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Pear Tree and Partridge
Laura Hairgrove Randall and Mary Vanhoozer are Renaissance women who love to make music, engage in rich conversation, and share the gift of beauty in the everyday through a variety of creative outlets. Their shared passion have led them to Pear Tree and Partridge:
More than simply a music duo, their musical and creative collaboration also represent a way of living.
Pear Tree and Partridge is committed to crafting live music with skill, dedication, and creativity with the aim to create excellent music for the joy, enrichment, and good of their local communities. In addition to concerts, Pear Tree and Partridge also shares blogs, poetry, recipes, and pictures on their website, creating a virtual space for artistic reflection and personal rejuvenation.
Pear Tree and Partridge
Laura Hairgrove Randall and Mary Vanhoozer are Renaissance women who love to make music, engage in rich conversation, and share the gift of beauty in the everyday through a variety of creative outlets. Their shared passion have led them to Pear Tree and Partridge:
More than simply a music duo, their musical and creative collaboration also represent a way of living.
Pear Tree and Partridge is committed to crafting live music with skill, dedication, and creativity with the aim to create excellent music for the joy, enrichment, and good of their local communities. In addition to concerts, Pear Tree and Partridge also shares blogs, poetry, recipes, and pictures on their website, creating a virtual space for artistic reflection and personal rejuvenation.
Multi-instrumentalist and melodist
Angelus ad Virginem*
Mary Vanhoozer
Multi-instrumentalist Mary Vanhoozer grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she learned to play the Scottish fiddle and developed an enduring love of folk music. At age 9 she began attending the St. Mary's School of Music where, in addition to academics, she also studied piano (which she started with her father at age 5), violin lessons, and participated in chamber music rehearsals and sang in the choir.
Mary's French mother introduced traditional noëls from southern France to the family; this repertoire played an equally formative role as it features the hurdy gurdy quite prominently. Since acquiring her first gurdy, Mary has eagerly continued to research and perform a variety of repertoire on the instrument, from medieval dances to French baroque suites and sonatas. In 2021 she became a member of the critically acclaimed Ciaramella Ensemble, joining on renaissance hurdy gurdy and vielle, and in 2026 she joined the Newberry Consort. She also plays baroque hurdy gurdy in the Adelaide Ensemble, a French baroque ensemble featuring music written especially for the vielle à roue (hurdy gurdy).
A passionate educator and hurdy gurdy advocate, Mary curates concerts for educational institutions: her programs contain a variety of repertoire and are accompanied by slides and spoken introductions to musical selections. She also serves as a co-director of the Wheel Song Hurdy Gurdy Festival, a three-day summer festival of workshops, lectures, and concerts held at Elmhust University.
A versatile performer and melodist, she has written, recorded, and produced albums of original music; the melodies offer a unique blend of styles and musical traditions significant to her: European folk music traditions, and medieval and renaissance dance music. Bard and Ceilidh, her one-woman studio recording ensemble, is rooted in historical and folk traditions, creating a sound world into which the child in each of us is invited to marvel, rest and enter into creative but serious play.
A dedicated teacher, Mary maintains a private studio for both piano and hurdy gurdy lessons: she loves to help her students gain a deeper love and understanding of music, develop a vision to share live music with local community, and cultivate an appreciation for the craft of performance. She is also a music faculty at Elmhurst University teaching classes in both music fundamentals and medieval and renaissance music history. Mary holds degrees in piano performance from Wheaton College Conservatory (B.M.), the Eastman School of Music (M.M.), and the Cleveland Institute of Music (D.M.A).