|
|
QP 2008 (39th Season) FACULTY and STAFF
CHARLES CASTLEMAN (Founder, Director,Violin) -QPE/QPW-perhaps the world’s most active performer/pedagogue on the violin, has been soloist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Medalist at Tchaikovsky and Brussels, his Jongen Concerto is included in a Cypres CD set of the 17 best prize-winning performances of the Brussels Concours’ 50-year history.
Mr. Castleman's solo CDs include Ysaye's six Solo Sonatas (made at the time of his unique performance at Tully Hall in NYC), eight Hubay Csardases for Violin and Orchestra, and ten Sarasate virtuoso cameos on Music and Arts, Gershwin and Antheil on MusicMasters, and contemporary violin and harpsichord music for Albany. As one of sixteen Ford Foundation Concert Artists he commissioned the David Amram Concerto, premiering it with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony, recording it for Newport Classic. He is dedicatee of "Lares Hercii" by Pulitzer winner Christopher Rouse.
He has performed at such international festivals as Marlboro, Grant Park, Newport, Sarasota, AFCM (Australia), Budapest, Fuefukigawa, Montreux, Shanghai, Sheffield, and the Vienna Festwoche. He regularly participates in the Las Vegas, Park City, Round Top and Sitka festivals in the U.S. His recitals have been broadcast on NPR, BBC, in Berlin and in Paris.
Chair of Eastman’s String Department, Mr Castleman has conducted master-classes in London, Vienna, Helsinki, Kiev, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, and all major cities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. His students have been winners at Brussels, Munich, Naumburg and Szeryng, are in 30 professionally active chamber groups and are 1st desk players in 11 major orchestras.
Charles Castleman’s long-term chamber music associations have included THE NEW STRING TRIO OF N.Y. with BASF recordings of Reger and Frank Martin and THE RAPHAEL TRIO with CDs of Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Wolf-Ferrari for NONESUCH, SONY CLASSICAL, DISCOVER, UNICORN, and ASV, and with premieres by Rainer Bischof and Frederic Rzewski for the Vienna Festival and Kennedy Center.
Mr. Castleman earned degrees from Harvard, Curtis, and University of Pennsylvania. His teachers were Emanuel Ondricek (teaching assistant of Sevcik, Ysaye student) and Ivan Galamian, his most influential coaches David Oistrakh, Szeryng, and Gingold. He plays the “Marquis de Champeaux” Stradivarius from 1708, and chooses from 80 bows.
LAURA BOSSERT (85-9, 93W) (20th year) (Chamber, Violin)
-QPE/QPW- a Silver Medalist in the Henryk Szeryng
International Violin Competition, she has earned recognition for her artistry as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and children’s music specialist. Ms. Bossert has appeared in collaboration with the Muir String Quartet, Amelia, Raphael and Mirecourt Trios, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society members Joseph Silverstein, Paul Neubauer, Kim Kashkashian, David Jolley, and Joseph Robinson. She has toured with jazz musicians David Amram, Chuck Mangione and performed with Emily Sailers of the Indigo Girls.At present, Bossert teaches at Wellesley College, the Longy School of Music, and in the summer months at The Quartet Program and LYRICAFEST. Ms. Bossert’s eclectic career has included serving as guest concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic, being named a Texaco Rising Star by the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and recording for major motion pictures.“Music is Everywhere”, a program she co-authored, was awarded an ACMA/Dodge Partnership Grant in 2002, and in the same year LYRICA BOSTON was awarded the Roxbury Highland Charitable Foundation Grant. By the age of 35, Ms. Bossert has placed students in ensembles and positions as varied as the Boston Symphony, the Handel and Haydn Society, Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, New Haven, Portland Symphonies, Santiago Philharmonic, Mikkkeli Finnish Chamber Orchestra, The Quartet Program and the Longy School of Music. Her international class consists of students from Russia, Bulgaria, South Africa, Poland, Australia, China, Japan, Canada, Finland, and throughout the United States. Last season's highlights included concerto appearances with Elmar Olivera, chamber music collaborations with Nathanial Rosen and Steven Ansell, and master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University and at the Texas Music Educators Association.
ALLYSON DAWKINS (74-7) (12th year) (Dean, Viola, Chamber) -QPE- Principal Violist of the San Antonio Symphony, has won consistent admiration for her playing as both orchestral soloist and recitalist. Critics have praised the "great sensitivity and intelligence" of her playing, as well as her "full-bodied, velvety tone." The San Antonio Express-News described her solo performance of Britten’s Lachrymae as "delicate and compelling...with poise, technical security, and in-the-groove freedom." Of the Ginastera Variaciones concertantes the Express-News said "Top marks go to Allyson Dawkins for a spitfire performance in her demanding solo."Ms. Dawkins is on the faculty of Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and is highly sought after and widely respected as a private teacher. She is co-author, with Charles Castleman, of a technical instruction book for viola titled Fingerboard Memory, and co-editor, with Mr. Castleman, of Emanuel Ondricek's Superior Finger Exercises . She has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, and as Principal Violist of the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin and the Sunriver Music Festival in Oregon. She is currently a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Dawkins received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York at Purchase, and a Master of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Strongly committed to community service, Ms. Dawkins works with cancer patients at Santa Rosa Children's Hospital in San Antonio. She is also director of the San Antonio Symphony Caroling Project, a program that takes musicians to area hospitals, hospices, corrcctional institutions, and shelters during the December holiday season.
ERIKA ECKERT (3rd year) (Viola, Chamber) -QPW-Associate Professor of Viola at University of Colorado, Boulderhas also been on the faculties of The Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin Wallace College, and the Chautauqua Institution in New York where she served as the coordinator of the chamber music program for the Music School Festival Orchestra for three summers.As co-founder and former violist of the Cavani String Quartet, Ms. Eckert performed on major concert series worldwide, garnered an impressive list of awards and prizes, including first prizes at both the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and the Cleveland Quartet Competition, and appeared on NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, and National Public Radio.In recent seasons, Ms. Eckert has performed as guest-violist with the Takacs String Quartet, appearing with them in Canada, Colorado, Tennessee, Oregon, and Vermont. She has also performed on numerous faculty recitals at the University of Colorado as well as soloing with the Music in the Mountains Purgatory Festival Orchestra, Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra, the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and the Boulder Bach Festival. Chamber music engagements have included the El Paso Pro Musica International Chamber Music Festival, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Garth Newell Music Festival, Vail Bravo!, Music in the Mountains Chamber Music Festival, the Sitka Summer Music Festival Autumn Classics, Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, and Fontana Chamber Arts. Ms. Eckert has also performed chamber music recitals at the International French Horn, Flute and Double-Reed Conventions and solo performances at the SEAMUS and ICMC electronic music national and international conferences.
Teaching engagements have included presenting viola and chamber music pedagogy sessions, and coordinating the chamber music program at the American String Teachers Association International Workshops in Brisbane, Australia and Stavanger, Norway; serving on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, The Quartet Program, and the Takacs String Quartet Seminar; and coaching chamber music at the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Inc. Ninth Conference, the International School for Musical Arts, the Chamber Music Connection, the Chamber Music Wyoming Young Artist Program, the Britt Institute Chamber Strings, and the Madeline Island Music Camp Adult Chamber Music Program.
Ms. Eckert is past President of the Rocky Mountain Viola Society Board. She also chaired the viola committee for the most recent review and publication of the ASTA/NSOA String Syllabus.
ANTHONY ELLIOTT (1st year)(Cello)(Chamber)-QPE- is in great demand as a soloist, chamber music performer, and teacher. Following his victory in the Emanuel Feuermann International Cello Competition in 1987, Strad Magazine wrote of his competition appearance "His emotional communication is often profound, and his glittering, silvery tone captivates the ear". Following quickly on the heels of his competition victory was a highly successful New York debut recital, which received a lengthy standing ovation from a capacity crowd.
Anthony Elliott's studies were with two legendary figures of the cello, Janos Starker and Frank Miller. Presently he is a Professor of Music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has given master classes at most of America's leading music programs including Cleveland Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Indiana University, Oberlin Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Chicago's Music Center of the North Shore, and Interlochen Arts Academy.
A frequent guest soloist with major orchestras, Anthony Elliott has performed most of the standard concerto repertory with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, and the CBC Toronto Orchestra. He has also commissioned new works by such composers as Primous Fouuntain III, Augustus Hill, James Lee III, and Chad E. Hughes. As a soloist, his performances have been recorded and broadcast on radio and television across the United States and Canada. His recordings are available online at www.cdbaby.com and at ITunes.
Also in great demand as a chamber musician, he is a regular guest artist at the Sitka (Alaska) Summer Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Texas Music Festival, New York's Bargemusic Chamber Series, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Houston's DaCamera Series, the Victoria International Festival, and the Gateways Festival. He has also appeared as a member of Quartet Canada, with members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and with members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, and Concord string quartets. He has appeared in chamber music with the present and former concertmasters of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. He performs regularly with the Michigan Chamber Players in Ann Arbor.
www.anthonyelliott.net
MICHAEL HABER (1st year)(Cello) was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, The Casals Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brandeis University, studied at Harvard graduate school and has a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. His major teachers were Janos Starker and Gregor Piatigorsky. He has also been on the faculties of Oberlin, Eastman, Indiana and the New England Conservatory of Music. Mr. Haber toured and recorded internationally as the cellist of The Composers Quartet, has spent several summers at the Marlboro Festival and, from 1990-98, was a coach for the cellists in the New World Symphony.
KYOKO HASHIMOTO (6th year) (Collaborative Piano) -QPE- was born in Tokyo and began to study the piano at the age of three. The first piano performance on the radio was at the age of five, and as a soloist with the orchestra for the TV was at the age of seven. After graduating from the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, she studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy, Indiana University and the Juilliard School. She received full scholarships from the Menuhin Academy and the Juilliard School. Among her teachers were Gyorgy Sebok, Menahem Pressler, Gyorgy Janzer, William Masselos, Gyorgy Sandor, Felix Galimir, Gyorgy Kurtag and Ferenc Rados.
She has been regularly performing throughout the world, so far in more than 20 countries, including many major cities and halls. She has been invited to many important festivals including the Prague Spring Festival, the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Pacific Music Festival and the Saito Kinen Festival. Besides performing Solo recitals and Concertos with distinguished orchestras such as the Prague Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, She has performed many duo recitals with Ruggiero Ricci(Vn), Thomas Zehetmair(Vn) and Antonio Meneses(Vc), and duo and chamber music concerts with artists such as Sandor Vegh(Vn), Mischa Maisky(Vc), Jean-Jacque Kantorow(Vn), Aaron Rosand(Vn), Ralph Kirshbaum(Vc), Steven Isserlis(Vc), Andras Adorjan(Fl), Patrick Gallois(Fl), Maurice Bourgue(Ob), Hansjorg Schellenberger(Ob), Barry Tuckwell(Hr), Atar Arad(Va), Anthony Marwood(Vn), Nobuko Imai(Va) Sergio Azzolini(Fg), Isabelle van Keulen(Vn), Chantal Juillet(Vn) and Hermann Baumann(Hr)
Ms. Hashimoto was awarded numerous prizes: the 1st grand prize and the public prize at the Concours International de Musique Francaise, the top prize at the Concours Musical de France, and the special prizes at the Budapest International Music Competition and at the Spohr International Competition. She has recorded many times for TV and radio all over the world including a series of 20 works by Beethoven for Dutch radio. She has also made more than a dozen CD-recordings, including the early piano pieces (all the Preludes+4 pieces) by Messiaen, 34 piano pieces by Schumann, and is planning to record 24 Preludes by Scriabin and 24 Preludes by Shostakovich. She is Associate Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and has been on the piano faculty and the chamber music faculty of the Utrecht Conservatory in Holland. She has been invited many times as a visiting professor at the European Mozart Academy in Poland and in the Czech Republic ,and at the International Chamber Music Academy in the Czech Republic. as well as at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Trinity College in London. She has also given master courses in France, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, the Czech Republic and Japan.
EINAR HOLM (31st year) (Chamber) -QPE- is a founding member of the East-West Chamber Ensemble and the Ithaca Violoncello Quartet, and a former member of the Lenox and Vaghy String Quartets. A graduate of the Juilliard School under Leonard Rose, his other teachers included Colin and Bonnie Hampton, Margaret Rowell, Zara Nelsova, Gabor Rejto, Channing Robbins, and Harvey Shapiro. In his conservatory years he worked extensively with the Juilliard Quartet; an avid and precocious chamber musician, he had been a member of the "Junior Griller Quartet" along with Donald Weilerstein and John Graham, studying with the famed Grillers before reaching his teens. Founder-Director of the International Ithaca Violoncello Institute, Mr. Holm has taught at over thirty institutions, including San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin, Accademia Internacional de Musica da Camera in Argentina and India. He has recorded for RCA, Columbia, CRI and Redwood, was a "musical Ambassador" to Expo'67 in Montreal, and was a participant in four films of the award-winning series "Pablo Casals Master Classes". He performs on a Giovanni Grancino cello made in 1705 in Milan, Italy.
JACQUES ISRAELIEVITCH (2nd year) (Violin Master-class) -QPE- Concertmaster, Toronto Symphony Orchestra; former Concertmaster, St Louis Symphony; former assistant to Josef Gingold; faculty, University of Toronto; member, New Arts Trio; chair, strings, Chautauqua School of Music
TERRY KING (11th year) (Cello, Chamber) -QPW- was a protege of Gregor Piatigorsky, a former assistant in the celebrated master classes at the University of Southern California who was privileged to have joined his teacher in one of his last concerts, a duo recital. Mr. King is not only a unique cellist, but a scholar, chamber musician and conductor. He collaborated with Carole King on her Grammy Award-winning album "Tapestry" and was solo cellist for the movie "The French Lieutenant's Woman." He has been a member of two world-class piano trios, the Mirecourt and the International. His repertoire features both classic works and also previously unknown gems discovered by him. Many prominent American composers have written works for him and entrusted to him their premieres, including Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Halsey Stevens, Paul Reale, Paul Creston, Miklos Rozsa, Lou Harrison, Lukas Foss, and Otto Luening. Mr. King is presently engaged in a recording project of standard and American works for cello on Music and Arts. His recording of the complete Mendelssohn works for cello was praised in Fanfare, "..of all versions this is the most consistently thought out and expressively realized...intensely poetic." and was the preferred recording mentioned on the nationally syndicated radio program, "First Hearing." His ground-breaking series "Cello America" has been met with similar praise worldwide. Terry King records for MCA, ABC Classics, CRI, Innova, Genesis, Orion, A&M, Music and Arts, Bay Cities, Gasparo, and Erasmus Records. He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory, UC Berkeley, California State University at Fullerton, Grinnell College, and University of Iowa, and is currently on the faculties of the Longy and Hartt Schools. A current member of his studio recently won the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Cello Competition in Moscow.
JOHN KOCHANOWSKI (3rd year) (Viola, Chamber) -QPE- studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Julliard School where his principal teachers were Robert Mann and Walter Trampler. He also studied at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, with Bruno Giuranna. From 1971 to 1987, he was the violist and a founding member of the Concord String Quartet, which performed more than 1,000 concerts on major chamber music series in the U.S. and Europe. It presented the complete quartets of Beethoven 32 times and the complete quartets of Bartok 14 times. The ensemble premiered more than 50 works, many on commission from such composers as Bolcom, Diamond, Druckman, Foss, Henze, Johnston, Penderecki, Rochberg, and others. They recorded more than 40 works on RCA-Red Seal, Nonesuch, Vox, Turnabout, and the CRI labels. Kochanowski joined the Blair String Quartet in 1997. In addition to his many appearances with the Quartet, he has been an active performer. As soloist he has performed John Harbison’s Viola Concerto and Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. He recorded the Sonata for Viola and Harp by Michael Kurek on New World Records (80497-2), as well as giving the world premiere of Kurek’s Sonata for Viola and Piano (2002), composed for him. He has also appeared in the Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and has appeared as guest artist with the Brentano and Cassatt String Quartets.
THOMAS LANDSCHOOT (1st year) (Cello, Chamber) -QPW- joined the music faculty of Arizona State University
in 2001 after having taught at the University of Michigan. He performs virtually the entire standard and contemporary repertoires of the cello, and several composers have dedicated new works to him. Mr. Landschoot regularly performs as soloist and in recital in concert halls across Europe, the United States and Japan. Mr. Landschoot holds a Master of Music degree from the Conservatory in Antwerp, Belgium, a Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, an Artist Diploma from Indiana University and an Artist Diploma (cum laude) from the Conservatory of Maastricht, Netherlands. His major teachers include Erling Blondal Bengtsson, Antonio Meneses and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, for whom he served as a teaching assistant. He also enjoys a close relationship with Bernard Greenhouse, the distinguished former cellist of the Beaux Arts Trio. Recipient of the 2005 'Distinguished Teaching Award", he has given master classes at conservatories and universities throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. During the summers he has been on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Texas Music Festival in Houston, the Meadowmount School of Music in New York and many others.
JAMES PEMBER LYON (80-2) (19th year) (Chamber, Violin) -QPE- graduated with Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied violin with Charles Castleman and chamber music with the Cleveland Quartet. As violinist with the Harrington Quartet, he performed with members of the Tokyo Quartet and the Lincoln Center Chamber Players, as well as winning the Grand Prize of the 1987 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Round Top International Music Festival and has served on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival and Sessione Senese per la Musica e L’Arte in Siena, Italy. Mr. Lyon has appeared as soloist with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Dallas Ballet, and the Amarillo, Genesee, Hershey, Nittany Valley, and Altoona symphonies. He has been heard on Italian National Television and CBS television’s "Sunday Morning".A former member of the Santa Fe Opera and Louisville Orchestras, James Pember Lyon currently teaches at Pennsylvania State University and The Quartet Program and performs as violinist with the Carujian Quartet, the Castalia Trio and Duo Concertant. Recent tours have taken him to Jordan, where he performed as soloist with the National Conservatory Orchestra in a concert attended by Queen Noor, and the People’s Republic of China, where he performed with the Castalia Trio in several of the nation’s major cultural centers.
PAULA MAJERFELD (7th year) (Dean, Viola) -QPW- made her professional debut with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of thirteen, and just three years later, won first prize in the Jefferson Symphony International Violin Concours. Subsequently, she was featured in major television, radio, and newspaper media as one of the most promising emerging talents. Majerfeld has built on these early successes to garner a versatile reputation as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She has appeared throughout the United States as guest soloist with the Colorado and Jefferson symphonies, Las Vegas Music Festival and Park City Festival orchestras, and the Killington Music Festival and Lyrica New Jersey chamber orchestras. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Majerfeld is Co-Director of LYRICA BOSTON, a music series dedicated to providing opportunities for up-and-coming young artists to perform alongside seasoned professionals. Her chamber music collaborations include artists such as Joseph Silverstein, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Malcolm Lowe, Elmar Oliveira, Nathaniel Rosen, Steven Ansell, Charles Castleman, and Joseph Robinson. After serving as Assistant Principal of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Majerfeld joined the faculty of the Longy School of Music and Lyricafest as well as coaching at the New England Conservatory and Wellesley College. A recipient of both the Wingler and Starling Foundation Fellowships, Majerfeld was awarded the ACMA/Dodge Partnership and Roxbury Foundation Grants for her work with culturally underserved children. She curently is on the Longy School faculty.
ANNE MARTINDALE WILLIAMS (3rd year) (Cello Master-class) -QPE- has enjoyed a successful career as Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1979. Throughout her tenure with the Orchestra, she has often been featured as soloist both in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. She has also collaborated with guest artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, Lynn Harrell and Pinchas Zukerman in numerous chamber music performances. Her solo in The Swan on the Pittsburgh Symphony’s recording of Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns was described by Grammophon critic Edward Greenfield as “…the most memorable performance of all.”
Mrs. Williams divides her time between the orchestra, teaching at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities, and solo and chamber music performances in America, Europe and the Far East. Mrs. Williams has appeared in several nationally televised productions including “Concertos,” produced by the BBC and “Previn and the Pittsburgh,” produced by WQED. She also is a member of the Carnegie-Mellon Trio, which performs throughout the United States.
Anne Martindale Williams has given master classes at many universities and festivals throughout the country, including SUNY at Stony Brook, Manhattan School of Music, the National Orchestral Institute, Aspen and the Masterworks festivals. She also enjoys performing at many of America’s prestigious summer music festivals including Aspen, Caramoor, Skaneateles, Maui, Rockport, Grand Teton, Strings in the Mountains, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego.
Anne Martindale Williams has performed as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in Schumann’s Concerto in A minor, Tippett’s Triple Concerto, Previn’s Reflections, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 3 and 6, Strauss’s Don Quixote, Bloch’s Schelomo, Dvorák’s Cello Concerto, Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain, Saint-Saëns’ Concerto No. 1 and Brahms’ Double Concerto, as well as Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet. In recent seasons she was featured in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Cello, Oboe, Bassoon and Orchestra, and Walton’s Cello Concerto. Mrs. Williams is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Orlando Cole. Her Tecchler cello was made in Rome in 1701
DIANE MONROE (72-3) (22nd year) (Chamber) -QPE- is a violinist whose versatility and expressive artistry consistently bring both classical and jazz audiences to their feet. Her solo debut recital, enthused Bernhard Holland of the New York Times, “had at its center a heart of gold”. Her jazz work, Jim Ferguson proclaimed in a Jazz Times magazine CD review, displayed “stunning musicianship and bright creative spark.”Ms. Monroe had the honor of appearing at the first Fiddlefest, at Carnegie Hall, sharing the stage with such legendary performers as Arnold Steinhardt, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Ani and Ida Kavafian and Mark O’Connor. Acclaimed for her rich rendering of Stravinsky’s "Fairy’s Kiss" and unaccompanied "Amazing Grace", her Fiddlefest success led to appearances in Alan Miller’s documentary film "Small Wonders" and the Meryl Streep film "Music of the Heart". (She performed for the film previews at the Ziegfeld and Apollo Theatres in NYC.) She was invited back for Fiddlefests at Alice Tully Hall, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Central Park, and Switzerland’s Tonhalle.Before devoting all her time to solo engagements, Diane Monroe was first violinist of the Uptown String Quartet and the Max Roach Double Quartet. She made appearances with these jazz ensembles on "The Cosby Show", "CBS News Sunday Morning" and "Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood", and recorded with them on the Philips, Soul Note, and Mesa/Bluemoon labels. Her four seasons with the String Trio of New York were highlighted by appearances with saxophonist Joe Lovano, Bang On A Can All-Stars, and by a CD release on Black Saint Records
Ms. Monroe has participated in the Marlboro, Caramoor, Sitka, Verbier, North Sea Jazz, and Mellon Jazz festivals. She has appeared in concert with Yo-Yo Ma, performed the string quartets of Henry Cowell at BAM, joined the Ethos Percussion Ensemble in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, and been guest soloist in Wall to Wall presentations of Kurt Weill and Irving Berlin at Symphony Space. She also has been featured in recitals at Town Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City, Schoenberg Hall in Los Angeles, Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C., and Pickman Hall in Boston. She has premiered and repeated solo works of David Baker, Anthony Davis, Julia Wolfe, Steven Dembsky, Joseph Nocella, Leslie Burrs, and Robert Moran, performing these works, in addition to the standard classical and jazz repertoire, with a spectrum of respected orchestras and ensembles. Her appearances this season, many focusing upon her own original music, include a duo concert with Arnold Steinhardt, a residency at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a featured performance in Fiddlefest at the Apollo Theater, and a collaborative jazz concert with Regina Carter, John Blake and Kenny Barron.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Diane Monroe studied under distinguished pedagogues Ivan Galamian, David Cerone, Charles Castleman, and Joyce Robbins. She has worked intimately with great chamber music masters such as Karen Tuttle, Felix Galimir, Mischa Schneider, Julius Levine, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland Quartets.
Ms. Monroe taught at Oberlin Conservatory, and is currently on the faculty of Temple University and Swarthmore College. She is a recipient of the 2002 Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of the Arts, the Pro Musicis Foundation Recitalist Award, The Alan and Wendy Pesky Award, and two grants from Meet-the-Composer.
www.monroesbow.com
RENEE MOORE SKERIK (83-5) (9th year)(Dean)(Viola)(Chamber) -QPE- Assistant Professor of Viola at Texas Tech University and 2004-2005 recipient of the McKnight Foundation Award for Performing Artists, has led an active and varied career. A highly regarded teacher, she has served on the faculty of the MacPhail Center for the Arts in Minneapolis , Carleton College , The Quartet Program , and was an Artist/Teacher for two summers at the Boston UniveTanglewood Institute. Former violist of the award-winning Artaria String Quartet, she has also been violist in the Mendota String Quartet and the Nidon String Quartet, with whom she gave a four-month tour of Japan including nationally televised concerts. Her chamber music collaborations include performances with Janos Starker, Raphael Hillyer, Charles Castleman and Arnold Steinhardt. As a free-lance violist she has performed with renowned artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet. Renee has been Assistant Principal Viola of the Dallas and Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestras and has also performed with the San Antonio , Columbus , Grand Rapids , and New World Symphonies. She is a four-time recipient of the prestigious Orchestral Fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, and has also performed in the Spoleto, New Mexico , and National Repertory Orchestra festivals. Renee holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music. Her major teachers include Heidi Castleman, Jeffery Irvine, Yizhak Schotten, Ellen Rose, and Korey Konkol.
NANCY NEHRING (8th year) (Dean) -QPE- started out as a piano major at the University of Kansas, but ended up with a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance (with Distinction), and a Master of Music in Viola from the University of Michigan. At Michigan, she was principal of the Contemporary Directions Ensemble (under Carl St. Clair) and University Orchestra (under Gustav Meier), as well as a member of the Graduate Quartet (coached by Eugene Bossart) and the Ann Arbor Chamber Orchestra. Her teachers have included Mary Tuven Hoag, Karel Blaas, Michael Kimber, Frank Bundra, Nathan Gordon, and Wayne Crouse. A member of the Oklahoma Symphony for six years and Chamber Orchestra of Oklahoma City for five, she has also been assistant principal and principal of the Modesto Symphony and California Symphony, and a substitute with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. She played with the Sacramento Symphony, the Santa Cruz Symphony, the Women's Philharmonic, and the Saskatoon Symphony. Nancy has also participated in many summer festivals and orchestras, including the Grand Teton Festival, Aspen, the Colorado Philharmonic (now the National Repertory Orchestra), the Peter Britt Festival, and the Orquesta de la Minería (in Mexico City). She was Principal Viola of the Brandon Chamber Players from 1999-2006 and Administrative Officer of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition from 2003-07. Nancy currently teaches viola at Brandon University and the Eckhardt-Gramatté Conservatory, and accompanies many students including those of her husband, cellist Mark Rudoff.
JEFFREY SOLOW (2nd year) (Cello) -QPE- maintains a busy schedule traveling throughout the United States and Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the Far East as recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He was born and raised in Los Angeles where he studied with the distinguished cellist Gabor Rejto. Later, he earned a degree in Philosophy magna cum laude from UCLA while studying with and then assisting the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky at USC.Mr. Solow's concerto appearances include performances of more than twenty different works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (including the Hollywood Bowl), Japan Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the American Symphony (with whom he also recorded). He has been guest artist at many national and international chamber music festivals and he tours regularly as a member of The Amadeus Trio. His has recorded for the Columbia, ABC, Centaur, Delos, Kleos, Everest and Telefunken labels and two of his many recordings were nominated for Grammy Awards.
Mr. Solow is active in other areas of music besides performing. Strad, Strings, and American String Teacher magazines have published his articles, he is editor of the Newsletter of the Violoncello Society, Inc. (NY), and he has twice chaired the American String Teachers Association's prestigious National Solo Competition. Recognized as an authority on healthy and efficient cello playing, Mr. Solow is professor of cello at Temple University in Philadelphia.
TAKACS STRING QUARTET (1st year) (Chamber) -QPW- Recognized as one of the world’s premiere string quartets, it has been in residence at the University of Colorado since 1983. Now entering its thirty-second season the Takács perform eighty concerts a year worldwide, maintaining an active career in Europe as well as Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. The quartet are Associate Artists at the South Bank Centre in London, performing several concerts there each year and participating in outreach projects. The ensemble is known for its award-winning recordings on the Decca label, including its 2-CD set of Beethoven's three “Razumovsky” String Quartets, Op. 59 and Quartet in E –flat Major, Op. 74, “Harp”, which won the Grammy Award and the Gramophone Award for Best Chamber Performance in 2002. The album is the first installment of the Takács Quartet’s recordings of the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle in three sets, the second of which (the Early Quartets, Op. 18) was released in January 2004, and won the 2004 Japan Record Academy Chamber Music Award. The Quartet’s third and final CD of the late quartets plus Op. 95 and the Grosse Fugue, was released to ecstatic praise in January, 2005. Of their performances and recordings of these Quartets, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote “The Takács might play this repertoire better than any quartet of the past or present.”
They collaborate regularly with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas, performing a program that explores the folk sources of Bartok's music. They performed a music and poetry program in a fourteen city US tour with the poet Robert Pinsky. Upcoming commissions include works by James Macmillan, Wolfgang Rihm and Daniel Kellogg.
The Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics’ Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. The Quartet also won the Gold Medal at the 1978 Portsmouth and Bordeaux Competitions and First Prizes at the Budapest International String Quartet Competition in 1978 and the Bratislava Competition in 1981. The Quartet made its North American debut tour in 1982. Violinist Edward Dusinberre joined the Quartet in 1993 and violist Roger Tapping in 1995. Violist Geraldine Walther replaced Mr. Tapping in summer, 2005. Of the original ensemble, violinist Károly Schranz and cellist András Fejér remain. In 2001, The Takács Quartet was awarded the Order of Merit of the Knight’s Cross of the Republic of Hungary.
BASIL VENDRYES (79-81, 83) (11th year) (Viola, Chamber) -QPE- Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 1993. He is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony (1982-95), the New York Philharmonic (1984-85) and the Rochester Philharmonic (1979-82). As violist with the Aurora String Quartet (1986-95) Mr. Vendryes performed in New York, London and Tokyo. He currently is on the faculty of the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver, where he teaches both viola and chamber music. Mr. Vendryes has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Summer Music West, and the Raphael Trio Summer Chamber Music workshop. In Denver, he participates in educational programs that bring music to schools throughout the area. Mr. Vendryes is also the founder/director of the Colorado Young Sinfonia, a chamber orchestra that comprises some of the best young talent in the Denver area.
Basil Vendryes was born in 1961 to West Indian parents, and began his musical training in the public schools at the age of eleven. He received scholarships to the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Sally O'Reilly, Francis Tursi and Heidi Castleman. Mr. Vendryes won prizes in the 1981 American String Teachers Association and 1988 Bruno Giuranna Viola Competitions. He has appeared as soloist with the Colorado, Aurora, Jefferson, Littleton, Lamont Centennial, and Biola Symphonies, Evergreen, Artea and American Chamber Orchestras, Sinfonia San Francisco and the Boulder and Oakland Youth Symphonies. Festival appearances include Spoleto, Heidelberg, Ouray, Lake Winnepesaukee, Las Vegas, Marin, and the Grand Tetons. He has recorded chamber music for the CRI and Naxos labels. He plays on a rare Italian viola made in 1887 by Carlo Cerruti.
ROBERT VERNON , head of C.I.M. Viola Department, serving in his 31st season as principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Vernon graduated with honors from The Juilliard School of Music. He has performed at most of this country's major chamber music festivals, including Aspen, Blossom, La Jolla, Marlboro, Ravinia, Round Top, Sarasota, Tanglewood and Yellow Barn. He has appeared with the orchestras of St. Louis, Denver, Detroit, Berlin Radio Orchestra, New World Symphony, Grant Park and Florida Orchestra (among others), and has appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra in more than 150 concerts, both at home in Cleveland and on tour in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Mr. Vernon is a member of the teaching faculties of Kent/Blossom, the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, and the New World Symphony in Miami. As a soloist, he has recorded Berlioz's Harold in Italy, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, and Richard Strauss' Don Quixote. In November 2000, he recorded the Schoenfield Viola Concerto with the Berlin Radio Orchestra, a work commissioned in 1998 by the Musical Arts Association for Mr. Vernon and The Cleveland Orchestra. Former students hold positions as chamber musicians, teachers and as players in major orchestras, including Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minnesota, St. Louis, Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Montreal and Toronto (to date, more than 50 different orchestras). Mr. Vernon's solo and chamber music recordings appear on Telarc, Innova and Decca/London. He is featured on a CD of orchestral excerpts with spoken commentary, a study tool for young violists on the Orchestra Pro Series for Summit Records. Due to be published soon is a book on orchestral excerpts for viola, "The Essential Orchestral Excerpts for Viola, the Keys to Winning an Audition."
DAVID YING (82) (8th year)(Chamber) -QPE- is well-known to concert audiences as a member of the Ying Quartet. Mr, Ying has appeared with such orchestras as the Oakland East-Bay Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the String Orchestra of the Rockies, and the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. He also performs duo recitals with his wife, pianist Elinor Freer, across the United States. In addition, they are artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival.The numerous awards Mr. Ying has won as a solo cellist include prizes in the Naumburg International Cello Competition and the Washington International Competition. He holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Eastman School of Music where his teachers were Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, Ardyth Alton, Paul Katz, Steven Doane, and Robert Sylvester. A dedicated and active teacher himself, Mr, Ying has taught at Interlochen, the Brevard Music Center, the Bowdoin International Music Festival and Northwestern University. He is currently on the chamber music and cello faculty of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
PHILIP YING (82-3) (9th year)(Chamber)-QPE-as violist of the Ying Quartet, performs regularly across the United States, Europe and Asia Mr. Ying has also been presented numerous times in recital and as a soloist with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony and the Aspen Festival Chamber Orchestra.In addition to enjoying a highly successful performing career, An Assistant Professor of Viola and an Associate Professor of Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music, Mr. Ying has served as President of Chamber Music America, a national service organization for chamber music ensembles, presenters and artist managers, and has been published by Chamber Music magazine. He is a frequent speaker, panelist, and outside evaluator on subjects such as arts-in-education and chamber music residencies, and served on the national jury for the 1999 Coming Up Taller Awards. Mr. Ying has also taught at Northwestern University, Interlochen, and the Brevard Music Center. He received his education at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music, and has studied principally with Martha Katz, Walter Trampler, and Roland Vamos.
YING STRING QUARTET (7th year)(Chamber) Tim (82), Janet (86), Phil (82-3), David (82) -QPE- Now in its second decade, the Ying Quartet continues to develop ways of making artistic and creative expression an essential part of everyday life. Their current projects in this direction include: an innovative visiting residency at Symphony Space linking music with poetry; a project with Da Camera of Houston to bring chamber music into the lives of Houston working people; and an exploration with the Turtle Island String Quartet, on tour, of jazz, improvisation, and the classical string quartet tradition.
Natives of Chicago, the Ying siblings began their career as an ensemble in 1992 in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa (population 2000) as the first recipients of a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support chamber music in rural America. The Ying Quartet participated fully in the community, performing on countless occasions for audiences of six to six hundred people in a residency so successful that it was widely chronicled in both the national and international media, including features in the New York Times and on "CBS Sunday Morning".
While the Ying Quartet was in Jesup, its exceptional musical qualities earned it the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In the years since, the Yings have established an international reputation with appearances in virtually every major American city; at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, and San Miguel; and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan. The Yings have performed in Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals, and juvenile prisons. Frequent musical collaborations have included Menahem Pressler, Paul Katz, Gilbert Kalish, Jon Nakamatsu, and the St. Lawrence Quartet.
In 1999, the Ying Quartet introduced LifeMusic, a multi‑year commissioning project supported by the Institute for American Music, designed to produce a distinctively American string quartet repertory. A pair of works each season by established and emerging composers is featured in the Yings#‘diverse performance activities. Participating composers thus far include Michael Torke, Kevin Puts, Carter Pann, Paquito Rivera, Daniel Kellogg, Augusta Read Thomas, Bernard Rands, and Ned Rorem.
As Quartet in Residence at Eastman, the Ying Quartet plans and directs a rigorous, sequential chamber music curriculum that integrates intensive musical instruction with training in creative presentation and communication skills and includes practical performance opportunities throughout the greater Rochester community. The Ying Quartet has also taught at Northwestern University and at the Interlochen and Brevard Music Festivals, and since 2001, it has been the Blodgett Quartet in Residence at Harvard University.
www.yingquartet.com
\
