 2012 Winter Concert Series17th Season The Honest Brook Music Festival will present its 17th Winter Series in January, February and March. These concerts take place in private homes re-creating the setting in which much of the classical repertoire was originally performed. The audience enjoys the intimacy of the performance space, and each concert is followed by a champagne and dessert reception where one can interact with the musicians. Because seating is limited, tickets must be purchased in advance. Locations and directions will be announced to all season subscription holders and ticket holders prior to each concert. 
Gabriela Diaz, violinPaavali Jumppanen, piano Saturday, January 28, 8:00 PM Georgia native Gabriela Diaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a type of lymphatic cancer. She was treated with chemotherapy and radiation at Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta and the Medical Center in Columbus. As a cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to cancer research and treatment. She has lent her talents to a wide range of related programs and organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, The Race for the Cure, OnCare, Inc., the Columbus Medical Center, and the Egleston Children’s Hospital at Emory University in Atlanta. In 2004 Gabriela was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. This grant enabled Gabriela to begin organizing a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston called the Boston Hope Ensemble. Gabriela holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New England Conservatory, where she was a student of James Buswell. Gabriela has attended the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and has performed at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Newport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, North Country Chamber Players, Monadnock Music, Apple Hill, Vail Valley Bravo Music Festival, and Cactus Pear Festival, among others. In the summer of 2007 Gabriela acted as Concertmistress under Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy in Lucerne, Switzerland. Devoted to contemporary music, Gabriela has been fortunate to work closely with many significant living composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Brian Ferneyhough, John Zorn, Osvaldo Golijov, Lee Hyla, and Helmut Lachenmann. In 2003 she won the BMOP/NEC concerto competition, playing Zorn’s Contes des Fees with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She also became the youngest person to ever record the Ligeti Violin Concerto, recorded for Mode Records with New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Ensemble (not yet released). A reviewer commented on her performance of the concerto, “Gabriela Diaz, whose astonishing performance of György Ligeti’s 1993 Violin Concerto sent the audience into raptures at the opening celebration of the centennial of Jordan Hall.” She is actively involved in contemporary music in Boston, and is a member of the Callithumpian Consort, Firebird, Ludovico, Dinosaur Annex and Sound Icon Ensembles. Boston critics have mentioned Gabriela as “a young violin master... Diaz shone in her extended solo passages.” Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix noted “…Gabriela Diaz in a bewitching performance of Pierre Boulez’s 1991 Anthèmes. The come-hither meow of Diaz’s upward slides and her sustained pianissimo fade-out were miracles of color, texture, and feeling.” Others have remarked on her “vibrant playing,” “polished technique,” and “vivid and elegant playing.” 
Finnish pianist Paavali Jumppanen’s New York debut in 2001 at the 92nd Street Y, presented by Young Concert Artists, garnered reviews of “fresh and exciting” playing and “immense power and an extraordinary range of colors.” Mr. Jumppanen has since toured extensively in the U.S. performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where he has since his debut concert in 2001 performed frequently. His New York appearances have included performances at the Metropolitan Museum, Morgan Library and at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. In 2002, he made his New York concerto debut with the New York Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz at Alice Tully Hall.In January of 2007, Mr. Jumppanen embarked on a cycle of eight concerts over a period of two years at the Gardner Museum in Boston in which he performed the 32 Beethoven Sonatas. The Boston Globe reported how “the sheer, overflowing energy of his musicianship held one’s attention throughout this impressive performance and the result was a bracing and enjoyable reminder of how path-breaking Beethoven’s music was.” Jumppanen has performed the complete Piano Concertos cycle by Beethoven with the Symphony Orchestra of the city of Kuopio, Finland; and during the 2003-04 season, he performed the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with violinist Corey Cerovsek at the Gardner. During the 2010-11 season, Mr. Jumppanen performed the complete Piano Sonatas by Mozart at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, as well as in three different cities in Finland. In January 2012 Mr. Jumppanen will perform one of the opening recitals of the new concert hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. During the 2011-12 season he will also perform recitals in Beijing, Berlin, and at the Messiaen Festival in La Grave, France. Mr. Jumppanen’s concerto performances during the 2011-12 season include appearances with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä as well as with the Tapiola Sinfonietta conducted by Susanna Mälkki. Winner of First Prize in Finland’s national Maj Lind Competition in Helsinki at the age of nineteen, Mr. Jumppanen has since performed as soloist with all of Finland’s orchestras. Paavali Jumppanen frequently gives solo recitals and has performed numerous times in the prominent concert halls of Paris, New York, Vienna and London. He has appeared at numerous international music festivals, including the La Roque d’Antheron Festival in France, Kitayushu Chamber Music Festival in Japan, Oslo Chamber Music Festival in Norway and at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, where he is a regular visitor. Mr. Jumppanen also served a two-year post in 2004-05 as the Artistic Director for Finland’s Lemi-Lappeenranta Music Festival. Born in 1974 in Espoo, Finland, Paavali Jumppanen began to play the piano at the age of five at the Espoo Music Institute, where he studied with Marja Huhtamaki and Katarina Nummi. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Margit Rahkonen, and has performed in master classes for Murray Perahia, Dimitry Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, and Eero Heinonen. From 1997-2000 he worked with Krystian Zimerman at the Music Academy of Basel in Switzerland, where he was awarded the Soloist Diploma with the highest possible awards. 
Vanessa Perez, pianoSaturday, February 25, 8:00 PM “Breathtaking, impeccable, and brilliant.” Music critics from Europe and across the Americas regularly write such words to describe the electrifying performances of Venezuelan-American pianist Vanessa Perez. At the age of 11, she was invited in Caracas to give her concert debut when she performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal conducted by Carlos Riazuelo. The President of Venezuela in 1998 awarded Ms. Perez the Jose Felix Ribas Prize, the highest honor for a young performer based on their contribution to the artistic enhancement of the country. Ms. Perez has since performed in concert halls and festivals throughout the world. A few of these among many others have included the Montpellier Festival (Radio France); Schauspielhaus and Kammermusiksaal-Beethoven-Haus (Germany); Festival Settembre Musica (Italy); Schubertiade at Sotheby’s (England); Gothic Hall (Belgium); Rios Reina (Venezuela); Luis Angel Arango (Colombia) . She has given solo and chamber music recitals at the Wigmore Hall, London; Schnittke Festival at the RAM, London; and the Montpellier Festival, France. She has performed across the United States, including among others at the La Jolla Music Society Discovery series in San Diego, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City, Keyboard Concerts Series in Fresno, and the Wertheim Performing Arts Center in Miami. She has performed frequently across the Americas including performances in Colombia with the Filarmonica de Bogota under Diazmunoz, as well as recitals in Mexico and Puerto Rico. In the US her concerto performances included concertos with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Miami Symphony, and Duluth Symphony with Mark Thakar. Ms. Perez was invited to perform in Germany with conductor John Axelrod and the Luzerner Sinfonie Orchester and in Caracas to perform with the Orquesta de la Juventud Simon Bolivar and conductor Gustavo Dudamel in 2007. She has recorded for the label VAI. Ms Perez recorded Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major with the Berlin Symphoniker, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in d minor (K466) with the Venezuelan conductor Eduardo Marturet. Following the recording she was invited to join their Latin American tour as guest soloist in The Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Monterrey, Mexico. Ms. Perez began her studies in Venezuela with Luminita Duca, and thereafter in the United States she studied with noted Claudio Arrau pupils Ena Bronstein and Rosalina Sackstein. At the age of 17, she was awarded a full scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music (London) to study with Christopher Elton. She continued her studies at the renowned Italian Accademia Pianistica Incontri Col Maestro in Imola with pianists Lazar Berman and Franco Scala. Later she completed postgraduate studies at Yale University with Hungarian pianist Peter Frankl. 
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