5BMF Presents Baroque Specialists AERIS in Three Boroughs This Weekend

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2014-2015 Season continues in late October with baroque specialists AERIS (www.aerismusic.com), to be presented in three different boroughs over three days. Rarely seen in NYC, this virtuosic trio will make their 5BMF debut with their brand-new program, Capriccio, with three performances at Trinity Lutheran Church in Staten Island, Christ Church Riverdale in the Bronx, and the First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn.

Comprised of harpsichordist Avi Stein, violinist Zachary Carrettin, and cellist William Skeen, AERIS is quickly gathering acclaim for its masterful interpretations of works from the 17th and 18th centuries. Capriccio features works by 17th century giants such as J. S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as less well-known composers including Veracini, Valentini, Stradella, Matteis and Locatelli.

DETAILS:

Friday, October 24, 2014
7:30 PM
Co-presented by Voyces Staten Island Trinity Lutheran Church
309 St. Paul's Avenue

STATEN ISLAND

Saturday, October 25, 2014
7:30 PM
Christ Church Riverdale
5030 Henry Hudson Parkway East

BRONX

Sunday, October 26, 2014
3:00 PM
First Unitarian Church
Pierrepont Street at Monroe Place

BROOKLYN

ADMISSION: $25 General Admission; $20 Staten Island Residents $10 Students; $25 General Admission $20 Bronx Residents $10 Students; $25 General Admission; $20 Brooklyn Residents; $10 Students. Tickets and venue directions available now at www.5BMF.org.

PROGRAM

Francesco Maria Veracini Sonata in G Minor, Op.1 no.1

Giuseppe Valentini Sonata in A Major "La Montanari"

Antonio Vivaldi Sonata for Violoncello in B-Flat, RV 46

Alessandro Stradella Sinfonia 22 in D Minor

Johann Sebastian Bach Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1023

Nicola Matteis Diverse bizzarie sopra la vecchia sarabanda o piu ciaccona

Pietro Antonio Locatelli Sonata in D Minor

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Zachary Carrettin has performed as conductor, violinist, baroque violinist, electric violinist and violist in more than twenty-five countries on four continents, and has established a reputation for presenting dynamic and diverse programs which feature repertory from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. He has collaborated with the Tokyo Quartet, the Assad Brothers, Project Bandaloop, Chanticleer, the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and has performed for the opening ceremonies of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, the Dayton Center for the Performing Arts, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. He has performed at the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, Zurich's Tonhalle, the Grieghallen in Bergen, at the Stavanger Festival, and in a private concert for the Sultan and Royal Family of Oman, in Muscat. Carrettin has served as concertmaster of numerous baroque period instrument ensembles, including the U.S. premiere of Vivaldi's recently rediscovered opera Motezuma, (Musica Angelica), the grammy-nominated recording of Hasse's Marc' Antonio e Cleopatra,(Ars Lyrica), critically-acclaimed recording of baroque music from the New World, Villancicos e Cantidas, (El Mundo) and the video-documented tour of the California mission churches, Mission Road, with renowned choir, Chanticleer. He has conducted professional symphony orchestras in the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, and the National Symphony Orchestras of Moldavia and Bolivia. An advocate of diversity in music, Carrettin toured one-hundred cities with Yanni and shared the stage with Ray Charles, the Black Crowes, Cake, Joan Jett and many others at festivals internationally, in collaboration with Project Bandaloop aerial dance troupe. Carrettin has resurrected and recorded numerous eighteenth-century works in manuscript during several visits to archives in Bergamo, Milan and Venice, in collaboration with concert violinist and Rice University professor Kenneth Goldsmith. Carrettin completed Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at Rice University Shepherd School of Music, an additional Master of Music degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pursued studies in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at Rice University, and served as conducting assistant to Maestro Dumitru Goia at the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania. Zachary Carrettin is the former Director of Orchestral Studies at Sam Houston State University and the University of St. Thomas, and is currently the Music Director of the Boulder Bach Festival, where this season he performs as baroque violinist with the trio Aeris, as modern violinist in recital with pianist Mina Gajic?, as conductor of the BBF Chorus and Orchestra, and as electric violinist in collaboration with 3rd Law Dance/Theater.

William Skeen is co-principal cellist of Philharmonia Baroque, America's leading period-instrument orchestra lead by Nicolas McGegan. He is also principal cellist of the American Bach Soloists in San Francisco, and Musica Angelica in Los Angeles. William has lead the continuo section of, or soloed with every major period- instrument ensemble on the American West Coast, including, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles baroque orchestras, and the San Diego Bach Collegium. Chamber music, however, is where Skeen's gift is revealed. William co-created the fiery 17th-century music ensemble La Monica in 1999, and America's most active period string quartet, the New Esterha?zy Quartet in 2007. NEQ has performed over 90 string quartets in four years, including all 68 of Haydn's string quartets. In addition, Mr. Skeen has performed in over 40 recording projects as both player or producer for Voices of Music, El Mundo, Galanterie, Musica Pacifica, and many others. William is Viola da Gamba Soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival, and has soloed on the viol at Vienna's Musikverien, Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, Mexico City's Teatro de Bellas Artes, as well as in Munich, Madrid, Budapest, New York and San Francisco. Skeen will debut as gamba soloist with the Dallas Symphony in March 2012.Mr. Skeen studied cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music with renowned pedagogue, Alan Harris. William continued his studies with former L.A. Philharmonic principal, Ronald Leonard at the University of Southern California. Skeen has been on the Early Music faculty at U.S.C. since 2000. Most of his students have obtained positions in universities across the U.S., and perform with America's top period-instrument orchestras.

Avi Stein is the associate organist and choirmaster at Trinity Church Wall Street in Manhattan and teaches continuo accompaniment and chamber music at the Juilliard School, and vocal repertoire at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and is the artistic director of the Helicon Foundation. The New York Times described Avi as "a brilliant organ soloist" in his Carnegie Hall debut and he was recently featured in Early Music America magazine in an article on the new generation of leaders in the field. He has performed throughout the United States, in Europe, Canada, and Central America. He is an active continuo accompanist who plays regularly with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Trinity Church Wall Street Choir and Baroque Orchestra, the Clarion Music Society and Bach Vespers NYC. Avi directed the young artists' program at the Carmel Bach Festival and has conducted a variety of ensembles including the Opera Franc?ais de New York, OperaOmnia, the Amherst Festival opera and a critically acclaimed annual series called the 4×4 Festival. Avi studied at Indiana University, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California and was a Fulbright scholar in Toulouse.

FIVE BOROUGHS MUSIC FESTIVAL - Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to presenting traditional and contemporary chamber music in all five boroughs of New York City. With the dual aims of bringing affordable, high-caliber chamber music concerts to all parts of NYC and of cultivating new audiences for the genre, 5BMF engages top composers and performers from the New York City region and beyond and partners with many local cultural institutions. 5BMF's programming is rooted in familiar classical music traditions, but is inclusive of a broad range of styles; art song recitals, early music, jazz, new music and other non-classical forms are all represented.

Founded and led since 2007 by Artistic Director Jesse Blumberg, 5BMF has presented over 35 traditional and contemporary chamber music programs in seven complete cycles around NYC. Described as "imaginative" by the New York Times and "vital" by WQXR's Operavore blog, 5BMF's commitment to musical outreach and diverse programming has attracted positive attention from the NYC arts community from its earliest days; highlights include a performance for over 1,500 music lovers at the Third Annual Bryant Park Fall Festival in 2010, and the annual presentation of free outdoor concerts for Make Music New York.

5BMF's artist roster is comprised of diverse, talented emerging artists and distinguished musicians alike. 5BMF's venues are just as eclectic, and have included historic NYC landmarks such as Steinway Hall, the University Church at Fordham University, Flushing Town Hall, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, to name merely a few. Outreach initiatives include public masterclasses; artist talk-backs; and the donation of programming to charitable causes. In 2011, 5BMF presented the World Premiere of its ambitious Five Borough Songbook, a collection of 20 newly commissioned vocal chamber works from 20 composers. Over the course of the 2011-2012 season, 5BMF premiered the Songbook in each of NYC's five boroughs, and released a 2-CD album of the collection with GPR Records. Further information can be found at www.5BMF.org or via email: info@5BMF.org.