Offering Private INDOOR & OUTDOOR Dining Rooms Perfect for your next: � Holiday Party � Cocktail Reception � Company Mixer � Family Reunion � Retirement Party � or Special Occasion The magic of 102 F STReeT, DavIS | (530) 750-1801 www.SeaSONSDavIS.COM 18 | <strong>Mondavi</strong> <strong>Center</strong> Presents Program issue 3: nov 2012 Voted “Best Place to Eat Before a <strong>Mondavi</strong> <strong>Center</strong> Performance.” —Sacramento Magazine (2010)
Stephen waarts, age 16, started his violin studies in the Bay Area at age five and piano studies at eight. After graduating from both high school and the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory at 14, he is currently pursuing a bachelor of music at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Since age 11, Waarts has been performing with numerous professional and community orchestras all over the world, playing a large repertoire including many rarely performed violin concertos. Winner of numerous international violin competitions, including the Menuhin Competition, Spohr Competition and Sarasate Competition, Waarts has received acclaim on several continents for his soulful and poetic playing, his artistry, unique tone and true virtuosity. On his prize winning performances the UK’s Daily Telegraph commented “... something special ... not just the mechanical wonder, but a soul.” And the Strad magazine, “from the first note … I was hooked, and within a few bars I was moved to tears from … such an experience is rare … Although it is possible to analyze it (Waarts’s playing) ... perhaps it is better not to try … truly poetic and sincere.” Waarts has performed in Germany, Spain, Norway, Russia and at venues in numerous states in the U.S. including at New York’s Carnegie Hall, in San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as at hundreds of concerts in the Bay Area. He has played, often multiple times, more than 25 concertos, with the Staatskapelle Weimar Orchestra, Navarra Symphony, Kostroma Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, Fremont Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, Redwood Symphony, Silicon Valley Symphony, Saratoga Symphony, Solano Symphony, Prometheus Symphony and a multitude of others. Fairfield’s Daily Republic commented: “Even in a region rich in musical talent, young Waarts is an exceptional talent.” The Los Angeles-based reviewer Baruch Cohon says: “Hands down hit of the evening was the young violinist Stephen Waarts ... masterful performance ... he (the composer) would have been overjoyed ...” The San Mateo Daily Journal said: “the emotionevoking quality of his sound, brings me to tears with that rare beauty” and “extraordinary technique.” At the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Waarts studies violin with celebrated violinist and master teacher Aaron Rosand, and he continues there his studies in piano and composition. Since 2005, Waarts has been a student at the studio of world-renowned Bay Area violin pedagogue Li Lin, with whom he continues his close collaboration. Concurrently, since 2009, Waarts has studied with Alexander Barantschik, Concertmaster of San Francisco Symphony, and with Baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and since 2010, he is also a student at the Perlman Music Program, headed by Itzhak Perlman. Waarts started his music education with violin lessons as part of a Suzuki violin program with Krishnabai Lewis and continued lessons with Jenny Rudin. He started piano studies with Steve Lightburn and since 2006, he continued them with Irina Sharogradski. A passionate chamber music player, Waarts has been part of the Music at Menlo program led by David Finckel and Wu Han for four summers since 2005, and he continues his chamber playing at the Curtis Institute and at the Perlman Program. During Waarts’s frequent visits to his Bay Area home he continues working with local orchestras and volunteering recitals at local retirement communities. Waarts is also an enthusiastic mathematician (having won many national math awards) and a visual artist. In the rest of his free time he enjoys reading, table tennis, swimming, card games and playing with his friends, including his younger sister and twin brother. Find out more about Waarts at www.stephenwaarts.com miles graber received his musical training at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Anne Hull, Phyllis Kreuter, Hugh Aitken and Louise Behrend. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, where he has developed a wide reputation as an accompanist and collaborative pianist for instrumentalists and singers. He has performed with numerous solo artists, including Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Camilla Wicks, Axel Strauss, Mimi Stillman and Judith LeClair. Graber currently performs frequently with violinists Christina Mok and Mariya Borozina, flutists Gary Woodward, Amy Likar and Ai Goldsmith and clarinetist Tom Rose. He is a member of the chamber groups Trio Concertino, MusicAEterna, Sor Ensemble and the new music group Sounds New. Graber has been associated with such ensembles as the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Midsummer Mozart, Oakland-East Bay Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Oakland Lyric Opera, Berkeley Opera and Opera San Jose. He has accompanied master classes by such artists as Midori, Joseph Silverstein, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pamela Frank, Alexander Barantchik, James Galway, Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma. He has been a frequent performance accompanist and chamber player with members of San Francisco Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Oakland-East Bay Youth Orchestra and UC Berkeley Symphony. He is on the faculty of the Crowden School in Berkeley, and he regularly coaches and accompanies students of the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley. He is currently a staff accompanist at the San Domenico Conservatory in San Anselmo, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Northern California Flute Camp in Carmel Valley. instruments • accessories • sheet music • lessons • rentals • repairs • Locally owned and operated since 1996 • • We stock over 20,000 print music titles • • We offer “guaranteed lowest price” on our huge and diverse inventory of instruments • Watermelon Music 207 E Street • Davis • CA • 95616 • 530.758.4010 M-F • 10-7 • Sa • 10-6 • Su 12-6 • www.watermelonmusic.com <strong>Mondavi</strong>Arts.org | 19
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