Tag: Johnny Mok

Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed: Spring Bouquet April 16

Posted on by Catherine

Heidi Dallin shares Spring Bouquet concert details from Cape Ann Symphony:

Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series 

LIVE ON SATURDAY, April 16: SPRING BOUQUET

Featuring works by Boulanger, Beethoven, Franck, Grieg, Mozart and Faure

& An Original Improvisation by Cape Ann Symphony violist Anna Stromer

at Manchester’s Crowell Chapel

Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces a Musicians Unleashed Concert, Spring Bouquet at 3:00 pm on Saturday, April 16, 2022 at The Crowell Chapel, 3 Rosedale Avenue, Manchester-by-the-Sea.  The ticket price for Spring Bouquet is $40.  Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets.

Five musicians will perform 6 works by 6 composers, plus violist Anna Stromer will perform an original improvisation.

“The Musicians Unleashed program on April 16 will give audiences an occasion to see extraordinary CAS musicians playing in an intimate venue. The music in the program really highlights the artistry of these 5 musicians. Plus the exciting improvisation from violist Anna Stromer is a once in a lifetime opportunity!  This piece has never been played before and will never be played again! Spring Bouquet is a concert not to be missed! “

Maestro Udagawa  

The Spring Bouquet concert program includes works by Lili Boulanger, Ludvig van Beethoven, Cesare Franck, Edvard Greig, Wolfgang A. Mozart, Gabriel Faure and Anna Stromer performed by CAS musicians: Stephanie Stathos, flute; Olga Kradenova, violin; Anna Stromer, viola; Johnny Mok, cello; and Tianhong Yang, piano. Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps will be played by Stephanie Stathos, flute and Tianhong Yang, piano; Beethoven’s Spring Sonata No.5, 1st Movement will be played by Olga Kradenova, violin and Tianhong Yang, piano; Franck’s Sonata 4th Movement will be played by Johnny Mok, cello and Tianhong Yang, piano; Greig’s To Spring (from The Lyric Pieces for Piano) will be played by Tianhong Yang, piano; Stromer’s Original Improvisation will be created and played by Anna Stromer, viola; Mozart’s Flute Quartet, 1st Movement will be played by Stephanie Stathos, flute, Olga Kradenova, violin, Anna Stromer, viola and Johnny Mok, cello; and  Faure’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, 4th Movement played by Olga Kradenova, violin, Anna Stromer, viola and  Johnny Mok, cello and Tianhong Yang, piano.

Stephanie Stathos is the Principal Flute of the Cape Ann Symphony. She earned her degree in Flute Performance from Boston University’s School for the Arts. Based in Lincoln, MA, Ms. Stathos is first piccolo for the Lexington Symphony. She has served as the piccolo and second flute with the touring orchestra of the National Lyric Opera of New York. As soloist she has performed throughout the United States and Europe. Other appearances include performances with many of New England’s ensembles including Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Symphony New Hampshire, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Concord Chorale (NH), Newburyport Choral Society, and North Shore Chamber Music. Ms. Stathos also is passionate about jazz, new music and ethnic music.

A Native of St. Petersburg, Russia, violinist Olga Kradenova holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and Royal Northern College of Music in United Kingdom, and a Master’s degree from Cambridge’s Longy School of Music. She played with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and appeared as a chamber musician and a soloist throughout Europe. Currently, Ms. Kradenova performs regularly with orchestras and chamber ensembles in the Boston area including Cape Ann Symphony and  the Rivers Symphony as well as teaching privately and at the Brooks School in North Andover.

Johnny Mok, Cape Ann Symphony’s  principal cellist, is currently a freelance musician and teacher in the Greater Boston Area. He began his cello studies at the age of five at the Hong Kong Performing Arts Academy and continued his studies after immigrating to New Mexico. During Mr. Mok’s primary and secondary education, he was very active in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program and participated in multiple competitions where he was awarded with first prize. He continued to pursue Music Performance with a  full scholarship at the University of Alabama where he entered competitions throughout the state of Alabama and was awarded first prize in the Birmingham Music Club, Alabama Federation of Music Clubs, and the Camilla Huxford Symphony Concerto Competition, among others.  Following a summer as an Orchestra Fellow at the Texas Music Festival in Houston,  Mr. Mok pursued  a Master’s Degree and the Professional Studies Certificate in Cello Performance at The Boston Conservatory. He has performed with many symphonies throughout the US including Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Cape Symphony, Tupelo Symphony, Boston Chamber Symphony, and National Repertory Orchestra,  In addition to Cape Ann Symphony, Mr. Mok is also currently the Principal Cellist of New Hampshire Philharmonic, and Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, he founded the Aroma Duo with his duo piano partner, Tianhong Yang. Since then, Aroma Duo has performed in several chamber music series in the New England area.

Violist Anna Stromer has collaborated with jazz, rock, reggae, blues and hip hop artists in the Boston area as a student at Berklee College of Music. She has performed with Wyclef Jean, Mark O’Connor, Eugene Friesen, Mili Bermejo and Issac Delgado. As a founding member of the performing and recording string quartet originally affiliated with rock band Art Decade, she has recorded two full-length albums, performed at the South By Southwest Music Festival in 2010 and 2011. In May of 2011 she was selected to be the violist for the Vitamin String Quartet (a long-standing studio recording quartet known for its renditions of rock and pop classics) for its first live performance on MTV Unplugged (July 2011). Thirty Seconds to Mars’ song, Hurricane, which featured her viola mirroring the lead singer’s voice, was awarded MTV’s Best Live Performance of 2011. The year ended with special performances by VSQ with 30 Seconds to Mars in NYC as they completed their two year world tour. The live Vitamin String Quartet was also featured on the hit TV show Gossip Girl (100th episode). The Boston Ballet  selected Stromer to be the violist in a quartet performing in Alexander Ekman’s Cacti in May 2014. This innovative choreographer features a string quartet improvising on stage with the dancers; the quartet also performs classical repertoire with the Boston Ballet orchestra.

Based in Boston, Chinese born pianist Tianhong Yang has made  solo appearances in a number of prestigious festivals and venues across Europe, Asia and the USA. Yang made her UK debut in 2010 at the St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, performing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, Op.37, under the direction of Maestro David Jones. Throughout Yang’s competition career, she has participated and won numerous top prizes in international piano competitions such as Liege International Piano Competition and Andree Charlier International Piano Competition. At the age of four, Yang started her piano lessons and continued her studies in the Middle School program at Wuhan Conservatoire of Music, then later was admitted to the High School of Central Conservatoire of Music in Beijing, China. After Yang’s intensive primary school training in China’s most prestigious conservatories, in 2009, she was awarded the inaugural Steinway Full Scholarship to further her studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music under the tutelage of Richard McMahon. In 2013, Yang was invited to study with the Piano Legend, Dmitry Bashkirov, at Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Spain and she was sponsored with a full scholarship by the Yamaha Europe Association and the Albeniz Foundation. Yang simultaneously began her master’s degree in performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, Belgium, with Polina Leschenko, and performance diploma program at the Accademia Pianistica Internazionale Incontri Col Maestro, Italy, with Vovka Ashkenazy and Boris Petrushansky. Yang also works closely with Chinese composer, Haofu Zhang, promoting Chinese-Western contemporary compositions. Yang is currently working on her doctoral degree in Piano Performance at Boston University, under the guidance of Pavel Nersessian.

The Cape Ann Symphony’s Musicians Unleashed programs were launched in 2019 and have become a wonderfully popular series with overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response. Ticket prices for Spring Bouquet are $40. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets.

Courtesy photos

Photo 1: Stephanie Stathos, Flute

Photo 2: Johnny Mok, Cello

Photo 3: Anna Stromer, Viola

Photo 4: Olga Kradenova, Violin

Photo 5: CAS Music Director Yoichi Udagawa

Photo 6: Tianhong Yang, Piano

Pre-Valentine’s MUSIC FOR THE HEART Performed by Members of Cape Ann Symphony and CAS Chorus and Great American Songbook selection by Jazz Dynamics 💖🎼 | St. Paul Lutheran Church Lanesville #GloucesterMA

Posted on by Catherine

Enjoy works for solo instruments and piano

Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series

LIVE ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6

MUSIC FOR THE HEART

Works for Solo Instruments & Piano

at

Gloucester’s St. Paul Lutheran Church

Performed by Members of the CAS Orchestra and Chorus

Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces a Musicians Unleashed pre–Valentine’s Day Concert, Music For the Heart at 3:00 pm on Sunday, February 6, 2022 at the St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1123 Washington Street, by Rebecca’s Playground, Gloucester, MA. The ticket price for Music For the Heart is $40. Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets.

Eight musicians will perform 12 works by 10 composers, including works ranging from Fritz Kreisler and Claude Debussy to Rogers and Hart and Irving Berlin.

“The Musicians Unleashed program on February 6th will feature a wide range of romantic music starting with selections for violin, flute, cello and piano and ending with some well-known favorites from the Great American Song Book. The musicians are from the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and they are amazing. Come with someone you love, and get an early start to your Valentine’s celebrations!”

Maestro Udagawa

The program: The Music For the Heart concert program includes works by Austrian/American violinist Fritz Kreisler, French composers Cecile Chaminade and Claude Debussy, Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla and a finale featuring beloved classics from the Great American Songbook. Maestro Udagawa and the musicians will introduce each piece of music to offer audiences insight and little-known facts about the composers and their music.

The CAS musicians: Sven Skiveris, violin; Tianhong Yang, piano; Rosemarie Hinkle, flute; and Johnny Mok, cello are performing Kreisler’s Liebesleid for Violin and Piano; and Schön Rosmarin for Violin and Piano; Chaminade’s Concertino for Flute and Piano; Debussy’s Syrinx for Solo Flute; Piazzolla’s Grand Tango for Cello and Piano.

Fr. composer Cecile Chaminade
Johnny Mok. Cello, Cape Ann Symphony performing Piazzolla’s Grand Tango for Cello and Piano

The American Songbook pieces will be performed by the Jazz Dynamics: Byron Winn, vocal; Jeffrey McKeen, piano and vocal; Saul Cohen, sax; and Nick White, bass. The Jazz Dynamics program includes favorites from the Great American Songbook: Berlin’s Blue Skies. Rogers & Hart’s Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered, Arlen & Mercer’s Accentuate the Positive, Webster & Burke’s Black Coffee, Watts & Wyche’s Alright, Okay, You Win, and Thielman & Norman’s Bluesette. Byron Winn and Jeffrey McKeen are members of the Cape Ann Symphony Chorus, while Saul Cohen and Nick White have backed up Chorus members at a number of events. Cape Ann Symphony Chorus Director Rockport’s Wendy Betts has worked with the members of Jazz Dynamics, “Byron, Jeff, Saul and Nick are all highly accomplished individuals in their own professions AND they are incredible musicians. The perfect choice to be the first jazz quartet to perform in the Musicians Unleashed series.”

More about Jazz Dynamics, Manchester residents: A group of Cape Ann professionals, the Jazz Dynamics include dedicated music educator Jeffrey McKeen of Gloucester; former USAF fighter pilot Byron Winn; Radiocarbon dating doctorate physicist Nick White; and emergency room physician Saul Cohen, all of Manchester-by-the-Sea. All members of the Jazz Dynamics have had extensive training in music as well as in their chosen professions.

Jeff McKeen earned his BA in Music Education at Trenton State College and his MA from Grand Canyon University in AZ. After being a public-school music educator for 38 years in NJ he moved to Gloucester. As a bass-baritone professional Jeff has sung with the CAS Chorus and many other organizations and venues. He volunteers with Cape Ann Animal Aid and The Open Door, where he and his wife were the 2018 recipients of the Helen Muise Community Service Award.

Byron L.Winn, Ph.D, is a globally-ranging management consultant and former USAF fighter pilot. Prior to the Cape Ann Symphony Chorus, he performed as a soloist and member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and the US Air Force Academy Cadet Chorale (among others). As a young teenager, he was in the University of Texas String (instruments) Project at the same time as Maestro Udagawa, but they were not aware of each other.

Nick White studied music at Oxford. He taught high school music in England before switching to physics, earning a Doctorate in Radiocarbon dating. He co-founded Diamond Semiconductor in Gloucester to design equipment, which is still in use, for Applied Materials. He met famed New Orleans jazz musician Henri Smith from New Orleans, now living in Gloucester, and got back into music playing bass in many styles and venues.

Physician Saul Cohen is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied jazz performance with George Garzone. Dr. Cohen met Byron, Jeff and Nick as a member of the Rat Pack which was a larger ensemble including a number of Cape Ann Symphony chorus members. Saul is an emergency physician at Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals.

—Seating at this Musicians Unleashed event will be limited thanks to Covid restrictions.—

CAS Board of Directors President Fran White points out, “The lovely St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Gloucester is a wonderfully intimate yet socially distant setting for Music For the Heart. And it will be even more intimate with socially distant seating guidelines in place for the performance including patrons seated in every other pew, and occupied pews with socially distancing between parties. Given current conditions regarding Covid 19, all attendees will be required to show proof of Covid 19 vaccination and will be required to wear a mask. If you were vaccinated in Massachusetts and have a QR code either printed or on your phone we will have a scanner available to validate your status.”

The Cape Ann Symphony’s Musicians Unleashed programs were launched in 2019 and have become a wonderfully popular series with overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response.

Ticket prices for Music For the Heart are $40. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets.

  • Photo 1: The Jazz DynamicsPhoto
  • 2: Jazz Dynamics Saxophone player and Emergency Room Physician Saul Cohen of Manchester Photo
  • 3: Jazz Dynamics Vocalist and former USAF fighter pilot Byron Winn of Manchester Photo
  • 4: Jazz Dynamics Pianist/Vocalist and Music Educator Jeffrey McKeen  of Gloucester Photo
  • 5: Jazz Dynamics Bass Player and radiocarbon dating doctorate physicist Nick White of Manchester Photo
  • 6: Johnny Mok. Cello, Cape Ann Symphony performing Piazzolla’s Grand Tango for Cello and Piano. 
  • 7: French Composer Cecile Chaminade 

Big CAS news at UU Oct 3rd| Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed: Autumn Awakening concert at #GloucesterMA Unitarian Universalist Church 

Posted on by Catherine

Heidi Dallin shares happy news:

Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series Returns LIVE On Sunday, October 3, 2021

AUTUMN AWAKENING at The Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church

Cape Ann Symphony proudly announces Autumn Awakening, a Musicians Unleashed Concert, at 3:00 pm on Sunday, October 3, 2021 at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street, Gloucester, MA. Musicians Unleashed is a series of musical events featuring Cape Ann Symphony musicians performing in a variety of intimate settings on Cape Ann and beyond. CAS launched the popular series to an overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response in 2019. The ticket price for Autumn Awakening is $40.  Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets. In accordance with the CAS Covid Safety Policy, all concert attendees will be required to show proof of Covid 19 vaccination or to present documentation of a negative test within 72 hours prior to the event and will be required to wear a mask during the performance.

Autumn Awakening is a chamber music concert featuring music written for flute, oboe, clarinet and strings in various combinations and performed by seven CAS musicians at the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church. An historic meetinghouse founded in 1779, the church was the first Universalist congregation in the United States. Built in 1806, the building was created in a perfect “shoe box” design which gives it ideal acoustics. CAS Music Director Yoichi Udagawa programmed a varied selection of music written by a mix of well known and lesser known composers from all over the world.  Maestro Udagawa and the musicians will introduce each piece of music to offer audiences insight and little known facts about the composers and their music.  

Maestro Udagawa looks forward to these intimate Musicians Unleashed concerts, “ The Cape Ann Symphony is made up of extraordinary musicians, and we are thrilled to be able to highlight them! This concert will feature our principal flute, oboe and clarinet as well as some of our outstanding string players. We tried to make this concert a mixture of different composers as well as combination of instruments, and I’m sure the audience will enjoy this concert very much.” The musicians performing in Autumn Awakening are Stephanie Stathos, flute; Izumi Sakamoto, oboe; Bill Kirkley, clarinet; Oksana Gorokhovskiy, violin; Olga Kradenova, violin; Anna Stromer, viola, and Johnny Mok, cello. The concert program includes Salem, MA  born and raised composer Arthur Foote’s Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet; British composer Malcolm Arnold’s Divertimento for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet; Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Oboe Quartet; German composer Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, 1st Movement; and Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s American String Quartet, 4th Movement.

Salem native composer Arthur Foote, known for his chamber music, art music and choral music, was also a musician and a teacher.  “When thinking about the program for the concert, we wanted to include music by a ”local”,” explains Udagawa, “and this charming piece by Arthur Foote fit the bill perfectly! We have an amazing tradition of musicians, writers and artists who worked right here in our area, and left great works for all of us to enjoy. And Gloucester’s Unitarian Universalist Church is a perfect venue for Foote’s music with his strong ties to the Unitarian Church.” Foote’s father, Caleb Foote, was the owner and editor of the Salem Gazette and his mother, Mary Wilder Foote, was a devout Unitarian. Arthur Foote began composing while studying harmony at the newly formed New England Conservatory in 1867. He then went on to study music at Harvard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts and the very first Master of Arts degree in Music awarded by an American university according to Foote’s Faculty Papers at New England Conservatory .

Arthur Foote was a leading member of a group of composers known as the Boston Six or the Second New England School. Together, the Six: John Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, Amy Beach, and Arthur Foote wrote the first substantial body of “American” classical music. “In his time Foote was considered to be the ‘Dean of American Composers'” points out Maestro Udagawa.

 Arthur Foote was the organist and Choirmaster at the First Unitarian Church in Boston for 32 years, taught piano in his own studio for over 50 years and served on the faculty of New England Conservatory for 16 years, teaching piano and piano pedagogy. Foote helped edit Hymns of the Church Universal in 1890, and collaborated in the writing of Hymns for Church and Home, prepared for the American Unitarian Association in 1896 according to Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society

Ticket prices for Autumn Awakening are $40. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets. In accordance with the CAS Covid Safety Policy, all concert attendees will be required to show proof of Covid 19 vaccination or to present documentation of a negative test within 72 hours prior to the event and will be required to wear a mask during the performance.

Courtesy photos attached: 
Photo 1: Bill Kirkley, Clarinet
Photo 2: Stephanie Stathos, Flute
Photo 3: Johnny Mok, Cello
Photo 4: Izumi Sakamoto, Oboe
Photo 5: Anna Stromer, Viola
Photo 6: Oksana Gorokhovskiy, Violin
Photo 7: Olga Kradenova, Violin
Photo 8: Salem’s Arthur Foote, Composer
Photo 9: CAS Music Director Yoichi Udagawa