American Romanian Festival 2011 Program Book October 28, 2011 Enescu Series

CHAMBER CONCERT

Enescu Series /

Oct 28

www.enescuseries.org

Choral ConCerT

Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor Choir

Ben Cohen conductor

AnnĂŠ-Marie Condacse soprano

Performing Perera & romanian Carols

friday, november 11, 2011, 8:00 p.m.

Friday, November 11, 2011, 8:00 p.m.

Kirk in the Hills, 1340 West Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302

Kirk in the Hills, 1340 Performing TiCkeTs West Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 Perera, Selections of Romanian Choral Works and Carols

performing

Available at the Door americanromanianfestival.org 734.308.5372

admission Selections of Perera, $20 per person Romanian Choral Works and Carols

admission

$20 per person

Tickets

Available at the Door www.americanromanianfestival.org americanromanianfestival.org 734.308.5372

www.americanromanianfestival.org

Table of Contents Program

4

About the Artists Daniel Goiți, piano

5

Marian Tănău, violin

6

Amanda Gates Armstrong, violin

7

James VanValkenburg, viola

8

Úna O’Riordan, cello

9

Thank You

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Enescu Series / Oct 28

3

CHAMBER CONCERT Friday, October 28, 2011, 8:00 p.m.

Enescu Series

artists Daniel Goiți, visiting Romanian pianist Marian Tănău, violin Amanda Gates Armstrong, violin Jim VanValkenburg, viola Úna O’Riordan, cello

Lady Star of the Sea Church 467 Fairford, Grosse Pointe, MI

Suite nr. 3 selections George Enescu Melodie (1881-1955) Burlesque Carillon Nocturne

Suite nr. 2 selections George Enescu Toccata Sarabanda

Song

Paul Constantinescu (1909-1963)

Dobrogean Dance

Paul Constantinescu Daniel Goiți, piano

- INTERMISSION -

Piano Quintet op.34 in F minor Allegro non troppo Andante, un poco adagio Scherzo: Allegro Finale: Poco sostenuto - Allegro non troppo - Presto, non troppo

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Marian Tănău, violin • Amanda Gates Armstrong, violin Jim VanValkenburg, viola • Úna O’Riordan, cello Daniel Goiți, piano

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American Romanian Festival 2011

about the. artist

Daniel Goiți Piano Romanian Pianist Daniel Goiți maintains a flourishing international performance career, generating acclaim and impressing audiences and critics alike with his substantive interpretations and pianistic mastery. He is one of the most sought after pianist soloists in Romania and Eastern Europe. Goiți performed as a soloists with prestigious orchestras in the US, England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan, and Israel, and is in demand as a recording artist, some of his recordings including the Rachmaninoff Concerto nr. 2, Variations on a theme by Paganini, Beethoven concertos nr. 3 and 5, Mendelssohn piano concerto nr. 1 and Prokofiev concerto nr. 1.

Daniel Goiți is the recipient of numerous international prizes and awards, including the Kawai Award, Gold Medalist at the A. Schnabel Competition, Berlin, Germany, as well as the winner of the prestigious George Enescu International Competition, Romanian Composers Union Prize, as well as Gold Medal Winners at many other Romanian piano competitions. Mr. Goiti is a graduate of the prestigious Academy of Music “G. Dima” in Cluj-Napoca, Romania where he is currently Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Department.❖

Enescu Series / Oct 28

5

about..the. artist..

Marian Tănău Violin Romanian-born violinist Marian Tănău first picked up the violin at age four and began his musical education in his hometown of Timisoara in Romania. He graduated from Liceul de Muzica “Ion Vidu” where he studied violin with Maria Cleşiu. He then left for the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca and the Conservatorul de Muzica “G. Dima,” where he earned an Artists Diploma. Later in the US, he earned a graduate degree from Bowling Green State University. Tănău joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1995. Tănău has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Romania and the US and is an active chamber musician. Since 2004 Tănău joined the violin faculty at Wayne State

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American Romanian Festival 2011

University. In 2005 Tănău was awarded a sabbatical year and moved temporary to Romania where he joined the music faculty at the National College of Art “Ion Vidu” and the Music Conservatory of the West University from Timisoara.

His recording of the violin sonata by Paul Paray, recorded for Grotto Productions, got praised by critics in the prestigious Strad, Gramophone and Fanfare magazines.

Marian Tănău is the founder and president of the American Romanian Festival Inc., a nonprofit organization with the mission of promoting American and Romanian music and culture to audiences in the US and Europe.❖

about the. artist

Amanda Gates Armstrong Violin Violinist Amanda Gates Armstrong was appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the acclaimed Virginia Symphony in 2002. She is an active chamber musician, and has performed and recorded with the Chautauqua String Quartet, the Virginia Chamber Players, the Norfolk Chamber Consort, and the Chautauqua Symphony Chamber Players. A native of Reston, Virginia, she was awarded a National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship for high school students, receiving private lessons, master classes, and opportunities to perform with the NSO. She also attended ENCORE School for Strings in Ohio where she studied with Kay Stern and Viktor Danchenko.

She graduated summa cum laude from the Honors Program at Catholic University in 1996, where she was a full scholarship student of Robert Gerle. While studying at Catholic University, she formed the Shenandoah Quartet, which performed for ambassadors, congressman, and in a private audience for the late John Paul II at the Vatican.

With the Virginia Symphony, she has performed as soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Vaughn Williams’ The Lark Ascending, and John Adams’ Violin Concerto, as well as electric violin engagements on several occasions. She has appeared with

the National Symphony Orchestra, and with the Catholic University Orchestra as soloist as well, including the Washington, DC premiere of Kurt Weill’s violin concerto, the Beethoven concerto, and, filling in for the ailing Jody Gatwood, the Tchaikovsky concerto on one day’s notice.

Awarded a position with the Chautauqua Symphony in upstate New York in 2002, she spends the summers there performing with her husband, Vahn Armstrong, and playing with their two boys, Byron and Blake.

Recently, she has been performing electric violin in The Music of Led Zeppelin – a 5-piece cover band which plays alongside symphonies to sold-out crowds around the country. She has also composed and recorded acoustic arrangements for the Portland-based band emberghost.

Ms. Armstrong performs on a violin by Pietro Giacomo Rogeri, Brescia, 1699, and a 6-string electric Viper violin

by Mark Wood.❖

Enescu Series / Oct 28

7

about..the. artist..

Jim VanValkenburg Viola James VanValkenburg, Assistant Principal Viola of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, came to orchestral playing after a satisfying career in chamber music. As a founding member of the International String Quartet, he toured the world with concerts in Europe, the Far East, South America, and the United States. The quartet won several notable prizes, including the Munich Competition, East & West Artists of New York, and first prize in the Premier Grand Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition in Evian, France.

A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Indiana University School of

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American Romanian Festival 2011

Music, VanValkenburg has enjoyed chamber music collaborations with many of his favorite musicians: Menahem Pressler, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, David Shifrin, and Isaac Stern. He became a member of Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings in 2004. His recent recordings, all on the Koch International label, include a violin-viola duet by William Bolcom, piano quartets by Franz Waxman and the Stravinsky septet.

VanValkenburg enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, ages 14 and 11, as well as training for and competing in Ironman triathlons.â?–

about the. artist

Úna O’Riordan cello First-generation Irish-American cellist Úna Fionnuala O’Riordan was born in the Chicago suburbs and began playing the cello at 4 years of age, after hearing a string instrument demonstration in her kindergarten class. When her family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, she continued her musical education and went on the attend the Interlochen Arts Camp as an Emerson Scholar. Her experiences at Interlochen, plus the opportunity to perform for Mstislav Rostropovich at the 1992 Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony, encouraged her to seek a career as a professional musician. She went on to receive a Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where she was named an Arts Leadership Scholar.

As a recipient of the Eckstein Grant, O’Riordan did her graduate studies at the Northwestern University School of Music, and performed with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra as the concerto competition winner. While completing her master's degree, she was also Co-Principal of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, working under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.

A fellowship recipient at the Aspen and Meadowmount music schools, she has performed both orchestral and chamber music in major concert halls across the United States, Europe and Asia, including Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Her principal teachers include Hans Jørgen Jen-

sen, Pamela Frame, Alan Harris, and Loren Stephenson, and she has performed in masterclasses for Janos Starker and Yo-Yo Ma, among other esteemed pedagogues.

O’Riordan first performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a lastminute substitute musician on the European Tour in the Fall of 2001, and continued to sub on occasion until winning a section position in December 2006.

Before joining the DSO, she was a member of the Oregon Symphony, the Sarasota Opera (principal cellist), the Florida West Coast Symphony (assistant principal cellist), and the New Artist Piano Quartet.

Recently, she recorded Astor Piazzolla's chamber opera Maria de Buenos Aires on Koch International Records, and performed with indie rocker Sufjan Stevens and the Portland-based ensemble Pink Martini. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, travelling, and yoga, and looks forward to becoming a part of the Detroit musical community. ❖

Enescu Series / Oct 28

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sponsors.

mărășești SOCIETY

Gold Level NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS MICHIGAN COUNCIL FOR ARTS AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS ANONYMOUS ROMANIAN FRIEND MĂRĂŞEŞTI SOCIETY SCHOOLCRAFT COLLEGE WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC WALBRIDGE & JOHN AND TERRY RAKOLTA JR.

Friends Circle Center for Russian and East Eurpean Studies, U of M Iuliana Niculescu Cristina Muresan and Rabah Hadjit Dan and Laura Zetu Nadia Gamaneci Linda Joy and Brad Carol Barbara and Paul Burakoff Jennifer Jue Shoshana Mandel

Silver Level UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART ROMANIAN FILM CENTER

Supporter Circle Cosmin Dascalu Vlad Tudorache Razvan Pala Octavian and Janice Arps Prundeanu Henry and Vicki Swain Ella Gheorghiu

Bronze Level SILVIU AND GELA PALA CHARLES AND CAROL SLATER LIANA TATOS JOYCE AND TED FLANAGAN Wine Castle and Nick Ioannou

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American Romanian Festival 2011

CHAMBER CONCERT

ENESCU SERIES /

Karl Pituch horn

Marian Tﾄハﾄブ violin

Steve Wogaman piano

NOV 18

PERFORMING BRAHMS & SCHWARZ PIANO TRIOS

Friday, November 18, 2011, 8:0018, p.m. 2011, 8:00 p.m.

Friday, November Lady Star of the Sea Church, 467 Fairford, Grosse Pointe, MI

Lady Star of the Sea Church, 467 Fairford, Grosse Pointe, MI PERFORMING TICKETS Brahms / Jackson Porumbescu / Stravinsky Schwarz

performing

Available at the Door www.enescuseries.org 734.308.5372

Brahms ADMISSION / Jackson $20 per person Porumbescu / Stravinsky Schwarz

admission

$20 per person

Tickets

Available at the Door www.enescuseries.org 734.308.5372

www.enescuseries.org

www.enescuseries.org

To make a tax-deductible contribution to the American Romanian Festival Inc., please make checks and mail to:

American Romanian Festival Inc. 1407 Ferdon Road Ann Arbor, MI 48104

www.americanromanianfestival.org