Chamber Music @ Bloomfield Township Public Library is a popular program series at the library.
The evening program includes Pohadka (fairy-tale), JW VII/5 by Leos Janacek, Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor by Claude Debussy, Trio Pathetique in D Minor for Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano, and much more.
The special talent for this concert includes:
Zola (“Zoie”) Hightower is a student of Danielle Belen (violin) and Caroline Coade (viola) at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance. She was a member of the Indiana University Virtuosi for six years, studying with Mimi Zweig and Brenda Brenner, and has been a featured soloist and ensemble performer on stages and in concert halls, in America, Europe, Canada and South America. In 2013, Zoie won first prize in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Side-by-Side concerto competition which culminated in the opportunity to perform as solo artist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. She performed with the Virtuosi at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 2013 where she performed on both violin and viola. Zoie was selected as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Side-by-Side Concertmaster in 2014. In 2015, she was named both the first prize winner of the Youth Concerto Competition with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, and of the Young Artists Competition with the New World Youth Symphony Orchestra and soloed with both orchestras. In 2016, she performed a commissioned double concerto with the South Shore Orchestra.
A native of Farmington Hills, Michigan, Liam Jackson is a 5th year senior in Bassoon Performance and Music Education at the University of Michigan. He has studied with Professor Jeffrey Lyman for five years and previously studied with Robert Williams of the DSO. In the summers of 2015 and 2016 he co-taught the MPulse bassoon institute, a summer conservatory outreach camp for talented high school students. Following the MPulse institute in 2016, he began an internship with the Michigan Marching Band’s instructional staff. As a performer, Liam plays in the bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles at Michigan and is a substitute bassoonist and contrabassoonist with the Michigan Philharmonic. Liam plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Bassoon Performance beginning in Fall 2018.
Hyunju Jung is currently in her first year of a Master’s degree at University of Michigan studying piano with Arthur Greene. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Previous teachers include Mack McCray, Sharon Mann and Kuyjung Kim. She has participated in many recitals in the Bay Area, such as the Bay Area Chapter of the American Liszt Society and various duo and chamber music recitals in and around the music conservatory. Hyunju worked as an accompanist for True Light Church, First Baptist Church in Fremont, as well as Hanuelsaem Church in South Korea.
Braden McConnell, originally from Cleveland, Ohio, studies cello with Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan. In the summer of 2012, he became the youngest musician to have ever participated in Harbor Music: The Artur Balsam Ensemble Classes in Prospect Harbor, Maine. He has played in master classes for Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Joshua Bell, Paul Katz, Ralph Kirshbaum, Csaba Onczay, Ida Kavafian, Sylvia Rosenberg, Desmond Hoebig, Atar Arad, Daniel Morganstern, and Amir Eldan. In 2013, Braden traveled to Hungary and won first prize in the David Popper International Cello Competition. He has also won first prizes in the Cleveland Cello Society’s Scholarship Competition and the Sigma Alpha Iota Competition. In the summer of 2013, while a student of Susan Moses, he toured Brazil and Argentina with the Indiana University Violin Virtuosi, and, as a member, also performed with Augustin Hadelich, David Chan, and at Carnegie Hall with Gilles Apap. In December of 2013, he appeared at Carnegie Hall twice as a part of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, performing alongside Leon Fleisher. A National Merit Scholar, Braden is double majoring at the University of Michigan in cello and mathematics.
Soprano Catherine Moss is a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at The University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance where she studies with acclaimed countertenor, David Daniels. She was a finalist of Pioneer High School’s 60th Annual Concerto Competition and was the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Gala Soloist in 2016. In the summer of 2016, she performed in Oberlin in Italy’s production of Suor Angelica as a member of the chorus under the baton of Kevin Class and the direction of Scott Skiba. In 2018, she will be performing the role of Polly in the Comic Opera Guild’s production of Fritz Kreisler’s operetta Apple Blossoms.
Bum Namkoong is a native of South Korea. He is currently a student at the University of Michigan pursuing Bachelor’s degree in Clarinet Performance. Before attending Michigan, Bum was part of Michigan Youth Ensemble, Michigan Youth Arts Festival band, and was one of the five winners of 2015 MYAF soloist competition. Besides playing the clarinet, Bum loves to play soccer and is an avid Xbox gamer. He was part of Huron High School Soccer team for four years in high school and plays with the intramural soccer team at Michigan. He hopes to join a professional orchestra after finishing school at Michigan and keep himself updated with the most current Xbox games.
Nathaniel Pierce, cellist and tenor, is a highly active chamber musician. He is a Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival, and Co-Education Director at the Innsbrook Institute. Pierce is a founding member of the Koinonia Piano Trio which has toured in Europe and in the States. They were Excel fellows at the University of Michigan. In 2013, he performed as a soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has also been a featured soloist with the Toledo, Dexter, Dearborn, Albany, Ann Arbor and Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphonies, as well as the University of Michigan and Indiana University symphonies. Pierce has taught classes at University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Minnesota Duluth, and Western Illinois University. His students have gone on to study cello at Michigan State, Boston University, and Eastern Michigan University.
Nathaniel appeared on stage as a member of the children’s choir of the Brandenburg State Theater in Germany, where his parents were engaged as operatic soloists. He started his cello studies with Guenther Grossman and Anna Zinke at the Cottbus Conservatory in Germany, and has studied with Marianne Jakobovitz and Ulrike Schaeffer of the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz, Germany, and Erling Bloendal Bengtsson in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has studied voice with Alice and John Pierce, George Shirley and Andreas Poulimenos. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance at the University of Michigan under the instruction of Richard Aaron, and completed his Master of Music degree with Brandon Vamos at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is currently pursuing a DMA degree under the tutelage of Anthony Elliott, cellist, Martin Katz, collaborative pianist, and David Daniels, Professor of Voice, at the University of Michigan.
In 2014, Pierce was a prize-winner in the Matinee Musicale Competition. His quartet won the Kuttner Quartet Competition at Indiana University. As a member of the Bloomington Piano trio, he studied under Menahem Pressler. In 2008, he won the Louis Potter Cello Competition. Pierce has attended music festivals such as Aspen, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, Madeline Island, Innsbrook Institute, Chautaqua, IMAP, Green Mountain, Indiana String Academy, New Mexico Chamber Music Festival, Three Bridges International Music Festival, and Bowdoin Music Festival.
Nathaniel has performed and featured many compositions by renowned University of Michigan faculty composers, William Bolcom, Kristen Kuster, Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, and Paul Schoenfield. He has collaborated with Ayano Ninomiya, Jorja Fleezanis, David Halen, Yizhak Schotten, Steven Shipps, Martin Katz, Yehonatan Berick and others.
Nicholas Roehler has performed in Austria, Germany, Italy, and throughout the United States. As a collaborative pianist and vocal coach he has studied at SongFest, CoOPERAtive, Scuola Italia Summer Program for Opera Singers, and University of Miami’s Salzburg Program among others. This summer he will serve as vocal coach and accompanist for the summer season at Opera in the Ozarks. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and is currently pursuing his Master of Music degree at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Martin Katz.
Rebecca Williamson is a sophomore clarinetist at the University of Michigan. She is from Nashville, Tenessee, where she studied with James Zimmermann and performed with the Curb Youth Symphony. At Michigan, she studies with Chad Burrow and Daniel Gilbert on clarinet and Annie Jeng on piano. Rebecca has attended festivals such as the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and has also completed an internship with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s Music Library. Outside of music, Rebecca has taken ballet for sixteen years, recently began gymnastics, speaks German, and loves to play with her apartment’s cat, Ollie.
Born in 1993 in Taiwan, Chiao-Yu Wu started playing the piano at age six and is now in her first year at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance as a scholarship student studying under the head of the piano department, Professor Christopher Harding for her piano solo, and under the tutelage of professor Amy I-Lin Cheng and Matthew Albert for her chamber music.
Joyce enjoys an active performing career and has recently been invited to give a solo recital at the concert hall of the National Taipei University of Education and a charity concert with RCM Violinist, Eva Lee. She had her first solo piano recital when she was thirteen years old in the Concert Hall of Chinese Cultural University. In Europe, she has performed in many churches in the U.K. as a soloist and also a chamber partner such as Bristol Church, Bristol Cathedral, St. James Paddington Church, St. Botolph without Aldgate and St. Martin of Tours. She has been nominated to participate in the 2014 RAM Piano Festival. In Italy she performed in the 2015 Cervo Summer Festival Concert Series. In September, 2016, she performed in Asia House Festival organized by Talents Unlimited with soprano from RAM, Waimay Yau. On November 11, 2017, she will perform Grieg Piano Concerto with Orchestra Ann Arbor Camerata, as the first prize winner for the 4th Annual Concerto competition.
She has participated in masterclasses with Pascal Roge, Christopher Elton, Joanna Macgregor, Stephen Hough, Pascal Devoyon, Kathryn Scott, Sung-Won Yang, Colin Stone and Ian Fountain. She had many competitions experiences such as first prize in 2006 National Piano Quintet Competition, first prize in 2010 Yamaha National Piano Competition, second prize in 2010 Taiwan Culture Cups Piano Competition, second prize in 2010 JVC Cup National Piano Competition, and semi-final in the Taiwan New Art Music Star in 2014. In 2015, she has received the third prize (Highly Commended) at the Royal Academy of Music Delius Duo Competition.
Spend an enjoyable Friday evening at the beautiful Bloomfield Township Public Library. Relax and enjoy the music! Mark your calendar for our next chamber music concert on Friday, December 8 at 7:00 p.m.
This program is free and open to everyone. No registration is required. This concert series is sponsored by the Friends of Bloomfield Township Public Library. For more information, call the Library at (248) 642-5800 or visit our website at www.btpl.org.
The Bloomfield Township Public Library is located at 1099 Lone Pine Road (at Telegraph), Bloomfield Township, Michigan, 48302.