Episode 28: Rita Porfiris and the "Uncertainty of Fate" Festival

04/30/21 • 38 min

American violist Rita Porfiris has performed in major concert halls and music festivals worldwide as a chamber musician, orchestral musician, and as a soloist.

Currently the Associate Professor of Viola and Director of Chamber Music at The Hartt School, she has also been on the faculties of New York University, the University of Houston Moores’ School of Music, Florida International University, and the Harlem School for the Arts in New York. She has given master classes, lectures and clinics across the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Iceland, Taiwan, and the Dominican Republic.

Ms. Porfiris is a member of the Miller-Porfiris Duo and the Hartt Quartet. As a founding member of the Plymouth Quartet, she was in-residence at the Ojai Festival, Mainly Mozart, Point Counterpoint, and the Internationale Quartettakademie Prag-Wien-Budapest. She was the recipient of Austria’s prestigious Prix Mercure, a prize winner in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Primrose International Viola Competition, and a laureate of the Paolo Borciani International Quartet Competition.

In her 20 year-long career as an orchestral musician, 15 years of which were spent with the Houston Symphony, she worked under some of the most recognized conductors of the 20-21 Centuries, including Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christoph Eschenbach. Equally at home in a wide variety of genres, Rita has shared the stage with Burt Bacharach, Ray Charles, Bernadette Peters, Lyle Lovett, Rod Stewart, and Tony Bennett, to name a few.

Highlights of recent seasons include chamber concerts with Lynn Harrell, Joseph Kalichstein, and Jamie Laredo; tours to Israel, Europe, and Taiwan; sold-out concerto appearances at the historic Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany; Baltimore, Maryland and Lincoln, Nebraska; and a performance of the rarely played Romantic Rhapsody for Violin, Viola and Orchestra by Arthur Benjamin as part of the Miller-Porfiris Duo. In May 2016, the Baltimore Sun declared "Rita Porfiris proved an ideal soloist, as much for her richness of tone and impeccable articulation as for the warmth and subtlety of her phrasing."

Rita’s transcriptions for the viola of both classical music staples and pop favorites have been enjoyed worldwide by audiences and performers. Gramophone Magazine called her transcription of Gliere’s Eight Pieces Op. 39, recorded on the Miller-Porfiris Duo’s second CD “Eight Pieces,” "satisfying" and "sung with beautiful warmth." Recent acclaim from Fanfare for the Duo's third CD, entitled "Divertimenti" declares their playing "a lightning bolt" and speaks to the "color, fire, and passion."

Ms. Porfiris received both her BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School, studying with William Lincer. Other teachers and mentors included Paul Doktor, Norbert Brainin, and Harvey Shapiro.
Website
Uncertainty of Fate Festival

American violist Rita Porfiris has performed in major concert halls and music festivals worldwide as a chamber musician, orchestral musician, and as a soloist.

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Episode 27: Effective Practice with Krissy Bergmark

Krissy Bergmark is a tabla player, percussionist, and composer in the Twin Cities. Bergmark
centers her work on bringing tabla to new genres and cross-genres through composition and
performance. She has received commissions and grants through the Cedar Commissions, the
Jerome Foundation, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the Minnesota State Arts
Board for her tabla studies and compositions for tabla, percussion, and strings. She was also a
participant in the International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at Banff Center for Arts
and Creativity in 2018, and Silkroad Ensemble’s Global Musician Workshop in 2016. She
performs with her progressive folk trio Sprig of That, electronics and tabla duo Lo.mocean, and a variety of other musicians in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Chicago, and New York. Krissy is a
2010 graduate of Northern Illinois University and a 2012 graduate of the University of
Minnesota. She is an Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Gustavus Adolphus College. Krissy
endorses Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets. You can stay updated on her latest
recordings, projects, and performances via Facebook, Instagram, and krissybergmark.com.

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Episode 29: Gabe Bolkosky and Education for Happiness

Violinist and violist Gabe Bolkosky has been praised for the way he "takes audiences into his confidence and includes them" and described as having "the serenity of a master without a hint of coldness." He has performed and taught across the United States, abroad, working with all ages of musicians. He recently pioneered an online approach to music-making and collaboration from home. His organization, Education for Happiness, recently launched PhoenixPhest Virtual Online Chamber Music Immersive, culminating a 20 year in-person program. His focus educationally has been to help musicians in all developmental stages and levels of interest with a focus on inclusion.

Primarily a violinist, he performs a diverse repertoire of classical and contemporary works with different collaborative artists from many musical genres in many of the great concert halls. As a violist, Gabe helped found the Bayberry String Quartet in 2018 and continues to play in this group with his wife Steffani. To date, Gabe has released seven recordings that show his breadth as a musician focused in the areas of contemporary music, jazz, and nuevo tango as well as traditional classical music, with plans to expand into the world of DAW and BandLab. Over the last two decades, Gabe served as the executive director of The Phoenix Ensemble, a nonprofit organization dedicated to warm hearted and compassionate arts education.

Education for Happiness
Gabe's Website