Violinist Michaela Paetsch and The B’s

Please join us for an evening of great music with internationally renowned
Swiss concert violinist, Michaela Paetsch.

Also, composers Peter Biro and Ofer Ben-Amots will introduce their works and take questions and comments from the audience. Classically Alive attendees have always loved this
“Meet The Composer” opportunity.

In addition to these exciting, colorful and provocative works of today’s composers,
the program will include works by the immortal composers, Bach and Brahms.
The great violinist, Yehudi Menuhin, refers to the Bach Chaconne for solo violin that opens our program,
as the single greatest work for solo violin in the history of music.
And concluding the program is the Brahms D Minor Violin Sonata, one the great masterpieces for violin and piano,
filled with incredible beauty, poetry and passion.

This is evening’s program will be recorded and aired later on KCME, our local classical radio station.
Classically Alive is honored to have George Preston, KCME General Manager,
talk briefly about KCME and his vision going forward.
Since moving here in 2013, George has done so much for our arts community.

PROGRAM

Chaconne from the Partita in D minor Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
for solo violin, BWV 1004
Michaela Paetsch, violin

Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (2013) Peter Biro (b. 1960)
I: Mon coeur, ce ne saigne plus
II: Tierces graves
III: Menuet consolant
IV: Les sphinxes visitée de nouveau
V: Final: énergique
Michaela Paetsch, violin
Peter Biro, piano

Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (2014) Peter Biro
I: Con una forza bruta animale e senz’espressione
II: INTERSTELLAR
III: Allegro
Michaela Paetsch, violin
Peter Biro, piano

INTERMISSION

Midnight Dance for Violin and Piano (1996) Ofer Ben-Amots (b. 1955)
Michaela Paetsch, violin
Peter Biro, piano

Akëda for Solo Piano (2000) Ofer Ben-Amots
Abe Minzer, piano

Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Opus 108 Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Allegro
Adagio
Un poco presto e con sentimento
Presto agitato
Michaela Paetsch, violin
Abe Minzer, piano

—

BIOS

Violinist Michaela Paetsch, her playing has been described as “gloriously charged beguilingly velvety” (The Strad). Her captivating artistry is celebrated for its high energy and personal engagement. She grew up in a musical family on a mountain in Colorado Springs. “Making music with my family chamber ensemble was the most important part of my development as a performing artist,” Michaela says. “I grew as a soloist as well as a chamber musician. These experiences set me up for life! This family chamber ensemble still exists – in extended form, and has performed in Colorado as well as in Europe.”

Michaela Paetsch has garnered international attention and numerous awards, including first prize in the G.B. Dealey International Competition, a bronze medal in the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, and the prize for the Russian Composition in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Michaela has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in the major musical centers of the world, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fischer Hall, and the Library of Congress (in Washington, D.C.). She has played in major music festivals such as Marlboro (Vermont), Davos (Switzerland), Brandenburg Summer Concerts (Berlin), Banff (Canada), Boulder Bach Festival, “Mostly Mozart” in New York, the Rhein-Sieg and the Niederrhein Chamber Music Festivals (both in Germany).

She has collaborated with major orchestras throughout the world, including: the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Japan), the Philharmonics of Osaka (Japan), Seoul (Korea), Liége (Belgium) and Bergen (Norway); the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the BBC Symphony,among others. She has collaborated with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Dmitri Kitajenko, Horst Stein, and Myung-Whun Chung.

Her extensive discography began with the 1987 recording of the 24 Caprices by Niccolo Paganini for TELDEC, making her the first female performer to record the complete work. Die Zeit, a German newspaper, described the disc as a “sensation in the history of record-making.” Her TUDOR discs of the two violin Concertos by Joachim Raff with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and the Sonatillen, Op. 99 and Morceaux, Op. 85 with Eric Le Van on piano, enjoyed great critical acclaim. Other discs for TUDOR include “Brahms: 21 Hungarian Dances” and “La Capricieuse”. Michaela is featured soloist with the Bern Symphony Orchestra on the live recording of the “Offertorium” by Sofia Gubaidulina. She has also worked for Sony Classical, Arte Nova, cpo, and ARSIS.

Michaela began her musical studies at the age of three with her parents. At thirteen she participated in the Meadowmount School of Music with Ivan Galamian. She spent her college years with Szymon Goldberg at the Yale School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Composer/Pianist Peter Biro was born in Connecticut in 1960, being a descendant of Austro-Hungarians, some with imperial connections. He was educated in private school, including a Hungarian boarding school located in Bavaria, Germany, where he began his piano and musical studies at the advanced age of 10. He speaks fluent Hungarian, but has forgotten much of his once fluent German. He can also speak manageably in French and Italian.

In 1972, Peter began private piano study with the distinguished conductor, Antonia Brico in Denver, appearing as soloist in a Mozart piano concerto at age 15. He began studying organ with J. Julius Baird in Colorado Springs in 1975, giving his debut recital less than a year later. He graduated high school 3 years early, and received an academic scholarship to UCLA, where he majored in organ performance. While there, he garnered all the major performance prizes. He ended his graduating recital with one of his own compositions, an impressive toccata.

Soon after getting married in 1968, Peter changed his focus away from music to public school education. He taught elementary school for 21 years until leaving the profession in 2010. Meanwhile, he gave a series of recitals in Germany and Hungary in 1997 and 1998, premiering one of his piano compositions in Budapest.

Peter began composing seriously at age 13, and maintains that the compositional process is the most important activity in the art of music. He adores playing his violin and piano sonatas with the great Swiss violinist Michaela Paetsch. He loved the NFL and Rock 'n Roll, but hates atonal music and Brussels sprouts. He is the proud owner of a 1970's Rickenbacker bass guitar. He also operated a fully equipped woodworking shop. He builds harpsichords and clavichords, as well as more standard woodworking projects.

Peter Biro will premiere his Third Violin Sonata with Michaela Paetsch in Chicago this November.

No computers were used in the creation of these Peter Biro compositions.

Composer Ofer Ben-Amots, born in Haifa, Israel, in 1955, gave his first piano concert at age nine and at age sixteen was awarded first prize in the Chet Piano Competition. Later, following composition studies with Joseph Dorfman at Tel Aviv University, he was invited to study at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. There he studied with Pierre Wismer and privately with Alberto Ginastera. Ben-Amots is an alumnus of the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany, where he studied with Martin C. Redel and Dietrich Manicke and graduated with degrees in composition, music theory, and piano. Upon his arrival in US in 1987, Ben-Amots studied with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Ph.D. in music composition. Currently on the faculty of Colorado College, Dr. Ben-Amots is a Professor of music composition and theory.

Ofer Ben-Amots’ compositions are performed regularly in concert halls and festivals worldwide. His music has been performed by such orchestras as the Munich Philharmonic, ÖRF – Austrian Radio Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra, Zürich Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Moscow Camerata, Heidelberg, Erfurt, Brandenburg, the Filarmonici di Sicili, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Milan Chamber Orchestra, Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Springs Symphony among others. His compositions have been professionally recorded by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony, the BBC Singers, and the renowned Czech choir Permonik. Ben-Amots has received commissions and grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Maurice Amado Foundation, Schleswig-Holstein Music festival, Fuji International Music Festival in Japan, Delta Ensemble from Amsterdam, Assisi Musiche Festival, and many others.

Ofer Ben-Amots is the winner of the 1994 Vienna International Competition for Composers. His chamber opera, Fool’s Paradise, was premiered in Vienna during the 1994 festival Wien modern and has become subsequently part of the 1994/95 season of Opernhaus Zürich. He is recipient of the 1988 Kavannagh Prize for his composition Fanfare for Orchestra and the Gold Award at South Africa’s 1993 Roodepoort International Competition for Choral Composition. His Avis Urbanus for amplified flute was awarded First Prize at the 1991 Kobe International Competition for Flute Composition in Japan, and a required composition at the 1993 Kobe Flute Performance Competition. In 1999, Ben-Amots was awarded the Aaron Copland Award and the Music Composition Artist Fellowship by the Colorado Council on the Arts. In 2004 he won the Festiladino, an international contest for Judeo-Spanish songs, a part of the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. Dr. Ben-Amots is a member of the Advisory and the Editorial Boards of the Milken Foundation American-Jewish Music Archive. In addition, he is a Jerusalem Fellow of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity and its Artistic Director for North America since 1997.

Ofer Ben-Amots’ works have been repeatedly recognized for their emotional and highly personal expression. The interweaving of folk elements with contemporary textures, along with his unique imaginative orchestration, creates the haunting dynamic tension that permeates and defines Dr. Ben-Amots’ musical language. His music has been published by Baerenreiter, Kallisti Music Press, Muramatsu Inc., Dorn, and Tara Publications. It can be heard on Naxos, Vantage, Plæne, Stylton, and Music Sources recording labels. For more on Ofer Ben-Amots, please visit: http://OferBenAmots.com

Pianist Abe Minzer earned a master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, a doctorate in music at West Virginia University, and has taught at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD. He plays concerts throughout the US, and has appeared as piano soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Currently, Abe Minzer teaches piano, music history and music theory at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Also, Dr. Minzer is on the faculty at Pikes Peak Community College where he teaches Private Piano, Group Piano, Music Theory, and serves as staff pianist/accompanist.

Dr. Abe Minzer often performs works of living composers, including world premieres of compositions by Jorge Cardoso, Jim Bosse and Ofer Ben-Amots. For more information, please visit: http://ClassicallyAlive.com For more information on Abe Minzer – CDs, samples, reviews and comments, please visit: http://abeminzer.com

—

Under the sponsorship of the Pikes Peak Arts Council, Classically Alive hosts over 60 musicians and other artists, and features diverse monthly at-home music/arts salon concerts which include dinner and drinks. Founder, director, and pianist, Dr. Abe Minzer performs along with many top musicians of the Pikes Peak region, as well as renowned visiting artists on the national and international scene. Classically Alive hosts a wide range of styles including classical, contemporary, popular styles, jazz, and world music.
For more information, please visit: http://ClassicallyAlive.com

Classically Alive is thrilled with the recent acquisition of a 9-foot Bechstein concert grand piano, an instrument of highest quality. A tremendous thank you goes to both Elvie Davis and Diane Petersen for making the opportunity possible. Also, a special thank you goes to Fisher Piano Movers and their caring team for their most expert and professional work in moving the Bechstein to its new Classically Alive home.
—-