October 11th ZALON Program

Stephanie Ho & Saar Ahuvia

Pianists STEPHANIE HO and SAAR AHUVIA collaborate as DUO Stephanie & Saar in dazzling performances filled with visceral excitement, elegance and artistic vision. Recent career highlights include performances of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at NYC’s Lincoln Center and other venues in Tel Aviv, Sacramento, Portland and Providence, among others. They are regulars and audience favorites at NYC’s hip (le) poisson rouge, selling out every show they present at the club. They are founders and artistic directors of Makrokosmos Project, a critically acclaimed Oregon-based new music festival featuring dynamic American composers of our time including Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe and John Luther Adams, among others. As probing recording artists, the duo explores repertoire with concomitant classical and contemporary sensibilities. Beethoven Dialogues, their first album showcasing Beethoven Quartets in four hand transcriptions, was chosen as Album of the Week by NYC’s WQXR. Stephanie and Saar are the first piano duo to perform and record the complete Art of Fugue in four hands and two piano settings. Married to one another since 2005, Stephanie and Saar met by reading through Beethoven Quartet transcriptions, a project encouraged by Leon Fleisher. Outdoor enthusiasts, they can be found hiking backcountry trails along the peaks of the Pacific Northwest, or climbing granite boulders on the Appalachian Trail in the Northeast. 

Their website is [www.stephsaarduo.com] and link to New Focus Recordings to purchase their new album is [https://www.newfocusrecordings.com]

Link to PayPal for donations is saarahuvia@hotmail.com

Ella Gahnt & Aaron Graves

ELLA GAHNT is a Philly-based Jazz vocalist who has been dubbed “Philly’s Class Act” by local media and fans. She has “wowed” audiences at major venues and Jazz Festivals in the area for many years, and is the featured vocalist performing regularly with her own trio, with the Eric Mintel Quartet, The Clef Club Community Jazz Big Band, with The Philly/AC Connection, and with the 5-member vocal collective Sistahs Attune. On March 28,2019, Ella was honored by the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy at City Hall where she became a recipient of the “2019 Philly Celebrates Jazz Award.” Ella’s 3 CDs – “Immaculate Union,” “By Request” and her latest CD “Third Stage Of Elegance” are in rotation on WRTI-FM. “Third Stage of Elegance” showcases her songwriting abilities. Look out for Ella Gahnt – she’s traveling at the speed of swing!

Follow Ella on Facebook at [www.Facebook.com/ella.gahnt] and purchase her new CD “Third Stage of Elegance” on Amazon.com

Suzanne Teng & Gilbert Levy

SUZANNE TENG & GILBERT LEVY are married musical partners based in Santa Fe, NM.  They perform their own compositions on an array of flutes, strings and percussion instruments from around the world and have released five critically acclaimed albums that have won numerous awards including the Independent Music Awards (twice), International Acoustic Music Awards, Global Music Awards (gold medal), Los Angeles Music Awards, New Mexico Music Awards and most recently the Album of the Year award from the Native American Style Flute Awards for their newest release, Autumn Monsoon.  Learn more at mysticjourney.net

To send a donation directly: [http://paypal.me/SuzanneTeng]

Facebook page: [https://www.facebook.com/MysticJourneyMusic]

Website: mvsticjourney.net where you can buy CDs, sheet music, flutes and more!

Fourth Coast Ensemble

FOURTH COAST ENSEMBLE is a classical vocal quartet specializing in the unique style and repertoire of vocal chamber music.  Celebrated for "doing everything an organization can to sustain the viability of art song in Chicago" (Vocal Arts Chicago), Fourth Coast Ensemble embraces a repertoire that spans the history of the genre, from Schubert and Brahms to composers of the present day.  Founded in 2013, the ensemble commissioned its first world premiere song cycle in 2018, I-Thou, by Chicago composer Wayland Rogers.  In addition to producing its Chicago-area concert season, Fourth Coast has accepted festival residencies, led university panel discussions, and performed as guest artists throughout the Upper Midwest region.  The ensemble has earned a reputation of excellence "built on the quality of its small roster of artists" (VAC) - soprano Sarah van der Ploeg, mezzo-soprano Bridget Skaggs, tenor Ace Gangoso, and bass-baritone David Govertsen.  Fourth Coast Ensemble recorded music by Lori Laitman in 2020 for a future CD release, and will give the world premiere of a new vocal chamber work commissioned from composer and Salon founder Andrea Clearfield in 2021.

Here are several ways for the audience to support and stay in touch with us:

• Donate on our website: [http://www.fourthcoastensemble.com/give.html]

• Listen on our YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMwllqEFlicoz0t-2F3ZTDw]

• Subscribe to our blog: [http://www.fourthcoastensemble.com/blog]

Photo credit Elliot Mandel Photography.

Michal Schmidt

Israeli musician MICHAL SCHMIDT is a cellist and pianist active in Philadelphia area for many years. She studied in Tel Aviv, in London and in the US at the Curtis Institute, The University of the Arts and received her Doctorate in Music Performance at Temple University. In 2007, Michal created the series “Tribute” which mostly presents contemporary music repertoire by composers whom she knows personally.  The series has been ongoing for over ten years and has included events dedicated to Brahms, Beethoven, Schumann and Schubert. This year Michal is dedicating the season to the 10 violin sonatas of Beethoven in celebration of his 250th birthday. Michal teaches at Penn at the College House Music Program and at Haverford Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges. In the summers Michal is on the faculty of the Maine Chamber Music Seminar. She has performed with Network for New Music, Piano4, Trio Camille, Trio MiReSol and in Israel as a member of TIADAM trio. Miss Schmidt’s latest disc SOLA, which presents contemporary works for cello solo and piano solo was recently released.

Links:

Website:

[www.michalschmidt.com]

Newly released - Sola:

[https://michalschmidt.hearnow.com/]

Beethoven Violin Sonatas Recital:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Us7EC9hJ3mg]

From Twilight to Tarantella:

[https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Tarantella-Michal-Schmidt/dp/B00WL857C0]

Beethoven Cello Sonatas Marathon:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d0a_6kXKKVc]

[http://michalschmidt.hearnow.com/beethoven]

Venmo:

@Michal-Schmidt

Aaron Larget-Caplan

AARON LARGET-CAPLAN is usually an international recording and touring guitarist, who has premiered over 80 compositions, founded and directs ¡Con Fuego! a Spanish classical music & flamenco dance trio, and had his groundbreaking arrangements and recording of the music of John Cage issued by Edition Peters and Stone Records (UK). He has four, soon to be five, critically acclaimed solo discs, and is on faculty at University of Massachusetts Boston and formerly Boston Conservatory. Prior to the pandemic he received an award from the Société Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres of Paris, France for his trailblazing work in music, and was Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada.

Websites:

[www.ALCGuitar.com]

[www.NewLullabyProject.com] – New Album November/December!

Donation Links:

Tax Deductable: [https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/now-musique]

[PayPal.Me/alcguitar]

Albums:

Bandcamp (nicest!): [www.ALCGuitar.bandcamp.com]

Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=aaron+larget-caplan&ref=nb_sb_noss]

iTunes: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/aaron-larget-caplan/377044838]

Social Media

Faceboook : [www.facebook.com/alcguitar]

Twitter: @alcguitar

Instagram: @alcguitar

Kinan Abou-Afach & Thomas Kraines

KINAN ABOU-AFACH is a cellist, oud player, composer, and recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in 2013. The Syrian-born musician began his musical studies at the age of seven studying at the Arabic Institute of Music in Damascus, where he eventually joined the National Syrian Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Middle Eastern Ensemble. 

Cellist THOMAS KRAINES has forged a multifaceted career as a cellist and composer, equally comfortable with avant-garde improvisation, new music, and traditional chamber music and solo repertoire. Mr. Kraines is the cellist of the Daedalus Quartet and also frequently performs with the Network for New Music and the Philadelphia-based free-jazz groups The Great Blue Heron and Basquiat Blues.

Audience donations can be made to paypal.me/tomkraines (paypal) or @Tom-Kraines (venmo).

Michelle Lewis

Many performers live for applause. Michelle just wants to make you cry. If that sounds like a lot of despair, it isn't. The sad songs leave you smiling. Her joyful songs leave you in tears. As an artist, she lives for the paradox of the uplifting lament. Her sorrow is always a totem for love. Your tears flow for the strength of the bond not the pain of the fracture. This duality makes hers such a fascinating voice.

Website: [MichelleLewisMusic.com] (download music, buy CDs and merch here)

Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/michellelewismusic/]

Facebook: [https://www.facebook.com/MichelleLewisMusic]

Twitter: [https://twitter.com/michellelewis]

Donate on Venmo @Michelle-Lewis-Music or [paypal.me/MichelleLewisMusic]

Michelle is also offering personalized video and song dedications, online guitar lessons, private Zoom concerts and more. Get in touch at [michelle@michellelewismusic.com]