“The Pleasure of Your Company”
"Music and More in the Gallery" welcomes the delightful musical and personal dialogue of harpist Alison Attar and violinist Rika Seko. Together as “Mi Luna Duo,” the pair presents an afternoon of gorgeous chamber pieces for violin and harp by Bologne, Tournier, Saint-Saens, Wilm and more.
Rika and Alison performed together as orchestral colleagues for over 25 years before a colleague paired them together as a duo. Hired to play Jaromiluna in 2021 for Chicago’s Ear Taxi Festival, the two spent hours in rehearsal together, only to discover a delightful, shared musical and personal dialogue. They have been collaborating as “Mi Luna Duo” ever since.
About Alison Attar
A champion of new music, harpist Alison Attar has performed with numerous new music groups, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, Fulcrum Point, Contempo (formerly Contemporary Chamber Players), and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (England). She was a founding member of the quartet Pinotage (flute, harp, viola and mezzo-soprano) and the Marinos Trio (guitar, harp and mandolin). Alison's interest in historical harps, specifically multi-row instruments, has led to performances internationally. Highlights of her career include a 2017 tour of Cuba as guest harpist with the Chicago Harp Quartet, the Chicago Symphony’s 2014 Beyond the Score project “A Pierre Dream,” two productions (eight full cycles) of Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and her role as second harpist for the Grant Park Symphony. Alison holds a B.M., M.M., and D.M. in harp performance and a B.A. in Italian culture, all from Northwestern University.
About Rika Seko
After graduating from Tokyo University of Arts, violinist Rika Seko began her professional career in Bogota, Colombia in 1986, first as guest Concertmaster of the Colombia Symphony, then as Assistant Concertmaster and later as Concertmaster of the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestras. During that time, she performed over 20 different concertos from Baroque to Contemporary repertoire, and gave numerous recitals in Latin America. Since moving to Chicago in 1994, Rika has appeared with many Chicago-area orchestras. Currently she is Concertmaster at the Elmhurst Symphony and a member of the Grant Park Music Festival Symphony, Music of the Baroque, Fulcrum Point New Music Project and Camerata Chicago. She is also a regular substitute at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. As a soloist Rika has performed with the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra (WI), Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra (IL) and Camerata Chicago (IL). She gave the Colombian premier performance of "Serenade" by L. Bernstein in 2006.