Cleveland Orchestra members Joela Jones, keyboardist, and Richard Weiss, cellist, will perform in a Kent/Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concert on Wednesday, July 17. All Kent/Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. in Ludwig Recital Hall in the Music and Speech Center, located at 1325 Theatre Drive on the Kent Campus.
Single tickets are on sale, for adults $15; seniors, $13; and students, $5. For more information about the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, visit www.kent.edu/blossom. To purchase tickets, call the Kent/Blossom Music Festival office at 330-672-2613 or visit www.kent.edu/blossom. Subscriptions may be purchased with check or credit card (Visa, MasterCard or Discover).
Jones and Weiss will perform such works as “Suite Popular Española for Cello and Piano" by Manuel de Falla, "Trio for Oboe and Bassoon and Piano" by Francis Poulenc and "Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84" by Edward Elgar.
Jones and Weiss will be joined by Danna Sundet, oboe; Barrick Stees, bassoon; Ying Fu and Jeffrey Zehngut, violin; and Stanley Konopka, viola.
Jones, principal keyboard for the Cleveland Orchestra, has performed more than 50 different concertos in 200-plus performances with the Cleveland Orchestra. Jones chairs collaborative piano at Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and also teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in cities including Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Weiss, first assistant principal cellist for the Cleveland Orchestra, joined the Kent/Blossom Music faculty in 1985. Weiss was a Kent/Blossom Music scholarship student in 1972. Weiss is also a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio, and he coaches the cello sections of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestras, the New World Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
Fu joined the Cleveland Orchestra at the start of the 2011-2012 season. A native of Shanghai, China, Fu has won prizes in competitions in Europe, China and the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Shanghai Conservatory, and a Master of Music degree from Rice University. He is currently a Doctor of Musical Arts degree candidate at Rice University, studying with Cho-Liang Lin and Sergiu Luca.
Zehngut joined the second violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra in August 2011. Zehngut previously served as associate principal second violin of the San Diego Symphony 2005-11 and as principal second of the Canton Symphony Orchestra 2002-05. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with William Preucil and Paul Kantor.
Konopka joined the Cleveland Orchestra in 1991 and has been assistant principal viola since 1993. Currently a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Konopka has taught at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival and has performed at the chamber music festivals of Banff, Taos and Pensacola.
Stees has been assistant principal bassoon of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2001. Stees has concertized extensively in Europe, South America and Asia, including a solo tour of Hong Kong and China. His solo appearances include performances with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.
Sundet serves as full-time assistant professor of oboe at 91²Ö¿â. She is co-artistic coordinator of the Kent/Blossom Music Festival and is now the musical director of the John Mack Legacy Oboe Camp in Little Switzerland, N.C. Sundet specializes in performing in Bach Festivals, where she is a featured soloist on the oboe, oboe d'amore and the English horn.
The Kent/Blossom Music Festival Faculty Concerts feature performances by the high-profile musicians who serve as faculty for the students attending the Kent/Blossom Music Festival summer program, including members of the Cleveland Orchestra.