Sunday, February 12, 2017 - 3:00PM

JC Concerts 4^th concert of the season presents a rare opportunity to hear two famed pianists paired together in concert on the same stage: classical virtuoso Alexander Tutunov and legendary jazz pianist Pat Moran (now known as Patti McCoy).

Click image for sample recording Alexander Tutunov is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. First Prize winner of the Belarusian National Piano Competition and winner of the Russian National Piano Competition, Tutunov’s playing was described by Soviet Culture, Moscow, as “exhilarating and inspired, and which demonstrated a unique talent”. Dr. Tutunov maintains a busy performing schedule in Europe, China, Mexico, and the United States as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and on radio and television. Dr. Tutunov is also in demand as an adjudicator for piano competitions. Tutunov’s recording of the Abeliovich Piano Concerto was featured as part of the Emmy award winning soundtrack for the History Channel documentary, Russia: Land of Tsars, and his CD of the Tchaikovsky Concert Fantasy with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra was produced in January 2008. Other recordings include: Concerto for Piano & Orchestra by Peter Sacco with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (Albany Records) and the solo piano works of Lev Abeliovich Sonatas & Frescoes, Trio, Songs (Altarus Records). Tutunov graduated magna cum laude from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory (studies with Anna Artobolevskaya and Lev Naumov) and University of North Texas (piano studies with Joseph Banowetz). Awarded his doctoral diploma with honors in concert performance from the Belarusian State Conservatory, Dr. Tutunov has taught at the Minsk College of Music, the University of North Texas, and Illinois Wesleyan University. Alexander Tutunov now lives in Ashland, where he is Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at Southern Oregon University. A successful piano pedagogue, he continues to prepare award-winning students. Dr. Tutunov is Artist in Residence at the University of Alaska Southeast, Artistic director of the SOU International Piano Institute, and was recently named the Director of the Chinese-American International Piano Institute in Chengdu, China.

Click image for sample recording Pat Moran is one of the great jazz pianists of the late 20th Century. In her own words: “My career started when I was studying piano at the Cincinnati Conservatory. I used to go downstairs and play the piano in the parlor in the evenings. Some of the students suggested I get a manager and play professionally. “One evening a man who was the booking agent for Doris Day said he could book me in a piano bar in downtown Cincinnati. I would have to change my name from Helen Mudgett to a more ‘show business’ type name. So I became Pat Moran—the name of a cellist at the school I admired. “One thing led to another and I quit school. I started playing small bars, but I wasn’t very good at it. The owners mostly wanted me there to attract men, I suppose. I had been listening to bebop, and I spent most of my time teaching myself to play it. Therefore, I got fired quite frequently! “Finally I hooked up with a girl singer from the Conservatory, Bev Kelly. We headed for Chicago, signed with a big booking agency, added a bass player and drummer and started singing four-way vocals. We started working at a black club on the street level of a hotel on the South Side. “We lived in the hotel and played the club for six months. During that time we recorded several albums. We sang with Mel Torme and Duke Ellington’s band on Porgy and Bess (along with a cast of other great singers and musicians). My quartet played all the hottest jazz spots in America, including Birdland in New York and the Blue Note in Chicago—before the agency decided I should just have a trio. “I met bassist Scotty LaFaro at a jazz club in St. Louis. LaFaro was playing with Chet Baker at the time. It was their last night there, and we were opening the next night. I remember that the night after closing, we were all standing around talking, and some girl asked Chet to sing for her. “Chet started singing Look for the Silver Lining. It was pretty funny. Chet was missing a front tooth, but he was still a good-looking guy! Scotty and I became great friends. “I’ve been thinking about my life as a young jazz musician. I guess the highlight of my career was when I played at the Hickory House in New York City. We were taped live from the club twice a week. It was pretty amazing to be playing to an audience consisting of many jazz greats like Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Erroll Garner, Cannonball Adderley (he always called me ‘Miss Moran’}—and anyone who was anybody was playing in the city at that time. “After retiring from the road back in the early ’60s, I and recorded a children’s album, Shakin’ Loose with Mother Goose, with Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows (it won the National Book Award), I recorded several CDs, and I have been on National Public Radio with Marian McPartland.”*

(*Patti McCoy quote taken from the liner notes on her 2000 recording, The Gospel Truth.)

Each of these famed artists has a large, devoted fan base, and this concert will sell out, so get your tickets early.

Friday, March 17, 2017 – 7:30PM

• Siblings Derik, Riana, and Dalten have been performing together since childhood.
• Garnered over 3 million views on YouTube, and toured over 40 locations across the West Coast U.S.A. to raise money for music education.

THE FAMILY SOUND: Derik Nelson & Family’s signature sound features velvety three-part vocal harmonies.

The group, delivers a concert experience like no other, featuring pristine sound, a state of the art light show, and an integrated 20-foot video display. This innovative technical marvel uses the latest in audio/video technology to take audiences on an aural and visual journey through time, space, an impressive array of landscapes, weather conditions, and musical “settings.”

Derik is popularly known as the lead guitarist on FOX’s hit TV show, Glee. His singing voice was also heard on FOX’s Raising Hope and New Girl, CBS’s How I Met Your Mother, and NBC’s Go On and The Voice. For more details about Derik’s extended appearances on Glee as the lead guitarist in the band, New Directions, the many episodes and story lines in which he appears, plays guitar, sings vocals and interacts with the rest of the cast, see http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Guitarist.

His sister, Riana, was casting Associate for FOX’s Empire, onscreen vocalist for Renee Zellweger’s pilot Cinnamon Girl and lead vocalist for Princess Cruises. Brother Dalton appeared on several episodes of television’s Glee and has conceptualized, designed, filmed, edited and executed over 150 separate videos in perfect sync, to create visual “immersion” to the musical experience in the siblings’ concerts.

This video clip provides a preview of what the immersive aural and visual Derik Nelson & Family concert will be like on March 17 for JC Concerts at Sjolund Auditorium of North Medford High School:

For a demonstration of Derik Nelson & Family‘s beautiful, exquisite three part harmony vocalizations, here is a recording of one of their popular original songs, Three Deep Breaths:

Tickets to their March 17 Medford concert are available for $25. Tickets may be purchased online at http://bit.ly/2mGuXK7. General Admission seating tickets can also be purchased at Piano Studios and Showcase at 2580 Crater Lake Hwy, Medford for $25 each or 10 tickets for $180.

Sunday, May 21, 2017 – 3:00PM

George Bugatti’s Portraits of America combines an an extensive exhilarating musical retrospective of popular songs celebrating cities from around the United States with an impressive synchronized big screen visual presentation illustrating each locale being sung about.

Bugatti is a Las Vegas Entertainer – singer, pianist, performer, who has been impressing audiences since arriving at New York City’s prestigious High School of the Performing Arts followed by the famed Julliard College. While performing at the famous Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he had a storied seven year run and was acclaimed as “Hollywood’s Hippest Crooner”, he was discovered by Steve Allen. Allen invited him to join the stage version of Allen’s original Tonight Show which Allen took on tour for performances at prominent stage venues, like the House of Blues in Los Angeles and Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

In 1998, Bugatti impressed Steve Wynn (“George Bugatti is one of the great rare talents”), who was about to open Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas, and Wynn installed Bugatti as the headliner at the resort. After several years in that gig, Bugatti moved on to headline at The Sands in Atlantic City where he continued to impress audiences and critics alike.  Chuck Darrow of the New Jersey Courier-Post wrote, “Bugatti’s warm satiny voice is complimented by some of the best phrasing The Sands has heard since Sinatra last played there”.  He twice performed at Carnegie Hall, singing and playing piano. He has opened for comedy legend Don Rickles and Emmy winning television actor and comedian Brad Garrett, been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and Entertainment Weekly and appeared frequently as a featured performer on national television, including Inside Edition, Extra and NBC News and CBS News.  ‎He has several CD recordings, including the Steve Allen produced Oh, What A Night For Love,  Bugatti Live on the Strip released in 2000 on Paul Anka Productions, and the Universal distributed A Night for Romance produced by American Idol‘s Nigel Wright.  More recently, he wrote, and starred in the Broadway musical, The Wonderful Wizard Of Song: The Music of Harold Arlen, co-created  with the composer’s son, Sam Arlen, which debuted in December 2012 and ran for a year and a half. Along the way he also managed to impress music legend Tony Bennett: “I invited George to sing with me in concert. He’s one of my favorites…”

For his current extraordinary stage show, Portraits of America, he has assembled a trio with rhythm and percussion backing for his winning vocals and deft piano accompaniment performing a very impressive and broad assortment of popular songs highlighting an extensive list of American cities and locales. The songs include Wichita Lineman, Walking in Memphis, Left My Heart in San Francisco, New York New York, NY State of Mind, Carolina in the Morning, Route 66, By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Galveston, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, Stars Fell on Alabama, Georgia, WKRP, Chicago – My Kind of Town, Jump Shout Boogie, Moonlight in Vermont, Weekend In New England, Arthur’s Theme, Blue Hawaii, Here’s to Las Vegas, America Stand Up, and Oh When the Saints Go Marching In.

But Portraits of America is not just great music. Being a George Bugatti show, it won’t just be good, it’s going to impress, and Bugatti has given his audiences that extra wow factor by joining the memorable music performances with majestic big screen visuals – photographs and video matching each of the songs, and a litany of interesting appealing trivia as well, about the songs, composers, original performers and of course, each of the cities covered in song.

Here’s a video clip illustrating what the audience will enjoy at George Bugatti’s Portraits of America concert on May 21 for JC Concerts at Sjolund Auditorium of North Medford High School:

https://youtu.be/WKOUamGW1G4

Tickets to the May 21 Medford concert are available for $25. Tickets may be purchased online at http://bit.ly/2nHrtYP. General Admission seating tickets can also be purchased at Piano Studios and Showcase at 2580 Crater Lake Hwy, Medford for $25 each or 10 tickets for $180.

 

 

Friday, December 9, 2016 – 7:30PM

“Herald’s the trumpet of the future” – Chicago Sun Times

• Former Member of Canadian Brass
• Three Juno Award Nominations

Winner of the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. His wide-ranging activities as a soloist and chamber musician paired with his passion for composing and arranging are manifested in his versatile performances and unique repertoire. Sophisticated arrangements of classical masterworks.

Sunday, November 27, 2016 – 3:00PM

“Brilliant and dynamic, cellist Michal Palzewics and pianist Chiharu Sai join their musical forces together to create an exciting duo”

• Passionate about exploring the great repertoire written for cello and piano.
• Phenomenal at presenting arrangements of music that deserve to be heard.

Michal and Chiharu have performed to a great acclaim at prestigious venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in NYC, Wigmore Hall in England, Opera City Hall in Tokyo.Both attended Manhattan School of Music after completing their music conservatory training in their countries (Michal in Poland and Chiharu in Japan), moved from New York City to the West Coast, and joined the music faculty at Southern Oregon University in recent years.

 

 

AN AFTERNOON OF ENCHANTED MELODIES
Sonata in E Major	François Francoeur (1698-1787)
I. Adagio cantabile
II. Allegro vivo
III. Tempo di gavotta
IV. Largo cantabile
V. Gigue: Allegro vivace
Nocturne Op. 48 No. 2	Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Réverie	Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Hungarian Rhapsody	David Popper (1843-1913)
INTERMISSION
Romanian Folk Dances	Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
1. Stick Dance
2. Sash Dance
3. In One Spot
4. Dance from Bucsum
5. Romanian Polka
6. Fast Dance
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor Opus 33	Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto – Tempo I – Allegretto con moto –Tempo I – Più Allegro – Molto Allegro

Saturday, October 15, 2016 – 3:00PM

“A knack for combining a high level of classical musicianship with pure fun.” – Norman Gilliland, Wisconsin Public Radio

• Heartfelt and Emotional
• Inspiring Performance

The trio’s unique repertoire features Russian arrangements and transcriptions of classical works, well-known inspirational songs, and American pop standards, including Scott Joplin rags. They have performed over 700 concerts since their premiere U.S. tour in 2000. New impressions of classical music.