Piano
Nathan Ben-Yehuda, Piano
Nathan Ben-Yehuda has been recognized as an emerging musician of impassioned energy and integrity. He has been a prize winner at the Yamaha Young Performing Artist award and the Seattle International Piano Competition, among many others.
He has worked closely with such composers as George Lewis, Kaija Saariaho, Oliver Knussen and Thomas Ades. Nathan has held a fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in a variety of new music and chamber music groups, and took part in a complete performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux alongside pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and performed Nancarrow Studies on two pianos with composer/pianist Thomas Adès.
He has been featured in live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 “In Tune” as well as on WMHT Radio. He has appeared on Musiqu3 TV in Belgium as a competitor in the 2021 Queen Elisabeth competition. He recently was one of two pianists invited to the Taos School of Music, directed by Robert McDonald, and performed as part of their young artist chamber music series.
He is also the pianist for the Victory Players, a recently formed new music ensemble based in Holyoke, MA. Having earned degrees from Juilliard and Royal Academy of Music in London, he is now faculty at Cal Lutheran University.
Rudolfo Leone, Piano
Italian-born pianist RODOLFO LEONE is the First Prize Winner of the 15th International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna (2017). Described as “a true sound philosopher” (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten), Leone released his debut album on Gramola Records Vienna in May 2018. His playing has been described as having “impeccable style” and “absolute technical control” (Il Nuovo Amico). A 2018-19 Performance Today Young Artist in Residence, Leone’s current season includes debuts with the San Diego and Pasadena symphonies; a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Colburn Orchestra; an Austrian recital tour, culminating in a performance at the Musikverein’s Brahms-Saal; and recital and chamber music performances in Los Angeles and Florida. Leone holds a Master of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where he continues to study with Fabio Bidini as an Artist Diploma candidate.
Bevan Manson, Piano
Bevan Manson is a musical jack-of-all trades as a classical composer, arranger, and jazz pianist.
He has received composing commissions from Sierra Chamber Music, the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Philharmonic Foundation, the San Francisco Symphony, clarinetist Gary Gray, and L.A. Chamber Orchestra violist Victoria Miskolczy, among others.
His ‘California Concertino’ was premiered by Katherine Fink of the Brooklyn Philharmonic with Paul Dunkel conducting, and also performed by L.A. Chamber Orchestra flutist David Shostac with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony. It has been recorded on Albany Records with soloist Sara Andon.
He has performed with George Garzone, Cecil McBee, Gunther Schuller, Bob Sheppard, Ron Jones L.A. Big Band, Ira Sullivan, and Jimmy Guiffre, among others, as a jazz pianist, with recordings on Iris Records and Meistero Music.
Bevan has written and conducted string charts for saxophonist Gary Smulyan at New York’s Blue Note jazz club, and wrote string arrangements for Manhattan Transfer singer Cheryl Bentyne’s new Sondheim album, of which JazzTimes Magazine commented that “ a kaleidoscopic, edge-of-sanity Comedy Tonight that, courtesy of arranger Bevan Manson, blends Baroque courtliness with Big Top buffoonery.”
“Manson’s composing is brilliant, inventive, witty but never self-consciously clever.”
-RafaelMusicNotes. com (Cincinnati)
Nikolay Sivchuk - Bayan/Accordian
Nikolay Sivchuk - Bayan
Nikolay Sivchuk is a brilliant bayan (button accordion) player from Russia, talented teacher, arranger and composer, who continues the best traditions of Russian bayan school of performers. He was born in 1981 in Surgut (Russia), where he started his musical education. In his childhood Nikolay being very talented and virtuoso player is already winner of several competitions of International caliber. In 1996 Sivchuk gets the scholarship and becomes the member of the International Programme «New Names», the Charitable Foundation which helps the most gifted young musicians of Russia. Through the «New Names» Programme Nikolay meets the legendary Russian Professor Viacheslav Semionov and some years later continues the education as a student of Semionov’s class in Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. During his studies with prominent Teacher Nikolay Sivchuk becomes the laureate of the most prestigious All-Russian and International competitions. Nowadays besides his solo recitals, Nikolay collaborates with many recognised and famous performers, such as cellist Boris Andrianov, guitarist Yamandu Costa, guitarist Dimitri Illarionov, violinist Elena Revich, pianists
Vadym Kholodenko, Andrey Gugnin and others, constantly increasing the geography of his concerts.
Through intensively colourful and bright performances Nikolay Sivchuk always shows amazing capacities of bayan. Audiences enjoy Nikolay’s versatile and profound musicality with courageous and brave interpretations of modern and classical pieces, thereby discovering the young instrument in the history of classical/art music – bayan.
Bernadene Blaha, piano
Bernadene Blaha's “brilliant command of the piano”, whether featured as recitalist, concerto soloist or chamber musician, has been heralded in performances throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Mexico. Piano and Keyboard magazine has reviewed her as, “a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.” Highlights of this season include return engagements at the Piatigorsky Cello Festival, Newport Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Worcester Chamber Music Society as well as performances in Canada, France and Italy.
Originally from Canada, Ms. Blaha first came to international attention as a prizewinner in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition; the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Masterplayers International Competition, Lugano, Switzerland; and the 11th Annual International Piano Competition, New York City. This latter award resulted in two highly acclaimed recital appearances, at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. Soon afterward, Ms. Blaha was featured in the opening orchestra concert and a solo recital at the XXIX International Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Czechoslovakia, followed by performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Disney Hall in Los Angeles.
Ms. Blaha is a founding member of the piano trio Latitude 41, formed in 2009 with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano. Their debut CD of Schubert's monumental "Trio in E flat Major" and "Notturno" was released in 2011 on the Eloquentia label to rave reviews. The group followed this success with a recording of the Saint-Saëns Trios and has a forthcoming CD featuring the Brahms Trios. Ms. Blaha’s discography also includes recordings for the CBC, Centaur and Analekta labels.
Also in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and clinician, Ms. Blaha has received the National Arts Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Award. She has been invited to serve on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Artist Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Competition and the 2015 International E-Competition.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, Ms. Blaha has been a member of the Keyboard Faculty at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California since 1993 where she is a Professor.
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