Etchings 2012 Performers
James Barralet - violoncello
James Barralet is fast becoming one of the most sought after young cellists in the UK. Currently, he is simultaneously a Park Lane Group Young Artist, a Making Music Young Artist and a Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist and is represented by Margaret Murphy Management. His debut recording of solo cello works by Kodaly, Britten and Roxburgh is due for release in 2009 on the Landor Records label.
His "flair and commitment which makes for strong communication with his audience" (Peter Grahame Woolf) attracted outstanding critical praise for his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009, and his Purcell Room debut the year before prompted the Strad magazine to write "imposing: he knows how to draw an audience in" and the Times: "no doubting the strength of feeling". Conductor, Benjamin Zander commented "a great cellist, moreover a great musician" and pianist Clifford Benson remarked on James’s "infinite musicality".
James is a unique musician with a particular interest in Indian music. His cello and tabla duo with tabla master, Sankar Prosad Chowdhury, has performed at many major festivals in the UK, presenting Indian music in a way which is accessible to an uninitiated audience. He will perform in 2009 as soloist with the London Sitar Ensemble at the Purcell Room in London. His interest in Indian music arose during a six-month teaching visit to Calcutta in 1998 and was he was trained at the Ali Akbar School of Indian Classical Music in Basel.
James does not limit himself to performing - his arrangements for eight celli and various other combinations have been performed at festivals throughout the world.
James is a laureate of numerous awards including the 2007 Landor Records competition, the highly prestigious 2003 Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis scholarship and the Muriel Taylor Cello Scholarship to name but a few. He has received awards, prizes and scholarships from the English Speaking Union, the Wingate Trust, the Denne Gilkes Memorial Trust, the Haverhill Soloists Competition, the Swiss Government, the Myra Hess Trust, the Tillett Trust, the Bromsgrove International Competition, the Shirley Cattaral Trust, the Countess of Munster Trust, the Hattorti Foundation, the Martin Music Trust and the Sir John Barbirolli Cello Competition.
Thanks to the invaluable support of these trusts James was able to study with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK for five years and then with Thomas Demenga at Basel Hochschule für Musik in Switzerland for three years. He graduated from both with the highest honours – a first class degree and two performance diplomas from the RNCM and the Soloists Diploma from Basel. He has also benefited a great deal from masterclasses, particularly at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove where he has studied with Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklos Perenyi and Boris Pergamenschikow. He has also had masterclass courses with Pieter Wispelwey, Robert Cohen and David Geringas.
James has climbed Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc and Switzerland’s highest mountain, Monte Rosa. In 1999 he made his own electric cello. James plays an 1855 French cello by Henri Derazey and a 1910 French bow by Vigneron.
Dessi Kepenerova - percussion
Internationally renowned Dessi Slava Kepenerova is a graduate of the Richard Srauss Conservatory in Munich and the University of the Arts in Berlin where she studied with professors Thomas Lutz and David Punto. She has performed with the Bavarian Radio, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Munich-Andechs, RSK Orchestra, Bad Reichenchaller Philharmonic, Camerata Europeika and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra. Her work as a soloist and chamber musician include the "Adel Shalaby" Percussion Ensemble and UDC Perccussionisten.
Her performances have taken her to Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South and North America. Ms. Kepenerova has collaborated with famous conductors such as James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi, Mochael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Belohlavek, Heiko Mathias Förster, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Christoph Poppen and Yuri Temirkanov.
Ms. Kepenerova is also the prizewinner of the 2005 Bavarian State Award for the Arts, AGV 2001 Munich Competition, 2001 Competition of the Cultural Committee Gasteig in Munich, 2000 National Competition "Svetoslav Obretenov", 2000 Video competition "Music and Earth" and 1997 National Competition for percussion "Siegfried Fink" in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Currently, Ms. Kepenerova is the principal percussionist of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra in Konstanz.
Oliver Margulies - viola
Born in Zürich, Switzerland, Oliver Margulies studied the violin with Robert Zimansky and Adelina Oprean. Further studies with Prof. Hatto Beyerle in Basel led to a completion of his formation as a violist. During these studies he was awarded the music college’s prize for the best interpretation of a chamber music oeuvre of Klaus Huber. Further valuable impulses were given Prof. David Takeno, Christoph Schiller, Thomas Riebl and Garth Knox.
Thanks to an Ambassadorial Scholarship of the Rotary International Foundation, Oliver Margulies was given the opportunity to study Jewish Musical Traditions with Prof. Alex Knapp at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the London University.
From 2005 to 2007 Oliver Margulies was member of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, with concert tours bringing him to the major cultural centers throughout Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. In 2005 he received important impulses from Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Lucerne Festival Academy. His special interest focuses on chamber music and contemporary music. In 2008 he played the first performance of the radio-opera “Praha” by Jakob Ullmann, which was recorded and broadcast by Deutschlandradio. Oliver Margulies is currently working as a free-lance musician in Switzerland. He is member of several chamber music ensembles and orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra Camerata Schweiz.
Oliver Margulies teaches the viola and is co-responsible for orchestra formation at the Zurich Conservatory of Music and the Zurich International School.
Mary Joy Patchett - saxophones
Saxophonist Mary Joy Patchett is an avid supporter and performer of new music. Current projects include appearances with the Boston Microtonal Society, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society in New York and the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble.
Last season, Mary Joy performed a vigorous solo recital at the Eastman School of Music, which included transcribed solo and chamber works by Dutilleux, Stockhausen, Gubaidulina and a world premiere by composer John Aylward. Mary Joy has also performed as a soloist in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall with the NEC Contemporary Ensemble.
As an ensemble member, Mary Joy has performed with the Paris Conservatory’s Saxophone Ensemble and has toured the Midwest with the Eastman Wind Ensemble. Mary Joy has also performed with the Boston Microtonal Society and has toured Holland with the Thump Quartet, an all-female saxophone quartet. In 2009, Mary Joy was a guest artist at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts with the Element 114 Saxophone Quartet.
As a member of the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Patchett has premiered several solo and ensemble works at the annual Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France. In 2010, Patchett premiered a new work for saxophone and viola by composer John Aylward at the NASA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ms. Patchett has played in master classes with many renowned saxophonists including Jean-Marie Londeix, Jean-Michel Goury and the members of the Rascher Saxophone Quartet. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory under the study of Ken Radnofsky, and a Master of Music degree from Eastman School of Music studying under Chien-Kwan Lin.
Mary Joy has also studied massage therapy and is currently working towards entering a Masters program for acupuncture. Mary Joy is a native of the Boston area.
Maria Wildhaber - bassoon, Executive Director
Bulgarian born Maria Jeleztcheva Wildhaber started taking piano lessons at the age of six and three years later began studying the bassoon. In 1998 she graduated from the music school in her hometown Burgas, on the Black Sea coast. The same year she began her studies in bassoon performance with full scholarship at the University of Arizona with Dr William Dietz. In 2002 she continued with her Master of Music at Yale University, followed by her Doctor of Musical Arts at State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied with Prof. Frank Morelli.
As an avid orchestra and chamber musician, Ms. Wildhaber has performed with various ensembles in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In 2003 she made her Carnegie Hall debut where she performed with the Philharmonia of Russia and Trio Royale. Her work as a chamber musician includes collaborations with Julian Rachlin, Joshua Bell, Angela Hewitt, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Julian Biss, Neil Black and Eli Eban. She has also performed with the Macao Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Verbier and Lucerne Festival Orchestras in Switzerland where she has collaborated with world famous conductors including Pierre Boulez, James Levine, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph von Dohnany and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Her performances have been broadcasted on TV stations in the US, Europe, South America and Asia as well as on New York's WQXR, Washington's WGMS and Hong Kong's RTHK radio stations. She maintains a regular performance schedule and continues to be part of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under Gabor Takacs and the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, where she acts as the Executive Director and Bassoonist. Maria serves at the chamber music facility at the 92nd Street Y School of Music in New York City and Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont.
In 2010 Ms. Wildhaber released her debut CD "Song To My Love" (MSR Classics MS1363) featuring Bulgarian songs and dances that she arranged for solo bassoon and piano.
