“Good Music for a
Good Cause”
Saturday January 26th 2019
1:30pm St
Joseph Basilica in Alameda
Philip Brezina (violin), Gabriel
Beistline (cello) & Donna Stoering (piano)
Program
Piazzolla "Oblivion" arranged for violin, cello and piano by Jose
Bragato
Liszt "Benedictus" for solo violin (with piano four-hands**
accompaniment arr.by Michael Touchi)
Gardel "Por Una Cabeza" transcribed & arranged for piano trio by
Gabriel Beistline
Schumann "Traumerei" arranged for cello and piano by Lothar
Lechner
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No.2 in c minor
Op. 66 in four movements:
Allegro energico e con
fuoco
Andante espressivo
Scherzo: Molto allegro
quasi presto
Finale: Allegro
appassionato
** Special thanks to Kevin Seo for joining Donna
as the 2nd pair of hands for the 4-hand Liszt accompaniment, and for turning pages the entire
program – a task not for the faint-hearted!
----------------------------
About Listen for Life and its Notes for
Nourishment projects
Listen for Life (listenforlife.org) is an award-winning,
California-based 501c3 organization that was founded by Donna in London in
March 1998, with the mission of inspiring and empowering musicians of all countries
and cultures to use their gifts in the service of others. During these 21 years
LFL has become an umbrella for a wide variety of people, programs, productions,
and projects (often working with partner organizations), to impact over 10
million individuals in both local communities and 60+ countries around the
globe. Listen for Life is volunteer- run, combining music performers, educators,
creators, producers and listeners, just
like you!
Notes for Nourishment is a project of Listen
for Life that was started by international violist Erin Nolan several years ago, to discover
performers with a heart of service who wanted to help a particular cause or
nonprofit but didn’t have the time or skills to organize, market, produce and
promote their own benefit concert. LFL teams of volunteers now launch new N4NConcerts
in cities worldwide, doing most of the production and marketing, as special performers
donate their talents to nourish the audience, and their listeners donate to a nonprofit
(chosen by the performers) that nourishes the hungry, homeless or hurting in
their community or beyond. In 2016 and 2017 we had a monthly NFN series here at
St Joseph Basilica, and during that second year here, LFL volunteer Jim Carolan
made videos of each monthly concert so that you can view any that you missed!
Go to
http://www.carolan-imagery.com/Notes-for-Nourishment/Notes-for-Nourishment-Concerts
Today’s
concert is a special THANK YOU to all of you that have supported these concerts
and their causes!
About the Performers…….
Philip Brezina (philipbrezina.com) started playing violin at
age five, following the wisdom of the Suzuki program. He went on to do his
undergraduate work with David Salness at The University of Maryland. While
in Maryland, his quartet was selected to lead the inaugural chamber music
outreach program; an idea designed to bring music education to under
privileged youth. Philip now lives in San Francisco, where he
received his Masters Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
under Ian Swensen. He has a nonstop and highly varied career, working as a
Bluegrass fiddler in his group The Brothers Comatose, as a studio recording
artist with the Magik Magik orchestra, performing as a soloist in many
festivals and concert series of California, and playing principal second
in The San Jose Chamber Orchestra.
Gabriel Beistline was introduced to the cello at the age of
fifteen. However, he quickly found himself collaborating with some of the most
prominent and influential musicians of our time, including Christoph
Eschenbach, Yutaka Sado, Yo-Yo Ma, Christopher Hogwood, Cho Liang-Lin, Kent
Nagano, Yakov Kreitzberg and Valery Gergiev. He has toured with
orchestras throughout the United States, Germany, Lithuania, Armenia, Russia
and Japan.Mr. Beistline has a Bachelor's degree from the New England
Conservatory and a Master's degree from Rice University's Shepherd School of
Music studying under world-renowned soloist Lynn Harrell. Gabriel
currently lives in downtown San Francisco, maintains a private studio of
cellists, and regularly concertizes with numerous ensembles and orchestras in
the Bay Area, also doing other styles of music.
Donna Stoering (donnastoering.com) is
an international award-winning concert pianist and recording artist, social
entrepreneur, educator, choral conductor, composer, vocal soloist and keynote
speaker/TEDx presenter. She has given master-classes, lecture-recitals, solo
concerts and concerto performances with major conductors and orchestras, throughout
England, Russia, Austria, Italy, Turkey, Germany, the Philippines, Brazil, Hong
Kong, India, Panama, Wales, France, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands, Estonia,
Croatia, Canada, Bosnia, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Montenegro, Turkmenistan,
Republic of Georgia, and across all regions of the Unites States. She has also
traveled worldwide as an Artistic Ambassador for both the UK and the USA, and she
has given presentations on the use of music for conflict resolution and post-war
healing to U.N. organizations in Geneva. A Bay Area native, Donna began piano
at age 3 and studied both piano and composition with Joyce Grantham at Mills
College Music School in Oakland when she was five. She went on to compose,
produce and direct several musicals in community theaters of the South Bay when
she was a teen. After completing her B.A. and M.A. degrees at age 19, Donna moved
to the UK as a Marshall Scholar, and ended up living most of her adult life in
Europe, performing, touring and teaching at various music conservatories and
universities, including a position created for her as Artist in Residence at
Oxford University.
A
protégé of the late maestro Sir Georg Solti, Donna founded Listen for Life with
his encouragement and it grew rapidly to offices around the globe, as she spoke
about its mission after her concert performances and on her numerous television
interviews with various international networks. She eventually moved back to California
to establish the USA headquarters for LFL here in the Bay Area and she
continues to travel, perform, speak, compose, conduct, sing and record, along
with all of her other favorite musical activities: 1) coaching/accompanying
the opera stars of La Scala, Royal Opera, Munich Opera, the Bolshoi and the Met
for their recital programs and recordings, 2) teaching privately, 3) giving
master-classes and workshops to other teachers on a unique pedagogy approach
based on anatomy of the body, and 4) exploring (and performing!) all kinds of chamber
music, like the program today!
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