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2010
Season
VIOLIN |
VIOLA |
CELLO |
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BASS |
PIANO |
SAXOPHONE |
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BARITONE |
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Efe
Baltacigil, associate principal cellist of The Philadelphia Orchestra
and recent Young Concert Artist winner in New York City, was born
in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1978.
He started studying the violin at the age of 5 and switched to
cello two years later.
Mr. Baltacigil graduated from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory
in Istanbul before being invited by Peter Wiley to study in S.U.N.Y. Purchase
College in the U.S. He then transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music, where
he studied with Mr. Wiley and David Soyer.
Mr. Baltacigil joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2002
upon graduating from Curtis and won the orchestra’s associate principal
position the following year.
Mr . Baltacigil enjoys both chamber music and solo work.
He performed with Yo-Yo Ma in Carnegie Hall in December 2003 and has been a
participant in the Marlboro Music Festival. He is member of the Lincoln Center
Chamber Music Society II and is a founding member of the
Susmann-Baltacigil-Hochman piano trio
In his free time, Mr. Baltacigil enjoys windsurfing,
golf and voleypong.
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Che-Hung Chen, viola |
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Che-Hung Chen joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in spring 2001, the first-ever Taiwanese citizen to become a member of the orchestra and the youngest member of the orchestra at age 23.
Mr. Chen was the first prize winner at the seventh Banff International String Quartet Competition as a member of the Daedalus Quartet. He was also awarded a prize for the best performance of the Pièce de Concert and the Székely Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet.
A three-time top prize-winner at the Taiwan National Instrumental Competition, Mr. Chen entered The Curtis Institute of Music at age 14, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, retired Philadelphia Orchestra principal viola. Mr. Chen began his studies at age of 6 with Ben Lin in Taipei, Taiwan, and made his recital debut at age 9. He has toured as soloist with orchestras throughout Asia.
As a participant in the Marlboro Festival, he toured with Musicians from Marlboro, including their 50th anniversary concerts in Boston and New York's Carnegie Hall. Mr. Chen has also participated in festivals such as Ravinia, Caramoor, Music from Angel Fire, and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music workshop at Carnegie Hall. He also performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, and is on the faculty of the Temple Music Prep School.
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Cheyen
Chen, viola |
Described
by the Strad Magazine as a musician whose “tonal
distinction and essential musicality produced an auspicious
impression,” Taiwanese violist Cheyen Chen (also known
as "Brian" Chen) has established himself as a prominent
recitalist, chamber, and orchestral musician. He is the first-prize
winner of the 2003 William Primrose Viola Competition, the "President
prize" of the 2003 Lionel Tertis Viola Competition, and
he recently distinguished himself by qualifying for the principal
viola positions of both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San
Francisco Symphony. He has performed throughout the U.S. and
abroad in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Weill
Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jordon
Hall, Library of Congress in D.C., Kimmel Center, Taiwan National
Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Snape Malting Concert Hall,
among numerous others.
A
founding member of the Formosa Quartet, which won the first
prize and the Amadeus Prize at the 10th London International
String Quartet Competition, Mr. Chen is an advocate of chamber
music. He has been a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music
Society Two, the Jupiter Chamber Players, and has toured with
Musicians from Marlboro after three consecutive summers at
the Marlboro Music Festival. A participant at the Ravinia Festival,
Mr. Chen was featured in the festival's Rising Star series
and the inaugural Musicians from Ravinia tour. Mr. Chen has
also taught and performed at summer programs such as Hotchkiss
Summer Portal, Blue Mountain Festival, Academy of Taiwan Strings,
Interlochen, Mimir Festival, and has given master-classes at
the Taiwan National Arts University, University of Southern
California, University of California Santa Barbara, and McGill
University.
Mr.
Chen began studying viola at the age of six with Ben Lin. A
four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan,
Mr. Chen came to the U.S. and studied at The Curtis Institute
of Music and The Juilliard School under the guidance of Michael
Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, and Paul Neubauer. Mr. Chen had served
on the faculty at Indiana University-South Bend, where he taught
viola and chamber music. Mr. Chen is currently teaching at
San Diego State University, UC San Diego, McGill University,
and holds the principal viola position of the San Diego Symphony.
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Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano |
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A 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellowship recipient, Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute recently made her Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon and her Brazilian orchestral debut in Rio de Janeiro. Over the last several seasons, Ieva gave recitals at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC, on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, at Caspary Hall in New York City, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. She has recently appeared in chamber music concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as a guest artist on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, in Panama City, Panama, and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. Ieva regularly appears at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Bard Festivals, at Prussia Cove in England, and at La Lointaine in France. Earning degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and from Mannes College of Music, her principal teachers have been Seymour Lipkin and Richard Goode. She is a founding member of Trio Cavatina.
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Juliette Kang, violin |
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A native of Edmonton, Canada, Juliette Kang came to Philadelphia from the Boston Symphony Orchestra where she served as assistant concertmaster from 2003 to 2005. Prior to that, she was a member of the first violin section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 2001 to 2003. During the 1999-2000 season, she was principal second violin with the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra.
Ms. Kang was the gold medalist in the 1994 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. In 1989, at age 13, she was a Young Concert Artists Audition winner, leading to recitals at New York City’s 92nd Street Y and at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C. She won the Grand Prize at the Menuhin Violin Competition in Paris in 1992. Ms. Kang has been awarded numerous Canadian prizes and grants, including the Sylva Gelber Award of the Canada Council for the Arts, given annually to the most talented Canadian artist under age 30. In 1994 she was profiled in the New York Times Sunday Magazine as one of 30 people under 30 “most likely to change the culture over the next 30 years.”
Ms. Kang holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann. She began violin studies at the age of four, and six years later she entered the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Jascha Brodsky.
Ms. Kang has performed chamber music at summer festivals including Marlboro, SpoletoUSA, Skaneateles, Great Lakes Chamber Music, and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, where she performed the Ravel duo with her husband, cellist Thomas Kraines. She is a frequent visitor with Mr. Kraines to the Moab Music Festival, the Next Generation Festival with Awadagin Pratt, and the Portland Chamber Music Festival.
Her solo engagements have included appearances with the orchestras of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, and Indianapolis, as well as with the Boston Pops, Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Singapore Symphony, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de France. In her native Canada, she has soloed with the orchestras of Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, Quebec City, Calgary, Edmonton, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa.
An accomplished recitalist, Ms. Kang has performed in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Tokyo at Suntory Hall, in Boston at the Gardner Museum, and in New York at the Frick Museum. In 1996 her recital at Carnegie Hall was recorded and released on the Samsung/Nices label. She has also recorded on the CBC label.
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Thomas Kraines, cello |
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Thomas
Kraines, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and
the Juilliard School, is gaining recognition worldwide as
a cellist, composer, and teacher. He frequently performs
as a duo with his wife, violinist Juliette Kang, as well
as with the Philadelphia-based Network for New Music, the
children's musical troupe Auricolae, and the free improvisation
duo Dithyramb (with percussionist Cameron Britt).
Kraines’ solo cello and chamber compositions
have been heard around the country. He has performed his own works in collaboration
with artists such as Awadagin Pratt, Wayman Chin, and Corey Cerovsek. Recent
premieres include "Songs and Games," for violin and piano, performed
in New York at the Mani Chamber Music Series in April 2008; "Songs of
Spring and Summer" for cello and voice, at the Andover Chamber Music Series,
with soprano Maria Jette; and "Hansel and Gretel," for violin, cello,
and narrator, in March 2009 at Maple Glen (PA) Elementary School.
He currently teaches at Princeton University and Temple
University Preparatory. He has also served on the faculty of the Longy School
of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, Phillips Academy Andover, and the Yellow
Barn Festival, and has performed chamber music at the Moab Music Festival,
Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi (Italy), the Bravo! Vail Valley Music
Festival, the Sebago/Long Lakes Music Festival, the Next Generation Festival,
the Portland Chamber Festival, and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, as
well as at the Mostly Mozart Festival and Bard Music Festival. He also frequently
performs as a guest member of Concertante and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra
(ECCO).
Mr. Kraines studied cello with Frederic Raimi, Orlando Cole,
and Joel Krosnick, and composition with Tom Benjamin. He and Ms. Kang live
in Philadelphia with their two terriers and their daughter Rosalie.
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Priscilla Lee, cello |
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Cellist Priscilla Lee, a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, began music studies at the age of five and made her solo debut in 1988 at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival. Ten years later she made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto. She has also appeared as soloist with the American Youth Symphony, the Crossroads Chamber Orchestra, the Palisades Symphony and the Saddleback Chamber Orchestra. She is a recipient of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Scholarship and the John Williams Scholarship from the Young Musicians Foundation and also received the Los Angeles Philharmonic's prestigious Bronislaw-Kaper Award. She has participated in master classes for Bernhard Greenhouse, Lynn Harrell and Gary Hoffmann.
Ms. Lee made her New York chamber music debut in 2003 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a member of the Grancino String Quartet. She collaborated with Arnold Steinhardt in Philadelphia and Boston to celebrate Human Rights Day, performing Messian's "Quartet for the End of Time." She participated in the opening concert at Zankel Hall in New York City with John Adams and premiered Osvaldo Golijov's "Ayre" with Dawn Upshaw in Zankel Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston and most recently at the Barbican Center in London. This past year, Ms. Lee has been on two “Musicians from Marlboro” tours.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Lee has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Bargemusic, the Caramoor "Rising Stars" series, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, Moritzburg Festival concerts in New York, the Dawn Upshaw/John Harbison and Emerson String Quartet workshops at Carnegie Hall, and Music from Angelfire, N.M.
A native of California, Ms. Lee studied with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and in 1998 went on to the Curtis Institute of Music to study with former Guarneri String Quartet cellist David Soyer. She recently received a master’s degree in music from the Mannes College of Music where she studied with Timothy Eddy. She has been chosen to be a member of Chamber Music Society Two for the 2006-2008 seasons. Priscilla is a founding member of Trio Cavatina, with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute and violinist Harumi Rhodes.
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Jasmine
Lin, violin |
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Jasmine
Lin began violin studies at age four. Since then
she has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra,
Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay, Evergreen
Symphony of Taiwan, and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan,
and in recital in such cities as Chicago, New York, Nova Scotia,
Rio de Janeiro, and Montevideo. She was a prizewinner in
the International Paganini Competition and took second prize in
the International Naumburg Competition. The New York Times
describes her as an "unusually individualistic player" with "electrifying
assertiveness" and "virtuosic abandon".
As a chamber
musician, Ms. Lin has been a participant of the Marlboro Music
Festival and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia,
and has toured extensively in the United States as part of the
Chicago String Quartet, in China as part of the Overseas Musicians,
and in Taiwan as a member of Taiwan Connection Music Festival. She
has been an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University and
DePaul University and was a faculty member of the Taos School of
Music in New Mexico.
Ms. Lin is a founding and current
member of the Formosa Quartet, which won first prize in the 2006 London International
String Quartet Competition. The
Formosa's critically-acclaimed recording of works by Mozart, Debussy, Wolf
and Schubert on the EMI Debut Series was released in January 2006. The
quartet performs in major venues around the world including the Chicago Cultural
Center, the Library of Congress, Caramoor Festival, Cornell University, Maui
Classical Music Festival, Taipei's Novel Hall, BBC In Tune, and Wigmore Hall.
Ms.
Lin is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She
gave her New York debut in Merkin Hall, where the program included her poetry
set to music. Her poem "The night of h's" received Editor's
Choice Award from the International Poetry Foundation, and her poetry/music presentations
have been featured in Chicago, at Cornell University in Ithaca, and on radio
in Taipei, and have resulted in collaborations with composers Dana Wilson,
David Loeb, and Thomas Oboe Lee.
In the 1999-2000 season, Ms. Lin was
Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In
addition to her activities with the Formosa Quartet, she is a member of Trio
Voce with cellist Marina Hoover and pianist Patricia Tao, as well as a member
of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, whose Composer Perspectives series won the
ASCAP award for adventuresome programming. She
received a Grammy nomination in 2007 as part of CCM's Grammy-nominated CD of
works for winds and strings by Mozart. She is on the faculty at Roosevelt
University and a proud native of Chicago.
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Christina & Michelle Naughton, pianists |
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Christina and Michelle Naughton have been hailed by the San Francisco Examiner for
their “stellar musicianship, technical mastery, and awe-inspiring artistry.” They began their piano studies at the age of four. In the fall of 2007, they began their studies as merit-based full-tuition scholarship students of Robert McDonald at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where Christina holds the Hirsig Fellowship and Michelle holds the Bernard M. Guth Fellowship. They also study with Gary Graffman, and study chamber music with Claude Frank and Seymour Lipkin.
In 2008–09 they made debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington,
D.C., with the New Jersey Symphony, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts where the Philadelphia Inquirer praised them as “paired to perfection.” In 2010, the Naughtons will be making their debut at Herkulessaal in Munich, and with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Other upcoming engagements include performances at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and the Kingston Chamber Music Festival; as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Verizon Hall, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Milwaukee Symphony.
The Naughtons have performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Cleveland’s Red, Chicago’s Park Ridge Orchestra, the Erie Philharmonic, and the Gulf Coast and Sheboygan symphonies. They have also performed on the Steinway Society-The Bay Area, Artist Series of Sarasota, UAB Piano Series, Chamber Music San Francisco Series and on Chicago’s Music in the Loft and Pianoforte classical piano series. Their performances have been broadcast by Chicago’s WFMT and Philadelphia’s WHYY.
Christina Naughton made her orchestra debut at the age of nine performing Haydn’s
Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major. She was the bronze medalist at the quadrennial Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and her ensemble, the Vesta Trio, received the gold medal in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has performed as a soloist with Chicago’s Ars Viva and Park Ridge orchestras; the Madison, Fort Collins, and Utah symphonies; the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; and at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre.
Michelle Naughton made her orchestra debut at age ten performing Mozart’s Piano
Concerto in A major, K. 488. She won first prize at the PianoArts National Biennial Piano Competition and was the gold medal winner in the quadrennial Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the Madison, Milwaukee, and Gulf Coast symphonies and with Chicago’s Ars Viva and Park Ridge orchestras. She has also performed on Denver’s Saint John’s Cathedral concert series and at Green Lake Festival of Music.
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Ayano
Ninomiya, violin |
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Ayano
Ninomiya’s second New York recital took place at Merkin
Concert Hall in October 2008 and garnered this praise: “Her
technique is equal to all challenges, secure, effortless and unobtrusive;
her tone is lovely, pure, and variable in color and intensity” (New
York Concert Review). Also chosen for the 2009 Young Performers
Career Advancement program by the Association of Performing Arts
Presenters, she performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
in January 2009.
Second-prize winner of the most recent Walter W. Naumburg International
Violin Competition, in 2003, Ms. Ninomiya’s 2004 debut recital
at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as “deeply
communicative and engrossing” (The New York Times). The
winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions in 2003, she
is also a prizewinner of the 2006 Tibor Varga International Violin
Competition, and the winner of the S&R Washington Award and
the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award. As the recipient of the
2005 Beebe Fellowship, Ms.Ninomiya lived in Budapest, Hungary until
2007, where she studied at the Liszt Academy of Music and researched
scores at the Bartok Archives.
An enthusiastic chamber musician,
Ms. Ninomiya gave a piano trio recital with pianist Claude Frank
and cellist Clancy Newman in 2007. Ms. Ninomiya joined Musicians from Marlboro for their
2005 tour of France and 2004 U.S. tour, and has performed with
the Young Artists from the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival,
for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, on New York City’s
WQXR, Metropolitan Art Museum, and Bargemusic. A regular
artist at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Caramoor, Moab and Bridgehampton
festivals, Ms. Ninomiya was a founding member of the Amaryllis
String Quartet, which won the Fischoff Competition (Junior Division),
performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Pamela Frank. As first violinist
of the TinAlley String Quartet, she will perform at festivals throughout
Australia and Europe in 2009-2010. She is also an active
member of the conductorless string ensemble, ECCO.
Ms. Ninomiya
graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint degree
in Music and French in 2001, where she was also awarded the David
McCord Prize and won the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. She holds a master’s degree from
The Juilliard School. Her teachers and coaches include Robert
Mann, Miriam Fried, Michele Auclair, Hyo Kang, Robert Levin, and
Eszter Perenyi. Currently residing in New York City, she
has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at
the East Harlem Justice Center and a volunteer teacher assistant
at the Lighthouse Music School.
Ms. Ninomiya is the grateful recipient
of a generous loan of a Stradivarius violin from a private donor.
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Gail Niwa, piano |
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Gail Niwa's "brilliant insights" and "power, eloquence and striking sound color" have made her an audience favorite throughout the world. Ms. Niwa won high praise for her New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, and her recitals at Orchestra Hall in Chicago on the Allied Arts Piano Series and at the Ambassador Auditorium's Gold Medal Series in Pasadena. She also received outstanding reviews for her solo appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 1995, performing the Schumann Piano Concerto with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Among her recent solo engagements are performances of the Brahms Concerto #2 with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with the California Philharmonic. She has been soloist with the Utah, Memphis, Fort Wayne, Augusta, Columbus, Reno, Evanston and Grant Park Symphonies and has given recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Washington's Kennedy Center, and in Athens, Montreal, Seoul, and St. Louis.
In 1991 Ms. Niwa created a sensation by becoming the first woman ever to win the Gold Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. She was also awarded the Audience Prize and the Chamber Music Prize. Ms. Niwa has also won major prizes in the International Chopin Competition, the Mae Whitaker Competition and the Washington International Competition.
Ms. Niwa can be heard in Fantasia 2000 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Saens "Carnival of the Animals". She has also collaborated with violinist David Kim on recordings for the Musical Heritage Society and Teldec labels and with the late bassoonist Bruce Grainger on the Centaur label.
The daughter of professional musicians, Ms. Niwa was born in Chicago. She began piano studies with her mother and made her orchestral debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age eight. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees on scholarship at the Juilliard School as a student of Adele Marcus. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at Great Gorge, a concert series in northwest New Jersey, and continues to delight audiences with both her solo and chamber playing.
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Doug O'Connor, saxophone |
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Winner of Astral Artists' 2003 National Auditions, 25-year-old American Doug O'Connor was also recently named 2nd Prize winner of the 2nd International Jean-Marie Londeix Saxophone Competition in Bangkok, 2nd Prize winner in the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance Classical Solo Competition, the 1st Prize National Winner of the MTNA Young Artist Woodwind Competition in Toronto, and he has appeared in American Symphony Orchestra League magazine as a 2007 Emerging Artist. In addition, he was named the winner of the 2004 National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Competition, the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra's Mary Graham Lasley competition.
Mr. O'Connor has performed in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., including appearances at the Kimmel Center, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. His teachers include Ramon Ricker, Chien-Kwan Lin, Dale Underwood and Timothy Roberts. In 2005 he received his Bachelor of Music Performance degree in saxophone from the University of Maryland, where he was also music director and conductor of its Philharmonia Ensemble chamber orchestra, and in 2008 he has recently received his Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music.
Committed to performing a wide variety of music, including transcriptions, traditional repertoire, chamber works, contemporary music, and world-premieres, O'Connor's passion lies in making classical music come alive for all kinds of people. Astral Artists, a Philadelphia non-profit classical artist development agency, has presented O'Connor in over 70 recitals for community centers, schools, and senior homes, and also in ticketed events in many major USA concert venues: a world-premiere program featuring other Astral artists at Philadelphia's new National Constitution Center, a Rising Stars concert (as soloist with The Haddonfield Symphony Chamber Orchestra in Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto), as well as in recital at the Trinity Center, the Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall in New York City, and more events this upcoming season.
Mr. O'Connor is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music, where he has performed and recorded with the prestigious Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Canadian Brass, the Red Line Saxophone Quartet, and where he coaches the undergraduate saxophone quartet program. In the upcoming season, O'Connor's busy performance schedule will feature him with Branford Marsalis and the Alexandria Symphony, and also as a soloist with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Kenneth Olsen, cello |
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Kenneth Olsen was appointed assistant principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 2005.
He began his musical studies at the age of eight with Martha Vivona in Albany, New York, and later studied with Luis Garcia Renart of Bard College. Mr. Olsen received his bachelors degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Richard Aaron, and went on to study with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School.
Mr. Olsen has performed as soloist, chamber musician and in orchestras at numerous festivals around the country, including Tanglewood, Saratoga, the Aspen Music Festival, Encore School for Strings, Wintergreen Music Festival, the New York String Seminar, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. He has also been a top prize winner at many competitions, including the Holland America Music Society Competition, the Nakamichi Cello Competition, the Heida Herman Young Artisits Competition, the Ithaca College Young Artists Competition, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition. He was the only American invited to play a recital at the Philharmonie in Berlin as a finalist at the 2002 Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann.
In addition to his work with the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Olsen is on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a founding member of the group ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is a conductor-less string orchestra made up of soloists, and chamber and orchestral musicians from around the country.
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Harumi Rhodes, violin |
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A leading young artist of today, violinist Harumi Rhodes has been performing extensively with some of the most prestigious musicians worldwide. Having just completed her residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she has also joined the Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Seattle Chamber Music Societies. Some of her recent solo engagements include performances in the 2007 Vermont Mozart Festival featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Harumi has also participated in several Musicians from Marlboro tours. As an avid supporter of contemporary music, Harumi had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees. She has also recorded Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet and most recently performed at Zankel Hall in a tribute to George Perle. Harumi received degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Ronald Copes and Earl Carylss, and the New England Conservatory studying with Donald Weilerstein where she received the Gunther Schuller Award.
Harumi is a founding member of Trio Cavatina.
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Randall
Scarlata, baritone |
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Baritone
Randall Scarlata enjoys
a lively career encompassing opera, recital, chamber music and
works for voice and orchestra. Career highlights include the world premiere
of Thea Musgrave’s one man opera, The Mocking-Bird in
Boston, recitals in the US and Europe with pianist Richard Goode,
soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, and with
the Pittsburgh, San Francisco, American, Ulster, Tonkünstler,
National and BBC Symphonies, and the early music groups Wiener
Akademie Orchester, Musica Angelica among others. With Great
Performers at Lincoln Center, he portrayed Siskov in Janacek’s From
the House of the Dead. He has appeared in many of the world’s
great music festivals, including the Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh,
Vienna, Salzburg, Aspen and Spoleto (Italy) festivals.
Known for his versatility and consummate musicianship, Mr. Scarlata’s
repertoire spans four centuries and fifteen languages. A
sought-after interpreter of new music, he has given world premieres
of works by George Crumb, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman,
Thea Musgrave, Samuel Adler, Daron Hagen, Wolfram Wagner and Christopher
Theofanidis. His performances of Songs of Tin Pan
Alley with soprano Jennifer Aylmer and pianist Laura Ward
are favorites of both Art Song aficionados and lovers of popular
music. He regularly performs the Schubert song cycles with
pianist Jeremy Denk throughout the United States. In addition,
Mr. Scarlata has recorded for the Chandos, Naxos, CRI, Gasparo,
Arabesque and Albany labels.
Randall Scarlata’s awards
include First Prize at the 1999 Young Concert Artists International
Auditions, First Prize at the 1997 Das Schubert Lied International
Competition in Vienna, First Prize at the 1997 Joy in Singing Competition
in New York, and the 1998 Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital
Award. Mr.
Scarlata received a Fulbright Grant to study at the Hochschule
für Musik in Vienna and holds a masters degree from the Juilliard
School. In addition, Mr. Scarlata spent several summers studying
with the great French baritone, Gérard Souzay in Nice and
in Salzburg. He is a Sing for Hope artist, having been involved
with the foundation for over 10 years. Mr. Scarlata serves
on the faculty of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at
West Chester University.
“It is impossible to imagine Randall Scarlata singing
a mechanical or thoughtless phrase. One has the wonderful
sense that Scarlata searches out the Platonic essence of what
he plans to sing and then uses every attribute at his disposal
to create the most appropriate and fully dimensional realization
possible.”
The Washington Post
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Burchard Tang, viola |
Burchard Tang began his musical studies on the violin at
the age of 3 and, at 16, switched to viola , studying with Choong-Jin Chang, principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He continued his musical education at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Upon graduation, he was appointed to the viola section of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Tang has appeared at many of the country’s top festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Music from Angel Fire, Seattle and Caramoor. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. As the winner of the 1992 Albert M. Greenfield student competition, Mr. Tang appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Temple University, and Temple University Music Prep Orchestra, where he presently is on faculty, teaching viola and chamber music.
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Trio Cavatina |
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Priscilla Lee, cello
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Trio Cavatina — winner of the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music competition — is rapidly emerging as one of today’s outstanding chamber ensembles. Deeply rooted in a strong sense of shared musical values, they met and formed in 2005 during the renowned Marlboro Music Festival. Harris Goldsmith described the trio, in his 2008 article for Chamber Music America, as offering “potent, intense interpretations.”
As winners of the 2009 Naumburg competition, Trio Cavatina will make its Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Hall in May 2010 and will give the world premiere of a composition to be written for them by Richard Danielpour. They will also make their San Francisco debut next season as well as their Philadelphia debut as one of the youngest ensembles to perform on the prestigious Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert series.
Within two years of their formation, Trio Cavatina gave notable debut appearances on Kneisel Hall’s “Emerging Artists” Series in Maine, at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival in Maryland. They were selected to perform at the closing concert of the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City.
Season highlights in 2006-2007 included their New York City and Boston debut concerts at the New School’s Schneider Concert Series and at Jordan Hall. Trio Cavatina also appeared at Merkin Hall in New York City, at the Brattleboro Music Center, and on the concert series of Performers of Westchester.
Garnering critical acclaim and enthusiastic responses from audiences and presenters wherever they perform, the trio has also received immediate engagements, most notably at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., where they returned last fall in a mesmerizing performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with clarinetist Alex Fiterstein. The 2007-2008 season also brought the trio on their first international tour that included performances in Lithuania on stages in Vilnius and Kaunas.
Trio Cavatina has recently completed the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program. For more information, please visit www.triocavatina.com.
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Thomas Van Dyck
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Thomas Van Dyck is an active chamber and orchestral musician in the U.S. as well as abroad. He is a member of the conductor-less chamber orchestra ECCO (East Coast
Chamber Orchestra) that tours internationally under Frank Solomon Management. A
recipient of the Maurice Schwarz Prize at Tanglewood, Thomas has played chamber
music at The Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, People’s Symphony Concerts
at New York City’s Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Boston Chamber Music society,
Harvard University’s Houghton Library Chamber music series, The Union College
Chamber Music Series, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport Maine, and The Morrison
Chamber Music Series in San Francisco among others. He has collaborated with the Ying
Quartet and the Lydian Quartets. A former member of the New World Symphony, he
is currently a substitute with The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. In addition to enjoying a diverse performing
career, Thomas is Artist Professor of Double Bass at the Longy Conservatory of Music in
Cambridge Massachusetts and also enjoys doing outreach through Monadnock music in
New Hampshire. Thomas lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
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Natalie Zhu, piano |
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The recipient of both 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, pianist Natalie Zhu is a winner of Astral Artistic Services' 1998 National Auditions. The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Astral's recent presentation of Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of "emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics." The recital was later broadcast on National Public Radio's "Performance Today."
Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and China as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed in the United States with the Pacific Symphony, the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Astral Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, and with the Colorado Philharmonic National Repertory Orchestra. Ms. Zhu made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d'Orleans in France, and has toured in Austria, Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France and Turkey.
She collaborated with renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, stepping in for pianist Garrick Ohlsson in several performances of Ms. Hahn's October 2000 U.S. tour. Subsequently, Ms. Zhu and Ms. Hahn have maintained a partnership to this day with tours of the U.S., Europe, and Japan, including a hugely successful Carnegie Hall recital debut. The duo recorded the Mozart Sonatas for the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Natalie Zhu has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the grand prize in the both the 1988 and 1989 Young Keyboard Artists Association Competition. She was the first prize winner in the Johanna Hodges Piano Concerto Competition in 1988 and 1991, having also received its 1991 Concert Series Award. In 1994, she was the top prize winner in the first China International Piano Competition. An active chamber musician, she is a frequent soloist at the Amelia Island Festival and has appeared at both the Great Lake Music and Marlboro Music festivals. In the year 2000 she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Ms. Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of 6 in her native China and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At age 11 she immigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and by 15 was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received the prestigious Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman. In 2001 she joined the Curtis faculty as staff pianist. She received a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Claude Frank.
For further information, go to www.nataliezhu.com.
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