Mike Strickland Trio

Jazz Trio October, 2009
First Church of God, Red Bluff

Pianist/composer Mike Strickland is one of the Northwest's most popular performers and concert artists. As a solo performer, or with his duo, trio, or quartet, Mike presents a hybrid of jazz, popular, and original music. A gifted arranger and stylist, Mike's eclectic concert sets might include jazz classics, romantic film themes, Mississippi blues, piano-busting boogie-woogie, and gorgeous original music. His extremely popular arrangements and recordings of Pachelbel's Canon in D, Windmills of Your Mind/Classical Gas Medley, and Beethoven's Ode To Joy have been best-sellers on Apple iTunes and audience favorites at concerts.

Bella Sorella

Soprano Ensemble November, 2009
First Church of God, Red Bluff

Bella Sorella – Nova and Susanna Jiménez (sopranos) with piano and violin accompaniment – is an award-winning soprano ensemble that combines classical and contemporary styles in melodic and powerful duets. Bella Sorella’s unique music, magnetic stage presence and remarkable personal story has earned them acclaim and recognition throughout California and abroad.

La Catrina Quartet

Chamber Music February, 2010
First Church of God, Red Bluff

Founded in 2001, the La Catrina Quartet has a triple mission: to work closely with living composers in order to promote the performance of new music, to promote Mexican and Latin-American art music, and to perform the masterworks of the string quartet repertoire. Its members have played as soloists with a variety of orchestras in Mexico and the United States and given recitals in Japan, England, the United States, and Mexico. Currently the Quartet-in-Residence of the Western Piedmont Symphony and the Chamber Music Festival of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the La Catrina Quartet has already given multiple world premieres of works written for them, such as Our Hands Were Tightly Clenched, a string quartet by composer Zae Munn.

California Guitar Trio

Guitar Ensemble March, 2010
State Theatre, Red Bluff

With a whirlwind of instrumental styles fusing classical, rock, blues, jazz, world music, progressive, as well as the quintessential California musical genre surf music, the California Guitar Trio's stunning virtuosity and sly sense of humor have earned them an enthusiastic following and wide notoriety, with significant crossover in the progressive, acoustic and classical music scenes.

North State Symphony

Symphony Orchestra May, 2009
State Theatre, Red Bluff

The North State Symphony was created in 2001 from the merger of the Chico and Redding Symphonies. The musicians of the orchestra include professionals and community members as well as students and faculty members of California State University, Chico. The origins of the North State Symphony can be traced back to 1905, when the first orchestra formed at what was then the Chico State Normal School. Thus 2005 was celebrated as the 100th anniversary of symphonic music in the North State area.

Program:
Haydn: Lo Speziale Overture
Lowell Liebermann: Clarinet Concerto (Jon Manasse, clarinet)
Dvorak: Symphony No. 8