CICA Summer Music Festival
And School
Home of world class music performance and education
July 28 Sunday 6:30 pm
CICA 2013 Summer Music Festival-Symphony concert 5
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich Serenade for strings in C major, Op. 48
Bach J.S. violin concerto for 2 violins in Dminor
Violin solo: Nanette Chen, Shih-peng Chang
Vivaldi 4 seasons
Violin solo: Nanette Chen, Gregory Maytan
Arias
soprano: Dominika Zamara
Beethoven violin concerto
Violin solo: Aisha Syed Castro
Conductor: Maestro Thomas Chun-yu Chen
Dr. Dominika Zamara
Dominika Zamara was born on 11 Aug 1981 in Wroclaw (Poland). Though her first instrument was the piano, Dr. Zamara’s first musical passion was actually singing. When she was a child she performed many religious solos during church masses and also recorded several numbers for Polish Radio.Her professional singing classes started in Secondary Richard Bukowski School in Wroclaw where she studied under Professor Hanna Celejewski and graduated summa cum laude.
After serving as a leading role in the play Sweeney Agonastis at the Jerzy Grotowski Theater and after receiving a scholarship from the Italian government, Zamara studied at the Italian Conservatorio in Verona and then finished her studies at the Music Academy in Wroclaw, receiving summa cum laude and becoming a Master of Fine Arts.
Some of her more interesting works are her projects in collaboration with the venerable Polish artist, Witold Liszkowski. Together they pioneered new synthesized genres such as rock-opera, painting, theater, and dance.
In more recent years, Zamara toured France during the Sacred Music Festival along with the notable organist, Fabrice Pitroise; she also toured internationally through Germany, Poland, Great Britain, and Switzerland, and Italy, where she sung for the Vatican and the Polonia Academy Awards. In 2011, she made her debut in Los Angeles, performing the leading role of Mimi in the opera “La Boheme” alongside famous actors Maria Newman and Chris Allport. She went on to act in the Mozart Festival in Salzburg and participated in the Stradivari Festival, singing in the Lodz Cathedral.At present Dominika resides in Italy and holds the position of Associate Professor of voice at the Certosa Italian Academy of music.
Aisha Syed Castro
Aisha is 'The future of Dominican classical music' by the words of the late Maestro Carlos Piantini. She began her violinistic pursuits at the tender age of four taking private lessons in ‘El Hogar de la Armonía’ in her home country. The year following her initiation, Aisha became part of the Dominican Youth Symphony Orchestra (DYSO) in the first violins. Her mastery of the instrument developed so rapidly that by the time she was eight years old she was performing concerts and recitals as a soloist. At age eleven, Aisha made her debut with the Dominican Symphony Orchestra (DSO) becoming the youngest Dominican soloist to perform therein as she played Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in G minor. Aisha was an inspiration to the late Dominican composer Bienvenido Bustamante, whom dedicated his last composition to her in 2001. Bearing the title ‘Fantasías para una niña’, the piece was premiered that very same year as Aisha played it before a crowd of prestigious dignitaries in her home country.
These early successes paved the way to her acceptance in the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in 2003. Such accomplishment made her the first Latin American female to be admitted at the schoolwhere she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya and Loutsia Ibragimova. During her time at The Yehudi Menuhin School, she took part in a number of concerts organised by the school, mainly as a soloist (violin and viola) but also as a chamber musician and an orchestral player, in venues such as the Royal Albert hall,Wigmore hall, Purcell room, Queen Elizabeth hall, Mansion House and Sheldonian Theatre. She has also performed as a soloist in many festivals including the Banstead Arts festival, Leamington Hastings festival, and the Yehudi Menuhin International Music Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. She has also performed as a chamber musician at the Gower and Bath festivals.
In 2005 she received a personal invitation by world-renowned pianist and conductor Philipe Entremont to attend the Fontainebleau summer festival of which he is the artistic director. There she had the opportunity to perform a series of concerts in venues such as the Fontainebleau Chateau.
Aisha regularly performs with the DSO, and past Dominican presidents like the late Joaquin Balaguer, Hipólito Mejia and Leonel Fernández have requested Aisha’s performances regularly, both in the Dominican Republic and as a representation of the nation internationally. She has performed at the Kauffman Hall in New York, Enrique V. Iglesias Auditorium in Washington D.C. and was asked to represent the D.R. in India at the inauguration of the Dominican Embassy in New Dehli.
In summer 2007 Aisha performed the Suita Concertante by the highly acclaimed composer Menachem Wiesenberg at the Yehudi Menuhin International Music Festival. Conducted by Malcolm Singer and with the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra. Following the success of this performance, she was invited back to perform at the 2009 festival. As an innovative artist she gave the Swiss premiere of Noam Sheriff’s viola concerto ‘Canarian Vespers’, receiving great feedback from the Swiss press. For all the performances of this viola concerto, both in Switzerland and England, Aisha was lent the Testore viola that was of personal use to Yehudi Menuhin.
She was offered a full scholarship being an overseas student at two of the most prestigious music colleges in the world, The Royal College of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In March 2009, Aisha won the Casandra Award for ‘International Classical Artist of the year’. In September 2009, she was given the ‘Youth Ambassador’ award at the Latin Pride National Awards 2009, in Boston at the Wilbur Theatre, where she was also asked to perform in the event which was broadcast on national television in America and on most Latin American countries. Early this year April 2013 she was awarded the Soberano Award as the best classical artist. In May 2013 the label Decca records chose Aisha as the only violinist and one of ten semifinalists for the prestigious The Arts Club Classical Award in association with Decca Records.
Aisha has travelled Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the United States of America with her Pasión Latina World Tour promoting her CD Pasión Latina recorded with pianist Nigel Hutchison at the Menuhin Hall.
Future engagements will see Aisha performing the Beethoven concerto with the Symphony of the Americas orchestra the United States of America in the 2013/2014 season in Miami, at the Mettlen concert series in Bern, the Beethoven concerto as well as recitals at the CICA festival in Dallas, TX, the four seasons by Vivaldi with the St. Christopher chamber orchestra in Vilnius, at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, at the St. George International Music Festival in Greece and at the prestigious Soirée d'Or gala in London in December 2013 to name a few.
Aisha is graduating from The Royal College of Music in July this year where she is a recipient of the prestigious Soirée D’Or full Scholarship. The violin Aisha plays is an Antonius Pelizon kindly lent by Florian Fine Violins.
Dr. Nanette Chen
Nanette Chen started her musical education at the age of six in her native country, Taiwan. After graduating from Indiana University College of Music, she completed her doctoral degree at the University of Maryland under full scholarship with High Distinction and was awarded PI KAPPA LAMDA. She has studied with many renowned violinists such as Lin Yao-ji in China, Daniel Heifetz and Guarneri Quartet, Henryk Kowalski in the US, and Ms. Su-Te Lee in Taiwan.
Dr. Chen is in high demand as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and pedagogue. She has performed, among others, under Robert Scholz, Felix Chiu-Sen Chen, Gustav König, Dr. Jan Popper, Lutz Herbig, and Peng Cao, with Taiwan’s leading orchestras including National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei City Symphony Orchestra, Taipei County Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan Normal University Symphony Orchestra, Fu-Jen Catholic University Symphony Orchestra, and Yin Qi Symphony Orchestra. Her numerous recital engagements include performances all over Taiwan and occasionally in Europe, Japan, Canada, U.S.A., and Hong Kong. She has appeared at many major music specials including Taipei International Music Festival, Composition Competition Debut, Hsin-Tien Temple Art Series.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Chen frequently appears as a major artist-member of chamber groups including Kuan-Yu Ensemble, Rhapsodic String Quartet, Chopin Piano Trio, Taipei Ensemble of New Arts, New string Octet, and Taipei Ensemble Virtuoso, cooperating with visiting international musicians.
At present, Professor Chen is the head of the Violin Teaching and Research Department at the National Taiwan Normal University and also teaches at Taipei Municipal University of Education.
Dr. Shih-Peng Chang
Mr. Shih-Peng Chang He has given numerous recitals through Taiwan, Japan, United States, and Europe. After received his MM degree from Peabody music conservatory, he is a DMA (Doctor of Music Art) candidate at the University of Maryland. Mr. Chang has received many awards, including first prize of Taiwan National String Competition, winner of The National Taiwan Normal University Most Outstanding Musician Prize, and winner of The Taiwan National Culture Center Competition. During his time of United States, he also received the full scholarship from Aspen and Kent Blossom Music Festival. Mr. Chang is also member of Alexandria Symphony orchestra, Annapolis Opera Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Chang founded the Taiwan Homeland Chamber Orchestra, and has leaded the orchestra to perform in many countries. He had released several award winning CDs which presents the compositions by well-known Taiwanese composer Dr. Diau-Hua Lim.
Mr. Shih-Peng Chang joined CICA Music School in 2006. He decided to contribute his knowledge to our music education in order to help more students.
Dr. Gregory Maytan
Gregory Maytan is on the faculty at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). Playing over 50 recitals a year, Maytan performs major pieces around the world—including major pieces such as Paganini, Bruch, Barber and Tchaikovsky violin concertos. More recently, Maytan has toured through Nevada, Indiana, Michigan, Sweden, China, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.
An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the prestigious chamber music festival ‘Musikveckan’ in Junsele, Sweden; the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee; and the Sagatuck Chamber Music Festival in Sagatuck, MI. He has performed at venues such as Ravinia, Tanglewood and the Chicago Cultural Center. Recently he performed live on Chicago Public Radio. Maytan’s first CD, consisting of music from his native Scandinavia, was selected by The Strad as the top recital CD of April 2009 and highly praised by Strings Magazine and the American Record Guide.
He has participated in the International Chamber Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, where he was a featured prize winner, and he has placed in the Swedish Royal Academy’s competition for post-graduate three years in a row. A sought-after teacher, he has presented master classes at Butler University (Indianapolis), the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the University of Nevada-Reno, Northern State University-Aberdeen the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway, the University of North Texas-Denton, The University of Florida- Gainesville and the University of Wyoming-Laramie.
Maytan has recently been involved in the musical ensemble Luna Nova and also maintains his position as concertmaster of the Battle Creek Symphony.
Maytan has also performed as concertmaster and section leader for legendary conductors Kurt Masur and Christoph Von Dohnanyi.
He earned his doctorate in violin performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, where he studied with the renowned violinists Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. Other teachers include Igor Petruschevski (London), Federico Agostini (Bloomington) and Alexander Kerr (Bloomington). He is currently performing on the 1766 ‘ex-Loeb’ Nicolo Gagliano.
Dr. Thomas Chun-yu Chen
Maestro Thomas Chun-yu Chen is an internationally renowned conductor, violinist, composer, and string instruments maker and designer. A native of Taiwan, Mr. Chen has served as a member of the presidential string quartet, resident composer, and orchestra conductor for the ministry of Defense Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. Maestro Chen is the founder and the director of CICA international Music Festival and School. Each year over 35 International world-renowned classical performance artists perform under the directions of Maestro Chen, alongside the Core-Art International Chamber Orchestra and the CICA Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. As orchestra conductor and violinist, Maestro Chen directs and performs three to four seasons of concerts each year. He has performed and collaborated with many top symphonic performers in the world, including Sara Sant’ Ambrogio, Alexander Gilman, Tao Fan, Lech Antonio Uszynski, Gregory Maytan, Erika Nickrenz, Julia Bushkova, Arsentiy Kharitonov, Shih-peng Chang, Susie Park, Arthur Hart, Alla Aranovskaya, Boris Vayner, Leonid Shukayev, Evgeny Zvonnikov, Dominika Zamara, Nanette Chen, Tony Baker, the Eroica Trio, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and many other performing artists.
Chen has a BFA degree in performance from Fu-Jen Catholic University, MM degrees in performance, a Suzuki Violin Pedagogy degree from Southern Illinois University and a MA degree in Music Education from Lindenwood University. He did postgraduate doctorate study for the DM program at Florida State University and the DMA program at the University of Memphis. A decorated violin-maker and stringed instrument designer, Maestro Chen has received First Prize in String Quartet making and Tone Prizes in Violin and Viola from the VMAAI International Violin-making Competition. Maestro Chen, who has led research on violin making methodology for decades, is known for his development of a unique “crystallized” violin varnishing methodology that achieves extraordinary clarity, brightness, and tone. Maestro Chen serves as a competition judge for the “Eureka Springs Violin Makers Conference” held in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and “Dallas International Antonio Stradivari Violin Makers Conference” held in Dallas, Texas which feature over 200 string instrument exhibitions.
Maestro Chen has recently concluded a successful 2012 season of CICA Summer Music Festival consisting of 7 symphonic concerts, 12 extraordinary artists’ concert series’, 18 chamber music concerts and numerous other solo recitals performed by such leading musicians as the Eroica Trio, the St. Petersburg Quartet, Alexander Gilman, and Lech Uzsynski.
Maestro Chen’s upcoming performances include conducting 7 symphony concerts and many violin performances in the 2013 CICA summer music festival in Dallas, Texas from July 15 to August 4th 2013, leading and conducting the Core Art Chamber Orchestra, directing the Taiwan International Music Festival 2014 in Taipei Taiwan, and directing the Taipei 2014 International Jazz Festival.