Internationally acclaimed musician Lauren Pelon will appear in a unique concert at Kilgore Memorial Library, 520 Nebraska Avenue, on Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. Under the title, “Music from the Backyard & Front Porch,” Pelon will perform on approximately twenty ancient and modern wind, string and free-reed instruments, and voice.
This program of American music features the music of America’s indigenous peoples, as well as the songs and instruments of America’s many immigrants and Pelon’s own compositions. “I be- lieve in the importance of local music and local stories,” says Pelon, “and I like to celebrate its great variety and range. This program gives me a chance to do that.”
Pelon plays an astonishing array of instruments. Among the instruments she will be using are Native American flute, concertina, pennywhistle, ocarina, eagle bone flute, guitar, recorder and psalmodikon, all prominent in American history. Other instruments (guitar-lute, archlute, bowed psaltery, lyre, hurdy-gurdy, gemshorns, cornamuse, krummhorn, schreierpfeife, shawm, electric wind instrument and pedalboard) will be used to tell a story or illustrate an idea.
Lauren Pelon has performed throughout the U.S. and in China, Canada, England, Ireland, Scot- land, Russia, Kazakhstan, Australia, and New Zealand. She is noted for her versatile use of a diverse array of instruments, but Pelon has also won recognition for her lovely soprano voice, and for her compelling compositions and arrangements of music from many countries and cul- tures. Lauren has performed with symphony orchestras, The Philadelphia String Quartet, on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” and at the Russian Institute for the History of the Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pelon was the recipient of the 2001 “Artist of the Year” award from The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council. More recently, she received a 2010 Artist Initia- tive Award and 2014 Arts Tour Minnesota Grant Award from the Minnesota State Arts Board.
A Michigan reviewer wrote, “Lauren Pelon is a showpiece by virtue of her beautiful, fervent voice and her extraordinary talents on an assortment of unusual, but authentic instruments.” William Kearns, American Music Research Center, Boulder, Colorado, called Pelon’s programs “captivating and awesome.” A reviewer for The Canberra Times, Australia wrote, “Lauren Pelon has devised a unique evening of entertainment by combining a wide variety of music from many centuries… Her versatility with more than 25 instruments including voice is admirable…an expe- rience made all the more pleasant by Pelon’s relaxed and warm presentation of the rare and un- usual.”
“Music from the Backyard & Front Porch” is sponsored by Friends of Kilgore Memorial Library. “We are so pleased to have Lauren return to York with a new program,” says Deb Robertson, Kilgore Memorial Library Director. “What a great opportunity for our community!” For more information, please call 402-363-2620.