Your Recorder Community

Donna DiBella is a pianist/organist recently retired from 27 years of teaching Sight Singing classes at Lawrence University, and currently serves as music director for a Presbyterian congregation in Appleton, WI. She picked up the recorder sometime in the 80s and has fond memories of playing for Madrigal dinners at Texas Tech University with former American Recorder editor Gail Nickless in the early 1990s.

In addition to taking advantage of the scads of opportunities for arranging and composing for voices afforded by her teaching and church music positions, Donna has had the pleasure and challenge of arranging multiple pieces for her local recorder group, the Renard Consort. Blue Toots, however, is her first “from scratch” piece for recorders. The title, coined by her husband Gene, refers to the vaguely bluesy character of the harmonies, and, of course, to the characteristic “toot” of the recorder.

This Members’ Library Edition was made possible by generous donations from the West Suburban Early Music Society (led by Kathy Hall-Babis) and The Clearing Folk School’s Woodland Consort (led by Pat Badger), honoring the memory of Joanne Miller (1949 – 2022). Joanne was a longtime Chicago-area member of both organizations, playing recorder, handbell, and occasionally accordion. Her passion for music, her quiet leadership, wry humor, love of chocolate-dipped strawberries and generous spirit continue to empower all those who loved her.