Project: Music Heals Us Presents "Mixtape #3: Gypsy Fantasia"

Project: Music Heals Us will present its Mixtape #3 - A Gypsy Fantasia on Saturday, February 16 at Guilford First Congregational Church, located at 122 Broad Street, Guilford, CT. A PRE-CONCERT LECTURE will begin at 6PM. Young Artist Zoe Lonsinger, formerly of Sandy Hook, CT, will be featured at 6:45 PM. The concert formerly begins at 7PM.

The program includes pieces voted as favorites by audiences last season. Included will be an improvised Fantasia on a Russian Gypsy Folk Tune played by violinist Jesus Reina; Navarra for Two Violins, Op. 33 by Pablo Sarasate - a virtuosic piece based on an intricate dance originating in Northern Spain; Antonin Dvořák’s Terzetto in C major, Op. 74 which is written for the unusual combination of two violins and a viola; and Fantasia in F minor for piano - four-hands, D 940 by Franz Schubert, completed a few months before the composer’s death and dedicated to a woman he loved unrequitedly.

The internationally renowned musicians featured in this performance will be Josu DeSolaun, piano; Anna Petrova, piano; Anna Nilsen, violin; Jesus Reina, violin; and Chieh-Fan Jay Yiu, viola.

Anna Nilsen has been praised for her violin playing “full of sweetness, enthusiasm, playfulness and with a rich tone.” A native of Norway, Nilsen started to play the violin at the age of four. At the age of nine she had her solo debut with the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra, and in the following years she appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout Europe. She obtained a Master of Music at the Manhattan School of music as part of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program, receiving lessons from celebrated teaching associates Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec. Currently Nilsen is a professor of violin at the Ivan Galamian Academy and is Co-Founder and Director of Málaga Clásica International Chamber Music Festival.

Jesus Reina has been praised as a violinist "with a beautiful sound, characterized by true musicality, temperament and charisma". Jesús Reina started musically with his grandfather José Reina, playing verdiales (folklore from Málaga). He continued his studies with Yehudi Menuhin, Natasha Boyarsky, Jose Luís García Asensio and Mauricio Fuks. With the support of Fundación Málaga he travelled to New York, where he obtained a Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music studying with the celebrated Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman, and graduating with the Raphael Bronstein award. Among his awards are the “most outstanding violinist” award by Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain; the Medal of Honor of Málaga, cultural award Door of Andalucía, Grand Prize in ASTA’s National Solo Competition (USA) and Waldo Mayo Memorial Competition in New York. Currently, Jesús Reina is Co-director of the Málaga Clásica Festival and professor at the Ivan Galamian Academy in Málaga and the Alfonso X University in Madrid.

Triple-prized winner of the Lionel Tertis Competition, including Yuri Bashmet’s President Of The Jury Prize, Taiwanese-born Canadian Chieh-Fan Yiu has established himself as one of the most exciting young violists on the international stage today. Dr. Yiu completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, followed by Doctorate of Music degree from Stony Brook University. An eclectic musician, Dr. Yiu has worked closely with Ensemble For The Romantic Century, whose unique productions meld all forms of art into a cohesive unity by combining fully staged plays with live chamber music and elaborate visual designs. He has starred in such multi-media productions as ‘The Dreyfus Affair’ and ‘Van Gogh’s Ear’, the latter of which The New York Times described as musically “ravishing.”

Bulgarian pianist Anna Petrova has been praised for her “hallmark performances” of “excellent technical mastery and powerful control of timbre.” In December 2016 Petrova graduated as a full scholarship student from the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at New York's Manhattan School of Music, where her main teachers have been Horacio Gutiérrez and André-Michel Schub. She now lives in Houston, Texas, where she has recently joined the piano faculty at Sam Houston State University, a position which she combines with a very active career as a recitalist, concert soloist and chamber musician. Her recording of Stravinsky's Les Noces with members of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Choir under conductor JoAnn Falletta will be released on Naxos in 2016. Currently she is working on a two-CD set of the piano sonatas of Russian composer Samuil Feinberg, for the same label.

As a First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest (won by legendary pianists such as Radu Lupu, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Dmitri Alexeev), the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the I European Union Piano Competition, held in Prague, Spanish pianist Josu De Solaun has been invited to perform in distinguished concert series throughout the world, having made notable appearances in Bucharest (Romanian Athenaeum), Saint Petersburg (Mariinsky Theatre), Washington, DC (Kennedy Center), New York (Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera), Princeton (Taplin Hall), London (Southbank Centre), Paris (Salle Cortot), Leipzig (Schumann Haus), Taipei (Novel Hall), Mexico City (Sala Silvestre Revueltas), Prague (Nostitz Palace), Rome (Academia deEspaña), Menton (Festival International de Musique), and all major cities of Spain. Josu De Solaun is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music.

Tickets at the door: $20 adults/$5 students with all proceeds directly subsidizing additional “Healing Concerts” played in local nursing homes, hospitals, hospices, homeless shelters, and prisons. Project: Music Heals Us presents interactive classical music performances to diverse audiences by artists of the highest caliber in order to provide encouragement, education and healing, with a focus on elderly, disabled, rehabilitating, incarcerated and homeless populations. For more information please visit www.projectmusichealsus.com or email projectmusichealsus@gmail.com.