Brahms Piano Quintet performs at WVC Sept. 1

Media Contacts:  Stacey Lockhart, Foundation executive director, 509.682.6415; Rhia Foster, events coordinator, 509.682.6780; Kara Hunnicutt, Brahms Piano Quintet, 509.679.5123

August 17, 2016

The Brahms Piano Quintet will perform in The Grove Recital Hall on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. at Wenatchee Valley College.  There will be a light social hour in the Marlys Barrett Lobby of the Music and Art Center from 6-7 pm.

A suggested donation of $10 per person is appreciated and will benefit the WVC Foundation Music Excellence Fund and the Icicle Creek Youth Orchestra Scholarship Fund.  Seating is limited; call 509.682.6780 for reservations.

The Brahms Piano Quintet features Denise Dillenbeck and Cecilia Archuleta, violins; Lauren K. Hall, viola; Kara Hunnicutt, cello; and Dr. Duane Funderburk, piano.

This is the third time that Kara Hunnicutt and fellow musicians have performed in The Grove Recital Hall at WVC to support music students in the valley. 

“Creativity and excellence are two things that intensive music study develops in our Wenatchee Valley students,” Hunnicutt said. “I am so proud to be involved in promoting these with a concert to benefit music scholarships.”

Hunnicutt and Funderburk studied Brahms’ “Piano Quintet” at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado as music students. “It’s a joy to play it again with these remarkable musicians and artists,” she said.

Denise Dillenbeck has toured Europe, America and the Caribbean with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has played with the Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Pennsylvania Ballet Theater, Philly Pops and many other orchestras across the U.S. As a member of the Oregon Symphony, she was a featured soloist for several concerts. Dillenbeck was associate concertmaster of the Tacoma Symphony and has served as concertmaster for orchestras across the states and in England. As a member of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, she gave world premiere performances of works by many of today's leading composers. As lead teaching artist in the Philadelphia Orchestra's Community Partnership Program, she led urban elementary school students in experiential music learning, and directed workshops on aesthetic education for classroom teachers and music educators.

Cecilia Archuleta is one of the Pacific Northwest's most sought-after violinists for chamber music. She has participated in twelve seasons at the Olympic Music Festival. Archuleta has appeared with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Guild, Gallery Concerts and the Northwest Puppet Center.

Cecilia has performed both with the Seattle Symphony and with the Pacific Northwest Ballet. She is currently concertmaster of Philharmonia Northwest and a member of the Northwest Sinfonietta.

Lauren Hall plays with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra.

Duane Funderburk has spent many years performing both in the United States and abroad with various chamber musicians, including members of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan, Armenia. From 1999 to 2009, Funderburk served as dean of the School of Music at Azusa Pacific University. He now serves as co-director of worship and the arts at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, Calif. He is also director of the church’s annual concert series and an active performer and founding member of the Los Angeles Collaboration, a trio for piano, violin and cello that performs a wide range of repertoire, including some of his original arrangements.

Kara Hunnicutt is the founder and director of Ellensburg School Orchestra program since 2007. Conductor of the Icicle Creek Youth Symphony since 2011, Hunnicutt was the founder of the Icicle Creek Academy Orchestra in 2005 and founded the music camp in 1988 that is now Icicle Creek Summer Symphony. She conducts five Ellensburg school orchestras during the year and in the summers conducts orchestras at Icicle and Central Washington University’s Prep Strings music camps.

She has been the principal cellist of the Yakima Symphony since 1990.  Solo appearances with Mid-Columbia, Wenatchee, Yakima and Lake Chelan Bach Fest orchestras have featured concertos by Dvorak, Schumann, Lalo, Bloch, Respighi, Walker and Haydn. She taught orchestra classes in the Wenatchee school district 1999-2007 and was on the faculty at Woods House Conservatory of Music in Wenatchee and Icicle Creek Music Center in Leavenworth.