UW-National Park Service Special Harlow Summer Event at AMK Ranch July 20

A special chamber music concert is scheduled in lieu of a regular Harlow Summer Seminar lecture Thursday, July 20, at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station. The facility is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

“The Wyoming Festival: New Music in the Mountains, Chamber Music inspired by the Tetons” will be presented as part of the Wyoming Music Festival -- a five-day new chamber music event devoted to the creation of new concert music inspired and informed by the wild and natural setting of Grand Teton National Park.

The special Harlow event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by the 6:30 p.m. concert. The events are free and open to the public, although a $10 donation is suggested.

The chamber music features world-renowned artists in-residence -- all of whom also play in the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra -- are led by violinist Holly Mulcahy and include Juan de Gomar, bassoon; Steve Laven, cello; Barbara Scowcroft, violin; and Kayla Williams, viola.

Through a competitive process, four music composition fellows -- Monica Mendoza, Henrique Rabelo, DelShawn Taylor and Shawna Wolf -- have been invited to participate along with festival founder, director and composer Anne Guzzo, a former UW Department of Music professor.

Their music will be performed at the Teton County Library, located at 125 Virginian Lane in Jackson, in a free preview concert at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, in the Ordway Auditorium B, followed by their concert at the Berol Lodge at the AMK Ranch July 20.

Sponsors include Mickey Babcock, supporting the work of women composers; Lynn John, composer; and the UW-NPS Research Station.

Guzzo is a Wyoming-based composer who draws on science and nature, playful absurdism and interdisciplinary collaboration to create music that has been described as “alternately moving and humorous.” Guzzo recently collaborated with an entomologist, a rangeland ecologist, vertical dancers, poets and a microbiologist for some of her works.

Guzzo, an Emmy-nominated and internationally performed composer, also is passionate about new music. She has been a fellow in residence at Ucross, the Whitely Center at Friday Harbor Labs and Brush Creek Ranch in Saratoga.

Her music has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, at the Grand Teton festival series and the Bowling Green New Music Festival. Guzzo also has performed and recorded with the AdZel Duo, Wyoming Symphony, Voices of Change, the Colorado Chamber Orchestra, Allégresse Trio, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Divan Consort, Third Angle New Music and several other ensembles and performers. Her chamber opera, “Locust,” premiered at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson in fall 2018, had its African premier in Morocco in 2019 and was performed during the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

For more information about Guzzo, go to www.anneguzzo.com.

After hearing “Scheherazade” at an early age, Mulcahy, the Wyoming Festival music director, fell in love with the violin and knew it would be her future. Since then, she has won multiple positions in symphonic orchestras from Richmond, Va., to Phoenix, Ariz., and is currently serving as concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Chattanooga Symphony and Opera.

As an in-demand performer, Mulcahy balances her orchestral duties with numerous concerto performances around the country. Passionate about performing living American composers’ works, she has been featured as soloist for concertos by Philip Glass, Jennifer Higdon and Jim Stephenson. A new concerto being written for her by Hollywood film composer George Clinton is titled “The Rose of Sonora,” a violin concerto in five scenes. The music is inspired by true stories about the lives of legendary women in the Old West that will take listeners on an epic western adventure of love and revenge.

Believing in music as a healing and coping source, Mulcahy founded Arts Capacity, a charitable organization that focuses on bringing live chamber music, art, artists and composers to prisons. Arts Capacity addresses many emotional and character-building issues people face as they prepare for release into society.

For more information about Mulcahy, visit www.HollyMulcahy.com.

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow Summer Seminar Series is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months.