Music at the Crossroads

Webern Cello Sonata
New Commission by Milad Yousufi, 'I Cried...'
Debussy Cello Sonata
Machaut Arrangement for Solo Cello
Webern Cello Sonata (x2)

About the Artists:

Andrew Janns

Hailed by the New York Times for his "muscularity and shimmering lyricism", "insightful musicianship", and "sumptuous elegance”, cellist Andrew Janss' performances have been enjoyed across five continents in venues including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Sydney Opera House, and the Louvre.

Mr. Janss is the co-Artistic Director for Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit organization that presents interactive classical music performances to diverse audiences by artists of the highest caliber in order to provide encouragement, education, and healing, with a focus on elderly, disabled, rehabilitating, incarcerated, and homeless populations.

Mr. Janss has collaborated in concert with a long list of iconic classical artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, as well as chart-topping performers such as Lana Del Rey, Mary J. Blige, Estelle, Florence + the Machine, Erykah Badu, Kurt Elling, and The Roots. The performance of his arrangement of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon for singer and string quartet at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles was attended by over 5,000 people, to rave reviews.

Janss is cellist of the acclaimed Solera Quartet, winners of the 2017 Pro Musicis International award. Previously, Mr. Janss was the founding cellist of the Escher Quartet, one of the most highly acclaimed string quartets of its generation. The Escher Quartet was in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as part of Chamber Music Society Two from 2007-10.

He has served as Guest Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and tours extensively with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Highlight performances with the company have included premieres of new choreography in Boston, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Miami, New Orleans, and internationally in China, Italy, and Australia.

Andrew also tours and records for the groundbreaking cello rock band Break of Reality both in the United States and as cultural ambassadors for the US Department of State. Recent tours through American Music Abroad have taken the band to Eastern and Central Asia, Haiti, and Brazil, collaborating with local musicians and composers in each country they visit.

Audrey Vardanega

Praised as a “[musically] eloquent” (San Francisco Classical Voice) player “with the kind of freedom, authority, and strength…that one expects from the world’s finest pianists” and a “bewitching musical presence” (The Piedmont Post), American pianist Audrey Vardanega has performed as a solo and collaborative pianist across Europe, China, and the United States. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Musaics of the Bay, a nonprofit chamber music series dedicated to music mentorship in the Bay Area.

Audrey has been featured as a solo and chamber musician at the Hangzhou Grand Theater, Festival Napa Valley, the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, the Teatro del Libertador San Martín in Córdoba, Argentina, the Bilbao Conservatorio de Musica, San Francisco’s Old First Concerts Series, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, the Berkeley Crowden School's "Sundays at 4" Concert Series, Festival del Sole Napa Valley, Rockefeller University’s Tri-Institutional Noon Concerts Series, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, and the Berkeley Hillside Club Concert Series. Festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, IMS Prussia Cove, and the Carnegie Hall Workshops.

She has received instruction from artists including Leon Fleisher, Thomas Adés, Gidon Kremer, Robert Levin, Miriam Fried, and Jonathan Biss. She currently studies piano with Richard Goode. Audrey lives in Berkeley, CA and New York City; she enjoys cooking and spending time with her shih-tzu and morkie, Romeo and Bear.