Marka Young, James Bacon performing in Unison’s Sunday String Series

New Paltz, New York - Unison Arts Center continues its Sunday String Series with Marka Young and James Bacon on Sept. 20 at 2 p.m.

The show is the second in the Sunday String Series at Unison, following the Hudson Valley String Quartet in August. The Amaranthus String Quartet is next in the series on Oct. 25 and classical guitarist Yuri Liberzon visits Unison on Nov. 8.

Young, an exciting communicative performer, is an accomplished violinist with a beautiful tone and strong musical line. After her New York solo recital debut at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, The New York Concert Review wrote that Young played “…with a broad, majestic interpretation and a full-bodied sound.” Young performs a wide variety of programs and is experienced as a solo performer on modern, classical and baroque violin. She has been heard in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Young, a previous Artist in Residence at Banff, has performed as a soloist for the Bach Aria Festival, Blossom Festival, Connecticut Early Music Festival and the Storm King New Music Festival. Young is currently the Assistant Concertmaster of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, violinist with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra and The American Classical Orchestra, and Concertmaster of the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra. She has recently branched out into playing popular music, as the violinist for the folk roots band The Trapps, and as the Concertmaster of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic for Natalie Merchant’s concert at Bethel Woods in July 2013.

As a member of the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, Young has played for NPR’s “Performance Today’’ and for a multi-year series of acclaimed performances broadcast on WQXR (105.9 FM) in New York City. The Rebel Baroque Orchestra has recorded numerous works with the Trinity Wall Street Choir, including Handel’s Messiah and all of the Haydn Masses in an 8-CD box set, released in September 2009.

Young holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the BA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her violin teachers were Joyce Robbins, Dorothy Delay and Camilla Wicks, and she has performed in master classes for Joseph Gingold, Sergiu Luca and Enrico Gatti.

She currently teaches at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and at the Mountain Laurel School in New Paltz, NY.

Bacon earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY Purchase in classical guitar performance in 1986 studying under world-renowned classical guitarists Benjamin Verdery and David Starobin. He’s played throughout the Hudson Valley as a soloist and in a duo with flutist Sheila Hamilton. He recently released his debut CD “100% Organic Bacon” applying nylon-string classical techniques to the steel string on pieces by Debussy, Jorma Kaukonen, Rev. Gary Davis, Pete Seeger, Lennon/McCartney, Scott Joplin and Beethoven.

Tickets are $20. Visit www.unisonarts.org or call 845-255-1559 for more information/tickets.

Unison Arts Center is a not-for-profit multi-arts center located at 68 Mountain Rest Road in New Paltz, NY.

Second Sunday Salon Series: Music and Conversation With Alice Yoo & Michelle Ross

New Paltz, New York - Unison’s Second Sunday Salon series will conclude its 2013 season with an afternoon on music and conversation with Alice Yoo and Michelle Ross on Sunday, December 8 at 2pm.

Alice Yoo returns to Unison after inaugurating our Second Sunday Salon series in the spring.  Alice Yoo has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad, as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, performing in prestigious venues such as New York’s Weill and Zankel Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  She has won top prizes in the Cleveland Cello Society Competition, Holland-American Music Society Competition, and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, just to name a few.

Allice currently resides in New York City and is on faculty at Bard College’s Preparatory Division. Both Alice Yoo and Michelle Ross are members of the Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Joining Alice Yoo will be violinist Michelle Ross who enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician and composer.  She has been featured as a soloist with the Westchester Philharmonic, Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, and Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra.  Michelle has given recitals and lectures at the Neue Galerie, Old Westbury Gardens, Grand Central Academy of Art and WMP Concert Hall. Festival appearances include performance at the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Perlman Music Program, and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals.

As a composer, Michelle’s works have been premiered in Lincoln Center’s Beyond the Machine festival and at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and her music recently went on tour with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Having trained with Itzhak Perlman since age 12, Michelle went on to pursue a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.  She has also studied with Dorothy DeLay, Catherine Cho and Ronald Copes.  As part of her Academy program, Michelle teaches in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

Tickets purchased in advance are $20 ($15 for Unison members) and $25 at the door ($20 for Unison members).  Students are half price with a valid ID.  To order tickets, visit www.unisonarts.org or call (845) 255-1559. Unison is a not-for-profit multi-arts center located at 68 Mt. Rest Road in New Paltz.