Salon 2017-06-25 Washington Sinfonietta Fundraiser

This event raised nearly $2500 for the Orchestra. THANK YOU!!!

Sunday June 25, 2017 in Mclean:

A Fundraiser for the Washington Sinfonietta

Elgar, Bach and More

Featuring:

Myriam Teie
Stephen Czarkowski
Sunzanne Underhill
Andrew Crane
Edwina Moldover
Bill Ewing

Program:

Solo ‘Cello Suite #3 (excerpt)

-Johann Sebastian Bach

 

10 Duets for 2 Cellos, Op. 53

-Reinhold Glière

 

  Piano Quintet, Op. 84

-Sir Edward Elgar

Biographies:

“Joel is one of the best musicians around. He has a pedigree of teachers and mentors going back a long way…One of the most musically text-oriented conductors…really one of the most erudite musicians on the scene, first-rate conductor…not worried about his position…He’s sympathetic, not arrogant and simply a joy to work with…”  (Leon Fleisher)

Now in his eleventh season with the Washington Sinfonietta, acclaimed by the Washington Post as “…one of Washington’s premier conductors of both old and new music…”, Joel Lazar was Music Director of the JCC Symphony Orchestra from 1988 through 2008 and has continued with that orchestra in its new identity as the Symphony of the Potomac. He conducted the Theater Chamber Players in engagements at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and on tour from 1986 to 2003, and has appeared as guest conductor with many orchestras and contemporary music ensembles in the Washington area. During the 1990s, he was Music Director of Alexandria-based Opera Americana, and was Principal Conductor for the In Series’ opera productions from 1991 to 2011. A cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra  from 1997 to 2001, Joel Lazar shared the stage with Music Director Leonard Slatkin in critically praised and enthusiastically received performances of Ives’ Fourth Symphony in April 2001.

Music Director of the Tulsa Philharmonic from 1980 to 1983, Joel Lazar has also appeared with the orchestras of San Antonio, Louisville, Pasadena, Oklahoma City, Richmond, Harrisburg,
Wheeling and Johnstown, with Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston, and was Music Director of the Richmond Philharmonic from 1990 to 1992. During a period of European residence he conducted the BBC Philharmonic, the Danish National Orchestra, the Tivoli Orchestra and the Scottish Baroque Ensemble in concerts, broadcasts and recordings. His concerts and feature interviews have been broadcast by the BBC, Danmarks Radio, Bayerischer
Rundfunk, WCLV-FM (Cleveland, Ohio) and National Public Radio.

A native New Yorker, Joel Lazar received undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from Harvard University, where he studied with Pierre Boulez, Walter Piston and Randall Thompson. In conductors’ courses at Aspen and Tanglewood he worked with Izler Solomon, Walter Susskind, Richard Burgin and Erich Leinsdorf, and at the Shenandoah Festival with Richard Lert. From 1961 until 1971 he taught and conducted at Harvard, New York University and the University of Virginia.

In 1969 Joel Lazar was elected to honorary membership in the Bruckner Society of America. Through colleagues in the Society he met the legendary Jascha Horenstein, master interpreter of Mahler and Bruckner and, in 1971, received a fellowship enabling him to spend two years overseas as Horenstein’s personal assistant, the only young conductor ever to serve in this capacity. After Horenstein’s death in 1973, he acted as his mentor’s artistic executor, inheriting his extensive music library and completing his recording of Carl Nielsen’s opera, Saul and David, with an international cast including Boris Christoff.

Gramophone Magazine published his major retrospective article on Horenstein’s life and work in November 2000; he currently writes insert notes for the ongoing BBC Legends series of Horenstein broadcast performances, for Vox Records’ reissues of Horenstein recordings from the 1950s and for archival releases on the Music & Art and Doremi labels. Joel Lazar’s notes have appeared in the program books of concert series in Washington and New York. He is a contributor to the final volume of the late Henry-Louis de la Grange’s monumental life and works of Mahler.

(The Maestro will not be performing.)

Piano performances and master classes throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia have earned Myriam Avalos Teie critical acclaim as a soloist, chamber musician, clinician and pedagogue. At the age of three, she gave her first public performance, made her orchestra debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru at twelve, and was awarded full scholarships to the Eastman School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory.

Ms. Avalos Teie holds a Doctoral degree in Chamber Music.  She is a collaborative pianist at the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra, she  maintains a private studio in Northern Virginia, and is a faculty member and performing artist at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music Summer Festival and the Snake River Festival in Colorado.  Appearances and broadcasts include the Phillips Collection, Kennedy Center, Dumbarton Concert Series, Purcell Room in London, Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, Voice of the OAS, San Antonio Festival, WGMS Radio, Teatro Municipal de Lima and two State Department-sponsored tours of China and Brazil.  She has recorded for the MSR Classics label.

In 2004, Dr. Avalos Teie was conferred the title of Cultural Ambassador by the Government of Peru.

Stephen Czarkowski is in demand as a cellist, conductor, and educator in the Washington D.C. area and nationally.  He is the  principal cellist of Opera Camerata of Washington, Cardona Opera Company and is called upon regularly as a substitute cellist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, he is a member of Trio Illimuno and the Tryos Ensemble.

Maestro Stephen Czarkowski is the Music Director and Conductor of the Apollo Orchestra. Now going into his eighth season with the Apollo Orchestra, Maestro Czarkowski also serves as the Associate Conductor of the York Symphony Orchestra. He is the Director of Strings at the Norwood School, Music Director of the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, and conductor of the Symphonette at Landon School.

He has guest conducted Prince George’s Philharmonic, the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, Old Bridge Chamber Orchestra, Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, Symphony of the Potomac and Washington Sinfonietta. He has also guest conducted the National Symphony Orchestra through the National Conducting Institute under Leonard Slatkin.

Mr. Czarkowski has been honored to work with internationally esteemed soloists, including soprano Harolyn Blackwell, harpist Nancy Allen, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, guitarist Ana Vidovic, organist Kent Tritle and cellist Jerry Grossman.

In the fall of 2013, he was the soloist with the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra, performing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major, and in January 2014 performed the Bach Cello Suites at St. James Catholic Church in Charles Town, West Virginia. He has also performed as a Special Guest Artist with the Library of Congress Chorale, and serves as Principal Cellist of the Summer Dinner Theater Orchestra at Montgomery College. Recently he performed for Pope Francis and President Obama.
Mr. Czarkowski is currently the Director of Strings at the Norwood School, Music Director of the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra, and conductor of the Symphonette at Landon School. His students have won numerous local and statewide competitions, and hold principal chairs in area orchestras.
Mr. Czarkowski graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Graduate Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting, after receiving a full scholarship and teaching assistantship. He graduated from Mannes College with a Master of Music in cello (under Barbara Stein Mallow) and conducting (under David Hayes and Samuel Wong). Mr. Czarkowski also received his Bachelor of Music degree from Mannes College under the tutelage of Carter Brey, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic. He is a member of the Conductor’s Guild and is currently serving on the New School Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Suzanne Underhill studied violin at Indiana University in Bloomington where she had the opportunity to work with many inspirational musicians including Stephen Boe, Henryk Kowalski, and Josef Gingold. She went on to pursue a career in neuroscience research, first getting her Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis and then training as a post-doc at the University of Pittsburgh. She is now a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. While doing research, however, Dr. Underhill has maintained an active role in the music communities wherever she has lived. In St. Louis, she was a founding member of the Union Avenue Chamber Orchestra and Opera. She played with the University City Orchestra, St. Louis Philharmonic and several chamber groups throughout the region. She served as concert master of the Pittsburgh Philharmonic and the Undercroft Chamber Orchestra and Opera and was a founding member of the Three Rivers String Quartet. Dr. Underhill currently plays with the Symphony of the Potomac and serves as concert master of the Washington Sinfonietta.

Andrew Crane is Washington Sinfonietta’s Principal Violist and also plays violin. (Playing viola at this level doesn’t leave time to write a bio! Those of us who work with Andrew admire him tremendously.)

Edwina Moldover has played cello since she was nine years old. Now that she is retired from her work as a hospice nurse, she is free to spend a great deal of time playing and enjoying chamber music. She studies cello with Stephen Czarkowski

Bill Ewing plays and teaches violin and viola but spends most of his time Photoshopping as impresario for Emerson Avenue Salons and Guilford Station Arts and various websites. Bill is also pioneering electronic-music-stand and other music-related technology