Individual Biographies
EVA CONTI ALGERIA brings a lifetime of music performance and study to her dance. Since graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, she has been performing extensively as a professional classical musician on both French horn and guitar. As a flamenco dancer, she has studied with Jose Molina, Omayra Amaya, La Meira, Elena Andujar, Laura Manzella, Inmaculada Ortega and Julia Chacon. This past July she participated at the Maria Benitez Institute for Spanish Dance workshop and performance in Santa Fe and in 2008 at the National Institute of Flamenco Festival workshop in Albuquerque. Since 2004 she has been a featured dancer and musical arranger with the Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre in the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan area.
With a degree in classical guitar from the University of Rhode Island, Eva has studied with Vincent Fraioli, Rey de la Torre and Sharon Isbin. She has studied flamenco guitar with Rogelio Moreno and Carlos Lomas, and has transcribed several flamenco guitar pieces for Mr. Lomas. Eva has been featured as guest artist and lecturer in flamenco at Fairleigh Dickinson University and in many high schools throughout Northern New Jersey.
Eva is currently principal French horn with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and is in the orchestra of “Billy Elliot” on Broadway. She has held the position of principal horn with the New Israeli Opera, Israel Camerata and the Haifa Symphony. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, The Radio City Orchestra, the New York City Opera touring Company, Aspen Quintet, and in numerous Broadway shows. She has toured the US, Canada and Europe as a member of the Barbra Streisand Orchestra and is on the recently released CD and DVD of the 2006 US tour. Eva teaches horn privately and serves on the faculty at Drew University.
Classical and flamenco guitarist JARED NEWMAN has performed with Flamenco Latino and Andrea del Conte Danza España at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Atlantic Theatre and Thalia Spanish Theatre and as composer and guitarist for The Phantom Lady by Calderón de la Barca at the Soho Repertory Theatre in NYC. Additionally, Jared participated in the Music in the Mountains Festival in Granada, Spain, where he was filmed by the BBC in a solo recital and included in the “BBC Holiday” television series.
In 2002 Jared and dancer/choreographer Deirdre Towers began developing “Exploraciones…,” a music and dance ensemble presenting Spanish classical, renaissance and flamenco side by side. They have performed at Symphony Space and the Poet’s Theatre in New York City and have been featured every summer since 2006 in the Diamond Dance Festival in Woodstock.
In addition to being an active performer, Jared is an active teacher and music editor and arranger. As a teaching artist in New York City Center’s Arts in Education program, he composed and performed an African/flamenco fusion piece, Rumba Verde, with dancers from the R.R. Green High School. He has served on the faculty of the American Institute of Guitar in New York City and been an instructor and Ulster County (NY) Co-chair for MusicLink™, a national organization providing low and no-fee private music instruction to deserving children. Jared co-founded American International Guitar Publications in 1990, editing Dennis Koster’s acclaimed Keys to Flamenco Guitar series. Also, Bold Strummer Ltd. published Jared’s arrangements, New Anthology of Falsetas for Flamenco Guitar.
Jared holds a BA in Music from the University of California, Berkeley, studying guitar with the Cuban maestro Rey de la Torre, and an MM in Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, working with Jerry Willard. He has also studied with Alice Artzt.
Pianist KATHLEEN LANDIS is well known for her many years as artist-in-residence of the Pierre Hotel. There, as singer-pianist, she delighted New York and international audiences with her unique arrangements and piano stylings of the American Songbook, as well as jazz and Latin standards. The New York Times wrote, “She [Kathleen] creates a special atmosphere, this is class, this is elegance.” Other performance venues include the Oak Room at the Algonquin, Radio City Music Hall, CBS Sunday Morning News, City Center, Waldorf Astoria and the St. Regis Hotel.
Miss Landis has recently performed sold-out recitals at the Tenri Cultural Center in New York City, sponsored by the Leschetizky Society, a collective of many of New York’s most highly respected pianists and teachers. Performing twice at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Miss Landis led a nine-piece ensemble in works of George Gershwin in preparation for her highly acclaimed CD entitled Gershwin: Island to Island. In addition to her improvisational skills, she is recognized for her arrangements of non-classical works, particularly Latin, for piano and other instruments.
Following her undergraduate work in Michigan, Miss Landis continued her post-graduate study in New York with Konrad Wolff, student and biographer of Arthur Schnabel, and with the acclaimed Argentine pianist and tango specialist, Arminda Canteros.
In addition to a rigorous performance schedule, Miss Landis is a much sought-after private teacher and music educator. She lectures on the joy of improvising and developing one’s musical intuition. Her students range from age 3 to 75 years.
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