Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra season opening concert “Pastoral Scenes”

       The Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra

Presents

“Pastoral Scenes”
Sunday, October 23, 2016 @ 3:00 pm

Schwab Auditorium

1. Pollock Road on the Penn State University Park Campus

Honegger – Pastorale de’ete

Beethoven – Violin Concerto

Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)

General Admission Seating – $25 Advance Sale — $30 at the door
Youth tickets (16 years and under) $5 with adult purchase
Tickets available by phone, online, or call the PCO office

YANIV ATTAR | CONDUCTOR

A native of Israel, Yaniv Attar is the 1^st prize winner of the Duna Szimfonikus Conducting Competition Budapest, and the recipient of the 2010/2012 & 2014 Georg Solti Foundation US Award  and the 2009 Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Award. Attar is the newly appointed Music Director of the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, and Music Director of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra in Bellingham. Highlights of past seasons included collaborations with artists such as Tine Thing Helseth, Sharon Isbin, Johannes Moser and Gil Shaham. Attar was also one of 10 conductors from around the world who were invited to  INTERACTION, and conducted an orchestra composed of all of Germany’s top orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Konzerthaus Orchestra, German Symphony Orchestra, and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin. Most recently, Attar completed his two years residency as the Assistant Conductor of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted nearly 100 performances, and worked extensively with Maestro Justin Brown.

Drawn to orchestral conducting from early age, Attar has studied with Israel Edelson in Jerusalem, Virginia Allen at the Juilliard School in New York and Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was also the Associate Conductor and co-founder of the Tempus Chamber Orchestra. In 2008, Attar earned his Doctor of Music degree from McGill University where he studied under the tutelage of Alexis Hauser. Attar also studied with Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Janos Fürst, Jorma Panula, Gustav Meier, Johannes Schlaefli, Peter Gülke, Neil Varon, Carl St. Clair, David Effron, Donald Thulean and Michael Jurowski.  Attar has worked with the Cincinnati Symphony, Duna Szimfonikus Budapest, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali Milan, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian State Symphony, London Solists Chamber Orchestra, Memphis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, Mihail Jora Philharmonic Romania, National Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Rochester Philharmonic , Russe Philharmonic Bulgaria, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and Virginia Symphony.

Attar is also an accomplished classical guitarist.  He has studied under Irit Even-Tov, Charles Ramirez and Sharon Isbin, for whom he served as teaching assistant at the Aspen Music Festival from 2003 to 2005. Attar was the first guitarist to win the Aviv Competition Prize in Israel and the Concerto Competition at the Juilliard School. Attar plays a 2014 Dake Traphagen Guitar. His studies have been generously supported by the America and Canada Israel Cultural Foundations, The Williamson Foundation for Music, Ronen Foundation, The Olga Forrai Foundation New York, the Morris and Beverly Baker Foundation, AVI Fellowships Switzerland, the Rislov Foundation, and the ISEF Foundation.

CLAUDIA SCHAER | VIOLIN SOLOIST

With beautiful and intelligent interpretations, alongside intriguing programming, the versatile recitalist, chamber musician and soloist Claudia Schaer meets with accolades from audiences and musicians alike. Most recently, she released a CD of the Bach Sonatas and Partias for solo violin, available at www.ClaudiaSchaer.com/discography.

Native of Calgary, Canada, Claudia Schaer was 11 when she received the “Most Promising Violinist” medal at the Canadian “Kiwanis Music Festival”, and won prizes in international competitions thereafter. A graduate of The Juilliard School’s Accelerated Bachelor/Master program, she served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Symphony, and as teaching assistant to her mentor, Sally Thomas, as well as receiving the “Sasakawa Young Leadres’ Fellowship”.
This past season, Ms. Schaer toured Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark, giving many solo violin concerts, which included all six Bach Sonatas and Partitas, the Bartók Solo Sonata, and Boulez’s Anthèmes. She gave her Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Debut (which included collaboration with the Echo-prizewinning David Orlowsky Trio). Other recent highlights included performances at the Banff Cetnre for the Arts, at Columbia University, and at Glencairn Cathedral in Pennsylvania (which featured a programme of violin and harp.)
An avid chamber musician, she has performed in England’s prestigious Prussia Cove festival, in the Danish “Thy” Festival, and with Berlin Philharmonic members in Italy’s “Barga Festival”, among others. Her international commitment extends further to China, where she has given masterclasses in Guangzhou, Nanning, and Guilin, and is a Guest Professor of the Guangxi Arts College.
Claudia Schaer is currently a soloist and concertmaster of New York’s North/South Consonance Ensemble, with which she premiered the Lifchitz Violin Concerto. She completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University in 2011, mentoring with Phillip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Philippe Graffin, and Soovin Kim, and writing about Varèse, Boulez, and the intersection of mathematics, philosophy, and music.
For details about upcoming performances, and further information, please visit   www.ClaudiaSchaer.com