Dr. Carl Cranmer on piano and Derek Menchan on cello comprise The Vox Populi Players performing “The Left-Handed Path: A Cello and Piano Experience.”
Derek Menchan is a professor of Humanities and Music. He is also a Distinguished Alumnus of Polk State, recognized for his contributions to the arts, both in Polk County and abroad. Menchan also serves as the advisor of the College’s Philosophy Club and is founder and director of the Voices of the People Chamber Music Series, which features talented classical musicians. A concert ‘cellist, Menchan not only taught at Texas Southern University before being hired as an adjunct at Polk State in 2003, but also was a solo ‘cellist for numerous orchestras and ensembles, including Houston’s OrchestraX, the Orlando Symphony, and the New York Pro Arte Ensemble. He earned a master’s degree in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He also earned the Manhattan School of Music’s Pablo Casals Award for Musical Accomplishment and Human Endeavor.
Carl Cranmer made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of nine. Since then, in addition to solo recitals in Europe, Asia, and North America, he has performed in concert with the Royal Philharmonic of England, the Gulbenkian Orquesta of Portugal, the Juilliard Orchestra and several other orchestras on the Eastern Seaboard. In addition to his study in conservatories of music in the United States, he also studied at the Sommerakademie at the Mozarteum, in Salzburg, Austria under full scholarship, where he was under the tutelage of distinguished teachers Karlheinz Kammerling, Jacob Lateiner, and Hans Graf.
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