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Les Amis presents:
Lynn Kuo, violin,
Winona Zelenka, cello
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 8 pm
Lynn Kuo, Winona Zelenka
Photo credit: Dvid Leyes Photo credit: Elaine Ling
Lynn Kuo, violin
“…. Lynn Kuo’s violin is dramatic, both
rousing and melancholy..." - Showtime Magazine
Violinist Lynn Kuo has performed as soloist and chamber
musician across Canada, United States, Wales, Austria, Hungary,
Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania. As guest soloist,she
has performed with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus
Chamber Orchestra of Bulgaria, Canadian Sinfonietta, Brandon
Chamber Players, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, the
Nexus percussion ensemble, and has also collaborated with
artists such as Christoph Eschenbach, William Aide, the Gryphon
Trio, and Penderecki String Quartet.
In demand as an interpreter of new music,
Lynn has given numerous world premieres of acoustic and
electroacoustic works written for her and various ensembles
(Duo Vita, Les AMIS Ensemble): Canadian and European composers
which include Michael Pepa, Dennis Patrick, Katarina Miljkovi?,
Daniel Foley, Elizabeth Raum, Scott Godin, James Harley,
John Oliver, Constantine Caravassilis, Avalon Rusk (Canada),
Séan
Clancy (Ireland), and Viktorija Cop (Croatia).
In 2008-09, Lynn gave the Canadian and European premieres
of a fifth Michael Pepa work (ISOMORPHE), as soloist with
the Cantus Ensemble of Croatia. Reprising her role as head
of the Les AMIS Ensemble, Lynn embarked on a third European
tour in April 2009 under the artistic direction of Michael
Pepa. Among the performances: world premieres at the 2009
Music Biennale Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, the Mendelssohn
Concerto in D minor with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra of
Bulgaria and the Chausson Concerto for Piano, violin and
String Quartet with Marianna Humetska, piano and the Penderecki
String Quartet.
Maintaining a busy performance schedule,
Lynn is the Assistant Concertmaster of the National Ballet
of Canada Orchestra, and has also served as guest concertmaster
of orchestras including the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Lynn also performs with the Canadian Opera Company, Via
Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to performing, Lynn is a doctoral candidate
in the Doctoral of Musical Arts program at the University
of Toronto for which her dissertation research is on “Holistic
Health and its Role in the Prevention of Musculoskeletal
Disorders in Musicians.”
Lynn gratefully performs on a 1904 Riccardo Antoniazzi violin
and Hill bow on loan from Steven Pepa.
www.lynnkuo.com
Winona Zelenka, cello
Winona Zelenka, known for her gorgeous,
singing tone, is one of Canada’s finest cellists on the scene today.
As a soloist, she has performed with the Toronto Symphony
Orchestra (Strauss’ Don Quixote Suite, with Thomas
Dausgaard conducting, 2006), and performs often with conductor
John Barnum. Their past collaborations include Lalo’s
Cello Concerto in D Minor with the Mississauga Symphony (2008)
and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1, with both
the Scarborough Philharmonic (2007) and the Huronia Sinfonietta
(2006). She has also performed Haydn’s Concerto No.
2 in D Major with the Canadian Sinfonietta (2007), conducted
by Tak Ng Lai. At this same concert, Ms. Zelenka, a proponent
of new music, performed the world premiere of “Invocation
II’” for cello and orchestra, a work written
for her by Canadian composer Michael Pepa. In 2008, Ms. Zelenka
performed as guest Principal Cellist for the Canadian Opera
Company’s production of Tosca. She has been Assistant
Principal of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra since 2005, and
served as Principal during the summers of 2007 and 2008.
She is currently serving as Acting Principal of the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra, and has held that position since the
2004/2005 season.
Winona is a dedicated recitalist and
chamber musician, who regularly performs on the Les AMIS,
Syrinx, Amici, Art of Time and Offcentre series in Toronto.
She collaborates regularly with many of Canada’s finest musicians including violinists
Stephen Sitarski and Erika Raum; violist Steven Dann; bassist
Joel Quarrington, pianist Andrew Burashko, and countless
others. This summer ( 2009) she performed at the Ottawa Chamberfest
with, among others, soprano Donna Brown and pianist/composer
Heather Schmidt. The 2009/2010 season sees Winona performing
with the Zuckerman ChamberPlayers at the Royal Conservatory’s
new Koerner Hall as well as at the 92nd St. Y in New York.
Ms. Zelenka recently formed Trio Arkel
with violinist Marie Bérard and violist Teng Li,
with whom she will perform at the Four Seasons Amphitheatre
in February of 2010. She will also be performing at the
Amphitheatre with long-time duo partner Jacques Israelievitch
in December 2009. In the 2009/2010 season, Ms. Zelenka
is very pleased to work with Mr. Pepa again, who will compose
a work for cello, violin and percussion for his Les AMIS
series in Toronto.
Since the summer of 2004, Ms. Zelenka
began performing in the Music Garden Series at Toronto’s waterfront. Every
year, she has performed a different Bach cello suite. In
2006, she performed Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman’s “After
the Sixth Suite”, also a composition written for her,
which, as the title suggests, she performed in tandem with
Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6. For her performance of the
Suite No. 4 in September of 2009 she was joined by dancer
Claudia Moore who added beautiful movements choreographed
by Carol Anderson. Winona was also the cello soloist of such
notable film scores as Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” (2008),
István Szabó’s “Being Julia” (2004),
and the IMAX film “Under The Sea” (2009).
Exciting new projects include the recently-released films
in HD of the Suite for Solo Cello by Gaspar Cassado, filmed
by Moving Head Productions and available on Youtube. Winona
will also be releasing the complete Bach Cello Suites in
the spring of 2010; all projects are recorded by CBC recording
engineer Ron Searles , whose credits include I Furiosi and
the Eybler Quartet as well as film scores by Mychael Danna
and Andrew Lockington.
Winona Zelenka began her career at age
22 as Associate Principal in the Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra and won orchestra jobs with the National Ballet
Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra
in Manchester. She obtained her Bachelor of Music and Artist
Diploma at the University of Indiana, and studied with the
legendary Janos Starker. Ontario born and raised, Ms. Zelenka’s
other main teachers include William Findlay, Vladimir Orloff,
and William Pleeth.
Winona plays on the “Starker Guanerius”,
which was made in 1707 by Giuseppe Guarneri, the father of
the legendary “Guanerius del Gesù”. This
instrument, formerly owned by Janos Starker for 30 years,
is on loan to the TSO for Ms. Zelenka’s use thanks
to the generosity of Dr. Edward Pong.
“Their swords were their bows, and their victory was
in forgetting about their individual status in their main
jobs … and deliver a gorgeous, and intellectually
stimulating program…Bérard, Li and Zelenka
carved into [Beethoven’s Trio Op. 9, No. 2] with glee,
coming up with a full-blooded reading that never rode roughshod
over quiet passages.”
John Terauds, The Toronto Star, January 2009
(Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B Flat
Major, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin)
"Her account of the famous cello prologue and epilogue in the andante
movement was ravishing and deserved its special ovation."
Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail, May 2008
www.winonazelenka.com
Produced with the support of the
City of Toronto
through the
TORONTO ARTS COUNCIL
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