4 CELLOS CONCERT - September 14th & 15th 8 pm


This special concert 4 Cellos features old and new music performed by celebrated cellists Joan Jeanrenaud, William Skeen, Joanna Blendulf and Theresa Wong. Works by composers Marin Marais, Thomas Lupot, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Telemann, Philip Glass, Steven Mackey, Alex Kelly, Theresa Wong and Joan Jeanrenaud will be presented on the program. The pieces travel from the 1600's to the present and use both the viol and the cello to present the wide range and development of the instrument as we know it today.  Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

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JOAN JEANRENAUD (violoncello, composer) grew up in a small town outside Memphis, Tennessee and began studying the cello at age eleven. Following music studies at Indiana University with Fritz Magg and private instruction with Pierre Fournier, Jeanrenaud joined the Kronos Quartet. For two decades she worked with Kronos and hundreds of composers and musicians from John Cage to Frank Zappa. With them she performed over 2,000 concerts and released thirty recordings. In 1999 she began her pursuit of solo and collaborative projects in composition, improvisation, electronics, and multi-disciplinary performance. She has completed 20 compositions for cello many of these multi-media works. Currently she is developing the installation work ‘ARIA’ with collaborator Alessandro Moruzzi scheduled for its premiere at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in July 2008. The CD, 'Strange Toys', featuring her performances of her own compositions will be released later this year. For a more complete listing of her activities and recordings please visit Joan's website

 
 

WILLIAM SKEEN (violoncello, viol) regularly performs with American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque in the Bay Area, and Musica Angelica in Los Angeles. He also has appeared as solo cellist with the Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle baroque orchestras. Mr. Skeen is a notable and frequent continuo ‘cellist at major American opera houses such as Chicago Opera and San Diego Opera. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Southern California, Skeen has gone on to join the faculty at USC. where he has taught baroque cello and viola da gamba since 2000. In addition, he performs with the New Esterhàzy Quartet, El Mundo, Galanterie, and La Monica, which he co-founded in 1999. William is associate principal 'cellist of the Stockton Symphony and was, for seven seasons, a member of the Carmel Bach Festival orchestra. He has recorded for Koch, Delos, BIS, Hannsler, Sono Luminus, and Pandore records. Mr. Skeen makes his home in the Berkeley Hills with his wife Ondine, and two children, Talia and Liam.

JOANNA BLENDULF( violoncello, viol) holds performance degrees with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University, where she studied with Stanley Ritchie, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Alan Harris. In 1998, she was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate for her accomplishments on baroque cello from Indiana University. She is currently performing with the Portland, Seattle and Indianapolis Baroque Orchestras, Musica Angelica and American Bach Soloists. Ms.Blendulf is also an active chamber musician, touring with La Riche and Co., American Baroque, Ensemble Mirable, Reconstruction, the Streicher Trio and Wildcat Viols. She was named runner-up in the 2000 Early Music America/Dorian Competition for her recording of the complete cello sonatas of Jean Zewalt Triemer. Ms.Blendulf's summer engagements have included performances at the Bloomington, Boston, Berkeley Early Music Festivals, the Aspen Music Festival as well as the Carmel Bach Festival.
THERESA WONG (violoncello, composer) is an improviser and composer based in Oakland California. As a cellist and vocalist, her current work spans the areas of improvisation, composition, video, performance art and large scale performance pieces. After studying product and graphic design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Fabrica Center in Treviso, Italy, she was inspired towards an art form which could unite the visual arts with sound and performance. Since 2003, she has performed throughout the United States as well as in Italy and France. She is a member of Bolivar Zoar, a rock trio with MaryClare Brzytwa (flute and guitar) and Ava Mendoza (guitars) and a cast member of Necessary Monsters, a theater set song cycle led by violinist Carla Kihlstedt. In 2005 she presented a solo show of improvisations on cello and amplified bicycle as well as a video piece at the Fondation Cartier in Paris as a part of the "J'en rêve" exhibition. Her performances have been included in the Other Minds Brink series in San Francisco, the Radio France broadcast, "A L'improviste", the Seattle Improvised Music Festival and at The Stone in New York City. She recently wrote, directed and performed an improvised opera, “L( )VE”, which was presented at Mills College in 2006. She has collaborated and performed with such artists as Fred Frith, Tatsuya Nakatani, Joelle Leandre, Gianni Gebbia, Kanoko Nishi, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, June Watanabe, and Florentine Dance Company Secondo Taglio. Ms. Wong studied design at Stanford University and completed an MFA in performance at Mills College where she studied with Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre, Alvin Curran, Annie Gosfield and cello with Joan Jeanrenaud.