Positive Motions Concert Series Presents RUSLAN BIRYUKOV & FRIENDS – CELL ENSEMBLES 2/6/2010

Alto Polis Music Management & Positive Motions Foundation in association with the Glendale Philharmonic Association and "Positive Motions" Concert Series will present "Ruslan Biryukov & Friends - Cello Ensembles," A Chamber Concert Celebrating The Greatest Music Written For Cellists, including World Premieres compositions written by composers Carol Worthey and Deon Nielson Price, performed by critically acclaimed cello players: Ruslan Biryukov, Maksim Velichkin, Hope Easton, Garik Terzian, August Lee and Patricia Ryan accompanied by pianist Mary Au on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Glendale; 209 N. Louise Street (at Wilson Avenue); Glendale, CA 91206.

For nearly 400 years people worldwide have been fascinated by the sound of the closest musical instrument to the human voice, the cello. Over the centuries the greatest cellists were welcomed guests at the palaces of monarchs and homes of presidents. From Pablo Casals (Nobel Prize winner) to Mstislav Rostropovich to Yo Yo Ma, the sound of the cello has captivated millions the world over.

Ruslan Biryukov, Producer and Artistic Director of the "Positive Motions" Concert Series and Founder of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra, said: "In this concert we will perform compositions written by some of the greatest composers for cello ensembles, demonstrating the development of the Art of Cello Performance over the last three centuries. Besides performing works by composers of the past, we will feature two World Premiere pieces written by two local living composers. One piece is programmatic music, entitled ‘Russian Scenes,' which is written by Carol Worthey, scored for a Cello Duo. The other piece, ‘If Life Were To Sing!,' is written by composer Deon Nielson Price, based on a poem and scored for a Cello Quintet."

The February 6th Program will include the following repertoire:
- "Trio Sonata in G Minor" for Cello Duo and Continuo by George Frideric Handel (1685 - 1759)
- "Doppelfugue" for Four Cellos by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736 - 1809)
- "Ave Verum Corpus" for Four Cellos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
- "Sonata for Cello Duo in C Major" by Luigi Boccherini (1743 - 1805)
- "Ave Maria" For Five Cellos and Piano by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)/Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893)
- "Serenade in D Major" for Two Cellos and Piano (1890) by Alfredo Piatti (1822 - 1901)
- "Suite for Two Cellos, Op. 16" and "Requiem for Three Cellos and Piano, Op. 66" by David Popper (1843 - 1913)
- World Premiere of "Russian Scenes" for Cello Duo (2009) by Carol Worthey (1943 - )
- World Premiere of "If Life Were To Sing!" for Cello Quintet (2010) by
Deon Nielson Price (1934 - )

The concert will be performed in the First Baptist Church of Glendale, a recently restored architectural and acoustic jewel of Los Angeles, which is 104-years-old. Tickets are $15, $20, $25 and $50 for VIP Tickets. Tickets and can be purchased by calling 323-663-3601 (English/Russian); 323-463-7224 (Russian/English) and 818-640-7047 (Armenian/English) or online at www.GlendalePhilharmonic.com <http://www.GlendalePhilharmonic.com> . www.PositiveMotions.org <http://www.PositiveMotions.org> or www.CelloArt.com <http://www.CelloArt.com> .

Parking is $5 in nearby parking lots on Louise Street and Wilson Avenue, or on the street. For further information about the concert "Ruslan Biryukov & Friends - Cello Ensembles," please visit the websites, www.GlendalePhilharmonic.com; www.PositiveMotions.org or www.CelloArt.com. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the First Baptist Church of Glendale.

Composer Carol Worthey's "Russian Scenes," depicts eight mini-stories set in Russia, including:

Russian Bearfight: Unfair squabble, one huge bear against a smaller but clever bear.

Witticisms at The Teahouse: Polite sarcasms while sipping cherry jam and tea together.

Forest Murmurs on the Grand Siberian Railroad: Depends which way you are headed.

Ice-skating: On the slippery rim of the Volga with ankles too weak.

At The Ballet Barre: With the Dance Master and the Prima Ballerina at war.

The Steam Bath: Then a plunge in snow, but wolves are slyly waiting.

A Stately Promenade: From one masterpiece to another down the halls of The Hermitage.

Vodka, Blini, Caviar, Champagne: Pastries, laughter, blini, broken glass, vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka!

Composer Deon Nielson Price's "If Life Were to Sing!" for Cello Quintet is inspired by a poem written by Ila Mae Richardson which she set to music earlier for Women's Voices and String Quintet. The poetry suggests that troubles could turn to blessings if only we all were singers and we let our hearts take wing!

About The Artists:
Ruslan Biryakov (Cellist, Producer and Artistic Director of "Positive Motions" Concert Series and Founder, Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra) (of Silverlake) has been praised for his superb artistry, passion, individuality and charismatic personality. He has served as the Former General Director of Concert Department of Association "Russian Performing School" (Rostropovich Foundation) in Moscow for 25-years. Since the age of 11 he has performed up to 150 performances annually as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, including countries in the former USSR, in Europe, and in the United States. As a chamber musician he has appeared with world-renowned Violinist, Midori at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, with Cellist Kirill Rodin, and with members of the Ysave Quartet. For seven years in a row he has appeared in the LACMA Sunday's Live Concert Series. He was also heard as a Cello Soloist during the opening season of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.

Biryukov has been a master teacher at music festivals in Europe and Russia. He has held teaching positions at the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Institute of Music in Moscow, Russia and the Music Academy in Lovran, Croatia. Locally he now teaches cello weekly in Silverlake, Fullerton and San Diego. He has trained a number of very successful students. His creative artistic ideas are based upon the tradition he learned from esteemed artists such as Kirill Rodin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Natalia Gutman, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis, and Eleonore Schoenfeld. The cellist received his formal music education at Baku Music Academy in Azerbaijan, the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in Russia, and at USC's Thornton School of Music. He first earned international recognition by winning major awards in Azerbaijan and by his name included in the Gold Book of Russia's international program "New Names." Biryukov has gone on to win numerous other awards worldwide, including the 17th Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition. To learn more about Ruslan Biryukov, please visit the website, www.CelloArt.com.

Maksim Velichkin (Cellist) (of Koreatown) enjoys a broad musical life of a cellist, collaborative pianist, and harpsichordist both locally and throughout the world. He is the Principal Cellist of the new Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and the Artistic Director of the Classical Underground Concert Series in Los Angeles. He has appeared as a soloist with Uzbekistan National Symphony, Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble, Verbier Festival Symphony Orchestra, AYS, Torrance, Westchester, Southeast and Bellflower Symphony Orchestras. Velichkin has extensively toured Europe, Asia, both Americas and Australia with the prestigious Verbier Chamber and Symphony Orchestras as a Principal Cellist. Velichkin has collaborated with a number of prominent conductors and instrumentalists, including: James Levine, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirkanov, Wolfgang Sawallish, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Neemi and Paavo Yarvi, Sarah Chang, Maxim Vengerov (EMI recording project), Yuri Bashmet, Joshua Bell and others.

Velichkin's concert credits include performances with singer Bobby Mc Ferrin in Switzerland, pianist Gabriela Montero in Mexico, performances in Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh and appearances on the prestigious Miyazaki Music Festival in Japan. In addition, he has been active in the popular music scene performing and recording with Bitter:Sweet, Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, John Legend, Red Elvises, Bernadette Peters and many others. Maksim's improvised harpsichord and cello music was included into the soundtrack of the film "Through The Air To Calais Or The Wonderful Cruise Of Blanchard's Balloon" (2009). He began his music education at the Special Music School for Gifted Children in his native Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 1996 he was awarded a full scholarship to pursue Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance at the Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, US. In 2000 he graduated with honors, Magna Cum Laude. He continued his education at the University of Southern California at the studio of the renowned professor Eleanor Schoenfeld. In 2006 Maksim earned his Master's Degree.

Hope Easton (Cellist) (of Culver City) attended The Cleveland Institute of Music as a preparatory student. She continued her schooling at the New England Conservatory where she received a Bachelors of Music degree. She was then awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to continue her studies in England at the Royal Northern College of Music with Ralph Kirshbaum (presently the Piatigorsky chair at USC), performing at various festivals in America and England. Easton is a crossover musician and composer who performs both as a jazz and classical player.

Garik Terzian (Cellist) (of Glendale) has performed extensively throughout the former Soviet Union, United States, Mexico, Spain, Ireland and the Czech Republic. He has frequently appeared as a Soloist with several orchestras including Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra and various orchestras in Mexico. He has worked at Armenian State Chamber Orchestra, Armenian Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Beverly Hills Chamber Orchestra and South Bay Chamber Orchestra. He is a member of Los Angeles based award winning Elixir Piano Trio.

August Lee (Cellist) (of Beverly Hills) (???? ?) was born into a family of prominent Korean musicians. For over 100 years, his ancestors played a major role in influencing the music of South Korea. His great-grandfather Sun Yu Lee (???), the legendary singer, was the Founder of the Eastern Style of Traditional Korean Singing; his grandfather Jae Ho Lee (???) was a celebrated folk music composer, and his father Beom Seung (???) is a successful Vienna educated conductor and composer. Lee began studying with the Principal cellist of Kyung Sang Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Noh Sunhee, at the PENIEL School of the Arts. At the same time, he was taking lessons with the prominent Polish cellist Professor Kazimierz Michalik of the Warsaw Chopin Conservatory. At the age of 18, Lee played for Kirill Rodin, the International Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medal winner, and received an invitation to continue his education at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory. Lee graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 2008 and received a Master of Music degree with the qualification as cello soloist and teacher. Lee currently studies Cello with Ruslan Biryukov and serves as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra.

Patricia Ryan (Cellist) (of San Diego) has been Principal cellist in San Diego's foremost youth orchestras: the San Diego Youth Symphony, the Mt. Carmel High School Orchestra and various chamber ensembles within both organizations. Ryan has won First Prize in both the MTAC-San Diego Branch Concerto Competition and the MTAC-San Diego Branch VOCE Competition. She was also chosen to study chamber music with the internationally celebrated violin and cello duo Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld under the Young Musicians' Foundation Chamber Music Program on full scholarship. Ryan is currently majoring in Cello Performance at the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music on a full scholarship. She is a member of the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and previously studied cello with Ruslan Biryukov.

Mary Au (Pianist) (of Silverlake) (???) is a Hong Kong born pianist Mary Au is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Southern California. She has concertized on three continents as a keyboard collaborative artist, appearing in recitals, on recordings, and on television and radio. Her collaborative work has included appearances in the Community Concert Series, sponsored by Columbia Artists Management Inc. Au has also been collaborative artist at the International Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists, The National Cello Institute, The Colburn School of Performing Arts, the University of Southern California and the John F. Kennedy Center/Rockefeller Foundation International Competition for Excellence in the performance of American Music.

Carol Worthey (Composer/Painter of "Russian Scenes") (of Hollywood Hills) began composing at age three and a half. Of Russian Jewish descent, she was 10 when she wrote an "Etude" that was premiered in Carnegie Hall by pianist Vivian Rivkin. At 13 Worthey began her first composition lessons with Grant Beglarian (himself a student of Aaron Copland at Tanglewood) at Merrywood School of Music where John Harbison was Music Director. She studied with Darius Milhaud at Aspen Music Festival, and with Vincent Persichetti (of Juilliard) at the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts (Dartmouth) where she was also mentored by Walter Piston and Elliott Carter. (At the time she was known as Carol Lee Symonds). Worthey won First Prize in Composition while at Columbia University (studying under Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Henry Cowell) and was the winner in 1990 of the Inner City Cultural Center's Composer Competition for "Fanfare for Joy & Wedding March." Worthey studied with Dick Grove and was the second woman graduate of the Contemporary Composing and Arranging Program at the Grove School of Music where she honed her skills in orchestration. After Grove School, she also studied under Academy Award winner Eddy Lawrence Manson.

Worthey has since had eight World Premieres performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, as well as works performed in England, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere in the United States. A children's musical she wrote played for five years with the Los Angeles Children's Theatre and was featured on Entertainment Tonight. A visual artist as well as composer, Worthy painted and composed music in 2001 for Angel of Music, an interactive statue which was displayed at the Los Angeles Music Center and was part of a citywide exhibit. In 1992 she was nominated for a Legacy Award by the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. A student of Leonard Bernstein protégé, Brad Keimach, Worthey made her debut as Conductor in Paris at a 2001 concert held in honor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 2002 Worthey was commissioned by renowned Cellist Joyce Geeting (protégé of Cello great Janos Starker) to compose "Elegy for Cello & Orchestra," a one-movement Concerto which received its critically acclaimed World Premiere at St. Martin-in-The-Fields, London in Spring 2003. "Elegy" is a musical enactment of the events of 9/11 and is a heartfelt tribute to those lost and those left behind.

Deon Nielsen Price (Composer of "If Life Were To Sing!") (of Culver City) is a Composer, Pianist, Recording Artist, published Author and Retired Professor, who enthusiastically promotes the performance of music by living composers in her service on the Board of the National Association of Composers, USA and as former President of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Dr. Price has received degrees with honors from Brigham Young University, University of Michigan and the University of Southern California. She has received awards, grants and commissions from the Professional Fraternity Association (2009), Beijing International Congress on Women in Music (2008), Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition (2007), ASCAP, Barlow Endowment, Alaska and Midwest Arts Council's, Meet the Composer and American Music Forum. Retired from the piano/theory faculty at El Camino College in Torrance, CA, Dr. Price has also taught on the adjunct faculties at California State University, Northridge; University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Southern California; Los Angeles Harbor and Mission Colleges; Long Beach City Colleges, and the Crossroads School of Arts, as well as in her private studio. "Dancing on the Brink of the World," her recent orchestral CD release is currently broadcasted on many classical radio stations. All of her recordings on the Cambria label are distributed by NAXOS. Her original compositions and texts for pianists are published by Culver Crest and Southern Music.

 

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