June 7 - 11, 2023

Final Concert: Sunday, June 11th at 3:00

Peter Hall at Moravian University

342 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018

Free and open to the public!

Introducing the 2023 Techne Music Festival Student Roster!

The 2023 Techne Music Festival continues to draw applications from around the world, becoming more and more selective each year. Techne has always been committed to a small number of students who receive full-tuition scholarships and low-cost housing. Congratulations to the Techne Music Class of 2023!

VIOLIN

Arik Anderson

Temple University, PA

Alexander Covelli

Temple University, PA

Nathalie Hernandez

Rowan University, NJ

Emily Mullen

Shenandoah Conservatory, VA

Stefania Osorio Amortegui

Rowan University, NJ

Malachi Provenzano

Boston University, MA

Juan Felipe Villanueva

Rowan University, NJ

Michael Wu

Frost School of Music, FL

CELLO

Christian Hartman

Shenandoah Conservatory, VA

Julian Shively

McGill School of Music, QC

Ian Wasserman

University of Kentucky, KY

VIOLA

Chan, Yeuk Sen

Boston Conservatory, MA

Adrian Jackson

Eastman School of Music, NY

Rosa Ortega Iannelli

Lynn Conservatory, FL

Angela Rubin

Eastman School of Music, NY

Ivory Stephenson

University of Arizona, AZ

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Lawrence Stomberg

Founding member of Techne Music

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 served thirteen years as the cellist of the acclaimed Serafin String Quartet, having toured around the United States and Europe. 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 is a frequent guest at schools across the United States and abroad giving cello and chamber music masterclasses, and finds the work of teaching a vital companion to that of performing.

Having just returned from two tours across the USA, Techne Music Director Timothy Schwarz sat down with Dr. Stomberg to get an in-depth look at his career.

Techne Music: You just returned from not one, but two cross-country tours of the USA. Can you tell us a few places you performed, and any unusual highlights from this trip?

Stomberg: The whole trip was amazing. Getting to drive across the country and see changing landscapes, beautiful sights, and wonderful people, is something I will never forget. Each concert that I was lucky enough to perform was indeed a highlight, playing a few different recital programs with a few wonderful pianist friends, as well as presenting an unaccompanied program of new American works; these recitals were across a number of states out west: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico. One of the cool things about the trip, from a non-musical standpoint, was that it nearly completed my “bucket list” of visiting all the states in the U.S. in my lifetime – except for Alaska, which I hope to visit at some point soon!

Techne Music: In 2018, you received the Established Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts for a fascinating project involving Bach, Wilmington (DE), and six newly commissioned works for solo cello. Can you describe this project, and any influences that were unexpected or particularly notable?

Stomberg: This project, “Bach in Wilmington”, is something very dear to me. When I moved to Wilmington, Delaware 10 years ago, I was looking forward to being in a city with a diversity of people and backgrounds, and for my family to be part of this community fabric. But I soon noticed that, as is the case in most cities, these diverse and wonderful people often put “walls” up around their neighborhoods and areas of town. I had the idea of talking to people and organizations around the city, who were doing good and important work for their neighborhoods, places and people I didn’t know much about before, and creating music that spoke both to the music of Bach (he wrote six glorious solo suites for the cello) and to these people and organizations in my city. I worked with two fantastic young composers/violinists, Mazz Swift, and Alisa Rose, who considered both the music of Bach, and the words of my fellow Wilmingtonians, and they produced six outstanding short pieces that are wonderfully written for the cello, and thoughtfully responsive to the hopes and dreams of my neighbors in the city. When I perform these works, each one is preceded by audio of interviews I did with the individuals who helped inspire the music.

Techne Music: You have lived, performed, and taught throughout the United States as well as South America, Europe and Asia. Can you describe differences in teaching and/or performing in two or three of the places you have lived or been a guest artist?

Stomberg: One thing that I have learned through the joy of teaching and performing in various places, is that great music is made everywhere, and there is a lot more among people that is alike than is different. Certainly, working with musicians in places like China or South America is a different experience than working with Americans – the cultural contexts are indeed diverse, which leads to differences in the way people from these places conceive of concepts like lyricism and the production of sound on their instrument. Whenever I work with musicians in different places, either in a performing or teaching capacity, I’m always struck and inspired by the unique flavor of musical passion. And I suppose that runs both ways: one day, while teaching students in Vienna, Austria (one of the great and historic musical centers), a fellow cellist who was watching my teaching commented on how much he enjoyed my American musical energy; hearing that from someone living in a place like Vienna was an honor!

Techne Music: You have been a well-known collegiate cello professor for most of your professional career. How has your teaching changed since your first college appointment?

Stomberg: As I think happens in most professions, and in life itself, as I’ve gotten older and more experienced in this realm, I find myself being far more patient, both with myself and with my students. At this point in my career, I’ve seen a pretty wide variety of personality types, playing styles, and even tricks/excuses about preparation for lessons and performances, and I think this has made me more effective in identifying what individual students need, both in the short term and long term. I also think I’ve also become more accepting of different teaching and learning traditions and musical pathways to success. No two students are alike, and I think I have learned that, while many foundational aspects of the training need to be standardized to a point, there is a lot of variation in how these foundations can be realized.

Techne Music: You are a founding member of the Techne Music faculty, and have been at every Techne Music Festival for the past 10 years. How have you seen the festival evolve over the past decade?

Stomberg: I’m so very thankful for the last 10 years of my association with Techne, and I look forward to how we grow in the future. Starting as a small music day camp with a limited geographic reach, Techne has become a truly outstanding and inspiring festival, drawing students from around the United States and abroad, and from some of the finest music schools and conservatories. We have remained a small festival, focusing on just a handful of student groups who work intensely for five days, but each year brings new levels of musical communication and achievement. Techne is indeed a summer musical gem.

Techne Music: During the Covid pandemic, classical musicians had to quickly adapt how they performed and taught. Now that schools and concert halls are open again, do you see any of those changes lasting, either in performance or teaching?

Stomberg: I do see some of these changes lasting, mostly in good ways. Live streaming of classical music is something that existed in small ways before the pandemic, but became a lifeblood of our business, and even society in general. While I don’t think live, in-person performance is ever going to go away, the ability to stream it to people and communities far and wide is actually quite exciting, and has the opportunity to expand and invigorate an art form that often gets labeled as old and stodgy.

Regarding teaching, I think the technologies used for online music making, however heinous they often were during the pandemic (nobody longs for the days of Zoom lessons!), can be of tremendous value in musical instruction. During the pandemic, I invested a good deal of energy into improving my own skills in audio and video recording technology, and I have used these skills since we have come back to in-person existence. My work in recording has given my students the opportunity to more specifically see and hear what they are doing in their own work, and their own exploration of these technological skills will be of great value as they go out into the artistic world of the 21^st century.

Techne Music: You have been a Full Professor at the prestigious University of Delaware for many years, and are obviously performing extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician. What keeps you motivated as a teacher and performer, and how do you see your role in both areas evolving in the next 10 – 20 years?

Stomberg: As I enter my late-career years, I do indeed find it necessary to seek out motivation and inspiration in my work, both as a performer and a teacher. I have always been deathly afraid of complacency, knowing that if I stand still for too long, it will have the effect of moving backwards. With each new experience, be that a performance or a new student starting study with me, I feel new inspiration at the opportunity to do this wonderful thing of music making. As a performer, presenting brand new music alongside the great old masterworks is something that hasn’t gotten old for me yet, and I hope never does. Hearing and working with a younger generation of outstanding musicians is also a great source of energy for me, and I find myself learning a great deal from them. As a teacher, seeing a young student experiencing great music for the first time, with the palpable excitement evident in their eyes and body language, I feel re-invented in working with him, even with music that I have been teaching for decades. It’s hard to say with certainty where I will be with my work in 10 or 20 years, though I imagine my role as a mentor will be an increasingly larger part of my career. If I’m lucky, I will still be making music and sharing it with audiences and students in whatever capacity I can.