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DSO Cellos Present: From Bach to Motown

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DSO Cellos Present: From Bach to Motown

Thursday, February 9, 2023—7:00pm

Thursday, February 9, 2023—7:00pm
The Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube
1 hour and 30 minutes

The DSO Cello Section brings a musical transformation to The Cube. Experience a program fusing classical repertoire with pop hits curated by cellist and composer Jeremy Crosmer. The evening features music by Bach, Michael Jackson, Motown classics, and an original composition by Jeremy Crosmer.

Artists

Wei Yu

Principal

Wei Yu was appointed Principal Cello of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 2014. He made his subscription debut performing Dvorak's Cello Concerto and has appeared as soloist with the DSO every season ever since. Before joining the DSO, Wei was a member of the New York Philharmonic for seven seasons.

Wei was a prizewinner at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String, Holland American Music Society Cello, Music Teacher National Association (MTNA National Collegiate Strings), Canada’s National Music Festival, Calgary’s Kiwanis Festival and China’s National Cello competitions.

An avid chamber musician, Wei has been invited to the Marlboro, Ravinia, Great Lakes Chamber Music and Mainly Mozart music festivals. Wei has recently collaborated with musicians such as cellist Carter Brey and David Soyer; pianists Richard Goode and Menahem Pressler; violinists Augustin Hadelich, Midori and Pinchas Zukerman; and members of the Guarneri, Emerson and Juilliard Quartets. As a member of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, he made regular appearances at Merkin Concert Hall.

A successful instructor, Wei serves on faculty of Northwestern University Bienen School Of Music. He has given cello masterclasses at universities and festivals in the United States, Canada, Poland and China. During the summer, Wei teaches at the Morningside Music Bridge International Music Festival in Calgary, Canada; Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra of USA and the Center Stage Strings Summer Institute at the University of Michigan.

Born in Shanghai, China, Wei began studying the cello at age 4 and made his concerto debut at age 11, performing Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. He received his B.M. from North Park University in Chicago and M.M. from the Juilliard School. His principal teachers include Mei-Juan Liu, John Kadz, Hans Jørgen Jensen, and David Soyer.

Abraham Feder

Assistant Principal

Abraham Feder began his tenure with Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Cello in the fall of 2018. Prior to his appointment, he was a member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. During the summer of 2018, he served as the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Santa Fe Opera. Abraham began his orchestral career as Principal Cellist of the Sarasota Orchestra and Cellist of the Sarasota String Quartet from 2008-2016.

Abraham has been featured as a soloist with the Sarasota Orchestra, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Americas, and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, as a member of the Chroma Quartet, he founded the Tuesdays with Chroma concert series in Sarasota.

An avid chamber musician, Abraham has performed with Ricardo Morales, Amy Oshiro Morales, and Kerri Ryan of the Philadelphia Orchestra; Michelle Kim, Assistant Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic; Richard Hirschl, Brant Taylor, Kenneth Olson, and Yuan-Qing Yu of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO); Stephen Balderston, former Assistant Principal cellist of the CSO; Desomd Hoebig, former Principal Cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra; Danielle Belen; Joseph Silverstein; Ray Chen; Christopher O’Riley; and Leonidas Kavakos.

Abraham earned his Master’s Degree under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music at The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with David Soyer and Peter Wiley. His teachers have also included Richard Hirschl and Tanya Carey.

Paul Wingert

Jeremy Crosmer

Jeremy Crosmer is a remarkable young artist—both as a cellist and a composer. He completed multiple graduate degrees from the University of Michigan in cello, composition and theory pedagogy, and received his D.M.A. in 2012 at age 24. From 2012 to 2017 he served as the Assistant Principal cellist in the Grand Rapids Symphony, and joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in May of 2017.

Jeremy is the composer and arranger for the GRS Music for Health Initiative, which pairs symphonic musicians with music therapists to bring classical music to hospitals. In March of 2017 the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital launched a music channel that runs continuously, using four hours of meditative music composed by Jeremy and performed by musicians of the GRS.

Jeremy is a founding member of the modern music ensemble Latitude 49. He is also a current member of the band ESME—a duo that aims to broaden the education of classical music by bringing crossovers and mashups of pop and classical music to schools throughout Michigan. ESME released its first CD in December of 2016.

In April of 2013 Jeremy toured London with the Grand Valley State University Chamber Orchestra, performing the Boccherini G Major Concerto, No. 7. He performed the Vivaldi Double Concerto with Alicia Eppinga and the GRS in March of 2016. While still in school, Jeremy was awarded the prestigious Theodore Presser Graduate Music Award to publish, record and perform his Crosmer-Popper duets. He recorded the duets with Julie Albers, and both sheet music and CD recordings are available online.

Jeremy has taught music theory, pre-calculus and cello at universities across Michigan. He draws mazes, writes science fiction and plays good old country fiddle in his spare time.

David LeDoux

David LeDoux comes to the orchestra from the Syracuse Symphony, where he served as Principal Cellist from 2006-2012.

David has appeared as a soloist with the Syracuse Symphony, the Skaneatelas Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Oklahoma State University Symphony, the Louisiana Sinfonietta and the Mid-Texas Symphony.

David is an active and avid chamber musician, performing for many years with the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a committed private teacher, he spent last year as a cello instructor for Imagine Syracuse—-a music program in an inner-city school that was modeled after the El Sistema program in Venezuela.

Previous professional engagements for David included serving as Principal Cellist with the Baton Rouge (LA) Symphony, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Symphony and the Louisiana Sinfonietta.

David has studied with Ronald Leonard, Dennis Parker and Kari Padgett Caldwell. Currently a resident of Madison Heights, David’s hobbies include reading, running and movies.

Peter McCaffrey

Peter McCaffrey has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra cello section since 2012.

Prior to joining the DSO, Peter served as principal cellist of the Louisville Orchestra and of the South Florida Symphony. Since moving to Detroit, Peter has become an advocate for the roll that the arts can play in helping to revitalize a city. He is frequently found performing in schools, hospitals, retirement homes, bars, religious institutions, and was featured in a National Geographic video about the comeback of Detroit.

Peter has soloed with many orchestras, including subscription concerts with the Louisville Orchestra, the Royal Oak Symphony and the Windy City String Ensemble while on tour in Australia. As a chamber musician, Peter has had the opportunity to travel around the country and abroad performing in concert series and music festivals. His college string quartet was a finalist in the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition, and he currently performs with the Great Waters String quartet made up of fellow DSO musicians.

Peter earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in cello performance from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. His primary teachers have been Eleonore Schoenfeld, Gerard Mantel, Richard Hirschl, and Gilda Barston. Peter performs on an 1880 Postiglione cello.

Cole Randolph

Cole Randolph, a Posse Foundation Leadership scholar, is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in mathematics, music (performance), and economics. Cole was born and raised in Washington DC, and began playing the cello at the age of five. He has performed in many venues including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The White House.

Cole studied cello under Uri Vardi, and has performed in masterclasses for various artists including Alban Gerhardt, Clive Greensmith, and Timothy Eddy. Throughout his collegiate career, Cole has participated in a myriad of musical and non-musical activities. In the summer of 2016, he had the unique opportunity to participate in the Leadership Alliance program at the University of Chicago, conducting mathematics research under the supervision of Dr. Benson Farb. Cole presented his findings at two research symposia in Illinois and Connecticut.

Úna O'Riordan

First-generation Irish-American cellist Úna Fionnuala O'Riordan was born in the Chicago suburbs and began playing the cello at 4 years old, after hearing a string instrument demonstration in her kindergarten class. When her family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, she continued her musical education and went on to attend the Interlochen Arts Camp as an Emerson Scholar. Her experiences at Interlochen, plus the opportunity to perform for Mstislav Rostropovich at the 1992 Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony, encouraged her to seek a career as a professional musician. She went on to receive a Bachelor of Music with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where she was named an Arts Leadership Scholar.

As a recipient of the Eckstein Grant, Úna did her graduate studies at the Northwestern University School of Music, and performed with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra as the concerto competition winner. While completing her master's degree, she was also Co-Principal of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, working under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez.

A fellowship recipient at the Aspen and Meadowmount music schools, she has performed both orchestral and chamber music in major concert halls across the United States, Europe and Asia, including Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Her principal teachers include Hans Jørgen Jensen, Pamela Frame, Alan Harris and Loren Stephenson, and she has performed in master classes for Janos Starker and Yo-Yo Ma, among other esteemed pedagogues.

Since her appointment to the DSO in 2007, Úna has enjoyed performing chamber music all around Michigan, on series such as Pro Mozart, Classical Brunch in Birmingham, and Enescu, as well as at the Universities of Michigan and Wayne State, and Kerrytown Concert House. As a member of the contemporary music ensemble New Music Detroit, she has performed at Detroit’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD), the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID), and the Bohemian National Home.

Passionate about music education, Úna has been on the faculty for the DSO’s Power of Dreams String Project, and regularly coaches both chamber music and cello sectionals for the DSO's Civic Program. In 2011-12, Úna was the cellist for the Fusion Project, a series of school presentations fusing music and photography inspired by the city of Detroit.

In her free time, Úna is a passionate traveler and enjoys photographing her adventures, including an especially memorable trek to Machu Picchu in 2011. Úna performs on a cello made by Carl Becker and Son, 1954.

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Artwork for The Peter D. and Julie F. Cummings Cube
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3711 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI
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