The “2019 Cello│Fresno – International Cello Festival” will take place on the Fresno State campus from October 31 – November 3, 2019.
The festival includes two large gala concerts with orchestras, a concerto competition which will feature the winners in our final concert, two large cello ensembles, and many master classes and lecture sessions. Local Violin makers will be showing their instruments and answering questions.
The “Cello Mania” concert features the the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1 in the Fresno State Concert Hall. Tickets are $15 general, $10 employees and seniors, and $5 for students.
The 2019 Fresno Concerto Competition is at 6 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Fresno State Concert Hall. Admission is free.
The “Closing Gala Concert” featuring the Youth Orchestras of Fresno, two cello ensembles, the Concerto Competition winners, and Tsuyoshi Tsustumi performing Bloch’s Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello is at 4 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3 at Fresno High School’s Royce Hall. Admission is free.
Parking is free after 5 p.m. Friday through the weekend at Fresno State.
During the festival, artistic directors, Thomas Loewenheim, California State University, Fresno; Emilio Colón, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music; and Cara Elise Colón, American Cello Institute will bring cellists from around the globe to enrich the Fresno community with four days of master classes, cello ensemble rehearsals, concerts, and workshops for cellists of all ages and levels.
This year, Fresno State is proud to welcome Prof. Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, one of the most notable musicians of his generation and respected mentor. He was Professor of Cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, President of the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan, Music Director of Kirishima International Music Festival, and is currently the President of the famed Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He is a recipient of the National Academy of Arts Prize in music by the Emperor, Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon, the highest honor in Japan, and was awarded Person of Cultural Merit in 2013.
Our second distinguished guest is the Dr. Helga Winold, who was also a Cello Professor at Indiana University and was the first person to complete the Doctorate degree in cello performance at Indiana University.
Other faculty guest artists will include Cara Colón, Bongshin Ko, Thomas Landschoot, Jonathan Ruck, and Ka-Wai Yu, representing many of the top music programs in the United States.
The Festival will host two cello ensembles: The Advanced Cello Ensemble, geared towards advanced cellists of graduate school, college, and high school age to perform side-by-side with our outstanding faculty members, conducted by Emilio Colón, and The Young Cello Ensemble, geared towards students who are at the beginning of their career as cellists, directed by Cara Colón. Participation in the Cello Festival is free, and interested cellists should fill out the online application.
The guest musicians in this year’s cello festival all have their roots in the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and almost all the faculty have studied with Prof. Starker, Prof. Tsutsumi, Dr. Winold, and Prof, Colón.
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ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
Thomas Loewenheim, professor of cello and director of orchestral studies, California State University, Fresno
Thomas Loewenheim is a modern renaissance man: a unique musician who enjoys an international career, combining cello performance, conducting, and teaching at the highest levels. He has toured North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, performing with orchestras, giving recitals, and playing chamber music, and has been broadcast over the national radio networks in Austria, Canada, Israel, and the United States.
Loewenheim is currently Professor of Cello and Director of Orchestras at the California State University, Fresno, Music Director of the Fresno Opera and Orchestra Summer Academy (FOOSA), and the Music Director and conductor of the Youth Orchestras of Fresno. Recently he received the Fresno State Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2016), the California Music Educators Association John Swain College/University Educator Award (2015), the Ella Odorfer Educator of the Year Horizon Award from the Fresno Arts Council (2012), the Fresno State Provost’s Award for Promising New Faculty (2011), and Special Recognition from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for his service to the university and the community (2011). Previously he taught at the Indiana University String Academy and the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), and served as music director and conductor of the Musical Arts Youth Orchestra (MAYO) in south-central Indiana.
Loewenheim earned a doctorate in cello performance from the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied with Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and was mentored in conducting by David Effron. He received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan under Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and a bachelor’s degree from the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem. He also took part in master classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Arto Noras, Aldo Parisot, William Pleeth, and Menahem Pressler, among others. He plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume cello, made in 1848.
Emilio Colón, professor of cello, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Performing throughout the world, Emilio has been invited as soloist with the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey, Casals Festival, National Symphony of the Ukraine, National Symphony of Istanbul, Izmir Symphony Orchestra, Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Bozeman Symphony and San Angelo Symphony; recitalist for Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, L’Hermitage Foundation in Los Angeles, Tons Voisin Festival in Albi, France, La Musica International Chamber Festival in Sarasota, Florida, Mill Valley Chamber Music Society and recital tours throughout Europe and Asia.
Emilio recently appeared performing on screen for the movie Un Poema a L’Exili “EL PESSEBRE” de Pablo Casals y Joan Alavedra which received the Best Picture Award at the 2014 REUS International Festival in Spain. His recordings are featured on the Enharmonic, Centaur, Zephyr, Klavier and Lyras labels.
At the age of 26, Emilio was appointed to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and has since established himself as a highly sought-after pedagogue. He has been invited to offer courses at the Paris Conservatoire, Geneva Conservatoire, Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, Royal Academy of Music in London, Hochschüle für Musik in Stuttgart, Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, and Toho Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan. Recently he was invited to adjudicate the prestigious Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in Budapest and the Stulberg International String Competition in Michigan. As a D’Addario sponsored artist, he performs using their strings on his Amati cello from 1700.
In 2019 Emilio won an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, as the founder and artistic director of the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico. For providing access to the arts for children and communities in underserved areas in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean through creatively modern concerts, outreach events and masterclasses and through educational programming on CBS Puerto Rico.
SPECIAL GUEST ARTISTS
Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, cellist, president of Suntory Hall, professor
When Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi won the International Casals Competition in Budapest in 1963, the press called him a musician “whose discovery is comparable to that of David Oistrakh in the Brussels Competition in the 1930s.” Born in Tokyo, Mr. Tsutsumi’s early training with Hideo Saito led him to his debut at the young age of 12 with Tokyo Philharmonic, performing the Saint-Saens concerto. Appearances with Japan’s leading orchestras followed, as did several major prizes, including the Japan’s most prestigious; the Mainichi (Japan) Music Competition.
Audiences have since heard Mr. Tsutsmi’s solo appearances with the ORTF in Paris, the Berlin Radio Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonia, the Czech and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and many others. He has appeared with many great conductors and orchestras such as, Seiji Ozawa and the Toho Gakuen Orchestra at the United Nations; at Avery Fisher Hall with the NHK Symphony; Mustislav Rostropovich and the National Symphony.
He taught the University of Illinois before joining the faculty of Indiana University as Professor of Music in the fall of 1988. He was frequently invited to conduct master classes at places like Talent Education Institute (Japan), Orford Arts Center (Canada), Lyon Conservatoire(France), Banff Centre(Canada) and Holland music session(The Netherlands). He has also been invited as a jury member of prestigious international music competitions such as the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, ARD in Munich, M. Rostropovich in Paris, CBC/SRC in Ottawa and Osaka International in Osaka
In 2009, he was awarded Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon, the highest honor in Japan. He is also a member of the Japan Art Academy since December 2009.
Mr. Tsutsumi has various CD releases with Sony and Meister Music. He is also known as a recipient of the Suntory Award for his contribution to music in Japan and was presented National Academy of Arts Prize in music by the Emperor. In 1997, he was elected the first President of Japan Cello Society, and in 2000 elected Music Director of Kirishima International Music Festival and Director General of Suntory Foundation for ARTS.
He was also elected the President of Suntory Hall in September 2007 and he was the President of Toho Gakuen School of Music for nine years. Now he is also Specially appointed professor, Toho Gakuen School of Music(1976-), and The visiting professorship at Korea National University of the Arts School of Music(2017-).
Helga Winold, professor emeritus, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Helga Winold is an adjunct member of the music faculty of the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa.
She is Professor Emeritus at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She taught private cello, cello literature, cello pedagogy and chamber music. In 2008 she was honored at Indiana University with the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching. Presently retired, she still maintains a busy schedule private teaching, master classes, solo recitals, and chamber music recitals.
As a teacher, Helga Winold, has had an enormously successful career working with students at all levels from gifted younger players to experienced professional musicians. Many of her students have gone on to important performing positions in professional orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other former students have gone on to significant teaching positions such as the University of Pennsylvania and the Freiburg Hochschule für Musik. She has presented highly successful master classes in the United States and abroad, including being a faculty member performing and teaching at the Festival International de Musica Erudita de Piracicaba in Brazil. Most recently she has taught cello at the University of South Florida in Tampa Florida.
As a performer, Helga Winold has played solo and chamber music recitals in many of the leading music centers of the United States, Europe, and Asia, including appearances as soloist with the Munich Philharmonic and other orchestras, presentations of the complete Beethoven cycle of works for cello and piano in Vienna and other cities, and performances of contemporary works for cello.
As a researcher and writer, Helga Winold has made important contributions in several areas, including research on movement in string playing with Professor Esther Thelen under a grant from the National Institute for Health, numerous articles in the American String Teacher, Strad Magazine and other publications, and lectures and seminars in universities in the United States and abroad.
She is the author of Cellocity, a highly successful method book for beginning cellists.
ARTIST FACULTY
Cara Elise Colón, cellist-pedagogue
Cellist, Cara Elise Colón enjoys a career as a chamber musician, pedagogue and arts administrator. Most recently she was invited to perform with the Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, L’Ermitage Foundation Series of Los Angeles, Lancaster International Piano Festival, Killington Music Festival, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guayaquil Ensamble de Violoncello, PSPA International Chamber Ensemble on tour in Malaysia, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Ware Center Concert Series in Pennsylvania, and Fundación Musical Chamber Series in Puerto Rico. She has studied with many leading musicians including Janos Starker, Anne Martindale-Williams and Sidney Harth and performed in master classes for Mstislav Rostropovich and the Diaz Trio.
As a pedagogue, Cara has held positions on the faculty of the Indiana University String Academy and the Indianapolis Academy of Music. She has been invited to guest lecture on the topic of cello pedagogy and technique and has been a guest clinician for the Fairbanks Cello Festival, London Suzuki Group, Killington Music Festival, Cello|Fresno Festival, ‘Low Strings Attached Festival’ and for pedagogy courses at Indiana University.
As an arts administrator, Cara serves as Vice President of the American Cello Institute whose project, the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, received an award this season from the National Endowment for the Arts for their work promoting arts access in underserved communities on the island.
Bongshin Ko, professor of cello, California State University, Fullerton
Hailed by critics for her “most perfect playing” (Internet Cello Society) with “great warmth and beauty” (The STRAD), cellist Bongshin Ko has appeared worldwide as a soloist with such groups as Munich Chamber Players, Television and Radio Symphony of Moscow, the KBS Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic, and Central Broadcasting Symphony of China. In 1992 Ms. Ko was honored to be the first Korean artist to be invited to perform in China after the historic resumption of diplomatic relations between Korea and China, and has since been invited back annually.
Ms. Ko has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Bernard Greenhouse, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Stein, Gunther Schuller, Semyon Bychkov and Valery Gergiev. In 1997 she appeared with the Korean Symphony at Seoul International Music Festival to give the Asian premiere of Bernard Rands’ Cello Concerto, composed and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich in celebration of his 70th birthday. Other international music events and festivals welcomed her to Schleswig-Holstein festival, Kronberg Cello festival, Berlin Wall 10th anniversary concert, Rostropovich & Friends Concert (Germany), plus numerous others in France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, Monaco, Croatia, USA, Korea, China, Japan and Indonesia.
She has performed to critical acclaims on NDR and Bavarian Radio (Germany), Fuji TV (Japan), TV New Zealand, TV China, Korean Broadcasting Systems and NBC to name a few. As a member of the European-based Tritton Cello Quartet she can be heard on the Musica Columna label. Her live performances of Brahms and Barber sonatas are often broadcast on the Arte TV in Korea and over the transpacific in-flight classical station on Asiana Airlines. Ms. Ko’s Haydn and Saint-Saens concerti, recorded with Munich Chamber Players in Germany, can also be heard on the SONY Classical label.
As a recipient of over 30 international prizes and awards, including the highest performance award in her native Korea and the Crossroad Award in the US for her “superior teaching,” she is on popular demand as a teacher as well as a performer around the globe. Serving on various festival and university faculties including California State University, Fullerton, The New York Soloists, and Greenhouse Cello Foundation, Ms. Ko performs frequently at major venues and concert halls throughout four continents.
Thomas Landschoot, professor of cello, Arizona State University
Praised for his expressive, virtuoso and poetic music making, Belgian cellist Tom Landschoot enjoys an international career as a concert and recording artist and pedagogue. He has toured North America, Europe, South America and Asia and has appeared on national radio and television worldwide.
His solo career started after taking a top prize at the International Cello Competition ‘Jeunesse Musicales’ in 1995 in Bucharest, Romania. He has performed with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Tempe Symphony, Prima la Musica, the Symphony of the Southwest, Shieh Chien Symphony Orchestra, Scottsdale Philharmonic, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony, Loja Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band and has appeared at Barge Music, Park City, Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, Eureka, Utah, Red Rock, Park City, Manchester, Fresno, Madeline Island, Waterloo, Killington and Texas Music Festivals. His recordings are available on Summit, Organic, Kokopelli, ArchiMusic and Centaur Records.
He has performed with the Takacs, Dover, Indianapolis and Arianna Quartets, members of Cleveland, Vermeer, Tokyo, Orion, and has toured for 5 years as a member of the Rossetti Quartet. Past collaborations include Lynn Harrell, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalich, Cho-Liang Lin, Martin Beaver and Martin Katz. An avid promoter of music of our time, he has commissioned and premiered over 20 new works for cello, including a concerto by Dirk Brosse. Recent engagements included several concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders with a new concerto of Belgian composer Frank Nuyts. Tom Landschoot has been involved in interdisciplinary public service projects through his music, such as raising funds and awareness for the need of building an orphanage and hospital in Tamil Nadu, India. As part of this humanitarian project, Landschoot was featured in a documentary film of a cellist performing across India, integrating photography, culinary, journalism and original music compositions.
He has served as a faculty member at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Castleman Quartet Program in New York, Killington Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Foulger International Music Festival, High Peaks, Madeline Island, Manchester, Montecito and Texas Music Festival. Landschoot has given master classes at conservatories and universities throughout Asia, the U.S. and Europe and South America. His students can be found among the ranks of national and international competition winners, occupy principal positions in major orchestras and teach at Universities around the US and abroad.
Tom Landschoot is currently Professor of Cello at Arizona State University, one of the top schools of music in the United States. Prior to joining the music faculty at Arizona State University, Landschoot taught at the University of Michigan. He is the recipient of ASU’s prestigious Herberger College of Fine Arts Distinguished Teaching Award. Landschoot has served on the faculty of the Shieh Chien University in Taipei since 2008. Tom Landschoot is the founder and the Artistic Director of the Sonoran Chamber Music Festival (www.sonoranchambermusic.com), as well as the President of the Arizona Cello Society. He Performs on a cello by Tomaso Balestrieri (1776) and a Dominique Pecatte bow.
Jonathan Ruck, professor of cello University of Oklahoma
American cellist Jonathan Ruck enjoys a career balanced between performing as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and teaching future generations of musicians. Born in Wisconsin to a musical family, he has been heard in venues throughout North America, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. Festival appearances include recent engagements at the Oregon Bach Festival, Sanibel Island Festival, OK Mozart, Unruly Music, and as cellist of the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico. Jonathan currently serves as the principal cellist of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic.
An avid chamber musician, Jonathan Ruck is a core member of Brightmusic, Oklahoma City’s resident chamber music ensemble. Jonathan Ruck has performed as a guest cellist with the American Chamber Players and the Penderecki String Quartet, and alongside prominent artists such as David Shifrin, Rostislav and Luba Dubinsky, James Campbell and Daniel Blumenthal. He has given world-premiere performances of chamber works by Christopher Theofanidis and Sydney Corbett. As a founding member of the Dubinsky String Quartet, Jonathan was a prizewinner in the Fischoff and Coleman national chamber music competitions.
Jonathan Ruck earned three academic degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where his primary teachers were Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. He had the privilege to serve as the teaching assistant to both cellists between 2002-2005. Jonathan was a winner of the Indiana University cello concerto competition, and was twice awarded the school’s coveted Kuttner String Quartet Fellowship.
Jonathan Ruck joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma School of Music in 2006, where he teaches cello and chamber music, and serves as program director of the University of Oklahoma Summer String Academy. He previously held academic appointments at Depauw University and Hampden-Sydney College, and has served as a guest faculty member at Indiana University, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois. He has served on the faculties of the Fresno Summer Orchestra and Opera Academy (FOOSA), the Zodiac Festival in Southern France and the Indiana University Summer String Academy.
Jonathan Ruck performs on a cello built in 1820 by Thomas Kennedy of London. He currently lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife, violinist Katrin Stamatis, and their two daughters, Arianna and Galia.
Dr. Ka-wai Yu, professor of cello Dixie State University
Dr. Ka-Wai Yu is Assistant Professor of Music at Dixie State University, where he teaches cello and directs the string chamber music program. He previously taught at Eastern Illinois University and Indiana Wesleyan University. In great demand as a clinician, Dr. Yu has given master classes in numerous universities and institutions in North America and Asia. He has taught in music camps and workshops in Illinois, Georgia and Michigan, as well as in Hong Kong, among them the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and the Hong Kong Music Office Summer Camp. He has served as adjudicator, held clinics, and guest-conducted regularly at various high schools, youth orchestras, and string festivals in the Southwest and Midwest, USA. He directs the newly established St. George Cello Ensemble. He is the Director of the DSU Cello Festival.
Currently the Principal Cellist of Southwest Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Yu has performed at major concert halls in Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. He is vivid as a chamber musician, and has been a member of the Kolob Trio, Ensemble Finesse, and the period-instrument ensemble La Réunion Musicale. He has appeared in the Aspen Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Orford Arts Center, Toronto Summer Music Academy, Vancouver Early Music Festival, among others. His recent solo performances include concerto appearances with Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Illinois, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Chamber Orchestra, and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast on RTHK and WILL-FM. His transcription of Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto for cello and string quartet has been published by A-R Editions, Inc.
Dr. Yu obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with cellist Brandon Vamos of the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet. He also holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts in Music with first-class honors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His other major mentors have included conductors Maurice Peress and Angela Tam, cellists Helga Winold, Csaba Onczay, David Starkweather and Ming-Yuen Cheung, singers Raymond Fu and Chiu-May Wong, and viola da gambist Wendy Gillespie. He has also studied chamber music with members of the American String Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet and Parker Quartet.
Alfred Wong, composer
Born in Hong Kong, Alfred Wong’s music has been performed in many international music events, such as International Society for Contemporary Music Festival held in Sweden, Waterlooville Music Festival in UK, Colorado Music Festival in U.S., Beijing Modern Music Festival and Singapore International Band Festival. His accolades include the ‘2014 CASH Golden Sail Music Awards’ – Best Serious Composition; a Bronze award in the ‘Xinyi Cup’ assessment of works for Chinese orchestra by young composers, jointly presented by the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture of China and the China Nationalities Orchestra Society. Some of his works have been recorded by PARMA Recordings (U.S.), Hugo Productions (HK) Limited and Modern Audio Limited, etc. With an oeuvre of over a hundred of Chinese instrumental works as well as other different genres of compositions, his notable works include The Eight Immortals’ Adventures series for musical theatre, commissioned by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, 1894 Hong Kong Plague – a Musical, produced by Hong Kong Repertory Theatre, as well as Dream of the Red Chamber Capriccio, collaborated with cellist Trey Lee together with Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.. Besides, Wong was also invited to conduct orchestras, wind bands and ensembles in Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Malaysia. Received his bachelor and master degrees from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, he is currently a guest lecturer at The Education University of Hong Kong, as well as teaching courses at the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong, etc.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 