2023 Baroque to the Future Music Festival
Adjudicators
Victoria Neve
Victoria Neve has distinguished herself as a piano soloist, chamber musician, duo pianist and accompanist in concerts throughout the United States. Her appearances include presentations for the College Music Society, the National Conference on Women in Music, the Memphis State Music Festival, the State Conventions of the Music Teachers Association of California and the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and the national convention of the Music Teachers National Association. Dr. Neve has been heard on radio as a piano soloist on the National Public Radio series "Early American Keyboard Music" and on the San Francisco State University "University Concert Series," as well as on stations KQED in San Francisco, KPFA in Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Cruz radio station, and KMVR in Northern California. Her repertoire ranges from the music of the early Classic composers, performed on a period instrument, into the 21st Century. She has toured California with performances of George Crumb's Makrokosmos, Volumes I and II, for solo amplified piano. She is Founder and Director of the San Francisco Young Pianists Competition and is a frequent adjudicator at numerous other piano competitions. She is on the faculty of the School of Music at San Francisco State University, where she hold the rank of Full Professor of Music.
Sarah Chan
International concert pianist Dr. Sarah Chan has garnered numerous awards including The American Prize in Piano Performance, “Rising Artist” honor of New York Concert Artists and Associates, and the PianoTexas International Competition professional prize. She has performed throughout America, Europe and Asia, including at Carnegie Hall Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berlin Philharmonie Hall Kammermusiksaal, La Cité Internationale des Arts-Paris, St. James’s Piccadilly-London, Künstlerhaus-Munich, Sala Atenu-Romania, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space Thalia Theater, Meany Hall for the Performing Arts, Beifang University Performing Arts Center, and Ningxia Normal University Concert Hall. As concerto soloist, she has appeared with the National "Mihail Jora" Philharmonic of Romania, Romanian State Symphony, New York Concert Artists Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, and Enid Symphony Orchestra. In the upcoming summer of 2019, Sarah Chan will embark on a performance-teaching tour in Ukraine.
Originally from Hong Kong, Chan received her musical education in the U.S. and in France, training at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester (D.M.A.), Le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University (M.M), Manhattan School of Music (B.M.), and the University of Michigan. Concurrent with her music studies, she pursued French and French Literature studies at La Sorbonne, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, where she was recipient of the Wolaver Full Scholarship Award.
Dr. Chan currently serves as Associate Professor of Music (Keyboard Studies/Music Theory) at California State University, Stanislaus. Since 2015, she has also been a regularly invited to China as a “Foreign Experts” artist-teacher-in-residence in Beifang University of Nationalities and Ningxia Normal University. Teaching awards in previous years include the Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Eastman School of Music and two nominations for the John Barton Award for Distinguished Teaching and Service while at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Highly sought after as a masterclass teacher and adjudicator, Dr. Chan conducted masterclasses in 2018 at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Ningxia Normal University, and the International Music Festival; she has likewise presented at Beifang University of Nationalities, Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Missouri, Oklahoma City University, Charleston Southern University, Erskine College, and Anderson University. Dr. Chan judges for The American Prize Competition, United States Open Music Competition, International Music Festival, Enkor International Music Competition, Crescendo International Music Competition, Frances Walton Music Competition, Classical Masters Music Festival, Steinway Junior Piano Competition, Zeiter Piano Competition, Ghiglieri Piano Competition, and competitions of the MTAC (Music Teachers Association of California) and CAPMT (California Association of Professional Music Teacher). Dr. Chan additionally serves on the CAPMT executive and district boards in service to the professional music community of California.
Sarah Chan remains a strong proponent of forward-thinking research and the engagement of intellectual and creative activity of various musical and cross-disciplinary interests. Presentations in 2018 that have garnered high accolade include the following:
“Approaching the Instruction of Tone and Tonality through Piano Technique: Cultivating Interpretive Sensitivity and Musical-Linguistic Expressivity through an Exploration of Physiological, Aural, and Physical Awareness at the Keyboard” (CAPMT 50th-Anniversary State Conference, October 2018)
“From Antiquity to Modernity: The Art of Keyboard Improvisation in Historic Style and Demonstration” (Ningxia Normal University, China, June 2018)
“Between Paris, Barcelona and Madrid: Flourishing Musical Liaisons in French and Spanish Piano Music at the Dawn of the 20th Century” (Lecture-Recital, Symphony Space, New York, July 2018)
“China’s One Belt, One Road in the Musical Arts and Higher Education: Advancing the Silk Road through New Business Partnerships with U.S. Universities and Conservatories of Music, 2015-2018” (MBAA International Conference, Chicago, April 2018)
Jolán Friedhoff, violin
Jolán Friedhoff, a native of Portland Oregon, holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Master of Music degree from the University of Texas, Austin. After receiving her Master’s, she joined three of her siblings in Europe, where they were working as professional musicians. She was a member of the first violin section of the Philharmonia Hungarica and the Rheinische Philharmonie in Germany, before she became Assistant Concertmaster of the Saar State Opera Orchestra, Saarbrücken, where she worked for over 20 years. Since coming to the United States in 2008, she has performed as Assistant Concertmaster and Concertmaster for Northern California orchestras, including the Modesto Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony and the Bear Valley Music Festival. Recently she served as Concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic for the opening night of its 2015-16 season in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony #2. She is also a member of the Mendocino Music Festival orchestra, and frequently plays with the Sacramento Choral Society and Sierra Master Chorale. In September 2013 she began her tenure as Concertmaster of the Camellia Symphony in Sacramento. In addition to her work as a performer, Ms. Friedhoff is on the faculty of the University of California, Davis, as an Applied Violin teacher and Chamber Music coach.
During her studies, Ms. Friedhoff was awarded fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Festival; the Blossom Festival; the Yale Summer School of Music; and the New College Music Festival in Sarasota, Florida. In addition, while studying for her Masters degree, she held her first professional positions as Principal Second Violin in the Austin Symphony, and Assistant Concertmaster of the San Angelo Symphony. Her violin teachers included Franco Gulli and Stephen Clapp. She studied chamber music extensively with renowned coaches that included Rafael Hillyer, Joseph Silverstein, Louis Krasner, the Tokyo String Quartet, members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony, as well as Georges and Eva Janzer of the Grumiaux Trio and Michael Kuttner of the Budapest String Quartet.
Alejandro Sabre
Alejandro Sabre is an award winning pianist, composer and educator. Born and raised in Mexico City, Sabre started playing the piano at age 4. He has performed extensively throughout Mexico, the United States and a few countries in Europe and Asia. Notable appearances include Opus Classics Live series, at WBFO Public Radio in Buffalo, New
York, Washington D.C.’s Mexican Cultural Institute, Moulin d’Ande Music Festival in Normandy, France and the Philharmonic Concert Society recital series, in Mexico City. Performances as soloist include several orchestras in Mexico such as the Guanajuato Symphony, Mexican State Symphony Orchestra, Fine Arts Chamber Orchestra and the Durango Symphony. He has also been featured as a soloist by the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.
His undergraduate studies were in piano and composition at the National School of Music in Mexico City. As one of the most gifted Mexican pianists of his generation, Sabre was awarded several first prizes in national competitions in Mexico, among them the Newly Discovered Talents (Mexican State Symphony) and Young Performers (National Institute of Fine Arts) competitions. His busy schedule includes teaching piano and music theory at Modesto Junior College in Northern California, as well as performing and writing music. His performances are centered around the lecture-recital format. Sabre is a fervent believer in encouraging audiences to understand music and active audience participation.
He has presented master classes and lectures for both piano students and teachers through the Music Teachers Association of California. Sabre is also an experienced adjudicator having served in piano competitions throughout the state of California over the past 10 years including the Sylvia Ghiglieri International Piano Competition, the United States Open Music Competition as well as numerous MTAC regional panels. A strong advocate for live performance of Western Art Music, Sabre continues to emphasize the importance of community involvement. He was the founder and director of Music Lives! a successful art music series in Modesto California that ran for eight seasons.
Recent projects include curating the first edition of 36 Lyrical Piano Pieces ~ Canasta de Juguetes para Chicos y Grandes (Basket of Toys for the Young and the Old) by Mexican composer José Sabre Marroquín (his grandfather), which was published last in 2022 by Editorial Ponciano Arriaga in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
He holds degrees from Mexico’s National School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University and the Eastman School of Music where he earned a doctoral degree in piano performance and literature with a minor in music theory. His principal teachers include Luz Maria Puente, Irene Schreier, Rebecca Penneys, Malcolm Bilson and Steven Laitz.
He lives in Modesto, California. In his spare time he enjoys cooking, hiking, and practicing Tai Chi.