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Evening with Flute and Guitar Music” with the subtitle “Performing works by Piazzolla, Beaser, and others”
October 10 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Masakazu Ito is recognized as one of today’s premiere guitarists, acclaimed by musicians, composers, conductors, and critics for his mastery of the instrument and its repertoire.
Following his professional solo debut in Tokyo 1987, Ito won top prizes in seven major international guitar competitions, including the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Competition, the Tokyo International Guitar Competition, and the Guitar Foundation of America International Guitar Competition. A performance of Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquín Rodrigo with the National Repertory Orchestra marked his concerto debut in 1990. Over the years, Ito has performed under the batons of renowned conductors such as Marin Alsop, Jefferey Kahane, Douglas Bostock, and others. He has a number of recordings to his credit. In particular, London’s Classical Guitar magazine called his 1998 recording ¡España! Music from Spain “a recording of depth… most musically satisfying.”
The Japanese government has invited Ito to perform solo concerts in honor of two historic milestones – 150 years of U.S.-Japan diplomatic relations in 2003, and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2015. The latter was attended by the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, representatives of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, among others. Most recently Ito traveled extensively in Spain giving solo guitar concerts and clinics. The highlight of the tour was being a featured solo artist during the Andrés Segovia International Guitar Festival in Segovia’s birth place, Linares.
Ito currently serves as a music faculty at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, where he is the musical director and conductor of the Colorado School of Mines Philharmonic Orchestra.
“Ito displayed conspicuous skill and tonal range… [he] proved himself to be a clean and technically adroit player, whizzing through thorny passages with aplomb.”
– The Los Angeles Times
“Guitarist Masakazu Ito further contributed to the overall spellbinding performance.”
– The Denver Post
“The nearly full concert hall was enraptured with the amazing fluidity of Ito’s playing… Ito’s performance was flawless and beautiful. …It was just amazing. The crowd rose to its feet and gave Ito rousing applause… Just superb.”
– Rapid City Journal
Hailed by the Washington Post as “brilliantly virtuosic,” flutist Brook Ferguson is a versatile solo and orchestral artist. The Miami Herald praised Ferguson’s performance of Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute with the New World Symphony as “soaring, fraught with emotion, possessing sterling technique with pure tone, showing herself fully in synch with Nielsen’s enigmatic world, putting across the playfulness, passing shadows and sheer strangeness of this music with strong impact.” First prize winner of the 2009 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, Ferguson has performed as a concerto soloist with the Colorado Symphony, ROCO, the New World Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival & School. Ferguson attended the Marlboro Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center—as both an orchestral fellow and New Fromm Player.
In 2022, Ferguson was a featured soloist performing Mozart’s Concerto in G major, KV 313 with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Douglas Boyd. In 2019, Ferguson performed as a soloist with ROCO on Saverio Mercadante’s Concerto in E minor with Maestro Steven Jarvi. Her performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra was commercially released on Yarlung Records and her live performance of David Amram’s Red River Valley Variations is available on the Newport Classic LTD label. As Principal Flutist of ROCO, Ferguson has taken part in over fifty multi-cultural and gender inclusive world premiers by composers from across the globe. The ROCO Listening Room is available to all who wish to hear these works. Brook was appointed Principal Flutist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and has been Principal Flutist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra since 2012. Previously, she completed a three-year fellowship with the New World Symphony, where she had the privilege of working with Michael Tilson Thomas and many other great musicians and conductors.
She has made Principal appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony and Festival Orchestra, Grand Teton Festival Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Prior to her appointment with the New World Symphony, Ferguson was the Acting Principal Flutist of the Knoxville Symphony and the Principal Flutist of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Ferguson is a William S. Haynes Company Artist. She holds a Master of Music degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Her primary instructors were Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, Marina Piccinini and Doriot Anthony Dwyer.