Overtures at RCM with Guarino and Robbins in March

Violinist John Guarino began his violin studies at the age of twelve, under the guidance of violinist, conductor, and community music advocate Edward Simons, at the Rockland Conservatory of Music in Spring Valley, New York. Since then, he has been fortunate to continue his training with Joey Corpus and David Nadien in New York, and most recently with BSO concertmaster Malcolm Lowe. He has also participated in master classes given by Joseph Silverstein, Arturo Delmoni, Soovin Kim, Sherry Kloss, Judy Tarling, Colin Carr, Phoebe Carrai, Sidney Harth, and Elaine Skorodin.

John was awarded a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music in 2008, and Master of Music from the Longy School of Music in May of 2011. He has performed with the Albany Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Portland Symphony, the Cape Ann Symphony, and the Orchestra of Indian Hill. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared with the Brookline Symphony, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Rockland Symphony Orchestra. Other notable performance experiences include a tour of Japan with Valery Gergiev and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, a concert with the Red Bull “Artsehcro” at Carnegie Hall, premiering the first-ever Concerto for Turntable, an appearance with Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks at the Iridium in New York, appearances with the “theatrical indie” band Zen for Primates, three tours of Mexico with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas and, with the same ensemble, a concert at the 2008 Gloria Estefan Tribute Concert hosted by the Latin GRAMMY® Awards in Houston, Texas, accompanying Gloria Estefan, Patti LaBelle, Jose Feliciano, John Legend, and Carlos Santana.

John is a member of the faculty of the Rockland Conservatory of Music in Pearl River.

Pianist Gerald Robbins has distinguished himself internationally as a soloist having performed throughout the world in virtually every major music center including New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Bonn, Munich, Athens, Frankfurt, Belgrade, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, and Tokyo. He has appeared with many major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and its affiliates, London Mozart Players, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the New York Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra under such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Sir Neville Marriner, Edouard van Remoortel, Harry Blech, Okko Kamu, Jorge Mester, Lawrence Foster, Kenneth Klein, and Louis Frémaux.

In addition to his solo activities, Robbins has distinguished himself as a chamber musician in collaboration with many noted musicians such as Nathan Milstein, Pinchas Zukerman, Kyung-Wha Chung, Bronislav Gimpel, Zara Nelsova, Joseph Schuster, Ruggiero Ricci, and Glenn Dicterow. A co-founder with Glenn Dicterow of the Lyric Piano Quartet, Mr. Robbins records and tours with this ensemble. He has also appeared as a frequent guest artist with solo members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as part of its subscription concert series at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, as well as performing with them at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York City. Mr. Robbins is also an accomplished conductor. He co-founded with Kenneth Klein the Westside Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles, presently called the Beverly Hills Symphony, and is a co-founder of the London Concertante, an ensemble that specializes in 18th and early 19th-century concerto repertoire.

Mr. Robbins has received many important prizes throughout his career, including a major prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and a diploma from the Tchaikovsky International Competition. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California where he assisted in the string master classes of Jascha Heifetz, William Primrose, and Gregor Piatigorsky.

A native of California, Mr. Robbins lived in London for several years and is now residing in New York City, where he is an Artist-in-Residence with the Lyric Piano Quartet at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY. He has developed a highly successful chamber music concert series at Queens College which continues to serve the community.

The Rockland Conservatory of Music is a not-for-profit community music school and center for the performing arts, created to provide quality professional music instruction to students of diverse ages, abilities and financial backgrounds and to provide a community forum for performing arts, culture and entertainment.

We aim to involve and engage as many students as possible in meaningful, creative activities through lessons, performances and positive musical experiences, thus building a life-long love of music.

We are offering special pricing for this performance for RCM families.

$20 General Admission

Free 18 and under

$5 Parent of RCM Student

Purchase tickets on-line at www.rocklandconservatory.org/tickets

or by calling 845-356-1522 x108