The Picasso Ensemble 

      Sue Brown with violin, Josephine at piano and Soprano, Wendy HillhousePicasso Ensemble standing together

 

The Picasso Ensemble   has appeared regularly since 1997 at the beautifully restored historic Sesnon House on the campus of Cabrillo College, and has performed on the Colton Hall Chamber Series in Monterey, on the Palo Alto Presents Series at the Palo Alto Art Center, at the performing arts center of UC Santa Cruz, and at other Bay Area locations. Members of the Picasso Ensemble can be heard as soloists and ensemble players in CD recordings of music by Lou Harrison, Germaine Tailleferre, Henry Cowell, and Darius Milhaud on labels New Albion, Helicon, and Mode.

 

Susan C. Brown, violinist, has performed in the Bay Area, New York, and in Germany as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster.  She is presently director of strings at Cabrillo College and has served as director of chamber ensembles at UC Santa Cruz and the City University of New York.  Mrs. Brown has performed on violin and viola as soloist and concertmaster with the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay symphonies, Ensemble Monterey, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Santa Cruz Chorale, California Parallèle Ensemble, San Jose Chamber Orchestra and The Cabrillo Music Festival.  She is concertmaster and coordinator of the Monterey Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra. Brown is recipient of the A.S.C.A.P. (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) award for her compositions for strings and author of a new Orchestral Performance for Strings series from Alfred Music due in 2008. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College as a student of Dorothy DeLay and was a member of The New York Pro Arte and the Philadelphia Composers Forum.

 

Victoria Ehrlich, cellist, was born in Texas and received her musical education at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and summer programs at Interlochen, Aspen, and Tanglewood. Her teachers include Robert Marsh, Bernard Greenhouse, and Robert Gardner.  Before joining the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 1984, she performed with the Santa Fe Opera, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and served as principal cellist with the Symphonies of Omaha, Richmond, VA, and Phoenix.  Ms. Ehrlich has performed with the San Francisco Ballet and Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, California and Berkeley Symphonies, Lamplighters, and Pocket Opera, and is an active chamber musician, appearing regularly with the percussion group Adesso, the Gold Coast Chamber Players, the Fath Chamber Players, the Eos Ensemble, the Bridge Players, and the Ariel String Quartet.  Recent work also includes collaboration with poets and composers under the auspices of the American Composers' Forum.

 

Josephine Gandolfi, pianist, performs as soloist, chamber player and accompanist in repertoire that encompasses traditional music and a wide spectrum of new and unusual music.   She has appeared with the Cabrillo Festival, Adesso, and numerous chamber music, university and community concert series in California and in many parts of the United States, as well as in Europe. She has served as coach-accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory and as a member of the piano faculties of Stanford University and UC Santa Cruz, and as pianist of the Peninsula Women’s Chorus. A resident of Menlo Park, where she maintains a private teaching studio, she holds degrees in piano from Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Stanford University. As recipient of a Fulbright Grant, she studied solo, vocal and chamber music in Cologne, Germany.

 

Wendy Hillhouse, mezzo soprano, has achieved a versatility and mastery of diverse repertoire which is rare.  Her operatic career has encompassed performances with the Metropolitan Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival and most of the major American opera companies.  Miss Hillhouse is an accomplished concert artist, having performed with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Seattle, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Denver, and the Tanglewood, Cabrillo and Midsummer Mozart Festivals, as well as maintaining a busy schedule of Bay area concert appearances.  Recent opera performances include the Witch in Lou Harrison’s Rapunzel with the Cabrillo Music Festival, and Mama McCourt in Utah Opera’s The Ballad of Baby Doe.  A resident of Redwood City, she is Co-Chairman of the voice faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory and the University of California at Berkeley.

 

  “The Picasso Ensemble is a well seasoned and refined chamber group that
offers a refreshing palette of contemporary musical colors. Their confident,
relaxed approach to music made the audience feel “right at home.”
-John Orlando

“The performance sparkled and was done with plenty of care to balance and
musical detail. The Picasso musical sophistication and professionalism that has
developed into a very serious musical entity.”
-Josef Sekon

 

For More Information contact Sue C. Brown 479-6228