“Up Close with Living Lands & Waters" at the Figge Art Museum -- January 20.
Saturday, January 20, 7:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Presented in conjunction with the Quad Cities' noted river-cleanup operation founded by Chad Pregracke, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra invites music lovers to a special January 20 concert event at Davenport's Figge Art Museum: Up Close with Living Lands & Waters, a chamber-music celebration of the natural wonders around us boasting Emily Nash and Sabrina Tabby on violin, Bruno Vaz da Silva on viola, Hannah Holman on cello, Kit Polen on bass, and Marian Lee on piano.
Emily Nash graduated with her MM in violin performance while studying with Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University, graduating early and with high honors. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while studying with Simin Ganatra, and she has has participated in master classes with the Silk Road Ensemble, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Wendy Sharp, Roland and Almita Vamos, John McGrosso, Kurt Baldwin, Rebecca Henry, and the Parker Quartet. Nash has spent years performing with both the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, where she serves as Associate Concertmaster and Assistant Principal Second, respectively. Nash also performs with the Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival.
Violinist Sabrina Tabby, originally from Philadelphia, discovered her passion for collaborative music at a young age, playing violin-cello and piano duets daily with her twin sister Genevieve. The two made their joint Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 15, featured on National Public Radio’s From the Top radio and PBS television series. From there, Sabrina went on to perform across four continents as concertmaster, soloist, recitalist, and within various baroque and contemporary music ensembles. Tabby's passionate and refined playing has been celebrated with numerous awards and several commissions, recently including premieres in New York City and South America. She is grateful for an active performance career full of so much variety, and holds degrees from Bard College Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University.
Bruno Vaz da Silva began studying viola in 2004 in his native Brazil at the Escola de Musica de Brasilia, and after one year, he placed in a solo competition and had the opportunity to perform with the Orquestra Sinfonica da Escola de Musica de Brasilia. He graduated from the conservatory in two-and-a-half years – a program that normally takes eight years to complete – and has subsequently performed with the Bensenville Chamber Orchestra, Renovo String Orchestra, North Park University Symphony Orchestra, Brasilia Philharmonic, University of Brasilia String Orchestra, and Art-Brasilia Orchestra, among other ensembles. As a soloist, Silva has won top prizes and has performed with Midwest Young Artists, Orquestra Sinfonica da Escola de Musica de Brasilia, North Park University Symphony Orchestra, Mode Ensemble and the Orquestra Art-Brasilia, also performing in various orchestras in both summer and winter music festivals.
An active chamber musician, Hannah Holman studied at the Eastman School of Music and Michigan State University, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree, and obtained her Master of Music Degree with Fritz Magg at the New England Conservatory. A founding member of the Beaumont Piano Trio, which performed around the United States and England, Holman was also a founding member of Quadrivinium, a music ensemble-in-residence at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. From 2002 to 2011, she was a member of the Maia Quartet, the University of Iowa's quartet-in-residence, which toured China, Japan, and throughout the United States, including teaching residencies at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, and the Austin Chamber Music Center. Holman regularly performs in chamber ensembles with musicians from throughout the United States, and Fanfare magazine raved that “her tone and technique are the stuff that cello legends are made of.”
Bassist Kit Polen performs regularly with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Philharmonic in addition to being a member of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Rockford Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he has performed with many artists including the Argus Quartet, Chai Collaborative Ensemble, and Leon Fleisher. Equally comfortable outside the traditional symphonic setting, Polen has collaborated with CSO’s MusicNOW series, the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, and has also been a part of multiple Grammy nominated R&B recordings. Polen has been based in Chicago since 2011, when he joined the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as Assistant Principal Bass, and prior to moving to Chicago, he earned his Master of Music from Indiana University and his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, near his hometown of Hickory, North Carolina.
An Assistant Professor of Piano at St. Ambrose University who received her Doctor of Musical Arts at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, Marian Lee made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall as the 1995 winner of the Artist International Award. She went on to serve as a soloist and chamber performer in Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Poland, Russia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, as well as in major cities throughout the United States. Lee has made numerous appearances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and performed an exclusive recital in the Hermitage Theater at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, and also played piano in a nationally televised broadcast from Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. Additionally, Lee helped develop Moscow Nights, a first-time collaboration between the music and Russian-language departments at the University of Delaware, and served as president of the Delaware Music Teachers Association.
On January 20, the Up Close with Living Lands & Waters concert opens with the airy melodies of Haydn’s “Lark” Quartet, leading into the evocative soundscape of John Luther Adams’ Dream of the Canyon Wren, which pays homage to the beauty of nature. Debussy’s L’isle Joyeuse subsequently transports the audience to an enchanted island, followed by the innovative and unexpected textures of John Cage’s prepared piano piece And the Earth Shall Bear Again and Angel Lam’s Secrets and Ice Garden. The night culminates with Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet, weaving a narrative that resonates with the serene and joyful spirit of the natural world.
Up Close with Living Lands & Waters will be performed at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on January 20, admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is $12-32, and more information and tickets are available by calling 563-322-0931 and visiting QCSO.org.
