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I am very excited about the upcoming Green Valley Chamber Music Festival. In its third year of operation, the festival has already shown to be an important initiative in Las Vegas's musical life.

Located in the heart of Las Vegas, the Green Valley Chamber Music Festival provides young musicians with the opportunity to develop their talents. Each year GVCM accepts nearly fifty students who join the festival after auditioning.  Fourteen-year-old young artists  through post-college students join professional musicians for an intense week of chamber music-making. In addition to a rigorous schedule of instruction, students collaborate with faculty and guest artists in public performances. The combination of studying and coaching every day with distinguished professional musicians sets GVCM apart from other summer music institutions, and gives students the opportunity to understand the world of a professional musician.

Let me point out a few highlights of the past and present festival. In order to continue our policy of daily coaching, while dealing with the demands of an increasingly higher number of students, we expanded the faculty to six members in 2007; in 2008 we have added one more artist teacher. Also, last year we made a considerable effort in shaping the festival's string orchestra: I myself performed a Mozart piano concerto conducting from the keyboard, and I had a wonderful time with the faculty and selected young artists. This forthcoming summer maestro Taras Krysa, also a wonderful violinist, will join our faculty. Krysa is very experienced in both the realm of chamber music as well as that of orchestral music. I am confident that his help will be a wonderful contribution to our chamber orchestra program. For the first time, the GVCM chamber orchestra will get the opportunity to perform in the rather large Ham Hall, at UNLV. The orchestra will play Shostakovich, Williams, and the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365. Guest pianist Washington Garcia, presently directing the piano area at Texas State University, and I will play Mozart during the closing gala concert, under the baton of Taras Krysa. Garcia, originally from Ecuador, came to the USA as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Fellowship of the Americas Award. He is one of our new additions to the faculty.

Finally, cellist Elliott Cheney (who led a cello choir class in 2007 which culminated in a beautiful performance) will return to work with us this summer. All the young pianists will have the opportunity to work on their solo repertoire with our piano faculty.

I am pleased to welcome Shakeh Ghoukasian in her role of program director and I look forward to an intense and exciting festival experience with new and returning students and faculty.

Warm regards,

Enrico Elisi
GVCM Artistic Director