There will be a free recital with Ann Rylands on violin and Bruce Ashton on piano, playing all French music by Vieuxtemps, Ysaye, Debussy and Frank, at the Baylor School Chapel, on Sunday, March 21, at 3 p.m. A reception will follow.
Dr. Bruce Ashton is a distinguished professor emeritus at Southern Adventist University and is well-known to audiences.
A native of Ohio, he received his Bachelors degree in music from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. His master's degree was earned at the American Conservatory in Chicago, Il., and his doctoral work was completed at the University of Cincinnati.
He has soloed with orchestras and been sought-after by professionals on recitals. Chamber music has been a major activity in his life with his family, who all play string instruments. Dr. Ashton and his family have been the founders of a new chamber music program for students called “At First Sight” held every June at Southern University in Collegedale.
Ann Rylands, a nationally-respected solo, chamber and orchestral violinist and teacher, earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees at the Julliard School of Music, where she studied with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay.
She holds her doctorate in violin performance from the University of South Carolina. She spent a year with Theodor Muller at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and summers at Meadowmount and at the Tanglewood Music Festival, as a Fromm Fellowship with Gunther Schuller as director.
She has studied chamber music with Robert Mann, Claus Adam, Raphael Hillyer, Felix Galimer, and Walter Trampler.
She was the founder, music director and first violinist of the Craftsbury Chamber Players in Greensboro, Vermont from 1966-1982 with weekly summer concerts for two months in Vermont.
Dr. Rylands has taught at Converse College, Sewanee Music Festival, Ithaca College and Shenandoah College and has perfomed as a soloist with many major orchestras and chamber groups. Her students have been accepted to Curtis Institute, the Julliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, Interlochen, North Carolina School of the Arts, Cleveland Institute of Music and Meadowmount.