Dallas Chamber {Concert} Series

Dallas Chamber {Concert} Series presents “An Evening of American Music” with pianist Jo Zhou on Sunday, December 2, 2012 at 6:30PM in the sanctuary of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church & School - Dallas, located right across from Northpark Mall at 7611 Park Lane. Joining Ms. Zhou are guest artists, David Whisler, violin; Shannon Layman, viola; and Simon Vakili, trumpet. This concert is FREE, no tickets required.

Pianist and collaborative artist Jo Zhou has performed in venues across North America, South America, and Europe. Performance highlights include the Wiener Saal Concert Hall at Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria; Universidad Juan N. Corpas, in Bogotá, Colombia; concerts with Grammy-award winning new music ensemble eighth blackbird; performances in Boston with New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice; solo recital with Mu Phi Epsilon’s Concert Series in downtown Dallas; and with ensemble75 at Steinway Hall Dallas. Read more about Ms. Zhou and Guest Artists here.

Founded in 2010, Dallas Chamber {Concert} Series hosts it's 2012-2013 concert season in collaboration with Metroplex Flutes, Jo Zhou, Madera Wind Quintet, and Rahni B. Kennedy. DCCS a recognized IRS501(c)(3) not-for-profit.

Dallas Chamber {Concert} Series welcomes pianist Jo Zhou and Guest Artists David Whisler, violin; Shannon Layman, viola; and Simon Vakili, trumpet, for "An Evening of American Music".

Join us at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church & School - Dallas at 6:30PM
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Pianist and collaborative artist Jo Zhou has performed in venues across North America, South America, and Europe. Performance highlights include the Wiener Saal Concert Hall at Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria; Universidad Juan N. Corpas, in Bogotá, Colombia; concerts with Grammy-award winning new music ensemble eighth blackbird; performances in Boston with New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice; solo recital with Mu Phi Epsilon’s Concert Series in downtown Dallas; and with ensemble75 at Steinway Hall Dallas.

As an informed music educator, Jo currently serves on faculty at Dallas/Music and recently at SMU’s Piano Preparatory Department as a Teaching Fellow. In addition to private and group piano instruction, Jo has also taught music history and piano at the National Piano Institute for Young Artists for the past two summers. She recently gave a masterclass at the Texas Music Teachers Association Convention and has adjudicated for several local area pre-college piano festivals. She is an active member of the Dallas Music Teachers Association, the American Guild of Organists, and the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.

Ms. Zhou completed both a Masters of Music and Performance Diploma at Southern Methodist University under full Artistic Scholarship where she studied with Dr. Carol Leone and Joaquin Achúcarro, and a Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance from Texas Christian University as a pupil of José Feghali, Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Other principals teachers include Lois Nielson, Bo Pang, and Dr. Donna Edwards on piano; Grace Tu on voice; Dr. Joseph Butler and Dr. Larry Palmer on organ; and Dr. Herman Gutierrez in conducting

In addition to music, Jo is interested in music cognition; she has spent time in the research lab of distinguished scientist Dr. Jay Dowling at UTDallas.

About Guest Artist David Whisler:

David Whisler received a degree in music education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He received a master’s degree in violin performance from the University of Louisville. He has been a violinist in the Louisville Orchestra, The Kentucky Opera Association orchestra, the Louisville Bach Society, and the Louisville Chamber Orchestra. Upon moving to Texas, he became a high school orchestra director and a freelance violinist in the Dallas area. He is recently retired as the orchestra director of North Mesquite High School. David enjoys building and operating ride on scale model railroad engines as well as bicycling, running and taking Leo to the dog park.

About Guest Artist Shannon Layman:

Shannon Layman was born in Olathe, Kansas and began her violin studies at the age of three. She added the viola at age eleven and has since performed with many symphony orchestras including the Olathe Youth Symphony, the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Topeka Symphony. She continued her training with Peter Chun at the University of Kansas and graduated with a B.A. in viola performance and a B.A. in psychology, with both university and departmental honors.

Shannon was accepted into the doctoral Cognition and Neuroscience program at The University of Texas at Dallas under the direction of Dr. W. Jay Dowling. Her research crosses cognitive psychology and music and uses both behavioral and electrophysiological methods in order to examine how people process and encode the different aspects of a wide range of musical genres. Her dissertation specifically addressed how people process familiar and unfamiliar popular songs when provided with short segments of musical information. She successfully defended her dissertation in October 2012.

During her graduate career Shannon continued her training with Barbara Sudweeks, adjunct associate professor of viola at Southern Methodist University, and performed with the Musica Nova ensemble under the direction of Dr. Robert Xavier Rodriguez, university professor at The University of Texas at Dallas.

About Guest Artist Simon Vakili:

For over a decade, jazz trumpeter Simon Vakili has delighted audiences with his unique hard- and post-bop-influenced sound. Born in Crewe, England, Mr. Vakili's musical career started with piano and violin, before picking up the trumpet at the age of 10; he then pursued studies with LA-area jazz musician Jim Ziegler. Mr. Vakili is a recipient of the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award and has performed with the Irvine Valley College Big Band, UC Irvine Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Kei Akagi, the Ernie Andrews Big Band, LA-based Swingsations, and as a member of the Mike Nichols Quintet.

Dallas Chamber {Concert} Series

{Concert} Season 3

December 2, 2012

{Concert} Season 3: December 2, 2012