For 14 years, Rick Phillips was the Host and Producer of SOUND ADVICE, the weekly guide to classical music and recordings, heard across Canada on CBC Radio One and CBC Radio Two every weekend. Rick was affiliated with CBC Radio for 30 years, working in Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto in a career that spanned production to management to on-air. As well as broadcasting and webcasting, he is also a busy freelance writer and reviewer, speaker, panel moderator, consultant, musical tour guide and concert host. He’s often a juror in the classical music categories for the Juno Awards, and is the author of “The Essential Classical Recordings – 101 CDs” published by McClelland & Stewart. Rick leads a variety of Music History & Appreciation courses at the University of Toronto, York University and other venues. He holds a B. Mus. from McGill University and a M. Mus. from the University of Toronto.
www.soundadvice1.com

Jason Cutmore has performed piano recitals and collaborative concerts throughout North America, Europe and India, winning praise for his “brilliant technical finesse” and “deep emotional penetration” (Offenbach-Post, Germany), and for the “charismatic generosity of communication in his music.” (The Telegraph, Calcutta, India).

Mr. Cutmore made his Chicago recital debut in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in 2005 with an all-Liszt programme that was broadcast live on WFMT radio, and shown on Chicago Cable TV 25. Since then he has returned twice to the Hess series, and has performed in Canada’s Elora, Music Niagara, and Colours of Music festivals, Los Angeles’ Sundays Live series, Calgary’s Celebrity Series, and at venues in New York City, San Francisco, Toronto, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Edmonton and elsewhere across North America.

His concert performances, and an ardent interest in foreign travel, have frequently taken him abroad to Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Spain, and India. These performances have included appearances at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Mumbai), the Alliance Francaise (Bangalore), and the India International Centre (New Delhi), as well as at the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest, and the International Music Festival in Burgos, Spain.

In 2008, Mr. Cutmore’s debut commercial CD, an album of piano music by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla on Centaur Records, was released to critical acclaim. Gramophone magazine praised his “warm, generous sonority and natural feel for the idiom” and raved that “this pianist’s gorgeously variegated legato makes a sexy and inviting recital.” Mr. Cutmore’s interpretations of the Spanish piano repertory have gained notice in concert as well. The Times Argus in Vermont has written that “Cutmore performed this most evocative music with flair. His colorful playing proved vibrant and exciting.”

Mr. Cutmore’s avid interest in chamber music has led to many collaborations, both traditional and unusual, including past partnerships with Lithuanian pianist Guoda Gedvilaite, and with concert organist Daniel Sullivan. One of Mr. Cutmore’s current projects is a collaboration with narrator (and former CBC radio personality) Rick Phillips, in works for solo piano and narrator by composers such as Debussy, Roussel, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens and others, in live concert performances for children. Mr. Cutmore also partners with Paris-based cellist Antoine Pierlot.

Mr. Cutmore’s major teachers have included Stephanie Brown, Robert Shannon, and Michael Massey. Currently based in New York City, Jason Cutmore is originally from Edmonton, Canada, and is the founder and director of Alberta Pianofest. He also serves on the faculties of two historic community music schools in Manhattan, the Third Street Music School Settlement, and Turtle Bay Music School.

jasoncutmore.com