Download PDF - Mondavi Center

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
MondaviArts.org | 19