U of A Cello Congress – Show I

The Tucson Cello Congress annually unites 100 cellists of all ages and experience levels from across the southwest. This event is hosted by the University of Arizona and American String Teacher’s Association and features outstanding guest artists, cello ensemble rehearsals, masterclasses, and a young artist competition. This year’s congress will be held at the University of Arizona School of Music on Saturday, December 7, 2024.

Featured Guest Artists:

Thomas Loewenheim maintains an international career that combines cello performance, conducting, and teaching. He has toured North America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, performing as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He is Professor of Cello and Director of Orchestras at California State University, Fresno, Music Director and conductor of the Youth Orchestras of Fresno, and founding Artistic Director of the FOOSA Festival/Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy. Noted for his ability to lead any orchestra to peak performance level efficiently and enjoyably, Loewenheim is much in demand on the honor orchestra circuit. As conductor he has collaborated with numerous soloists, among them violinists Vadim Gluzman, Richard Lin, and Rachel Barton Pine, cellists Lynn Harrell, Clive Greensmith, and Brinton Smith, and pianists Peter Klimo, Steven Vanhauwaert, and Jeremy Denk. As a cello soloist in his own right, he has most recently premiered Daniel Akiva’s Requests for Cello and Orchestra, a concerto dedicated specifically to Loewenheim.

Loewenheim has been a guest artist at prominent music festivals around the world, among them the Montecito International Music Festival, the Music in the Mountains Festival and Conservatory in Durango, Colorado, and, in California, both CSU Summer Arts in Fresno, and the Chamber Music Unbound Festival in Mammoth Lakes…as well as his own FOOSA Festival/Fresno Summer Orchestra Academy.

Loewenheim’s discography includes conducted works as well as works for cello solo. Newly released is a CD on the Tonsehen label of Loewenheim conducting Mahler 5 with the FOOSA Philharmonic. Upcoming recordings will feature the same orchestra in two works from the first quarter of the 20th century: Sergei Lyapunov’s Piano Sextet and Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso. An upcoming solo CD features virtuosic works for cello by Bach, Handel, Rózsa, and Ysaÿe.

Loewenheim earned a doctorate in cello performance from the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied with Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and was mentored in conducting by David Effron. He received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan under Erling Blöndal Bengtsson and a bachelor’s degree from the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem. He plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume cello made in 1848.

Praised for his expressive, virtuoso and poetic music making, Belgian cellist Tom Landschoot enjoys an international career as a concert and recording artist and pedagogue. He has toured North America, Europe, South America and Asia and has appeared on national radio and television worldwide. His solo career started after taking a top prize at the International Cello Competition ‘Jeunesse Musicales’ in 1995 in Bucharest, Romania. He has performed with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Tempe Symphony, Prima la Musica, the Symphony of the Southwest, Shieh Chien Symphony Orchestra, Scottsdale Philharmonic, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony, Loja Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band and has appeared at Barge Music, Park City, Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, Eureka, Utah, Red Rock, Park City, Manchester, Fresno, Madeline Island, Waterloo, Killington and Texas Music Festivals. His recordings are available on Summit, Organic, Kokopelli, ArchiMusic and Centaur Records.

Artistic Directors:
Dr. Theodore Buchholz: University of Arizona Cello Professor
Mary Beth Tyndall: Cello Faculty at Rocky Ridge Music Academy