- M5 Mexican Brass opened the 15^thannual Aguascalientes International Chamber Music Encounter at the Teatro Morelos:
“The purpose of these lines is to share with you, music lovers, the extraordinary concert offered last Sunday at the inaugural concert, entrusted to M5 Mexican Brass. One of the things that has made this one of the best festivals of the summer is the quality of musicians who have come. The concert offered by the Mexican brass quintet was divided into two parts, marked by two trumpets with different tessituras interpreted by Alexander Freund and Oscar Villegas Miranda, horn by Juan Carlos Quintero, trombone played by Roberto Carlos Cruz and José López Juárez on the tuba. The overture to The Barber of Seville by Rossini helped us get into the atmosphere. The second part gave way to the lighter colors of their changed attire: Zarzuela, dixieland the infallible Beatles, summoned to the concert with an exquisite arrangement of Michelle.  We enjoyed a long string of encores to thank the audience for their enthusiasm at the concert.” La Jornada Auguacalilentes – July 8 

M5 Mexican Brass embarks on the first of three US tours next season on September 21^st. 

- Germany’s great Mandelring Quartet played the closing concert of the Harzburg Musiktage Festival: 
Festival week ends with octet enjoyment
“The Harzburger Musiktage achieved a first class conclusion of it’s anniversary festival Saturday. Two teams of four excellently designed the summer evening in the airy Bündheimer Castle. The ensembles joined and let the joy of making music skip audibly and audibly to the audience.” Goslar Post – June 30

The Mandelring Quartet returns to North America in February / March 2021. 

 

- The Catalyst Quartet was featured in a Bachtrack article on hot, young string quartets in North America:

 

Catalyst cellist Karlos Rodriguez signed a book deal with Intellect Books for Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Music, part of a 10-book vital series on the lives of working artists from the visual, literary, and performing arts spheres. 

The Catalyst Quartet makes it Maverick Concerts debut on July 27^ththen returns to the Grand Canyon Music Festival. 

- Duo Paratore (duo-pianists Anthony and Joseph Paratore) were a big hit at the Malta International Music Festival:

“We are talking about Anthony and Joseph whose incredible spiritual qualities are reflected in their playing. The brothers play four hands (really twenty fingers for two). Scheherezade never dreamed of such a night: Anthony on the right, Joseph on the left, sentencing the public to pure joy. In obedience to the cunning genius of Rimsky-Korsakov, they add many tasty details, juicy and refined. The piano willingly imitated the oriental instruments: it floated in weightlessness, charmed with the contrast of different planes of texture and absolute harmony. No less effective than the original, for the Paratore brothers are a two-man orchestra. Forget the black and white of the keys: in their playing the world is colored with all the colors of the spectrum, synchronized to within a nanosecond, dazzling and magical, delicate and transparent. No wonder you want to listen to them 1001 nights long. Verdiana by the Maltese composer Alexei Shor turned out to be a fantasy on operatic themes: very witty, very theatrical. Familiar melodies, one marvels at their intricate transformations. The Paratore brothers clearly showed the strong vocal intonations in Shor's music. As an encore, they presented the ‘Dance of Fire’ by Manuel de Falla and Saint-Saens’ ‘Carnival of the Animals’ finale, played at a whirling tempo, with extreme acrobatic crossings of hands. It is impossible to convey the full degree of their charm - for this you need to be in the energy field of the Paratores. Living in their dimension for about two hours, the audience left the hall absolutely happy.” Culbyt (Israel) – May 11

 

- Rinde Eckert appeared in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival:

“After Rinde Eckert and the strong CSF cast blew the audience away, how could I not try to at least capture the energy of this amazing production.Eckert - actor, producer, director, musician, and finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama - as Lord of Misrule, takes full advantage of his role as he plays five different instruments accompanying the songs which integrally warp and weave themselves into the story. His Feste is a sort of Shaxpere stand -in as messenger between two houses in love contention.” Boulder Jewish News - June 14

“The talent of actor-musician Rinde Eckert, who plays Feste and composed original music for the songs, adds an intriguing dimension. Eckert’s Feste is an inspired touch. Eckert’s sardonic and also somewhat mysterious Feste actually seems to summon the great storm that shipwrecks Viola and Sebastian. When he sings, the thunder answers him. And his music has a kind of plain, unornamented beauty.” Westword, Jun 11

 

- Brenda Wong Aoki was part of the historic celebration 150th Anniversary celebration of the Golden Spike, honoring the Chinese Workers who built the transcontinental railroad. Proud to be there and proud that her husband Mark Izu’s grandfather was one of the 1,300 Japanese who worked on the railroad along with 12,000 Chinese.

 

Brenda received a standing ovation after delivering the keynote address at the Mountain West Arts Conference, Utah’s statewide arts conference, to over 500 participants from all segments of the field.

She and Mark Izu were featured in a recent article in Catalyst magazine: Secret Samurai of Salt Lake City, a personal and family memoir.

 - Please look for us at the upcoming fall conferences. We're happy to make appointments to speak with you:
            Western Arts Alliance, Los Angeles: Booth 205
            Performing Arts Exchange, Orlando: Booth 614