23-24 CSO Chamber Nucleus Concert Series

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PROGRAM Duet

Steve Reich

Marie Krejcar, solo violin I Raymond Leung, solo violin II CSO Nucleus Strings John Fedor, conductor

Oboe Quartet in F Major, K. 370

W.A. Mozart

I. Allegro Stephanie Wong, oboe Frank Ho, violin Darrell Soetaert, viola Julia Darby, cello

Serenade Op. 68

Joseph Kuffner

Svitlana Remniakova, violin Renee Perez Rodriguez, guitar

Concerto a 3 in F Major, TWV 42:F14

G.Ph. Telemann

I. Concerto II. Loure III. Tempo di minuet Rock Larochelle, flute Ross McLean, French horn Charlotte Rekken, harpsichord

Trio Sonata No. 3 in G minor Stephanie Wong, oboe Raymond Leung, violin Katarina Loutas, cello Jenna Kragt, harpsichord I. Mesto II. Andante - Largo - Andante

G.Ph. Telemann

"Romance" from Miniatures

Frank Bridge

Raymond Leung, violin Katarina Loutas, cello Rron Delos Santos, piano

“Nimrod” from Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, "Enigma" (arr. Gwyn Seymour)

Edward Elgar

CSO Cello Ensemble John Fedor Ryan Hoffman Katarina Loutas Sharon Toronchuk Julia Darby Oksana Fonya

Melodia Sentimental

Heitor Villa-Lobos

Laura Mackay, soprano Danielle Lisboa, piano

Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas I. Verano Porteño (Summer) II. Otoño porteño (Fall) Danielle Lisboa, piano Marie Krejcar, violin Ryan Hoffman, cello

Astor Piazzolla

CSO NUCLEUS STRINGS VIOLIN I Frank Ho Arwen Bylsma Svitlana Remniakova Karin Bassani Rebekah Ney VIOLIN II Song Gee Lydia Yu VIOLA Darrell Soetaert Anna Schultz Joe Depuis Alan Dunn CELLO Ryan Hoffman Katarina Loutas Sharon Toronchuk Julia Darby Oksana Fonya BASS Dante Wright

THIS EVENING’S PERFORMERS Danielle Lisboa, piano Brazilian-born Danielle Lisboa leads an active career as an orchestral conductor, music educator and scholar, regularly conducting community and professional ensembles. Lisboa holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Eastman School of Music University of Rochester.

On arriving in Canada in 2008, she became Orchestra Toronto’s first apprentice conductor, was named assistant conductor two months later and shortly after was appointed the orchestra’s music director and conductor.

During her tenure , Lisboa became known for her cutting-edge programming and public engagement. Her vision and dynamic leadership took Orchestra Toronto into new paths for outreach and youth initiatives, including the Marta Hidy Concerto Competition and the popular annual children’s concerts. Two years later she led Bellus Barbari, the Toronto Women’s Symphony Orchestra, in its inaugural Ontario tour.

Lisboa moved to Edmonton in 2013 to serve as associate professor of music at Concordia University of Edmonton in the areas of conducting and music theory. Lisboa is former music director and co-founder of the Edmonton Metropolitan Orchestra and continues to maintain an active presence in the community with the Edmonton Philharmonic Orchestra in outreach concerts to local continuing care hospitals and schools as well as in guest-conducting engagements with the Edmonton Metropolitan Chorus.

Her current research interests encompass topics of women and leadership on the orchestral podium and analysis and transcription of sacred rituals of native peoples of Brazil with recent partnerships and publications in Portugal and Brazil. Lisboa reinstated the Concordia Symphony Orchestra as a new ensemble in fall of 2017. She spearheaded Concordia’s first operatic project, developed a summer string camp for youth, and a provincial concerto competition. Most recently, she led the Orchestral Training and Leadership workshop to mentor young conductors and orchestral players into leadership roles.

Frank Ho, violin Violinist FRANK HO enjoys a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, soloist, and pedagogue. He holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Alberta, as well as a Certificate in Performance and a Master of Music degree from Yale University.

His principal teachers were Evan Verchomin and James Keene (Alberta College Conservatory in Edmonton ); Sidney Harth and Erick Friedman (Yale School of Music ); and Yfrah Neaman in (Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England). He has participated in masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Franco Gulli, Steven Staryk, Gyorgy Pauk, and Jaap Schroder.

His performing career as soloist and chamber musician has taken him across three continents.

Highlights include concerts at prestigious venues such the Royal Festival Hall and the Purcell Room in London; Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York City; and numerous campuses and concert series in western Canada. Many of his concerts have been featured on the CBC. Mr. Ho was the director of the Strathcona Conservatory of Music in Edmonton from 2005 to 2010, where he also maintained a private studio. He is currently a faculty member of the MacEwan University Conservatory of Music and sessional violin instructor at King’s University College, as well as a much sought-after private instructor. His students have been prizewinners in local, provincial, and national competitions in Canada, and many have been accepted to institutions such as the McGill Schulich School of Music, the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta, and the University of Ottawa. Mr. Ho is an active adjudicator at music festivals across the country and has been a member of the College of Examiners for the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto since 2006.

Mr. Ho makes his home in Edmonton with his wife and three children. He currently performs on a violin by Toronto maker John Newton, and a bow by Canadian maker Reid Hudson.

Marie Krejcar, violin Born into a musical family, Marie only developed an interest in music at age 10 when she picked up the violin and fell in love. Along with participating in a small community orchestra, Marie also played chamber music with her siblings. Coming from a small town in Northern Alberta, violin lessons were not always available in the region but with the help of community, online violin lessons, music teachers, and self-teaching, Marie was invited to perform for the Lieutenant Governor General of Alberta, Pinchas Zukerman, and the NACO during their Canadian tour of 2002. In her teens, Marie moved to the Czech Republic where she lived with her grandparents and studied for several years at the music conservatory in Ceske Budejovice under Tuula-Sivula Vacek.

Returning to Canada, Marie received her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Alberta in 2012, studying under Guillaume Tardif. During this time Marie also worked as a violin instructor and a substitute violinist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating, Marie continued to be an active performer, teacher, and substitute violinist before moving to Ottawa with her husband. Once more in Edmonton, Marie works as a legal assistant in the health law sector as well as continuing to work as a substitute violinist with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, the Stringbeans Quartet, and other ensembles throughout the Edmonton region and Alberta.

John Fedor, cello Born in Edmonton, John Fedor began his cello studies at the age of ten with Josephine van Lier. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Alberta in 2010, under the direction of cellist Tanya Prochazka. From 2009-10, John performed as a member of the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, studying under Katinka Kleijn of the Chicago Symphony, and Ariel Barnes, principal cello of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. John also completed the Symphony

Orchestra

Academy

of

the

Pacific

conductors program in 2010 and 2011 under the direction of Arthur Arnold of the Netherlands. John is also a current member of the Wild Rose String Quartet, established in 2008. From 2008-12, he worked with the Edmonton Public school board Music Enrichment Program as an instructor and conductor. John also spent 9 years as director and conductor for the St. Martin Children's String Society in Edmonton. In 2014, John received his Bachelor of Education Degree from the University of Alberta. Since then, he is currently employed with the Edmonton Public School Board as an Elementary Music Specialist.

Doug Ridgway, bassoon Doug started bassoon in junior high school in order to join the orchestra and learn what all those keys did. He studied with John Cambell in Los Angeles and Matt Howatt in Edmonton. He has performed with the Concordia Symphony, Nova Musica, Edmonton

Philharmonic,

Wye

Strings,

the

Edmonton Mozart Festival, and the University Symphony Orchestra. The photo is from his performance of the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with Nova Musica in 2011. He is a scientist, consultant, husband, and father of two.

Darrell Soetaert, viola Born in rural central Alberta Darrell grew up in a very musical family and community. He began playing the violin at the age of twelve after receiving his first instrument. While growing up Darrell studied the flute in junior high band and began playing the piano. His violin teachers have included Leona Wood, Jennifer Bustin, and Guillaume Tardif. He has continued to stay involved in his boyhood community by playing for such theatrical productions as 'Mary's Veil,' 'Lost Apostle', and 'The Park Bench.’

Darrell graduated with his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Alberta. While attending school Darrell received the Jason Lang Memorial Scholarship, Beryl Barnes Memorial Award, Dale Macmillan Memorial Scholarship, Tony Lefebvre Memorial Scholarship, and the Woodgrove Unifarm Local Scholarship. He studied violin in his first two years with Guillaume Tardif and then with a leap of faith picked up a viola and began studying with Aaron Au and Charles Pilon.

Darrell has played in the University Symphony Orchestra, Academy Strings Orchestra, and Edmonton Pops Orchestra. He maintains a busy teaching and performing schedule in the Edmonton area and permanently occupies the viola chair in the Wild Rose Quartet, which he founded in 2008.

Katarina Loutas, cello Katarina’s love for the cello began when she was a small girl. Her grandmother Klara would sometimes sit in the dining room with her cello and play. The emotion and resonance of the instrument went directly to Katarina’s heart and created a lifelong love for the instrument. She is proud to have inherited that very cello, which she enjoys playing at concerts. Katarina began her studies at age 12 in Grimsby, Ontario, with an extra-curricular orchestra group. Upon moving to Alberta in her teenage years, she studied under Victor Pipkin, a long-standing cellist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Her studies paused while she attended university, had a family, and sang in and volunteered on the Executive Board for Sine Nomine Choir, a choir for Concordia University Concert Choir alumni singers. She picked up her cello again after the choir project ended, by joining Nova Musica Community Orchestra in Edmonton, and then later joining the Concordia Symphony Orchestra in 2018. During this time, she resumed studying the cello, under the guidance of Ronda Metszies, a cellist with the ESO, the Obsessions Octet, and the Alberta Baroque Ensemble. She also enjoys attending ESO veterans Richard and Gillian Caldwell’s TEMPO workshops every summer.

Katarina is completing her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Alberta this year.

She is an on-call Probation Officer with the Alberta Department of Public Safety and Emergency Services. She enjoys making einkorn sourdough bread (or doughnuts, or cinnamon rolls) every weekend and has four amazing boys and an incredible partner, all with excellent appetites.

Rron Delos Santos, piano Rron was born into a musical family, where he began singing and later devoted himself to the study of the piano and composition. His career efforts are focused on composing, where he enjoys learning and integrating the psychology behind the perception of music to his own musical output.

Julia Dolman, cello Born in St. Albert, Julia began playing cello at age 6.

She grew up in a house filled with music and started playing chamber music with her three sisters at an early age. She studied with Grazyna Sobieraj and Diana Nuttall and was an active member of the Edmonton Youth Orchestra and the Kamara Quartet.

Julia received her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Alberta in 2011, under the direction of cellist

Tanya

Prochazka.

During

this

time,

she

discovered a new passion for music history and continued her studies with a Master of Arts in Musicology at the University of Toronto, with research focusing on music in fiction literature and gender representation in contemporary string quartet performance. After graduating in 2013, she returned to Edmonton and began a career as an administrator in the arts and heritage sector. In addition to her day job supporting the not-for-profit sector as a Community Grants Coordinator with the Government of Alberta, she is an active freelance cellist and mother to two young girls.

Rock Larochelle, flute Rock, originally from St. Paul, Alta., has taught in Francophone and immersion schools for 30 years.

He now works part-time as an educational consultant. As well as being a flutist with the Concordia Symphony Orchestra, he is also one of the founders of the Opus@12 Chamber Concert Society, which offers free concerts in the rotunda of La Cité Francophone. Rock has been studying for the past 17 years with Elizabeth Koch (principal flutist of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra) and also had the opportunity to study with Sir James Galway in Switzerland in 1990 and 2013. He is married to Sharon Toronchuk (cellist) and they have a daughter, Caroline (pianist and mezzosoprano), in addition to their well-rounded tenor cat Luigi.

Stephanie Wong, Oboe Stephanie is a third-year music student at CUE. She is an oboist, pianist and harpsichordist, specializing in early winds. She started playing the oboe during her former life as a research scientist and later took up the baroque oboe, before finally deciding to pursue a career in music. Stephanie is principal oboe in Concordia Symphony Orchestra and is an active chamber musician. She is vice-president of Opus@12 Chamber Concert Society and is in a number of ensembles, including Convivencia Canadá. She is recipient of the NSERC CGS Scholarship and has publications in the Journal of Chemical Physics and Chemical Physics Letters.

Ross McLean, French Horn Ross is a pathologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and father of five children. He has played with the Calgary and Edmonton youth orchestras, Concordia Orchestra in Montreal and has played professionally

as

assistant

to

the

Calgary

Philharmonic horn section (1977-78) and the Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show. He recently performed with the World Doctors Orchestra as principal and second horn in Dubai, Paris and Houston. He continues to develop an interest in historical performance by learning how to play antique horns.

Reneé Pérez, guitar Reneé Pérez is a classical guitarist, graduating from the University of Alberta in guitar performance. He is an active solo and chamber musician and teacher.

His musical interests include early music, as a performer on theorbo, archlute and baroque guitar. Reneé has toured Houston and northern Portugal as a soloist and chamber musician, and has played the Fasch D minor concerto with several string quartets and Venezuelan orchestras belonging to “El Sistema”.

He was featured as an emerging solo artist by the Calgary Classical Guitar Society. He is currently finishing a Performance Certificate at Kings University and is President of the Edmonton Classical Guitar Society.

Svitlana Remniakova, violin Svitlana Remniakova-Ostrovska, a distinguished professional violinist hailing from Ukraine, is a luminary in the realm of classical music. Her educational journey culminated in a Diploma of Music with an excellent value from the P. I. Tchaikovsky State Music Conservatory in Kyiv, Ukraine. Svitlana's extensive work experience spans continents, having worked in the symphony orchestras of Dniepropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Cairo, including engagements with orchestras and quartets in Berlin, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, China, Oman, Libya, and Jordan.

Since relocating to Canada in August 2019, Svitlana has become a notable figure in the Canadian music scene, contributing to both performance and education. She is associated with institutions like Concordia Symphony Orchestra, Windermere Music Academy, and Innovations Music School, where her students have achieved distinction, winning international competitions in Slovenia, London, and Vienna. Notably, Svitlana is a co-organizer of the International String Connections Festival & Conference in Edmonton since 2020 and currently serves as the President of the Alberta String Association, exemplifying her commitment to fostering musical excellence and community engagement.

Laura Mackay, soprano Coloratura-soprano Laura Mackay earned her Bachelor of Music at the University of Western Ontario, and received her Master of Music in Voice Performance at James Madisen University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

She has appeared in operatic productions and concerts throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Some past performances include Giannetta in Elisir d’Amore, The Sandman/Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, and Merab in Saul, all with Grande Prairie Opera, Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zenobia in Radamisto, both with Accademia Europea dell’Opera in Lucca, Italy, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, both with JMUOpera Theater, as well as Nella in Gianni Schicchi with Luray Opera Theater. Laura is also a proponent of new music,having premiered several works, including the sopranosolo in Simon Fink’s song cycle “Unquiet Dreams” at the Staunton Music Festival, and the role of Mona Parsons in Steven Webb’s chamber opera The Patterns of War at the Opera From Scratch Festival in Halifax. In addition to performing, Laura is also a vocal instructor with over ten years’ experience in both private and group settings.

Jenna Kragt, piano/ harpsichord Jenna Kragt has been playing piano for over a decade and is a first-year music student at CUE under Dr. Ping-Shan Liao. She is currently working towards completing the RCM program and teaches 13 piano students through her private studio.

Charlotte Rekken, harpsichord A long time early music enthusiast, Charlotte

has

filled

her

home

with

keyboard instruments. Having retired from careers as church organist, school teacher, and hand puppet manufacturer, she now takes great delight in harpsichords - tuning them, fixing them, explaining them, and occasionally even playing them. Her family has given up on the idea of there actually being enough space in the living room for unnecessary things like a sofa. She is a founding member of Baroque ’n’ Hearts and of Bella Baroque.

Man Wui (Raymond) Leung, violin Man Wui Leung is a second-year international student from Hong Kong. A pupil of Frank Ho, he is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Music degree at CUE and hopes to become a professional violinist. After completing his degree at CUE, Leung intends to go to Yale University for his master degree. He currently teaches violin at Serendipity Music Studio.

------UPCOMING EVENTS-----SAVE THE DATE! Concordia Symphony Orchestra Sunday, December 10 2023, 3 p.m.

FATE Kuzmenko Fantasy on a Theme by Beethoven Beethoven Romance no. 1, Op. 40 Beethoven Symphony No. 5 Danielle Lisboa, conductor Frank Ho, violin Tegler Centre

Coming this Spring!!

THE GLOBAL MUSICIAN TOUR

The Global Musician Tour (Switzerland - Austria - Italy) JUNE 2024 Please consider a tax-deductible donation to CSO in support of our mandate to programming and youth leadership development programs. We commit to performing the work of living Canadian composers and underrepresented minorities and to promote talented local musicians and community groups in guest artist performances. The CSO concert experience is a reflection of Edmonton's ethnic diversity. We are proud to champion promising Albertan virtuosi with a provincial level competition: The Concordia Concerto Competition for Youth. To donate, please visit CUE website ONLINE DONATION.

Musicians interested in joining the Global Musician tour, please contact us at: CSOEuroTour@gmail.com

*REGISTRATION DEADLINE EXTENDED*

The CSO is currently fundraising for its first international tour in 2024. The goal of this initiative is to promote less-known repertoire to a wider audience abroad and to introduce Canadian music to international audiences. Please consider a charitable donation to CSO to support our fundraising efforts. Donations can be made by email at donations@concordia.ab.ca or online using this link.

Note: Donations over $20 will receive a donation receipt. Charitable Registration number is 10696 6468 RR0001

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Concordia Concert Choir Saturday, December 2, 7 PM Holy Trinity Anglican Church 10037 84 Avenue Tickets $15/20 at the door

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