Brushes Meet Keys in The Dalles: Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield and Pianist Garry Estep Collaborate Live

From Serious Theater:

By Garry Estep

The Dalles, Or. October 10, 2023 - Serious Theater in partnership with the Wasco County Cultural Trust Coalition brings art and music together in a special event happening on Sunday, October 22 at 2:00 P.M. The Dalles artist Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield will create a painting on glass while pianist Garry Estep provides accompaniment. This event will take place at Zion Lutheran Church ELCA located at the corner of 10th and Union Streets and is free and open to the public.

The musical program includes Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, Piano Etudes by Philip Glass, and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.

Yvonne Pepin-Wakefield is an internationally exhibited and published artist and author with a doctorate in Human and Organizational Systems which has little to do with her painting styles.

Her award-winning Babe in the Woods book series, central to the log cabin she built at age 18 in the Oregon wilderness, is available in print, digital, and audio formats. An interview with Yvonne at her log cabin is included in Irene Lusztig’s documentary “Yours in Sisterhood,” a portrait of feminism centering around letters written to Ms. Magazine. Screenwriter Schuyler Evans is currently writing a movie treatment based on the first book “Babe in the Woods: Building a Life One Log at a Time.” Yvonne is also the author of “Babe in the Woods: Self Portrait” and “Suitcase Filled with Nails: Lesson Learned from Teaching Art in Kuwait,” her story about working as a university professor in Kuwait, teaching art to Muslim women.

Visit Yvonne’s Art Studio at 3735 Klindt Drive, in The Dalles.

Cincinnati, Ohio, native Garry Estep began teaching himself how to read music and play piano at age 10. By the time he reached 13 years old, he began studying at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. This launched a life-long passion as a pianist/accompanist.

Garry continued his studies at the Ohio State University School of Music and The Julliard School. Working in New York City, Nashville, and Louisville, he played jazz in clubs, accompanied concerts, opera, and ballet He wrote and arranged music, became lead accompanist and vocal coach at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, and directed music at The Heritage House Dinner Theater, not to mention playing piano and pipe organ at numerous churches.

After twenty years, he earned an advanced degree in physics and computer science and worked for NASA, The Boeing Company, and Insitu while continuing to “play” in his spare time. Now retired, Garry is the organist at Zion Lutheran Church ELCA and Christian Science, he founded and is artistic director of Serious Theater, directs the Cascade Singers, and is on a mission to make sure that the five pipe organs in The Dalles are being played regularly.