Soka Performing Arts Center Presents Hub New Music With Special Guest Kojiro Umezaki

Soka Performing Arts Center presents Hub New Music with Special Guest Kojiro Umezaki on Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 3 PM. Called "contemporary chamber trailblazers" by the Boston Globe - comprised of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello - Hub New Music is forging new pathways in 21st-century repertoire. Through creative programming and ambitious commissioning projects, the quartet of "intrepids" (WQXR) celebrates the fluidity and diversity of today's classical music landscape. Its performances have been described as "gobsmacking" (Cleveland Classical) and "innovative" (WBUR).

Tickets are $27-$55 and are now available online at performingarts.soka.edu, at the Box Office at 1 University Drive in Aliso Viejo or by calling (949) 480-4ART (4287).

Highlights for the 2019-20 season include a performance of a new work by Hannah Lash presented by Seattle Symphony in its new chamber music venue Octave9; concerts with Taos Chamber Music Group (New Mexico), Ashmont Hill Chamber Music (Boston), and Newfields (Indianapolis); residencies at the universities of Michigan and Hawaii; and season-long creative partnerships with the Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA) and Celebrity Series of Boston. HNM will also premiere works by Takuma Itoh, Michael Ippolito, and an evening-length song-cycle by Oracle Hysterical. Also on the horizon is the release of the group's debut recording Soul House, and a new recording with shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki (Silkroad Ensemble).

Fueled by the spirit of collaboration, HNM has brought several large-scale projects into fruition. These include Matsuri with shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki and the Asia / America New Music Institute (AANMI), which the ensemble recently presented on a tour of Japan sponsored by the US Embassy; a 30-minute collaborative work with composer/harpist Hannah Lash; a song-cycle with composer/performer collective Oracle Hysterical entitled Frontier Journals; and a choreographed production of its Soul House program presented with Urbanity Dance and the Peabody Essex Museum. For its visionary programming as both a quartet and as collaborative artists, HNM was named one of WQXR's "10 Cutting-Edge Artists That Have Captured the Imagination" in 2016, and has been featured in the Boston Globe on multiple occasions.

Hub New Music is a group of passionate educators whose approach to teaching melds the artistic and entrepreneurial facets of modern musicianship. Working with student performers and composers at residencies across the country, HNM empowers younger generations of musicians through workshops on building an arts organization, commissioning new work, and developing meaningful collaborations. Residency activities have brought (or will soon bring) Hub New Music to the New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of Texas Austin, UC Irvine, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Stetson University, Bowling Green State University, Boston Conservatory, University of Hawaii East-West Center, and others. In 2019-20 the ensemble introduces its latest educational program HubLab, a K-12 residency program that uses graphic scores and improvisation to create group compositions.

Michael Avitabile / Flute / Founder & Executive Director
Praised for playing that is "warm and vocal" (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), Michael Avitabile is a flutist, entrepreneur, and educator dedicated to the music of our time. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Hub New Music, a Boston-based mixed quartet that has quickly become a prominent force among younger contemporary music organizations.

Under Michael's leadership, HNM has commissioned quartets and collaborative projects from a diverse cohort of innovative musical minds including Hannah Lash, Robert Honstein, Kati Agocs, Takumah Itoh, Angel Lam, and the composer-collective Oracle Hysterical. He has also spearheaded collaborations with Boston's Urbanity Dance, the Silkroad Ensemble's Kojiro Umezaki, and the Asia-America New Music Institute. The ensemble maintains an active touring schedule and has been featured in the Boston Globe, WQXR (NYC), WFMT (Chicago), The New York Times, WBUR (Boston), and the Oregon Artswatch among several others.

David Dziardziel /Clarinet

Described in The Boston Musical Intelligencer as "fluid and acrobatic without strain," clarinetist David Dziardziel is a multifaceted Boston-based musician. He frequently performs with groups such as the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Chamber Orchestra, Haffner Sinfonietta, Unitas Ensemble, Phoenix, Symphony Nova, NEMPAC Opera Project, and Commonwealth Lyric Theater.

An avid chamber musician, David has collaborated with some of the world's finest artists including legendary harpist Ann Hobson-Pilot and violinist Susie Park, former member of the Eroica Trio. He has appeared in Music for Salem, the Rockport Chamber Festival, and the Sarasota Festival. David is a founding member of Calliope Winds, a wind quintet that has been praised by The Boston Musical Intelligencer as "a highly experienced, technically adept, and mightily talented ensemble."

Alyssa Wang / Violin

Alyssa is a passionate violinist and an emerging conductor. In 2016, she earned her bachelor's degree from Carnegie Mellon University under the tutelage of Andres Cardenes (Concertmaster, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, 1989-2010). In 2016, she was the winner of the Carnegie Mellon School of Music Concerto Competition, the Pittsburgh Female College Association Prize, the Carnegie Mellon Women's Award, and the Senior Leadership Award. She won first prize in the Silbermann Chamber Music Competition and was the recipient of the 2015 Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award, Harry G. Archer Award, and Paul J. Baum Fund Award. She has soloed with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Philharmonic. During her senior year at Carnegie Mellon she helped to run the Heritage Scholarship Campaign, which raised over $180,000 to start a substantial undergraduate merit scholarship for future School of Music students. Alyssa is also an Andrew Carnegie Scholar.

Alyssa completed two Master's degrees in Violin Performance and Conducting at the New England Conservatory. She has won fellowships as a violinist with the Grammy Award-nominated ensemble, A Far Cry, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. Her primary violin teacher at NEC was Malcolm Lowe (Concertmaster, Boston Symphony Orchestra). During the summers she has been assistant conductor for the Colorado College Summer Music Festival with Scott Yoo and a conducting fellow at Eastern Music Festival under the tutelage of Gerard Schwarz. In the summer of 2019 she was the assistant conductor to Paul Polivnick at the New Hampshire Music Festival.

Jesse Christeson / Cello

Hailing from Daytona Beach, Florida, Jesse Christeson has served as Principal Cellist of the Mississippi Symphony since the 2013-14 season. Prior to his appointment, Jesse received a Master's degree in Music Performance from Rice University (in the studio of Norman Fischer), and completed his third consecutive summer as a Fellow of the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center.

For several years Jesse has been very active as a multi-faceted performer and teacher in Houston, TX. In addition to working as a freelance cellist, he performed as a vocalist in the Houston Grand Opera and Bach Society of Houston choruses. During that time, he maintained a full cello studio of pupils from the Rice Preparatory Program and local public schools.

Apart from Tanglewood, Jesse's recent summer engagements include the festivals of Aspen, Brevard, and the National Orchestral Institute. He received his bachelor's degree from Stetson University in DeLand, FL, where he studied cello (in the studio of David Bjella), voice, and philosophy. Jesse has served as a frequent substitute cellist for the Orlando Philharmonic and Southwest Florida Symphony.

About Kojiro Umezaki

Noted by The New York Times as a "virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer" and the Los Angeles Times as one of the "better kept secrets of Southern California music," Kojiro Umezaki (ae??a??a??a??e??) has performed regularly with the Silkroad Ensemble since 2001 with whom he appears on multiple recordings including the Grammy Award-winning Sing Me Home, A Playlist Without Borders, Off the Map, and the Grammy Award-nominated 2015 documentary film, The Music of Strangers, directed by Morgan Neville. In a Circle Records released (Cycles), an album of original work, in 2014. Other notable recordings as performer, composer, and/or producer include Brooklyn Rider's Dominant Curve, Yo-Yo Ma's Appassionato, Nicole Mitchell's Mandorla Awakening II, Kei Akagi's Aqua Puzzle, The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan (Smithsonian Folkways), and Huun Huur Tu's Ancestors Call. Born to a Japanese father and Danish mother, Umezaki grew up in Tokyo, and continues to explore global and hybrid practices in music.

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