Ground-breaking flutist Zara Lawler, “an engaging, fluent, mellifluous soloist,” (Houston Chronicle) made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and her recital debut at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. Recent highlights include the US premiere of Il Cerchio Tagliato dei Suoni, Salvatore Sciarrino’s work for 104 flutists, directed by Lawler at the Guggenheim Museum, the debut of her family show Break it Down! at the Kennedy Center with percussionist Paul J. Fadoul, and Lawler + Fadoul’s CD release, Prelude Cocktail, featuring world premieres by Katherine Hoover and Roshanne Etezady. For the past ten years, Lawler has integrated dance and theater into her performances, with the innovative ensemble Tales & Scales, in collaboration with choreographer C. Neil Parsons, and in large-scale choreographies for flutes including E Pluribus Flutum, Lawler’s work for sixty dancing flutists. Lawler has given solo recitals in New York, Santa Barbara, Hong Kong, and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Utah, Indianapolis, and Oregon Symphonies, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and in venues including the Kennedy Center, the Kravis Center, and Lincoln Center. She studied at the Juilliard School with Carol Wincenc and Sam Baron. Her summer festival credits include Marlboro, Tanglewood, Banff (Canada), Bach Aria Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). She writes a blog on practice techniques at www.thepracticenotebook.com, and more about her work can be found at www.zaralawler.com.
After percussionist Paul Fadoul’s second appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Post declared, “He knows how to evoke mystery in the dying fall of a phrase and let tension gather in the silences between them.” Recent highlights include the premiere of Revolution, his show combining music of Dmitri Shostakovich with David Ives’ play Variations on the Death of Trotsky at the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival in Newfoundland, the debut of his family show Break it Down! at the Kennedy Center with flutist Zara Lawler, and Lawler + Fadoul’s CD release, Prelude Cocktail, featuring world premieres by Katherine Hoover and Roshanne Etezady. Fadoul has given solo and chamber music performances across the North America and Spain, and has performed with artists such as Evan Ziporyn, Martin Bresnick, and Robert van Sice. He is percussionist with Dark by Five, ensemble in residence at the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival. As a member of Tales & Scales from 2003-2005, he performed in over two hundred educational shows annually, including performances with the Milwaukee, Buffalo, and Oregon Symphonies. Formerly, Fadoul was the Peabody Institute’s youngest faculty member, teaching undergraduate and graduate percussion majors. He graduated from the Yale School of Music and his honors include the Yale Alumni Award, the Brewster Award for the Kennedy Center Education Program, and the first prize in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition college division. Based in Washington, DC, Fadoul is also in demand as a composer and coach of drumlines, and his ensemble has won a WGI national championship and numerous gold medals.