The Multifaceted Career: New Gallery Concert Series | Sarah Bob, Rhea Vedro and Stefanie Lubkowski

The New Gallery Concert Series, celebrating twenty years this season, presents new pieces of music and visual art, along with the composers and artists who create them. Mere hours ahead of its debut in Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music at Bard College, NGCS Founding Artistic Director Sarah Bob will introduce metalsmith Rhea Vedro and composer Stefanie Lubkowski for the Guest Artist Career Chat. As two of the featured participants of the night, Ms. Vedro and Dr. Lubkowski will discuss their work, their collaborative preparation, and how they got to be where they are now. For more information about our artists, please go to www.rheavedro.com, www.stefanielubkowski.com, www.newgalleryconcertseries.org

Rhea Vedro is a metalsmith, cultural producer and educator who enjoys an active studio practice in both steel sculpture and jewelry. She is fascinated by the trajectory of humankind’s relationship with metal — sourcing it from the earth and learning to refine it into objects of beauty, war, value, infrastructure, ceremony and industry. Rhea holds a MFA in Metals from the State University of New York at New Paltz. In addition to her community arts education work, she taught in the Art Departments at SUNY – New Paltz and at the UW – Madison. Rhea has held numerous Artist in Residence positions and served as Program Director for multiple community arts initiatives. She received scholarships to craft schools Haystack, Penland and Peters Valley where she studied blacksmithing and steel engraving. Her sculpture exhibition record includes: a recent solo exhibition at the Arnheim Gallery in Boston MA, Metals Museum in Memphis TN, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, NY, The Clara Hatton Gallery in Fort Collins, CO, Gallery Marzen and The James Watrous Gallery in Madison, WI. Rhea lives in Boston, MA and works as the Director of Community Engagement at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Stefanie Lubkowski’s initial compositional efforts involved developing unusual timbres on her mother’s Wurlitzer organ and independent study in her high school electronic music studio. These early explorations nurtured Stefanie’s interest in creating sound worlds guided by harmony, punctuated by melody, and inspired by literature, personal experiences, and the natural world. She went on to study Music and Technology and Guitar Performance at Connecticut College in New London, CT, and received her masters in composition from New England Conservatory where her primary teachers were Lee Hyla and Pozzi Escot. Stefanie has written for orchestra, voice, various chamber ensembles, and electronic media. She has been commissioned by Auros Group for New Music, New Gallery Concert Series, Alea III, The Fourth Wall Ensemble, Transient Canvas, Charles River Wind Ensemble, NakedEye Ensemble, and soprano Elisabeth Halliday. Stefanie received her doctorate in composition from Boston University in 2014, where her teachers included Ketty Nez and Sam Headrick. She then taught composition and theory as visiting faculty at Brown University during the 2014-2015 academic year. Stefanie is the recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Music Composition Finalist Grant for 2015. She currently serves as as Development Associate at The Boston Modern Orchestra Project and teaches composition and theory at Concord Academy.

As a child, Sarah knew before her first lesson that she would become a pianist. What she did not know, however, and the center of her talk today, is that being her own pianist is more necessary and powerful than trying to fit into a concept of what a pianist is supposed to be. Hailed as “sumptuous and eloquent” by the Boston Globe, Sarah Bob is an active soloist and chamber musician noted for her charismatic performances, colorful playing and diverse programming. Considered a “trailblazer when it comes to championing the works of modern composers and combining art media in the process….”, she is also founding director of the New Gallery Concert Series, a series that combines new music and new visual art along with their creators. The goal, her strong suit, is to introduce music in a loving, inclusive, and intoxicating way. Inspired by current events, she is also the creator of The Nasty Cooperative: dialogue driven artistic events created to build community and help raise funds for organizations in need. She is an original member of Primary Duo, Radius and Firebird Ensembles, and maintains accolades ranging from top prizewinner of Holland’s International Gaudeamus Competition to New England Conservatory’s Outstanding Alumni Award. Sarah maintains her own private studio and teaches “The Power of Art” as Visiting Faculty at the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Her most recent projects, her album, …nobody move…Commissions and Premieres for the New Gallery Concert Series on Avie Records, and her solo piano arrangement of Lee Hyla’s “My Life on the Plains” published by Carl Fischer, come out this fall. For more information, please go to www.sarahbob.net.