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2008-2009 Jewel Box Series
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Dana Navarro
July 25, 2008 (773) 442-4227
d-navarro@neiu.edu
NEIU’s Jewel Box Series Announces 2008-2009 Season
Chicago – Northeastern Illinois University’s (NEIU) Jewel Box Series has announced its 2008-2009 season. The Jewel Box Series offers quality arts programming that features local and international performers. All performances in this series will be held in the intimate 175-seat Recital Hall on the NEIU campus. For tickets and more information, please call the NEIU Box Office at (773) 442-INFO (4636).
Rastrelli Cello Quartet
Friday, September 19, 2008 at 8 p.m.
The Rastrelli Cello Quartet is a classical ensemble whose aim is to prove that it is possible to play any kind of music on the cello, from baroque to rock. The ensemble’s name derives from the Italian architect who was invited 300 years ago by the king to build a new capital of Russia, the country where each of the ensemble’s members spent their childhood and student years. Kira Kraftzoff, Kirill Timofeev, Misha Degtjareff, and Sergio Drabkine founded the quartet in April 2002 in Stuttgart, Germany. The quartet has released two albums: “Cello in Jazz” and “Cello in Classic.”
La Catrina String Quartet with NEIU Faculty Artist Brian Torosian
Friday, October 17, 2008 at 8 p.m.
Founded in 2001, La Catrina Quartet has a triple mission: to work closely with living composers in order to promote the performance of new music, to promote Mexican and Latin-American art music, and to perform the masterworks of the string quartet repertoire. Its members have played as soloists with a variety of orchestras in Mexico and the United States and given recitals in Japan, England, the United States, and Mexico. Brian Torosian is an active soloist and chamber musician on guitar, lute and mandolin who has performed in concerts throughout North America. In addition to completing doctoral studies at Northwestern University with Anne Waller, Torosian studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, where he received Diplomas of Merit and an honorary scholarship.
Vanessa Perez
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 8 p.m.
Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez is recognized as a keyboard virtuoso, endowed with an extraordinary interpretative power that captivates audiences. In 1998, she was awarded the Jose Felix Ribas Prize, the highest honor given by the president of Venezuela to a young artist who has contributed to the enhancement of the country. She studied with Rosalina Sackstein and Ena Bronstein in the United States, with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and with Lazar Berman and Franco Scala at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri Col Maestro” in Imola, Italy. She also completed postgraduate studies at Yale University with Hungarian pianist Peter Frankl.
Rose Ensemble
Friday, December 19, 2008 at 8 p.m.
Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Jordan Sramek, the Rose Ensemble has built a diverse and enthusiastic audience with scrupulously researched and imaginative presentations of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music. Additionally, the Ensemble commissions contemporary composers to write new works that complement and illuminate ancient texts and themes. By combining captivating musical performance with poems, stories and legends, the Rose Ensemble creates a beautiful and entertaining style of programming. Audience members comment again and again that they have never heard voices blend so incredibly, seen a group move on stage so elegantly, or so enjoyed watching performers make music together.
Pablo Ziegler Trio for New Tango
Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8 p.m.
Grammy award-winning pianist and composer Pablo Ziegler infuses his performances and arrangements with a deep knowledge of tango, having served as Music Director for Astor Piazzolla’s ensemble for over 10 years. In 1990, Pablo Ziegler formed Ensemble for New Tango, which blends classic tango rhythms with jazz improvisations. Ziegler imprints his own stamp on the work, using the piano percussively, coaxing atmospheric jazz harmonies out of the music and drawing upon the rhythms of early 20th century classical music. Ziegler and his Trio have performed jazz and tango clubs, festivals and concert halls, both internationally and throughout the United States.
Flanders Recorder Quartet
Friday, February 20, 2009 at 8 p.m.
The Flanders Recorder Quartet travels around the world taking a magnificent collection of more than 150 recorders in tow. The wonderful enthusiasm and virtuosity of Bart Spanhove, Tom Beets, Joris van Goethem, and Paul van Loey is more than sufficient to convince international audiences of the limitless possibilities and sheer beauty of the instrument. Jubilant critiques following CD releases and live performances attest to the success of their daring and unique programming.
Brass Roots Trio
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 8 p.m.
This concert is part of NEIU’s Chicago Brass Festival, March 20-21.
For more details call (773) 442-4978.
Three world-class, conservatory trained musicians captivate audiences with their mesmerizing sounds and charismatic personalities. Pianist Rosetta Senkus Bacon, trumpeter Travis Heath and French horn player Douglas Lundeen have demonstrated their prodigious talents across the country and around the world with engagements at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York; Symphony Hall in Boston; the Banff Centre in Canada; the Guinness Jazz Festival in Ireland; cultural centers in Taiwan, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, and Lithuania; and with major symphony orchestras in the United States, England and Costa Rica.
Amelia Piano Trio
Friday, April 17, 2009 at 8 p.m.
Formed in 1999, the Amelia Piano Trio is among the most exciting young chamber ensembles to appear in the last decade. Called “remarkable” by Strings and “exemplary” by the Strad, the group has quickly become one of its generation’s most sought-after ensembles. In its short history the Amelia has recorded critically acclaimed CDs for Naxos and Cedille Records and has been recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. The Trio has performed extensively in North America and abroad, including France, Italy, Panama, and the Caribbean. Members of the Trio have toured North America and Central Asia with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
Songs and Sonatas of William Bolcom
with Renata Knific, violin, Carl Ratner, baritone, and Lori Sims, piano
Friday, May 15, 2009 at 8 p.m.
Renata Artman Knific is the violinist of the Merling Trio and a founding member of the contemporary ensemble OPUS 21. She recently recorded works for violin and piano by William Bolcom, at the composer's request, for MSR Classics Records. She is Professor of Music and Chair of the String Area at Western Michigan University.
Lori Sims received the First Prize Gold Medal at the 1998 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, was a first place co-winner of the 1994 Felix Bartholdy-Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin, and won the 1993 American Pianists’ Association Competition with outstanding distinction from the jury. She has performed throughout America, Europe and China and is the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music at Western Michigan University, where she teaches piano and lectures in accompanying and keyboard literature.
Baritone Carl Ratner serves as Director of Opera/Associate Professor of Voice at Western Michigan University. His career includes over two decades as an opera stage director (Chicago Opera Theater and Chamber Opera Chicago) as well as assisting directors at major opera houses including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Munich Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy.
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