Dear friends! It is with great anticipation and enthusiasm that we present to you our new season of outstanding concerts performed by sensational musicians from around the world.
Our 2009-2010 season will feature artists from Italy, USA, Canada, Belorus and Russia. As always, we are committed to offering our concert series at an affordable price for all to enjoy.
All our concerts are held at the Richmond Cultural Centre at 7700 Minoru Gate on Sundays afternoons at 2:00 PM in a Lecture Hall and Art Gallery in the Centre.

Join us in this wonderful feast of

splendid music and superb performances!

Eugene Skovorodnikov - Artistic Director

ENCORE CONCERT SEASON 2009 - 2010

CONCERT 1

Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Lecture Hall
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Poetic Romantics” Music by Schumann
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
Paolo Vairo, piano (Italy/USA)

Pianist Paolo Vairo was born in Como, Italy in 1974. At his young age, he has already acquired great recognition from audiences and music critics both in Italy and abroad. Since 2005 he has been selected for inclusion in the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour Roster.

Mr. Vairo gained a reputation as a musician of uncommon brilliance and sensitivity. His piano repertoire contains a wide range of styles from Baroque to Contemporary in which he shows a high level of understanding the interpretation of the authors’ wit, together with outstanding virtuosity and praiseworthy lyricism.

He tours in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania France, United Kingdom and the United States both performing in recital and as soloist with orchestra. His Italian appearances include performances in Aosta, Avellino, Bari, Brindisi, Bologna, Como, Firenze, Milano, Padova, Pescara, Prato, Sassari, Savona, Siracusa, Torino, Venezia and Voghera. Other significant engagements have included concerts at Teatro Puccini in Merano, Teatro Alfieri in Torino, Teatro Sociale in Como, Teatro delle Erbe in Milano at the invitation of “Società dei Concerti”, and the Sala Verdi of Parma Conservatory. All appearances were met with unanimous critical acclaim. Internationally, Mr. Vairo performed in Mendrisio and Lugano (Switzerland), Mayrhofen (Austria), Bad Wiessee, Bad Tölz, Lenggries, Landshut, Rotenburg and Munich (Germany) where he performed several recitals at the prestigious Gasteig Hall.

Mr. Vairo performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Münchener Symphonikern at the world-renowned Herkulessaal der Residenz in Munich. He was also invited to participate in a concert series celebrating the music of Beethoven in Aosta. At this event he performed Concerto n.1 in C major, which included a cadenza composed by him for this occasion as well as four piano sonatas, which were paralleled with in-depth lectures of op.26 and the two sonatas op.27 and op.78.

The Münchener Musikseminar invited Mr. Vairo to record his first CD featuring the music of Beethoven, Schumann, Grieg, Liszt, Rachmaninov and Khachaturian. The recording had its official debut on May 14, 1993 at his concert with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Oradea (Romania). He has also appeared on the television program “Chi fa la musica” on RAI TV; this performance was broadcast in two parts.

At the age of nine, Mr. Vairo began piano lessons with Maestro Pino Mauri and subsequently with Maestro Walter Krafft with whom he studied for over ten years. He received a degree in Piano Performance with excellent merits at the Conservatorio di Musica “G. Verdi” in Como under the guidance of Maestro Mario Patuzzi. He studied Choir Conducting with Maestro Bernardino Streito, Composition with Maestro Carlo Ballarini, and he received a two-year scholarship to study with Maestro Andrea Lucchesini in Florence.
In April of 1999 Mr. Vairo demonstrated his sensibility and interest in social justice by giving a recital, the proceeds of which had been given to assist a mission in Kosovo by the Italian Red Cross.

He moved to the United States in the fall of 2001 where he obtained a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania studying under the guidance of Professor Harvey Wedeen. He received a full tuition scholarship and was awarded a Teaching Assistantship for the duration of his academic career. For the 2003-2004 academic year Mr. Vairo accepted the position of Adjunct Instructor in Piano at Temple University, where he also served as Artist in Residence.

Mr. Vairo’s recent concert activity included a 2006 summer tour in several European music centers (Italy, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and France), including Como, Munich, Biddenham, and Carcassonne and performances in the United States at the Academy of Music Ballroom in Philadelphia, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Darlington Arts Center, Sussex Bank Theater at Sussex County Community College and for the Steinway Piano Group Series at Granite Farms Estates. His 2007 concert schedule included a European summer tour to Italy (Como), Germany (Munich), Austria, Poland (Warsaw), Czech Republic (Prague) and France. Future commitments in the United States include his New York debut at the Italian Embassy presented by the Italian Cultural Institute in New York and a solo recital at St. Mary’s College in Maryland.

In addition to concertizing, Mr. Vairo is on faculty at Community College of Philadelphia where he teaches piano. He is also the Artistic and Programming Director of the Villa Carlotta Concert Series in Lake Como, Italy, which just celebrated its 17th year of brilliant activity.

CONCERT 2

Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Art Gallery
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Singing Fiddle” Music by Mozart, Schnittke, Franck
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
Victor Kuleshov, violin (Russia)
Eugene Skovorodnikov, piano (Canada)

Victor Kuleshov

Eugene Skovorodnikov

Victor Kuleshov was born in Leningrad, as his home town was called then, on a Sunday afternoon of the early autumn. He started taking violin lessons and playing ice-hockey at the age of 6. In his late teens he made his choice for the violin, and in 1979 graduated from the Music College of the St.Petersburg (then Leningrad) Conservatory. His tutor and advisor was the noted Professor Anatoly Reznikovsky.
In 1989 Victor completed his advanced studies at the Conservatory under Professor Michael Beliakov. From 1988 he started touring as part of a duet (violin and viola) with Alexander Berlin. In 1990 Victor was chosen as Concertmaster of the State Symphony Orchestra of St.Petersburg, a position he held for five years. In 1995 Victor created a string trio that he decided to call "The Modern Trio", after a classical music radio station which he helped to organize.
In 2000 Victor was agian the organizer and leader of the Chamber Music Society of St.Petersburg, an institution that was originally formed in 1872 by E.Albreht, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, L. Auer and M. Beliaev.
Victor Kuleshov is also the founder and current Managing Director of OKM Publishers, a leading publisher of classical musical scores dedicated to manuscript fidelity and a modern, accessible visual style.
As a virtuoso violinist, Victor Kuleshov has toured extensively in Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Finland and France. He also performs often for the appreciative audiences of St. Petersburg - his home city - where so many of his projects enriched city's musical life.

His usual repertoire includes both the core of the classical canon and a great variety of modern works : Brahms, Mozart, Tartini, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Sarasate, Shostakovich, Hindemith, Stockhausen and Schnittke.

CONCERT 3

Sunday, December 6, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Lecture Hall
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Passionate Swinging” Music by Chopin, Beethoven, Gershwin
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
William Ransom, piano (USA)

Pianist William Ransom has appeared in recital, as soloist with orchestras, and as a chamber musician in Eastern and Western Europe, Japan, Korea, South America, Mexico, and throughout the United States. He has performed in New York's Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Hall; in Orchestra Halls in Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta; at the National Gallery in Washington D.C.; and in Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles. He has performed for the American Ambassadors to Japan and Ireland, and his performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and Television in the United States, Japan, Korea, Argentina, and Poland. His recording of Enoch Arden, by Richard Strauss, The Music of Alfredo Barili, and Chamber Music of Johannes Brahms were released on the ACA label. Ransom can also be heard on Heartkeys, from Rising Star Records.
Ransom has commissioned and premiered several major works by composer Stephen Paulus, and he was also the featured pianist performing music by Dwight Andrews used in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway hit, The Piano Lesson, as well as the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on the same play. A popular performer on many University concert series, he has performed at numerous colleges around the country including Yale, Cornell, Duke,Tulane, Vanderbilt, M.I.T., and Stanford, where he has also given master classes.
Born in Boston, Ransom began his musical studies at an early age. He was a scholarship student of William Masselos at The Juilliard School in New York (BM and MM), and he also worked with Theodore Lettvin at the University of Michigan (DMA) and Madame Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in France. Ransom is currently the Mary L. Emerson Professor of Piano and head of the piano faculty at Emory University in Atlanta. He is founder and Artistic Director of the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and has collaborated with such artists as cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Steven Isserlis; clarinetist Richard Stoltzman; members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, St. Petersburg, American, Lark, Cavani and Muir String Quartets; violinist Robert McDuffie; guitarist Eliot Fisk, and members of the Empire Brass Quintet and the percussion group Nexus among many others. In the summers, Ransom is Artistic Director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and also an artist-faculty member of the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan.

“One of the greatest of the new generation of pianists.” La Voz, Argentina

“His playing really caught fire, filling the hall with pianists sparks that brought the
audience to its feet.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Full of natural vitality and richly expressive. An impressive performance.” Ongakuno Tomo, Japan

“Ransom’s power was overwhelming. Technically perfect, musically expressive and
lyrical, his performance offered only delight. He played to perfection.” The Journal, New York

“A technical dazzler, and more.” Detroit Free Press

“He made the piano sing.” Le Sud-Ouest, France

CONCERT 4
Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Lecture Hall
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Flute in the movies” Music by Rota, Morricone, Williams
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
Massimo Mercelli, flute (Italy)
Eugene Skovorodnikov, piano (Canada)

Massimo Mercelli

Eugene Skovorodnikov

Massimo Mercelli studied flute with the famous flautists André Jaunet and Maxence Larrieu. At just nineteen years of age, he became the first flute at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and subsequently won the Premio Francesco Cilea, the Concorso Internazionale Giornate Musicali and the Concorso Internazionale di Stresa.
He has performed as a soloist in some of the world most prestigious concert halls, like Carnegie Hall of New York, Moscow Conservatory, Oslo’s Conserthuset, Monaco’s Herkulessaal and Gasteig, Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires, RAI Auditoriums at Turin and Naples, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, St-Martin-in-the-Fields of London, Mozarteum of Salzburg, Victoria Hall of Geneva, Parco della Musica of Rome and Saint Petersburg Philarmonic, and important festivals, such as Ljubljana, Berlin, Santander, Beethoven of Bonn, Saint Petersburg, Cervantino, Rheingau and Jerusalem.
He has worked with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Peter-Luckas Graf, Maxence Larrieu, Aurèle Nicolet, Cecilia Gasdia, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Susanna Mildonian, Federico Mondelci and Patrizia Tassini, and with orchestras such as the Moscow Soloists, the Lituanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Soloists of Teatro alla Scala, the Roma Opera House Orchestra, the Salzburg Soloists, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Slovanian Radio and Television Orchestra and the Riga Philarmonic Orchestra.
Massimo Mercelli is artistic director and founder of Emilia Romagna Festival. Since 2001 he is a member of the board of counseling of the European Festival Association. More recently he performed at London’s Wigmore Hall and Salzburg’s Mozarteum, held a Master Class at the Rostropovich Foundation and played a first performance of Philip Glass’s composition “Façades” for flute and piano, with the autor at the piano. On 11 September 2006 he performed at the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of the United Nations.
He performed in the Berliner Philarmonie with Berliner Philarmoniker and in the Big Hall of Moscow Conservatory, in a Gala Concert with Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer.
Massimo Mercelli has made two tournèe with “I Virtuosi Italiani”, conducted by Krzsystoff Penderecky, playing his Sinfonietta for flute and strings.
He performed the World Premiere of the new Cantata “Vuoto d’Anima Piena” by Ennio Morricone, under the baton of the composer and he has taken part in the Festival at Warsaw Philarmonic for the 75 years of Maestro Penderecky.

CONCERT 5

Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Lecture Hall
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Great Encores” Music by Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
Alexander Tutunov, piano ( Belorus/USA)

Alexander Tutunov is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. First Prize winner of the Belarusian National Piano Competition and winner of the Russian National Piano Competition, Tutunov's playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as "exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent". Dr. Tutunov maintains a busy performing schedule in Europe, China, Mexico, and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and on radio and television. Dr. Tutunov is also in demand as an adjudicator for piano competitions.

Tutunov's recording of the Abeliovich Piano Concerto was featured as part of the Emmy award winning soundtrack for the History Channel documentary, Russia: Land of Tsars, and his CD of the Tchaikovsky Concert Fantasy with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra was produced in January 2008. Other recordings include: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra by Peter Sacco with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (Albany Records) and the solo piano works of Lev Abeliovich Sonatas & Frescoes, Trio, Songs (Altarus Records). The CD America's Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax on the AUR label, which includes Tutunov's recording of "Transformations" by Todd Barton, received a Grammy nomination.

Tutunov graduated magna cum laude from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory (studies with Anna Artobolevskaya and Lev Naumov) and University of North Texas (piano studies with Joseph Banowetz). Awarded his doctoral diploma with honors in concert performance from the Belarusian State Conservatory, Dr. Tutunov has taught at the Minsk College of Music, the University of North Texas, and Illinois Wesleyan University.
Alexander Tutunov now lives in Ashland, where he is Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at Southern Oregon University. A successful piano pedagogue, he continues to prepare award-winning students. Dr. Tutunov is Artist in Residence at the University of Alaska Southeast, Artistic director of the SOU International Piano Institute, and was recently named Associate director of the Chinese-American International Piano Institute in Chengdu, China.

Mr. Tutunov's performance was exhilarating and inspired. His playing demonstrated a unique talent. His interpretations were like a breath of fresh air.
-Soviet Culture, Moscow
Alexander Tutunov does a thoroughly convincing, idiomatic and appropriately virtuosic job as the soloist
- American Record Guide
Tutunov ignited fireworks with two of Rachmaninoff's Etude-tableaux. His rock-solid technique guided him to dead-center note-accuracy. Where other pianists present Rachmaninoff's showpieces as heavy-handed bombshells, Tutunov chose to elicit a contagious intimacy while never loosing sight of sweeping climaxes…this complete artist paraded multiple layers of voicing.
- Salt Lake Tribune
Alexander Tutunov is one of the most gifted pianists to emerge from the former Soviet Union. He displays dazzling virtuosity and an impassioned, fiery temperament, all in the tradition of Russian pianism at its best.
-Joseph Banowetz, pianist
It was my pleasure to collaborate with Alexander Tutunov, unquestionably one of Russia's top-level performers.
-Paul Freeman, Conductor
SENSITIVE AND IDIOMATIC PLAYING… John Kersey, International Piano, London, UK

CONCERT 6

Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Richmond Cultural Centre, Lecture Hall
7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
“Great Romantic Virtuosos” Music by Thalberg, Liszt
Tickets: Adults: $15, Students/Seniors: $10
Info: 604 - 241-2434; info@encoreconcerts.org
Feature:
Francesco Nicolosi, piano (Italy)

Born in Catania, Francesco Nicolosi is one of the most distinguished pianists of the Italian tradition. He studied under Vincenzo Vitale and won third prize at the 1980 International Santander Piano Competition and in the same year second prize (first prize not awarded) at the Concours International d’Exécution Musicale in Geneva, establishing him as one of the world’s foremost pianists of his generation. He has played in recitals and as a soloist with prestigious orchestras, in some of the most famous concert halls of Europe, toured in the United States, Argentina, Russia, Japan and China, and is a regular guest in the most exclusive festivals of the world. His recordings of Thalberg and Liszt Bellini paraphrases received the 1994 Bellini Golden Prize, and as president of the Sigismund Thalberg International Study Centre he has developed for years an intense work of search and revaluation of the music of the legendary Austrian pianist, of whom he is today the principal interpreter in the world. He is Artistic Director of the Sigismond Thalberg International Piano Prize, I concerti d’Estate di Villa Guariglia, the Jeux d’art a la Villa d’Este in Tivoli, the Roccaraso in Musica Festival and the Corsi Internazionali di Alto Perfezionamento e Formazione Musicale in Naples and Rome.