Seven Score & Ten: Red Cedar Chamber Music

Red Cedar Chamber Music presents Seven Score and Ten on Saturday, February 23 at 8:00 p.m. at Brucemore. The intimate wintertime concert marks the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, featuring American music that inspired the troops, supported the war effort, and entertained those at home. Red Cedar Chamber Music’s flutist Jan Boland and guitarist John Dowdall will be joined by soprano Karla Goettel and historian Michael Zahs. A champagne and dessert reception will be held during intermission.

The concert presents poignant ballads like Aura Lee and Stephen Foster’s Gentle Annie, lively dance tunes like Governor’s Grays Schottisch and The Cruel War Quickstep, battle-inspired melodies like Ellsworth’s Funeral March and Sherman’s March to the Sea, and nostalgic tunes sung by soldiers both North and South like Auld Lang Syne. The artists bring an Iowa perspective to the Civil War era, interspersing the music with conversation about the impact of the war, readings from Iowa diaries and letters, and some of the earliest tunes published in Iowa.

About Karla Goettel

Karla Goettel’s soprano voice serves her in a career of extraordinary range. She has toured the United States, singing opera, musical theater, concerts with orchestras, and solo recitals. Karla has been a frequent soloist with Cedar Rapids Concert Chorale and Orchestra Iowa, including the 2008 Brucemorechestra concert on Brucemore’s lawn. She held a 12-week contract with Old Creamery Theatre and has sung two principal roles with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. She has also performed with the Omaha, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Clinton, Dubuque, Wartburg, and Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestras. Karla was a National Opera Association finalist and was named an Outstanding Young Woman of America twice. She was selected to sing for the National Governor’s convention in July 2005. Her CD, "Just Great Songs," was released in December 2007 to glowing reviews.

About Michael Zahs

Historian and storyteller Michael Zahs has a consummate knowledge of this home state of Iowa. As one of the founding members of Ainsworth Community Together, Michael helped to purchase and renovate the Ainsworth Opera House in 1988. He is an avid collector, preserver, and restorer of our combined history. Michael’s gift for educating and storytelling brings history to life through his many speaking engagements and his regular presentations at the Ainsworth Opera House ranging from rare silent films to feedsacks. Michael has for many years organized and led bus trips across Iowa to familiarize professional educators and the general public with Iowa’s history, landscape, architecture, and lore.

About the Partnership

The Seven Score and Ten concert provides a natural partnership between two local cultural organizations—nineteenth-century chamber music in a nineteenth-century parlor. As artists in residence at Brucemore in 1983, Jan Boland and John Dowdall began performing nineteenth-century music on period instruments—an 1830 wooden flute and an 1830 gut-strung guitar. Currently celebrating its sixteenth season, Red Cedar Chamber Music continually strives to reach, challenge, and expand audiences that rarely have the opportunity to attend chamber music performances. Red Cedar Chamber musicians inform and entertain audiences, engaging them with lively commentary about the music, composers, and instruments. Their first recording, Czech Chamber Music, received a Critics' Choice award from the American Record Guide, which stated, "Chamber music should be just like this—intimate, bonding, and conversational."
Red Cedar Chamber Music returned home to Brucemore in 2009, 2011, and 2012.