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Kenneth Renshaw - Oct 9th, 2011   American Philharmonic Young Artist Award Winner 2011

Violinist Kenneth Renshaw, 17, was awarded First Prize and two special prizes in 2010 at the 6th Louis Spohr International Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar, Germany. Kenneth performed concertos in Germany with the Weimar Hochschule Chamber Orchestra and with the Staatskapelle Weimar. He was invited to tour China as soloist with the Hessen State Youth Orchestra of Germany and will appear as guest soloist in 2012 with other orchestras in Germany.

Kenneth also won First Prize in the 2009 Los Angeles Philharmonic Competition (Bronislaw Kaper Awards), and performed on NPR's "From the Top" in 2008 as a winner of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. He was invited to return to the show in 2010 as a member of the prize-winning Soleil Trio, and in 2011 to perform chamber music with legendary flutist James Galway. A video of this most recent performance was featured on the homepage of NPR.

Kenneth was concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2008 to 2010. As winner of the orchestra's Concerto Competition, he made his solo debut at Davies Symphony Hall in 2010, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Maestro Donato Cabrera and the SFSYO. Kenneth's performance was hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "vivid and eloquent...a pure-toned and self assured rendition... virtuoso execution." Kenneth has been heard by audiences at other major concert venues including Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles). As a concertmaster, he has played under the batons of Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Simon Rattle, Itzhak Perlman, Donato Cabrera, and Benjamin Shwartz.

Kenneth is a scholarship student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Preparatory Division, where he studies violin with Mr. Li Lin. Kenneth was awarded scholarships to attend the Perlman Music Program's summer sessions and winter residencies from 2009 to 2011, receiving private violin studies with Itzhak Perlman. He has also been a scholarship student at the Music at Menlo International Chamber Music Festival. Other awards for Kenneth include first prizes in the 2011 Y.E.S. Foundation for the Arts Strings Competition, the 2008 CYS Concerto Competition, and the 2008 ASTA Competition. He was invited to play at the 2010 American String Teachers Association National Convention. Kenneth has performed multiple concerti with orchestras throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He has played in master classes for Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg, Takacs String Quartet, Robert Mann, Roberto Diaz, and members of the Emerson String Quartet. Kenneth attends the Ruth Asawa San Francisco High School of the Arts and is an alumnus of the Crowden School. He performs on the Rufino "Jubas" violin generously on loan from the Maestro Foundation of Southern California.

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Eugene Brancoveanu - November 20th, 2011

Eugene Brancoveanu's virile voice and superior stagecraft have earned him critical acclaim in both North America and Europe. Following recent performances of San Francisco Opera's The Little Prince, the San Francisco Chronicle lauds the superb cast as being "led by extravagantly gifted baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as the Pilot. With his unforced charisma, vocal clarity, and total heft, Brancoveanu managed the tricky feat of doing most of the show's heavy lifting..."

In 2011-12 Eugene Brancoveanu sings as soloist in Carmina Burana with the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and continues his extensive recital career, performing with Brookings Harbor Friends of Music. I n the 2010-11 season he appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall, in Michael Tilson Thomas' The Thomashevskys, conducted by the composer. He also returned to the Santa Cruz County Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and sang as soloist in Carmina Burana with Spokane Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Brancoveanu is a graduate of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz and the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. He is also a recent winner of the National Young Opera Singer Competition in Leipzig, the International Music Award in Loenberg, and the International Opera contest "Ferruccio Tagliavini."

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Elena Ulyanova - February 5th, 2012

Elena Ulyanova, the young Russian virtuoso, continues to dazzle the press and public alike in orchestra concerts and solo recitals, which display a breathtaking technique and an enormous strength that have made her renowned in the piano repertoire of Beethoven, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff in particular.

Pianist and Howard University piano faculty member Dr. Raymond T. Jackson describes Ms. Ulyanova's playing as"fantastic and inspired." In referencing a DVD from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota Mr. Jackson writes "I had to stop everything to just sit and listen... Elena's performance was absolutely wonderful, and riveting from beginning to end!"

Ms. Ulyanova has been especially lauded by music critics for her affinity with the piano music of Sergei Rachmaninoff. She has recorded the Piano Concerto no. 2 and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Russian Philharmonic and Maestro Dimitry Yablonsky. These performances have been released on CD by Bel Air Music. In reviewing this CD the noted music journal International Piano described her playing as "articulate and energetic" displaying tempi with "emphasis and clarity."

Besides her regular concerts here in the United States, Elena has performed orchestra, chamber, and solo concerts throughout Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Austria, Korea, Netherlands, China, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania. Her European performances with orchestras include the Vienna Musikverein conducted by Martin Turnovsky, the Moscow Radio Symphony with Alexander Vedernikov, the Crimea State Symphony Orchestra in Yalta, the Russian State Orchestra "Boyan" with Anatoly Poletayev, and the Omsk Philharmonic with Yevgenyi Shestakov.

Listen to Elena play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Russian Philharmonic:
    

http://elena-ulyanova.com

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Solenn Séguillon - April 1st, 2012

Solenn Séguillon began 2011 with a tour of China as soloist with the American Philharmonic Orchestra and returned to perform the Chausson Poème with the same orchestra. After an acclaimed concert tour of France with Aleron Trio, Solenn appeared as soloist with the Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra in August. Originally from Paris, Solenn has performed in many European festivals and master classes including the International Festival of the Fondazione Musicale Santa Cecilia di Portogruaro with Pavel Vernikov, Master Class of Puigcerda with Eduard Wulfson, Master Class of "La Sorbonne" with Paul Kantor, and the International Master Class of Champs-sur-Marne with Hagaï Shaham. Solenn also attended the Zephyr Chamber Music Festival in Courmayeur, Italy.

Solenn was the concertmaster of the Unesco Orchestra and a member of Donna Musica Orchestra, which gave performances in Paris, Nancy, Metz, and Orsay. She is a member of San Francisco's Magik Magik Orchestra, a professional group founded to provide collaboration between classical artists and independent rock musicians. Recent concerts have teamed Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead, Chicago, Sting, Third Eye Blind, and Frederica von Stade with the orchestra. Solenn also recently performed in a quartet with three members of the San Francisco Symphony for an "After Hours" event at Davies Symphony Hall.

After graduating from the Paris Regional National Conservatory, Solenn studied with Pavel Vernikov at la Scola Musica di Fiezole in Italy, with Igor Volochine, and with Eduard Wulfson, chair of the Stradivarius Society in Europe. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory as a student of Axel Strauss.

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Brigitte Armenier - May 6th, 2012

Brigitte Armenier was born and grew up in France, where she graduated from the Music Conservatory of Avignon at age 16. She then stopped playing the piano for a period of 20 years. "To practice and study music at the time was all about competition. It wasn't about what, for me, is the true meaning of music. At 16, I was exhausted," she remembers. "I had to rediscover all by myself the meaning of music." She began by exploring the philosophy and practical applications of Rudolph Steiner's anthroposophy, which is rooted in the understanding of art as the activity of man that links science to spirituality. This led her and her husband, Philippe Armenier, to convert his family property of Domaine de Marcoux in Chateauneuf-du-Pape (established 1344) to biodynamic farming. In 2001, the Armeniers came to the US, where they now consult on biodynamics with over 50 wineries on the west coast.



Fourteen years ago, Ms. Armenier returned to playing music. "I was ready. I came back to the keyboard and said to myself, okay, we'll see what's going on. And all that I had learned, all the insights I'd had as part of my personal transformation, were there in the music," she says. In 2009, Ms. Armenier recorded her first CD, Analogos or Between Music and Biodynamic Agriculture, which includes Schubert's Sonata in B-flat major and Brahms Fantasien, Op. 116, as well as an interview that explores the connection between music and her work in agriculture and nature. "The journey I've been on reminds me of something the pianist Murray Perahia said when he was asked, 'How can you become a better pianist?' His answer: 'By becoming a better man," says Ms. Armenier, who notes that her musical evolution gives her a special bond with American Philharmonic - Sonoma County's mission to foster community and make the beauty of music available to everyone.

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James Warren - May 6th, 2012

James Warren is a classical/symphonic organist with half a century of experience in recital and concert performance, church music, choral conducting, recording, and enabling people to experience the magnificence of the "King of Instruments."

A recitalist with a global perspective, Mr. Warren has performed in Balboa Park (San Diego), St. Mary's Cathedral (San Francisco), Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), St. Andrew's Cathedral (Honolulu), Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral (Los Angeles), The Church of the Madeleine (Paris), St. Paul's Cathedral (London), and Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris).

He has recorded three CDs. The first - "All Through the Night" - was recorded on the "Father" Willis organ at Salisbury Cathedral, England, in 1998. The second - "How Brightly Shines the Morning Star" - was recorded on the Harrison and Harrison organ at Coventry Cathedral, England, in 2002. The third - "A Masterpiece in Time" - was recorded on the Mutin Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Basilica del Santissimo Sacramento in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2009. His recordings have aired on "Curtain Call" (PBS: KRCB-FM, Santa Rosa, CA), "With Heart and Voice" (PBS: WXXI-FM, Rochester, NY)), Ireland Public Radio, and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC). The recordings are available through the Organ Historical Society - www.ohscatalog.org.


"You [will] thirst for this disk. Exploits the gorgeous qualities of the Salisbury Father Willis with affection." Choir and Organ, May/June, 2000

"Value of [Coventry] recording of magnificent instrument and Warren's performance: meditative, magnificent, revelatory, restrained, guiding, glorified...this recording [is] completely successful." The American Organist, June, 2003

"Warren performs with vigor, poetry, excitement, and sensitivity. His playing represents the best of Romantic sensibilities.... Compelling performances, a rich diversity of chorale-prelude inspired literature, and an outstanding specimen of a unique chapter in organ building make this recording a valuable addition to every library." The American Organist, December, 2010

He is a member of the American Guild of Organists, and is the Treasurer for the San Francisco chapter. He attended The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and received a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering (cum laude), a BA in Music (with distinction), and an MBA in Finance. He resides in San Francisco, California, and is Director, IT Software Services for Burr Pilger Mayer CPAs (BPM).