Summertime...and the Listening is Easy
September 5, 8, 9

We say farewell to the last days of summer with a lingering look at that sweet season. Violinist Martin Chalifour joins us for Vivaldi’s Summer and Piazolla’s steamy tangos. Shana Blake Hill weaves her magic with the wistful and beautiful inspirations Summer Nights.   And with the crack of a bat and the roar of baseball fans The Natural knocks one outta the park!
	Martin Chalifour Martin Chalifour began his tenure as Principal Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1995. The recipient of various grants and awards in his native Canada, he graduated with honors from the Montreal Conservatory at the age of 18 and then moved to Philadelphia to pursue studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers included Jascha Brodsky, David Cerone and Ivan Galamian in the United States, as well as Sonia Jelinkova and Taras Gabora in Canada. In 1986 Chalifour received a Certificate of Honor at the Tchaïkovsky Competition in Moscow and was a laureate of the Montreal International Competition the following year. He has performed chamber music with artists including YoYo Ma, Emmanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman and has appeared as soloist with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Neville Marriner and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Internationally, he was a guest soloist of the Auckland Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the Queensland Symphony (Australia), the National Orchestra of Taiwan, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Malaysian Philharmonic, among others. Chalifour began his orchestral career in 1984 with the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony, playing as Associate Concertmaster for six years. He then occupied the same position in the Cleveland Orchestra for five years, under celebrated conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. Chalifour also taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a founding member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio. Chalifour is a frequent guest at several summer music festivals, including the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Ottawa International Music Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Maintaining close ties with his native Quebec, he returns frequently to teach and perform and most recently worked as soloist with the Quebec Symphony, Yoav Talmi conducting. Chalifour and two of his Philharmonic colleagues, Joanne Pearce Martin and Peter Stumpf, recently joined forces to form the Los Angeles Philharmonic Piano Trio. They perform locally and abroad and have recently played Beethoven’s Triple Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl. Chalifour is a professor at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Last summer he was a guest at the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in B. C. Canada, as well as the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland.
	Shana Blake Hill Shana Blake Hill continues to excite audiences and critics alike as she proves herself a multifaceted performer in both the operatic and orchestral repertoires. Of her recent debut singing composer Bright Sheng’s The Phoenix with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, The Saratogan exclaimed, “Shana Blake Hill was amazing in this very difficult soprano role…her richly colored tone lent dignity and a sense of awe to the tale…she was a mesmerizing presence.” Profiled in the Los Angeles Times as “an intense young soprano…a standout,” and by The Forum as “a future opera superstar…” Shana Blake Hill is a powerful young artist embarking on an exciting career. Ms. Hill has appeared as a principal artist with such opera companies as: The Los Angeles Opera, Savonlinna Festival Opera (Finland), Dayton Opera, Long Beach Opera, Santa Barbara Opera, Durham Triangle Opera, Fargo Moorhead Opera, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Opera, Stockton Opera, West Bay Opera, and Opera Nova. She has also been featured as a solo artist with orchestras such as; The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Pacific Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, The New West Symphony, Pacific Chorale, The Florida Philharmonic, The Naples Philharmonic, The Pasadena Symphony, and the California Philharmonic. Especially at home with contemporary music, some of Ms. Hill’s World Premiers and projects include: Bright Sheng’s The Phoenix for soprano and orchestra, Sakagawea in Michael Ching’s opera Corps of Discovery on the Louis and Clark expedition, Sally Hemings in Glenn Paxton’s opera Monticello on the controversial personal life of Thomas Jefferson, Ticie in On Gold Mountain, an opera by Nathan Wang commissioned by Los Angeles Opera on the novel by best selling author Lisa See, Sara’s Diary: 9/11, a dramatic song cycle on prose by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Leroy Aarons for live radio broadcast, Grammy award winning composer Peter Boyer’s On Music’s Wings for soprano, orchestra and 300 children and both the roles of Rosalba and Florencia Grimaldi in Daniel Catan’s acclaimed opera Florencia en el Amazonas. In the genre of film Ms. Hill was chosen by legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith to record the title track The Mission which opens Paramount’s Blockbuster film The Sum of All Fears, starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman. Amazon.com remarks in their review of the soundtrack CD, “what sets it apart is the operatic performance of Shana Blake Hill…a stirring opening which proves to be the highpoint of the score.” Ms. Hill’s performance of The Mission was recently chosen to be part of Paramount Studio’s newly released 90th Anniversary Favorite Soundtrack Compilation CD. Other media credits include solos on the soundtracks of the feature film Red Dirt and the Sci-Fi Series Seven Days to Midnight. Highlights of Ms. Hill’s recent engagements and notable upcoming events include: The release on the Naxos label of Bright Sheng’s The Phoenix with The Seattle Symphony and Gerald Schwartz, Susannah with Opera Pacific, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas with Cincinnati Opera, Secrets of the Sky and Sea with Berkshire Opera as well as a solo recital on their Vocal Colors series entitled Art in Nature, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Opera Southwest, Berlioz Romeo and Juliet with Louisville Symphony, Bruckner Te Deum and Beethoven 9 with The New West Symphony, Mahler 4 and Canteloube’s “Chants D’Auvergne” with Jorge Mester and the Pasadena Symphony (also with The Naples Philharmonic), Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with Pasadena Symphony, Dvorak Stabat Mater with The Angeles Chorale, and two solo appearances with The Pasadena Pops Orchestra, Ms. Hill also appears in recital, in North Carolina, and Vermont, with The Verdi Chorus for their 25th Anniversary Gala in Los Angeles. Born in North Carolina and raised in the Philadelphia area, Ms. Hill received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, her Master of Music from The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and is an Alumna of The Los Angeles Opera’s Resident Artist program.