The Program

With guest artists Benito Meza, clarinet; Jose Roeder, bass; Leonardo Suarez-Paz, violin; Adam Tully, guitar; Octavio Brunetti, piano

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543
Paganini/Liszt: Etude No. 5 in E Major, "La Chasse"
Scarlatti: Sonata in D Minor, K. 141
Scarlatti: Sonata in B Minor, K. 87
Scarlatti: Sonata in A Major, K. 24
Mendelssohn: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream Suite [arr. Rachmaninoff]
Portal: Blow Up
Do Bandolim: O Voo da Mosca
Piazzolla: Camorra I
Piazzolla: Mumuki
Piazzolla: Bailongo
Piazzolla: Concierto para Quinteto
Piazzolla: Adios Nonino
Piazzolla: Libertango

The Artist

The winner of Astral Artistic Services’ 2007 National Auditions, Lidia Kaminska has performed extensively in both the U.S. and Europe.  Her performances explore the complex and expressive range of the accordion as a classical instrument, and her repertoire includes a broad range of classical, contemporary and avant-garde music.  She conceived her first album, Breaking Boundaries, as part of her mission to change the perception of the accordion from parlor entertainment to a serious classical instrument.  

Ms. Kaminska began playing the accordion at the age of eight. By eleven she was competing in international competitions in Bulgaria and Germany, and just a year later gave solo performances in Holland, Austria, and Germany, as well as in her native Poland.  Upon receiving a Master’s degree from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, she came to the U.S. to study and, at age 25, became the first (and only) person in the U.S. to receive a Doctorate in Accordion Performance.  The recipient of a 2009 Career Advancement Award from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, Ms. Kaminska also received First Prize in the 2002 Accordion Teachers Guild International Competition in Orlando, Florida and the Special Prize in New York City’s International Tango Music Competition with the Argentine tango ensemble Tango Lorca.  For more information on Lidia Kaminska visit www.lidiakaminska.com.