Big Bang! 2022
July 27-31, 2022
Calgary
Diana Cohen
Co-Artistic Director
Praised for her “incredible flair, maturity and insight,” Diana Cohen has a multifaceted career as a concertmaster, chamber musician and soloist. She is Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic, Founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed music festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, and Founder of the brand new ChamberFest West. As soloist, she has appeared with numerous orchestras, including Holland Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Lansing, and Grand Rapids, among others. As a chamber musician, she has performed at some of the most prestigious festivals including Marlboro Music Festival and Ravinia Festival, and collaborated with renowned artists including Garrick Ohlsson, Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, Dover Quartet, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Miro, Cleveland, and Parker Quartets.
Ms. Cohen has often appeared with the Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Sejong Soloists, The Knights, Cleveland Orchestra, and New York Philharmonic.
Diana comes from a musical family and has relished her many performances with them. Her father Franklin Cohen was the longtime principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, her late mother Lynette Diers Cohen was a lauded bassoonist and her brother is timpanist of the Calgary Philharmonic. Diana lives with her husband, esteemed concert pianist Roman Rabinovich, and her 2 year old, Noa, who loves to put on her “concert shoes” and sing with gusto.
During the early part of the pandemic, Diana and Roman performed “garden concerts” outside their home every Sunday for music lovers in Calgary. The community that they created became the inspiration to create ChamberFest West.
Roman Rabinovich
Co-Artistic Director
Highly lauded pianist Roman Rabinovich has performed throughout Europe and the United States in venues such as Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and the Terrace Theatre of Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Rabinovich has participated in festivals including Marlboro, Lucerne, Davos, Prague Spring, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
As a chamber musician Rabinovich has appeared with violinist Liza Ferschtman in, among others, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and the BeethovenHaus Bonn.
Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age 10. He was a top prizewinner at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008, while in 2015, he was selected by Sir András Schiff as one of three pianists for the inaugural “Building Bridges” series, created to highlight young pianists of unusual promise. Born in Tashkent, Rabinovich immigrated to Israel with his family in 1994. He now resides in Canada with his wife violinist Diana Cohen and daughter Noa.
Alex Cohen
Alexander Cohen has been the Principal Timpanist of the Calgary Philharmonic since 2011. A student of Paul Yancich and Richard Weiner, he graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2006. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as Principal Timpanist of the West Virginia Symphony- a position he held for five years. During those years, he maintained a busy freelance career, playing regularly with the San Diego Symphony, where he acted as Principal Timpanist during the 2007-2008 season.
He has acted in the capacity of visiting Principal Timpanist with the Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic. He has also performed as timpanist with Marlboro Festival Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, the New World Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York String Orchestra, and the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.
Alex is a founding member of ChamberFest West and ChamberFest Cleveland, where he has performs annually. Alex is also a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, having completed a four year training program under the direction of Aliza Stewart in Boston.
A passionate outdoorsman, he enjoys biking, hiking, scrambling, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. Alex plays a custom set of Mark XIV timpani built for him by the American Drum Company in Denver, Colorado.
Franklin Cohen
Principal Clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1976, Franklin Cohen has distinguished himself as one of the outstanding clarinetists of his generation. He first gained international recognition and acclaim when, at the age of 22, he became the first clarinetist awarded First Prize at the International Munich Competition (the other first prize that year went to soprano Jessye Norman).
Since then, Mr. Cohen has enjoyed an illustrious career as soloist, recitalist, recording and chamber artist, pedagogue and orchestral principal.
With his daughter, violinist Diana Cohen, Franklin Cohen is the co-artistic director of the critically acclaimed ChamberFest Cleveland, the first international summer chamber music festival in Cleveland, which presented its inaugural season in 2012. ChamberFest’s huge success has led to an expanded vision for growth locally and internationally.
As a recitalist and chamber artist, Mr. Cohen has participated in the Aspen, Blossom, Casals, Marlboro, Santa Fe, and Sarasota music festivals. He has also been a featured artist with many of the world’s leading chamber groups, including the Emerson, Guarneri, Takács, Tokyo, Miro, Miami, Orion, Shostakovich, Cavani and Ysaÿe string quartets and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Cohen has given countless master classes and seminars at prestigious universities and conservatories throughout the world.
Sterling Elliott
Cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. His orchestral appearances in the 2021/2022 season include Haydn Cello Concerto No. 2 with the San Antonio, Richmond, West Virginia symphony orchestras and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra; the Popper Hungarian Fantasy with the Orlando Philharmonic and Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, and the Elgar Concerto with the Midland Symphony.
He will appear in a Tuesday Matinee recital at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, Ashmont Hill Chamber Music Society, and Tuesday Musicale, as well as chamber music at Festival Mozaic and with Shai Wosner and friends for Peoples Symphony Concerts. During the summer of 2021 Sterling debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl performing the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations led by Bramwell Tovey, with further appearances at Chamberfest Cleveland, and Music@Menlo.
Sterling Elliott is currently a Kovner Fellow at The Juilliard School where he is pursuing his Masters of Music degree studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He completed his undergraduate degree in cello performance at Juilliard in May 2021. Sterling is currently represented for worldwide General Management by Colbert Artists in New York City. He currently performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.
Luosha Fang
Violinist and violist Luosha Fang brings her adventurous spirit to music ranging from canonical repertoire to world premieres. As a solo violinist, she has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra, with whom she gave the U.S. premiere of the Grażyna Bacewicz Violin Concerto No. 5. As a violist she has performed as soloist with the New Japan Philharmonic, the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, the TOHO-Gakuen Orchestra, the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Atlantic Symphony, and the Bay-Atlantic Symphony.
Fang’s chamber music career began as the founding first violin of the Chimeng Quartet. Since then she has played in the Marlboro, Krzyzowa, Kronberg, Ravinia, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Bard Music, Caramoor, Aspen, Music from Angel Fire, and Incontri in Terra di Siena festivals. During 2021 and 2022, Fang was violist of the Pavel Haas Quartet in Prague.
After graduating from Bard with degrees in violin and Russian Studies, she attended the Curtis Institute. At this time, she began viola studies. In Fall 2019 she was invited to teach at the Bard College Conservatory of Music as instructor of violin/viola.
Fang plays on a Pietro Guarneri violin made in 1734 and a Dominique Peccatte bow kindly loaned by Dr. Ryuji Ueno. She plays on the ‘Josefowitz’ 1690 Andrea Guarneri viola.
William Hagen
William Hagen has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across the United States, Europe, and Asia. In 2021, William made his debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the Rheingau Music Festival, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
As soloist, William has performed with the Detroit, San Francisco, and Seattle Symphonies, and at the Aspen Music Festival. In Europe, he has soloed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium, and Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. He also soloed in Japan with the Yokohama Sinfonietta and Sendai Philharmonic.
As recitalist and chamber musician, William has performed at Wigmore Hall and the Louvre, and collaborated with artists such as Steven Isserlis, Gidon Kremer, Edgar Meyer, and Tabea Zimmerman. He maintains an active schedule on both sides of the Atlantic, making frequent trips to Europe and cities around the US to play a wide range of repertoire.
In 2019, William released his debut album, “Danse Russe,” with his good friend and frequent collaborator, pianist Albert Cano Smit.
A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, William began playing the violin at age 4, studying with Natalie Reed, Deborah Moench. Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Christian Tetzlaff, and Robert Lipsett. In 2015, William won 3rd prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.
William performs on the 1732 “Arkwright Lady Rebecca Sylvan” Antonio Stradivari, on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.
Andrei Ioniță
The Gold Medal-winner at the 2015 XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, phenomenal young cellist Andrei Ioniță was described as ‘one of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade’ by The Times. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2016–2018 and was the Symphoniker Hamburg’s Artist-in-Residence for the 2019– 2020 season. A versatile musician focused on giving gripping, deeply felt performances, Andrei has been recognised for his passionate musicianship and technical finesse.
He made his US debut in 2017 with recitals in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and gave his New York debut recital in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Recent highlights have included concertos with the Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Royal Scottish National, San Diego Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony orchestras; he has also given recitals in Berlin, Hamburg, Zurich, Lugano, Barcelona and at leading festivals.
Andrei studied under Ani-Marie Paladi in Bucharest and under Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste Berlin. A scholarship recipient of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, Andrei performs on a cello made by Giovanni Battista Rogeri from Brescia in 1671, generously on loan from the foundation.
Ayano Kataoka
Percussionist Ayano Kataoka is known for her brilliant and dynamic technique, as well as the unique elegance and artistry she brings to her performances. She has been a season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2006 when she was chosen as the first percussionist for the society’s prestigious residency program, The Bowers Program.
A retrospective of her early life along with interviews and performances were featured on the CMS’ live stream program Artist Series in fall 2021. Together with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the American Museum of Natural History, Ayano gave a world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s Self Comes to Mind for cello and two percussionists, based on a text by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featuring interactive video images of brain scans triggered by the live music performance.
A native of Japan, Ayano began her marimba studies at age five, and percussion at fifteen. She received her artist diploma degree from Yale School of Music, where she studied with Robert van Sice. She is currently a full professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Yura Lee
Violinist/violist Yura Lee is one of the most versatile and compelling artists of today. She is one of the very few in the world that has mastery of both violin and viola, and she actively performs both instruments equally.
At age 12, Yura Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the “Performance Today” awards given by National Public Radio. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant given by Lincoln Center in New York City.
As a chamber musician, Yura Lee regularly takes part in the Marlboro Festival, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Caramoor Festival, Kronberg Festival, Aspen Music Festival, among many others.
Yura Lee studied at the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Salzburg Mozarteum, and Kronberg Academy. She now teaches at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California.
Yura Lee plays a fine Giovanni Grancino violin kindly loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society by her generous sponsors. For viola, she plays an instrument made in 2002 by Douglas Cox.
Lorna McGhee
Lorna McGhee was appointed principal flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2012. Hailed as an “outstanding artist” (Der Standard, Austria) Lorna has performed concertos around the world with the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonia, Victoria Symphony, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, San Luis Obispo Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Kyushu Symphony, and Evergreen Symphony.
As a chamber musician and recitalist, Lorna has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, London, the Louvre, Paris, the Schubertsaal of Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and the Library of Congress, Washington. She has appeared at festivals such as the Edinburgh International Festival, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
Lorna has performed as guest principal with Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Before immigrating to North America Lorna was co-principal flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London.
Jesse Morrison
Violist Jesse Morrison is a member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
A native of Toronto, Jesse received a B.M. from the University of Toronto under Teng Li and an A.D. from the Glenn Gould School under Steven Dann. He graduated in 2017 with a M.M. from the New England Conservatory (NEC), studying with Kim Kardashian.
He performed as a soloist at Jordan Hall in 2016 as the winner of the Chamber Orchestra Competition at NEC, and again in 2017 with the Symphony Orchestra.
Recipient of the 2016 Sylva Gelber Award, Morrison is an avid chamber musician and an alumnus of festivals such as Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, the New York String Seminar, the Banff Centre and Domaine Forget. From 2015-16 and from 2011-15 he was a member of the Neruda and Arkadas String Quartets, respectively.
Mr. Morrison is artistic director for Music for Food – Canada, which is a musician-led initiative that raises resources and awareness in the fight against hunger.
Matan Porat
Hailed by the New York Times for his “magnificent sound and breath of expression”, pianist and composer Matan Porat has performed in distinguished venues including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and Alte Oper in Frankfurt, and with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
Porat’s varied repertoire ranges from the complete Bach Partitas and Schubert Sonatas to Ives’ Concord Sonata and the Ligeti piano concerto. His debut CD for MIRARE, “Variations on a theme by Scarlatti” was praised as “a fantastic album that one should hear over and over again” by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Matan Porat has participated in many acclaimed festivals including Marlboro, Lockenhaus, Ravinia, Verbier, Hohenems, La Folle Journée, La Roque d’Antheron, Piano aux Jacobins and Musikfest Berlin. Chamber music appearances include performances with the Artemis Quartet, Quatuor Ysaÿe, Cuarteto Casals, Pacifica, Modigliani, Schumann and Jerusalem Quartets.
Porat also improvises live music for silent films, hailed by The New-Yorker’s Alex Ross as “an astounding feat of creative musicianship”.
Born in Tel-Aviv, Matan Porat studied with Emanuel Krasovsky, Maria João Pires and Murray Perahia, obtaining his Master’s degree from the Juilliard School.
Robert Uchida
Canadian violinist Robert Uchida, Concertmaster of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, enjoys a varied career as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, and educator.
Robert has been a concerto soloist with orchestras including the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, Edmonton Symphony, Kingston Symphony, Ottawa Symphony, Red Deer Symphony, Symphony New Brunswick, Symphony Nova Scotia, Orchestre de la Francophonie, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.
Robert is Artistic Director of the Longshadow Music Festival in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. He has taught and performed at music festivals throughout North America and was Artistic Director of the Acadia Summer Strings Festival from 2010-2013.
Before joining the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Robert was Concertmaster of Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax. As a guest concertmaster, he has worked with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Ottawa Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Robert is a violin instructor at the University of Alberta, and has held teaching positions at Acadia University and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege.
Josué Valdepeñas
Josué Valdepeñas enjoys a diverse career as a musician and is currently the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as guest principal cello and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as soloist.
Mr. Valdepeñas received his undergraduate degree (B.M.) at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music as a student of Eric Kim. While at IU, he won the concerto competition and performed as soloist with the IU Chamber Symphony and Uriel Segal conducting. He was also a founding member of the Donatello String Quartet, with whom he won the prestigious Kuttner Quartet Competition in 2012 and made their Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall later that year. After attending IU, Mr. Valdepeñas pursued his Artist Diploma at the Colburn School with Clive Greensmith.
Mr. Valdepeñas was a regular attendee of the Aspen Music Festival and School. He has attended the Banff Chamber Music Residency, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute’s Program for Piano & Strings in 2014 and 2015, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar in 2011 and 2012.
Laura Veeze
Dutch violinist and violist Laura Veeze has reached audiences on three continents as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has held Principal Second Violin positions with the Radio Chamber Philharmonic in the Netherlands and with Symphony Nova Scotia in Canada. In addition to her position with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, she is Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, and Principal Second Violin of the Alberta Baroque Ensemble.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Veeze was a member of the piano trio Ensemble Pavone, the Blue Engine String Quartet in Nova Scotia, and is a frequent guest artist at festivals such as Music by the Sea, Great Lakes International Summer Music Institute, Summer Solstice Music Festival, Scotia Festival, Musique Royale, New Music Edmonton, Early Music Alberta, and the Acadia Summer Strings Festival.
Ms. Veeze studied in Amsterdam and New York with Alexander Kerr and Sylvia Rosenberg. Laura is married to ESO Concertmaster Robert Uchida, and they enjoy the wonderful Edmonton community with their children, Marten and Noemi.
Individual Concerts
Explosive Beginnings
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre
7:30 p.m.
Movie Night
Thursday, July 28, 2022
The Studio Theatre at cSPACE
7:30 p.m.
Nucleus
Friday, July 29, 2022
Contemporary Calgary, Grotto
7:30 p.m.
Rule Smashers
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre
7:30 p.m.
Big Bang
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Bella Concert Hall
7:30 p.m.