of several short pieces by Giovanni Bassano, Ludwig van Beethoven, Grant Covell, Ernest von Dohnanyi, Franz Joseph Haydn, Thomas Lupo, Claudio Monteverdi and Thomas Morley.
The event will take place on Sunday, February 11, 2024 at 3 pm in the Robbins Library Reading Room. It is free and open to all. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
BIOGRAPHIES
Deborah Boykan, violin, is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (violin performance) and
Oberlin College (art history and East Asian studies). Principal instructors include Kathleen Winkler and Marilyn McDonald (Oberlin) and Christine Dethier (Juilliard School).
A former member of the Basel Sinfonietta (Basel, Switzerland), she has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet Orchestra, Opera Boston, Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Cape Cod Symphony (Associate concertmaster), Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, Back Bay Chorale, Masterworks Chorale Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Odyssey Opera, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and other ensembles throughout New England. In addition Deborah has performed and/or toured with Aerosmith, Sarah Brightman, Bjork, Natalie Cole, The Irish Tenors, K.D. Lang, Liza Minelli, The Moody Blues, Dudley Moore, James Taylor, and many others.
Deborah won a Guggenheim Foundation Student fellowship to work in Venice, Italy and received two Massachusetts Arts Lottery/NEA grants for chamber music recitals.
Deborah maintains a large violin, viola and chamber music studio in Belmont, MA. Many of her students participate in NE, Eastern and SE Junior and Senior Districts orchestras and Massachusetts All State music festival. Students are members of the top youth orchestras in the area including at New England Conservatory Preparatory school orchestras, Boston Youth Orchestras and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Previously, Deborah was on the instrumental faculty of Phillips Exeter Academy where she taught for 18 years and participated in regular faculty programs.
Jenny Stirling, violist, was born in the UK into a family of fine classical musicians, and trained at the Guildhall School of Music in London as a student of David Takeno. She acquired degrees in violin performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, and viola at SUNY, Stony Brook.
She played for many years with Emmanuel Music, performing as a violinist on their Bach cantata series. She was principal violist of the New England String Ensemble, tenured violist with the Boston Lyric opera, member of the Boston Philharmonic, and other contemporary and early music groups. Currently a member of the Handel + Haydn Society Orchestra, Jenny also performs with Sarasa and other chamber ensembles on both period and modern instruments. Engagements have led Jenny to numerous live performances for Boston’s WGBH recording studio, and to play on some of the world’s finest stages in the US and abroad.
A passionate, and dedicated teacher, Jenny teaches and coaches chamber music at Concord Academy, the New England Conservatory of Music preparatory school, and at her home studio. Her younger students have participated in all the greater Boston area youth orchestras, many sitting in principal chairs, while her adult students blossom in local orchestras and chamber ensembles. In her spare time, Jenny is a trainee in Body Mapping studies; she loves to grow greens, collect pottery, and feed friends with the former in the latter.
Sarah Freiberg, cello, a tenured member of the Handel and Haydn Society, and Emmanuel Music, has performed with Boston Baroque, Philharmonia Baroque (San Francisco), Portland Baroque (Oregon), Seattle Baroque and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. She is cellist for the Connecticut Early Music Festival and Blue Hill Bach. Her duo “Tutti Bassi” with Colleen McGary-Smith has recently released its first CD, “Have Cellos, Will Travel” on the Centaur label. As corresponding editor for STRINGS magazine, she has contributed dozens of articles and reviews. Sarah penned editions of the long forgotten Guerini cello sonatas and recorded Guerini and Laurenti sonatas for Centaur. She teaches baroque cello at Boston University and modern cello at the Powers Music School. She received D.M.A. and M.M. degrees from Stony Brook University, and holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory, Brown University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Freiberg can be heard on numerous recordings. Her website is: http://www.sarahfreiberg.com