Festival of the Arts
The 16th annual Festival of the Arts will be held March 12-15, 2008, involving the Departments of Art, Design, Music, Theatre and Dance.
The Department of Music will open the festival with a performance by guest artist L.A. Guitar Quartet, on Wednesday, March 12 at 7:30pm in the Music Recital Hall. Admission is $20 general and $5 for students. Celebrating their 27th year on the concert stage, the members of the GRAMMY-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet continue to set the standard for expression and virtuosity among guitar ensembles. John Dearman is a versatile guitarist whose repertoire ranges from samba to bluegrass, and from flamenco to classical. He enriches the sound of the LAGQ by performing on a unique seven-string guitar with extended upper and lower registers. John is currently the Director of Guitar Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Matthew Greif is the newest member of the Quartet. In addition to being a classical guitarist, he has an extensive background playing in other styles, such as jazz, rock, flamenco, and bluegrass. Matthew has taught at several colleges and universities throughout Central and Southern California. Acclaimed soloist, recording artist and professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, William Kanengiser is one of the few guitarists to have won the Concert Artists Guild New York Competition. Kanengiser may be best known as the classical guitarist in the 1986 film Crossroads. Celebrated as a world-class performer, author and teacher, Detroit-born Scott Tennant has been concertizing since the age of twelve. He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and is now on the faculty at the USC Thornton School of Music.
The Festival continues on Thursday, March 13 with a performance by our own Sac State Jazz Ensemble, featuring guest artist Dave Pietro on saxophone. The Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Steve Roach, will be performing at 8:00pm in the Music Recital Hall. Admission is $10 general and $8 for students and seniors. Dave Pietro has been a freelance musician living in New York City since graduating from the University of North Texas in 1987. He has toured with the bands of Harry Connick, Jr., Jon Fedchock, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, and Maria Schneider. He has also performed with Paul Anka, Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli, John Pizzarelli and the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He recently completed his Masters Degree in Jazz Composition at New York University.
Lorna Peters' harpsichord recital scheduled for Friday, March 14 has been CANCELLED due to injury.
The Festival will close on Saturday, March 15 with a concert featuring South Indian violinist Anuradha Sridhar. Anuradha Sridhar is the daughter and disciple of Srimathi Brahmanandam and the niece of the violin maestro Lalgudi Sri G. Jayaraman. Anuradha began her training in music at a young age of five and gave her maiden performance in Bangalore at the age of ten. Her first duet with her mother was at the age of twelve. Since, then, Anuradha has teamed up with her mother and given several concerts in India and the USA. As a young accompanist Anuradha was awarded the best violinist awards by the Music Academy for her performances during the years 1979, 1982 and 1984, 1999. She has lived in the United States since 1987, performing extensively as a soloist and an accompanist. In June of 1999, she launched Trinity Center for Music, a school to develop and mould good students of music and to serve and promote Carnatic music. Anuradha will be accompanied by Shriram Brahmanandam on mridangam and Mahadevan on the mohrsing. Admission for this concert is $15 general and $8 for students.
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