Allegheny Ensemble Performs 'Inspirations' February 24

SALISBURY, MD---The Allegheny Ensemble presents its spring concert “Inspirations” 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 24, in the Great Hall of Salisbury University’s Holloway Hall.

The ensemble is joined by violinist Kristin Bakkegard, violist Paul Bagley and harpsichordist Gwendolyn Toth. A student showcase performance, with pianist Molly Fulerton, also is featured. The concert includes early music from the 17th-20th centuries.

Fulerton will perform “Silver Clouds Chasing the Moon” by Wang Jianzhong. Other pieces in the program include Biber’s “Sonata No. 10,” Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet No. 3” and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3.

Toth is Recognized as one of America’s leading early music performers, as a conductor and early keyboard artist based in New York City. She has been heard in concert throughout North America, Europe and the Far East, and on radio networks

in Holland, Germany, France and America’s National Public Radio. Currently, she is the director and founder of New York City’s virtuoso period instrument ensemble, Artek. 

Bagley serves as concertmaster of the Londontowne Symphony and the nationally acclaimed Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra. He regularly performs in several orchestras and chamber groups in the greater Washington, D.C. and Baltimore area, including the Annapolis, Alexandria, VA and Fairfax, VA symphonies, as well as the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. 

He also has performed with the Richmond Symphony, Virginia Opera and Washington Concert Opera. Bagley has been featured as soloist twice with the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in his hometown of Duluth, MN, and several times with the Montgomery College Orchestra in Rockville, MD. 

A Baltimore-native, Kristin Bakkegard is associate principal second violin of the Annapolis Symphony and tours across the U.S. as principal second of the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra. She frequently performs with several orchestras across the mid-Atlantic region such as Richmond Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic and Delaware Symphony. She also enjoys playing chamber music as a member of the Annapolis Chamber Players and AACC’s Riverhawk String Quartet.

Comprised of cellist Jeffrey Schoyen and violinist Sachiho Murasugi, the ensemble is named for the Allegheny River, which flows through the Pittsburgh area where the musicians formerly played together.

Conductor and music director of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and the Salisbury Youth Orchestra, Schoyen teaches cello and bass at SU. He has given concerts throughout the United States, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador, and received a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant to study in London with William Pleeth. He is also a Tanglewood Gustav Golden Award recipient. Schoyen honed his cello skills at the New England Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Mellon University, before earning his D.M.A. at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Murasugi has performed extensively as a professional orchestral and chamber musician. She has been concertmaster of the Filarmonica del Bajio in Mexico, and a member of the West Virginia Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and Springfield Symphony. She received the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant in chamber music and has performed in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Museo del Prado, and the Music Center at Strathmore. She is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and holds a D.M.A. from Ohio State University. Currently she is currently concertmaster for the SSO.

Admission is free and the public is invited. Tickets are required. Tickets are available through

SU’s online box office at www.salisbury.edu/performingarts. 

Patrons are asked to park in Camden Lot F (Blackwell Hall).

For more information call 410-543-6228.

Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at www.salisbury.edu.