The Michigan City Chamber Music Festival (MCCMF) is proud to present an extraordinary concert event; Jameson Cooper, violin and Ketevan Badridze, piano! The recital will take place on Sunday evening, April 16, at 7:00 p.m., Central at St. Mary’s The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at 411 W. 11th Street, Michigan City, IN. Admission is FREE!
The program will feature sonatas for violin and piano by Cesar Franck, William Grant Still, and more. There will be a “meet the artists” reception at St. Mary’s Artists Studios immediately following the program.
Multi-faceted performer and teacher, Jameson Cooper was born in Sheffield, England. He rose to national attention when he was selected to be Concertmaster of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra for its debut performance at the BBC Proms. Following graduation from the Royal Northern College of Music, he came to the U.S. to continue his violin studies with Dorothy Delay and Roland and Almita Vamos. As a founding member of the Euclid Quartet, Jameson has won numerous prestigious competition prizes and performed to high acclaim across the U.S. in such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Library of Congress. Jameson has also performed as a soloist in major halls in Europe and the U.S. Including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. With the Euclid Quartet, Mr. Cooper is Artist in Residence at Indiana University South Bend. The quartet was awarded an American Masterpieces grant from the NEA for its innovative educational programming.
Mr. Cooper’s albums cover a wide range of repertoire. His debut disc of contemporary solo violin repertoire featured several works written for him. His recordings with the Euclid Quartet include the complete string quartets of Bela Bartok, works by Kauder, Dvorak and Marsalis, and an upcoming disc of quartets by Grieg and Debussy. Recent solo discs include Prokofiev music for violin and piano, Respighi Violin Sonatas, French violin sonatas and Violin Duos by Spohr.
Mr. Cooper’s violin students have gone on to win positions in professional orchestras, prizes at All-State contests, and admittance into notable undergraduate and graduate study programs. Many are now successful teachers in their own right. He is a regular coach for the Fischoff Chamber Music Association’s Academy program and has given masterclasses at colleges and universities across the US.
As an experienced orchestral conductor, he has an extensive repertoire from baroque to contemporary music. Notable performances include IU South Bend’s first-ever fully staged ballet of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and South Bend Lyric Opera’s performances of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Mr. Cooper lives in Mishawaka, Indiana with his wife and children. He loves to cook Indian food and his Chicken Tikka Masala is nicknamed “the most delicious chicken in the world”!
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Ketevan Badridze is an award-winning pianist. Since her first performance with an orchestra at the age of ten, Ketevan has appeared with Tbilisi Symphony, Georgian National Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, and South Bend Symphony Orchestra. She is a seasoned solo and chamber music performer in the United States, Georgia, France, Austria, Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Her collaborations include performances with Lisa Batiashvili, Alexander Korsantia, Gregory Fulkerson as well as Euclid and Georgian National Quartets. Mrs. Badridze recorded Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Minor with Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. Most recent albums feature Violin and Piano works by Prokofiev and French Violin sonatas with Violinist Jameson Cooper.
Ketevan is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, such as Newport International Piano Competition -UK, The World International Piano Competition – Cincinnati, New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition.
She received her Master of Music and Postgraduate degrees from Tbilisi State Conservatory and in 1993 she was appointed to the piano faculty there.
In 2000, Ketevan moved to the United States to study at Indiana University South Bend with Professor Alexander Toradze, where she received her Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma. Ketevan has appeared with Toradze Piano Studio at numerous music venues around Europe and the United States, including Columbia University in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Academia of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore and Ravenna Festival in Italy, Ruhr Keyboard Festival in Germany, and the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival as a part of “World Rising Stars” series broadcast on the National Public Radio (NPR).
Since the spring of 2005, Ms. Badridze has served as a member of the music faculty at Indiana University at South Bend.
For more information, see www.mccmf.org, call (219) 561-1939, visit us on YouTube at “Michigan City Chamber Music Festival,” or Facebook at “MC Chamber Fest.”