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| EASTMAN IN GENEVA: SUMMER '05 | SUMMER '04 |
| EVENTS '04: July 2: Kaler & Kuznetsov | July 7: Kodzas | July 22: World Music | July 27: Kim & Lupynis | July 29: Mozart Requiem | August 4: Piano Laureates | August 17: Mihailovich |
Since 1994, Ms. Kaler has performed with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra every summer. She continues giving recitals and chamber music concerts, having shared the stage with musicians like Steven Doane, Janos Starker, Paul Katz, Martha Katz, James Dunham, Eli Eban, and Ilya Kaler.
Alla Kuznetsov received her musical training in Minsk, Belarus (in the former Soviet Union), where she graduated from the Conservatory and became a laureate of the Republican Piano Performers Competition. In her native country, Alla has performed as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, and was a member of the faculty of the Minsk Central Music School. Alla immigrated to the United States in 1990. Since 1992 she has been a member of the piano faculty of the Community Education Division of the Eastman School of Music. She joined the Nazareth College Preparatory Division in the fall of 2001. Alla is a very active and respected performer in Rochester, where she has appeared in the Eastman School Summer Concert Series, Eastman at Washington Square, the Christ Clarion Chamber Series, the Salem Concert Series, the Fortissimo! concert series, and the largely Ludwig Chamber Music series. Her students have won prizes in several competitions, both local and national, and have appeared in performances with local orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic.
Mr. Kodzas is a graduate of University of Belgrade (Belgrade, Yugoslavia), Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY), and University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music (Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature). He had participated in several international competitions, including the Guitar Foundation of America Guitar Competition and the distinguished Walter W. Naumburg Competition in New York City. He is the prizewinner in Orpheus Competition.
Mr. Kodzas' repertoire spans centuries and styles. Fascinated by the beauty of various musical epochs his programs are often focused on one theme viewed in the light of different composers.
Mr. Kodzas served on faculty at Ithaca College, Hochstein Music School and Nazareth College. He is a faculty member at Eastman School of Music.
The headliner for this year's concert is legendary blues performer Joe Beard of Rochester.
Beard plays traditional Mississippi influenced blues, and is receiving national and
international acclaim for his artistry in this most-American of musics.
Growing up in Ashland, Mississippi during the 1940s, Beard hung out with Matt Murphy and his
brother Floyd, who also went on to notoriety on the Chicago scene and lived with Beard's
family for a time. In those days, Beard says, the Murphy boys were playing music,
but it didn't interest him.
"I always liked Jimmy Reed, and B.B. King too," Beard says. "It was a long time before I got into BB King. I knew him from back in 1949; I listened to him a lot back at that time. He used to play the club two blocks away from where I lived every Monday night . . . but [then] I was not interested in playing the guitar."
A few years later, Beard picked up the bass guitar and played R & B ("James Brown" stuff, I could play it all") with Johnny Ellison, the soul man who penned the classic "Some Kind of Wonderful." The guitar came later, and many more years would pass before he performed publicly playing lead guitar, but he was taking lessons, learning from the same man who taught Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters the blues: Son House, who happened to live next door when Beard moved to Rochester. Son House not only showed Beard the ropes, but also passed on the oral history of Delta blues, of which he was a founder. Beard listened to his stories about Willie Brown, Charley Patton, and of course, Robert Johnson. "He used to go on and on," Beard says. "But I didn't know who Son House was. I never knew what Son House was all about. He had told me all those stories before they came along and rediscovered him."
Bayou Highway is a dynamic, high energy musical duo that specializes in
the traditional Cajun dance music of Southwest Louisiana. This new duo has been playing
for the past year in clubs and for summer concerts and festivals. Previously, Susi Mills
played fiddle for 10 years with the Cajun band Cri du Bayou. Tom Gath played
guitar with The band Muddy Dove for 15 years, creating a devoted
following of dancers and revelers that follow their music.
Now together in Bayou Highway, Tom's driving rhythm guitar lays down the solid foundation for Susi's fiddle leads and sweet French vocals, filled with the passion, sorrow and joy that this music evokes. Susi learned her high energy fiddle style straight from the Cajun masters during her many visits to Southwest Louisiana, which is now their second home.
It seems impossible that two people could put out this much musical energy,
but their stage presence and happy feet music quickly has toes a tappin',
folks on their feet, and smiles all around!
Also featured is Celtic harpist Roxanne Ziegler, a specialist
in the poignant slow airs and lively dance tunes of Scotland and Ireland.
Roxanne Ziegler studied harp with Eileen Malone at the Eastman School of Music and
with Lily Laskine in Paris, France. Roxanne also holds a degree in music performance
from Nazareth College.
She plays pedal and folk harps, the latter including nylon- and wire-strung instruments. In addition to classical and popular sources, Roxanne draws much of her extensive, melodic repertoire from Celtic and other folk music. She has numerous recordings to her credit, including her two most recent, the solo collections "Romantic Favorites" and "Christmas Favorites," on the Sampler Records label.
Mitzie Collins, internationally recognized as a virtuoso player on the hammered dulcimer,
will be joining her for medleys of jigs, reels and hornpipes. Collins and Ziegler's
popular recording "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning" displays the interweaving of the mellow
tones of the harp and the long ringing sounds of the hammered dulcimer that audiences find
fascinating.
Jim Kimball is a folk instrumentalist extraordinaire. Jim Kimball teaches music history,
world music and folklore, and directs the
Geneseo String Band at the School of Performing Arts at State University of New York at Geneseo.
He frequently
lectures and presents papers on many musical subjects.
Kimball will add his talents to
the evening on button acccordion, jews harp, fiddle, bones and banjo.
Kimball is legendary for his enthusiasm and knowledge of local New York State
music and always brings a special touch of local connection to a concert.
He performs regularly at
the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown and is a member of the Flint Hill Folk at Genesee Country
Museum in Mumford.
Pianist Irina Lupynis received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Belarus National Conservatory in Minsk and her Masters Degree from the L'Viv National Conservatory in the Ukraine. She has worked as a teacher and accompanist in a special music school for gifted children in L'Viv. Irina moved to Rochester in 1995 and is presently a performing artist and staff accompanist on the Community Education Division faculty at the Eastman School of Music. She has collaborated with numerous students and professionals throughout the Rochester area, appearing on concert series around Western New York.
| Join in this unique opportunity to sing a great choral masterpiece! The audience is the chorus for this informal performance with professional soloists. All singers are welcome, no experience necessary. Scores will be provided. |
Elizabeth Phillips' versatile repertoire ranges from early music to
contemporary opera and even country western! In addition to numerous
solo recitals, she has sung many operatic roles, including Lucia in
Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Tiresias in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de
Tiresias, Despina in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, and Woman with a Cake
Box in Argento's Postcards from Morocco. Her early music credits
include the roles of Venere in Monteverdi's Un Ballo del'Ingrate, and
the title role in Handel's The Choice of Hercules at the Rutgers
Athenaeum for Early Music under the direction of Julianne Baird. Ms.
Phillips appears as soloist for various performing groups in the
western New York area and has been a featured soloist for The Britt
Music Festival in Medford, OR and the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra. Her versatile style is also evident in her work with the a
cappella trio, F'loom, which performs throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada. Ms. Phillips has been section leader/soloist at the Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word under the direction of James E. Bobb
since 1996. She teaches speech and voice and has given Master Classes
in vocal performance and dramatic presentation. Ms. Phillips earned
the degree Bachelor of Music at the Eastman School of Music where she
was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate in Voice. She
resides in Pittsford, NY with her husband and daughters.
Allyn Van Dusen, mezzo-soprano, is a versatile professional who has appeared as soloist
with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio
Society, Eastman-Rochester Chorus, Penfield Symphony Orchestra, Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra,
and many other orchestras and choruses, to critical acclaim. Allyn has been a sought-out
performer, teacher and adjudicator in all genres of classical, theatrical and sacred song
for many years, delighting audiences throughout the Northeast with song recitals, Broadway
revues, world premieres, operatic roles, chamber music performances, and sacred services.
Holder of a Master of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of
Music, she co-directed the innovative Fortissimo! Chamber Music Series for several seasons,
and is a founder of the Rochester Vocal Arts Collaborative. She won the Audience Prize in
CyberSing 2002, a global internet-based art song competition, and has two solo CDs released by
SongBurst Recordings.
A lyric tenor, Kyung Min (Kevin) Park, was born in Seoul, South Korea, where he received considerable
training in sacred choral music. After moving to the United States in 1998, he began vocal
study with a world renouned coach and acocmpanist, Thomas Hrynkiw. Then he came to the
Eastman School of Music to continue his musical studies. Operatic experiences include:
Chevalier la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites and Elder Hayes in Susannah for the
Eastman Opera Theatre. He has performed numerous oratorios and recitals in the region.
He is tenor soloist at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester and a faculty intern at
Eastman Summer Community Education program. Park currently studies voice with Dr. Robert
McIver, chairman of the voice and opera department, at Eastman.
Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Eric Trumpowsky received his Bachelor
of Music degree from the Crane School of Music at Potsdam, where he studied voice
and music education. He received the Olive Dillenbeck Goodrich Memorial Award as the
school's foremost voice student. He also earned a Masters Degree from Stetson University.
He has performed as a baritone soloist with the Eastman-Rochester Chorus, in such diverse
pieces as Benjamin Britten's Cantata Academica, Joseph Haydn's The Seasons, and Karol Szymanowski's
Stabat Mater. He is a frequent soloist for the Eastman-Rochester Chorus Summer
Sings Program, most recently performing Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony.
He has also sung with Rochester Oratorio Society, The Gregory Kunde Chorale, and
numerous church choirs in the area.
Before becoming the music director of the Irondequoit Chorale,
Mr. Trumpowsky was the choir director at Salem United Church of Christ,
the Music Director of the Henrietta Community Chorale, and the Director of Music at
John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Henrietta. A career music educator, he has taught
music in the East Irondequoit School District for over 10 years, focusing specifically
on music education for young students.
Meg Cognetta Heaton and Hilda Lam Collins have been performing as duo-pianists
in the Finger Lakes area for the past twenty years. Both pianists are active as
collaborators and accompanists for various local artists and groups, and are members
of Geneva's Tuesday Quartette, an ensemble devoted to music performed by four pianists
at two pianos. They have been duo-piano soloists with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra,
and each has also been soloist with the Finger Lakes Symphony. Meg received her music
degree from Oberlin Conservatory, and Hilda holds degrees from Oberlin College and
University of Rochester.
Xin Jia, an 18-year-old pianist from Shenyang, China, took first prize in the seventh annual
Eastman School of Music Young Artists International Piano Competition late last summer.
Jia, who performed the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor,
Opus 23. He received a scholarship to attend the Eastman School. The competition is directed
by Douglas Humpherys, co-chair of the Eastman piano department. (Photo: Gelfand-Piper Photography)
Born in 1984, Christopher Mokrzewski began his musical studies at the age of
four. From the age of ten he studied with Raymond Vacchino and Paul Coates
at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. In 1998 he was invited by the
eminent Polish composer and pianist Milosz Magin to study in Paris, France.
He returned to North America the next year, following the unfortunate death
of Mister Magin and has, since then, studied with Douglas Humpherys at the
Eastman School of Music. He shall graduate with a bachelor degree in
performance in 2005.
Mokrzewski was the first prize winner of the 1999 Eastman School of Music Internation Young Artists Competition and has also been awarded first prizes at the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition and the Canadian Music Competition. He has also attained prizes at the MTNA competitions and the Empire State Music Competition. When not consumed by his academic pursuits at Eastman, Christopher thoroughly enjoys collaborative music-making, and devotes much time to the reading of works by his favorite author James Joyce. When not atending school, he resides with his family in Canada.
His program for the evening is:
Ms. Mihailovich's recent recordings include : Anton Rubinstein Works for Piano (1995), F. Chopin Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3, Polonaise (1996), S. Rachmaninov 2nd Piano Concerto & C. Franck Symphonic Variations (1998), W.A. Mozart Piano Sonatas K.282, K331, K333 (1999), S. Rachmaninov 2nd Sonata, Six Musical Moments Op. 16, Preludes (2000), J. S. Bach Partita No2, W.A. Mozart Piano Sonata in A major, J. Brahms Intermezzo Op. 177 (No1) and Rhapsody in G Minor Op. 79 (No2) (2001).
This series is made possible, in part, by funds from the
New York State
Council on the Arts, a State Agency, by a continuing subscription from
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the friends of
Geneva Concerts.
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