Benito Flores at Innovation InfoIsland 8 am Thurs. Nov. 12

DEDICATION: "In Memory of Italian Soldiers fallen for Peace in international missions - and to the families that mourn them"

PROGRAM:
selections from: Scarlatti * Rossini* Clementi

Brief bio:
(Alessandro Marangoni) A graduate of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and the Università di Pavia, Benito has also done advanced studies at the famous Almo Collegio Borromeo. The winner of national and international awards, the young pianist is a rising star in Europe with an international recording contract on the NAXOS label. His recordings and appearances have received both critical and public acclaim. Performing occasionally in Second Life for the past two years, his appearances have placed him at the top rung of professionals performing in Second Life.

For more information, please visit www.alessandromarangoni.com.

About Music Island concerts @ Innovation InfoIsland.

Music Island Concerts is proud to be a part of Innovation InfoIsland. The Music Island Museum on Innovation Island houses the two year history of the popular classical and art music series as well as a space to showcase SL's best classical performers with links to their websites, streams and/or recordings.

Young Zeid plays Vivaldi's "Fall" Nov 7 @ 12 pm SLT

Music Island audiences have been hearing one of the Four Seasons throughout 2009, beginning with Winter on New Year's Day played by Izabela Jaworower, the other half of Duo Appassionato. Young and Iza have delighted us each season with another one of the four concertos that make up the famous Four Seasons suite by Vivaldi. The final installment, Fall, will be played by Young Zeid on Saturday Nov. 7 at 12 pm SLT (Pacific Time) at Music Island in Second Life.

On December 19 the Duo will take the stage to offer the whole suite to finish up the year in fine style with a classical season gift.

BIO

Xi Yang (Young Zeid in Second Life) began his distinguished music career when he was a student at the Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China where he studied both violin and viola Performance. He had his first solo debut when he was 9 years old. By the age of 12 he made an average of 200 solo appearances a year in China. He won the National Violin Competition in Shanghai and made his solo debut with the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra. He then, toured China with the Beijing Youth Symphony as a soloist and concertmaster. At the age of 17, he was a semi-finalist in the prestigious Jacques Tibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, France. The youngest violinist entered the competition for that year which earned him a place in the Encyclopedia.

Arriving in the United States, Mr. Yang won a National Strings Competition in Arkansas and has performed numerous solo recitals, chamber music concerts and gave master classes to young string players from many public schools and colleges. A graduate of Indiana University School of Music, he studied violin and chamber music ensemble, from baroque style to modern composers, under the guidance of James Buswell, Nelli Shkolnikova, Josef Gingold and Rostislav Dubinsky. "Mr. Yang has all the ability and potential to become one of the greatest solo violinists in the world today..." ( Isaac Stern 1987, Indiana University )

Mr. Yang was the Principal Violist for the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera and the Principal Viola with the Symphony of the Americas. He is also the Assistant Concertmaster and a guest conductor, soloist with the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra. He has performed for Two Presidents of the United States, President Clinton and President Bush Snr. and been requested to perform by celebrities such as Donald Trump and Sylvester Stallone. He has collaborated with highly regarded classical artists such as Isaac Stern, Placido Domingo,Luciano Pavarotti, Leonard Bernstein, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, as well as some of the great pop stars such as Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Michael Jackson, Bary Manilow...among others.

A well established violinist and violist in the Triangle area and beyond, his students are age from 7 years old to adults. He is a member of the Arcangelo Piano Quartet www.arcangelopianoquartet.com and Duo Appassionato. www.duoappssionato.org

Fostering the next generation of musicians is important to Xi Yang. He is the founding music director and conductor of the Youth Symphony of Florida.

General information for those unfamiliar with live concerts in virtual reality. Concerts are streamed live from musicians homes or studios together with informative introductions and or notes for the audience. Virtual concerts are social and interactive. While there is no charge to attend a concert at Music Island, donations to the musicians and/or the venue are always gratefully received at the concert.

Advance listings

Anek Fuchs, Oct. 31 @ 12 pm

All Hallow's Eve is a time when spirits walk and people light fires against the coming of the chill of winter. Join us for a concert of fire and magic appropriate to a night of masks and mystery.

A step outside of our usual Music Island fare but Anek is hard to classify. He has been called many things, even an alien, as he magically wanders a fretboard searching out the next piece of his soul, to share with you . . He has been burning up the grid since April 25th of 2008, shredding his way through the common barriers of genres and style in the SL music scene, for so long doing only guitar lead in a virtuoso style that could only be compared to Joe Satriani, or Steve Vai. He is not a musician that sticks to one or two genres or styles, he is a soul that requires a myriad of these flavors to be that which he is.

Anek Fuchs was recently nominated as best band and as best male musician in second life, and tied as best male musician with Maximillian Kleene according to musicians, venues, and the LEMA awards foundation.

Cindy Ecksol, Thurs Oct. 29 4:30 pm PDT

Cindy Ecksol has been making and teaching music with voice, autoharp, fiddle and a variety of other instruments for as long as she can remember. She is particularly interested in traditional music of many varieties, and her repertoire includes everything from Irish tunes and Israeli dance music played on autoharp to dark Appalachian fiddle tunes from the mountains of West Virginia. But her playful side can't resist amusing modern songs about real life, which somehow co-exist with folk songs from long ago.

Music Island concerts has been working with the US Public Affairs program Virtually Speaking on a series of Arts and Letters programs on selected Thursday evenings. This concert is a vibrant part of that series.

Note: To attend a virtual concert in Second Life you must download the free SL viewer and set up your free Second Life avatar account. If you are new in SL and want to be added to the Music Island group or want help getting to the concert, just search on Kate Miranda in the Second Life Search Engine and send me a message. Click here to teleport directly to Virtually Speaking.

Open Rehearsals: More Successful in Virtual Worlds?

"I feel that I understand music at a deeper level than ever"
"This was even cooler than an ordinary concert. Let's do this again."
"Now I understand how much goes into the preparation for a concert"

These were some of the comments from individuals in attendance at last Thursday's Open Rehearsal with the wonderful Schumann Duo.

The day hadn't started out so auspiciously for Kahuna Schumann who had been struggling with a bad head cold and knew he would be unable to perform at length on the oboe, if at all. Thinking quickly, and not wanting to disappoint the audience, Clarissima Schumann suggested that the event take the form of an Open Rehearsal.

It seemed like a format that might fit the Virtually Speaking format of informal conversations. In this case, about music-making. But I did have some worries initially, based on my experience in RL. In general, audiences who enjoy rehearsals are already fairly well-informed about music, understand what to expect in an open rehearsal and are so interested in the process, that the interuptions in actual music don't bother them. Inexperienced audiences are often confused and bored, somewhat frustrated by not understanding what is happening.

What made this work so well in SL?

I think two factors were crucial. First, we could hear every word that was exchanged by the working musicians as they were wearing headsets. What a difference from the usual open rehearsal experience of conversations dropping into inaudible whispers. Secondly, audience members in SL were busily typing questions and comments into the chat bar as the rehearsal was in progress, rather than waiting for the end of the session (and losing flow and context). Rather than wait for the end to answer, the musicians were occasionally able to take a break, catch up on reading the questions and respond as they moved music stands, picked up a new piece of sheet music or moved avatars about.

In short SL broke down the wall between the people making the music and the audience members listening through the combination of asynchronous and synchronous communication tools that the virtual world is able to provide.