Saint Mary of the Assumption Pipe Organ Benefit Concert

St. Mary of the Assumption

Pipe Organ Benefit Concert

MEMORIAL HALL, 30 School St. Milford, MA 01757

Featuring:
Roxana Bajdechi, Pianist
Eleanor Blake, Cellist

Please come and help support the repair of our Steer and Turner Pipe Organ! This concert will include Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 38, by Johannes Brahms, Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40, by Dmitri Shostakovich, and Three Pieces for Cello and Piano,
by Robert Blake, Organist and Music Director of
Saint Mary of the Assumption.

FREE ADMISSION/ $20 Suggested Donation

All proceeds will go to cover the cost of the repair of the Pipe Organ of St. Mary's.

Romanian pianist Roxana Bajdechi is the winner of more than fifteen prizes and awards, including the Valentino Bucchi Prize (Rome, Italy), the First Prize along with the Award of the Romanian Music Critics Association at the Mihail Jora Piano Competition (Bucharest, Romania), and a Diploma of Excellency awarded by the National Radio Society of Romania in March 2011.

Ms. Bajdechi has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in Europe, Asia and the United States, in venues such as the Glinka Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg (Russia), the Metropolitan Art Space in Tokyo (Japan), The Mozart Hall in Bologna (Italy), the National Radio Hall in Bucharest (Romania), the Kaye Playhouse in New York, and the Sanders Theater in Boston. Her orchestral engagements have included the Mozart Virtuosi Orchestra (Tokyo, Japan), The Puerto Rico Chamber Orchestra (San Juan, Puerto Rico), the Black Sea Philharmonic (Constanza, Romania), the Lyceum Strings (Bucharest, Romania), and the Boston Conservatory Orchestra (Boston, MA). Her solo and duo performances (with violinist Markus Placci) were broadcast on BBC Radio (UK), RadioTre Suite (Italy), Bartok Radio (Hungary), and the Romanian National Radio and Television.

 Ms. Bajdechi holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Boston Conservatory, where, during her studies with Michael Lewin, she was the recipient of the Alfred Lee and Benjamin Kasser scholarships, won the Concerto Competition, and was repeatedly a winner in the Piano Honors Competition. Ms. Bajdechi is a member by invitation of the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. 

Eleanor Blake graduated from The Boston Conservatory where she was a student of Ronald Feldman (Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Andrew Mark (Boston Pops). She was awarded the Susan Glover Hitchcock Award for excellence in musical academics from 2000 through 2002. Eleanor has studied with Alexander Baillie (Bremen Conservatory, Germany), and Mark Johnson (Vermeer Quartet). She has studied Orchestral Performance with Jules Eskin (Principal Cellist, Boston Symphony Orchestra), Sato Knudsen (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Alan Stepansky (New York Philharmonic), and Mihail Jojatu (Boston Symphony Orchestra).

Eleanor is currently a member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, The Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra and The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the National Lyric Opera of New York, New England String Ensemble, The Bard College Conductor's Orchestra, and Dartmouth Symphony among others.  Eleanor has also been a guest artist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the Lyra Summer Music Festival. Eleanor is on the faculty of the Whitinsville Christian School in Northbridge, Massachusetts. Additionally, she runs a cello studio in her home in Milford, Massachusetts and coaches chamber music and string sectionals for the Metrowest Youth Symphony. Her students have participated and held principal positions in the MMEA Central District Regional Orchestra, The Massachusetts All-State Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Youth Orchestras.

Eleanor has performed with James Levine, Renee Fleming, Andre Previn, Raphael Frühbeck De Burgos, Bernard Haitink, Oliver Knussen, Sir Andrew Davis, and Emanuel Ax.

Eleanor has been awarded fellowships with Tanglewood Music Center as well as The Manchester (Vermont) Music Festival. She has participated in The Elliott Carter Centenary Celebration, The Bowdoin International Music Festival, The Festival de Violoncelle des Cote des Isles in Normandy, France and the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.  You may read more at www.eleanorblakecello.com.

If you can not attend the concert but still would like to make a tax deductible donation, please make checks payable to "St Mary of the Assumption" and write "Organ Repair Donation" on the memo line. Donations may be mailed to:

St. Mary of the Assumption
27 Pearl St.
Milford, MA 01757