Drawing Room Concert Features Violinist Akemi Takayama with cellist Kelley Mikkelsen
Intimate Event also Includes Wine & Cheese Reception and Exclusive Access to MSV Gardens

Winchester, VA 7/27/16…Classical music from acclaimed violinist Akemi Takayama and cellist Kelley Mikkelsen, a wine-and-cheese reception, and special evening access to the Glen Burnie House and surrounding seven-acre gardens will highlight the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV) Glen Burnie Salon Series concert from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 4.

For the concert, the Glen Burnie House and Gardens will open at 5 p.m., wine and cheese will be served on the drawing room terrace, and attendees may explore the house and gardens at their leisure. The concerts will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Glen Burnie House drawing room.

During their Glen Burnie performance, Takayama and Mikkelsen will treat concert-goers to classical works from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries by famous composers including Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967), Reinhold Glière (1875–1956), Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962), and others.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, violinist Akemi Takayama is a distinguished musician who has been playing professionally since the age of 15. An active chamber musician, she currently serves as the concertmaster for both the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Williamsburg Symphonia. She is also an associate professor at Shenandoah Conservatory, Shenandoah University, Winchester, where she holds the Victor Brown Endowed Chair in Violin. Akemi Takayama has performed with orchestras throughout Japan, France, England, and the United States, and was a member of the internationally renowned Audubon Quartet for fourteen years. An active educator she has served on the faculties of the Chautauqua Institute in New York, the Idyllwild School of the Arts in California, the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, and at Virginia Tech. Akemi Takayama plays a J.B. Ceruti violin made in 1805 in Cremona, Italy.

For her Glen Burnie performance, Takayama will be accompanied by cellist Kelley Mikkelsen. A native of South Dakota, Mikkelson is the principal cellist for the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. She has performed throughout the United States and Europe and has worked with celebrated soloists, chamber musicians, and conductors including Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, Joan Tower, Ursula Oppens, and Gary Karr. A recipient of numerous prizes and awards, Kelley Mikkelson has been named artist in residence at Princeton and Yale Universities, Syracuse University, the University at Buffalo, Bucknell University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Mikkelsen plays a Bartolomeo Bimbi cello made in 1780 in Florence, Italy.

The Glen Burnie Salon Series is organized by the MSV in partnership with Shenandoah University. Tickets to salon performances—which include the concert, the wine-and-cheese reception, and admission to the house and gardens—are $40 per person for MSV Members and SU faculty and students. For all others, tickets are $45. Seating is limited; those interested in attending must purchase tickets in advance by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 240, or visiting www.theMSV.org.

The 2016 Salon Series will conclude on October 6 with the Trio TAJ (clarinet, cello, and piano).

A regional cultural center, the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is located at 901 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia. The MSV complex—which includes the Glen Burnie House, seven acres of gardens, and galleries (not open during the salon concerts) —is open Tuesday through Sunday. Additional information is available at www.theMSV.org or by calling 540-662-1473, ext. 235. –END–

About the Glen Burnie House and Gardens:

The Glen Burnie House sits on land that Winchester-founder James Wood settled in 1735. Wood’s son Robert built the oldest portions of the house in 1793 and 1794. Descendant Julian Wood Glass Jr. (1910–1992) became the house’s sole owner in the 1950s; with partner R. Lee Taylor (1924–2000), he transformed the Glen Burnie House into a country retreat surrounded by acres of formal gardens featuring fountains, sculptures, and intimate garden rooms. After Glass’s death, the house and gardens opened to the public in 1997. The house underwent an extensive, three-year preservation and renovation project from 2011 to 2014 and reopened with a new visitor experience. Interpretive panels in the house show visitors archival images of people who have lived in Glen Burnie over the generations and a fully furnished miniature model of the Glen Burnie House provides visitors with an exacting look at how Glass and Taylor furnished the house as their private residence. Added to Glen Burnie in 1959, the drawing room features three crystal chandeliers and provides the perfect setting for the Glen Burnie Salon Series.