Baeza, Biss and Woitun: a Sunday Concert

On March 9 at 3 pm, Anna Maria Baeza, clarinet, Joachim Woitun, cello, and Gregory Biss, piano, will present a concert for the Sunday Afternoons at the Arts Center series. The program will include Beethoven’s affecting Clarinet Trio, opus 11, written in 1798 when the composer was 28; Bach’s Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, #2 in D minor, played on an instrument fitted out in the 18th century manner; shorter works by Joseph Rheinberger and Giovanni Grazioli; plus two miniatures by Telemann written and played on an ancient clarinet called a chalumeau.

Before moving to Maine, Anna Maria Baeza taught clarinet and chamber music and conducted the chamber orchestra at the Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York. She also gave method classes as part of the MAP program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan. She taught clarinet and chamber music at SummerKeys in Lubec for more than 20 years, and gave numerous recitals, as well as performing for Machias Bay Area Concert Series, Eastport Arts Center and Fog Fest at Roosevelt International Park on Campobello Island. Baeza takes a strong interest in the music of living composers, having performed and premiered works by Steve Reich, Bernard Rands, and Greg Pfeiffer at “June in Buffalo.” She participated as a chamber musician and soloist in Prague and Budapest under the auspices of the European Mozart Foundation in Prague, and played live broadcasts on French and Czech television as well as on Public Radio programs in Los Angeles, New York City and in Maine. Major teachers include Charles Neidich, Jack Kreiselman, David Shifrin and Mitchell Lurie, and Guy Deplus. In addition, she took chamber music classes with Julius Levine, Gilbert Kalish and Yehuda Gilad. Ms. Baeza currently resides in Bangor, Maine and enjoys teaching, baking and restoring her old Victorian house. 

Joachim Woitun studied cello at the Richard Strauss Konservatorium and the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany. He moved to the United States in 1987 to continue with Michael Flaksman at California State University in Fresno. Mr. Woitun earned his MA degree from Queens College, City University of New York, as a student of Stephen Kates and Barbara Mallow-Stein. He also studied baroque performance practice with Ray Erickson and Fred Hauptman; chamber music with Daniel Phillips; and contemporary music with Ronald Roseman. Woitun has been featured in masterclasses taught by William Pleeth, Leslie Parnas and Sharon Robinson. He performed as a soloist with the Orchester Kurt Graunke in Munich and the Spokane Symphony Orchestra in Washington State. He has premiered works by Ronald Roseman, Jennifer Griffith and Carmen Braden, and has been a frequent recitalist in New York City and Downeast Maine, where he played at Bay Chamber Concerts in Machias, SummerKeys in Lubec and at Fog Fest as part of the Roosevelt Estate on Campobello Island. As a teacher, he has been on the faculty of the United Nations School in Manhattan, Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn and SummerKeys in Lubec.

Gregory Biss has been making music in eastern Maine for 50 years and has been a part of the Eastport Arts Center since its inception. Most recently his children’s opera, You Can’t Sit Here, was premiered in March of 2024. He has been playing chamber music regularly with 

Anna Maria Baeza and Joachim Woitun for more than 20 years but not since just before COVID, which makes the Sunday series event feel like a reunion.

Sunday series programs are offered by donation, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Proceeds will be shared between the presenters and the EAC, committed to sustaining programs like these. The series will run through April. Updates and details may be found at eastportartscenter.org.