McKee House Concert Series Presents:
Arthur Neele – baroque violin (Holland)
Konstantin Bozhinov – lute (Bulgaria)
Marina Hasselberg – baroque cello (Portugal)
Presenting a program of French and Italian Early Baroque Music, on period instruments
Music by Lully, Stradella, Visée, Marini and more!
Sunday November 24th, 3pm
McKee Heritage House, 4705 Arthur Drive. Delta BC.
Marina Hasselberg – cello
Marina is an active chamber musician and a founding member of Vancouver’s NOVO Ensemble. She runs her own cello studio and is on the faculty of the Mozart School of Music and the Blueridge International Chamber Music Workshop.
In 2008 Marina left her home country (Portugal) and moved to Canada in order to pursue a Master’s in Literature and Performance at the University of Western Ontario, for which she was offered several scholarships and awards. She completed this degree in 2010 passing her final recital with distinction. Since then Marina, has played among others with the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute Orchestra (Toronto), American Bach Soloists Academy Orchestra (San Francisco), Victoria Baroque Players (Victoria, BC), Orchestra London (London, ON), Okanagan Symphony Orchestra (Kelowna, BC), Kamloops Symphony Orchestra (BC), Orchestra Armonia (Vancouver, BC), NOVO Ensemble (Vancouver), The Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, Redshift Music Society, Vancouver Pro Musica, Vancouver New Music, Stellaria, St. Andrew’s Wesley Oratorio Singers, and the Early Music Vancouver Cantata Project Players.
Marina’s experience also includes programming the Mozart School of Music Faculty Concert Series, studio work, performing with theatre companies and working in TV as performer, technical adviser and photo-double for musical scenes. She enjoys participating in projects that involve other arts besides music, such as theatre, dance and film.
Marina is passionate about baroque music and dedicates a lot of her time to playing and studying baroque cello and the repertoire and historically informed performance practice of the 17th and 18th centuries. As part of her ventures on exploring the world of baroque music, Marina has taken lessons from wonderful musicians Marc Destrubé (Orchestra of the 18th Century), Jaap ter Linden (Mozart Akademie), Tanya Tomkins (ABS, PBO), Christina Mahler (Tafelmusik), Viola de Hoog (De Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht) and Allen Whear (Tafelmusik).
Marina plays an Italian cello from 1860 and a baroque cello copy by David Rubio kindly loaned by Dianne Miskey.
Konstantin Ruslanov Bozhinov began his musical activities as a self-taught guitarist at age 13, while living in South Africa at the time. Later on his principal instrument became the accordion and he spent many years playing folk music from his native Bulgaria. After moving to Canada he again turned to the classical guitar and attended Douglas College and the University of British Columbia, studying classical guitar under Michael Strutt. During an undergraduate history lecture, he was introduced to the wonderful music of Elizabethan England and his newly found love, the lute.
It was at UBC where Konstantin met with his most important teacher and mentor, the well-respected musicologist, luthier and performer, Ray Nurse. After quickly realizing how rich and vast the so-called ‘early music’ repertoire is, he decided to devote all time and energy to the lute. He became the first student to ever study and specialize in the lute at UBC.
He holds a Performance Diploma in Classical guitar from Douglas College, a Bachelor of Music degree in guitar and lute performance from the University of British Columbia. His graduate studies include a Master of Music degree from McGill University, where he studied basso continuo with Hank Knox and specialized in the French baroque lute, baroque guitar and archlute. He performed regularly with the University Baroque orchestra and took part in baroque opera productions.
He is currently working on a PhD degree at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. His main research focus is the music of the French Baroque, still an area that is under-explored today. He is co-founder and music director of the Renaissance group Ensemble Musica Humana and regularly performs and records on the archlute, theorbo, baroque and renaissance lutes. The album ‘Al Alba de España’, for which he is the arranger and audio engineer, was released in 2012. Konstantin made his recent debut with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, joining them in a series of concerts for the Pacific Baroque Festival, themed around the music of Henry Purcell. In addition, he writes regular reviews for the Coastal Spectator.
Violinist Arthur Neele studied with Vera Beths at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, The Netherlands. After finishing his studies, he worked with a variety of orchestras, including the Residentie Orchestra, the Dutch Ballet Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, Arthur has performed with a number of contemporary music groups, notably Porto’s Remix and Amsterdam’s Schoenberg ensembles. He has appeared on recordings with the Dutch Ballet Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra and the Amsterdam Mozart Players.
Since coming to Vancouver Arthur has focused his attention on period performance, with a particular interest in the violin repertoire of the 17th Century. He is currently a member of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and regularly appears with Early Music Vancouver’s Festival Orchestra and Cantata Players.
Next to his musical activities Arthur has over the last ten years pursued a career in health care and these days he divides his time between both interests. At present he works in the Critical Care Department of St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
