At Gannon University there’s always something happening. Between sporting events, numerous campus club programs and the Schuster Theatre and Art Gallery, there is always something fun for students to attend and enjoy. The Erie Chamber Orchestra, an organization providing Gannon and the Erie community with free classical music events, is just the icing on the cake.
The Beautiful Minds Festival is the most recent series of events to be produced through the Erie Chamber Orchestra. The Festival, running Monday through Friday, consists of five events focusing on the works of Martha Summa Chadwick, Ph.D. She will be speaking and playing at nearly all the events as well as teaching classes and training teachers at the Barber National Institute throughout the week.
“Thinking about the troubled mind of a composer is how the idea for these events started,” said Erie Chamber Orchestras General Manager Steve Weiser. “All the composers that we’re performing this week all had some sort of mental affliction. So [Summa Chadwick] is focusing on what music did for these incredibly famous composers.”
Summa Chadwick is using her research in this field to help influence the teaching methods within Erie’s Barber center.
The week opens with the last of the season’s Joe Luckey recitals—“Prelude to the Dream.” Featuring Summa Chadwick on piano as well as various other members of the Erie Chamber Orchestra, the recitals have been held in the honor of long-time Gannon employee Joe Luckey, whose grand theater organ needs a permanent home.
The series of performances have helped to raise awareness of his person and this organ, and the latest one concluded Monday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie.
WQLN Studios will host “Live From Studio Q” at noon on Wednesday. People are encouraged to listen live or sit in on the Bolling “Jazz Suite,” performed by Summa Chadwick, David Graham, James Mohney and Brad Amidon.
“Biomedical Music Techniques and the Brain” will be held the same day at 3 p.m. in the Yehl Ballroom. Summa Chadwick will play piano and lecture on her research in music therapy.
The Schuster Art Gallery will host “Illustrations from Dante’s Inferno” at 4:30 p.m. Friday and will feature Erie Chamber Orchestra’s concertmaster Maureen Conlon.
This new exhibition will be accompanied by raffles and refreshments before “The Burden of Genius” concert at 7:30 p.m. that evening at the Church of the Covenant.
Summa Chadwick and the Slippery Rock University Concert Choir will present a night of the musical stylings of Beethoven, Wolf and Schumann. Summa Chadwick will give audiences a look into these famous composers’ histories and troubled minds.
Eliminating the negative stigma surrounding free concerts, Weiser explains that the Erie Chamber Orchestra keeps each concert free to prove that just because the event is free does not mean it lacks in professionalism or high standard.
The Erie Chamber Orchestra has brought big names such as Harry Lennix (“Man of Steel,” “The Blacklist”) and has an album and podcasts on iTunes.
Rarely does the Erie Chamber Orchestra host so many events in such a short period of time as well as include outreach in their programming. This week holds some truly unique experiences that are not to be missed. All programming is free.
JENNA SULECKI
