For the second performance of season 8, musimelange, the multi-sensory chamber music series in Miami, welcomes you to experience musiJAZZ with Hendrik Meurkens. The virtuoso jazz harmonica player will be coming down from freezing New York to perform with pianist Jim Gasior, bassist Jamie Ousley and dummer Goetz Kujack – and warm our hearts with some Brazilian Jazz. The concert will be paired with EverCook creative hors d’œuvres & desserts, Barton & Guestier’s delicious selection of wines and BON Chocolatier decadent chocolates.

–

WHAT

musiJAZZ on Monday, February 25, at 7:30pm. in the comfort of the living room in an art gallery: The M Building, nestled in the Wynwood Art District.

–

ACT 1: Enjoy an open wine bar offered by Barton & Guestier and connect with Chef Vincent Catala from our 2019 exclusive partner  EverCook who will once again share his love for gastronomy through his creative hors d’oeuvres specially prepared to pair the concert.

ACT 2: Sit back and relax for an intimate concert of “Brazilian Jazz” with Hendrik Meurkens, harmonica – Jim Gasior, piano – Jamie Ousley, bass and Goetz Kujack, drums

ACT 3: After the concert, all your senses will be in harmony and it will be time for gourmet desserts by EverCook and a degustation of decadent flavorful chocolates by BON Chocolatier to know the artists.

––

WHERE
The M Building
194 NW 30th st
Miami, FL 33127

–

TICKETS

$55 online  |  $65 @ the door | $100 half SEASON (2 musimelange)

The online price will be available until February 25th

–

* The quartet performance is made possible by the generosity of Dr. Fred Jonas. ** Hors d’oeuvres are generously sponsored by EverCook. *** Open wine bar generously sponsored by Barton & Guestier. **** Piano generously sponsored by Euro Piano Naples & Hamilton Pianos. ***** Chocolates are generously offered by BON Chocolatier.

–

—–

Cited by the Huffington Post for his “inner sense of creative flow, fueled by an abundance of musical imagination and desire,” harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa has an active career as a soloist, ensemble player, recording artist, and teacher. He strives to bring the harpsichord to new audiences by creating a spiritual communion through focused interpretations intensified by memorized repertoire. His first solo recording, Harpsichord Music for a Thin Place (Whaling City Sound), exemplifies his artistic goals as a “transport to the threshold between the ordinary and the spiritual…to the point where the ordinary becomes spiritual and the spiritual becomes ordinary.”

His playing of Francis Poulenc’s Concert champêtre was heralded by the New Bedford Standard-Times as “exquisite—no drama, no posturing—just consummate artistry and a superb performance of a marvelous concerto,” and The Boston Musical Intelligencer called his performance of Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in A Major “a joyous romp.” EDGE Boston found his playing “expert,” while The Listening Room said that his performance was “charming, polished, musically profound, and technically brilliant.”

For his CD of the Bach Viola da Gamba Sonatas with cellist Audrey Sabattier-Cienniwa (Whaling City Sound), KBAQ radio (Phoenix, AZ) called his ability to accompany “spot-on…perfect.” His recording with Grammy Award-winning uilleann piper Jerry O’Sullivan was called “drop-dead gorgeous” and named one of the top ten Irish traditional albums of 2010 by The Irish Echo. An advocate of new music, he is featured on a two-CD set of music by composer Larry Thomas Bell titled In a Garden of Dreamers (Albany Records).

A frequent chamber music collaborator, he has performed the complete Bach Violin Sonatas with renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine on Chicago’s WFMT radio and during the 2013 Boston Early Music Festival. As an orchestral continuo player, he played regularly with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and Rhode Island Philharmonic. In recent years, he has appeared at Emmanuel Music with violinist Nicholas Kitchen, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, the White Mountain Bach Festival, VentiCordi, and, with uilleann piper Jerry O’Sullivan, the Catskills Irish Arts Week.

Originally from Niles, IL, Paul Cienniwa began his keyboard studies at age six. In his teen years, he played thrash guitar with the Evanston, IL punk band Malicious Intent, followed by seven years as keyboardist with the innovative Chicago-based Irish group Baal Tinne. From 2003-2010, he led Newport Baroque in works from Arne to Zelenka, including performances of Bach cantatas and Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, and in 2009, he was music director for Boston Opera Collaborative’s acclaimed production of Handel’s Alcina.

He been awarded Belgian American Educational Foundation and Fulbright grants, and his musicological articles and reviews have appeared in American and European journals, including Early Music, Ad Parnassum and Early Music America. As an educator, he has taught at the Yale University School of Music, Salve Regina University, Stonehill College, Framingham State University, UMass-Dartmouth, Mount Ida College,  and the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

In 2017 he began serving as Director of Music Ministries at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach, FL. Prior to that, he was music director at First Church in Boston and Chorus Master of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Cienniwa started his undergraduate studies as a pianist in the studio of Michael Ruiz at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. After completing his bachelor’s degree at DePaul University with harpsichordist Roger Goodman and organist Jerome Butera, he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in harpsichord from Yale University, where he was a student of Richard Rephann. He has also studied harpsichord with Peter Watchorn, John Whitelaw, and David Schrader.

For more information, visit www.paulcienniwa.com.

August 2017 — Please destroy all previously dated materials. Please request permission to edit or amend.

Jamie Ousley has been one of the most in-demand bassists in south Florida since he moved to Miami in the fall of 1998 to attend graduate school in the prestigious Jazz program of the University of Miami. He has since completed his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Jazz Bass Performance and continues to perform and teach both locally and internationally.

Jamie has released two CDs as leader: O Sorriso Dela (2008) and Back Home (2010). Both were recorded in Japan and Miami and feature primarily original compositions. Back Home reached #10 on the Jazz Roots national radio chart. Of Jamie’s original music, Chuck Vecoli of JazzReview writes, “The compositions are all deeply spiritual pieces. . .They approach timelessness.”

Jamie has performed with many artists including: Ira Sullivan, Benny Golson, George Shearing, James Moody, Eddie Higgins, Arturo Sandoval, Dave Liebman, John Fedchock, Maria Schneider, Vince Mendoza, Jim McNeeley, Nestor Torres, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Carmen Lundy, Harry Allen, Bob Berg, Duffy Jackson, Steve Davis, Adam Nussbaum, Vic Damone, Nicole Henry, Annie Sellick, Suzanne Somers, Stephanie Nakasian, Hod O’Brien, Wycliffe Gordon, Johnny O’Neil, Jason Marsalis and Les DeMerle.

Jamie has had the pleasure of performing for many celebrities, dignitaries, and heads of state including: President Bill Clinton, Governor Jeb Bush, Prince Albert of Monaco, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain, King Kigeli V of Rwanda, Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie of Ethiopia, Janet Jackson, Shirley MacLaine, Gloria Estefan, Heidi Klum, and the Dalai Lama.

Jamie has performed at many international jazz festivals and locations including: the Ballydehob International Jazz Festival in Ireland, the Montego Bay Jazz Festival in Jamaica, Festival Mizik Jakmel in Haiti, Marian’s Jazz Room in Bern Switzerland, the Berlington Vermont Jazz Festival, “Jazz in June” in Lincoln Nebraska, Festival Miami, the International Association of Jazz Educators in New York and Los Angeles, and at “Azul” in Osaka, Japan.

Jamie has studied music in the studios of Patrick Simpson, Don Coffman, Lucas Drew, and Vince Maggio. He has degrees from the following universities:

B.A. Major in Music from Virginia Tech (1998)
M.M. in Jazz Bass Performance from the University of Miami (2000)
D.M.A. in Jazz Bass Performance from the University of Miami (2008)

Originally from Bremen, Germany, Goetz studied at University of North Texas and started his career as a studio/ live drummer and percussionist in Germany before relocating to South Florida in 1992.

He quickly became embedded in several camps of the South Florida music scene, from Jazz to Blues as well as Latin and Pop music styles. He received a Grammy nomination playing with Sammy Figueroa in 2005 and has since then supported a variety of artists like, Raul Midon, Randy Brecker, Toots Thielemann, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Claudio Roditi and Rose Max to name a few. 

Previously an adjunct faculty member at FIU’s Jazz department, he enjoys teaching drums as well as Latin percussion.

Hendrik Meurkens, a virtuoso on both the chromatic harmonica and the vibraphone, is the most important jazz harmonica player since Toots Thielemans. German-born but now based in New York, Meurkens’ recordings and performances garner worldwide acclaim because the transcendent beauty of his music has universal appeal.

A two-mallet player in the tradition of Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson, Hendrik Meurkens was en-route to being an instantly recognizable vibraphonist when he heard Toots Thielemans. Inspired by the sound of Thielemans’ harmonica, he taught himself the difficult-to-master instrument.

Hendrik Meurkens’ other life-changing musical experience was his introduction to samba and bossa nova. He was so moved by Brazilian music that after perfecting his unique musical voice at Berklee, as a vibraphone major, he moved to Rio in the early 80s to totally immerse himself in music and culture of Brazil.

A regular Monday night gig at the popular Rio club, Bar 21, soon demonstrated his acceptance by Brazilian musicians. Meurkens’ poignant, emotionally affecting harmonica proved to be a sound that Brazilians strongly embraced, and during his Rio days, he met many musicians who later became collaborators in both Europe and New York.

Back in Germany by ’83, he became a respected studio musician, recording with European Radio Orchestras and leading his own groups, as well as accompanying visiting legends like Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison and Buddy Tate.

Within ten years, he had established himself as the “new jazz harmonica voice,” and moved to New York, thanks to an exclusive contract with the prestigious label, Concord Records. He has since recorded fifteen albums, and continues to perform as both a guest artist, and with his own groups, both in festivals and clubs globally.

Hendrik Meurkens’ profound involvement in both jazz and Brazilian music resulted in a very personal and instantly recognizable version of Samba jazz. This music, a cross-cultural amalgam guaranteed to touch the heart, features his harmonica and vibes along with piano, bass and drums, playing his stirring originals and arrangements. The group has been documented on a number of CDs, most notably the Hendrik Meurkens desert island disc, October Colors.

As a featured artist, he has recorded with Charlie Byrd, Jimmy Cobb, Ivan Lins, Monty Alexander, Claudio Roditi, Manfredo Fest and Mundell Lowe, as well as backing such leading artists as Astrid Gilberto and Olivia Newton John and touring with the Ray Brown Trio, Paquito D’Rivera, Oscar Castro Neves, Herb Ellis, Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and James Moody among many others.

Also a successful composer (his compositions have been recorded by other artists and featured in the Hollywood movie, “Dolores Claiborne,”) Hendrik Meurkens remains equally at home playing jazz or Brazilian music. “My mission is simple,” he explains. “I want to create music of great beauty.”

Like any great musician, Hendrik Meurkens still practices incessantly, yet his music remains very melodic and rhythmically pleasing. “I like beautiful music, Sinatra, Jobim, Charlie Parker, so I concentrate on playing things that the audience can enjoy. Complicated music doesn’t really mean anything except for professionals who want to analyze it. I want people to feel what I do and the best way to do that is to play something touches their hearts.”

Max Emanuel Cencic is one of the most fascinating and versatile singing artists in the world today, and one dedicated to the revival and performance of the music of the 18th century.

His 2017/18 season will see many exciting projects, including a new production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, his debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg as well as Rossini’s La Donna del Lago at the Opera de Lausanne, where the artist will not only sing the demanding role of Malcolm but also function as director. Another high point will be the Europe tour with his new solo programme named Porpora (coinciding with the 250th anniversary of Nicola Antonio Porpora’s death) with concerts in Paris, Halle, Toulouse, Munich, Madrid and other cities. At the opening of the Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth he will perform the title role in Hasse’s Siroe, and, again, direct the production.

With his remarkable mezzo-soprano voice, Max Emanuel Cencic demonstrates that Baroque singing can be both technically brilliant and at the same time modern and emotionally engaging. For over two decades he has been performing in opera houses of the first rank, including the Wiener Staatsoper, the Theater an der Wien, the Opernhaus Zürich, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris and Brussels’ La Monnaie.
Concert engagements have taken him to the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Carnegie Hall (New York), the Barbican Center (London), Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Wiener Musikverein and Wiener Konzerthaus, and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. In addition he has sung at numerous festivals worldwide. He regularly works with such conductors as William Christie, René Jacobs, Ottavio Dantone, Diego Fasolis, George Petrou, Emmanuelle Haïm and Riccardo Muti. His education as a singer began as a member of the Wiener Saengerknaben (Vienna Boys’ Choir), with a solo career as a soprano from 1992, and as a counter-tenor from 2001.
On 21st September 2017, Max Emanuel Cencic celebrated the 35th anniversary of his first appearance on stage, with a performance of Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.

Max Emanuel Cencic entrances his audiences with his numerous projects, opera productions, CD recordings, and extensive tours. TV-stations such as Mezzo TV and Arte Concert have also documented several of his outstanding performances, including his revelatory presentation of Handel’s Alessandro (2012). As Artistic Director of Parnassus Arts Productions he is responsible for the conception, supervision and performance of important works of the Italian Baroque, among them the sensational re-discovery of Leonardo Vinci’s last opera, Artaserse, and, more recently, Arminio. As in its premiere in 1730 in Rome, this new production, performed with an all-male cast (including five counter-tenors), was widely praised, both in its live performances and on disc: it received ECHO Klassik awards in 2013 and 2014, the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d‘or, and was nominated for a Grammy. His inspired revival of Vinci’s opera Catone in Utica, with four counter-tenors in the cast, was equally successful, both on stage and as a CD recording. The CD Ottone with Max Emanuel Cencic in title role has been nominated for a Grammy.

His solo-recordings are every bit as riveting: with Venezia he charmed audiences and critics alike with highlights from Venetian opera, while the CD Rokoko contained a fascinating compilation of arias from the extended and virtually unknown opus of Johann Adolph Hasse. Max Emanuel Cencic’s most recent, critically acclaimed CD, Arie Napoletane, is dedicated to masterpieces of the Neapolitan school. His wide-ranging discography includes several world premiere recordings and has received a number of awards, among them the Diapason d’Or, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and Croatia’s Porin Prize. His discs have been “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone magazine on several occasions. 2018, 250 years after Nicola Antonio Porpora’s death, two CD-recordings of the composer’s works will be published: Germanico in Germania in January with Max Emanuel Cencic in title role, and, in March, Cencic’s new solo CD Porpora.
The French Ministry of Culture has made him a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Max Emanuel Cencic is also well on his way to international fame as director, as with the live production of Hasse’s Siroe, which toured all over Europe and was released on CD by Decca. At the Handel festival in Karlsruhe in 2016 and 2017, he again undertook the double role of lead singer and director of Handel’s rarely performed opera, Arminio. In the coming seasons he will extend his directorial portfolio with new productions of Rossini’s La Donna del Lago, as well as Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Xerxes. Also on the horizon is the release by Warner Classics of arias recorded by Max Emanuel Cencic as a boy soprano.

WHEN Monday, January 28, 2019 – 7:30pm

–

WHAT  Amour

7:30pm ACT 1: Enjoy an open wine bar generously offered by Barton & Guestier and connect around one-of-a-kind hors d’Oeuvres with Chef Vincent Catala from our 2019 exclusive partner: EverCook.

–

8:10pm ACT 2: The concert will start at 8:15pm – Featuring pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski, violinist Anne Chicheportiche and cellist Ashley Garritson, this concert uncovers relationships between specific composers and performers that influenced the historical “French Style” of playing during the Belle Epoque.
The concert explores works by composers Cécile Chaminade, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint Saëns and Gabriel Fauré.

 – 

9:20pm ACT 3: After the concert, Thierry Isambert Culinary and Event Design will present a fabulous farandole of desserts.

.-

–

WHERE
The M Building
194 NW 30th st
Miami, FL 33127

–

TICKETS
$55 online | $65 @ the door

The price of the ticket includes a concert, hors d’oeuvres, wine and desserts.
The online price will be available until April 9th at 3pm. Tickets are non refundable.–

–

* Hors d’oeuvres generously sponsored by EverCook. ** Wine tasting generously sponsored by Barton & Guestier. *** Desserts generously sponsored by Thierry Isambert Culinary & Event Design **** Piano generously sponsored by Euro Piano Naples & Dr. Fred Jonas.

–

Performers & Chefs

—–

WHEN Monday, April 9th, 2018 – 7:30pm

–

WHAT  Storm & Shadows

7:30pm ACT 1: The event begins at 7:30pm with an open wine bar by Barton & Guestier paired with Gourmet Bites by Riviera Focacceria Italiana.

–

8:10pm ACT 2: The concert will start at 8:15pm – an evening with

Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano – Anne Chicheportiche violin – Claudia Cassogne violin – Mari Liis Pakk viola – Jason Calloway cello – Brandon J. Acker guitar.

 – 

9:20pm ACT 3: Mingle around delicious desserts by Gail Beckham.

.-

–

WHERE
The M Building
194 NW 30th st
Miami, FL 33127

–

TICKETS
$55 online | $65 @ the door

The price of the ticket includes a concert, hors d’oeuvres, wine and desserts.
The online price will be available until April 9th at 3pm. Tickets are non refundable.–

–

* Vivica Genoux performance was made possible by the generosity of Dr. Marvin Sackner. ** Hors d’oeuvres are generously sponsored by Riviera Focacceria Italiana *** Open wine bar generously sponsored by Barton & Guestier. **** Desserts are generously sponsored by GB Catering.

–

STORM & SHADOWS Performers 

—–

Claudia Cagnassone is a graduate of three of Italy’s most prestigious conservatories, the Giuseppe Verdi Music Academy in Torino, the Romano Romanini Foundation in Brescia and the Pinerolo Music Academy.

Her teachers included Sergio Lamberto, Sthephan Gheorghiu, and most notably Dora Schwarzberg.

Claudia was a founding member of II Quartetto Casorati, a string quartet enthusiastically received by audiences and critics at the Unione Musicale and Polincontri Classica music festivals, as well as the chamber music halls of Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Greece and South Africa.

Claudia has appeared regularly as second principal with the Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra in Austria, and with many orchestras in her native country, including the Regio Theatre Orchestra in Torino, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Torino, I Musici Estensi and I Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in Milano. She was featured as soloist on recordings and live performances with several Symphony of the Americas Summerfest presentations.

Currently she is a member of the Florida Grand Opera and the Palm Beach Symphony.