We are delighted to announce the signing of Latin Grammy winner Fernando Otero. The exceptionally talented Argentinean pianist/composer/bandleader is acclaimed for his solo, chamber music, jazz and tango work. Otero’s 2010 CD, Vital, won the Best Classical Album award at the 11th annual Latin Grammy Awards and was hailed by the BBC as “Urbane and exotic, surreal and street-wise, and alive with invention and emotion.”  Tour programming includes solo and sextet work. Video

CNTBMs (Concerts Not to be Missed) 
Jason Vieaux will appear twice in New York this winter. Catch him at the 92nd Street Y for two performances during the Guitar Marathon on January 29th, and then, on February 24th, Jason and his guitar appear with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Flutist Gary Schocker joins Jason at the "Y" on the 29th -- a double-header!

ROCYMs (Reviews of Concerts You Missed)
The Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio appeared at the Kennedy Center on January 18th -- returning to the Fortas Chamber Music Series for a concert that included a new work by the trio's cellist, Clancy Newman.... and the Washington Post had this to say about the concert "Violinist Mark Kaplan and cellist Clancy Newman made a fine team, twining and dovetailing their lines to eloquent effect, not least in Schubert’s expansively lyrical writing. Underpinning the strings was pianist Yael Weiss’s liquid tone and unfailingly wise phrasing"

First Person: Seeing America Film & Television actor Bill Pullman will tour the show for selected dates in the 2012-2013 season. The show features photographs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, actor Bill Pullman, actress Lily Knight, and music by Ensemble Galilei. Photographs from the Met's collection include the iconic works of Evans, Curtis, Stieglitz, Strand, and Eakins. The soundtrack is the music of Ensemble Galilei – Bach, traditional music from Scotland and Ireland, and new compositions featuring fiddles, harp, viola da gamba, banjo, percussion and oboe. First Person: Seeing America. Latest Review. More...

This photo: Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975), Alabama Tenant Farmer, 1936. Gelatin silver print, 23.6 x 18.7 cm (9 5/16 x 7 3/8 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift, 2000 (2000.329) © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sweetest Costumes: The New Zealand String Quartet definitely wins the prize in the "best-dressed bears" category when they don head-gear and fur coats for performances of their new"Goldilocks & The Three Bears" program. The show, which joins "Pineapple Rag" and "Talking Instruments" in their youth/education line-up is available on the quartet's July and November 2012 tours.

In other news, the quartet has also released the long-awaited CD "notes from a journey" which features compositions by New Zealand composers, including John Psathas, Ross Harris, Jack Body, Michael Norris and Gareth Farr with Richard Nunns. More...

News & Events:

Guitarist Jason Vieaux offered the "Gentilhombre" and some Vivaldi with the Buffalo Philharmonic in December. The Buffalo News noted "… most of the big crowd that turned out Saturday was there to see Vieaux… He plays melodies and accompaniments simultaneously, immediately distinguishable from each other. His playing is clear without being dry. And he has a tremendous dynamic range." More

Enchantment Theatre Company premieres Scheherazade with the Cleveland Orchestra, tours with the New Jersey Symphony. The company evokes the Rimsky-Korsakov score using masks, puppets, magic and movement. More...