Author: storello

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Charles Abramovic, pianist

Charles AbramovicCharles Abramovic has won critical acclaim for his international performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborator with leading instrumentalists and singers. He has performed a vast repertoire not only on the piano, but also the harpsichord and fortepiano. Abramovic made his solo orchestral debut at the age of fourteen with the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Since then he has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado Philharmonic, the Florida Philharmonic, and the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra. He has given solo recitals throughout the United States, France and Yugoslavia. He has also appeared at major international festivals in Berlin, Salzburg, Bermuda, Dubrovnik, Aspen and Vancouver.

Abramovic has performed often with such stellar artists as Midori, Sarah Chang, Robert McDuffie, Viktoria Mullova, Kim Kashkashian, Mimi Stillman and Jeffrey Khaner. His recording of the solo piano works of Delius for DTR recordings has been widely praised. He has recorded for EMI Classics with violinist Sarah Chang, and Avie Recordings with Philadelphia Orchestra principal flutist Jeffrey Khaner.  Actively involved with contemporary music, he has also recorded works of Milton Babbitt, Joseph Schwantner, Gunther Schuller and others for Albany Records, CRI, Bridge, and Naxos.

Abramovic has taught at Temple since 1988. He is an active part of the musical life of Philadelphia, performing with numerous organizations in the city. He is a core member of the Dolce Suono Ensemble, and performs often with Network for New Music and Orchestra 2001. In 1997 he received the Career Development Grant from the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society, and in 2003 received the Creative Achievement Award from Temple University.  His teachers have included Natalie Phillips, Eleanor Sokoloff, Leon Fleisher, and Harvey Wedeen.

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Cynthia Folio, composer

Cynthia FolioCynthia Folio is Professor of Theory and Composition at Temple University, where she was honored with the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1994 and the Creative Achievement Award in 2012. She received her Ph.D. in music theory and Performers Certificate in flute from the Eastman School of Music. Cynthia’s compositions have been described by reviewers as “confident and musical in expressing ideas of great substance,” “intriguing and enjoyable,” and “imaginatively scored.”

Cynthia has received commissions from such organizations as Network for New Music, the Relâche Ensemble, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and the National Flute Association, and she earned 22 consecutive ASCAP Awards for composition. She has had residencies at The American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. In the summer of 2011, the National Flute Association featured an entire concert of her music on its annual convention, and in 2015 it featured her new double flute concerto, Winds for Change, performed by the flute duo ZAWA! and the Serafin String Quartet. Cynthia’s pieces are recorded on many CD’s, including a 2014 release, Inverno Azul, featuring nine of her compositions, on the BCM+D label; a 2007 release by the Relâche Ensemble, Press Play, by Meyer Music; and a 2006 release of Flute Loops: Chamber Music for Flute by Centaur Records, featuring eight of her compositions. She also recorded a jazz CD, Portfolio (Centaur Records), which includes four original compositions; please visit:

www.cynthiafolio.com

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Heidi Jacob, Associate Conductor

Heidi JacobComposer, cellist, and conductor, Heidi Jacob is Associate Professor of Music at Haverford College. A graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, she received her D.M.A. in composition from Temple University. Ms. Jacob has studied composition with Matthew Greenbaum, Richard Brodhead and Maurice Wright, cello with Lynn Harrell and Orlando Cole and conducting with Harold Farberman. She has performed as a cellist throughout the United States and Europe including the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., Bedford Springs Festival, “Mozart on the Square” in Philadelphia, the Dubrovnik Festival and on National Public Radio. She has recorded for Capstone Records, Albany Records and Navona records including a recording for Capstone Records where she conducts the Ensemble Solarium in Curt Cacioppo’s Concerto for Oboe and String Chamber Orchestra with Harpsichord, featuring Philadelphia Orchestra oboist Jonathan Blumenfeld. In 1999 Ms. Jacob was featured on WRTI’s “Notes from Philadelphia,” highlighting performances of her CD of the Chamber Orchestra of Bryn Mawr in works by Curt Cacioppo and Ferruccio Busoni. Curt Cacioppo’s orchestral piece “Invocation and Dance of the Mountain Gods,” from the album LAWS OF THE PIPE and conducted by Ms. Jacob, was recently selected by Parma Recordings for inclusion on the label’s online digital release FINE MUSIC, Vol. 4.

Ms. Jacob’s solo and chamber music works have been performed at Tania León’s 2014 Composers Now Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rutgers University’s Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art installation, Amphibian; New Music and Video HIArt Gallery, New York City and by The Argento Ensemble, the Opus One: Berks Chamber Choir and the Hildegard Chamber Players. As part of Network for New Music’s Poetry Project her song Rosetta Stone for Soprano, Cello and Piano was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia in 2008. Her String Quartet, “…on enameled tablets,” was premiered at The Stone in New York City by the Momenta String Quartet. Her work for piano; Regard a Schubert: a Fantasy Impromptu was a prizewinner in the International Alliance for Women in Music Competition. Her cycle of songs Beginning Again, can be heard on L’Ensemble’s CD Poetry into Song. Her works have been performed by violinists Miranda Cuckson and Barbara Govatos, cellists Jeffrey Solow, Michal Schmidt and cellist Thalia Moore of Earplay, flutists Mimi Stillman, Adeline Tomasone, Jeffrey Khaner, pianist Charles Abramovic, bassoonist Pascal Gallois and by Temple University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. A recording of her compositions, “Beneath Winter Light,” produced by Parma Records, was released in January, 2015. (http://parmarecordings.blogspot.com/2015/01/january-releases-out-now-on-navona-and.html)