MSO | The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony is pleased to announce
a program of great orchestral masterpieces and exciting guest artists
for its 2009-2010 Season Series.

The Opening Concert in early October will showcase Gilles Apap, a French violinist of breathtaking virtuosity, internationally acclaimed, who also likes to be an entertainer as a “fiddler”, playing all styles of music with the same joy and dazzling talent.

The Holiday Concert, with its traditional medley of holiday favorites, including selections of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, will bring to our audience for the first time Amy Lynn Call, celebrated in the European press as a dramatic coloratura Soprano, and Brian Ming Chu, a Baritone with a mellow and warm voice of great appeal.

To start an outstanding Season Series, Gilles Apap will be our soloist for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Ravel’s Tzigane. Gilles is a fascinating personality, handling his violin with extraordinary dexterity, an unequaled technique, a dazzling bow. As an entertainer or a serious musician, interpreting folk tunes or the great classical works, he is completely at ease and will mesmerize you. He will also charm you with his impish smile – even his eyes seem to smile, and his infectious laugh!

We will present first his early biography, relating his personal recollections, then his professional biography, capturing his diversified experience, acclaimed all over the world, hailed by his friend Yehudi Menuhin as “THE violinist of the 21st Century”.

In his own words:

I began playing the violin at the age of seven with no desire whatsoever. Started again at nine with a little more desire thanks to my dear Gaby Gaglio, of the Nice Conservatory, my dear Dede Robert, a friend of the family, my dear Veda Reynolds at the Lyon Conservatory and of course, Marie-Claude Apap, my creatress, who brought me without my request, on Planet Earth. But I thank her for it. So anyway, these teachers taught me how to play Sevcik and Kreutzer almost in tune and concertos with vibrato on every note, almost in tune. At the same time, I listened to the late, greats —Fritzi, Yehudi and Zino. Learned more about crusty, old Jascha through the great Nina Bodnar.

If you want to know who my favorite composer is, well I like everything I play or I would not be playing it, unless of course, the money's good. Then I'll play it, but I'll be sure not to play it again, unless the money's good.

I started playing the fiddle at the age of twenty-six. Better late than never.

It took me seventeen years to realize (with all due respect to dead composers), that there was something out there that could open my third eye and all my chakras--Folk Music. I had listened to a little bit of jazz, blues, swing and gypsy music before, but never heard the sounds of Tommy Jarrell, Kevin Burke, Bill Monroe, Ramanujam, his son Balaji, and Dennis McGee.

Then there were my traveling buddies. The great Jimmie Wimmer, who taught me 'The Cumberland Gap' and some Irish tunes for free and my other buddy Phil Salazar who charged me $27.48 for an hour of blue grass, recorded 'Sally Gooden' for me, and claims I asked him how to play dirty like him. On my 27th birthday, (which was the 21st of May, 1963 in Bougie, Algeria) Phil brought me to my first group therapy at the Strawberry Music Festival in Yosemite, which cured me from all mind diseases that I had contracted in French conservatories and American institutes over the years. I listened to my friends Ken and Jeannie Kepler who, as well as playing Cajun tunes, got into this good and grounded traditional New Mexican fiddle music of the Guachi Indians. Peter Feldman, well, we both got divorced at about the same time. He cooked me some good pea soup and asked if I could play 'Dixie Breakdown.'

Then what happened? Well, I still have this love for these living and dead classical composers.

Yehudi Menuhin wrote something to me. If my life depended on it, I couldn't put a phrase like that together. So here it is. I hope you like it.

"The different folklorique music, particularly that of people who, sadly, are on the path of extinction, it's up to us to assimilate it, it's up to us to be inspired by what it has to offer, by its characteristics, and to grant this music a new resurgence by way of the creative imagination of musicians who are able to play anything. For me, you are the example of a musician of the 21st century. You represent the direction in which music should evolve; on the one hand, the patrimonial respect of the precious classical works, presenting them in the correct style and with the intense communication that was appropriate to their time; on the other hand, the discovery of contemporary [popular] music and its creative element, not only in the improvisation, but also in the interpretation."

Hailed “THE violinist of the twenty-first century” by the late Yehudi Menuhin, Gilles Apap seems to find praise wherever he turns. He is embraced worldwide for his distinct talent of incorporating styles of music as diverse as American bluegrass and Gypsy fiddling with the standards of the classical repertoire, suggesting that Apap is of the opinion that all music is created equal.

Apap’s recent highlights include performances at Paris’s prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet with the Pas-du-Loup Philharmonic Orchestra; with the Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve in Alban Berg’s demanding violin concerto; with the WDR Radio Orchestra in Cologne, Germany; with the Bursa Symphony orchestra in Turkey; and with the Orchestre Philharmonic de Nice. Apap takes the listener on a musical voyage from Bach and Ysaye to Irish jigs and American folk music with a program of solo violin works featured in recitals throughout Europe and the United States and on his latest CD, Music for Solo Violin.

In the fall of 2006, Apap joined the internationally-acclaimed Irish fiddler Kevin Burke in a tour with the Celtic Fiddle Festival in a collaboration that bridges the gap between classical and folk music. Colors of Invention, the fiery ensemble founded by Apap in 2000, features accordion player Myriam Lafar, double bassist Philippe Noharet and cymbalist Ludovit Kovac. These players continue to dazzle audiences worldwide with their virtuosity and inimitable renditions of Vivald’s Four Seasons and other classical favorites intertwined with traditional folk and gypsy tunes.

As a soloist, Apap has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Strasbourg Philharmonie, Orchestre National de Lille, San Francisco Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie Amadé Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale l’ile de France, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver and Winnipeg symphonies, Russian National Orchestra, New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, Santa Barbara Symphony, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonie de Bretagne, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Symphony, European Soloists Orchestra in Brussels, and the Tokyo Mozart Players among many others. A much sought-after clinician, Apap continues to inspire young musicians through workshops and master classes with residencies at the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara, California), Malmo Music Academy (Sweden), Le Grenier de la Mothe (France), Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp, University of Benares in India and other educational institutions.
Born in Algeria, Gilles Apap was raised in Nice where his violin studies commenced with André Robert. He continued his education at the Conservatoire de Musique de Nice with Gustave Gaglio and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon with Veda Reynolds. He traveled to the United States to attend the Curtis Institute of Music and soon after, chose to settle in California. He was later appointed Concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and served in that role for over a decade. Apap’s talent was recognized by Yehudi Menuhin in 1985 when he brought himself to the attention of the great pedagogue by winning the Contemporary Music Prize at the prestigious International Menuhin Competition.

In March of 1999, at the invitation of Menuhin, Apap joined the Sinfonia Varsovia for concerts in Paris and Montepellier. These performances led to a very successful series of concerts at the 2000 Octobre en Normandie Festival in France, and further concerts and recording projects with the orchestra.

Apap’s various CDs can be found on his label Apapaziz Productions. His DVD documentary Apap Masala (produced by Idéale Audience) may be found, along with the recordings, at www.gillesapap.com.

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International soprano Amy Lynn Call returns to Oper Chemnitz (Germany) in 2010 as the Königin der Nacht which she performed in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2007 she repeated the same role in Döbeln and Freiberg. She makes her Charleston Symphony Orchestra debut in 2010 as Guest Soloist in "The Creation" and sings arias from Die Zauberflöte earlier that season. In 2008 she sang Violetta with the Austrian Embassy (Washington, D.C.) and Opera Ariasat the Deutsches Mozartfest in concert. Other repertoire includes Konstanze, Marguerite, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira. She is pleased to be making her Mid-Atlantic Symphony debut this season.

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Brian Ming Chu - baritone
(Baltimore, MD)
BFA, Cornell University (Architecture);
MMus, Graduate Performance Diploma, Peabody Conservatory

Baritone Brian Chu has garnered critical acclaim for his interpretations of music from the 17th century to the present, having worked with noted conductors and exponents, including William Christie, Malcolm Bilson, and Peter Schreier. He has collaborated with numerous choral ensembles, in repertoire including Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers with Boston's The King's Noyse, Bach's St. John Passion and Handel's Messiah with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra of New York, Mozart's Requiem and Handel's Israel in Egypt at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and the American premiere of Telemann's oratorio Die Auferstehung in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Chu has been a featured soloist with diverse groups along the eastern seaboard, including The Dryden Ensemble's series of Bach cantata concerts in Princeton and Pennsylvania, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, The Philadelphia Singers, Washington's Orchestra of the 17th Century and the Capitol Hill Chorale.

An avid recitalist, he has given concerts at Weill and Merkin Recital Halls in New York, and most recently was heard at the Phillips Collection in Washington for a program of song premieres. His collaborations with contemporary composers over the years have promoted the work of emerging talents, including Aaron Jay Kernis, Alan Mandel, and Richard Einhorn.

Brian's operatic credits encompass a wide range of styles, from French (Charpentier's Medee) and Italian (Cavalli's Egisto) baroque, to more standard roles including Aeneas, Belcore, Lescaut, Demetrius, and Rossini's Figaro. He has also appeared at the Caramoor Music Festival in New York in concert performances of bel canto opera.

Trained as a concert pianist, Mr. Chu studied to be an architect before pursuing his first love of music. Recent performances this season in the Washington metro area include Carissimi's Jephte, Handel's Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana, and Brahms' Requiem. Upcoming engagements include a program of Dvorak and Martinu songs at the Czech Embassy, a tour of the orchestral songs of Sibelius in Bulgaria, and Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer with the Hopkins Symphony in Baltimore. Email: bmingchu@yahoo.com