Musicians 2025

Sunday, February 23 @2PM

From Romania  
Romania @2pm    @8pm-China   @1pm-Czech Republic / Germany/ France   @12pm-UK   ​@4am-USA PT

Paul Hindemith Sonata for viola and piano Op. 11 No. 4
Francis Gallagher, viola ​
Christophe Alvarez, piano​

Francis Gallagher, violin ​
​Born in London, England 1991, Francis Gallagher is an active violist and violinist currently residing in Cluj-Napoca. He began his bachelor studies at the Royal College of Music in 2010 and later his postgraduate on a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Krzysztof Chorzelski.   Francis is a winner of several international awards including the 2013 RCM and 2015 GSMD Max and Peggy viola competitions in London, 2020 ‘Best Album’ U.K Parliamentary Jazz Award as part of Kate Williams’ ‘Four Plus Three’ and 2022 Ciprian Porombescu String Quartet competition in Romania. He has had numerous appearances as a soloist and chamber musician including at Toamna Clujeana Muzicala, Noiembrie Cultural Bistrita, Tiberius Chamber Festival, Dinu Lipatti Filarmonic, EFG London Jazz Festival, Lake District Music Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival and Castleton Festival,   Currently he is a member of Transilvanian State Filarmonic and is a guest professor for viola and chamber music at the Gheorge Dima Conservatoire in Cluj-Napoca.
www.youtube.com/@francisgallagher4783

Christophe Alvarez is a concert pianist, doctor of music and composer. Born in France in 1987, he began his musical studies at the Nice Conservatoire (France), where he was awarded the Prix de Piano. Later on, he became a student at the prestigious Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot in Paris, he graduated the Diplome Professionnel de Piano in 2007. Prize winner in many international piano competitions, he also benefited from the precious artistic guidance of Andras Schiff, Christopher Elton, Christian Zacharias, Kyoko Hashimoto, Sergio Perticaroli, Rena Shereshevskaya, Desire N’Kaoua, Philippe Bianconi. Christophe completed academic studies in France and in Canada, from Bachelor to Doctorate, at Universite Paris IV Sorbonne, at Universite de Nice and at McGill University. In 2017, he was awarded the title of Doctor in Music and in 2020 the title of Doctor in Music Performance. His research has been published in several scientific reviews in France, Italy, Romania, Canada. His career led him to play in many concert halls and festivals in North America, Asia and in Europe such as: Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, Salle Cortot in Paris, Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, Teatro del Verme Milano, Krakow Philharmonia, Vietnam Music Academy Recital Hall, Filarmonica de Stadt Cluj, Filarmonica Dinu Lipatti, Filarmonica Oltenia, Filarmonica Targu-Mures, Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur Montreal. He was the guest of renowned festivals in France, Canada, Vietnam, Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania, such as the Jozef Zeidler Festival, the Vietnam Music Connection, les Nuits du Suquet de Cannes, the 60th Festival de Musique de Menton, the 30th Festival Chopin w barwach jesieni, the International Mozart Festival of Cluj, Piano HomeComing Montreal, The Musical Chairs, Toamna Muzicala Cluj, the Printemps Musical de St Tropez and many more. He recorded a live CD of the two Chopin piano concertos at the Chopin 1810-2010 Festival in Poland, under the baton of Marcin Sompolinski. For Polish Radio label, he also recorded a world premiere CD of the complete piano music of Alfons Szczerbinski. He played with several orchestras in Europe, such as the Transilvanian State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oltenia Philharmonic Orchestra, Orkiestra Nova, The Beethoven Young Academy Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Cannes PACA, the Young Famous Orchestra of Romania, The Chamber Orchestra of Poznan, and he is also a very active performer in chamber music ensembles. Christophe recreated the “Ballet du Temps” (1654) whom he rewrote all the missing parts from the manuscript, with the ensemble "IntAct" he founded in Montreal, made up of professional early music performers. In 2008, he founded in Paris the Ensemble Musica Tempora, made up of professional musicians playing on period instruments. A sought-after professor, Christophe is frequently invited to give masterclasses in Europe and Asia (Poland, France, Romania, Vietnam). His professional teaching background includes two years as Teaching Assistant in applied Piano Performance at McGill University and three years as Lecturer at the Université de Nice. Actually, he is teaching at the National Academy of Music "Gheorghe Dima" of Cluj (Romania) as Lecturer Tenure of Piano. He also is the Artistic Director of the SCENA International Festival and has been sitting as a member of jury during the international piano competitions Simone-Delbert (2010), Carl Filtsch (2016), Mozart Cluj (2019) and Nice International Piano Competition (2022). As a passionate of composition since his young age, he is the author of three feature length films and many international short-movies soundtracks. Some of these movies have been selected to Festival des Canaries (2014), Seoul Movie Festival (2013) and Cannes Junior Festival (2013). In 2022, his piece "Reculegere" for soprano and orchestra, commissioned by the Young Famous Orchestra, was played in world-premiere. His catalogue consists of several lieder for singer and piano, two orchestral poems, and a piano solo triptych “Reflets” inspired by the three Sonnets of Mihai Eminescu (edited by Arpeggione).
​www.christophealvarez.com
www.youtube.com/@ChristopheAlvarez
https://www.facebook.com/christophe.alvarez.773/?_rdr

From the UK
​UK @2pm   China @10pm Romania @4pm Czech Republic/ Germany/France @3pm USA PT @6am

Jyunreika 順礼歌 - pilgrim’s hymn
The Cosmographer’s Daughter - Cornelius Shinzen Boots
Honshirabe 本調 - honkyoku
Ekoh 回向 - honkyoku
Sleeping Dragon - Cornelius Shinzen Boots
​John Garner, shakuhachi

[Photo by Ruth Garner]

John Garner is a musician, educator, and PhD candidate based in Manchester. A tireless experimenter, well-versed in multiple traditions, John has forged a radically unique voice as a violinist, combining a quicksilver and innovative technique with a freewheeling improvisational aesthetic. He is a senior lecturer in jazz at Leeds Conservatoire. John’s creative practice research, as a Newcastle University Clara Whittaker scholar, considers the ethics and discipline of musical practice as viewed through the lens of Buddhist teachings and philosophy; how various aspects of that practice, from the microscopic to the macroscopic, are transformed thereby; and how these learnings are enacted through our ways of being as musicians in community and beyond. Since 2021, John has been studying the shakuhachi with Grandmaster Cornelius Shinzen Boots of the Black Earth Shakuhachi School. 
www.johngarner.co.uk
www.instagram.com/johngarnermusic/
​

From the USA
USA PT @2pm   2/27 @6am-China   @12am-Romania   @11pm-Czech Republic /Germany /France   ​@10pm-UK

Yurika Kimura - Etude in E Flat for 6 mallets
WA Mozart - Turkish March
Naoko Takada, marimba

東京都出身。８歳よりマリンバを鈴木明子氏に師事。バッハからピアソラ、そしてジャンルにとらわれない幅広いレパートリーとその表現力の豊かさが魅力のアーティスト。ワシントンポストは“高田直子のスリリングな演奏—心地よいスピード、エレガントな動き、そして、驚くほど正確なタッチ“と絶賛した。２００２年ヤングコンサートアーティスト国際オーディションで優勝し、ケネディーセンター（ワシントンンD.C）でアメリカデビュー。日本では、１１歳で東京交響楽団のソリストとしてデビュー。その頃、安倍圭子氏に師事。その後、東京室内楽オーケストラ、中国国立交響楽団、ヒューストン交響楽団、ルイジアナ交響楽団、ハラッパ交響楽団（メキシコ）等多数共演。また日本においては、東京オペラシティ、サントリーホール等でリサイタル。ビクターより高田のクラシック音楽をマリンバにアレンジしたCDマリンバミーツクラシックが発売中。
２０１６年にはナビル　シェハタ指揮のもと、Chin Cheng Linのマリンバ協奏曲　第５番　竹取物語　を紀尾井シンフォニエッタと共に紀尾井ホールにて世界初演。２００４年にはレオナルドスラットキン指揮のもと、リンカーンセンターにてSt. Luke オーケストラと共にケヴィン　プッツのマリンバコンチェルトをニューヨーク初演し、ニューヨークタイムズより絶賛された。
ケンタッキー州で行われた国際打楽器フェスティバルでショーケースコンサート、ベルギー国際マリンバフェスティバル、パタゴニア国際打楽器フェスティバル（アルゼンチン）、アメリカのKOSA国際打楽器フェスティバル、ゼルツマン国際マリンバファスティバル、リースティーブンス国際マリンバフェスティバル等に等に出演。他、俳優ポール　ニューマン主催のチャリティイヴェントにてブルース　ウィリス、メリル　ストリープス、ダニー　グローバー等と舞台を共にするなど国際的に幅広く活躍中。２００６年にはアメリカと日本の文化理解に貢献するアーティストに贈られるワシントン賞受賞。またイブラグランドプライズマリンバ特別賞受賞。
後進の指導に力をいれており、南カリフォルニア国際マリンバコンクールの審査委員長を務めたほか、イタリア国際マリンバコンクール、サンノゼ打楽器コンクール、国際打楽器協会作曲コンクールなど、多数のコンクールにて審査委員を務める。マンハッタン音楽院、インディアナ大学、中国国際音楽院、をはじめ、世界数百校にてマスタークラス、ツアーを行い、またケネディーセンター、みどり財団をはじめとする教育活動にも積極的に参加している。台湾のJu Percussion Group、ヤマハのSounds of Summer、Idyllwild Summer camp、Albert Ludwig国際マリンバアカデミー（ベルギー）、Zeltsman マリンバフェスティバル等多数のサマーキャンプの講師を務める。高田のアレンジ作品委嘱作品はStudio 4 Musicより、また高田のアーティストマレットはEncore mallets, Incより発売されている。
東京都立国際高校を卒業後、早稲田大学第一文学部心理学科に入学。その後、交換留学の奨学金をうけ、カリフォルニア州立大学ノースリッジ校へ留学し、その後音楽科打楽器専攻へ転入。打楽器をカレン　アービン　パーシング氏に師事。ニューヨーク州のイサカ大学打楽器学科にて、世界的マリンバ奏者ゴードン　スタウトのアシスタントを務め、修士課程終了。卒業するまで、同大学の音楽教育学科の教師を務めた。その後ボストン音楽院にて、ナンシー　ゼルツマンに師事した。現在、南カリフォルニア大学（USC）マリンバ講師。二児の母。
​www.naokotakada.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/NaokoTakada

World renowned marimba soloist and Yamaha artist ​
​Naoko Takada has toured the world performing in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Conzart Haus in Berlin, Santory Hall in Tokyo, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Lincoln Center in New York. Takada’s talent was apparent at age eleven when she appeared as guest soloist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. She has since performed with numerous orchestras such as China National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St Luke’s, Houston Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, and the Xalapa Symphony in Mexico. 
In 2006 Takada won the S and R Washington Award, a prize that supports artists who contribute to cultural understanding between the U.S. and Japan. Previously she took First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Audition, the Houston Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition, the Sorantin Young Artists International Competition, and the Japan International League of Artists Competition.   
Naoko Takada currently teaches marimba at the University of Southern California and is the chief judge for the Southern California International Marimba Competition. In addition to being a Yamaha performing artist and clinician, Takada also has her own signature series of mallets available from Encore Mallets, Inc. She has numerous arrangements and commissioned works are available through Studio 4 Publications under the Naoko Takada series.
www.naokotakada.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/NaokoTakada

“When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain” (1931)
Howard Johnson, Harry M. Woods and Kate Smith
“We’ll Meet Again” (1939)
Rosa Parker, Hughie Charles, and Vera Lynn
“There’ll Be Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover” (1941)
Walter Kent and Nat Burton
“We’ll Gather Lilacs” (1945)
Ivor Novello
Louise Lofquist, contralto
Armen Guzelimian, piano

Louise Lofquist, contralto and pianist, has had an unorthodox musical career.  She made her pianistic debut with the National Symphony at the age of 18 but initially pursued a liberal arts education and received degrees in European History from Duke and Stanford.  After finally deciding she belonged in music, Louise was pursuing a master’s degree in voice when a severe injury to her vocal cord cut short her singing career.  She then returned to her pianistic studies, earning a master’s degree in Accompanying from UC/Santa Barbara and a doctorate in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from USC.  
Since that time, Louise has become a respected collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and voice teacher in Southern California.  As a pianist, she has performed with such artists as violinist Gilles Apap, baritone Rod Gilfry, cellist Zuill Bailey, and clarinetist Fred Ormand.  As a piano soloist, she has performed regularly with the Ventura Symphony and with the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra.  In 2001, she joined the music faculty at Pepperdine, where for over twenty years she taught voice, diction, and vocal accompanying and served as Co-Director of the Pepperdine Summer Music Program in Heidelberg, Germany.  Her classical voice students have appeared with the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera San Antonio, the Heidelberg Opera, Meiningen Staatstheater, Virginia Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and at Carnegie Hall. Her musical theatre students have appeared on Broadway and at many venues throughout Southern California.
Louise lives in Camarillo with her husband, Grant Specht, an attorney.  They have two sons, Dylan, also an attorney, and Shane, a landscape painter.

David Wilkinson, piano  
​He received his training at the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Southern California. He has performed in such notable venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the White House, Wigmore Hall, Yale University, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Mr. Wilkinson is happy to be teaching at Pepperdine as a full-time visiting professor of music. He previously taught at The University of Southern California, the Manhattan School of Music, the University of California Santa Barbara, and Cal State Fullerton.

Franz Liszt - Liebestraum No. 3
Kyung Lee, piano

​Kyung Lee is a gifted artist who emigrated from Korea to the United States at age 9.  She made her debut with orchestra at age 10 and her first television appearance at age 11.  She won numerous competitions from Florida Federation of Music Clubs and was awarded many scholarships, including a 10-year scholarship allegiance from Miami Music Club.  Upon entering University of Miami, she won the prestigious Van Steenberg Scholarship which is awarded to an incoming freshman at the university’s music department open instrument competition.  At age 21, she won the West Regional Chopin Competition in the 21 to 29-year age category.  She was the winner of the Outstanding Keyboard Student of University of Miami Music Department where she received her Bachelor of Music degree with major in piano performance.    She continued her studies at University of Southern California where she earned both her Master of Music degree and Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Piano Performance Major.  She is now a very active teacher and member of the Music Teachers’ Association of California, having served as both President and Vice President of the MTAC-Conejo Valley Branch and currently serving as the Corresponding Secretary. Lee’s teaching experience spans over 20 years, that of Conejo Valley beginning in the year, 2000.  Her students' accolades include winning SYMF competition, Southern California Junior Bach Showcase, and Conejo Valley Contemporary Fall Festival Gold Medal, among others.  In addition to her private studio, she has taught group music lessons at a local music academy for 8 years.  Her strengths lie in versatility of teaching styles and the depth of understanding her students.  Such forte is reinforced by her minor fields in music education with emphasis on early childhood music, and piano pedagogy.  Consequently, her expertise lies, not only on the technical and musical levels, but also on the levels of cognitive and emotional development.   Lee is an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.  She is also active in the music community and is an enthusiastic supporter of the performing arts and organizations, especially the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic.  She has served on the board of T.O. Philharmonic and is committed to giving back to the community by performing regularly in benefit recitals.

Tony Wardzinski - Two Sketches for bassoon solo
I. Ebb Tide, Sunset
II. Roving Seagull
Tony Wardzinsky, bassoon

Tony Wardzinski, composer
Anthony Wardzinski is a composer, bassoonist and arranger of music for a wide variety of large and chamber ensembles that have been performed across the country and Europe. He studied composition with Roger Bourland, Paul Chihara, George Heussenstamm, Daniel Kessner, Ian Krause, and David Lefkowitz. Dr. Wardzinski received his BM and MM in music composition and theory from California State University, Northridge and a PhD in music composition from University of California, Los Angeles. He currently serves on the faculty of Moorpark College and Los Angeles Pierce College.
https://www.wardzinski.net/aj/

Manuel M. Ponce - Estrellita​
Manuel de Falla - ​Nana
Tohru Takemitsu/Syuntaro Tanigawa/arr. Tony Wardzinski - Mi Yo Ta
Michelle Pina, mezzo soprano
Tomiko Hamada Taylor, piano

Michelle Pina is a soprano based in Los Angeles, California. Past operatic roles include the title role of Massenet's Cendrillon, Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.
Michelle is also a regular of the concert stage and has performed solos across California and Boston in works such as Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc's Gloria, Finzi's In Terra Pax, Duruflé's Requiem, and Howard Goodall’s Requiem.
In addition to performing, Michelle is an advocate for accessible music education and works with businesses across the US to provide financial and industry resources for young musicians. Most recently, Michelle co-founded The Conejo Valley Choral Society and serves as President of the Board.
www.michellepina.com
www.facebook.com/michellepinasoprano

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Tomiko Hamada Taylor studied music and group psychotherapy, leading her to write case studies about acute schizophrenic patients and their relationship through improvisational music. After moving to California, she graduated from Cal State Northridge, majoring in Music Therapy as well as enjoying performances in chamber music, especially 20th century music. She annually produced the First Classic Concert for Children and Families 2001-2015. As producer, she invited professional artists, accompanying many of the guest performers. She furthered music education to children and their families with her guests through conversations, performances, and audience participation. This unique, free concert was designed for all children.
​Peace In Concert launched in 2015. As a therapist and a musician, she hopes, with the help of musician friends, to create that moment of connection and peace through music…. throughout the world!

Reynaldo Hahn - Le ruban dénoué
I. Décrets indolents du hasard

Rachmaninoff - Suite No.2 Op.17
III. Romance
Louise Lofquist
Tomiko Hamada Taylor

Louise Lofquist, piano 
See above.

Tomiko Hamada Taylor, piano
See above