For Nola Allen, the natural beauty of Whidbey Island has afforded her an abundance of colorful inspiration, both as a professional pianist and watercolor artist.
“I think my greatest inspiration is the beauty of nature,” said Allen, who resides near Goss Lake outside Langley on weekends. “You have to get beyond technique — in both piano and watercolor — to be able to express what your emotion encourages. …It’s about being in the moment. I think of myself as an intuitive artist.”
Allen, a member of Trio Cascadia, a trio of clarinet, piano and cello, is also the pianist of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey in Freeland.
“I think orchestrally about the sound I want before my hand touches the keys,” said Allen. “I think the relationship with painting, too, is that the palette is an orchestra of color. They very much influence each other.”
Trio Cascadia will perform two concerts at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14 and 15, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Whidbey.
The trio is composed of pianist Allen, cellist Dave Beck and clarinetist Bob Wingert who will perform trios by Beethoven and Brahms as well as two solos by Johann Sebastian Bach and three miniature solos by Igor Stravinsky. Teo Benson, violinist, will join the group for these performances as a special guest.
Each seat in the hall is within five rows of the performers, allowing for an intimate evening of chamber music, according to a recent press release.
Tickets cost $15 for adults and $5 for students and are available for purchase from Moonraker Bookstore in Langley, at Habitat for Humanity in Freeland or at the door.
Robert Wingert has performed in groups such as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Federal Way Symphony. He has also been music director and conductor for the Bremerton Symphony Orchestra.
Dave Beck is King FM’s newest radio announcer and previously worked as an award-winning producer of “KUOW Presents” and other KUOW programs. Beck will play a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, a movement for cello solo.
Beck recalled that Winger had contacted him a little over a year ago, having heard him perform on cello 10 years prior, and asked Beck if he would be interested in joining the group. Beck, an admirer of both Allen and Wingert, enthusiastically agreed.
“They’re very experienced musicians and I was very happy to have the opportunity to do these pieces with them,” said Beck. “I work full time in radio at King FM and am always looking for a big challenge to keep up my playing.”
Beck learned to play cello through public schools’ orchestra programs, and has played with numerous groups throughout his career, including the Bellevue Philharmonic and Seattle Philharmonic Orchestras. For Beck, the appeal of the cello comes from its rich, deep sounds and its similarity, as many have pointed out, to the human voice.
“You don’t hear the combination of cello, clarinet and piano very often,” said Beck, explaining that it is “a pretty special” arrangement. Beethoven and Brahms, who each composed hundreds of works in their careers, each only wrote one piece specifically for clarinet, piano and cello.
“One of the pieces that we’re doing this weekend is by Brahms, who had the idea to put the cello and clarinet together,” said Beck. “And those sounds together are just so rich and mellow … they make great sound colors together.”
While the trio of piano, cello and clarinet may be unusual, it hasn’t proved restrictive in terms of the emotional range the trio’s selections evoke from listeners.
While hearing Trio Cascadia’s performance of their third Beethoven movement, Beck said audience members may get a chuckle out of the musical virtuoso’s parody of another composer’s style. Each of the Beethoven selections, said Beck, are upbeat, cheerful and optimistic in tone.
The songs by Brahms, written in the composer’s final days, may evoke a mixture of melancholy and nostalgia, he said.
“He was looking back, I think with great satisfaction, at his life and all that he has done,” said Beck, of Brahms and his final compositions.
Former Whidbey Island resident Benson will perform a second selection by Bach, the first three movements of Partita No. 3 in E major for solo violin. Benson, who first learned to play violin at age five from Island Strings instructor Linda Good, became lead instructor for Youth Strings Project Outreach, a non-profit organization which provides violin instruction for disadvantaged students in the Seattle area. This fall, he and his wife — a professional cellist and youth orchestra conductor from Guadalajara, Mexico — opened the World Youth Orchestra for immigrant and refugee youth at the Seattle World School.
For more information or to make a reservation for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation concerts, email concerts@uucwi.org.
