Piano Concert Performers

Chapel of the Chimes
April 26, 2009
4499 Piedmont Ave - Oakland, CA
Michael Morgan, Guest Host

Fazioli Grand Piano
Donated By Piedmont Piano Company

In just 25 years of production these phenomenal grands have become considered by many to be the world’s finest pianos. Acclaimed by the great concert artists of our time, these remarkable pianos are handcrafted in Sacile, Italy with a yearly production of just 100 instruments.

Lakeside Presbyterian Church
May 9, 2009
201 Eucalyptus Drive - San Francisco, CA
Bryan Baker, Guest Host

Piano Concert Music Program Notes

Eric Anderson	Chris Connolly
Jonathan Davis	Chris Erwin
John King	Verna Lim
Ricky Nevin	David Olachea
Davide Verotta	Timothy Yee
Bob Fowler	Duo ViVo
Alex Lee	Vivian Ling
Valdez Hill

Eric Anderson started piano at an early age. He is a Kasier Emergency
Room Doctor in Hayward, CA and a avid Bird watcher. He ahs perform around the Bay Area and is proud to volunteer his time and talent towards the AIDS/Lifecycle concert Series. Eric will be performing Franz Liszt Ballad No.2

Chris Connolly is a local Bay Area pianist and composer. He has recently recorded a CD of his own compositions due for release in March of 2009. His primary study of the piano was with master teacher Julian White for over ten years. Connolly currently studies the piano with Marc Steiner and Sharon Mann.
Performing works by Bach and Brahms

A native of Berkeley, California, Jonathan Davis holds a Master of Music degree in harpsichord performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York City where his principal teachers included Arthur Haas and Myron Lutzky. In New York, Jonathan performed, with the New York Continuo Collective under the direction of Stephen Stubbs, La Rappresentatione de Anima, e di Corpo by Caelliere, on period instruments. While an undergraduate at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Davis was Laurette Goldberg's teaching assistant. Mr. Davis is the recipient of outstanding performance awards from the Mu Phi Epsilon Honors Foundation, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Mannes College of Music. As the winner of the 2003 Indiana University Baroque concerto competition, Jonathan was a featured soloist with the IU Baroque Orchestra. Mr. Davis has performed throughout Italy as a soloist and chamber musician, most recently at the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori, Florence, Italy.

Chris Erwin has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life, having moved from Kansas City, Missouri, his birthplace, as a child. His piano teachers have included Eugene Masluk, Julian White, Ellen Wasserman, and Jeanne Stark-Iochmans. He currently teaches at his studio in Castro Valley, and works as accompanist at a church in Dublin. For several years he was an accompanist for the CSUEB Theatre Department, until this past September.

John King has been playing jazz professionally for over 10 years. A Bay Area native, his jazz studies began with Ed Kelly and Mondre Moffett. Since then he has continued his studies through lessons and gigs, both here and abroad. He has supported himself on an overwhelming love for the music and the culture it's born out of. Jazz selections and originals compositions.
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Alex Lee is a freshman in high school and a violist with Oakland Youth Orchestra,Oakland Youth Orchestra (OYO), under Conductor Michael Morgan and Bryan Nies. His private violin teacher is Mr. Jay Liu. He also enjoys learning the piano and currently studies under Mrs. Peggy O'Dell. He received California State Solo/Ensemble Festival Command performance Gold Award in 2008, Superior performance Plague in Music Teachers' Association of Contra Costa Baroque Festival 2009" Alex has many interests outside of music; some of his interests include his passion for computers, car designing and car racing games.
Photo By Steve Wedgwood

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Photo coming soon1

Vivian Ling, 17yr. She is an 11th grade student at SF University High School. She has been studied piano for 10 years with Mrs. Dunyin Liu. She is also a national winner from the National Guild of Piano Teachers and won many prizes in the competitions. She is selected to performance by American Fine Art Festival at Carriages Hall in New Your this summer. She plays piano in her school many music programs and events every year. Also, she has volunteered as a pianist at UCSF Music in Art and Recovering Program 3 years and other communities.

Verna Lim received classical training from the age of 4 until 16 from Audrey Brown in Las Cruces, NM, who emphasized the context of musical expression through the histories of the pieces, the biographies of the composers, and the aesthetics of different periods. She performed with the Las Cruces Symphony orchestra during that time, taught students of her own, and accompanied for various artists and choirs.

Verna continued her studies at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Catherine Kautsky during her college years. She continued to give lessons to adults and children, adapting curriculum to individual learning styles.

Verna is currently building a program to coach youth in musical storytelling, using multimedia means of self-expression, and emphasizing life-lessons, goal-setting, self-reflection and personal accountability as crucial elements of the organic curriculum. In her other life, she is an anthropologist, filmmaker, and former co-CEO of a video evaluation company to help foundations and non-profits understand their impact in the world. Photo Credit-Miguel J. Flores Photography Performing Solo and Duo Selections. Schubert Fantasy F Minor and Debussy Ballade Slave

 

Rocky Nevin, began studying piano alone at age 15 after discovering classical music. His first teacher was Jesse Parker. He later studied privately with Adolf Baller, for approximately 8 years. He has also been coached by Dusi Mura, Yakov Kasman, Tomas Ungar (Director of the Cliburn Institute, T.C.U.), Eric Himy and Davitt Moroney.

Rocky has been presented in recital numerous times and has won awards such as Winner of the Best Romantic Performance award in the 2006 1st Piano Amateur Competition Berlin. He was a finalist in the Amateur Pianists International piano competition, in Colorado Springs, CO, winning the Best Baroque Performance and the Best Romantic Performance awards, and also winner of the Best Baroque Performance award and a Semi-Finalist in the 2nd Washington International Piano Amateur Competition in Washington, D.C. He was also participated in the Van Cliburn Foundation's 3rd and 4th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs (IPCOA) and in the 14th & 15th International Competition for Outstanding Piano Amateurs Paris, France.

Rocky earned his Ph.D. in BioPhysics at the University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. in Physics, from the University of California, Berkeley. Rocky is the Co-founder, President & CEO of DataSea Inc. Performing Chopin Selections

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David Olachea began his piano studies at the age of eight with his father. Over the years his teachers have included Charles Eiferle, James Gardner (conductor of the Pro Art Symphony Orchestra) and Justin Blasdale who was a great friend and mentor. David studied with Justin extensively for many years until his death.

David has been presented in numerous recitals and has performed with other musicians at various venues in the Bay Area. He has performed many benefit recitals, including a fund-raiser for the Oakland Opera. The Bridges Foundation presented David in recital for the Diablo area schools music departments for a sold out performance. In 2002, David's recital at Valley Center for the Performing Arts raised $6,000 for the Justin Blasdale Memorial Scholarship Fund and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition, David served as the music director and performer at an international film festival held at Stanford University.

David has taught piano for over 17 years. He lives in Alameda and teaches piano from his studio in his home. Performing works by Bach - Busoni & Others.
Photo Credit- Miguel J. Flores Photography

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Davide Verotta was born in a boring mid-sized Italian town close to Milano (Gallarate, one can Google-earth it), and moved to the much larger and very much more exciting San Francisco in his late twenties. He studied piano, and music, in Milano with Isabella Zielonka, Ernesto Esposito, and Giacinto Salvetti, and in San Francisco with Renee Witon, Peggy Salkind, Robert Helps, and Julian White. Composition is a more recent endeavor (with graduate studies at SFSU and UC Davis with Richard Festinger, Josh Levine, Kurt Rohde, and Laurie St. Martin), but it is little by little coming to dominate as his main musical interest. As a pianist he teaches, in his home and at the Community Music Center in San Francisco, and performs regularly in the Bay Area as a soloist, with frequent appearances at the Trinity Chamber, St. Timothy, Piedmont Piano concert series. As a composer/pianist he studies the craft, performs his and others works (in particular, for the last three years, as a pianist with the San Francisco Composers' Chamber Orchestra), and writes for solo instruments, chamber, orchestra, and voice. Davide has been the featured guest artist on 5 Aids/Lifecycle Concert Series in 2008. For more information, upcoming recitals, and premieres of his compositions please visit his web site at http://davide.gipibird.net.

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Timothy Yee is 17 years old and is a senior at Redwood Christian High School. He has been playing piano for about 12 years studying under Mr. David Olachea. Timothy enjoys playing on his school's tennis team and is the Senior Class Treasurer. He is also a National Merit Commended Student. Timothy hopes to attend UC Berkeley next fall and major in chemical engineering. Some of his interests include the science fiction genre, reading books, and playing on his custom-built computer. Selections works by Franz Liszt

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Bob Fowler has been an active musician since age 9, when he began singing in the youth choir at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos. Piano lessons followed soon after. He received a B.S. in Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College in 1971. Bob has played numerous piano recitals and has accompanied hundreds of vocal and instrumental soloists, choruses and other pianists. He has created dozens of translation and pronunciation guides for choruses, based on the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Bob is the composer of several original pieces for solo voice and chorus. He currently pays his rent by programming computers. His other interests include Astronomy, Astrology, Mathematics, Calendars, Nutritional Health, DNA, Space Pictures, and The Future. Bob is generously donating his talents to AIDS/Lifecycle and the SF AIDS Foundation. Bob will be accompanying several artists and performing as a soloist. Performing works by Liszt and Rachmaninoff

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Verna Lim and Valdez Hill (Duo ViVo) colloboration as a piano Duet team in 2007 and debuted at All Saints Catholic Church on May 27, 2007. They later performed together at Maybeck Recital Hall on September 21, 2008. This fundrasing event was sponsored by Mr. Greg Moore of Maybeck Concerts. This concert raised $2000,00 for AIDS/Lifecycle.

In 2008, Verna and Valdez continued their Solo and Duo performances during the San Franciso Bay Area 7 AIDS/Lifecycle Concerts Series and encore performance at Beth Eden Baptist Church on July 14, 2008 in Oakland CA. During this concert Verna and Valdez started performing under the name "Duo ViVo". This performance rasied over $1,000.00 for the churches "Family Life Center".

Verna and Valdez look forward to the new concert season in 2009 and expanding their repertoire. They are currently being coach as a Duo team by pianist and composer Mr. Davide Verotta.

Recordings Available: AIDS/Lifecycle Concert Series 2008 (Concert Hightlights and Performances, Disks 1-4), Beth Eden Baptist Chuuch 2008 encore concert CD.

Valdez Hill is the Founder, Music and Artistic Director of the AIDS/Lifecycle Concert Series along with several other duties to ensure that the concert series is a success. In the near future the concert series will be changing it's name and becoming a non-profit Foundation.

Valdez Hill began piano lessons at age 7 years old. His teachers included Angela Archie, Dr. Ronald Surace, Dr. Ellen Wasserman, Julian White for 25 years until his death in 2006, William Wellborn at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and currently with David Olachea in Alameda, CA. Valdez was the first non- music major accepted into his college music program and first non-music major presented in recital while attending Jacksonville State University. He graudated from Califormnia State University Hayward with a degree in Business Adminiatration.

Valdez has performed extensively throughout the Bay Area in recitals, local churches, social events, restaurants, Vallejo Elementary School System Music Education Programs, AIDS/Lifecycle Concert Series and recently for the Danville and Blackhawk Chamber of Commerce at the famous Blackhawk Car Museum. His piano recitals has raised over $185,000 for HIV/AIDS services and over $50,000 for other local charities and churches.

In 2001 he produced and coordinated his first music concert in collaboration with other local artists to raise $20,000 for the Positively Speaking Program (Catholic Charities) which helps educate young people about HIV/AIDS in colleges and public schools by educatiing students on safer sex and abstinence. Valdez has achieved many of his musical goals from his first all Spanish recital (Mi Amore de la Musica, 2006) performing and recording Frederick Mompou's piano works, his first Chopin recital, Left Hand Alone recitals (2003, 2004) and his Franz Liszt recital in 2007(Reflections).

Valdez has served as a volunteer with many community based programs over the years as a educator, peer advocate and 8 years with AIDS/LIFECYCLE as a Training Ride Leader and Mentor to riders. Valdez is member of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors.

Recordings Available: Liszt (Reflections 2006), Mompou Collection (2005),
Music of Spain(Mompou & Granados 2004), Chopin Preludes & Nocturnes (2001), Piano Duets (1988 Recital CD & DVD), Claremont Hotel Marathon Concert (CD & DVD 1991), AIDS/Lifecycle Concert Series 2008 (Concert Hightlights and Performances) Concert Series Encore (CD-2008).

Performing works by Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, Bach, Mompou, Rachmaninoff and others

Photo Credit-Valdez Hill, Graphic Designs

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