The Bucksport Area Cultural Arts Society (BACAS) invites you to join them for their 5th Annual Gala Concert, featuring world-renowned pianist Daniel Epstein performing chamber music on the stage of the Bucksport Performing Arts Center. This highly anticipated concert showcases incredibly talented artists performing music at the highest level of excellence.

Daniel Epstein has coordinated this event and is professor of piano at Manhattan School of Music and Rutgers University. Mr. Epstein received international acclaim in 1973 with his performances of the Yellow River Concerto – the first piece of Chinese classical music to be performed in the United States – in a series of concerts and on RCA’s debut recording with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then, he has become recognized as one of the most vital and versatile solo and chamber pianists of his generation, as well as an articulate communicator and educator. Mr. Epstein summers on Toddy Pond with his wife Betsey Peters-Epstein. www.danielepsteinpiano.com

Claudia Erdberg Warburg, Violin, is on the music faculty at Duke University and a former member of the Ciompi String Quartet. Ms. Warburg has been an active member of the Triangle area musical community for over 35 years, is the concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, and a founding member of the Mallarme Chamber Players. No stranger to Hancock County, Ms. Warburg taught and performed many summers at Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill, and holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.

Sheng-Ching Angel Hsu, Violin, has earned a wealth of competition and scholarship awards, making her first public appearance at age 6 at the National Cheng-Kung University as both violinist and pianist. Upon her arrival in the US, she was accepted into the studio of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at the Juilliard Pre-College Division. She is a Master’s Degree candidate at the Mannes College of Music as a scholarship recipient, where she also received her Bachelor's degree. Soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, accompanist, and arranger, she is also an accomplished translator. Recently featured with Ensemble 212 performing Massenet’s Mediation from Thais for a memorial concert in remembrance of the 10th Anniversary of September 11, Ms. Hsu plays a 1922 E. Soffritti instrument on loan to her by the CHIMEI Cultural Foundation, Taiwan. She has been a core member of Ensemble 212 since 2011.

Robert Dan, Viola, is well known to music lovers in Hancock County and beyond. After an acclaimed recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, Robert Dan quickly became one of this country’s leading violists, appearing extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Israel and Japan. His career includes membership in the Theatre Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center and Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. A former Professor of Viola at Michigan State University, heading their Chamber Music program, Mr. Dan currently teaches at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and has recorded for Centaur, Phillips, CRI and Musical Heritage Society.

Priscilla Hayes Taylor, Cello, is the creator, cellist, and artistic director of Decompression Chamber Music of Portland, Maine. A member of the Plymouth Philharmonic and Nashua Symphonies, freelance cellist with other Boston area orchestras, including BMOP, Cape Cod, Indian Hill, and the Gardner and Soria Chamber Orchestras, Ms. Taylor has also performed with Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, and the Temptations. Ms. Taylor has a MM in Cello Performance from New England Conservatory, and a BA in performance and composition from Bennington College, and spent five summers at Kneisel Hall. In addition to performing, she teaches cello and string methods at UMass Boston.

Mark Neslusan, Bass, has been the Music Director of Bucksport High School since 1986. He’s been involved with Bucksport Community Theatre since their first performance in 2004, the high school’s drama department’s Music Director since 1988, and is the Vice President of the Bucksport Area Cultural Arts Society. He has performed as a bassist with several Maine-based jazz musicians.

Gary Schreiner, Piano and Chromatic Harmonica, is a multi-instrumentalist and Emmy Award-winning composer and producer. He has scored hundreds of TV commercials and contributed music to countless TV shows and movies as well as having performed both onstage, recorded with and produced a multitude of artists. Gary’s works with performers spans the breadth of music from Elton John to Kermit the Frog. www.garyschreiner.com

Betsey Peters-Epstein’s spectacular voice can take us anywhere – from jazz standards to opera, and she’ll be joining Mark and Gary to make some beautiful music. Opera singer and cabaret artist, Ms. Peters-Epstein performs regularly in concerts and chamber music festivals in and around the Northeast, and she and husband Daniel Epstein summer on Toddy Pond.

The program will feature Dvorak Bagatelles for string trio and harmonium, the Dvorak piano Quintet #2, songs of Brahms, Jerome Kern and other selections from the great American songbook.

This world class performance will be held at the Bucksport Performing Arts Center on Friday, August 26, beginning at 7:00 PM. The Bucksport Performing Arts Center is located at 100 Miles Lane, air conditioned and accessible to all. Admission is by a suggested donation of $20.

www.bacasmaine.org

www.danielepsteinpiano.com 

Mark Neslusan, Vice President BACAS

207-299-8686