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.
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
Mary Vanhoozer
About
~ Restoring beauty one note at a time ~
A creative and versatile performer, pianist Mary Vanhoozer has performed solo recitals throughout the United States, Scotland and Switzerland, and has taught masterclasses at various schools and institutions from coast to coast. She has appeared as soloist with the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra and the Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra. She has also collaborated in recitals with Peter Slowik (professor of viola at Oberlin Conservatory) and Michell Newman (violinist in the LA Philharmonic). In 2018 she released her debut album for solo piano, From Leipzig to LA. The 3-CD set features the complete partitas of J. S. Bach, as well as a new commission by composer Josh Rodriguez, Partita Picosa.
Also a dedicated teacher, Mary is passionate to cultivate deeper understanding and appreciation of classical music in her students: lessons focus on interpretation, emotive expression, and the role of the imagination.
Mary is an Associate Fellow of the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology in Cambridge, England.
Mary holds degrees in piano performance from Wheaton College Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is grateful for the artistic inspiration and musical mentorship of: Daniel Shapiro, Daniel Paul Horn, Douglas Humpherys, Paul O'Dette, Peter Slowik, and Carol Honigberg.
Mary is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist (violin, hurdy gurdy, hammered dulcimer, vocals) and melodist. She released her first album of original music in 2015, Songs of Day and Night. The music reflects both her love of folk music as well as early music sensibilities, demonstrated in dance rhythms, transparent textures and modal melodies. Sensing a desire to create a more regular outlet for her original melodies, Mary founded a one woman ensemble, Bard and Ceilidh. Her goal for her original music is to "awaken the child in each of us, creating a sense of wonder so that listeners will be able to recognize and celebrate the beauty and small miracles of every day life." In addition to Songs of Day and Night, Mary has released two more albums of original melodies: Bard and Ceilidh and Jubilate.