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RiverSong Music Inc
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  • Venues
  • 2020 Festival
  • 2019 Events
  • 2017 Festival
About
  • Board of Directors
  • Our Mission
Support
Contact
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  • Events & Performances
    • Venues
    • 2020 Festival
    • 2019 Events
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2020 RiverSong Music Festival | August 13–16

Festival Calendar
2020 Performers
Venues

All concerts are free of charge · Donations are gladly accepted

Please join us for a Meet-the-Artists Reception after each event.

2020 RiverSong Music Festival Schedule

August 13

Read Gainsford in Recital

7:30 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

August 13

Read Gainsford in Recital

Beethoven piano sonatas performed by pianist Read Gainsford.

7:30 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

August 14

Short Film to Music by Beethoven

7:30 pm

TBA · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

August 14

Short Film to Music by Beethoven

Premiere of commissioned film set to to music by Beethoven, by internationally renowned artist Lizzie Fitch.

7:30 pm

TBA · Galena, Illinois

Beethoven Meets Jazz: the Brian Stark Quintet

7:45 pm

TBA · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

Beethoven Meets Jazz: the Brian Stark Quintet

Brian Stark's jazz ensemble from University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

7:45 pm

TBA · Galena, Illinois

August 15

Kenneth Drake: Lecture - Recital

2:00 pm

Galena Public Library · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

August 15

Kenneth Drake: Lecture - Recital

Lecture on Beethoven's music by Dr. Kenneth Drake, featuring an exhibit of period instruments.

2:00 pm

Galena Public Library · Galena, Illinois

August 15

Songs and Duos

7:30 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

August 15

Songs and Duos

Beethoven duos for voice/piano, violin/piano, and cello/piano.

7:30 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

August 16

"The Archduke": An Afternoon of Beethoven's Grandest Chamber Music

3:00 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

Event Details

August 16

"The Archduke": An Afternoon of Beethoven's Grandest Chamber Music

The Archduke trio and  Piano quartet in E-flat, op.16

3:00 pm

Grace Episcopal Church · Galena, Illinois

2020 RiverSong Music Festival Performers

DR. KENNETH DRAKE · Professor Emeritus, School of Music of the University of Illinois

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.

Dr. Kenneth Drake

Dr. Kenneth Drake

LIZZIE FITCH · Artist / Filmmaker

LIZZIE FITCH (born 1981, Bloomington, Indiana) is an artist whose work maps a terrain of human potential, exploring the material construction of character and form in persons, networks and things. Industrial fabrication, commercial goods, skin molds, carpentry, and digital images are combined and manipulated into sculpted forms and affective surfaces that put into action notions of beauty, utility, and corporeality.


Fitch attended the Rhode Island School of Design where, in 2001, she began a long-running collaboration with the artist Ryan Trecartin. Their work together has produced a body of sculptures, movies, music, and installations that have  exhibited widely, including museum presentations at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; and the Fondazione Prada, Milan, among others.


She currently lives and works in Athens, Ohio.

Lizzie Fitch

Lizzie Fitch

READ GAINSFORD · Piano

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.

Read Gainsford

Read Gainsford

ANDREAS IOANNIDES · Piano, Performer-in-Residence

British-Cypriot pianist ANDREAS  IOANNIDES enjoys a diverse and exciting career rooted in his love of performing and teaching. He has given recitals throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, appearing in renowned venues such as the Grosser Saal of the Hamburg Konzerthaus, the Culture and Congress Center of Lucerne, the Temppeliaukio Kirkko in Helsinki, the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In addition, Mr. Ioannides has received enthusiastic reviews by the Boston Globe, and his performances have been broadcast on television and radio across three continents.  He has made concerto appearances under maestros Neil Varon, David Effron, Paul Nadler, and Roberto Tibiriçá, and has collaborated on projects with such esteemed artists as Joseph Swensen, Atar Arad,and Peter Stumpf.


A prize winner in the BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio, Brazil, and the Hastings International Piano Competition in the UK, he has recently turned his attention to recording projects, including two Beethoven albums to be released by Naxos in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Dr. Ioannides is currently Lecturer of Piano at Indiana State University Terre Haute, where he oversees the Applied Piano program. He holds a doctoral degree from Indiana University, where he studied under the mentorship of Menahem Pressler.

Andreas Ioannides, D.M.A. · Performer-in-Residence

Andreas Ioannides, D.M.A. · Performer-in-Residence

GABRIEL MARTINS · Cello

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. 

Gabriel Martins, cellist

Gabriel Martins

MATTHEW MILLER · Percussion

MATTHEW MILLER is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts student in Jazz Performance at the University of Illinois in at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his Master of Music in Jazz Performance in May 2020.


Matthew is an improviser, composer, arranger, educator, and multi-instrumentalist. He is an active vibraphonist and percussionist throughout the Chicagoland area and leads The Avant-Gardians, an ensemble of collective improvisers based in Urbana, IL.

Matthew Miller, percussionist

Matthew Miller

MADALYN PARNAS MÖLLER · Violin

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.

Madalyn Parnas Möller, violinist

Madalyn Parnas Möller

BRIAN STARK · Saxophone

BRIAN STARK is a saxophonist and composer dedicated to using his experiences and skills as a jazz musician to explore global and historical musical repertories. In Champaign-Urbana, he has led ensembles that use improvisation to explore the Blues, Flamenco, Gregorian Chant, and Renaissance music. Brian has also spent time studying Congolese Rumba in workshops and performances with Jean-Rene Balekita, Latin Jazz as a member of the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective, and further studies in Flamenco in duo performances with professional guitarist David Chiriboga.


Brian has performed with numerous other professional jazz ensembles and dance bands throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth, Chicago, and Champaign-Urbana areas. His academic ensemble experience includes the UNT One O'Clock Lab Band and U of I Concert Jazz Band. As a member of U of I's Improvisers Exchange Ensemble, he has cultivated an approach to Omni-Idiomatic Improvisation and Deep Listening under the guidance of Jason Finkelman, a former student of Pauline Oliveiros and Steve Gorn.


Brian is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he resides with his wife and two children.

Brian Stark, saxophonist

Brian Stark

JESSIE STARK · 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.    

Jessie Stark, violinist

Jessie Stark

JOHN URBAN · Piano

JOHN URBAN has performed as a soloist, collaborator and composer throughout the United States and beyond. He as held solo appearances in venues such as the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts (Jacksonville, FL), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple (Oak Park), the Centro Municipal Integrado Pumín (Gijon, Spain) and Symphony Center (Chicago), as well as for live television and radio. He has written for the stage, with his 2014 score to Silent Theatre Co.'s production of Nosferatu called "masterful" (Chicago Theatre Review) and "invaluable" (Chicago Reader).


He is currently an active performer, teacher and director in New York City, with recent appearances in Music at St. Paul's (Columbia University), Concept Lab (Rockwood Music Hall), Arts at St. John's (St. John's in the Village) as music director for Spotlight Repertory Theatre's 2019 production of Newsies and as director and contributing writer for a brand new cabaret series still without a name.


John received his undergraduate degree from the Chicago College of Performing Arts (Roosevelt University) under the tutelage of Ludmila Lazar, and a Master of Music from the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University) with Edmund Battersby. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of RiverSong Music Festival.

John Urban, pianist

John Urban

ARTURO ZIRALDO · Viola

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

Arturo Ziraldo, viola

Arturo Ziraldo

RiverSong Classical Music Festival Returns to Galena, Illinois


A four-day commemoration of the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

In honor of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, the second-ever RiverSong Music Festival will include a broad range of events revolving around this important musical and artistic legacy of Beethoven.

Copyright © 2020 RiverSong Music, Inc. - All Rights Reserved.