Stacy Lesartre performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the Rocky Mountain region. She is currently Concertmaster of Pro Musica Colorado, the Larimer Chorale Orchestra, and the Cheyenne Symphony. She was a tenured member of and repeat soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. She has recorded at Skywalker Ranch for Warner Brothers Records and has been featured on Colorado Public Radio. She was the 1st place winner of the 2015 New York Audition Challenge and a silver and bronze medal winner in the 2021 Violympics. Stacy has premiered solo, chamber music and orchestral works by 21st century composers

Stacy began playing the violin as a 4th grader in a Philadelphia public school music program, then studied violin at the Settlement School of Music with Lynn Mather. She was the recipient of several music and academic scholarships, including the Louis G. Wersen Award and the Temple University Outstanding Achievement Scholarship. She earned a degree in Music Performance at Temple University, where she studied solo repertoire and chamber music with Helen Kwalwasser and orchestral repertoire with Luis Biava. During a season as a member of the Puerto Rico Symphony, she studied with Saul Ovcharov and was accepted to the Blossom Festival. While a member of the Houston Symphony, she received coaching from Raphael Fliegel and studied solo repertoire with Fredell Lack. She has studied with Harold Wippler in Denver, Burton Kaplan at Magic Mountain Music Farm, Nathan Cole, and received coaching from concertmasters of the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra.

Stacy Lesartre teaches violin students, chamber music and orchestral excerpts. Many of her students have become professional musicians, teachers, and competition winners. They have been accepted as music majors at the Eastman School of Music, Cincinnati Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Cleveland Institute, The University of Texas, the University of Houston, Lamont School of Music, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. A lifelong admirer of the Talent Education system, she is certified with the Suzuki Association of America.

Stacy Lesartre lives in Colorado with her husband, Gregg, a technical contributor for Hewlett-Packard,. They garden organically in the summer and cross country ski in the winter. Both of their grown children are professional data scientists and alumnae of the Colorado School of Mines.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjDpiAT73520tBIjBxHUl9w

https://stacylesartre.com/

Jessie Lausé is a composer/performer/educator with a passion for creating interactive musical experiences that encourage diverse experimental thought. They frequently collaborate on multisensory experiences that empower performers and audiences to engage in radical artistic thinking as a starting point for necessary social change. Jessie is originally from central Kentucky and holds degrees from Butler University in Indianapolis (B.S. Arts Admin) and the University of Colorado Boulder (M.M. Composition).

Their work has most recently been featured at the Yarn/Wire Institute Festival and will be featured at line upon line percussion’s Winter Composer Festival in January. Other brilliant collaborators have included mark-maker Steph Parnes, choreographer Natalia de Miguel with the Michigan Dance Council, and ~Nois Saxophone Quartet. Jessie is also a member of the Plein Air Sound Collective, a group of sound artists dedicated to exploring the relationship between sounds and the spaces in which they inhabit. When not composing, Jessie spends their free time playing board games and watching RuPaul’s Drag Race with their cats, Gubaidulina and Mr. Bear.

DescriptiItalian guitarist Nicolò Spera brings to his teaching and performing a unique synthesis of European and American traditions.

Nicolò is one of the few guitarists in the world to perform on both six-string and ten-string guitars, as well as on theorbo. His wide-ranging repertoire includes the extraordinary music of the Franco-Andalusian composer Maurice Ohana. He has given lecture-recitals on the music of Ohana at many institutions and festivals worldwide, and his recordings of Ohana’s works for solo guitar have won different awards, including a Chitarra d’oro at the Convegno Internazionale di Chitarra in Milan, Italy.

Nicolò has also published recordings of new works for guitar and choir; his own transcriptions of Bach’s Cello Suites; selected works by Catalan composers Federico Mompou and Enrique Granados; a recording focused on the passacaglia form; and the complete works with guitar of Christopher Theofanidis.

A primary goal of Nicolò’s creative work is to expand the guitar repertoire. He is committed to commissioning substantial works that explore unprecedented ways of writing for guitar.

Nicolò has commissioned, performed, and recorded new works ranging from solos to programs with choirs, small ensembles, and orchestras. He has collaborated with composers from Europe and the Americas, including Nicola Campogrande, Carlos Cordero, Filippo Del Corno, Steve Goss, Corrado Margutti, Francisco del Pino, Annika Socolofsky, Giacomo Susani, and Christopher Theofanidis.

Nicolò’s passion for choral music and his interest in new works for guitar and choir have also led him to a close collaboration with Eugene Rogers and EXIGENCE Vocal Ensemble in the US, and with Giovanni Cestino and ITER Research Ensemble in Italy.

He has presented solo recitals, concerti with orchestra, and performances with choir for some of the oldest concert series in Europe—such as the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin and the Sibelius Museum in Turku—and for major guitar events, including the Sanremo Guitar Festival, Festival Mediterraneo della Chitarra, and Festival Corde d’Autunno in Italy; Festival de la Guitarra de Sevilla in Spain; International Guitar Symposium at the University of Surrey in the UK; and concert series at the University of Michigan, University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, University of Rhode Island, Vanderbilt University, and Belmont University in the US.

His most influential teachers are Oscar Ghiglia, Jonathan Leathwood, and Lorenzo Micheli. Nicolò holds degrees from the Conservatory of Bolzano and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy; an Artist Diploma in Guitar Performance at the University of Denver; and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado Boulder.

In 2011, Nicolò was appointed to the faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is Associate Professor of Classical Guitar. He is also on the faculty of the study abroad program Chigiana Global Academy in Siena, Italy.

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