The Friends of Music have donated a variety of musical instruments and supplies to the Shepherdstown Day Care Center. The Center had requested the items to restart a musical activities program that had lapsed because of a lack of funds.

The items that were donated included a 15-player rhythm band kit; a Tom Boy drum with mallet; bongo drums, triangle, tambourine and pair of cymbals; a set of five textured egg shakers; two xylophones; a scarves-and-ribbons movement set; and two paperback activity books. The total value of the donation was $421.

The accompanying photo shows a group of Day Care Center students with the supplies. In the background, from left to right are pre-kindergarten assistant Amber Siler, pre-kindergarten teacher Lacey Chalk, and Friends of Music board member David Rampy.

The donation was presented in early February, before the Covid-19 virus had become a major issue. The Center, like all similar institutions, is of course currently closed because of the virus.

The donation was part of the Friends’ grant program to support music education for Berkeley and Jefferson county children. The grants typically cover instruments and musical supplies not provided through their schools’ budgets. The Friends also provide scholarships to talented students who are pursuing degrees in music.

The Day Care Center offers educational care for different age groups. It has an infant/toddler program, two pre-kindergarten classes in cooperation with the Jefferson County School Board, before-and-after-school programs, and a summer camp. Its website is www.shepherdstowndaycare.org.

The Friends of Music donated 15 ukuleles to North Jefferson Elementary School in Kearneysville on January 13.

The donation was part of an ongoing effort by the Friends to support music education in area schools.

Music teacher Katie Madrid had requested the instruments, which will help her students learn to read music and to apply rhythmic and pitch reading skills.

“I am so excited to get these instruments for my class,” said Ms. Madrid. “The cost of them is way beyond my budget.”

The accompanying photo shows Ms. Madrid’s Fifth Grade students with the instruments; Ms. Madrid is in the background.

The ukuleles are Diamond Head DU-105 Rainbow Soprano models. Together, they are valued at $450.

Each year, the Friends of Music provide an opportunity for Berkeley and Jefferson county music teachers to apply for grants to support their student programs. The organization typically awards grants for such items as musical instruments, sheet music, music software, books and supplies. The Friends also provide scholarships to talented students who are pursuing degrees in music.

The Friends of Music organization is a Shepherdstown-based, non-profit that was founded in 1999 to support and promote musical excellence. It supports the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, the only professional classical music orchestra in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one of only three such orchestras in the state.

Full information about the Friends is available at www.friendswv.org.

The Friends of Music are sponsoring their Fifth Annual “Puzzle Mania” jigsaw puzzle competition in Shepherdstown the afternoon of Sunday, February 9.

The event will be a fundraiser for the Friends and their Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra.

It will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Shepherd University Wellness Center on the West Campus.

The jigsaw puzzle competition will consist of teams of four persons each. Most teams will start with the same 500-piece puzzle and vie to complete the puzzle first. In an effort to level the playing field, teams that have won easily in the past will get a larger puzzle to solve in the same time period. The winning teams will be honored with a trophy.

Most participants will want to recruit their own four-person teams from friends, neighbors or family members. Those who don’t have time to do that should let Friends of Music know when they sign up, and so they can be assigned to a table.

The fee to participate will be $25 per person or $100 per team. Organizations and businesses are welcome to sponsor teams if they wish.

This is intended as a fun, light-hearted event. It will be family-friendly, and children ages 10 and older will be welcomed as team members.

Light refreshments will be served.

People can sign up and purchase tickets on the Friends of Music website at www.friendswv.org. For more information, contact Heather Marshall at heathermmarshall63@gmail.com or 304-582-9998.

The Friends of Music is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1999 to support and promote musical excellence. It supports the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, the only professional chamber orchestra in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and it provides grants and scholarships to support music education in local schools. Full information about the Friends and the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra is available on the Friends website mentioned above.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FOR NOV. 23 ORCHESTRA CONCERT IN SHEPHERDSTOWN WV

The Friends of Music will present a Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra concert in Shepherdstown, WV, on Saturday, November 23.

The concert will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church at 7:30 p.m.

Entitled “Magic and Majesty,” it will feature three works: Mendelssohn’s overture to “The Fair Melusina” (which is loosely based on a Medieval folk tale about a little mermaid who longed to be human); Manuel de Falla’s score for “El Amor Brujo” (a ballet about an Andalusian gypsy woman haunted by the ghost of her deceased husband); and Beethoven’s 8th Symphony.

The Orchestra’s music director, Jed Gaylin, will conduct.

Gaylin said the concert program will present “contrasting halves.” First,” he said, “Mendelssohn’s overture juxtaposes the little mermaid’s fluid aquatic motions with the razor-sharp sounds of her more anguished life on terra firma. Magic transformations also abound in the mystical spiritof de Falla’s compelling score. Beethoven’s streamlined yet grand and compelling 8th Symphony brings the audience back to earth, but with unparalleled passion and vigor.”

Mezzo-soprano Kyle Engler will be the featured artist for the de Falla work. Ms. Engler has performed with orchestras throughout North America. She has been praised for her extreme versatility in both operatic and chamber music. The Baltimore Sun has called her “a virtuoso of a high order.”

Admission to the concert will be free for Friends of Music members. The ticket price for others will be $30 per person ($27.50 before November 10). Tickets can be purchased on the Friends’ website at www.friendswv.org; or by mail (FOM, PO Box 220, Shepherdstown, WV 25443); or, if space is available, at the church the evening of the performance. Visa and Master Card will be accepted.

The Friends of Music is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1999 to support and promote musical excellence. The Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra was established by the Friends in 2007 and held its first concert in the fall of 2008. Gaylin has been music director since 2012. He also serves as the music director of Baltimore’s Hopkins Symphony Orchestra and the Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey, and he is an Artist in Residence at New Jersey’s Stockton University.

This season’s Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra concerts are once again being presented with generous financial assistance from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.

The Friends of Music will present the first concert of their 2019-2020 season on Saturday, October 5.

The concert will feature the Friends’ resident small ensemble, the Two Rivers String Quartet. It will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Trinity Episcopal Church in Shepherdstown, WV.

Entitled “Classic Contours,” the concert will include three works:

• Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) –– Fratres

• Charles Gounod (1818–1893) -–– Quartet No. 3 in A minor

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) -–– Quartet No. 14 in G major

Jed Gaylin, the Friends of Music’s Music Director, calls the Quartet “one of the Friends’ most important assets.”

“For this concert,” he said, “these talented musicians will bring us a program that runs from mystical to rollicking and at the same time celebrates clarity of expression. The music of Arvo Pärt is imbued with a kind of spiritual minimalism that entrances in its simplicity. Gounod’s quartet shifts from a similar kind of austerity through charm into playfulness. Mozart’s quartet, which is a homage to his older witty friend, Haydn, is also filled with cheer and brilliance.”

Admission to the concert will be free for Friends of Music members. The ticket price for others will be $25 per person ($22.50 before September 23).

Tickets and memberships can be purchased on the Friends’ website at www.friendswv.org or by mail (FOM, PO Box 220, Shepherdstown, WV 25443). Visa and Master Card will be accepted.