While her heart now belongs to Austin, Texas, and its vortices of avant-garde and multi-media honky-tonk, Roseminna Watson jumped at Classicopia pianist Daniel Weiser’s invitation to play her violin with him at three old-school chamber concerts in her native Upper Valley this weekend.
“His energy is so positive and inspiring,” Watson, a former first violinist with the Aiana String Quartet who now performs with two small ensembles from her Texas home base, said of Weiser during a telephone interview last week. “When we get together, the music just comes pouring out. It’s really rare, I’ve found, where you play with musicians where you don’t have to talk.”
More than a decade ago, they collaborated regularly on Classicopia concerts around the Upper Valley. In discussing this reunion, they chose a Fritz Kreisler composition that they first played together when Watson was 12, as well as works by Gabriel Faure and Beethoven, and a Gershwin/Heifetz arrangement for violin of It Ain’t Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess.
“I knew the Faure would be a particularly good piece for her, because it is one of the most passionate and exciting pieces in the entire repertoire and I was surprised that she had not yet played it,” Weiser said this week. “It takes an extremely strong technique to play it, but it also needs to have a profound emotion and energetic drive to make it succeed, which Rosey certainly has.”
Weiser first noticed those qualities when Watson was 10 or 11 and living in Etna. Her mother, Clyde Watson, taught violin, and during student recitals that her pupils and Weiser’s piano students played together, young Roseminna Watson stood out.
“Rosey was always the last one on the program,” Weiser recalled. And she “was clearly in a different league from the other students. She definitely stood out, especially because she was so thin and small, but always attacked her instrument with incredible passion and always played in bare feet.
“I thought that she would have a chance to make it as a musician, but I also knew that she had many other interests, especially in the graphic arts.”
Watson has been pursuing those and other interests since graduating from Hanover High School. After collecting her bachelor’s degree in graphic arts from Yale in 2005, she pursued a master’s in violin performance at Stony Brook University, where she studied with Avi Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Phillip Setzer, Phillipe Graffin and Soovin Kim.
Next she earned an artist’s diploma in chamber music from the San Francisco Conservatory, and then joined the Aiana String Quartet. After doing a residency at San Diego State University, the ensemble moved to Austin to fine-tune their sound under the tutelage of the Miro Quartet at the University of Texas’ Butler School of Music.
And even when Aiana was performing around the world, Watson was finding other outlets for her creativity.
“I got to Austin at just the right point in my life,” said Watson, who also dove deeper into a yen for yoga that goes back to her teens. “Austin gave me the space to dive deeply into the exact direction I wanted to go in.”
That direction included a variety of projects mixing theater, music, video and graphic arts that Watson pursued in earnest after parting ways with Aiana in 2013, the same year she married her husband, Ernesto Escalante.
“I was in a place where I could do whatever music I wanted to, but I didn’t have to,” Watson said. “I didn’t have to conform to any cultural expectations like I would have in say, New York or Boston, on a professional track.
“There’s a vibe here. … There’s a hip culture, a young culture.”
Watson added that that culture also is open to “the straight classics.”
“I was playing the other night at a bar downtown, where everyone was silent and sitting in chairs, with candles all around,” she recalled. “I played some Bartok, as well as a living Hungarian composer and one of my own compositions. I played solo violin with an audience that was enthralled the whole time.”
Such receptions confirmed for Watson an instinct to revisit her roots, with this weekend’s concerts serving as the next step.
“It’s a homecoming geographically and musically,” Watson said. “It’s gratifying to come back now that I feel like I’m transformed.”
After conducting “a very brief rehearsal” with Watson in April, Weiser is looking forward to seeing how much that once-barefoot girl has changed.
“She is obviously more mature and a more thoughtful musician who is more comfortable with the different composers’ styles and idioms,” Weiser said. “She has a stronger sense of ensemble playing and the collaborative process and how the violin and piano parts play off each other.”
Violinist Roseminna Watson joins Classicopia pianist Daniel Weiser for three concerts in the Upper Valley over the weekend, starting with a free recital Friday night at 7 at St. Denis Catholic Church in Hanover. Subsequent performances are scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 at Damon Hall in Hartland and Sunday afternoon at 1 at the First Congregational Church in Lebanon. Tickets for adults to the Saturday and Sunday concerts cost $18 in advance (visit classicopia.org/schedule.aspx) and $20 at the door; the Lebanon concert costs $10 for church members.
Inmates of the Sullivan County House of Corrections in Unity take the stage at Claremont Opera House tonight to present Telling My Story, a series of skits about their experiences in and out of jail that they developed in collaboration with Dartmouth College students taking adjunct professor Pati Hernandez’s course “Telling Stories for Social Change.” The presentation starts at 6:30. For more information, visit tellingmystory.org.
Collen Doyle of the Woolen Mill Comedy Club hosts a session of stand-up comedy at the Skinny Pancake in Hanover on Friday night at 8. Scheduled performers include Bryan Muenzer, Daniel Gilbert, Ryan Kenyon and Bitsy Biron.
The Malek Jandali Trio performs its mix of Middle Eastern and western classical music at the North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock on Saturday afternoon at 4. Joining composer and pianist Jandali will be oud player Abdulrahim Alsiadi and Montreal cellist Karen Kaderavek, former principal cellist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and with Pentangle Arts. For tickets ($20 to $25) and more information visit pentanglearts.org or call 802-457-3981.
If you missed their stirring performance of Beethoven’s Piano Trio Opus 70 No. 1 in D Major (aka The Ghost Trio) and Dvorak’s Piano Trio Opus 26 in G Minor in Woodstock on Sunday, or just can’t wait to hear them again, the Camerata New England ensemble of cellist Linda Galvan, violinist Omar Chen Guey and pianist Evelyn Zuckerman plays those compositions, plus the Frank Bridge piano trio Miniatures, on Saturday night at 7 at the Norwich home of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley. To reserve tickets ($28) and to learn more, visit cameratanewengland.org or call 802-785-4833 or email info@cameratanewengland.org.
The Shanty, Salt hill Pub’s outlet in Newbury, N.H., plays host to a session of stand-up comedy tonight at 9. With Rob Steen of Manchester’s Headliners Comedy Club as emcee and Jody Sloane as headliner, performers opening the show are Christopher Gagne, Bry-an Muenzer and Peter Pardoe.
The Parish Players open a three-weekend run of the Arthur Miller drama Death of a Salesman with performances on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 and at 2 on Sunday afternoon, at the Eclipse Grange theater on Thetford Hill. The production, starring Upper Valley stage veterans Mike Backman and Kay Morton as Willy and Linda Loman, runs through June 5. For tickets ($10 to $15) and more information, visit parishplayers.org or call 802-785-4344.
Shaker Bridge Theatre in Enfield completes its three-weekend run of Nicky Silver’s adult-themed, family-dysfunction comedy The Lyons with 7:30 shows tonight, Friday night and Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon at 2:30. For tickets ($25 to $32) and more information, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750.
Dartmouth College’s Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble sends off its seniors tonight at 7, with a concert featuring class of 2016 clarinetist/saxophonist Kimberly Hassel, trumpeter Kathryn Waychoff and percussionist Moises Silva. Admission to the performance, at Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover, is $10. For more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
On the theme of “Water, Women and Whales,” Scrag Mountain Music performs chamber compositions by George Crumb, Robert Schumann, Kaija Saariaho and Evan Premo at First Light Studios in Randolph on Friday night at 7:30. Performers include Premo, Scrag Mountain’s artistic director, on double bass, Scrag Mountain soprano (and Lebanon native) Mary Bonhag, Icelandic cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir and New York pianist David Kaplan. Admission is by donation. For more information, visit scragmountainmusic.org.
The Swing Peepers play and sing children’s music and tell stories at two locations on Saturday, wrapping the spring series of HopStop family shows from Dartmouth College’s Hopkins Center. The Peepers will start at the Hopkins Center Plaza in Hanover at 11 a.m., before heading to the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center in Claremont for an appearance at 3 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
Singer-guitarist Ken Lelen performs ragtime, swing and jazz classics with his “When Love Was Nifty” show at the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Sunday afternoon at 2. For general admission tickets ($10 to $15) and more information visit chandler-arts.org or call 802-728-6464.
Dartmouth College’s World Music Percussion Ensemble joins forces with the school’s Jabulani African Chorus for a concert of dance music on Wednesday night at 7, at Spaulding Auditorium in Hanover. For tickets ($10) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
City Center Ballet of Lebanon continues its staging of Felix Mendelssohn’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction this weekend, with 7:30 performances on Friday and Saturday nights and matinees at 4 on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. For tickets ($7.50 to $36 in advance, $12.50 to $41 at the door), and more information email dance@citycenterballet.org or call 603-448-9710.
The Sensible Shoes trio of Tim Utt, Barbara Blaisdell and Pooh Sprague plays and sings at the Lyme Inn tonight from 6:30 to 9:30. For reservations and more information, call 603-795-4824.
Pianist Gillian Joy plays at the Canoe Club in Hanover tonight at 6:30. Following her to the microphone with 6:30 to 9:30 shows over the coming week are pianist Jonathan Kaplan on Friday, guitarist Lester Hirsh on Saturday, guitarist Bruce Gregori on Tuesday, singer Cyn Barrette with pianist Bob Merrill and bassist Peter Concilio on Wednesday and guitarist Billy Rosen next Thursday. And on Monday night starting at 5:30, Marko the Magician performs his weekly, tableside sleight-of-hand.
The Strangled Darlings pull into Windsor Station for a set of folk and Americana music tonight from 7 to 10. Next up over the coming week are the 1-2-3 rock punch of Mister Burns, Maiden Voyage and Granite State on Friday night at 10, the Party Crashers on Saturday night at 9:30 and Wilder singer-songwriter Durg on Tuesday night at 6.
Royalton singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner plays at Bentley’s restaurant in Woodstock tonight at 8, followed next Thursday night at the same hour by bluesman Arthur James.
Singer-songwriter Dan Walker performs at Jesse’s restaurant in Hanover on Friday night at 5.
Singer-guitarist David Greenfield plays an acoustic set at the Colatina Exit in Bradford, Vt., on Friday night from 6:30 to 9:30.
Possum Haw performs bluegrass and folk music during the weekly Sunapee Community Coffeehouse at the Sunapee Methodist Church on Friday night at 7. While admission is free, donations for the performer are welcome. For more information about the series, visit sunapeecoffeehouse.org.
The Friday night line-up at the Upper Valley’s Salt hill pubs features Moose in the Marsh with a set of country and classic rock in Lebanon, Harmony Hotel in Hanover and country/western performer Josh Gerrish in Newport. On Saturday, the choices are the rockabilly ensemble Borderstone in Newport, Juke Joynt with a set of rock and R & B in Hanover and The Squids with their mix of rock and R&B in Lebanon. Shows start at 8.
Wherehouse sets the rhythm for dancing at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners on Friday night starting at 8.
Dave Clark and Jed Dickinson play a set of ballads, blues, folk, rock and their own compositions at Windsor’s SILO Distillery on Sunday from noon to 2.
Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater hosts an open mic starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Participants get a free large cheese pizza.
String players of all ages and abilities are welcome at the weekly acoustic jam session at South Royalton’s BALE Commons on Friday night from 6:30 to 10.
Joe Stallsmith leads a weekly hootenanny of Americana, folk and bluegrass at Salt hill Pub in Hanover on Monday nights at 6.
Bradford’s Colatina Exit holds an open mic on Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
The Seven Barrel Brewery in West Lebanon runs an open mic on Tuesday nights, beginning at 8.
Jim Yeager hosts an open mic at Hartland’s Skunk Hollow Tavern, at 8:30 on Wednesday nights.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.