Sonos Montecito to Perform Free Recital
Sonos Montecito, Wind Quintet in Residence at Westmont, performs a free, public recital Saturday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Deane Chapel. Sonos Montecito, comprised of Westmont’s applied music faculty, features Andrea Di Maggio (flute), Trey Farrell (oboe), Joanne Kim (clarinet), Andy Radford (bassoon) and Steven Gross (French horn).
They will perform Mozart’s “Quintet in E flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452,” featuring Neil Di Maggio on piano, “Quintet III” by Giuseppe Cambini and “Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet” by Gyorgy Ligeti.
Mozart wrote to his father after the 1784 premiere of “Wind Quintet,” saying “I myself consider it to be the best thing I have written in my life.”
“The Ligeti is a hallmark composition of contemporary wind quintet literature,” Gross says. “While well written for each instrument, its modern harmonic, melodic and rhythmic demands create a formidable example of modern compositional techniques.”
Andrea Di Maggio, a graduate of San Jose State University, studied at Arizona State University before earning a master’s degree in instrumental performance at UC Santa Barbara.
Farrell, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, earned a Master of Music from USC’s Thornton School of Music. He began teaching oboe at Westmont three years ago.
Kim earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Mannes College the New School for Music and Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music, where she is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts. She joined the Westmont music faculty in 2013.
Radford, principal bassoonist of the Santa Barbara Symphony and the California Philharmonic, is active in the recording industry, playing se veral hundred soundtracks including “Up!,” “Star Trek,” “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” and “Forrest Gump.” He attended the California Institute of the Arts and continued his musical education with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestral Training Program.
Gross, professor of horn and director of the brass and percussion program at UC Santa Barbara, is a former member of the Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He graduated from the University of Michigan, earned a Master of Music and Performer's Certificate from Indiana University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Cincinnati — College-Conservatory of Music.