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Jeff Bradetich, double bass
Proclaimed by the New York Times as "the master of his instrument," Jeff Bradetich is regarded as one of the leading performers and teachers of the double bass in the United States today. Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1982, he has performed more than 450 concerts on four continents, including his London debut in Wigmore Hall in 1986. He has won many major solo competitions, recorded six solo albums of music for double bass and piano and has been featured on radio and television throughout North and South America and Europe, including CBS, CNN, the BBC, the CBC and NPR.
Mr. Bradetich began his study of the bass at age 10 in Eugene, Oregon, before studying with Warren Benfield at Northwestern University where he earned both Bachelor and Masters degrees.
In addition to his international tours as a performer and teacher, Mr. Bradetich has been an active lecturer and clinician, and has transcribed more than 100 solo works. He has given more than 1,000 master classes worldwide. He has produced an instructional video and DVD. He served as Executive Director of the International Society of Bassists from 1982-1990 and editor of its magazine for six years.
In 1987, Mr. Bradetich co-founded Music For All To Hear, Inc., the first company to record music especially arranged and acoustically prepared for the hard of hearing. His pioneering work in this field has helped bring music into the lives of thousands of individuals with hearing losses.
He has taught on the faculties of the University of Michigan and Northwestern University prior to his 1994 appointment as director of the largest double bass program in the world at the University of North Texas. His students hold positions in major orchestras on five continents and in leading universities in the United States and abroad.
Jeff Bradetich has recently established the Bradetich Foundation for the purpose of advancing the performing, teaching and knowledge of the double bass. The foundation hosted the 2010 International Solo Competition with the largest prizes in double bass history. His new book, Double Bass: The Ultimate Challenge, on pedagogy and performance, was released in June, 2009, by Music For All To Hear.
Dmitri Shteinberg, pianist
Dmitri Shteinberg has appeared across North America, Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Bulgaria and Israel. His solo collaborations include performances with the Jerusalem Symphony, the Italian Filarmonica Marchigiana, Israel Camerata Orchestra and Porto National Symphony under the batons of Massimo Pradella, Roger Nierenberg, Florin Totan and David Shallon, among others.
Called "protean and refined" by the New York Times, Shteinberg has recorded for the Israeli "Voice of Music" radio station, NPR, WQXR in New York City, the Bavarian Radio and the Yamaha Disklavier.
His chamber music appearances include Carnegie Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center and the Saunders Theatre in Boston. He also plays harpsichords and period pianos, and his interest in new music has led to numerous commissions and several world premieres.
Dmitri Shteinberg is a prizewinner in twenty competitions worldwide, including First Prize in "Citta de Senigallia" International Piano Competition in Italy. In the United States, he won the Naomi Foundation Competition and the Artists International Debut Award, and received the Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant.
A native of Moscow, Shteinberg studied at the Gnessin Special School of Music under Anna Kantor, teacher of Evgeny Kissin. He holds a doctoral degree from the Manhattan School of Music and is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Area Coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He is also on the faculty of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont.
Laura Zuiderveen, mezzo-soprano
Laura Zuiderveen makes her debut with the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra. Last year she was the alto soloist in the Rachmaninoff Vespers with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. She sang Prokofiev's The Field of the Dead from Alexander Nevsky in "An Evening of Russian Music" in 2007 with Choral Arts. Recent engagements include alto solos in the Liszt Christus and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with New Dominion Chorale. Ms Zuiderveen performed the critically acclaimed roles of Aunt Cecilia March in Adamo's Little Women, Madame de la Haltière in Massenet's Cendrillon, and La Zia Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica with Summer Opera Theatre and Katisha in Mikado with the Washington Savoyards. She sang with Washington Concert Opera as Frugola and Mamma Lucia in Il Tabarro and Cavalleria Rusticana. Ms. Zuiderveen received first prize in the Wagner division of the Liederkranz Foundation annual vocal competition. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University.
University Singers & Michael Slon, conductor
Active as a conductor of choral, orchestral, and operatic repertoire, Michael Slon is currently Conductor of the University Singers and Chamber Singers, and Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia where he was named a member of the Mead Honored Faculty for 2006-2007. Recent repertoire with the choruses has included Orff's Carmina Burana, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Mozart's Mass in C minor, the Palestrina Missa Brevis, Bach's Cantata 150, Britten's Hymn to St. Cecelia and a range of shorter a cappella and accompanied works. After substituting on one hour's notice for a January 2005 performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Mr. Slon also served for a year as Interim Director of the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, leading performances of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and Copland's Appalachian Spring. Together with former Symphony Executive Director Bill Martin, he also launched the University Singers-CUSO Family Holiday Concerts.
Opera and musical theatre engagements have included a production of Stephen Paulus's The Three Hermits with Buffalo's Opera Sacra, regional premieres of Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George and Guettel's The Light in The Piazza with the Heritage Theater Festival, South Pacific and The Magic Flute with the Ash Lawn Opera Festival and Into the Woods and Bernstein's Mass at Indiana University. In addition, he is active as a guest conductor of honors choirs and orchestras.
Prior to UVA, Mr. Slon served as visiting conducting faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory, and as assistant conductor of Cincinnati's May Festival Chorus, in which roles he prepared and co-prepared choruses for concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. His ensembles have worked with artists including Moses Hogan, Bobby McFerrin, Meredith Monk, and Franz Welser-Möst. Mr. Slon holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music and Cornell University, where he was named a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a pianist and writer--his first book, Songs from the Hill, came out in 1998, and he is currently at work on a Leonard Bernstein project.
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