Meet the four artists coming into your home on Sunday Nov. 29th (& beyond)...

We are so grateful that one of our Listen For Life teen volunteers, award-winning 17-year-old pianist Josie Chan, took it upon herself to re-invent our live Notes for Nourishment concerts as online broadcasts this year - some have been livestream, and others have been filmed video productions of live (socially distanced!) rehearsals or performances. It's made for a surprisingly intimate experience, though obviously in a totally different way from sharing live concerts together in a particular venue - but the biggest "plus" is that all of our concerts, artists and causes can now have a worldwide audience; we have the joy of bringing both internationally renowned and emerging young artists into your homes, no matter where you live. 

So if you would like to know just a teeny bit about the four renowned performers coming to you this Sunday, November 29th, here are their bios (in alphabetical order):

Philip Brezina 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 still a student there, his quartet was selected to lead the inaugural chamber music outreach program, an idea designed to bring music education to under-privileged youth in the region. Philip then received his Masters Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying under Ian Swensen.   He and his wife and two young sons now divide their time between Mexico and San Franciso. In addition to being a sought-after violinist for solo recitals, concert series, chamber music and orchestral repertoire, Philip tours internationally as a fiddler in the highly popular bluegrass band, The Brothers Comatose. He plays gypsy violin in another ensemble, and also works as a studio recording artist with the Magik Magik orchestra. But most importantly, he is the beloved Principal Second Violin chair (and a frequent soloist) for all concerts and recordings of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra under Maestra Barbara Day Turner.                

Philip has generously given of his time to rehearse and perform with pianist Donna Stoering and other instrumentalists in several Notes for Nourishment concerts over the past few years, raising funds for a variety of causes and nonprofits. He has also just recorded his first solo classical CD, which will be released in 2021. Website: PhilipBrezina.com  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Evan Kahn currently holds principal positions in four orchestras: principal cello in Symphony Silicon Valley and in Opera San Jose, and assistant principal cello in San Jose Chamber Orchestra and West Bay Opera. He is also resident cellist for several Bay Area music collectives such as After Everything, Mythica Foundation and a hip-hop band, Ensemble Mik Nawooj. Intensely passionate about music of non-Western cultures, he has commissioned and premiered over 50 cello works by composers from around the world.
Evan graduated with honors from Carnegie Mellon University and then received a Masters Degree in chamber music at SFCM, studying with Jennifer Culp. Other major teachers or mentors have included Paul Hersh, Amos Yang, Ian Swensen, Bonnie Hampton, Darrett Adkins, Timothy Lo, David Premo, and artists of the Brentano, Borromeo and Shanghai Quartets. As a soloist, Evan has performed cello concerti with numerous orchestras and festivals, served as Artist-in-Residence with Performance Today on NPR, and in February 2019 was named Musical America's "New Artist of the Month".  

Instagram: evankahnk Website: evandkahn.com 

Erin Nolan, violist  currently holds the role of Scholarship and Recruitment Manager at NPR’s "From the Top", the national radio program featuring incredible young musicians ages 8-18. She has been part of the From the Top family for 8.5 years and loves every minute of it! Like most violists, Erin began her studies on violin, but grew wise at the age of 11, chose to focus on viola exclusively, and had the wonderful opportunity to work with Ivo-Jan van der Werff from the age of 12. Having grown up largely in Italy and England, Erin received the majority of her training in Europe. She came to the States at the age of 18 to study at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music with James Dunham of the Cleveland String Quartet. As a performer, Erin returned to England after her university studies and worked primarily as a chamber and orchestral musician based in London. She performed and toured extensively as a violist in the English Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Erin trained with the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Cleveland String Quartets, and in 2004, performed in four Carnegie Hall performances with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project.  Erin’s love of joining other musicians, whether through classical music, prayer music, improvisation, or traditional music of other cultures, has led to her performing with diverse groups throughout Europe and the USA, as well as in Lebanon, Panama, Bosnia, and Croatia. She currently lives in Salt Lake City where she teaches at the Gifted Music School and immensely enjoys the mountains and the beautiful surrounding nature.

Erin and pianist Donna Stoering recently released a CD of instrumental improvisations, entitled "Against the Noise" on the Acis label (https://againstthenoise.hearnow.com/) and this December they are scheduled to record a follow-up collection of improvisations on Christmas carols and other holiday melodies from around the world.                                                       

 
               
 Donna Stoering is an international award-winning recording artist, concert  pianist, educator, social entrepreneur, composer, vocal soloist, and TEDx  presenter who founded the global nonprofit Listen For Life when she was  serving as an Artistic Ambassador for both the UK and USA to countries  worldwide. A Marshall Scholar, she spent many years in Europe serving as  Artist in Residence at Oxford University and the University of York, as well as giving masterclasses at the major music conservatories around the globe and judging international piano competitions held in Russia, Italy, UK, USA, Canada, and other countries. Her own teachers and mentors included renowned recording artists Lili Kraus, Philippe Entremont and Sir Georg Solti, but the primary influences on her playing were her first and last teachers, Joyce Grantham and Mary Sauer (famed keyboardist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), respectively.                                                    

As a classical artist, Donna has performed concerti with major conductors, orchestras and music festivals around the world, and solo recitals in all of the famed concert halls. She also enjoys playing chamber music with renowned instrumentalists from all music cultures, and performing duo-recitals with major international opera stars of La Scala, the Met, the Bolshoi, Munich Opera, the Royal Opera, and many more. (A recent, as yet unreleased recording of Rachmaninov Romances with Russian counter-tenor Andrey Nemzer has been getting tremendous industry acclaim, and she just finished filming two different TV/video specials with Frederica von Stade.....Donna is always looking for exciting new collaborative projects, so get in touch!) .                                                                                

Donna has been the focus of one-hour specials on BBC Radio, Hong Kong Radio and Television, PBS and NPR stations, and the national networks of numerous countries, from Panama to Turkmenistan. She has performed and hosted programs about classical music on the national  television and radio networks of many countries, and was offered her own 24/7 channel on new digital networks in Asia and Europe; she is in current discussions with digital networks in the USA about a series based on one of her current projects within Listen for Life.  She won a Telly Award for her international TravelsWithMusic series, now available online.   

Donna has become a sought-after artistic director and producer for music festivals and new performing arts series while hosting podcasts, radio shows and television programs sharing the music and musicians of all cultures. She continues to teach piano and voice, give master-classes on “playing from the core” worldwide, release new recordings and perform concerts, lead international retreats for musicians, and serve as acting Executive Director for ListenForLife, now an all-volunteer global organization with the mission of "inspiring and empowering musicians of all ages and cultures to use their gifts in the service of others".  Donna serves as co-director and/or volunteer on their many projects, including the Notes for Nourishment concerts.

(Contact: Donna Stoering on FB & LinkedIn.Webpage: https://www.listenforlife.org/donna-stoering.html

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SO - are you ready to bring these four interesting artists into your home? Here is the link to access the broadcast at 7pm PST on Sunday November 29th (or anytime after that date as well, if you can't make it then): 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwGL8qIvuZCgCquLTUc_7pQ/

Attachments areaYou just have to figure out the relevant start time for your own time zone, and if that makes it 3am or something, don't stay up for it! Once our broadcast has completed, the video recording of that broadcast will then be available (we hope, forever) on our "LFL NotesForNourishment"  YouTube channel (search by concert title and/or broadcast date).