Articles tagged with: Karin Di Bella

  • Brock prof to premiere new works by St. Catharines composer

    Monday, February 25, 2019 | By

    Pianist Karin Di Bella will perform at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines on Tuesday, Feb. 26.

    (From The Brock News, February 22, 2019 | By: Jaquelyn Bezaire)

    Following her recital with Maltese-Canadian flutist Rebecca Hall last semester, Associate Professor Karin Di Bella will give a solo performance on Tuesday, Feb. 26 as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series.

    Focusing on one of her areas of expertise, contemporary Canadian repertoire, Di Bella will premiere a set of works by St. Catharines composer James Moffett during her performance in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    Di Bella is currently working at Brock where she teaches studio piano, master classes, accompanying, keyboard harmony, piano literature and piano pedagogy. She has been sought after as an adjudicator for music festivals across Canada and is a senior piano examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music.

    The RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series features free one-hour concerts most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year. Students, faculty, staff and the community are invited to join the Department of Music on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in the Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    For more information on upcoming performances, please visit the Department of Music website.

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    Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Free recital series returns with an international twist

    Friday, January 04, 2019 | By

    Pianist Karin Di Bella will perform Tuesday, Jan. 8 as part of the Music@Noon Recital Series at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    (From The Brock News, Friday, January 4, 2019 | By: Jaquelyn Bezaire)

    The RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series returns next week with a concert blending Canadian and Maltese influences.

    On Tuesday, Jan. 8, Brock Associate Professor Karin Di Bella will be joined by Maltese-Canadian flautist Rebecca Hall in The Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    Hall holds a Doctorate of Music from the University of Malta and has performed with the Malta Philharmonic and the Cosmos Wind Ensemble.

    Hall and Di Bella first connected over their shared interest in Canadian composer Jack Behrens, whom Di Bella has been researching during her sabbatical leave this year.

    Di Bella said that connecting with Hall has been extremely beneficial to her research, given they each approach Behrens’ repertoire from different perspectives.

    “She knows everything that I don’t know,” said Di Bella. “When the two of us get together, it’s really fun to talk about what we know about Jack because we know it from different sides of his output and can learn from each other.”

    Di Bella recently had the opportunity to travel to Malta in October to give a performance with Hall at the University of Malta, featuring highlighted works by both Canadian and Maltese composers. Di Bella also gave a lecture-recital at the university, where she performed her research on Behrens.

    “Meeting in person is so important when you’re doing work like this,” she explained. “Being able to work through ideas together is really valuable because there’s only so much you can do over the phone or email and it also gets the wheels turning about future projects.”

    Di Bella is looking forward to sharing the work of Behrens with a new audience at the upcoming recital.

    “What’s interesting about Jack’s pieces is that even though they’re more modern in style, they’re still really accessible,” explained Di Bella, “He may not be a composer that most people think to go to, to learn repertoire from, but I think his pieces are great and people always like them when they hear them.”

    Di Bella is also looking forward to sharing the stage with her Maltese colleague once more, and encourages everyone to attend.

    The Music@Noon recital series is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation and takes place most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year in The Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. This is a free event that is open to the public.

    For more information on upcoming performances, please visit the Brock University Music page.

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    Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Student completes music degree started 18 years ago in Mexico

    Thursday, June 07, 2018 | By

    Luis Gerardo Molina sitting at a piano

    Mexico’s Luis Gerardo Molina will graduate from Brock Friday with a degree in Music.

    (from The Brock News,  Tuesday, June 05, 2018 | by )

    For 20 years, Luis Gerardo Molina worked his way up the corporate ladder of a growing computer software firm in his home country of Mexico.

    After high school, he had made what he viewed as a responsible decision to choose a stable career in technology over a fragile one as a classical pianist, but his love of music kept pulling at him like a magnet.

    Eventually, he gave in, and on Friday, June 8, at the age of 48, his career change will be official when he graduates from Brock University with a degree in Music.

    “It means everything,” said Molina. “That was a dream that I always wanted to make happen and I really struggled to get it.”

    Born into a family of talented musicians, Molina grew up around choirs and instruments, and by the age of six it was obvious he had a gift. At nine, he started working with a piano teacher and for eight years he attended a specialized school of music that turned his hobby into a craft.

    “I finished my high school and I had that dilemma many people face — should I devote my life to music? Is that a safe path for the rest of my life?” Molina said. “I decided to follow an alternative career. I always really liked the maths, so I decided to choose engineering.”

    A literal flip of a coin at the age of 17 made Molina choose computer engineering over civil engineering, and that set in motion a software career that lasted 20 years.

    But while his career progressed to the point of becoming a manager, so did his ongoing love of music. Having never truly given up his dream of being a professional pianist, Molina went back to the University of the Americas part time in 2000, completing two years of a four-year degree before realizing the workload wasn’t sustainable.

    Luis Molina’s music career has taken him to competitions and performances around the world.

    “It was just too much,” he said.

    But an invitation to an international piano competition in Paris in 2003 ramped up his duelling interests. After beating out nearly 100 competitors from 35 countries to win the contest, he was invited to more international performances and competitions, leading to the production of his first album of live recordings.

    “I got very good support from the company I was working for. The owner was a kind guy who was also involved in music and he always felt proud to tell them he had an employee with this background in competition and music,” said Molina, who traveled to the U.S., Germany, Russia, Poland and elsewhere over the years.

    “After doing all that, I decided the music is calling me more and more,” he said. “The company I was working for was growing and every day it was getting more complicated to do both things together.”

    Finally in 2015, the door opened to make music his full-time endeavour. He was hired as a pianist with a philharmonic orchestra in Mexico and went back to university for his third year of music school.

    Then, in 2017, a trip to Canada to visit friends in Niagara led to another big change.

    “I loved the Niagara region so I thought, if I’m going for my passion in music, I found the perfect place to do it,” he said.

    A tour of Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts and a meeting with Associate Professor of Music Karin Di Bella confirmed that Brock was where Molina would finish his degree.

    “I fell in love with what I found here. And now that I’m almost done, I feel very lucky to have had this great opportunity in this great country and at this great University,” he said.

    Di Bella called Molina “the real deal.”

    “He possesses a rare combination of drive, discipline, musical maturity, technical facility, innate musicality and a true flair for performance,” she said. “Despite his many accomplishments, he is very humble and always eager to learn, making him a true joy to work with.”

    After graduating Friday in the final day of Brock’s Spring Convocation, Molina will move on to do his master’s in musical literature and performance at Western University.

    From there, a PhD and potentially a teaching career are in his sights.

    “I’ve been performing for more than 30 years and I want to continue doing that, but I’d like to share my perspectives and teach others,” he said.

    Molina credits his wife, Marcela Lagunas Burgos, herself a talented musician who plays the cello, as playing a major role in his career success.

    “We’re definitely on the same frequency. She has supported me with everything and all the decisions.”

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    Categories: Alumni, Current Students, Department/Centre News, Future Students, In the Media, News

  • The Department of Music on stage!

    Monday, November 06, 2017 | By

    Encore: Professional Concert Series presents: The Walker Quartet with Karin Di Bella, and Guitar Extravaganza III

    Pictured above is a previous season performance of the Guitar Extravaganza (top), The Walker Quartet (left to right: Anna Hughes (2nd violin), Faith Lau (viola), Gordon Cleland (cello) and Vera Alexeeva (1st violin)), and pianist Dr. Karin Di Bella (bottom right).

    This weekend the Department of Music is presenting two spectacular concerts that will surely be among the highlights of the fall season.

    On Friday Nov. 10, as part of the Walker Cultural Leader Series, Encore! Professional Concert Series presents: The Walker Quartet with faculty pianist Karin Di Bella. The Walker Cultural Leader Series was generously founded by Marilyn I. Walker.

    Now in its second season, the Department of Music’s resident Walker String Quartet and Karin Di Bella present a program of two of the most iconic works in the string quintet repertoire, the Piano Quintets by Schumann in E-flat Major and Shostakovich in G Minor.

    This concert takes place on Friday Nov. 10, 2017 in the Partridge Concert Hall at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, starting at 7:30 pm. For more information, please visit the Department concert events webpage and the ExperienceBU page.

    Then on Saturday Nov. 11 as part of our continuing celebration of Canada’s 150 year of Confederation, the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre is once again the venue for the ever-popular Guitar Extravangaza III including a special Canada 150 performance of Carpe Noctem.

    Brock University’s annual celebration of the guitar commences at 7:30 pm on Saturday Nov. 11 in the Cairns Recital Hall.  An orchestra of 60 guitars comprised of Brock students, local amateurs and professionals will be directed by Brock University Guitar Instructor, Timothy Phelan. Special guest soloists include Matthew McAllister (Scotland) and Emma Rush (Canada).  The concert features a tribute to the late Warren Stirtzinger with George Kane (USA) and James Bryan McCollum (Canada), music composed by Timothy Phelan and the World Premiere of Carpe Noctem – a six-movement work written especially for this occasion by Niagara composer Floyd Turner.  For more information, please visit the Department concert events webpage and the ExperienceBU page.

    Tickets for both events can be ordered from the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office (905.688.0722) or from their website.

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    Categories: Department/Centre News, Events, Faculty & Instructors, Walker Cultural Leader Series