UNDERWRITER
Myra Foundation
SUPPORTERS
Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, General Mills Foundation, and Land O’Lakes Foundation.
SPONSORS
Richard and Luise Beringer
Mae Marie Blackmore
Alice and David Brekke
Margaret Bundlie
Sharon Carson and Lucy Ganje
Kate Claycombe
Kim and Sue Fink
David Haberman and Cathy Williams
Nancy Hadlich
Cara Halgren and Bob Axtman
Sean Hightower
Linda Holdman
Trudy and Gordon Iseminger
Jon and Margaret Jackson
Mark Koponen
Elizabeth Legerski
Ellen McKinnon
Cathy and David Perry
Bruce Reeves
Dennis and Julie Reisnour
Laurel Reuter
Daniel and Amy Rice
Kirk and Joan Smith
Devera Warcup
Shari Weisz
Bob and Barbara White
Lois Wilde
Shana Wiley
Tom and Margaret Zidon
Karen Zimmer
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October 27, 2013
Red River Trio with Mike Wittgraf
The Red River Trio consists of Brazilian violinist, Vinicius Sant'Anna, Venezuelan cellist Fernando Vargas, and American pianist Keith Teepen who came together in 2010 while students at the University of North Dakota Music Department. Under the direction of Dr. Nariaki Sugiura, they have performed in cities in Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota, as well as toured in China and Japan. Michael Wittgraf wrote his 2013 composition, Thread, for the Trio and live electronics, which he will perform with the Trio. Wittgraf, who earned a PhD in composition from Northwestern University, served as Dayton-Hudson Distinguished Visiting Professor of Music at Carleton College. Currently he is Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Dakota. His music has been performed by many artists, including Zeitgeist, Trio Montecino, the Chiara String Quartet, the BECS Quartet of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Thursday Musical of St. Paul, the University of North Dakota Wind Ensemble, the DuQuesne Contemporary Ensemble, and Tempus Fugit.
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November 24, 2013
Rova Saxophone Quartet
The San Francisco-based Rova Saxophone Quartet is one of the longest-standing groups in the music movement that has its roots in post-bop, free jazz, avant-rock, and twentieth century new music. The group draws inspiration from the visual arts and from the traditional and popular music styles of Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. The Quartet is inspired by a broad range of musicians including Charles Ives, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varese, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, John Coltrane, Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy and Ornette Coleman. Rova began in 1978, writing new material, touring, and recording, including early collaborations with such like-minded colleagues as guitarists Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith, and saxophonist John Zorn. Expect to hear music along the lines of “Sound in Space,” a program of pieces that work beautifully in unusually resonant rooms, such as an old resonant church, art galleries like the North Dakota Museum of Art, or outdoors in a valley or in a cavern. And, as though they are outdoors, the musicians move about the gallery, surrounding the audience with sound.
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February 9, 2014
Yoonie Han
South Korean pianist Yoonie Han made her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 13, and has since performed with the Berlin Symphoniker, Buffalo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Banff Festival Orchestra, and I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milanis. In 2009, Ms. Han was honored with the Gawon Music Award as the “most brilliant pianist aged 17 to 31 of any nationality who possesses the most promising potential for global prominence.” Han is the first-prize winner of the Washington International Piano Competition (2011), the Fulbright Concerto Competition (2011), Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer Piano Competition (2008), the World Piano Competition (2008), and the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition (2005), and has garnered major prizes at the Helsinki Maj Lind International Piano Competition and Milan Concorso Pianistico Ettore Pozzoli Internaziole. Following her 2001 grand-prize award in the Korea National Music Competition, the Korean Ministry of Culture named her its “most promising young artist.” She is praised for her “flowing tones, poetic phrasing, and heavenly singing melodies” (Cincinnati Enquirer) and “her musical imagination and feel for complex textures drew vivid images” (Washington Post).
March 23, 2014
Trio Solisti
Hailed as “the most exciting piano trio in America” by The New Yorker magazine (April 2009).)¨Trio Solisti celebrated their 11th Anniversary in the 2012-2013 season. The trio is comprised of three brilliant instrumentalists—violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach and pianist Adam Neiman. One of America's most notable critics, Terry Teachout of The Wall St. Journal proclaimed, “To my mind, Trio Solisti has now succeeded the Beaux Arts Trio as the outstanding chamber-music ensemble of its kind.” Trio Solisti’s soulful and passionate performances are marked by soloistic virtuosity, electric energy, seamless ensemble playing, and thrilling abandon. Performing a broad spectrum of styles, their versatility extends to new music, most notably to the work of Paul Moravec who composed his 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Tempest Fantasy, for Trio Solisti. Their performances across the country include great masterworks of Beethoven, Chausson, Dvorak, Ravel and Mussorgsky as well as several premieres. Chamber Music Monterrey Bay in California has commissioned 2012 Pulitzer Prize winning composer Kevin Puts for a work inspired by visual artist Bill Viola to be premiered by Trio Solisti in fall 2012 with clarinetist Jon Manasse.
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April 27, 2014
Cecilia String Quartet
The Quartet was formed by violist Caitlin Boyle, Cellist Rachel Desoer, violinists Min-Jeong Koh, and Sarah Nematallah while students at the University of Toronto. Taking their name from St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, the Cecilia String Quartet continue to win praise following their 2010 First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. “With a stunning spirit of creativity that consistently celebrated risk-taking and discovery, the Cecilia Quartet impressed the distinguished jury above all others,” said the competition’s Executive Director, Barry Shiffman, when announcing the winners. European tours have taken the four Toronto-based Canadian musicians to the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal (Amsterdam), Beethoven-Haus (Bonn), Wigmore Hall (London), and venues in Italy and Belgium. The Quartet was also prizewinners at international string quartet competitions in both Osaka (2008) and Bordeaux (2010.) That year, they collaborated with the Afiara String Quartet in premièring and recording compositions by eight composers of the Common Sense Composers Collective at The Banff Centre. In 2011, they collaborated with actor and director Alon Nashman in the multimedia production The Snow Queen.
