Gray Dog Down creates and performs acoustic flute and guitar pieces as well as pieces which employ expansive sounds emanating from Ferrara’s guitar synths and Robson’s experimentation with flute sounds. Their current show features music from their self-titled first album as well as a sampling of music from their upcoming works GREGORIAN MEDITATIONS ON THE MASS and THE WEDDING. The group’s original repertoire rose out of Ferrara’s work with Native American flutes which he credits to a chance encounter at one of his frequent restaurant gigs. That original repertoire has been deepened and widened by Robson’s compositional and improvisational flair and virtuosic flute playing.
Kim Robson has a dual career as vocalist and flutist. She was nine when she began playing flute and fell in love with the instrument. She has performed in churches, concert halls, and festivals from across the US. Her thirty-plus musical theater and operatic roles have included Sarah in Out of the Rain (world premiere with Opera Delaware), Gianetta in L’Elisir d’Amore (Concert Opera of Philadelphia), and Forsythia/Mrs. Thornbush in American Family Theatre’s national tour of Beauty and the Beast. Kim was the music program director for many years at University of the Sciences and currently teaches at Temple University and Penn State. She has a degree in voice from the New England Conservatory and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University.
Russell Ferrara is a crossover artist, composer, and educator working in the classical, New Age and contemporary instrumental fields. The GRAY DOG DOWN album was the third of his career. The first, The PHILADELPHIA GUITAR ENSEMBLE [1985], was a classical album of music for guitar quartet. Then, in 1995, he completed an album with his electronica group, SHADOWDANCER. That album was not released until 2010, re-titled HOLE IN THEIR HEADS. It remains available as a CD, downloads and live stream. Ferrara has an extensive background teaching at the university level and is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Temple University in classical guitar performance.
This concert is sponsored by GA Music Camp as part of its commitment to providing a world-class experience to its participants and to the community at large. GRAY DOG DOWN will be joined by a select group of campers from the GA Music Camp performing works composed by Ferrara.
