Archives: Events

Sunday, December 24, 8PM
“The Night Before Christmas”
Cardenes/Mead Family and Geeta Novotny
Celebrate the magic of Christmas Eve with a family of musicians sharing the timeless Bethlehem story through the lens of music, song, and lore from around the world.

Monday, December 25, 6-7PM
Piano Jazz in Dining Hall
Tino Cardenes plays soft holiday piano jazz in the Dining Hall during dinner.

Tuesday, December 26, 8PM
“Winter Wonderland”
Cardenes/Mead Family
From Vivaldi’s virtuosic “Winter” to Tchaikovsky’s beloved “Nutcracker”, the Cardenes/Mead family presents music inspired by snowflakes, ice, and the coziness of a warm fire in good company.

The Cardenes/Mead Family Ensemble consists of Andres Cardenes and Monique Mead, violins with their children Isabel Cardenes, harp, and Tino Cardenes, piano.

Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes parlays his myriad talents into a versatile career as a world-class violin soloist, concertmaster, conductor, violist, chamber musician, recording artist, and educator.  Since capturing Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition, Mr. Cárdenes has appeared as a soloist with over 100 orchestras on five continents. For 25 years, he served as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, and Manfred Honeck.  His conducting career has taken him throughout the United States and Latin America while maintaining an influential teaching studio for over 44 years, with current positions as Distinguished Professor of Violin at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Distinguished Professor at Lynn University in Florida. A prolific recording artist, Cárdenes has recorded over three dozen recordings on the Ocean, Naxos, Sony, Delos, Artek, and Melodya labels.  Cárdenes is the co-founder and Music Director of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, a program geared toward educating musicians in the teachings, legacy, and humanity of his legendary teacher. since 1989. More at andrescardenes.com.

Monique Mead’s rich and varied career is a testament to her enduring belief that music has the power to connect, heal, and uplift humanity. Whether performing violin on stage, in nature, or in the community, Monique strives to create transformative musical experiences that connect people more deeply with themselves and others. Mentored by Leonard Bernstein at a young age, Monique chose a path that would open the world of classical music to new audiences of all ages. Since 1998 her youth and family programs with major orchestras and festivals in the United States and Europe have drawn international acclaim for their popular appeal and innovative approach. Her recordings with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, and West German Radio Orchestra have reached millions via radio and television broadcasts. In addition to performing as a soloist and chamber musician, Monique currently serves as Director of Music Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University, where she helps rising musicians find new pathways for music in the 21^st century.  More at moniquemead.com

Trained as a classical and jazz pianist, Tino Cardenes is currently in his first year of studying Music & Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Whether on stage or behind a camera, he strives to make the musical experience equitable and  accessible to all. With the project Music for Good, he provides music education to children who would otherwise not have the opportunity to learn an instrument, and hopes that this project will continue to foster their love of music for years to come. In 2020, he launched a porch concert series with his family to build community during the pandemic, support local musicians, and contribute to city music programs. Tino performed with violinist Monique Mead for Beethoven in the Face of Adversity – a project which brought concerts to people facing adversity who could otherwise not experience live music. This project spanned 50 performances and 3 countries over the course of 250 days, culminating in a performance at Carnegie Music Hall. Tino made his concerto debut in Germany at age 7, won first place in the Cleveland Institute of Music Piano Four Hands competition, attended Interlochen Arts Camp, and holds the Louis Armstrong Jazz award. More at tinocardenes.com

Harpist, Isabel Cardenes is known for her sensitive musicianship and unique self-expression. She is passionate about using music for healing and social change, and frequently performs as a citizen artist in non-traditional settings. Having played her piano debut at age nine with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen in Germany, Isabel began her journey with the harp at age eleven as a student of Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Harpist Gretchen Van Hoesen. She is currently an undergraduate student at Manhattan School of Music studying with Metropolitan Opera Harpist Mariko Anraku on a Presidential Scholarship. In 2019, Isabel won First Prize in Pittsburgh’s Lois Streator/Smith Competition as well as Third Prize at the American Harp Society National Competition in North Carolina. In her first year at Manhattan School of Music she performed as a substitute harpist for the Harrisburg Symphony and New Jersey Festival Orchestra. In the summer of 2022 Isabel played her debut with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra in Carnegie Hall. More at isabelcardenes.com

SONATAS FOR FLUTE AND PIANO
By Haydn and Hummel

A talk by Nicholas McGegan

Elena Durán grew up in Oakland, California and has enjoyed an international career, appearing as soloist with more than 50 orchestras all over the world, playing on a number of occasions for the Queen of England, HM King Charles as well as the President of Mexico. She has recorded a hit single with Paul McCartney and has made two albums with jazz great Stephane Grappelli. At various stages of her career, she has taught at University and Conservatory level including at Stanford University, the London College of Music, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Hartt School of Music. She has given masterclasses and courses all over the world and was the director of the Stratford International Flute Festival for twenty years and the Mexican Flute Festival at UNAM for five years in the nineties. She was named Mexico City’s Ambassador of Culture and Tourism, and with her personal outreach program FLAUTA SIN FRONTERAS, she has taken music to those who can’t attend concerts, especially those in prison and those who live along the US/Mexico Border. Elena is a passionate supporter of the Ranch’s Fundación La Puerta bringing her programs to the local community.

Nicholas McGegan, British born conductor and performer, is now in his sixth decade on the podium. For 34 years he was Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in the Bay Area, as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Pasadena Symphony, Artistic Director of the Göttingen International Handel Festival (1991-2011), Music Director of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and in the 1990’s, Principal Guest conductor of Scottish Opera and the Drottningholm Court Theatre in Sweden. He has recorded over a hundred CDs specializing in music of the Baroque and Classical periods. He has directed orchestras all over the world and at such opera houses as Covent Garden. In addition to performing, he lectures regularly at the Juilliard School of Music and Yale. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard.  In 2010 he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for ‘services to music abroad’.

Friends And Acquaintances
Music by Darius Milhaud, Claude Bolling, Dave Brubeck and Paul McCartney

Ella Y El Rey
Music by the great Mexican songwriter José Alfredo Jiménez

Elena Durán grew up in Oakland, California and has enjoyed an international career, appearing as soloist with more than 50 orchestras all over the world, playing on a number of occasions for the Queen of England, HM King Charles as well as the President of Mexico. She has recorded a hit single with Paul McCartney and has made two albums with jazz great Stephane Grappelli. At various stages of her career, she has taught at University and Conservatory level including at Stanford University, the London College of Music, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Hartt School of Music. She has given masterclasses and courses all over the world and was the director of the Stratford International Flute Festival for twenty years and the Mexican Flute Festival at UNAM for five years in the nineties. She was named Mexico City’s Ambassador of Culture and Tourism, and with her personal outreach program FLAUTA SIN FRONTERAS, she has taken music to those who can’t attend concerts, especially those in prison and those who live along the US/Mexico Border. Elena is a passionate supporter of the Ranch’s Fundación La Puerta bringing her programs to the local community.

Born in Mexico, Edgar Ibarra studied with the distinguished teacher Arnoldo Paredes Cuesta. In addition to classical music, he has a special interest in Jazz and in 2009 won the Fine Arts Award – Jazz Piano from the Interlochen Center for the Arts, in Michigan.  In 2007 he started the group Jazz Subtilior with whom he has performed on different stages in Mexico.  With his Edgar Ibarra Jazz Trio he has performed in several halls in Mexico as well.  With renowned flutist Elena Durán, Edgar has performed many recitals, both Classical and Jazz.  During 2016 and 2017 he was a beneficiary of the Bellas Artes Opera Studio, Fonca-INBA, where he was selected to participate in the Festival of the Egean, in Syros, Greece, conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni and performing in several recitals. In the musical theatre scene in Mexico, he performed in the play Master Class and served as musical director of Mentiras, Man of La Mancha, Hello, Dolly! and Grease, for which he also wrote the arrangements.  He was also musical director of Songs for a New World, produced by Playhouse Entertainment, and vocal director of Daddy Long Legs, produced by Oak Live.

L’Heure Exquise/ The Exquisite Hour
España/Spain

Milena Kitic, a renowned mezzo-soprano, has performed numerous roles with opera companies around the world throughout the last three decades. Perhaps best known for her signature role of Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Kitic has headlined in major performance venues across the United States and Europe such as the National Theater in Belgrade, Serbia (former Yugoslavia), Aalto Theater Essen in Germany, Washington D.C. Opera, Baltimore Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Pacific, and Metropolitan Opera.

She received numerous accolades for her performances, including the German Music Critic’s Award for Performer of the
Season in 1998 and the Opera Pacific Guild’s Diva of the Year in 2005. The International Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, Serbia, has established a special prize for “the best young mezzo-soprano” in Kitic’s name.

Her talent and incredible career in music earned her the inaugural Artist-in-Residence Award given by Chapman University in Orange, California, where she is an adjunct professor and master class instructor. She also works closely with the Orange County High School of the Arts and many universities and music organizations in southern California.

Kitic currently serves as chair of artistic excellence at LA Opera with whom she most recently performed the role of Carmen, Albine in Thais (with Placido Domingo), Mrs. Noah in Noah’s Flood, and Suzuki in Madame Butterfly (both conducted by J. Conlon). Among other recent performances are her roles in Carmen and Amneris in Aida with the Pacific Symphony in Costa Mesa, CA, the grand opening concert of Chapman University’s Musco Center for the Arts, the role of The Witch in Hansel and Gretel with the Symphonic Society of Orange County, and the Alto part in Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Madison Symphony and Pacific Symphony Orchestras.

In the past year, Kitic has joined the Board of the Parnassus Society, which is committed to the growth of cultural advancement in Orange County, has established The Milena Kitic Outstanding Mezzo-Soprano Award at The Mentoris Vocal Competition in Pasadena, started mentoring students from Newport Harbor High School in opera and music, and was recognized by the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles for her work as a professional Opera Singer, Educator, and Contributor to the opera community.

Kitic presently resides in Newport Beach, California and runs her private vocal studio.

The San Francisco Chronicle exclaims, “For theatrical charisma and musical bravado, it would be hard to top the performance of baritone Efraín Solís.” He is a graduate of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship where he sang his first performances of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Dandini in La cenerentola, Schaunard in La bohème, Silvano in Un ballo in maschera, Sciarrone in Tosca, and Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly. In the 2020-21 season, he joins Opera San Jose and Florida Grand Opera as Charlie in Heggie’s Three Decembers and Utah Opera as Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen. Future engagements include Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera San Jose and a return to Opera Southwest, originally scheduled for this season. Last season, he returned to Utah Opera as Lieutenant Audebert in Puts’ Silent Night and Virginia Opera as Di Cosimo in Catán’s Il postino. His debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the Peasant in Schönberg’s Gurrelieder and return to the role of Schaunard in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera were unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent seasons he joined Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and El Paso Opera as Mark in Martinez’s Cruzar la cara de la luna, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Utah Opera, Opera Carolina, Virginia Opera, and Toledo Opera, Figaro in Le nozze di Figarowith Opera Memphis and Livermore Valley Opera, Slook in La cambiale di matrimonio with Nicholas McGegan conducting Philharmonia Baroque, El Payador in Piazzola’s Maria de Buenos Aires with Opera Southwest, Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande and Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox with West Edge Opera, Fiesque in Maria di Rohan with Washington Concert Opera, Gaspar in Rita with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and Dick in Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock with Opera Saratoga.

He is an alumnus of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in association with San Francisco Opera, at which he sang Junius in The Rape of Lucretia and covered Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. A former member of Opera Santa Barbara’s Studio Artist Program, in 2013, he was a Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition. He holds a Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Chapman University, with a Minor in Spanish and Latin American Literature.

Learn more at EfrainSolis.com.

“Warm, grand and rich”, Cheryl Lin Fielding’s pianism has taken her to some of the finest stages in the world, including major venues such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Juilliard Theater, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Musco Center for the Arts, and Soka Performing Arts Center. A sought-after recital partner and vocal coach, Fielding has been honored with the Grace B. Jackson Prize in Excellence by the Tanglewood Music Festival, recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and received the distinguished Gwendolyn Koldofsky Award in Keyboard Collaborative Arts. Cheryl’s musical training includes three degrees from the Juilliard School in Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California with extended emphasis on vocal performance. She attributes major inspirations from those she had the great fortune to study with: Jonathan Feldman, Gabriela Imreh, Alan Smith, and Oxana Yablonskaya.

Fielding has had the honor of working alongside luminaries such as Christian Badea, John DeMain, Randall Behr, Luana Devol, Enrique Arturo Diemecke, Milena Kitic, James Levine, Timothy Lindberg, Angela Meade, George Mester, Carol Neblett, Bruce Sledge, Linda Watson, and Dolora Zajick, and has served as music director, vocal coach, pianist, adjudicator for organizations including Dolora Zajick’s Institute of Young Dramatic Voices, the Philadelphia Virtuosi, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Pacific, Operafestival di Roma, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera San Jose, OperaWorks, Pacific Symphony, Opera Chapman at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, California State University at Northridge, Azusa Pacific University, the Juilliard School, and the USC Thornton Opera. Dr. Fielding is passionate about keeping the arts thriving in the communities and has recently produced several concerts with Parnassus Society at Soka Performing Arts Center, and is presently the Executive and Co-Artistic Director of Amaryllis Artis Productions. She is also on the coaching staff at Opera UCLA and Dolora Zajick’s Institue for Young Dramatic Voices.