In Celebration: Benefit Concert and Reception for HSU Professor Deborah Clasquin

As a concert pianist, she is a well-known performer on North Coast stages as well as in prestigious venues around the world, and on television, radio and recordings. As a teacher at Humboldt State, she has trained prize-winning keyboard artists. She has been an activist and advocate for music education. Now some of her North Coast friends have organized a celebration of Deborah Clasquin’s achievements and a benefit concert to help her defray medical costs as she continues treatments for cancer.

The concert will feature some of her former students and her colleagues in the HSU Music Department, including perhaps her most celebrated student, Ryan MacEvoy McCullough of Eureka. The concert on Saturday June 21 at 7 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata will be followed by a reception with Deborah.

“The main theme of this event will be to rally around Deborah, to make sure she knows how important she is to so many people in our community and the music world, and to give everyone a chance to celebrate herrole in our lives,” said Linda Anderson, one of the organizers of the event. “The other priority will be to try and raise money for her expensive treatments which are not being reimbursed by her insurance.”

Among the tributes to be offered at the reception will be the presentation of a plaque and a “Treasure Book” of photos, letters and thank-you notes assembled by Anderson and co-organizer, Bonnie MacEvoy.

Performers for the concert include pianists Ryan MacEvoy McCullough and Emily Loeffler, clarinetist Armand Ambrosini, and violinists Terrie Baune and Signe Nicklas, who is Deborah Clasquin’s daughter. Also featured are the Babes Women’s Chorus directed by Carol Ryder, a quintet of Sequoia faculty members, Nancy Correll and Annette Gurnee Hull, and playing a movement from the Claude Bolling Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano are Barbara Davenport, Jill Petricca and Shao Way Wu. Several more of Deborah's present and past piano students will perform.

Tickets for the benefit concert beginning at 7 PM are $20, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. The reception with Deborah Clasquin, family and friends will be held in the lobby outside Fulkerson Hall at approximately 8 PM, and is a free event. Refreshments will be served.

Those who cannot attend or wish to make an additional contribution can send checks to the HSU Music Department, payable to Deborah Clasquin.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Eureka Reporter (6/13), KHSU Ben Tankersley (6/13). KHSU "ArtWaves" with Wendy Butler (6/ 17), Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal (6/19), Northern Lights (6/19.)