Reflections of the Ocean Classical Keyboard Series (“ROCKS”) introduced wonderful concert artists and professors from major universities across the United States to the Saddleback community. In this era of drastically reduced music education programs, as one of only a handful of concert series in the United States dedicated exclusively to keyboard performance, we feel every lover of classical music in the area should enjoy, draw inspiration from, and cherish ROCKS. ROCKS resumes this season with a dynamic schedule:
SPRING 2013
Sunday, January 27 at 3 pm
CHAMBER MUSIC DUET WITH GRACE FONG AND JACOB BRAUN
McKinney Theatre
$15 general; $10 students/seniors; FREE for younger students and children with a paying adult; 2 for 1 for music teachers with MTAC or CAPMT ID
Enjoy an afternoon of wonderful chamber music with concert artists Grace Fong on piano and Jacob Braun on cello. Dr. Fong is a Professor of Piano at Chapman University and a recording artist. . “Every note audible with perfect phrasing, clean articulation and delicate nuance—seemingly effortless passage and octave work in the difficult final movement . . . one sits back and goes, wow!” ~Tom Aldridge, Indianapolis Newsweekly.
Jacob Braun has earned praise as one of the most versatile and accomplished cellists of his generation, a cellist with "a distinctly warm . . . and gorgeous dark tone" --The St. Louis Dispatch. Fong played with an easy elegance. . . painting impressionistic landscapes with hardly any drips or smudges…” – Washington Post
Sunday, February 24 at 3 pm
SUSAN SVRČEK PIANO RECITAL
McKinney Theatre
$15 general; $10 students/seniors; FREE for younger students and children with a paying adult; 2 for 1 for music teachers with MTAC or CAPMT ID
Keyboard Studies at Saddleback College is proud to present Susan Svrček in a piano recital. Come and enjoy pianist Ms. Svrček, as she plays a colorful program from around the world, from the United States to China to Israel. The picturesque repertoire will include Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolor, Gilead Mishory’s Rega’im, and a preview of the world premiere of Carlos Rafael Rivera’s La Quinta del Sordo – five short pieces inspired by the paintings of Goya.
Sunday, March 10 at 3 pm
RUSSIAN SPECTACULAR WITH KIRILL GLIADKOVSKY
McKinney Theatre
$15 general; $10 students/seniors; FREE for younger students and children with a paying adult; 2 for 1 for music teachers with MTAC or CAPMT ID
Saddleback College faculty member Kirill Gliadkovsky will present a special concert. Works by Russian Composers. Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Medtner and the beloved Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky will be featured. Mr. Gliadkovsky's performances have been met with great enthusiasm by both audiences and music critics in Europe, Russia and North America. “Fine dramatic sense…appealing range of emotional effects and pianistic devices…wonderful” writes Fort Worth Star-Telegram; “The most impressive…memorable… deep musician… fine interpretation” - Izvestia (Moscow, Russia)
Sunday, April 28 at 3 pm
SADDLEBACK PIANO STUDENTS RECITAL
McKinney Theatre
$15 general; $10 students/seniors; FREE for younger students and children with a paying adult; 2 for 1 for music teachers with MTAC or CAPMT ID
Saddleback students from Advanced Piano and Piano Ensemble classes give an exciting program by composers ranging from Bach to Gershwin and beyond, written for 1-2 pianos and 2, 4, 6, 8 (and possibly more) hands! Don’t miss the fun!
Saturday, May 4 at 3 pm
THE PIANO STORY, A NARRATIVE CONCERT
WITH MARIO MERDIROSSIÁN
McKinney Theatre
$12 general; $10 students/seniors; FREE for younger students and children with a paying adult; 2 for 1 for music teachers with MTAC or CAPMT ID
Distinguished Argentine pianist Mario Merdirossián presents an entertaining approach about the factors leading up to the invention of the piano as well as its 300 years of evolution. “He truly speaks through the piano.” –The Daily Mississippian.
FALL, 2012
Sunday, September 23 at 3 pm
BEETHOVEN SONATA PIANO MASTER CLASS AND LECTURE-DEMONSTRATION BY STEWARD GORDON
McKinney Theatre
$10 general public; $7 seniors; $5 college students; 17 and under FREE when accompanied by a paying adult; teachers with MTAC/CAPMT should contact the box office for complimentary tickets for your students or a guest.
Dr. Stewart Gordon, Professor and former Music Department Chair at USC, the University of Maryland and Queen’s College, New York, will host a workshop on Beethoven’s Sonatas. Saddleback and MTAC/CAPMT piano students will perform.
Dr. Gordon is an outstanding pianist, teacher, composer, music scholar and Beethoven authority.
“Remember this name: Stewart Gordon. Whenever he plays a recital another few hundred music- lovers are swept into the Gordon orbit…” – San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, October 7 at 3 pm
RICHARD CIONCO PIANO RECITAL
McKinney Theatre
$12 general public; $7 seniors; $5 college students; 17 and under FREE when accompanied by a paying adult; teachers with MTAC/CAPT should contact the box office to receive complimentary tickets for your students or a guest.
Internationally-acclaimed pianist and recording artist Richard Cionco will perform Beethoven, Chopin, Villa-Lobos, and Ginastera. From New York City, Professor Cionco is currently Piano Department Head at California State University in Sacramento, a Steinway Artist and a sought-after judge for prestigious international piano competitions.
“Sensitive Pianism” – The New York Times; “Terrific pianist…rarest of artists….most impressive…” - Washington Post
Thursday, October 11 at Noon
CONCERT HOUR
PIANO MASTER CLASS BY A VISITING GUEST ARTIST
FA 101
FREE Admission
Saddleback and area piano students will perform.
Saturday, October 27, 3-5 pm
DR. IRENE PEERY-FOX PIANO RECITAL AND MASTER CLASS
FA 101
$10 general public; $7 seniors; $5 college students; 17 and under FREE when accompanied by a paying adult; teachers with MTAC/CAPMT should contact the box office to receive complimentary tickets for your students or a guest.
Dr. Peery-Fox makes a rare appearance in Southern California. A concert pianist, a professor at BYU, and one of the most important piano teachers of her generation, Dr. Peery-Fox’s students consistently win state, national and international competitions. Saddleback piano students will perform.
Monday, November 19 at 7 pm
THE AMERICAN PIANO TRIO CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT
McKinney Theatre
$12 general public; $7 seniors; $5 college students; 17 and under FREE when accompanied by paying adult; teachers with MTAC/CAPMT should contact the box office to receive complimentary tickets for your students or a guest.
International touring and recording artists Robert Palmer, piano, Anna Vaiman, violin, and Peter Opie, cello, will perform Beethoven, Ravel and Shostakovich. In addition to touring, the members are Faculty Professors and Ensemble-in-Residence at Ball State University in Indiana.
“The trio continuously achieved a deep musicality…simply superb.” – Jody Nagel, JOMAR Press.
Thursday, December 6 at 7 pm
A MUSICAL GALLERY: 7 PORTRAITS AT CHRISTMASTIDE
DR. ROB WATSON
McKinney Theatre
$12 general public; $7 seniors; $5 college students; 17 and under FREE when accompanied by a paying adult; teachers with MTAC/CAPMT should contact the box office to receive complimentary tickets for your students or a guest.
Well-known concert pianist, Professor and Chair of the Piano Department at California State University at Fullerton, Dr. Rob Watson tells the Story of Christmas through a fascinating web of solo piano works from the 16th to the 21st Centuries. Listen for In Dulci Jubilo, Greensleeves, and Adeste Fidelis, among others.
Thought-provoking, powerful, touching, perhaps even a little shocking, this is not merely standard holiday fare. Monks in procession, special lighting effects, lute, harpsichord, and the bells of Coventry Cathedral set the stage for seven classical piano music vignettes.