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Chamber music played with passion, coached professionally, in a truly stunning Mediterranean setting May 8-15, 2010.

The Location
The fabled southern Italian isle of Ischia – dreaming with Capri in the timeless blue waters of the Bay of Naples, is home to the Covo dei Borboni, an elegant, white-washed villa surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens overlooking the sea, which will again be the exclusive venue for our chamber music workshop, that will be held from Saturday May 8th to Saturday May 15th.

The Program
Ischiafestival offers a unique week: playing, studying and enjoying quality, professionally-coached Chamber Music. This year’s workshop is privileged to have engaged Byron Wallis, violin, David Yang, viola, Kenneth Woods, cello, Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet, Keith Bowen, clarinet, and artistic director Aldo de Vero, piano, as resident coaches. Open to players of strings, woodwinds, brass, and piano.

The workshop welcomes players of all levels although the majority tends to be intermediate and advanced. Participants should have a command of the instrument adequate for participating in chamber music and be able to read music comfortably.
Because Ischia Chamber Music Workshop is a deliberately small workshop, the strong culture of respect and trust created by this close-knit environment allows each member of the community to pursue academic and artistic interests with enthusiasm and self-confidence. While we expect participants to work hard, our workshop culture also encourages them to be appreciative and generous.

Coaching sessions will begin Saturday the 8th at 9 a.m. Evenings after 6 p.m. will be free for sightseeing, free-playing, enjoying the wonderful food, sights and ambience of this charming island as well as being warmly welcome to enjoy listening to the Festival concerts during the week. The workshop will end with performances by participant musicians on the evening of Friday, May 14.

Coaches


Byron Wallis
is co-concertmaster of the Great Falls Symphony and violinist with the Cascade Quartet. Solo appearances include performances with the Carmel (IN) Symphony and the Great Falls Symphony. With the Taliesin Trio, he was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Chamber Music America grant for a five month residency in Arkansas in 1995. He has participated in numerous summer festivals, including the Music Academy of the West, the Scotia Festival of Music and the Sunriver Music Festival, and as faculty member at the Kneisel Hall Amateur Chamber Music Workshop and the Luzerne Music Center. Before joining the Great Falls Symphony, Byron performed with the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Santa Barbara Grand Opera and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra.Wallis was visiting professor of violin at Ithaca College in spring of 2007 and is currently a freelance violinist based in Paris.

Kenneth Woods, cellist and conductor, is fast becoming recognized as a musician of rare versatility, equally at home as conductor, recitalist, chamber musician and soloist. A founding member of the NEA Rural Residency Grant winning Taliesin Trio, he has concertized throughout the US and Canada, and has also been heard as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and New Zealand. He has also been the cellist of the Masala String Quartet from 1993-1999, with whom he appeared at several festivals in the US, Canada and Europe and recorded for Vienna Modern Masters. During his tenure with the Masala, the quarter won a reputation for outstanding performances of the Bartok quartets, as well as highly praised interpretations of Mozart and Beethoven, and the quartet commissioned several new works. He was artist-in-residence as a member of the Eastern Piano Trio while on the music faculty at Eastern Oregon University from 1999-2002.

David Yang. Admired for his intensity, honesty of musical expression, and passionate communication, viola player David Yang has been heard throughout North America and Europe in collaboration with members of the Audubon, Avalon, Borromeo, Brentano, Cassatt, Lark, Miro, Muir and Tokyo String Quartets along with Bonnie Hampton, Pamela Frank, Eliot Fisk and Ian Swensen and is currently Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival near Boston, MA. David is also founder and president of the Philadelphia Viola Society and a member of the elite Philadelphia-based ensemble 9th street Chamber Project consisting of the finest young emerging artists on the East Coast. A highly sought after chamber music coach and director of chamber music at the University of Pennsylvania and the Main Line chamber music seminar, he also coaches at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and Swarthmore College.

Giuseppe Carannante, after his Clarinet Diploma at S. Pietro a Majella Naples Conservatory under the guidance of M° S. Natale, he was a student of M° G. Garbarino at Accademia Chigiana in Siena where he was awarded with scholarsips and a “Diploma di Merito”. He played with the Orchestra of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana di Fiesole. He’s also graduated in “Musica Corale e Direzione di Coro”, in “Strumentazione per Banda”, and “Direzione d’Orchestra per l’avviamento al teatro lirico” with M° P. Bellugi. He has conducted some of the most important Wind Orchestras in Italy. He also conducts at Bacau and Arad National Philarmonic, Craiova “Elena Teodorini”, Kharkov and Ivano Frankivsk Theater, Moldau National Broadcast Orchestra, the Camerata Romanica, and Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Recentely, he conducted Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Teatro Maghiaro in Cluj (Romania).

Keith Bowen, clarinet, has qualified in musicology since retiring from his scientific career. He recently completed an MA in Music at the Open University (UK), specializing in classical-period performance practice and in the history of the bass clarinet in A. He is an active chamber music and orchestral performer, currently with the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble in Coventry, UK, a new professional-amateur orchestra. Keith is also President of Kammermusik Workshops based in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA,which runs woodwind chamber music workshops for amateur adult players in Santa Fe and Oxford, England, in which he frequently coaches and directs the large woodwind ensembles (often with his own arrangements). He has studied clarinet with Lesley Schatzberger (UK), Lori Lovato (New Mexico Symphony) and Forest Aten (Dallas Opera).

Aldo de Vero A native to Italy, Aldo de Vero studied piano at the S. Pietro a Majella Conservatory and Accademia Chigiana with renowned pianist Bruno Canino. He has become a dedicated advocate of contemporary music and in particular of American Composers and performed music by Cage, Crumb, Feldman, Cowell, Barber and Nancarrow in recital and with the Appalachian Ensemble many times, a highlight being a concert of Three Quarter Tone Pieces” by Charles Ives for the 1994 G7 summit in Naples. His performances often include lively commentary on the composers and their music and place in musical history. As director and conductor of the Coro Polifonico “S.Leonardo” di Procida, he has released a recording entitled “Fenesta che lucive” (PoloSud) of his own transcriptions of classic Neapolitan songs sung by the choir accompanied by non-traditional instruments. In addition to his active performing career, de Vero is also founding member of the Associazione Key Largo, an organization that produces concerts and chamber music workshops.

Welcome Party:
On Friday, May 7th a Welcome Party will take place at the Covo de’ Borboni at 6 pm for all participants to get to know each other and the coaches and to receive information on the workshop.
An in-house concert will follow.

Ensembles & Repertoire:
Participants are assigned to ensembles based on ability level and need for balanced instrumentation. Ensembles vary in size and instrumentation. String players will generally have at least one assignment in an ensemble with winds.

Repertoire will be assigned at least 4 weeks in advance and will be chosen based on ability, experience and stated preference. Upon acceptance, participants will be asked to complete a repertoire form and provide information on their past experience.

Perfomances:
There will be one performance by Coaches, participant recitals, and daily in-house concerts of piano, winds, etc. with faculty artists. Each ensemble will have the opportunity to participate in an in-house recital, usually presenting one movement of the prepared piece.

Schedule:
A typical day will include a morning coaching session and an afternoon rehearsal. On the excursion day, usually Wednesday, (such as a bus tour of Ischia or sightseeing tour of the nearby island of Procida), the schedule is adjusted accordingly. The goal is to be flexible and find as much time for music-making as possible while providing the opportunity to see some of the important cultural sites in the area. We consult with each participant before making the schedule so we can do our best to accommodate each individual’s preferences and balance the group.

Everyone enjoys the after-lunch siesta break (“riposo”) for time to relax or socialize. Late afternoon hours can also be used for organized sight-reading. There are optional activities including masterclasses, in-house participant recitals, lectures, etc. While there is a scheduled activity each evening, many participants also choose to use evening hours to free-lance.

Dinner at the Hotel Grazia Terme is usually at 7:30 p.m. and festival concerts are presented on the Mediterranean schedule at 9 pm. Participants have the option to take the festival bus to performances on selected days.

Application Process:
Complete registration form on our website or mail-in form and send with registration fee and deposit. Applications are accepted until spaces are filled. No audition tape is required but is recommended as a useful tool for placement (tape can be sent later).

Accomodation and Meals
Coaching sessions will take place at the Covo dei Borboni, which features practice rooms, a music library, accommodation in apartments with kitchenettes, and two outdoor pools – one filled with the famed spa thermal waters so special to the Island of Ischia. Meals, services and further accommodation in single, double and triple rooms will be provided by the nearby four-star sister Hotel Grazia Terme at special Workshop rates.

How to Apply
Acceptance will be based on the need for a balanced instrumentation and the date the application is received.

Tuition for the 2010 workshop is:
Early applications (by January 31, 2010): € 430
Pre-formed String Quartet, Wind Quintet, Piano Duos: 20% discount
Applications made after January 31, 2010: € 550
Deadline is April 9, 2010

Please e-mail the completed application form ( pdf) – ( doc) to info@ischiafestival.it, or by surface mail to:

Aldo de Vero
Via Vecchia San Gennaro 143
80078 Pozzuoli (NA) Italy
Phone: (011) – 39 – 0815269382
+39 349 533 15 81

Payment is by international money transfer to the following bank account:

Bank Account Holder: Associazione Key Largo

Bank Name:
Banca Popolare di Ancona 908 – NAPOLI 5- VIA SCHIPA
Bank account: n° 000000011254 ABI 05308 CAB 03438 Check 58 Cin E
IBAN: IT58E0530803438000000011254
SWIFT: BPAMIT31
Quoting your name as the reference.
Note: please make transfer of tuition fee net of bank charges.

Cordially,
Aldo de Vero
Artistic Director, Ischia Chamber Music Workshop
www.ischiafestival.it