Described as a “violinist who most often takes your breath away” by Gramophone Magazine, and praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader.
Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she founded in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio performs regularly at summer chamber music festivals including Music in the Vineyards (CA), Tuckamore (Newfoundland, Canada), and Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA). Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as a soloist on the foremost stages of the U.S., including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. Currently Associate Professor of Violin and Viola and the Director of the Orchestral Career Studies Graduate Program at the University of Nevada, Reno, she is also a member of the University’s trio-in-residence, Argenta.
The pianist for this concert is Gregory Allen, a formidable soloist as well as collaborator. He is currently Professor of Piano at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has taught since 1973; he has become one of the most sought-after teachers in the country. He is also a founding member of the Chamber Soloists of Austin, a mixed ensemble that was chosen to appear at the Kennedy Center’s Texas Festival in 1991. The group has also toured South America as Artistic Ambassadors of the U.S. Information Agency. He was the Grand Prize Winner of the 1980 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv; he also won the Second Prize at the 1978 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, as well as top honors in the Los Angeles Young Musicians Foundation, Washington International, and Gina Bachauer Competitions. His concert engagements have included appearances with the New York, Los Angeles and Israel Philharmonics, the Brussels RTF and Jerusalem Radio Symphonies, and the orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Baltimore, Austin and San Antonio. He has appeared in recital at Washington’s Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium, and Brussels’ Palais des Beaux Arts.
Remarkably, Blanco music lovers will have the chance to hear these incredible musicians at the next Blanco Performing Arts concert, The One I Love, on February 21 at 7:30 pm at the Uptown Blanco Ballroom in a program of Mozart, Strauss, Paganini, Ken Benshoof, and Fazil Say. Tickets are available at BlancoPerformingArts.com or by calling 830-385-1173.
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