Natasha Miller: Press

The reigning lord of Brandenburg, Germany, couldn’t have known in 1721 that the six concertos he rejected from an enterprising maestro in Kothen would later epitomize a musical epoch. The era was the Baroque, the composer, Johann Sebastian Bach and the work, the Brandenburg Concertos, to this day a set of the most popular and widely performed masterpieces in western classical music.
Saturday, Feb. 12, Alameda audiences will have the exclusive opportunity to hear selections from the Concertos from a handful of the Bay Area’s most accomplished musicians. The chamber performance, presented by the Alameda Education Foundation (AEF), will benefit local schools.
Since 1999, AEF has hosted annual star-studded galas, masterminded by operatic talent Frederica von Stade and Oakland East Bay Symphony Director, Michael Morgan to provide supplementary funding to school music programs.
Saturday’s performance marks a “mini-gala” expected to deposit $16,000 to $46,000 in the general fund, which supports the foundation’s expenses, according to AEF Board Chairwoman Judy Blank. The main gala event of 2005 will be held in December.
AEF administers Adopt-a-Classroom, the I-Can-Read program, a teacher supply store and music and enrichment programming. It also doles out mini-grants to teachers and scholarships to students.
The performers, who range from an internationally renowned opera singer to a local IT professional, have all volunteered their services. In addition to the following five soloists, members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony will also perform.
Miller has been featured in the Alameda Sun more than the least tern, and with good reason: she’s a hometown songstress with far-reaching appeal.
She picked up classical violin in the fourth grade and has been training as a professional musician since. Her current undertakings include playing violin in a string quartet, exercising her vocal chords at jazz clubs, recording a CD and dishing with arts reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle and the L.A. Times.
Saturday, she will return to her classical roots as a violin soloist, marking her third year as a participant in the AEF concertos. She serves on the board of directors and has been actively involved planning the organization’s productions. Last year, she produced the wildly popular Mardi Gras Ball.
Miller recounted her own experience as a young musician under the tutelage of youth orchestra conductors who encouraged her to remain focused.
“The youth orchestra kept me motivated and even though I was talented and worked hard, I was a teen –– distracted by other things,” she said.
In view of her rising fame, Miller looks forward to Saturday’s more intimate performance at Auctions by the Bay, a small, restored art deco theater.
“It’s going to be a really charming concert,” she said. “It will be a very unusual experience for people in Alameda to attend a classical concert in a really cool setting.”
Miller has been featured in the Alameda Sun more than the least tern, and with good reason: she’s a hometown songstress with far-reaching appeal.
She picked up classical violin in the fourth grade and has been training as a professional musician since. Her current undertakings include playing violin in a string quartet, exercising her vocal chords at jazz clubs, recording a CD and dishing with arts reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle and the L.A. Times.
Saturday, she will return to her classical roots as a violin soloist, marking her third year as a participant in the AEF concertos. She serves on the board of directors and has been actively involved planning the organization’s productions. Last year, she produced the wildly popular Mardi Gras Ball.
Miller recounted her own experience as a young musician under the tutelage of youth orchestra conductors who encouraged her to remain focused.
“The youth orchestra kept me motivated and even though I was talented and worked hard, I was a teen –– distracted by other things,” she said.
In view of her rising fame, Miller looks forward to Saturday’s more intimate performance at Auctions by the Bay, a small, restored art deco theater.
“It’s going to be a really charming concert,” she said. “It will be a very unusual experience for people in Alameda to attend a classical concert in a really cool setting.”