.png)
The Halcyon Myth
Halcyon derives from the mythological bird (associated with the kingfisher)
which brings calm seas, peace and prosperity during the winter solstice.
According to Greek myth, Alcyone, upon hearing of her husband’s drowning, threw herself into the sea, and was transformed into a bird-- the kingfisher. Her father Aeolus, guardian of the winds, commanded the seas to be calm during the winter solstice, so that her brood may safely hatch. This two-week period is well-known by mariners of the Mediterranean region,
especially near Sicily from where this belief originated.
The halcyon days are days of peace and prosperity.
They have been alluded to by the Roman authors Pliny and Ovid, and later,
by Shakespeare (Hamlet), Milton (On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity);
and Keats, in Endymion, who writes:
O Magic Sleep! O comfortable bird
That broodest o’er the troubled sea of the mind
Till it is hushed and smooth.
Guillaume Combet, Violin
Guillaume Combet, an internationally acclaimed violinist, has been heralded in his most recent recording for his “perfect technique, fidelity to the music, and impeccable articulation." Recorded in London at the Menuhin Hall and released by SOMM Recordings in 2021, the Carlock-Combet Duo's Romantic Violin Sonatas received a 5-star review by the French magazine Classica citing their “constant insights from beginning to end…their generous and rich colour palette" and Mr. Combet's “rich, captivating sound."
In addition to his work with the Carlock-Combet Duo, Mr. Combet has devoted himself to orchestral playing, chamber music, and pedagogy. He has performed with numerous orchestras and chamber ensembles in Paris, Chicago and Philadelphia— Orchestra de l'Opéra de Paris Bastille, Les Virtuoses de France, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra as concertmaster under Barenboim and Boulez, Network for New Music, Opera Philadelphia, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Philly Pops, Academy of Vocal Arts, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, New Music Delaware, and Pennsylvania Ballet. As a pedagogue, Mr. Combet is an Associate Professor at the University of Delaware and currently teaches at Temple University Music Preparatory Division.
Mr. Combet graduated with a Premier Prix (First Prize) in Violin and Chamber Music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he studied with Gérard Poulet and Sylvie Gazeau, and received his Advanced Certificate in Violin Performance from The Juilliard School where he studied with Joel Smirnoff, Robert Mann and William Lincer. Mr. Combet currently lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania with his wife, Helen Eaton, Chief Executive Officer of Settlement Music School, and has two adult children pursuing careers in clinical psychology and theatre.
Maria Dell'Orefice, Piano
Maria Dell’Orefice, a classical pianist and avid violinist, has shared the stage
with a multitude of performers including Chris Botti, Alexander Markov, and
Francesca DePasquale. While Maria frequently presents solo and collaborative performances in the Philadelphia area, she has also performed solo piano in
Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and performed with multiple orchestras on the Marian Anderson Hall stage at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
Maria performed for a program in Italy in which she accompanied opera singers
in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and she has been musical director for the Delaware Valley Opera Company and Wilmington Concert Opera. Maria made her debut at the Walnut Street Theatre pit orchestra with their production of Elf the Musical. She is a recipient of the Association of Church Musicians of Philadelphia Organ Grant and is currently the organist at Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Strafford, PA.
Maria is the pianist for the Haverford College choirs, Staff Pianist Artist in Residence
at Temple University and Staff Pianist at the University of Delaware as well as an
Executive Board Member of Local 77-274, Philadelphia’s Musician’s Union.
Maria has studied under Charles Abramovic, Lambert Orkis, Jane Abbott-Kirk, and Sheila Paige and is an advocate of the Taubman technique. She earned her B.M. in Piano Performance from Baylor University in Waco, TX and a double M.M. in Piano
Performance and Collaborative Piano from Temple University.
Eve Friedman, Flute
Eve Friedman has recently performed as flutist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Opera Philadelphia, the Delaware Symphony, and the world music ensemble EZUZ. as well as with Tempesta di Mare, American Bach Soloists, and Tafelmusik on historical flutes. Her solo playing has been called “particularly fine” by the Washington Post. About her book, Tone Development on the Baroque Flute, the journal Early Music America wrote, “This carefully researched, imaginative book should be on every baroque flutist’s bookshelf.”
Friedman serves on the National Flute Association's Historical Flutes Committee, and has also been a judge/guest artist for the American Musicological Society, San Francisco Conservatory, and the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia.
She received her Master of Music from Boston University and holds a Doctor of Music from Indiana University. Currently, Friedman is on the faculties of Drexel, Temple, and Rowan Universities, and spends each summer performing and teaching at the Summerkeys festival in Maine.
Lawrence Stomberg, Cello
Cellist Lawrence Stomberg enjoys a varied career of performance as soloist and chamber musician, pedagogue, and in community outreach through music. Hailed for "style and elegance" and "drama and rhetoric" (Strings Magazine), and "lyrical yet impassioned interpretation" (Fanfare Magazine), he has been a featured performer at theEastern Music Festival and Texas Music Festival, and Serafin Summer Music and Master Players Festival, and performs annually at the Techne Music Festival. He served thirteen years as the cellist of the acclaimed Serafin String Quartet, having toured around the United States. Stomberg is invested in presenting the music of the old masters, including recent performances of the cycle of the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello of J.S. Bach and the complete Cello and Piano works of Beethoven, as well as bringing new works and compositional voices to life, with recent and upcoming premiers and commissions of solo, sonata, chamber, and concerto works by composers Kirk O'Riordan, David Osbon, Richard Prior, Mazz Swift, Alisa Rose, and Ketty Nez. Concerts have taken him across four continents, with recent solo and chamber music performances in the cities of London, Vienna, Bogotá, as well as across the United States. He has recorded for the Centaur, Naxos, Albany, Ravello, and VAI labels.
As a recipient of the 2018 Delaware Division of the Arts Established Artist Fellowship, Stomberg turned much of his performance activity to musical outreach and community engagement through his project, Bach in Wilmington, which paired the six Suites for Solo Cello of J.S. Bach with recorded interviews of residents of Wilmington, Delaware (his current home), and commissioned works responding both to Bach and Wilmington, by violinists and crossover artists Mazz Swift and Alisa Rose. This work continues, with continuing performance and teaching artist appearances in community centers, churches, food pantries, and re-entry programs around the city, and an upcoming online video series.
Stomberg is a busy and dedicated pedagogue, having served on the faculties at Truman State University in Missouri and Oklahoma State University before joining the music faculty at the University of Delaware School of Music in 2004, where he is currently Professor of Cello and Associate Director for Performance Studies. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware with his wife, cellist and pedagogue Jennifer Crowell Stomberg. They have three adult children, as well as an animal menagerie of three cats, a dog, and a turtle.
Renee Warnick, Viola
Violist Renee Warnick is an active orchestral, chamber, and recording musician in the greater Philadelphia region. She is Assistant Principal Viola of the Bay-Atlantic Symphony and the Lancaster Symphony and has toured nationally and internationally as a member of the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. She performs frequently with such groups as Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Delaware Symphony, Kennett Symphony, Opera Philadelphia, Ocean City Pops, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Reading Symphony, and the Endless Mountain Music Festival. A devoted chamber musician, she is a member of the Elysian Camerata and has been a guest artist with the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Warnick has played in the pit orchestra for Broadway at the Kimmel Center and Arden Theater productions and was featured as an on-stage musician for the 2012 American premier of Love Story, the Musical at the Walnut Street Theater. She has recorded numerous commercial string tracks at Milk Boy, Minor Street, and Morningstar Studios and with the Dark Horse Orchestra, including tracks for the 2014 Michael Jackson album Xscape.
Ms. Warnick holds Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees from Temple University, where she studied with Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Violist Chong-Jin Chang. Ms. Warnick is a member of the music faculty at Germantown Friends School and has previously been on the string faculties of Temple Music Prep and Settlement Music School. She currently maintains a private teaching studio in Chestnut Hill, where she resides with her husband and two children. Other interests include yoga, cooking, traveling, and knitting.