April 18, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. . The relaxed and unbuttoned Chamber Music on Tap series concludes the 2002-03 season with a return visit from "The Four Violas," led by Oregon Symphony Principal Violist Joël Belgique and violists Brian Quincy, Mara-Lise Gearman and Charles Noble, who will perform an evening of rather unconventional chamber music on Wednesday, May 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at BridgePort BrewPub. Chamber Music on Tap, the "listener-friendly" chamber music series sponsored by BridgePort Brewing Company, is presented by Fortissimo, an Oregon Symphony volunteer organization. The BridgePort BrewPub is located at 1313 N.W. Marshall.
The concert will feature a number of unusual genres and styles of music not usually performed in a classical concert, including a walk down memory lane with a '70s-'80's television theme song medley, a heavy-metal (à la viola) set, a PDQ Bach piece for viola eight hands, a few Celtic "Lord of the Dance"-style dances, original arrangements by Belgique for four violas, some marches, and, for variety, a "serious" work or two.
This light-hearted program reflects Belgique's diverse musical interests. Belgique, a strong advocate of new music, is also a member of the Fear No Music new music ensemble, and enjoys premiering contemporary works. He enjoys the informal atmosphere of the Chamber Music on Tap series and welcomes the opportunity to present the viola's unusual and humorous attributes with his Symphony colleagues.
Chamber Music on Tap is held upstairs in the BridgePort BrewPub's Heritage Room every third Wednesday of each month through May. The concerts provide audience members the opportunity to interact with musicians and socialize while sampling the brewery's homemade pizza and handcrafted, award-winning ales in the pub's unique building, a 100-year-old former rope factory.
The Four Violas will perform on Wednesday, May 21, at 6 p.m. at BridgePort BrewPub. Tickets are $6 for Fortissimo members, $10 for the general public and may be purchased in advance at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday - Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at the door, if available. All proceeds from the evening benefit the Oregon Symphony.
Born in Lansing, Michigan, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, by French parents, Joël Belgique first studied viola with Mikhail Boguslavsky, and later with David Holland at the Interlochen Arts Academy. His viola studies went on to include undergraduate work at the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Masters Degree from Brigham Young University. His principal teachers were Heidi Castleman, Clyn Barrus, David Dalton, and Laurent Nouvelhomme.
Before joining the Oregon Symphony in 1997 as principal violist, he was a member of the San Diego Symphony. He is a regular participant, and has acted as principal violist for the Grand Teton Music Festival. He also regularly performs chamber music with the Topaz Trio of Canada at the Festival of the Lakes in Alexandria, Minnesota, where performances are broadcast live for Minnesota Public Radio.
Mr. Belgique has been a soloist with several orchestras including the Utah Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the Yaquina Bay Symphony. With the Oregon Symphony he has performed Strauss's Don Quixote, Berlioz's Harold in Italy, and Bach's Sixth Brandenburg with stand partner Charles Noble. During the summer of 2002, he was a guest artist for the International Viola Congress in Seattle, Washington, where he led the Oregon Symphony viola section in a performance of the U.S. and Canadian national anthems and two other works, as well as a duo performance of George Benjamin's “Viola, Viola” with Mr. Noble.
He has participated in several music festivals including Mainly Mozart in San Diego, Spoleto in Italy, the National Repertory Orchestra in Keystone, Colorado, and Round Top in Texas. Mr. Belgique has collaborated as a chamber musician with artists such as Elmar Olivera, Leonard Pennario, Igor Gruppman, Ralph Matson, and in Portland with the Ethos Quartet and the Third Angel Ensemble. He is a strong advocate of new music and as a member of new music group Fear No Music, he has performed works by Schnittke, Svoboda, Penderecki, Berio and others.
As well as maintaining a private studio, Mr. Belgique is on faculty at Portland State University where in addition to his viola class, he teaches a course for string majors on orchestral techniques and audition preparation with colleagues from the Oregon Symphony.
Mara Lise Gearman began playing viola in the Seattle public school system.
After studying with Curtis
Institute alumna Susan Gulkis of the Seattle Symphony, Ms. Gearman went
on to study in Philadelphia. She has performed in festivals in Washington,
Oregon, New York, Vermont, Texas, South Carolina, Switzerland, the Netherlands,
Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. She has also been a finalist at the most
recent Primrose International Viola Competition and has performed with
orchestras in Washington and Colorado. After finishing her Bachelor degree,
Gearman studied with Roberto Diaz and Karen Tuttle. She currently resides
in Portland and is a member the Oregon Symphony’s viola section.
Charles Noble joined the Oregon Symphony as Acting Principal/Assistant principal violist in 1995. He is the founding violist of the acclaimed Ethos String Quartet, which will perform the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets beginning in the 2002-2003 season. He was first-prizewinner of the 1993 Seattle Ladies Musical Club Competition, received the 1995 C.D. Jackson Award by a vote of the faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center and was winner of the 1995 Israel Dorman String Prize at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
His solo appearances include two performances of the Mozart Sinfonie Concertante, the West Coast premiere of the Joseph Castaldo Viola Concerto, and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with Oregon Symphony Principal violist Joël Belgique, and the Bruch “Romanze for Viola and Orchestra,” all with the Oregon Symphony. Other solo appearances include the Cascade Festival of Music, Chico Symphony (CA), the Vermont Youth Orchestra, Tacoma Youth Symphony, Tacoma Young Artists Orchestra and the Portland Youth Philharmonic. He was a member of the faculty at the 1998 National Youth Orchestra Festival at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and is co-founder and a member of the faculty of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute in Seattle, Washington.
Mr. Noble has published two articles on audition preparation appearing the “The Strad” magazine, and his profile of violist Roberto Díaz appeared in the January 2003 issue. He was one of three American violists invited to tour Japan with the Super World Orchestra, whose roster included members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. In December of 2000, he was visiting master teacher at the University of Nevada at Reno. He was a featured artist performer at the 2002 International Viola Congress in Seattle, WA, where he performed George Benjamin’s “Viola, Viola” with his stand partner and friend, Oregon Symphony Principal Violist Joël Belgique.
Brian Quincy is currently a member of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble. He has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, and is the former Principal Viola of the Sacramento Symphony. Mr. Quincy has participated in the Tanglewood Fellowship program, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the La Jolla Chamber Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West. He is a graduate of the USC School of Music where he studied with Donald McInnes.