COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA
Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra
John Eells, Music Director
RIPCO is a full orchestra for adult musicians with extensive orchestral experience. Members range in age from college students to retirees. For the 2007-2008 Season, we anticipate openings for strings, percussion and some wind positions, as well as substitute players for all sections. For membership information, please contact Christine Eldridge at celdridge@riphil.org or (401) 248-7012.
Conductor: John Eells; Mondays 7 - 9:30pm,
Beginning September 10
Location: Nathanael Greene Middle School
SUBSCRIPTION SERIES
December 16, 2007
Mychal Gendron, guitar
SUSATO La Danserie (1551)
CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Guitar Concerto No. 1
DVORAK Symphony No. 8 in G, Op. 88
February 24, 2008
Alexey Shabalin, violin
BARBER First Essay for Orchestra
BRAHMS Haydn Variations
BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto
May 18, 2008
Jim Morgan, bassoon
WAGNER Overture: Rienzi
WOLF-FERRARI Suite Concertino Op 16
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 (1808)
Subscription series concerts begin at 7:30pm and take place Sapinsley Hall at Rhode Island Philharmonic 600 Mount Pleasant Ave Providence RI
Purchase tickets at the door or in advance by calling 401.248.7000
SINGLE TICKETS
$15 Adults
$5 Students & Senior Citizens
CONDUCTOR BIOGRAPHY
JOHN EELLS
John Eells received his undergraduate degree from York University in England and completed his graduate work in conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has been a guest conductor with the Hartford, Manchester, Meriden and New Britain symphony orchestras, the Jacksonville and Spokane symphony orchestras, the Hermitage State Orchestra in St. Petersburg (Russia), the Leeds Symphony Orchestra (UK), Connecticut Concert Opera and the New England High School Festival Orchestra. He is a frequent festival conductor for the Connecticut Music Educator Association and a regular judge of high school and college concerto competitions, including the Hartford Symphony Orchestra's Young Artists Competition. He is the founder and director of the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra which this year celebrated its 25th anniversary with a performance at Carnegie Hall. He was the director of music at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut from 1981 until 2005, was music director of the New Britain Opera Association from 1985 - 1998 and served as Music Director for the Simsbury Light Opera Company from 1999 - 2005. Last season he continued as Orchestra Director at Miss Porter's School and guest conducted concerts in Connecticut with the Hartford and New Britain Symphony Orchestras and in Rhode Island with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Repertory Youth Orchestra. In May 2002 he was awarded a Special Achievement Award from the Town of Farmington's Chamber of Commerce for his work with the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra.
Soloist Biographies
Mychal Gendron, Guitar
Guitarist Mychal Gendron has been active as a teacher and performer for over twenty-five years. He has toured Brazil as a soloist under the aegis of Partners Of The Americas, has performed at the Fete di Limans in Franceand has presented recitals on concert series in the eastern and mid-western U.S., including all six New England States.
Mychal has been an adjunct instructor at colleges and universities in the southern New England area since 1978 and is now an Artist Teacher in Guitar at the University of Rhode Island and a Teaching Associate in Guitar at Brown University.
Mychal has been a registered Suzuki Instructor since 1994 and is now a Suzuki Teacher Trainer in Guitar. He has been a faculty member at the Ann Arbor, Hartt and Colorado Suzuki Institutes and has been a presenter at Suzuki Conferences in 2002, 2004 and 2006. He maintains an active Suzuki Guitar studio at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School.
Alexey Shabalin, Violin
Alexey Shabalin has served as Music Director and Symphony Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestras since 2003. Under his leadership, the ensemble improved so much that they performed in Carnegie Hall in May, 2005. He also founded and conducts the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Soloists, a chamber orchestra for advanced players.
For several years, Mr. Shabalin has served as assistant conductor and string coach of the MIT Symphony, leading that group as principal conductor in an all Russian program in December, 2005. He coaches chamber music at Brown University, and he conducts the symphony orchestra, coaches violin and chamber groups and teaches music theory at Providence College. In addition, he teaches a large number of private students in the Boston and Providence areas and at our Music School. In 2005, the Siemens Foundation appointed Mr. Shabalin as Artistic Director to select talented students from elite colleges around the country. He presented a concert in New York City featuring an eclectic mix of pieces by these young performers.
Currently Mr. Shabalin is a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Active as a solo recitalist and chamber player, his busy concert schedule has taken him around the world. Mr. Shabalin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1995 having studied with Professors Igor Besrodny and Alexander Melkinov. As a student he won third prize in the Soviet national string quartet competition in 1991. During the same year he was a semifinalist in the International Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition. In 1995, he won the "Best Violinist in a Duet" category in the International Bashmet Competition Moscow.
From 1992 to 1996, Mr. Shabalin toured with the world-renown Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra conducted by Yuri Bashmet. The group played in 32 countries and most of the major concert halls of the world. In 1995, the group gave only the second performance ever of Mozart's newly unearthed Triple Concerto, with Alexey playing the solo violin part. In recognition of his talent, he was allowed to perform on a priceless Stradivarius violin owned by the Russian government. The orchestra recorded extensively on a variety of prestigious CD labels with the world's top soloists. Since moving to the United States in 1996, he has performed in many orchestras, in chamber groups and festivals around New England and throughout the country.
The Boston Globe called him "a very gifted and unusually personal violinist," and praised his playing for projecting "a certain aristocratic air that is solidly supported by technique and musicality."
Jim Morgan, Bassoon
Jim Morgan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1949, and grew up in Warwick, Rhode Island. He attended Bishop Hendricken High School and graduated in 1967. Upon graduation, he entered the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with a scholarship in bassoon under president, Günter Schuler. His instructor was Mathew Ruggiero of the BSO. He moved on to organ in his sophomore year and graduated in 1971. His major teacher at NEC in organ was Yuko Hayashi.
In 1972, he traveled to England to study at the Royal School of Church Music in South Croydon, where his principal organ teacher was Timothy Farrell, sub-organist of Westminster Abbey. While in England, he taught music at Dover College and Haileybury College. After changing over to the French bassoon from the German instrument in 1970, he has been leading exponent of the French bassoon in the United States. He has studied with Cecil James (London), Henri Helearts (Geneva), and Maurice Allard at the Paris Conservatoire in 1975.
In 2000, he was a semi-finalist in the American Guild of Organist’s improvisation competition in Seattle.
He is presently organist at Saint Peter’s Church in Narragansett, teaches piano at Moses Brown School in Providence, accompanies the choruses at Providence Country Day School, and is a bassoonist with the RI Philharmonic Community Orchestra, member of Quintessials (a new woodwind quintet), and the Bay Wind Chamber Players, a woodwind octet.
He holds the Licentiate Diploma in Organ (LTCL) 1973, and a Fellow’s Diploma in Bassoon (FTCL) 1975 from Trinity College of Music, London, and a B. Mus. From NEC.