Manchester Music Festival 2012 Guest Artists
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Heather Braun, violin Former MMF Young Artist April 28th, Northshire Bookstore Based in Boston, violinist Heather Braun is a member of the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, and performs regularly as concertmaster and soloist. At Emmanuel Music, she was awarded a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellowship for the 2010-2011 season. She is also an avid freelancer in the New England area, performing regularly with Cantata Singers, Back Bay Chorale, and Firebird Ensemble. Heather attended the Manchester Music Festival as a Young Artist in 2003 and 2004, and since then has performed regularly on series concerts for the MMF. As a Tanglewood Music Center fellow, she received the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize in 2005. Heather performs as the first violinist of the Arneis Quartet, which recently performed at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and Music on Main's Modulus Festival in Vancouver. |
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Benjamin Elton Capps, cello April 28th, Northshire Bookstore A native of New York City, Benjamin Capps began playing the cello at age four with Nellis DeLay at Manhattan´s School For Strings, continuing at Juilliard Pre-College with Anne Alton and modern cello guru Fred Sherry. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music in 2008, and was awarded a Master of Music Degree from Juilliard in May 2010, both under the guidance of David Soyer. He is the recipient of many awards, including the New York State Association of Music Teachers Scholarship Competition 1999; Juilliard Pre-College Symphony, Concerto Competition, 2001, the Lillian Fuchs Award, 2004, the Francis Goelet Scholarship, Juilliard 2008-2009, and the Irving Mulde Scholarship, Juilliard, 2009-10. Mr. Capps is the principal cellist of Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, a dynamic symphony orchestra founded by conductor Alondra de la Parra dedicated to performing the music of the American Continent. Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas´ double CD on Sony Classics, Mi Alma Mexicana, was released in August 2010 and recently went gold. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the Bowdoin, Schlern Int´l (Italy), Burgos Int´l (Spain), Manchester Music Festival, Summit Summer Festival, the Perlman Music Program, and the ChamberFest and FOCUS! Festivals in Lincoln Center. Mr. Capps has made numerous appearances on Manhattan´s Tactus Series, and has performed on Trinity Church´s Music at One series, and at Bargemusic, and founded the Capanglia Trio, the Sonar Players, and the New York Chamber Collective. Mr. Capps is passionate about music education and community outreach. He is a Teaching Assistant at Juilliard, a position he has held since 2009. Since 2008, he has taught in Philharmonic Orchestra of the America´s Arts and Education Program, an innovative program in partnership with the New York City Department of Education which encourages artistic creativity by introducing young public school students to the fundamentals of music composition. |
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Rachael Elliott April 28th, Northshire Bookstore Rachael Elliott (US), bassoon, is a founding member of Clogs and an active chamber musician in classical & contemporary music. Her first solo bassoon CD features works by Padma Newsome, David Lang, HyeKyung Lee and Tawnie Olson and will be released in 2011. In addition to Clogs, Rachael is a member of of Tuple bassoon duo, Heliand Trio and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. She hosts the biennial Bassoon Project weekend of workshops and concerts in Burlington, Vermont for bassoonists of all ages and levels of experience. For more information on her upcoming concerts & activities, visit www.bassoonproject.org. Rachael teaches bassoon at the University of Vermont, Middlebury College, Duke University and during the summer at Kinhaven Music School. |
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Austin Hartman
Violinist, Austin Hartman, has distinguished himself as both chamber musician and soloist with performances throughout the United States and abroad. Having served for 12 seasons as founding first violinist of the Biava Quartet, Mr. Hartman was the winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and has performed to acclaim in important venues throughout North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Baroque Art Hall in Seoul. Other highlights from recent seasons include appearances at the Mostly Mozart, Rockport and Aspen Music Festivals, Chautauqua Institution, and Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Mr. Hartman has earned much recognition as a solo violinist having appeared twice with the Philadelphia Orchestra and was awarded the Gold Medal Prize at the Stulberg International String Competition. He has recorded for the Naxos and Cedille labels and has been heard on London's BBC Radio 3. Austin Hartman has earned Artist Diplomas from both the Juilliard School and Yale School of Music as well as degrees from the New England Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music. |
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Igudesman & Joo
Aleksey Igudesman and Hyungki Joo are two classical musicians who have taken the world by storm with their unique and hilarious theatrical shows, which combine comedy with classical music and popular culture. Their clips on YouTube, to date, have gathered over 28 million hits, and the duo has appeared on television in numerous countries. Equally comfortable performing in classical concert halls, as well as in stadiums in front of crowds of 18,000, their collective dream is to make classical music accessible to a wider and younger audience. |
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Imani Winds
More than North America's premier wind quintet, Imani Winds has established itself as one of the most successful chamber music ensembles in the United States. Since 1997, the Grammy nominated quintet has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a deep commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions. |
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Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio
Since making their debut at the White House for President Carter's Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature. As one of the only chamber ensembles with all its original members, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three internationally-acclaimed soloists while making annual appearances at many of the world's major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda. |
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Caren Levine, piano
A native of New York City, Ms. Levine completed The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in the spring of 2004. Since the 2003-2004 season, she has been on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera House as Assistant Conductor. During the 2004-2005 season, Ms. Levine was Musical Director of the Outreach Program at Sarasota Opera and joined the music staff at Palm Beach Opera. This past December, she was invited to perform on the New Year's Eve Gala at the Metropolitan Opera. An active performer, Ms. Levine's collaborators include Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Charles Neidich, Peter Schickele, Susanne Mentzer, and Barbara Bonney. During her 5-year collaboration with Soprano Barbara Bonney, she performed throughout the United States, Canada and Southeast Asia at such venues as the Festival Vancouver, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Tanglewood Music Center, Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Van Cliburn Concert Series, and a live televised performance in Vietnam. As a chamber musician, Ms. Levine has been invited to perform at The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, International Chamber Music Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Banff Centre for the Arts Chamber Music Program in Alberta, Canada, Manchester Music Festival, Fontainebleau American Conservatory in France and The Aspen Music Festival. As a solo performer, Ms. Levine is a winner of the Munz-Chopin Piano Competition in Maryland and gave a recital in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the 1999 Artist's International Auditions. In addition to her numerous achievements as a classical pianist, Ms. Levine is active as a composer of jazz piano literature. In February 2001, a recording of her own piano compositions entitled Flowers from a Secret Admirer was released on Capstone Records. From 1998-2001, Ms. Levine served as Assistant Professor of Piano and Director of the Accompanying Option at California State University, Chico. She has also served on the faculty of The San Diego Chamber Music Workshop, The Musicorda Summer Chamber Music Festival, The Music Festival of the Hamptons, and, since 2003 at The Marlboro Music Festival. Ms. Levine received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Peabody Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts (a.b.d.) from The Juilliard School and has studied under, among others, Martin Canin, Samuel Sanders, Ken Noda, Lillian Freundlich, Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida. |