Date: November 4, 2023
Time: 1-3pm
Location: Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
(1070 Foothill Dr, SLC UT 84108)
Price: UFA Member Masterclass Performer – $35
*Performers are chosen on a first come, first serve basis. 3 spots available*
Price: UFA Member Auditor – $10
Price: General Public Auditor – $15
Schedule:
1:00pm – Recital
1:30pm – Masterclass (3 spots available)
2:30pm – Lecture/Class
Join us for an afternoon featuring flute music from Mexico with our 2023-24 Season Featured Artist, Dr. Jonathan Borja of the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse!
With performances described as “the highlight of the evening” (Kansas City Star), Jonathan Borja enjoys a varied career as a performer and educator. Dr. Borja is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse where he teaches flute and music history. As an orchestral musician, he is a member of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra (Acting Principal 2021-2022), and has played with the Topeka Symphony Orchestra (2010-2015) and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra (2009-2018).
Dr. Borja holds three graduate degrees from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance (Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance, Master of Music in Flute Performance, Master of Music in Musicology) and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Principia College.
Before coming to the United States, he studied at the National Conservatory of Music in his Native Mexico City. His teachers and mentors include Marie Jureit-Beamish, Mary Posses, and Maria Esther Garcia. He has appeared in masterclasses in both the United States and Europe with some of the worldès leading flutists, including Jeanne Baxtresser, Jacob Berg, and Peter-Lukas Graf.
Dr. Borja has performed throughout the United States and Mexico and has appeared in festivals devoted to the music of J.S. Bach, George Crumb, Gustav Mahler, Olivier Messiaen, and Elliott Carter. He has performed at Steinway Hall, Helzberg Hall, at the Facultad de Musica (UNAM), the Silvertre Revueltas (CCOY), and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Singapore. His continued advocacy for the music of our time has led him to collaborate with some of today’s finest composers, including Chen Yi and Zhou Long, George Crumb, Libby Larsen, Yehudi Wyner, Narong Prangchareon, and Samuel Zyman.
Dr. Borja’s research includes the music of Mexican composers Mario Lavista, José Pablo Moncayo, Silvestre Revueltas, and Samuel Zyman. He recorded the complete chamber music for flute by Samuel Zyman (Albany Records, 2020), and can be heard in Samuel Zyman: Un mexicano en Nueva York (Urtext Digital Classics, 2021). He also recorded the complete flute music of Icelandic composer Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson (Smekkleysa, 2015), and is featured in Narong Prangcharoen’s recording Mantras (Albany Records, 2010). He has contributed articles to The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World, and The Flutist Quarterly. Dr. Borja has presented his research at the National Flute Association Convention, College Music Society National Conference (2010 and 2021), The CMS International Conference in Belgium (2019), the Wisconsin Flute Festival, the North Central Council of Latin Americanists, and the Midwest Association for Latin American Studies.
Dr. Mitchell Giambalvo moved to Salt Lake City on a whim right before the pandemic. Originally from Pennsylvania, he received his doctorate from Florida State University in piano performance. He went back to complete a second Masters degree in collaborative piano before teaching piano at Troy University in Alabama.
After moving to SLC in 2019, Giambalvo is highly active in collaborating. On staff at the University of Utah where he is a vocal diction coach for singers and works with instrumentalists, Giambalvo is also a pianist with the Utah Symphony, works with faculty at UVU, BYU, and Uof U, as well as performs on the NOVA Chamber Series.