Trumpeter Brandon Ridenour comes to Pepperdine University's Raitt Recital Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts as the first artist of the New Year in the 2017-2018 Recital Series.
His program includes George Gershwin’s I Got Fascinating Rhythm; Maurice Ravel’s Piece en forme de Habanera, M. 51; Claude Debussy’s, La Puerta del Vino (Preludes, Book 2), Girl with the Flaxen Hair (Preludes, Book 1), and Minstrels (Preludes, Book 1); Edvard Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King; Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56 (No. 1 Stick Dance, No. 2 Sash Dance, No. 3 Standing Still, No. 4 Mountain Horn Song, No. 5 Romanian Polka, and No. 6 Fast Dance); Leonard Bernstein’s Rondo for Lifey; Debussy's Reverie, Footprints in the Snow (Preludes, Book 1), and La Plus que lente; and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35.
A virtuoso trumpeter and composer, Ridenour’s brilliance and self-assurance on the concert stage led to his victory at the 2014 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition. Hailed as “a major talent in the making” (Grand Rapids Press), his wide-ranging activities as a soloist and chamber musician, paired with his passion for composing and arranging, are evident in his versatile performances and unique repertoire.
In the 2015-16 season, Ridenour made his Carnegie Hall recital debut at Weill Recital Hall (CAG Winners series). His other featured recitals include: Northeastern Illinois University’s Jewel Box Series in Chicago; Chamber Music Society of Little Rock; The Regina Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University (NY); and St. Vincent College Concert Series, near Pittsburgh.
As a concerto soloist, Ridenour appeared with the South Bend Symphony and Modesto Symphony in 2015-16, and was also featured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for its annual performances of Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos.
At the age of twenty, Ridenour became the youngest member ever to join the iconic Canadian Brass, a position he held for seven years. While with the group, he played in distinguished venues around the world, performed on television, recorded ten albums, and received three Juno Award nominations.
Ridenour has appeared as a concerto soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras. He has played with leading ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Knights, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Other solo performances include the Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall, and Carnegie Hall, where he most recently appeared in a performance of Penny Lane alongside Sting and James Taylor.
Ridenour is the winner of the 2006 International Trumpet Guild solo competition and a recipient of the Morton Gould ASCAP Young Composer Award. He has recorded three solo albums; his latest release is Fantasies and Fairy Tales, which features his own virtuosic arrangements of classical masterworks for trumpet and piano.
A graduate of The Juilliard School and an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s The Academy, Ridenour began playing piano at the age of 5 under the tutelage of his father, Rich Ridenour, with whom he still performs frequently in recital and with Pops Orchestras.
Performing with Ridenour is pianist Peter Dugan. Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms. He has performed throughout the United States and Canada, and abroad in South America, the Cayman Islands, and across Europe.
A sought-after crossover artist, Dugan has collaborated in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang, which the Wall Street Journal called a “classical-meets-rockstar duo,” has garnered critical acclaim across the United States. Dugan’s recent chamber music recitals include the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, ARTS San Antonio, St. John’s College Recital Series, and a Weill Hall debut presented by Carnegie Hall.
Dugan advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society. As a founding creator and the pianist for OPERAtion Superpower, a superhero opera for children, Dugan has travelled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students and encouraging them to use their talents—their superpowers—for good.
Dugan, a Philadelphia native, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in solo piano performance from the Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio and was awarded the John Erskine Commencement Prize for outstanding artistic and academic achievement. Dugan resides in New York with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School Evening Division and the St. Thomas Choir School. Dugan is a Yamaha Artist.