CMS Kids: A Duo's Big Trip
Sun, Oct 5, 2025, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, & 3:00 pm
Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio at CMS
1 hour, no intermission
CMS Kids is a relaxed and interactive concert experience designed especially for our youngest concertgoers. The program is presented in a friendly, relaxed, and supportive environment, welcoming all children, including neurodiverse audiences or other sensory sensitivities, along with their families and friends.
Every CMS Kids event offers a Relaxed Performance, fostering an inclusive concert experience free from judgment. This performance is less formal and more supportive of sensory, communication, movement, and learning needs. Learn more about what to expect here. Each show ends with an up-close session where children can interact with the musical instruments.
Come and join us for a joyful, sensory-friendly musical adventure that sparks curiosity and invites everyone to make believe together!
To ensure adequate safety and capacity, all attendees for this event, regardless of age, need a ticket. This includes children that will be sitting in a guardian's lap during the performance.
Program
Astor Piazzolla
(1921-1992)Histoire du Tango for Flute and Guitar
(1986)Radames Gnattali
(1906-1988)Sonatina for Flute and Guitar
(1963)Máximo Diego Pujol
(b. 1957)Suite Buenos Aires for Flute and Guitar
(1995)Heitor Villa-Lobos
(1887–1959)Bachianas brasileiras No. 5 for Flute and Guitar
(1938-45)
Tara Helen O'Connor
João Luiz Rezende
Tara Helen O’Connor, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, was the first wind player to participate in CMS’s Bowers Program. A regular performer at major music festivals around the country, she is also the Co-Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico, the Artistic Director of the Essex Winter Series, a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, and a founding member of the Naumburg Award–winning New Millennium Ensemble. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings, and Bridge Records, and can be heard on numerous film and television soundtracks. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion, St. Lawrence, and Emerson String Quartets. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, O’Connor is on faculty at Yale School of Music. Additionally, she teaches at Bard College and the Manhattan School of Music.
Two time Latin Grammy nominee guitarist, educator, and composer João Luiz, began to play the popular music of his native Brazil professionally during his childhood and was later trained in classical guitar by his mentor Henrique Pinto. Winner of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild Competition as a member of the critically acclaimed Brasil Guitar Duo, João has performed extensively in the United States, Asia, Europe and Latin America. As a performer and composer João is equally at home with classical, Brazilian and world music; his solo guitar, chamber music, and concerto repertoire covers all the main works in the guitar literature from Dowland to Berio and Brazilian rhythms from choro to baião. His versatility led him to be chosen to collaborate with Yo-Yo Ma and Carlos Prieto on a project to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer in a landmark concert in Cuba in 2014.
His arrangements and compositions have been recorded and played by Marina Piccinini, Fábio Zanon, Quaternaglia, Olson/De Cari Duo, Danilo Brito, Paquito D’Rivera, Clarice Assad, Bridget Kibbey, Jiji, Sybarite 5, D-Composed, Plínio Fernandes, The Newman & Oltman guitar duo, Aquarelle Guitar Quartet, David Leisner, and the New York City Classical Guitar Society.
Luiz’s harp concerto Recife written for Bridget Kibbey was premiered by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019. His concertino for guitar and strings MadriAfro I was premiered in New York by the São Paulo Chamber Soloists in 2022. João’s most recent work Saravá for string quartet and guitar was premiered at the São Paulo Symphony hall receiving rave reviews as one of the highlights of the season. João’s work received one of Brazil’s most prestigious award for the arts, the APCA 2024 as the best new work premiere.
Recent commissions include works for the USC Thornton School of Music guitar department, NYC Master Chorale, Duo Amaris, GFA, Duo Sonidos and USGO. João has recorded more than twenty CDs playing solo, duo, trio and in quartet, most of which have featured his arrangements of classical or Brazilian works. João also formed the Trio Virado with flutist Amy Porter and violist Jaime Amador to promote contemporary Latin American chamber music. The first CD of the trio, Mangabeira was released in the fall of 2015 featuring world premiere recordings of works written specially for the trio by Assad, Hand and Brouwer. João’s most recent solo album, Central Guitar, features twentieth century guitar works by Brazilian composers such as Gnattali, Guarnieri, and Gismonti. For his solo debut for Zoho records, João released in 2022 From Spain to São Paulo with Spanish guitar works by Sor, Torroba, Mompou, and Segovia. Two of João’s most ambitious recording projects will be released in 2025— “Os Guardiães da Magia-Leo Brouwer por João Luiz” and “The 24 studies” by Sérgio Assad.
João holds a masters degree from Mannes College, and as the recipient of the Augustine Foundation scholarship he earned his doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music. Eager to expand the repertoire of his instrument João has commissioned and premiered works written for him by Sérgio Assad (24 studies), Leo Brouwer (Sonata n.7 & n.10), Clarice Assad, David Leisner, Ronaldo Miranda, Mariel Mayz, Sebastian Zubieta, Marco Pereira, David Sampson, Frederic Hand and Dusan Bogdanovic. João is the director of chamber music at CUNY Hunter College and guitar professor at Yale School of Music. He is a recipient of the prestigious 2023 CUNY Feliks Gross award in recognition of his outstanding scholarship.