Category Archives: Classical

Chase Chandler & Laura Krusemark – Dunsmuir Second Saturday

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Saturday, November 13, 7-9 pm
Chase Chandler (opera) and Laura Krusemark (Classical Piano)

Dunsmuir Second Saturday
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chase-chandlerChase Chandler (b. 1991) composes with a unique combination of beautiful color-timbres, fearless counterpoint, and organic musical development, drawing inspiration by challenging traditional melodic emphasis with functional dramatic texture and rhythmic integrity. With a strong vocal performance background and a passion for honest expression, his contemporary music challenges musical categories through his balance of novel accessibility and intriguing complexity. Read more.

In recent years, Chandler’s works has been performed nationally and internationally by groups such as the PHACE Ensemble in Vienna, UNICAMP Percussion Ensemble in Sao Paulo, the Eclipse Quartet in Fullerton, CA, as well as Bent Frequency, the Humboldt Brass Chamber Music Workshop, the Aperture Duo, Divan Consort, the Saddleback Lab Band, the Christ Lutheran Sinfonietta, and the CSUF Percussion Ensemble. In June 2019, while attending a masterclass hosted by the Vienna Summer Music Festival in Austria, Chandler’s violin solo, Shoreline Avulsion, was selected and performed by Irvine Arditti.

 Laura Krusemark
laura-krusemarkWith a B.F.A not only in Fine Arts – Oil Painting and Piano Performance from Bethany College, but also a Bachelors in Fashion Design from The Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago, Laura brings a broad range of inventive knowledge and ideas to her creations. Read more.

Many of her current artworks focus on the female archetypes, connecting us to the Divine Mother and a remembrance that is once again awakening at this time on our beautiful Gaia.  Embracing both the feminine and masculine parts of ourselves, we are able to evolve and awaken to an even greater level of awareness and wholeness.  Her works bring together those aspects, representing the duality as well as the unity of One.

Inspired by the endlessly fascinating patterns and magic found within the harmony of nature,  Laura expresses this beauty through her art and music. She works as a fine artist and classical pianist, exhibiting her creations worldwide, while recording original compositions for her future record release and performances.

Laura’s artwork will be on display at the Mossbrae Hotel around the corner from Pops from Sat Nov 13 through Jan 3.

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Pacific Crest Music Chamber Players – Winter Concert

Screen Shot 2019-01-31 at 6.45.07 PMThe annual winter concert featuring three of the great musicians of the Pacific Crest Music Chamber Players will take place on Friday February 15, 7:00pm at Pops Performing Arts and Cultural Center in Dunsmuir.

This year, as a trio, they will perform Franz Schubert’s String trio No 2 and one of Beethoven’s early string trios No. 4 in C minor. Both of these enduring works are sublime compositions and a perfect balm for the winter season. In addition Laura Gaynon, will treat us to J.S. Bach’s melodious Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major. Laura is a San Francisco conservatory and Yale University trained cellist, prized in our area for her beautiful cello performances over the last 6 years. Although a $20 donation at the door is recommended, all are welcome to enjoy the magical moments produced by the outstanding Pacific Crest Chamber Players.

Symphony Fundraising Concert for W.A.T.E.R.

Screen Shot 2018-03-31 at 12.38.45 PMMark the date on your calendar Sunday, April 15 at 3 pm at Pops Performing Arts & Cultural Center.  Come celebrate the beginning of spring with music that delights your heart.

Your donation will support our wonderful local water group that works tirelessly on our behalf to fight against the corporate take-over of the spring water in our pristine area. Thank you for spreading the words and sharing this event.

Entrance to the show is $20.

 

Sunday, January 7, 2018–2pm Olga Kopylova

Screen Shot 2017-12-09 at 11.40.03 AMPops Performing Arts & Cultural Center is very pleased to be hosting Olga Kopylova the principle pianist Sao Paulo Symphonic Orchestra. She will be performing a Promenade through the History of Classical Music.

Born in 1979 in Uzbequistan, in the former Soviet Union, Olga Kopylova began her piano studies at the age of four with her father, and at six she was admitted in the Uspensky Special Music School in Tashkent. In Moscow, Olga studied at the Tchaikovsky Music College and then at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, taking classes from the renowned teachers Tatiana Galitzkaya and Liudmila Roshina, both of them representative of the piano school of Samuil Feinberg.

She moved to Brazil in 2000 to take the lead pianist position at the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo – OSESP, where she holds that role until the present day.
In 2002 Olga recorded the solo CD album “Estrela da Manhã” (“Morning Star”), featuring music from Russian composers. As a member of Osesp, she took part in many symphonic recordings, including the awarded CD with the Jolivet Concerts for trumpet and orchestra, featuring Ole Edvard Antonsen.

As a soloist, Olga has been performing along with several Brazilian and international orchestras, under the baton of John Neschling, Roberto Minczuk, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Scott Seaton, among others.

Olga plays in chamber music presentations which are part of OSESP’s chamber music
series, as well as together with international soloists like Johannes Moser, Nicolas Koeckert, Alexander Chaushian, and Ransom Wilson, inaddition to keeping stable formations as the Vesper Tri and DKopylova & Rakevich.She also engages insocial and educational activities aiming to foster the development of new audiences for classical music.

Repertoire:
1. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Sonata op.27 n. 2 (Moonlight Sonata)
Adagio sostenuto
Allegretto
Presto agitato
2. Franz Liszt: Consolation n.3
3. Richard Wagner – Franz Liszt: Isoldens Liebestod from “Tristan und Isolde”
4. Claude Debussy : from Préludes, book 1 –
n.4 – Les sons et les parfums dans l’air du soir
n.5 – Les collines d’Anacapri
n.7 – Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest
n.8 – La fille aux cheveux de lin
5. Rachmaninoff :
Prelude op 32, n. 10,
Prelude op.23, n. 6
From Moments Musicaux, op.16, n. 4 – Presto

Tickets:
Tickets are $10 general & $15 preferred at the door.
Preferred ticket patrons are welcome to meet with Ms. Kopylova following the performance

Sun Aug 6 Pacific Crest Student Concert – Free

88f0da_7b07a199bba75cbfae728035c9672b3aStudent artists from across the US and as far away as Europe, Asia, and South America gather in Dunsmuir, CA for an incredibly fun and intensive chamber music experience. Working, rehearsing, and performing alongside the outstanding faculty, The Pacific Crest Music Festival is is truly a unique experience.

On Sunday, August 6th, the students will be performing a Pops!

This is a free public concert. Please arrive early, as the hall fills up quickly!

***Donations are greatly appreciated and go directly towards student artist scholarships.

Sun Mar 18, 2017 – Pianist Svitiana Smaga

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Pianist Svitlana Smaga, formerly of Siskiyou County, will perform Modest Mussorgsky’s famous piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” on March 18 at POPS Performing Arts and Cultural Center in Dunsmuir.  She will play the ten movements inspired by the 1874 exhibit of paintings by renowned artist Viktor Hartmann. The concert will be enhanced by a slide exhibition of various Hartmann paintings.

Sat Sept 10, 6 pm – Fundraiser Gala Music on the Mountain

The Opening Gala is Music on the Mountain’s primary  fundraiser and will be happening Saturday, Sept 10, 6pm, POPS Cultural Center, 5819 Dunsmuir Ave, Dunsmuir. Live music, dinner, auction, no-host bar Tickets: $40 or 2 for $75 at Village Books, 320 N. Mt Shasta Blvd. Or call 530-926-4000Music by the Mountain

Music by the Mountain is a local non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to bringing extraordinary classical musicians to our community and providing educational outreach for children and students of all ages.

Please invite friends and family to a fun evening of food, entertainment, and an auction with great items including tickets to the San Francisco Symphony, ski packages, music lessons, and more. The concert on Sunday will highlight our featured artists this year. And the Vocal Master Class is free on Monday night! Mark your Calendars!

12th Annual Festival September 10 – 12
OPENING GALA:
Saturday, Sept 10, 6pm, POPS Cultural Center, 5819 Dunsmuir Ave, Dunsmuir. Live music, dinner, auction, no-host bar Tickets: $40 or 2 for $75 at Village Books, 320 N. Mt Shasta Blvd. Or call 530-926-4000

CONCERT:
Sunday, Sept. 11, 4pm, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Hwy 89, Mt Shasta. Violinist Kate Stenberg and Pianist Sarah Cahill perform Mozart, Brahms, Debussy and more.
Tickets $20, students $5 at the door or Village Books.

VOCAL MASTER CLASS:
Monday Sept 12, 6-7pm, United Methodist Church, 312 W. Alma, Mt Shasta. Led by Sally Porter Munro. Free event.

Sun, Aug 7, 14, 21 Pacific Crest Classical Music Festival

The Pacific Crest Music Festival for 2016 is happening at Pops Performing Arts and Cultural Center in picturesque Dunsmuir. It is a highly intensive international music program in which hand selected students are invited to work, rehearse, and perform alongside the outstanding professional faculty.

PCMF is typically comprised of approximately 10 to 15 students artists, and a faculty of six to eight.  It is this incredible ratio that leads to an extremely personalized and individualized experience for each member.  There will be an incredible group of kids coming this year.  One from Uruguay, three from Japan, and as well as Los Angeles and other young amazing musicians from around the US.

During their stay, the young musicians will work in smaller chamber groups as well as performing in the PCMF Chamber Orchestra.  Each group consists of both student artists and faculty, providing every student artist with an opportunity to experience rehearsals and performances at a professional standard.

This year’s performances will be as follows:

Sunday, August 7, 7 pm – Student Performance, Free Public Event
Sunday, August 14, 7 pm – Faculty Performance, $20
Sunday, August 21, 7 pm – Faculty Performance, $20

Violin Piano Duo, Concert on Jan. 12, 2016

pat-chiaruPacific Crest Chamber Players will be presenting a Violin-Piano Duo Concert “Musical Celebration of the New Year” with violinist Patrick Dalton-Holmes and pianist Chiharu Sai. The event is on January 12 at 7:30 pm. Advanced tickets will be available for $20 online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Door tickets will be $25 for adults and $10 for students under age 25 (at the door only.)

  “I am excited to announce … that Patrick and I will be collaborating…. He is one of the most fantastic violinists I have ever heard and have ever worked with. Very heart-centered musician with formidable technique.” – Chiharu Sai

The evening’s program will be:
Vitali Chaconne
Prokofiev Sonata No. 2
Brahms Sonata No. 1

 

Biographies: 

Patrick Dalton-Holmes, violin

Marked by his expressive power and formidable technique in performance, Patrick Dalton-Holmes has been heard all over the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. He has worked with a number of distinguished conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas and performed with prominent orchestras such as Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as New World Symphony. Presently, Patrick serves as a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra while maintaining an active teaching studio in Indianapolis. He is a faculty member of Pacific Crest Music Festival in Dunsmuir CA where he spends his summer working  with gifted young students from all over the world and performing solo and chamber music.

Patrick has received his Bachelor’s of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music and graduate performance degree from University of Michigan. For high school, Patrick was admitted to the highly competitive young artist program at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with William Preucil, the great concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, for a number of years. Patrick has received his Bachelor’s of Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music and graduate performance degree from University of Michigan. His teachers include some of the best performers and pedagogues in the United States: Paul Kantor, William Preucil, David Cerone, David Updegraff, Kathleen Winkler, and Peter Salaff.

Chiharu Sai, piano
Selected by Japan’s major newspaper, Mainichi Shinbun, as “One of the 100 People in Tokyo to Represent the 21st Century,” pianist Chiharu Sai performs widely as a soloist and chamber musician, both in Japan and the United States.

Her performances have met wide acclaim for their “great verve and refreshing power” (Chopin Magazine). Ms. Sai’s performance highlights include four concerts at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City including two solo recitals, one chamber music concert with New York Amadeus String Quartet, and one concerto performance with the Carolina Philharmonic conducted by David Michael Wolff.

The renowned critic Harris Goldsmith said of Ms. Sai’s performance of Mozart’s piano concertos, “Ms. Sai proved herself to be a Mozartean of refreshingly unusual potency. She is one of those rarities: an artist who is unafraid to explore the white-hot passion of the Salzburg genius”. Upon hearing Ms. Sai’s performance at Opera City Hall in Tokyo, the music critic Yukiko Hagiya wrote, “This critic wishes that she would cross the Pacific Ocean more often to enthrall the classical music fans of Japan”.

Ms. Sai balances her performance schedule with an active involvement in music education and pedagogy. Since she moved to Mount Shasta from New York City in 2013, she has been teaching piano both at College of the Siskiyous and Southern Oregon University. During the summer, she serves on the faculty at Pacific Crest Chamber Music Festival (www.pacificcrestmusic.com) and tours with Pacific Crest Chamber Players during the year. Another chamber music project she has is her collaboration with Michal Palzewicz as Duo Sapphire in exploring the music written for cello and piano.

Ms. Sai holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Her doctoral dissertation entitled “The Proportional Function of the Cadenza in the First Movements of Mozart’s Piano Concertos” was published by Lambert in Germany. Her debut CD of Chopin’s 4 Scherzi and 4 Ballades was released on King Records of Japan in the fall of 2008. Of this disc, the critic Yoshiko Ikuma noted Ms. Sai’s “deep identification with their celebrated creator’s genius”.

www.chiharu-sai.com

OCT. 21: Taiko Master Kenny Endo Performance

20140523Convergence_038For this special event at Pop’s in Dunsmuir, Kenny Endo will perform with New York based composer and musician, Kaoru Watanabe, who specializes in Japanese shinobue flutes (bamboo transverse flutes) and taiko and Hitoshi Hamada on vibraphone and percussion. See bios below.
Kenny Endo is an internationally recognized master of Japanese drumming and one of the foremost in the field to revolutionize the use of taiko in contemporary compositions.  He is the first American and foreigner to receive a “natori” or “stage name” and master’s license in Japanese classical music.  Master Endo has performed several times in Siskiyou county.  “The Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble” last appeared as featured guests for ShastaYama 2014.  Master Endo trained and influenced a new American taiko generation including taiko artists Masato Baba and Shoji Kameda who started taiko as children with Mount Shasta’s Shasta Taiko.

 

Opening the show will be Shasta Taiko’s Russel Baba and Jeanne Mercer who will perform original works for saxophone and taiko.  Along with Master Kenny Endo, Jeanne and Russel are recognized for introducing and pioneering American taiko and the performance at Pop’s will be a reunion for these accomplished artists.

 

The show is scheduled for 7 pmWednesday, October 21, 2015. The door charge for this special event is $10.

Biographies of Musicians:

Kenny Endo is a leading artist in contemporary percussion and rhythm. At the vanguard of the taiko genre, he continues paving new paths in this Japanese style of drumming even after forty years as a career taiko player. A performer, composer, and teacher of taiko with numerous awards and accolades, Kenny Endo is a consummate artist, blending Japanese taiko with rhythms influenced from around the world into original melodies and improvisation.

Originally trained as a jazz musician in the Asian American cultural renaissance of 1970s California, Endo began his taiko career in 1975 – first with Kinnara Taiko (Los Angeles) and then with Seiichi Tanaka and the renowned San Francisco Taiko Dojo, the first taiko group outside of Japan. In 1980, Endo embarked on a decade-long odyssey in Japan studying with the masters of hogaku hayashi (classical), matsuri bayashi (festival), and kumi daiko drumming. Endo has the honor of being the first non-Japanese national to be honored with a natori (stage name and master’s license) in hogaku hayashi, and has an M.A. in Music concentrating in ethnomusicology from the University of Hawai‘i. Endo’s albums include: ‘Eternal Energy’ (1995), ‘Hibiki’ (1998), ‘Jugoya’ (2000), ‘On the Way’ (2007), ‘Rhythm Summit’ (2010), ‘Honua’ (2010), ‘Convergence’ (2013), ‘Island Breeze’ (2014), and Uncommon Time (2016 release date). Endo has performed as a taiko soloist with the Honolulu Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, percussionist Kiyohiko Semba, the Hawaii Opera Theater, Orquestra Experimental (Brazil), and with American singer Bobby McFerrin, broadening the audience base for taiko. He has performed in Egypt, England, France, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, England, Australia, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, China, Malaysia, India, USSR, and throughout Japan and the United States. Endo maintains an active schedule performing, collaborating, composing, and teaching while also serving as Artistic Director of Taiko Center of the Pacific, a school of traditional Japanese drumming in Honolulu. Working with artists in various genre, Endo has brought a refreshing and creative approach to music through his background in western, ethnic, and traditional Japanese drumming.
www.kennyendo.com

Kenny Endo uses taiko drums provided by Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten of Tokyo.

Hitoshi Hamada (vibraphone, percussion)
Born in Hokkaido, Hiroshi Hamada began his life as a performer with the Waseda University Jazz Workshops. An accomplished jazz vibraphonist, Hamada has a Master’s degree in percussion from Tokyo Art University, having studied under Michiko Takahashi and Makoto Ariga. He received much acclaim from his professional debut with the group Takeshi Inomata & Force. As leader of an FM broadcast personalities program, he expanded his network of musicians, opening the door to collaborations. A close friend of Kenny Endo, they have been on several US tours together on top of collaborating some of Endo’s albums. Hamada’s notable records include Fox Dance and Quiet Triangle, and his compositions have received high reviews in Japan. His latest works include Metalution and Minor Resolution, collaborative albums including saxophonist Tatsuya Sato.

Kaoru Watanabe (fue, taiko)
Kaoru Watanabe specializes in the Japanese bamboo and Western flutes, as well as taiko. His music can be best described as an ever-shifting blend of Japanese folk and classical traditions with contemporary improvisational and experimental music. A St. Louis native, Kaoru eventually moved to Japan to pursue his passion. As artistic director for the world-renowned Kodo, Kaoru focused on their world music festival, Earth Celebration, where he directed shows that combined music, dance, and visual arts. Through Kodo, Kaoru worked closely with legendary Kabuki actor Bando Tamasaburo. Upon leaving Kodo in 2006, he returned to NY to teach and perform and continue his innovative work by blending conventional Japanese sounds with such instruments as the hurdy-gurdy, tabla, and ngoni.