Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonata in E minor BWV 1023 for violin and harpsichord
Ludmila Yurina: Duma for violin
Charles Mason: Bach Scratch for violin
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Psalm 140 For harpsichord
Charles Mason: Go Dog Go for violin and harpsichord
Karen Bentley Pollick has performed as a violinist with Paul Dresher’s Electro Acoustic Ensemble since 1999 and performs a wide range of solo repertoire and styles on violin, viola, piano, and Norwegian hardangerfele. A native of Palo Alto, California, she studied with Camilla Wicks in San Francisco and with Yuval Yaron, Josef Gingold, and Rostislav Dubinsky at Indiana University where she received both Bachelor’s and Master of Music Degrees in Violin Performance. She has several recordings of original music, including Electric Diamond, Konzerto & Succubus, and Ariel View, for which she has received three music awards from Just Plain Folks, including Best Instrumental Album and Best Song. On her record label Ariel Ventures she has produced Dancing Suite to Suite, <amberwood>, Homage to Fiddlers, Russian Soulscapes, and Peace Piece. She filmed Dan Tepfer’s Solo Blues for violin & piano in Shoal Creek, Alabama, in June 2009.
Pollick was the New York String Orchestra Concertmaster at Carnegie Hall in 1983 and 1984 and participated in the June in Buffalo and Wellesley Composers Conferences. She has appeared as a soloist with the Redwood Symphony in the world premiere of Swedish composer Ole Saxe’s Dance Suite for violin and orchestra, the Alabama Symphony, and orchestras in Panama, Russia, Alaska, New York and California. She has performed in recital with Russian pianist/composer Ivan Sokolov at the American Academy of Rome, Seattle, and New York City, throughout the Czech Republic with cellist Dennis Parker at the American Spring Festival, and in England at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Along with choreographer Teri Weksler and percussionist John Scalici, Pollick received a Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham 2008 Interdisciplinary Grant to Individual Artists. Pollick received a grant from the Alabama State Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for her March 2010 Solo Violin & Alternating Currents concerts in Birmingham, Seattle, and at Music Olomouc 2011. She launched Violin, Viola & Video Virtuosity with New York video artist Sheri Wills in November 2012 in Brooklyn and Seattle. She has toured with the Paul Dresher Double Duo since 2009. Pollick performs on a violin made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume in 1860 and a viola made in 1987 by William Whedbee.
Since moving to California 30 years ago, British-born harpsichordist Jonathan Salzedo has become a popular collaborator with leading Bay Area orchestras (Jubilate, San Francisco Symphony, Monterey Symphony), choruses (Soli Deo Gloria, California Bach Society, Coro Hispano) and ensembles (Whole Noyse, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Momsemble). With his wife Marion Rubinstein, he co-directs the Albany Consort, now in its 37th year, which tackles the entire spectrum of baroque music from duos to opera. He performs new music (Richard Worn Ensemble, Latin American Chamber Music Society) and works with innovative soloists (Karen Bentley, Viviana Guzman) creating varied programs using the harpsichord in new contexts (tango, new age). Once a maker of instruments, Jonathan still enjoys the challenges of moving harpsichords (generally single-handedly) and tuning them (he is an expert on early tuning systems). Jonathan has two grown-up children who are both fine musicians. In his spare time, he sings at Congregation Etz Chayim, Palo Alto, teaches Alexander Technique, and runs a software consulting business.
Jonathan first took up harpsichord while a mathematics student at Oxford, England. Before that, he had been an active and occasionally prize-winning pianist throughout his youth. After graduating, he intended to study harpsichord seriously with someone really famous but ended up learning most of what he knows from careful listening and from working with terrific soloists.
