Concerts

Made in Canada II

Wed, 9 May 2012 12:05:17 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Dvorak, Piano Quartet no. 1, op. 23 in D Major
Mozart, Piano Quartet no. 2 in Eb, K. 493

$30 (sr $25; st $20)

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[artist bios continued - for Elissa and Tawnya, see May 7]

Rachel Mercer
Described as a "pure chamber musician" (Globe and Mail) creating "moments of pure magic" (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has demonstrated her love for sharing music through performance since she was three years old. Winner of the 2009 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank Competition, Rachel was awarded the use of the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, until August 2012. As the grand prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel made her European debut in the Concertgebouw and has appeared as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the United States, Balkans and Israel. A member of the award-winning Aviv String Quartet from 2002-2010, Rachel toured regularly on five continents. Currently based in Toronto, Rachel is cellist of Ensemble Made In Canada, Via Salzburg, the Mercer-Park Duo, and is Artistic Director of the "5 at the First" chamber series in Hamilton. Rachel has given masterclasses at schools, conservatories and universities across North America, South Africa and in Israel. Rachel can be heard on the Naxos, Dalia Classics and EnT-T record labels.

Pianist Angela Park has established herself as one of Canada's leading young musicians. Equally accomplished in both solo and chamber music experience, Angela's versatility has led to continued success in performances across Canada, as well as in parts of the United States, Europe, Japan and Mexico.

Born in London, Ontario, Angela began her musical studies at the age of three. With the guidance of James Anagnoson, she went on to become the youngest Gold Medal winner of the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music, as well as consistent recipient of numerous awards and prizes at the Ontario Provincial Festivals, Canadian National Music Festival, and the Canadian Music Competitions.

In recent years, Angela has achieved further success at the international level, winning the grand prize at the 2001 Grace Welsh Prize for Piano in Chicago, and fifth prize at the 2003 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. In 2006 Angela was the only Canadian representative and semifinalist prizewinner at the prestigious Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, and in 2007 she was a medallist at the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona.

Angela has performed as soloist with Orchestra London Canada, Sinfonia Toronto, Canadian Sinfonietta, UWO Symphony Orchestra, University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Northern Lights Festival Orchestra in Mexico, under the direction of conductors such as Raffi Armenian and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Solo and chamber music appearances include performances for the Steinway Society of Chicago, Montreal Pro Musica Series, Winnipeg Virtuosi, Glenn Gould Studio's OnStage and Music Around Us, Rome's Festival of the Nations, Debut Atlantic Tour and numerous others. Her live performances have been recorded and broadcast on CBC National Radio and on National Public Radio in the United States.

Angela has had the privilege of collaborating with internationally distinguished artists, including violist Rivka Golani, violinists Scott St. John and Erika Raum, flautist Susan Hoeppner, and the string members of the Gryphon Trio. She is a founding member of Made In Canada, an award-winning ensemble that received the CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Award in 2006, and was recently included in Chatelaine's 2008 anniversary list of "80 amazing Canadian women to watch".

Angela’s musical and academic education includes violin performance at the national level for ten years and studies in Biology at the University of Western Ontario. After studying with William Aide at the University of Toronto, Angela earned her Master of Music Degree in Performance with highest honours in 2003. In 2004 Angela received an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Professional Development Grant, allowing for studies in New York with Jacob Lateiner. Angela completed the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Performance at the Université de Montréal, where her studies were directed by Paul Stewart. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor (Collaborative Piano-Woodwinds) at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Made in Canada Piano Quartet, (I)

Mon, 7 May 2012 11:15:51 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program, Concert I (May 7):

Brahms, Quartet no. 3 in c , op. 60
Dvorak, Piano Quartet no. 2 in Eb, op. 87

Brahms was born on this day in 1833 - happy 179th, Johannes!

$30 (sr $25; st $20)
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The Made in Canada ensemble has been friends of ours since their beginning. Last year they performed a three-concert sequence with all the Brahms quartets. In this first of two, we take a celebratory back look at Brahms, and the second and most famed of Dvorak’s two works in the form. (Go to the next concert for Dvorak’s other piano quartet)

[artist bios for the violinist and violist; for the other two, go to May 9!]

Elissa Lee, violin
Winner of the 23rd Eckhardt-Gramatté Strings Competition, Elissa Lee has performed in cities throughout Canada and can be heard frequently on CBC Radio. She has appeared as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Boris Brott Festival Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, l‘Orchestre de Chambre de Montréal and the Royal Conservatory of Music Orchestra. Since moving to Europe, Elissa Lee has played recitals in Berlin, Munich and Freiburg and has collaborated with members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with pianist Pascal Devoyon.

Elissa Lee has had a busy chamber music life as first violinist of the Kamareli Quartet and the Bomari String Quartet. As a chamber musician she has performed with Anton Kuerti, Kevin Fitzgerald, Lawrence Lesser, Shauna Rolston and is a regular participant of Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England. With pianist Jeanie Chung she won second prize at the 2001 Caltanisetta International Chamber Music Competition. Elissa Lee is also an experienced orchestral musician and has served as concertmaster for the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, and the Canadian Opera Company.

Elissa Lee was born in Toronto, Canada where she studied with Victor Danchenko at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto and, extensively, with Lorand Fenyves at the University of Toronto where she received a bachelor and masters degree in performance. As an undergraduate she was the recipient of the prestigious Eaton Scholarship.

Elissa Lee then moved to Germany to study privately with Andreas Reiner in Munich and Thomas Brandis at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. There she won second prize in the Gyarfas Competition and her graduation recital was awarded with Excellence. These studies were made possible by two Chalmers Performing Arts Training Grants from the Ontario Arts Council and a Canada Council Grant.

Elissa Lee was second concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of André Previn. Elissa Lee is now enjoying a busy freelance career, and performs chamber music concerts and recitals throughout Europe and Canada. Frequently on tour as Concertmaster of the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra in Munich, as Substitute Principal Second Violin of Mahler Chamber Orchestra and as frequent guest of world renowned Chamber of Orchestra of Europe, she has performed in the greatest concert halls and festivals in the world.

Tawnya Popoff, viola [while Sharon Wei is on leave]
This Canadian violist enjoys an exciting and versatile international career. In addition to being principal violist with the Vancouver Opera since 2007, she is continuously sought after for chamber music collaborations. She is a member of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (TX), Monadnock Music (NH), and the Walden School Players (NH) with regular engagements in Europe. Ms. Popoff is a founding member of both Microcosmos {a string quartet} (BC), and the Athabasca String Trio (NY), and has ongoing collaborations with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance in addition to developing events with the trans-media group VisionIntoArt. She has given solo recitals throughout North America and Europe and performs with Caroline Stinson as the viola-cello Driftwood Duo.
Ms. Popoff has recorded for the Koch, Albany, Nonsuch, CRI, SHSK'H (web label), Columbia Composers and other independent labels. She has served on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, SUNY Buffalo, the Bowdoin International Music Festival and Artes no Camiño (Spain), was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and a recipient of two consecutive Canada Council Individual Grants. Her viola was played by Boris Kroyt of the Budapest Quartet, generously loaned to her courtesy of his grandson.
Tawnya Popoff studied with Gerald Stanick (Fine Arts Quartet) in Vancouver, BC and Martha Katz (Cleveland Quaret) at Rice University and is based both in Vancouver and in New York City. Aside from musical pursuits, Ms. Popoff has a cycling tour company offering guided, private and personalized cycling adventures.

Toronto Serenade String Quintet

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:29:49 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Bruckner: String Quintet in F
Brahms: String Quintet No. 2 in G, Op. 111

$30 (sr $25; st $20)

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This concert brings two unique masterpieces to the Music Room - quintets for string quartet with extra viola. Of the two Bruckner’s long, passionate work is rarely played - but greatly admired when it is. Of Brahms’s two works in the form, the second is a late work (op. 111) and imbued with the slightly melancholy resignation of the elder composer.

About our players:

Arkady Yanivker, violin (leader of the 'Serenade ensemble)

Much in demand as a violin soloist and ensemble performer, Arkady’s first major solo appearance was at the age of thirteen with the Odessa Symphony Orchestra in the U.S.S.R. After his graduation, Arkady Yanivker was engaged in concerts both as a chamber musician and solo violinist throughout the concert hall of Russia, and became concertmaster of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, during which time he also became member of the Faculty of Music.

Arkady Yanivker came to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1978, where he became well-known on the music scene as a violin soloist and chamber player. His concert performances in Canada have been heard on CBC, CMFX, and CJRT radio broadcasts. During his tenure as a member of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he served as concertmaster of the Toronto Philharmonia Orchestra, and guest concertmaster for the Kitchener Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Festival Orchestra, and the New Canadian Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared as soloist and chamber musician at home and in Europe. His performances have received outstanding reviews: "...impressive exploration of versatile potential of the violin... brilliant technique, truly virtuosic performance..." (Durier Lubelski), and "...the many memorable moments were Yanivker’s dominant violin..." (The Toronto Star).
Arkady Yanivker was invited to be the music consultant in the making of two movie documentaries: 'The Diaries of Sergei Prokofiev', and 'Glenn Gould in Russia'. Both films have received numerous high international awards. Arkady’s students have highly appraised performances in Canadian festivals and competitions.

Arkady Yanivker is founder of chamber music group: “the Serenade Ensemble”, which is highly acclaimed and enjoyed by all audiences. He has been invited for future seasons in scheduled recital performances as violin soloist and chamber musician.

Peter Seminovs, violin

A native of Toronto, Peter Seminovs is currently in his sixth year as violinist in the Toronto Symphony, joining the orchestra in September, 2006. Prior to the TSO, Peter performed with the Utah Symphony, where he had the opportunity to travel on a month long tour throughout Germany, Austria, and Slovenia in 2005.

Peter began playing the violin at the age of five. His studies led him to a Violin Performance Degree at the University of Toronto (where he also minored in Fine Art History) and from there to a Master's diploma at the the Mannes College of Music in New York City. His principal teachers include: Yaakov Geringas, Atis Bankas and Sally Thomas. From an early age, Peter won competitions and scholarships throughout North America including prizes at the Kiwanis International Music Festival, The Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Toronto, the Mannes College of Music, and First Prize at the National Canadian Music Competition.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Peter is particularly interested in the music of his Latvian heritage and has performed at various Latvian Concert Association programs throughout Canada and the United States. An avid chamber musician, Peter enjoys playing chamber music with fellow colleagues from the TSO. Peter can be seen yearly in the Five Small Concerts series held by the Toronto Symphony Associates. In the community, he is a member of the Bach Consort, a charity ensemble that performs works by J.S. Bach and others to raise money for local not-for-profit organizations, including the TSO for its education programs. Peter regularly coaches the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, and is in his fifth season participating in the TSO's Adopt-A-Player program. Peter enjoys teaching privately and specializes in helping other aspiring violinists prepare and take orchestral auditions.

Peter will be returning this summer to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley, Idaho to participate in the summer orchestra concert series. Peter also enjoys playing tennis, golf, collecting antique watches, traveling, relaxing at the cottage and taking Harley (pug + jack russell mix) on long walks.

Peter plays a J.B. Vuillaume "Guarneri" violin made in 1847.

Eric Nowlin, viola

Violist Eric Nowlin has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad. Past accomplishments include receiving first prize in the 2003 Irving Klein International String Competition; first prize in the 2002 Hellam Young Artists Competition; grand prize in the 2001 Naftzger Young Artists Competition; and winner of the 2001 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition, which led to a performance of Hindemith's Konzertmusik with Roberto Minzcuk conducting the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.

Performances have included solo engagements with the Springfield Symphony in Missouri, Santa Cruz Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, and the Kumamoto Symphony in Japan, as well as recitals in New York, San Francisco, and Mexico. Mr. Nowlin has been featured on NPR, WQXR in New York, WGBH in Boston, as well as television programs in Wisconsin and California. He is an active chamber musician, participating in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. He is a regular member of the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City, and toured with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute. Mr. Nowlin performs regularly as a substitute in the New York Philharmonic.

Mr. Nowlin was the recipient of a Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation Grant in 2004, an award intended for the advancement of young artist's performance careers. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes. He plays on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola on generous loan from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.

Diane Leung, viola

After winning the 2001 Canadian Music Competition and National Kiwanis Festival in Canada
chamber group category, violist, Diane Leung has performed throughout Canada, United States
and Europe as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She has appeared
in venues such as Alice Tully Hall and Paul Hall in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,
Greenfield Hall at Manhattan School of Music, Winspear Hall in Edmonton, Alberta, and at the
Palau de les Arts in Spain. As a soloist, Ms. Leung appeared with the Edmonton Orchestra
performing Bartok's Viola Concerto after winning the Edmonton Concerto Competition.
Ms. Leung's orchestral experience includes being the newest member of the viola section of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Assistant Principal violist of the Palau de les Arts orchestra in Valencia Spain, under Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. Also, she has played with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Grzegorz Nowak, principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra under the conductors James Conlon, James DePriest, Otto von Mueller, and Sir Roger Norrington, University of Alberta Symphony Orchestra, and University of Alberta Academy Strings. She has also attended festivals in Sarasota, Domaine Forget Chamber Music, Spoleto Italy festival, and the Banff Masterclass Program. She has toured with the Juilliard Centennial Orchestra on their European tour to Lucerne, Helsinki, Berlin and London, where they played at the BBC Proms Festival with Sir Colin Davis.
Ms. Leung holds a Bachelor and Master degrees from the Juilliard School, studying with Karen
Tuttle, Misha Amory, Kim Kashkashian and Carol Rodland. She also completed her Professional Studies Certificate as a full scholarship student at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Michael Tree and Karen Dreyfus. Her chamber music coaches have included Lawrence Dutton, Robert Mann, Earl Carlyss, Seymour Lipkin, Philippe Muller, and Bonnie Hampton.

Alistair Eng, cello

Guest crier Alastair Eng, proud Canadian and hockey enthusiast, has a deep interest in anthropology, astronomy, and quantum mechanics. His love for anthropology has led to a fascination with Bonobo culture, which he believes could serve as an archetype for future generations of human beings. However, his most sincere love is music. He is most content playing chamber music with friends, and exploring the gamut of experiences that is the human condition.

Twice a recipient of CBC’s ‘Galaxie’ Rising Stars scholarship, he also was recently honored with the RBC scholarship, a prestigious award granted to emerging young artist for commitment to the arts within the community, granted for study at the Banff Centre. His relationship with the Banff Centre has led to multiple residencies for intensive musical study, while also providing many performance opportunities, and allowing him to work closely with some of the worlds’ great artists. Solo engagements include recitals in Toronto as a featured Young Artist on the Mooredale concert series, performances with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and recurring engagements at Toronto’s Music Garden and the Banff Centre.

Despite Mr. Eng’s romantic inclinations, he has dedicated himself to the study of historical performance, having studied with members of Canada’ premiere baroque orchestra Tafelmusik, and performing on stage with members of the London Haydn Quartet. He has no fear of proclaiming his love for gut-strings, and is continually reexaming the historical treatises.

Alastair earned a Performance Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), and for two years further pursued his studies at The University of Calgary and Mount Royal College, where he actively pursued his interests in natural sciences. It was during this time that he was a part-time resident at the Banff Centre. He is currently pursuing his Master’s of Music at the New England Conservatory.

Alastair plays on an English cello circa 1850 by an unknown maker and a bow by W.E. Hill & Sons, both on generous loan from the Banff Centre. He is (and always will be) a die-hard Leaf fan.

Baumgartel-Gay-Louis Trio

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:10:05 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

trios by:
Mozart (tba)
Beethoven (tba)
J. N. Hummel, (1778-1837) Trio, Op. 12 in Eb

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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Julie Baumgartel, violin; Margaret Gay, cello; David Louis, piano make up this excellent trio. Though we’re calling it a “new” trio, its members have played together (in various groups) over many years, know each other well - and make lovely music together!

Julie Baumgartel, violin
Julie is a familiar figure to local musical patrons. She has performed with Tafelmusik and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra across Europe, North America and Asia. Since moving to the Waterloo Region in 2000 she has focused her activities as close to home as possible. She performs frequently with the KWS and Nota Bene Period Orchestra. She also has played chamber music regularly at the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, the Elora Festival, the Perimeter Institute and co-founded the Grand River Baroque Festival near Ayr, Ontario with her husband oboist James Mason. Julie appears on various chamber music series in southern Ontario including The Gallery Players of Niagara and InnerChamber in Stratford. In 2003 she was appointed conductor of the KWS Youth Sinfonia, in 2005 joined the string faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University as a part time instructor and, most recently, has become an instructor for the Laurier String Academy. She performs on a 1740 Paulo Antonio Testore violin.

Margaret Gay, cello
Toronto based ‘cellist Margaret Gay leads a very active freelance career performing on both modern and period instruments. Margaret performs regularly with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, Opera Atelier, the Eybler Quartet, and Ensemble Polaris, a group exploring the traditional music of various Nordic countries. She is Artistic Director of The Gallery Players of Niagara, an organization presenting chamber music. She performs on cellos made by Andrea Castagnieri (1730). Margaret can be heard on CD recordings with Ensemble Polaris, the Eybler Quartet & The Gallery Players of Niagara. This coming fall Analekta will release the Eybler Quartet’s Haydn Op. 33 complete.

- And, we add, she has performed frequently in our Music Room, with both the Modern and the Eybler quartets and in several other configurations.

David Louie, piano
Hailed as "a pianistic sensation" (Rhein-Zeitung, Germany), David Louie ranks among the foremost Canadian musicians of his generation. A twice Grammy-nominated artist for his SONY BMG Masterworks recordings with the ARC ensemble, David Louie is a laureate of prestigious music competitions including the CBC Radio Competition, Santander International Competition and Sydney International Competition.
David Louie made his New York debut under the auspices of the city's venerable Peoples' Symphony Concerts. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, Gulbenkian Chamber Orchestra of Lisbon, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. A respected chamber musician, David Louie has played with the Takacs Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and is a founding member of the ARC Ensemble. Dedicated to rediscovering the work of unjustly neglected composers, the ARC Ensemble has received international critical acclaim for their groundbreaking albums On the Threshold of Hope (RCA Red Seal) and Right Through the Bone (RCA Red Seal). On tour with ARC, David Louie has performed at London, Rome, Budapest, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, New York, the Washington Kennedy Center, and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
In addition to performances on modern piano, David Louie is an accomplished harpsichordist, and one of few keyboard artists to traverse traditional boundaries between period and modern performance. He has presented Bach's Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier in concert, and written transcriptions of works by Bach and Rameau.
Born in British Columbia, Canada, David Louie began studying music at the age of five. At the Royal Conservatory in Toronto he worked with Boris Zarankin and Leon Fleisher, and as an Canada Council Arts Grant recipient he completed graduate studies with John Perry at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He currently resides in Toronto and is on faculty at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. A dedicated teacher of numerous successful and prize-winning students, David Louie has given masterclasses in the United Kingdom, Poland, Israel, and Australia.

The Arkel String Trio

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 11:53:22 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Beethoven, Trio op. 9, no. 1
Bohuslav Martinu, string trio
Kaija Saarihio, Cloud Trio for string trio
Ernst von Dohnanyi, String Trio

$30 (sr $25; st $20)

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The Arkel team are among Toronto’s topmost players at their respective instruments. Their concert for us last season was among its highlights!

Best known as the concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Marie Bérard is also a sought-after chamber musician, soloist, recording artist and teacher.

Ms. Bérard received her training at the Trois-Rivières Conservatory and further studies took her to the University of Toronto where she studied with David Zafer. Other teachers include Lorand Fenyves, Sydney Harth and Nathan Milstein.

Highly regarded as an interpreter of contemporary music, Ms. Bérard's recording of A Paganini by A. Schnittke was voted "best performance of the year" by the CBC Radio audience and in 2002, she released a recording of a concerto by Henry Kucharzyk for violin and brass ensemble on the Opening Day label.

Ms. Bérard is a regular performer at numerous chamber music festivals, notably the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, Québec and holds the position of Associate Concertmaster of the Mainly Mozart festival orchestra in San Diego, California.

Ms. Bérard was recently heard in a performance of "Time Chant" by Wolfgang Rihm, "Dedication" by Valentin Silvestrov as well as "Offertorium" by Sofia Gubaidulina with the Esprit Orchestra, as well as being guest soloist with the Peterborough, Saskatoon and Trois-Rivières Symphony Orchestras. In the fall of 2000, Ms. Bérard joined the faculty of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and is an active member of their chamber ensemble "ARC" with whom she toured China in 2006. The ensemble has also recorded three discs of chamber works for Sony Records,two of which have been nominated for a Grammy Award.

Marie plays a 1767 Pietro Landolfi violin.

It was 2004 when Teng Li made a splash in the Toronto music scene by landing the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Principal Viola position at the astonishing age of 21. TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian describes her as “an extraordinary talent that everyone recognizes, and the Orchestra enjoys the wonderful experience of performing with this talent both as a section leader and as soloist.” Past engagements include Takemitsu’s A String Around Autumn in March of 2009, Bartok’s Viola Concerto in February 2008, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy in November of 2006, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in May 2006, and Strauss’ Don Quixote in November of 2005.

Teng has given recitals in Toronto, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, and New York. David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer noted “she…played with a sparkling freshness you usually hear in your dreaMs" Along with her TSO solo appearances, Ms Li has performed with the National Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Haddonfield Symphony, Shanghai Opera Orchestra, and the Canadian Sinfonietta. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio 2, National Public Radio, WQXR (New York), WHYY (Pennsylvania), WFMT (Chicago), and Bavarian Radio (Munich).

An accomplished chamber musician, Teng has participated in the festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Mostly Mozart, Music from Angel Fire, Rome, Moritzburg (Germany) and the Rising Stars Festival in Caramoor. During the 2004/2005 season, she performed with the Guarneri Quartet in New York, and has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and with the 92nd St. “Y” Chamber Music Society. Teng was featured in concert with the Guarneri Quartet in their last season at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and she is also a member of the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two.

A recipient of numerous awards, Teng has won top Prizes at the Johanson International and the Holland-America Music Society competitions, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich Germany. She was also a winner of the Astral Artistic Services 2003 National Auditions.

Teng began the violin at age 5 in her native China. She entered the Central Conservatory in Beijing in 1992, and at age 16 was accepted to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where her teachers were Michael Tree and Joseph DePasquale. Teng currently serves on the faculties at the University of Toronto and Conservatoire De Musique De Montreal.

Winona Zelenka, known for her gorgeous, singing tone, is one of Canada’s finest cellists on the scene today. As a soloist, she has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Strauss’ Don Quixote Suite, with Thomas Dausgaard conducting, 2006), and performs often with conductor John Barnum. Their past collaborations include Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D Minor with the Mississauga Symphony (2008) and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, with both the Scarborough Philharmonic (2007) and the Huronia Sinfonietta (2006). She has also performed Haydn’s Concerto No. 2 in D Major with the Canadian Sinfonietta (2007), conducted by Tak Ng Lai. At this same concert, Ms. Zelenka, a proponent of new music, performed the world premiere of “Invocation II’” for cello and orchestra, a work written for her by Canadian composer Michael Pepa.

In 2008, Ms. Zelenka performed as guest Principal Cellist for the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tosca. She also served as Principal of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra during the summers of 2007 and 2008. Winona was the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Acting Principal Cellist for five seasons starting from 2004/2005.

Winona is a dedicated recitalist and chamber musician, who regularly performs on the Les Amis, Syrinx, Amici, Art of Time and Offcentre series in Toronto. She collaborates regularly with many of Canada’s finest musicians including violinists Stephen Sitarski and Erika Raum; violist Steven Dann; bassist Joel Quarrington, pianist Andrew Burashko, and countless others. In the past two summers she has performed at the Ottawa Chamberfest with, among others, soprano Donna Brown, pianist/composer Heather Schmidt, and the Art of Time ensemble. In the 2009/2010 season Winona performed with the Zuckerman Chamber Players at the Royal Conservatory’s new Koerner Hall as well as at the 92nd St. Y in New York.

Ms. Zelenka recently formed Trio Arkel with violinist Marie Bérard and violist Teng Li, with whom she will perform at the Four Seasons Amphitheatre in February of 2010. Other highlights at the Amphitheatre have included a program of French duos with Jacques Israelievitch in December 2009; in February of 2010 she will be back at this eclectic venue to perform a program of solo cello works by Britten, Hindemith and Cassado.

Winona's recording of the complete Bach Suites for Solo Cello was released on the Marquis Classics label in June of 2010. It has received international acclaim. The Globe and Mail writes '"Canadian cellist Winona Zelenka gives Bach's solo cello suites a stylish ease that we don't often hear on modern cello." Audiophile Review writes "Zelenka's tone is among the warmest and most invigoratingly burnished that I have ever heard in this music, bar none." and " she astonishes with her emotional vibrancy and control". This recording was made on the "Starker Guarnerius" cello, dated 1707, which was on loan for three years to Ms. Zelenka through the generosity of Dr. Edward and Mrs. Amy Pong.

Since the summer of 2004, Ms. Zelenka began performing in the Music Garden Series at Toronto’s waterfront. Every year, she has performed a different Bach cello suite. In 2006, she performed Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman’s “After the Sixth Suite”, also a composition written for her, which, as the title suggests, she performed in tandem with Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6. For her performance of the Suite No. 4 in September of 2009 she was joined by dancer Claudia Moore who added beautiful movements choreographed by Carol Anderson.

In March of 2010 Winona performed a work for solo dancer and solo cellist with first soloists of the National Ballet; at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts, this work is choreographed by Jerome Robbins to movements from the Bach Suites. Winona was also a featured soloist this past summer (2010) at the Stratford Summer Music Festival, where she performed the complete Bach Suites, with many repeat performances.

Winona has also been the cello soloist of such notable film scores as Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” (2008), István Szabó’s “Being Julia” (2004), and the IMAX film “Under The Sea” (2009).

Winona Zelenka began her career at age 22 as Associate Principal in the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and won orchestra jobs with the National Ballet Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. She obtained her Bachelor of Music and Artist Diploma at the University of Indiana, and studied with the legendary Janos Starker. Ontario born and raised, Ms. Zelenka’s other main teachers include William Findlay, Vladimir Orloff, and William Pleeth.

Trio d’Argento

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:35:16 -0400

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771): Trio Sonata
Gabriel Fauré: Dolly Suite
Ernest Bloch: Concerto for flute, clarinet, and orchestra

Carey Blyton: Newfoundland Posy
Jacques Ibert: Deux Interludes
Barbara Croall: Manidoog - whole piece premiere
[with an Ojibway performer and narrator in Ojibway and English!]

The Croall is going to be a world premiere of the whole piece.
$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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Trio d’Argento was such a hit in their last year’s initial performance for us that we promptly invited them back.

Sibylle Marquardt, flute
Peter Stoll, clarinet
Kathryn Tremills, piano

Three virtuosi join together in the exciting new group Trio d'Argento. Friends in the city of Toronto's vibrant arts community, Sibylle, Peter and Kathryn were asked to perform for a noted chamber music series just outside the city.

They had such a great time working together, and so much fun onstage with their virtuoso arrangements and original pieces that the series immediately asked them back, and so the Trio was born!

Recently, Trio D'Argento has appeared in concerts held at Mc Master (Hamilton), University of Guelph and the University of Toronto (Scarborough) campuses. They have also performed in the Caledon East Chamber Music Concert Series, the Muskoka and the Orillia Concert Associations.

From Bach to "Carmen" to the European jazz master Claude Bolling, these three provide lively and entertaining concerts of trios, duos and solos with spoken introductions to each piece. With Peter's ability to play clarinets of various sizes as well as saxophone and Sibylle's different flutes of the flute family, the varied programs leave the audience wanting more.

PETER STOLL, clarinet

Known for his virtuoso energy on stage and easy and entertaining way of speaking with the audience, Peter Stoll was a prizewinner in the 1987 International Clarinet Society Competition, in addition to performing as solo clarinetist with the World Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales in Berlin and Vienna.

He performs regularly in Toronto as acting principal clarinetist of the Toronto Philharmonia at the Toronto Centre for the Arts and with the contemporary music group ERGO, which has toured to New York City, Germany, Finland and Lithuania as well as the east coast of Canada.

Peter received his Bachelor's degree in Performance from the University of Toronto, and his Master of Music degree from Indiana University. In 2001 Peter went to Russia as soloist in Saratov, playing John Hawkins' concerto "Summerdances". He teaches clarinet and chamber music at the University of Toronto as well as privately, and is a member of the Royal Conservatory's National College of Examiners. He recently played with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra for their production of "Elektra".

KATHRYN TREMILLS, piano

Kathryn Tremills is active as a freelance chamber musician, accompanist, vocal coach, soloist and piano teacher. She has appeared at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival; performed at Roy Thomson Hall alongside the Canadian Brass; and has been broadcast by CBC Radio Canada.

Kathryn was an international finalist for the Grace Welsh Prize for Piano and has performed concerti with orchestras across North America. In 2005 she gave the world premiere of Canadian composer Andrew Ager's Piano Concerto.

In addition to coaching and performing with vocalists at the University of Toronto, Kathryn is a faculty member of the Centre for Opera Studies in Sulmona, Italy (C.O.S.I.). She was the Intern Opera Coach in the COC Ensemble Studio and has also accompanied various choral groups including, the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir, the Toronto Children's Chorus and the National Treble Youth Honor Choir conducted by Jean Ashworth Bartle at the American Choral Directors Association's National Convention. Kathryn was a part-time faculty member of the University of Toronto before returning to school to pursue the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano with Martin Katz at the University of Michigan where she is currently studying.

Kathryn's discography includes her debut solo album, Dedication, the self-titled toneART ensemble CD, the St. Mary's Children's Choir's The Music in Us and Winter Walk, and baritone Giles Tomkins' classical crossover album And So It Goes.

SIBYLLE MARQUARDT, flute

A native of Germany, Sibylle Marquardt moved to Canada in 1997 where she established herself as a chamber musician to reckon with. She is a member of the ERGO ensemble, specializing in modern music, as well as the Trio D'Argento and Duo Resonance with whom she performs regularly all over Ontario. In Germany she was a founding member of Trio Resonance, which was an established ensemble at numerous high-profile concert venues and festivals throughout Germany and Switzerland.

Sibylle’s teachers include Hermann Klemeyer, Wolfgang Schulz, Trevor Wye, Geoffrey Gilbert and Aurele Nicolet. She has performed in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Italy, former Czechoslovakia and France, as well as for Radio Canada, the BR Munich and TV and movie productions.

Her orchestral career began at the early age of 23, when she was regularly hired as 2nd flute/piccolo with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Munich under Sir Colin Davis, touring to Italy and Japan. She went on to join the orchestral program of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and held a solo flute/solo piccolo position at the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra. She was a substitute player with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Deutsche Kammer Philharmonie Bremen, Gaertnerplatz Theater Munich, Bern and Biel Symphony Orchestras. She has also played with the Windsor Symphony, the Toronto Philharmonia and the Oshawa Durham Symphony amongst others, as well as in the Phantom of the Opera and the Beauty and the Beast in Toronto.

She is a member of the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music and a member of the National College of Examiners of the RCM and is artist in residence of the Etobicoke School for the Arts.

Heidi Wall, piano

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:10:36 -0400

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Bach: Partita No. 1
Debussy: Preludes, Book I (complete)
George Crumb: Vox Balaenae (transcription for piano, cello, and flute) -
with short lecture on the work. She is joined for this piece by:
Miriam Stewart-Kroeker, cello and Daria Binkowski, flute

$20 (sr $15; st $10) [4*]

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Heidi Wall is a Canadian pianist whose artistic project is to inspire conversation about freedom from human-created oppressive circumstances through a sensitive combination of performance tradition and philosophical dialogue. Heidi holds an Undergraduate Degree in Honours Piano Performance from Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, where she studied with Russian pianist Anya Alexeyev. While there, she was awarded the Alumni Gold Medal for Music. In her second year, Heidi won the WLU Concerto Competition and performed Rachamaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the WLU Orchestra. Heidi placed first in the Solo 23 years and under division of the 2010 Canadian Music Competition, receiving the Yamaha Scholarship. In 2011, Heidi along with the members of the Zwickau Piano Quartet won their division with a mark of 93. The Schweigen Piano Trio for which Heidi played piano was the recipient of the 2010 Penderecki String Quartet Chamber Award. Heidi has represented both Stratford and Kitchener Kiwanis Festivals at the Ontario Provincials, receiving three honourable mentions and a silver medal. She has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician in recitals in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, and Toronto by the Cantiama Academy of Choral Music, Elmira Music Teachers Association, the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Music Society, and the Canadian Music Competition. Heidi has worked with Andre LaPlante and Anton Kuerti at the Orford Arts Centre and with Andreas Haefliger at the Toronto Summer Music Academy. Her collaborative experience includes vocal and instrumental collaboration, choir accompaniment, orchestral, dance studio accompaniment, and chamber music. Heidi is currently completing a residency at the Banff Arts Center where she is working with artists Hardy Rittner from Berlin, Marietta Orlov from Toronto, and Henk Guittart from the Netherlands. Her main projects in Banff include the exploration of small musical forms and the completion of a transcription of George Crumbs’ Vox Balaenae for solo piano.

Daria Binkowski, flute

Versatile and adventurous, flutist Daria Binkowski is active in a wide range of musical performances around the world. Currently based in America, she was principal flute of the China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing and co-principal flute of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra in Nishinomiya, Japan. Daria has not only pursued an active orchestral performance schedule, but is also heavily involved with the development and performance of contemporary music. She is a member of the new music group, Talea Ensemble, based in New York City, and is co-director of a new music initiative in the Pacific Northwest, the Liminal Project.
Daria has appeared at numerous festivals and events as both guest performer and faculty, including the Beijing Modern Music Festival, the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Great Mountain Music Festival and School, and the Montreal New Music Festival. She has worked closely with many young composers and has given masterclasses in both traditional and contemporary flute technique at universities in North America and Asia.
As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the St. Louis Symphony, the Okayama Philharmonic, the Osaka Century Orchestra, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. She can be heard on recordings with the Ohio Light Opera, the AltaVoz Ensemble, the collected works of Alexandre Lunsqui and Jorge Grossman, and as soloist with the McGill Contemporary Ensemble with Ligeti’s Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe.
Daria received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Bonita Boyd, Anne Harrow, and Martha Aarons. She received her Master’s Degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, studying with Timothy Hutchins.
For more information about Daria, please visit http://www.dariaflute.com. For more information about the Liminal project, please visit http://www.liminalproject.org.
Miriam Stewart-Kroeker, cello

A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Miriam Stewart-Kroeker has studied with several accomplished cellists, including Anne Vallentyne, Cecile Gauthier (France), Kirk Starkey, Marsha Moffitt, Paul Pulford, and currently Matt Haimovitz. Miriam is a recent graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University, receiving an Honours Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance as well as a Diploma in Chamber Music Performance, and is currently studying at McGill University in Montreal, completing a Masters in Cello Performance.

Miriam is an active chamber musician. Miriam's chamber ensembles were the recipients of the Penderecki String Quartet Chamber Music Prize for two consecutive years (2009-10), and won the Canadian Music Competition in 2011 with the Zwickau Piano Quartet in their category. She has participated in summer chamber music and orchestral programs, including QuartetFest, the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, and the National Academy Orchestra with conductor Boris Brott.

Miriam has been involved in several concert series and recordings in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. She has been principal cellist in the Cambridge Community Orchestra, has played with the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra and Spiritus Ensemble, and has been actively involved in church music around Kitchener. As a soloist, Miriam has performed with the Kitchener-Waterloo Youth Orchestra as well as the Cambridge Community Orchestra. Miriam hopes to pursue a career in chamber music.

Penderecki String Quartet

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:57:27 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program - soon!

$35 (sr $30; st $25)
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We think of the PSQ as “our” quartet. In residence at the Faculty of Music since 1992, and one of the world’s highly reputed quartets of the day, they have been playing in our concerts annually since 1987! A concert by this ensemble is always an event to look forward to.

For any who may not be familiar with them, have a look at their website.

Jacob Braun, cello; Grace Fong, piano

Wed, 4 Apr 2012 17:12:03 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program:
Johannes Brahms: Sonatensatz (Scherzo from FAE Sonata)
Bloch: Prayer from “A Jewish Life”
Barber: Sonata Op. 6 in c minor
Korngold: “Tanzlied des Pierrot” from Die Tote Stadt
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata Op. 19 in g minor

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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Since joining the Penderecki Quartet, we have heard Jacob in the Music Room, and elsewhere. His recital at WLU last year raised “oohs and ahs!” and we are delighted to enable local audiences to her him in a full program at our Music Room, with his really outstanding pianist partner (see her bio below)

- About Jacob:
A native of Lincoln, Massachusetts, Jacob Braun has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator. He has been praised as a cellist with " a distinctly warm, clear sound" (Classical voice of North Carolina) and " a gorgeous dark tone" (The St.Louis Dispatch). Mr. Braun has appeared multiple times at Wigmore, Jordan and Carnegie Halls and has performed to acclaim at prestigious international venues such as Seoul University, The Palace of Fontainebleau, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Pacific Music Festival and The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music.

Mr. Braun joined the Penderecki String Quartet in the fall of 2009 and is Professor/Artist in Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada and has given master classes at Indiana University, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Roosevelt University, Vassar College and The New England Conservatory. Before joining the Penderecki Quartet, Mr. Braun was a founding member of the Biava Quartet and a member of the Formosa Quartet. With the Biava Quartet, Mr. Braun was winner of the 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and a prizewinner at the Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition and the London String Quartet Competition. As a member of the Formosa Quartet he performed at the Library of Congress (Stradivari Anniversary Concert), live on BBC Radio 3 and La Jolla Summerfest. Mr. Braun has collaborated with many leading artists including Paul Katz, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ida Kavafian, Gilles Apap, Grace Fong, Danny Lee, and members of theBrentano, Calder, Enso, Johannes, Jupiter, Miami, Shanghai and Tokyo String Quartet.

As a recital soloist, Mr. Braun has performed recitals at The Merit School in Chicago, The Chicago Cultural Center live on WFMT radio, with Canadian prodigy Jan Lisiecki at a UNICEF benefit in Calgary, Lake Luzerne Music Center and The Missouri River Valley Festival. As a concerto soloist, Jacob has appeared with the Symphony Pro Musica, Brockton Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra the Lake Luzerne Music Center Festival Orchestra.

Mr. Braun received his degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music (B.M. ’02), The New England Conservatory (M.M. ’04) and Yale University (A.D. ’06), studying with Richard Aaron, Paul Katz, Mark Churchill, Andres Diaz, Aldo Parisot, and Clive Greensmith respectively. While studying at Yale University, Mr. Braun served as a teaching assistant to The Tokyo String Quartet and taught undergraduate students privately. Mr. Braun plays on a Antonius Mariani cello made circa 1619.

About Grace:
Praised as "positively magical," an artist of "rare eloquence and grace," American pianist Grace Fong enjoys a career as an international concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and teacher. She has gained critical acclaim in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, making appearances at major venues around the world, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, Phillips Collection, Disney Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Great Hall in Leeds, UK, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Germany, among others.

Radio/television broadcasts have included British Broadcasting Company, WCLV-FM 104.9, KUSC 91.5 FM in Los Angeles, the "Emerging Young Artists" series in New York, and "Performance Today" on National Public Radio. Performances with orchestras have included the Halle Orchestra in the United Kingdom, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the Olympia Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shreveport Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, among others.

Described by one critic as "absolutely astounding-and now I've run out of praiseworthy adjectives," Dr. Fong is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in the United Kingdom, 2007 Bosendorfer International Piano Competition, San Antonio International Piano Competition, Viardo International Piano Competition, and the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Dr. Fong is also the first female winner in twelve years of one of America's most prestigious piano awards, the Christel De Haan Classical Fellowship of the American Pianists Association. Previously, Dr. Fong has won the Grand Prize in piano from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and was thereafter named a "Presidential Scholar in the Arts", and was presented a medallion by former President Clinton at the White House. Other prizes include Gold Medalist for the Wideman International Piano Competition, the winner of the Music Academy of the West Concerto Competition, the winner of the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, 1st Prize in the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, 1st Prize in the Edith Knox Performance Competition.

Dr. Fong is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Sergei Babayan who describes Dr. Fong as "not only a true artist and an exciting virtuoso, but a sensitive poet who can speak about the most important of subjects through the craft of her hands." During the course of her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, Dr. Fong completed a double major and minor; she was awarded the prestigious Renaissance Scholar Prize, and was named "The USC Thornton School of Music Keyboard Department's - Most Outstanding Student - B.M." Former teachers include Sergei Babayan, John Perry, Louise Lepley, Paulina Drake, and Norberto Cappone.

Dr. Fong is currently the Director of Keyboard Studies at Chapman University Conservatory of Music where she was recently awarded the 2008 faculty excellence award at the Conservatory of Music. She is also faculty at Claremont Graduate University, teaching and advising Doctoral Candidates of Piano Performance. An enthusiastic supporter of the education of young musicians, Dr. Fong has served as guest artist and teacher at the Innsbrook Summer Festival, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Salt Spring Piano Festival, the Montecito Summer Festival, and the Sitka Chamber Music Festival. A chamber music enthusiast, Dr. Fong frequently performs in chamber music settings. Most recently, Dr. Fong has been performing with Sony-Classical Artist Gilles Apap from France, hailed as "a true violinist of the 21st century" by Yehudi Menuhin.

Dr. Fong has embarked on a series of collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers, artists, and also enjoys performing music that crosses the genres of classical, jazz and Latin lounge. She is a frequent guest artist with three-time Grammy nominee, Pink Martini, which has been described as the house band of the United Nations, and whose music can be called "vintage music." This “little orchestra” was founded in 1994 to provide more beautiful and inclusive musical soundtracks for political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, the environment, libraries, public broadcasting, education and parks. With the group, Dr. Fong has shared the stage with some of America's top orchestras and figures, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, NPR's Ari Shapiro and Emmy-award winner, Emilio Delgado.

Other collaborations have included: a collaboration with dance choreographer, Alicia Okouchi-Guy (whose credits include Prince, Paula Abdul, Married With Children, The Oprah Winfrey Show, MTV, the New York Knicks City Dancers), on a project entitled “Grace,” involving live, solo piano and a dance trio; performance with Grammy-winning ensemble, the Parker Quartet; her performance used in the play, “If All the Sky Were Paper,” by best-selling author/playwright Andrew Carroll, directed by John Benitz; a filming in London for a music video by Oscar nominated & multi-award winning film Director Mike Figgis. The music video has premiered at the 2011 Barbados Festival as well as the 2011 Deloitte Ignite Festival at the Royal Opera House in London. Dr. Fong can be seen on the Alexander Toradze documentary on WNIT-TV and national PBS; she can be heard on the RED label, and on the Heinz label for Starbucks release.

The Mercer-Oh Trio

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 16:52:08 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program: Final concert of Haydn’s piano trios. 4 or 5 more of these delicious, interesting, quirky, and altogether delightful works by the great founder of classical music.

$35 (sr $30; st $25)
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We’re making this a “Gala” in celebration of the completion of this great series. Stay tuned for details!

For bio information, click these links:

Akemi
Rachel
Gregory

We at KWCMS are immensely proud of our presentation of all the piano trios of Joseph Haydn (there are some 45). We began the series in April 2009, and have continued it whenever we could get the trio together. (When we began, cellist Rachel was still in the world-touring Aviv String Quartet, while violinist Akemi had joined and continues in the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra in Germany. Greg is merely in Toronto - but at the U of T, they keep you busy.)

Haydn’s trios include a handful that see regular performances on concert stages - thus depriving audiences of the pleasures of all the ones that are neglected in consequence. Complete cycles such as this are extremely rare - we suspect this one is literally unique in Canada.

We hit upon the idea of doing them all when this wonderful threesome performed as a trio for us back in 2007. Here, we thought, are just the right musicians for the job - beautiful sound and fine precision from the string players, and a pianist who is, as they say, “to die for!” - Greg seems to have been born with an affinity for this delightful music, which requires a feathery touch, huge fluency, and that all-important sense of humour that distinguishes Haydn from all other composers. And they all love the music - and it comes out in these endearing performances.

Our audiences have responded in force. You have one last opportunity to find out what it’s all about - to experience the charm and inventiveness (and often sheer quirkiness) of these inimitable works makes for an enchanting evening!

The Silver Birch String Quartet

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:57:46 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Mozart: Quartet in G, K. 387
Boccherini: Quartet tba
Beethoven: Quartet in c#, op. 131

$30 (sr $25; st 20)
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Note about the Music: The Silver Birch have selected the first of Mozart’s famous Six Great Quartets Dedicated to Joseph Haydn, and the next-last (in real terms) of Beethoven’s immortal sixteen, and widely regarded the greatest of all string quartets. In between we’ll have a novelty for us, a quartet by Luigi Boccherini, whose name is much better known than his music among modern quartet audiences.

The Silver Birch Quartet came to our attention at QuartetFest 2008; since then they have performed twice for us. We welcome back this very enterprising foursome who have made their home in Sudbury, Ontario.

Named after the trees inhabiting the area around their home, Sudbury's JUNO-nominated Silver Birch String Quartet is one of Canada's most exciting and innovative young quartets, earning the admiration of audiences and critics alike for their vibrant performances. In addition to extensive activities throughout Northern Ontario, the SBSQ has been featured in concerts and given masterclasses at QuartetFest at Wilfrid Laurier University, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Laurentian University, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. The quartet has collaborated in concert with some of Canada's finest chamber musicians, including octets with the Penderecki String Quartet, quintets with renowned Canadian virtuoso Scott St. John, pianist Peter Longworth, and conductor Joel Sachs (Julliard School).

2009 saw the SBSQ undertake a multi-city cycle of the complete string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn (in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer), as well as receive a prestigious career development residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Strongly committed to Canadian music of our time, the quartet's extensive repertoire includes music by John Weinzweig, R. Murray Schafer, Linda Bouchard, Robert Lemay, along with the young composer Alex Eddington. The quartet particularly prides itself on its innovative programming, presenting interdisciplinary concerts bridging the gap between traditional classical chamber music and other genres in an effort to introduce new audiences to the world of chamber music. Past projects include tango collaborations with such artists as Argentine Tango dancers Roxanna and Fabian Belmonte, and Quartetto Gelato accordionist Alexander Sevastian, as well as narration projects involving CBC Radio host Dan Lessard. The quartet's long association with Montreal-based jazz pianist John Roney resulted in their first album "SILVERBIRCH" on Montreal's Effendi record label, which is rapidly gaining critical acclaim, including a 5-star review in both the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun, praising the album's "…transcendent ease" and "…joyous and energetic" performances. SILVERBIRCH was also named one of the Top 10 Albums of the year by the Montreal Gazette, has received frequent airplay on CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique, was nominated for a prestigious Félix Award in the province of Quebec, as well as a 2010 JUNO nomination.

"... played with effortless precision, unequivical virtuosity, and refined elegance. All-in-all a stunning performance that, by completely avoiding the potential for saccharine often inherent in "jazz meets classical" ventures, suggests new possibilities for merging the two genres with greater success." - allaboutjazz.com

Michael Lewin, piano

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:47:19 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]
Bach:
Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue
Prelude in B minor ( J.S. Bach- A. Siloti)
Organ Fantasy and Fugue in g, BWV 542 ( J.S. Bach-Liszt )

"Ghost Pieces":
Karl Tausig "Der Geisterschiff" ("The Ghost Ship" - Symphonic Ballade)William Bolcom "Graceful ghost rag"

Liszt -
Valée d'Obermann (from Années de Pèlerinages: Suisse)
Three song transcriptions:
Chopin, Wiosna
Alabieff, “Le Rossignol” (The Nightingale)
Mendelssohn, On Wings of Song
Liszt: Waltzes from Gounod’s Faust

$30 (sr $25; st 20)
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Michael Lewin is one of our “house pianists”, performing frequently over some 24 years. He is internationally applauded as one of America’s most abundantly gifted and charismatic concert pianists, performing to acclaim in over 30 countries with orchestras and in recital.

Recognized as a master interpreter of Liszt, Mr. Lewin will be performing that composer’s music around the world in 2011 to commemorate his 200th birthday. He will perform a solo program entitled “Liszt and his Circle” on the Liszt Jubilee Series in the Netherlands, as well as throughout the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy and China. He will play Liszt’s Totentanz with orchestras including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in Russia and the Mongolia State Opera Orchestra. Festival appearances will include Russia’s “Palaces of St. Petersburg Festival”, Holland’s “Peter the Great Festival”, MusicFest Perugia in Italy and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York. He will also be making his second recording for Dorian, entitled “Ghosts & Goblins.”

Highlights of Mr. Lewin’s 2009-2010 season included his London recital debut at Wigmore Hall (in an all-Griffes program) followed by a recital at Oxford University. He toured China playing the Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 with the Beijing National Radio and Television Orchestra, and made his thirteenth appearance with the Boston Pops. Many of his recital programs featured music inspired by birds, from his new recording on Dorian Sono Luminus “If I Were a Bird.” He also gave a variety of all-Chopin programs in celebration of the composer’s 200th birthday in 2010.

Commanding a repertoire of 40 piano concertos, Michael Lewin’s orchestral engagements include the Netherlands Philharmonic, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Mongolia State Opera Orchestra, Cairo Symphony, Bucharest ‘Enescu’ Philharmonic, Beijing National Radio Orchestra, Filharmónica de Guadalajara, the Thessaloniki State Symphony of Greece, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Symphonies of Phoenix, Indianapolis, Miami, Colorado, Nevada, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, Illinois, North Carolina, Sinfonia da Camera, the Jupiter Symphony, and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. In 2000 he gave the world premiere of the David Kocsis Concerto for the New Millennium. He has performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue over 50 times.

Mr. Lewin’s tours have taken him to such venues as New York’s Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, Pasadena's Ambassador Auditorium, the Library of Congress in Washington, Moscow’s Great Hall, Hong Kong's City Hall Theater, Taipei's National Concert Hall, the Opera Houses of Cairo, Mongolia and Wilmington, the Athens Megaron, Holland’s Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, London’s Wigmore Hall and the Spoleto Festival. Television appearances include a PBS recital performing Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy” and Chopin works, hosted by Victor Borge. He has been the featured interview in Clavier and Piano & Keyboard Magazines, and edited piano music of Griffes for C.F.Peters. A Steinway Artist, he was Artistic Director of Steinway’s Gala 150th Anniversary Concert held in 2003 in Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Michael Lewin’s career was launched with victories in the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in the Netherlands, the American Pianists Association Beethoven Fellowship and the William Kapell International Competition. He has also been selected for prestigious career grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Aaron Copland Recording Fund. The New York Times wrote of his New York recital debut in Lincoln Center in 1984 that “his immense technique and ability qualify him eminently for success”.

Michael Lewin’s discography has received extraordinary critical praise, and reflects the great scope of his musical interests and personality. His newest release is “If I Were a Bird,” a selection of 20 bird-themed pieces, launching a new recording relationship with Dorian Sono Luminus. Bamboula!, piano music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, was a “Year’s Top 10 Pick” by the Boston Herald, while the Boston Globe enthused that “Lewin has the chops and the charm for these pieces.” His Naxos releases include a best-selling collection of Keyboard Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and the complete piano music of American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes (in two volumes). Mr. Lewin's recordings on Centaur Records include Michael Lewin plays Liszt and A Russian Piano Recital, featuring music of Scriabin, Glazunov and Balakirev. His recording of the Violin and Piano Sonatas of William Bolcom with violinist Irina Muresanu was released in 2008. The Lewin-Muresanu Duo has performed actively since their formation in 2003.

Deeply committed to guiding and nurturing gifted young pianists, Michael Lewin is one of America’s most sought-after teachers. He is on the Piano Faculty of The Boston Conservatory where he is also Artistic Director of the Piano Masters Series, and Visiting Artist at Boston University. A native of New York, he studied at the Juilliard School. His teachers included Leon Fleisher, Irwin Freundlich, Adele Marcus, and Yvonne Lefébure.

Michael Guttman, violin; Richard Raymond, piano

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:03:53 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program: " Ysaye and the composers he inspired"

César Franck Andantino quietoso
Guillaume lekeu Sonata in G major for violin and piano
Eugene Ysaye Rêve d'enfant
César Franck Sonata in A major for violin and piano

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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About Michael Guttman:
KWCMS patrons may remember him as the excellent first violinist of the Arriaga Quartet. Described as the “Chagall of violinists” by the Jerusalem Post, praised by Allan Kozinn of the New York Times for “his incredible wealth of tone colors and his sound of melting beauty,” internationally acclaimed Belgian violinist, Michael Guttman, was, at age ten, the youngest student ever to be admitted into the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. Afterward, encouraged by the late Isaac Stern, Guttman studied at the Juilliard School in New York under Dorothy Delay.

Guttman has performed on three continents as soloist and recitalist, in halls such as London’s Barbican Centre, New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Bunko Kaikan in Japan, among others. An invited performer at festivals directed by Salvatore Accardo, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky and Natalya Guttman, he has also been active as Music Director of festivals in Belgium, The U.S., Canada and Italy. Guttman has appeared as chamber music partner of Martha Argerich when he was invited by her to Lugano’s Martha Argerich Project. He has worked as trio partner of the great Boris Berezovsky since 2009. . Michael has been invited to play the U.S. premiere of the Phillip Glass Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with the Dallas Symphony. He will also premiere the concerto in Asia and Europe.

Under Mr. Guttman’s direction, the Arriaga Festival, held in the medieval city of Bruges, was a highlight of Belgium’s musical agenda for ten years.

As Associate Music Director of the Music Festival of the Hamptons along with the late Lukas Foss, Michael Guttman brought his exiting programming and playing to New York. In the years since Mr. Guttman joined the Hamptons Festival, attendance there has tripled. As the Music Director of the festival orchestra Guttman has worked with James Galway, Richard Stolzman, Peter Serkin, Carol Wincenc, David Amram and others. Answering an invitation by Yuri Bashmet, Mr. Guttman conducted the Elba Festival Orchestra – a unique blend of the Kremerata Baltica, the Moscow Soloists and selected wind players from across Europe.

Michael Guttman has more recently founded Pietrasanta in Concerto Music Festival. This festival, nested in the beautiful medieval Tuscan village of Pietrasanta, has become a staple in the European summer festival circuit.

Richard Raymond is a music lover's dream. His playing is reminiscent of history's great pianists. Its depth, passion, virtuosity and individuality combine to set him apart from others of his generation.
Richard Raymond has won virtually every award there is to win in Canada: all the top prizes at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, the "International Stepping Stone" of the Canadian Music Competition, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporations Young Performer's Competition. In 1992 he was finally recognized on the international scene: He became only the second Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Competition triumphing over 49 contestants from 18 countries. Soon after, he won major prizes in the United States and in Europe: at the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition-the first award ever to go to a Canadian artist in this competition-as well as at the William Kapell and Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition. He is the recipient of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize awarded by the Canada Council.

Raymond's performances with the Montreal Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, and essentially every major orchestra in Canada have been met with great excitement. Recitals, festival appearances and chamber music engagements have taken him across Canada, to Italy, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, China, Georgia, Germany, France and the United States. Debuts in such halls as the Lincoln Center in New York and the national recital hall in Taipei were all memorable events.

Richard Raymond has recorded five compact discs for the Analekta and Musica Viva labels. He was nominated for Best CD and Artist of the year at the East Coast Music Awards in Halifax, and at the OPUS Awards in Montreal. The Dallas Morning News gave his Chopin CD a special Grade A rating in May 2003. Richard Raymond’s newest CD, released on Analekta, features the fascinating Reubke Piano Sonata in B-flat minor and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.21 (“Waldstein).

Raymond studied with Masters such as Leon Fleisher, Marc Durand, and John Perry. He took first prize in piano and chamber music at the "Conservatoire de Musique du Québec" in Montreal, has a Master's degree from the "Université de Montréal" and an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto and the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Raymond is currently Professor at the Conservatory of Music in Montreal.

Richard Raymond is one of those rare artists who employs his virtuosity to express the full spectrum of human emotions. His technical brilliance combined with an intense passion for music-making serves as a conduit through which he reaches the hearts and souls of listeners.

Matthew Zadow, baritone; Dina Namer, piano

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:30:38 -0400

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Schubert: Die Schoene Muellerin (Schubert’s other famous song cycle)

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About the music: Schubert is known everwhere as the world’s greatest composer of songs. Among his six hundred and some are many sets of beautiful songs, and lots of them concern the timeless themes of love and rejection. His big cycle, The Pretty Miller’s Daughter (sung in German, though) is his and music’s most popular such collection. Mr. Zadow will illuminate the texts as well as sing them.

Matthew Zadow
Since moving to Brussels, baritone Matthew Zadow is enjoying a flourishing international career in recital, oratorio and opera, with recent debuts in Holland, Ireland and Belgium, interspersed with frequent Canadian performances.

A Queen’s graduate and protégé of Bruce Kelly, Matthew's recent stage roles include Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Dancairo (Carmen), Baron Douphol (La Traviata), Cristiano in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, and Danilo (The Merry Widow). He created the role of Jack Worthing (The Importance of Being Earnest) for Stratford Summer Music and gave the Toronto premiere of the role of Hans Scholl (Die Weisse Rose).

Concert works include Messiah, the Brahms, Mozart, Fauré, and Duruflé Requiem masses, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and A Sea Symphony, Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Elgar’s Coronation Ode. His Bach repertoire includes the solo cantatas Ich will den Kreutzstab gerne tragen and Ich habe genug, the Magnificat, Mass in B-minor, Himmelfahrts-Oratorium, and most recently the Weihnachts-Oratorium and Johannes-Passion. Also in demand as a recitalist, he has given numerous performances of songs and song cycles such as Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, Les nuits d’été of Berlioz, Don Quichotte à Dulcinée of Ravel, Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and Barber’s Dover Beach.

His 2010 season began with several debuts of Bach cantatas, a programme of César Franck, and a Brussels Remembrance Day concert that included Bach, Brahms, Barber, and Rorem's War Scenes. This past December he returned to Canada for Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium and BWV 140 Wachet auf! and in February performed contemporary music with the Flemish ensemble BLINDMAN in Amsterdam including Saariaho’s Nuits Adieux. He gave three Belgian performances of Messiah in April with the Flanders Baroque Academy before returning to Canada in May for Bach’s Mass in B-minor and a tour of Die schöne Müllerin with pianist Dina Namer with performances in Toronto, Ottawa and Kingston.

Matthew’s present season begins with a number of Brussels performances, including Messiah and the solo Bach cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen; continues with his debut of Carmina Burana, his European operetta debut as “General Boum” in Offenbach’s La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein in Brussels and Leuven, and finishes with Britten’s Journey of the Magi at Brussels’ Chapelle Royale with the Cambridge Consort of Voices. After his return to Canada in February for the role debut of “Eisenstein” in Die Fledermaus, his Die Schöne Müllerin recital tour continues with performances in Waterloo and Perth, followed by a No Tenors Allowed concert in Ottawa, and the role debuts of “Raphael” and “Adam” in Haydn’s Creation with the Kingston Symphony. He then sings “Adam” in Die Schöpfung in Antwerp, before the 2011-2012 season comes to a close with the role of “Young Grandad” in the world premiere of John Burge’s new chamber opera The Auction for Canada’s Westben music festival.

Dina Michelson Namer received her professional training at the Eastman and Manhattan Schools of Music. Among her principal teachers were Robert Goldsand, Artur Balsam and Menahem Pressler.

An active performer, Dina Namer has diverse experience as both a solo and chamber musician. She has performed and recorded a wide range of repertoire, from Baroque harpsichord works to contemporary piano repertoire. She has a long association with the musicians of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, as well as having collaborated with many other instrumentalists and singers as a chamber performer.

Ms. Namer has been a member of the Aulos Ensemble, the Ottawa Baroque Ensemble, and the Sh'ma Ensemble, a group devoted to performing forgotten works of Holocaust composers. In addition she has performed frequently with Queen's faculty in recital.

Dina Namer is on the performance faculty at Carleton University and served for several years as an RCM Senior Examiner.

Among her recordings is the CD "Playing Tribute" with the Aulos Trio, which features works of several Canadian composers.

Ms. Namer performs regularly in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and the Alexandria Festival of the Lakes (Minnesota). She has been heard in over 200 programmes for the CBC Radio and Radio Canada.

Ewald Cheung, violin; Philip Chiu, piano

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:07:05 -0500

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in g;
Brahms, Sonata No. 3 in d
Brahms, Scherzo from the “FAE” Sonata
Strauss, sonata for violin and piano

$20 (sr $15; st $10)
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KWCMS is delighted to be able to present two altogether phenomenal young talents in this concert. We contacted them on a tip from violinist Jonathan Crow - and who need more than that!

McGill University: Violinist Ewald Cheung has been named the 2010-2011 recipient of the largest privately funded music scholarship in Canada: the Schulich School of Music’s Golden Violin Award.

“The Golden Violin award is a recognition of everything a student has done at McGill,” said Jonathan Crow, Cheung’s violin teacher at Schulich. “Ewald is the perfect recipient because he’s done everything at McGill,” from concerto competitions to chamber music concerts to outreach performances at senior-citizen residences. “He’s been an inspiration to other students. He represents everything we hope that all of our students aspire to at McGill University.”

Cheung is a five-time laureate of the Canadian Music Competitions from 2000 to 2004, winning in 2001 and 2003. In 2007, he was a laureate of the Standard Life Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Competition. In 2009, he won the Shean Strings Competition in his hometown of Edmonton, and in 2010 he won the McGill Concerto Competition and the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières Competition.

In chamber music, Cheung was a founding member of the former Roddick String Quartet, coached by the Schulich School’s André Roy. In 2009, the Roddick String Quartet competed at the London International String Quartet Competition.

Ewald Cheung began his studies at the age of four at the Suzuki School in Edmonton, and later studied with James Keene, former concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony. Ewald is currently studying with renowned violinist, Jonathan Crow, at the McGill University, Schulich School of Music.

Ewald has had success in many competitions. In 2005, Ewald won the Northern Alberta Concerto Competition, which led to a performance with the Edmonton Youth Orchestra. In 2006, he won the senior category of the Alberta Music Festival. Ewald is also a five time laureate of the Canadian Music Competitions from 2000 to 2004, winning in 2001 and 2003, which led to performances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2007, Ewald was a laureate of the Standard Life Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal Competition. This past May, Ewald won the Shean Strings Competition in Edmonton. Ewald will be performing with the Edmonton Symphony Ochestra in the 2010-11 season. Ewald is also a recipient of the prestigious Lloyd-Carr Harris String Scholarship from McGill University, the Anne Burrows Scholarship, the Winspear Fund and the Victoria Foundation.

Philip Chiu
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Philip Chiu is currently based in Montreal. He received his Performance Diploma from The Glenn Gould School while studying with Jenny Regehr and Marc Durand, and is continuing his studies with Marc Durand at Université de Montréal. Whether on stage as a soloist, chamber musician, or accompanist, Philip Chiu has consistently demonstrated his comfort with all roles, having been widely acclaimed for the brilliance and sensitivity of his playing, as well as for his ability to connect with audiences. Second prize winner of the 2007 Bösendorfer National Piano Competition, Philip Chiu has appeared as a soloist throughout Canada, most recently at the Orford Arts Centre and for the Lindsay Concert Foundation. His orchestral debut in 2005 was with Maestra Tania Miller; as winner of The Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition. Philip Chiu has also concertized extensively as one of Canada’s most sought-after collaborative pianists, with such artists as Stefan Dohr, principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic; Larry Combs and Craig Morris, former principals (clarinet and trumpet) of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and trumpeter James Thompson. A passionate chamber musician, Philip Chiu recently undertook two simultaneous tours: a JMC tour of Eastern Canada with violinist, Andrew Wan, as well as a cross-country tour with violinist, Carissa Klopoushak, sponsored by the Eckhardt-Grammaté National Music Competition for the Performance of Canadian Music. The upcoming season includes concerts and a recording project with violinist Jonathan Crow.

David Jalbert, Piano: Shostakovich

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 00:34:42 -0500

[The concert is at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program: Preludes and Fugues of Dmitri Shostakovich
No. 1 in C major
No. 4 in E minor
No. 5 in D major
No. 6 in B minor
No. 7 in A major
----intermission----
No. 10 in C-sharp minor
No. 15 in D-flat major
No. 23 in F major
No. 24 in D minor

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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Pianist David Jalbert will be familiar to our audiences from his appearances as a soloist, with cellist Denise Djokic, and with the Triple Forte trio. With his warm and communicative style, incomparable stage presence and refined ear, he has made himself one of the flag-bearers of the new generation. Mr. Jalbert has several solo and chamber music recordings to his name, including internationally acclaimed renditions of modern American piano music, the complete Fauré Nocturnes and the 24 Preludes and Fugues opus 87 by Shostakovich. David Jalbert plays regularly in North America and Europe, both as a soloist and chamber musician, has performed with several great orchestras and collaborates regularly with violinist Jasper Wood and cellist Yegor Dyachkov (under the name Triple Forte) as well as with cellist Denise Djokic., A national and international prize-winner, he was awarded the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize by the Canada Council for the Arts in 2007 and is now Piano Faculty at the University of Ottawa.

Dmitri Shostakovich was himself a pianist of major abilities. He was a judge in a Bach competition in Leipzig in 1950 (200th anniversary of Bach’s death), and while there was inspired to begin work on a set of Preludes and Fugues of the same general structure - one in each key. (But he composed just one Book, not two as Bach did). The results are one of the monuments to 20th century piano music. Technically commanding and full of Shostakovich’s special harmonic and melodic ideas, they are fascinating, intriguing, and uplifting. David Jalbert has recorded the entire set, and while they are too long to include in one program, he provides a very hefty sampling in this concert. To see such music performed, as well as hearing it live, is a very special experience. Enjoy! [Note: see the Wikipedia entry detailing the preludes and fugues.]

Penderecki/Pentaedre: String Quartet/Woodwind Quintet

Thu, 1 Mar 2012 00:09:00 -0500

[NOTE: This concert will take place at Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University (at University Avenue at Hazel, Waterloo - 8:00 p.m.]

tentative program:

Ravel: Le Tambeau de Couperin [woodwinds only]
Shostakovich: nonet version of his Quartet no. 3,
arr. by Rudolf Barshai

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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The Penderecki String Quartet needs no introduction to chamber music lovers in our area (or lots of others!). For those needing more, see their excellent Website.

About Pentaèdre:
A unique musical ensemble in the Canadian landscape, Pentaèdre explores and presents to the public a diversified and original chamber music repertoire, developed in the tradition of music for winds. Under the artistic direction of Louis-Philippe Marsolais since 2005, the five artists-musicians forming the quintet are recognized for the talent, technique, precision and colour they bring to their performances.
Strongly committed to refresh the classical concert concept, Pentaèdre crosses the borders between artistic disciplines and reintegrates performing arts into the concert: musicians become complete artists by performing with dancers, actors, mimes or singers. Their 3 to 5 concert season may thus include researches, transcriptions, creations, guest ensembles or artists (piano, singers, strings), collaborations or exchanges, works for young audiences as well as staging challenging interdisciplinary projects.
The past ten years have seen Pentaèdre inviting renowned guests artists such as tenors Christoph Prégardien and Rufus Muller, baritones Russell Braun and Phillip Addis, soprano Karina Gauvin and pianists Naida Cole, David Jalbert and Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, while pursuing collaborations with chamber ensembles like Penderecki String Quartet and Arthur-LeBlanc String Quartet. The ensemble has performed in Eastern Canada major festivals and toured extensively in Quebec, Canada, the United States and Europe.
The most recent CD recorded by Pentaèdre, a chamber version by Normand Forget of Schubert’s Winterreise, was awarded the CD of the Year 2008 Opus Prize – Classical, Romantic, Postromantic, Impressionist Music by the Conseil québécois de la musique, and got the exceptional Stern des Monats/Star of the Month from German magazine Fono Forum. These come on top of excellent reviews of Pentaèdre’s innovative shows L’amour est un opéra muet and A Chair in Love, and an Opus Prize for Best Concert of the Year, Present, Contemporary, Electro-Acoustic Music in 2002.
Among recent performances are the stage version première of John Metcalf’s opera A Chair in Love at Cardiff and Swansea Opera Houses (10 concerts in Wales and Ireland); two tours of 15 and 26 concerts for the Jeunesses musicales de Belgique; L’amour est un opéra muet (from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte) with the mime company Omnibus; 3 shows for young audiences including the creation of a musical tale; the première of a chamber version of Schubert’s Winterreise (by Normand Forget) with famous tenor Christoph Prégardien. The ensemble has recorded 5 CDs and performed more that 25 premières including commissions to Quebec composers such as Ana Sokolovic, Denis Gougeon or Denis Dion. Their season concerts are regularly broadcast on Radio-Canada and CBC.
Musicians

Danièle Bourget, flute
With a first prize in flute and chamber music from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, and at the Canadian Music Competition, as well as a second prize at Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Competition, Danièle Bourget is a very active musician on the Montreal scene. Since her training with Orchestre des jeunes du Québec and performances in numerous programs within the Début series, she has been awarded several grants to enter famous international competitions, and has been very busy. A founding member of Quintessence and Quatuor Linos, she has been guest soloist with a variety of ensembles, among which Les Violons du Roy, La Chapelle de Montréal, I Musici de Montréal, Orchestre symphonique de Laval, Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières and Orchestre de Radio-Canada. She is flute with Pentaèdre, and also teaches at Conservatoire de musique de Trois-Rivières and at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). She stills performs regularly with major Montreal orchestras, such as Orchestre des Grands Ballets Canadiens, Orchestre métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Les Violons du Roy and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal.
Martin Carpentier, clarinet

Martin Carpentier, clarinet - studied with Emilio Iacurto at McGill University and graduated with Distinction in interpretation. He then won the position of solo clarinet with the Orchestre des jeunes du Québec. In 1992, he studied with Karl Leister (Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) and obtained a Masters Degree in Interpretation from Université de Montréal, under the direction of André Moisan. A clarinetist in great demand, Martin Carpentier is a member of Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) and of Pentaèdre. He also performs regularly with Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Opéra de Montréal, Les Violons du Roy and I Musici de Montréal, and has recorded CDs with Société des vents de Montréal, Pentaèdre and NEM. Martin teaches clarinet at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) and Université de Montréal.

Normand Forget, oboe
Born in a family where music was always present, Normand Forget played music as a hobby until he finally decided, at 20, to study music at cégep Lionel-Groulx (Ste-Thérèse, QC). Marc Laberge will be his first mentor, followed by Théodore Baskin, at McGill University (Montreal). He then got a scholarship to study at Oberlin College, USA, where he worked under the wise direction of James Caldwell – and won the Artistry in Oboe Performance prize, awarded by his peers. A founding and still active member of Pentaèdre and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), he had the opportunity to perform internationally in most important concert halls. As a committed musician, invested by a duty to perform, he writes chamber versions of famous works, vested in this commitment. Among others and Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler and Winterreise by Franz Schubert, which was awarded the 2008 Opus Prize for best romantic CD of the year, and gathered elogious reviews internationally. His musical career led him to play with all Québec major orchestras. With a passion for education, he has been teaching at McGill University since 1992.

Bassoonist Mathieu Lussier
A versatile musician, Mathieu Lussier is a dynamic bassoonist, championing baroque bassoon as a solo instrument all over North America and in Europe. He performs as guest soloist and/or conductor with such ensembles as Arion Baroque Orchestra (Montreal) and Les Violons du Roy (Québec City) and joins regularly the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Toronto), the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra and the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra Apollo’s Fire. In 2007, he became Artistic Director of Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. Mathieu Lussier is dedicated to chamber music and is a member of Pentaèdre, Caliban Quartet of Bassoonists of Toronto, and Musica Franca. Among his numerous recordings as soloist, are over a dozen of bassoon concertos by Vivaldi, Graupner, Telemann and Corette, a CD of Sonatas for bassoon by Boismortier, CDs of solo bassoon works by François Devienne as well as Bataclan! an album of works for bandoneon, harpsichord and bassoon of South-American inspiration.

Louis-Philippe Marsolais - horn - Artistic Director
After playing as solo horn with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and associate solo horn with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Louis-Philippe Marsolais is now Artistic Director of Pentaèdre. Renowned recitalist, concert and chamber music musician, he performs regularly in North America, Europe and Asia. He was awarded three prizes at the prestigious Munich Competition in 2005, and also won numerous first prizes in national and international competitions, among which the Geneva Competition, the Mozart Competition of Rovereto and the Concours international de cor de Trévoux. As a soloist, he has performed with various symphony orchestras, such as Montréal, Québec, Trois-Rivières, Longueuil, Peterborough, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, and chamber orchestras of Munich, Geneva, Neuchatel, Zurich and Montreal, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, Les Violons du Roy and the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ). At the Prix d’Europe 2001, his interest for contemporary music won him first prize from the Canadian Music Center, awarded to the best performance of a canadian work. Since then, he premiered several works by Canadian, Swiss, German and French composers, for solo horn, horn and tape and small chamber ensembles.

STEALTH: Kathryn Ladano, bass clarinet; Richard Burrows, percussion

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 12:16:47 -0500

[The concert is at 8:00 p.m. at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Stealth's debut at The Music Room! Waterloo based musicians Kathryn Ladano and Richard Burrows

They present a program of original works for bass clarinet and percussion mixed with freely improvised music, featuring compositions by
Gary Kulesha (Canada),
Ann Ghander (Australia),
Veronica Tapia (Canada), and
And world premieres of two works by noted WLU composition students
Rebekah Cummings and
Sandro Manzon.

[Disclaimer: Please be advised that pieces programmed in this evening's performance will feature music with tape. While most of the tape parts feature sonic material only, one of the pieces being performed features prerecorded lyrics which some listeners may find offensive.]

$20 (sr $15; st $10)

"Stealth - a magnificent duo featuring Kathryn Ladano on bass clarinet and Richard Burrows on percussion - gives a great show. It's all new music - some composed, some improvised; all of it rich with imagination. From the distant and eerie sounds of bass clarinet multiphonics melded with cymbal washes to the glassy sounds of bowed vibes and gongs harmonizing with the deepest of clarinet tones; this is fascinating music." - Glenn Buhr, artistic director - NUMUS concert series.

We couldn’t resist the offer of a concert by this combination, with artists of this calibre. Both of these instrumentalists are famed far beyond the confines of K-W. You’re in for some interesting and attractive sonics this evening!

Kathryn Ladano MMus is one of Canada’s premiere bass clarinetists. She is a specialist of contemporary music and free improvisation and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada and abroad. Several works have been composed for her and her ensembles from some of Canada’s most distinguished composers. Kathryn holds a masters degree in bass clarinet performance from the University of Calgary and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of Waterloo. Her performance instructors have included Stan Climie, Tilly Kooyman and world renowned bass clarinetist and improviser, Lori Freedman. In 2004, Kathryn was a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant which allowed her to study with Lori Freedman in Montréal. Kathryn has participated in workshops and masterclass from world renowned musicians such as bass clarinetist Harry Sparnaay and improviser and percussionist, Eddie Prevost. Kathryn has also studied Electroacoustic Composition with Richard Windeyer.

As an enthusiast of bass clarinet repertoire, she has guest lectured in university composition classes across Canada speaking about compositional techniques used in music for her instrument. Kathryn periodically works with young composers and improvisors. She is currently the bass clarinet instructor as the University of Waterloo, the co-Director of ICE (Improvisation Concerts Ensemble) at Wilfrid Laurier University, and the Associate Director of the East-West Music Ensemble based at Conrad Grebel University College.

Kathryn has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the Calgary New Music and Contemporary Showcase Festivals, Calgary’s Nach Hause concert series, the University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, and University of Western Ontario’s noon hour series the Calgary high performance rodeo, the KW Chamber Music Society concert series, Toronto’s Leftover Daylight and NOW series’, the 416 Creative Improvisors Festival, Torontos CONTACT New Music Marathon, the Guelph “Sundays at the Centre” series, at Calgary’s Beat Niq Jazz Club, at Vancouver’s 1067, Kitchener-Waterloo’s NUMUS concert series, and at the Guelph Jazz Festival.. Kathryn has also self-produced numerous concerts in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Her music has been featured on CBC radio 2, CISM in Montréal, CJSW in Calgary, CKMS in Waterloo, and on TienCC in The Netherlands.

In 2004 Kathryn founded Canada’s first bass clarinet duo, Bass Impact with fellow bass clarinettist, Tilly Kooyman. Bass Impact had the honour of representing Canada and performing a recital of Canadian compositions at the 2005 World Bass Clarinet Convention in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2006 she co-founded the Kitchener-Waterloo Improvisers Collective (KWIC). KWIC’s mandate was to promote improvising musicians, and the improvised music scene in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. KWIC created a concert series of improvised music and brought in several world renowned musicians to host workshops.

Currently, Kathryn performs as a soloist and in a number of ensembles that specialize in new music and free improvisation such as Digital Prowess, Edges, and tonight’s ensemble Stealth with famed percussionist Richard Burrows. She was a 2008 KW Arts Awards nominee in the music category and a 2010 nominee for KW Oktoberfest Woman of the Year in the “arts and culture” category. Kathryn’s debut CD “Open” was released in September, 2010 and was made possible by a grant from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund.

Kathryn Ladano is a Vandoren Canada musician.

Richard Burrows became heavily involved in drumming around the age of 11 with the Lamplighters Drum and Bugle Corps. This early career in percussion took him on tours throughout North America and into Europe. His final seasons of drum corps landed him as a section leader with the Kiwanis Kavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps. Upon "aging-out", Richard went on to teach and become the caption head for Kiwanis Kavaliers. During his tenure on staff, Richard completed a Master's of Music in Performance Percussion from the University of Toronto and his Honours BMus degree in Performance Percussion with a minor in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Richard has studied and performed with NEXUS, Nebosja Jovan Zivkovic, and Michael Burritt. He has collaborated internationally with artists like Evelyn Glennie and Synergy from Australia. In addition to performing, Richard is a passionate educator in the Toronto area. He has worked very closely with Markham District High School and De La Salle Collegiate. He is also a very active clinician with Ontario music camps. His profession has taken him all over the world, giving masterclasses and performances throughout North America, Europe, Mexico, Asia and Australia. He plays regularly with the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London and in a duet series through the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Richard has also worked in opera and musicals performing such classics as West Side Story. He is an avid chamber musician and is a founding member of the Toronto based percussion quartet, TorQ. TorQ competed in the International Percussion Ensemble Competition in Luxembourg City. Richard is proud to endorse Yamaha Canada Music and Innovative Percussion Richard uses the YV3710M, YM5100A, BSM1465, Maple Custom Toms and various other Yamaha Percussion Instruments for his performances..

Kate Boyd, Piano

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:03:24 -0500

[The concert is at 8:00 p.m. at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Piano Works of JOHN CAGE (1912-1992):
Sonatas and Interludes (1946-1948)

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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Kate Boyd looks like (and is!) a perfectly nice, normal human being - but she has a passion for the “far-out” among composers. This recital features all the piano works of one of the most radical of 20th Century composers - John Cage. (What you’ll mostly find referred to on the web is his notorious “4’33” which is that much silence... but he wrote real music, too!

Sonatas and Interludes is a collection of twenty pieces for prepared piano by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1946–1948, shortly after Cage's introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, both of which became major influences on the composer's later work. Significantly more complex than his other works for prepared piano, Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage's finest achievements.

The cycle consists of sixteen sonatas (thirteen of which are cast in binary form, the remaining three in ternary form) and four more freely structured interludes. The aim of the pieces is to express the eight permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition. In Sonatas and Interludes, Cage elevated his technique of rhythmic proportions to a new level of complexity. In each sonata a short sequence of natural numbers and fractions defines the structure of the work and that of its parts, informing structures as localized as individual melodic lines. [introduction to the Wikipedia article. For the rest, click.]

Kate Boyd has performed as a soloist on many concert series, as a concerto soloist, and as a guest artist with established chamber music ensembles throughout the United States and beyond.

Boyd's performances have been featured on CBC and NPR radio. A passionate advocate for new music, she has performed numerous world premieres, including James Woodward's Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble with the Butler University Wind Ensemble. In Dublin, Ireland she was a featured soloist on the Bank of Ireland's Mostly Modern Series, presenting a program of works by living women composers. As a faculty member at Butler, she has performed solo works by each of the composition faculty.

Kate Boyd is a founding member of the New York-based Oracle Trio, a piano trio that performs works from the eighteenth century to the present. The Oracle Trio was featured as the 2009 conference artist for the Indiana Music Teachers Association state conference, and has performed and given masterclasses throughout the Midwest and in the New York area. Boyd's other collaborations have led her to work with musicians in Indianapolis, across the US, and in Europe, where she was active as a concert artist and teacher for seven years.

Kate Boyd is a 2009 recipient of the Arts Council of Indianapolis' Creative Arts Renewal Fellowship, an award from the Lilly Foundation for creative artists of all disciplines. Her other awards and prizes include a Fulbright scholarship to Cologne, Germany and fellowships at the Tanglewood Center, Blossom Music Center, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and Prussia Cove.

Kate Boyd holds degrees from Stony Brook University and the Oberlin Conservatory. She also holds a performance diploma from the Hannover (Germany) Academy of Music. A sought-after pedagogue, she has worked with students ages 7-70 in workshops and masterclasses. She spent many summers on the piano faculty at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont. Kate Boyd currently serves as Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Piano Studies at Butler University in Indianapolis.

Classics at the Registry 3:00

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:55:33 -0500

[This concert is at 3:00 p.m. at the Registry Theatre, Frederic just N. of Weber, Kitchener. It is not a KWCMS concert, but our subscribers can use their subscriptions for these concerts.]

Leslie Fagan & Friends

Songs from the Heart:
Beautiful songs by Haydn, Schubert,
Wolf and others.

March 11th 2012

Nota Bene Baroque: An English Messiah
Vocal music by Henry Purcell based on
the same texts as Handel’s Messiah.

Special guests: TACTUS Vocal Ensemble.
A programme designed by guest leader,
violinist Stephen Marvin.

April 22nd 2012: Paul Pulford & Boyd McDonald, cello and fortepiano
Two Masters play Two Masters
Sonatas by Beethoven and
Brahms for cello & fortepiano

May 13th 2012: Nota Bene Baroque
Bach Meets Frederick The Great
Bach’s Musical Offering was inspired by his
meeting with Frederick the Great. Music by Bach,
Frederick and Frederick’s court composers.
Special guest: Alison Melville ~ baroque flute

Jorge Caballero, classical guitar

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:16:16 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Bach Sonata no. 3 for solo violin BWV 1005
Albéniz Iberia (Selections: Evocación; El Puerto; El Albaicin)
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

$30 (sr $25; st $20) [6*]

“I have just seen The Future of the Guitar and Its Name is Jorge Caballero” - Rosewood Guitar

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KWCMS is very pleased to present a truly phenomenal young guitarist. Jorge Caballero, the youngest musician and the only guitarist to win the prestigious Naumburg International Competition, is known for his dazzling virtuosity, his intense musicality and his spellbinding performances. He is widely regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times called him a "superb young guitarist" and praised his rare combination of "a deft, powerful technique and a soft-spoken interpretive persona."

We have just received his amazing program!

Mr. Caballero's solo recitals have included performances at New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress in Washington (in the Great Performers Series), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco (in the Omni series), the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, New York's Midtown Concert Series, BargeMusic, St. Bartholomew's Church and other venues in the United States and internationally. He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, Turkey, among others.

Critics have praised Mr. Caballero's daring in performing the most difficult pieces in the guitar's repertoire, often together in the same program.

He recently recorded Dvorak's New World symphony, transcribed for solo guitar, a piece that he is one of only two guitarists in the world to perform. His 2000 Musical Heritage recording of the Bach cello suites, which he transcribed, was highly praised by critics. He has also recorded a CD with soprano Theresa Santiago. A recording of Bach's keyboard works is in the planning stages.

His upcoming performances include recitals at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Guitar Foundation Convention in Los Angeles, the Katzin Concert Hall of Arizona State University, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall (with violist David Aaron Carpenter) and 2008 tours in Europe, Brazil and Colombia.

A native of Lima, Peru, Mr. Caballero comes from a musical family. His mother is a well-known singer in Peru and as a child he spent many evenings sitting backstage at her concerts. He learned to play the guitar from his father, but he had already absorbed much knowledge about the instrument from listening to his father give lessons. Growing up at a time when terrorists in Peru bombed electrical stations, he became an expert at practicing in the dark.

He began his professional training at the National Conservatory in Lima, studying with Oscar Zamora. He later came to the United States, where he attended the Manhattan School of Music. He is the recipient of top prizes at the Tokyo International Competition, the Luis Sigall Competition, and the First Latin American Guitar Competition, in addition to the Naumburg, which he won in 1996 at age 19.

Mr. Caballero's repertoire is notable for its breadth and scope: When he applied to the conservatory, his teacher suggested that perhaps he should list the pieces that he could not play, since there were so few of them. It ranges from Bach to Ginastera, from Paganini to Ponce, from Scarlatti and Dowland to Giuliani and Legnani, from Renaissance pieces for the vihuela to modern composers like Carter and Berio.

He is a founding member of Axis, a string quintet that adds to the conventional string quartet the sensual sounds of a guitar, and thus explores new options of sound.

New Orford Quartet with Arthur Rowe, piano

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:15:25 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Anna Sokolovic: Blanc Dominant
Beethoven Quartet no. 16 in F, Op.135
Brahms: Quintet in f, op. 34

$35 (sr $30; st $25) [7*]

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[advance purchase will be essential for these artists]

[for biographical information about this splendid new Canadian quartet, made up of front-desk players from Canada’s two greatest orchestras - in fact, the concertmasters of each are the violinists! - See entry for their other concert 3 days previously, Feb. 7]

Canadian pianist Arthur Rowe is a critically acclaimed recitalist, soloist with orchestra and chamber musician. Touring annually across North America, he has received enthusiastic reviews from his performances in cities such as New York, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Diego, as well as in venues in Europe and New Zealand. Following a New York solo recital, The New York Times wrote:” The Canadian pianist Arthur Rowe made an immediate and positive impression...before eight bars had gone by, one knew he was capable of vigor without heaviness, energy without excess of drive. It was first-rate playing: a kind of execution tinglingly alive to the shape and contribution of each phrase". Reviewing a solo recital in London England, The London Times spoke of his "unusual clarity of articulation", and "poetry of expression", and David Burge, writing in The San Diego Tribune said, "Rowe is a marvelous pianist…even when he is pushed to the limit by extreme virtuosic demands...he can concentrate all of his considerable talents on vital matters of phrasing, tone and ensemble".

Born in McLennan Alberta, Arthur Rowe began his professional career while still an undergraduate, studying with Damjana Bratuz at the University of Western Ontario. Renowned cellist and UWO Professor Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi invited him to play in recital tours in Canada and The United States, and soon after, Mr. Rowe was concertizing in cities across Canada in solo recitals, CBC radio recordings, and concerti. Before completing his graduate studies with Gyorgy Sebok at Indiana University, Arthur Rowe had appeared as soloist in the inaugural concert of the London Sinfonia, with the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra, as well as with Orchestra London under the baton of Arthur Fiedler. Performances with The National Arts Centre Orchestra for CBC as well as the CBC Vancouver Orchestra with Mario Bernardi followed.

Arthur Rowe is heard frequently on radio broadcasts in both Canada and the United States, and has recorded with various artists for the Crystal, ebs, Innova, GM and Fanfare labels. In 2007, he released an all Schubert recording on the Centaur label. Fanfare magazine’s review says, “Rowe’s reading (of the posthumous B flat Sonata) is one of the most beautiful I have heard… The D. 899 Impromptus are equally impressive…his purling right-hand runs recall Schnabel’s velvety sound…. every harmonic change is underscored by a delicate nuance of color change. This kind of expression cannot be taught; it is in the bloodstream and the soul.

A highly respected chamber musician, Mr. Rowe regularly collaborates with artists and chamber ensembles across North America. While at Indiana University, he began his long association with violinist William Preucil, Concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom he has concertized for almost three decades. In February of 2004 The Harrington String Quartet joined forces with Arthur Rowe and William Preucil in New York for a performance of the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, which was reviewed by Harris Goldsmith as a "reading that rivaled the benchmark recordings by Franzescatti/Casadesus/Pascal, and Heifetz/Sanroma/New Arts”.

Having previously held positions at The University of Iowa and The University of Western Ontario, Arthur Rowe now resides in Victoria, where he is Professor of Piano at The University of Victoria.

The Cecilia Quartet

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 23:50:21 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Haydn: Quartet, op. 77, no. 2, in F [his final completed quartet]
Janacek: Quartet no. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata”
Dvorak: Quartet no. 13 in G, op. 106

$35 (sr $30; st $25) [7*]

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[advance purchase will be essential for these artists]

Not very many who know this young quartet were surprised when they won the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2010. We in the Chamber Music Society first presented this amazing ensemble back in 2006, and they’ve been regular guests since.
When the Cecilia gets into a piece, everything simply lights up! There’s no resisting their energy and vivacity. If you haven’t heard them before, you’re in for a treat!

First prize-winners of the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), Canada’s Cecilia String Quartet has quickly attracted the attention of the chamber world at home and internationally. Praised for their “extraordinary commitment and maturity” (Gazette) and “'talent, passion and mastery” (Jacques Robert, JR Multimedia), this young quartet is one of Canada's most exciting young ensembles today. They are currently the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School.

The CSQ has performed for some of the most respected chamber series internationally, such as Music Toronto (Toronto, Canada), The La Jolla Music Society (San Diego, USA), ProQuartet (Paris, France), and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. They also toured Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia with Jeunesses Musicales Canada on their Desjardins Concert Series. In addition to their prize at the 2010 BISQC, they were prize-winners at the Bordeaux (2010), Osaka (2008), and Rutenberg (2008) International Chamber Music Competitions. Committed to teaching and outreach, the CSQ has taught and performed at the Austin Chamber Music Festival in Texas and at QuartetFest at Laurier University in Waterloo, and has presented educational programs for elementary and high schools across the USA, Canada, and France.

The CSQ enjoy taking on large-scale projects. In 2009, they embarked on the project 'BLiM' (Breathing Life into Music), a month-long residency in France, through the Odyssée program that was generously supported by ProQuartet and the Centres Culturels de Rencontre Association in France and Europe (ACCR). The project culminated in the performance of two quartets by Théodore Dubois that were lost for the past century, as well as a new piece written for them by American composer Liam Wade. In 2010, the CSQ was involved with another project at The Banff Center, where they were an integral part of the collaborations with Common Sense Composers Collective and the Afiara String Quartet, culminating in the premiere of four new quartets written for them.

Prior to their appointment at The Glenn Gould School, the CSQ was Quartet- in- Residence at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, where they studied with Andre Roy. They were also the Joseph Fisch and Joyce Axelrod Resident-String -Quartet at San Diego State University in association with the La Jolla Music Society. Since their inception in 2004, the quartet has held residencies at Laurier University, The Glenn Gould School, and the University of Toronto, where the quartet was formed. Their debut performance at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto was met with high praise, and their first season culminated in the receipt of the Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence after only 6 months as a quartet. Since that time, they have participated in many prestigious summer festivals, such as the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York, the Stanford Chamber Music Seminar in California, the Deer Valley Music Festival in Utah, the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber Music Festival in Germany, the Great Lakes Music Festival in Michigan, and the Aspen Music Festival's Advanced String Quartet Studies program.

The Cecilia String Quartet takes its name from St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Members of the CSQ have attended the University of Toronto, The Glenn Gould School, The Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and the Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre Munchen in Munich, Germany. CSQ’s performances have been broadcast on Classical 96.3 FM, CBC Radio 2, KUT 90.5 FM (Austin, Texas), and ABC Classical FM (Melbourne, Australia). Min-Jeong Koh currently plays on the ca. 1767 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts and an anonymous donor, and Sarah Nematallah currently plays on the 1851 Jean Baptiste Vuillaume on loan from an anonymous donor. The quartet would like to thank the anonymous donor and the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support.

The New Orford Quartet with Shauna Rolston, cello

Tue, 7 Feb 2012 23:23:09 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Beethoven: Quartet in C, op. 59, no. 3
Schubert: Cello Quintet in C Major)

$35 (sr $30; st $25) [7*]

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[advance purchase will be essential for these artists]

New Orford Quartet: Jonathan Crow, violin - concertmaster TSO, Andrew Wan, violin - concertmaster OSM; Eric Nowlin, viola - associate principal viola TS; Brian Manker, cello - principal cello OSM. Shauna Rolston, guest cellist - Professor of Cello, University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

Program note: Two stellar works are on this program. Beethoven’s third Razumovsky is perhaps also the mightiest and most original of the three. Its second movement is astonishing: a muted, melancholy tune over unwavering pizzicattos, followed by a remarkably genial Menuetto grazioso, as if it were all some sort of mistake. And the finale is most astonishing of all, a brilliant fugue taken at lickety-split velocity, “full of thunder and lightning” with a positively ecstatic conclusion. Schubert’s sublime Quintet in C Major - once discovered - quickly became the piece de resistance for this combination, totally eclipsing the quintets of Boccherini and some others. The air of elevation in the opening movement, with a powerful dramatic interlude, sets the stage for a second movement that seems straight from another world (and was composed by a dying man who knew he had not long to live - the otherworldliness is intentional. Then there’s a scherzo that is a positive frenzy of joy - except for its trio, a near-terrifying view into the depths. And the finale is a dance, becoming downright fierce at the end. There is nothing like this work!

About the New Orford Quartet:

Forty-five years ago a new Canadian string quartet was formed at the Jeunesses-Musicales du Canada summer camp at Parc National du Mont-Orford (today the Orford Arts Centre). The Orford String Quartet gave its first public concert on August 11, 1965. Through its many recordings and tours both at home and abroad, the Orford String Quartet became one of Canada's best-known and most illustrious musical ensembles. After 26 years and more than 2000 concerts on six continents, the Quartet disbanded, giving its last concert on July 28, 1991. In July 2009 the New Orford String Quartet arose from the fame and tradition of its glorious predecessor, giving its first concert for a sold-out audience at the Orford Arts Centre. In the short time since its creation the New Orford Quartet has seen astonishing success, giving two concerts at the Orford Arts Centre for national CBC broadcast and receiving unanimous critical acclaim, including three Opus Award nominations for Concert of the Year. Reviews of the New Orford String Quartet debut concert in the Montreal Gazette applauded a concert performance that was "sweet, balanced and technically inassailable less than a week after their members met for the first time... Lustily applauded in the Orford Arts Centre, the concert was true to the Orford name in its beauty and refinement. Indeed, there was no trace of roughness anywhere". Le Devoir described the musical result as "stupefying". Recent performances in Montreal and Quebec were met with immediate invitations for return engagements.

Hailed for their "ravishingly beautiful tone" as well as their "extraordinary technical skills and musicianship" the members of the New Orford String Quartet are all former or current principal players in the Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras. In 2009, these like-minded musicians came together with a plan to revolutionize the concept of string quartet playing in Canada, bringing together four stars of the classical music field for an extremely limited touring schedule on a project-by-project basis inspired by the success of modern chamber orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Rather than committing to a year-round schedule, the members of the quartet meet for residencies in various centres for short periods of time, providing a fresh perspective on interpretations of standard string quartet repertoire. The New Orford String Quartet is also dedicated to promoting Canadian works, both new commissions and neglected repertoire from the previous century. Each New Orford String Quartet project has included performances of a major Canadian string quartet from the 20th century or a premiere of a newly composed work, and programs have included repertoire from a period that spans over 225 years, from Haydn and Beethoven to Sir Ernest MacMillan and Denis Gougeon.

Shauna Rolston is a Canadian cellist. Rolston was born in Edmonton, Alberta. [for a fuller bio, click]

Rolston was a cello prodigy when young and attended the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland at fourteen, where she studied with Pierre Fournier, and later at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh (England) where she also studied with William Pleeth. At sixteen, she played at New York's Town Hall, with her mother at the piano. Following her formative studies at the Banff Centre and abroad, Rolston earned undergraduate (Art) and graduate (Music) degrees at Yale where she studied with Aldo Parisot.

Rolston is an advocate for new music, and has premiered a number of works written for her. Composers who have written for her include Kelly-Marie Murphy, Heather Schmidt, Oskar Morawetz, Bruce Mather, Christos Hatzis and Chan Ka Nin, as well as Krzysztof Penderecki, Gavin Bryers, Mark Anthony Turnage, Rolf Wallin, Augusta Read Thomas, Karen Tanaka, and Gary Kulesha.

Rolston continues to perform regularly around the world appearing in recital and concerto engagements. As a chamber musician, Rolston has performed and recorded with many pre-eminent artists and ensembles including the Gallois Quintet, and pianist Menahem Pressler.

In 1994 Shauna Rolston joined the music faculty of the University of Toronto where she is a Professor and Head of the String Department. She is also a regular Visiting Artist for the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre.

Winston Choi, Piano

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 11:26:31 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]
[NOTE: Heidi Wall, originally on this date, will move to April 14, Winston’s original date]
Bach: Art of Fugue (complete)
[Some of our patrons will have heard Winston’s amazing performance of the incredibly difficult music of Elliott Carter; others may have heard him and his brilliant violinist wife Ming-huan Xu performing great violin duos. Now’s your chance to hear him solo in something more like normal repertoire! Not that there’s much “normal” about Bach’s final masterpiece (he was working on it when he died. ) In this music, Bach sets his seal on the Fugue, of which he was beyond question the incomparable master, probably for all time.

$30 (sr $25; st $20) [6*]

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Winston Choi, piano

Winner of the 2002 Orléans Concours International and Laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition, Canadian pianist Winston Choi is an inquisitive performer whose fresh approach to standard repertory, and masterful understanding, performance and commitment to works by living composers, make him one of today’s most dynamic young concert artists.

Choi maintains an active international performing schedule. In demand as a concerto soloist, he has appeared with l’Orchestre National de Lille, l’Orchestre Symphonique d’Orléans, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, and the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Known for his colorful approach to programming and insightful commentary from the stage, Choi has recently appeared in recital at the National Arts Centre of Canada, the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, New York’s Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Kravis Center in Florida, Berlin’s “Klavierfieber” Festival and the “Cicle Grans Solistes” in Spain. Choi performs extensively in France, having played venues such as the Salle Cortot, Lille’s Festival Rencontre Robert Casadesus, the Messiaen Festival, and the Strasbourg Festival. Frequently in demand throughout his native Canada, he has been awarded numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. His numerous performances can often be heard on CBC radio broadcasts. Recently, he toured Eastern Ontario and Quebec under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales and embarked on a 10-city Prairie Debut tour of the Canadian Prairie provinces. For the 2011-12 season and beyond, Choi is touring with Bach's epic Art of Fugue. An accomplished chamber musician, he tours regularly with his wife, MingHuan Xu as Duo Diorama, as well as with the ensemble Pivot Chamber Soloists and the Civitas Ensemble.

As a dedicated champion of contemporary music, Choi has premiered and commissioned over 100 works by young composers as well as established masters. A composer himself, being involved with the creative process is an integral part of his artistry. He was the first pianist to perform Pierre Boulez’s last version of Incises in North America and made the South American premiere of Luciano Berio‘s Sonata for pianoforte solo. He also regularly appears in concert at IRCAM, the world’s most renowned institution for contemporary music. Composers he has collaborated with include William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Brian Ferneyhough, Bright Sheng, Christian Wolff, Chen Yi and John Zorn. He is also a core member of the new music ensemble Brave New Works and the Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente. His upcoming performances include piano concerti by Jeffrey Mumford, John Melby and Jacques Lenot.

Already a prolific recording artist, Choi’s debut CD, the complete piano works of Elliott Carter (l’Empreinte Digitale in France) was given 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine. He has also recorded 2 CDs of the piano music of Jacques Lenot for the Intrada label, having won the Grand Prix du Disque from l’Académie Charles Cros for Volume I. Other labels he can be heard on include Albany, AMP, Arktos, Crystal Records, Naxos and QuadroFrame.

Choi began his studies in Toronto with James Tweedie and Vivienne Bailey. He obtained both his Bachelor and Master Degrees at Indiana University, receiving the Performer’s Certificate studying with Menahem Pressler. Further studies were with Ursula Oppens at Northwestern University, where he completed his Doctorate of Music. Previously on the faculties of Bowling Green State University and the Oberlin Conservatory, he is Assistant Professor and Head of Piano at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. An accomplished teacher, he is in frequent demand as a master class clinician and presenter.

WLU Student Composers Concert

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 14:02:31 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Program: Works by 8 student composers from the Faculty of Music, Wilfrid Laurier University. There is also a Repertoire piece played by each ensemble.

Adam Hakooz - Элонг Сжимать [Cyrillic title untranslatable, it seems!]
Nathan Evans - Two Friends and an Outcast
Katerina Gimon, Sean Goldman, and Lindsey Jacob - Surprise Waltz
Mike Anderson - Hyperborean Lands
Mendelssohn, Andante, from Four Pieces for String Quartet op. 81

Darius Milhaud - Sonate for Flute, Oboe, clarinet, and Piano (I & II)
David Foley - String Quartet no. 3 (I., II., III.)
Melodie Laton - The Little Things (I. Butterly, II. Flowers, III. Abandoned Forces)
Evan Pointer - The Great Gig in a Parallel Universe
Cam Streicher - Variations

Performers: See the list under the pictures

$15 (sr $10; st $8) [3*]

This enterprising group of young composers puts on an annual event here, since 2009. All the program is new music, performed by good student performers, some of whom are composers themselves.

The Amernet String Quartet; Shoshana Telner, piano

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:08:53 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Haydn, op 54 #2
Smetana, #2
Shostakovich, Quintet

$35 (sr $30; st $25) [7*]

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[advance purchase will be essential for this artist]

Three hugely interesting selections comprise the concert by this eminent quartet and soloist. Haydn’s op. 54 no. 2 is another in his long string of extremely original, adventurous quartets, with many pauses in the first movement, a second movement that seems to have no melody, a minuet that is more like a country folk dance, and a finale that is mostly a slow movement! Smetana’s second quartet takes up from where the first finished: "...after the catastrophe [Smetana went deaf], it represents the turbulence of music in a person who had lost his hearing"[3]. The musical construction and language are entirely new, unusual[4]. The composition was at first received by listeners and critics with hesitation, and even with objections ... but today it belongs to the great values of Czech music history and culture. Shostakovich’s quintet is one of the 20th century’s great ones - or perhaps even its one true masterpiece in this form. Composed in 1940, there is a sense of a tense calm before the inevitable storm of WW II coming to Russia (as it did a year later) - “The Quintet remained in the consciousness of the people as the last ray of light before the future sank into a dark gloom." The light shines brightly - there is a lot of good humour - a brilliant scherzo and witty finale, after the strong prelude-and-fugue opening movement and an intermezzo “tinged with regret and tranquillity.” With this outstanding team, we can expect thrilling performances of these great works.

Amernet String Quartet

Lauded for their "intelligence" and “immensely satisfying” playing by the New York Times, the quartet has garnered worldwide praise and recognition as one of today's exceptional string quartets. Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University since 2004, the group was formed in 1991, while its founding members were students at the Juilliard School. Amernet rose to international attention after their first season, winning the Gold Medal at the Tokyo International Music Competition in 1992. In 1995, the group was the First Prize winner of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Their busy performance schedule has taken the group across the United States, as well as to Japan, Korea, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland, and Mexico. They have collaborated with numerous artists and ensembles including the Tokyo, St. Lawrence, and Ying string quartets as well as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Andres Diaz, Roberto Diaz, Miriam Fried, Yehuda Hanani, Gary Hoffman, Toby Hoffman, Ida Kavafian, Paul Katz, Anton Kuerti, Ruth Laredo, Seymour Lipkin, Anthony McGill, Rainer Moog, Shauna Rolston, Nathaniel Rosen, Barry Snyder, Eric Shumsky, James Tocco, Dame Gillian Weir, Kyung Wha-Chung, and Zvi Zeitlin.

Prior to their appointment at Florida International University, the Amernet was, from 2000-2004, Corbett String Quartet in Residence at Northern Kentucky University, where they directed the Patricia A. Corbett String Program. From 1996-2000, the ensemble held a residency at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where they taught chamber music. Additionally, from 2004-2005 they served as the Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for the Arts. Among the Amernet's engagements have been appearances at Ravinia, Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Harvard Musical Association, and at major festivals around the world, including San Miguel de Allende, Great Lakes, Morelia, and Bowdoin.

The Amernet Quartet has conducted workshops and master classes in Buffalo (NY), Memphis (TN), Erie (PA), Los Angeles (CA), and Logan (UT), among other cities, as well as at Penn State and Columbia universities and at Antioch College. They founded the Norse Festival, a summer chamber music workshop at Northern Kentucky University, which provides an opportunity for young musicians from the region to work intensively in chamber groups. Currently the quartet hosts an annual summer chamber music camp in Miami called Animato.

For full bios on each member of the quartet, go to their website.
Misha Vitenson - Violin - is from Uzbekistan. After moving to Israel and continuing his studies, he was subsequently awarded top prizes in international violin competitions, including Premio Paganini (Italy, 1998) and Pablo de Sarasate (Spain, 1997) and First Prize in the 1998 Città d'Andria International Violin Competition (Italy). Mr. Vitenson was the winner of the 1999 Aspen Music Festival Concerto Competition and First Prizewinner at the 2000 National Society of Arts and Letters Violin Competition and is also both a two-time winner of the Harid Conservatory Concerto Competition and a two-time recipient of the Harid Conservatory's Joseph Gingold Award for Excellence (1998 & 2000). Mr. Vitenson's recent engagements have included appearances as soloist with all the major orchestras in Israel, including the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as with the Padova e Venetto Orchestra on tour in Brazil, the National Uzbekistan Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival Symphonia Orchestra, the Harid Philharmonia, and the Harid Chamber Strings. Mr. Vitenson has given recitals and chamber music concerts throughout Israel, the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe. As a member of the Kinneret Piano Trio, he participated in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall in 1995.....

Marcia Littley - Violin - violinist and founding member of the quartet, received her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Naoko Tanaka and Dorothy DeLay. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States and in Mexico, and has participated in music festivals including Aspen, Ravinia, Interlochen, Tanglewood, and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall.
From 1996 to 2000, Ms. Littley taught chamber music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and from 2000-2004 she was Artist–in-Residence at Northern Kentucky University. Currently, she is Artist-in Residence at Florida International University, where she teaches violin and chamber music.....

Michael Klotz - Viola Born in 1978 in Rochester, NY, Michael Klotz made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17. He has also appeared as soloist with the Miami Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, Mannes Bach Festival Orchestra, Bowdoin Festival Orchestra, and the World Youth Symphony in London, England. Of a recent performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with violist Roberto Diaz, the Portland Press-Herald proclaimed, "this concert squelched all viola jokes, now and forever, due to the talents of Diaz and Klotz." ...

Jason Calloway - Cello Cellist Jason Calloway has performed to acclaim throughout North America, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East as soloist and chamber musician. He has appeared at festivals including Lucerne, Spoleto USA, Darmstadt, Klangspuren (Austria), Acanthes (France), Perpignan, Valencia, Citta' della Pieve (Italy), Jerash (Jordan), Casals (Puerto Rico), Blossom, Brevard, Great Lakes, Kingston, Rockport, Sedona, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, the New York String Seminar, and Encore. Currently cellist of the Amernet String Quartet, Artists-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami, Mr. Calloway was previously a member of the Naumburg award-winning Biava Quartet, formerly in residence at the Juilliard School. ....

Shoshana Telner, piano

We discovered Shoshana four years ago and she has since performed annually as soloist or chamber musician here. Shoshana received a Bachelor’s degree on full scholarship from Boston University, a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School in New York, and a Doctorate in performance from McGill University in Montreal. ...
has performed across Canada and abroad. She made her solo orchestral début with the National Arts Centre Orchestra at the age of 16, and has since performed as soloist with several orchestras including the Québec Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra, and the National Academy Orchestra. As a chamber musician she has collaborated with artists including violist Steven Dann, cellists Shauna Rolston, Denis Brott, and Andrés Díaz, violinist Menachem Breuer, clarinetist Simon Aldrich, and soprano Ingrid Attrot. Her solo and chamber music performances have been heard often on CBC radio. In 2010, Shoshana became a member of the Philadelphia based Shir Ami Ensemble. .... [for more, click]

Super String Extravaganza Sextet

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:41:45 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Yehonatan Berick/ Csaba Koczo, violins;
Theresa Rudolph/ Caitlin Boyle, violas;
Rachel Mercer/Rachel Desoer, cellos.

Brahms, Sextet in Bb;
Walter Piston, Duo for viola and cello
Heitor Villa-Lobos, 2 Choros for violin and cello
Bohuslav Martinu, 3 madrigals for violin and viola

$35 (sr $30; st $25) [7*]

Buy tickets on-line - it’s easy! (For our 7* concerts such as this, KWCMS absorbs the on-line booking fee, too!)
[advance purchase will be essential for this artist]

Tonight’s concert features a group made up of six of Canada’s finest string players. Two, husband and wife team Csaba and Theresa, are in the Canadian Opera Orchestra; Caitlin and Rachel Desoer are in the Cecilia Quartet (which plays for us in just over two weeks after this concert!); Yehonatan and Rachel are renowned as soloists and chamber performers far and wide. We are truly honoured to have an ensemble of such calibre playing for us!

Yehonatan Berick started his musical education at the age of six. Having graduated from highschool at 16, he entered the Tel Aviv University's Music Academy, and completed his studies at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, earning a full tuition and a Summacum Lauda. His principal violin teachers were Ilona Feher, Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmanshauss, and Dorothy Delay, as well as Yair Kless. He had theory teachings with composer Sergiu Natra, and attended masterclasses with such artists as Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Max Rostal and Josef Gingold. One of the brightest talents of Israel, Berick won several Clairemont Awards, and received yearly stipends from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

He is Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan, and a member of too many ensemble to name here. In much demand at festivals, his festival and chamber series’ credits include Marlboro, Ravinia, Seattle, Vancouver, Ottawa, Jerusalem, El Paso, Maui, Domaine Forget (Canada), Great Lakes (Michigan), Close Encounters with Music (Great Barrington, MA), Giverny (France), Leicester (U.K.), Moritzburg (Germany), Lapland (Sweden), Riihimaki (Finland), Strings in the Mountains (Colorado), Alpenglow (Colorado), Four seasons (N. Carolina), Agassiz (Winnipeg), Kfar Blum (Israel), Killington (Vermont), and Bowdoin (Maine). ...
Yehonatan Berick is currently playing on a violin by Honore Derazey Père from 1852, and on a viola by Stanley Kiernoziak from 2003.

Hungarian-born violinist Csaba Koczó began his studies in Yugoslavia before attending the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest. After attaining his bachelor’s degree with distinction at the College of the Franz Liszt Music Academy, he began his studies in Toronto with Lorand Fenyves and Erika Raum. Mr. Koczó received his artist diploma at The Glenn Gould School and later, as the recipient of the H. Carter scholarship, attained his master’s degree at the University of Toronto. Mr. Koczó has had a prolific career as a chamber musician and soloist both in Canada and abroad. He is a founding member of the Tokai Quartet and the Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Koczó is assistant principal second violin of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and holds a position with the Canadian National Ballet Orchestra where he has been acting concertmaster.

Caitlin Boyle, Viola

Caitlin Boyle is originally from Dundas, Ontario where she was born in 1980. She began playing the viola at age three at the Hamilton Suzuki School of Music. More recently she completed Masters of Music at San Diego State University, with Brian Chen in 2009, and a Graduate Diploma at McGill under the guidance of Andre Roy in 2010. In the fall of 2005 she participated in a tour of the East Coast of the United States with the Munich Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Phillippe Entremont. Her passion for chamber music was fostered at the Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute and the Domaine Forget Chamber Music Sessions and continued to grow through the support of such artists and teachers as Richard Lester, Terrence Helmer, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. She has been a member of the Cecilia String Quartet since spring 2006. In fall of 2010, she was admitted to the Doctor of Musical Arts Program at the University of Toronto, where she is studying with Kathy Rapoport.

Theresa Rudolph-Kozco, viola [updated Jan. 23]
Award-winning violist Theresa Rudolph is an active chamber musician,
recitalist, and orchestral player. She is currently 3rd Chair Viola in
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Rudolph has performed on concert
series in Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit, Ottawa, and throughout eastern
Canada. She has been featured several times on CBC Radio 2 in
performances broadcast nationally, and collaborated with esteemed
artists such as violinists Miriam Fried and Scott St. John, cellist
Steven Isserlis, and pianist Jamie Parker. Currently, she performs in
the Rudolph Family Chamber Players with her mother, flutist Kathleen
Rudolph, her father, percussionist John Rudolph, and her husband,
violinist Csaba Koczo.

Ms. Rudolph has participated in many festivals, such as the Banff
Centre for the Arts Summer Master Classes Program, the New York String
Orchestra Seminar, and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the
Ravinia Festival. In addition, she performed as part of the “Musicians
from Ravinia” 2001 tour. As a member of the Brutini String Quartet,
Ms. Rudolph attended the Issac Stern Chamber Music Workshop in New
York and performed in Carnegie Hall. In 1998, the quartet became prize
winners at the prestigious Fischoff Competition, an initiative
renowned for launching the careers of young chamber musicians.

Hailing from Vancouver, Ms. Rudolph was a student of Gerald Stanick. A
recipient of a scholarship grant from the Canada Council for the Arts,
she then obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland
Institute of Music, studying with Robert Vernon. In March of 2001,
shortly before graduating, Ms. Rudolph became the youngest member of
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the age of 21. She also held the
position of Assistant Principal Viola of the National Ballet of Canada
Orchestra, and was a member of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra,
where she frequently appeared as Acting Principal Viola. Ms. Rudolph
has also performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the
Cleveland Orchestra.

Rachel Desoer, Cello

Rachel is a cellist from Hamilton, Ontario. She graduated from Oberlin Conservatory in 2008 with a Bachelor of Music degree. Rachel also attended the Juilliard School, McGill University and rounded out her education at the Banff Centre. Most passionate about chamber music, she has had the opportunity to study with some of the greatest chamber musicians of our time (St. Lawrence, Orford, Vermeer, Borromeo, Brentano, Colorado and Takacs string quartets).

Rachel has performed in a wide variety of ensembles and musical styles. As a soloist she has performed with the Oberlin Orchestra and the National Academy Orchestra. As an orchestral musician she participated in the Institute of Orchestral Studies of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Rachel has collaborated with dancers, composers, jazz musicians, vocalists and filmakers as well performing many solo recitals. She has had the good fortune to tour Europe and China and compete in the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. She is honoured and excited to be the recently appointed cellist of the Cecilia String Quartet.

Rachel Mercer, cello
Rachel performs so often for us that we should have a separate page of our site devoted entirely to this extraordinary artist! Her latest appearance for us will have been just over two weeks ago! The photo above, by the way, shows her with the fabulous “Bonjour” Stradivarius cello, use of which, for three years, she won in the Canada Council’s Rare Instrument competition. Last summer saw her playing the complete Bach solo music for us; since then she has also done her 8th of 9 concerts of Haydn Trios with the Mercer-Oh Trio. It’s lucky for audiences with taste in Canada that she is so hard-working!

The Lafayette String Quartet

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:56:21 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade
Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 2
Johannes Brahms: QuartetNo. 1 in c

$35 (sr $30; st $25)

Buy tickets on-line - it’s easy! (For our 7* concerts such as this, KWCMS absorbs the on-line booking fee, too!)
[advance purchase will be essential for this artist]

The Lafayette Quartet began playing for us in 1988, and since then have performed frequently, including a memorable complete Beethoven series in the spring of 2000. Their many concerts around the world, and numerous outstanding recordings, attest to the calibre of this ensemble, one of the world’s great string quartets. When the Lafayette performs, one has the sense that we are communicating directly with the composer!

In July 2011, the four women of the Lafayette String Quartet celebrated 25 years of making music together! They are the world’s only quartet of women to retain their original personnel throughout - one of the things that accounts for the uncannily fine sound and perfection of ensemble of this foursome.

Artists-in-Residence at the University of Victoria's School of Music in British Columbia since 1991, their dedication and skill have played a major role in building one of the finest music schools in Canada. Students from all over North America are attracted to the Lafayette's widely respected coaching and teaching skills.

Formed in Detroit, Michigan, the Lafayette String Quartet has, from its beginning combined the two disciplines of performing and teaching to sustain them as artists. With the support of the Ford Motor Co. and a Chamber Music American Residency Grant, they taught for several years in Detroit, where they shared their enthusiasm and love of music with young students at the Center for Creative Studies - Institute of Music and Dance as well as at Oakland University in Rochester, Mi.

Early in the Quartet's career, they garnered major competition prizes, including the Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition and the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and embarked on extensive study with chamber musicians of international stature: two years with the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School as winners of the Cleveland Quartet Competition, coaching with members of the Amadeus and Alban Berg Quartets, and long-term musical coaching from their mentor, the late Rostislav Dubinsky, former primarius of the Borodin Quartet.

In 1988 the Quartet was described by Musical America magazine as "Young Artists to Watch", and has provided ample proof of the astuteness of that choice. Defying the odds in the demanding world of string quartets, the four women of the Lafayette Quartet have stayed together and flourished artistically for over 20 years.

In the 2000-2001 season they offered the Victoria audience the entire Beethoven Cycle in a six-concert series. They have since performed the cycle in Waterloo, Ontario and in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In addition to their affinity for Beethoven, the Lafayette Quartet enjoys performing music from all eras of the vast output of quartet literature. Commissioned in celebration of their 20th anniversary, the LSQ will be performing R. Murray Shafer's 11th String Quartet in many of their spring programs. Their CD "Death and the Maiden" on the CBC label (featuring that great work of Franz Schubert as well as the quartets of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel and Rebecca Clarke), was awarded the 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording and their recordings on the Dorian and AdLar labels have received universal critical acclaim.

The Quartet has had the privilege of collaborating with numerous wonderful artists from all over North America and Europe. This year alone, they are performing with Luba Edlina, James Campbell, Flavio Varani, Yariv Aloni, Paula Kiffner and Gary Karr.

The Lafayette String Quartet is the subject of the author David Round's book "The Four and the One", published in 1998.

André LaPlante, piano

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:01:24 -0500

[Our concerts are at 8:00 at KWCMS Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo]

Claude Debussy: Estampes;
Maurice Ravel:
Oiseaux tristes; vallée des cloches (from Miroirs)
Sonatine.
Franz Liszt: Sonata

$35 (sr $30; st $25)

Buy tickets on-line - it’s easy! (For our 7* concerts such as this, KWCMS absorbs the on-line booking fee, too!)
[advance purchase will be essential for this artist]

KWCMS is pleased to be able, at last, to present Canada’s outstanding André LaPlante. Many will have heard from perform both of the virtuoso concertos of Liszt on one evening with the K-W Symphony Orchestra last September; others may have heard him at many festivals or with other orchestras. Whatever, you can now hear him in our Music Room with our great piano. Enjoy!

Over the last decade, Canadian pianist André Laplante has firmly established himself as one of the great romantic virtuosos. He garnered international attention after winning prizes at the Geneva and Sydney International Piano Competitions, then capturing the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow . Critics have compared him with Ashkenazy, Horowitz and Rudolph Serkin, placing him in the elite circle of virtuoso pianists who do not hesitate to take risks.

In 2005, Mr. Laplante was honored to be named an Officer of the Order of Canada. In that same year, he was awarded the Prix Opus for Best Performer of the Year. In 1999, he received two Opus Awards for live performances: "Best Concert in Montréal" and "Best Concert in Québec Province." Most recently, in 2010, he received another Prix Opus, this time for Best Concert of the Year.

In recent years, Laplante has appeared as orchestral soloist with the Montréal and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Mariner, on tour in Europe with the Toronto Symphony under Andrew Davis and with the Royal Philharmonic under the baton of the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin during their extensive North American tour.

Recent seasons have also included a major concert tour of the People's Republic of China, recital tours of the Far East, Australia and North America, and appearances at major music festivals, including the Debussy Festival (France), Pecs Festival (Hungary), Orford Festival (Canada), Cascais Festival (Portugal), Salzburg Festival (Austria), Festival International de Lanaudière (Canada), International Summer Festival (Canada), Domaine Forget (Canada), and the TCU-Van Cliburn Institute (USA). Mr. Laplante performed with the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in Malaysia as well as a critically acclaimed appearance with orchestra and quartet in an all French Festival with the Buffalo Philharmonic. He also appeared with the Columbus Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa and Club Musical de Québec, as well as performances with the Toronto, Québec, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Lexington, Pasadena and México City symphonies.

André Laplante has served as a juror of the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, the International Music Festival in Australia, the CBC National Competition, the Honens International Piano Competition, the William Kapell International Piano Competition.

An active recording artist, André Laplante's releases on the Analekta label include works by Ravel and Rachmaninov, an award winning Brahms album (Félix 1996), and a Liszt recording (Félix 1995) which was voted best solo classical album of the year by the Toronto Star. He has also recorded for CBC and Melodia: his performance of Jacques Hetu's Piano Concerto No. 2 for CBC Records won the 2004 Juno award for orchestral recordings, as well as the Western Canadian Music Award. His recording of Tchaikovsky No. 1 with Joav Talmi and l'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, was nominated for the 2001 Felix Award ; and in 2010 his recording of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage was awarded a Felix Award for Best Classical Solo Album of the Year.

Rémi Boucher, guitar

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:09:52 -0500

[Concert at The Music Room, 8:00 p.m. Click “venue” at the top for information]

Bach: (selections tba)
Guilio Regondi: Reverie
Carlo Domeniconi: Koyumbaba
Rémi Boucher: Papillon Chinois,
Ernesto Lecuona: Malagueña

Rémi Boucher: Lights in the darkness,
- Wind and sea
- Dark sky and moon
- Energy and lights

$30 (sr $25; st $20)

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KWCMS is happy to announce that we are able to present this amazing musician once again (he’s not that easy to get!) Anyone who has been at any of his many previous concerts for us over the years knows that an entirely extraordinary event is assured on this occasion. Rémi plays with a passion and panache unequalled by any in our experience. (The picture on the left, above, says a lot!)

About Rémi:
Born in 1964 in Rouyn-Noranda (Québec, Canada), Rémi Boucher studied classical guitar at the Montreal Conservatory with Jean Vallières and afterwards completed his studies in Spain (with J Henriquez, J L Rodrigo, V Mikulka, David Russell, M Barrueco), in Belgium at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (with V van Puijenbroeck) and in Switzerland at the Basel Academy with Oscar Ghiglia.

Rémi is the first guitarist in 30 years to have won the Canada Council for the Arts Sylva Gelber Award. In addition to his many national and international prizes, in less than 18 months, Rémi Boucher has conquered Europe, America and Asia winning unanimously the first prize of five of the most important international music competitions (Alessandria in Italy, Andrès Segovia in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Havana in Cuba, Mauro Guiliani in Turin, and Fernando Sor in Roma).

Rémi has had the pleasure of being invited to perform with many major orchestras all over the world, performing all of the major guitar concertos. He regularly performs recitals, gives master classes and judges at many of the most important competitions, music festivals and universities around the world.

“Rémi Boucher has fire, passion, zest and poetry and he has them in spades. There is hope for the guitar when it is played like this…” (International Guitar Magazine)

Jerzy Kaplanek, violin; Stéphan Sylvestre, piano

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:41:58 -0500

[Concert at The Music Room, 8:00 p.m. Click “venue” at the top for information]

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Intermezzo no. 1, opo. 117 (piano)
Sonata for violin and piano No. 1 in G
Chopin
Two Mazurkas: op. 17/4, and op. 33/4
Polonaise in f#, op. 44
Karol Szymanowski: Mythes, op. 30 (violin & piano)

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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This team has performed together frequently in the past few seasons, including a recital for KWCMS in 2010. Their partnership has been extremely successful. Our program today also gives the pianist some exposure as a soloist; he has made a recording of Brahms piano music, among other things. Jerzy Kaplanek’s feel for the music of Szymanowski is probably unequalled today.

Jerzy Kaplanek has been a member of the Penderecki String Quartet since 1987. With the quartet, and also as a soloist and chamber musician, he performs throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His discography includes a dozen CD's with the Penderecki Quartet, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble. His chamber music partners have been pianists Vladimir Feltsman, Lev Natochenny, Jamie Parker, Janina Fialkowska, Francine Kay, cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, clarinetist James Campbell, and others. He is frequently heard on CBC Radio and in the fall of 1997 was featured soloist at a concert held in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as a tribute to Karol Szymanowski.

Jerzy Kaplanek was born in Poland in 1965. His music education started at the age of six on piano; at the age of ten he began his violin studies. In 1984, he received a Bachelor of Music degree at the Conservatory in Bytom, Poland. He graduated with a Masters Degree in Arts from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, where he studied with Janusz Skramlik, Stanislaw Lewandowski, and Aureli Blaszczok.

In 1987, Mr. Kaplanek left Poland to continue his music education in the United States. In 1987-88 he was assistant to Efim Boico of the Fine Arts Quartet at the Chamber Music Institute in Milwaukee. In 1989-90, he was a student of Sylvia Rosenberg in New York City. In 1990-91 he studied at the University of Maryland, where his teachers included Daniel Heifetz, the Guarneri String Quartet and its violinists, Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley. Pursuing his interest in Baroque performance practice, Mr. Kaplanek has also worked with the Custodian of Period Instruments at the Smithsonian Museum, Jaap Schroeder.

Jerzy Kaplanek is presently an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where he teaches violin and chamber music. He plays a copy of the "Kreisler", Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù 1733, made by Luiz B. Bellini (New York 1997).

Stéphan Sylvestre ranks among the most sought-after and brilliant Canadian pianists of the new generation and enjoys an active performing career as a recitalist, orchestra soloist, chamber musician and recording artist. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have bestowed lavish praise on his performances: “…his natural talent reminds one of the great Artur Rubinstein…” (La Presse, Montreal), “…somewhat reminiscent of the young Kempff” (La Scena Musicale, Canada), “… He is one of those musicians who plays a work, first, for its own sake, then for himself, and finally, for the audience, which is privileged to be witness to his search for the very heart of the work.” (Le Droit, Ottawa), “…masterly brilliant virtuosity and monumentality,” (Flovo Cultury,Czech Republic), “…such effortless simplicity is a joy.” (Edinburghguide.com). The New Winnipeg Magazine also described him in the following terms: “ Some pianists are able to coax their instrument into doing just about anything. With seemingly little effort and a few quiet sorrowful notes they stir up a passionate response. Stéphan Sylvestre is such an artist”.

His numerous concert tours and performances have taken place in major concert halls, universities and concert organizations throughout Canada, United States, Brazil, the Middle East, France, Italy, Scotland, Ireland, England, Czech Republic, Russia and the Netherlands. Notable venues include the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London), the St-Petersburg Conservatory (Russia), Place des Arts (Montreal), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the Four Seasons Centre (Toronto) and Massey Hall (Toronto). He has appeared with several Canadian orchestras and he has performed in the major international festivals in Canada, including Ottawa, Parry Sound, Lanaudière, Domaine Forget and Orford. Mr. Sylvestre was also recently Pianist-In-Residence at Barrie’s Colour of Music Festival in Ontario. Stéphan Sylvestre is heard regularly on the French and English networks of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Suisse Romande and has performed live for the BBC in the United Kingdom.

He has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as James Campbell, James Sommerville, Ransom Wilson, Martin Beaver, Rivka Golani, Susan Hoeppner, the Penderecki String Quartet, the New Zealand Quartet, Quartuor Arthur-Leblanc, Quatuor Alcan and members of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among many others. He was also a member of Trio Contrastes until 2002. His first two recordings on the Atma label were selected among Outstanding Records of the Year by Radio-Canada’s weekly record review. His third recording, a live recital of works by Martinu, Schumann, Chopin and Ravel, and his fourth recording with James Campbell and James Sommerville released on the Marquis label were also praised by critics. His latest recording of Brahms’s late solo piano works was recently released on the label Prod. XXI:21. A critique in WholeNote magazine recently said: Sylvestre masterful performance is a welcome presence in our sometimes harsh and too-technologically advanced world”. Stéphan Sylvestre is invited regularly to give master classes and conferences abroad and he has been a member of several national and international juries, including the Canadian Music Competition, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, the Glenn Gould School and the Montreal International Piano Competition. In addition to his active performing and recording schedule, Stephan Sylvestre is also Assistant Professor of Piano and head of keyboard studies at The University of Western Ontario. He is presently working on recording the works for violin and piano by Karol Szymanovski with violinist Jerzy Kaplanek, which has been supported by a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Rachel Mercer cello; Angela Park, piano

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 22:38:45 -0500

[Concert at The Music Room, 8:00 p.m. Click “venue” at the top for information]

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) Pohadkha
Gary Kulesha "... and time flowed by her like a river"*
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Sonata
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Sonata No. 1 in e minor

$25 (sr $20; st $15)
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The Mercer-Park Duo is made up of two outstanding young musicians, who are well known to us as half of the Made in Canada Piano Quartet (which will be performing for us again in May). We have heard from Rachel many, many times, as soloist and chamber musician, and from Angela in her piano quartet activities. Both are among the most prominent artists in Canada today at their respective instruments.

* (The program is slightly changed from its original version.)

Rachel Mercer
Described as a "pure chamber musician" (Globe and Mail) creating "moments of pure magic" (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has demonstrated her love for sharing music through performance since she was three years old. Winner of the 2009 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank Competition, Rachel was awarded the use of the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, until August 2012. As the grand prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel made her European debut in the Concertgebouw and has appeared as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the United States, Balkans and Israel. A member of the award-winning Aviv String Quartet from 2002-2010, Rachel toured regularly on five continents. Currently based in Toronto, Rachel is cellist of Ensemble Made In Canada, Via Salzburg, the Mercer-Park Duo, and is Artistic Director of the "5 at the First" chamber series in Hamilton. Rachel has given masterclasses at schools, conservatories and universities across North America, South Africa and in Israel. Rachel can be heard on the Naxos, Dalia Classics and EnT-T record labels.

Pianist Angela Park has established herself as one of Canada's leading young musicians. Equally accomplished in both solo and chamber music experience, Angela's versatility has led to continued success in performances across Canada, as well as in parts of the United States, Europe, Japan and Mexico.

Born in London, Ontario, Angela began her musical studies at the age of three. With the guidance of James Anagnoson, she went on to become the youngest Gold Medal winner of the Western Ontario Conservatory of Music, as well as consistent recipient of numerous awards and prizes at the Ontario Provincial Festivals, Canadian National Music Festival, and the Canadian Music Competitions.

In recent years, Angela has achieved further success at the international level, winning the grand prize at the 2001 Grace Welsh Prize for Piano in Chicago, and fifth prize at the 2003 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati. In 2006 Angela was the only Canadian representative and semifinalist prizewinner at the prestigious Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, and in 2007 she was a medallist at the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona.

Angela has performed as soloist with Orchestra London Canada, Sinfonia Toronto, Canadian Sinfonietta, UWO Symphony Orchestra, University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Northern Lights Festival Orchestra in Mexico, under the direction of conductors such as Raffi Armenian and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Solo and chamber music appearances include performances for the Steinway Society of Chicago, Montreal Pro Musica Series, Winnipeg Virtuosi, Glenn Gould Studio's OnStage and Music Around Us, Rome's Festival of the Nations, Debut Atlantic Tour and numerous others. Her live performances have been recorded and broadcast on CBC National Radio and on National Public Radio in the United States.

Angela has had the privilege of collaborating with internationally distinguished artists, including violist Rivka Golani, violinists Scott St. John and Erika Raum, flautist Susan Hoeppner, and the string members of the Gryphon Trio. She is a founding member of Made In Canada, an award-winning ensemble that received the CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Award in 2006, and was recently included in Chatelaine's 2008 anniversary list of "80 amazing Canadian women to watch".

Angela’s musical and academic education includes violin performance at the national level for ten years and studies in Biology at the University of Western Ontario. After studying with William Aide at the University of Toronto, Angela earned her Master of Music Degree in Performance with highest honours in 2003. In 2004 Angela received an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Professional Development Grant, allowing for studies in New York with Jacob Lateiner. Angela completed the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Performance at the Université de Montréal, where her studies were directed by Paul Stewart. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor (Collaborative Piano-Woodwinds) at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.