Elena Abend & Orlando Pimentel

press release:  Noted Milwaukee-based musicians Elena Abend and Orlando Pimentel are featured by the Rural Musicians Forum in a concert at historic Unity Chapel on Monday, August 10. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, pianist Elena Abend is well known as a soloist and chamber musician.  She has performed with all the major orchestras of her country and has recorded with the Orquesta Philharmonica Nacional of Venezuela. An active chamber music collaborator, Ms. Abend has performed with the Fine Arts Quartet, Frankly Music, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra Series, and Present Music, as well as numerous performances at the Ravinia and Marlboro Music Festivals. She has been a soloist with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra and “MYSO,” the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra. An avid performer of Latin American music, she currently serves on the piano and chamber music faculty at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and directs the Chamber Music Milwaukee “Faculty Artist Series.”

For his part, Orlando Pimentel, also born in Caracas, began his musical training in Venezuela’s System of Youth Orchestras, also known as “El Sistema”. From 1989 to 2009, he was a member of the “Simon Bolivar” Symphony Orchestra and performed with such renowned conductors as Claudio Abbado, Sergiu Comissiona, Gustavo Dudamel, Eduardo Mata, Sergei Senkov, among others. In 1988, together with three other colleagues, he formed the Caracas Clarinet Quartet, a chamber ensemble that has performed throughout Venezuela, as well as in China, Europe, South America, and the US., sharing the stage with world renowned artists such as The Manhattan Transfer, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, Anat Cohen, Fred Mills, among others. Orlando Pimentel performs regularly with orchestras in Wisconsin such as Madison Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, Racine Symphony Orchestra, Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, and Festival City Symphony Orchestra as well as with local favorite Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.  He is also a member of Sotavento, a Latin American music ensemble based in Madison. In 2013 he and Elena established the Elisio Ensemble whose passionate mission is to promote the richness of Latin American repertoire.

On August 10, Abend and Pimentel perform at Unity Chapel, located at 6596 County  Road T, just east of Hwy 23. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. In addition to indoor  seating, spacious lawns welcome chairs, blankets and picnics For directions and more information on this concert and the series visit www.ruralmusiciansforum.org. There is no ticket charge but a freewill offering to support the concert series will be taken.