SPANISH BRASS

With a 35-year trajectory in the world of chamber music, Spanish Brass is one of the most dynamic and established groups on the international musical stage.

In 1996 the ensemble won First Prize in the 6th International Ville de Narbonne (France) Brass Quintet Competition, considered the most prestigious in the world for this formation. In 2017 Spanish Brass received First Prize in the Bankia Awards for Musical Talent of the Comunitat de Valencia, and in 2019 they received the Espai Ter de Música Award. They were also honored with five Carles Santos Awards for their CDs XXX,Mira si hem corregut terres… (2019), Les Aventures de Monsieur Jules (2020), Spanish Brass (a) Live(2021) and Resurrección (2022).

In 2020, Spanish Brass was honored by receiving the National Music Prize from Spain’s Ministry of Culture, the country’s highest musical honor.

In addition to participating in some of the most important music festivals around the world, Spanish Brass performed at the Prince of Asturias Awards Gala in 1995, recorded the music for the theatrical work “La Fundación” by Buero Vallejo for the National Dramatic Center, and composed the soundtrack for the film “Descongélate” by Felix Sabroso for the production company El Deseo.

In addition to their activities as performers, Spanish Brass organises two festivals devoted to brass instruments: SBALZ – Festival Spanish Brass Alzira (www.sbalz.com) and Brassurround (www.brassurround.com), where some of the most prestigious international brass soloists, ensembles and teachers gather each year.

Spanish Brass is supported by the Institut Valencià de Cultura and the Ministerio de Cultura-INAEM.

BEO STRING QUARTET

The eclectic and highly polished Beo String Quartet, founded in 2015, has created a niche for itself as a daring, genre-defying ensemble. Rigorously trained in the classical tradition, violinists Jason Neukom and Andrew Giordano, violist Sean Neukom, and cellist Ryan Ash also know their way around contemporary expression, including the use of electronics, live sound processing, and spatial audio manipulation. Their performances of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, or Shostakovich have been compared to those of the best among 21st century international string quartets.

With 65 world premieres to its credit and 150 concert works played throughout the United States, South America, and Europe, the iconoclastic Beo String Quartet does what it loves best: playing classical repertoire, contemporary, rock, and experimental music. From the Latin “to make happy,” Beo started out as a lark. Two Mexican-American brothers, Jason Neukom and Sean Neukom, decided to record a song entitled “Happy, Happy,” composed by Sean, but for that they would need two more players. And so in 2015 the Beo String Quartet was formed. Touring the world, composing, performing, recording, teaching, and having fun, Beo has since then founded Beo Publishing, built a recording studio, and started its own recording label, NeuKraft Records.

ALISA SADIKOVA, HARP

Alisa Sadikova is a prodigy classical harpist from Saint Petersburg, Russia. From 2010 to 2018, she studied at the Special Music School of Saint Petersburg Conservatory, with Karina Maleeva; during 2018–2021, she attended Cambridge Musica Mundi High School in Waterloo, Belgium, with Catherine Michel; from August 2021 to the present, she started her bachelor’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York, USA, with Nancy Allen. Alisa is a winner of many international competitions: Absolute First Prize at the International Youth Contest in New York, USA (2010); First Prize at the International Competition of Music Talent in Hanstätten, Germany (2011); Absolute First Prize at the International Competition in Helsinki, Finland (2011); The Yuri Temirkanov Prize (2012); Scholarship holder and owner of an Individual Grant from the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation (2015); 3rd Prize at The Young Talents of Russia (2017); 4th Prize at The 20th International Harp Contest in Israel (2018); First Prize at The Scandinavian International Instrumental Music Competition (2023); Absolute First Prize at the World Grand Prix International Music Contest (2023); First Degree Winner at the Eleventh Sibelius International Instrumental Music Competition (2023); First Degree Winner at the Clara Schuman International Competition (2023); recipient of a Study Grant from the Guzik Foundation (2021–2022), (2022–2023), (2023-2024);  A soloist of the World Harp Congress in Australia (2014), and in Hong Kong (2017); participated as a soloist in the international tour with Sarah Brightman (26 concerts in 16 countries) “Royal Christmas Gala”.

Alisa Sadikova is the official representative and an ambassador of the Lyon & Healy Harps and Salvi Harps Foundation.

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN, PIANO

REBECCA FISCHER, VIOLIN

Simone Dinnerstein is an American pianist with a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Since that recording, she has had a busy performing career. She has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sydney Opera House.

Praised for her “beautiful tone and nuanced phrasing” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), violinist Rebecca Fischer is sought after as a highly expressive, intuitive performer of solo, chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire. Garnering attention for her compelling programs of solo violin and singing violinist music, Ms. Fischer has premiered solo works by composers Lisa Bielawa, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Mathew Fuerst, Augusta Read Thomas, Byron Au Yong, Pierre Jalbert and others. Recent solo recital engagements include Columbia University’s Miller Theater Pop-Up series, The Stone, and the University of Oregon. She is the concertmaster of Ensemble Baroklyn, a group run by pianist Simone Dinnerstein specializing in the music of Bach, and she performs regularly with other ensembles based in New York City. Ms. Fischer is also a member of The Afield, a multidisciplinary collaboration with visual artist/writer Anthony Hawley combining new and original compositions for violin, voice, and electronics with video and other media. The Afield has performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe, Carnegie Hall, and the Atlanta Contemporary Museum, and has published work in Art Papers.

First-violinist of the Chiara String Quartet for eighteen years until the group’s final season in 2018, Ms. Fischer recorded and performed numerous works by heart, held residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Harvard University, and premiered many major new works by composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Philip Glass.

JASON VIEAUX, CLASSICAL GUITAR

The Concerts in the Galleries and Monday Music in the Schools are underwritten by the Myra Foundation

with additional support from organizations and individuals in the community.

UNDERWRITER

GRANTORS

Arts Midwest 

Myra Foundation

Neel Family Fund of the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, & Region

Northern Valley Youth Orchestras

Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, & Region

DIRECTORS

Anonymous

Trudy & Gordon Iseminger

Nancy & Glen Yoshida

FRIENDS

Ellen S. Erickson

Ron Franz

Carol Geiszler

Deborah and Brad Lachance

Nancy Hadlich

Dave and Cec Lambeth

Dr. Douglas Munski

John and LeAnn Rindt

Nikki Seabloom, in memory of Phyllis Trelfa

Alice R. Senechal

Jerry Lynn Severson

Susie Shaft

Round Table, in memory of Phyllis Trelfa