Musicians

August 2006
Roy Eaton - Photo
Nationally recognized and classically trained, Pianist Roy Eaton was the winner of the first Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Award in June 1950 and made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Chopin's F minor Concerto under George Schick in 1951. He has released three critically acclaimed albums: Joyful Joplin (Newport Classics), Meditative Chopin, (Seventh Wave) and Joplin Piano Rags (Sony Classical). Eaton performed his recording of Meditative Chopin at Alice Tully Hall in 1986. He has played seven George Gershwin preludes, including four discovered about 20 years ago and recorded on his latest CD, 24/7+7: The Complete Preludes of Chopin, Gershwin, Still (Summit Records). Eaton is also one of the most successful jingle writers. His most famous jingles he wrote while working at Young and Rubicam was “We’re having Beefaroni, its made with macaroni, Beefaroni’s full of meat, Beefaroni’s really neat, Hooray for Beefaroni!” Last week, Eaton appeared in the Brave New World Repertory Theatre production of “The Great White Hope.”

July 2006
Teresa Kubiak - Photo
Solo Cellist, Teresa Kubiak, is a prominent freelance cellist and has performed with major ensembles at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and throughout the metropolitan area. Kubiak has performed with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orchestra of the Bronx, Bronx Opera Orchestra, Greenwich Symphony, Connecticut Grand Opera and regularly performs solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States and abroad. She has been a soloist with the Orchestra of the Bronx and serves as principal cellist. She is also a recent winner of The Bronx Council on the Arts’ BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award. Kubiak specializes in instructing young cellists, some beginning at four years old, at her teaching studios at the Hudson River School of Music in Dobbs Ferry and the Rivertowns Art Council in Hastings-on-the-Hudson in Westchester. Kubiak oversees the Cello Department of the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music. She has three cello ensembles established within the ranks of her students which include a number of teenagers, all of whom comprise the Young Cellists of Westchester.

Max Pakhomov - Photo
Maxim Pakhomov, originally from the Far East region of Russia, Nakhodka, completed his studies at the Moscow State Conservatory. Mr. Pakhomov has appeared throughout Russia with various orchestras and has toured England, Scotland, Austria and Estonia in both solo and chamber music concerts. His American credits include performances in Merkin Hall and Zankel Hall where he premiered his own arrangement of Stravinsky’s Petrushka for piano duo. Currently, he maintains an active schedule as a chamber musician with cellist, Teresa Kubiak and is a founding member of The Bronx Chamber Players. He has performed with The Westchester Chorale and is the principal pianist of the Bronx Opera Company. His solo performances include piano concertos by Tschaikowsky, Saint-Saëns, Brahms and Beethoven with the Orchestra of The Bronx, Bach’s D Minor Concerto with The Bach Festival Small Orchestra of the Lautreament Concert Series and The Beethoven Choral Fantasy with One World Symphony. Mr. Pakhomov will be performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with The Orchestra of The Bronx on June 3, 2006.

June 2006
Sue Lane Talley - Photo
Dr. Sue Lane Talley is the Director of the Music Program at the School of Music, Nyack College, Manhattan Center, located at 361 Broadway. Dr. Talley is a concert pianist and recording artist. She enjoys directing the NCMC Chorale and teaching Early Music History, as well as other classes in music and fine arts. As a performing artist, Dr. Talley has traveled throughout the world, giving concerts with her husband, Dr. Dana Talley, who is also an Associate Professor at Nyack College in Voice and formerly sang at The Metropolitan Opera as a principal tenor. The couple have recorded more than 20 albums of both classical and sacred music. A member of the American Recorder Society, Dr. Talley’s interest in the recorder began when she was an editor of a recorder series for children at McGraw-Hill Books. The recorder is becoming a very popular instrument for both music education for the young, and ensemble playing for adults, and Dr. Talley and Professor Rodriguez will blend the quiet sounds of this “sweet flute” and the guitar in a program of classical music, much of it written by J. S. Bach. Dr. Dana Talley will join the duo in several songs especially arranged for guitar, alto recorder, and tenor voice.

Eleazer Rodriguez - Photo
Classical Guitarist Eleazer Rodriguez, is Assistant Professor of Guitar at the Nyack School of Music in Manhattan. Professor Rodriguez is currently completing his Master of Music degree at New York City College. He has been nominated as a doctoral candidate in classical guitar at the Manhattan School of Music. As a graduate student at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, he has been selected by Dr. Lars Frandsen to perform El Concierto de Aranjuez with the Brooklyn College Symphony. Professor Rodriguez will release his first solo CD later this year under an independent label.

May 2006
Andrew Kirjner - Photo
Andrew Kirjner, 7, has two passions – the violin and the chess board. He has been studying violin for three years under Jerelyn Davis of Westport, Connecticut. Andrew will perform the music of composers Handel, Bach, Brahms, Schumann, Paganini, Beethoven and others. An avid chess player, Andrew began the game a year ago has already earned a United States Chess Federation rating of 1100 under the instruction of Alex Eydelman. He attends the MEAD school in Stamford, Connecticut. Andrew is also fond of swimming, takes karate lessons and loves to share math puzzles with his father.

March 2006
Gert Kumi - Photo
Concertmaster and Solo Violinist, Gert Kumi, began his illustrious career earning a first prize award at the Young Artists Competition and setting a national record as the youngest performer in his native country, Albania. Kumi has toured extensively throughout Europe with the Young Virtuosi of Tirana Chamber Orchestra serving as Concertmaster and Soloist.

Kumi immigrated to the U.S. in 2000 and received a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Stephen Clapp. At Juilliard, Kumi participated in master classes with Virtuoso Violinist Itzhak Perlman, Dorothy Delay, Midori and many other noted violinists. Kumi studied at the Menuhin Academy in Switzerland under the tutelage of Alberto Lysy, protege of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

Kumi performed as a soloist at the Merkin Hall with the Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra in February 2006 and made his debut at Alice Tully Hall in 2003. Kumi performed for Sir Elton John at Radio City Music Hall in 2004 and has performed for royal dignitaries including Prince Ranier of Monte Carlo, the King of Morocco and the Queen of Lichtenstein. He has played solo recitals at Juilliard and has performed at the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall among other places. Currently, Kumi is serving on the Music faculty of the Nyack College School of Music and on the faculty of the Masterworks Festival in Winona Lake, Indiana.

February 2006
Fred Zlotkin - Photo
Zlotkin, Solo Cellist for the past 30 years for the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, is also the winner of the prestigious International Music Competition at Geneva. Zlotkin’s wide musical career includes engagements with the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony. Zlotkin’s chamber music appearances include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Lyric Piano Quartet, the Aspen Music Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival
and the Minnesota Sommerfest. He is the only present-day cellist who performs Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello with full ornamentation, and his recording of that work has been hailed as “one of the most gratifying Bach performances on records.” Zlotkin has recorded for hundreds of motion pictures and with contemporary artists such as Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Aerosmith and numerous others.

Zlotkin, who earned his doctorate degree from The Juilliard School, studied with Gregor Piatigorsky, Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. He is a member of the faculties of Manhattan School of Music, Queens College and the Brooklyn College of Music. He has also served as Adjunct Professor at SUNY-Purchase and as Music Director of the Montauk Chamber Music Society.

Zlotkin is a descendant of the illustrious musical “Slatkin” family (he changed his name back to the original Russian spelling). His father, Felix Slatkin, was a violinist, arranger, conductor and founded the Hollywood String Quartet, of which Zlotkin’s mother, Eleanor Aller, was the cellist. Slatkin was also Frank Sinatra’s concertmaster and conductor of choice during the Capitol years of the 50’s. Zlotkin’s brother, Leonard Slatkin, is the Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

January 2006
Kasaun Henry - Photo
Pianist Kasaun Henry will perform classical pieces including his own musical compositions. Kasaun, 27, was a recipient of the ASCAP Chappelle Award for music composition in honor of George and Ira Gershwin last month at Rose Hall. He was also awarded Second Place in the Alpha Phi Classical Piano Competition at Columbia University. Kasaun received his second Masters Degree in Music Composition from the City College of New York where he studied after receiving a Mellon-Mays Fellowship. Kasaun will be attending the University of Michigan pursuing his Ph.D. in Music Theory. Kasaun also has a rich chess history. He was a member of the Borough of Manhattan Chess Team winning the 1997 Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship. He was an original member of the Raging Rooks of Harlem, winners of the National Junior High School Championship in 1991, coached by GM Maurice Ashley, the first African-American GM.