Pianist Vytas J. Baksys received his DMA and MM degrees in performance at S.U.N.Y. @ Stony Brook. He earned his Bachelor’s degree with Distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music where he was also elected Phi Kappa Lambda. Other awards include Outstanding College Student of America, Extraordinary Performing Arts Student of America, and a nomination for inclusion in a recent edition of the International Who’s Who In Music. His principal teachers were Angel Ramon Rivera, Victor Rosenbaum, and Gilbert Kalish.
Among his many accomplishments, Vytas lists extensive performances of various styles and genres throughout North America, Europe and Asia, having worked with many well known artists, conductors and composers, among them: Arthur Fiedler, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Sir Roger Norrington, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Rose, Gary Karr, Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gil Shaham, Joseph Silverstein, Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, Olivier Messiaen, film composer John Williams, Stanislaw Skrowicesky, Oliver Knussen, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Dawn Upshaw, Chris Brubeck, John Harbison, James Levine, Peter Schickele, Anne Sophie Mutter, and Andris Nelsons.
For nearly 20 summers since 1989, Vytas has served as faculty pianist working with the Fellowship Conducting Program at Tanglewood. He has similarly collaborated for five years with the Conducting Program at Yale School of Music. An active freelance collaborator, Vytas performs a variety of recitals, competitions, and other functions. He has worked with a number of area choirs including the Boston Secession, Arlington Street Church Choir, Somerville Community Chorus, and New England Classical Singers; made occasional appearances with the contemporary ensemble Boston Musica Viva; performed with various groups such as the Concord Chamber Music Society, Boston Artists Ensemble, South Coast Chamber Music Society, Pentamerus, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players among others. Recent collaborations/endeavors include the Studio 7 Piano Trio, Moving West Dance Theater (Framingham, MA), West Stockbridge Chamber Players, the Philbrick Trio, Sarasota (FL) Musica Viva, Ensemble Chamarre, and the Terezin Music Foundation. He is the faculty accompanist at The Rivers School Conservatory; is a frequent keyboardist with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras, and occasionally participates with the Portland Symphony (ME) and Boston Landmarks. In recent years, this kind of scheduling has resulted in an annual output averaging more than 150 performances of 100 different programs.
He has participated in recordings for RCA, CRI, Golden Crest, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Brothers, Nonsuch, Reference Recordings, Terezin Music Foundation, Naxos, and BSO Classics labels. His recent chamber music recordings include four CD albums with flutist Linda Bento-Rei (one featuring the works of Belgian composer Joseph Jongen), and a CD of music by Czech composer Viktor Kalabis. As orchestral keyboardist, he can be heard on the complete symphonies of Shostakovich with Andris Nelsons and the BSO, a Pops CD of John Williams’ film and television music “Lights Camera Music”, and the Jeffrey Beal soundtrack for the 2017 documentary “Boston”. Being of Lithuanian descent, he has made frequent appearances at ethnic cultural centers including the Baltic American Society.
As a composer, Vytas’s works include several short piano pieces, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, two microtonal works, and several transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Braggiotti, Foote, Glinka, Pärt, Schönberg, Scheidt, Sibelius, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Stravinsky, and others.
On the lighter side, Vytas considers himself to be a connoisseur of music humor. While in the Long Island area, he served eight seasons as co-founder/director of the Stony Brook Anti-Musica, an ensemble dedicated to promoting concert spoofs. His diverse compositional output includes such works as Oratorio: Ground Hog, Variations On A Surprise, The “Big Oh!” Medley, Chaconne Grandissimo, and the Underture to The Dentist of Milan, all inspired by such practitioners as Gerard Hoffnung, Victor Borge, and Peter Schickele.
After decades of performing in many of New England’s most notable symphony orchestras as soloist and section member, performing in and directing various chamber music groups and concert series, serving as educator and mentor for many now accomplished flutists, conducting master classes and directing flute choirs, Linda Bento-Rei’s versatility and passion for fresh and diverse projects lead her to record her first album entitled The Jongen Project, released in 2014, which contains the music of Belgian composer, organist and educator, Joseph Jongen (1873-1953). Following a series of acclaimed chamber music concerts which included Jongen’s, “Concert a Cinq” with the principal string players and retired principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bento-Rei was inspired to record Jongen’s relatively unknown music. A deep passion was born. After researching the composer, a number of pieces which include flute in solo and chamber music settings were unearthed. Her profound connection to Jongen’s music is brilliantly expressed in this extraordinary and masterful recording.
“The Jongen recording is just beautiful. Your playing throughout the CD is just beautiful and a pleasure to listen to. I wish all CD’s were this inspiring." - Sir James Galway
"I believe your performance in The Jongen Project is very elegant, refined into every detail and you play it in a beautiful intimate way. It sounds very natural and with a lot of "joie de vivre" - Robert Waelkens
Bento-Rei released her second CD, Invocation, in 2015, which is an eclectic chamber music collaboration containing the music of Peter Schickele, Andre Jolivet, Leos Janacek and Mike Mower. In 2016, she released Noel~ Reinvented Holiday Classics. This is a duo collaborative with Boston Symphony Orchestra Pianist, Vytas J. Baksys of traditional holiday tunes rearranged by composer, Robert Nieske.
“Invocation is an absolutely outstanding recording, which I will replay many times. The excellences one looks for in flute playing are here - Ms. Bento-Rei’s intonation is impeccable, as is her articulation. There are passages of dazzling virtuosity, especially in the Schickele. And there are other virtues present which are beyond the expected. Her tone in strong passages is rich and full while in softer passages, especially in the Janacek, has a nice delicacy. Her playing has, when she needs it, quite an extraordinary authority. And none of this comes at a price: there are, to my ear, no moments of compromise, no places where, for example, emotion is sacrificed for mechanical precision, or sound for speed. The playing throughout has great integrity: all its virtues are in the service of a larger musicality.” – Harry Schroeder, Key West Citizen
“Noel~Reinvented Holiday Classics” is the third CD recorded by flutist Linda M. Bento-Rei and pianist Vytas J. Baksys, and consists of arrangements by jazz composer, teacher, and performer Robert Nieske. The recording’s seven selections utilize multiple styles and strike a balance between the contemplative and extroverted aspects of Advent and Christmas. The playing of Bento-Rei and Baksys is beyond reproach, with admirable unity of articulation and phrasing. Their handsome performances are what win the day. This is a multi-faceted, well-played, and elegantly engineered Yuletide collection. – Geoff Wieting, Boston Musical Intelligencer
In 2020, Bento-Rei and Vytas J. Baksys released a duo collaboration entitled Un-Known, containing the repertoire of obscure and under - performed 21st century composers including a commissioned and world premiered “Sonata for Flute and Piano”, written by Robert Nieske, and a chamber music collaborative entitled Radically Traditional, which contains the music of Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Andy Scott. All CD’s have been recorded at WGBH, Fraser Performance Studio in Boston by master engineer Antonio Oliart.
Bento-Rei has served as principal flutist with the Venice Symphony Orchestra (FL) since 2014. She also frequently performs with other Florida and New England orchestras. In addition to her recording and orchestral careers, Bento-Rei and her husband co-founded the non-profit chamber music organization, Sarasota Musica Viva in which Bento-Rei serves as Artistic Director and performer. Since 2015, she has organized and presented over fifty chamber music programs throughout the west coast of Florida and New England featuring nationally acclaimed, local and guest musicians.
Bento-Rei received a Bachelor of Music, cum laude from the Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Performance as a Merit Scholar from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers were Lois Schaefer and William Grass with additional coaching from John Heiss, Randy Bowman, and Fenwick Smith.
Born on December 24, 1966, in Colón, Matanzas, Cuba, Jorge Luis Zamora has established himself as one of the foremost classical guitarists of his generation. From an early age, he was immersed in the rich musical traditions of his homeland, guided by his father, an interpreter of the Tres Cubano, one of Cuba’s most iconic string instruments. This early exposure to music led him to formally begin his guitar studies at the Provincial School of Art in Matanzas at the age of 11.
By 1981, Zamora was admitted to the prestigious National School of Art in Havana, where he refined his technique and artistry, graduating in 1985 with a specialization in classical guitar. Zamora’s dedication and technical mastery have earned him numerous accolades in some of the most prestigious international guitar competitions:
As a founding member of Cuba’s most important Guitar Orchestra, Zamora has played a pivotal role in promoting the rich heritage of classical and Latin American guitar music. His performances have captivated audiences in over 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, including Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States, among many others. Beyond his concert career, Zamora has served as a juror in major international guitar competitions in countries such as the Czech Republic, Greece, Mexico, Bolivia, Thailand, and Cuba, solidifying his status as an influential figure in classical guitar. He has performed as a soloist with all of Cuba’s major symphony orchestras and collaborated with renowned ensembles worldwide. His artistry has also been featured in numerous radio and television broadcasts across continents.
Zamora’s performances have consistently drawn high praise from critics and specialized media worldwide. His playing has been described as:
Prominent magazines, including Le Cahiers de la Guitare (France), Aktuel Guitar (Germany), Guitarra & Laute (Germany), Classical Guitar (UK), and Guitar Dream (Japan), have featured him in their publications, dedicating cover stories and in-depth articles to his work.
Zamora’s artistry is documented in a series of acclaimed recordings:
Zamora’s passion for music extends beyond the concert stage. At just 17 years old, he began teaching at Havana’s National School of Art, where he spent a decade shaping the next generation of guitarists. Since 2002, he has continued his pedagogical work in Costa Rica, where he teaches at the University of Costa Rica, the National University, and the Conservatory of Castella. His performer and educator work ensures that his profound knowledge and mastery of the classical guitar tradition are passed on to future generations.
With a career spanning more than four decades, Jorge Luis Zamora remains one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of our time. His extraordinary artistry, commitment to education, and unwavering pursuit of musical excellence have earned him a prestigious place in classical guitar. Through his mesmerizing performances, influential recordings, and inspiring teaching, Zamora leaves an indelible mark on the international music scene. He passionately and brilliantly upholds the tradition of the classical guitar.
Born in Cali, Colombia, Ricardo Cobo is the son of Lebanese immigrants who came to America during the early 20th century. His mother, a classical pianist and avid visual artist, taught him to play the piano and read music as a young boy. His father, a brilliant surgeon, devoted concertgoer, and lover of classical music, instilled a passion for guitar music in Cobo during many hours of listening to Flamenco and classical recordings. He began taking guitar lessons at 8, on a twenty-dollar souvenir guitar, a gift from his uncle. Quickly outpacing his lessons, Cobo’s parents enrolled him in the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory at age 12. His professional career began at the early age of 17 at a live televised performance with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. This performance was viewed by an audience of over nine million people. Cobo’s career took flight at that point and is still soaring today. Following high school, Cobo attended the Peabody Conservatory where he became a protégé of Aaron Shearer. He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Master of Music from Florida State University. While at FSU, Cobo pursued postgraduate studies under the late Bruce Holzman as a Graduate Assistant and University Doctoral Fellow.
While completing his degrees, Cobo won many international competitions, a host of academic excellence awards, and numerous scholarships. Competitions included the 6th Guitar Foundation of America International Competition (GFA), the 9th Alirio Díaz International Competition in Caracas, and the 9th Casa de España Competition in San Juan. As the first Hispanic/Latino to win the GFA competition, he embarked on a highly auspicious tour that covered over 70 American cities, followed by debut appearances throughout Europe, Ukraine, and Asia. Following this tour, Cobo was awarded an extraordinary ability visa by the United States while he continued to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts at FSU.
Cobo has been collaborating with composers to develop new music based on Latin America's rich literary and cultural legacy. Chilean composer Javier Farías dedicated his “Romanzas de Rihoacha,” based on Gabriel García Marquez’s stunning autobiography, to him. This piece was premiered in Washington, DC in 2015. Cuban American composer José Lezcano, Colombian composers Franz Castillo, Hector Gonzalez, Fabio Salazar Orozco, and many others have dedicated new pieces to Cobo.
Celebrated for his passionate and mesmerizing performances worldwide, Cobo is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, lecturer, and recording artist. His versatility can be heard on his award-winning ESSAY, NAXOS, Ellipsis Arts, Angel/EMI, Cambria Records, and ESSAY/Allegro recordings. Many include his remarkable arrangements of Latin American standards. Cobo will soon release new music under his own recording label.
A long-time resident of Las Vegas, Cobo is a dedicated and avid supporter of music education and often hosts master classes for students of all ages. He also enjoys the outdoors and walks with his Boston Terrier, Gizmo. For additional information, please visit ricardocobo.com and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.
Professor Samuel Headrick was a member of the Department of Composition and Theory and the School of Music faculty since 1981 until his retirement in 2022. Sam received his bachelors and master’s degrees from the University of North Texas before earning his Ph.D. in Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, and Joseph Schwantner. He also studied composition with Martin Mailman and James Sellars. Other studies include horn with Roland Pandolfi, guitar with Alan Rosenkoetter, and electronic music with Barry Vercoe, James Dashow, and Allan Schindler.
Prof. Headrick’s compositional style is melodic and richly contrapuntal, featuring tonal textures combined with a fascinating, personal chromaticism. His music demands much of performers in ways that yield astonishingly impressive and invariably satisfying results. One reviewer said of his music: “another tone of voice altogether…expansive melodic lines of unmistakable nobility… the ending was very beautiful, and eloquent”. Another reviewer said: “brimming intelligence…a uniquely twentieth/twenty-first century interpretation of tension/resolution…never is the musical sacrificed to the merely virtuosic…an intellectual yet visceral work…very much its own piece”. Yet another reviewer said: “imaginative, exciting…original…delightful…could easily become standard repertoire…very well crafted, filled with exciting and expressive music…this is a first-rate product…there aren’t any negatives”. Some of Sam’s larger works are The New Kid, a ballet which he describes as a Choreo-Drama, Symphony No, 2 subtitled Hope Rising, and his full-length opera Hostage. Other notable works include Brass Quintet No. 1 subtitled Passages, Brass Quintet No. 2, Polyphonic Fantasy for string quartet, Silver Fanfare for brass quintet, Piano Album, an ongoing series of pieces for solo piano, Five Movements for mezzo-soprano, flute, and piano, Suite for solo double bass, Divertimento for five instruments, Awakenings for orchestra, Elegy for orchestra, and A Breaking of Waves for chamber orchestra. Concertante 314: Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra of Seven Double Basses was composed for Boston Symphony Orchestra principal contrabass Ed Barker and premiered at Seiji Ozawa Hall by Prof. Barker and Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center. Portions of Symphony No. 2, Hope Rising, have been performed by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, and a chamber version of Hostage was premiered with six performances by the Boston University Opera Institute. Sam has had performances and commissions from organizations such as the St. Louis Symphony Chamber Players, ALEA III, the Atlantic Brass Quintet, the Huntington Theater Company, the Boston University Mainstage Theater, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, the Concordia Trio, the Esterhazy String Quartet, the Synergy Brass Quintet, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the Armory Brass Quintet, and Boston Musica Viva. He has also had performances and commissions at festivals such as the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival in Vermont, the Savannah Onstage International Arts Festival, the Fourth Annual New York City Festival of New Trumpet Music, and the Iraklion International Festival of the Arts. Other performances include those by baritone Sanford Sylvan and pianist Konstantinos Papadakis, and at the International Trumpet Guild Convention, Samford University, the Nantucket Musical Arts Society, and the Tubists Universal Brotherhood Association (TUBA) International Convention.
Sam has presented his music and given lectures and master classes at UC Berkeley, Williams College, Trinity College, UCLA, M.I.T., the Peabody Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, the University of North Texas, the University of Arkansas, the Berklee College of Music, the Boston Conservatory, and for both the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the “Dinner at Symphony” series for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has also given several presentations for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Composition program. He has been a Visiting Instructor at the State University of New York at Potsdam and a Visiting Associate Professor in Composition at Brown University.
Prof. Headrick has been Guest Conductor for the St. Louis Symphony Chamber Players' On-Stage Series, and Music Director and Composer for the Huntington Theater Company's production of Twelfth Night. He has also been conductor for the Boston University Contemporary Collegium, the new-music group Underground Composers, and for the second annual New Music Festival at the Crane School of Music.
Some of the honors Sam has received include a National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts New Works/ Collaborative Fellowship, and a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship in Composition. He has been Artist-in-Residence at the Berklee College of Music and Guest Composer at Webster University. He was twice Composer-in-Residence with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He received an International Commission Award from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation based in Munich and he was a finalist in several other notable competitions. He has also received two Meet the Composer Grants and annual awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Boding well for his future, at the age of 15 Sam was the subject of a feature article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch for winning First Place Virtuoso Prize at the Mid-America Music Association Convention.
Prof. Headrick received significant funds as principal investigator for a grant to develop the School of Music’s electronic music studio from its infancy and served as the studio’s director in its early years. He has taught a large variety of courses – 35 different ones – during his time at B.U., from music theory for non-majors through advanced analysis classes. His course “Jazz and Pop Arranging” was the first course in popular music offered in the School of Music. He was advisor and reader for many master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. Outside of BU, he has been Treasurer of ALEA III and on the advisory board of several other ensembles. He has been an external evaluator for promotion and tenure cases and has been an adjudicator for both the ALEA III International Composition Competition and the Kucyna International Composition Competition. He has given a significant amount of service to his community in Waltham.
Sam would say that he successfully used the mimeograph machine before there were copiers and taught well with his hands covered in blue ink. He always graciously agreed to teach courses that were necessary and vital for the curricula of all students in the School of Music. His teaching style provided a rich context and encouraged proactive learning. Students found him to be a kind, compassionate, patient, and helpful teacher, and he was always in strong demand as a composition instructor. He was enormously supportive of his students in his enthusiastic encouragement of their talent and faithful attendance at their events. Sam’s composition lessons focused on leading students to insights about their own music through a dialogue of continuous questions and commentary. Many of his former students are having fine careers in the musical world, and several have won very impressive national and international awards. One former student was co-winner of the Toru Takemitsu International Music Competition. Another won the National Band Association Composition Competition. Still other former students hold professorial positions at universities and conservatories. Sam has accumulated a collection of around 500 letters of recommendation, attesting to his magnanimous support of students in both the classroom and from his composition studio as well as colleagues in the School of Music and musicians in the professional world.
Over the course of 41 years at Boston University, Professor Sam Headrick was without fail positive, encouraging, warm, devoted, responsible, and enthusiastic, and he was an absolutely essential part of both the Department of Composition and Theory as well as the entire School of Music during this time. Our colleague Prof. Ketty Nez has said "Sam is generous, warm, terribly witty. We'll chat about teaching, music, and life, and he always has great insights to share. We also swapped a lot of helpful tips about back treatments and different doctors in the Boston area. Dedicated to his students' growth, Sam is a true teacher. I was lucky to have him as a colleague for so many years.” The concert tonight is a tribute to this wonderful colleague and friend, a man of truly great talent, dedication, honor, virtue, and integrity.
By Martin Amlin
Mildred P. Gilfillan Professor of Music
Chair, Department of Composition and Theory
School of Music
College of Fine Arts
Boston University
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