Celebrate love this Valentine's Day with an intimate recital of violin and cello music as Audrey Gray and Schuyler Slack bring their music back to where they first met. This lovebird duo will play music from the classical canon and folk tunes from around the world. Join us for an unforgettable afternoon of beautiful music, shared history, and heartfelt melodies that prove harmony is even sweeter when shared.

Seated in the intimacy of the parlors at Happy Retreat, audiences can enjoy chamber music played in a 19th Century parlor, where the acoustics of the space are perfectly suited to experience these dynamic and engaging performances. Curated by the Appalachian Chamber Music Festival, the concerts assemble high-caliber musicians of both regional and international renown.

Program

Libby Croad - Ode for Violin and Cello 

Jessie Montgomery - Duo for Violin and Cello

Kodály - Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7

Elgar - Salut D’Amour 

Fraser/Haas - The Scandinavian

Musicians

Audrey Gray, violin

Violinist Audrey Gray enjoys a varied career performing both chamber and orchestral music. She joined the Richmond Symphony as a full time violinist in their 23/24 season. Before this, she held core positions with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Knoxville Symphony, and was also a contracted violinist with the Dayton Philharmonic. Audrey has performed with such orchestras as the Nashville, New World, and Utah Symphonies, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Williamsburg (VA) Symphony. Recent summer musical activities include the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, the Wintergreen Music Festival, the Torrey Chamber Music Festival (Torrey, UT), and Appalachian Chamber Music Festival (Harpers Ferry, WV).

Audrey attended Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and received her bachelor’s degree in violin performance studying with Mark Kaplan. She completed her master’s degree with fellowship at Northwestern University, studying with Blair Milton, and at the same time, was a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Additional studies include the Aspen Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Maestro Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Music Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra.

An advocate of making music study accessible to wider communities, Audrey taught violin in the Dayton Philharmonic's daily after-school El Sistema program for several years. A fan particularly of fiddle music, Audrey is always excited at the opportunity to explore and perform music that bridge the gap between traditional western classical music and other musical genres.

Schuyler Slack, cello

Cellist Schuyler Slack has performed in orchestral, chamber music, and recital settings across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. The Alexandria, VA native was appointed to the Richmond Symphony’s Kenneth and Bettie Christopher Perry Foundation Cello Chair in 2016. Previously he held the joint position of Artist in Residence at the University of Evansville and Principal Cellist of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also a member of the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra, Williamsburg Symphony, and is on the music faculty at Randolph-Macon College. He performs frequently in the cello sections of major orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the Baltimore and National Symphonies. His primary teachers were Cleveland Orchestra principal cellists Mark Kosower and Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

A devoted chamber musician and lover of string quartets, Schuyler has studied with and performed alongside members of the Tokyo, Orford, Cleveland, Brentano, Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets, Alban Gerhardt, Nadia Sirota, and Donald and Vivian Weilerstein. He has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall; as well as given recitals at some of the countries top music schools, such as the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan.

Equally committed to the music of living composers and crossover musical endeavors, Schuyler has commissioned new compositions for the cello by composers Douglas Boyce, Steven Snowden, and Heather Stebbins. He was praised by the Washington Post for his “excellent” contribution – noted for his “pluck and scrape effects!” – to a new music-theatre adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that was taken to the Prague Fringe Festival in 2015.