34-YEAR ZALON ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM!

Qin Qian & Adam Vidiksis

Qin Qian is a professional erhu player and teacher in Philadelphia. As a child, she learned to play accordion and erhu from her father. When she was 14, she joined the Performing Arts Troupe of Guigang City in Guangxi Province, China, as an erhu and violin player.  She entered the Guangxi Art College, majoring in erhu performance. She has worked as an erhu performer and teacher as well as the music program editor, reporter, and program host for the Nanning radio station in Guangxi Province where she interviewed many famous musicians in China. She has authored two books: "My Dreams Soar With Music" (2003), and "A Musical Journey in America" (2005).  She released her first CD in 2005, "A Romantic Musical Journey," which featured her work on the erhu and monochord, and for which she received wide attention from music lovers in China. In 2005, she immigrated to the U.S., where she continued her efforts in promoting Chinese music. She has partnered with many Western musicians to perform on the erhu and other Chinese instruments in concerts featuring different musical styles, including classical, jazz, opera, and pop. The concerts have taken place in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Australia. Qin Qian twice received the Outstanding Teacher Award at the Princeton International Chinese Music Competition, Princeton University where her students won top prizes. [ http://qinqianerhu.com]

Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission to serve as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work by Gene Coleman during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, President and founding member of SPLICE Music, which includes the annual Institute, Academy, and Festival, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Temple Composers Orchestra and the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). He produces real-time generative improvised electronic music (Circadia) alongside his longtime friend and collaborator Rajeev Maddela (Currency).  [www.vidiksis.com]

Umer Piracha

NY-based Sufi Vocalist Umer Piracha is a classically trained singer, teacher and translator of ancient Sufi (mystical/spiritual) poetry and music, that originated in the royal courts of 14th century India (and present day Pakistan). His recent accomplishments include performing at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Raga-Jazz act "Charu Suri & Friends", and being featured on NY Public Radio's "New Sounds", as part of his Sufi Fusion ensemble "Falsa": https://www.newsounds.org/story/4355-qawwali-influence/

Direct Donation: http://paypal.me/falsamusic

Album for Purchase: falsamusic.bandcamp.com

Mailing List: https://www.falsamusic.com/list

Social Media(Fb-IG): @falsamusic

Jordan Dodson

Performance Today describes classical guitarist Jordan Dodson as “one of the top young guitarists of his generation.” A winner of Astral’s 2013 National Auditions, he is an active soloist and chamber musician based in New York and Philadelphia. He has also received awards from the 2011 Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, the 2010 Indiana International Guitar Competition, and the 2008 American String Teachers Association Competition. In 2013, he was a Young Artist in Residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today. An advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Dodson has commissioned and premiered dozens of pieces internationally, including works by Elliot Cole, Andrea Clearfield, Paul Lansky, Robert Sirota, and Gabriella Smith. He performs in several New York City chamber ensembles including Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and Contemporaneous, and he recently collaborated with such acclaimed artists as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Ransom Wilson. He can be heard on the album Subject on Tzadik Records. In the fall of 2011, Mr. Dodson was one of two students selected to inaugurate the Curtis Institute of Music’s classical guitar studio, bringing to the school not only a new instrument, but also new repertoire and new possibilities for music-making. Curtis Dean John Mangan said Dodson fulfilled the school’s need for “ambassadors for the instrument and its repertoire who could create interest among their peers, along with a desire to collaborate.” [www.jordandodson.net]

KAYOUNG AN

Pianist KAYOUNG AN gave a performance at the Seoul Art Center with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie. Critics described her performance as “passionate”, “expressive”, “bold” and “sensitive”.  It was further described as “penetrated deep into the heart, evoking an image of an artist painting on a canvas with a brush” (Music Review, August 2017). AN has appeared as a soloist with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Symphony Orchestra, ClM Orchestra, Phil-harmonians, Amadeo Philharmonic to name few.  Her performances have been broadcasted on Cogeco TV, KBS Radio FM 1 (Musical Common ground) and KBSTV (Music Anchor Desk). She has also been interviewed internationally by Lusiter, Music Today, Music Journal and the East Hampton Star.  The first prize winner of the New York International Artists Association Piano competition, AN made a debut in Weill Carnegie Recital Hall in 2013. She has also been a top-prizewinner in numerous national and international competitions, including IBLA Grand Prize International competition, Paris International Competition, Kiwanis Music competition, Korea All-States National, Darius Milhaud Performance Prize, Duxbury Chamber Competition, CIM (Cleveland Institute of Music) Concerto Competition, Kumho Young Artist, and Ujung Rising Star Auditions. She has earned piano performance degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM), the New England Conservatory (MM), the Colburn Conservatory of Music (AD) and Manhattan School of Music (DMA). Dr. Kayoung An is currently a faculty member of the New Jersey City University (NJCU).

 Visit www.kayoungan.com
www.facebook.com/pianistkayoung
https://www.instagram.com/anka.brava/

Roberto Minondi

Roberto Minondi was born in Quilmes, a town near Buenos Aires, on November 7, 1981.

His artistic career started in 2001, participating in peñas [open mic gatherings] and festivals throughout Buenos Aires province. He was invited by the Cultural Secretary of Avellaneda [a township South of Buenos Aires] to be part of their artistic team, with events in several local theaters and concert halls, including Teatro Colonial and Teatro Roma, and sharing the stage with major musical figures, like Raúl Lavié, Guillermo Fernández, Jairo, Ernesto Baffa and Argentino Luna. He was part of the cast of the show Tango de Esquina Carlos Gardel for about five years. He was also part of the cast of Solo Tango, which he shared with María Graña. He played daily in the Tango Show of the famous Café Tortoni, as well as Tango Porteño.

Currently he is the male singer of the orchestras Romántica Milonguera and Tango Bardo, participating in tours throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Elizabeth Kaderabek

Elizabeth Kaderabek grew up in a musical family, as the oldest child of retired Philadelphia Orchestra principal trumpet Frank Kaderabek's 5 children. She began studying the violin at age 6 with the famous concertmaster and teacher Mischa Mischakoff. In high school she had hoped to go into medicine, but wound up studying philosophy before returning to Philadelphia and enrolling at the Philadelphia Musical Academy as a student of William De Pasquale. Liz loves to travel, and has been all over the world, mostly through her music. In 1984&5 she was the concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival, both in South Carolina and Italy. For 10 years she was a member of the New York City Opera National Co., the last 3 as concertmaster, and spent 3 months each year bringing opera to small college towns across the United States. In 2015 she was in China with Orchestra 2001 performing several premiers, including Andrew Rudin's solo violin work Canapés. The past 26 years she has spent her summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a member of the Santa Fe Opera, which has spawned a love of camping, hiking, mountain-biking and yoga. In Philadelphia, Liz is the assistant principal second violinist with the Chamber Orchestra, a first violinist with the Pennsylvania Ballet and Opera Company, as well as a regular substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She also has an active private teaching studio. 

Sonam Lhamo

Sonam Lhamo was a performer for the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. She is dedicated and passionate about Tibetan cultural preservation; she has been teaching Tibetan songs, dances and music classes at the Himalayan Language and Cultural Program weekly since 2020. Her contribution is very meaningful because her dance and music classes serve as a medium to engage second-generation Himalayan-American children in promoting Tibetan culture. She joined the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in 1995 where she studied Tibetan songs, music and dance. She has performed in many cities in India, and toured major cities in Switzerland, Canada, France, Austria and the United States. In New York, she has performed in many important venues including Lincoln Theatre, Rubin Museum, Javits Center and The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art. She plays dranyen (lute), gyumang (hammered dulcimer) and has been teaching Tibetan song, music and dance since 2001. One of her performances can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svG-qBW76tM

For information about Sonam Lhamo’s recordings and projects, please contact contacthlcp@gmail.com or Himalayan Language & Culture Program

MaD DuO – Pamela Madsen and Eric Dries

The MaD Duo performs works from modern classical experimental to Deep Listening to jazz. Exploring the cross-over of collaboration in the spirt of the Mad Doctors that they are, composers, pianists, improvisors, theorists, archival researchers, dream curators and electronic experimentalists, they harvest the past to re-contextualize the present, creating new sonic landscape works. At home in all genres collectively they bring an exploration of diversity in their work. 

Pamela Madsen is a composer, performer, theorist and curator of new music. From massive landscape inspired projects, intimate chamber music creations to multi-media opera collaborations and immersive deep listening works her work focuses on image, music, text and the environment. With a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCSD, Mellon Foundation Doctoral Research Award at Yale University, Post-Doctoral researcher at IRCAM, Paris, and Deep Listening Certificate with Pauline Oliveros, her works have been commissioned and premiered world-wide. Selected as an Alpert Award Panelist, Creative Capital artist “on the radar” with awards from National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, Meet the Composer, American Scandinavian Foundation, Fellowships from MacDowell, UCross and Women’s International Studies Center, Santa Fe, she is a frequent guest lecturer, composer-performer-improviser and at festivals and universities. Currently, commissioned Artist-in-Residence for the City of Laguna Beach, she is curator of the Annual New Music Festival, Director of the New Music Ensemble and InterArts Collaborative Projects at Cal State Fullerton School of Music where she is Professor of Music Composition. www.pamelamadsenmusic.com 

Eric Dries is a pianist, improviser, composer and educator who explores the innovative fields between traditional jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music. His work explores a wide range of stylistic practices from jazz and contemporary music worlds in diverse performance situations. Dries has performed and recorded with some of the top studio and freelance musicians in southern California where he is in high demand at high profile performance venues. His current compositional work combines the rigor of compositional technique with improvised frameworks of traditional jazz and experimentalism of new music to create systems of group dynamics that encourage performer-composer collaboration and new sonic exploration in each performance. Dr. Dries holds a Ph.D. in Composition from University of California San Diego, with post-doctoral studies and research in Music Technology at IRCAM. Dries currently is a Lecturer in Music composition, theory, jazz, and music technology at California State University Fullerton School of Music. www.driesmusic.com

Swing That Cat

Swing That Cat is a sonic cocktail of Jump, Jive and Wail!

Take Early Rock ’n Roll, swizzle in some Horny Swing, add a dash of Cabaret, and a splash of Bourbon Street. Shake into a hypnotic expression of the rhythm, jump, and rumble, and then leap off your seat and dance your tail off!

Led by Michele Peraino, a modern-day Rita Hayworth meets Catwoman, and vocals that blend the sultry tones of Sarah Vaughan and Rosemary Clooney, with the whisper and howl of Etta James. The band is Hugh Luck (Flute), Chris Peraino (Guitar), Styx Latte (Drums), Sam Harasink (Bass), Rick Yensen (Multiple Horns), Jonathan Episcopo (Trombone) and David Graham (Tenor Sax).  We all consider the Philly area our home. 

Since 2013 Swing That Cat has been earning their stripes at more than 50 festivals and 300 shows in the Mid Atlantic US and selected as a finalist in PHL Live Jazz competition and the WSTW Hometown Heroes as Best Frontperson and Best Live Band.Their first album, “3 to Get Ready, 4 to Go!” was recorded live and featured on radio, podcasts and streams around the world. Swing That Cat is preparing their next album for release in late 2020.

Please find us, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram, as well as joining our email list.

  i.    www.swingthatcat.band
 ii.    meow@swingthatcat.band
iii.    Facebook.com/swingthatcat
 iv.    Instagram.com/swing_that_cat

Swing That Cat can be found on Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes,  Google Play, Amazon, and CD Baby.
Donations/Tips can be made through Paypal at merch@swingthatcat.band