Bozeman Magazine

A Bozeman Symphony chamber ensemble performs a concert at the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts – 415 East Lewis Street, Livingston, MT - on Thursday, August 28 at 7:30 PM.  Featured are Bozeman Symphony musicians Julia Cory Slovarp on cello, Laurel Yost on piano, Jon Ford on bass and the symphony’s Maestro Matthew Savery on drums performing Claude Bolling’s Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio.
 
Dr. Julia Cory Slovarp, cello
Assistant Professor Dr. Julia Cory Slovarp teaches cello, chamber music, music theory, and directs the cello ensemble at Montana State University-Bozeman. A dynamic musician and innovative educator, Dr. Cory Slovarp enjoys playing music ranging from symphonic and chamber literature to new music in every genre. She has performed with symphonies in Bozeman (Montana), Terre Haute and Columbus (Indiana) and Round Rock, Temple, and Waco (Texas), as well as the Intermountain Opera Company.
 
A dynamic musician and innovative educator, Dr. Cory Slovarp enjoys playing music ranging from symphonic and chamber literature to new music in every genre. She has performed with symphonies in Bozeman (Montana), Terre Haute and Columbus (Indiana) and Round Rock, Temple, and Waco (Texas), as well as the Intermountain Opera Company. Her ability to play a wide and diverse spectrum of repertoire has made her in demand as a collaborative musician, and she has performed with artists in other disciplines including visual artists, actors, and dancers. Some projects include performing for Cirque du Soleil, Willie Nelson, and the off-Broadway production of West Side Story.
 
A native of Montana, Dr. Cory Slovarp received her Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington, studying primarily with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Emilio Colón. She holds a Doctorate in Music from the University of Texas at Austin, completed under the tutelage of Bion Tsang. While at The University of Texas, she was involved in the UT String Project, and completed Suzuki training with Dr. Melissa Kraut.
 
Laurel Yost, piano
Associate Professor of Piano at Montana State University-Bozeman, is currently completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Iowa. She received her Master of Music degree from Colorado State University and was awarded the Certificate of Advanced Solo Studies from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England. Ms. Yost also studied at Whitworth College. She is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Colorado Women's College. An active teacher, Ms. Yost has taught at Colorado State University and Northeast Missouri State University. She won the University of Iowa Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. Winner of several competitions, she has performed many solo and chamber recitals. She has been a featured soloist with many orchestras, including the Casper, Washington-Idaho, and Denver Symphonies. Ms. Yost is a member of the Camerata Trio, Beethoven Trio, Milhaud Trio, and Montana State University-Bozeman New Music Ensemble.

Maestro Matthew Savery, drums
Now in his 21st season as Music Director of the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Choir and continuing in his 7th season as Music Director of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, MATTHEW SAVERY enjoys an expanding reputation for his multi-faceted career as an electrifying performer, dedicated orchestra builder and charismatic teacher.
 
Along with his regular duties with the Bozeman Symphony, where his innovative subscription, family and children’s programming earns consistent praise – and sold-out houses,  Matthew Savery has established an active commissioning program, bringing compelling new compositional voices to his orchestra and its audiences, among them: Kenneth Fuchs - Glacier (Concerto for Electric Guitar and Orchestra); Erik Santos - Karnak, …in the Mines of Desire, Sun Road (Five Symphonic Dances for Orchestra); Elodie Lauten - Symphony 2001; James M. Stephenson, III - Concertino and Fanfare for Orchestra; Lowell Liebermann - Concerto for Clarinet. During his years with the orchestra, Mr. Savery has also presided over a ten-fold rate of financial growth, while regularly attracting over 4.3% of Bozeman’s population to its concerts. For several seasons, Matthew Savery offered the Montana’s schools a “Conductor in Residency” program that accounted for dozens of hours per school year. He is much in demand as both a competition adjudicator and an in-school clinician. Mr. Savery is a recipient of the Eugene and Sadie Power Award for the Performing Arts. In October 1998, he and the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra were the subjects of a special feature on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
 
Since his 2008 appointment to the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, Matthew Savery and his notable artistic and organizational skills have refocused the greater-Casper area’s attention on the orchestra with gratifying results, among them a dramatic elevation of the orchestra’s artistic achievement and the quality of its guest artists, a broadening of the scope of the performance repertoire, a 30% increase in attendance and a 35% increase in the budget. With enthusiastic Board support, he introduced children’s and family concerts during the 2013-2014 season, while introducing “Music on the Move,” an outreach program, featuring chamber ensembles who serve as ambassadors from the orchestra to the community at large and “Conductor in Residency” – both programs offered to all educational levels, from primary to college. Of special pride to the entire organization are the plans to tour throughout the State of Wyoming, beginning with the 2013-2014 season.
 
A native of Western Massachusetts, just “down the road” from the famed Tanglewood Music Festival, Matthew Savery graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music and received his Master of Music Degree from the University of Michigan, where he was the recipient of a Teaching Assistantship to the prestigious studio of Gustav Meier and to which he returned in 2001 and 2006 as a Visiting Guest Lecturer. In addition to Mr. Meier, his principal teachers have been Pascal Verrot and Frank Battisti.
 
While at the University of Michigan, Matthew Savery was the founding Music Director of the University Campus Chamber Orchestra; subsequently, he served as Music Director of the Comic Opera Guild of Ann Arbor. He has also led performances with the Boise, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Long Island and Naples philharmonics, East Texas, El Paso, Greater Bridgeport (16 performances), Greater Lansing, Lake St. Clair, New Haven, Quad City, Saginaw Bay, Sioux City, Springfield (MA, MO and OH), South Dakota and Virginia symphony orchestras, Missouri Chamber Orchestra, Cape May Music Festival, Canada’s Victoria Symphony, Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari and Turkey’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 he made a notable debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, opening its acclaimed summer series at Conner Prairie. Mr. Savery was a member of the first class of the International Institute for Conductors in Kiev, Ukraine, and has led that country’s National Symphony Orchestra in public performance.
 
Jon Ford, bass
Jonathan Ford received his musical training in California, where he learned to play double bass, baritone horn, euphonium and tuba. He has played in groups conducted by Alberto Bolet, Mehli Mehta and Frederick Fennell.  While majoring in the hard sciences, he continued in music with the University of California at Davis Symphony. He has played many full seasons with the Montana Association of Symphony Orchestras ensembles in the southern part of Montana, and more occasionally the orchestras in the northern part of the state. He has been principal double bass for The Bozeman Symphony since the mid 1980's, and is the double bass in the pit orchestras of the Montana Ballet and the Intermountain Opera. He taught double bass in the Department of Music for seven years in the 1990's. He is recently retired as Managing Director of Environmental Services, a facilities maintenance operation at Montana State University, and has now returned to the Department of Music in a reprise of his former role.
 
Tickets are $15.00 for adults and $10.00 for students, children 17 and under, or seniors 65 and older.  Tickets are available for purchase online at www.bozemansymphony.org or by phone at 585-9774. Please contact the Bozeman Symphony office at 585-9774 for information about special discounts or offers related to this concert.