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Bower School of Music & the Arts Concerts

Bower School of Music & the Arts Concerts

Bower School of Music & the Arts Concerts

Bower School of Music & the Arts Concerts

Concert Information

The Bower School of Music & the Arts offers the Nisita Concert Series, ticketed concerts by regional, national and internationally known musicians in the U. Tobe Recital Hall in the Music Building.
The student ensembles perform in venues both on campus and throughout Southwest Florida. Most concerts in the Student Ensemble Series are free and do not require reservations.
All student recitals are free and open to the public and are held in the U. Tobe Recital Hall.

 

EVENT POSTPONEMENT:
The Spanish opera, Maria de Buenos Aires, originally scheduled for Saturday, February 18 at 7:30pm has been postponed to Sunday, April 30 at 3:00pm.

 

2022/23 Nisita Concert Series

Nisita image
Woodwind Quintet

 Thursday, September 1, 2022

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Suzanne Kirton, flute

Judy Christy, oboe

Paul Votapek, clarinet

Kristen Sonneborn, bassoon

Ryan Little, horn

 

with Michael Baron, piano

 

The Bower School of Music Faculty Woodwind Quintet, also principal players of the Naples Philharmonic, perform exquisite music for wind quintet and are joined by pianist Michael Baron for a Sextet! A concert sure to dazzle and delight to kick off our season.

 

 

Nisita image
Voice Faculty Recital

 Saturday, October 1, 2022

 Time: 7:30  p.m.

Event Description:

Nathalie Avila, soprano

Carolann Sanita VanderMeer, soprano

Lydia Howery, mezzo-soprano

Helen Tintes-Schuermann, mezzo-soprano

Isabelle Aubin, piano

Robin Shuford Frank, piano

 

The talented applied voice and diction faculty of the Bower School of Music will delight you with an evening of vocal music selections, solos and ensembles, from art song and opera classics, and musical theater repertoire. Sopranos Nathalie Avila and Carolann Sanita VanderMeer, mezzo-sopranos Lydia Howery and Helen Tintes-Schuermann, and pianists Isabelle Aubin and Robin Shuford Frank will be featured, with short appearances by Jeanie Darnell, soprano and Krzysztof Biernacki, baritone.  The program is approximately and hour and forty-five minutes with intermission.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Paul and Ralph Votapek

Paul Votapek, clarinet & Ralph Votapek, piano

 

 Thursday, October 13, 2022

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Sure to be a brilliant concert, this father/son team of two master musicians will perform both repertoire for the clarinet and for solo piano. Paul Votapek is instructor of clarinet at the Bower School of Music and principal clarinetist of the Naples Philharmonic. His father, Ralph Votapek has had an extraordinary worldwide career after winning the gold medal of the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has performed with many of the great orchestras throughout the world, including 16 times as the Chicago Symphony’s guest soloist.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Nisita image
Night at the Movies

 

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Svetlana Shmulyian, vocalist

Willerm Delisfort, piano

Brandon Robertson, bass

 

Svetlana Shmulyian’s Night at the Movies is a program based on her chart-topping record (#1 on Billboard™️ US Traditional Jazz Charts). The concert takes listeners on a dynamic musical journey consisting of innovative jazz arrangements of movie soundtracks ranging from the American movie classics, French New Wave, to modern day Academy Award™️ winners, and animated films. Night at the Movies will feature vocalist Svetlana Shmulyian, Florida Native and NYC Jazz pianist Willerm Delisfort, BSM faculty member Brandon Robertson on bass, and an exclusive special guest.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Sarah Barber and Priscila Navarro
Sarah Barber, mezzo-soprano & Priscila Navarro, piano

 

Sunday, November 20, 2022

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

Acclaimed for her artistry and refined characterizations, mezzo soprano Sarah Barber appears regularly on operatic and concert stages across North America. Opera News lauds her as a “rich-voiced, imaginative artist” and a “major find”. Also an awarded music educator, she performs regularly as a Teaching Artist with Central City Opera and has served on the voice faculties of The University of Colorado Boulder, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado State University, and other institutions across the Front Range of Colorado. Ms. Barber will appear in recital at FCGU, presenting She Wrote That: Music by Women Composers. She will be accompanied by the brilliant Peruvian pianist Priscila Navarro.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Logan SKelton
Logan Skelton, piano

 

Sunday, December 4, 2022

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

Logan Skelton is a much sought-after pianist, teacher and composer whose work has received international critical acclaim. As a performer, Skelton has concertized widely in the United States, Europe and Asia and has been featured on many public radio and television stations including NPR's "Audiophile Audition," "Performance Today," "All Things Considered," and "Morning Edition," as well as on radio in China and national television in Romania. He has recorded numerous discs for Centaur, Albany, Crystal, Blue Griffin, Supertrain, and Naxos Records. He has been honored by the University of Michigan, where is currently Director of Doctoral Studies in Piano Performance, with the Harold Haugh Award for excellence in studio teaching, and the Arthur F. Thurnau named professorship, among the highest honors given to faculty members at the university. This exciting concert will feature music of two of the greatest Hungarians composers – Liszt and Bartok!

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Liza Stepanova
Liza Stepanova, piano

 

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully, Merkin, David Geffen, and Steinway halls in New York City and at the Kennedy Center. Stepanova has performed extensively in Europe, most recently as soloist with the Southwest-German Philharmonic. She holds degrees from the “Hanns Eisler” Academy in Berlin, Germany (BM) and The Juilliard School (MM, DMA). Stepanova is currently an associate professor of piano at the University of Georgia.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Michael Bakan
Jazz As A World Music

 

Thursday, February 2, 2023

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Michael Bakan, percussion

Zach Bartholomew, piano

Lew Del Gatto, saxophone

Miguel Azcuy, percussion

Synia Carroll, vocalist

Brandon Robertson, bass

Tom Cimarusti, accordion

 

Jazz, in the words of jazz icon Jack DeJohnette, “has always been a world music.” That is the premise of this pathbreaking concert, in which the internationally renowned ethnomusicologist and drummer Michael Bakan will be joined by pianist Zach Bartholomew, saxophonist Lew Del Gatto, percussionist Miguel Azcuy, vocalist Synia Carroll, and FGCU’s own Brandon Robertson on bass and Thomas Cimarusti on accordion for a diverse program of world-inspired jazz and jazz-inspired world music. Highlighting the music of Mary Lou Williams, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Carla Bley, Tito Puente, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Marian McPartland, Dave Brubeck, and Astor Piazzolla, Bakan and company will take you on a musical journey spanning from India, Turkey, and Tunisia to Brazil, Cuba, and Argentina. Don’t miss this one!

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

James Houlik
James Houlik, tenor saxophone & Michael Baron, piano

 

Sunday, February 5, 2023

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

James Houlik is the leading performer on his instrument in the world. His pioneering efforts on behalf of the tenor saxophone have resulted in the composition of more than one hundred new concert works for the instrument, and important performances around the world. From the East Room of the White House to solo appearances with orchestras in London, Prague, Istanbul, Berlin, Chicago, Phoenix and New York, to recitals in the music capitals of the world, James Houlik has redefined the role of the tenor saxophone. Audiences and critics alike have celebrated the remarkable artistic achievements of this unique artist. He will be accompanied by his frequent piano partner, Michael Baron.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Alex Richardson
Alex Richardson, tenor & Michael Baron, piano

 

Saturday, February 11, 2023

 Time: 7:30 p.m.

Event Description:

Tenor Alex Richardson presents a dazzling concert of opera arias and art songs, with Dr. Michael Baron at the piano. Mr. Richardson’s career highlights include engagements at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, and Chicago Symphony.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Gao and Baron
Ming Gao, violin & Michael Baron, piano

 

Sunday, March 19, 2023

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

Assisted by Si-Cheng Liu, cello

 

Recently appointed Instructor of Violin at the Bower School of Music, Ming Gao is currently Associate Concertmaster of the Naples Philharmonic. During the summer months, Ming is a first violinist in the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in New York, and he has also served as the acting Associate Concertmaster/Concertmaster during the 2018, 2019 and 2021 seasons. This brilliant concert will feature Ming Gao in works for solo violin, violin and piano, and piano, violin, and cello by composers such as Yasye, Prokofieff, Smetana, and others.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Piano Duo
Piano Duo

 

Sunday, April 2, 2023

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

Please note that there has been a change in this program. 

 

Come enjoy the splendor of two nine-foot Steinway Concert Grand Pianos in the acoustically perfect U. Tobe Recital Hall. Masterworks of Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Arensky, Saint-Saëns, Chabrier and Lutosławski will be performed by Cesar Perez & Juan Baquero and the nationally awarded two-piano team of Arturo Fernandez and Jair Zacarias. Enjoy an afternoon of brilliant piano music followed by a reception in the lobby.

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

Holmes and Tse
J. Michael Weiss-Holmes, alto saxophone & Casey Dierlam Tse, piano

 

Sunday, April 23, 2023

 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Event Description:

Saxophonist J. Michael Weiss-Holmes and pianist Casey Dierlam Tse bring an exciting and unique program to U. Tobe Recital Hall. The program will feature all queer composers (including works by Jennifer Higdon, John Corigliano, Lowell Liebermann, and others) as these renown musicians explore the six stages of queer identify development thru music. Please join us for what will be an exciting and emotional performance. 

 

Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for students and are available here.

 


 

 

 

Purchase Tickets

Watch a selection of events from the 2020/21 Season here

WGCU logoThe Bower School of Music & the Arts would like to thank our streaming partner, WGCU Public Media


Directions: From Ben Hill Griffin Parkway, turn onto FGCU Blvd (FGCU's Main Entrance). Drive to the first stop sign and turn right. Follow the curve around to the next stop sign and turn left. There is a parking lot directly on the right and a parking garage on the left as soon as you turn at the stop sign. The Music Building and the Arts Complex are at the northern end of the parking lot. Please park here for all events in the Music Building and the Arts Complex. TheatreLab and the Wasmer Art Gallery are in the Arts Complex. The U. Tobe Recital Hall is in the Music Building on the right once you enter through the sliding glass doors.
The Music Building is #31 on the map
The Arts Complex is #15
Please park in either Parking Lot 7 or Parking Garage 2

See Map