Mayo Clinic Announces Three October Performances for the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program

Monday, September 28, 2009

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Community members are invited to join Mayo Clinic staff and patients at three Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program concerts in October. Performances are scheduled for three Mondays from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in Barbara Woodward Lips Atrium, subway level, Rochester Methodist Hospital, Charlton Building, 10 Third Ave. N.W.

The schedule is:

Oct. 5: Heritage Days (no concert)

Oct. 12: Ariane Lydon will perform Celtic-influenced music for listeners. Lydon has a strong family background in music. Her musical apprenticeship has spanned three continents and several instruments, including 12- and 6-string guitars, keyboards, Celtic harp and bodhran. When she was 14, her training as a classical pianist led to a second-place finish at the International Piano Competition in Paris (Concours Nerini). During the last 12 years, she has performed in 40 states and shared stages with John Renbourn, John Gorka, Loreena McKennitt and Tamarack, among others. Her most recent recording is "Still She Moves."

Oct. 19: New Roots Duo will perform acoustic guitar music. Based in the Twin Cities, New Roots Duo includes finger-style guitarists Ben Woolman and Dan Schwartz. Both artists have successful solo careers and have now joined forces to write, record and perform music. Their musical explorations have led them to concert performances featuring the acoustic baritone guitar and acoustic lap-steel guitar. Woolman and Schwartz both graduated from the University of Milwaukee's Conservatory of Music and are internationally renowned for their expertise on finger-style guitar. Their latest recording is "Roots Run Deep."

Oct. 26: Vocalist Ruth MacKenzie and guitarist Dirk Freymuth will perform folk and blues. Their work together has taken them to venues such as the Guthrie Theater, the Cedar Cultural Center and the Fitzgerald Theater. MacKenzie has performed throughout the United States and in several Nordic countries. She is best known for creating theatrical music for productions that have included "The Snow Queen" and "Hansel and Gretel" at The Children's Theater Company and "Kalevala: Dream of a Salmon Maiden" at the Southern Theatre. For more than 20 years, Freymuth has had a diverse career playing musical genres ranging from traditional acoustic music to hard rock and Latin jazz. He has also composed music for film and television and has produced dozens of recordings.

Sponsored by Mayo Clinic Center for Humanities in Medicine, the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Harmony for Mayo Program is coordinated by Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester. The series is generously funded by Rosemary Willson in memory of her late husband, Meredith Willson, who wrote the Broadway musical "The Music Man." The gift is made in gratitude for the couple's care at Mayo Clinic. More information can be found online (www.mayoclinic.org/humanities-in-medicine).

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Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers and 50,100 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn; Jacksonville, Fla; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. and community based providers in more than 70 locations in Southern Minn., Western Wis. and Northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com is available as a resource for your health stories.