Charles Valona of Cedarville playing one of his original songs at the AGAVE concert.
It may have been an unusual venue for the Grammy nominated Baroque music ensemble to give a concert, but no one in the packed crowd noticed. Saturday afternoon the Marchy (event venue) barn in Surprise Valley was filled with music lovers, teenagers to nonagenarians.
Agave is a music ensemble specializing in performing string chamber music of the last 500 years. The group has received numerous awards, both state and across the nation. Their latest recording effort is AGAVE: In Her Hands, featuring soprano Michele Kennedy in an album entirely of music by female composers.
During the last year the Agave group has been conducting a virtual and in-person residency in Surprise Valley with a group of local musicians of all ages.
The SV musicians have learned different selections of music composed during the last five centuries. Agave has also worked with the local musicians to help them develop and perform their own compositions.
Locals featured in Saturday’s concert featured Charles Valona of Cedarville, performing an original composition. Valona has been composing and performing indie and jazz music for many decades.
Also featured was Sequoia Klugherz, a seventeen-year-old singer-songwriter from Fort Bidwell. She has been playing guitar, singing, writing songs, and performing since the age of seven.
Agave worked with and accompanied the two locals during each of their performances.
The Agave-Surprise Valley Residency is sponsored by the Surprise Valley Culture and Arts (SVCA), which was formed in late 2022, as a California non-profit corporation, to support art and culture in Surprise Valley. SVCA owns and operates the community radio station, KDUP-FM, and looks forward to supporting a wide range of art, music, and literature while advancing Surprise Valley’s role as a vital cultural hub of northeastern California. Productions posted on KDUP.org include the Valley Tales and Agave series. This project is supported with generous funding from Upstate Creative Corps, a program of the California Arts Council, the KAVAH Fund, the Chicago Community Foundation, and the Marchy Barn.
As a culmination of their year-long residency program, Agave will be giving two final concerts on June 19 and 21. The free concerts will include Agave playing alongside the SV musicians participating in the residency.
