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ABOUT DAMSELFLY

The Damselfly Trio - Liz Pearse, soprano; Chelsea Czuchra, flutes; and Lindsay Buffington, harp - is a mobile chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of contemporary composers and poets/writers. Inspired in part by the Jubal Trio’s commissions in the 1980’s, Damselfly has set out to commission, perform and record a new body of music and text for their uncommon ensemble by composers and poets of varying experiences from around the world.

Damselfly’s most recent concert tour included performances at four venues in Chelsea’s home state of North Carolina. Centered around the music of Ursula Mamlok and supported by the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok-Stiftung, they performed their “Garden of my Soul” program at Black Mountain College, UNC-Wilmington, Coastal Carolina Community College, and at the Lookout Lounge in coastal Beaufort, NC. Prior to this, Damselfly toured Switzerland in summer 2019, performing at several art galleries and venues around the Swiss cantons of Basel-Stadt and Aargau. On this program, they performed the music of Swiss composer Alfred Zimmerlin alongside works by American, Irish, and German composers.

In September and October 2018, Damselfly Trio toured eastern North Carolina, Ireland and Northern Ireland featuring their concert program “The Little Songbook Project”. The tour included the premiere of Buaine na Gaoithe, a new work by the Irish composer Ryan Molloy and poet Martin Dyar, for which Damselfly received an Irish Arts Council Commissioning grant. Appearances included concerts at East Carolina University, Craven Arts Council/Bank of the Arts, Maynooth University, Queen’s University Belfast, The Hugh Lane, Dublin, BBC NI, and the Wild Atlantic Words Festival. In addition to concerts, Damselfly presented outreach events in Jones and Craven County schools and in other local community organizations in NC and Ireland. In preparation for this tour, Damselfly held a 2018 performance residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, where they worked with composers Pierce Gradone (in person), and Ryan Molloy and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (via electronic wizardry).

The Little Songbook Project is a multi-year collaboration of the Damselfly Trio and a diverse collective of composers and word-makers (poets, writers, text artists). A central focus of the project is to give voice, sonically and in words, to artists of all walks of life and experience. In each Book, the performers reflect back on commissions by the groundbreaking Jubal Trio, and juxtapose these with new pieces written for Damselfly.

Building on the wonderful works by George Crumb (Federico’s Little Songs for Children), Tania Leon (Journey), Ursula Mamlok (Der Andreasgarten) and others, Damselfly has commissioned Pierce Gradone, Lindsey Jacob and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon for new works for Book One from 2018-2020. These new compositions feature poetry or text by Nichole O. Nichols (Jacob), Juan Rulfo (Zohn-Muldoon) and Stephanie Anderson (Gradone).

Book Two commissions will include new works by Vera Käppeler, Alfred Zimmerlin, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Jesse Jones.

ENSEMBLE MEMBERS

CHELSEA CZUCHRA - FLUTES

LINDSAY BUFFINGTON - HARP

LIZ PEARSE - VOICE

Passionately dedicated to the flute and new music in particular, Chelsea Czuchra is an active performer in Europe and North America. In addition to working as a freelance orchestral player, Chelsea has diverse experience as a collaborative musician in the realms of new music, various world musics and improvisation. Current projects include the Cochlea Duo with Lindsay Buffington, harp, commissioning new works for flute and harp, the Little Songbook Project with Liz Pearse, soprano and Cochlea Duo, and an on-going project commissioning works for vocalizing/moving flutist. For different commissioning projects, Chelsea has received grants from the Nicati-de Luze Foundation, Basel City/Land, and the Swiss Interpreter’s Society.

Chelsea has performed at the Zeiträume Festival Basel, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, soundSCAPE Festival, PASIC, Vancouver Int’l New Music Festival and Darmstadt Festival. With different chamber music ensembles she has performed at various universities including University of Kentucky in Lexington, University of Tennesse in Knoxvillle, Berea College, University of Southern California, UCSB and CSU-LA among others. Radio appearances include KXLU in LA, Radio X in Basel, Switzerland and ‚Relevant Tones’ at WFMT Chicago.

Chelsea studied at UNCSA with Philip Dunigan, NC Governor’s School, Purchase College (BFA) with Sandra Miller and Stefani Starin, and at the California Institute of the Arts with Rachel Rudich. Other flute mentors include John Fonville, Dorothy Stone, James Newton, Marianne Stücki, and Lisa Cella.

Based in Basel, Switzerland since 2000, Chelsea also maintains an active teaching schedule, working with flutists from 5 to 85 in both the Swiss and international communities.

Originally from Glenwood, Maryland, USA, Lindsay grew up in a music-loving family, listening to music ranging from classical to rock ‘n roll to country, with a heavy dose of American musical show tunes. She studied piano and clarinet from a young age, and first discovered the harp at around age 12 at a summer music camp. Following this chance encounter, she had the opportunity to start learning the harp at age 15, as her high school happened to have a harp that had been donated to the school system. Lindsay began her harp studies with Elaine Bryant of Eldersburg, MD, and after a short period of intensive studies, decided to make her hobby into her profession by pursuing her harp studies at the college level.

Lindsay attended the University of Maryland, College Park where she studied harp with Rebecca Anstine Smith, former principal harpist at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Passionate about foreign languages and travel, Lindsay also studied French and Spanish during this time. Following two years of studies at the University, she decided to pursue her dream of studying and living abroad and spent 2005 to 2007 at the Conservatory of Lausanne in Switzerland, studying with the French harpist Chantal Balavoine Mathieu. In the fall of 2007, she returned to the USA and the University of Maryland to finish her Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, in December 2007.

Determination to continue her harp studies brought her back to Lausanne in 2008, where she again studied with Ms. Mathieu and completed her Master of Music in Performing Arts at the Conservatory with the highest honors in 2010. In the same year, she moved to Lucerne, Switzerland, and enrolled in the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy program at the Hochschule Luzern – Musik, studying with the Swiss harpist Xenia Schindler. Lindsay received the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy in summer 2012.

Lindsay is a multi-faceted performer who thrives on playing in diverse musical styles and in different kinds of groups. She enjoys an active freelance career in Switzerland and abroad, and plays regularly as a soloist and with groups including orchestras, chamber groups, choirs and big bands. She has performed with the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, Christoph Walter Orchestra, Mädchenkantorei Basel, Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein, Ensemble Boswil, Ensemble Paul Klee, Basel Sinfonietta, The Sparkling Diamonds, Camerata Musica Luzern, Ajay Mathur Band, Sinfonietta de Lausanne, Orchester Spiez, and the Instrumental Ensemble Goldau among others.

Teaching is an important part of Lindsay’s work. She teaches harp at the Musikschule Horw and Musikschule Hochdorf in Kanton Luzern. She has also worked as a substitute teacher for colleagues in music schools throughout Switzerland. Past employers include the Musikschule Stadt Luzern, Musikschule Werdenberg and Musikschule der Region Thun.

More about Lindsay

Finding joy in variety, Liz Pearse is a musician of many pursuits. Liz began her exploration of the endless possibilities of the voice after a childhood spent playing any instrument she could lay hands upon. As a performer, her uniquely colorful and versatile voice has led to performances of wide-ranging works from medieval to modern, and though she is known as a specialist in contemporary vocal repertoire, she also deeply enjoys a well-aged song. Liz has recently begun a long-term project commissioning and performing works for singer at the piano (though she still enjoys the collaborative process!), and looks forward to presenting her second full-length recital of such pieces, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Poulenc’s La bestiaire featuring newly-commissioned animal portraits, in 2019.

Liz has a special affinity for music post-1900. As a soloist, her recent projects include multiple performances of Pierrot lunaire, touring Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi, electroacoustic programming including Philomel, and on-going commissions dedicated to the creation of works for self-accompanying soprano.

In addition, Liz forms one-quarter of Quince Ensemble, a treble quartet dedicated to the creation and performance of contemporary vocal literature. With Quince, Liz has performed on tours of Morton Feldman’s Three Voices, David Lang’s love fail (including the work’s Polish premiere), and on numerous collegiate residencies and festivals from coast to coast. Quince’s third album, Motherland, was released to critical acclaim by New Focus Records in April 2018. Quince will record love fail in 2019.

In previous seasons, Liz has had the privilege of performing at the Lucerne Festival, singing Berio's Coro under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. She also performed at soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where in 2013 she shared the distinction of "Outstanding Performer" with her brother, conductor and percussionist John J. Pearse. Other chamber and solo engagements have included the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium; (le) poisson rouge; Omaha Under the Radar; Kerrytown Concert House; Baldwin Wallace University; and Constellation Chicago. Her opera credits include Lyric Opera Kansas City, Michigan Opera Theatre, Toledo Opera, and Opera in the Ozarks, in addition to many performances with Indiana University and Bowling Green State University Opera Theatre.

As a doctoral student of Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Liz researches the prevalence and incorporation of contemporary repertoire in the collegiate voice studio, and her mentor is Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers. Prior to her doctoral work, Liz studied with Patricia Stiles at Indiana University.

More about Liz