Riverfolk Music and Arts presents
Riverfolk Community Orchestra
with David Schultz, Conductor
featuring Alden Rohwer, Violin
Including Members of the Dexter Community Orchestra
Evan Williams The Dream Deferred for Strings and Harp
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Friday, May 21, 2021 7:30pm
Manchester High School Auditorium
20500 Dutch Drive
Manchester MI, 48158
Limited Capacity Audience and Livestream on Crowdcast.io
For Tickets Riverfolkmusicandarts.org
Sponsored by Arts Midwest US Resiliency Fund, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Manchester Community Schools.
David Schultz
Dr. David Schultz enjoys a diverse career as a conductor, violist, and composer based in Michigan. Equally at home in front of an orchestra of professionals, amateurs, or students, he has been lauded for his inviting demeanor, efficient rehearsals, and dynamic performances. An advocate for contemporary composers, he has directed and performed several world premieres, and has collaborated with musicians in diverse styles such as jazz, blues, rock, hip hop, bluegrass, Klezmer, classical Arabic, and African drumming. David values music as a means of human connection and transformation, and is passionate about sharing the experience of making music with both performers and audiences alike.
Dr. Schultz is the music director and conductor of the Dexter Community Orchestra, the Livingston Symphony Orchestra, and the Mason Symphony Orchestra. Previous conducting positions include associate conductor of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the Jackson Youth Symphony Orchestra, and conductor of the contemporary-music ensemble Musique 21 at Michigan State University. As a guest conductor he has worked with high school orchestra programs in Chelsea, Dexter, Jackson, and Okemos. In 2019 he was awarded Honorable Mention for the Respighi Prize in Conducting.
As a violist, David performs with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra among other orchestras in mid-Michigan. He also performs with the Chelsea Chamber Players, and is a violist and co-founder of the Lansing-based contemporary-music ensemble ConTempus Initiative.
As a composer, his original works and arrangements have been performed by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Jackson Youth Symphony Orchestra, Livingston Symphony Orchestra, and Northwest Repertory Singers in Tacoma, WA. He has also scored films for Sisbro Studios’s “Riddle Solvers” series, and has arranged for artists such as Laith Al-Saadi and Stephanie Anne Johnson, both finalists on NBC’s “The Voice.”
David received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University, and holds a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Michigan State University, and a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from Lawrence University. He has studied music in Vienna, Austria, at the Aspen Music Festival, and has conducted in workshops with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Boulder Chamber Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, at Bard College, and at the Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival. His conducting teachers include Leon Gregorian, Raphael Jimenez, and Markand Thakar.
David lives in Dexter with his wife Emily and their two children, Elinor and Julian.
Alden Rohwer
Alden Rohwer began playing the violin at age 5 under the guidance of Anna Weller and has most recently studied under the guidance of Eliot Heaton. He is currently a double degree student at the University of Michigan pursuing Engineering and Music Performance where he will study with the renowned violinist David Halen. Past instructors include Carolyn Lukancic, David Ormai as well as additional studies in folk and cajun fiddling with Mark Palms.
Alden’s formative years included participation in Riverfolk’s inaugural year of the Cultural Art Strings Program, Phoenix Phest, Ann Arbor Piano Teacher’s Guild Chamber Music Camp, Community Music School of Ann Arbor’s Brandenburg Project, several years at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp including touring Europe with the Blue Lake International Youth Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Performance Academy, and Virtuosi Virtual Summer Academy.
Alden co-founded Steamboat Duo with longtime friend Tomas Ridley who is also playing in the cello section tonight. Locally, they have appeared at the Riverfolk Music & Arts Blacksmith Shop Concerts and Zal Gaz Grotto Club as opening guest artists and have been engaged for multiple fundraisers, weddings and special events. Steamboat explores the hybrid textures of classical, jazz and folk as they perform traditional compositions as well popular arrangements and self-composed tunes.
Tonight’s performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto will be Alden’s debut with an orchestra. It is especially meaningful to perform for his community through Riverfolk’s support because if it were not for the Cultural Art Strings Program, Alden would have quit the violin at age 8 because “there were no other friends playing strings in Manchester.” Tonight, there are many friends on stage.