VERO BEACH — The Cultural Council of Indian River County is once again host to the SummerFest Classical Concert. This year’s location is Christ by the Sea United Methodist Church on A1A.
Global American Broadcasting Network is the local sponsor for the evening’s event and will broadcast the concert live via the internet.
Dr. Brooks-Bruzzese, artistic director for Symphony of the Americas, working with Dr. Marcos Flores at the church, decided to add a conductors workshop with 4 local conductors: Rev. Michael L. Carter, Minister of Music and Worship at First Baptist Church of Vero Beach; Matt Stott, orchestra director for the School District of Indian River County; Sean Srigley: Band Director for the School District of Indian River County; and Ryan Kasten, Associate Director of Music Ministry at The Community Church of Vero Beach.
Kids from the Academy for the Performing Arts will be greeters and help with ticket sales.
This wonderful event will take place on August 8. The workshop will start the evening at 5 p.m. Dr. Flores will rehearse at 6 p.m. and at 6:30 p.m. there will be a musicians’ reception.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available in advance for $25 by calling (772) 770-4857, by emailing Info@Cultural-Council.org, or from the website at www.Cultural-Council.org.
MasterCard and Visa are accepted, along with checks or cash.
The Symphony of the Americas celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012 and was designated as a major cultural institution in South Florida’s Broward County.
Each year, the Symphony’s internationally renowned Summerfest hosts an internationally acclaimed foreign chamber orchestra joined by selected Symphony of the Americas musicians for concerts throughout Florida and the Americas under Maestro Brooks-Bruzzese’s baton.
It is the longest running music festival event in Florida, and one of the highest rated cultural projects funded by Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs Cultural Exchange Grant Program.
The Symphony takes a leadership role in fostering cultural relations throughout Europe, the U.S., and the Americas through these musical exchanges with both European and American musicians in joint performance.
The Mission Chamber Orchestra of Rome are the guest performers this season. American Airlines is their major sponsor.
The Mission Chamber Orchestra, based in Rome, is an established international musical ensemble, both dynamic and alternative. During the past 4 years, this artistic and humanitarian chamber orchestra, formed by the organization Musicfor, has been acclaimed throughout Europe.
Its musicians are experienced professionals, graduates, and faculty members of noted European conservatories, devoted to presenting musical excellence and organizing performances which are of high humanitarian importance.
From Baroque to Contemporary, the MCO offers innovative programs to provide its audience with a wide range of musical choice, from Bach, to Beethoven, to Bartok and beyond, under the guidance of its Artistic Director, Lorenzo Turchi-Floris.
The Mission Chamber Orchestra has performed often for the Vatican and is now working on a project with the Vatican City to present an important music festival in 2013.
Lorenzo Turchi-Floris, pianist, conductor, composer, and Musical Director of the Mission Chamber Orchestra since 2009, is recognized as outstanding in the new generation of musicians and regularly invited by prestigious orchestras as soloist and guest conductor.
He is the founding musical director of the Mont Blanc Symphony Orchestra (1998) and the Mont Blanc Symphony Orchestra Choir (2005).
He studied in Italy with Paolo Bordoni, in Russia at the Rachmaninov Musical Institute, and under scholarship at the Ciem-Mozart (Switzerland).
He won “virtuosity” first prize with distinction at the conservatoire of Sion (Switzerland) and studied orchestration (1998-2002) at the Geneva Conservatoire of Music, with certification in counterpoint, orchestration, and conducting.
His international piano competition prizes include: Grand Prix of the U.S., Città di Ciampino, Città di Gargano, Città di Matera, Città di Roma A.I.D.I., XVIIa Selezione Nazionale Giovani Concertisti, Città di Pineto, and Città di Tortona.
Marilyn Maingart, Principal Flutist of the Symphony of the Americas and Palm Beach Pops, shows virtuosity in recordings, television, radio, Broadway, rock, opera, and chamber music all over the world. She studied at Philadelphia Music Academy and in master classes with Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Internationally, Marilyn was Principal Flutist of Italy’s “Opera Barga” in six weeks of Puccini operas. In Belgium, she was Principal Flutist of the Radio and Television Orchestra & the National Symphony.
She performed quartets with James Galway in London, and concertos with Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra of Hungary and Mont Blanc Chamber Orchestra of France.
In addition to flute, Marilyn was the featured soloist on electric piccolo in the avante-garde rock group “Soft Verdict” on their European and Japanese albums, and from 1998-2001 toured the Orient as soloist with the world renowned Montovani Orchestra.
Marilyn’s U.S. guest artist appearances include the Bergen Philharmonic under the baton of the N.Y. Philharmonic’s David Gilbert. In Colorado, she was a founding member and Principal Flute of Evergreen Chamber Orchestra and the Jefferson Symphony.
Marilyn has performed at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and appeared twice at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As Principal Flutist in over 25 Broadway productions, she has worked with Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Zero Mostel, Debbie Reynolds, James Taylor, and Judy Collins, among others.
Orlando Forte, Concertmaster, born in Cuba, studied at the National School of Art under full scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory, and received his masters at the Conservatory of Odessa, Ukraine.
In Europe, he has performed extensively, including the Festival of Contemporary Music in Nice. In the Americas, he has served as Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Havana.
Professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas in Mexico, he has performed under Herrera de la Fuente, and in recordings for Julio Iglesias, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and Jose Molina, among others.
He performs for the Symphony of the Americas, Miami City Ballet, and the Florida Grand Opera.
Maestro of South Florida’s acclaimed Symphony of the Americas, Dr. James Brooks-Bruzzese was born in Panama in a bilingual home. His mother was born in Colombia, and his late father was a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.
He received his doctorate in Opera Conducting and Musicology from Washington University in St. Louis. Maestro coached in a master class on the music of Bach under the baton of the great Pablo Casals.
Additional studies were with eminent conductors Leonard Slatkin of the St. Louis Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra, Ignace Strassfogel of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, and Richard Karp of the Pittsburgh Opera.
Their mentorship is evident in Maestro’s founding of the Augusta Opera with singers from the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Opera, and London’s Covent Garden, receiving critical acclaim from the Pittsburgh Post and Opera News Magazine.
His musicianship is acclaimed as “dynamic, exciting,and remarkably controlled, but simultaneously free spirited.”
Maestro founded the Florida Music Festival and Symphony’s Summerfest, now in its 21st summer season, bringing the fine artistic reputation of the Symphony to diverse audiences in great cultural capitals of the world as well as to rural areas, schools, and conservatories, and also to young people at home and abroad.
This major music festival takes place in Europe, the eastern seaboard of the U.S., and the Americas. Summerfest outreach performances have taken place in every country of Central America, four countries of South America, and five islands of the Caribbean.
The Berlin Symphony; Budapest’s famed Vigado Theater; the magnificent Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Capetown Opera Company of South Africa; Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires; Teatro Circulo and Salon Piazzolla in Argentina, and throughout the Soviet Union under the auspices of Gosconcert are the arenas that Maestro Brooks performed his artistic mastery stirring audiences worldwide.
Applause highlighting his work with orchestras and festivals on five continents has marked Maestro an outstanding conductor of the U.S.
He has appeared with major orchestras in Panama, Nicaragua, Romania, Germany, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland, Argentina, Russia, Austria, South Africa, Guatemala, Uruguay, Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Spain, Aruba, Turkey, Taiwan, Korea, Hungary and Malaysia’s Mozart Festival.
Maestro has served as Principal Guest Conductor of Mexico’s National Symphony of Xalapa. He is the first American to conduct the National Orchestra of Pleven, Bulgaria, receiving the official medal of the city.
In 2005, Maestro was honored at Washington’s Kennedy Center with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Award for the Arts in recognition of his lifelong work as a world-renowned conductor and his dedication to promoting classical music to youth around the world.
Maestro received the Critics Choice Award at Brazil’s famed Villa Lobos Festival in Rio. He has been recognized by heads of state and dignitaries all over the world.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan praised Maestro as an “Ambassador to Latin America for his exceptional musical talents and diplomatic skills.”
Brooks-Bruzzese’s twenty-nine compact disc recordings are with Pickwick Records in London under the Hallmark and Orchid labels as well as the Symphony of the Americas’ own label.
His recordings and broadcasts include legendary orchestras such as the Hungarian Virtuosi, Budapest Chamber Orchestra, Natal Philharmonic, and the Xalapa Symphony.
His recordings feature a diversity of works from Crazy for Gershwin and Hollywood Favourites, to Piazzolla tangos, and an extensive choice of inspiring string chamber music.
Marcos Daniel Flores was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He began his piano studies at the age of 16 with Rubén Malán and immediately entered the Bachelor’s Degree program in Music at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico.
There he studied piano performance with Luz N. Hutchinson (1990). Flores earned his Master’s Degree in Piano Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Barry Snyder (1994), and later earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Arizona State University where he studied piano solo performance with Caio Pagano (2004).
Dr. Flores has participated at the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina as well as in many master classes by renowned artists such as Nikolai Petrov, Harold F. Lewin, Mattias Fletzberger, and Samuel Pérez.
His private instruction includes piano lessons with Nina Svetlanova, Natalya Antonova, Carmen Or, Robert Weirich, and Randall Hodgkinson.
Dr. Flores was the recipient of the Conservatory Piano Medal and the Arturo Somohano Leadership Medal among other awards, and he has performed recitals and concerts in both Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Dr. Flores is currently the Organist/Pianist and Director of Worship Arts at Christ By The Sea UMC since October 2004. His ecumenical experience in church music includes conducting choirs, orchestras, and Christian bands in several traditional and contemporary church denominations.
Last year, Vero Beach Opera expanded its scholarship program to include piano scholarships for talented and committed young students with financial need to study under Dr. Marcos Daniel Flores.
The scholarships are funded exclusively through the generosity of donors.
For more information about making a tax deductible contribution, please call Vero Beach Opera at (772) 569-6933.