Appearing May 19, 2024 -Young Solost Winners
Cole Flores, Flute
Cole Flores (16) is a flute/ piccolo player from Strongsville, Ohio. He studies privately under Jacqueline Wood, and is part of the Strongsville High School Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra under the guidance of Brian King and Andrew Hire. Cole is the principal piccolo (and alternating 1st/2nd flute) player of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), and also plays flute/piccolo in the Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony (CYWS) and Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra (NOYO). Additionally, Cole was selected as first chair flute in the District 4 Honors band and Ohio Band Directors Conference Honor Band (OBDC). He was also a first-place winner in his age division for the Charleston International Winter Music Competition. Cole is very dedicated to his music and is extremely honors to have been selected to perform the Chaminade Concertino with the Suburban Symphony Orchestra.
Elora Kares, Cello
Elora Kares is a Josephine Valencic Scholarship student studying cello, voice, and composition in the Academy at the Cleveland Institute of Music. As a 2022 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award winner, Elora was featured on NPR’s national young artist showcase From the Top, and has been featured on several episodes of FTT’s Daily Joy.
She has participated in the New World Symphony Orchestra’s Virtual Inclusion Artists program, the Carnegie Hall Weill Institute’s National Youth Orchestra 2, and the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Composers Program, amongst others.
In 2022 Elora had a guest role with the Cleveland Opera Theatre Company singing the role of Amahl in their production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, and she also joined the baroque ensemble Apollo’s Fire as a Young Artist Apprentice, soloing in their “Lift Ev’ry Voice” programs broadcast on Medici.tv. She has a recurring feature role in Apollo’s Fire’s Christmas program “Wassail!” and she has performed in concert venues across the Cleveland, Chicago, and in Detroit areas.
In 2023 Elora participated in both the Interharmony Music Festival in Aqua Terme, Italy, and the Rocky Ridge Music Festival. In late 2023 she won first prize overall in the Ohio National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in her age category, and most recently won the Aurora School of Music String Competition and the 2024 Promising Young Composers Competition with her composition for string quartet, “Spaces.”
Elora will be attending the Cleveland Institute of Music in the Fall where she will continue studying cello with Professor Si-Yan Darren Li and will join the voice studio of Professor Dina Kuznetsova-Toliver.
Elora enjoys playing the Irish Whistle, and she’s currently working on a multimedia project adding the text of ancient Greek poems to her own original instrumental score of background Irish whistle, cello, piano and vocal melody tracks
Sabrina Kerze, Piano
Sabrina Kerze is a talented 13 year old pianist, she started playing piano at the age of five, learning from her mother. Currently, she is a student of Prof. Irina Nikolaeva. Sabrina’s dedication and commitment resulted in prizes from various competitions starting from her first years of studying, such as Steinway Piano Competition in Pittsburgh and OhioMTA Graves Piano Competition. Recently, Sabrina participated in the prestigious Cleveland International Piano Competition Young Artists Institute 2023 and was amongst the 10 pianists selected to perform in the Competition Gala concert. Sabrina’s musical finesse also garnered recognition at the Cleveland Pops Orchestra’s Gordon and Jean L Petitt competition, where she won the first prize and will be performing with the Cleveland Pops Orchestra at Severance Hall, Cleveland in June of 2024.
Aside from music, Sabrina also enjoys learning foreign languages, ballet dancing, reading, creating healthy desserts, and playing with her younger siblings.
Appearing March 19
Gerardo Teissonnière, piano
Regarded by international critics and audiences as an artist of extraordinary musicianship and rare sensibility since his acclaimed solo recital debut at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, pianist Gerardo Teissonnière brings to the concert stage an exciting amalgam of the diverse and important musical traditions he represents. From the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, Lincoln Center in New York to concert halls in Asia, Europe, North and Latin America, Mr. Teissonnière appears in recital, with orchestra and chamber music performances in concert series as well as in radio and television broadcasts throughout the world.
Concert season highlights include his solo recital debuts in Munich and Vienna, as well as solo and chamber music performances in Italy, in the United States with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, a performance for an audience of twenty
thousand and a solo recital at the Diaoyucheng International Music Festival in Chongqing, China, his solo recital and concerto debuts in Beijing, and all-Chopin concerts in Poland.
Upcoming season highlights include return engagements in Austria (Barocksaal in Vienna), and his solo recital debut in Paris featuring music by Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy in October of 2022. Mr. Teissonnière’s recording of the monumental last three Beethoven sonatas for the Steinway & Sons record label is released March 4, 2022.