A piano quintet to begin season of performances in Lithia Park, thanks to longtime park cellist Daniel Sperry
By Cameron Aalto, Ashland.news
True to its name, the nonprofit organization Beautiful Music in the Park will bring, well, beautiful music to Lithia Park again this year, the second season for the program founded by longtime park cello busker Daniel Sperry, starting Saturday, May 25.
The piano quintet “Friends of Flare” is set to play from 11 a.m. to noon on the small field past the lower duck pond, affectionately nicknamed the “cello lawn” after Sperry’s frequent busks.
“Right now it’s three cellos, (a piano), and (a) violin,” Perry said. “Last year it was two violins and the two cellos, with piano.”
The nonprofit, which Sperry hopes brings people together through music, has been raising money for the quintet so that they could play once a week, and have reached their goal to provide funding through mid-July.
Saturday’s performance is expected to be the first of eight weekly performances. The performances will be considered “open rehearsals” where the quintet will learn new repertoire in public.
The season is scheduled to run from May to mid-October with performances interspersed throughout the week.
On a recent Wednesday, Sperry, professional cellist and composer, busked in Lithia Park as he has for more than a dozen years, playing an array of songs from originals to classics like “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”
He says, “I came up with the idea of having a nonprofit with the mission of supporting extraordinary musicians to play in parks. In particular I decided to focus on Lithia Park.”
Sperry has performed professionally for 15 years and “wanted to see if it was possible to find a way to perpetuate what he (has done) in the park.” He says, “(i)t’s really been a discovery of how grateful people are to have that space for … music. There’s this extra dimension of some kind of communal experience that I think goes way back to the core of human beings together. … Music really has the capacity to touch people.”
While Sperry has had many years of experience playing at Lithia Park, he says that the idea behind the nonprofit “was really to sort of take playing in public almost to a different level.”
When Sperry first began performing, he subsisted off the tips that he earned during the performance season; now, because of his nonprofit, performing has become accessible to more artists by providing them with guaranteed funding.
Kathleen Strahm is one of the featured musicians this season. She is a violinist and member of the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra with past experience as an assistant concertmaster for the Rogue Valley Symphony. Sperry says, “In a lot of ways she was the perfect musician for us to support.”
Both Sperry and Strahm played throughout the last season and are scheduled to perform around four days a week.
To catch a performance, check the schedule here. The nonprofit will give a benefit concert at the Irvine & Roberts Vineyards on Wednesday, July 17, that will raise funds to support the musicians’ ongoing performances.
To make a donation to “Beautiful Music in the Park,” click here.
Ashland.news intern Cameron Aalto is a senior at Southern Oregon University. Email him at aaltoc@sou.edu.
Related stories:
Ashland cellist finds support for more music in Lithia Park (July 7, 2023)
Cellist who plays in Lithia Park establishes a nonprofit to spread the joy (March 24, 2023)
