Prizewinning Guitarist to Perform in Romney Oct. 15

Friday, October 15 the Hampshire County Arts Council will proudly present at 7:30 PM an evening of classical music featuring one of America's up-and-coming guitarists, Randall Avers, and the trio of Hilary and Tristan Hott with Dottie Eddis. The concert will take place at the WV School for the Deaf Multipurpose Room, a handicapped-accessible facility.

Admission for the concert will be $7 ($5 for HCAC members) for adults, under 17 free. This concert is sponsored by The First National Bank of Romney and partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by the Vira I Heinz Endowment; the William Penn Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

When classical guitarist Randall Avers captured second prize in the Guitar Foundation of America's International Competition at the age of 17, he earned recognition as one of America's up-and-coming guitarists. Since then, he has won seven additional international performance awards from competitions including le Concours Internationale de Guitare Rene Bartoli, the GOLD Competition, and the Yamaha Music France Competition.

As a performer and instructor, Avers has appeared in festivals and concert halls throughout North America and Europe. In 1998, he toured North Africa and Egypt as an Artistic Ambassador of the United States, lecturing and performing music by American composers.

Avers' performances have received many kudos:

"Randall Avers is one of the most impressive artist I've come across in the last few years."
--Sergio Assad, 2002 Latin Grammy winner

"Avers plays with enthusiasm and power backed by outstanding technical ability."
--David Russell, Telarc recording artist

"A brilliant artist... his musicianship is thoughtful, intensely expressive and profoundly beautiful."
-- Karl Wohlwend, artistic director, Georgia Guitar Society

Away from the concert stage, Avers actively arranges and composes music for guitar. His cycle of guitar duets, Twelve Silly Songs for Twelve Silly Strings (co-authored by Rami Vamos) receive praise by critics and audiences and are heard in performance by the internationally acclaimed Newman-Oltman Duo. Current projects include a collection of transcriptions by Spanish piano composers Federico Mompou and Isaac Albeniz.

Avers is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory (BM) and the University of Arizona (MM). As a post-graduate, he attended the Conservatoire Nationale Supériere de Musique et de Danse in Paris (CNSMDP) later becoming the first American to receive a première prix in both guitar and chamber music. In addition, he studied at the North Carolina School for the Arts, the University of Akron, and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts.

Avers is the recipient of a Theodore Presser Award and the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship.

While in Romney Avers will visit the guitar classes at Hampshire High School to introduce students to some different guitar repertoire from what they commonly hear in the area.

Opening the concert will be local classical musicians whose development many in the community have watched with great interest: Hollyhock Trio is made up of Hilary and Tristan Hott and Dottie Eddis, who will play Beethoven's "Trio in C Major Opus 87" on violin and cellos.

Hilary Hott began study on the violin at four years of age with Christine Spinelli Mallery through the Community Arts Program at Shenandoah University. She has attended Blue Ridge Suzuki Camp for the past four summers and Music at Port Milford for the last three summers where she most recently studied with members of the Toronto Symphony and the resident string quartet at The Juilliard School. Hilary is a junior at Mary Baldwin College where she is an honors scholar, participates in the Relay for Life, plays in the Waynesboro Community Orchestra, and is a member of Alpha Lambda Delta. She currently studies violin with Susan Black and Lisa Cridge.

Tristan Hott also began music lessons at the age of four with Christine Mallery and chose the cello as his instrument. For several years he studied with Clare Cooper in Frostburg and now studies with Lisa Liske-Doorandish in Blacksburg. Tristan has attended Blue Ridge Suzuki Camp for the past four summers. He was a performer in the Younger Artists Concert in Cumberland, has played several times for the Cumberland Music and Arts Club, and is a member of the Allegany Community Symphony Orchestra. Tristan is a home-schooled eighth grader, enjoys theatre, and plays and referees AYSO soccer.

Dottie Eddis, also a cellist, took up the instrument during a summer string music program at her elementary school. She studied with the late J. Paul Nuse of Warrington, PA, for seven years until she attended West Virginia University, where she obtained a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. Enjoying music only as a hobby, Dottie performed with the Colonial Consort for many years and now plays in the Allegany Community Symphony Orchestra. She is active in several community service organizations including AYSO Soccer, the Humane Society of Hampshire County, and the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust.

The Hampshire County Arts Council welcomes all to its events. If special accommodations are required, please call 304-496-8002 as far in advance of the event of interest as possible.

The Arts Council's next performance will be a coffeehouse event featuring singer/songwriter Maralyn Lovell from Memphis along with local performer Larry Brown on Saturday, November 2, 8 PM at The Bottling Works. For information on this and other Hampshire County Arts Council activities, visit www.HampshireArts.org .