ORCHESTRALPROGRAM
Alex Klein
Artistic Director, Oboe professor and performer, orchestra conductor
Calgary, Canada.
Grammy-Winning Oboist.
DePaul University, Femusc, Aspen Chamber Symphony.
Biografia
Recognized as one of today’s leading oboists, Alex Klein began his musical studies in his native country at the age of 9, continuing at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Klein holds a Grammy Award for his recording of Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Klein was Oboe Soloist in Chicago for 9 years under Barenboim, and in 2017 was awarded the title of Oboe Soloist Emeritus by current Music Director Riccardo Muti. Klein has won prizes at international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, New York and Prague, and is regularly invited to judge international competitions at these institutions as well as in England, China and Russia.
Klein left his position at the Chicago Symphony due to complications related to musicians’ focal dystonia, a neurological condition that inhibits two fingers on his left hand. During his convalescence, Klein dedicated his musical career to advancing young talent from Latin America and neglected communities, founding FEMUSC in 2006, the São Paulo International Chamber Music Festival in 2009, and PRIMA – Program for Social Inclusion through Music and Arts in 2012. Klein also served as an orchestra conductor in front of the main Brazilian orchestras as well as in the United States, Europe and was the first Brazilian to lead one of the main orchestras in China. After re-learning the oboe and sufficiently overcoming the limitations of focal dystonia, Klein auditioned for his previous position and returned to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in what Chicago Magazine called “one of the greatest comebacks in classical music”.
Today, Alex Klein is an Oboe Soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Canada, as well as an oboe professor at DePaul University, Chicago, also teaching/performing at Aspen, Buzzards Bay, Sunflower, Atlantic Music Festival, and is regularly invited to teach master classes and recitals at North American universities.
Klein has recorded dozens of albums with the Chicago Symphony and as a soloist and chamber musician, to critical acclaim. His latest CD, released this year on Cedille Records, featuring 20th century sonatas for oboe and piano, was nominated for a Grammy for “Producer of the Year” and was praised by critic David Canfield for Fanfare Magazine: “In my opinion, playing the oboe It just doesn’t get any better than that.”
Richard Roberts
Violin professor and performer, instructor with Serioso Project
Montreal, Canada.
Spalla, Orquestra Sinfônica de Montreal, Canadá
Biografia
Assistant Professor of violin at McGill University, Richard Roberts is currently serving as concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his Montreal appointment, he was for eight years assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra under conductor Lorin Maazel.
Mr. Roberts received his early violin tutelage with the distinguished teacher Norman Carol, and at the age of seventeen, made his debut as soloist with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole with Stanislow Skrowaczewski conducting. He then pursued studies at Indiana University where he studied violin with Josef Gingold, and chamber music with Janos Starker and William Primrose.
He has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals in Canada, South America, Australia, the United States, and Europe, as well as performances with the orchestras of Minnesota, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Montreal, and many others. He has performed the entire cycle of Bach’s Sonata and Partitas for violin alone at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and was a frequent lecturer in the Cleveland Orchestra pre-concert lecture series.
As a teacher, Richard Roberts has served on the faculties of the University of Minnesota, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec. The 2017-18 season will see Prof. Roberts performing on stages in Japan, Canada, the United States, and Brazil. He also serves as an editor for Ovation Press.
Norberto Garcia
Violin professor, conductor of Sinfonietta, script writer for Family Concerts
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Spalla, Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional da Argentina.
Biografia
Born in Buenos Aires, he studied music at the “Manuel de Falla” Municipal Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires, graduating with the title of Superior Professor of Music with a specialization in Violin. From then on he continued his violin studies under the direction of maestro Humberto Carfi, also participating in the seminars he dictated in the cities of San Juan, Mendoza, and Rocas de Santo Domingo (Chile). He attended a refresher course with Maestro Ricardo Bréngola at the Accademia Chiggiana in Siena (Italy), thanks to an OAS scholarship.
He won first prizes in the Armonicus Selection of Buenos Aires (1974), Young Soloists City of Santa Fe and Young Soloists City of Mar del Plata. Both in 1982.
He was a member of the following orchestras: Radio Nacional Juvenil, San Juan Symphony, and Buenos Aires Philharmonic. He held the position of Concertmaster in the Córdoba Symphony Orchestra during the 1980 season. He was concertmaster of the Buenos Aires Opera House Orchestra. He is currently substitute concertmaster in the National Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of the city of Olavaria (Province of Bs. As.). He offered numerous recitals as a soloist, and integrating various chamber groups in the most important venues in our country.
He performed as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Córdoba Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Mendoza Symphony Orchestra, Mar del Plata Symphony Orchestra, San Juan Symphony Orchestra, Tucumán Symphony Orchestra, Resistencia Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the City of Asuncion. (Paraguay).
At the same time, he has developed an intense pedagogical activity, having been a professor at the National University of San Juan and at the Provincial Conservatories of Córdoba and Chascomús. He was coordinator of the School of Bow Instruments “Humberto Carfi” of the Fundación Pro Arte de Córdoba, founded in 1983 by Maestro Humberto Carfi. He gave training and improvement courses in the provinces of Catamarca, Salta, Chaco, Entre Ríos, Río Negro (Bariloche Musical Camping), Chubut, Buenos Aires.
He is currently professor of violin and chamber music at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in the city of Buenos Aires, where he is also director of the string orchestra; Violin teacher at the Conservatory of the city of San Martín, and director of its symphony orchestra.
He is frequently summoned by associations such as “Cultrum” or “Asociación Argentina de Compositores” to premiere works by Argentine composers in concerts and recordings.
Since 1996, he has participated in the Music Festivals of the cities of Cascavel and Campos dos Goytacazes (Brazil), as a violin teacher, director and as a soloist in numerous recitals.
He participated as a guest professor at music festivals in Curitiba-Brazil from 2002 to 2005.
He currently teaches courses for the area of strings and is guest director of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the National University of Misiones.
He also in the cities of Encarnación and Asunció del Paraguay where he is guest director of the Camerata Miranda. And since 2006 he is the artistic director of the Mamorei musical campsite.
Charles Stegeman
Violin professor and performer
Pittsburgh, EUA.
Spalla, Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, EUA.
Biografia
Charles Stegeman, violin, was born in Canada. He made his recital debut at age seven in Banff (Alberta, Canada) with Boris Roubakine (pianist of Hubay) and debuted as soloist with the Banff Festival Orchestra at age nine. He was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 13 where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree by the age of 20, including academic coursework at prestigious Haverford College.
Stegeman continued his formal music education at the Juilliard School where he earned a Master’s Degree in Music Performance and worked toward an Artist Diploma. Stegeman’s teachers include Esther Glazer, Paul Stassevitch, Ivan Galamian, Nathan Milstein, Jaime Laredo, David Cerone, Paul Makanovitsky, Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Zvi Zeitlin, Joseph Fuchs, Stuart Canin, and Sally Thomas.
In the area of chamber music, he studied with Mischa Schneider (Budapest Quartet), Isadore Cohen, Manahem Pressler (Beaux Arts Trio), Felix Galimir, Michael Tree, David Soyer (Guarneri String Quartet), Donald McInnes, Janos Starker, William Primrose, Zara Nelsova, Ruggiero Ricci, and Zoltan Szekely to name only a few. He attended several International Summer Music Festivals such as the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara, CA), the Banff School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta), the Meadowmount School of Music (Westport, NY), the Ravel Festival (St. Jean de Luz, France), and the International Master Classes with Nathan Milstein (Zurich, Switzerland).
Stegeman has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in many countries including Canada with the Vancouver Symphony with Gerard Schwarz conducting, France with the Toulouse Orchestre Symphonique with Jan Pascal Tortellier conducting, RTB Orchestra in Belgium with Serge Baudo conducting, the U.S. with the Kansas City Symphony with Bill McLaughlin conducting, and with the New York Chamber Players in Gramercy Park also with Bill McLaughlin conducting, as well as in all the festivals he performs with currently. He is much sought after as a master class clinician to teach classes internationally at institutions such as El Systema, Venezuela, The Beijing Central Conservatory (Beijing, China) FEMUSC Brazil.
Stegeman has appeared as a Columbia Artist performer for 10 years with the Canterbury and Sartory Piano Trios with David Allen Wehr. Other chamber music collaborations include Cynthia Phelps and Carter Brey (Principal Violist and Cellist of the NY Philharmonic respectively), Zara Nelsova, Peter Salaff (Cleveland Quartet), Jennifer Langham, Gerome Lowenthal (The Juilliard School), Henri Temiyanka, Don McInnes, Ron Leonard (The Colburn School and former principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Nico Abondolo, Richard O’Neill, Paul Coletti, Timothy Cobb (Principal Bass of the Metropolitan Opera of NY), and the Takacs Quartet.
While working towards his Doctorate at the University of Michigan, Stegeman accepted a joint position with the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the Kansas City Symphony as Concertmaster and Artist in Residence. A winner of five national competitions and one international violin competition (CMC in Montreal), Mr. Stegeman averages approximately 50 concerts a year as Concertmaster, Chamber Musician, and Soloist in North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and The Caribbean.
Well known for his artistic vision in the creation of music festivals, Stegeman has founded, co-founded, or advised several festivals including the Western Slope Music Festival (Crested Butte, CO), the Sunflower Music Festival (Topeka, KS), Buzzards Bay Music Festival (Cape Cod, MA), and Music Fest Midwest (Kansas City, KS). He also serves as Concertmaster at international festivals such as the St. Barth’s Music Festival in the French West Indies, the Music Academy of the West (2000–2003), the French/American Chamber Ensemble in the Cher Valley, France (1991–1997), the Canadian National Repertory Orchestra in Hamilton, Ontario, and the FEMUSC Festival in Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Stegeman has been involved in the raising of millions of dollars to support classical music at his festivals and serves on boards that promote chamber music and the musical arts.
He has performed for an estimated 4–5 million people on 4 continents and has averaged almost 60 concerts a year for the past 50 years.
Stegeman resides in Pittsburgh, where he chaired the string area at Duquesne University for 25 years and was Chair of the Performance Department for three years. He also holds the position of Concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In addition, Stegeman was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Director of Orchestral Instrumental Study at Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA) from 2001 to 2014 and is the Concertmaster of Andrea Bocelli’s west-coast tours, a position he has enjoyed for the last 15 years.
Regularly heard on NPR, he plays a Nicolo Gagliano violin dated 1776 and an Arcus Cadenza carbon-fiber bow. He is married to Rachel Stegeman, an accomplished internationally heard violinist in her own right, and has four children Luke, Michael, Gabrielle, and Adam, and a Westie named Duncan.
Ole Bøhn
Violin professor and performer
Pittsburgh, EUA.
Professor, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia
Biografia
Ole Böhn has pursued an extensive career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Since his debut in 1969, he has performed regularly with orchestras in Europe, the US and South America. In 1983 he toured the People’s Republic of China.
He has collaborated with conductors such as Moshe Atzmon, Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Lukas Foss, Michael Giehlen, Marek Janowski, Franz Welser-Möst, and Oliver Knussen, and is a frequent performer on radio and television world-wide. In 1990 he gave the world premiere of Elliott Carter’s violin concerto with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and has since performed this concerto, which was written for and dedicated to him, with the leading orchestras in Europe and the United States.
Ole Böhn’s repertoire ranges from the baroque to the present day and he is regarded as one of the leading interpreters of American contemporary music in Scandinavia. He has taught at the Royal Danish Conservatory and at the Conservatory of Music in Oslo; given classes at the Eastman School of Music, Hart School of Music, the Norwegian State Academy of Music, Gedai Institute, Tokyo, and the University of Northern Illinois; and for several years conducted summer classes at the Officina da Musica de Curitiba, Brazil.
Ole Böhn has studied under Louise Behrend at the Juilliard School of Music, with Ernst Glaser in Oslo, Henry Holst at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music, and with Max Rostal at the Statliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.
He is the concertmaster of the Norwegian National Opera and has previously held a similar position with the Copenhagen Symphony Orchestra, and worked for shorter periods as concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro del Fenice in Venice, Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, the Residentie Orchestra in Den Haag, Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, The Beethoven Orchestra, Bonn and the Hamburg State Opera. Ole Böhn uses a violin made in 1766 by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. It was acquired for his use by Nordea Bank of Norway. He joined the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as Associate Professor in 2009.