We invite you to join us for our Noon Concert Series held every Wednesday at Noon. Concerts last approximately an hour and we present many talented Bay Area performers in an intimate setting.
Wednesday, December 16 Noon Concert presents Ian Scarfe on piano and Charles Akert on cello performing classical masterpieces by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as exotic impressionist works by Ravel, Debussy, and Faure.
Pianist Ian Scarfe manages a busy schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. Based in San Francisco, he is a coach and accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and makes regular appearances on Bay-Area concert series, from Napa Valley to Monterey Bay. He is the founder and director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, and has appeared at summer festivals in Fairbanks, Alaska; Astoria, Oregon; Telluride, Colorado; Italy and Portugal.
His performances have been praised for their “marvelous sense of balance and authority” (Scott MacClelland, Performing Arts Monterey Bay), and have “scored high marks for both perception and energy” (Stephen Smoliar, Examiner.com). Jack Gabel, of Portland’s Northwest Reverb, remarked on an evening of classical and contemporary music: “All in all, an evening overflowing with historical content, educationally fulfilling, artistically rewarding at every level and well worth the 2-hour drive both to and from Astoria.”
Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Charles Akert began his cello studies at age 5. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado where he served as principle cellist of the award winning UNC Symphony, and a Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as an Osher Scholarship winner. Passionate about chamber music, Mr. Akert has been an active chamber musician for over 15 years and has performed in venues throughout the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Akert joined the Nexus String Quartet in 2008, and with the group won the national Plowman Chamber Music Competition in 2010, and studied at the Banff Centre and the Aspen Music Festival as String-Quartet-in-Residence. He won a residency position at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he spent two years before returning to California. Charles currently is the cellist in the indie-rock band The Family Crest, who tour regularly across North America. He also tours with pianist Ian Scarfe,together they have performed coast-to-coast in the United States, Canada, Alaska, and Switzerland.
Some of our past performers have been:
Ray Capiral, pianist, composer and teacher, graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, in 2009. He enjoyed an active career as a private teacher and gigging musician in L.A. for ten years before moving north, and has now resided in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2011. Currently, Mr. Capiral serves as the music director at Open Door United Methodist Church (Richmond) and pianist and organist at Mira Vista United Church of Christ (El Cerrito), and enjoys part-time work at Avenue Yarns in Albany. Between knitting, spinning at his spinning wheel, and playing the piano, one can assume Mr. Capiral is likely taking in the sights at Land’s End, wandering around Angel Island, or fantasizing about snowboarding in Tahoe.
Eric is a graduate of Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During his studies, he was the winner of the concerto competitions of both institutions. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Robert M. Golden Medal for outstanding contributions to the arts. As a composer, he won the Pacific Musical Society Composition Prize 2014, and his sets of children’s music have been programmed for over six years on the syllabus of the US Open Music Competition. His music has been performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Friction Quartet, his generous friends, and his adorable piano students.Eric also comprises one half of the notorious “Happy Dog” piano duo, with his piano partner, Nathan Cheung. For over a decade, they have performed four-hands originals, transcriptions, and classics alike with a focus on bringing humor and joy to the classical music world. In his spare time, he enjoys a good game of Go.
Taija Warbelow, originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, is the violist in the Bay Area based Friction Quartet. She studied at the Juilliard Pre-College with Toby Appel and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Jodi Levitz. Though bios are a necessary part of being a performer, she feels they are impersonal and would prefer for audiences to get to know her through her playing and by talking to her after the performance.
Bassist Eugene Theriault is a born and raised San Francisco native. He graduated with a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory and an M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with Scott Haigh and Steve Tramontozzi, respectively. The performance of new music has been a part of his life since high school and he continues to be a strong supporter of contemporary music, performing most recently with the San Francisco Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble, Opera Parallele, and the Berkeley Symphony. He currently works as a freelance performer and teacher in the Bay Area, and enjoys playing a wide range of musics.
