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John Gabriel Koladziej

History

The piece was premiered on October 2, 2010 in Pasadena, CA. Ms. Holden was the soloist, with members of Ensemble Green conducted by the composer.

View a brief compilation of the premiere of A Hopeful Place featuring soprano Kristi Holden.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhLkDhz9D-8

 The Artists

A Hopeful Place brings together a talented and diverse group of artists whose backgrounds span the classical and film music worlds, the Broadway theatre and the LA recording industry. Under the musical direction of composer Dan Redfeld, the recording of A Hopeful Place promises to be a compelling and once in a lifetime experience in the contemporary classical music realm. 

Dan Redfeld (Composer/Conductor/Producer) attended Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music before transferring to UCLA where he received his degree in composition/conducting. He was then chosen to attend the ASCAP/Fred Karlin Film Scoring Workshop in 1994. Since then, Dan has composed several scores for films including the award-winning AFI graduate picture, Clinic E, and Barbara Jean, starring Sara Rue. He recently composed and conducted the score for Flickerhouse Productions’ psychological drama, Fly. Dan has also been commissioned by the city of Ventura to compose music for the silent classics The Phantom of the Opera, The Sheik, Hell’s Hinges, The Black Pirate, Safety Last, The Adventures of Prince Achmed and Robin Hood as part of the annual Music Under the Stars festival. He recently premiered his score for the Mary Pickford classic, Sparrows, in July 2009 for the Library of Congress and the Alex Film Society. He has also composed scores for the American Cinematheque silents retrospectives. In December of 2007, he composed three scores for Varieté, Asphalt, and The Covered Wagon, all of which were premiered at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

In the musical theatre world, Dan has written six shows. Little Women: An American Musical, was workshopped in New York in April 2001 with Elaine Stritch and Deborah Gibson. The Los Angeles workshops occurred in December 1999 and May 2000 with Teri Ralston, Brian Evers and Gordon Goodman. Dan is currently working on the musical thriller/comedy Canterville with lyrics by Koí Howard and book by Steven Ganci. Other musicals include Tales, an adaptation of Mother Goose rhymes, and UCSD’s production of Dangerous Liaisons.

Dan has also written concert music, including the Fanfare and Theme for large orchestra, which will be recorded in 2012. His latest chambers works, Vineyards and Dance Sketches, were successfully premiered in 2008 and 2009, by members of Ensemble Green. In October of 2010, Ensemble Green performed A Hopeful Place, a new song cycle by Dan & librettist John Koladziej written for soprano Kristi Holden, currently starring as Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom: The Vegas Spectacular. The piece is scheduled to be recorded this summer with Ms. Holden and released on CD in the winter of 2012. He recently completed the Fantasy for Violin & Piano for violinist Elizabeth Hedman and pianist Robert Thies, who premiered the work in September 2009. Dan’s most recent work, Travels for Piano Quartet, premiered to great acclaim in June 2011 and was commissioned by the group Central4, for which Dan is also composer-in-residence.

Other works include A Heart’s Journey for Piano & Orchestra, Arioso for Oboe, Percussion & Strings, the Serenade for Violin, Cello & Piano, and the celebratory string quartet, Jubilation Fanfare, which was recorded in 2006. Dan has also written incidental music for various plays including the score for the Met Theatre’s acclaimed production of USA directed by John Hickey. He arranged, orchestrated, conducted (as well as composed 2 tunes), and produced all the material for the debut album of singer/songwriter James Below, entitled I Once Was Told, which was released in December of 2008. It can be purchased at Amazon, iTunes, or www.jamesbelow.com.

Dan has also musical directed and/or conducted several shows including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song & Dance, Miss Saigon, Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, Singin’ in the Rain, Sweet Charity, The Spitfire Grill, Triumph of Love, Blood Brothers, A Chorus Line, A Little Night Music, Evita, Chess, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar, Crazy for You, Godspell, 70 Girls 70, Grease, The Secret Garden, West Side Story, etc. He musical directed and conducted the much anticipated, single-night performance of Chess at the Ford Amphitheatre in September 2007 with Susan Egan, Matt Morrison, Kevin Earley, and Ty Taylor and a cast of 40 singers and dancers. In 2008, Dan music directed and conducted Flickerhouse Productions’ successful theatrical extravaganza, The Who’s Tommy, which ran in Hollywood at the Ricardo Montalban Theatre to tremendous critical acclaim. Dan recently conducted & orchestrated the Cabrillo Music Theatre Holiday Spectacular starring Shirley Jones & Patrick Cassidy. In August of 2010, he made his debut with Montana Lyric Opera, music directing and conducting Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to rave reviews. Dan recently completed musical directing and conducting the premier of Eli Villanueva’s opera, The White Bird of Poston, for Los Angeles Opera.

Kristi Holden (Soprano soloist) grew up in a small community in the middle of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. By the time she was just four years old it was unmistakable that she wanted to perform. Her grandfather nicknamed her “Grasshopper,” amused by her endless singing and dancing around his feet. Kristi’s local church and community embraced her vocal talents at an early age and put her to work on stage where she thrived into her late teens. She started taking dance lessons at age seven and by the time she reached sixteen she herself became an instructor teaching jazz and tap for all ages. Additionally, Kristi grew up studying piano and visual arts.

Kristi earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Cornish College for the Arts in Seattle, Washington. She studied Opera and Jazz vocal technique while becoming addicted to coffee in the hometown of Starbucks and the ubiquitous barista cart!

Upon graduating from Cornish, Kristi moved to Los Angeles with her husband, David, where they now call home. Kristi began her professional career in Los Angeles as a cast member in critically acclaimed productions at The Hollywood Bowl, Reprise! Broadway’s Best and local Civic Light Opera theatres. Some of her favorite roles include Julie in Carousel, Johanna in Sweemey Todd, Anne in A Little Night Music and Lily in The Secret Garden. She has been recognized for her contribution to the Los Angeles theatre community with a Robbie Nomination, two Inland Theatre Awards and honored recipient of a Richard Carpenter Scholarship Award to assist in her artistic endeavors as a professional artist.  She is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association, SAG, AFTRA and the prestigious Los Angeles Musical Theatre Guild.

Kristi is currently playing Christine Daaé in Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular at the Venetian Resort and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Elizabeth Hedman (Concertmaster/Contractor/Executive Producer) started playing the violin at the age of six, on an instrument given to her by her piano teacher, whose father had been a violinmaker. So began her journey...

Since that time, Ms. Hedman has soloed with orchestras: The National Repertory Orchestra, The Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, The Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and The Seattle Youth Symphony, among others. She has played solo and chamber music recitals across the country and in Vancouver, B.C. Other momentous events have included winning the 1994 MTNA National Collegiate Competition; performing with her piano trio, Trio Floraison, in the Cleveland Orchestra's Pre-Concert Performance and Lecture Series; playing on live radio programs in Seattle, Cleveland, and Los Angeles (most recently on “Sundays Live”, performing with members of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra), as well as being featured in The Seattle Times and other newspapers in her early teens. Her education includes Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she won both the Concerto Competition and the Valedictory Award and was teaching assistant to Donald Weilerstein. Her principal violin teachers include Mr. Weilerstein, Margaret Pressley, and Naoko Tanaka; and for piano, Beth Hall.

Currently, Elizabeth resides in Los Angeles, and enjoys a diverse musical career that only a city such as this could offer. She is Assistant Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic, Principal Second of the Santa Barbara Symphony as well as a member of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and the Pasadena Symphony and Pops. Elizabeth plays regularly with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Santa Barbara Opera. She is a member of Ensemble Green and has collaborated with Mladi. During the past three summers she performed at the renowned Oregon Bach Festival, where she acted as Principal Second for select performances. In February of 2010, Elizabeth traveled with a group of musicians to Guatemala City, where they performed several concerts. Out of this adventure, Central4 was formed—a group that has a piano quartet as its nucleus but will explore diverse combinations of musicians in its concerts. Recent recording projects include the motion pictures Salt, Sex and The City 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, X-men: First Class, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and many others, as well as contracting the orchestras and performing for the movie Fly and James Below’s album I Once Was Told, for which she was the featured violin soloist. 

Elizabeth is also a recording artist for Buysoundtrax Records and can be heard on various recordings of music from the Twilight films, music from The Bounty, and The Snowman, all offered on iTunes and Amazon. Forthcoming is an album of violin and piano arrangements of John Williams’ themes (arranged by the composer himself) with Dan Redfeld at the keyboard. As precursor to this album, the Theme from Schindler’s List is currently available for download.