A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Jazimina has sung at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Aspen Music Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival. Locally she has sung with Music on Norway Pond, Electric Earth Concerts, Ashuelot Concerts, and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She has also put together creative new programs interspersing classical songs with poetry and original stories.
More recently, she is pursuing activities with the Harris Center, and is enjoying working with Gordon on exploring American, and particularly, New England folk music. They also continue their collaboration on the American Songbook
The Memoir of E.W. Locke, Three Years in Camp, and Hospital is a remarkable journal of Elbridge Locke's time spent during the Civil War, bringing songs (including many of his own) to the troops. Locke’s writing is charged with passion and detail. The book contains the actual music to just a few of his many songs, then just lyrics to several more. Locke would have remained an unknown, but for a visit with Alan Rumrill, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Cheshire County. It turns out that Locke was an ancestor of Rumrills, and like Rumrill, he was, at least for a time, a resident of Stoddard, New Hampshire.
Presented at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music on July 10, 2018 opened with two Locke lyrics set to music by contemporary composer Miriam Sharrock. It continued with three songs for which the book provided music.
The program then broadened to songs with a New England connection: , a song from the Hutchinson Family, Gordon’s arrangement of Woodland Dream - a tune by Bob McQuillen with words by Richard Nevell, and finally, Gordon’s original (and locally famous) Hills of Nelson.
Lizzie and Kitty Manee: Dan Segwick piano, Marji Gere, violin. Words from Elbridge Locke, Music by Miriam Sharrock
Songs of Elbrige Locke, preceded by readings from Locke's book, narrated by Henry Walters
Marching on to Richmond
Brother, When Will You Come Back?
The Boys in Blue
The Bereaved Mother
Woodland Dream
Hills of Nelson: The narrative of the last scene of the musical Hotel Nelson, followed by the song.
Gordon and Jazimina had prepared a concert of selections from the American Songbook, which had sold out two nights of dinner and a show at Aldworth Manor. The show was scheduled for early April, 2020, but instead the pandemic moved in. Two years later they were finally able to present it.
The unique flavor of this concert, program is suggested by the diverse backgrounds of the musicians. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Jazimina has sung at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Aspen Music Festival, and Marlboro Music Festival. Locally she has sung with Music on Norway Pond, Electric Earth Concerts, Ashuelot Concerts, and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She has also put together creative new programs interspersing classical songs with poetry and original stories.
Gordon’s musical background is more in the folk arena, with some seasoning from rock and roll and blues influences.
The American Songbook, which includes classics from Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, and others, is a temptation hard to resist. Audiences are delighted by the many ways that the familiar songs can be interpreted.
With the sophistication of art song and the freedom of folk music, the American Songbook is a perfect musical meeting place for MacNeil and Peery, and a treasure trove for all.