INTERNET CELLO SOCIETY

URL:		http://www.sonicbids.com/DuoRoldan
Email:		ruth40@hotmail.com
City:		Milwaukee
State:		Wisconsin
Country:		United States
Zip/Postcode:		53209
Status:		Professional
Type:		Duet
Scope:		International
Contact Name:		Ana Ruth Bermudez
Description:
After many years out of their homeland, these two gifted musicians found each other in Milwaukee and began a beautiful friendship giving birth to a musical collaboration inspired on their cultural identity. ANA RUTH BERMUDEZ, A sought-after soloist, recitalist and pedagogue, holds a B.M. in Cello Performance from the “Amadeo Roldan” Conservatory of Music, and “Superior Instituto of Art” in Havana; as well as studies in the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow. Since October 2000 she resides in the United States of America. Her solo and chamber music appearances have led her to play in Cuba, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, England, and USA, where she premiered a solo cello piece written specifically for her at the Miami International Composers Festival. She has recorded for television, theater, radio and film in Cuba, Spain, Venezuela, and USA. She has also played with the International Chamber Orchestra of Moscow and the Havana Chamber Orchestra, becoming the artistic director in 1991. A committed teacher, she taught at Havana’s National School of Music and Higher Institute of Art, as well as the “Simon Bolivar” Conservatory of Music and University Institute of Musical Studies in Caracas, Venezuela. Currently, she teaches at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music as well as in Latino Art, string program. She is also member of the Skylight Opera Teather. RENE IZQUIERDO, graduated from the “Amadeo Roldan” Conservatory of Music, and Superior Institute of Art in Havana, where he studied with renowned guitarist Jesus Ortega. After his arrival in the United States, he graduated from Yale University School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and obtained a Master of Music and an Artist Diploma degree in 2001 and was awarded the Eliot Fisk Prize to an outstanding guitarist. He has studied with Leo Brouwer, David Russell, Shin-Ichi Fukuda, Eli Kastner, Pepe Romero, Angel Romero, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, David Starobin, Eduardo Fernandez, Jorge Morel, Robert Beaser and Anthony Newman. Mr. Izquierdo is currently recording his debut CD with Luthier Music Corporation. Izquierdo has been awarded several competition prizes, and most recently was a finalist in the JoAnne Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition. He has appeared as a guest soloist and in chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Cuba, Spain, France and Italy. He has shared the stage with many prestigious guitarists including Eliot Fisk, Jorge Morel and Benjamin Verdery as well as renowned flutist Ransom Wilson at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. At the Only in America Cameo Concerts Series, Izquierdo performed music by composer Bruce Adolphe, in collaboration with David Jolley and Lucy Shelton. Renowned composers such as Jorge Morel and Carlos R. Rivera have dedicated works to him. In 2004 he performed the Villa-Lobos concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and played the U.S. premiere of "The Divan of Moses Ibn-Ezra" by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a 19-song cycle, with soprano Arianne Slack in a Merkin Archive concert. Before joining the faculty at UWM, Izquierdo taught at the State University of New York at Purchase and Yale University.