Duo LiveOak (Nancy Knowles, soprano, poet, and Frank Wallace, guitar, lute, baritone, composer) will be performing on March 15, 2004 at Klavierhaus 211 W. 58th Street New York, NY in a program called "Woman of the Water" which features new works for guitar, lute and voices by Frank Wallace (from their new CD of the same name) as well as renaissance songs from Spain and Italy. Tickets are Free. For more information, please call (212) 245 4535.

Duo LiveOak (Nancy Knowles, soprano, poet, and Frank Wallace, guitar, lute, baritone, composer) will be performing on March 15, 2004 at Klavierhaus 211 W. 58th Street New York, NY in a program called "Woman of the Water" which features new works for guitar, lute and voices by Frank Wallace (from their new CD of the same name) as well as renaissance songs from Spain and Italy. Tickets are Free. For more information, please call (212) 245 4535.

"...their new CD called Woman of the Water (songs written by Frank [Wallace) is terrific." (Jerry Bowles, Sequenza 21, January 2004)

Passionate about the tonal and expressive powers of the ensemble of voices and plucked strings, Frank Wallace weaves great poetry with musical threads that include medieval song, the blues and avant garde into a single eloquent voice. As an heir to the songwriting tradition of Dowland, Schubert and Britten, his is an accessible contemporary music that defies labeling.

Wallace and Knowles have toured widely throughout the U.S. and Europe since 1976, performing at festivals such as the Holland Festival, the Regensburg Festival, Música en Compostela, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Barcelona Festival. LiveOak has recorded for Titanic, Centaur, Musical Heritage Society, and most recently, Gyre.

Frank Wallace has distinguished himself not only as a dynamic soloist and accompanist on classical and romantic guitars, but he is also recognized as a leading player of the vihuela de mano and lute. Possibly his most astounding skill is as a master of self-accompanied song, singing and playing the solo songs of renaissance Italy and Spain, Elizabethan England, Schubert and his own works with equal attention to the subtleties of melody, words, and accompaniments. As an outstanding young classical guitarist from San Francisco Conservatory in the 70's, Wallace joined the guitar faculty at New England Conservatory while also studying early music with Marleen Montgomery. In the early 80's, he began full-time performance of medieval and renaissance music with LiveOak and Company. Frank Wallace, his own new works (Gyre 10012), Wallace's debut recording on Gyre of his own compositions, won him a 2001 Artist Fellowship grant from the Arts Council of New Hampshire.

Aside from the beauty of her voice, audiences and critics comment most about Nancy Knowles' engaging presence on stage. Listening to her sing, it comes as no surprise that she's a poet and natural linguist, given her obvious passion for the words, both their meaning and the emotional colors conveyed by their sound. Whether as a singer, poet, visual artist or teacher, a grace and a playfulness emerge in her work as a result of the counterpoint of her technique and her down-to-earth humor. Going against the tide of overspecialization, Knowles' multiple talents and art forms enrich each other. As a soprano Knowles performs concerts of contemporary and renaissance repertoire as Duo LiveOak with guitarist/baritone/composer Frank Wallace. Knowles also occasionally performs her own solo shows, dramatic works combining her original masks and poetry with unaccompanied songs from many traditions. Her latest solo production is a theatrical memoir called The House of Fools, which debuted in 2002.

CONTACT:
Nancy Knowles (603) 588-6121
pr@duoliveoak.com
http://www.duoliveoak.com/publicity.htm (print-ready photos)