Stephen Foster Research Sources
Compiled by Anne Destabelle
For more information on the Pennyroyal Players’ production of “Songs and Stories of the Life of Stephen Foster” created by Anne Destabelle, please visit the Pennyroyal website at www.pennyroyalplayers.org.
A biography of America's folk-song composer by Harold Vincent Milligan
Original sheet music of 40 songs by Stephen Collins Foster. Compiled by Richard Jackson
by Evelyn Foster Morneweck. Center for American Music. (Univ of Pittsburg’s Digital Research Library)
MyOldKentuckyHome.com
Views of Federal Hill, Bardstown, KY
Historians
Ken Emerson, Eric Lott, Nanci Griffith, Fath Ruffins, Sean Wilentz, Mel Watkins, Peter Quinn, and Sean Wilentz
Musicologists
Dale Cockrell, Deane Root, Josephine Wright and Bonnie Jo Dopp - DC Symphony Music Librarian
OUR instrumental artists
Diana Brownson is a professional freelance musician and organist at St. Lawrence Martyr Church, pianist for the Torrance Civic Chorale and Chadwick School Choral Music Department, and Music Director/keyboardist for over 40 music theater productions. She also plays keyboard with various Traditional Jazz and Swing Bands. A classically trained Bohemian, Diana holds a Music degree from CSULB, is an accomplished ballroom/swing dancer and visits New Orleans regularly with her Goldtone Banjolele to play and sing on the streets of the French Quarter with her band “The Fun Factor.”
David Ewart is a professional violinist who has played on thousands of television and Hollywood films. His grandfather and father were both concert violinists who immigrated from Scotland. David has served as concertmaster for orchestras throughout the United States and even occasionally helps out a nearby chorale for a friend in need.
Kevin O’Neal is a talented bassist, director, composer, arranger and educator. He has been and continues to be a catalyst for innovation. He was a founding member and conceptualizer for a ground-breaking Rock and Roll Band. Kevin’s compatriots are augmented by the likes of Hank Crawford, Charles McPherson, Barry Harris, Billy Higgins, Beck, Outkast (Grammy winner), Tone Loc, Brian Setzer, Anointed, Crystal Lewis, Isreal Houghton and vocalists La Verne Baker, Nnenna Freelon, Solomon Burke, Hank Ballard, Tracy Chapman, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. He is featured in several appearances and music for film including 48Hrs, Delirious, Ghostbusters (Grammy nomination), Skeleton Key, A Great and Mighty Walk (the Wesley Snipes directed biography of John Henrick Clarke), Devil With the Blue Dress (Walter Mosley & Denzel Washington), and television to include Saturday Night Live, Midnight Special, Soul Train, All About the Andersons and the PBS broadcast Swing Alive featuring Les Brown and Bob Hope. Kevin is featured as Music Supervisor and Composer for the BET+ Troubled Waters starring Harry Lennix.
Painting musical portraits and representing them is one of Kevin’s assets. He currently fronts a stunningly beautiful, exotic, swinging band, featuring outstanding original compositions and championing the compositional works of the great American masters
Kevin plays regularly to sold-out performances.
A commitment to education and being a trailblazer for curious minds is always at the fore of Kevin’s pursuits.
Kevin is also a composer and arranger of Sacred works, which have been debuted during his tenure as director of contemporary music for Holman United Methodist Church. Los Angeles Third Church of Religious Science and Lynwood United Methodist Church.
Kevin loves his bass and applying himself to fine works representing humanity, life and good times.
Dick Weller is one of the most electrifying drummers in the California area today. His virtuosity has gained him recognition from some of the top jazz musicians in the United States and has earned him the reputation of being one of the most versatile, hard-driving, solid groove players around.
Current projects include more performances with the LA6, the Side Street Strutters, the Frank Sinatra Alumni Band, Lauren Koval and the Ladd McIntosh Big Band. Dick will be participating in the Wenatchee Jazz Workshop in February 2023 with the LA6. He will be appearing with the Jack
Radavich Big Band in Phoenix in April and will also be touring in Texas with the Side Street Strutters in April. Dick toured several times in Japan with the Percy Faith Orchestra, and also the Billy Vaughn Orchestra. He released his own “Tunes Remembered” CD, which climbed to #49 nationally on the JazzWeek charts, and has a current CD out, “Feeling’ Groovy.” Dick performed on the LA6 CD “Frame of Mind.” Dick was also recording in the studio with the Ladd McIntosh Big Band in 2022, which will be released sometime in 2023.
In the studio, Dick has performed with many musicians, including Alan Pasqua, Bob Sheppard, John Beasley, Alfonso Johnson, Jeff Beal, and Bob Florence. He also appeared on an instructional tape with singer Judy Niemack that featuredpianist Fred Hersch and bassist Scott Colley, and he’s appeared on the Jazz Network with the Weller Bros.
Dick was an affiliate faculty member at the State University of New York at Purchase, teaching undergraduate level jazz composition. He recently retired
from a similar position at California State University, Northridge after being there for 20 years. Visit Dick’s website at dickweller.com.
2023 Scholarship awardees
Samuel Price began studying and performing the piano in 2015 at the age of 13. In 2021 he was accepted by El Camino College’s Applied Music Program. Since that time, he has given numerous solo performances with the El Camino Choir/Chorale as both a student pianist and vocalist. He also toured with the El Camino Chorale to the Musical Association of California Community Colleges Conference in San Diego in 2022. He has been active teaching and coaching sectional voice parts to the ECC Chorale. His goal is to perform as a pianist in the solo and collaborative arts, to compose music and to conduct instrumental and choral ensembles, bringing his skills and passion to performance venues across the South Bay and the Nation.
Sarah Schmainda began playing violin at age seven and by fifth grade joined the Palos Verdes Peninsula Regional Symphony Orchestra. She is now a member of the South Bay Pit Orchestra and has played for shows such as Les Misérables, Beauty and the Beast, and Seussical among others. She has competed and placed in numerous competitions such as the Southern Youth Music Festival, VOCE, and ASTA, and has attained the highest- level “Advanced” panel ranking in the Music Teachers’
Association of California (MTAC) Certificate of Merit system. She is currently studying Violin Performance at Chapman University. Her life-long goal is to become a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kayla Stefansson’s musical journey began when she was six years old doing musicals at the South Bay Conservatory. By the time she was 17, she had performed in over 30 musicals with SBC and had found her passion in life. She took voice lessons throughout the years learning not only to sing in musical theatre styles, but also pop, classical, and even rock ‘n roll. Kayla joined the El Camino College Chorale in 2022, where she decided to change her major from English to Music and join ECC’s Applied Music Program. She has sung solos in Requiems and Oratorios and recently won first place at the Mu Phi Epsilon
scholarship auditions. She has also received two different scholarships from ECC.
Her biggest dream is to someday perform in a professional musical, whether on Broadway or on a national tour.
Isaiah Williams has always been a music lover, but making his own music was a more recent development. Getting comments about his singing voice from friends, he steadily became aware of his natural talent and at age 18 committed to nurturing that talent and developing his voice. He pushed himself to perform at open mics and on public streets and started writing and recording his own music. Most significantly, he started taking music classes at El Camino College in the current semester. He was accepted into the Applied Music program, which is
providing individual vocal lessons and a growing knowledge of jazz repertoire and musical performance skills. He also joined two vocal ensembles and has begun instrumental classes. Now in pursuit of a musical career, his goal is to “create music that moves and inspires people, just like my influences have inspired me. I find such joy in performing and cannot see myself doing anything else now that I have found my true passion.”