Mid-Day Music

Mid-Day Music, March 30, 2016

The March 30, 2016 Mid-Day Music program features Daniel Frankhuizen, cello and Akiko Sasaki, piano. The concert starts at 12:05 p.m. and lasts approximately one-half hour. The recital is free but donations are gladly accepted. A light lunch follows for a $5 donation.

Daniel Frankhuizen has performed throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, and in several pop groups. Daniel Frankhuizen has made both solo and group festival appearances in New York (Blue Heron Festival, Fringe Festival, Ithaca Festival, Grassroots Festival of Music and Art), Washington DC (Nuit Blanche, Dog Days), and Orvieto, Italy (Orvieto Musica). He has served as principal cellist for the Empire Chamber Orchestra and Opera in the Ozarks Festival Orchestra.

Daniel is a member of the Orvieto Piano Trio, an ensemble that started in Orvieto, Italy during a music festival in 2009. Since their formation, the Orvieto Piano Trio has been actively sharing their love of piano trio literature internationally from Italy, Canada, to the United States. Recently, the trio finished recording an album, which includes brooding works by Mendelssohn and Smetana.

Daniel has performed in masterclasses for the Guameri String Quartet, New Zealand String Quartet, members of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. Mr. Frankhuizen is Artistic Director and co-founder of Art House Ensemble, an exciting new chamber music ensemble that seeks to reshape the classical concert hall experience through innovative performances and programming.

Daniel has worked alongside the pop group Holychild on their 2013 hit singles “Best Friends” (MTV Buzzworthy’s “Song of the Summer”) and “Watching Waiting” both as a cellist and organist. In 2008 his cello playing was recorded with John Brown’s Body on their album “Amplify”, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Reggae Chart.

As a composer and arranger, Daniel has made several transcriptions of popular music for cello ensembles and string quartet. These arrangements include artists as diverse as Katy Perry to Radiohead, Outkast, and The Beatles. His own pop music group, Beat the Grid, released a full-length record in 2012 hailed by Cake Magazine as a "sonic sensation". Daniel holds degrees from Ithaca College and the Purchase College Music Conservatory.

The vibrant pianist Akiko Sasaki’s dynamic performances and detailed instruction have anchored her a prospering position as a concert pianist and music educator in the New York City area. Praised as, “impressively sensitive and interactive,” (City Arts New York), Sasaki has appeared throughout Europe and the United States as soloist and chamber artist.

Sasaki has collaborated with fine artists from around the world, including members from the Harlem Quartet, musicians from the Marlboro Festival, Metropolitan Opera, and the Grammy award winning Pacifica Quartet. She is a member of the Sasaki-Schoen-Rene Duo, Trio Côtier, and the Heaton Sasaki Duo. Sasaki has appeared in venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Steinway Hall, WQXR Greene Space, and as a winner of New York City’s Artist International competition, she gave her solo debut concert at Carnegie Hall in 2006. Sasaki is also a winner of the Lamont Concerto Competition and Notes at Nine Thousand Emerging Artist Competition. Other distinguished accomplishments include winning the Allied Arts Music Award, the New York City Distinguished Artist Award, and a selected participant to Frederic Chiu’s Deeper Piano Studies. As a 2014 winner of the Bettylou Scandling Hubin Award for world music, Sasaki presented Japanese Music throughout the USA in 2015.

Sasaki holds a Bachelor’s degree in Piano from University of Denver and a Master’s degree in Piano from the Manhattan School of Music. She currently runs the Forte>Piano Studio in NYC and is the Founder and Executive Director of the Lyra Summer Music Workshop in Northampton, MA.

The concert will be held at St. Paul’s on the Green, 60 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06851.

For additional information, contact events@seaburynorwalk.org or call (203) 847-2806 x13

http://www.seaburynorwalk.org

LIKE us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seaburynorwalk