2009

Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival

Musicians
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PETER REJTO, CELLO has performed throughout the US and abroad in hundreds of performances as soloist and with the Los Angeles Piano Quartet of which he is a founding member. Mr. Rejto has appeared at the summer festivals of Aspen, La Jolla, Round Top, Carmel Bach, Marlboro, Fairbanks, Sitka, Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, and BRAVO! Colorado. His many honors include winning the Young Concert Artists International competition and the Debut Award of the Young Musicians Foundation, Los Angeles. He has recorded for Sony Classical, Silva Classics, Summit, Music Masters, and Pickwick.
ASHU, SAXOPHONE, was born and raised in California and Texas and began playing the saxophone at age 10. He soon began entering competitions and found himself receiving a wide range of opportunities, including his New York City Carnegie Hall recital debut and his Washington DC concerto debut at DAR Constitution Hall. Since then, performances have taken him throughout the US, Europe and Australia, with repertoire ranging from original soprano and alto saxophone works by Debussy, Villa-Lobos, and Ibert to his own arrangements of Piazzolla, Rachmaninoff, and Morricone. Miles Hoffman of NPR writes of Ashu's dynamic style: "Riveting…brilliant…pizzazz to burn!" He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in saxophone performance from Northwestern University under the guidance of saxophonist Frederick Hemke.
BERNADETTE BALKUS, PIANO, is one of Australia's most sought after pianists. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School, where she was a winner in several international piano competitions. Afterward she moved to Boston and taught at the New England Conservatory and the Longy School of Music. She returned to Australia in 1997 to direct the Australian Women's Music Festival and form a piano duo with her brother. As a core member of the Sydney Soloists and The Collective, Bernadette is a mainstay of Sydney's music scene. She performed as a soloist and in collaboration for the 2008 Aurora Festival, toured regional New South Wales for Musica Viva, and appeared at the 2008 Sydney Chamber Music Festival.
PAUL COLETTI, VIOLA, is currently Professor of Viola and head of Chamber Music at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Prior to this, he held positions at UCLA, the University of Washington, and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He has given numerous Master Classes worldwide. A prolific international performer and recording artist, Mr. Coletti spent 10 years as a founding member of the Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet and Typhoon, a group that also featured some of his compositions. Among his many awards are a Grammy Award nomination and “Best of the Year” from BBC Music Magazine. A diverse musician, Mr. Coletti has also performed jazz with the Claude Bolling Trio and has guest-conducted The New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. His most recent CD is of the Bruch Clarinet and Viola Concerto with the Hannover Radio Philharmonic.
BILLY COLLINS, NARRATOR, is a best-selling poet and Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He has achieved the rare feat of being both United States Poet Laureate (2001-03) and New York State Poet Laureate (2004-06). His collection of published works have appeared in book form and periodicals, leading to numerous awards, high critical acclaim, and broad popular appeal not seen since the career of Robert Frost. Of his public reading style, The New York Times writes: "Luring his readers into the poem with humor, Mr. Collins leads them unwittingly into deeper, more serious places, a kind of journey from the familiar to quirky to unexpected territory, sometimes tender, often profound."
GARY COOK, PERCUSSION, is Professor of Music and has been Director of Percussion Studies at The University of Arizona in Tucson since 1975. He performs as timpanist and principal percussionist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and has held similar posts with the Arizona Opera, Arizona Ballet and Flagstaff Festival Orchestras. He has traveled widely in this country, Europe, Trinidad, Bali and Chile, studying, teaching, and performing.
RICHARD HAWKINS, CLARINET, made his 1992 solo debut at the Kennedy Center with Mstislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony Orchestra. He has since appeared as soloist in concerto performances with such orchestras as the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, Colombia Philharmonic, Corpus Christi Symphony and others. He is also an active contemporary, chamber and orchestral musician, performing frequently with the Cleveland Orchestra. Since 1997, Mr. Hawkins has been an artist representative, clinician and woodwind design technician with the G. LeBlanc Corporation in addition to crafting custom clarinet mouthpieces. He is currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the Oberlin Conservatory.
ANI KAVAFIAN, VIOLIN, is in great demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has performed with virtually all of America's leading orchestras. As a chamber musician, Ms. Kavafian appears frequently as an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, touring throughout the US and Canada. She is currently a member of the daSalo String Trio with violist Barbara Wesphal and cellist Gustav Rivinius, and is in demand at numerous festivals including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, and Mostly Mozart Festival. Ms. Kavafian's list of prestigious awards includes the Avery Fisher Prize and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. She has appeared at the White House on three separate occasions and has been featured on many network and PBS television music specials. Her recordings can be heard on the Nonesuch, RCA, Columbia and Musical Heritage Society labels. Ms. Kavafian serves on the faculties of Yale and Stony Brook Universities.
JOSEPH LIN, VIOLIN, has earned broad recognition for his mature artistry. Hailed as a "master of the violin" by the Boston Globe, Mr. Lin was awarded First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in 1996 when just 17, and was named Presidential Scholar in the Arts the same year. In 1999, he became the youngest musician ever to be chosen to receive the Pro Musicus International Award. More recently, he won First Prize at the inaugural Michael Hill World Violin Competition in New Zealand, and one of the top prizes at the 2000 Hanover International Violin Competition. He appears as soloist with major orchestras and at major festivals, and tours with Musicians from Marlboro. Mr. Lin graduated from the Juilliard's Pre-College Division and from Harvard, where he studied with Lynn Chang. In 2004 he studied Chinese music as a Fulbright scholar and in 2005 began an annual Chamber Music Workshop at the China Conservatory in Beijing. He is also a founding member of the Formosa String Quartet, which won first prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. Mr. Lin is Assistant Professor of Violin at Cornell.
ANTONIO LYSY, CELLO, has achieved international stature, performing as soloist in major international concert halls, including the Royal Festival Hall, the Concertgebouw, the Tonhalle, Wigmore Hall, Sala Verdi, Berlin Philharmonie, among others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sandor Vegh and Kees Bakels. Recent engagements include recitals, chamber music collaborations and summer festivals in the US, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal and Canada. He is Musical Director and founder of the annual Incontri in Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy, now in its 19th season. Mr. Lysy has received critical acclaim for recordings with international radio networks and the Claves, Dinemec Classics, Fonè, and Pelléas labels. In addition to his concert career, he was a Professor at McGill University in Montreal and visiting Professor at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland. Since 2003 he has been a Professor at UCLA.
DOMINIK MAICAN, COMPOSER, was born in Germany and raised in Maryland, the child of professional musicians. Just 20 years old, he has been composing since age 5 and attended Juilliard's Pre-College Division on scholarship for 6 years. In that period he studied composition with Milton Babbit and Karlheinz Stockhausen and conducting with Maestro Arie van Beek. He has received more than 45 international awards and honors for his work, including top honors at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory's Competition for Young Composers, Italy's Cultural Music Association International Competition for Solo Instrument, the Juilliard School of Music's Annual Competition for Young Composers, and the New York Art Ensemble's 2007 Composer Competition. Mr. Maican writes for orchestra, mixed and string chamber ensembles, piano solo, choral, and vocalists, and was recently named Composer in Residence at Dumbarton Concerts on a four-year fellowship. Of his first commission there for the Borromeo String Quartet, The Washington Post wrote, "It is not an exaggeration to say he has everything." He is currently studying math and sciences at Indiana University.
JOHN MILBAUER, PIANO, is on the faculty of the University of Arizona School of Music with a performance and recording schedule that takes him across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. He has been a frequent guest at music festivals such as the Banff Centre, Chautauqua Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Escuela Moderna in Chile, among others. Significant prizes and awards have come from the Institute for International Education, Hungarian Ministry of Culture, Banff Centre, Fulbright Program, and Juilliard. An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, he was a prizewinner in the 2006 Orleans Concours for piano music of the 20th century, and has premiered many works by living composers. He was educated at Harvard, the Eastman School, Juilliard, the Liszt Academy, and the Manhattan School of Music.
VOLKAN ORHON, BASS, is acclaimed for his musicality and virtuosity as one of the top double bassists in the world today. Awards include finalist and prizewinner in the Concert Artists Guild Solo Competition, co-first place winner of the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, and the grand prize at the American String Teacher’s Association Solo Competition. Mr. Orhon has performed with internationally recognized musicians and has been a soloist with symphonies and performed in chamber festivals in the US and Europe. Born and raised in Turkey, he began playing the double bass at the age of 12 and later came to the US to continue his studies with Gary Karr at The Hartt School of Music, where he earned an Artist Diploma and Master of Music. Mr. Orhon is currently Assistant Professor of double bass at the University of Iowa and principal double bass in the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra. He is a D’Addario Diamond Performing Artist.
JORGE OSORIO, PIANO, has been internationally acclaimed for his superb musicianship and command of the instrument. Born in Mexico, Mr. Osorio began his musical studies at the age of five and studied at the conservatories of Mexico, Paris and Moscow. He has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras of North America, Europe, Asia and South America under the batons of such acclaimed conductors as Bernard Haitnik, Lorin Maazel, Klaus Tennstedt, Lukas Foss, and Enrique Batiz, among others. He has made radio recordings for Japan's NHK, Belgian Radio, and the BBC. Mr. Osorio's extensive discography includes a variety of repertoire, with Gramophone hailing a recent recording as "one of the most distinguished discs of Brahms in recent years." In addition to having served as Artistic Director of the Brahms Music Festival in Mexico, he has performed with the Moscow Quartet and Tel Aviv Quartet. He is the recipient of several international prizes and awards, including the Rhode Island International Master Piano Competition and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Gina Bachauer Award.
THE PACIFICA QUARTET is recognized for its virtuosity, exuberance, and often daring repertory choices. Since the group formed in 1994, the ensemble has swept top prizes in several leading international competitions, from the Cleveland Quartet Award to the Naumburg. In 2006, the Pacifica was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant - only the second chamber music ensemble ever selected. Each season, the ensemble can be heard on many prominent radio broadcasts, including Chicago's WFMT, Boston's WGBH, and NPR shows. Prolific in the recording studio, the quartet released compilations from composers as diverse as Elliott Carter, Felix Mendelssohn, Dvorak, and Easley Blackwood. The Pacifica Quartet now serves as Faculty Quartet in Residence at the University of Illinois. They are also resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School in Boston. Members include: Simin Ganatra, Violin, has been described by critics as an "excellent and unique violinist" and heralded for "creating a miraculous sense of flow and other worldly beauty." A winner of numerous individual prizes and awards, she is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she was concertmaster of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra and recipient of the Louis Kaufman Prize for outstanding performance in chamber music. Sibbi Bernhardsson, Violin, began his violin studies at age five in Iceland. He has received several awards and prizes, including the Icelandic Lindar Award. A graduate of the Reykjavik College of Music, Mr. Bernhardsson also earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he was elected to the Honorary Society, and a Master of Music degree from Northern Illinois University. He has served as Visiting Professor at the Oberlin Conservatory. Masumi Per Rostad, Viola, has been heralded by New York Magazine and has distinguished himself with numerous prizes and awards. Rostad was winner of the Bronx Arts Ensemble's Young Artist Competition Grand Prize and the Lillian Fuchs Award for outstanding graduating violist at the Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. He has performed concertos with the Mozart Players Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall and as a member of the International Sejong Soloists and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. Brandon Vamos, Cello has performed solo and chamber music recitals both in the US and abroad to critical acclaim. Praised by critics as a "first-rate cellist" who plays with "gutsy bravura," Vamos has appeared as soloist with several orchestras worldwide. Vamos has collaborated with many distinguished artists, including Paul Katz, Michael Tree, Rachel Barton, and the St. Lawrence Quartet. He earned a Bachelor of Music Degree at the Eastman School and a Master of Music Degree from Yale University.
JAMES REEL, COMMENTATOR, is a freelance journalist and critic. He contributes regularly to Fanfare, Strings, All Music Guide and the Tucson Weekly. His work has also appeared in such publications as Salon.com and the National Catholic Reporter. He has previously toiled as editor of the Tucson Weekly, arts editor of the Arizona Daily Star and music director of KUAT Radio. He has written program notes for Arthur Weisberg's Ensemble 21 and liner notes for New World Records, Koch International Classics and Musical Heritage Society. His books include The Timid Soul's Guide to Classical Music.
EDWARD REID, TRUMPET, is Associate Professor of Trumpet at the University of Arizona, coordinating the Wind and Percussion Department in the School of Music. He is the recipient of the School's Music's Maestro Award and the Charles & Irene Putnam Excellence in Teaching Award. Mr. Reid also performs, lectures, and presents Master Classes extensively, and was the first non-Chinese citizen to perform as guest soloist with The People's Liberation Army Central Band at Beijing University. He holds the title of Principal Trumpet of the Tucson Symphony and has been a member of that orchestra since 1987, in addition to having performed with, among others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival Orchestra in Germany. He received his Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music.
THOMAS SCHUTTENHELM, COMPOSER, received his Doctorate in Composition and Guitar Performance from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. His extensive compositions for guitar, piano, and strings can be heard on numerous recordings and have been performed internationally by soloists, ensembles, orchestras, and by the composer himself on guitar and balalaika. He is currently a composer and performing member of the Boston Public Works Contemporary Music Series held at Harvard University. As a scholar, Mr. Schuttenhelm has published several articles on the history and performance of guitar in Soundboard. He currently teaches at Central Connecticut State and received a 2007 Fulbright Grant to further his UK-based research on Michael Tippet, performing his music, and completing commissions.