Opening the program will be Arnold Cooke's "Three Songs of Innocence," followed by Bagatelles for Clarinet and Piano, five selected songs of Samuel Barber, and six German lieder by Louis Spohr. The concert will close with "American Songbook" featuring a medley of classic songs written for the American theater.

West has performed with many of the country's leading orchestras and chamber groups, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she has had a long-standing association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including appearances with the orchestra both at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood.

Hill has appeared on a broad array of concert and festival series. As a chamber musician he has performed, toured, recorded and broadcast throughout the Americas and in Asia, and since 1983, with the acclaimed Boston Chamber Music Society. Hill is also principal clarinetist of The Boston Philharmonic, and has also served as principal clarinetist of The New Haven Symphony, The Long Beach Symphony, The Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra of Boston, The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The San Diego Symphony, and The Cascade Festival Orchestra in Oregon. He has played with both The Boston Symphony and The Boston Pops.

Hodgkinson achieved recognition as a winner of the International American Music Competition for pianists sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. He has appeared frequently as recitalist and as soloist with major orchestras including those of Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Buffalo, the American Symphony and the Orchestra of Illinois. In recent seasons he appeared as soloist with the New England Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Newton Symphony. He studied at The Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory and has been an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 1983.

The Jean C. Wilson Music Series is named for the founder and director of the music series for 25 years. Now, under the auspices of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist Music Committee, the Music Series typically offers three concerts held during the first three months of the year. Suggested donations are $15, $10 for seniors, children and students free.

Sunday, February 28

Duo 2

Peter Bloom and Mary Jane Rupert

flutes, piano, and harp

The Boston-based duo "2" of flutist Peter H. Bloom and pianist Mary Jane Rupert will present a program of fascinating contrasts on Sunday, Feb. 28, at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport, the second of three concerts in the 2010 Jean C. Wilson Music Series.

The program will include “Sonata in A Major” BWV 1032 by J.S. Bach; “Adelaide Opus 46 with variations” by Beethoven; Aaron Copland’s landmark musical portrait of the American character, "Duo for Flute & Piano”;" Franz Schubert’s “Theme and Variations”Opus 160, which is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the genre); and “Kleemation” a 2003 composition by Elizabeth Vercoe inspired by drawings of Paul Klee.

Praised for “beautiful phrasing, consummate duet passages, superb technical facility,” and hailed for “music that can set the heart singing” by Better Homes & Gardens, Bloom and Rupert have performed together for 20 years, appearing in venues across the globe. They have two CDs on the North Star label.

Bloom has given recitals from Boston to Bangkok; tours internationally with leading chamber music and jazz ensembles; and appears on 30 CDs on labels including Sony Classical, Dorian, Newport Classic, Leo Records and others. The Boston Globe called his music “a revelation for unforced sweetness and strength,” while Jazz Improv praised his "exquisite melody."

Acclaimed as a concert pianist and harpist, Rupert has given solo recitals from Carnegie Hall to Beijing Concert Hall, and has appeared with symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the U.S. She records on the North Star and Harmony Hill labels.

The Jean C. Wilson Music Series is named for one of the founders and the director of the music series for 25 years. Now, under the auspices of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist Music Committee, the Music Series typically offers three concerts held during the first three months of the year. Suggested donations are $15, $10 for seniors, children and students free. For more information about the concert go to www.frsuu.org or call 978-465-0602 x401.

Sunday, March 7 Lois Shapiro, piano Gabriela Diaz, violin All-Brahms program

“Eloquent Expressivity: The Violin Sonatas of Johannes Brahms” featuring violinist Gabriela Diaz and pianist Lois Shapiro will conclude the 2010 Jean C. Wilson Music Series on Sunday, March 7, at 4 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 26 Pleasant St., Newburyport.

The program will include Brahms’ “Rain Sonata” Sonata #1 in G Major; Sonata #2 in A Major, Sonatensatz in C Minor, and Sonata #3 in D Minor.

Hailed by Boston critics as “a young violin master” with “polished technique” and “elegant, accomplished playing,” Gabriela Diaz holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New England Conservatory, where she was a student of James Buswell. She has performed at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, North Country Chamber Players, Monadnock Music, Apple Hill, Vail Valley Bravo Music Festival, and Cactus Pear Festival, and in the summer of 2007 Gabriela acted as concertmistress under Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy in Lucerne, Switzerland.

A Georgia native, Diaz began her musical training at age five, studying piano with her mother, and the following year studied violin with her father. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a type of lymphatic cancer.

As a cancer survivor, Diaz is committed to cancer research and treatment. She has lent her talents to a wide range of related programs and organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, The Race for the Cure, OnCare, Inc., the Columbus Medical Center, and the Egleston Children’s Hospital at Emory University in Atlanta. In 2004, she was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation enabling her to begin organizing a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston called the Boston Hope Ensemble.

A founding member of Triple Helix Piano Trio, in residence at Wellesley College, pianist Lois Shapiro has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, the former USSR, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Hungary, Mexico, Canada. She is the only North American classical musician invited for three consecutive seasons to the International Arts Festival in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and has performed at the Frick Collection, Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Museum of Fine Arts and Jordan Hall in Boston, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Chicago Art Institute, Museum Vleeshuis in Antwerp, Belgium.

Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe called Shapiro “a wonderful artist and a dangerous person to work with.”

“What makes her dangerous is her imagination and her insight,” Dyer said. “These lead her directly into what is most interesting about the music. And her technical resources are such that she is able to do exactly what her imagination and insight intend. Shapiro has the great gift of making everything she does sound inevitable even when it is surprising."

The Jean C. Wilson Music Series is named for one of the founders and the director of the music series for 25 years. Now, under the auspices of the First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist Music Committee, the Music Series typically offers three concerts held during the first three months of the year.

Suggested donations are $15, $10 for seniors, children and students free. For more information about the concert go to www.frsuu.org or call 978-465-0602 x401.