St. Peter's Episcopal Church

March 25, 2012 at 2:00pm

The Omer Quartet is coming to St. Peter’s Church on Sunday, March 25th as part of Great Music without Barriers.

The Omer Quartet, formed in 2009, has performed many works of the quartet repertoire in various venues around the Cleveland area. Consisting of four Cleveland Institute of Music juniors hailing from around the nation, the quartet’s members include violinist Mason Yu and Erica Tursi, cellist Alex Cox, and violist Joe LoCicero. In the summer of 2011 they were invited to the Banff Centre Chamber Music Residency to perform and collaborate with prominent chamber musicians from the world including members of the Juilliard, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Orford, and the London Haydn quartets. They returned to Banff 2 months later to premiere a new work for percussion ensemble and string quartet by Bob Becker. In August and October 2011, they were the featured quartet for Cleveland Institute of Music's Distnace Learning exchange with Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark in which they received coachings from Tim Frederiksen through video conferencing. Last year, they were invited to perform at the Legal Aid Society’s Annual Event which included guest speaker Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The quartet has been coached by Peter Salaff, all members of the Cavani Quartet, Mark Steinberg, Geoff Nuttall, Joel Krosnick, Denis Brott, James Boyd, and Donald and Vivian Weilerstein. They have participated in masterclasses with the Cuarteto Casals, Károly Schranzfrom the Takács Quartet, and Megan Freivogel from the Jupiter Quartet. The Omer Quartet is in its second semester participating in the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Intensive Quartet Seminar, an honor usually given to graduate student groups.

The tentative program includes two pieces for quartets: Haydn opus. 20 no. 2,  and Bartok no. 1

The concert is free and open to the public. A “Meet the Artists” reception will follow the concert.

May 20, 2012 at 2:00pm

Nicholas Ciraldo

Praised as “an exceptionally musical and accomplished guitarist,” Nicholas Ciraldo is a leader among his generation of American classical guitarists.  He has won awards and reached high levels at several prestigious solo competitions, including the Tredrez-Locquemau International Guitar Competition (France), twice at the MTNA Guitar Competition (USA), the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition (Italy), the GFA Solo Guitar Competition (USA), and the Portland International Guitar Competition (USA).  Dr. Ciraldo has enjoyed numerous solo, chamber, and concerto performances throughout the United States, South America, and Europe, from Boston’s Jordan Hall to Berlin’s Berliner Dom to Brazil’s Teatro José Maria Santos.

An avid chamber musician, Nicholas Ciraldo has collaborated with many fine performing artists, including harpist Franziska Huhn, flutist Thomas Robertello, guitarist Eliot Fisk, violinist Stephen Redfield, and the Quadrivium Guitar Quartet.  Currently, Dr. Ciraldo enjoys a busy concert schedule with his wife, flutist Rachel Taratoot Ciraldo, as the Ciraldo Duo.  Their recent concert venues include the National Flute Association Convention, the Pelican State Chamber Music Series of Baton Rouge, the Christ Church of Pensacola, and the Escola da musica e bellas artes do Parana, Brazil.

A participating member of the arts community, Nicholas Ciraldo has held diverse positions with several arts organizations, including Artistic Director of the Boston Classical Guitar Society and Vice President of the Austin Classical Guitar Society.  Dr. Ciraldo is also founder of the Hammer/Nail Project, a program that links student composers with guitarists and shows how to write for the guitar in the most idiomatic way possible.  He currently serves as faculty advisor to the USM Guitar Society.

Another of Dr. Ciraldo’s activities is as artist/teacher.  The Quadrivium Guitar Quartet performed as artists-in-residence throughout rural Kentucky under the auspices of New Performing Arts.  The Ciraldo Duo twice has been invited by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Classical Guitar Society to be artists/teachers-in-residence.  Dr. Ciraldo has given numerous lectures and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and Brazil.  Dr. Ciraldo is on the faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Music in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

For More info click here: Ciraldo Music Web Page

Oct. 7, 2012    -   2:00 p.m.

Mr. Eric Zuber, Pianist

Third Prize,  2011 Cleveland International Piano Competition
Chopin Prize,  2011  Cleveland International Piano Competition
Junior Jury Prize,  2011  Cleveland International Piano Competition

Prize winner in the2008 Sydney International Piano Competition, the 2008 Seoul International Piano Competition, and winner of the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Eric Zuber is a musician of remarkable emotional intensity and is recognized as one of the leading young American pianists of his generation. The New York Times hailed his recent recital debut at Carnegie Hall, calling his playing "irresistibly fluid," and the New York Concert Review raved that Eric "was a breath of fresh air... Mr. Zuber struck one as an especially thoughtful player who happens to possess technical brilliance."

Besides many other awards, Eric has received first-prize in the 2006 International Young Artists Competition of Washington, D.C., the Yale Gordon Competition, and the Wonderlic Competition. Eric has also received major prizes from the 2006 California International Young Artists Competition and the 2006 Viardo International Piano Competition just to name a few.

Already a seasoned professional artist, Eric has performed in such iconic venues as the Sydney Opera House, the Concert Hall of the Seoul Arts Center, Carnegie Hall`s Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center`s Terrace Theatre, Shriver Hall, Strathmore Hall in Washington D.C. and many others. In addition, he has performed on the prestigious Rising Star Recital Series for the Gilmore Foundation. As a soloist, Mr. Zuber has made appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Korean Symphony, South Bend Symphony, Peabody Symphony, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony, and the New Millennium Festival Orchestra in Gijon, Spain among others.

In addition to a busy performance schedule, he has had the opportunity to work with some of the most renowned professors in the world including John Perry and Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Aspen Music Festival, Jerome Lowenthal at the Music Academy of the West, Julian Martin and Robert McDonald at the New Millennium Piano Festival and Arie Vardi at the Bowdoin Music Festival.

Eric holds a Bachelors Degree from the Peabody Conservatory, and a Performance Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. His principle teachers have included Boris Slutsky, Claude Franck and Leon Fleisher. Mr Zuber is currently working towards the completion of an Artist Diploma with Boris Slutsky at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.