By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Classical guitarist Christopher Schoelen and soprano Keri Lee Pierson’s musical and romantic partnership started with a crush.
The pianist who was collaborating with Pierson had a crush on a flutist who was playing with Schoelen. The pianist asked Pierson to attend a recital so he could see the flutist.
Pierson obliged. The singer was taken with Schoelen’s playing and asked whether he would be interested in exploring duets of voice and guitar.
Both were graduate students at the University of South Carolina. He was working on his doctorate in guitar performance and she was doing masters work in vocal performance.
He handed her his business card. “Just a business meeting,” is how Pierson remembers it.
That was in 2017. Now they are an established musical duo, Deux Saisons.
They played their first gig at a brewery. In a nod to the saison style of beer, they named themselves Deux Saisons.
They got married in December 2020.
“We spent a lot of time together,” she said of their courtship. “That’s my best explanation.”
“That’s the way it went,” he said.
On Earth Day, Friday, April 22, Deux Saisons will present an Earth Day celebration from 3-5:30 p.m. in the Simpson Building, 1291 Conneaut Ave. The event is free. All donations will go to support the parks in Bowling Green.
Manny’s Munchies food truck will be on hand. The duo will perform an hour-long set of nature-themed music for solo guitar and guitar and voice from 4-5 p.m. As with most of their programs, the music will span the centuries from the Renaissance to recent compositions written specifically for Deux Saisons. That includes French folk songs from the Renaissance in a modern setting, pieces by Spanish composer Manuel De Falla, and contemporary pieces by Andrew York, Gabriel Soileau and Akshaya Avril Tucker
This is the second year that Deux Saisons has presented an Earth Day Concert. Last year, while they were living in St. Augustine, Florida, they presented a virtual concert to raise money for the University of Florida’s Sea Turtle Hospital.
They moved to Bowling Green in August where Pierson is enrolled in the Doctorate in Contemporary Music program at BGSU. They’ve continued their mission to bring music to the community in non-traditional settings.
“It’s what artists need to do these days to make to classical music more appealing, to keep it fresh and alive,” Schoelen said.
“It’s wanting to create my own opportunities and find connections that are a little more personal,” Pierson said.
As one faculty member told Schoelen: “Your wife is always scheming.”
Since coming to Bowling Green they’ve presented shows at Novel Blends in downtown that combined literature with music.
This spring they will return to Florida to do a tour of library shows for young audiences.
In those, the youngsters will get to make their own instruments and get to play with the duo so they learn about the process of making music as well as being listeners.
They will be presenting a talk on audience interaction at the Music and Minimalism Conference on May 7 at 2:15 p.m. in Kelly Hall in the Moore Musical Arts Center.
They will also be performing during the festival.
Soileau’s “Blackbird,” which is on the Earth Day recital, employs the kind of extended vocal techniques and sound effects that drew Pierson to contemporary music.
Pierson, 28, didn’t start out wanting to be a professional singer.
In high school, she participated in drama, choirs, and bands, where she played flute and piccolo. Her dream was to be a band director. When she looked around and didn’t see many female directors that made her more committed.
But when it came time to enroll in University of Central Florida in in her hometown of Orlando, she auditioned as a vocalist because she questioned her background in flute, an instrument she’d never taken lessons on. She hoped to transition into musical education.
Instead, she fell in love with singing, especially contemporary music.
That led her to the University of South Carolina to study with Rachel Calloway with a focus on contemporary music.
Pierson loves the constant innovation as well as the collaboration with other musicians and composers that’s inherent in new music. That’s shared by Schoelen.
Schoelen, 36, grew up in Tunbridge, Vermont, where he started playing guitar in a jam band with his friends.
With his mother’s encouragement, he took up classical guitar, and that became his passion. “There are just so many possibilities with classical music. I loved the sound.”
He studied at Hofstra University before transferring to Humboldt State University in northern California. Then he moved to Seville, Spain where he studied for three years with Francisco Bernier.
He returned to the United States for graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston and then the University of South Carolina.
He now has his own studio for both online and in-person lessons. He just released his second solo guitar album, “Neo: Modernism and the Guitar.”
