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Our most recent bay area concerts |
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about the concert |
Since 1995,
Karen and Jonathan have enjoyed working together on music both
modern and ancient. Their concerts frequently combine improvisations with
works from the 18th century, seamlessly woven with the music of
now, including pieces written for them. This program includes pieces written
recently (Charles Mason, John Kreitler, Ludmilla Yurina), some Bach and some
surprises. |
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venue info |
Friday
April 11 at 7:30pm.
Music in Los Altos at Los Altos
Lutheran, 460 S El Monte at Cuesta Sunday
April 13 at 2pm.
First Presbyterian, 1140 Cowper at Lincoln, Palo
Alto Tuesday
April 15 at 12:30pm.
San Francisco Noontime Concerts at Old St Mary s, 660 California at Kearney, San Francisco |
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did you miss them? |
Listen to the Palo Alto
recording here: |
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Listen to the San Francisco
recording here: |
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photo gallery |
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their bios |
Karen Bentley Pollick is one of America's
leading contemporary musicians, performing a wide range of solo repertoire
and styles on violin, viola, piano and Norwegian Hardanger fiddle
(hardingfele) to extend the boundaries of the concert experience, from the
Baroque to cutting-edge contemporary music and live improvisation. A native of
Palo Alto, California, she began piano lessons at age five with the Armenian pianist
Rusana Sysoyev. She then studied violin with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco,
performing in the master-classes of Nathan Milstein,
Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Glenn Dicterow, and studying with Rostislav
Dubinsky, Josef Gingold and Yuval Yaron at Indiana University, where she
received both Bachelors and Masters of Music Degrees
in Violin Performance, with a cognate in Choral Conducting. Her
recordings include Electric Diamond, Angel, Konzerto and Succubus and Ariel
View, for which she received three music awards from Just Plain Folks,
including Best Instrumental Album and Best Song. On her own record label,
Ariel Ventures, she has produced music featuring chamber works by Ivan
Sokolov on <amberwood>, Homage to Fiddlers and Russian Soulscapes;
solo-violin music by the Swedish composer Ole Saxe on Dancing Suite to Suite
and Peace Piece; and filmed Dan Tepfer's Solo Blues for Violin and Piano for one
performer simultaneously. She has also recorded for Albany, Blue Coast
Records, Bridge, Camel Productions, CRI, Innova, the Lithuanian Music Centre,
Mode, Neos, Numinous, RCA, Sony and Tzadik. Her first
recording for Toccata Classics featured the two violin concertos of Hermann
Gr dener (tocc 0529) with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and was
universally well received, garnering a Silver Medal in the 2019 Global Music
Awards for Album and Instrumental Solo Performance: 'Karen Bentley Pollick is
at her very best here', the reviewer for MusicWeb International reported; and
Fanfare judged that 'violinist Pollick plays with rare purity and radiance of
tone, and with deep concentration of emotional expression'. Her second
recording for Toccata Classics presents duos for violin, viola and piano of
Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov (tocc0560) and was awarded a Gold Medal
for Composer in the 2020 Global Music Awards. 'Karen Bentley, a triple threat
on violin, viola, and piano(!), is a superb player on all three instruments,
and this sonata could not be in better hands from either performer. Her
passion in the very dramatic final movement simply could not be bettered.
When I heard her playing, I wondered if she might have studied with Josef
Gingold (she demonstrates a certain je ne sais quoi quality) and in reading
the notes, discovered that she had, as well as with Camilla Wicks.' Fanfare
'It was a lucky thing for both him and Karen Bentley Pollick to have found
each other back in 2004 since when they have developed a close understanding
of each other's musical abilities which further enriches Sokolov's writing
and their playing. As I wrote in the introduction it is unusual on a single
disc for a musician to be recorded playing three different instruments as
Pollick does and the biographical details in the
notes takes over two pages to list all her awards
and performance history; she is extraordinarily talented. The sound is
exemplary as is to be expected from Toccata Classics and it is to their
credit that these works are their first recordings. Thank goodness there are
recording companies like them that are not solely motivated by profit for
music and composers like Sokolov would certainly be the losers.' MusicWeb
International Her third
recording for Toccata Classics 'Music for Emily Dickinson' presents music by Ukrainian-American composer Virko Baley with pianist
Timothy Hoft and soprano Lucy Shelton and was awarded the 2024 American Prize
Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music. Karen
tracked the hardangerfele solos in her San Pancho home studio for New Zealand
composer Stephen Gallagher's score for Lord of the Rings: War of the
Rohirrim, released in December 2024. Since moving to California in 1981, British-born harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo
has become a popular Freeway Philharmonic collaborator with many
organizations including Jubilate, San Francisco Symphony, Symphony San Jose
and Black Box Baroque. He can also be heard in Anchorage Alaska, in festival
and university productions. With his wife Marion Rubinstein, he co-directs The Albany Consort, now in its 51st
year, which tackles the entire spectrum of baroque music from duos to opera.
He performs new music with violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, using the
harpsichord in unusual contexts. Once a maker of instruments, Jonathan still
enjoys voicing and repair work. He also considers moving harpsichords
(generally single-handedly) and tuning them (he is an expert on early tuning
systems) to be cherished parts of a harpsichordist's life. Jonathan has two grownup children who are both fine musicians. In his spare
time, he sings at Congregation Etz
Chayim, Palo Alto and teaches Alexander
Technique. |
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social media |
Find us on facebook. |
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get in touch |
Karen karen@kbp-js.com |
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