Manitou Music Festival finale showcases Ann Arbor Violinist

From staff reports
The Manitou Music Festival is delighted to host what will be an enchanted evening of music with a performance by classical violinist Gabriel Bolkosky and pianist Michele Cooker. The concert is set for Thursday August 30 at 8 p.m. at The Leelanau School north of Glen Arbor. Tickets cost $15 in advance and $18 at the door. They are available for purchase at the Glen Arbor Arts Association and Lake Street Studios in Glen Arbor, Cedar City Market in Cedar and Oryana Food Cooperative in Traverse City.
Gabriel Bolkosky has been praised for the way he “takes audiences into his confidence and includes them” and described as having “the serenity of a master without a hint of coldness.”

He is executive director of The Phoenix Ensemble, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to helping artists and the educational community. His debut solo album, “This and That,” was released in 2005 to critical acclaim and features both jazz and classical music. Other recordings include explorations of klezmer with “Into the Freylakh (The Shape of Klez to Come),” of the nuevo tango music of Astor Piazzolla (“The Oblivion Project Live”), children’s folk music with the children’s-music group Gemini (“The Orchestra Is Here to Play”), and contemporary music of composers such as Xenakis and Boulez with his former group Non Sequitur (Non Sequitur).
Bolkosky is a sought-after guest artist, performer, and teacher at schools and workshops throughout North America, including at Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis and Princeton and many Suzuki institutes. He has also taught workshops on improvisation and composition to nearly 5,000 students in Aspen, Colorado and the Walden School in New Hampshire.
He previously served as assistant director for Strings Attached, an intensive string program for children in inner-city Cleveland, and as assistant to Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In Ann Arbor, Bolkosky directs one of The Phoenix Ensemble’s signature events, PhoenixPhest!, an annual amateur chamber-music festival held each May, and maintains a private violin studio.
This past April, Gabriel joined forces with local cellist Crispin Campbell, original founder of the Manitou Music Festival, and Grammy award winning pianist, Paul Sullivan to create the Solar Trio that performed this past April in venues around the state.
Joining Gabriel onstage is the gifted pianist, Michele Cooker. Michele has performed in concert series and participated in festivals throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. She has appeared on PBS and has performed programs broadcast live for WFMT-radio in Chicago and the CBC in Canada. Ms. Cooker teaches piano privately at the Kerrytown Concert House, where she is a member of the Board. This combination of violin and piano will indeed be one ‘enchanting evening’ of music.