January 26th SZALON!

1.    Rick Treffers performs original songs, including 2 from his new album The Opposite Of Never, from his home studio in Amsterdam

2.    Magdaliz and Her Latin Ensemble Crisol perform selections from Latin America and the Caribbean, from the Szalon in Philadelphia

3.    Pianist Dave Posmontier, bassist Chico Huff, and saxophonist Bob Howell perform original jazz compositions, from the Szalon

4.    Clarinetist Christopher Nichols and pianist Christine Delbeau perform Richard Rodney Bennett’s Ballade in Memory of Shirley Horn, from the Szalon

5.    Mandolinist Gabriel Locati and guitarist George Attisano perform two movements of Allen Krantz’s Sonata for Mandolin and Guitar “Night Music” and “Finale”, from the Szalon

6.    Intertwining of the Muses: pianist Katelyn Bouska presents excerpts from Ruth Schönthal's Canticles of Hieronymus and poetry inspired by the music, from the Szalon

7.    The Meraki Duo (Rick Barrantes, bassoon and Maria Dell’Orefice, piano), presents songs by Florence Price and William Grant Still, from the Szalon

8.    Eliana Yang performs György Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello, from the Szalon

9.    Soleil David performs two poems with improvised piano accompaniment by Andrea Clearfield, from the Szalon

10. Cellist Tim Leonard and pianist Cathy Mazza perform movements 1 & 4 from Michael Leibowitz's Sonata for Cello and Piano, from the Szalon

11. Orit Eylon-mezzo soprano, and Shane Anderson perform two arias from Andrea Clearfield’s oratorio, Women of Valor: “Leah” and “Rachel”, from San Antonio, Texas

Rick Treffers

Rick Treffers is a European singer-songwriter whose songs are focused on catchy melodies and harmonic textures. They have been described as alternative folk, dream pop or ‘crooner wave’. The German paper Münchner Merkur named him as ‘the Dutch king of melancholy’. After the release of the album We Should Have Been Stars in 2003, his band Mist is categorized as ‘Quiet Is the New Loud’, referring to artists who write songs in a subdued, lush way. In that year, Treffers launches ‘Live in the Living Room’, a successful project of intimate and acoustic house concerts in The Netherlands, Germany and his beloved Spain. Treffers sings and writes in several languages. He participates in a Leonard Cohen song project in 2017 and gets a novel published about a troubled musician on the road. From 2021 to 2024, he releases three albums under his own name. The most recent one is The Opposite Of Never, with songs of hope, love and illusion, recurrent themes in Treffers’s extensive repertoire.

Links: 

Website:  www.ricktreffers.com (including sales link to store)
My Bandcamp-page (and store): https://ricktreffers.bandcamp.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ricktreffersmusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ricktreffers
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/62ocrWxMpp1d6bNs3sn3bE?si=clwmK_hSSuejLeHwQ_Ielw

Videos:

Magdaliz and Her Latin Ensemble Crisol

Magdaliz Roura is the founder, manager, lead guitarist, and lead singer of the Latin ensemble “Magdaliz and Her Latin Ensemble Crisol” (a.k.a. Trio Crisol). Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from an early age, she showed a talent for music. She has performed with many and varied musical ensembles and choirs in Puerto Rico and the USA. After obtaining her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, she moved to Philadelphia in 1994 to obtain an M.A. in Music Therapy. She has been living, working, and performing in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas since then. Other than being a musician, she currently works as a certified Spanish interpreter in the courts. You can see her performing all over as a soloist and/or with her ensemble, “Magdaliz and Her Latin Ensemble Crisol,” or as a guest artist with other ensembles. To find out more about her presentations or to book her, you can visit her social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.

You can support this artist electronically (internet or phone apps) via Venmo(@Magdaliz-Roura), CASH, Zelle, using her name and phone number 215-205-7692.

You can email her (triocrisol@gmail.com) if you are interested in buying her Latin Trio CD “Songs from the New World” for $10.

Links:

YouTube: youtube.com/TrioCrisol
FaceBook: facebook.com/TrioCrisol
Instagram: instagram.com/TrioCrisol

Videos:

Dave Posmontier, Bob Howell, and Chico Huff

Dave Posmontier has been playing piano since the age of 7 and professionally for the past 50 years. A pianist, organist, composer, arranger and teacher, he has performed and recorded with many jazz artists including Christian McBride, James Moody, Chris Potter, Grover Washington Jr. and Johnny Hartman. Dave has 2 recent CDs to his name as well as a vinyl LP of his original compositions recorded back in the day in 1984. He has also been playing traditional and innovative klezmer music with a band called, “Klingon Klezmer.” They have performed in major concert halls throughout Germany and have released two CDs. In celebration of its 100th birthday in 2007, the renowned Settlement Music School honored 100 alumni who have made a difference in the world of music. Dave and his brother Rich were chosen to receive this honor.

More info on Dave can be found at www.daveposmontier.com

Bob Howell is a Philadelphia native who started his music career as a kid playing clarinet and bassoon in the All City Concert Band and Orchestra. As a teen, while studying bassoon with Ferdinand Del Negro, he discovered the tenor saxophone much to his teacher’s chagrin. Bob attended Berklee College of Music as a composition major, studied saxophone with Joe Viola and from there began to perform nationally and internationally with jazz and R&B artists. Bob also studied improvisation with Dennis Sandole. He has recorded with national and local artists such as Richie Cole, Odean Pope, Clark Terry, Dave Posmontier and has performed with Richie Cole, Odean Pope, Trudy Pitts, Vic Juris, The Three Degrees, Aretha Franklin, The Four Tops, Lou Rawls, Johnny Mathis and many fine local Philly musicians. Bob has taught saxophone for Settlement Music School and is currently teaching saxophone at Widener University.

More info on Bob can be found at http://www.bobhowellsaxophone.com/

Chico Huff has been playing electric bass professionally for about 40 years. He is primarily self-taught, learning from all the wonderful musicians he’s had the pleasure of making music with over the years. He did his first paying gig when he was about 14, playing standards on Martha’s Vineyard in a restaurant in Katana. What better way to learn fast than to play with older players who neither told him what tune or what key they were going to play, just counted it in and it all worked out! Over the years Chico has had the pleasure of performing and recording with the likes of James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jeff Golub, Solas, Terrance Blanchard, John Belushi, Dr. John and Jefferson Airplane. He’s had the chance to travel to USA and Europe extensively through the gift of music as well as performing in Japan and Morocco.

More info on Chico can be found at chicohuff.weebly.com

Videos:

Christopher Nichols and Christine Delbeau

Critically acclaimed clarinetist Christopher Nichols enjoys a dynamic career with performances across the United States and in Italy, Costa Rica, Belgium, Malta, Canada, and the Netherlands. He joined the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music in 2013 where he is Associate Professor of Clarinet. Nichols regularly performs with orchestras throughout the Mid-Atlantic and is a member of Christiana Winds. He has recently collaborated with the acclaimed Serafin Ensemble, the Copeland Quartet, as well as members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has served for over a decade in Army Bands and is currently the first sergeant of the 287th Army Band in Wilmington, Delaware.

Christine Delbeau has performed in recitals at the nation’s most renowned concert halls, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Weill- Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, and in concerts at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. She has also performed in the highly celebrated Fiddlefest Gala Concerts at Carnegie Hall and at the Tönhalle in Zurich, Switzerland. An active chamber musician, Christine Delbeau frequently performs inchamber music recitals throughout the United States and abroad. She collaborates with University of Delaware colleagues and other musicians in festivals and national and international conventions and festivals. Christine Delbeau is Professor of Piano at the University of Delaware School of Music. She teaches piano students, music courses, and regularly presents master classes and serves as an adjudicator in the region and beyond. Former students are active performers and pedagogues in the United States and abroad.

Links:

Almost All-American: 21st-Century Works for Clarinet: https://tinyurl.com/48uah5zf
Elegia: https://tinyurl.com/2sr2abas
Transcontinental: Music without Borders: https://tinyurl.com/5yncwe3x

Videos:

George Attisano and Gabriel Locati

George Attisano, guitarist, is a candidate for a Master’s Degree in Classical Guitar performance at Temple University, where he studies solo guitar and ensemble performance with Allen Krantz. A native of Genoa, Italy, George grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers College, where he studied Spanish, French, and Music. He has studied classical guitar with Jerome Mouffe in Boston and Chris Ladd in Connecticut. He has participated in master classes with Fabio Zanon, Scott Tennant, William Kanengiser, and Ana Vidovic. He has performed solo and in ensembles, including as a featured performer with the Hudson Bells, a choral group based in Westchester County, New York, and with Singing City, a Philadelphia-based choral group. He is a regular performer at Atria Senior Living in Lafayette Hill, PA.

Gabriel Locati is a classical mandolinist with a Bachelors degree from Temple University studying with Allen Krantz. He is a native of the Philadelphia area and has performed on mandolin and mandocello in the Munier Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra, the Philadelphia Mandolin and Guitar Ensemble, and the East Coast Mandolin Orchestra. Before attending Temple University, Gabriel studied with Patrick Mercuri. In 2019, Gabriel placed 2nd in the Rowan University Concerto Competition, Junior divistion. He has a focus on expanding the classical mandolin repertoire with transcriptions and the general application of the instrument in classical music, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in performance from Temple. 

Links:

George Attisano’s Website: https://georgeattisano.com/home
Micheal and Gabriel Locati’s Chamber series website: https://www.bridgestreetchambermusic.com/
Gabriel Locati’s Instagram: @gabelocati
Donate to George and Gabe here: Venmo @gabe-locati

Video:

Katelyn Bouska

Pianist Katelyn Bouska is an academic and an advocate, passionate about uncovering music lost to the passage of time. In her programming, she explores the boundaries between audience and performer, the past and the present. Her critically-acclaimed 2023 solo album with Yarlung Records, Woman and War and Peace, described in music six women composers response to war and its after effects.  November 2024 saw the release of the companion album on the same label, “Hildegard and Her Sisters” featuring commissions by young female composers and her own improvisations on the music of medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen. In summer of 2024, Katelyn left her long-time Music Studies Faculty position at the Curtis Institute of Music for a sabbatical year in Prague to complete her book, “Czech Women in Music.” 

Links:

www.katelynbouska.com
https://www.youtube.com/@KatelynBouska
https://www.instagram.com/katebouska/
Spotify
iTunes

Video:

The Meraki Duo:
Rick Barrantes and Maria Dell’Orefice

Rick Barrantes Agüero is the Principal Bassoon and Board President of the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra. He holds teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, The Music School of Delaware, Temple Music Prep, and the Philadelphia International Music Festival. He regularly appears as a guest bassoonist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, York Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Second Ending Ensemble, and Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey. He has played as a soloist with the Temple University Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Chamber Orchestra, Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, Wilmington Community Orchestra, Philadelphia Sinfonia, GGS Chamber Orchestra, Youth Orchestra of Guatemala, and University of Costa Rica Symphonic Band. Additionally, he serves as Assistant Conductor with the University of Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestras and Temple University Symphony Orchestra, and recently guest conducted the American Modern Ensemble and Mostly Modern Orchestra.

linktr.ee/rickbarrantes

Maria Dell’Orefice, a classical pianist and avid violinist, has shared the stage with performers such as Alexander Markov, Francesca DePasquale and Chris Botti. While Maria frequently presents solo and collaborative performances in the Philadelphia area, she has also performed solo piano in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a result of winning several competitions. Maria is the pianist for the Haverford College choirs, Staff Pianist Artist in Residence at Temple University, and Staff Pianist for the Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy (PYPA) Piano Festival. Maria has studied under Charles Abramovic, Lambert Orkis, Jane Abbott-Kirk, and Sheila Paige and is an advocate of the Taubman technique. She earned her B.M. in Piano Performance from Baylor University and earned a double M.M. in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano from Temple University.

Links:

Website
YouTube
Facebook
Instagram

Videos:

Eliana Razzino Yang

Philadelphia-born cellist Eliana Razzino Yang has performed solo recitals in London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Frankfurt, New York, Helsinki, Boston, and Philadelphia and concertos with orchestras in Italy, across the US, and England. Eliana has collaborated with members of the Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Vermeer, Audubon, Aizuri, and Momenta string quartets, Ensemble Epomeo, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Recital partners include pianists Ieva Jokubaviciute, Amy Yang, and Clare Hammond. Past programs include IMS Prussia Cove, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Perlman Music Program, Sarasota Music Festival, Heifetz Institute, Castleman Quartet Program, Thy Chamber Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, and Carnegie Hall’s New York String Orchestra Seminar. Eliana received her bachelor’s degree from Juilliard in May 2022 under the tutelage of Natasha Brofsky and Richard Aaron, and is continuing for her master’s degree with Zvi Plesser and Clara Kim.

Videos: 

Soleil David and Andrea Clearfield

Soleil Davíd is a poet and translator from the Philippines and is the author of the chapbook Equatorial (Aklat Ulagad, 2024). Her honors include grants and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ and Translators’ Conferences, PEN America, Barbara Deming Fund, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. She received a BA with high distinction from the University of California at Berkeley and an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington. She is a senior editor for translation at The Margins.

soleildavid.com 

Creating deep emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges, the music of Andrea Clearfield is performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. She has been praised by the New York Times for her “graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing”, the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “compositional wizardry” and “mastery with large choral and instrumental forces”, the L.A. Times for her “fluid and glistening orchestration” and by Opera News for her “vivid and galvanizing” music of “timeless beauty”. She has written over 175 works for opera, chorus, orchestra, chamber ensemble, dance and multimedia including 17 cantatas. Documenting Tibetan music in the Nepalese Himalaya inspired a decade of new work including Tse Go La cantata on rites of passage, and MILA, Great Sorcerer ,opera to libretto by Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden presented at the acclaimed NYC Prototype Festival. She has been awarded a Pew Center International Residency Award, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, two Fellowships at the Rockefeller's Bellagio Center and Fellowships at the American Academy in Rome, MacDowell, Yaddo and Copland House among others. Dr. Clearfield served on the Composition Faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986-2011. As a pianist, she performed in the Relâche Ensemble for 25 years and has performed and recorded with many other soloists and ensembles around the U.S. She had the honor of performing with the Court of the Dalai Lama. Passionate about building community around the arts, she is founder, curator and host of the Philadelphia SZALON since 1986.  She serves on the Executive Board of Wildflower Composers, highlighting voices of young female, nonbinary, genderqueer and transgender composers. She is represented by Black Tea Music.

www.andreaclearfield.com

Timothy Leonard and Cathy Mazza

Timothy Leonard is a Philadelphia-based cellist, educator, and contemporary music specialist. Recent engagements include premieres of new works in Iceland, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. He has collaborated with members of the Juilliard Quartet, Emerson Quartet, MET Orchestra, and International Contemporary Ensemble, but most enjoys performing with his wife, soprano Chelsea Feltman. In 2018, he and Chelsea commissioned and presented a new work
by JL Marlor for soprano, countertenor, and cello at New Music Gathering in the US. He also toured China and Australia, where he performed diverse programs of chamber music and dance and led creative workshops for students. A graduate of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Tim was the recipient of the Artur Balsam Chamber Music Scholarship, won the concerto competition, and performed Bernstein's Three Meditations from MASS with the Queens College Orchestra. Tim’s primary teachers include Marcy Rosen and Jonathan Spitz. Tim is a freelancer in the Northeast US, where he premiered new works at BAM and Bargemusic and performed at Carnegie Hall and NJPAC. He has also appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and NPR's Live From Here with Chris Thile.

Cathy Mazza is a classical pianist, rock and pop keyboard player, and singer, songwriter, composer and conductor. Cathy has performed at the Kimmel Center, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Longwood Gardens, West Chester University, Settlement Music School, World Cafe Live, Please Touch Museum, The Sedgwick Cultural Center, The Tin Angel, Andrea Clearfield’s Salon, and many more venues in the Philadelphia area.  She has also performed in New Jersey, New York City, Baltimore, and Eastern Europe. Cathy is an accompanist and co-director of the Gleeksman-Kohn Children’s Choir of Settlement Music School.  At West Chester University, Cathy studied with Benjamin Whitten while earning her Bachelor of Music in Keyboard Performance.  She also holds a Master of Music from the University of the Arts.  Cathy has been a member of a rock band, including The Kwerks, whose eponymous first CD contains two of her own songs.  Cathy has composed choral pieces and children’s songs. Her keyboard skills have been described as “awe-inspiring” and “playing with such ease, precision and emotion.”  Her album reviewers said “they keep the listener immersed in their musical soup” with “fetching hooks and swirling vocal harmonies”  and “very original songwriting.and excellent arrangements.”  Cathy’s piece for piano, flute, cello and women’s voices, “Apart (2020),” represents the emotions and struggles of the COVID pandemic.  The video she created includes an accompanying text, and interpretive dance by Emily Kline and Melissa Faller. It was premiered at a virtual concert given by The Philadelphia Women’s Music Project in March, 2021, and is a featured video in WHYY’s House Concert Series. 

Michael Leibowitz is a contemporary classical composer celebrated for his innovative contributions to chamber and vocal music. His works have been described as “haunting beautiful and unpredictable,” captivating audiences with their emotional depth and intricate textures. He pursued formal study at the Longy School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and the University of the Arts, working with composers Howard Frazin, Randolph Coleman, Lewis Nielson, and Andrea Clearfield. Leibowitz has received numerous commissions from prominent musicians and ensembles, including accomplished pianists Michelle and Kimberly Cann, the renowned Jasper String Quartet, and the innovative Borderlands Ensemble. He has also written extensively for vocalists,  including Michael Weyandt, Rebecca Sacks, Audra Casebier, Madison Boyer, Opera on Tap Philadelphia, and the vocal ensemble The Perspective Collective, who premiered his chamber opera “For Love of Country.” Michael’s choral work, “One Last Seed,” was selected as a finalist in the Ithaca College Choral Competition Festival. Michael teaches music at the John H. Taggart Elementary School in South Philadelphia and maintains a select group of private students. He lives with his wife and three children (all musicians as well) outside of Philadelphia, PA. 

Michael Leibowitz website: www.michaelleibowitzcomposer.com
Michael Leibowitz YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@michaelleibowitz5235
Cathy Mazza YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mazmus5937/videos

Video:

Orit Eylon and Shane Anderson

Dr. Orit Amy Eylon, Mezzo Soprano, is the Chair of the Department of Music , Voice Area Coordinator and Professor of Music (Voice) at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX. Orit has performed supporting roles with Opera San Antonio, Alamo City Opera, and El Paso Opera including Flora in La Traviata, Third Lady in Magic Flute, Kate In Madame Butterfly and Inez in Il Trovatore, to name a few. Orit has aso performed extensively as a recitalist in Austria, Germany, Mexico and Asia and presents lecture recitals at various conferences and universities throughout the world. She performed as a soloist for several oratorio works with the El Paso symphony and Juarez Symphony in Mexico. She has served as faculty for the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria. She is the recent South Texas Chapter president of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, past Governor of the Rio Grande District of the same organization and is a sought-after master clinician and judge for solo and ensemble contests and international and regional voice concerto and aria competitions. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in vocal performance from Indiana University.

Donations to UIW Department of Music : https://www.uiw.edu/giving/

As an advocate of innovative methods of education, Shane Anderson, DMA, was one of the first music educators to create and teach Class Piano fully online. Through a Louisiana Board of Regents Grant and private donations totaling nearly $100,000, in 2016 he designed and installed a 24 station Roland piano lab for Nicholls State University. He has also served as pianist for many years with the Victoria Symphony and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras.

His interest in new music has led him to perform and present classes on contemporary piano music in Jakarta, Bandung and Bali, Indonesia, on behalf of the Yamaha Corporation. Shane has been featured as a collaborative artist in hundreds of performances throughout Texas and Louisiana. He most recently served as head of the Department of Music at Nicholls State University and Associate professor of music at Texas A&M University in both Corpus Christi and Kingsville. His degrees are from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Nelita True and The University of Texas at Austin with Nancy Garrett. Shane teaches private and class piano for the Music Department at ACC.

Video: