Spotlight on John Myers, Faculty in Music, Electronic Arts, and Cultural Studies

John Myers, Professor of Music, Electronic Arts, and Cultural Studies, and fellow faculty members headlined the February installment of the Winds in the Wilderness Concert series.

The Winds in the Wilderness concert series, based in Copake Falls, NY, was established in 2009 and has been dutifully supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. Series’ founder Sharon Powers has been committed to respectfully representing multiple cultures and time periods in each concert. As each concert is planned, participating musicians correspond extensively to choose the pieces.

“In our February concert, I played both classical (Spanish) and archtop jazz guitars. In other concerts, I have played the Chinese pipa, the Hindustani sitar, and Hindustani sarod,” said Myers.

In the February 18 concert, Myers, on jazz guitar, along with Applied Music department colleagues Allan Dean on trumpet, and Pete Toigo on bass, played a trio sonata by the Catalonian Pla brothers: “Danse Espagnol No. 2” by Granados, “Libertango” by Piazzolla, and a special jazz set which included “All Blues” by Miles Davis, “Triste” by Jobim and “Body and Soul” by Green and Heyman.

Although the series has been described as “eclectic,” Myers says that it’s a bit deeper than that. “If we need a single word, “inclusive” might be a better fit. Several of our members are bi-musical, which is the musical equivalent of being bilingual. Just as being bilingual requires mastery of more than one spoken or written language, bi-musicality requires the ability to understand and express oneself within the parameters of more than one musical world, and not just in genres within a given style.”

As the resident composer for the series, Myers usually provides at least one original piece for each concert.

“An exciting new development is that three recordings of my compositions, performed by four of the Wilderness Winds players, have just been released by Unic Magic, on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and others! My artist name on these platforms is “John Ed Myers.” The tracks feature Sharon Powers on flute, Judith Dansker on oboe, Pete Toigo on bass, and myself on guitar.”

Links to Myer’s three compositions can be found here:

“The Hands of Healing”

“Breezy Hill Melody”

“Mansfield Summer”

Photography credit: David MIntyre