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Upcoming Classical Series Concerts:
Sunday, February 26th, – 3:00 p.m. Ramon Fermin, guitarRamon Fermin is a young American classical guitarist based in San Francisco, California, with concert credits throughout Europe and North America. Recent performance highlights include a program featuring guitar music of Toru Takemitsu, and the premiere of a newly commissioned arrangement by Daniel Price of Takashi Yoshimatsu’s Guitar Concerto “The Pegasus Effect” for guitar and piano. A passionate advocate for new music, Ramon was a featured electric guitar soloist in the world premiere of Dan Becker’s Doublespeak and recently premiered Aaron Pike’s “Impulses,” a guitar duo written for Ramon and Christopher Hague. In April 2011, Ramon was one of a handful of musicians chosen to perform in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Gala honoring the great Spanish guitarist Pepe Romero. He was a prize winner in the 2011 Sierra Nevada Guitar Competition. Ramon received his training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree under the acclaimed guitarist Marc Teicholz and graduated with departmental honors. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), earning a Bachelor of Music degree under John Dearman of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. His first guitar teachers were Eric Cabalo and Norris Large. He has participated in the Mediterranean Guitar Festival in Cervo, Italy, the Volterra Summer Guitar Institute in Tuscany, the Nurtingen International Guitar Festival in Germany, the New York Guitar Seminar at the Mannes School of Music, the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Oakland, and the Santa Barbara International Guitar Festival. Admission to this concert is $15. Kids under 16, free. Tickets are available now. Co-sponsored by Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Goleta. 
Sunday, March 25th, – 3:00 p.m. Grace Fong, piano, with Jacob Braun, celloIn December of 2010, pianist Grace Fong accompanied violinist Gilles Apap in a concert we are still talking about. This time, Ms. Fong returns to Song Tree with cellist Jacob Braun to perform a program of works by Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Korngold, and Piazzolla. Praised as “positively magical,” an artist of “rare eloquence and grace,” American pianist Grace Fong has gained critical acclaim for her solo, ensemble, and orchestral performances at major venues in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She has performed on the BBC, Cleveland’s WCLV-FM 104.9, KUSC 91.5 FM in Los Angeles, the “Emerging Young Artists” series in New York, and “Performance Today” on National Public Radio. Orchestra performances include the Halle Orchestra in the United Kingdom, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the Olympia Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shreveport Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia, and the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, among others. Described by one critic as “absolutely astounding—and now I’ve run out of praiseworthy adjectives,” Dr. Fong is a prizewinner of too many international competitions to list here. She is the winner of one of America’s most prestigious piano awards, the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship of the American Pianists Association in spring, 2009—the first female winner in twelve years. She won, as well, the Grand Prize in piano from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and was named a “Presidential Scholar in the Arts,” and was presented a medallion by President Clinton at the White House. She is currently the Director of Keyboard Studies at Chapman University Conservatory of Music; has served as guest artist and teacher at the Innsbrook Summer Festival, the New Hampshire Music Festival, the first Salt Spring Piano Festival, the Montecito Summer Festival 2008, and the Sitka Chamber Music Festival. A chamber music enthusiast, Dr. Fong frequently performs in chamber music settings, and is one of the founders of the Selvaggi Trio, described as a group “with technical brilliance, infectious energy and sheer enjoyment of making music.” Recently, Dr. Fong has embarked on a series of collaborations with dancers, filmmakers, fashion designers and artists, and also enjoys performing music that crosses the genres of classical, jazz and Latin lounge. She is a frequent guest artist with the group Pink Martini. Dr. Fong has also recently collaborated with dance choreographer Alicia Okouchi-Guy—whose credits include work with Prince, Paula Abdul, Married With Children, The Oprah Winfrey Show, MTV, the New York Knicks City Dancers—on a project entitled “Grace,” involving live solo piano and a dance trio. Recently, Dr. Fong was filmed and recorded in London for a music video for the award-winning C Music TV channel by award-winning film Director Mike Figgis. Dr. Fong can be seen on C Music TV as well as on the Alexander Toradze documentary on WNIT-TV and national PBS in 2010; and in 2011, can be heard on the Heinz label for a Starbucks CD release, and on RED label performing chamber works. 
A native of Lincoln, Massachusetts, Jacob Braun enjoys a multi-faceted career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He has earned praise as one of the most versatile, young cellists of his generation, a cellist with “a distinctly warm…and gorgeous dark tone” (The St. Louis Dispatch). Mr. Braun has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall as well as successful concert tours to Argentina, Brazil, China, Italy, Korea and The United Kingdom. Mr. Braun joined the Penderecki String Quartet in the fall of 2009 and is Professor/Artist in Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. With this ensemble, he has appeared worldwide, performing innovative new works as well as the classics. Before joining the Penderecki Quartet, Mr. Braun was a founding member of the Biava Quartet, winners of the 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Additionally, he has performed at the Library of Congress (Stradivari Anniversary Concert), live on BBC Radio 3 and La Jolla Summerfest. Mr. Braun has collaborated with many leading artists including Paul Katz, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ida Kavafian, Grace Fong, and members of the Brentano, Calder, Enso, Miami, Shanghai and Tokyo String Quartets. He has appeared at The Chicago Cultural Center live on WFMT radio, with Canadian prodigy Jan Lisiecki at a UNICEF benefit in Calgary, Lake Luzerne Music Center and The Missouri River Valley Festival. Mr. Braun has performed Concerti with the Symphony Pro Musica, The Brockton Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra and The Lake Luzerne Music Center Festival Orchestra. He received his degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music (B.M. 02), The New England Conservatory (M.M. 04) and Yale University (A.D. 06), studying with Richard Aaron, Paul Katz, Mark Churchill, Andres Diaz, Aldo Parisot, and Clive Greensmith respectively. While studying at Yale University, Mr. Braun served as a teaching assistant to The Tokyo String Quartet and taught undergraduate students privately. Mr. Braun plays on a Antonius Mariani cello made circa 1619. Link to Grace Fong’s web site Link to Jacob Braun’s web site Admission to this concert is $15. People under 16, free. Tickets are available now. Co-sponsored by Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Goleta. | |
