3rd Annual
Port City Music Festival 2011
Stephen Framil, Cellist & Artistic Director
Tim Fain, Violin
Daniel Lau, Piano
Kyle Engler, Mezzo-Soprano
Stephen Framil, Director & Cellist
Distinguished as the first American cellist to perform in Hanoi since the Vietnam War, Stephen Framil has performed as concert soloist and chamber musician around the world: including Carnegie Weill & Avery-Fisher Halls (New York), Verizon Hall (Philadelphia), Hong Kong City Hall, with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Hungary), Prague Concert Philharmonic (France Tour), Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra (Italy Tour 2007), Manila Philharmonic Orchestra (Philippines), National Philharmonic of Moldova, Oltenia State Filarmonica (Romania), Zaporozhye Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), Vratza Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Viêt Nam National Symphony Orchestra, Bombay and Bangalore Chamber Orchestras (India), Redlands Symphony Orchestra (CA), Nashville Chamber Orchestra (TN), Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (“Live” Broadcast on WFMT - Chicago), Brunei Music Society, and the Hong Kong Chamber Music Society, among others. Stephen Framil is the Music Director/Conductor of CAMERATA PHILADELPHIA, and Artistic Director of the Port City Music Festival (North Carolina), Philadelphia Community Concerts, and CelloFeast Seminars.
As a versatile and dedicated educator Stephen Framil (DM, Indiana University) has given cello masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory (China), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), DePaul University (Chicago), Longy School of Music (Boston), Vanderbilt University/Blair School of Music (Nashville), University of Arizona, Roosevelt University/Chicago College of Performing Arts, University of Reno, Volgograd Conservatory (Russia), Moldova Academy of Music, University of Hong Kong, Silliman University (Philippines), and the Hanoi Conservatory (Vietnam), to name a few. Dr. Framil is been an adjudicator for the Hong Kong Schools of Music Festival (2004), and the 2007 Schadt String Competition (Allentown, PA). Since 2008 Dr. Framil has been an artist faculty at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont.
Dr. Framil has been an Assistant Professor of Music at Andrews University in Michigan (1994-2002), and a Visiting Professor at the University of Delaware (2003-2004), Lincoln University in Pennsylvania (2005-2006, 2011), and Towson University in Maryland (2008). An advocate of inner-city music education in Philadelphia, Dr. Framil is the Founder/Director of the Philadelphia Community Conservatory: a community music school that provides scholarship lessons for underserved youth. As a conductor, Dr. Framil is the Founder/Music Director of the Philadelphia Youth Ensemble.
Recordings by Stephen Framil for RADIO 4 HONG KONG include the complete J.S. Bach Suites for Solo Cello, as well as the works for solo cello by Zoltán Kodály and Gaspar Cassadó. In April 2006 he recorded the two Haydn Cello Concertos with Paul Freeman and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra: this recording will be released in 2010 under CENTAUR RECORDS.
Stephen Framil currently resides in Wayne, Pennsylvania with his wife Natalia, daughter Raya, dog Lucy, cat Simon, and maintains a home studio of private students.
Tim Fain, Violinist
With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, violinist Tim Fain has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was featured as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony magazine’s “Up-and-Coming Young Musicians of 2006,” and a StradMagazine 2007 “Pick of Up and Coming Musicians,” Fain has recently captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.”
He electrified audiences at his New York concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony, and at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Performing works from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Richard Danielpour and Philip Glass, he has been soloist with the Mexico City and Oxford (UK) Symphonies, recently made his debut with the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Marin Alsop and with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, appeared as soloist with the Philip Glass Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Einstein on the Beach, made his Ravinia recital debut, and gave a special performance of the Beethoven Concerto at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Other recent and upcoming performances include appearances with the Champaign-Urbana, Wheeling, Illinois and Maryland Symphonies, as well as recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Mavrick Concerts, Howland Chamber Circle, and Carmel Music Society and in Utah, Maryland, Syracuse and elsewhere throughout the United States.
He appeared in recital at Amsterdam’s venerable Concertgebouw, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center Mexico’s Festival de Musica de Camara in San Miguel de Allende, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, New York’s Kosciuszko Foundation, and California’s Carmel Mozart Society, University of Georgia, San Diego Art Institute, University of California at Davis, and Boston’s Ives Festival, and Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd St Y.
A sought-after chamber musician, Tim Fain has performed at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York’s Bargemusic, Chamber Music Northwest and the Ravinia, Spoleto (Italy), Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Bard, Lucerne (Switzerland), Vail Valley, Moab, and Martha’s Vineyard Festivals. He has toured nationally with Musicians from Marlboro, and is first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet.
A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21stcentury composers. His provocative debut CD on Image Recordings of music for solo violin reflects Fain’s inquisitive passion and intellect by combining old and new in solo works by J.S. Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Kevin Puts, Mark O’Connor, Daniel Ott, and Randy Woolf. He was hailed for his appearance onstage with the New York City Ballet, where he performed alongside the dancers in the company’s acclaimed premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s “Double Aria,” and he has also appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Seán Curran Company, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the U.S. and abroad. He also continues to pursue his passion for jazz and has worked with jazz pianist Ethan Iverson, and recently appeared at the Jazz Standard with composer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli and The Cutting Room with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain.
A native of Santa Monica, California, Tim Fain is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and The Juilliard School, where he worked with Robert Mann. He currently lives in New York City.
Daniel Lau, Pianist
Pianist Daniel Lau has received enthusiastic press notices for both his solo and chamber performances. The Washington Post praised his "exemplary artistry;" the Baltimore Sun noted "Lau's beautifully shaded playing;" the Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) lauded his "flair, great technical proficiency and expressiveness;" and La Liberté (Fribourg, Switzerland) cited "playful nuances, translucent phrasing, and miraculous sonorities."
He has appeared in recitals and with orchestras throughout North America and Europe. He collaborates frequently with singers internationally and is a sought-after chamber musician. With soprano Sabrina Coleman Clark, he has performed a multimedia show, "Marian Anderson - A Legacy of Hope," to thousands of school children. He is a founding member of the Ravel Trio praised recently by the Swiss Journal du Jura, "Splendid interpretation, vigorous and nuanced playing."
Since 2006, he has released half a dozen recordings with a variety of artists, including a CD with award winning engineer Marc Arbort and a self-produced solo CD "Transcendent Colors." With a special interest in Asian American and African American composers, Lau is committed to the performance of living composers. He has premiered many solo and chamber music works and can be heard on a number of recordings of works by contemporary living composers.
A versatile pianist, violinist and conductor, Daniel has served as Music Director for performances of Manon, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Merry Widow, and The Magic Flute, among others. Lau attended Loma Linda University, where he served as concertmaster of the orchestra and 1st violinist of the LLU String Quartet. Graduating with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance - high honors, he won the coveted Dean's Award. He then attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, becoming a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda honorary society while earning masters and doctoral degrees. His major teachers include Lillian Freundlich, Anita Norskov Olsen, Samuel Sanders, and Jerome Lowenthal.
Dr. Lau is a dedicated educator of music and has given masterclasses and clinics throughout the United States. He serves as Chair of the Maryland State Music Teachers Association Chamber Music Festival and Competition Coordinator for the American Liszt Society Liszt-Garrison International Piano Festival and Competition. He has taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Washington Adventist University.
Daniel resides in Baltimore, MD with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kyle Engler, and young daughter, Channing. In his spare time, he plays volleyball, golf, and racquetball.
Kyle Engler, Mezzo-Soprano
Proclaimed " a vurtuoso of a high order" by the Baltimore Sun, she has been praised for her extreme versatilty in opera, oratorio and chamber music."