Michal Shein
cello, Artistic Director
Israeli-Mexican-American cellist Michal Shein is a performer, community
organizer and master educator focused on curating cross-cultural performance
projects and intensive educational initiatives. In 2021, she founded the Cellísimo
Festival
Michal is recognized for her warm pedagogical style that nurtures her students with
effective pedagogical methods for solid and positive musical advancement. Her
students have been winners in competitions, have received admission to top
festivals such as BUTI Tanglewood, Brevard, YOLA Festival, Greenwood, National
Symphony Summer Institute, and have played in masterclasses for cellists in top
conservatorios in the U.S. Michal has been in high demand in many music
programs such as New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Conservatory
Lab Charter School El Sistema, Brookline Music School, Boston Youth Symphony
Orchestra, and others. Currently, she teaches at the Boston String Academy, an
award-winning El Sistema inspired string program, which has been widely
recognized for its mission of inclusion and diversity, high student achievement,
and innovative methods of pedagogy. Michal also serves on the faculty of the
Longy School of Music of Bard College and University of Rhode Island.
Apart from her expansive career as a cello teacher, Michal has designed and
presented dozens of interactive music concerts for children in Boston, especially
in economically disadvantaged areas without access to music programs.
Internationally, Michal collaborated with the Harp Helu foundation in Oaxaca,
offering concerts, educational presentations and founding a string festival.
Aside from her diverse educational work, Michal maintains a career as a soloist,
orchestral cellist and chamber musician. In the 2021-2022 season, Michal had the
pleasure of returning to the stage as a soloist after a long hiatus due to the
pandemic: some season highlights include soloist with the Atlantic Symphony, new piano recital programming and collaborations with Celebrity Series of Boston.
Michal appears with many orchestras and ensembles in Boston including the
Rhode Island Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra,
and others. As a baroque cellist, she has collaborated with ensembles such as
Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and Grande Harmonie, Longy Baroque
Summer Institute, etc. From 2008 - 2013, she was Principal Cellist with the
Discovery Ensemble under conductor Courtney Lewis. And in 2009, she was
chosen by internet votes to be a part of the YouTube Symphony under Michael
Tilson Thomas.
Michal received her B.A. in Music from U.C. Berkeley, where she was a soloist with
the orchestra and received several awards from the music department.
Graduated with honors, Michal received the Hertz Traveling Fellowship to
continue her studies in Paris with Mark Drobinsky and Gary Hoffman. During her
time in Europe, she was accepted to the Accademia Chigiana di Siena master
classes in Italy, where she worked with Antonio Meneses. She received her M.A. at
New England Conservatory, studying with Natasha Brofsky.
Michal lives in an intentional cohousing community in Jamaica Plain, with her
husband Jonas and her young children Noam and Hadas.
Horacio Contreras
cell0
The Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras has collaborated with prestigious institutions in America and Europe in concerts and masterclasses. His multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber player, pedagogue and researcher has earned him international recognition. Highlights of his career include solo concerts with top Venezuelan orchestras, including the “Simón Bolívar” and Municipal Orchestras of Caracas, the EAFIT Orchestra of Medellín in Colombia, the Camerata de France in France, and the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of the Music Institute of Chicago in the United States; chamber collaborations with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and members of the Detroit, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin Symphony Orchestras; and master classes at Bloomington, Juilliard, Michigan, Oberlin, and the American String Teachers Association national convention. Recent collaborations include the recording of Ricardo Lorenz's cello works, the premiere of Reinaldo Moya's Diaspora for cello and piano, and the recording of Shuying Li's World Map Concerti with the Four Corners Ensemble.
Horacio teaches at Lawrence University, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the University of Michigan Center Stage Strings Summer Institute. His students have been accepted into summer festivals such as Aspen, Orford, and Domaine Forget, and have won prizes at international and national competitions in the United States and Canada. They have also continued their studies in institutions of international prestige. Some of his students enjoy successful careers as orchestral musicians, chamber musicians, and teachers in Europe and Latin America. Others have continued to enjoy their connection to the cello while devoting their energies to other pursuits.
Horacio is Artistic Director of Strings of Latin America, which officially collaborates with the Sphinx Organization with the purpose of promoting diversity in the world of classical music. He is also co-author of the Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works, the largest database in existence with information about Latin American cello works, created with the support of the Sphinx Organization and CelloBello.org. His pedagogical book Exercises for the Cello in Various Combinations of Double-Stops has gained recognition as a significant contribution to the literature on the instrument. Horacio is a member of the Four Corners Ensemble and the Reverón Piano Trio. He began his musical studies at El Sistema, and has degrees from the Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan, France, the Escola de Musica de Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Michigan in the United States.
Aristides Rivas
cello
Aristides Rivas leads a versatile and international career as a multi-genre cellist, teacher, public speaker, and lecturer. Rivas was nominated for the Grammys for best contemporary jazz album in 2010 as part of the Julian Lage Group recording of Sounding Point [Emarcy Records]. He is a founding member of the fusion world music group Voci Angelica Trio with which he tours internationally and has recorded two albums. Rivas is also an active solo and chamber musician whose versatility in different music genres has brought him to some of the most prestigious international venues, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Caramoor Music Festival, Tanglewood, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and North Sea Jazz Festivals, among others. He has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra of Indian Hill, the Narragansett Bay Symphony, University of Caxias do Sul Symphony in Brazil, the Panama Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Baylor Symphony, among others. In 2017-18, he performed the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven with pianist Spencer Myer. Rivas has also served as the principal cello chair at the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rivas has taught worldwide in a range of conservatories, universities, festivals, and youth orchestras, such as the New England Conservatory of Music, Skidmore College, and Stanford University in the US, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes in Mexico, El Sistema Hanwha Youth Orchestra and Sejong Dream Tree Youth Orchestra in South Korea, the International Music Festival Presjovem in Spain, Vivace Vilnius International Music Festival in Lithuania and I Cordas POA festival in Brazil. Rivas has also served as a faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, University of Massachusetts Lowell and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Currently, he serves as the cello faculty at California Baptist University.
As a public speaker, Rivas gave a TEDxTalk at the TEDxBeaconStreet, where he spoke about his own trajectory out of an impoverished slum in Venezuela. He is also a frequent guest presenter and lecturer at music education conferences, including the International Teaching Artist Conference (ITAC) at Carnegie Hall, the Orchestra of Dreams (El Sistema) Forum in South Korea, and the El Sistema USA Symposium, where he co-presented with renown author and teaching artists specialist Tricia Trunstall.
Rivas received his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. Among his principal teachers are Roberto Zambrano, Gary Hardie, Natasha Brofsky and Bernard Greenhouse.
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Christine Lamprey
cello
Christine Lamprea is a dynamic artist with a reputation as a firebrand cellist with a “commitment to the highest standards” (Palm Beach Daily News). Upon her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in 2013, she has since returned to Carnegie, as well as performed with orchestras such Costa Rica National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony of Michoacan, New Jersey Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi across the U.S. As a recitalist, Ms. Lamprea has appeared on prestigious series at Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Florida’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Pepperdine University, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. In demand as a chamber musician, she performs regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and has performed with such musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, and Carol Wincenc.
Ms. Lamprea strives to expand her musical boundaries by exploring many genres of music and non-traditional venues for performance and teaching. Her Songs of Colombia Suite includes arrangements of traditional South American tunes for cello and piano or guitar, and have been performed at the Colombian Embassy and Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She has worked with members of Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, and studied sonatas with fortepiano with Audrey Axinn. She has premiered several works by composers of today. In recent years, she commissioned cadenzas for the Haydn D Major Concerto by Jessie Montgomery, and premiered Jeffrey Mumford’s cello concerto “of fields unfolding...echoing depths of resonant light” with the San Antonio Symphony.
Ms. Lamprea is on the cello faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, serves as substitute faculty at the Juilliard School, and served as Lecturer of Cello at the Texas Christian University School of Music for the 2018-19 academic year. Ms. Lamprea has given masterclasses for the Vivac-e Festival, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, among others. She has worked with Ecuadorian youth in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, as part of a residency between The Juilliard School and “Sinfonia Por La Vida,” a social inclusion program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema program. Christine Lamprea is the recipient of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which supported her studies at the New England Conservatory, and a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, which supported her study with acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz. She studied with Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School and holds a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. Additional influences were Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, and Philippe Muller. Previous teachers include Ken Freudigman and Ken Ishii.
Alvaro Bitran
cello
Alvaro Bitrán Mexican cellist has been awared by the Mexican government with the Medal of Fine Arts in 2000 and by the Chilean government with the Pablo Neruda Order of Merit in 2014. In addition, in 2012 and 2016 he was awarded the Latin Grammy in the category of Best Classical Album and has received 6 more nominations from this category prize. He currently divides his musical career into three main areas: the Latin American Quartet, teaching work and his career as a soloist. As a soloist, he has appeared with distinguished orchestras from Latin America, the United States and Canada, such as: the Mexico City Philharmonic, OFUNAM and the National Symphony, in Mexico; the Simón Bolívar of Venezuela, the Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Seattle Symphony in the United States, as well as the National Arts Center Orchestra in Canada.
For many years he has devoted himself to pedagogy with great dedication, developing an important generation of cellists in Mexico. He currently teaches at the Ollín Yolitzli Cultural Center in Mexico City, at the UNAM Faculty of Music and at the National Conservatory of Mexico. In addition, he frequently gives masterclasses in various universities and festivals, both in Mexico and abroad. He has been a jury in several international cello competitions, such as the Carlos Prieto in Morelia (Mexico), the cello competition in Bloomington Indiana (United States) and the Luis Sigall Musical Execution Contest in Viña del Mar (Chile).
In 1982 he founded the Latin American Quartet, a group that has received numerous awards in Mexico and abroad and today enjoys a prestigious international reputation. The ensemble tours North and South America, as well as Europe, Israel and New Zealand, and carries out an intense recording work, which includes more than eighty compact discs. Among them are all the quartets by Alberto Ginastera, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, as well as the first recordings of the complete quartets of Manuel M. Ponce, Silvestre Revueltas, Manuel Enriquez and Rodolfo Halffter among others. In 2007, they received the Diapason D'Or award in France for their recording of Black Angels by composer George Crumb. Álvaro Bitrán has also recorded albums for cello and other instruments, such as Song without Words (BMG), Moments of Sun (Quindecim), My Chelada (URTEXT), Viola de Gamba Sonatas by JS Bach (URTEXT).
Alvaro Bitran has performed in many prestigious halls, such as Carnegie Hall in New York, La Scala theater in Milan, the Concertgebow in Amsterdam and the Royal Palace in Madrid, where he played on the cello made by Antonio Stradivarius in 1697, property of the National Heritage of Spain.
In his many hours in airports and hotels he has dedicated himself to writing musical articles, which have been published in newspapers such as La Jornada and Reforma, and in magazines such as Pauta, Escala and Chamber Music America. He also has two books of his own, published by the UANL: Postcards from the Hereafter and Notes of an Itinerant Cellist.
Alvaro Bitrán plays on a cello made in Vienna in 1817, by Martin Stoss.
German Marcano
cello
Rojas is a product of the "System of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela" (El Sistema). He began his musical career as a trumpet player, a member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. At the age of 19, due to a lung disease, he had to give up the trumpet and that is when he began to study the cello. Later, and with only three years of studies, he made the Latin American premiere of the "Cello Concerto by Aram Khachaturian," accompanied by the "Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra." Since then, he has performed as a soloist in Venezuela, the United States, Holland, Germany, France, Cuba, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico.
Rojas received his Bachelor's degree from the Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music, has a Master's degree in cello performance from Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, and a PhD from Michigan State University, focused on works by Latin American composers. He has held positions in several orchestras in the USA, including: Grand Rapids Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Greater Lansing Symphony and the Pittsburg New Music Ensemble; He was a substitute cellist in the "Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra" and the "Pittsburgh Opera" for two seasons. In Philadelphia, he worked as Teaching Artist for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Dalí Quartet.
He has remained active as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborates with contemporary composers in the creation of new works for the cello. Rojas has been noted for promoting Latin American music and for its inclusion in the standard cello repertoire.
He has been invited to offer conferences and recitals on Latin American music by contemporary composers. Since 2008, Rojas has served as Principal Cellist of the "Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra", professor at the "Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music", member of the Sanromá Trio and President of the corporation “Festival Cellistiko PR”, Inc., the which he founded in 2015.
It has a cello made by William H. Moening from 1941, thanks to the generosity of Doña Vicky and Don Quique Rossi with the valuable help of Luthier Michael Purcell.
Mickey Katz
cello
Venezuelan cellist, graduated in England with recognitions such as "Young
Musician of the Year 1980 "from the Reading Symphony and" Premier Prix "from the Guildhall School of Music. Participated in master courses with teachers Franz Helmerson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lynn Harrel, and Janos Starker. Between 1985 and 1997 he held the position of Principal in the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the Cuarteto Ríos Reyna made national and international tours and a CD of Latin American works. In 1997 he moved to the United States where he obtained the "Doctorate in Musical Arts" awarded by the University of Wisconsin-Madison with mention in execution and direction orchestral. During his stay in the United States Marcano was a guest Cello Principal at the Madison Symphony Orchestra. He has made world premieres of works by
renowned Venezuelan composers such as Modesta Bor and Inocente Carreño, as well as
national premieres of various Latin American authors. He premiered with the Symphony of
Aragua and the Puerto Rico Symphony the concert for cello and orchestra of the
Puerto Rican Carlos Vázquez, composed especially for Marcano. Has dictated
talks and master classes at Grand Valley State Universities, Andrews,
Wisconsin, Louisiana and Lawrence, San Diego Youth Orchestra in the United States,
Guayaquil Youth Orchestra, Cuenca Symphony, in Brazil, Puerto Rico and Aruba. On
in 2007 he released his first record production together with the pianist Clara Marcano with
works by Beethoven, Schumann and Debussy and continued in 2011 with his album "Rochela", first of its kind with the cello protagonist in Venezuelan folk music.
He also published a catalog of Latin American works for cello, the Suite for
cello and piano by Modesta Bor and the works for cello by Juan Bautista Plaza with the
sponsorship of FUNVES, as well as some articles in specialized magazines on the internet.
The Latin American Cello Music Catalog was recently launched in
internet in association with The Sphinx Organization, CelloBello and the Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras. In May 2018 he released his latest record production, "Aqui y there" in the which performs Venezuelan music with Jorge Glem (C4 trio), Manuel Rangel, David
Peña (Ensemble Gurrufío), Luis Julio Toro, Luis Zea and Clara Marcano among others.
As conductor Marcano has performed with the Miranda Symphony, Juvenil de Mérida,
National Philharmonic, Simón Bolivar Symphony, chamber orchestras of the
Simón Bolívar University and Centro Mozarteum, and the cello ensembles of the
Madison Summer Cello Institute in the United States, and Ensamble Prieto from Ecuador.
He is currently living in Florida, where he teaches at Kalos Music & Art.
School and Vivace Academy, and has an active participation in solo recitals, with his
Venezuelan music ensemble, with members of the FIU, and as part of the orchestras
Atlantic Classical, Florida Grand Opera and guest as principal with the Palm Beach
Symphony and South Florida Symphony.
Mike Block
cello,improvisation
Mike Block is a pioneering cellist, singer, songwriter and educator with a passion for cross-cultural collaboration through music and a commitment to inspiring people and connecting communities. Hailed by the New York Times for his "vital and rich solo performance," and by the Salt Lake City Desert News as "a true artist...a sight to behold," Mike Block's solo exhibition offers a rich mix of repertoire classical, folk music, original compositions and songs. Collaborative projects include a duo with Indian tabla player Sandeep Das, a 6-piece African/American fusion band with Malian balaphonist Balla Kouyate, and the Mike Block Trio, with Joe K. Walsh (mandolin) and Zachariah Hickmann (bass) Since 2005, Mike has been a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, with whom he has performed as a cello and solo vocalist, contributed arrangements and compositions, and won a 2017 Grammy Award for his album Sing Me Home.
Mike has been invited to perform as a soloist with the Illinois Symphony, The Knights, China National Philharmonic (Beijing), Shanghai Symphony and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, and has collaborated on performances and recordings with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Bon Iver, Will.i.am, The National, The New York Philharmonic, Bobby McFerrin, Allison Krauss, Mark O'Connor, Rachel Barton Pine, Edgar Meyer, Mike Marshall, Julian Lage, and many others.
Mike is an active recording artist of original material, folk music, and cross-cultural collaborations, with over a dozen albums to his name, regularly ranking near the top of multiple Billboard categories including Classical, World, Bluegrass, and Classical. Crossover. Mike has been a Contributing Producer for Facebook's Sound Collection since 2017, for which he has composed, arranged, recorded and produced over 500 recordings, ranging from Western classical music to contemporary pop and traditional music from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the World. Middle East. Frequently in demand as an arranger, Mike has contributed arrangements for such artists as Miley Cyrus, Elton John, Bobby McFerrin, Raffi, The Knights, Parker Quartet, Angélique Kidjo, Mashrou' Leila and many of the world's top dancers as Music Director of the Vail Dance Festival, where he worked closely with Damian Woetzel. Emerging as Yo-Yo Ma's "go to" arranger, Mr. Ma has performed and/or recorded dozens of Mike's arrangements on 5 continents.
As an educator, Mike is passionate about developing creativity and collaboration among artists of all ages. In 2010, he founded the Mike Block String Camp as a way to give players from different backgrounds the opportunity to learn from world-class faculty in a variety of styles, supporting the exploration and development of each student's artistic voice. Mike is also the founding director of Silkroad's Global Musician Workshop, designed to foster a community of globally minded musicians through immersive experiences. He teaches over 600 cello students online through his multi-style cello school at ArtistWorks.com and is the author of Contemporary Cello Etudes, published by Berklee Press. In 2012, Mike was appointed an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and in 2018 he joined the New England Conservatory faculty through the Contemporary Improvisation department.
As an innovator, Mike is among the first wave of cellists to adopt a strap for standing and moving while playing, employing his patented design, The Block Strap. Mike was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall, which The New York Times characterized as "breathless...half dance, half challenge." In 2020, Mike founded Play For The Vote (PFTV), which hosts musical performances at polling places across the country on Election Day, with the goal of increasing voter engagement by providing a more positive voting experience. .
Mike attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and earned a master's degree from the Juilliard School.
Mike lives in Boston with his wife, violinist Hanneke Cassel, and their young daughter.
Rafael Sanchez Guevara
baroque cello, viola da gamba
Rafael is a cellist, gambist and scholar, originally from Mexico City. Currently his work centers on chamber music performance, integrating the most diverse ensembles. As a member of La Fontegara, he has performed in concerts and festivals such as the Beijing Baroque Music Festival, the New York Early Music Celebration, Montreal Baroque Festival, the Úbeda and Cuenca Festivals in Spain, the Cervantino International Festival, among others. The ensemble has recorded the albums "Godfather" (2010) and "Arca de Música" (2017), produced by the British label Meridian Records. They have given lectures and masterclasses at institutions such as the Central Conservatory of China, and the music schools of Boston University, University of Massachusetts, City University of New York, University of Arizona, Conservatory of Celaya, and others.
Rafael is a founding member of the Camerata Melancolía, an Mexican ensemble of violas da gamba, and of Bona Fe, an ensemble dedicated to New Spain's viceregal music. He has toured with the Canadian ensemble Les Voix Humaines and Nigel North, acclaimed by international critics (4 Diapasons in France, Prix Opus in Quebec) on their international tour of their album "Lachrimae" (ATMA 2018).
Rafael studied at the UNAM in Mexico, and with support of the FONCA Study Abroad Scholarship Program, he then completed a master's degree in viola da gamba at the University of Montreal, Canada. He has trained mainly with Ignacio Mariscal, Gabriela Villa Walls and Margaret Little. He has taken specialized courses in historical interpretation, where he has participated in the masterclasses with Paolo Pandolfo, Bruno Cocset, Wieland Kuijken, Jaap ter Linden and Sarah Cunningham, among others.
Rafael is a professor at the Faculty of Music of the UNAM, where he did doctoral studies, with a grant from the National Council of Science and Technology CONACYT.
Wellness teachers:
Robert Ramirez
Meditation, Mindfulness, Holistic Life Coach
I was born in Guatemala in 1981. I was always very curious about Buddhism and I started meditating at the age of 12 because of a book I found in a library, although I started to take it seriously at the age of 18 while going through a very hard period of my life. Since then I have only gone deeper and deeper into the subject, experimenting with different types of meditations, breath work, and other techniques. I moved to Europe in 2007 looking for better life and work opportunities. In my life journey I was blessed to meet more teachers and I continued to experiment with even more tools and began to see how my life was transforming. I was becoming my first customer. I experimented with mixing all the techniques I had learned and my life radically changed in no time: meditation, mindfulness, breath work, visualization, ho'oponopono, and more.
I have always dreamed of sharing my knowledge and experiences with people and showing them the value of living an emotionally healthy life. Our emotions influence and affect every area of our lives and can either empower or weaken our actions and strength. This helped me decide to start organizing wellness and emotional health retreats in 2018. Thanks to all this and the experience that we have all had with Covid19, it was possible to reach even more people and demonstrate the power of meditation and mindfulness.
Elena Dimitrova
Yoga
Namaste, my name is Lena and I am a free and loving spirit. I practice and share different techniques of self-knowledge such as Hatha Raja, Dharma Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Reiki and Cacao ceremonies. My physical body was born in Bulgaria, while my soul has lived in many parts of the world (Mexico, the Netherlands, Asia and right now Spain), always finding its home in nature and in the mind / body / spirit connection. However, the most important journey of my life has been the journey within. Yoga came into my life when I was just 17 years old through the practice of pranayama (yogic breathing). From this sacred place, I share everything I have experienced on my humble spiritual journey.
