The New Music Guild, Inc. Presents: Rotberg/Kim Violin & Piano Duo In Concert, June 8-9, 2018
The Rotberg/Kim Duo will present two Northeast Ohio concerts under New Music Guild, Inc. auspices. They will perform at 7:00 p.m. Friday June 8th, 2018 at Saints Peter and Paul Church, Holy Apostles Parish, 421 Covington Street in downtown Youngstown, and at the same time the next night at the Jefferson Congregational Church, 41 East Jefferson Street in Jefferson, Ohio. Both musicians are faculty at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and perform regularly with the Chagrin Chamber Series in Metropolitan Cleveland.
Violinist Barton Samuel Rotberg has performed as a soloist throughout Europe, North, and Central America. A laureate of several important competitions, he has served as concertmaster for the Warren Philharmonic, Opera Columbus, Cleveland’s Opera Per Tutti, and Illinois’ Southwest Symphony. He has specialized in chamber music and was a founding member of the Davanti Trio, which toured the U.S. and abroad under Ford Foundation support. Rotberg holds a music performance doctorate from Michigan State University.
Korean Pianist Sungeun Kim has played as a concerto soloist in European and Asian venues and at American festivals. A first-prize winner of the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, she has appeared as guest artist all over the U.S.
Notable soloist appearances have included the Russian Federal Orchestra in Moscow, the Banff Festival Orchestra in Canada, and the Gijon Symphony Orchestra in Spain. She received the performance doctorate from the Peabody Institute of Music of Johns Hopkins University.
The duo will focus on 20th and 21st century repertoire. The works will include Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s Six Romanian Dances, Ottorino Respighi’s Sonata in B Minor, Jules Massenet’s Meditation from Thais, and several of YSU Emeritus Professor Robert Rollin’s compositions.
Rollin’s pieces will include Welsh Song, inspired by David of the White Rock, an ancient Welsh melody; Variations and Interludes on an Old Polish Carol, constructed on a Polish Christmas carol with interludes from tunes of the Carpathian Mountains; The Wandering Bird, a contrapuntal setting of a Puerto Rican folk song; and Images of Africa, combining a Zulu melody with original material. and using the uniquely African technique of playing at several speeds at the same time.
Violinist Gwyneth Rollin, accompanied by the composer, will open the concert with Two Melodies About Elijah (2018), Rollin’s most recent composition.
The Rotberg/Kim Duo will also play the Allegro moderato from Franz Schubert’s
Sonata in A Minor, D. 385 Opus 137 No. 2. An After Party in honor of Rotberg and Kim will take place after each concert. Admission to both events is free.
Download the Program (in .docx format)
June 8 and 9 2018 PROGRAM Roteberg and Kim
Download the New Music Guild, Inc. Festival XXXIV Poster!
May25-26-2018-POSTER-NMGFestXXXIV
Artwork by Susan Dunn
New Music Guild, Inc. Festival XXXIV, May 25-26, 2018, with Dana Alumni Pianist Thomas Osuga, & Violinists Sho Omagari & Wanda Sobieska
On Friday, May 25th Osuga and Omagari will kick off the Festival by playing three Catholic School Children’s Concerts. At 9:00 a.m. they will perform at St. Charles Church in Boardman; at 10:15 a.m. they stop at St. Joseph the Provider School in Brier Hill; and at 1:00 p.m. they will visit Holy Family School in Poland.
The two performers have delighted area school children with their inventive and imaginative programs for the past five years and frequently play children’s concerts in metropolitan New York. They will play music by Japanese and American composers and recent pieces from the virtuoso violin and piano literature.
They will also play at the Festival Gala at Sts. Peter & Paul Church, Holy Apostles Parish, on Friday evening, and a duo recital on Saturday night at Jefferson Congregational Church in Jefferson, Ohio, both at 7:00p.m.
Thomas Osuga has been a respected teacher on the Piano Preparatory Department Faculty at New York’s Mannes College of Music since 1994. He performs new works on concerts in major New York venues. He maintains a large private piano studio in upper Manhattan. This year he is also directing musical performances at Hunter Elementary, a school for gifted children. His facility at the piano is legendary.
A graduate of Mannes College of Music and the Juilliard School of Music, violin virtuoso Sho Omagari recently completed requirements for the Violin Performance Doctorate at the State University of New York at Stoneybrook with a specialty in Japanese Music. He has toured all over Japan, and performs frequently in the New York metropolitan area.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Wanda Sobieska belongs to the fifth generation of a family of musicians and musicologists. She studied at the Warsaw Conservatory, and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. She has worked for the San Francisco Chamber and the English Symphony Orchestras and has her own website, www.freegigmusic.com featuring her practical arrangements.
The Festival Concert Gala will take place 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 25th, 2018 at Sts. Peter & Paul Church, Holy Apostles Parish, in Downtown Youngstown and will have three premieres by the Festival Chamber Orchestra: Kent State grad student, Galo Arboleto Solzano’ s Adagietto for Strings, a slow, lyrical piece; Westminster College faculty member, Jason Tad Howard’s Suite for K No. 2, a minimalist composition in eight short movements; and YSU Professor Emeritus, Robert Rollin’s Elijah, the Prophet, a setting based on two Hebrew melodies with Sho Omagari as violin soloist.
The Orchestra will also play Rollin’s Fantasy on Polish Folk Songs with Wanda Sobieska as soloist. It presents variations on the old Polish song, Sleep Sweet Little Jesus (also used by Chopin in his B Minor Scherzo), alternating with songs from the Polish Carpathian Mountains originally collected by Sobieska’s, grandparents.
