Click a show title or use the red Streampad player at the bottom of our frame to listen now.

Monday, October 8, 2012

10/09 - Music & Screen in Napa Valley; Wine in Austria!



Napa Valley is renowned for its wine and Austria for its music, but this week we switch them out and celebrate the wines of Austria and music and film in Napa Valley.  First, we welcome back guitarist Peppino D'Agostino who has teamed with longtime friend and another world-renowned guitarist, David Tanenbaum, to form the Pacific Guitar Ensemble, a group of diverse and dynamic guitar players from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music who will have their debut show and album launch at the Napa Valley Opera House on October 17th. 

Next, the second annual Napa Valley Film Festival, showcasing feature films and documentaries from around the world, will settle in to the Opera House and surrounding venues to fill the Napa Valley with an eclectic mix of entertainment.  Something great to sip good wine with!  The festival co-creator and also producer of that great movie, Bottle Shock, Marc Lhormer, joins us to share the experience!

Finally we are delighted to welcome Sophie Moser, from Austria's Laurenz V Winery -- whose family has been producing wine since the 1600's -- to bring us a taste of Austrian lifestyle and wine!

Peppino D'Agostino
Pacific Guitar Ensemble



The Pacific Guitar Ensemble Featuring World Renowned Guitarists Peppino D'Agostino and David Tanenbaum Kicks Off A Six City Northern California Tour In Napa, October 17

The dates mark the official launch of the group's upcoming debut CD 'Begin'—Several of whose tracks are being produced by Grammy Award Winning Classical Guitarist Sergio Assad of The Assad Brothers (Paquito D'Rivera, Yo-Yo Ma).
 
The Pacific Guitar Ensemble (www.pacificguitarensemble.com), a dynamic eight-piece acoustic group comprised of world-renowned guitarists Peppino D'Agostino (steel string) and David Tanenbaum (classical) along with Lawrence Ferrara, Marc Teicholz, Jon Mendle, Michael Bautista, Antoniy Kakamakov and Paul Psarras marks the official launch of their upcoming debut CD Begin with a six city Northern California tour beginning October 17, 2012 at the Napa Valley Opera House in Napa.

The itinerary includes the Raven Theatre in Healdsburg October 21; 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley October 25; The Palms in Winters, California October 26; The Green Room in San Francisco October 27 and the Carriage House Theatre in Saratoga November 11.
 
Begin is currently in its final stages of the mastering process. Several of the tracks of this collection are being produced by the legendary Grammy Award-winning Brazilian classical guitarist Sergio Assad of the famed Assad Brothers. The Assad Brothers have collaborated with contemporary classical greats Gideon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Dawn Upshaw.

Peppino D'Agostino
The Pacific Guitar Ensemble began in 2010 when D'Agostino and Tanenbaum decided to form a larger guitar ensemble that could perform a wide variety of repertoire. After they gathered together members of the guitar faculty from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music along with some of its most exceptional alumni, and combined nylon strings with steel, electric basses with 17th century theorbos, a new eclectic group of pluckers was born.

While the Pacific Guitar Ensemble's repertoire features original music written by composers like Sergio Assad, noted minimalist Perry Riley and D'Agostino himself, it also includes fresh arrangements of great composers from Bach to Brahms, Sor to Rossini.

D'Agostino has made a considerable international mark as a musical artist on the guitar since he arrived in America more than 27 years ago. The readers of Guitar Player voted him Best Acoustic Guitarist in 2007, and the following year in Acoustic Guitar's People's Choice Awards he won a Bronze medal for Best Acoustic Album of All Time for his 2002 release Every Step of The Way (tying with Leo Kottke, one of his prime inspirations) and another Bronze award as Fingerstyle Guitarist of the Year.

Recognized internationally as an outstanding performing and recording artist, a charismatic educator, and a transcriber and editor of both taste and intelligence,David Tanenbaum is one of the most admired classical guitarists of his generation. He has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and in 1988 he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government. He has been soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, Vienna's ORF orchestra, with such eminent conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano and John Adams.

For more information, visit www.pacificguitarensemble.com.

Upcoming Shows:
Oct. 17, 2012 Napa, CA Napa Valley Opera House
Oct. 21, 2012 Healdsburg, CA Raven Theatre
Oct. 25, 2012 Mill Valley, CA Throckmorton Theatre
Oct. 26, 2012 Winters, CA The Palms
Oct. 27, 2012 San Francisco, CA The Green Room
Nov. 11, 2012 Saratoga, CA Montalvo Arts Center


Marc Lhormer
Co-Founder, Napa Valley Film Festival


Marc & Brenda Lhormer, Co-Founders of the Napa Valley Film Festival

In his role as co-founder of the Film Festival with his wife, Brenda, Marc serves as both
Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Executive & Artistic Director. Brenda serves as Vice Chair of the Board and Co-Director. After running the Sonoma Valley Film Festival for seven years (2001 – 2008), and then producing their first feature film (BOTTLE SHOCK, which tells the story of Napa Valley wines beating the French at the infamous 1976 wine-tasting competition in Paris), Brenda and Marc decided to create a world-class film festival for Napa Valley with the notion of marrying the valley’s renowned food, wine and hospitality with a celebration of the art of cinematic story-telling.

Marc is a native of Pittsburgh who went to college at Yale and business school at Stanford. Marc’s skills and experience span from strategic/financial to artistic/creative. He worked at Bain & Company, and then with several high-tech start ups, before turning his attention to the non-profit space by starting the youth leadership development program City Year in Seattle. Brenda and Marc were married in Napa Valley and have lived in Sonoma since 1999.

Brenda grew up in the SF Bay Area and attended Stanford University. She has a long background in marketing, public relations and event production. Brenda has worked for the Los Angeles Olympics, the San Francisco 49ers, Oracle and Microsoft, and for an event production company called Amazing Events where she met her husband Marc.

About Napa Valley Film  Festival
Napa Valley Film Festival

Napa Valley Film Festival showcases the best in new independent film making and world cinema. Our vision is to build community around the art of visual story-telling, with the viewing of films and discussions with filmmakers fueling lively conversation amongst old and new friends … and those conversations being enriched with the world-class food and wine of legendary Napa Valley.

The Napa Valley Film Festival takes place on the second full weekend of November each year. This period represents mid-fall and the tail end of Napa Valley’s gorgeous harvest season. The festival runs from Wednesday evening through Sunday night – what we like to refer to as an extended weekend, the best kind.


Sophie Moser
Laurenz V Winery, Austria

Anna, Lorenz & Sophie Moser
What young girl does not dream of working on a terrific project together with her father? But only a few girls are so lucky - or even have the right kind of father - for this to happen. For Sophie Moser, however, this dream has come true.

Sophie grew up next to her family’s company Lenz Moser Weinkellerei in Austria, which was sold in 1986. Her family has been in the wine business since 1612 so it comes to know surprise that she was engaged with the product from early onwards. Even as a little child, Sophie and her father explored the vineyards together and and talked a lot about the wine business. When Laurenz Moser founded his own company, LAURENZ V., in 2005, they together created the wine “Laurenz and Sophie“ as a symbol of their close relationship and passion for wine.

Sophie Moser inherited her knowledge from her great-grandfather, the legendary Professor Dr. Lorenz Moser III.,(“Grand Pa Gruner “) who invented and developed the ubiquitous Austrian trellising system called the "Lenz Moser Hocherziehung", which revolutionized vineyard cultivation right across Europe. Grand Pa Gruner also helped to promote Gruner Veltliner from a tiny grape variety in the late 20-ies of 1900’s to the number one Austrian grape, the modern ambassador for the country’s whites.

Sophie has graduated in 2009 from Marymount International School London and just finished her Bachelor Degree of Business Management at King’s College London in 2012. She is now interning at various wine and marketing companies in order to deepen her knowledge and gain some experience.





1 comment:

  1. This is very educational content and written well for a change. It's nice to see that some people still understand how to write a quality post!
    events production companies in dubai

    ReplyDelete