Arts Global

On Saturday 23 July Michael Bialobroda played in front of 17000 people as a soloist in the "flaneries musicales de Reims", broadcasted by France Bleu and followed by French TV "France 3 champagne ardenne". He is Solo Cello in Orchestre National de Lorraine and plays a Grancino cello on loan from Artsglobal.

Benjamin Verdery, a member of the Arts Global advisory board, presented his 17th guitar class on the island of Maui in Hawaii from Tuesday, July 5 through Thursday, July 14, 2016. Joining him as guest teacher this year was acclaimed guitarist and composer David Leisner, co-chair of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music. Joining again this year as guest ukulele teacher and ensemble assistant was Hawaiian guitarist and ukulele player Ian O’Sullivan, currently on the faculty of the University of Hawaii.

The guitarist, Simon Powis, an alumni of the Artsglobal roster, also joined Ben together with his lovely "soon to be wife" , Evita.

Tavi Ungerleider has been on Nantucket Island, off the coast of Massachusetts where he played in a recital series "Red Violin Weekend". He has also participated in a three day retreat in Montague, New Jersey, for a video publicity shoot and rehearsals for upcoming performances with "break of reality", a cello rock band. He is soon heading to Siena Italy for the Chigiana Music Festival.

Arts Global musicians Eric Silberger and Carlos Avila make a regular summer home in Staunton, VA at the Heifetz Institute for a varying amount of time. Both have served as faculty members and artists-in-residence and in addition to their concert activities, help engage and inspire young aspiring music students from around the world. This past summer among many performances, Eric gave a Virginia premiere of the string sextet version of Vaughan Williams’ “A Lark Ascending” and together with Carlos and two students, also played Schumann’s Piano Quartet.  

Pianist David Fung made his Cleveland Orchestra debut with an "agile and alert" interpretation of Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major. 

Click here for a review. Click here for information on forthcoming performances by David.

Marcus Miller went on a wonderful tour with the New Orleans Swamp Donkey’s, a traditional jazz band. Although the Band is based in New Orleans, they were so impressed by Marcus after meeting him in New York that they asked him on the tour. The band travelled through Switzerland, The Netherlands, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and from June 26th through July 20th, playing festivals and major jazz clubs like Duc Des Lombards in Paris. Here is a pic from Edinburgh Scotland, where the band was outfitted by Howie Nicholsby of 21st Century Kilts.

Now Marcus is Back in New York playing his eclectic mix of Jazz, Blues, House, and Pop music all around the city.

Konstantin Soukhovetski returns to his 6th year as Artist in Residence at Pianofest In The Hamptons, where he produces and hosts the webisode really show The Real Pianists Of The Hamptons. He also returned to Music In the Mountains, CA with two concerts. He just performed a gala  evening presented by Beach Magazine in Southampton Center for the Arts with two star vocalists Melissa Zapin and Willy Falk. In August he will be giving master classes and adjudicating The Chicago Amateur Piano Competition. He will also be recording a video special of his transcriptions of R.Strauss' Four Last Songs.

Jacob Cordover reports: It has already been a very eventful summer for me. I just returned from North America where I participated in both the Music By The Sea Festival at Bamfield, Vancouver Island, Canada, and the V Festival Internacional de Guitarra del Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City.

Music By The Sea is a chamber music festival that features a company of 19 musicians, from the worlds of classical and jazz. Over 9 days and 11 concerts, musicians collaborate and perform on many, if not all concerts. The festival’s setting is very special. It is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island and the concert hall - built in the shape of a clam shell - looks out over the inlet, the islands and the bay. The concerts begin as the sun sets, creating an ever changing backdrop of colours and wildlife, with the bald eagles flying past and the occasional breaching tail of a whale. With the ever changing view, no concert ever the same - making it truly one of the most unique and spectacular locations for a week-long music extravaganza!

This was my 5th year attending this wonderful festival. I performed the opening and closing pieces of the festival, beginning the festival with Enrique Granados' Spanish Dance no.5 and finishing it with Toru Takemitsu's arrangement of the beautiful Beatles song Here, There and Everywhere. I also played on 6 other concerts featuring solo works including: the Spanish composers Isaac Albeniz and Federico Moreno Torroba, the heartbreaking tango Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla and Peter Sculthorpe's Australian masterwork From Kakadu.

Aside from solo performances I also collaborated with company artists to perform Luigi Boccherini's famous Quintet that features that rousing Fandango, as well as the Siete Canciones Populares Españolas by Manuel de Falla with the incredible Ukrainian/Swiss mezzo-soprano Christina Daletska.

Following Music By The Sea, I flew directly to Mexico City where I took part in the V Festival Internacional de Guitarra del Conservatorio Nacional de Música. Aside from giving a full length solo recital, I taught a morning of public master-classes and adjudicated the final round of the competition, in which I witnessed some incredible playing from some very talented young Mexican musicians.

The highlight for me was performing "Seascapes" - a work written from me by the Spanish composer (now residing in Mexico) Eduardo Garrido. Eduardo and I met at the Festival de la Guitarra de Córdoba back in 2006 when I won the competition there. The following year he wrote me this spectacular piece in three movements. This was the first time he's ever been able to hear me play the piece live and it was an honour to perform it for him as well as an enthralled audience of guitarists.

For me, the most remarkable and flattering part of this whole festival was the story of how I came to be invited. This was my first time in Mexico, and I'd never before been in touch with anyone on the festival committee. However, one of the board members was flying from the USA to Mexico on a Delta flight and came across my CD Blackwattle Caprices (Cala Records 2013). Listening to my CD at 10,000 ft, he enjoyed my music so much he went back to the board, shared my music with the directors, and 6 months later, I was performing a recital for the first time in Mexico!

Finally, this summer has also seen the release of a new solo CD and some promotional videos to go along with it. This new CD Expresivo, released only a couple of short weeks ago, is my third collaboration with Cala Records and Artsglobal. This CD features some of the classical guitar's most well-loved repertoire including Spanish and Latin-American greats by Albeniz, Tarrega, Granados, Villa-Lobos, Brouwer and Barrios, as well as some spectacular arrangements of The Beatles, George Gershwin and Hoagy Charmichael.

More information on my website.