Music will once again lilt through the trees when Adkins Arboretum hosts Forest Music on Sat., Sept. 25 from 2 to 4 p.m. Presented in partnership with Chestertown’s National Music Festival (NMF), the event will feature four musicians playing separately in the forest and then coming together for a brief quartet performance.

Adkins Forest Music. Clockwise from top left: Nevin Dawson, Ton Demby, Yoshiaki Horiguchi, Maria Rusu.

Forest Music is presented in honor of the Arboretum’s members, whose generosity supports Arboretum operations and makes possible free admission in 2021. All are welcome.

Yoshiaki Horiguchi has been acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun for his ability to perform with a “dazzling display of dexterity and panache.” A proponent of music accessibility, he is an active double bassist, a collaborator, a pedagogue and an educator who brings music to numerous communities in the Delmarva region and beyond. Although classically trained, his endeavors span a broad spectrum of genres. Horiguchi has also been an NMF apprentice and has performed as part of the NMF Resonance concert series.

Maria Rusu, a native of Romania, comes from a family of musicians. She began her musical studies at the age of six, first studying violin and then switching to viola. Rusu is heavily involved in the tri-state area music community, performing as a jazz singer and teaching violin, viola and jazz voice. She serves as core faculty at The Music School of Delaware in Wilmington and is a member of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and the Newark Symphony Orchestra, as well as assistant conductor of the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been an NMF apprentice for both viola and arts administration.

Ron Demby has been a music educator for Queen Anne’s County Public Schools for nearly 30 years. He is currently the band director of Sudlersville Middle School and previously held the same position at Queen Anne’s County High School. He holds a B.A. in music education from Elizabethtown College and a Master of Education degree from Salisbury University.

Nevin Dawson studied viola at Penn State University while earning a degree in forestry and has played with numerous symphonies and chamber ensembles, including Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. A versatile player in classical, folk, jazz and other genres, he plays with Shore Strings, the Dover Symphony, The Pam Ortiz Band, Harp & Soul and Front Porch Orchestra and is featured on eight studio albums. He currently teaches violin, viola and cello in Chestertown and serves as sustainable agriculture coordinator for University of Maryland Extension.

Musicians will perform solo from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and will come together for a brief group performance. Admission is free, though advance registration is appreciated at adkinsarboretum.org.

The National Music Festival brings together inspiring mentors and the next generation of gifted musicians, providing education, scholarships and affordable, adventurous public performances in and around Chestertown, Md. Held for two weeks in June, the Festival was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID precautions. It is scheduled to resume in 2022. Visit nationalmusic.us for more information.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Biking his favorite loop near his home in Denton, Rob Brownlee-Tomasso spotted a row of birds perched on a power line. It’s a common sight on the Eastern Shore, but “Tree Swallows on a Wire,” the painting it inspired, is not what you might expect. Part of his show Natural Constructs, on view in the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Oct. 30, these birds were painted in bold, sure strokes of acrylic, trimmed out along their edges right down to every spindly toe and pop riveted onto a slanting cobalt blue line on an oblong canvas encrusted with sand. There will be a reception to meet the artist and learn about his unorthodox techniques on Sat., Sept. 11 from 3 to 5 p.m.

Rob Brownlee-Tomasso, “Tuckahoe State Park (Creekside Cliffs),” acrylic and earth on canvas, 59″ x 54″

An avid birder who loves biking and hiking, Brownlee-Tomasso is a keen observer of nature who always carries a sketchbook for making drawings and notes about what he sees along the way. But while his paintings are inspired by the birds, trees and glimpses of blue water of our familiar Eastern Shore landscapes, they don’t just hang politely on the wall. Painted on large, decidedly un-rectangular shaped canvases, they are exuberant, colorful and full of drama. Textured with earth or sand he has collected on his travels and often incorporating an actual tree branch found along the way, they glitter with pop rivets or other bits of metal.

The inclusion of hardware in the paintings is startling and almost comic, but it also serves as an acknowledgement of the inevitable human presence in the landscape. There’s quite a bit of humor in Brownlee-Tomasso’s work and an obvious fondness for the natural world. Every bird, tree or plant has its own distinct personality, and, while never sentimental, each painting asserts its animated aliveness.

Along with drawings, his sketchbooks are scribbled with thoughts about what he has observed and notes on bird identification, as well as the bold color and composition studies that are preliminary to his larger paintings.

“I’m big on sketchbooks,” he said. “I love pencil sketches and color studies, and when I go on vacation, I do vacation logs.”

Although vacations may take them to more distant places such as Key West, Brownlee-Tomasso and his wife are frequent visitors to Adkins Arboretum and Tuckahoe State Park, as well as Pickering Creek Audubon Center, Solomons Island and Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, all places that appear in his paintings.

In “Tuckahoe State Park (Creekside Cliffs),” where occasional bits of hardware glint along the edge of a path winding along a stream, a branch he picked up in the park forms the left edge of the slanted canvas.

Brownlee-Tomasso began using branches in his paintings during a residency at Annemarie Garden on Solomons Island in 2014. He was building his canvases at the gallery when he realized he hadn’t brought enough wood along.

“I thought I could use a branch for one of the edges and that would save me wood,” he said. “I really liked it, so I carried it through on a bunch of paintings.”

Incorporating branches and earth found in the places that inspire his work gives Brownlee-Tomasso’s paintings a striking physicality that matches their audacious enthusiasm and disconcerting perspectives. Full of compressed energy, each of these paintings is like a captivating story unfolding before your eyes.

Natural Constructs is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Oct. 30 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or info@adkinsarboretum.org for gallery hours.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

Shore Shakespeare co-founder Chris Rogers performs in A Little Touch of Shakespeare, an original production he wrote featuring scenes from several of Shakespeare’s most notable plays.

Have you ever wondered what William Shakespeare was thinking as he wrote The Taming of the Shrew or Richard III? Well, who better to introduce Shakespeare’s plays than the Bard himself? Join Shore Shakespeare for A Little Touch of Shakespeare, an exploration of some of the playwright’s most famous works, Sept. 18 and 19 at Adkins Arboretum.

In this original production, seven actors take on roles in eleven scenes from ten of Shakespeare’s most famous works, including Richard III, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and more. Narrated by Shakespeare himself, the show takes the audience behind the scenes to see what the Bard may have been thinking as he wrote some of the wittiest, most charming and, in some cases, darkest dialogue ever. The scenes themselves explore the Battle of the Sexes and revolve around the theme of love, all while showcasing Shakespeare’s incomparable wit, wisdom and poetry. In addition, the show features seven of Shakespeare’s sonnets, also dealing with issues of love, placed strategically throughout the scenes.

Performances are Sat., Sept. 18 and Sun., Sept. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Arboretum Pavilion. Participants should bring a blanket or chair and are welcome to bring a picnic. Admission is $15 for adults, $5 for children ages 3–18 and free for children ages 2 and under and can be purchased in advance at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 0.

A Little Touch of Shakespeare was written by Shore Shakespeare Company co-founder Chris Rogers in 2012. Sadly, Chris passed away in June 2020. This production will serve as special recognition of his passion and legacy within the local theatre. Proceeds will benefit Shore Shakespeare and Adkins Arboretum.

Shore Shakespeare is a pan-community theatre group established to present the classic works of the theatrical repertoire and to encourage its audiences to support local community theatre all over the Shore.

Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.