Mosbacher Salon Collective Presents: The Ezra Duo

Mosbacher Salon Collective presents The Ezra Duo as its newest members in an intimate house concert, hosted by notable Colorado Springs painter Karen Mosbacher in her private home gallery. The Canada-based duo will perform a thrilling program of classical music by both living composers and past masters. Don't miss your chance to see this award-winning duo live in Colorado Springs!

Run time for this event is approximately 80 minutes, with social reception to follow. Concert program and performer biographies are below.

- PROGRAM -

Ofer Ben-Amots: Midnight Dance for Viola and Piano

Paul Hindemith: Sonata Op. 11 no. 4 for Viola and Piano

Michiru Oshima: Sonata for Viola and Piano

- short pause -

Florence Price: Fantasy in G minor for Violin and Piano

Gabriel Faure: Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano

A social reception will follow the performance. Meet The Ezra Duo, admire inspiring art, and chat with fellow concertgoers.

- PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES -

THE EZRA DUO

Formed at The Glenn Gould School in 2016, The Ezra Duo quickly established itself as a performing ensemble of the highest caliber. The duo found themselves racking up a string of early local performances, including visits to the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, the Prime Chamber Music Society, and in Mazzoleni Hall and Temerty Theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Ezra gave their first performance in Toronto's Koerner Hall in the spring of 2017, performing Hindemith's canonic staple Sonata Op. 11 No. 4 in a prelude concert for the Royal Conservatory Orchestra.

Ezra has gone on to perform coast to coast in Canada: on Halifax’s Inner Space Concerts, in Vancouver as guests of the Canada International Arts and Music Society, and more centrally on the North Bay Symphony's chamber series, Montreal’s Oasis Musicale, and on various series around Toronto. In November 2017 they appeared in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York, and in April 2018 performed as guests at a G7 Summit event held at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 2019 Ezra toured internationally with their "Women in Music" and "Art of the Duo" programs, and in the midst of the 2020 lockdown appeared in a livestreamed celebration of composer Patricia Morehead’s 80th birthday held in Koerner Hall, appearing alongside numerous notable international performers. Ezra began traveling again in 2022 with “Colorfully Contemporary”, a program showcasing relatable contemporary classical works by living composers.

Always looking for opportunities to educate while entertaining, Ezra has participated in outreach events at Toronto's Baycrest Hospital and the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, as well as appeared on the Toronto Public Library's "Orchardviewers" series. The duo has presented masterclasses at the University of Tulsa, Berry College, Albuquerque Youth Symphony, and elsewhere, and are individually dedicated teachers. They are regular visitors at Oklahoma’s Harding Fine Arts Academy, where they have presented several workshops for high school performers. Currently, Ezra is ensemble-in-residence at the Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival, where Sasha and Jacob are co-Artistic Directors, and Artist Faculty at the annual Chamber Music Institute.

The duo are first prize winners of The Great Composers Competition: The Art of Chamber Music and The Music of America, Golden Classical Music Awards, Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition, and IMKA Music Competition, earning invitations to perform in New York, Vienna, and Sarajevo. In March 2018 they competed in the Città di Pinerolo e Torino – Città Metropolitana International Chamber Music Competition in Turin, Italy. In June 2019 Ezra premiered a new sonata written for them by Canadian composer Ronald Beckett, as winners of Arcady Ensemble's Emerging Artist competition.

The 2022-23 season shows a new side of Ezra, in which the duo performs works for both violin and viola with piano. This season also sees the return of Ezra Electrified!, an entirely online recital series livestreamed to Twitch, where the duo performs a mix of classical, rock, and music from films and video games on electric instruments. Concerts in spring and summer 2023 feature jazz-inspired works from Nikolai Kapustin, Paul Shoenfield, Dobrinka Tabakova, and others. 2023 will also see the premier of a new work written for Ezra by superstar T.V. and film composer Michiru Oshima.

JACOB CLEWELL, violin/viola

American violinist/violist Jacob Clewell stands in the vanguard of musicians of his generation. Gold Medalist of the 2017 Vancouver International Music Competition, standout moments from recent activities include solo and chamber performances at the Scotia Festival, Green Lake Festival of Music, Le Domaine Forget, Lake District Summer Music, Northern Lights Festival de Febrero in Ajijic, Mexico, and Festival Pablo Casals Prades in Prades, France. He has appeared alongside members of the Escher, Emerson, Endellion, Cypress, and Penderecki quartets, Berlin Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Players, Gryphon Trio, Pedja Muzijevic, Andrew Armstrong, and Benjamin Bowman. In May 2018 he gave his first performance in Chicago's Symphony Center, performing on the VIMC winner's tour with virtuosic solo works by Henri Vieuxtemps. In his home base of Toronto, he has appeared in the contemporary music festival 21C, and has recorded Brahms' 2 Gesänge for the Canadian Broadcasting Company with Wallis Giunta and Steven Philcox. Jacob also collaborates with painter Karen Mosbacher on Paint:Music, a project focusing on the audio/visual manifestations of synesthesia. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, Jacob spent the majority of his childhood in Oklahoma, playing viola in school and local orchestras. He holds diplomas from the Cornish College of the Arts, Stony Brook University, and The Glenn Gould School, where he studied with Mara Gearman, Nicholas Cords, Lawrence Dutton, Steven Dann, and Masumi Per Rostad, and spent two years of intensive study under the Emerson String Quartet. He has undertaken additional study in Europe with Yuko Inoue, Roger Chase, and Nobuko Imai. Jacob holds the Yo-Yo Ma Fellowship for Strings and Nour Private Wealth Award at the University of Toronto, where he is a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant to Gryphon Trio violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon.

SASHA BULT-ITO, piano

Alaskan pianist Sasha Bult-Ito is internationally recognized as a premier solo and chamber performer. She began studying the piano with her mother at age four, and made her orchestral solo debut with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra at age seven after winning the symphony’s concerto competition, of which she is a rare three-time first place laureate. Sasha gave her first solo recital at age ten, and has since appeared on stages across North America and in Europe, giving over two-dozen solo recitals of differing programs. Sasha’s performance credits include chamber appearances at the Scotia Festival of Music and Emerald Coast Chamber Music Festival, solo performances at the Southeastern Piano Festival, John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival, Internationaler Klaviersommer Cochem Meisterkurs in Germany, and as concerto soloist with the Brunesis Virtuosi Orchestra at MusicFest Perugia in Italy. She served on the Young Jury for the 2018 Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition in South Carolina, and in 2021 recorded as collaborative pianist for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Violin Series 2021 Edition, contributing to the definitive recording library for the RCM Certificate Program examinations. As part of the RCM Violin Series project, Sasha also recorded videos in Toronto's Koerner Hall with superstar violinist James Ehnes. Sasha attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, where she was a student of Thomas Lymenstull. She holds a Bachelor of Music, Honours and an Artist Diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, both completed under the direction of John Perry and David Louie as a full-scholarship recipient. Sasha has also learned from the late master pedagogues Nelita True and Leon Fleisher.

Host or Publisher The Ezra Duo