Sandy Pappas was recently elected president of the Spinet music club of Redlands for 2019-20.
Other officers are Lois Musmann, program vice president; Kristen Cameron, vice president for venues; David Weir, recording secretary; Anne Sandel, corresponding secretary; Nancy Doss, treasurer; and Eric Gruenler, parliamentarian.
Nominated for the board of directors are Lorraine Jorgenson, Jerry Ripley and Sally Rehfeldt, with Elizabeth Zeller as past president.
Performers at the group’s May program were were violinist Jing-yu Lou and pianist Geoffrey Merrill of the Belvedere Trio.
Their program featured one movement from J.S. Bach’s First Sonata and Partita for Solo Violin; Bela Bartok’s “Six Romanian Folk Dances”; Fritz Kreisler’s “Liebesfreud” (“Love’s Joy”) and Liebesleid” (“Love’s Sorrow”); Sergei Rachmaninov’s “Vocalise”; Jules Massenet’s “Meditation” from “Thais”; and John Williams’ “Theme from Schindler’s List.”
For an encore, they played “Träumerei” by Robert Schumann.
Lou, who came from China in 1985 to study at the University of Redlands, went on to serve as associate professor at Riverside Community College and as music director and conductor for the college’s symphony orchestra, according to a press release from the Spinet. He has also been a guest conductor of the China Central Opera House Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Philharmonic and others in China. He has performed and soloed with several Southern California orchestras, has performed with several pop and contemporary artists over the years and has produced live events.
Merrill has extensive performing experience as solo recitalist and accompanist in England, Germany, Italy and the United States, including touring throughout England with the Oxford City Symphony, and for the past 10 years has been a soloist and chamber musician for the Settimana della Musica music festival in Murlo, Italy. He has appeared with the High Desert, Highland Park and Southeast symphonies, the Redlands Chamber Orchestra and Eastern New Mexico State University Orchestra. He has also been an accompanist for the annual Metropolitan Opera and National Association for the Teachers of Singing regional auditions.
The program was at the home of Mary Jane Auerbacher in Redlands.
At an earlier program this year, the Citrus Valley High School Jazz Band, directed by Austin Meiners, performed. The band was also one of the recipients of the Spinet’s grants this year to Redlands music organizations.
The grants totaled $1,100 and the other recipients are Redlands Bowl Performing Arts, the Community Chorus of Redlands, Redlands Community Orchestra, Musica Viva and Redlands Festival Singers.
