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
Angelus ad Virginem*
Mary Vanhoozer
About
~ Restoring beauty one note at a time ~
A creative and versatile musician, Mary Vanhoozer fuses artistry with passion in her numerous musical endeavours. As a professional pianist, she has performed solo recitals and chamber music programs throughout the United States, as well as 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. In 2018 she released her debut album for solo piano, From Leipzig to LA. The 3-CD set features the complete keyboard partitas of J. S. Bach, as well as a new commission by composer Josh Rodriguez, entitled Partita Picosa.
Mary is deeply passionate about renaissance and baroque music: during her graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music she studied baroque performance practice with renown lutenist and scholar Paul O'Dette, and later received voice lessons from Ellen Hargis at Case Western Reserve University.
Mary is especially keen on 16th to early 18th century French dance music. In November 2021, she made her Los Angeles debut on hurdy gurdy joining the critically acclaimed Ciaramella Ensemble for a concert of renaissance dances. Mary performs on a newly commissioned instrument built by the French luthier, Jacques Grandchamp.
Mary is an Associate Fellow of the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology in Cambridge, England.
In addition to piano and hurdy gurdy, Mary also plays the violin and hammered dulcimer. An avid 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.
Responding to a desire to create, arrange, and play these melodies more regularly, Mary created Bard and Ceilidh: a one-woman, multi-instrumental studio recording ensemble. 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, she has released three more albums of original melodies: Bard and Ceilidh (2019), Jubilate (2020), and Visible and Invisible (2021), as well as three albums of Christmas music. Her most recent recording, 'Simon's Beard,' features rounds from 16th and 17th century England, arranged for voice, violin, hurdy gurdy, and percussion.
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). 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.