Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre was founded in 1999 by Chicago artists Joe Cerqua, composer and musician; Wilfredo Rivera, choreographer and dancer; and Matt Lamb, painter. The company's mission: to use multiple artistic forms (primarily dance and music) and the combined talents of our diverse company to convey intense personal narratives. Cerqua Rivera is proudly and visibly multicultural, exploring the intersection of heritage, culture, and identity through high quality art. Its unique culture of collaboration and diversity fosters magnetic connections between artists and audiences.
Cerqua Rivera is proud of its reputation, built over nearly 25 years, for compelling, complex, and timely artwork. With its intense focus on personal narratives, the combined talents of its diverse company, and the multiple artistic languages with which it communicates, Cerqua Rivera engages audiences in compelling human stories at once new and deeply familiar.
The Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre Home Page
YouTube video of CRDT's 5 minute highlight reel is available "American Catracho" (2019) 5 minute highlight reel.
Program Notes for the Evening's Concert
Internationally recognized for his energetic presence, imaginative programming, and compelling musicianship, Vinay Parameswaran is one of the most exciting and versatile young conductors on the podium today. American born and of Indian descent, Parameswaran is the Associate Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. In this role, he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in several dozen concerts each season at Severance Hall, Blossom Music Festival, and on tour. He also serves as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Parameswaran holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and political science from Brown University, where he graduated with honors. At Brown, he began his conducting studies with Paul Phillips. He received an Artist Diploma in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller as the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.
Appreciated for her elegance and effortless ability, Tai Murray creates a special bond with listeners through her mature phrasing and subtle sweetness. Her programming reveals musical intelligence. Her sound, sophisticated bowing and choice of vibrato remind us of her musical background and influences, principally, Yuval Yaron (a student of Gingold & Heifetz) and Franco Gulli. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004, Tai Murray was named a BBC New Generation Artist (2008 through 2010).
Murray has been described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "a violinist with more than technique on her mind" and a musician of "exceptional assurance and style." She has performed as guest soloist on the stages of such halls as the Barbican, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens, and Shanghai's Concert Hall.
A recipient of artist diplomas from Indiana University and The Juilliard School, Ms. Murray's recordings to date include an album of Ysaÿe sonatas (Harmonia Mundi, 2014), 20th Century: The American Scene (eaSonus, 2014), and a recording of Bernstein's Serenade (after Plato's Symposium), which was released in 2014 on the Mirare label.
Tai Murray joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2021. She plays a violin by Tomaso Balestrieri fecit Mantua ca. 1765, on generous loan from a private collection.
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Home Page
facebook video of Tai Murray performing Bruch Violin Concerto, III. Allegro energetico.
Program Notes for the Evening's Concert.
Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. Three years later, having moved to Normal, Illinois with his family, he also began studying violin. At the age of 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he became the first student in the school's history to receive diplomas in three performance areas – piano, violin and conducting. In recognition of this achievement and for his work in the field of classical music, Mr. Pratt received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins as well as an honorary doctorate from Illinois Wesleyan University after delivering the commencement address in 2012.
In 1992 Mr. Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and two years later was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, he has played numerous recitals throughout the US including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Chicago's Orchestra Hall and the NJ Performing Arts Center. His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, National, Detroit and New Jersey symphonies among many others. Summer festival engagements include appearances at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolftrap, Caramoor and Aspen and the Hollywood Bowl. Internationally, Mr. Pratt has toured Japan four times and performed in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Columbia and South Africa.
Also an experienced conductor, Mr. Pratt has conducted programs with the Toledo, New Mexico, Vancouver WA, Winston-Salem, Santa Fe and Prince George County symphonies, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Concertante di Chicago and several orchestras in Japan.
In November 2009, Mr. Pratt was one of four artists selected to perform at a classical music event at the White House that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and performing in concert for guests including President Obama. He has performed two other times at the White House, both at the invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Pratt is currently a Professor of Piano at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He also served as the Artistic Director of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati and is currently the Artistic Director of the Art of the Piano Festival at CCM.
Jessie Montgomery's Rounds is a new work, having had its world premiere on March 27, 2022. The piece was inspired by the imagery and themes from T.S. Eliot's epic poem Four Quartets. Early in the first poem, "Burnt Norton," we find these evocative lines:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
While working on the piece, Montgomery became fascinated by fractals (infinite patterns found in nature that are self-similar across different scales) and also delved into the work of contemporary biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber who writes about the interdependency of all beings. Weber explores how every living organism has a rhythm that interacts and impacts with all of the living things around it and results in a multitude of outcomes.
To help share some of this with the performers, Montgomery included the following poetic performance note at the start of the score:
Inspired by the constancy, the rhythms, and duality of life, in order of relevance to form:
Rondine – AKA Swifts (like a sparrow) flying in circles patterns
Playing with opposites – dark/light; stagnant/swift
Fractals – infinite design
Awadagin Pratt performs at the White House.
Jesse Montgomery's program note for Rounds.
The Symphoria Home Page
Program Notes for the Evening's Concert.
Michelle Merrill has been inspiring audiences with her sharply detailed and vibrant performances. A passionate and dynamic artist, she served four years as the Associate Conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where she also carried the title of Phillip and Lauren Fisher Community Ambassador. In addition to her growing guest conducting schedule, Ms. Merrill currently serves as Music Director of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia, where she has ignited the growth and expansion of the orchestra's offerings both on and off the stage.
Ms. Merrill's most recent and upcoming engagements include the Orchestre national d'Ile-de-France, National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Opera, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, West Virginia Symphony, Symphoria (Syracuse), Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and the Round Top Music Festival Institute. In past seasons, she has conducted concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, Orlando Philharmonic, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Boise Philharmonic, New Music Detroit, and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, where she formerly served as Assistant Conductor.
Michelle Merrill is a proud recipient of a 2016 Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award as well as the prestigious 2013 Ansbacher Conducting Fellowship as awarded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic and the American Austrian Foundation.
Born in Dallas, TX, Ms. Merrill studied conducting with Dr. Paul C. Phillips at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, where she holds a Master of Music Degree in conducting and a Bachelor of Music in performance. Apart from music, she loves cooking, running, hiking, and spending time outdoors with her husband, Steve Merrill, who serves as the principal percussionist of the Jacksonville Symphony.
The Symphoria Home Page
Program Notes for the Evening's Concert.
This series is made possible, in part, by grants from the Williams Family Foundation and the Wyckoff Family Foundation, by a continuing subscription from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, with funds from the Statewide Community Regrants program, a regrant program of New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Auburn Public Theater, and by the friends of Geneva Concerts.
