Date & Time: Saturday April 30, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.
Venue: 1750 29th Avenue, San Francisco
Tickets: $25 General, $20 Seniors/Students
Eventbrite Ticketing: Buy tickets here
Health and Safety
In accordance with health and safety guidelines from the City and County of San Francisco, a face covering is required for all concerts at Incarnation Episcopal church and must be worn at all times. Face masks must completely cover nose and mouth and have ear loops or similar to hold in place. Gaiters and bandanas are not acceptable. Please click here for full details.
Program
Join us in celebrating Astor Piazzolla’s legacy through some of our Piazzolla favorites! One of the most controversial figures in Tango History, Astor Piazzolla was seen by some as the man who revolutionized Tango, while others called him “Tango’s assassin”. Regardless, his music has since been claimed by musicians of many genres. “There’s a certain magnetism in his music that you can’t deny. You feel like you want to participate in it; you’re just taken by it”—Violinist Gidon Kremer.
- Triunfal
- Histoire Du Tango
- Oblivion
- Escualo
- Le Grand Tango
About the Artists
Basma and Ava met at The Juilliard School while pursuing their Masters degree. They have been friends ever since collaborating on a multiple of performances including a highlight performance at the United Nations in New York. Trained in the Western Classical musical tradition and growing up in their respective Eastern musical traditions, Basma Edrees and Ava Nazar feature the rich aesthetics of both musical worlds and are passionate about expanding musical access across various communities.
Basma Edrees is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her Masters in Violin Performance and Mannes School of Music where she received her Bachelors degree. She studied with Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Sally Thomas, and Catherine Van Hoesen. Basma has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Alan Gilbert and Daniel Barenboim. Basma has served as Associate Concert Master of the Oakland Symphony during their 2015-2016 season. She also worked with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony.
Basma has performed as a soloist in various countries including the USA, Montenegro, Ethiopia and her native country, Egypt.
Equally at home with Arabic music, Basma performed with renowned musicians from the Arab world and has been invited to give Arabic Music workshops at UC Berkeley and Stanford. She currently teaches Arabic music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has held the position of Music Director of the Aswat Women Ensemble for four years; an all female Bay Area community ensemble specializing in Arab music. She also served as the co-manager and instructor of the Aswat Women Empowerment Program during their 2019 Fall season; a program designed to empower women of Arab descent through the study of their own rich musical tradition.
Basma’s proficiency in Music Theory earned her assistant teaching positions as well as teaching fellowships at The Juilliard School while she was a student there. She studied Counterpoint with Robert Cuckson and Philippe Lasser. She has passed this knowledge onto her students as a member of the Music Theory faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she taught the art of Counterpoint herself.
Iranian-American pianist Ava Nazar is an active collaborator and soloist. Her recent performances include those at notable venues such as the United Nations, Merkin Hall, National Sawdust, American Museum of Natural History, and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, as well as the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West where she served as a collaborative piano fellow. Ava has been featured at Académies Internationales d’été du Grand Nancy in France and has been a prizewinner of several competitions including the National Youth Music Festival, the Biennial Piano Competition of New Music, and the Fajr International Music Festival in Tehran.
Ava received her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she worked with Donn-Alexandre Feder, and her Master’s degree in Collaborative Piano from the Juilliard School as a recipient of the Bloomfield, Garvey, and Shendell Scholarships, under the guidance of Jonathan Feldman, Margo Garrett, Andrew Harley, and Cameron Stowe. She has also had the privilege of working with many distinguished artists including Henri Barda, Jeffrey Cohen, Roger Vignoles, Rita Sloan, Anne Epperson, J.J. Penna, Diane Richardson, Franz Helmerson, and David Finckel.
Ava enjoys her career both as a performer and an educator. She has served as a collaborative piano staff at the Juilliard School, and has taught at established music schools such as the Brooklyn Music School and Nord Anglia International School in New York. Ava is currently a faculty member at the Opus 1 music studio in the San Francisco Bay area.
Passionate about expanding musical access across communities, Ava has worked with several non-profit organizations. She has volunteered as a pianist with the Sing for Hope organization in New York which aims at bringing art to communities in need. Additionally, Ava has served as an AmeriCorps fellow through the ArtistYear organization where she worked full-time and taught music to around 100 low-income middle schoolers in a public school in Rockaway Park, Queens. Moreover, she was able to raise funds for the school to purchase instruments needed for a music program.
Ava’s interest in and exploration of new music have led her to work with many living composers. To this end she has premiered and performed works by different composers in the US and her home country Iran. Additionally, Ava enjoys performing at unusual/non-standard venues. She has had multiple performances at Port Authority Bus Terminal, public schools, nursing houses, and hospitals.