BELLOWS FALLS — Stone Church Arts presents two world-class musicians, pianist Virginia Eskin and mandolinist August Watters, on Saturday, Feb. 25, at Immanuel Episcopal Church, the stone church on the hill at 20 Church St.
Watters is a multi-stylistic, improvising mandolinist, composer/arranger, and teacher in Boston. His work as an interpreter, improviser, composer, and arranger bridges contemporary classical music, jazz, folk-music traditions, and the historical concert-mandolin repertoire. He is the founder of the New England Mandolin Ensemble, Boston Mandolins, the Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music, and Cape Cod Mandolin Camp.
As an international clinician and soloist, Watters has performed in Italy, Germany, England, the Czech Republic, England, Canada, and the U.S. He is also an Emmy award-winning arranger, with dozens of studio credits as arranger, orchestrator, and conductor for television and film music.
Eskin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Annapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, New Hampshire, Rochester, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Utah Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Classical, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Boston Pops.
She has also performed as a soloist with the New York City and Boston Ballet Companies, at Morgan Library in New York and Jordan Hall in Boston, and in concert halls and museums throughout the U.S. and Europe. Her many recordings include works by American composers Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Rebecca Clark and George Chadwick.
She is adjunct professor of music at Keene State College, which in 2009 awarded her an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in recognition of her contributions to women's music.