Christie Keiko Abe-Earl, Violinist
An Australian Violinist, Christie-Keiko Abe performs as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. She has given solo recitals in the USA, Austria, Japan and Australia.
Ms.Abe received her Bachelor of Music degree with Honors from The Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney, her Master of Music from the Australian Institute of Music, her PhD Specialist in Music in performance with Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honors from The University of Michigan School of Music, and post-graduate program Artist Certificate in performance from The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music where she served as an assistant to Prof. David Perry. She has attended master-classes of Dorothy Delay, Cho-Liang Lin, Pamera Frank, Igor Ozim, Ruggiero Ricci and Igor Oistrakh. She also studied Suzuki Pedagogy for Violin & Piano.
As a soloist performer, Ms Abe has appeared with the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Schubertiade Series, Saturday at Sherwood, Columbia College Chicago Recital Series, Metropolis Performing Arts Center Classical concert series, Australian Musicians Academy Recital Series, Pan Pacific music Festival & Mostly Mozart festival in Australia, Starling recital series in Aspen, Akademie Konzert series in Austria, International Chamber Artists Recital series, Concert series sponsored by the Chicago Japanese American Association and Sound Stage for the WTTW 11 and ABC television networks.
She has recorded on the NAXOS, Arabesque,and Albany labels with the IRIS Orchestra, the Equillibrim label with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and WTTW national production label for the sound stage DVD. Among many others, Ms. Abe is a founding member of the Chicago Trio, Chicago Trio summer chamber music workshop, IRIS Orchestra under music director Michael Stern in Memphis, Tennessee. She is also a member of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. She was the Concertmaster at the Michigan Musical Theater Orchestra.
A sought-after teacher, Ms.Abe served
as a faculty member at the Blue Lake fine Arts camp in Michigan, a residency
coach at the Chicago Youth Symphony, community music schools, public schools in
the Chicago area. From 2005 until 2010, she served as the Head of the
String Department at the Metropolis School of the Performing Arts in Illinois,
where she founded the chamber music and ensemble programs. She has given master
classes at several schools, and is frequently invited to serve on juries at
competitions and auditions. In 2015, she was awarded the Suzuki
Association of the America’s Certificate of Achievement, an award given to
teachers that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to excellence in their
teaching.
Currently, Ms. Abe is a founder/Artistic director at the Chicago Trio Chamber Music Workshop, a faculty member in the String, Piano and Suzuki Departments, Staff accompanist at the Columbia College Chicago, Continuing and community education.
Her major violin teachers include Harry Curby, David Perry, Paul Kantor, Masao Kawasaki.
Akiko Konishi, Pianist
AKIKO
KONISHI received her early training in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and
subsequently completed her undergraduate studies at Rice University as a double
major in Music and English. She
continued her graduate studies at Yale University and the University of
Houston, under the guidance of renowned pianists Peter Frankl and Abbey
Simon.
She has appeared as soloist with
the Shepherd School Symphony (Rice University), D'Angelo Competition Orchestra,
Oakland Symphony, Rio Hondo Symphony (California), Symphony North Houston, and
the Chicago Federation of Musicians Orchestra, and performs extensively in
guest artist venues across the United States.
As an active chamber musician, she has performed with members of the
Houston Symphony in the Channing Chamber Series, and recently toured Italy and
Bulgaria as a winner of the Mercadante International Chamber Music
Competition. Her performances have been
broadcast on Houston Public Radio’s “The Front Row,” and Italian National TV
(RAI). Additional honors include
finalist prizes in the Ima Hogg Houston Symphony Concerto Competition and the
F. Awerbuch International Piano Competition (New York), as well grand prizes in
the Entergy Young Texas Artist Competition and the Rio Hondo Symphony Concerto
Competition.
During
the past seasons, she has appeared in a guest artist recital at Oberlin College
Conservatory of Music and with the Triton College Orchestra (Rachmaninoff
Second Piano Concerto). Other
engagements included repeat performances with the Chicago Federation of
Musicians Orchestra (Schumann and Grieg Piano Concertos). In addition to her work with
instrumentalists, she has collaborated with vocalists through the Yale Opera
Program, and, since the summer of 2013, has been on the chamber music faculty
of the Chautauqua Institute in New York.
Her upcoming engagements include a concerto performance of Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue with the Triton Jazz Ensemble.
Dr.
Konishi currently teaches Applied Piano, Chamber Music, and Ear Training
courses at Triton College in River Grove, IL.
Her students have won numerous awards, most recently in the American
Protégé International Competition (New York), the Musichorale Scholarship
Competition (Chicago), and Roberta Savler Memorial Contest (Chicago). A member of the Chicago Area Music Teachers
Association since 2014, she will complete her proposal this year on “Piano
Transcriptions of the Romantic Era” as a national recipient of the 2016-2017
MTNA Professional Development Grant.
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