Sewickley Music Club kicks off new season

By: Tribune-Review
Friday, September 29, 2023 | 7:01 AM

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The Sewickley Music Club is kicking off its 103rd year and welcomes back members for an impressive 2023-24 season of musical performances.

At 2 p.m. Oct. 10, the club members meet for their first event at Divine Redeemer Parish – St. James on Walnut Street in Sewickley. Members arrive at 1 p.m. for by-laws vote followed by the musical program.

Two talented Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians, Victoria Luperi (clarinet) and Rodrigo Ojeda (piano), will perform “Musica Latina.”

Luperi was appointed associate principal clarinet and principal E-flat clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony by Manfred Honeck in 2016, having previously held the position of principal clarinet with the Fort Worth and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras. Since 2014, she has performed in the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wy.

She premiered “Fantasía sobre Yma Sumac,” a work for solo clarinet and orchestra written for her by John B. Hedges, with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She has been a featured soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Madison Symphony, Signature Symphony in Tulsa, Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles, Philharmonia of Kansas City, Córdoba Symphony, Córdoba Chamber Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Donald Montanaro. She began her music education in her native Argentina with Oscar Gieco, and later studied with Richard Hawkins and Yehuda Gilad. Distinctions include the First Prize in the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, the Interlochen Fine Arts Award and the Banco Mayo Award of Buenos Aires. She has appeared in concert broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today, WQED, WRR 101.1, WFMT and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She is a Vandoren Artist and Clinician, and a Buffet Crampon USA Performing Artist, and proudly served in the research and development team of Buffet Crampon’s “Tradition” clarinet model. Victoria is married to Andrés Franco, executive director of City of Asylum.

Venezuelan-born pianist Rodrigo Ojeda discovered his passion for music at age 2 when his parents made him listen to Carl Orff Trionfo di Afrodite and Carmina Burana, but it was not until the age of 10 that Ojeda began to take his first piano lessons. By 15, Ojeda was invited to perform Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto, with the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Orchestra, which was broadcast live on radio and television in Caracas, Venezuela.

A versatile pianist, Ojeda has frequently performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. He has performed in every prominent concert hall in his native Venezuela as well as in Ecuador, Spain, USA and Mexico with an expansive repertoire of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Gershwin, Grieg, Schumann, Mozart, Liszt (Totentanz), Cesar Frank, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Saint Saëns and Stravinsky. Ojeda has participated in master classes with numerous concert pianists like Kasimierz Giesrod (former rector of the Frederic Chopin Academy in Warsaw), Marek Jablonsky, Georgy Sandor, Marta Gulyas, and Earl Wild.

Possessing a wide-ranging knowledge of chamber music repertoire, he has collaborated with countless instrumentalists and vocalists worldwide.

Ojeda received a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at IUDEM, Venezuela (Institute of Musical Studies) in 1997 with his mentor and pianist Arnaldo Pizzolante, then moved in 1999 to the United States where he received a master’s degree and an artist diploma at Carnegie Mellon University under Enrique Graf in 2003.

Currently, Ojeda is an assistant teaching professor of coaching and accompanying at Carnegie Mellon University as well as a piano faculty member in its Music Preparatory School. He has also been playing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

Information on The Sewickley Music Club membership can be found on The Club’s Facebook page or by calling Donna Pavlis at 412-498-6352.

Additional performances include:

Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m. at Sewickley Presbyterian Church

“Piccolo Poetry”

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians Kenny (Ppiccolo/flute) and Rodrigo Ojeda (piano)

Dec. 13, 1:30 p.m. at Edgeworth Club

Trio Cassatt Winter Concert

Alyssa Hensley (harp), Bronwyn Haggerty (cello), and Aydan Hensley (flute)

March 12, 1:30 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church

Music+Mindfulness=Wellness

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Christopher Wu (violin)

April 9, 1:30 p.m. at Sewickley Methodist Church

Bohemian Rhapsody – Shadyside Brass

David DeAngelo (trumpet), Joe Figliulo (trumpet), Doug Peters (French horn), Justin Miller (trombone), and Matt Tesch (bass trombone)

May 14, 11:30 a.m. at Montour Heights Country Club

From Mozart to Broadway

Katy Williams (soprano) and Thanakarn Limtham (piano)

Annual Meeting & Spring Luncheon