Also on the program, a Minnesota Sinfonia commission, “Romp between Serious Thoughts” by American Composer Jay Fishman and “Symphony No. 2 in B Flat Major, D. 125” by Franz Schubert.

Concerts will be held 7 p.m. Friday, March 16 at Founders Hall, Metropolitan State University at 700 East Seventh Street, St. Paul and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 17 at the Basilica of Saint Mary at 88 17^th Street North, Minneapolis. Admission is free and children are welcome to attend. Audience members should arrive early—all concerts are first-come, first-seated. (full concert info)

Dr. Fishman has won top awards in several national competitions.  He has also been a soloist with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Kentucky Chamber Orchestra. He has recently appeared in solo recitals at important Minnesota venues, including the Schubert Club at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, and Minnesota Public Radio’s 2011 Bach Anniversary Concert at the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel.

Dr. Fishman received his master’s and doctorate degrees in piano performance from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with the distinguished pianist Lydia Artymiw. He was the recipient of a Berneking Fellowship in 2007. He currently teaches piano in the Twin Cities, and is an Adjunct Professor of Piano at St. Cloud State University. (full bio)

Additional Minnesota Sinfonia concert information is available at 612-871-1701 or www.mnsinfonia.org.

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The Minnesota Sinfonia is a professional chamber orchestra whose mission is to serve the musical and educational needs of the citizens of Minnesota, especially families with children, inner-city youth, seniors and those with limited financial means. The Sinfonia plays concerts for over 25,000 people each year, and is the only professional orchestra of its kind, offering all concerts free of admission charges, welcoming children to every performance, and dedicating over half its services to inner-city schools. Founded in 1989 by Artistic Director Jay Fishman, the Minnesota Sinfonia is an independent, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization supported by corporate, foundation and individual contributors. For more information, to make a donation, or for a list of upcoming performances, visit www.mnsinfonia.org or call 612-871-1701.

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FOR CALENDARS: Minnesota Sinfonia Winter Concert Series IV: featuring Loren Fishman, piano. Friday, March 16, 7pm at Founders Hall, Metropolitan State University at 700 East 7^th Street, St. Paul and Saturday, March 17 at 2pm, Basilica of Saint Mary at 88 17^th Street North, Minneapolis. FREE. 612.871.1701. www.mnsinfonia.org

Contact:
Emily Matejcek, Marketing & Development
The Minnesota Sinfonia
612-871-1701 | emily@mnsinfonia.org

Participants are welcome to apply if they are residents of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa or Wisconsin. This year’s competition will be held on March 25, 2012 at 12 pm at St. Thomas University in St. Paul. The entry deadline is March 14, 2012. To download an entry form or to fill an entry form out online visit: www.mnsinfonia.org/about/programs/yac

Violinist Wayne Lee, a native of San Francisco, is an active chamber musician and recitalist. Since 2008, he has been a member of the Manhattan Piano Trio, an ensemble based in New York that has carved out a unique niche for itself by performing concerts in a much wider range of settings – from major concert halls around the country to new concert series in smaller towns. One of the most active groups in the classical music scene, the Trio performs frequently in the United States and in Europe, and recently released their third album, a disc of Schumann and Chopin trios for the Marquis Classics label, in honor of the composers’ bicentennials.

Lee’s repertoire reflects his wide range of musical interests. Recent solo performances have included unaccompanied violin works by Bach and Elliot Carter, virtuoso pieces by Sarasate and Saint-Saëns, and the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano. In 2007, he commissioned four pieces from four prominent young composers, with the stipulation that each piece use the Bach B minor Partita as a starting point; the result, a 75 minute uninterrupted performance with the premieres interposed between movements of the Bach, was enthusiastically received in a New York recital. As a member of the iO Quartet during the 2007-2008 season, Lee promoted and performed music by avant-garde composers: a collaboration with Helmut Lachenmann led to a performance of his Third String Quartet, “Grido”; the quartet also performed music of the spectralists Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-Maria Avram at the MATA Festival and at the experimental music venue, Roulette. The Fourth Sundays Chamber Music Series at Roger Smith Arts, an iO Quartet initiative, continues to present contemporary music in midtown Manhattan.

Lee is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a frequent concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, leading the group on their centennial European tour and during two residencies at Italy’s Festival dei due Mondi, as well as at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has been invited to the Aspen Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, the Olympic Music Festival, Prussia Cove, and the Giverny Festival in France. An active teacher, he maintains a large private studio in New York, has given master classes at schools throughout the United States, and is currently a teaching assistant for Ronald Copes at Juilliard.

Friday, Feb. 10
7:00 p.m.

Founders Hall, Metro State University
N Maria Ave & E Sixth Street, St. Paul

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Sunday, Feb. 12
4:00 p.m.

Temple Israel
2324 Emerson Ave S, Minneapolis

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Major sponsorship for this event provided by:

Anna M. Heilmaier Charitable Trust

Full Concert Info

Called “adventurous” and “passionate” by The New Yorker and “poetic” by Time Out New York, Ukrainian-born, New York City based pianist Inna Faliks has established herself as one of the most passionately committed, exciting and poetic artists of her generation. After her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 15, acclaimed by the Chicago Tribune, she has performed on many of the world’s great stages, with numerous orchestras, in solo appearances, and with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin and Keith Lockhart. Critics praise her “courage to take risks, expressive intensity and technical perfection” (General Anzeiger, Bonn), “Infusing every note with brilliance and personality,” (Hilton Head Competition Review), “poetry and panoramic vision” (Washington Post) , “riveting passion, playfulness” (Baltimore Sun) and her “virtuosity, humor, lyricism and a way to make every note an important part of the texture of the music.”(Free Times, South Carolina). Her CD on MSR Classics, Sound of Verse, was released in 2009, featuring music of Boris Pasternak, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, receiving excellent reviews from Gramophone, American Record Guide, and other music publications.

Ms. Faliks has performed numerous recitals and concerti in prestigious venues in the US as well as in France, Italy, Switzerland, Ukraine, Estonia, Japan, as well as Russia, where Faliks toured in 2008 under the invitation of Goskonzert. She has been featured on WQXR, WNYC, WFMT and many international television broadcasts, and has performed in major venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Concert Hall (has appeared for the past 6 seasons as a solo recitalist), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paris’ Salle Cortot (multiple appearances), Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall and in numerous important festivals such as Verbier, Brevard, Taos, Bargemusic (multiple appearances), and Chautauqua. She has played concerti under the batons of many conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Keith Lockhart, Edward Polochick, Daniel Meyer, Anne Harrigan, Jed Gaylin, and many others. Her chamber music partnerships include work with Ilya Kaler, Colin Carr, Wendy Warner, Nathaniel Rosen, Nina Beilina and others. Ms. Faliks is a Yamaha Artist.

Ms. Faliks’ 2010-11 appearances include solo recitals in Canada, in Boston, in New York, Chicago, LA, Memphis, as well as concerti with Idaho Falls Symphony, Westmoreland Symphony and the Peninsula Festival Orchestra. In 2009-10, Faliks appeared in venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, International Keyboard Festival at Mannes, Embassy Series in Washington DC, on radio broadcast recitals in Chicago, NYC, Boston, as guest artist at the Liszt Garrison International Festival in Baltimore, and in solo performances in Germany, and in an Artist residency at Haverford College. Other 2008-09 appearances included recitals at Rockefeller University in New York, Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, at Pianoforte Chicago Series, on WFMT live performance series with cellist Wendy Warner and a live broadcast recital from LACMA’s Sundays Live in Los Angeles, concerti with the Topeka Symphony, Concert Artists of Baltimore, Augustana Arts, and Highland Park Strings, recitals at the Shandelee Festival, as well as in South Carolina, in Arkansas, in Mississippi. She is a regular recitalist in Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess and Jewel Box Series. Recent appearances also include performances with the South Carolina Philharmonic and in Bonn, Germany.

Committed to innovative programming, rarely heard and new music, as well as audience communication and education, Faliks has premiered 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg, variations by acclaimed contemporary composers, on Bach’s Aria, at the Art and Music Series in LACMA, Los Angeles; she gave the New York premiere of the work at Bargemusic and the Chicago premiere on WFMT radio. Ms. Faliks performed and recorded the unknown piano works of Russian poet Boris Pasternak, presenting his music at lecture recitals in conjunction with the University of Chicago. At the Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies, she presented “Three Jewish Composers – Three Centuries”, giving the North American premiere of Ilya Levinson’s Shtetle Suite and the world premiere of Lev Ljova Zhurbin’s Sirota for piano and historical recording, written for her.

Ms. Faliks is the founder and curator of the LMCC award winning interdisciplinary series Music/Words – www.musicwordsnyc.com. Now in its third season, Music/Words features live poetry and classical music performances in NYC. In April 2010 and 2011, Faliks produced and performed in two month-long series of Music/Words broadcasts on WFMT radio, a station that frequently features Faliks and highlights her performances. Faliks is a featured performer at the Streaming Museum, a global online multimedia arts space; her performance has been selected by BBC to be showcased across the UK in 17 locations. She is a former member of the piano faculty of Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.

She was the winner of many prestigious competitions, including the coveted International Pro Musicis Award 2005. Other prizes include first prizes in Hilton Head International Competition, Grand prize in St. Charles International Competition, 2nd prize in the Val Tidone International Piano Competition, First Prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition, and 1st prize in the Yale Gordon Competition at the Peabody. Earlier competition prizes include winning the Chopin Kosciuszko Competition, MTNA Yamaha National Competition, and Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, among others.

Ms. Faliks holds an Artist Diploma from the prestigious Accademia Pianistica Internazionale, where she studied with Boris Petrushansky. She recently received her Doctorate at Stony Brook University, studying with Gilbert Kalish. Her other teachers include Leon Fleisher and Ann Schein at Peabody Conservatory. Ms. Faliks moved to the United States at age 10 from Odessa, Ukraine, where her mother Irene was her first teacher. She studied and later was assistant to renowned teacher Emilio del Rosario.

Ms. Faliks is represented by John Gingrich Managagment, Inc. – www.gingarts.com

Friday, April 26
7:00 p.m.

Founders Hall, Metro State University
N Maria Ave & E Sixth Street, St. Paul

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Saturday, April 27
2:00 p.m.

Basilica of St. Mary
88 17th Street N, Minneapolis

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» Public Transportation

Major sponsorship for this event provided by:

Program
Coming Soon

» Bio: Inna Faliks
» Program Notes: coming soon
» Concert Poster: coming soon
» More about the Winter Series

Venue Information

ARRIVE EARLY to Founders Hall at Metro State University–the performance space seats only 317, and often fills to capacity. Overflow audiences will be seated in the lobby. This venue is handicap-accessible, with limited handicap parking. Parking across the street is $2.50.

The Basilica of St. Mary has handicap-accessible parking and entrances. Some free parking is available in lots.

Friday, March 15
7:00 p.m.

Founders Hall, Metro State University
N Maria Ave & E Sixth Street, St. Paul

» Driving Directions
» Public Transportation

Saturday, March 16
2:00 p.m.

Basilica of St. Mary
88 17th Street N, Minneapolis

» Driving Directions
» Public Transportation

Major sponsorship for this event provided by:

Program
Coming Soon

» Bio: Rhonda Larson
» Program Notes: coming soon
» Concert Poster: coming soon
» More about the Winter Series

Venue Information

ARRIVE EARLY to Founders Hall at Metro State University–the performance space seats only 317, and often fills to capacity. Overflow audiences will be seated in the lobby. This venue is handicap-accessible, with limited handicap parking. Parking across the street is $2.50.

The Basilica of St. Mary has handicap-accessible parking and entrances. Some free parking is available in lots.

Flutist, composer, and bandleader Rhonda Larson entered the national music scene from her native Montana by winning first prize in the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition in 1985, including a Carnegie Hall debut. Shortly thereafter, Rhonda joined forces with the Paul Winter Consort, initiating her journey of combining diverse musical styles in addition to her classical training. Rhonda won a Grammy Award during her last year with the Consort, departing the group at that time to embark on her individual cross-cultural/multi-genre music path.

Rhonda’s diversity, combined with her musical and technical wizardry, has begun a new generation for the flute as a leading voice in the music world. Composing much of her own repertoire, Larson continues to be recognized as a visionary force creating a refreshing hybrid music for the flute, including her versatility on an array of ethnic flutes from around the world. Larson journeyed to South Africa as a musical ambassador for the United States to perform for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, sharing the stage with such luminaries as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. In addition to South Africa, Rhonda has toured in Russia, Japan, Europe, Central America and throughout North America. She has recently performed in Ireland, Italy, and Spain. In Spain she recorded with the Celtic Galician group “Milladoiro” from the Santiago de Compostela region, and performed as a guest soloist with this stellar bunch along with guest soloist Eileen Ivers, famed celtic fiddle player of the original “Riverdance” troupe.

Rhonda has a discography of over 19 commercial recordings from label/distributors such as Windham Hill and American Gramaphone, among others. She has recorded a variety of flute music for the CBS television series, “Survivor” and “The Restaurant”, and performed on the Live CBS finale episode of “Survivor” from Madison Square Gardens, seen by over 40 million viewers.

Rhonda has two solo recordings, Free as a Bird, and her newly released second solo CD, Distant Mirrors. The latter is an eclectic musical reflection on world cultures and ancient traditions, and was listed in the top ten of the “25 Essential CD’s for 2003″ nationally syndicated Public Radio program, Echoes. Rhonda is featured in the 2003 “Flute Stories–101 Inspirational Stories from the World’s Best Flute Players”, Windplayers publication. Ms. Larson has served on the Board of Directors for the National Flute Association.

Rhonda and her husband Lee deLisle live in Southwestern Michigan, where Rhonda continues her creative work and practice of the flute in her studio which is an historical 1878 one-room schoolhouse located on their property. They also live part-time at their second home in the Lazio region of Italy.

You can learn more about Rhonda from her website at: www.RhondaLarson.com