2020 RiverSong Music Festival | August 13–16

Recent activities have included recitals for the Cambridge Early Music  Society, the Boston Early Music Festival, and station WGBH in Boston, also a 10-day residence, including a Beethoven Sonata recital, at the  Taipei National University of the Arts.

Present activity includes the  setting up of a website (ClassicAndRomanticPianos.org) devoted to his period pianos  — Broadwood grands from 1806, 1816 (same  model as the piano given to Beethoven in 1817), 1829 (used by  Mendelssohn in June of that year during his first visit to England) and  1860 and a fortepiano copy after instruments by Anton Walter.  The  website will include music played on the respective pianos with  commentary regarding interpretation — a kind of monthly performance  journal.

Pianist READ GAINSFORD was recently described as possessing “finger-numbing virtuosity and delicately chiseled precision.” Known for his insightful introductions from the stage, he has collaborated with oceanographers in presenting Crumb’s Voice of the Whale, consulted with art historians and living artists to create a series of images to accompany performances of Messiaen, and reenacted the famous piano duel between Liszt and Thalberg.

Born in New Zealand, he studied at the University of Auckland, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and at Indiana University. He has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician, making successful solo debuts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as playing in the Kennedy Center, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and others. Recent highlights include performing concertos with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Olomouc, Czech Republic, the Frenz ensemble in Paris, and Orchestra da Camera in Champaign-Urbana, and tours across the USA including a fourth concert in Carnegie Hall.

Gainsford was a founding member of Trio Solis, who made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2009, he has also collaborated with the Audubon and Serafin Quartets, Pressenda Chamber Players, Kathryn Votapek, Richard Stoltzman, Jacques Zoon, Luis Rossi, and many others. A keen supporter of living composers, he has premiered and recorded Ladislav Kubik’s 3rd Piano Concerto and Marc Satterwhite's Five Rivers of Hades, and recorded Ellen Taafe Zwilich's Images for two pianos and orchestra.

Highly in demand as a master-class clinician and teacher, he is Professor of Piano at Florida State University, where he is also Coordinator of Keyboard. Recent engagements include festivals in Italy, Illinois and Vermont, and recitals in London, New Zealand and the USA. During 2020 he will perform the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Cellist GABRIEL MARTINS (b. 1998) is a prize-winner of the David Popper International Cello Competition, Orford Music Award, Prague Spring International Music Competition, Sphinx Competition, and International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Carnegie Zankel Hall, Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Maison Symphonique in Montréal, Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. According to esteemed cellist Ralph Kirshbaum, he has "revealed heart, passion, intellect, and a finely-nuanced palette of colors in a compelling manner worthy of a seasoned artist."

Martins has appeared in concerto performances with the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Fukuda Ensemble (São Paulo), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Modesto Symphony Orchestra, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, USC Thornton Symphony, and has given solo recitals on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts and IU Summer Music series. His performances have aired on National Public Radio's From the Top as well as Chicago's WFMT. He has collaborated in chamber music with artists such as Paul Biss, Miriam Fried, Ara Gregorian, Edgar Meyer, Csaba Onczay, Steven Tenenbom, and the Borromeo String Quartet. From 2017-2019, he was a member of the critically-acclaimed SAKURA Cello Quintet. In 2019, Martins was invited to tour with Miriam Fried and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, giving concerts in Boston, Chicago, New York City and elsewhere. In 2020 he was added to the Young Artist roster of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME) in New York City. 

Born of American and Brazilian heritage, Martins grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He began playing the cello when he was five, studying with Susan Moses at the Indiana University String Academy. He later served as a teaching assistant at the Academy's summer program. He has attended the Orford Music Academy, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Festival Winter Workshop, and Aspen Music Festival and School, where he won the Low Strings Concerto Competition. He went on to pursue his undergraduate studies as a Presidential Scholar at the USC Thornton School of Music (Class of 2019) with Ralph Kirshbaum. In his freshman year at USC, he won the school's concerto competition as well as its Bach competition. Presently, he is a graduate student with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory of Music. 

American violinist MADALYN  PARNAS  MÖLLER is an active soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator residing in Los Angeles. Enthusiastically endorsed by the New York Times, Ms. Parnas Möller has concertized worldwide, most recently appearing as guest soloist with the London Philharmonic  Orchestra. Alongside her sister, cellist Cicely Parnas, Duo Parnas was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2015, having released three albums on the Sheffield Lab label that feature both pre-existing works and commissions by award-winning composers of the 21st century. Her current solo recording project with Aqua, an Argentinian/Latin American label, will be distributed by Naxos in 2019. 

Ms. Parnas Möller holds a M.M. and Artist Diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a M.A. from London’s Royal Academy of Music, and a B.S. from The College of Saint Rose where she graduated summa cum laude.  A 2012 Marshall Scholar, Ms. Parnas Möller was awarded the Josef Gingold Award and twice the Artistic Excellence Award at Indiana University. Her principal teachers include her grandfather, cellist Leslie Parnas, Mark Kaplan, György Pauk, Jaime Laredo, James Buswell, and Betty-Jean Hagen. Ms. Parnas Möller resides in Los Angeles and performs on a 1715 Alessandro Gagliano violin.

JESSIE STARK is a violinist and has been an active performer in both the classical and improvised music scene in Chicago and Champaign-Urbana for the last ten years. In Chicago she played with many ensembles including Classical Symphony, American Chamber Opera Company, The Candid Concert Opera Company and many others.  She was a founding member of indie chamber-rock group Renegade Lightning Rebellion and performed on violin and accordion with them for five years in Chicago and the Midwest.  Since moving to Champaign-Urbana, she has begun playing with several of the orchestras in the area including the Champaign Urbana Symphony, Sinfonia da Camera, and Camerata Sinfonietta.  She has also begun performing in some of the local venues as part of an Omni-Idiomatic jazz improvisation group. In addition to performing, Jessie also maintains a full studio of violin students.  Jessie resides in Urbana Illinois with her husband and two young children.    

American violist Arturo Ziraldo is an  engaging performer who believes deeply in the power of art to change the  world for the better. Mr. Ziraldo has performed across North America,  Europe and Asia. He began his professional career at age 19 and has  since performed with orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse  Romande, Detroit Symphony, Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco and the  Mainzer Virtuosi with whom he recorded the Four Seasons of Vivaldi and  Piazzolla as Principal Violist. In addition, Mr. Ziraldo is an avid  chamber musician as has performed in the Saugatuck, Kent/Blossom,  Spoleto USA, Casalmaggiore, Nancy (France) and Deer Valley festivals. He  is the founder of the Heartside Harmony Chamber Music Society which  presents world-class chamber music performances featuring local artists  while serving the community through diverse, inclusive concerts.

Mr.  Ziraldo is the Principal Violist of the Kalamazoo and West Michigan  Symphony Orchestras. In addition, Mr. Ziraldo enjoys teaching and  maintains a private studio as well as giving masterclasses and clinics. ​

Mr.  Ziraldo's principal teachers were Roger Chase, Marcus Thompson and Igor Fedotov. He began his music studies on the cello at the age of ten and  began studying viola in 1997. He performs on a viola by Scott Tribby in  Kalamazoo, MI, 2005 and a bow by D. William Halsey, 2012.

​For more information, photos and media visit www.arturoziraldo.com