Lawrence Ferrara & Shiqi Li – Friday, December 7 at 8 pm
Holiday Guitar Concert
Lawrence Ferrara, guitar & Shiqi Li, cello
Manuel de Falla Spanish Dance No. 1, La Vida Breve
Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Ferrara Concert in D
Astor Piazzolla Libertango and Adios Nonino
and more!
Join Lawrence Ferrara and Shiqi Li for their glowing and popular holiday-inspired concert of festive and romantic music for guitar and cello in the classic style. Capturing the magic of the holiday season and the winter charms of San Francisco, with works by Vivaldi, Milan, Sanz, Piazzolla, and de Falla.
Guitarist Lawrence Ferrara has the distinction of being the first guitarist to receive a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal teacher was George Sakellariou, and he was selected by Julian Bream to perform at his acclaimed Conservatory master classes. A committed educator, Mr. Ferrara teaches at City College of San Francisco, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and San Francisco State University. He has performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, the Bay Chamber Symphony, with members of the San Francisco Symphony, the Classical Philharmonic and the San Francisco Conservatory’s Chamber Orchestra and New Music Ensemble.
Mr. Ferrara was twice prize winner at the Carmel Classic Guitar Competition, served on the Music Advisory Panel to the National Endowment of the Arts. He recently won the California Virtual Campus (CVC) Award, “Best Online Teaching Website” for his course on Music Appreciation. Mr. Ferrara is a member of the Pacific Guitar Ensemble and author and performer of a sequence of music books titled The Student Repertoire Series for Guitar, Vol. 1 and 2, with accompanying CDs, published by Guitar Solo of San Francisco. He also has a solo CD, American Guitar Works, on the VGO label.
Cellist Shiqi Li is from Shanghai, China and started her musical career at the mere age 7. She graduated from Music Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, was studying under the instruction of distinguished professors. Shiqi received a B.M degree under full scholarship at Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. She then earned her masters from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has performed an array of concerts including the Meadowmount Summer Festival (2010), Hans Jensen’s Cello Festival (2012), the Great Wall Summer Festival (2014, 2015), Robert McDuffie’s Chamber Festival in Rome (2015), Phillip Glass’ Premiere at Le Passion Rouge (2013), Google’s Chinese New Year Concert (2017), Chinese New Year Concert at the ZhongGuanCun Science Park (2017). In addition to her academic achievements and teaching experience, Ms. Li has been performing for high profile events from an early age. She has been prominently featured on the Zhejiang Television Channel in China and has collaborated with acclaimed Chinese pop stars in performance. Currently, Ms. Li is participating in Cello performances and is teaching at the Amabile Music School here in the Bay Area.