Listen for Life
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Visit Listen
for Life at:
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Travels with Music
Donna Stoering
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Artists
This page will act as a jumping-off point for bios, photos, videos,
links, and other resources for many
of the artists who have interacted with Listen for Life
since its founding in 1998.
Currently showcased are the 8 musicians and 2
composers involved in the
upcoming (Jan 8th, 2012) Listen
for Life concert at Carnegie Hall, New York...
Musicians:
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DONNA STOERING (www.donnastoering.com)
is
internationally renowned as a concert performer, Marshall Scholar,
keynote speaker, award-winning recording artist, composer, author,
television presenter/producer, Artist in Residence at Oxford
University, and former Artistic Ambassador of both UK and USA. She has
been performing public concerts since age 5, composing, directing and
producing her own musicals since age 13, and coaching music performers
and teachers (both privately and in music schools worldwide) since the
age of 14. After completing her BA and MA degrees in music and
sociology at age 19, she studied intensively with Mary Sauer, pianist
of the Chicago Symphony, and eventually became a protégé of the late
Sir Georg Solti who recommended her to orchestras and music festivals
across Europe. Donna has been performing worldwide ever since as a
critically acclaimed concert pianist, vocal soloist, and choral
conductor, and she has been the youngest-ever judge of international
music competitions in Russia, Italy, Canada, UK and USA. She has given
Master Classes for the major music conservatories worldwide and has
been the subject of one-hour specials on the BBC, PBS, NPR, HKRT and
several other international networks. She has been offered her own
television channel in Europe and Asia, and founded companies in both
the UK and USA that use music programs, projects and productions to
create positive change in the world.
Donna
is the Founder and Artistic Director of Listen for Life
(which has thus
far impacted 9 million people in 55 countries), the author of an
eagerly awaited upcoming book, “Change Your Music, Change Your Life”,
and the creator of the global movement for Multicultural Music Day on
January 8th worldwide, of which the Carnegie concert will be the
cornerstone event, celebrating the power of cross-cultural music to
offer nourishment, peace and build bridges of understanding.
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YAIR
DALAL (www.yairdalal.com)
- composer, violinist, oud player and singer - is a prolific
musician whose family came to Israel from Baghdad, and this background
inspired him to create new Middle Eastern music by interweaving the
traditions of both Iraqi and Jewish Arabic cultures. Over the last
decade he has created 11 albums, showcasing his extensive skills in
classical and Arabic music, and performed with hundreds of celebrated
artists from both genres such as Maestro Zubin Mehta, Jordi Savall, and
Hamza El Din. Dalal works to preserve the Babylonian musical heritage
and the music of the Beduin, but he is also a peace activist, devoting
much of his time and energy to helping remove ideological barriers
between different cultures, in particular between Jews and Arabs. Dalal
was the initiator of Mediterranean Musical Dialogue in Israel and
performed at the Nobel Peace Prize gala concert in 1994 honoringYitzhak
Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat.
Yair
has been a treasured part of the Listen
for Life family since 2004, and
is a featured in several Listen
for Life productions including the
highly acclaimed series Travels
with Music (www.travelswithmusic.org).
Yair has for quite awhile been wanting to perform with UK violist Erin
Nolan so he is excited to be premiering a work being written for the
two of them, (along with pianist Donna Stoering) by Israeli composer
Avner Dorman, as part of the Listen for Life program for Carnegie Hall
and beyond.
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NASER
MUSA
(www.nasermusa.net)
is a Jordanian of Palestinian decent who began studying Arabic music at
an early age while living in Amman, and moved to the USA in 1982.
Throughout his career, he has combined Arabic maqams with Western
elements, to present a style of Arabic music that is understood or
appreciated by the Western listener. Naser is in great demand as an Oud
and vocal instructor, songwriter, award-winning composer and versatile
studio musician. One of his recordings won the GSCA award for best
score and sound track of 2010. He has recorded with pop stars
Shakira and Beyonce, shared the stage with Lebanese and Egyptian music
stars, and played on numerous albums, including the soundtrack of Mel
Gibson’s film "The Passion of the Christ" and in other Hollywood
projects. Naser’s performances have included Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy
Center, Hollywood Bowl, the United Nations and Chicago’s Symphony Hall.
For the past 5 years Naser has been giving lectures at universities,
touring worldwide, and working as a peace activist through his music.
Listen
for Life was introduced to Naser by our mutual friend Yair
Dalal, and
we all immediately began discussions around the idea of bringing the
two of them, along with Syrian percussionist Faisal Zedan, all together
on one stage - not only at Carnegie but in as many cities around the
globe as we can, to make a musical statement for peace in the coming
year.
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FAISAL
ZEDAN
(www.faisalzedan.com)
was born in 1972 in Oum D’Baib, Syria, and immediately fell in love
with the sound of the derbakki. After intensive studies in
both Arabic classical and contemporary music, he gradually became a
master of three percussion instruments, the derbakki, the tar and the
riqq. He moved to the USA in 1992 and joined the acclaimed UCLA Near
East Music Ensemble. Faisal has since become a founder of several music
groups: Kan Zaman, Youm, the It Talaata percussion group, and his most
recent group Ajyal, which preserves and performs diverse genres of
traditional music and dance from the Arab world. He is also a performer
in three other groups: Eliyahu & Qadim, Stellamara, and
Zikrayat. Faisal Zedan’s new recording “Madar” has been released in
2010 to high critical acclaim.
In
2010 Faisal began working with Listen
for Life, as a participant and
leader in our new MusicMessage
Campaign programs for inner-city schools
and our UN-requested music festivals for Peace Day worldwide. Faisal is
extremely popular in any of our projects, programs or productions
because of his genuine warmth and incredible musicianship.
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ERIN
NOLAN (www.erin-nolan.com)
(born 1981) is an avid chamber musician, world-music performer and
orchestral player who grew up in the UK and Italy, studying piano,
violin and viola from a very early age. Her primary mentors have been
James Dunham and Ivo Van der Werff (of the Medici Quartet), but she has
also coached with the Guarneri, Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets and
has been a frequent participant at Tanglewood Music Festival. After
traveling to Bosnia in 1998, Erin developed a strong interest in
cross-cultural music/improvisation, and she’s now performed that style
in Croatia, Lebanon, Bosnia and Panama. Erin has performed with Yo Yo
Ma and the Silk Road Project in four concerts at Carnegie (Zankel)
Hall, and has also toured throughout Europe with Russian music legend
Boris Grebenshikov in his new traditional music group. From 2006-2010
Erin was based in London and touring with the English Chamber
Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Erin’s viola can be heard on several CDs, and composers around the
world have written pieces for her to perform, including Avner Dorman’s
new work that will be premiered at Carnegie.
Erin
is also the founder of Notes for Nourishment (www.notesfornourishment.org),
a global project that enables musicians to donate their time and
talents to play benefit concerts that raise money for a variety of
worthy causes. Notes for Nourishment is a project under the Listen for Life
umbrella. She and Listen
for Life founder Donna Stoering have performed concerts
together worldwide for many years.
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VAN-ANH
VANESSA VO
(www.vananhvo.com)
dedicates her life to creating music on the dan Tranh (16-string
zither) and other traditional instruments of her culture, fusing her
traditional Vietnamese foundation with a freshness of new structures
and compositions. She has been a collaborator and solo artist with such
musicians and groups as Kronos Quartet, China Spirit Music Ensemble,
Nguyen Le, Paul McCandless, and SOMEI Taiko Ensemble. Van-Anh has been
co-composer and arranger for the Oscar-nominated film Daughter from
Danang (2002), a composer and performer on the soundtrack
for the
Emmy®-winning program Bolinao
52 (2008), and on the award-winning film A Village Called Versailles
(2009). Ms Van-Anh began studying the dan
tranh from the age of four, and graduated from the Vietnam Academy of
Music. In 1995, Van-Anh won the Vietnam National Dan Tranh Competition.
She has since performed in more than fourteen countries and recorded in
many broadcast programs inside and outside of Vietnam. She now lives in
California where she teaches dan tranh and other Vietnamese traditional
instruments, and in October 2011 she was a speaker and performer at the
TEDx conference.
Van-Anh
Vanessa Vo has been a highly valued member of the Listen for Life
family since 2010, when she was one of 120 international musicians who
generously donated their cultural gifts to perform in Listen for Life’s
annual UN International Peace Day (www.listenforlife.org/peaceday)
music events that we held in the United States, UK, and Eastern Europe.
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PATRICK
LANDEZA
(a.k.a. Patrick Kahakauwila Kamaholelani Landeza) (www.patricklandeza.com)
is an award-winning
recording artist, singer/songwriter, and producer who is considered a
leading exponent of the Hawaiian slack key style. Born and raised in
Berkeley to Hawaii-born parents, Patrick began guitar while in high
school and soon became a protégé of the Hawaiian slack-key masters,
dedicating his life to sharing this art form with the world. At 34, he
was the youngest recipient of the prestigious Kapalakiko Aloha Spirit
award, and he has received the 2010 Hawaii Music Award and the Na Hoku
Hanohano nomination, Hawaii’s equivalent to the Grammy Awards. He is
the only mainland born artist of Hawaiian descent to ever be nominated
for this honor. Patrick is the founder of The Institute of Hawaiian
Music and Culture and is responsible for planting the seeds for many
Hawaiian music performers to share their culture in concert tours on
the mainland.
Patrick
first became involved with Listen
for Life as a performer in the UN International Peace Day
events of 2010. Offstage after performing, he turned to LfL founder and
artistic director Donna Stoering and shared his dream of bringing
Hawaiian traditional music to Carnegie Hall. Vietnamese artist Van-Anh
Vanessa Vo, who was the next performer onstage, was immediately invited
to be part of a core group of Carnegie performers - and the plan was
born.
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Read Patrick's Press
Release about the Jan 8th 2012
Carnegie Hall concert
"The Power of Eight" |
TAYLOR
EIGSTI
(www.tayjazz.com)
is a NY-based, 27 year old jazz phenomenon who began playing at age 4
and opened for his friend and mentor, jazz pianist David Benoit, when
he was 8. At 12, Eigsti opened for Diana Krall and Al Jarreau and at
13, he sat in with Dave Brubeck, who commented, "Taylor is the most
amazing talent I’ve come across. Remember him." During his high school
years in northern California, Eigsti worked with respected jazz and
classical artists alike, performing with singers Frederica von Stade
and Sylvia McNair, as well as with numerous symphony orchestras. Eigsti
has performed to rave reviews at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and
the Montreal Jazz Festival, and has now released a total of seven
albums of his own, each one receiving 4-star reviews from Billboard
Magazine, All Music Guide, and DownBeat. Winner of two Grammy
nominations, he was the featured performer on a live recording at the
Tanglewood Jazz Festival and can also be seen in several BET concert
specials, filmed at Lincoln Center and in the British West Indies. Most
recently, Taylor composed/performed the soundtrack for Adrien Brody’s
latest film!
Taylor
first met Listen for Life’s
founder Donna Stoering through their mutual friend, composer Brent
Heisinger, who had by coincidence written specific pieces for each of
them to premiere. Taylor was impressed with the scope and nature of
LfL’s goals and they have been looking forward to sharing the Carnegie
stage ever since.
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COMPOSERS:
The Listen
for Life concert at Carnegie Hall on January 8th 2012
["The Power of Eight"] will feature premieres of works by AVNER DORMAN and
BRENT HEISINGER.
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AVNER
DORMAN
(www.dormanavner.com)
(born 1975) has quickly risen to become one of Israel's most successful
and renowned composers. At the age of 25, he became the youngest
composer to win Israel's prestigious Prime Minister's Award for his
Ellef Symphony, and that same year he was awarded the Golden Feather
Award from ACUM (the Israeli Society of Composers and Publishers).
Since coming to the United States, Dorman has received several
international awards from ASCAP, ACUM, and the Asian Composers League.
Dorman's unique approach to rhythm and timbre has attracted some of the
world's leading conductors, including Zubin Mehta, Marin Alsop, Asher
Fisch, and Simone Young, to bring his music to international audiences
of the Israel Philharmonic, NY Philharmonic, and orchestras of Munich,
Hamburg, Vienna, Nashville and Cabrillo Music Festival, among others.
Dorman aims to combine rigorous compositional construction with the
sense of spontaneity and excitement usually associated with jazz, rock
or ethnic music. His two percussion concerti are quickly becoming
staples of the repertoire and he has also written unique works for
mandolin, piccolo, or saxophone as soloists with orchestra. A pianist
and chamber music devotee, Avner has composed many successful works for
those genres as well, and their subsequent recordings have received
wide critical acclaim. Dorman's fresh, spontaneous style lends itself
well to the screen and he has written the music for Nitzan Aviram’s
award-winning film Son. Avner Dorman is exclusively published by G.
Schirmer, Inc. and some of his works are available on NAXOS records.
Violist
Erin Nolan met Avner Dorman when both of them were participants in a
project of Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road project that culminated in 4
performances at Zankel Hall a few years ago. She learned that he had
successfully arranged works for Yair Dalal to perform on his oud as
well, so Listen for Life
invited Avner to compose a new work named "Oud, Viola, Piano"
for Yair, Erin, and Donna to premiere on the Carnegie Hall program.
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BRENT
HEISINGER
(www.brentheisinger.com)
says about his music, “My works bounce from one palette to another. I
have no desire to own a style.” This approach is evidenced in the
diversity of his music that has been published/performed throughout the
world. Nubes Aztecos(Invocacion y Canto) received performances in
Mexico and Costa Rica, his Essay for Band and his March for Timpani and
Brass are both enduringly popular throughout Western Europe, and
“Eklektikos— In Five Pieces”, has been performed in USA, Israel,
Finland, Brazil, and Asia. Embracing a new direction
involving considerable improvisation, Heisinger's 2005 work "Ekta
(“oneness”), was created for unusual scoring (solo piano, tabla, jazz
bassist, drum kit, string orchestra and percussionists) and integrated
an Indian raga and tals with American jazz in a “classical” orchestral
setting. "Ekta" was recently heard with jazz pianist Taylor Eigsti in
the piano role, to ecstatic reviews. Heisinger’s work “A Walk Within
Winter” which will be given its Carnegie premiere by
pianist Donna
Stoering, was composed for her and has been performed in Russia,
Finland, Switzerland, Poland, England, Brazil, and many other
countries, as well as throughout continental USA and Hawaii.
Brent
Heisinger has been a tremendous supporter of Listen for Life
since its inception, and served on the global team that worked together
to create LfL's extremely successful series, Travels with Music.
He
also introduced Taylor Eigsti to Donna Stoering, when Taylor performed
Brent’s tremendous work “Ekta” with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra and
additional soloists. |
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