Biographies
Bassoonist Eric Van der Veer Varner has enjoyed a particularly rich and varied musical career. He was the principal bassoonist with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra from 2004 through 2015. He appeared as a soloist with the orchestra on numerous occasions, where his playing was critically hailed as that “of ineffable liquid beauty”. Previously, he held positions with the Ann Arbor Symphony, Michigan Opera Theater, and Sarasota Opera Orchestra. He performs in numerous summer festivals, including the Bellingham Festival of Music, the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, and the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp.
Dr. Varner holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree (2004) from the University of Michigan, where he also earned a Master of Music (2002) and Bachelor of Music (1996) degrees. He also holds a degree in Artistic Education (1998) from the Mannheim-Heidelberg Conservatory in Mannheim, Germany. His primary teachers were Richard Beene, Alfred Rinderspacher, Hugh Cooper and Michael Dicker.
Currently professor of bassoon and woodwind department chair at the Lynn Conservatory, Dr. Varner has previously held faculty appointments at Miami University (Ohio), Heidelberg University, and the University of Windsor. He also spent fourteen summers working at the Interlochen Arts Camp, where he was the Assistant Director of the High Schools Boys Division. Dr. Varner is the owner of TrevCo-Varner Music, “the world’s foremost purveyor of fine sheet music for double reeds”. TrevCo-Varner Music is the largest company in the world dedicated solely to double reed music, with over 12,000 titles in stock from publishers all over the world.
An active soloist and chamber musician, Dr. Varner has appeared throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada. He is a founding member of the PEN Trio, a trio d’anche that explores the both traditional repertoire for reed trio, as well as championing new music. In collaboration with TrevCo Music Publishing, the PEN Trio Collection was recently founded in order to publish and disseminate works commissioned by the trio. The 2015-16 PEN Trio season includes performances in China, Hong Kong, Trinidad, Panama, Guatemala, Coast Rica, and Cuba as well as tours in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Utah and Texas. This season will also see the recording the PEN Trio’s debut album, “Found Objects” with Sound Mirror in New York City, scheduled for release in late 2017.
Hailed as a pianist who “communicates deep artistic understanding through a powerful and virtuosic technique”, Lisa Leonard enjoys a diverse career as soloist, chamber musician, and educator. In 1990, at age 17, Ms. Leonard made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in six concerts at the Kennedy Center. She has appeared throughout Europe, Japan, Russia, and North America with many orchestras including recent performances with the Redlands Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Mozart Players, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela with conductors including Gunther Schuller and Gustavo Dudamel.
An active and dedicated chamber musician, her recent collaborations have included recitals with Elmar Oliveira, Marc Reese and Guillermo Figueroa. She is a long time member of the Palm Beach Chamber Players and has performed with members of the Concertgebouw, Berlin, Vienna, New York, Cleveland, Dallas, Minnesota and Cincinnati Symphonies; American and Miami String Quartets, and the Empire Brass Quintet in performances featured on National Public Radio's “Performance Today” and “Command Performance” programs.
Her love of new music has resulted in several premieres of both solo and chamber music including James Stephenson’s Concerto for Trumpet and Piano which was written for her and her husband, Marc Reese, which they premiered with the Lynn University Philharmonia. The performance was noted as one of South Florida’s Top 10 performances of 2007 which also included her performance of the Brahms F minor Piano Quintet at the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival. Critic Lawrence Budmen said, “Her stellar technique, deeply penetrating musicality and volcanic power turned Brahms’ darkly ruminative score into an edge of the seat tour de force. She uncovered new sonic layers in an awesome deconstruction of a chamber music masterpiece.”
Leonard has served on the faculties of the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Meadowmount School of Music as a collaborative pianist, and the Las Vegas Music Festival. She is currently the head of the Graduate Instrumental Collaborative Piano Program at Lynn University, where she also directs the annual New Music Festival, a week-long celebration of modern music which has presented more than fifty world premieres since 2006. She has performed at many festivals including the Pacific Music Festival, Gilmore International and Caramoor; has been featured on Japan’s NHK television network, PBS and can be heard on the Klavier, Centaur, and Summit labels. A native of Washington D.C., Leonard received her M.M. and B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music where she was the premiere recipient of both the Rubinstein and Balsam awards, two of the highest awards given. Her former teachers include Marc Silverman, Suzanne W. Guy, Eric Larsen, Isidore Cohen, Thomas Schumacher, Cynthia Phelps, David Geber and the Meadowmount Trio.