Cathy Clasper Torch, violin and chinese fiddle

Steve Jobe, viola and hurdy-gurdy

Sharon Key, cello and vocals

with Catherine Hawkes, recorder and harp

 

The group performs French and English traditional melodies arranged by Steve Jobe. The players alternate the sounds of violin, viola and cello with the exotic colors of the chinese fiddle and hurdy-gurdy creating unusually expressive effects. Early music specialist Catherine Hawkes enriches the textures with harp and recorder. The group's repertoire also features several original compositions by Jobe, including a song, Edgewise, sung by Sam Hill cellist, Sharon Key.

 

Watch a video of Edgewise:

Cathy Clasper-Torch plays, performs and teaches both locally and throughout the New England area. She also plays with The Gnomes, Atwater-Donnelly Trio and Jerimoth Hill.

Steve has had the privilege of playing music with his friends and colleagues in Rhode Island since 1977. Composing since 1987, his works include an opera Jeanne d'Arc (1993), a string quartet Four Movements (2005), and the Bassoon Concerto for Strings, Harp and Celesta (2006).

Sharon Key is pastor of Woodridge Congregational United Church of Christ in Cranston. In a prior incarnation she sang with the Regensburg Staatsoper in Germany and sang in New York for twelve years. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, England as well as Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Catherine Hawkes is a musician, educator, and writer. Before returning to Rhode Island to join the faculty of Roger Williams University, she came incredibly close to completing a Doctor of Music in early music performance at Indiana University. She is currently writing her dissertation while teaching full-time, programming and writing for the public radio early music show Harmonia, and sitting in on friends' gigs whenever possible. Catherine was a founder of the early music quartet Melusine and the Smiling Dog Band folk orchestra, was producer and music director of the Pan Twilight Circus, and has appeared on numerous North Star Records recordings as well as with her Indiana bandmate Sophia Travis on Sophia's recordings of original pop music. She plays a variety of instruments including flute, recorder, and mandolin.