A Bird Came Down The Walk

A Bird Came Down the Walk: Weaving Poetry and Music Together

Sunday, April 12 at 3 PM (Doors open at 2 PM)

Between Us: Sunday Chamber Music Series

Tickets: $45

Featuring:

• Shane Barker, Viola
• Michael Maronich, Piano
• Charles Frederick Secrease, Actor
• Jeanine Pardey, Actor

In honor of National Poetry Month, violist Shane Barker has fashioned a program that pairs two art forms: Poetry and Music. Audiences will hear spoken aloud the words of Emily Dickinson, Alfred de Musset and William Shakespeare, and in the intimate listening space that is The Granite, hear the musical companion to each literary work: music of Töru Takemitsu, Rebecca Clarke and Sergei Prokofiev.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Shane Barker, Viola

Violist Shane Barker enjoys a rich and varied career as soloist, chamber musician, freelance orchestral player and as violin and viola teacher. He has performed across most of the United States, Canada and Europe, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center, and the Philharmonie in Paris.

A strong proponent of the viola as a solo instrument, he has premiered over twenty-five solo pieces by established and emerging composers, including Jeremy Gill, Andrea Clearfield, Andrew Ardizzoia, Florence Maunders, and Joseph Hallman. Shane believes that classical music is for everyone and has organized community outreach concerts in women’s and children’s shelters, retirement centers, museums and the veterans association, including curating a multi-disciplinary concert series at the Nurture Nature Center in Easton PA.

As a teacher, he has held faculty positions at Lafayette and Muhlenberg colleges, Temple Music Prep, Moravian Academy, the Newark School of the Arts and currently serves on the faculty of the Greenwich Education Association. Shane holds degrees from Temple University and the North Carolina School of the Arts where his main teachers were Karen Ritscher, Evelyn Jacobs-Luise and Sheila Browne, to whom he served as teaching assistant. Shane plays on a viola by Sergio Peresson.

Michael Maronich, Piano

Pianist Michael Maronich has been praised for his “intelligent readings” and “interpretive sensitivity” (Rorianne Schrade, New York Concert Review), as well as his “power and uncanny lyricism” (Kitty Montgomery, Kingston Daily Freeman).

A Connecticut native, Michael began his piano studies at age seven and, in 2001, became the youngest first prize winner in the history of the Renée B. Fisher Competition. Amongst his other achievements, Michael has been a top prizewinner at the Great Neck Young Artists Competition and the Carlson Horn Competition. In 2004, Michael won the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Concerto Competition and performed Liszt’s First Piano Concerto with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra. As winner of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra competition, Michael also performed the Liszt Concerto with the Hartford Symphony. In 2005, Michael won second prize in the Jacob Flier International Competition. He has performed throughout the tri-state area, as well as internationally in Russia, Italy, Spain, Estonia, Czech Republic, and China.

Michael is the organist and choir director of Christ Church Parish in Redding, having previously served as director of music at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Queens, New York. Michael is on staff at Sarah Lawrence College as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. Also active as a pedagogue, he is on the faculty of the Rudolf Steiner School, Wilton Music Studios, and Rockland Conservatory, and has also taught at the Burgos International Music Festival in Burgos, Spain.

Michael earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University, studying with John Perry and Daniel Epstein. He completed his Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Phillip Kawin.

Charles Frederick Secrease, Actor

A native of Western Massachusetts, Charles began performing publicly at the age of six, though not as an actor. The youngest in a family of musicians, his first love was the piano, which has continued to this day.

Having studied classical performance through undergrad, and continuing at the Shanghai Conservatory and Juilliard, Charles has enjoyed over thirty years with one foot firmly planted in the world of classical music. His other foot, however, began to wander in a different direction when, at the age of 10, he experienced a family friend’s performance as Fagin in a summer stock production of the musical “Oliver”. Captivated by the actor’s complete transformation into the rapscallious character, Charles knew this was something he had to explore.

In the years since and alongside his continued professional life in music, Charles has studied, worked and performed with numerous teachers, directors and companies across Europe, Asia, Africa and of course, the U.S. Finding a particular love of the Shakespearean theater, Charles has performed numerous roles including Marc Antony, Macbeth, Cymbeline, Orsino, Angelo, Oberon, MacDuff and Othello.

Jeanine Pardey, Actor/Vocalist

Jeanine’s performing experience spans concert and oratorio, opera, musical theatre and cabaret. Musical theatre experience includes Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music at CW Post Tilles Center, She Loves Me at the Opera Ensemble of New York (conducted by Jonathan Tunick), Anna Held in Tintypes, Elsa in The Sound of Music, and a featured performer in Fascinating Gershwin (semi-national tour).

Concert credits include CAMI Hall, The Walter Reade Theatre, Wave Hill, Trinity Church, and the Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York, as well as a season in Europe performing with the International Institute for Chamber Music. Her operatic roles include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Baby Doe in The Ballade of Baby Doe, and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, with the Brooklyn Opera Ensemble and the Opera Ensemble of New York.

Her work in higher education began in 2001 as a Professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, developing a new musical theatre program and ultimately becoming Chair of the Media and Performing Arts Department. She has held faculty and/or administrative positions at Molloy College, Manhattanville College, and Adelphi University. Summers have been spent in Colorado, teaching musical theatre and voice at the prestigious Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs. Jeanine has performed in their New Noises Festival, working on new play development with such musical theatre luminaries as Stephen Schwartz, Peter Flynn, Cheryl Coons, Stephen Weiner and Glenn Slater, as well as playwright Dana Yeaton.

Jeanine has performed in cabaret with pianist/arranger and husband Andrew Levine and served as vocal coach for several cabaret artists, including Mary Ann Franks’s acclaimed Spinning. She is currently a Teaching Artist and Co-Coordinator of the Musical Theatre Department in the Theatre Division of The Hartt School – University of Hartford, and a proud member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is adept at teaching all vocal styles and continues to develop professionally both as an artist and educator, performing and attending various workshops and master classes year-round.

WSHU is a Community Partner for The Granite’s Spring 2026 Classical Music Sundays