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Chang Ho Lim & Rachel Choo - Violin & Piano Duo
Sunday, April 7th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Violinist Chang Ho Lim and Pianist Rachel Yunkyung Choo perform Brahms, Beethoven, De Falla and more!
Chang Ho Lim made his debut as a soloist with the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra and as a recitalist at the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series, where he was the winner of the Kumho-Asiana Cultural Foundation Auditions. Since then, he has appeared as a soloist and chamber artist at the major concert halls worldwide such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Royal Albert Hall in London, the United Nations Headquarters.
He has participated in various summer festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, Keshet Eilon International Master Course in Israel, the Orford Arts Center in Canada, the Festival MusicAlps in France, and Music in PyeongChang Festival. He attended master classes by Dorothy Delay, Joseph Silverstein, Dong-Suk Kang, Nam-Yun Kim, Rodney Friends, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Cho-Liang Lin, Maurizio Fuks, Michael Frischenschlager, and Pamela Frank. Lim is the winner of the New York Music Competition and Mason Gross Chamber Music Competition and has won top prizes at the Corpus Christi international competition the Joong-Ang and Ewha Kyung Hyang Concoursin Korea. His live performance of Mendelssohn Octet with the Soloists of New England at Lincoln Center has been released in spring 2019 on Spice Classics and iTunes worldwide.
Lim earned his BM and MM from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Donald Weilerstein and Naoko Tanakaand completed the Professional Studies program at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Sylvia Rosenberg. Lim earned Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University under Todd Phillips. He taught at Rutgers University’s community arts for six years and currently is concertmaster of Bergen Symphony Orchestra in New Jersey.
Chang Ho Lim
Pianist Rachel Choo has been praised for her artistry and musical sensitivity and enjoys an active careeras a soloist and chamber musician. The New York Sun lauded her Lincoln Center debut as a “perfect” playing exhibited “a strong-handed air of confidence,” and The New York Times music critic James Oestreich wrote of her recent Carnegie Hall performance, “Rachel Choo stood out among the players.” Rachel made her U.S. debut at the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Orchestra under maestro James Colon. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including Korea National University of Arts Orchestra, Kang-nam Symphony Orchestra, TBC broadcasting Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and Rutgers Symphony Orchestra. Rachel has received many international awards from esteemed competitions in South Korea and U.S. She has completed her undergraduate and Master’s studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio at the Juilliard School and Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody institute of The Johns Hopkins University with Yong Hi Moon. She currently hold a position as a lecturer at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University
Rachel Choo
Kristen Plumley, Matthew Ciuffitelli, & David Maiullo
Sunday, April 14th, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Concert of opera and musical theater favorites with Soprano Kristen Plumley, Baritone Mathew Ciuffitelli and David Maiullo piano
Described as possessing a “shimmering soprano” (The New York Times) with “sparkle and precision” (The Washington Post), Connecticut native Kristen Plumley has performed with many opera companies throughout the country, including New York City Opera (Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro), Virginia Opera (Norina in Don Pasquale and Zerlina in Don Giovanni), Chautauqua Opera (Sophie in Werther), Lyric Opera of Cleveland (Despina in Così fan Tutte), Amarillo Opera (Musetta in La Bohème), Greensboro Opera (Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore and Gilda in Rigoletto), Opera Festival of New Jersey (Nannetta in Falstaffand Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice, Boheme Opera (NJ) (Adele in Die Fledermaus), Opera Memphis (Yum-Yum in The Mikado) and Nevada Opera (Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore).
On the concert stage Kristen has performed a broad spectrum of works, from classical pieces (Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War at Carnegie Hall, Handel’s Messiahand Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) to An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan with the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Richmond, Memphis and Minnesota. She also greatly enjoys pops concerts, and her favorite is Sci-Fi Spectacular (music from science fiction movies and television shows, hosted by Star Trek series luminaries such as George Takei, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis), which she has performed with the Cleveland, Indianapolis, Seattle, Baltimore, Edmonton and Ottawa Symphonies, under the baton of Maestro Jack Everly.
In 2011 Kristen performed in the North American premiere of Handel’s first opera, Almira, with operamission in New York City, and in 2015 created the role of Ruth Draper in Verlezza Dance’s dance opera Icarus Rising, about real-life WWII freedom fighter Lauro DeBosis. Kristen is a member of The Infinite Lights Ensemble, a group that champions new Jewish music (www.infinitelightsensemble.com).
She teaches “The Joy of Singing Solo” through the Ridgewood, NJ Community School, a class that combines vocal technique, breathwork, bodywork, and imagery, all which help cultivate a playful, positive atmosphere for singers to explore their voices. Always looking to try something new, Kristen began taking tuba lessons two years ago. She is proud to be the president of the Ridgewood Friends of Music, which supports the music programs in her town’s public schools, and she greatly appreciates the support of her husband, Jeff, and eighteen-year-old twins, Annie and Henry, in all her endeavors. Please visit her website at www.kristenplumley.com.
Kristen Plumley
“Truly an anthem of our times” said Classic FM in regards to Matthew’s AKA (Opera Daddy)’s ‘Figaro’ parody. Matthew spent this past winter singing with New York City Opera originating the role of Giampi Malnate in their world premiere of The Garden of the Finzi Continis. He could also be seen singing in the Broadway’s 10th Anniversary Concert of A Tale of Two Cities. Ciuffitelli had the unique opportunity to perform with the Rolling Stones at Chicago’s United Center and to appear in the U.S. premiere of the mixed-media work, Mountain Top, by Dutch avant-pop composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis. Many of his operatic roles include Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Sergeant Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Eisenstein and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Valentin in Faust, Marcello in La Bohème, and Figaro in The Barber of Seville.
Matthew was the recipient of the 2018 Career Bridges Grant as well as the winner of the 2018 New Jersey State Opera Competition Award. He can be seen touring internationally with the world-renowned Sharpe Family Singers. You can find him on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram as @Operadaddy
Matthew Ciuffitelli
David Maiullo, Accompanist, is Chairman of the Board and Music Director of the Bravo Alliance of Performing Artists, and has been described by Opera News Magazine as "a pianist of sentiment, discretion and style." Mr. Maiullo is an avid accompanist/coach in the New York City Metropolitan area. His performances of over 2500 recitals and programs have led him to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, and Merkin Concert Halls in the US as well as venues in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, England, and Japan. He was awarded a scholarship as an accompanist to the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and has been a recipient of a fellowship with Opera-Music Theater International with Jerome Hines. Mr. Maiullo had the distinct honor of performing the European premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Mass for its composer in Spoleto with the Ars Musica Chorale and has also performed in the prestigious "Fringe Festival" in Edinburgh. Mr. Maiullo held the position of Chorus Master for the New Jersey State Opera for eight seasons and he continues to be a lecturer and pianist for operalogs and concerts with the company. As a collaborative pianist, New York Times critic Bernard Holland wrote, "Mr. Maiullo's playing was sensitive and effective." Currently Mr. Maiullo serves as the accompanist for the Gerda Lissner Foundation, Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, Career Bridges, and is the official Accompanist/Music Director for the Altamura/Caruso Competition. In addition to serving as head of the BRAVO Alliance of Performing Artists, he is the Musical Director of the Chamber Virtuosi Orchestra and the Music Director of the Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Franklin Lakes. Mr. Maiullo holds positions on the faculty of NYACK College where he is director of the Opera Workshop, New Jersey City University, and is the Coach/Accompanist of the Musical Theater Class at the Juilliard School of Music.
David Maiullo
Rebecca Eng and Florence Liu
Sunday, April 21, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Piano Duet, including Poulenc's Sonata, Debussy's Petite Suite, Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, Gershwin's Preludes and I Got Rhythm.
Rebecca Eng, pianist and teacher, studied at Wheaton Conservatory of Music (BM) and Eastman School of Music (MM) where she was awarded the Performer’s Certificate. After two decades of performing at Montclair State University as a collaborative pianist, she worked with The Opera Theatre of Montclair for seven years as the pianist and Assistant General Director. She now performs as a freelance accompanist in the New York metropolitan area and teaches piano privately, serving on the boards of the New Jersey Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Educators Association of New Jersey.
Renowned for her artistry and inspiring performances, pianist Florence Liu has forged a dynamic career as a soloist, collaborative artist, and educator. With a DMA in Piano Performance, she studied under Abbey Simon at CUNY's Graduate Center and earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was honored with the President’s Award.
Dr. Liu has garnered recognition from prestigious competitions, including the Dora Zaslavsky Piano Competition, The Artists International's Special Presentation Award, and The Young Musician Award from the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. She is a two-time finalist in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Formerly co-chairing MEANJ’s annual piano competition (2014-2016), she now serves on the competition committee and holds the position of co-president at the National League of Performing Arts. In addition, Dr. Liu is an adjunct piano faculty member at Montclair State University.
As duet partners, Rebecca and Florence have performed together since 2007.
Roger Post Jazz Quartet - April 28 at 3:00pm - Indoors
Roger Post - drums
Drummer, Band Leader: Roger Post is a highly sought-after drummer/ percussionist whose 50+ years of experience have encompassed an incredible variety of styles and music.
Rich Zurkowski - bass
Rich Zurkowski plays the thunderbroom aka the bass. He lives for the most part below the Y in Yamaha on your house piano. This quarter note salesman provides deep tones for many beautiful people.
Dave Savitsky - saxophone
Dave Savitsky - saxophone
Dave Savitsky has been performing and instructing for 25 years. He studied with Jackie McLean at the University of Hartford and Andy McGee at Berklee College of Music. With various groups, Dave has opened for Johnny Winter, Tower of Power, Chicago, Train, Chris Robinson, Willie Nile, NRBQ, Soulive, and Robert Walter and has performed with Bernie Wallace, Jay Anderson, Mike Clink, Joel Rosenblatt, Adam Nussbaum, Ira Coleman, Melvin Sparks, and many other CT and NY musicians and recording projects, most recently with Kevin Quinn’s Protocol and producer Eric Kupper. Dave has been with the SUNY New Paltz Jazz Faculty for 15 years and lives in Bethel, CT.
Dave Childs - piano
Dave Savitsky - saxophone
Piano: Dave Childs performs full-time in the tri-state region and has shared the stage with jazz greats Jimmy Heath, Eddie Bert, James Moody, Lionel Hampton, Larry Ridley, Roswell Rudd, and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Dave has been featured on a variety of recordings.
Recital - Tobias Steymans - Violin and Victoria Schwartzman - Piano
Sunday, May 5th at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Music of Beethoven, Brahms and Poulenc
Tobias Steymans began playing the violin at the age of six, and by the time he was twelve, he was already a preparatory student at the Music Academy in Cologne. After winning prizes at the Federal German “Jugend musiziert” competition and the first prize at the Tonger Competition, he was accepted into Professor Igor Ozim’s master class.
After successfully passing the artistic maturity examination he prepared for his concert examination with Prof. Zakhar Bron in Lübeck. This was followed by a two-year full-tuition scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service to study with Joseph Silverstein in Boston. Parallel to this, he took part in a number of master classes, studying with such eminent artists as Christian Tetzlaff, Thomas Zehetmair, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ana Chumachenko, Donald Weilerstein and Max Rostal.
He then joined in the founding of the Suavis String Quartet with the chamber music imprint of the Alban Berg Quartet in Vienna. Since 2003, he has been a violinist in the Ensemble Chamäleon, which performs chamber music in piano trio settings.
He has been invited to several festivals, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Aldeburgh, Prussia Cove and Ravinia. He has collaborated with musicians from a number of differed ensembles, such as the Juilliard String Quartet, the Vermeer String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet and the Emerson String Quartet.
He has taken part in a number of television presentations, including a WDR telecast in the series “Podium junger Künstler” (“Young Artists’ Podium”) and in the program “Träume ohne Schäume”.
In 2001, he performed live on WGBH in the United States, playing sonatas by Mozart and Debussy. In 2002 he acquired the position of concert master at the Zurich Opera, while he was also invited the become guest concert master of the Symphony Orchestra of Basel and the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden.
Tobias Steymans was a prize-winner at the 1994 International Violin Competition sponsored by the Georg Kulenkampff Foundation, first prize winner at the 1995 Yfrah Neaman Violin Competition and received a grant from the 1996 German Music Competition. In 1997 he was awarded the Mozart Prize from the Mozart Society in Wiesbaden, and in 1998 he received a grant from the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation, was accepted into the Study Foundation of the German People and sponsored by the German Foundation for Musical life.
Solo appearances have taken him to the Cologne Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Hamburg Musikhalle, the Broadcasting Hall of the NDR in Hanover, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, the Bremen Glocke, the Karlsruhe Congress Center and the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg. Here he has been accompanied by such distinguished ensembles as the Classical Philharmonic of Bonn, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Hildesheim Symphony, the Mainz Chamber Orchestra, the North-West German Philharmonic, the Southern Westphalian Philharmonic, the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Halle as well as the State Orchestra of Brandenburg.
In 2009 he made solo appearances with Cecilia Bartoli in Rome, Turin, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen with the second movement from the Violin Concerto No. 7 by Charles de Bériot and the duet aria “Infelice” by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
Tobias Steymans was appointed principal concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2009.
Victoria Schwartzman: Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Victoria Schwartzman (formerly Mazin) performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. Victoria has appeared with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra chamber players, at Bard Music Festival, at the Music Mountain Festival, in the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Hall, at Summit Music Festival, at Bargemusic, in the Gessner- Schocken concert series in Cambridge, WMP Concert Hall, and the Nicolas Roerich Museum concert series in New York City. As a member of the Yanvar Trio, she was a prizewinner in the Val-Tidone Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Zinotti International Chamber Music Competition, both in Italy.
Sophia Agranovich - Piano Solo
Sunday, May 12, at 3:00pm.
INDOOR PERFORMANCE
Internationally acclaimed virtuoso pianist, Sophia Agranovich, will perform a recital of romantic masterpieces on Sunday, May 12, at 3:00 PM. The program will feature Sonata in B minor by Chopin, Brahms-Paganini Variations, Sonetto del Petrarca #104 and Rhapsodie Espagnole by Liszt.
Sophia Agranovich is a multi-award-winning pianist, recording artist, educator, artistic director and a Steinway Artist, described by Fanfare as “a bold, daring pianist in the tradition of the Golden Age Romantics”, “a tigress of the keyboard”. Her performances are mesmerizing audiences by the “orison of uncommon beauty” - Audiophile, “magnificent shading and superior musicianship” - American Record Guide. Among her venues are Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Ehrbarsaal, Kaiser Hall, Gesellschaft für Musiktheater, Salle Cortot, Théâtre Na Loba, Teatro di Marcello. She is collaborating with award-winning Emmy, Grammy, and Billboard top 10 musical artists, and members of the major orchestras.Her 11 albums and numerous live concerts garnered rave critical acclaim and are broadcast on major stations worldwide. She had earned Bachelor and Master degrees from the Juilliard School, where she taught piano as a Teaching Fellow, and continued PhD studies at Columbia University.
Visit www.sophiagranovich.com
Sophia Agranovich
Catoonah Street Jazz
Sunday, May 19, at 3:00pm.
OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE - PLEASE BRING OUTDOOR SEATING
(INDOORS IF RAIN)
The Catoonah Street Jazz and Blues Society will bring the sound of New Orleans style Jazz to Danbury. They have been performing for more than 20 years, spreading happiness and joy through their music.
Chauncey Street Blues Band
Sunday, May 26, at 3:00pm.
CANCELLED DUE TO PERFORMER ILLNESS
The Chauncey Street Blues Band is a four piece band based in Stratford, Connecticut
that plays a mixture of contemporary and traditional blues songs by iconic artists
including Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Buddy Guy, B.B. King and many others along with its own original material.
The band was formed in 2013 featuring vocalist and guitarist Charlie Kuroghlian, his two sons John (guitar) and Peter (bass and harmonica) and drummer Bob Anderson, who joined the band in 2022.
