Mid-Day Noel: Jennifer Dalmas, Evgeni Raychev & Jonah Raychev

23rd Annual Mid-Day Noels A Series of Christmas Concerts featuring Jennifer Dalmas, Violin Evgeni Raychev, Cello Jonah Raychev, Violin Westminster Presbyterian Church presents Mid-Day Noels - a "Christmas Present" from Westminster to Nacogdoches. Join us for a short concert of seasonal selections in the Sanctuary. FREE Admission. Following the concert, lunch is served in Westminster Hall for a suggested donation of $7 per person. Lunches are prepared by Presbyterian Women. Dr. Jennifer Dalmas joined the faculty of the SFA School of Music Orchestral Division in 2003. In her time at SFA, the strings program has grown considerably, developing into an even more vital component of the School of Music. A graduate of the Virginia School of the Arts in 1991, Dr. Dalmas holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in violin performance from Florida State University, where she studied with Professors Karen Clarke, Eliot Chapo and Dr. Gary Kosloski. After receiving the Doctor of Music Degree in 2001, she served as a Visiting Violin Instructor at Florida State University the following year. While living in Florida, she regularly performed with the Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and New World Symphonies. Dr. Dalmas has also played with several period orchestras, including the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra and the Apollo Ensemble. She has performed various concerti with orchestras in the United States and Europe, and as part of the Promising Artists of the 21st Century program has given recitals and master classes both in the United States and Central America. In 2015, she also toured in Asia with a faculty piano trio from SFA, visiting universities in both Hong Kong and Macau to give masterclasses and performances. In July 2015, she served as string faculty for the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, and recently performed for the festival’s chamber music series at Carnegie Hall. In Texas, Dr. Dalmas has been an active orchestral musician, and is currently the concertmaster for the Longview Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber music player, she has been a member of both the Alazan Piano Trio and East Texas Baroque, and performs with her cellist husband Evgeni Raychev in the Hachidori Duo. She is active as an adjudicator and clinician, and has presented at the national ASTA convention. She has also recorded for Centaur Records, Inc. Born in Russe, Bulgaria, Dr. Evgeni Raychev began his studies on the violoncello at the Vesselin Stoyanov School of Music in Russe with Elka Effremova as his teacher. He further continued his music education with professor Zdravko Yordanov at the Bulgarian Music Academy in Sofia, where he received his Bachelor and Master degrees. Upon arriving in the USA in 1997 he attended the Florida State University, where he completed his second Master's and Doctoral degrees with professor Lubomir Georgiev. Winner of several competitions, Evgeni Raychev has performed as a soloist with orchestras in the USA, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Colombia. His chamber and solo music experience includes performances in the USA, Bulgaria, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Costa Rica and Italy. Dr. Raychev has played for the Bulgarian National Symphony Orchestra for five years during his undergraduate pursuit and has served as a principal cellist of FSU Symphony, Chamber and Opera Orchestras, as well as Tallahassee SO, Southeast SO, Orchestra of the Pines, Texarkana SO, Longview SO, and East Texas SO. For seven years Evgeni Raychev played in the Douzet alongside his teacher Prof. Yordanov, the founder of this ensemble of twelve cellos, which commissioned and premiered several compositions by leading Bulgarian composers. He was appointed as the adjunct cello professor at Stephen F. Austin State University, TX in the Fall of 2003, where he currently teaches. Raychev is constantly and continuously working on innovative collaborative music projects promoting classical music to pre college and college students. He is the founder of Piney Woods Camerata (student-faculty collaborative conductorless ensemble), Piney Woods Youth Orchestra, and a founding member of the Alazan Piano Trio—an ensemble dedicated to performing compositions by American composers. In addition to his performance activities, Raychev is a dedicated pedagogue and an ardent advocate of cello ensemble playing who loves workings with musicians of different ages. His newest endeavor is the foundation of the Cello Club in the fall of 2014, where cello enthusiasts of all ages are prepared online to gather together for a concert at SFA. Raychev has recorded for Gega New Ltd. and Centaur Records. He currently plays together with his wife, Jennifer Dalmas as the Hachidori Duo. In October of 2015 the Hachidori Duo was invited to perform Ravel's sonata for violin and cello in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.