Credit: SZALON logo by Mia Bosna
Sunday, May 29th, 2022, 7:00 PM ET - Welcome; 7:30 PM - SZALON. (Philadelphia, USA: GMT-4)
May 29th SZALON Program!
1. Martha Mooke, electro-acoustic violist/composer, will perform a selection of original works from her studio in New Jersey
2. Storyteller/Singer Songwriter TAHIRA will perform original works, Soul of My Stories, from her home in Claymont, Delaware
3. Diane Monroe will perform two freely improvised solos for violin, based on recent original repertoire at Andrea Clearfield’s Salon in Philadelphia
4. Cynthia Folio will perform compositions for solo flute, Szerelem, Szerelem arr. by Maria Harding and Cynthia’s original work Lilacs! at Andrea’s Salon
5. Baltimore-based jazz pianist Joshua Espinoza will perform an original composition along with his version of Lennon/Mcartney's “Yesterday” at the Salon
6. Genre-defying violin/cello duo ARKAI (Jonathan Miron & Philip Sheegog) will perform an original composition, ‘Letters from COVID’, on electric string instruments at the Salon
7. New York City Guitar Quartet (Jordan Dodson, Phil Goldenberg, Tom Clippinger, and John Marcel William) will perform Uarakena by Sergio Assad at the Salon
8. Ken Ulansey (saxophone/whistles), Stan Slotter (trumpet/flute) and Heath Allen (piano) perform a surprise at the Salon!
9. Empress Mars (vocals, piano) of Settled Arrows will share songs from their upcoming album, NECTAR at the Salon
10. Surendra Shrestha (tabla) and Bikash Sunar (guitar) perform fusion music, composed by Surendra Shrestha, from his home studio in Nepal
Martha Mooke
Martha Mooke, acclaimed for her electrifying performances and compositions, is a pioneering electric violist/composer, highly regarded for her artistry, music advocacy, and innovative educational programs. A Yamaha Artist and Eventide’s first Artist in Residence, Mooke is a leading clinician on electric and multi-style string playing. She has performed with Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, Philip Glass, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Andrea Bocelli, and Tony Bennett among others and is Founder/Artistic Director of the Scorchio Quartet which performs as resident quartet in the Tibet House Benefit Concerts at Carnegie Hall produced by Philip Glass. Mooke received the prestigious ASCAP Concert Music Award for creating and producing ASCAP's new music showcase THRU THE WALLS featuring boundary defying composer/performers. She created the cutting edge, Multi-Style Strings program at New Jersey City University.
https://marthamooke.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/martha.mooke
https://www.instagram.com/elecviola/
https://www.youtube.com/c/MarthaMooke
Videos:
TAHIRA
TAHIRA is a storyteller, musician, vocalist, and songwriter. TAHIRA legally spells her name with all capital letters as a reminder of the giant responsibility that the storyteller has as the caretaker of the community and keeper of the culture. A 2021 winner of the New Jersey Governor’s Distinguished Service in Arts Education, TAHIRA is also a Delaware Division of the Arts Established Professional Fellow in Folk Art: Oral Literature. She had the prestigious honor of performing at the internationally acclaimed festival, PANAFEST, in Ghana,
West Africa. TAHIRA is a Lifetime Member of the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. and recipient of its highest service award, the Linda Jenkin Brown’s Nia Award. TAHIRA, a full-time performing artist, boldly blurs the lines between storyteller and singer/songwriter. Her multiple talents enable TAHIRA to
deliver a unique performance that includes a heapin' of the moving stories, a fistful of soul-stirring vocals, flavored with a melodic guitar for good measure. TAHIRA has been writing since she was old enough to hold a pencil. She describes her relationship with creative writing, “Words are how I metabolize life. The by-product of that metabolism are stories, songs, and poetry that I hope inspires my audiences.”
Instagram: @TAHIRAstorytell
Facebook: @TAHRAproductions
YouTube: @TAHRAproductions
Videos
Diane Monroe
Diane Monroe is a versatile violinist, composer, and educator. While in demand as a classical chamber artist, she gained visibility in the jazz community with membership as first violinist of the Max Roach Double Quartet, Uptown String Quartet and subsequently the String Trio of New York. Her performances with distinguished artists of many backgrounds include Odean Pope, Arnold Steinhardt, John Blake Jr., Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Badura-Skoda, Steve Wilson, Jon Faddis, Bobby Zankel, Tom Lawton, Michal Scmidt, Marie Christine Delbeau, Mark O’Connor, Tony Miceli, and Uri Caine. She performs regularly with her own duo-to-septet ensembles, in collaboration with dancers Germaine Ingram and Leah Stein, and with Philly’s own coveted story-teller, Charlotte Blake Alston. Monroe enjoys premiering works of contemporary composers within all genres, as well as of her own creations. In 2018, Ms. Monroe won both a Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship Award and Project Grant, which funded her suite for violin, string quartet, Kora, Banjo, percussion, bass, and narrator, Violin Woman, African Dreams. Her quartet composition Vibes, and her orchestration of Fred Rogers’ You Are Special, appears on the Sony Classical Records sound track for the film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”. Monroe has coached and taught members of the Ying, Brentano, Shanghai, Marian Anderson, PubliQuartet, and Attacca string quartets. She holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now U.Arts).
Links to follow and support Diane:
https://www.wrti.org/post/violinist-diane-monroe-speaks-heart-about-healing-power-music
https://www.innova.mu/albums/orchestra-2001/point
https://www.discogs.com/Diane-Monroe-Tony-Miceli-Alone-Together/release/10052683
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/paul-salerni-music-samples/id431602019
Cynthia Folio
Cynthia Folio is retiring from Temple University after teaching full-time for 42 years. In the 1980’s, she taught music theory and flute at Texas Christian University and played part time in the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Since 1990 she taught theory and composition at Temple and performed in many local ensembles. She received a Ph.D. in music theory and Performer’s Certificate in flute from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied composition with Joseph Schwantner and flute with Bonita Boyd. While at Temple, she was awarded the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Creative Achievement Award, and the Faculty Senate Outstanding Service Award. Folio’s compositions are recorded on many CD’s including Inverno Azul (BCM+D), Flute Loops: Chamber Music for Flute (Centaur Records) and jazz CD, Portfolio (Centaur). Cynthia composed and recorded Lilacs! for Robert D. Morris (her dissertation advisor at Eastman) for a CD that celebrated his 70 th birthday. It employs the same 12-tone row and serial principles as his jazz-influenced composition, Not Lilacs!
Also, friend me on Facebook!
Most recent premiere of a flute and guitar piece, commissioned by the Eastman School of Music for their Centennial Celebration. (March 19, 2022):
https://rochester.box.com/s/vl3qgwrrolgkgcaey7skmpltwiaz67wg (video)
Joshua Espinoza
Latino-American pianist Joshua Espinoza blends and bends genres into original compositions and adaptations that are immediately relatable, yet hard to define. As a performer, Espinoza has collaborated with renowned artists including Warren Wolf, Sean Jones, Damien Sneed, Paul Bollenback, Miho Hazama, Alex Norris, John D’earth, Mike Pope, Kris Funn, Brian Settles, Todd Marcus, Chuck Redd, Ryan McGillicudy, Eugene Goss, and Gail Wynters, and on national stages including the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, The Kennedy Center, the Barns at Wolftrap, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the DC Jazz Festival. Espinoza was a finalist in the 2018 Ellis Marsalis International Jazz Piano Competition, and was named "Most Promising Semi-Finalist" in the UNISA International Jazz Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa (2016). Espinoza was previously on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. Espinoza holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from Furman University (SC) and an M.M. in Jazz Studies from Indiana University. Currently, Espinoza resides in Baltimore, MD. His debut album “Journey Into Night” – released in June 2019 – is available on all platforms.
Website: www.joshuaespinoza.com
Videos:
ARKAI Duo
ARKAI is an award-winning string duo that redefines the boundaries of musical genre — fusing classical virtuosity with the electricity of a rock band, the spontaneity of a jazz combo, and the beauty of a string quartet. Winners of the 2021 Astral Artists National Auditions, their past engagements have included performances at The MET Breuer, Rockwood Music Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y and TED. In collaboration with seven-time Grammy-nominated producer Joel Hamilton, ARKAI’s debut album, Aurora, will be released in 2022. Learn more at arkaimusic.com
Website: www.arkaimusic.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7dnUOUzgamqskX6F9yV7B1?si=b6I9Y78WR4mp3F6lWE9QRw
Instagram: www.instagram.com/arkaimusic
Facebook: www.facebook.com/arkaimusicofficial
YouTube: www.youtube.com/arkaimusic
Videos:
New York City Guitar Quartet
New York City Guitar Quartet (NYCGQ) is a dynamic new guitar quartet focused on bringing exciting new works to the classical guitar world. The quartet features guitarists Jordan Dodson, Phil Goldenberg, Tom Clippinger and John Marcel Williams.
http://www.jordandodson.net/
Follow them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/newyorkcityguitarquartet/
Ken Ulansey, Heath Allen, and Stan Slotter
Ken Ulansey, sax and pennywhistle has played and recorded contemporary classical music with Relache, premiering new works by, among many others, Philip Glass, Robert Ashley, and Mary Ellen Childs, played jazz with his own award-winning band, as well as latin, klezmer, Brazilian, and folk music with many of the nation’s leading songwriters— names as prominent as Susan Werner, Bonnie Raitt, Steve Goodman, Shlomo Carlebach and Jah Levi. Besides leading his own wedding band that specialized in swing, motown, klezmer, latin, pop, zydeco and oldies, Ken has toured extensively in Europe, Asia and the States, played on or produced nearly three hundred recordings, and worked in collaboration with dancers, film-makers, theater groups and story-tellers
Over his almost-fifty-year career, Heath Allen has recorded ten records/CD’s of his original jazz. Highlights include three full-length scores for choreographer Karen Bamonte and multiple scores for the bunraku puppet troupe Figures of Speech Theater. Heath has written plays and songs for young people, and also the children’s music group The Cats’ Pajamas. Heath became music director of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret in 2010. Because of the variety of vocal styles in their productions, Heath developed a unique compositional style incorporating opera, cabaret and pop. In 2014/15, Heath served as music director and lead composer for Andy: A Popera, a collaboration between the Bearded Ladies and Opera Philadelphia. Some recent projects not performed by the Bearded Ladies include writing the text and music for Reports of a Rare Mammal, and The Bearded Ballerina, composed for John Jarboe and the Relache New Music Ensemble.
Stan Slotter is multi-instrumetalist musicain, best known ofor his worker as a trumpeter. Slotter has been active on the Philadelphia, PA music scene for many years. Classically trained on trumpet and flute, he decided early on that jazz, Latin and popular music were closer to his heart. Stan began playing professionally at age 15, and has since developed a successful career as a versatile freelance player. Stan's favorite musical styles include jazz and Latin jazz, salsa, and world music, which he has played with some of the top players in the world.
Empress Mars
Settled Arrows is the genre-defying music project of independent vocalist, lyricist and composer Empress Mars. The New York Times has called their work elegaic. Their songs address grief, empowerment and collective responsibility. Their forthcoming album, NECTAR, will be released in Autumn 2022.
Links:
www.settledarrows.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/settledarrows
Videos:
Surendra Shrestha
Surendra Shrestha is an internationally known Nepali tabla player who holds a Masters in Music, specializing in Tabla, from Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, India. He has won numerous awards including third prize in the Classical Music Competition organized by Nepal Praud Sangathan, Certificate Award of Spiritual Music in the Hollywood Spiritual Film Festival in 2004, first prize in the Classical Music Competition organized by Alliance Francois, as well as 13 medals awarded to his band, Sur-Sudha, by the Mayors of France, Belgium, and Japan. He's performed with the likes of Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia (India), Ustad Ghulam Ali Khan ( Pakistan ), Kanai San Jazz Band (Japan ), Playing For Change Band (USA), Keb' Mo' (USA), and Ziggy Marley (USA), son of Bob Marley.
Instagram : @sur_sudha
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surendrawithsursudha
Videos:
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