Infectiously charming in performance, graced with old fashioned skill and integrity, Knowles and Wallace are eloquent, whimsical, passionate, versatile, colorful, and entirely original.   Rare composer/performers, they do not merely entertain--they engage the audience with their sense of drama, Wallace’s guitar wizardry and their meltingly beautiful vocal ensemble. Nancy Knowles and Frank Wallace are also skilled teachers committed to outreach, education, and the environment, actively promoting a new humanism in the arts that celebrates diversity and multiplicity.

CONTACT Nancy Knowles nancy@duoliveoak.com 603-588-6121 FEE SUPPORT Funding for Duo LiveOak concerts is available from both the New llampshire State Council on the Arts (in state) and the New England Foundation for the Arts (within New England) through their touring programs.  Contact: Judy Rigmont:  603-271-0794, jrigmont@nharts.state.nh.us    Presenters from the other five New England states may apply for fee subsidy support from NEFA's New England States Touring Program.  For more information, please visit their website at www.nefa.org

PROGRAM OFFERINGS 2006-7   click on program image for sound sample

To see residencies, click here

AUDIENCE: general, vocal recitals, new music, college or high school Music and English Departments, American Studies, Environmental Studies, voice and guitar programs.

Harlequin in Love
   Songs of Frank Wallace

[see program]

Nancy Knowles, soprano, poet
Frank Wallace, baritone, lute, guitar, composer

In a program noted for its beauty, variety, humor and depth, Wallace and Knowles shine separately and together in vocal duets, guitar solos and song cycles accompanied by guitar

and lute. The marvelous poetry of Pulitzer-Prize winning

poet Theodore Roethke gives a whimsical tone

to this colorful concert.

"[LiveOak] gave a superb concert....don't miss them.

Wallace has developed a formidable compositional

palette that incorporates influences from early music

to the latest avant-garde techniques."
Boston Classical Guitar Society Newsletter

Woman of the Water
Honoring the Feminine: New Works and Old Masters
 [see program]

Nancy Knowles, soprano, flute, poet
Frank Wallace, baritone, lute, guitar, composer

Showcasing Duo LiveOak's rare blend of old and new, this program celebrates women in early song (medieval Spanish,
Sephardic, and French airs de cours), as well as in stunning new song cycles for solo and duo voices by Frank Wallace.
.

"In over 25 years of writing about music on recordings and in concerts, I have rarely been as captivated and enchanted..."
Classical Voice North Carolina

inquire for availability

  By the Light of the Lute
Renaissance Masterworks for Lute, Vihuela and Voice

[see program] 

Nancy Knowles, soprano, flute
Frank Wallace, baritone, lute, composer

Hear Duo LiveOak in the repertoire for which they have been hailed for decades by critics and audiences alike: 16th century lute and vihuela songs. Knowles and Wallace have clear

rich voices that shine in solos and blend in duet. Wallace's accompaniments and solos are unrivalled. Includes the popular sung duet, Pearly Everlasting, inspired by Machaut, written by Wallace in memory of LiveOak co-founder John Fleagle.

"This was music-making on the highest international level."
The San Francisco Chronicle

Voice of the Rose: The Sacred Feminine

Songs of Medieval Spain

Nancy Knowles, soprano, flutes, percussion

Harking back to an age when feminine virtues were a source

of inspiration, praised in song and verse, Voice of the Rose features the evocative solo repertoire of medieval Spain.  With her passionate singing and haunting flures, Knowles tells of sisters, mothers, Holy Mary and Mary Magdalen, of birth, of mourning, and of pilgrimage. All three cultures, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, of medieval Spain are represented.

"[T]he eloquence could not have been improved upon...The soprano Nancy Knowles gave a vocal image of the "heavenly queen" in Royne Celestre: sturdy, compassionate, serene."
The New York Times

Father Said:
  Songs and Solos by Frank Wallace
[see program]
Frank Wallace, classical guitar, baritone, composer

Frank Wallace showcases his own compositions for solo guitar and his song cycles Speak Love (2005) and Father Said: (2003) for baritone with guitar accompaniment. This major new work features Wallace's self-accompanied singing of his grandfather's colorful poems about his own pioneer father's life on the plains in 19th century Texas. The lyrical melodies combined with the simple grace

of the poetry ensure there will not be a dry eye in the hall.

"It is easy to feel an intimate conncetion to the ethereal beauty of Frank Wallace's compositions not only because of their individual splendor, but also because of the lush tone and sensitive perfection with which Wallace executes his music."
Guitar Review