Valentine’s Day Concert
Week of February 9, 2019
Dances and Romances: A program of romantic bonbons with harp, violin, and viola.
Elena Mashkovtseva has served as the principal harpist for Orchestra Nova, Baja California Orchestra, and acting principal harp with the San Diego Symphony. Elena appears frequently as a member of the chamber music ensemble Camarada. A graduate from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, her performances include the National Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, the Bolshoi Theatre and the National Radio and Television Orchestra of Moscow.
Violinist Monique Mead has been a lifelong activist for classical music and a strong believer in the transformative power of music. Inspired and mentored by Leonard Bernstein, Monique has devoted her performing career to creating new audiences through innovative concerts for people of all ages. Since 1998, she has performed regularly on German television and radio as a presenter of interactive youth concerts with prestigious orchestras in Berlin, Munich, Cologne, and Stuttgart. In the United States she has collaborated with the Pittsburgh Symphony since 2010 and has taken her programs to the San Diego Symphony, Mainly Mozart Festival, Orcas Island Festival, Strings Music Festival, Rockport Festival, among others. She has performed concertos with orchestras in Rome, Mexico, Germany, and the United States. In 2012, Monique was appointed Director of Music Entrepreneurship Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where she mentors musicians in creating innovative careers in music and works toward reinventing the concert experience for the 21st century.
Aloysia Friedmann, violin/viola, is Founder and Artistic Director of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (www.oicmf.org). Aloysia Friedmann’s artistic leadership was recognized by Chamber Music America, and she is now a member of their national board. Ms. Friedmann has performed in festivals from Santa Fe to Hong Kong. As a versatile New York based freelancer, Ms. Friedmann performed symphonic repertoire in Carnegie Hall, rock’n’roll with Metallica in Madison Square Garden and appeared on Broadway in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice alongside Dustin Hoffman. Aloysia Friedmann currently lives in Houston where she has been Acting Concertmaster for both the Houston Grand Opera and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Friedmann was a graduate of The Juilliard School and plays on both a Grancino violin and the ex-Clarke Grancino viola.