Westport Center for the Arts continues its Brown Bag concert series with a performance by Marian Thomas and Friends on Friday, March 22 at noon. Thomas, the founder of the Brown Bag Concert Series,  calls this her “Gratitude and Farewell Concert,” as she will be moving out of the Kansas City area at the end of May.

The noontime concerts are free (donations accepted) and held in the sanctuary at Westport Presbyterian Church, 201 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111.

For this performance, Thomas has gathered some of her favorite collaborators, including Robert Pherigo, Lyra Pherigo, Meribeth Risebig, and Eman Chalshotori.  The concert will feature: Bach Oboe Sonata in G Minor with Risebig; Schubert Argeggione Sonata with Chalshotori, cello and Robert Pherigo, piano; and Bach Flute Sonata in E Flat Major with Lyra Pherigo. Thomas will also perform Bach’s Goldberg Aria and Seven Variations on the two-manual French harpsicord she built in 1984.

About the performers

Marian M. Thomas earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Oberlin College, and the Master of Music in Applied Organ degree from Boston University’s School for the Arts.  Her piano studies were with Geraldine Stout, organ studies with Garth Peacock, John Hamilton and Mary Crowley Vivian, and harpsichord studies with Gerald Kemner. She was Organist/Choir Director at Saint Paul School of Theology for fifteen years, where she also taught courses on Hymnody and The Arts in Ministry. Thomas taught music for the Purple Dragon Preschool for thirty-two years, and retired in June 2009 from her position as Music Director/Organist at Westport Presbyterian Church. Thomas founded the Westport Brown Bag Concert Series and directed it for twenty-one years. She built and decorated her two-keyboard French harpsichord, which is patterned after a Paul Taskin French instrument from 1750, using a Frank Hubbard kit. Using the knowledge she gained from working at the Hubbard Harpsichord Workshop in Massachusetts, she maintains and tunes harpsichords in the Kansas City area. Thomas has a piano studio at her home, and also teaches harpsichord.

 Robert Pherigo is a composer, pianist, tenor and conductor. He has been an active member of the Kansas City music scene for the last 30 years. Robert sang with the Grammy award winning Kansas City Chorale for 10 years. Robert has composed works for, among others, newEar Contemporary Music Ensemble, Kansas City Chorale, Lyric Arts Trio, Lawrence Children’s Choir and various high school choirs. His arrangement of the well-known Christmas Carol Sing We Now of Christmas, is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing under the title Sing We Now, Noel! He was a member of newEar Contemporary Music Ensemble for 15 years, participating in numerous world premieres and performing at Modern Music festivals in Thailand and China. He enjoys playing solo piano works, most recently performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Charles Ives Concord sonata. His piano artistry can be heard on recordings of the music of Ingrid Stölzel, Narong Prancharoen, Mara Gibson and on the album Toward the Empyrean Heaven. He is presently collaborative pianist at St. Teresa’s Academy and Unity Temple on the Plaza.

Lyra Pherigo, flutist, soprano and choral conductor, is an active musician in the Kansas City area. As a flutist she has played with; newEar, KC Symphony, KC Chamber Orchestra, KC Ballet, and KC Civic Opera. She also plays for Starlight Theater and Theater League productions. Interesting collaborations include recording for a documentary titled “We the People” created for IMAX Theater, and learning to play Asian flutes, called Dizi flutes, for a production of Miss Saigon. As a singer she adds her soprano voice to Schola Cantorum, a professional ensemble that provides music at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. As conductor, Lyra enjoys leading the Chancel choir at Bonner Springs United Methodist Church. Her early education was at Arizona State University and Northwestern University where she received Flute Performance degrees, a BM and MM respectively.

Meribeth Risebig received a Bachelors in Music from Washburn University, and public teaching certificate from Wichita State while studying oboe. Teachers include Linda Strommen and Ray Still and reed lessons with Steve Lickman, Robert Morgan, local workshops and masterclasses. She is currently Principal Oboist of the Northland Symphony and St. Joseph Symphony, and is an active free-lancer in the Kansas City area. She is also a private oboe instructor. Risebig recently retired from full-time work as parish administrator at an Episcopal church in Overland Park, Kansas, but continues part-time in her role in communications. In her spare time, she makes oboe and english horn reeds, practices, sings in the choir at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, and plans to start playing her lever harp again.

Hailed for his “ferocious playing” Eman Chalshotori is a cellist, chamber and orchestral musician. As an orchestral musician, Eman is the principal cellist of the Saint Joseph Symphony and Topeka Symphony. He has performed with many local ensembles including the Kansas City Symphony, Midwest Chamber Ensemble, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Medical Arts Orchestra, and the Kinnor Philharmonic. Chalshotori’s principal teachers include Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher, Carter Enyeart, Dr. Evgeny Raychev and Guy Parkhurst including additional studies with Mark Gibbs and Michael Mermagen. Chalshotori has participated in masterclasses with Eleonore Schoenfeld, Lynn Harrell, Colin Carr, and Nicholas Alstaedt. He studied Cello Performance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, Stephen F. Austin State University, and the University of Central Oklahoma.

There will be a reception with cookies and coffee after the concert.