The USA International Harp Competition presents

Gillian Benet Sella, harp

with guest artists Alexander Kerr, violin, and Randolph Bowman, flute

Join us to celebrate the sounds of Spring with music for violin, flute and harp. Gillian Benet Sella, Principal Harpist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and guest artists Alexander Kerr (violin) and Randolph Bowman (flute) perform favorites by Rameau, Ibert, and Berlioz, and introduce some intriguing lesser-known pieces by Amy Beach, Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Sebastian Currier.

About the Artists

Dr. Gillian Benet Sella is Principal Harpist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a role she has held for twenty-seven years. Previously, she was Principal Harpist of the Israel Philharmonic and the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra.

Dr. Sella has performed as a soloist around the world, including with the Israel Philharmonic, Radio Prague Symphony, the Quebec Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera House, the Cincinnati Chamber and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently she performed duo recitals in Hong Kong and Beijing with CSO Principal flutist Randolph Bowman, as a soloist in recital in Los Angeles and for Lyon and Healy Harp’s mid-west Harptacular. She premiered the Liebermann Concerto for Harp and Flute with flutist James Galway and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2003 Dr. Sella has taught as Adjunct Professor at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and, for three years, was an artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival. She was on the faculty of the National Youth Orchestra and the Hong Kong Harp Centre summer camp. In 2018 Dr. Sella judged the Anne Adams harp competition for the American Harp Society, in 2013 she was on the jury of the national Young Artist’s Harp Competition and she judged the 9th USA International Harp Competition at Bloomington, Indiana in 2010. She is currently a member of the USAIHC Board of Directors.

Dr. Sella’s recordings include Tailleferre’s Harp Concertino, with the Women’s Philharmonic on Koch; Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, Jolivet’s Chant de Linos and Jongen’s Concert à Cinq, with the Atlantic Sinfonietta on Koch; and Tan Dun’s In Distance for harp, piccolo and bass drum on CRI with the composer playing the bass drum along with dozens of recordings with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alexander Kerr’s expressive and charismatic style has made him one of the most accomplished and versatile violinists on the international music scene today. In 1996 at the age of 26, Mr. Kerr was appointed to the prestigious position of Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After nine successful years at that post, he left in June 2006 to assume the endowed Linda and Jack Gill Chair in Music as Professor of Violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In addition to his teaching responsibilities in Bloomington, he maintains a busy concert schedule appearing with orchestras and in recital and chamber music performances throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. In 2008 he began his tenure as Principal Guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and in September 2011, he assumed his role as Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Regarded by the press as a masterful virtuoso with an elegant, old-world sound, Mr. Kerr has appeared as soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, working with such renowned conductors as Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, Robert Spano, Alan Gilbert, Jaap van Zweden, Michael Tilson Thomas and David Zinman.

An active chamber musician, Mr. Kerr has collaborated with Martha Argerich, Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Edgar Meyer, Truls Mørk, Menahem Pressler, Vadim Repin, Alisa Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian and Maxim Vengerov in performances at festivals in Aspen, Santa Fe, Caramoor, La Jolla, Stavanger, and throughout Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands.

Mr. Kerr’s CD releases include the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Sarah Chang and Leif Ove Andsnes on the EMI label, music by Dutch composer Julius Röntgen on the NM Classics label, and the Shostakovich Romance on a series of discs including “Violin Adagios” and “Evening Adagios” released by Decca. A live DVD and CD recording of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben with Mr. Kerr, the RCO and Maestro Mariss Jansons was released in 2005 on the RCO’s own label: RCOLive!

Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Mr. Kerr began his studies at age seven with members of the National Symphony Orchestra. He went on to study with Sally Thomas at the Juilliard School, and with Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1992.

Randolph Bowman has been the Principal Flutist of the Cincinnati Symphony since 1990. The California native previously resided in Boston, where he regularly performed with such diverse groups as The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Handel and Haydn Society, The Orchestras of The Boston Opera and Ballet, and a number of New Music Ensembles. During his tenure as Principal Flute of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Mr. Bowman performed at music festivals and in concert halls throughout the United States and Asia under the baton of renowned conductor and film composer, John Williams.

Mr. Bowman’s solo playing on more than one hundred recordings (with the Cincinnati Symphony), has garnered praise from critics (“Randolph Bowman’s flute is as eloquent as the best on disc…”, BBC Music Magazine, May 2004 in a review of the CSO’s Ravel Daphnis & Chloe recording). He has performed as guest Principal Flutist with the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Dallas, Bavarian Radio and Frankfort Radio Symphony Orchestras. From 1990 until summer 2016, he was also Principal Flutist of the American Symphony Orchestra during its residency at the Bard Music Festival. In October 2013, Randy performed as Concerto Soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra in their 2013-2014 season opening concert at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Bowman premiered and recorded many new chamber works while a member of Collage New Music, the contemporary music ensemble of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He also recorded the world premiere of the Pulitzer-Prize-Winning composer John Harbison’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, at the composer’s invitation. In addition, he is a frequent performer in Cincinnati with all of the local Chamber Music Ensembles, regularly playing repertoire ranging from Bach to newly-commissioned pieces.

While living in Boston, Mr. Bowman taught at the New England Conservatory and the Boston Conservatory. Since living in Cincinnati, he has spent more than 20 years on the Flute Faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.