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Brasil Guitar Duo video clip: http://youtu.be/pmMPxO6lWbw
BRASIL GUITAR DUO Classical Guitar Magazine exclaims: “The maturity of musicianship and technical virtuosity …is simply outstanding.” in describing the Brasil Guitar Duo, winner of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Equally at home on a Classical or a World Music series, the Duo’s innovative programming features a seamless blend of traditional and Brazilian works, resulting in a full global touring schedule and numerous critically acclaimed recordings.
The Brasil Guitar Duo’s 2010-11 US tours include recitals in 15 states across the country, and just some of the highlights include a return engagement with the New York City Classical Guitar Society at Baruch College, and debut performances for San Francisco’s Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts, Guitar Houston, the Macon Concert Association and at Strathmore Performing Arts Center in Maryland. International highlights include the Gliwice International Guitar Festival in Poland. A favorite of summer festivals, the Brasil Guitar Duo made its debut at the Aspen Festival in July 2010, in a special collaborative program with CAG alumnae flutist Marina Piccinini. Previous summers have included concerts at New York’s River to River Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, Stowe Summer Music Festival (VT), Lancaster Festival (OH), and abroad, the Bermuda Guitar Festival, Two Moors Festival (OK), Tirol’s Outreach Festival (Austria) and Sao Paulo’s Campos do Jordão International Festival (Brazil).
Recent featured New York City recital engagements include Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, NY Guitar Seminar at Mannes College, Symphony Space and Joe’s Pub. In addition, they have performed for the Orange County (CA) Performing Arts Center, Lied Center (University of Kansas), Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Chicago, Spivey Hall, Montalvo Center for the Arts, Purdue University Convocations, Daytona Beach International Festival, Virginia Arts Festival, CityFolk Festival in Dayton, OH, the Santa Barbara Symphony’s Guitar Festival and for Miami Guitar Festival and the Asociacion Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City and the Classical Guitar Societies of St. Louis, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Tucson and Upstate New York.
The Duo appears frequently in conjunction with CAG’s highly regarded New Music/New Places initiative, performing in diverse non-traditional spaces. Just some of the venues who have hosted the duo are: BAMcafé and Barbés Bar and Performance Space in Brooklyn; Long Island’s Cinema Arts Centre; Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs; and Philadelphia’s World Café Live. The Brasil Guitar Duo is perfectly suited for these non-traditional venues, having established a broad repertoire of classical guitar duos (Bach, Sor, Scarlatti, etc.) combined with the traditional music of its native land (choro samba, maxixe and baião).
João Luiz and Douglas Lora met in São Paulo as teenage guitar students and have been performing together for more than ten years, perfecting a sublime synchronicity and effortless performance style. The ensemble’s primary studies were with Henrique Pinto along with Fabio Zanon, Paulo Martelli, Sergio Abreu and Alice Artz. Douglas Lora earned his Master’s degree at the University of Miami as a student of Dr. Rene Gonzalez. João Luiz is pursuing his Master’s degree at New York’s Mannes College of Music studying with Michael Newman.
Video Clip of Feb. 11, 2011 http://youtu.be/oooorqnxiTg
The Blue Rose Duo plays Music of the Americas
Traveling from Brazil and Argentina to Mexico and the United States, cellist Lars Hoefs and pianist Rose Chen present a smoldering program of pan-American delights. Samba rhythms reinvigorate Bach, Stravinsky joins a mariachi band, and once-illicit tango takes the stage. Music by Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, Piazzolla, Chavez, Revueltas, and Barber draw expression and life’s essence from the new world, uniting North and South Americans in classical music’s wild Western hemisphere…
As the Blue Rose Duo and as two-thirds of the Blue Rose Trio, Lars and Rose have performed across the world, won international competitions, and commissioned new works. The duo’s acclaimed Villa-Lobos album was hailed as “One of the standout Villa-Lobos discs of the past few years” by the Villa-Lobos Magazine.
Proudly hailing from Appleton, WI, cheesehead-cellist Lars Hoefs received a Doctorate studying cello with Ronald Leonard at the University of Southern California where he was teaching assistant for the Contemporary Music Ensemble, winner of LA Weekly’s “Ensemble of the Year.”
Lars sweated through 2009 as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro, where he researched Villa-Lobos when not dodging soccer balls and bikinis on Copacabana beach. 2011 highlights included performances with Ipalpiti at the Red Sea Chamber Music Festival; recitals with pianist and Polish Music Center Director Marek Zebrowski in Krakow and Prague; the commission and premiere of Chinary Ung’s In Memoriam for the Connections Chamber Music Festival; and returning to Brazil for a Saint-Saëns Concerto with the Campos Filarmonica, premiering David Ashbridge’s Death of the Godfather for cello and string orchestra, and playing tangos with Piazzolla’s own bandoneon player Tito Cartechini and solo Bach with the Niteroi City Ballet for the Rio International Cello Encounters. Encounter more at www.LarsHoefs.com
Pianist Rose Chen came to the United States in 1997 after winning numerous solo piano awards as a teenager and making her solo debut at the National Concert Hall in her native Taiwan. In November, 2009 Rose successfully completed her Doctorate in Musical Arts with full-scholarship at the prestigious USC Thornton School of Music. She was awarded the outstanding graduate in the USC doctoral program. Rose has performed as a soloist and chamber player in Canada, Austria, Brazil, France, Israel, Hong Kong, and China. Within the United States Rose is a regular artist-faculty at several music festivals held in Alaska, Texas, and California. Rose’s recent projects include the release of an all Villa-Lobos album with cellist Lars Hoefs, joining an avant-garde tango/world/jazz/classical band called Haberdashery Ensemble, and the world premiere of Music for the Blue Rose (a musical commemoration of war) written by USC faculty Nick Strimple. Rose was the Artist-in-Residence of the Los Angles Musical Salon Concert Series 2008-2011where she collaborated with numerous guest performers. She currently teaches piano at the Hyperium Conservatory at Redondo Beach and coaches singers at Biola University in La Mirada, California. An advocate for Taiwanese contemporary music, Rose was appointed director and conductor of the Los Angeles Taiwan Center Chorus in 2010. Visit her at www.RoseChen.com
Video Clip of Liu Xiao: http://youtu.be/7OwSNKFV4PU
The Center for the Visual & Performing Arts (CVPA) at Sage Granada Park United Methodist Church presents in recital Liu Xiao on violin accompanied by Jiayi Shi on piano.
Among Liu Xiao’s awards are a First Prize in the 1999 MIDO Sino-Francais Violin Competition and the Gold Medal in the CCTV (Central China Television) Music Competition of 2008. His Parisian recital in 2000, in tandem with the pianist Yuja Wang, was documented on French national television. He is currently on the faculty of his alma mater, the Central Conservatory of Music, and he is also in graduate studies as a Starling Fellow at the USC Thornton School of Music, under the tutelage of Prof. Midori Goto.
Pianist Jiayi Shi maintains an active schedule as a chamber musician and collaborative pianist. She works extensively with the internationally renowned violinist Midori, and made her New York recital debut with Midori in March 2004. Ms. Shi has given recitals in notable venues such as Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and St. Luke’s Hall in London. She has also performed regularly with distinguished musicians including Martin Chalifour and Ryu Goto. This season, upcoming performances will take her to Japan and Germany.
Having earned a Bachelor’s degree in Piano at the University of Texas, Ms. Shi continued her education at the Eastman School of Music with the renowned pianist Barry Snyder. She graduated from Eastman in 2002 with both a Master’s degree and the Performance Certificate in Piano, and completed her Doctorate in Musical Arts at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Shi is currently on the piano faculty at Biola University in Southern California.
刘霄Liu xiao
当今中国最受瞩目的著名青年小提琴家，年仅24岁时便被聘为中国最高音乐学府中央音乐学院（Central Conservatory of Music）的小提琴导师，成为该校最年轻的小提琴教育家。2008年在极具影响的首届中央电视台CCTV小提琴电视大赛(CCTV Violin TV Competition）中毫无争议地一举夺取金奖，为全国观众所熟知和喜爱,名声大噪，随即跻身为国内极具明星风范的最活跃的小提琴家之一。
早在1999年仅17岁时他便获得第一届“咪多”国际小提琴比赛（"MIDO" International Violin Competition）冠军，在国际上崭露头角。后又在一年中连续获得其他三个比赛的大奖，更获得了萨默·雷石东（Sumner Redstone）奖金及国家杰出音乐成就奖（National Outstanding Music Achievement Award）等荣誉。他是已故国际著名小提琴教育大师林耀基（Lin Yaoji）教授的得意门生。硕士毕业于中央音乐学院，曾在著名的法国巴黎国立高等音乐学院（Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris）深造。
作为独奏家一直活跃在世界各地的音乐舞台上，出访了包括法国、加拿大、瑞士、西班牙、哥伦比亚、俄罗斯、日本、韩国、印尼、新加坡等在内的亚洲、欧洲、北美、南美、非洲等国家，在国内更是走遍大多数城市及地区举办独奏会(Recital)及大师班（Masterclass）讲学，所到之处均受到广泛欢迎。
与之合作过的交响乐团（Symphony Orchestra）涵盖了众多国际知名乐团及国内各省市大部分的优秀乐团，其中包括哥伦比亚国家交响乐团（Colombia National Symphony Orchestra ）、波哥大爱乐乐团（Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra）、北京交响乐团（Beijing Symphony Orchestra ）等。许多杰出的指挥家都长期和他保持合作关系，其中包括Irwin Hoffman、Alejandro Posada、Steve Davis、朱晖、谭利华、张国勇、胡咏言、范焘、张艺等
由于对现代音乐作品具有独到个性的演绎能力，他的演奏近年来受到众多当代国际著名作曲家的关注和青睐，杜鸣心、谭盾、陈怡、叶小纲、黄安伦等作曲大师都和他有过亲密的合作，更将自己的新作交予其作世界及国内首演和推广。
2006年他曾在瑞士日内瓦联合国欧洲总部万国宫为包括一百九十多个国家的大使在内的几千名观众独奏，引起轰动。联合国副秘书长沙祖康先生更是给予极高评价。
在日本著名的恰空乐器公司(Chaconne Violin Company)的30年创业庆典音乐节上，他被邀请参加使用数把珍贵的斯特拉底瓦里(Stradivari)名琴成功地举办个人独奏音乐会，并被授予瓜乃利·德尔·吉苏(Guarneri del Gesù violin)名琴的使用权。
法国国家电视台曾为其录制了其在法访问演出行程的纪录片专题节目向全法播放。哥伦比亚国家电视台曾将其演出实况向全国进行直播。北京电视台著名访谈栏目《爱音乐》节目也为他制作了访问专辑介绍其艺术生涯。
著名小提琴大师吉顿·克莱默（Gidon Kremer）访华期间听过其演奏后说:“你出色的演奏不仅让我很欣赏和感到惊讶，也得到了在座观众的喜爱，从他们热烈的掌声中就能听出来！”
另一位著名小提琴大师平恰斯·祖克曼(Pinchas Zukerman)更称其为“帕格尼尼”先生(Mr.Paganini)。
日本评论报道“如此出色且有远大抱负的年轻人是我们日本年轻人学习的榜样
Dr. Elizabeth Su video clip: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=56568553
Orphea Piano Trio featuring renowned cellist Dr. Elizabeth Su who has performed internationally including Carnegie Hall with the Muse Piano Quartet, Lincoln Center and many others. Praised by Strings Magazine as a "romantic and extroverted cellist" is recognized for her sensitive musical expression as a soloist, collaborative artisit and teacher. She has performed with Daniel Heifeitz, the winner of the Tchaikovsky violin competition in which they performed the Brahms piano quartet in G minor. Dr. Su began studying the cello at age seven and has won several National Cello Competitions. She received a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Julliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of Maryland.
Chiyi-Yau a popular violinist began studying violin at age five with her father. After winning numerous competitions in Taiwan, she came to Los Angeles to study with Alice Schoenfield in 1980. She received a Bachelor and Masters degrees from The Julliard School. Ms. Chen appears annually as a concertmaster in Long Beach Symphony Orchestra's pops concerts and has been a member of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra since 1993.
Anli Tong, piano, praised by critics for her “pointed grace” (Los Angeles Times), and “exquisite pianism” (Chinese American News), pianist An Lin Tong’s concerts have taken her to three continents on the stages of such halls as the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, Taipei Symphony Hall, the Bordeaux Opera House, and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. As a concert soloist, she has appeared with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in the National Arts Festival, the Chinese Fine Arts Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra, the Livic Chamber Orchestra, the Burbank Phiharmonic Orchestra, and in repeat engagements with the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra. She started piano lessons at age nine with the late Polish pedagogue Mieczyslaw Munz who was his youngest pupil at The Julliard School, where Anli Tong subsequently graduated with two degrees in Piano Performance. Later studies were undertaken in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at UCLA with the renowned Russian pedagogue Vitaly Margulis. Since then, Ms. Tong has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician and a sought after teacher of gifted students who have captured top prizes in competitions.
PROGRAM
Spanish flamenco dancer Inesita returns by popular demand to present a program of solo and ensemble dances with her newly-formed company on Saturday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at The Center
for the Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) located at Sage Granada Park United Methodist Church. Inesita has danced at major theaters, universities, and art houses throughout Spain, France,
England, Mexico, and the United States. Numerous film credits include her solo performance in D.W. Griffith’s 1951 “Footlight Varieties,” a rare clip of which can be viewed on You Tube. Her
mastery of the castanets has been compared to that of the great dancer/musician Antonia Merce.
She was drawn to flamenco and Spanish dance at age 12 by its elegance and rhythmic complexity, and never stopped dancing. “Learning flamenco dance is a never-ending process that takes a
lifetime to absorb and more,” says Inesita. “To stop learning is to atrophy. Flamenco rhythm is an endless chain that goes into infinity. There is no end and no beginning- or, the end becomes a
new beginning. So change is inevitable, and I do not dance as I did years ago. There are so many ways to say the same thing.” Her career continues to defy conventional expectations of a dancer’s longevity, and in 2011 she was presented with a Lester Horton Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dance Resource Center in Los Angeles.
Inesita’s artistic legacy has deeply influenced her company members, many of whom she has been collaborating with for years, and whose artistry she has been instrumental in developing. She
remembers principal dancer Miguel Bernal,who began studying with her at the age of 14. “He blossomed right away. He had that talent, a spark. I taught him a Farruca, which was the first dance I had been taught.” Today, Bernal is a prolific stage, TV, and movie actor and dancer. “She has been the most important dance influence in my life,” he says. “Almost everything I do is Inesita. My feet are her feet; her feet are my feet.”
“Her knowledge and artistry are unending sources of inspiration,” says principal dancer, teacher and choreographer Mari Sandoval, who has worked and studied with Inesita since 2003.
Company guitarist Stamen Wetzel and Inesita have been collaborating since the 1970s. “She’s a miracle,” he says. “Inesita is always improving, growing, adding. That’s what flamenco is---a
constant process of creative development.” Additional performers include guitarist and instrument maker Benjamin, Gypsy flamenco singer Miguel de Malaga, Spanish and modern dancer Albertossy Espinoza, classical and flamenco dancer Susana Elena, and Sandoval’s corps de ballet of advanced dancers.
Flamenco is a musically sophisticated, uniquely Spanish music and dance form that developed in Andalucia (Southern Spain) over time, and through the contributions of many different cultures and religions. These include ancient Rome, Greece, Phoenicia, and the Celts, the Middle East, North Africa, Latin America, and Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The Spanish Gypsies, a musically gifted people originally from East India, were instrumental in combining these influences to create a wholly new art form that others call flamenco.
The Aiana SQ, praised by the Durango Herald as “spirited, precise and full of energy,” has performed both in the US and abroad, and is consistently lauded by audiences for their highly emotional interpretations. The quartet was recently awarded the 2011 Coleman-Barstow Prize for Strings at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition, and is very pleased to be the newly appointed Young Professional Quartet in Residence at the University of Texas in Austin, where they are under the mentorship of the Miró Quartet. In the artistically rich city of Austin, the Aiana SQ hopes to further explore their passion for new music and interdisciplinary work as a quartet.
Individually, the quartet’s members have performed live with the Janice Garrett & Dancers dance company, premiered concertos at various venues such as Carnegie Hall, performed at the Cervantino and SpazioMusica Festivals, and worked closely with artists including John Corigliano, John Williams and Garth Knox. Experienced as educators as well as performers, the Aiana SQ is dedicated to sharing music through outreach concerts. During their time in San Diego from 2010-2011 as the Scholarship Quartet in Residence at San Diego State University in Association with Mainly Mozart, they served as Guest Artist coaches in chamber music at the Canyon Crest Academy. This past spring they toured Tijuana, Mexico with Mainly Mozart, bringing the music of Beethoven, Bartók, Mozart and Brahms to the ears of hundreds of children in ten low-income elementary schools.
The quartet spent the past summer as fellows at the 2011 Aspen Institute for Advanced Quartet Studies where they worked closely with members of the Takács, American, Calder, Emerson, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and performed on several faculty concerts. During a quick trip to LA in August, the Aiana was the featured string quartet at the 2011 International Clarinet Convention where they were invited to perform with several artists including Ricardo Morales and Joaquin Valdepeñas, principal clarinetists of the New York Philharmonic and Toronto Orchestras respectively. The upcoming season for the Aiana SQ will include many performances in and around Austin, TX but will also take them back to California in November for an appearance with the Redlands Chamber Music Society, and again in April for several performances with the Consortium of Southern California Chamber Music Presenters as winners of the 2011 Beverly Hills Auditions.
Roseminna Watson, violin Hanna Hurwitz, violin Mario Anton Andreu, viola Jillian Bloom, cello
Sat. April 28, 2012 - 7pm
The St. Petersburg Men's Ensemble
Video clip: http://youtu.be/knMns5VtDyg
The double prize winner of the 2008 Primrose International Viola Competition, violist, Victor de Almeida, has recently been the Principal Violist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Paavo Järvi and the Associate Principal Violist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Mario Venzago. He studied at the Peabody Institute of Music, while serving as the Principal Violist of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and was a regular substitute violist with the Baltimore Symphony. With the Cincinnati Symphony, in addition to the two European Tours, Victor has also performed for the Bejing Olympics celebration events in China. Recently he was the Guest Principal for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Principal Violist for the Castleton Opera Festival in Berkley under the baton of Lorin Maazel. While in Los Angeles , Mr. de Almeida frequently performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as the Principal of the New West Symphony.
While in Cincinnati, he has taught Master Classes at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and is currently on the String Faculty at Mount Saint Mary's College in Los Angeles. In addition to his numerous solo and chamber music performances, Victor also finds time to perform as a recording artist for Fox Television Network shows “Family Guy,” “Cleveland” and “American Dad.” He is also an avid collector of viola music and takes pride in performing those selections.
1850 W. Hellman Avenue
Alhambra, CA 91803
ph: (626) 230 5435
www
