Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series presents:   The First Annual R.C. and Tina Vasavada Concert featuring: Rebecca Rust, violoncello Friedrich Edelmann, bassoon Dmitry Cogan, piano Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. at the Gualala Arts Center

Read the Review by Iris Lorenz-Fife

Rebecca Rust (violoncello), Friedrich Edelmann (bassoon) and Dmitry Cogan (piano) will perform compositions by Loeillet, Beethoven, Glinka, Otmar Mácha and Richard Strauss at Gualala Arts Center on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.

Rust and Edelmann have played together in duo and larger chamber-music groups for over 30 years. By offering either full evening concerts with well crafted duo repertoire for this unusual instrument combination (Mozart, Rossini and others) or by adding piano and including works especially composed for them as a trio or by playing evenings with a String-Trio and Bassoon (works from the classical period), these outstanding musicians have garnered international attention.

Married 34 years, Rust and Edelmann met when the Bay Area-born Rust won a scholarship to play in a youth orchestra in Belgium. At that time the German-born Edelmann was a mathematic student and hobby bassoonist. After the couple met, they spent the following Christmas together playing duets, and the rest is history. As for being a "hobby bassoonist," Edelmann would go on to become the Principal Bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (1977-2004).

"Through classical music, we want to reach people's hearts, from heart to heart, feeling to feeling, to spread harmony, peace, understanding in the world, as well as express the fun of living, singing, dancing, playing," said Rust. "And when one is sad, music is a great comfort."

Rebecca Rust, Violoncello (Cello)

Praised by Carlo Maria Giulini for her "exceptional musicality," the American cellist Rebecca Rust, a native of California, U.S.A. received her first piano lessons with her mother at the age of five and began cello lessons with Margaret Rowell, Cello Professor at the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford, at the age of nine.

Margaret Rowell: "Rebecca Rust is one of the most talented cellists that I have had the pleasure of teaching. Blessed with a beautiful ear and facility, she has used these gifts as tools to dig deep into the music intself, thereby giving her listeners a profound musical experience. Rebecca Rust is a brilliant cellist."

At age thirteen she was a prizewinner of the Mendelssohn Competition and at age fourteen a prizewinner in the California Cello Club Competition. The first prizes in the "Mu Phi Epsilon" Competition and the Berkeley Piano Club made it possible for her to begin studies in New York with Bernard Greenhouse (Casals' pupil and cellist of the Beaux-Arts-Trio).

Bernard Greenhouse: "Rebecca Rust is what I consider, one of the important young cellists to come from the American musical scene."

She became a member of the Christmas String Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Schneider, and received a scholarship to study with the Lenox Quartet.

After graduating "cum laude" in New York, she continued her studies with Paul Szabo (Casals' pupil and cellist of the Vegh Quartet) at the Cologne College of Music, earning there a soloist diploma "with honors." During this time she was also solo cellist of the "Orchestre Mondiale des Jeunesses Musicales" under Karel Ancerl. Master classes with Mstislav Rostropovich followed in the USA (as one of five participants from over one hundred applicants) and in Basel, Switzerland, where in the final concerts she appeared as soloist, playing the Lalo Concerto, with the Basel Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich. This was followed by solo concerts and radio productions in Europe, the USA, and in Japan (since 1992 regular concert tours with concerts in Tokyo, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kobe, Sendai, Mito, Hiroshima, Miyako (Okinawa), and in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, including appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (Sergiu Celibidache was the patron of her debut in Tokyo's Suntory Hall in October 1992).

At the invitation of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rebecca Rust played concerts in Africa (Morocco, Tunisia), Poland (Warsaw, Stettin, Danzig), Prague (concerts and radio productions for Prague Radio), Kobe and Tokyo (memorial concerts for the victims of the Hanshin earthquake of 1995) and Israel in February 2007.

Rebecca Rust plays a Master-Cello by William Forster (1791), which formerly was owned by Prince Charles, who also played on it.

Friedrich Edelmann, Bassoon (Fagott)

Friedrich Edelmann grew up in Kaiserslautern, Germany. He studied with Alfred Rinderspacher (Prof. in Mannheim), Klaus Thunemann (Prof. in Hamburg-Hannover-Berlin), and Milan Turkovic (Prof. in Vienna). After his diploma in mathematics ("Staatsexamen") in Heidelberg, he joined the orchestra of the "Pfalztheater" in Kaiserslautern for three years and was 1977 - 2004 Principal Bassoonist of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra ("Münchner Philharmoniker"), from 1979 until 1996 under Maestro Sergiu Celibidache and from 1999 until 2004 under Maestro James Levine. He won several first prizes in German national competitions and was a member of the World-Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales under Karel Ancerl, when he met the American cellist Rebecca Rust.

Together with his wife Rebecca Rust, Friedrich Edelmann now plays many concerts in America, Europe and Japan including radio- and TV-productions. As a teacher he gave courses for bassoon and chamber music in Venezuela, U.S.A., Moscow and Tokyo, Tel Aviv Israel and at VILLA MUSICA in Germany.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany supported concert-tours of solo chamber music by Friedrich Edelmann and Rebecca Rust to Prague, Warsaw, Sczecin, Gdansk, Tunis, Rabat and Casablanca as well as to Japan (Concerts for the Memory of the victims of the Hanshin-Earthquake in 1995 and as soloists together with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra) and to Israel.

For more information, visit Friedrich Edelmann's website.

Dmitry Cogan, Piano

Born in Moscow in 1963, pianist Dmitry Cogan began music studies at the age of six at the Central Music School in Moscow. In 1974, he immigrated with his family to the United States and settled in San Francisco. He studied conducting at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and continued his piano studies with Vladimir Pleshakov and Maria Cysic. In 1979, he moved to New York to study with Martin Canin at the Juilliard School, where he received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. Dmitry Cogan is a direct descendant of Alexandr Skrjabin.

He has performed publicly since age nine in Moscow. His American debut was in 1975 with the Peninsula Symphony in San Mateo, California. In 1976, he won the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley: his recitals in the San Francisco Bay Area have been favorably reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. Since 1980, he has appeared in numerous solo and chamber music concerts in the New York area. In 1981, he was prizewinner at the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition in New York; in 1982 won first prize at the American Music Scholarship Association International Piano competition in Cincinnati; in 1983 he was a laureate of the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition in Cleveland.

Dmitry Cogan gave his New York recital debut in October 1988 at Carnegie Hall to favorable reviews, and has appeared in recitals throughout the Northeast and California. He has also toured in France twice, performing in Paris, Nice, and other cities to enthusiastic reviews, and was laureate of the Jose Iturbi International Piano competition in Valencia, Spain. He toured Russia in 1993 and again in 1997, giving a series of concerts in Moscow, including the Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and in other cities, playing to capacity audiences.

Since 1985, he has also performed throughout North America and Asia with violinist Alexander Markov; their first compact disc was released worldwide on the Erato label.

Dmitry Cogan currently lives near San Francisco. He has often performed with Philip Quint throughout California in recent years.

Dmitry is a staff accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento and with clarinetist Patricia Shands have been released recently. He also teaches piano privately in the Bay Area.

Proudly sponsored by R.C. and Tina Vasavada.

Tickets are $25 for advance purchases; $5 more on the day of the concert (buy your tickets early!). Children and young people ages 7 through 17 are admitted free.

For advance purchase, go to Brown Paper Tickets or call them at 800-838-3006.
To purchase in person, visit the Gualala Arts Center or Dolphin Gallery in Gualala.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.