Presents

“Stories of Love”

Valentine’s Evening, Monday, February 14, 2022

6:00 PM RECEPTION - 6:15 PM CALDERON BAND STARTS - 7:30PM DINNER BEGINS

Constanza Roeder

Soprano and Hearts Need Art Founder

Constanza Roeder is the founder and CEO of Hearts Need Art: Creative Support for Patients and Caregivers and host of the podcast “Arts for the Health of It.” Ms. Roeder was selected as one of the Top 100 Healthcare Visionaries by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare for 2021. As a musician in healthcare, adolescent leukemia survivor, speaker, and thought leader in the field of Arts in Health, Constanza is on a mission to make sure no one suffers alone.

Constanza has performed around the country with various Musical Theatre, Opera, Choral, and Jazz performance groups. Her favorite roles include Laurey in Oklahoma!, Cosette in Les Miserables, Clara in Light in the Piazza, Rosa Bud in Drood, and Maggie in A Chorus Line. Her Duo group, Unexpected Cure, released a Christmas EP called “Heavenly Peace” in 2016. Ms. Roeder’s favorite place to perform is at the bedside of patients in local hospitals.

Dr. Tracy Cowden

Pianist and Chair of the Department of Music at UTSA

Pianist Tracy Cowden’s professional life centers around making music with others, whether in duos, chamber music, or orchestral settings. Her work as a collaborative pianist includes a wide range of music and partners, from the music of Jane Austen’s songbook with soprano Julianne Baird, to klezmer-influenced music with clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein and cellist Nick Cannelakis, to American fiddle music with violinist Mark O’Connor. She is also active in commissioning and performing 21st century music, and has premiered works in concerts from Kalamazoo to Bangkok. Cowden’s interest in poetry and art song has led her to commission a song cycle by Gregory Hutter that features the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, and another by Daron Hagen titled Vegetable Verselets, which features poetry by Margaret Hays. This song cycle, along with other works by Hagen performed by Cowden, soprano Ariana Wyatt, tenor Brian Thorsett, and cellist Benjamin Wyatt, was released on an album titled Rapture and Regret on the MSR Classics label in 2021.

Appointed in 2018 as Roland K. Blumberg Endowed Professor in Music and Chair of the Department of Music at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Cowden’s recent work includes performing in health care settings, both in person and virtually, and facilitating interdisciplinary research regarding music and health; she is a member of the Brain Health Consortium at UTSA. Also active as a clinician and lecturer, Cowden has presented master classes and workshops on topics related to collaborative music-making and creative programming across the country. She has been a presenter or performer at conferences including the National Opera Association, Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, International Trumpet Guild, International Tuba Euphonium Conference, and the National Flute Association. Cowden is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music through the Music Teachers National Association.

A Michigan native, Cowden has previously served as a faculty member at Virginia Tech, Ohio Wesleyan University, Kalamazoo College, and Hope College. She received the D.M.A. and M.M. degrees in piano accompanying and chamber music from the Eastman School of Music, and a B.M. degree in piano performance from Western Michigan University.

Senseria Murray

Author, Poet, Playwright, Educator, Director, Actor

A self-described “word nerd”, theatre geek, and Shakespeare enthusiast, Sanseria has taught theatre arts to countless students, written lots of poetry, and directed several plays throughout her career as an educator. She has been working with young people as a teaching artist and director for over 20 years.

Sanseria has taught at the elementary level as a Speech and Poetry Coordinator and at the high school level as a Theatre and Literacy Teaching Artist. She has directed The Lion King, Sound of Music, and Alice in Wonderland, to name a few. Last year, she started a mentorship program for youth looking to focus on private acting training. Affectionately known as Ms. Cece to her students, Sanseria serves with passion and dedication.

Sanseria studied theatre arts for several years in San Antonio and Austin before moving to Los Angeles in the year 2000. While in LA, she started a performing arts school that focused on providing quality arts education to under-served communities. Upon her return to San Antonio in 2013, Sanseria hit the stage performing such roles as, Chloe in A Time to Heal, Elaine in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and Sister Philomena in Drinking Habits, for which she won a Gold Medal.

Sanseria has written an original gospel musical, adapted several children's books into plays, countless sketches for churches, an artist residency poetry curriculum, and has tons of legal pads full of poetry. And now she has written her first book of poetry, Morning Star Rising.

Jaime Varela

Guitarist

"Jaime “Hulk” Varela, was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, December 13th, 1974. He began his professional career in music in 1993. Jaime has recorded guitars and other stringed instruments for a combined total of over 25 artists and both single and album recordings. He’s played lead guitar for numerous bands, orchestras and solo singers in Central America and now in the US which he calls home!! In 2015, he released his all-instrumental album “Gracia Activa” showcasing all of his musical influences, and displaying his skills on mandolin, banjo, bass and ukulele.

Since 2017, Jaime Varela has been playing and recording guitars for several Texan music projects and bands, while blending in the local music scene, performing at all kinds of local music venues to the famous Houston and San Antonio rodeo, and the iconic stage at Luckenbach, Texas.

In March 2021, he released his latest single “Hope”; a two-part song, in which Jaime plays all electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, bass, and percussions.

“Hope” is an instrumental song written during the Covid19 pandemic, looking to inspire about finding good despite adversities.

Jaime Varela is currently working on his upcoming album: 2&0Y.

Allyson Dawkins

Principal Violist of the San Antonio Symphony

Allyson Dawkins, Principal Violist of the San Antonio Symphony, has won consistent admiration for her playing as both orchestral soloist and recitalist. Critics have praised the "great sensitivity and intelligence" of her playing, as well as her "full-bodied, velvety tone." The San Antonio Express-News described her solo performance of Britten’s Lachrymae as "delicate and compelling...with poise, technical security, and in-the-groove freedom." Of the Ginastera Variaciones concertantes the Express-News said "Top marks go to Allyson Dawkins for a spitfire performance in her demanding solo."

Ms. Dawkins is on the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio and is highly sought after and widely respected as a private teacher. During the summer she serves as Dean of Students and teaches viola at the Quartet Program at Bucknell University. She is co-author, with Charles Castleman, of a technical instruction book for viola titled Fingerboard Memory. She has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, and as Principal Violist of the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin and the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon. She is currently a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Dawkins received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York at Purchase, and a Master of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.

Strongly committed to community service, Ms. Dawkins works with cancer patients at Santa Rosa Children's Hospital in San Antonio. She is also director of the San Antonio Symphony Caroling Project, a program that takes musicians to area hospitals, hospices, correctional institutions, and shelters during the December holiday season.

PARKING AT THE ROOSEVELT LIBRARY

The Roosevelt Library has about 50 complimentary self-parking spaces available to guests. Street parking is often available. Vehicles are not to be left in the Roosevelt Library parking lot overnight. An off-duty SAPD officer will be monitoring the parking lot throughout the event. The Roosevelt Library will not be liable for theft or damages to vehicles or the contents of vehicles.

MAP TO THE ROOSEVELT LIBRARY

HISTORY OF THE ROOSEVELT LIBRARY

In 1929 the library opened as the Roosevelt Park Branch Library, San Antonio’s South side library, and in 1968 it closed. The building is located across from Roosevelt Park which marks the beginning of the Mission Reach Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation Project, an eight mile stretch of the San Antonio River that has received designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the building’s architect was John Marriott who also designed the Carnegie Library in Delaware, Ohio. Leland Stone purchased the building in 2013 and, as heralded by SA2020, it is a “new kind of gathering space.”