Victorian Virtuosos
When Dale Stuckenbruck, on violin, and Heawon Kim, on piano, perform together, it is apparent this dynamic couple is among the best in the world. A marriage, bound by their love of music and each other, transcends every note.
The talented couple performed in Garrett County for over a decade with the Symphony At Deep Creek. The orchestra was organized by Kathryn Sincell, conducted by Erick Friedman and presented by Garrett Lakes Arts Festival each summer. Through the 1990s, world-class music rang out over the mountaintop, featuring performances from intimate chamber ensembles, soloists, and a full orchestra. Over several weeks of rehearsals and concerts, the flock of musicians was always eager to join the symphony since many of them had never played together anywhere else. Dale, as concertmaster, selected top talent from around the globe to become a temporary but inspired musical family. The Symphony At Deep Creek is featured in the fifth and final episode of Mountain Chautauqua Stories.
Dale Stuckenbruck
Dale is a Grammy-nominated artist and a sought-after virtuoso who is immersed in a diverse musical life in New York as a soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician, and teacher. The Victorian Chautauqua is honored to welcome Dale and his wife, Heawon, who will accompany him on piano for two extraordinary performances on Saturday, July 9. The concert will feature music from the turn of the last century, which would have been popular during the peak years of Mountain Lake Park’s Chautauqua summer programs.
"We spent many summers in Garrett County, with my wife as concertmaster and me as a pianist, at the music festival," said Dale. Ever since, my family has had many very dear feelings towards this community and its people."
Shortly following the invitation to perform at the 2022 Victorian Chautauqua, Dale investigated an array of repertoire performed by more than 700 violinists for Chautauqua events, discovering mention of various unusual instruments, including the musical saw. This piqued his interest since Dale's father, who learned to play the saw from a traveling evangelist in Kansas in the 1930s, found his favorite hand saw at Naylor's Hardware in Oakland. He played that saw on the Tonight Show with the rock group KoRn. Dale contributes an unusual and haunting sound to the dynamic performance of Throw Me Away.
The Lyceum Magazine 1923 shows an example of a multi-instrumentalist who also played the musical saw. Among the many solo artists, there were many popular bands as well. Dale has a long history in music, including his great uncle, who was bandleader Ed Chenette (formerly “Chesnut”), for Chenette's Concert Band. They toured the Lincoln Chautauqua circuit as well as some Chautauqua concerts in Canada. Among other band members were three other great uncles of Dale's, including Clate, Eugene, and Clare Faw, also known as “Tex.” Ed was the oldest and started the band after returning from Europe in WWI.
"We plan to play one of my great uncle’s compositions on the saw named Love’s Day," said Dale. "Ed proclaimed, using his own publishing company, that this composition was 'the greatest ballad ever written'." According to Ed’s son, a great trumpet player and principal trumpet with Boston Pops, Minneapolis Orchestra, Ed Chenette sometimes would alter some ”truths” to his convenience. He was evidently a flowery individual.
Axel Skovgaard
One of the fine violinists who concertized for Chautauqua and the Lyceum was the “Ole Bull” of Sweden, Axel Skovgaard. He was a Danish violinist who performed throughout the United States and Canada during the first three decades of the 20th century. His lovely repertoire, which he shared in the Chautauqua concerts, can be beautifully heard here.
Dale will be performing two of his pieces from Skovgaard’s repertoire, the variation movement from the Kreutzer sonata by Ludwig Von Beethoven and Zapateado by Pablo de Sarasate, which can be heard in the above music file.
Dale’s interest in music and education has made him a household name in his industry. Although classically trained with a particular bent for Baroque music, he is also inventive and experimental. As a multi-instrumentalist, Dale often performs in world music ensembles. To engage a younger audience, he developed musical instruments from fresh produce and founded the Long Island Vegetable Orchestra, earning him an amusing guest appearance on Conan. He enjoys seeing people of all ages light up when listening to music.
Heawon Kim
“As she kept her eyes on the conductor Nicholas Harsanyi, or looked off into space, she delivered blindingly accurate salvos of notes and projected a rhythmic feel and sense of humor that was infectious. She drew bravas, thunderous applause, and a standing ovation that she thoroughly deserved.”
– Claudia Sheppard, Winston-Salem Journal
Heawon Kim’s accomplishments cannot be overstated. Her rare talent emerged as one of Korea’s most well-known prodigies of her generation. At the young age of seven, she appeared with the Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic. Her impressive performance earned her many return engagements, including an appearance with the KBS for the opening of the Sejong Arts Center.
Upon winning numerous competitions and appearing frequently on television and radio, she came to the North Carolina School of the Performing Arts in 1972. There, she studied with Clifton Matthews, receiving the Vittorio Giannini Award, and appeared under the baton of Nicholas Harsanyi with Prokofiev’s third concerto.
Following rave reviews and winning the Southeastern Music Teachers Competition, she was brought to New York by Claude Frank to study with him at the Mannes School of Music and continued to complete her studies under Robert Goldsand at the Manhattan School of Music. Since coming to the US, she has performed as a collaborator for many instrumentalists for the classes of Erick Friedman, Josef Gingold, Janos Starker, Franco Gulli, Tibor Varga, and as a solo pianist for Irwin Freundlich, and Andre Watts. Heawon has been a soloist with regional orchestras in the United States and has appeared as chamber musician with such groups as the Bronx Arts Ensemble, L’Ensemble, The Pierrot Consort, Rosewood Chamber Ensemble, Garrett Lakes Festival, Leonia Chamber Players, and the Colonial Symphony.
Her playing can be as gentle as a dropping feather or capture the force of a tsunami. Heawon is undoubtedly a legend in her own time and an arresting pianist to behold.
"As I peruse the concert program of violinists, I still may find a few pieces that would invoke the history of the presence of music as it must have been heard in Mountain Lake Park," said Dale. "As a devotion to my teacher, Erick Friedman, who, with the help of Kathryn Sincell-Corwell and the amazing Garrett County community, helped to create the most poignant musical moments for anyone who has heard him, I would like to play the Air from the Carl Goldmark violin concerto and dedicate this to him."
Dale appeared as a soloist in recording and in chamber music with Friedman. He has performed as violin/saw soloist with the New York Philharmonic, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Philharmonia Virtuosi, New York Virtuosi, New York String Ensemble, Tchaikovsky Chamber, Taipei City Symphony Orchestra, Music at St. Ignatius, Queens Symphony, Masterworks, and the Long Island Philharmonic.
Dale also recorded the “Concerto for Violin and String Choir” for Opus One by Louis Pelosi, with Erick Friedman on Kultur Video (music of Fritz Kreisler), and for countless commercial recordings and films.
