Faculty Biographies
Click any of the links below to access faculty biographies.
Senior Composer-in-Residence— Donald Crockett, Sean Friar
Violin— Jean Huang Baverstam, Laura Colgate, Miranda Cuckson, Maiani da Silva, Judith Eissenberg, Mayuki Fukuhara, Amy Galluzzo, Shem Guibbory, Grant Houston, Mari Lee, Sheila Reinhold, Andrea Schultz, Sam Weiser, Yezu Woo
Viola— Amadi Azikiwe, Mark Berger, En-Chi Cheng, Korine Fujiwara, Celia Hatton, Beth Meyers, Angela Pickett, Kate Vincent
Cello— Claire Bryant, Danielle Cho, Michael Finckel, Andrea Lee, Laura Metcalf, Carol Ou, Tobias Werner
Flute— Giorgio Consolati, Catherine Gregory
Oboe— Hassan Anderson, Jacqueline Leclair, Keve Wilson
Clarinet— Michael Dumouchel, Jo-Ann Sternberg, Garrick Zoeter
Bassoon— Brad Balliett, Nanci Belmont, Laura Koepke
Horn— Daniel Grabois, Nicolee Kuester
Piano— Timo Andres, Phillip Bush, Catalin Dima, James Goldsworthy, Genevieve Feiwen Lee, Ardita Statovci, Sayaka Tanikawa, Anna Vinnitsky
Music Director
LAURA METCALF
Cellist Laura Metcalf, renowned worldwide as a passionate solo and chamber musician and acclaimed for her “brilliant” playing (Gramophone Magazine) has performed throughout the US and on six continents, and recorded extensively for the Grammy-winning label Sono Luminus, reaching #3 on the Billboard Classical Charts and surpassing 6 million streams on Spotify. A “cellist whose passion for music is as evident as her artistry and talent” (I care if you listen), she tours with her duo Boyd Meets Girl (with whom she recently gave the world premiere of a cello-guitar double concerto by Clarice Assad) and string quartet The Overlook, as well as collaborates regularly with four-time Grammy winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird (with whom she has appeared as chamber soloist in contemporary concerti with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Symphony and others). She has toured worldwide with the popular ensembles Break of Reality and Sybarite5, and has worked with The Knights, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and ETHEL. She has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Madison Square Garden and the Caramoor, Ravinia, Moab, Festival Napa Valley, Aspen and Newport Classical festivals, among countless others.
Laura is also a curator and artistic director, having co-founded the groundbreaking Sunday morning concert series GatherNYC, as well as guest curating for the Museum of Arts and Design, Fotografiska, The Frick Collection, and Wave Hill. As a dedicated educator, she has given workshops, masterclasses and lectures at Juilliard, Curtis, New England Conservatory and many other conservatories, as well as played for tens of thousands of school-aged children across the globe from Dehra Dun, India to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and is on the prestigious teaching artist roster for the online platform ToneBase Cello.
In 2025, Laura was appointed to the position of Music Director of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East.
Website: www.laurametcalf.com
Senior Composer-in-Residence
DONALD CROCKETT
Born in Pasadena, California, Donald Crockett is dedicated to composing music inspired by the musicians who perform it. He has received commissions from a great variety of artists and ensembles including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (Composer-in-Residence 1991–97), Kronos Quartet, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Aspen Music Festival, Hilliard Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Caramoor Festival, the San Francisco-based chamber choir, Volti, Charlotte Symphony, Music from Angel Fire, the Chamber Music Conference (Senior Composer-in-Residence 2002–present), and the Guitar Foundation of America, among many others.
Featured projects include commissions from the Dilijan Chamber Music Series and the Caramoor Festival for new string quartets, New Music USA for SAKURA cello quintet, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and Oberlin Conservatory for And the River, a concerto for duo pianists and chamber orchestra, Aspen and Oberlin for his Violin Concerto, the Harvard Musical Association for violist Kate Vincent and Firebird Ensemble, the Claremont Trio, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and JFNMC for his Viola Concerto, a chamber opera, The Face, based on a novella in verse by poet David St. John, and a consortium commission from twenty-two college and university wind ensembles for his Dance Concerto for Clarinet/Bass Clarinet and Wind Ensemble. His music has also been widely performed by ensembles including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Collage, Xtet and the Arditti Quartet, at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Bennington and Piccolo Spoleto festivals, and by artists including violinists Ida Kavafian and Michelle Makarski, violist Kate Vincent, soprano Jane Sheldon, mezzo sopranos Janna Baty and Janice Felty, tenor Daniel Norman, baritone Thomas Meglioranza, oboist Allan Vogel, pianist Vicki Ray, and conductors Gil Rose, Jorge Mester, JoAnn Falletta, Hugh Wolff, Sergiu Comissiona, Jeffrey Kahane, H. Robert Reynolds and Christof Perick.
The recipient in 2013 of an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for outstanding artistic achievement, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, Donald Crockett has also received the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a commission from the Barlow Endowment, an Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council, an Aaron Copland Award and the first Sylvia Goldstein Award from Copland House, a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, as well as grants and awards from BMI, the Bogliasco Foundation (Aaron Copland Fellowship, 2007), Composers Inc., Copland Fund, National Endowment for the Arts and New Music USA (Commissioning Music/USA, 1997). His music is published by Keiser Classical and Doberman/Yppan, and recorded on the Albany, BMOP/Sound, CRI, Doberman/Yppan, ECM, Innova, Laurel, New World, Orion and Pro Arte/Fanfare labels.
Also active as a conductor of new music, Donald Crockett has presented many world, national and regional premieres with the Los Angeles-based new music ensemble Xtet, Thornton Edge new music ensemble, and as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Hilliard Ensemble, California EAR Unit, Firebird Ensemble, Ensemble X, Jacaranda and the USC Thornton Symphony, with whom he has premiered over 150 new orchestral works by USC Thornton student composers. He has also been very active over the years as a composer and conductor with the venerable and famed Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, and most recently the Jacaranda concert series in Santa Monica. His recordings as a conductor can be found on the Albany, CRI, Doberman/Yppan, ECM and New World labels.
After composition studies with American composers Robert Linn, Halsey Stevens and Edward Applebaum, and British composers Peter Racine Fricker and Humphrey Searle at the University of Southern California (B.M. Magna cum Laude 1974, M.M. 1976) and UC Santa Barbara (Ph.D. 1981), he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in 1981. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Composition Program and Director of Thornton Edge new music ensemble at Thornton, and Senior Composer-in-Residence with the Chamber Music Conference (at Colgate University, formerly at Bennington College).
Website: www.donaldcrockett.com
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SEAN FRIAR
Composer and pianist Sean Friar grew up in Los Angeles, where his first musical experiences were in rock and blues piano improvisation. His music keeps in touch with the energy and communicative directness of those musical roots, now along with an expansive classical sensibility that is “refreshingly new and solidly mature… and doesn’t take on airs, but instead takes joy in the process of discovery [and] in the continual experience of suspense and surprise that good classical music has always championed.” (Slate ).
A winner of the Rome Prize, Friar composes for ensembles within and outside traditional concert music; including orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, laptop orchestra, and a junk car percussion concerto. He has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Piano Spheres, Chamber Music America, and the Fromm Foundation, among many others. His music has been featured at festivals including Aspen, Bang on a Can, Bowdoin, Cabrillo, Carlsbad, Gaudeamus, Music Academy of the West, Norfolk, and the Venice Biennale. His album Before and After was released in late 2021 on New Amsterdam Records to international critical acclaim. Also active as a pianist, Friar frequently performs with saxophonist Jeff Siegfried and recently debuted a new duo for amplified bassoon and piano with effects pedals with world-renowned Estonian bassoonist Martin Kuuskmann.
Friar is Chair of Composition at the University of Denver and previously taught at the University of Southern California and UCLA. He also directs composition programs at the Sunset ChamberFest (Los Angeles, CA) and Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program (Sarasota, FL). He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton and undergraduate degrees in Music and Psychology from UCLA. His principal teachers were Paul Chihara, Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, and Dmitri Tymoczko.
Website: www.seanfriar.com/
Violin Faculty
JEAN HUANG BAVERSTAM
Taiwanese violinist Jean Huang Baverstam is a consummate artist whose career is equally devoted to three interwoven roles: performer, music scholar, and educator. WBUR-FM noted that they were left speechless after having the chance to watch and listen to Jean Huang close up.
The Boston Musical Intelligencer said of her Mozart concerto: Our eyes and ears concentrated on the elegant and outgoing Huang. With both serious attitude and a million-dollar smile, she gave a riveting account of the 28-minute
Turkish
concerto.
Jean is a founding member of Trio Flamecrest, a new string trio formed by Carol Ou (cello) and Amy Galluzzo (violin and viola). The ensemble tours regularly across the United States and recently presented sold-out performances at Chamber Music Raleigh and in Woodstock, Vermont.
Equally comfortable in both chamber music and orchestral settings, Ms. Baverstam serves as Concertmaster of the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and the Brookline Symphony. Her leadership and artistry have been recognized by prominent music critics such as the Cape Cod Times and the Boston Musical Intelligencer.
Deeply committed to cultivating a shared musical language that connects professional musicians and highly accomplished non-professional performers, Jean’s artistic journey has led to enriching experiences such as residencies at the Chamber Music Conference at Colgate University.
Baverstam is an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University and serves on the faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and School of Expanded Education. Jean holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory. Her dissertation produced a critical edition of the Poulenc Violin Sonata, which has been widely referenced by prominent performers.
Website: www.violinjeanius.com
LAURA COLGATE
Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “remarkably poised...sensitive and majestic,” violinist Laura Colgate enjoys a versatile career as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist, educator, curator, activist, and innovator. Having performed worldwide across Europe, Asia, and North America, she has performed on stages including the Barbican Centre, Kennedy Center, and multiple appearances at Carnegie Hall.
Laura currently lives in Takoma Park, MD and is concertmaster of the National Philharmonic in Bethesda, MD. She was formerly the concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina and the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. She frequently performs as a substitute with several major orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the IRIS Collective in her hometown, Memphis, TN. She is also the curator of the Strathmore Music in the Mansion series, National Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, and formerly for the Chamber Music Series at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Laura has formerly taught Financial Entrepreneurship for Arts Leaders as well as been adjunct Violin Professor at the University of Maryland.
She completed her doctorate at the University of Maryland School of Music, focusing her thesis on women composers. In March 2018 she cofounded the Boulanger Initiative, an advocacy organization for women composers based in Washington, D.C., for which she holds the position of Executive and Artistic Director. The Initiative champions the works of women composers through consulting, performance, education, and commissions, and launched the Boulanger Initiative Database of Repertoire by Women and Gender Marginalized Composers, the largest of its kind, in March 2023.
As founder and previous first violinist of Excelsa Quartet, Laura studied at the Conservatory in Luzern, Switzerland, and in the Professional Quartet Training Program with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne, Germany. The Quartet held the Fellowship Quartet Residency at UMD from 2013-2016, and were First Prize winners at the Charles Hennen 26th International Chamber Music Competition for Strings in The Netherlands. The quartet worked closely with members of the Guarneri, Pavel Haas, Mosaiques, Emerson, St. Lawrence, and Juilliard quartets. They also held multiple performances at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, performing on various instruments within the Smithsonian Instrument Collection. In 2015, the quartet commissioned and gave the world premiere of John Heiss's Microcosms.
As a passionate educator of solo and chamber music, Laura has given masterclasses throughout the US and Europe, and maintains a small studio of private students in the DC area.
Website: www.lauracolgateviolin.com/
MIRANDA CUCKSON
Violinist/violist Miranda Cuckson delights audiences with her performances of music ranging from older eras to the newest creations. She has played innumerable concerts and premieres of new music and played a major role in bringing new creations more to the center of cultural life. Praised recently for “a rare style that fuse[s] precision and elegance with passionate intensity and successful risk-taking” [Berkshire Edge], she loves bringing musical experiences to venues large and small, from concert halls to casual spaces. Engaging with many modern musical avenues (including those of Western classical traditions and American music), she has pursued a personal path motivated by sincere interest, innovation, and exploration, the expression of any human feelings and experiences, and the realization of virtuosity, craft, and invention. Her particular interests include the playing of stringed instruments in musical cultures and contexts, and the porousness of the arts of interpretation and composition.
Miranda premiered Georg Friedrich Haas’ Violin Concerto No. 2 in four countries and made her solo debut at the Vienna Musikverein with this piece in 2023, with the Vienna Radio Symphony and conductor Markus Poschner. The live recording was released in 2025 on the Urlicht AV label. Her live performance of the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the UC Davis Orchestra has also been released, on Centaur Records, to great acclaim.
She has been a featured artist at many festivals internationally, including Wien Modern, Grafenegg, Lincoln Center, Ojai, Le GuessWho, West Cork, Bard, Frequency, Time Spans, and Sinus Ton, and by such presenters as St. Paul’s Liquid Music, 92NY, Miller Theatre, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Library of Congress, and the Cleveland Museum. She recently gave recitals at San Francisco Performances, Boston’s Gardner Museum, and the Detroit Institute of Art.
Her current projects include a new violin concerto by Jeffrey Mumford; Limin’,a concert-length duo by/with pianist Stewart Goodyear, just released on Avie Records; a collaboration with harpist Parker Ramsay including a new spatialized duo by Haas; a work for solo violin and three choirs by Rene Hirschfeld; and upcoming solo performances in Germany and Japan.
Her widely-lauded recordings Világ featuring the Bartók Solo Sonata and folk-flavored compositions; the Korngold, Ponce, and Piston concertos; an ECM Records album of duos by Bartok, Schnittke, and Lutoslawski; the Grammy-nominated Songs and Structures by Harold Meltzer; Michael Hersch’s the wreckage of flowers; several albums of 20th-century American music; and Melting the darkness, a forward-looking compilation of microtonal/electronic music. Her album, with Christopher Burns, of Luigi Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura was named a Recording of the Year by the New York Times.
Passionate about all the arts, Miranda is a core member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), an interdisciplinary collective of dancers, singers, and instrumentalists intent on the colliding and merging of art forms. She is the founder of non-profit Nunc, a programming and concert-producing organization, dedicated to presenting musical innovations, interpretations, and compositional contributions of our time.
Dedicated to education, Miranda teaches violin and chamber music at the Mannes School of Music/New School University. She frequently writes and speaks to audiences about music and she earned her doctorate from The Juilliard School.
Website: www.mirandacuckson.com/
MAIANI DA SILVA
Maiani da Silva is a violinist, performer, and educator. She is a member of the four-time GRAMMY-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird (8BB), and founder of Brouhaha, a multi-disciplinary solo project that addresses the Anthropocene through a musical and scientific lens. With 8BB, Maiani premiered and recorded the 2025 GRAMMY-nominated work composition as explanation by David Lang (on Cedille records). She was a featured soloist for world premieres of concerti grossi with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the United States Navy Band.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Maiani has collaborated with various other cutting-edge artists—both in the contemporary classical realm and beyond—from premiering works by Joan Tower, Du Yun, Kelley Polar, Viet Cuong, Raven Chacon to working directly with Jonathan Bailey Holland, Julianna Barwick, Louis Andriessen, and George Lewis. She has also performed at Bang on a Can's prestigious Long Play Festival 2025 (for the U.S. premiere of Sophia Jani's Six Pieces for Solo Violin), and has performed and recorded with Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP). Some fun pop gigs include performing with Childish Gambino and Peter Gabriel.
In 2021 Maiani joined the faculty of Yale University's Department of Music as Lecturer, specializing in the performance of contemporary chamber music. She also co-leads the Blackbird Creative Lab and has been guest faculty at Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, among others. Maiani is Artist in Residence and Fellow at Yale's Morse College.
First picking up a violin in a Los Angeles public school with Ms. Carol Dobbs, Maiani went on to study under the tutelage of Irina Muresanu at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and with the legendary Mela Tenenbaum in Brooklyn, N.Y. Other mentors include Lenny Matczynski and Andrew Mark.
Maiani was born in Bahia, Brazil, grew up in Los Angeles, and has also lived in Boston, Paris, Mexico City, and San Francisco before settling in woodsy Connecticut. Maiani enjoys friendly disagreements, speaking other languages, reading books about human behavior, and listening to Motown and 90s slow-jams.
Website: www.maianidasilva.com
JUDITH EISSENBERG
Judith Eissenberg’s musical roots begin in the ever-broadening repertoire of the string quartet. She is a founder/second violin (1980-2022) of the Lydian String Quartet, recognized for its depth of interpretation, performing with a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets
(Chicago Sun-Times). The LSQ received top prizes at the Evian (1982), Banff (1983), and Portsmouth (1985) International String Quartet Competitions, winning the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1984. With over 30 recordings (Nonesuch, CRI, Harmonia Mundi, New World Records, Musica Omnia, etc.) and multiple commissions, premieres and dedications, the Quartet is recognized for its fresh and incisive approach: [the Lydian] revealed a fire that makes all timeless music forever contemporary
(Washington Post). Eissenberg performs in the US and abroad (Europe, Taiwan, Australia), including in major concert venues (Weill Recital Hall, Allice Tully Hall, Library of Congress, etc.), and has enjoyed residencies at colleges, universities and conservatories. Other chamber music affiliations include Boston Chamber Music Society, Emmanuel Music, and various summer festivals throughout the US. With experience in period instrument performance, she has been soloist with and core member of Boston Baroque and Handel and Haydn Society.
Eissenberg collaborates with musicians in jazz, Korean Gugak, Indian classical, Chinese classical, and enjoys cross-disciplinary work in film, theater, dance, electronics/digital, video, etc. She has received multiple grants and awards, including from Copland Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Readers’ Digest. She is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University (1980-2022), and Professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
MAYUKI FUKUHARA
Mayuki Fukuhara began his musical studies at age seven, and, by age twelve, he had won the International Music Festival Grand Prix. He came to the United States as a scholarship student at the Curtis Institute of Music, and later did postgraduate work at Mannes College of Music, studying under Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo, and Felix Galimir.
He performs with several of the New York metropolitan area's most prestigious chamber orchestras (Orpheus; Orchestra of St. Luke's, where he is a principal player; and others). He is concertmaster of the New York Scandia Symphony and a member of the Scandia String Quartet. He is a participating artist in such festivals as Marlboro, Caramoor, and the New England Bach Festival.
Mr. Fukuhara spends his summers performing with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival of Japan. His recordings are available on the Musical Heritage Society, Music Masters, and other labels.
AMY GALLUZZO
Praised for her nuanced Mozartian phrasing
and her delicacy and, when needed, force
(Boston Musical Intelligencer), Amy Galluzzo enjoys an active career as both a chamber musician and soloist. Amy was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet for many years, touring around the United States and internationally, performing a wide range of repertoire, and is a founding member of Trio Flamecrest. Amy has performed at several prestigious summer festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Festival, Chelsea Music Festival, Taos, and Sarasota Music Festival, and has collaborated with artists such as Masuko Ushioda, John Ferrillo, Shem Guibbory, James Buswell and Carol Ou. More unusual collaborations include Yihan Chen, pipa, Scott McConnell, steel pan, and Dariush Saghafi, santoor.
Past highlights include the 2022 formation of Trio Flamecrest, Amy’s 2017 Carnegie Hall debut with Carpe Diem String Quartet and the release of the CD of the Peracchio and Castelnuovo-Tedesco piano quintets on the DaVinci label. Amy’s other CDs include: Longing (MSR), The Art of Calligraphy (Albany Records), Volumes 4 and 5 of the complete String Quartets of Sergei Taneyev (Naxos Records), and Music for Mandolin and String Quartet by Jeff Midkiff. Amy has performed many world premieres by composers such as David Stock, Reza Vali, Derrick Jordan, Jeff Nytch, Jeff Midkiff and Jonathan Leshnoff. A finalist in the Naftzger Competition and recipient of the Jules C. Reiner Prize for violin, Amy has been heard in recital and concert across Europe and America and has served as concertmaster under the batons of conductors such as Kurt Masur, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos and Christoph von Dohnányi.
Amy Galluzzo began her violin studies in Great Britain and went on to study with Dona Lee Croft, a professor at the Royal College of Music, London. Amy received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music with Honors, and a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Marylou Speaker Churchill and James Buswell. She has studied with members of the Borromeo, Brentano, Shanghai, American and Concord Quartets and is currently a candidate for the degree of Ph.D. from the Steinhardt School, New York University.
Amy teaches through the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Continuing Education department. She has given masterclasses and workshops at Florida State University, Palm Beach University, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, Eastern Arizona College and numerous music programs for students of all ages.
SHEM GUIBBORY
Shem Guibbory has played in world-class performance environments for over 50 years: 45 seasons in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, as the original violinist with Steve Reich and Musicians and Anthony Davis’ Episteme, as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn.
His recordings can be found on the ECM, Gramavision, Opus 1, DG, Bridge, CRI, MSR and Kumara Music labels—over a dozen LPs and CDs including his most recent recording Kumara (2023). Kumara Music is a genre-defying trio performing and recording original works that are transcendent in nature.
He has been awarded a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to Bellagio (2005), two CMA/ASCAP awards for Adventurous Programming (2001, 2002), served briefly as concertmaster with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra (1981) and many NYC freelance orchestras, and has performed recitals and chamber music throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He served as Music Director of the Chamber Music Conference (1997-2006), joining their faculty in 1981.
His focus today is on performing with Kumara Music and teaching in his Violin Studio in Croton-on-Hudson, New York City and online.
Website: innovativemusicprograms.com/
GRANT HOUSTON
Violinist Grant Houston connects with listeners through performances of unbridled energy and emotional magnetism. Known for drawing in audiences with a uniquely compelling musical voice, he has been described as playing as ethereally as mist... the audience kept so quiet that it seemed we were holding our breath throughout.
(Yale Alumni Magazine). Particularly devoted to chamber music, Houston is a founding member of Trio Gaia, a co-artistic director of the GRAMMY-nominated Palaver Strings, and a frequently featured performer at chamber music series and festivals across the country.
Notable engagements include Spoleto Festival USA (Bank of America Chamber Music), the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Monadnock Music, Wellesley Chamber Players, First Mondays at Jordan Hall, and Juventas New Music. Pre-professional summers were spent at Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, the Moritzburg Festival Academy, and many others. Frequently sought after for special projects and collaborations, he has been a regular guest of Castle of Our Skins, was featured in a studio recording of Florence Price’s G Major String Quartet which aired on WGBH public radio, and has performed at specially curated events for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Weekend Concert Series. He appears often with the conductorless ensembles A Far Cry, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and in the summer of 2024 was named a Co-Artistic Director of the Portland, Maine-based Palaver Strings. Houston has also performed widely as a soloist and recitalist, including a concerto appearance with the Plymouth Philharmonic and performances of the piano and violin duo repertoire with pianists Max Levinson, Efi Hackmey, and Melvin Chen.
As the violinist of Trio Gaia, Houston has helped to build the ensemble into one of today’s most exciting piano trios. Offering audiences dynamic, personally relevant experiences inside and outside the concert hall, Trio Gaia has made a name for itself performing recitals on series such as the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, the Harvard Musical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Davidson College Concert Series, Music on Norway Pond, Shelter Island Friends of Music, and many others. Equally known is the trio’s passion for bringing people of all ages into the experience of chamber music, leading to its repeat residencies at the Panama Jazz Festival, regular interactive workshops with elementary, middle, and high-school students, lecture-recitals at MIT’s Whitehead Institute, masterclasses for the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and engagements at educational programs such as PRIZM International Festival in Tennessee and the Massachusetts Suzuki Festival. In recent years, Trio Gaia has garnered numerous accolades, including prizes at the 2022 WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition, the 2022 Premio Trio di Trieste in Italy, the 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, the 2020 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, and the 2019 Plowman Competition. In 2024, the trio completed a three-year appointment as Trio-in-Residence in the New England Conservatory's Professional Piano Trio Program.
Houston has performed with artists such as Jeremy Denk, Inon Barnatan, Paul Biss, Marcus Thompson, Paul Wiancko, and Todd Phillips, and counts Donald Weilerstein, Ayano Ninomiya, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, and Merry Peckham among his mentors. Committed to music education himself, he has given masterclasses at Duke University, the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts, and the Winsor School, and now serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Houston completed both undergraduate and graduate study at the New England Conservatory of Music, and performs on a 1757 Michel’angelo Bergonzi violin on generous loan from a private foundation.
Website: www.granthoustonviolin.com/
MARI LEE
Mari Lee is an artist and social entrepreneur dedicated to creating human connection through listening.
Praised as extremely impressive
by The Strad, she has performed at major venues including Wigmore Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, and Carnegie Hall, and at festivals such as Ravinia, Verbier, and Marlboro.
She is the founder of Salon Séance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates experiences blending music, storytelling, and Japanese ceremonies to provide space for deeper listening, belonging, and connection. Salon Séance has been presented by arts and corporate organizations including the Schubert Club, Howland Chamber Music Circle, IMEX, and Google.
Mari studied violin with Miriam Fried and Nora Chastain, and chamber music with Eckart Runge and Eberhard Feltz. She is an alumna of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and Beth Morrison Projects’ Producer Academy.
SHEILA REINHOLD
Sheila Reinhold gave her first performance as soloist with orchestra at the age of nine in the Kaufmann Concert Hall of New York's 92nd Street Y. At fourteen, she was invited by Jascha Heifetz to join his master class at the University of Southern California, where she studied with him for five years. She received her B.Mus. from USC and studied theory and analysis with Leon Kirchner and Earl Kim at Harvard University.
Sheila's engagements have included solo appearances with conductors such as Zubin Mehta and André Kostelanetz, chamber music with Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky, and performances both as soloist and as chamber musician at festivals such as Chautauqua, Ives, and Mohawk Trail. She has premiered solo and chamber works for both violin and viola, worked on many major films and Broadway productions, and appeared with popular artists such as Tony Bennett. Sheila can be heard as a chamber musician on the North/South and Albany labels, and is featured on a recently released CD of the music of Allen Shawn.
Sheila has had a life-long dedication to teaching, with positions including Resident Musician at Harvard and head of the string faculty at the Children's Orchestra Society in New York, in addition to maintaining her home studio. She has also been an adjudicator, guest teacher and chamber music coach at, among others, the Juilliard School, Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Columbia University. She has been a faculty member of the Chamber Music Conference and Composer's Forum of the East each summer since 2000.
Sheila is the founder and music director of Intimate Voices, which has been presenting chamber music concerts and community outreach events in New York since 2009. She recently moved her home base to Denver, where she has taught courses for adult music-lovers through the University of Denver and curated an annual Holocaust Remembrance concert, among other activities, while maintaining her commitment to Intimate Voices in New York and engagements elsewhere.
ANDREA SCHULTZ
Violinist Andrea Schultz enjoys an active and versatile musical life as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She currently performs and tours with a wide array of groups, including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Riverside Symphony, New York Oratorio Society, and the New York Chamber Ensemble. A devotee of contemporary music, Schultz was a longtime member of Sequitur and has been involved in the premieres of more than a hundred works with groups that include Either/Or, Cygnus, Locrian Chamber Players, Eberli Ensemble, Cabrini Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, NY Composer's Circle, and the League of Composers. She has recorded contemporary chamber music for the Naxos, Albany, New World, and Phoenix labels. She was also a member of the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble for many years, touring the U.S., Britain, Japan, and Australia; and has performed as guest with the Cassatt String Quartet, Perspectives Ensemble, Sherman Chamber Ensemble, Avery Ensemble, SONYC, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players.
Schultz spends summers performing and teaching at the Kinhaven Music School, the Wintergreen Music Festival, and the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East. A graduate of Yale College, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Stony Brook University, Schultz studied violin with Betty-Jean Hagen, Paul Kantor, Donald Weilerstein, and Joyce Robbins. She plays on a violin made in 1997 by Stefan-Peter Greiner.
SAM WEISER
Sam Weiser, currently the first violinist of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, is a lifelong chamber musician and advocate of contemporary music.
He holds a number of positions around the Bay Area, including assistant concertmaster of the California Symphony, member of One Found Sound, and violinist in sfSound. Formerly, he was a member of the award-winning Del Sol Quartet.
Sam has performed all over the country, from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to a raft floating along the Yampa River. He has premiered over 200 new works by composers such as Vijay Iyer, Huang Ruo, and Chen Yi.
He is also a dedicated educator, having taught violin and chamber music at Sacramento State University and Chamber Music Conference of the East, in addition to maintaining a private teaching studio.
Sam studied with Ian Swensen, Lucy Chapman, James Buswell, and Patinka Kopec. He holds bachelors’ degrees from Tufts University in computer science and the New England Conservatory in violin, as well as a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in chamber music.
Outside of the violin, Sam loves cooking, a long bike ride, or a game of Dungeons & Dragons.
Website: www.samweiser.me/
YEZU WOO
Violinist Yezu Woo debuted at Carnegie Hall at age sixteen as the youngest performer to present all twenty-four Paganini Caprices for solo violin. Since then, she has built a dynamic career as a soloist, chamber musician, and an artistic director.
As artistic director of the New York in Chuncheon Music Festival, Yezu has built a vibrant platform for world-class chamber music and mentorship in her hometown of Chuncheon, Korea. Her contributions earned her recognition as Honorary Ambassador of Woljeongsa Temple (2023) and the City of Chuncheon (2016).
Her commitment to traditional Korean music and peace between the two Koreas has brought her to venues from Pyongyang, North Korea, to the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Her passion for contemporary music has led to over twenty premieres of new works and collaborations with composers like Rebecca Saunders, Unsuk Chin, and Sir George Benjamin.
She is the violinist of the “paradigm-shifting” (New York Music Daily) string quartet The Overlook and a member of Novus NY, Delirium Musicum, and the Berlin Academy of American Music. She also collaborates regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Modern.
A Fulbright Scholar in Germany (2019-20), she was a member of the Ensemble Modern Academy and a researcher at the Isang Yun Haus in Berlin. She has recorded for EMI Classics, ECM Records, Warner Classics, and KAIROS, including the first complete recording of Isang Yun’s works for solo violin and violin with piano.
Website: www.yezuwoo.com
Viola Faculty
AMADI AZIKIWE
Amadi Azikiwe, violist, violinist and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He has appeared in recital at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, on the Discovery
recital series in La Jolla, at the International Viola Congress, and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since then, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean.
As a soloist, Mr. Azikiwe has appeared with the Prince George's Philharmonic, Delaware Symphony, Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival. He has also toured with Music from Marlboro, and performed at the Sarasota, Tanglewood, Aspen, Norfolk, and San Juan Islands Festivals, El Paso International Chamber Music Festival, Salt Bay Chamber Festival, Maui Classical Music Festival, Missouri Chamber Music Festival, Yachats Music Festival, Carolina Chamber Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Mr. Azikiwe's performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio's Performance Today
, on St. Paul Sunday
, and on WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, WFMT in Chicago, and the BBC, along with television appearances in South America.
Mr. Azikiwe was previously the conductor of the Old Dominion University Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta University Center Orchestra. He was also a visiting faculty member of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN. Most recently, he was on the faculty of James Madison University and University of Maryland Baltimore County. Currently, he is a Teaching Artist for ClassNotes, and Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted for the Intercollegiate Music Association, Tennessee Music Educators Association All-Collegiate Orchestra, Third Street Philharmonia, Gateways Music Festival, and Trilogy Opera Company.
Mr. Azikiwe has appeared as artist faculty at the Brevard Music Center, Hot Springs Music Festival, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Killington Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts, Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, University of North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Session, and the Aria International Academy in London, Ontario. As an orchestral musician, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as principal violist of the SHIRA Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra and guest principal violist of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra. He has performed under the batons of conductors Lorin Maazel, James DePreist, Christoph Eschenbach, Gerard Schwarz, Marek Janowski, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Morgan, Pinchas Zukerman, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sixten Ehrling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Charles Dutoit, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Bernstein.
A native of New York City, Amadi Azikiwe was born in 1969. After early studies with his mother, he began his formal training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and conductor Pascal Verrot, receiving his Bachelor's degree. Mr. Azikiwe was also awarded the Performer's Certificate from Indiana University, where he served as an Associate Instructor, and received his Master's Degree in 1994 as a student of Atar Arad.
MARK BERGER
Violist and composer Mark Berger has toured throughout the United States and internationally as a member of the Lydian String Quartet, performing the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras as well as premiering remarkable compositions written by today's cutting-edge composers. In addition to his work with the quartet, Berger frequently performs with many of Boston’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Emmanuel Music, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Worcester Chamber Music Society, and Music at Eden’s Edge. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and Radius Ensemble, and has performed at summer music festivals including Tanglewood, the Newport Music Festival, and Kneisel Hall. Strongly devoted to the performance of new music, Berger has performed with many of Boston’s new music ensembles including Sound Icon, Dinosaur Annex, Ludovico Ensemble, and ALEA III. He has recorded solo and chamber works for Albany, Bridge and Innova records.
A dedicated educator, Berger is Associate Professor of the Practice at Brandeis University, where he teaches viola, chamber music, music theory and analysis. In addition to his teaching at Brandeis, he frequently teaches analysis and orchestration courses for Boston University and has taught at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where he coached chamber music and taught some of the most talented high school students in the country.
EN-CHI CHENG
Taiwanese violist En-Chi Cheng’s recent performance highlights include a solo appearance with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra playing the Walton Concerto. He also performed as part of the 30th-anniversary celebration concert series of the Taiwan National Concert Hall and chamber concert tours led by Nobuko Imai. He has been heard in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Opera House, and Dresdner Philharmonie. He garnered the Balmoral Prize and the Josef Weinberger Publisher Prize in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.
He was a semifinalist in the ARD International Music Competition and Tokyo International Viola Competition. He received the Chi-Mei Arts Award from the Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation. He has held the principal viola chair of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Moritzburg Academy Chamber Orchestra, among others. As a chamber musician, he has performed with renowned artists such as Nobuko Imai, Ilya Kaler, Joseph Lin, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Peter Wiley. He has participated in Marlboro Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and the Taos School of Music.
Mr. Cheng completed a master’s degree at The Juilliard School, studied with Samuel Rhodes, and received the Kovner Fellowship. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music under the study of Joseph de Pasquale and Hsin-Yun Huang.
KORINE FUJIWARA
Montana native Korine Fujiwara is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, a devoted and sought-after chamber musician and teacher, and a gifted composer and arranger.
Ms. Fujiwara is Visiting Assistant Professor of violin, viola, composition, and chamber music at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She served for many years on the music faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University and is in great demand for master classes and clinics throughout the United States. Korine’s students have been accepted into the performance programs of such institutions as Indiana University, Cincinnati College Conservatory, and Northwestern University to continue their musical studies.
Named as one of Strings Magazine’s “25 Contemporary Composers to Watch,” Korine has received multiple commissions including works for opera, chamber ensembles, chorus, concerti, and music for modern dance. Her works have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, China, and Japan. Her musical language encompasses a wide range of influences, including classical, folk, jazz, and rock and roll. Her diverse artistic collaborations have helped to infuse her work with a rhythmic power and intensity.
Critics have remarked of Ms. Fujiwara's music, “The ear is forever tickled by beautifully judged music that manages to be sophisticated and accessible at the same time,” “Contains a very rare attribute in contemporary classical music: happiness.” (Fanfare Magazine); “She knows how to exploit all the resources of string instruments alone and together; her quartet writing is very democratic, with solos for everyone; her solo violin writing is fiendishly difficult.” (Strings Magazine). “Fujiwara beautifully meets the challenge of weaving together different emotions across generations that make sense musically while delighting the ear.” (WOSU Classical 101 by Request) “Fujiwara’s music is rich and beguiling throughout.” (The Columbus Dispatch) “Artfully layered and knitted together…While each “room” has its own musical personality, the poignant sections in which characters in different periods actually sing together—a trio, a sextet, and even an octet—dovetail perfectly. The dramatic arc builds persuasively to the climactic moments, shifting with increasing speed between scenes to the culminating revelation.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Korine is a recipient of an Opera America Commissioning Grant from the Opera Grants for Female Composers program, made possible through the generosity of The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, for the composition of “The Flood,” an award-winning opera with Stephen Wadsworth, librettist, premiered by Opera Columbus and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in February 2019.
Ms. Fujiwara is a gifted performer on both the violin and viola, and holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University, where she studied with Joseph Fuchs and Myron Kartman, respectively. Her other mentors include Harvey Shapiro, Robert Mann, and Joel Krosnik. Ms. Fujiwara is a member of the music honorary society Pi Kappa Lambda.
Korine began her orchestral career with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. She is also a former member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, where she held the position of Acting Assistant Principal Second Violin.
Korine performs on a 1790 Contreras violin, 2004 Kurt Widenhouse viola, and bows by three of today’s finest makers, Paul Martin Siefried, Ole Kanestrom and Charles Espey, all of Port Townsend, WA, USA.
Website: korinefujiwara.com/
CELIA HATTON
Celia Hatton, New York City-based violist, has performed across Asia, Australia, Europe, South America, and the U.S. Her playing can be heard on several GRAMMY-winning works, including as principal violist on Experiential Orchestra’s album The Prison and Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds. She is a member of A Far Cry, principal viola of Sphinx Virtuosi, and coprincipal of Chamber Orchestra of New York. Hatton has performed with ECCO, The Knights, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. An adjunct professor at Adelphi University, she has given masterclasses at Colburn Music Academy, New York University, and Vanderbilt University. Hatton holds a bachelor’s degree from New England Conservatory, where she studied with Kim Kashkashian, and a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music with Karen Dreyfus.
Website: www.celiahatton.com/
BETH MEYERS
Multi-instrumentalist and arranger Beth Meyers has performed and recorded in a diverse range of genres with award-winning artists, smash-hit Broadway musicals, and her own critically acclaimed bands. Beth is a member of the indie-folk band Damsel (with Monica Mugan), playing original music that features her on vocals, viola, banjo and ukulele. The group currently has two self-released albums, Just Sit So (2017) and New To You (2021). Beth is a member of the quirky, folk-prog band QQQ (viola, Hardanger fiddle, acoustic guitar, and drums) whose debut album Unpacking the Trailer (New Amsterdam 2009) was hailed “a bold statement of purpose disguised as an unpretentious lark” by Time Out New York. She was a founding member of the flute/viola/harp trio janus, whose debut album i am not (New Amsterdam 2010) was called “gorgeously subtle” (NPR’s Studio 360). Through their more than 14 years of collaboration and touring, janus commissioned over a hundred new works for the trio repertoire. The group’s final album Book of Memory (New Focus 2016) features the music of Paul Lansky and Jason Treuting.
Beth is committed to new sounds and pushing the boundaries of contemporary music. In addition to her experience working under the baton of Pierre Boulez with the Lucerne Festival Academy (2005-6), she has also performed with former Arditti String Quartet violist Garth Knox. In 2009, alongside the New York chapter of the American Viola Society, Beth presented Garth for the first time in the U.S. and his groundbreaking piece, Viola Spaces. As a performer, she is also interested in the intersection of free improvisation and new music and synthesizes her experience as a graduate of the School for Improvisational Music (Ralph Alessi/Peter Epstein 2001). More recently, Beth coproduced and recorded (viola/voice/electric guitar/banjo/spoken word) Go Placidly With Haste (Cantaloupe 2024), a double vinyl of original music by Jason Treuting with collaborative tracks from various artists including Angélica Negrón, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Sam Amidon and members of Sō Percussion.
Beth is a member of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and has performed with orchestras including the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Knights. As a Broadway musician, she held the viola chair at Wicked Broadway from 2014-2016 and currently subs on Hamilton.
Beth is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music ('00/'02) and is an adjunct faculty member at Rider University. She plays a Möes and Möes viola and a Mike Ramsey banjo.
Website: www.bethmeyersmusic.com
ANGELA PICKETT
Canadian violist Dr. Angela Pickett has enjoyed an incredibly vast and varied performance career. As the violist of acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5, Angela toured extensively, performed at most of the United States’ top venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and presented guest masterclasses and lectures at numerous universities and conservatories including the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2020, Angela became a founding member of a new string quartet, The Overlook. Described as breathtaking
and paradigm-shifting
(New York Music Daily), The Overlook has emerged as a unifying, community-building force, whose dedication to a more representative musical tradition reverberates throughout the industry.
Angela is based in NYC where she maintains a freelance career playing chamber music and Broadway shows, and serves as the Chamber Music Director for Holland America’s Lincoln Center Stage
. Angela holds a Conjoint Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance and Music History from The Memorial University of Newfoundland, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from The Manhattan School of Music.
KATE VINCENT
Violist Kate Vincent is originally from Perth, Western Australia. Her solo playing was recently described as having vivid color and palpable verve
(Fanfare Magazine). Currently a resident of Los Angeles, in 2010 Ms. Vincent moved to the West Coast from Boston where she continues to maintain a presence as Artistic Director/Violist of the Firebird Ensemble, in addition to performing with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Ms. Vincent has served as Principal Violist with numerous East Coast ensembles including Opera Boston (2003-2011), Emmanuel Music, Opera Aperta, and Opera Unlimited.
As a chamber musician Ms. Vincent has appeared with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, Alea 3, Chameleon Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Dinosaur Annex, the Fromm Foundation players at Harvard, Quartet X, Winsor Music, the Aurea Ensemble and on Emmanuel Music's Chamber Series. In Los Angeles she performs regularly with the Los Angeles Opera and has been a guest artist with the Eclipse Quartet, on the Dilijan Chamber Music Series, with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and on the Monday Evening Concert Series.
Over the past two decades, Ms. Vincent has toured extensively throughout Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, Russia and the United States, and between 1999-2003 she was also violist of the Arden String Quartet. In the summers Ms. Vincent is a faculty member at the Chamber Music Conference and is a regular guest artist at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She has premiered chamber and solo works by Luciano Berio, Lisa Bielawa, Donald Crockett, John Harbison, Lee Hyla, John McDonald, Joseph Maneri, Eric Moe, Eric Guinivan, and Nicholas Vines, and she has recorded for labels such as New World Records, BMOP sound, Tzadik, Oxingale, and Steeplechase.
Between 2006-2012, Ms. Vincent was a member of the faculty at Longy School of Music as co-director of the new music ensemble Longitude. She holds two Masters Degrees from New England Conservatory of Music (Viola Performance and Music Education), where she studied with James Dunham of the Cleveland String Quartet.
Cello Faculty
CLAIRE BRYANT
Claire Bryant is a cellist, teacher and activist, whose passion and commitment shine brightly through all of her work. A sought-after and distinctive performer, Claire has collaborated with such master artists as Emanuel Ax, Sir Simon Rattle and Dawn Upshaw, and worked closely with luminary composers from Meredith Monk to Steve Reich to Herbie Hancock.
Over the past 25 years, she has enjoyed a prominent solo career, appearing with major orchestras around the world including the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra, Finland’s Kuopio Symphony Orchestra and The National Symphony of Honduras.
Claire is a cofounder and co-artistic director of Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s Affiliate Ensemble, and director of its initiative Music for Transformation, a criminal justice program which brings collaborative songwriting workshops to incarcerated communities. In this capacity, she was invited twice to share Decoda’s work with the Obama administration in the White House.
In 2019, Claire returned to her native South Carolina to join the University of South Carolina School of Music’s faculty, where she enjoys a robust studio of talented young cellists. She is the coordinator of Bridging Our Distances, the community engagement arm of the School of Music, and is the director of The Collective, a graduate ensemble dedicated to creative and innovative community performances and programming.
Claire attended the University of South Carolina, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, where her primary teachers were Robert Jesselson, Joel Krosnick, and Bonnie Hampton.
Website: clairebryant.com
DANIELLE CHO
Danielle Cho joined as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in 2021.
As a co-founder of Sound Impact, she has dedicated much of her time to bringing music into schools, juvenile detention centers and international communities for greater social impact. Danielle has led Sound Impact’s international programs in Costa Rica and Panama, including its cultural exchange program. This passion was instilled in her after studying in Barcelona as a Fulbright Scholar, after which she was invited to play with the Orquesta de la Comunitat Valencia where she toured internationally under Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. She was also a featured soloist at the 2014 TedxFulbright Conference and the first Fulbright alumni to be selected to serve on two missions with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) Global Leaders Program in Argentina and Haiti.
Highlights of Danielle’s career have been solo appearances with the Erie Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Filharmonica Juvenil (Argentina) and festival appearances in Europe and the US including IMS Prussia Cove, Spoleto, Music in May, the Holland Music Sessions, Taos, Sarasota, and Schleswig-Holstein. Additionally, Danielle performs regularly with the American Pops Orchestra, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Passionate about teaching, Danielle holds an active private studio in the Washington DC area. Her students have been principal cellists of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and All-State Virginia Orchestra and have gone on to study at top conservatories like Oberlin, Peabody and Shenandoah Conservatory.
She holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the New England Conservatory where her principal teachers have been Ronald Leonard, Natasha Brofsky and Lluís Claret.
In her spare time, Danielle enjoys photography, hiking and boxing.
MICHAEL FINCKEL
Michael Finckel has enjoyed a wide-ranging career as cellist, composer, teacher, and conductor. A founding member of the Trio of the Americas and the Cabrini Quartet, he has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. He also performs regularly with members of his family in the renowned Finckel Cello Quartet.
Finckel's passion for contemporary music has involved him in performances with many of New York's leading new-music groups including Steve Reich and Musicians, Speculum Musicae, Ensemble Sospeso, Columbia Symphonietta, Group for Contemporary Music, SEM Ensemble, and the American Composers Orchestra, as well as performances with members of the New York Philharmonic under the directions of Pierre Boulez and Leonard Bernstein. From 1984 to 1995 he held the Gheris Chair as principal cellist of the Bethlehem Bach Choir Orchestra and earlier served as principal cellist of the Vermont State Symphony, touring the state with Dvorak's Cello Concerto and on several occasions conducting his own concerto for cello and orchestra with his brother, Chris Finckel, as soloist. He is a past member of the North Carolina and Puerto Rico Symphonies, the National Ballet Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Finckel has recorded for the Dorian, Opus One, New World, Albany, CRI, Vanguard, Vox/Candide, and ECM/Warner Bros. labels.
Since 1992, Finckel has been Music Director of the Sage City Symphony in Bennington, Vermont. Along with its annual commissioning program, he has fostered a unique pilot program for young composers, annually premiering orchestral works by area high school and college students.
Finckel performs and coaches at the Kinhaven Adult Chamber Music Workshop in Weston, Vermont and the Chamber Music Conference (at Colgate University, formerly at Bennington College). Having taught at Cornell and Princeton Universities, Bennington College, and the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, Finckel is currently on the faculties of the Mannes School in New York City and the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, New York.
ANDREA LEE
Andrea Lee splits her professional life between performing as a cellist and working in K–12 music education. As a cellist, she has been praised for her elegant solo work
(New York Times) and sublime
playing (Times Union). Her performances with ensembles such as East Coast Chamber Orchestra
(ECCO), IRIS Orchestra, the Knights, Silk Road Ensemble, and A Far Cry have taken her to world-class
concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Musikverein in Vienna. She has
participated in festivals in the U.S. and Europe, including Taos School of Music, Spoleto Festival USA,
IMS Prussia Cove, Holland Music Sessions, and Banff. Comfortable in many genres, Andrea has also
played on Broadway, recorded for film and television, and performed on stage with hip hop artists and
indie rock bands.
As an educator, Andrea is a Music Curriculum Specialist for Global K–12 Programs at the Juilliard School, where she develops music curriculum resources and manages the program’s main digital product, Juilliard Creative Classroom. Her work takes her frequently to schools worldwide to lead professional development with classroom teachers and support the curriculum’s successful implementation. She has previously served on the faculties of Turtle Bay Music School, the Chamber Music Conference, and the New York Philharmonic Schools Program.
Andrea holds a BA in history with distinction from Yale University and graduate degrees in cello performance from New England Conservatory and Mannes College. Her principal teachers include Richard Aaron, Yeesun Kim, and Timothy Eddy, and in masterclasses, she has received further guidance from Frans Helmerson, Janos Starker, Anner Bylsma, and Ralph Kirshbaum.
LAURA METCALF
See biography above.
CAROL OU
An award-winning cellist, Carol Ou is known for her fiery, marvelous, meltingly melodic outpourings
(Boston Globe) and her wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique
(The Strad). A founding member of Trio Flamecrest, Carol was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet and duo partner of legendary violinist James Buswell. Her solo and chamber music concerts have taken her to prestigious concert venues across the globe, including Carnegie Weill Hall, Jordan Hall, National Gallery of Art, Gardner Museum, National Concert Hall in Kiev, and the National Concert Hall of Taipei.
At ease with the diverse musical styles of the last five centuries, Ms. Ou regularly programs traditional European masterworks with contemporary and eclectic ones. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar, and premiered Taiwanese composer Hsiao Tyzen's cello concerto in Taipei, Taiwan. Her decade-long collaboration with Iranian composer Reza Vali yielded numerous performances, premieres, and recordings of a dozen of his solo and string quartet works and his cello concerto The Dervish and The Magus. Along with Hsiao, American composers Richard Toensing and Daniel Pinkham have dedicated works to her. Recent music performances have featured collaborations with crossover artists on mandolin, accordion, pipa, and the Persian santoor.
As a prize-winning recording artist, Carol's discography includes solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, MSR, and Albany Records, many available on Spotify. Among her many recordings with the Carpe Diem String Quartet are Sergei Taneyev’s String Quartets on Naxos and Reza Vali's The Book of Calligraphy issued by Albany Records. Her Naxos recording of Walter Piston's chamber music won the 2001 Chamber Music America Best Chamber Music CD award and her recording of Jeff Midkiff’s Music for Mandolin & String Quartet won the 2018 Global Music Awards Gold Medal.
A graduate of Yale and a passionate educator, Ms. Ou won the 2025 Jean Stackhouse Award for Excellence in Teaching at New England Conservatory. She has mentored inquisitive cello students of all ages at NEC and has taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University. She has served as Chair of Strings for NEC's Adult Education program and presently serves as Chamber Music Chair at NEC's Preparatory School. Outside of regular teaching, Carol travels internationally for cello and chamber music master classes on five continents and can be seen cheering for her daughter's Ultimate Frisbee games and perusing for rare birds with her son.
TOBIAS WERNER
Tobias Werner was Music Director of the Chamber Music Conference from 2015 through 2024. He was the cellist in residence and co-artistic director at Garth Newel Music Center from 1999 until 2012. He is the artistic director of Pressenda Chamber Players, teaches at Georgetown University, and is an Arts for the Aging teaching artist. He has performed at the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival, Villa Musica Mainz, the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop, the Vail Valley Bravo! Colorado Music Festival, the Maui Classical Music Festival, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Strathmore Hall, the Phillips Collection, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New York Society for Ethical Culture, and Bargemusic.
Tobias has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the US, France, Germany, and Romania, and recent performances have included the concertos of Dvořák, Elgar, Haydn, and Boccherini. He has recorded on the ECM, Darbringhaus & Grimm, Bayer Records, and Orfeo labels. Recent CD releases include Piano Quartets by Mozart, Brahms, Dvořák, and Martinů with the Garth Newel Piano Quartet, the Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach, and the Sonatas for Piano and Cello by Beethoven with Victor Asuncion.
Tobias studied at the Musikhochschule Freiburg in Germany and at Boston University. His teachers have included Andrés Díaz, Christoph Henkel, and Xavier Gagnepain. He plays on an 1844 J.F. Pressenda cello.
Double Bass Faculty
SAM SUGGS
Through “brilliant and compelling programming” (The Strad), Sam Suggs gathers musical materials through composition, re-composition, and improvisation, melting barriers of genre and style with fresh interpretations and deft transitions between old and new worlds of sound, colored by the unique physicality and haunting resonance of the double bass and guiding audiences through unfamiliar territory with the soft palette of his voice.
Sam is the first solo bassist in 36 years to join the Concert Artists Guild roster, and was recently recognized with an award for Extraordinary Creativity at the 2017 Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Competition.
A paradigm-shifting bassist-composer, Sam was named ‘New Artist of the Month’ (October 2015) by Musical America after winning 1st place at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition while performing many original works.
As a collaborative bassist, he has performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and with the Argus Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, Founders, Frisson Ensemble (composer-in-residence), and his contemporary jazz trio Triplepoint.
A native of Buffalo, NY and doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Music, Sam spends his time between the Northeast and the Shenandoah Valley performing with various chamber, crossover, and contemporary groups, giving recitals and masterclasses, and teaching full-time as Assistant Professor of Bass at James Madison University, as well as at the Heifetz Institute, Peabody Bass Works, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and the Juilliard Summer Strings Program in Shanghai.
Website: www.samsuggs.com/
Flute Faculty
GIORGIO CONSOLATI
Praised for his lustrous tone
(Musical America) and his full tone, exacting articulation, and interpretive intelligence
(New York Classical Review), Italian flutist Giorgio Consolati has performed at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Miami’s New World Center, and the Beijing China Conservatory. As a soloist, he has performed with Alan Gilbert and the Juilliard Orchestra, as well as with the National Repertory Orchestra.
Giorgio is the principal flutist of the York Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the Peabody Institute and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Passionate about chamber music, Giorgio has performed for several years at the Marlboro Music Festival and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Giorgio is a top prizewinner in several competitions, including the National Society of Arts and Letters Woodwind Competition, the De Lorenzo International Flute Competition, and the Emanuele Krakamp Flute Competition. In 2019, Giorgio released Tour De Flute, his debut album.
A native of Milan, Giorgio is the first flutist in the Verdi Conservatory’s history to graduate with top honors and honorable mention. A proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship, Giorgio earned both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Carol Wincenc. Giorgio is continuing his education with a Doctorate of Music degree under the guidance of Marina Piccinini at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he previously earned the prestigious Artist Diploma.
Website: www.giorgioconsolati.eu
CATHERINE GREGORY
Australian-born flutist Catherine Gregory enjoys a dynamic and international career that resists categorization – she is equally at home as soloist, ensemble player, educator and artist citizen. Winner of the 2018 Pro Musicis International Award, Catherine has performed music old and new across the globe from Alice Tully Hall in New York, to London’s Milton Court, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and the Sydney Opera House. The New York Times has called her playing magically mysterious,
also writing that Ms. Gregory left a deep impression… her sound rich and fully present.
Catherine has established herself as a highly sought-after recitalist and chamber musician. She has appeared at the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center and Philadelphia, Camerata Pacifica, Caramoor, Moab Music Festival, Bay Chamber Festival, Við Djúpið Festival in Iceland, and with the Southern Cross Soloists. She has also toured internationally with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra and has played numerous cycles as Guest Principal Flute with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Catherine released her debut album Vent, together with pianist, David Kaplan, on the Bright Shiny Things label in 2023, featuring premieres by Gabriela Lena Frank and Timo Andres alongside music by David Lang, Schubert and Prokofiev.
Since 2015, Catherine has been a member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall -- an innovative chamber music collective that performs, teaches, and leads creative projects around the globe. She participates in numerous projects each season, from annual performances in Carnegie Hall to songwriting workshops in prisons, and each summer serves as the flute faculty of the Decoda Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina. Catherine performs on Decoda’s GRAMMY-nominated debut album, which was recorded at the Tippet Rise Art Center and released to critical acclaim in 2024, and she is thrilled to have been named a Co-Artistic Director of the group for 2025-2028.
Committed to nurturing the next generation of young artists, Catherine is a Lecturer in Flute and Woodwind Chamber Music at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music beginning in 2025. As the Director of the UCLA Gluck Fellows Program since 2024, she also leads an elite group of fellows to engage, connect and share live chamber music performances at nontraditional venues all around Los Angeles. She has been a faculty member at The Colburn School Conservatory since 2023, where she mentors chamber ensembles and the Salonen Conducting Fellows in preparation for community performances.
First venturing to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar, Catherine earned her Artist Diploma at Carnegie Mellon University, and was an Ensemble Connect fellow at the Juilliard School and Carnegie Hall from 2012-2014. Her principal teachers were Gerhard Mallon, Alberto Almarza, and Jeanne Baxtresser.
Catherine is proud to have played a Nagahara flute since 2011. When at home in Los Angeles, she loves exploring the many hiking trails, Thai restaurants, and tennis courts hidden amid the labyrinthine city.
Website: www.catherinegregory.com/
Oboe Faculty
HASSAN ANDERSON
Hassan Anderson is a distinguished oboist, educator, and visionary arts leader who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Oboe and Coordinator of Teaching Artistry at the University of South Carolina. Celebrated for his clarity of tone, radiant stage presence, and genre-defying artistry, he has built a career that reflects a rare synthesis of performance excellence, pedagogical innovation, and civic engagement, placing him at the forefront of reimagining the musician’s role in contemporary society.
A dynamic performer renowned for his clarity of tone, rich palette of colors, and vibrant stage presence, Mr. Anderson has appeared with esteemed ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and The Harlem Chamber Players, among others. As a founding member of the acclaimed ensemble SHUFFLE Concert (Ensemble Mélange), he toured internationally, performing at distinguished venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and celebrated festivals including Chamberfest Ottawa and the Cooperstown Music Festival. His discography includes world-premiere recordings with SHUFFLE Concert and the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble (ECCE), as well as the 2023 Broadway Cast Recording of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, where he made his Broadway debut as Principal Oboe. His album, Remembrances, featuring the evocative work of composer Trevor Weston, was released in May 2025, underscoring his role as a passionate advocate for living composers and contemporary music.
Named Yale School of Music’s 2019 Distinguished Teaching Artist of the Year, Mr. Anderson is a passionate advocate for teaching artistry. At USC, he pioneered the first-in-the-nation Bachelor of Music Performance with a Concentration in Teaching Artistry, addressing the urgent shortage of music educators by equipping students with skills in outreach, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. As Co-Founder of the USC Music Teaching Artist Certificate (MTAC), he has cultivated statewide partnerships and led curriculum development to support a new generation of musician-educators. In Fall 2024, he curated South Carolina’s first statewide Teaching Artist Forum, in collaboration with the South Carolina Arts Commission—a groundbreaking convening dedicated to elevating the role of teaching artists in civic life.
A member of Cohort 6 of Sphinx LEAD, Mr. Anderson embodies a bold vision for the arts as a catalyst for social transformation. He champions the belief that all people deserve access to high-quality musical enrichment and tirelessly works to foster a cultural landscape where artistry and equity thrive together. His leadership, characterized by integrative thinking and inclusive excellence, extends nationally through speaking engagements at the League of American Orchestras, the Longy School of Music, the Palmetto State Arts Educators Conference, and other leading institutions, where he empowers musicians to flourish as artists, educators, and civic leaders.
Website: hassananderson.com/
JACQUELINE LECLAIR
Jacqueline Leclair is Associate Professor of Oboe at McGill University. She formerly served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and Bowling Green State University.
Leclair worked with Luciano Berio on her 2000 edition of Sequenza VII. She has performed internationally throughout her career and recorded for Nonesuch, CRI, Koch, Deutsche Grammophon, and CBS Masterworks.
In addition to her musical research interests, she has for many years supported the wellbeing of music students and launched various initiatives to help them cultivate better mental and physical health during their studies and careers.
Prof. Leclair is originally from Syracuse, New York and studied at the Eastman School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook, receiving bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in oboe performance.
Website: www.jacquelineleclair.com/
KEVE WILSON
Hailed by the New York Times for her magnificently sweet tone,
oboist Keve Wilson has spent years honing her craft by playing a variety of musical genres in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to stadiums in Dubai. Most recently, she recorded solo oboe for Bruce Springsteen on his album, Letter to You. Keve has been the oboist for numerous Broadway shows including Company, Carousel, and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. A winner of Concert Artists Guild and solo oboist with the Grammy nominated Absolute Ensemble, she has performed as principal oboist with American Sinfonietta, San Diego Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, American Modern Ensemble and On-Site Opera, among other ensembles.
Keve has performed at music festivals including Newport Jazz Festival, New Zealand Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bremen Music Fest, The Tanglewood Music Center, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Berkshire Bach, Mostly Modern Festival and many others. She spent 6 years in Los Angeles as 2nd oboist of Opera Pacific, recorded for TV commercials and films, and premiered After Hearing Bach by Peter Schickele for oboe and string quartet. Keve inspires visiting high school band and orchestra students from around the country with her original show Believe NYC---from the Band Room to Broadway. During the pandemic, she stayed busy with her duo partner violinist Rachel Handman, playing at the Javits Center every Sunday for vaccinations. Keve and Rachel are the only instrumentalists to have a regular repeating show at Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York City.
From Hyde Park, NY and a graduate of Eastman School of Music, Keve studied oboe with Richard Killmer, piano with Judith Handman and dance with Elizabeth Clark. Having played the oboe everywhere from Argentina to South Korea, she lives in her favorite city, New York, with her husband Kerry and Portuguese water dog Bugsy.
Website: www.kevewilson.com
Clarinet Faculty
MICHAEL DUMOUCHEL
Clarinetist Michael Dumouchel is from Arlington, Virginia. He studied the clarinet with Stanley Hasty, Harold Wright and Robert Marcellus. He recently retired from the Montreal Symphony where he was second and E-flat clarinet from 1970 through 2022. He participated in all of that orchestra’s recordings for London/Decca and other labels during that time. He is an instructor of clarinet at McGill University. From 1975-2020 he played in Musica Camerata Montreal. Unofficially, he has lately been writing a little music.
JO-ANN STERNBERG
Clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg leads a diverse musical life in the New York area as a chamber musician, orchestral player, music educator, and interpreter of new music. Jo-Ann is a member of the Borealis Wind Quintet, the Richardson Chamber Players, the Wind Soloists of New York, the Sherman Chamber Players, and the Riverside Symphony; principal clarinet of the orchestras of the Oratorio Society of New York, the New York Choral Society, and St. John the Divine; and she has regularly performed and toured with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance, the American Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Musicians from Marlboro, and many Broadway musicals. Recently, Ms Sternberg was a featured soloist at the Kennedy Center with the New Orchestra of Washington performing a new work by Camille Pepin; and she performed the Copland Clarinet Concerto with the Mimosa Ensemble in New York City.
Following her undergraduate years in the combined Tufts University/New England Conservatory dual degree program (B.A. in English/B.M. in Clarinet Performance) where she was mentored by Peter Hadcock, Ms. Sternberg continued her studies at Yale University with David Shifrin and at The Juilliard School with Charles Neidich where she was awarded the William Kapell Memorial Award. Currently, Ms. Sternberg serves on the faculties of Princeton University, Rutgers Mason Gross School of Music, and the Music Advancement Program at the Juilliard School; she also maintains an active teaching studio from her New York City home. Additionally, she serves as a mentor for the Juilliard Mentoring Program and is a coach for the New York Youth Symphony.
In the summer months, Ms. Sternberg lives in Maine where she is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Maine Chamber Music Seminar at Snow Pond for college and graduate-level musicians. She also performs and teaches at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East, and participates in numerous performance residences throughout greater New England. Previous summers have featured performance residencies at the Portland Chamber Music Festival, Salt Bay ChamberFest, Mount Desert Chamber Music Festival, Sebago/Long Lake Festival, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Marlboro, Norfolk, North Country Chamber Players, and Ravinia.
From September through May, Jo-Ann resides in New York City with her family. As a first-generation American, she feels a deep connection, pride and commitment to the melting pot
that is NYC.
Ms. Sternberg is a Selmer Artist.
GARRICK ZOETER
Clarinetist Garrick Zoeter's passionate and exciting way with the clarinet has been acknowledged around the world. The Clarinet recently described his playing as remarkable, his tone is beautiful and he shows complete mastery of all the technical demands and effects that are required of this piece. His artistry and virtuosity are compelling. This is one of the finest clarinet performances I have reviewed.
The Washington Post described a recent performance of his as an utterly commanding performance, technically superb and radiant with otherworldly majesty, all played with exceptional insight.
A native of Alexandria, Va., Mr. Zoeter took his first serious clarinet studies with Kenneth Lee and National Symphony Orchestra clarinetist William Wright. He received his bachelor's degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Charles Neidich and his master's degree from Yale University as a student of David Shifrin. He made his solo debut at the age of seventeen in Weber's Concerto #1 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has won numerous competitions as a soloist including the 1991 International Clarinet Society International Clarinet Competition, as well as prizes in chamber music—the Grand Prize in the 1998 Fischoff, Coleman, and Yellow Springs chamber music competitions, the silver medal in the 1997 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and first prize in the 2002 Concert Artists Guild competition.
Mr. Zoeter is the founding member of the acclaimed multi-award-winning clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet Antares. From 1997 to 2013 with Antares, he annually gave performances around the United States at such prestigious venues as The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Aspen Music Festival, Strathmore, Ensemble Music Society of Indianapolis, Carnegie Recital Hall, Market Square Concerts, the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, and Cincinnati Chamber Music Society. His work with Antares resulted in the commissioning and premiering of over 20 new quartets from several of North America's top young composers including Mason Bates, John Mackey, James Matheson, Kevin Puts, Dan Visconti and Carter Pann. Zoeter is also a frequent performer with such diverse groups as Trio Solisti, the Audubon Quartet, the Ensemble for the Romantic Century, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, the University of Buffalo's Slee Sinfonietta, the PostClassical Ensemble, the Pressenda Chamber Players, Monadnock Music, and the New Orchestra of Washington. Recent performances have included Donald Martino’s Triple Concerto in Buffalo, NY, and chamber music appearances in Strasbourg, France and Medellin, Columbia, as well as an appearance at Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, TX. He is heard frequently in numerous chamber music performances around Washington D.C. including at Georgetown's Evermay estate.
A committed teacher as well as performer, Mr. Zoeter serves as the Anna Lee Van Buren Professor of Clarinet at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University. His students from Shenandoah include numerous competition winners and can be found performing in professional ensembles such as The President's Own
United States Marine Band, teaching in university and public school positions, and serving as music therapists throughout the country and abroad. He served on the clarinet and chamber music faculty of Wesleyan University from 2002 to 2007, and from 1997 to 2004 was the clarinet professor at the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho during the summer in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil. Mr. Zoeter has recorded for the CRI, Newport Classics, Bridge, Innova, Naxos, MSR Classics, and New Focus Recordings CD labels. In addition to his performing and teaching, Mr. Zoeter serves on the advisory council of the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/SUclarinets
Bassoon Faculty
BRAD BALLIETT
Brad Balliett is a New York City-based bassoonist and composer. Brad is on faculty at The Peabody Institute, The Juilliard School, and Bard Prison Initiative, and is a former Artistic Director of Decoda, a chamber music collective in residence at Carnegie Hall.
Brad often performs with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, the Knights, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is a member of Signal and Metropolis Ensemble. Brad has played seasons with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the International Contemporary Ensemble.
An advocate for creativity as a human right, Brad works with incarcerated musicians in prisons around the country, including Sing Sing Correctional, San Quentin State Prison, Fishkill Correctional, Lee Correctional, and various facilities on Rikers Island.
Brad has written orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic, and incidental music. Recent premieres include a violin concerto for Courtney Orlando and the Peabody Wind Ensemble, a wind quintet for City of Tomorrow, and Arboretum, an interactive work for seventeen bassoons scattered through a forest.
Brad grew up in Westborough, MA, and attended Harvard College (summa cum laude, 2005) to study music composition and Rice University (2007) to study bassoon performance. His teachers include John Harbison, Robert Levin, Christoph Wolff, and Benjamin Kamins.
Brad spends his free time filming birds. His videos have been featured on local and national news stations.
Website: www.bradballiett.net
NANCI BELMONT
Biography to be supplied.
Website: www.nancibelmont.com/
LAURA KOEPKE
Laura Koepke is Professor of Bassoon at The State University of New York at Fredonia, where she began teaching in 2007. As an orchestral player, she is the principal bassoonist of the Erie Philharmonic and principal bassoonist of the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, where she also performed as concerto soloist in 2014 and 2015. Other solo appearances include concerto performances with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and the Orchard Park Symphony. Prior to Fredonia, Laura lived in New York City where she enjoyed an active freelance career. She performed numerous concerts with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on European and U.S. tours, and at home in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. She has also performed with orchestras such as the American Composers Orchestra, New York Pops, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the New York City Opera.
From 1998 to 2009, Laura was a member of the internationally acclaimed woodwind quintet, Quintet of the Americas. Three recordings with the quintet include Dancing in Columbia (MSR Classics,) Karel Husa—Recollections (New World Records), and Sounds of Brazil (MSR Classics). Laura has performed as a guest artist with Zephyros Winds, North Country Chamber Players, Sequitur, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has performed at many summer festivals, including the Bard Festival, Bang on a Can, Festival of the Hamptons, Lincoln Center Festival, and with the Chautauqua Symphony. Laura performed as principal bassoonist at the Carmel Bach Festival in 2015, 2016, and 2019.
Previous teaching positions include New York University, Manhattan School of Music Pre-college, Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and Western Connecticut State University. Laura graduated from Baldwin-Wallace College/Conservatory of Music, and received the Alumni Achievement Award in 2005. She holds a Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale University School of Music.
Horn Faculty
DANIEL GRABOIS
Daniel Grabois is Professor of Horn at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he performs in the Wisconsin Brass Quintet and serves as the curator of SoundWaves, a series he created that combines science lectures with music performances. The former Chair of Contemporary Performance at the Manhattan School of Music, Grabois now serves as Director of the Electro-Acoustic Research Space (EARS), a facility which he founded with funding from a UW2020 large-equipment grant. Grabois is also the hornist in the Meridian Arts Ensemble, a New York City-based brass quintet founded in 1987. With Meridian, he has performed over seventy world premieres, released twelve CDs, received two ASCAP/CMA Adventuresome Programming Awards, and toured worldwide, in addition to recording or performing with rock legends Duran Duran and Natalie Merchant and performing the music of Frank Zappa for the composer himself. Grabois has also created numerous arrangements and compositions for Meridian.
A freelance musician from 1989 to 2011, Grabois performed with most of the classical music ensembles in New York City, including the Metropolitan Opera, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. He appeared on numerous recordings of classical music, rock, and jazz, and played in Broadway pits (some 36 shows, in thousands of performances).
In 2022, Grabois released his second solo album, Fire Names, for horn and tape. He composed the music for that CD as well as for his previous CD, Air Names. The next recording in the series, Earth Names, will be released in 2025, and Water Names will be released in 2026. Grabois’ compositions, including four etude books and numerous chamber and solo works, are published by WaveFront Music.
In addition to his work as a horn player, composer, arranger, and electronic musician, Grabois is also an avid woodworker and practitioner of martial arts.
Daniel Grabois is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
Website: www.danielgrabois.com
NICOLEE KUESTER
Biography to be supplied.
Website: www.nicoleekuester.com/
Piano Faculty
TIMO ANDRES
Biography to be supplied.
Website: www.andres.com/
PHILLIP BUSH
Phillip Bush is a pianist of uncommon versatility, with a repertoire extending from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. His active and unconventional career has taken him to many parts of the globe. Since his New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum in 1984, Mr. Bush has appeared as recitalist throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. In 2001 he made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut with the London Sinfonietta to critical acclaim, replacing an ailing Peter Serkin on short notice in concerti by Stravinsky and Alexander Goehr. He has also appeared as soloist with the Osaka Century Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Symphony, and several other orchestras, in repertoire as far-ranging as the Beethoven concerti and the American premiere of Michael Nyman's Harpsichord Concerto.
A much sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Bush has performed and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, appears frequently on New York's Bargemusic series, and has performed at the Grand Canyon Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains (Colorado), Sitka Music Festival (Alaska), St. Bart's Music Festival, Bahamas Music Festival, Music at Blair Atholl (Scotland), Cape May Music Festival, and many other festivals. He has also performed with the Kronos Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, and members of the Emerson, Guarneri, Tokyo, and St. Lawrence quartets. Between 1991 and 1999 he performed over 250 concerts in Japan with the piano quartet Typhoon,
and recorded five CD's with the group for Epic/Sony, all of which reached the top of the Japanese classical charts. In 1993 Mr. Bush founded MayMusic in Charlotte,
a critically acclaimed and innovative festival in North Carolina that annually presented chamber and contemporary music, film screenings, and other cross-disciplinary collaborations. He served as Artistic Director of that festival from 1993 to 1998. Mr. Bush can be heard frequently on public radio in the U.S., including appearances on Saint Paul Sunday,
and has had live performances broadcast frequently throughout the nation on television via the Classic Arts Showcase.
A fierce advocate for contemporary music, Phillip Bush has performed often with many of the New York area's most renowned new music ensembles, including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Philip Glass Ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, Group for Contemporary Music, Newband, Sequitur, Parnassus, and New Music Consort. Since 1995 he has been an artist-member of the Milwaukee-based new music group, Present Music. Mr. Bush's efforts on behalf of contemporary music have earned him grants and awards from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Aaron Copland Fund, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His discography as soloist and chamber musician has now surpassed thirty recordings, on labels such as Sony, Virgin Classics, Koch International, New World Records, Denon, and many others.
Mr. Bush is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Leon Fleisher. From 2000 to 2004 Mr. Bush taught piano and chamber music at the University of Michigan. He was Music Director of the Chamber Music Conference from 2006 through 2015. Today, in addition to his busy performing schedule, he continues to give master classes, sharing his insights with young musicians in venues throughout the nation. He makes his home in the Old Shandon neighborhood of Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, pianist Lynn Kompass, and their part-Siberian-Husky, Ruby.
CATALIN DIMA
Hailed as a pianist that displays an expressive and unleashed interpretation, transcending all the technical challenges of the score…a gift to the audience
(Romanian Music Radio), Catalin Dima has established himself as one of the leading artists of his generation. He performed in acclaimed venues including the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (NYC), the Klavierhaus (NYC), the Tamagawa Academy (Tokyo), the Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago), the Romanian Embassy (Washington D.C.), the Cosmos Club (Washington D.C), and the Romanian Athenaeum (Bucharest, Romania).
His engagements with orchestras include concerts with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), the Pitesti Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), the Washington Sinfonietta (Washington D.C.), the Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra (Winchester, VA), and the Symphonic Winds (SOSU).
In his pursuit for innovative programming, Catalin Dima combines mainstream and rare piano repertoire, often focusing on Romanian, American, and Japanese composers. A frequent guest artist and adjudicator, Catalin Dima is a member of the Music Teachers National Association and College Music Society. He has served as a judge for festivals and competitions such as the OMTA/MTNA Collegiate Competition (OK), the Denison Piano Competition (TX), the 26th Washington Conservatory of Music Festival (Washington D.C.), the Hubbard-Males Piano Competition (OK), the Texoma Piano Competition (OK), the NVMTA Piano Achievement Awards (VA), and the Shenandoah Conservatory Arts Academy Festival (VA).
Currently, Catalin Dima serves as the Assistant Professor of Piano at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, the executive director of the Texoma Piano Competition, and the artistic director of the Musical Arts Series.
Website: www.catalin-dima.com
JAMES GOLDSWORTHY
James Goldsworthy has performed in Europe, Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States, including broadcasts on Austrian National Television, the California cable television show Grand Piano, Vermont Public Television, BBC radio, and Minnesota Public Radio. While a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, Goldsworthy participated in German Lieder master classes with Hans Hotter and studied vocal coaching and accompanying with Erik Werba, Walter Moore, and Roman Ortner. He performed in one of the Musikverein 175th anniversary celebration concerts given in the Brahms Saal, and concertized in Vienna, Baden, and Spital am Semmering, Austria. More recently, he performed at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, and in Le Sax concert hall in Achère, France, and at the White House. He has appeared in chamber music concerts including celebrations of Milton Babbitt at The Juilliard School, Carnegie Recital Hall, and Cooper Union, James Levine's Met Chamber Ensemble, and in the Works & Process series at the Guggenheim Museum. He has accompanied the singers Judith Bettina, Lindsey Christiansen, Véronique Dubois, Elem Eley, Marion Kilcher, Benjamin Luxon, Sharon Sweet, and Edith Zitelli in recital, and performed in concerts with violinists Jorja Fleezanis, Lilo Kantorowicz-Glick, Rolf Schulte, and violist Jacob Glick. He has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Christopher Berg, Chester Biscardi, David Olan, Tobias Picker, Mel Powell, David Rakowski, Cheng Yong Wang, and Amnon Wolman. Goldsworthy is currently the Director of the New Works for Young Pianists Commissioning Project. He has taught at Goshen College, Stanford University, and the University of St. Thomas, and is presently on the piano faculty at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. His recordings with Judith Bettina of Chester Biscardi's The Gift of Life, David Rakowski's Three Songs on Poems of Louise Bogan, and songs of Otto Luening are on the CRI label. Most recently, he recorded works written for Judith Bettina with Bridge Records.
GENEVIEVE FEIWEN LEE
A versatile performer of music spanning five centuries, Grammy-nominated Genevieve Feiwen Lee has thrilled audiences on the piano, harpsichord, toy piano, keyboard, and electronics. She enjoys finding music that challenges her to go outside of her comfort zone to sing, speak, act, and play new instruments. She has given solo recitals at Merkin Concert Hall, NY, and the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Since her first concerto engagement at age twelve, she has appeared with the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, Brazil; the Vrazta State Philharmonic, Bulgaria, and The Orchestra of Northern New York. Her concerts in China appeared on Hunan State Television, and her performance from the Spiegelzaal at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was broadcast on live radio.
Ms. Lee has premiered and commissioned numerous works, and she can be heard on the Innova, Albany and Reference labels. She was nominated in the Best Chamber Music Performance category at the 58th Grammy Awards for the recording of Tom Flaherty's Airdancing. In the Los Angeles area, Ms. Lee has been a guest performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music series at Disney Hall, Southwest Chamber Music, Jacaranda, Piano Spheres and the Hear Now New Music Festival. She is a founding member of the Mojave Trio and was a member of the Garth Newel Piano Quartet when they performed in Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lee received her degrees from the Peabody Institute, École Normale de Musique de Paris, and the Yale School of Music. She is the Everett S. Olive Professor of Music at Pomona College, California, where she teaches piano, chamber music, aural skills and theory.
ARDITA STATOVCI
Praised by the press as an honest, clear, very touching interpreter and a pianist with super-elitist qualities,
Ardita Statovci was born in Prishtina, Kosovo, where she began studying piano with Hadije Gjinali and Lejla Pula. At the young age of 15, she was admitted to the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria, where she earned her Magistra of Arts degree with the highest distinction in the concert class of Christoph Lieske.
In 2009, Ardita studied with the legendary pianist Menahem Pressler at Indiana University in Bloomington, USA. She later completed her postgraduate studies at the Imola Academy in Italy under the guidance of Boris Petrushansky and Franco Scala.
Statovci has participated in masterclasses with renowned artists such as Elisabeth Leonskaja, Peter Lang, Stefan Arnold, Cyprien Katsaris, Peter Donohoe, Thomas Larcher, Paul Badura-Skoda, Dubravka Tomšič, Riccardo Risaliti, Norman Shetler, and Carmen Piazzini, among others.
She has performed extensively throughout Europe, the USA, and Asia, appearing in countries such as Austria, France, England, Kosovo, Sweden, North Macedonia, Italy, Croatia, Switzerland, Bosnia, India, Spain, Germany, China, Slovenia, Albania, Hungary, Turkey, Japan, and across various U.S. states including Vermont, Washington D.C., Maryland, Utah, and Indiana. She has appeared as a soloist with prestigious orchestras including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Mozart Orchestra (Bologna), Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Haydn Orchestra (Bolzano), Wiener Sinfonietta, Kammerorchester „Cis“, Kosovo Philharmonic, Albanian Radio Television Orchestra, JSO Bern, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Ankara. She regularly gives piano recitals and performs chamber music as part of the “Ariadita Duo” with Swiss pianist Ariane Haering.
Her performances have been featured in numerous TV and radio broadcasts, including RTK, ORF/Ö1, RAI, SERVUS TV, KOHA, and RTV21.
In recognition of her outstanding achievements, she has received numerous scholarships and awards from institutions such as the Society for Music Theatre in Vienna, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture (bm:ukk), the Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research, the Internationale Mozarteum Stiftung in Salzburg, the Piano Academy in Birmingham, Rotary Club Salzburg, and the Fohn Foundation in Vienna.
She has also won prizes at several international competitions, including Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now in Salzburg, the Bösendorfer Prize at the Mozarteum University, the Rotaract International Competition in Spain, the Talent of Kosovo
award, and the International Ibla Competition in Italy.
Her CD release includes a live recording featuring works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Dutilleux.
In 2011, she notably stepped in for Martha Argerich during rehearsals of Ravel’s Piano Concerto with Claudio Abbado and the Mozart and Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Ferrara, Italy.
Ardita Statovci is a Young Steinway Artist and has performed at prestigious venues and festivals including the Musikverein in Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, concert halls in Dortmund, Vienna, and Shanghai, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Royal Palace in Stockholm, and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg.
In addition to her performing career, Statovci has given masterclasses across Europe, Asia, and the United States and has served as a jury member at various international piano competitions. Statovci currently serves on the piano faculty at the Washington Conservatory of Music.
Website: www.arditastatovci.com
SAYAKA TANIKAWA
Noted for her sensitive and thoughtful approach, pianist Sayaka Tanikawa enjoys an active career as a recitalist and chamber musician in the United States and abroad, performing in venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Davies Hall, and Suntory Hall. An accomplished chamber musician, Tanikawa has performed with Peter Frankl, Osmo Vänskä, and members of the San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, NHK Philharmonic, and Sō Percussion. She has appeared in the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Series, Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Banff Chamber Music Festival, and many others.
An avid educator, she has served as an artist-in-residence at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, South Carolina. She is currently on the faculties of Hunter College and the Pre-College Division (MAP) of the Juilliard School. She also serves as the Artistic Director of the Duluth Chamber Music Festival in Minnesota.
Tanikawa holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Columbia University, a master’s degree in piano performance from the Yale School of Music, and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
ANNA VINNITSKY
Dr. Anna Vinnitsky, a pianist renowned for her eloquence and versatility, has forged a multifaceted career as a sought-after soloist, chamber musician, educator, and composer. With a robust performance calendar spanning the United States, Israel, and Western Europe, she has performed at iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall, and Auditorium Haifa in Israel.
In addition to her remarkable achievements as a pianist, Dr. Anna Vinnitsky is a dedicated educator, sharing her expertise and passion with aspiring musicians. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, holds a teaching position at The Seven Hills School in Cincinnati, and has been a guest lecturer at universities nationwide. Her commitment to music education is further evident through her involvement with the Kaufman Center’s Lucy Moses School and her role as a founder of Westchester Piano Studio, an innovative initiative that provides exceptional piano instruction tailored to each student’s artistic development, performance presentation, ear training, and theory.
As a composer, Dr. Vinnitsky has garnered acclaim with commissioned works for esteemed institutions such as the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and Orchestra Lumos. Her solo and chamber music compositions, embraced by renowned performers, resonate widely across the musical landscape. Anna’s highly anticipated Klezmer Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra premiered in March 2024 at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, receiving widespread praise and acclaim.
As a highly sought-after collaborative artist, she has shared the stage with world-renowned musicians such as clarinetist David Shifrin, violinist Ilya Kaler, oboist Philippe Tondre, and cellist Eileen Moon, to name a few. Anna is also a cherished member of numerous music festivals, including the Interlochen Summer Intensive Program.
Currently, Dr. Vinnitsky is residing in Cincinnati.
Website: annavinnitsky.com/
