The Arpeggiatura Trip performs musical "Tapas"

 The Arpeggiatura Trio opens Huron Valley Council for the Arts’ Classical Series at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25 with musical selections that span more than two centuries.

The group, which includes flautist Scott Graddy, Donna Lorriane Gunn on violin and cellist Irina Tikhonova, will present “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy and “Pineapple Rag” by Scott Joplin as well as other scores by Franz Schubert, Maurice Ravel, Nicolo Paganini, Pietro Mascagni and Joseph Haydn, among others.

Graddy, who is originally from Southern Illinois, said he started to play the flute in junior to join his friends; he wanted to play the “easiest instrument,” and there was an extra flute in the band room that wasn’t being used. He’s been hooked on playing that instrument ever since. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Eastern Illinois University and subsequently completed a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Michigan.  The piccoloist for the Flint Symphony Orchestra since 2000, he regularly performs with several other Michigan orchestras, including Saginaw Bay and Ann Arbor symphony orchestras, the Michigan Opera Theater and the Warren and Oakland symphony orchestras.

The recipient of the John A. Plumer Memorial Scholarship Award and finalist in the Robert Mondavi Violin Competition, Gunn has performed as soloist with the University of Maine, Arcady, Houlton and Rochester Symphony Orchestras. She received a full tuition scholarship at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, to study violin with soloist Erick Friedman and continued to study music at the University of Maine in Orono, where her hard work granted her a position as a music theory teaching assistant.

Gunn also has traveled through Spain, Italy, Austria, and China as an orchestral musician, but despite having performed in all these exotic locales, her very favorite musical engagement was with the All-American College Orchestra working for a large, famous mouse named Mickey! Her stint rubbing elbows with national entertainers and dressing up as the Big White Rabbit has a profound impact on her work.

She is a member of American Federation of Musicians, Flint Federation of Musicians, Mu Phi Epsilon and Phi Kappa Lambda.  Currently, Ms. Gunn is Concertmaster for the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, a violinist in the Flint Symphony, adjunct faculty for strings at Rochester College, and teacher for Oakland Homeschool Music Institute.  She performs with the Wild Swan Theater in Ann Arbor and enjoys entertaining the Gentles at the Michigan Renaissance Festival.  In addition, Lorrie Gunn is president of her company, Frog on Butter, which makes educational violin DVD’s now in demand nationally.

Tikhonova’s mother, Lydia, who loved to sing, initially chose the cello for her six-year-old daughter because it essentially has the same range as a singing voice. Obviously, it was the right choice for Tikhonova continued study at the Tchaikovsky Music Conservatory under Vladimir Panteleev, graduated with a bachelor of music degree from the Music College in Kiev, USSR in 1981 and earned a Master of Music degree from the State Conservatory of Music in Kiev, USSR in 1986.

Before she immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine in 1991, she performed with the Harmony Philharmonic Ensemble of Soloists in Kiev, the Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, and was the assistant principal cellist in the State Symphony Orchestra. She also was an assistant teacher on a Chamber Music Department of the Tchaikovsky Music Conservatory.

Since 1991, Tikhonova has been principal cellist of the Saginaw Bay Symphony, the Bijou Music Ensemble, the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Flint Symphony Orchestra. She has more than 15 years’ experience teaching and coaching cello and chamber music. From 1991 to 2007, she attended Interlochen Chamber Music Conference for Adults. In 2008, she joined the faculty of Cellospeak in Pennsylvania. She enjoys going to the theater and bicycling.

The remaining 2014 Classical series concerts include pianist Christopher Atzinger on Saturday, Feb. 22, Kaleidoscope Violin  and Piano Duo on Saturday, March 22 and Musica Batteria Marimba Duo on Saturday, April 26.

Tickets for the Arpeggiatura Trio concert are $15 or $55 for Classical Series of 4 concerts tickets (which are only available thru January 25, 7:30 p.m. concert.  HVCA members pay $50 for series tickets). 

  Buy tickets at www.huronvalleyarts.org or in person at HVCA art center, 205 W. Livingston Road in Highland. For more information, call (248) 889-8660.  Main Street Art, 432  N. Main St., Milford 248-684-1004.

Written by Anne Seebaldt