Artists

Peter Martin

Peter Martin, a native and now a resident of University City, Missouri, is an acclaimed jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator. His touring career has taken him to six continents numerous times. In January 2011 Peter performed with a select group of jazz artists at the White House for a State Dinner hosted by President Obama, and he returned to perform for the Governor’s Dinner in February 2012 for the first family and other guests. Peter performed on and arranged Dianne Reeves’ Grammy® winning release A Little Moonlight. He also appeared in George Clooney’s 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck as well as being the featured pianist and an arranger on the Grammy-winning soundtrack.

Peter has performed, toured and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Betty Carter, Christian McBride and Joshua Redman as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. In 2014 Peter was selected to tour with “Newport Now 60”, an all-star ensemble that toured nationwide in celebration of the iconic festival’s 60th anniversary.

Anita Jackson

Vocalist Anita Jackson is a native of St. Louis who returned to the Midwest after living in New York City for 12 years.  She is a graduate of the American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York and has performed extensively nationally and internationally in theater productions, concerts and workshops.  She has recorded and performed as a background vocalist for such artists as Bette Midler, Patti Austin, Mariah Carey, recording artists Chico DeBarge, Joe, Erykah Badu and most notably Cissy and Whitney Houston.  She is a vocalist on Cissy Houston’s Grammy Award-winning albums Face to Face and He Leadeth Me.

Jackson has performed with gospel greats Shirley Caesar, the late Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood and Tramaine Hawkins.  She was a featured vocalist on the 2014 Reach Week in New York City live recording for New Hope for the World Ministries, recorded in Harlem, NY under the auspices of Rev. Terrance L. Kennedy, with Vickie Winans and Melanie Daniels.

In St. Louis, Jackson has been a featured player with the St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre, performing in Gospel at Colonus, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Caroline or Change and Blues in the Night, for which she was nominated for the 2010 Kevin Kline Award for Best Actress in a Musical.  Most recently, she performed as Bertha in Hello from Bertha at the first annual Tennessee Williams festival in St. Louis.  She has appeared as a featured vocalist with several jazz, R&B, blues and gospel organizations in and around St. Louis, from Jazz at the Bistro to BB’s Jazz and Soups, the Heman Park Starlight Concert Series, and The Sheldon.

Royce Martin

Royce Martin began teaching himself piano by watching YouTube videos and playing on his sister’s piano.  Pianos for People gave his family a full-size piano and he won the 2016 Teen Talent Competition and played on the Arts Awards presented by the Arts and Education Council.  He was awarded a paid internship with Open Studio Network and has since represented the Scott Joplin House, been featured on NBC, and collaborated with Jon Batiste.  He is currently a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Rhonda Vincent

Born in Kirksville, Missouri, and raised in nearby Greentop, Missouri, Rhonda Vincent is a fifth generation musician in a very musical family.  She began singing gospel songs at age five with her family’s band which was later known as the “Sally Mountain Show.”  At age eight, she started playing mandolin and added the fiddle to her list of instruments at age twelve.  The family travelled the Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s, and Rhonda recorded her first single, “Mule Skinner Blues” in 1970 and spent two summers playing at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.  She played country music in the 1990s and then returned to her bluegrass roots in 2000 with the release of her Back Home Again album.  She is known as the “Queen of Bluegrass” and her awards include Female Vocalist of the Year several times, Entertainer of the Year, a Grammy, and she was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 2020.

Stefan Freund

Stefan Freund received a BM from Indiana University and an MM and a DMA from the Eastman School of Music. He is presently Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri. Previously he was Assistant Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music.

Freund is the recipient of prizes from ASCAP, BMI, MTNA, MU, and the National Society of Arts and Letters. He has received commissions from the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the Lincoln Center Festival, the New York Youth Symphony, Town Hall Seattle, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Sheldon Concert Hall, and other ensembles and venues. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the St. Louis Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, and the Copenhagen Philharmonic. Internationally, Freund’s music has been played in ten European countries, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. His works have been recorded on the Albany, Innova, Crystal, and Centaur labels. Freund is the founding cellist of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, described by the New York Times as “the future of classical music.” In addition, he serves as the Artistic Director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative and the Music Director of the Columbia Civic Orchestra.

Composer’s notes on Waterways

Waterways was written for The Sheldon’s Missouri Bicentennial Celebration with support of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The piece celebrates Missouri’s geography, specifically its rivers and creeks as well as the topography of the land they run through. Over the past year, my wife and I have been exploring the parks around us since our travel has been limited. We have discovered beautiful nearby natural areas, filled with bluffs that have been carved by the watershed of the Missouri River. These experiences serve as inspiration for the piece.

Waterways opens with gently flowing oscillations in the cello, which form the foundation of the piece. Dark solos from the other instruments float over top, ebbing and growing into climaxes. Eventually a section of running 32^nd notes allows the cello a chance to shine. Undulating phrases follow, featuring rich textures. A respite for brief cadenzas from each instrument sets up the final rush to the ending.

Howard (Rusty) Marshall

Fiddler Howard Marshall, born in Moberly, Missouri, is Professor Emeritus of Art History and Archaeology, former director of the Missouri Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and former Folklife Specialist in the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress.  He is author of numerous books and articles, including Play Me Something Quick and Devilish and Fiddler’s Dream and is awaiting the publication of a third book on fiddling. His ancestors came to Missouri from Virginia and North Carolina and he notes that there has been a fiddler in every generation of his family since at least 1830.