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Second Sundays at Two ~ Current Season

CLASSICAL CROSSROADS, INC.
~ and ~
ROLLING HILLS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
~ present ~
Second Sundays at Two

2021-2022 Concert Series

The Second Sundays at Two concert series, graciously hosted as a gift to the community by Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, sprang to life in January 2009. The near-perfect acoustics and excellent sight lines of the church's sanctuary soon made the series a favorite of aficionados and performing artists alike. Word spread on the classical music scene, and the series now draws leading artists from across the nation and around the world.

ROLLING HILLS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
26438 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates CA 90274
For a Google map, click here

For information, call Classical Crossroads at (310) 316-5574 or click here.

Free admission - Donations Appreciated

Click to see "Second Sundays at Two" recent past seasons:
[2020-2021] [2021-2022] [2022-2023]

To Safely Begin the 2021-2022 Season,
Concerts Will Be Videotaped and
Streamed-as-Live at the Scheduled Concert Time

Sign up above for e-mail concert reminders, which will have the internet links to the YouTube "Premieres" of the concerts, or check back here shortly before concert time.

Classical Crossroads invites a small number of verified fully vaccinated, top supporters of the concert series to the videotaping sessions. As the season progresses and the Covid situation improves, cautious steps are planned to return to live-audience concerts, with livestreaming for those who cannot attend in person.

To appreciate the streamed concerts, you are encouraged to set aside time as you would for a live-audience concert, get comfortable, and watch on a large-screen TV with a high-quality soundbar. Alternatively, watch on an iPad or other quality computer screen with headphones. Find the links to the videos, which are available to stream on-demand for one month, on Classical Crossroads' YouTube Channel.

Sunday, September 12, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

"Superb Technique and Profound Musicality"
~ Los Angeles Times

Pianist Althea Waites

Pianist
 ALTHEA WAITES

Internationally acclaimed pianist Althea Waites has concertized extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South Africa as a brilliant soloist, chamber musician and collaborative artist. She has participated in numerous festivals and has appeared on National Public Radio's Performance Today and at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Switzerland, Merkin Hall in New York City, the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C., and on Sundays Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to name a few.

Ms. Waites' recording credits include her acclaimed Black Diamonds CD, a landmark of selections by African-American composers: Florence Price, the first African-American woman to achieve national recognition; Margaret Bonds, a protégée of Price; William Grant Still, the dean of African-American composers; and Ed Bland, highly original and cutting edge. A Yamaha Artist, Ms. Waites holds degrees from Xavier University of Louisiana and the Master of Music degree in Piano from the Yale School of Music.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, October 10, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

A pianist of "unerring, warm-toned refinement,
revealing judicious glimmers of power"

~ Los Angeles Times

Pianist
ROBERT THIES

Pianist Robert ThiesPianist Robert Thies's solo recitals are highly regarded by aficionados not only for his consummate musicianship and his sensitive artistic interpretations, but for his illuminating observations about the composers and the selections. Thies first captured worldwide attention in 1995 when he won the Gold Medal at the Second International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. Robert Thies enjoys a diverse career as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has performed over 40 different concerti with orchestras worldwide.

A graduate of USC, his teachers have included Robert Turner and Daniel Pollack, both protégées of the legendary Russian teacher and pianist Madame Rosina Lhevinne and the great pianist Josef Lhevinne. Robert has an avid Southern California following. He is returning to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where he grew up, for his sixteenth appearance on the Second Sundays At Two series.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, November 14, 2021 at 2:00 p.m.

Collaboration of Two Stellar Artists

Pianist Bernadene Blaha  Violinist Laurence Kayaleh

Canadian Pianist                        Swiss Violinist      
BERNADENE BLAHA     LAURENCE KAYALEH

"a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line" ~ Piano and Keyboard magazine

Originally from Canada, Bernadene Blaha first came to international attention as a prizewinner in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition; the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Masterplayers International Competition, Lugano, Switzerland; and the 11th Annual International Piano Competition, New York City. This last award resulted in two highly acclaimed recital appearances, at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. Currently residing in Los Angeles, Professor Blaha has been a member of the Keyboard Faculty at USC's Thornton School of Music, since 1993.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Miss Kayaleh possesses the power of genius. . . . Music is in every instrumental intonation of hers, in every phrase, continued in the inimitable beauty of her violin's sounds.
~ Nesavisimaya Gazette - Moscow

International concert performer Laurence Kayaleh is an artist of deep musical insight, possessing a rich, singing tone and a natural feeling for style. Ms. Kayaleh's early career took her to prestigious music centers in the world: Paris, Prague, Brussels, Zurich, Sofia, Bern, Moscow, Modena, and Geneva, where she was soloist with such well-known orchestras as Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, Geneva's Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the RTBF Symphony Orchestra (Belgium), and the Basel Symphony Orchestra.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, January 9, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Two Acclaimed Artists & Good Friends
Share Their Passion for Chamber Music

Violinist/Violist Yura Lee                Pianist Steven Vanhauwaert

                          Violinist/Violist                         Pianist                  
                                  YURA LEE           STEVEN VANHAUWAERT

To be recorded on Friday, January 7, 2022 at Rolling Hills United Methodist Church. Please note: Yura Lee is stepping in on very short notice for the originally scheduled cello recital with Clive Greensmith. The First Fridays at First recital is being recorded at RHUMC instead of First Lutheran and the streaming date has been delayed one week to accommodate the change. Please find full recital information by clicking here.

Part I of a Recital in Two Parts

Part II of this recital was streamed on the following Friday
on Classical Crossroads' First Fridays at First! ~ fff series.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Stars of Tomorrow
~ from the ~

USCThornton
School of Music

GATEWAY QUARTET

Gateway Quartet

OLENA KASPERSKY and ALBERT YAMAMOTO violins
DAVID KANG viola, QUENTON BLACHE cello

The Gateway Quartet was formed in August of 2020 at the USC Thornton School of Music. Although there were limited performances during the pandemic, the quartet was fortunate to work with esteemed faculty from USC including Professors Yura Lee and Marcy Rosen. In the last year, they played in a masterclass exchange between USC and the Paris Conservatory, where they performed for viola professor Michel Michalakakos. Shortly after, they won USC's Christine Marie Ofiesh Honors Quartet Competition.

As part of winning, they will be performing in several concerts throughout Los Angeles and will travel to France to perform and participate in Franco-American Chamber Music Encounters, a music festival dedicated to the exchange of culture and musical ideas across the world.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Acclaimed Berlin-Based Israeli Pianist

Pianist Einav Yarden

EINAV YARDEN

". . . imagination and exceptionally vivid playing . . . Sense of immense majesty, tempered by gentleness and quiet grace"
~ The Washington Post

"glistening rapture . . . ingenious humor"
~ Tagesspiegel, Germany

Award-winning pianist Einav Yarden has appeared as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Calgary Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Jerusalem Symphony, among others. Notable stages on which Einav has performed as a recitalist include the Berlin Philharmonie, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the 92nd Street Y in New York, The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, and Paris's Salle Cortot and Auditorium of the Musée d'Orsay, among others.

Einav was a longtime student of the great Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, earning with high honors a Master of Music and a Graduate Performance Diploma. Her earlier education was in Tel Aviv University with Emanuel Krasovsky.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Acclaimed Faculty
from the USC Thornton School

Kevin Fitz-Gerald, piano  Yura Lee, violin/viola
 Pianist                          Violinist
 KEVIN FITZ-GERALD       YURA LEE             

"Fitz-Gerald's playing was masterfully compelling throughout. Every note was in place, yet uncompromising rhythmic definition, unabashed temperament and penetrating reading resulted in a wonderfully prepared and inspired performance."
~ Los Angeles Times

Canadian pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald's concert tours have taken him throughout the world. Notable venues include Carnegie Recital Hall (New York), The Mormon Tabernacle (Utah), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), the Roy Thompson Hall (Toronto), Place des Arts (Montreal), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Suntori Hall (Tokyo), the National Gallery of Jamaica (Kingston), and Town Hall (Melbourne). He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Toronto and Montreal Symphonies; the Canadian Chamber, CBC Radio, and Utah Chamber Orchestras; the Calgary Philharmonic; and the Los Angeles Camerata.

"If I needed an interlocutor at the gates to heaven,
I would call upon Yura Lee."

~ Strad Magazine

Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient Yura Lee was a first prize winner at the 2013 ARD Competition and the 2006 Leopold Mozart Competition in Germany, the 2010 UNISA International Competition in South Africa, and at the 2013 Yuri Bashmet International Competition in Russia. She has given recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Musikverein in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Yura Lee has appeared as a concerto soloist with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and San Francisco Symphonies. Yura Lee's teachers include the legendary Dorothy DeLay and Miriam Fried.

This concert was videotaped and streamed.

Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

Part II of a Concert in Two Parts*

Pianist
STEVEN VANHAUWAERT & FRIENDS
in a Concert of Piano Quartets

         Violinist/Violist            Cellist                   Pianist                 Violinist/Violist
         Rebecca Hang       Brian Schuldt           Steven            Ambroise Aubrun
                                                                Vanhauwaert

About Steven Vanhauwaert
"impressive clarity, sense of structure and monster technique"
~ Los Angeles Times

Pianist Steven Vanhauwaert has garnered a wide array of accolades, including the First Prize at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. Mr. Vanhauwaert has made his solo debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall performing the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg's Fratello. He has appeared as a soloist in some of the world's leading venues, including the National Center of the Performing Arts in Beijing, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Concertgebouw in Brugge, the Great Hall of the Budapest Liszt Conservatory, the Forbidden City Theatre in Beijing, Segerstrom Hall, and the National Philharmonic Hall in Kiev, and with the Pacific Symphony, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Sofia Sinfonietta, the Flemish Symphony, and the Kyiv Kamerata, to name just a few.

* Part I of this recital live-streams on the previous Friday on Classical Crossroads' "First Fridays at First! ~ fff " series.

This concert was livestreamed.

Sunday, June 12, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

TRIO CÉLESTE

Trio Céleste

                              IRYNA KRECHKOVSKY violin
     KEVIN KWAN LOUCKS piano
ROSS GASWORTH cello                                    

Hailed as "a first-class ensemble" (Orange County Register), "unfailingly stylish" (The Strad), "technically dazzling" (Long Beach Gazette), "flawless" (New York Concert Review), and "the epitome of what chamber musicians should be" (Palm Beach Daily News), Trio Céleste has firmly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles on the classical music scene today. Trio Céleste has performed hundreds of concerts worldwide including at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New York's Carnegie Hall, and the Seoul Art Center in South Korea. In 2014, the ensemble was selected from over 500 applicants to be Artists-in-Residence at The Grand Canyon National Park.

This concert was livestreamed.

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