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Music free of limitations and prejudices. Members Eros Jaca, (cello), Vladyslava Luchenko (violin), and Camille Sublet (piano) perform innovative, folk-inspired interpretations of the world’s greatest composers while forming authentic relationships with their audience.

ensemblebayona.com

Please note that masks are required at all times when in our venues.  Thank you for helping us to safely present live music in Billings!

ENSEMBLE BAYONA
Ensemble Bayona, artist in residence at the Auditorio de Zaragoza between 2017 and 2019, explores different ways to interpret the music from the composers of the late 19th century up to the present day. Focusing on innovation and musical quality, the multinational group believes in a musical philosophy free of limitations and prejudices. Ensemble Bayona was awarded the prestigious 2020 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music.

EROS JACA | CELLO

Eros Jaca, Artistic Director of Ensemble Bayona, has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and in major concert halls of Europe including the Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), St. James Picadilly (London), the Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona), and the Tonhalle (Zurich). He works with composers like Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann and Antón García Abril, and performs in the German Festival Donaueschinger Musiktage or in the Frankfurter Hof Main. He was a guest artist in the famous American ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars.

VLADYSLAVA LUCHENKO | VIOLIN

From an early age, Vladyslava Luchenko developed a deep love for music and keenly desired to make it her life’s dedication. This spontaneously expressed wish was lovingly nurtured by her parents: just five years old, she received her first piano and violin lessons at the local music school. Her rapidly discovered perfect pitch connected with a rare innate musical intuition was developed immediately and attentively. With these unusual predispositions, Vladyslava was admitted at the age of seven to the Lysenko Music School for highly gifted children in Kiev, where she studied until 2006. After winning the first prize in an international competition, she made her solo debut at the age of 11 with the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra. With this early success; she attracted the attention of the Vladimir Spivakov Institution in Moscow and the corporation, Friends of Ukraine, in Switzerland. This support helped her continue to win numerous prizes from national and international violin and chamber music competitions and led to invitations to perform on concert tours in Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. A new tutor inspired the impulse which led to new achievements including first prize in the Duttweiler–Hug Wettbewerb (Zurich), second prize in the Concorso Internazionale Violinistico Andrea Postacchini (Fermo, Italy) and second prize in the Concours International de Violon Tibor Varga (Martigny, Switzerland), where she also won the Public Prize and the Special Prize for the best interpretation of a Bártok etude.

Recently Vladyslava performed as a soloist with the Ukrainian Radio Orchestra and State Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and the Luzerner Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the Orchestra Virtuosi Italiani and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie in 2014.

Vladyslava Luchenko performs on Francesco Gobetti violin of 1710, on loan from a private collection.

CAMILLE SUBLET | PIANO

Swiss-French pianist Camille Sublet has won several prizes and has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra Biel Solothurn, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Stadtorchester Solothurn. She has studied in Bern, Switzerland, with Tomasz Herbut, and in Brussels with Aleksandar Madzar. Her interest in contemporary music led to her work with Marta Kurtág and Wolfgang Rihm. She is a passionate chamber musician and Lied accompanist.

Experience Duke Ellington’s 1968 Grammy Award-winning Far East Suite as performed by the Rocky Mountain Jazz Collective.

rockymountainjazzcollective.com

Please note that masks are required at all times when in our venues.  Thank you for helping us to safely present live music in Billings!

The Rocky Mountain Jazz Collective was created in 2019 by highly respected members of the jazz community in Montana.  Through education outreach in the community and regular performance in an environment that is best suited for listening, the mission of the RMJC is to create greater awareness and appreciation for jazz music and history in the Rocky Mountain region.

RMJC aims to increase appreciation and awareness of jazz music through the performance of themed programs consisting of material with cultural and historical significance to the history and development of jazz.

SCOTT JEPPESEN | SAXOPHONE

Scott Jeppesen is an Assistant Professor of Music at MSU Billings teaching music theory, ear training, music history, jazz combo, and private lessons on saxophone, clarinet, and flute.

Scott is an alumnus of the University of Southern California where he earned Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Jazz Studies.

Prior to accepting the position at MSU Billings, Scott lived in Los Angeles for seventeen years. In that time, he performed with Maria Schneider, Bobby McFerrin, Burt Bacharach, Lalo Schifrin, Alan Pasqua, Bill Watrous, Shelly Berg, Manhattan Transfer, Stevie Wonder, Nancy Wilson, Artie Shaw, Bob Mintzer, Dave Brubeck, Natalie Cole, Louis Bellson, Al Jarreau, Steve Miller, Randy Brecker, and James Moody … just to name a few. Scott has composed and arranged for many different artists including Steve Miller, Ramsey Lewis, Natalie Cole, Ruben Studdard, Dave Koz, Ledisi, Burt Bacharach, Monica Mancini, Scott Martin, and the PBS special, We Love Ella! A Tribute to Ella (Fitzgerald), which aired in the spring of 2007.

In 2009, he co-founded Cultivating Creative Minds along with his wife, Roxanne, to provide art instruction to elementary school-aged students throughout Santa Clarita, CA.

Scott has also performed clinics for many colleges, high schools, and middle schools around northern and southern California including the University of Southern California, Cal State University Sacramento, Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific, Cal State University Northridge, Cal State University Sonoma, American River College, West Ranch High School, Canyon High School, and Saugus High School. In addition to clinics, Scott is in demand as a featured guest artist. In 2014, Scott was the featured artist with California State University Sacramento jazz ensembles where they performed the music of the Joe Henderson Big Band. In the same year, Scott was the guest artist for the SuperJazz at the Ranch festival in Stevenson Ranch, CA, where he performed a duo set with Russell Ferrante of the legendary Yellowjackets.

JOHN ROBERTS | TROMBONE

John began playing the piano at the age of 5 while living on an isolated ranch in Southeastern, Montana. At age 11, he picked up the trombone to play in the grade school band. After graduating in 1996 from MSU Billings with a BA in Music Performance, John moved to Los Angeles to earn his Master of Fine Arts in Western Orchestral Trombone Performance from California Institute of the Arts.

Feeling equally comfortable in orchestral and commercial music realms, John has toured, recorded, and performed in Los Angeles, around the U.S., and around the world, including Mexico, India, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, and Africa. Tours include Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca (Congolese/Cuban), Bobby Womack (Soul), Los Pinguos (Argentine), The Temptations, The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and others. Other performances and recordings include multiple American and Latin Grammy concerts, Fallout Boy, Chris Botti, Feist, Sting, Dr. Dre, Jill Scott, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Frank Sinatra Jr., Chaka Khan, Burt Bacharach, The Ojays, Cher, Beverly Crawford, Christina Aguilera, NPR, PBS, Disney, and others.

After 17 years based in Los Angeles, John is now on staff at MSU Billings teaching Jazz, music theory, low brass, and world music. He regularly works and performs as a clinician and guest artist in schools, continuing to hone his skills as an educator by sharing the ‘real world’ of music with his students.

John is active in Montana and Los Angeles performing and studio scenes as an arranger, bandleader, session player, and composer. Recent projects include Ricardo Lemvo’s new Cuban-West African album, Straight Outta Compton, and John’s own world-fusion record, Soul y Pimienta, which blends Cuban, African and American soul and jazz elements.

When not dabbling in the world of music, John is likely found (or not found!) gallivanting about the mountains or prairie via foot, 4WD, skis or mountain bike.

Grammy- and Emmy-nominated composer Philip Aaberg and his piano trio, the Bibimbap Trio with violinist Angella Ahn and cellist Sara Stalnaker, expand their musical exploration to Billings.

sweetgrassmusic.com

Please note that masks are required at all times when in our venues.  Thank you for helping us to safely present live music in Billings!

PHILIP AABERG | PIANO

Grammy- and Emmy-nominated composer Philip Aaberg of Chester, Montana, is known worldwide for his compositions that evoke the spaciousness and beauty of the Western landscape.

It was Aaberg’s mother who first noticed her son’s musical talent early on. He began playing music at age four. By the time he was fifteen, he traveled on the train twelve hours one-way every two weeks from Chester to Spokane, Washington, to study with Margaret Saunders Ott, a Julliard-trained pianist and teacher who was chair of the piano department at Whitworth College. Early on, Aaberg displayed an eclectic taste in music and, along with the piano, he played drums and organ in a garage rock band that he and his brother started while in high school. He also played in symphonies across Montana before heading off to college.

Aaberg has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts, Montana Arts Council Artists Innovation Award, an honorary doctorate in music from Montana State University in 2013, the Montana Governor’s Humanities Award, and he was named Montana’s Treasured Artist in 2016. He also serves on the Ucross Foundation selection committee, the Montana Tourism Advisory Council, and the District 4 Human Resources Development Council. Aaberg’s monthly radio program, Of the West: Creativity & Sense of Place, can be heard across Montana on Yellowstone Public Radio and www.ofthewest.net.

ANGELLA AHN | VIOLIN

Professor Angella Ahn has had an extensive career, performing not only in every state in the U.S. but in over 30 countries. As a member of the Ahn Trio, she has played in venues as diverse as the White House, the Jazz Dock in Prague, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Vienna’s Musikverein, New York’s Lincoln Center, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Beijing’s Concert Hall, Istanbul’s Aya Irini in Topkapi Palace, the iTunes Festival, and TEDWomen.

In addition to live performances, Angella has an impressive discography with her trio. The nine enthusiastically received albums include Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, released by Sony (No. 8 in the Billboard Charts for 26 weeks); Dvorak, Suk, and Shostakovich, released by EMI (winner of Germany’s prestigious ECHO Award); and their most recent, Blue, a musical diary. She has recently released two digital tracks with her trio, “Nuvole Bianche” and “Candybox.” Wide-ranging collaborations have allowed the trio to work with modern dance companies (including a B-boy group), film directors, rock bands, and DJ Spooky. Because of their eclectic interests and innovative exploration in music, New York Newsday has called the trio “Classical revolutionaries.”

Angella enjoys living in Bozeman, Montana, where she is currently Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at Montana State University. The depth of her experience and knowledge has made her perfectly suited to help the next generation of young musicians, and she is a devoted and sought-after teacher, being named by the university both a “Most Valuable Professor” and “Professor of the Month.” Beyond her teaching, she serves on the Montana Arts Council and is the artistic director of the Big Sky Classical Music Festival, where she is heard performing with many guest artists such as Matt Haimovitz and Rachel Barton Pine. She also serves on the board of the Bozeman Symphony. She has often taught at Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle camps and has been featured with musicians as diverse as Phil Aaberg, Darol Anger, Emmylous Harris, and John Prine. She can be seen in “Angella Ahn and Friends,” a program presented by Montana PBS’ Emmy award-winning 11th & Grant with Eric Funk, as well as in The Hive, a film produced by Tippet Rise Art Center in collaboration with the acclaimed sculptor Stephen Talasnik and director Matthew McKee.

Angella has given master classes throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, she shares the widely regarded pedagogy of her mentors Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. She plays a 2013 violin made for her by renowned luthier Sam Zygmuntowicz of Brooklyn, New York.

SARA STALNAKER | CELLO

Sara Stalnaker, cellist, has performed as a chamber musician with acclaimed groups ranging from the Turtle Island to the Orion and Borromeo String Quartets. She has collaborated in concerts with renowned talents Jonathan Biss, Matt Haimovitz, and Kim Kashkashian and has performed as a regular member of the New Haven and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Sara has been on staff at Community MusicWorks for the past 13 years.* Other notable work includes a recording on the MMC label, a recent soundtrack for PBS, and an upcoming project of Reinhardt transcriptions on the KidsClassics label. Sara received a BM under the tutelage of Peter Rejto at Oberlin Conservatory, followed by an MM under Norman Fischer at Rice University.

* Community MusicWorks is a renowned community-based organization that uses music education and performance as a vehicle to build lasting and meaningful relationships between children, families, and professional musicians.