Guest Artists
2011-2012 Concert Season
Walter Mayes, narrator
Sunday, December 4, 2011
"Out In Left Field"
McAfee Center, Saratoga
Walter M. Mayes is a regular performer with various South Bay theatre companies, appearing in Gypsy! for Broadway by the Bay, Curtains and Anything Goes for Foothill Music Theatre, and as the title characters in Man of La Mancha and Mack & Mabel for South Bay Musical Theatre (SBMT) and Sweeny Todd for Sunnyvale Community Players. In addition, he works frequently as a director, most recently helming A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for SBMT. As Walter the Giant Storyteller, he has made hundreds of appearances at libraries, schools, and bookstores throughout the country. Walter is the librarian and drama teacher at The Girls' Middle School in Palo Alto.
Marty Erickson, tuba
Sunday, February 12, 2012
"Tiptoe Through the Tubas"
McAfee Center, Saratoga
Marty was principal/solo tubist with the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C., where he served for twenty-six years. He has been the principal Eb Tubist with the Brass Band of Battle Creek for the past fifteen years and is a founding member of Millennium Brass Quintet, The Symphonia tuba-euphonium ensemble, and the Tuba-Percussion duo Balance with percussionist Alison Shaw.
Having served on the faculties of Penn State University and Eastern Michigan University, Mr. Erickson is in his ninth year as Lecturer of Tuba, Euphonium and Chamber music at the Conservatory of Music at Lawrence University and performs with the Lawrence Brass faculty brass quintet.
Mr. Erickson has performed as a soloist/clinician throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, Scandinavia, United Kingdom. Bermuda, Cuba and in 48 of the 50 United States. He has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the National Symphony and Annapolis Chamber Orchestras (with performances at Carnegie Hall and the J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, the Maryland Symphony, the Washington Masterworks Orchestra, and the Smithsonian Masterworks Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Gunther Schuller, and most recently, as principal tuba with the Green Bay Symphony. He has also performed as soloist on concert and recital series programs with the United States Army Band, The United States Army Field Band, the United States Marine Band and the Army Garrison bands of Oulu and Helsinki, Finland. In April 2008, Mr. Erickson performed four concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, serving as “extra tuba” in performances of Symphony Fantastiquewith CSO tubist and longtime friend Gene Pokorny, under the direction of Maestro Kenneth Nagano.
He has been a featured jazz and classical performer at five International Tuba-Euphonium Conventions, which will include ITEC 2008 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He was a featured jazz soloist and member of the Balance Duo which performed at the International Women’s Brass conference at Illinois State University this past June. In May 2007, Marty was the guest jazz performer and “docent” at the Deutsches Tuba Forum International Conference in Hammelburg, Germany, his fourth consecutive conference of service in that country.
In addition to his solo jazz CDs "My Very Good Friend" and "Smile," Mr. Erickson may be heard on over forty recordings of orchestra, concert band, brass band, dixieland jazz, folk, and children's music. His most recent recordings include performances with the Millennium Brass Quintet, the Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the New Columbian Brass Band on the Dorian label, as well as Grammy-nominated recordings with the Symphonia Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble. His newest CD is a collaboration with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon entitled “You and I,” released in the late spring of 2008.
A Past-President of Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association (now ITEA-International Tuba and Euphonium Association), Mr. Erickson is currently the jazz editor for the ITEA Journal publication. He is the Adjudicating Chairman for the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival (LFIETF), and serves on the Board of Directors for the Colonial Euphonium Tuba Institute (CETI), as well as the Quorum Chamber Arts Collective. Most recently, Mr. Erickson served as clinician and adjudicator for the National Association for Brass Bands in America (NABBA) championships in New Albany, IN.
Marty is a clinician/design consultant for the Willson tubas distributed by the Getzen Company in the US, and performs on the Willson 3400S Eb Tuba, the 3100S BBb Tubas and the Erickson Signature mouthpieces he helped to design.
Jim Walker, flute
Sunday, May 6, 2012
"Flutes, Flicks and Fantasies"
McAfee Center, Saratoga
Few other flutists in history have made such indelible marks in so many musical circles. From jazz to pop to classical, television to film to the concert hall, Jim Walker has never met a crowd that didn’t love his powerful, “stand and deliver” performances.
A star was born in 1969, when Jim was named Associate Principal Flute in the Pittsburgh Symphony after a stint playing in the US Military Academy Band at West Point. He quickly gained the admiration of colleagues and audiences in Pittsburgh and set his sights on Principal Flute jobs. After eight years he won the Principal Flute position in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and never looked back.
To be Principal Flute of a major orchestra is to sit at the pinnacle of the profession. Most flutists who reach that height are content to spend the rest of their careers there, but Jim but Jim felt an eagerness and aspiration to move his music-making forward yet again. After seven successful seasons of performing, recording, and touring with the Los Angeles Philharmonic—during which time the New York Philharmonic briefly borrowed him as Principal Flute for their 1982 South American tour—Jim left the orchestra, diving off the mountaintop into the world of jazz and studio recording.
Jazz had been one of Jim’s puppy loves, and he was inspired to get back to it by LA’s lively club scene. After a few years of avid listening in dives, gaining confidence undercover in the practice room, he organized his jazz quartet Free Flight. Flute, piano, bass, and drums playing jazz-classical fusion, Free Flight took the music world by storm. Jim’s unique combination of vision and determination pushed the group to multiple appearances on the Tonight Show and the Today Show and brought them a number one record (Slice of Life). By the time Jean-Pierre Rampal—the granddaddy of modern classical flutists—called “Jimmy” his “favorite jazz flute player” in the 1990’s, Jim was a bona fide jazz flute superstar.
Life has been equally good for Jim Walker in LA’s famed studio scene. He has been a first-call studio flutist for the better part of two decades, and his bold, expressive playing can be heard on hundreds of soundtracks and commercial recordings. His playing has become the gold standard from Hollywood to Carnegie Hall and has unlocked the door to studio and concert collaborations with everyone from John Williams and Paul McCartney—“the thrill of a lifetime,” says Jim—to Leonard Bernstein, James Galway, and the LA Guitar Quartet.
After all the reviews have been written and the stage and studio lights dim, however, Jim has said that the one aspect of his career he could maintain to the grave is teaching. He has been filling his students’ lives with music for four decades now, just as his own parents—Bob, a jazz clarinetist and public school band director, and Barbara, a church organist—filled his upbringing in Greenville, Kentucky, with piano and flute lessons. He went on to become a graduate and “Distinguished Alumnus” of the University of Louisville as well as the University’s first “Alumni Fellow” from the School of Music. To this day Jim credits a parade of flute teachers with helping him rise through the ranks, from Sarah Fouse and Francis Fuge in Kentucky to the Metropolitan Opera’s Harold Bennett, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s James Pellerite, and internationally renowned flutist and conductor Claude Monteux.
Jim’s gratitude to his teachers is returned to him by his students. As Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Flute Studies at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and Instructor of Flute and Chamber Music at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, Jim devotes at least twenty hours a week to steering the careers of young flutists. Before coming to Los Angeles, Jim’s teaching career included positions at Duquesne University, Carnegie-Mellon, and the University of Pittsburgh, and since arriving in Southern California he has been invited to be visiting professor at the University of North Texas, the University of Texas-Austin, and Arizona State University.
Jim has taught hundreds of flutists at these terrific institutions. Many of them have gone on to successful orchestral careers, holding Principal Flute chairs in major symphonies from Phoenix to Boston to Beijing. Still others have careers in fields as varied as gospel music and arts administration. Jim is not interested in simply training musicians; he inspires each pupil as a whole person, and students leave his tutelage feeling empowered, reaching for the stars. With such a legacy, it is no wonder that students on four continents have flocked to hear his recitals and master classes. Jim’s creativity allows him to reach not only these students but also others he never sees with his editions of flute masterworks on the Alfred Music Publications Young Artist Series. He is also completing a set of flute method books filled with unique, fun, highly instructional exercises so that future generations can continue to benefit from his wealth of knowledge and generosity.
Dynamic soloist, legendary orchestral and studio musician, celebrated jazz flutist, and an inspiration to countless students worldwide, Jim Walker is living proof that with enough creativity and determination, anyone can reach the stars. He is a living legend, and a true Renaissance Man of the Flute.
Christopher Bengochea, tenor
Sunday, March 18, 2012
"The Wearing of the Green"
McAfee Center, Saratoga
The critically acclaimed and prize winning international opera tenor, Christopher Bengochea, is quickly being sought after by opera houses, concert venues, and audiences alike. Mr. Bengochea has been heralded as having "power, sure intonation, and fine diction that come in a package tied with a ribbon of 'natural sound.'" Christopher Bengochea has delighted audiences with his unique combination of vocal and dramatic interpretation in performances ranging from oratorio to opera. It is a unique, broadly-projected "wide" sound that can serve lyrical or heroic music equally well.”
A most recent discovery into Christopher’s repertoire, found Mozart’s Idomeneo, to a enormous success. The vocally and dramaticly demanding title role, King Idomeneo, re di Creta, was met with vigor and ultimate brilliance by this tenor. Jason Victor Serinus of Opera News exclaimed, “Tenor Christopher Bengochea’s dark-hued (voice)..conquered virtually every vocal hurdle Mozart set out for Idomeneo...Bengochea’s performance was exceptional. How many Puccini tenors can also negotiate the runs of “Fuor del mar” with something approaching ease? The cheers that accompanied his exultant Act III aria, “Torna la pace,” were more than justified.” Other important engagements that occurred included Vasco da Gama in Meyerbeer's L'Africaine for Opera Orchestra of New York, Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème.
The years 2005-2008, Mr. Bengochea had been a resident artist of Opera San José where he has been heard in a variety of roles from Reverend Samuel Parris in The Crucible to King Gustavus in Un ballo in maschera. Richard Scheinin of The Mercury News described "to hear Bengochea expand into big, lusty high notes -- Verdi specials -- were thrilling.... Bengochea could be the tenor the company has been waiting for." During his residency at Opera San Jose he performed Rodolfo in La bohème, the title role in Roméo et Juliette, Alfredo in La traviata, Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, the title role of Werther, the Duke in Rigoletto, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte.
Bengochea’s operatic repertoire embraces a wide range of roles, including Ruggero in La Rondine, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Erik in Alva Henderson's Nosferatu, and Cavarodossi in Tosca. Companies with which he has performed include: Opera San Jose, Atlanta Opera, Opera Idaho, Opera Canada, da Corneto Opera, Center City Opera, Opera Company Brooklyn, Jarvis Conservatory, Intermountain Opera, Townsend Opera, Rimrock Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, West Bay Opera, Teatro Felice, Caramoor Opera, and the Tigulio Festival Opera, Stockton Opera Association, Opera Santa Barbara.
At home on both the operatic and concert stages, he was heard as the tenor soloist in Verdi’s messa da Requiem for the Modesto Symphony and the Symphony Silicon Valley. Other oratorio engagements include: Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, and Tallis's The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet and Mozart's Great Mass in C minor, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Evangelist in Bach's Weihnachts Oratorium with the New York City Chorale Society, the world premier of Alva Henderson's "From Greater Light," performed under world renowned Carl St. Claire and the Orange County Symphony Orchestra.
This Basque American tenor began his musical career as a pianist then moved into the study of opera during his time at Montana State University and later the University of Montana. After becoming an award winner at the Northwest Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and winning third prize at the Internationale Societa Concertistica Vocal Competition in Santa Margherita-Ligure, Italy, he decided to pursue singing entirely. It was in Italy where Bengochea had the opportunity to study and work with renowned tenor, Gianni Raimondi who described Bengochea as “having a voice most brilliant and romantic: that will become very important in the future of opera.”
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Pipes and Drums
Sunday, March 18, 2012
"The Wearing of the Green"
McAfee Center, Saratoga
Under the guidance of former Pipe Major Jay Tuttle, the Los Gatos Pipes and Drums was formed on September 25, 2001, with the mission of representing the Los Gatos - Monte Sereno Police Department in various community events throughout the Bay Area. Comprised of both civilian volunteers from the local community and surrounding law enforcement agencies, the Band grew to its current size of 40 plus volunteers. Members range in age from 14 to 80. Approximately two thirds of the band are pipers; one third are drummers.
In 2011, the Band was invited by Sheriff Laurie Smith to become a part of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Honor Guard Detail, and performs for that agency's events as well as numerous other local fire and police agencies.
The Band prides itself on performing at various community activities throughout the Bay Area. Performance highlights include a pre-show concert for Rod Stewart at HP Pavilion on March 15, 2007, and a Coca-Cola commercial that ran during spring of 2006. Over the past few years, the Band has performed an average of 45 events per year. Highlights of these annual performances include: the Los Gatos Christmas Parade, San Jose Christmas Parade, San Francisco Fleet Week, 4th of July and Veteran's Day Parades, Fallen Peace Officer Memorials, and Pleasanton Scottish Highland Gathering and Games.