World-acclaimed pianist/collaborator, Sandra Rivers, will join local violinist Cecilia Johnson and the Toledo-based string quartet, the Scandia Quartet for a recital Sunday, October 21, 7:30 p.m. at the University of Toledo Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall. The group will also perform Monday, October 22, 8:00 p.m. at Adrian College, Michigan in the Herrick Chapel. The Scandia String Quartet consists of members: Cecilia Johnson, violin, Dana Mader, violin, Alice Petersen, viola, and James Anderson, cello.
The program will include Debussy’s one movement work for string quartet, “Danse,” the Grieg Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 45 in c minor, and the Brahms Piano Quintet, opus 34 in f minor.
Guest artist, Sandra Rivers has appeared in concert throughout the world, including Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Russia, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and extensively across the United States. Ms. Rivers has appeared at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Tanglewood, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Aspen, the Kennedy Center, and on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. She has worked with such noted conductors as Arthur Fiedler, Anshel Brusilow, Jean Morel, Isaiah Jackson, Michael Morgan and Keith Lockhart.
In addition to her solo career, for the past ten years Ms. Rivers has become widely known for her concert partnerships with many of the world’s leading soloists including Itzhak Perlman, Kathleen Battle, Kyung-Wha Chung, Anne Akiko Myers, Elmar Oliveira, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang among others. She performs regularly with Sarah Chang, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg among others.
While at the Juilliard School studying with Sascha Gorodnitzki, Ms. Rivers began to incorporate the art of chamber music and partnering with other artists. In 1978, she was awarded the Best Accompanist Prize at the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition, and shortly after she was appointed the official accompanist for the Naumburg International Violin Competition, the Mae Whitaker International Competition, the Vianna da Motta International Violin Competition and the Golden Music Festival in Lisbon. Her collaborations with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Sarah Chang have twice taken her onto the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. Ms. Rivers is a Steinway Artist and has recorded for RCA, EMI, CBS and Teldec. She has been a member of the accompanying faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music since 1982.
Cecilia Johnson serves on the string faculty of Adrian College and is a part-time instructor at the University of Toledo. She received her Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she first met and collaborated with Ms. Rivers. There, she studied with Jens Ellerman and Makoto Kaneshiro. She is founder and co-director of arts after school program CYMBAL (Community Youth Motivated by Arts Learning), now entering its 5th season. She has extensive orchestral experience, but now serves as the concertmaster of Sono Novo, a new socially conscious chamber orchestra in residence at Trinity Episcopal Church, as the concertmaster of the recently formed Ballet Theatre of Toledo Orchestra, and as first violinist of the Scandia String Quartet.
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