  |  |
 |
| 2004 Series
Irene
Mrose Rissi, plays the violin and grew up outside of Boston, graduated from
Yale University, taught English in the Baltimore Public Schools, then moved with
her husband and young family to rural Maine where she played for 2 decades with
the Bangor Symphony Orchestra as violist and principal violist and freelanced
as both a violinist and violist. For 25 years, Irene has been teaching violin,
viola, and chamber music to students aged 3 to 75, and building innovative programs
that have brought music to many ears and into many lives. Kim Whitney, the violist in Tapestry, is a native of Alexandria, Va. and received her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Central Florida in violin performance. Kim served as principal violist of the Brevard Symphony Orchestra in Melbourne, Fl, concertmaster of the Imperial Symphony in Lakeland, Fl, and section violinist and violist with the Florida Symphony and Orlando Philharmonic in Orlando. She also toured with the Mantovani Orchestra for the first reunion tour of the United States and has played with the Joffrey Ballet for their Florida performances of Billy the Kid. Prior to moving to Olean, NY, Mrs. Whitney was an active free-lance instrumentalist in the Central Florida area, performing with such artists as Luciano Pavarotti, Roberta Peters, Bob Hope, Henry Mancini, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, Liberace, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson, Bob Walsh and the Allard Quartet. In addition to performing numerous violin solo recitals since her moving to the Olean area, Mrs. Whitney has performed with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and is the violist with the Olean String Quartet. She is married to John Whitney, who is the founding music director for the Southern Tier Symphony. Her daughter, Sarah, is currently pursuing her Masters in Arts Management at Columbia University and her son, Ryan, is a student in Allegany-Limestone Middle School. Dr. Julia Tunstall, the flutist in the group, is a native of Portland, Oregon, a graduate of Eastman School of Music and has lived in Houghton, NY in Allegheny County since 1996. She has developed many arts opportunities in the Southern Tier New York region including the Southern Tier Symphony, based in Olean, New York, and, with the support of a grant from New York State Council on the Arts, a chamber series in Wellsville featuring local professional musicians. She has performed with and was a soloist with the Wellsville Performing Arts Orchestra as well as regional groups such as the Syracuse Opera, Erie Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Binghamton Symphony. She currently teaches flute at Alfred University, and is scheduled to teach music theory at Jamestown Community College in the fall. Her husband, John Georger, is a French horn player and teaches music at Fillmore Central School and her daughter Emily, a ballet dancer, cellist and flutist, is a freshman at Fillmore Central School. Recently, she has performed chamber concerts with Tapestry in Allegany and Cattaraugus County, as well as at the University of Pittsburgh of Bradford. She is also an active recitalist, and last year won a competition to perform new music at the National Flute Association Convention in Las Vegas.
She has played solo and chamber music, including recitals at the Gardiner Museum in Boston, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and recently, with violinist Irene Mrose Rissi, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown Piano Salon series. At present, she teaches piano in Ellington and Jamestown, NY and is a member of the Continuing Education faculty of University Pittsburgh at Bradford.
|
Tapestry
began as a violin-flute duo in August 2003, with the plan to 'weave' other voices
into the group over time. Irene Mrose Rissi is on violin and Julia Tunstall Georger
on flute. Kim Whitney, a violist, joined Tapestry in the spring of 2004. Rosemary
MacKown, accompanied on piano for several pieces. 
Pianist
Rosemary MacKown moved to Ellington, NY, in November, 2000. She is a graduate
from the Eastman School of Music, and also attended the Juilliard School of Music.
She has been on the faculty of Duquesne University, teaching piano, the University
of Massachusetts atBoston, teaching theory and class piano, and on the faculty
of the Extension Division of the New England Conservatory of Music, teaching theory
to children. 
 |