— •Dr. Jay Kacherski and pianist Dr. Lina Morita will open the evening playing two guitar/piano duets from their upcoming CD "Landscapes."

"Etoile par Gran Vent" by Olga Amelkina Vera "Etoiles Par Grand Vent” was written for Jay Kacherski and Lina Morita by composter, guitarist and educator Olga Amelkina-Vera. It is inspired by the life and work of Antoine de Saint-Éxupery, the great French author and pioneering aviator of the 20th Century. This piece is directly inspired by his book “Wind, Sand, and Stars” an autobiographical novel, where Saint-Éxupery captures many profound, poetic, and terrifying experiences of flying his airplane in various parts of the world and weather conditions. The composition seeks to capture the beauty, danger, and poetry of the experiences described by Saint-Éxupery: being caught in a cyclone off the coast of South America, miraculously surviving a crash in the Sahara desert, flying solo at night under the stars, soaring over mountains and the sea.

"Formentera" by Luciana Bigazzi and Maurizio Colonna is a fun and exciting piece by Italian composers Bigazzi and Colonna. Formentera is an island off the coast of Spain and very close to infamous party island of Ibiza. The piece is kicked off with a dazzling scale that leads to a syncopated dance. After a brief moment of calm the party starts again and ends with a bang.

— •Gabriel Santiago Gabriel Santiago, Brazilian jazz guitarist, will play a mixed program of original arrangements from the classic Bossa Nova/Samba repertoire of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Baden Powell and Cartola to Brazilian guitar composers such as Garoto (Annibal Augusto Sardinha). There will be some contemporary Brazilian composers such as Toninho Horta and Ivan Lins. His program will also include contemporary Jazz composers such as Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays along with a few original compositions. —                        —                                          —                     

Performances by Finalists in the Artists Competition. The 20-minute program for each of the 3 winners in the Artist Division of the Competition will be broadcast. The program will start with the winners of the Small Ensemble Division.

Winning Performances: This concert will feature the 1st, 2nd & 3rd Place Competition Winners in the following categories: Middle School Division, High School Division, Early College Division. Each will play their winning program.