SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2002 File #255
Contact: Tom Birdsall, Festival Director, (415) 931-3924
Van Cliburn Winner Jon Nakamatsu Joins Santa Rosa
Symphony at August
3 Midsummer Night on the Green
Music about the beauty of place is the theme of "A Midsummer Night on the
Green" concert on Saturday, August 3 as Green Music Festival Director Jeffrey
Kahane and Van Cliburn gold medalist, Jon Nakamatsu, take their listeners
to re-imagined landscapes. The concert is the fourth musical event of the Green Music Festival season, now in its third year at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park. Gates open at 4 p.m. for picnicking and fine wines from Hanna Winery and Michel Schlumberger Wines by the campus lakes. The concert begins at 6 p.m.
Mr. Kahane will conduct the Santa Rosa Symphony orchestra in Gershwin's An American in Paris, Von Supp?'s Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna and Respighi's Pines of Rome. Guest pianist, Jon Nakamatsu, a gold medal winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will join them for Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, often referred to as "The Song of Norway."
Tickets are $5-48 and can be purchased by calling (707) 546-8742. Further information on the season can be found at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
A native of California, Jon Nakamatsu startled the international music scene in June,1997 when he was named the Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He was the first American to have achieved this distinction since 1981. A former high school German teacher with several degrees from Stanford University, he became a popular hero overnight in the highly traditional medium of classical music.
His current season includes orchestral engagements, recitals and chamber music collaborations throughout the United States and Europe. His schedule has included debut performances in New York City?s Carnegie Hall, Washington D.C.?s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as in Chicago, London, Paris and Milan.
He has also performed with the Boston Pops, been a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was a featured soloist with orchestras in Dallas, Dayton, Detroit, Fort Worth, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Rochester, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.
Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR's "Performance Today," Jon Nakamatsu has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and Reader's Digest magazine, and is featured in "Playing with Fire," a documentary about the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, aired nationwide on PBS.
Jon Nakamatsu has studied privately since the age of six. In addition, he has pursued extensive studies in chamber music and musicology. Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in German Studies and a master's degree in Education.