Artist Bios 2011 Season Performers Tim Woos, Benjamin Gish, Cynthia Huard, Geoffrey Dean, Samantha Angstman, Owen Kevra-Lenz, Byron Schenkman,
2010 Season , 2009 Season , 2008 Season , 2007 Season
Samantha has performed as a soloist with the VYO, the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra. She participated in the Vermont Allstate Music Festival for three years and received the 2009 Piano Scholarship Performance Award and the Ellis Music Scholarship. In addition, she was the recipient of the VYOA's Hermance Prize awarded annually to a VYO senior who has performed as a soloist during the concert season. Samantha studied with Paul Orgel during her middle and high school years, and now studies with Bruce Brubaker at NEC, where she is working towards a bachelor's degree in piano performance.
At age eighteen, Devin taught violin and conducted
the youth orchestra at Woodstock International School in India,
where he also acted as assistant concertmaster with the Delhi Symphony.
He studied composition with Su Lian Tan and Evan Bennett at Middlebury
College, where he also played in a bluegrass band. Upon graduating
summa cum laude in 2001, Devin directed the Quintown Community Strings
Program in conjunction with the RCMS. He studied violin with Masao
Kawasaki, Yehonatan Berick, and Salvatore Princiotti, and participated
in the Aspen, Bowdoin, Masterworks, and Torroella de Montgri summer
music festivals as a violinist or composer. Devin received his Master's
degree in Composition from Carnegie Mellon University, where he
was a student of Leonardo Balada. He also studied conducting with
Dr. Robert Page. Mr. Arrington performs regularly with the Westmoreland
Symphony and teaches privately in Pittsburgh. Choong-Jin (C.J.) Chang was appointed Principal Viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra in April
2006. He previously served as Associate Principal Viola in Philadelphia
for twelve years. He was a double major in violin and viola at the
Curtis Institute of Music, studying with the late Jascha Brodsky
and Joseph dePasquale. Mr. Chang was born in Korea and immigrated
with his family to the Philadelphia area when he was thirteen. His
solo appearances have included those with the Curtis Symphony, Temple
University Symphony Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra at
the Seoul Arts Center. He has participated in chamber music festivals
around the world such as Caramoor, Las Vegas, Mostly Mozart, and
Marlboro in the U.S., and Evian and Moritzburg in Europe. He has
toured throughout the United States with the Musicians from Marlboro
program. Mr. Chang devotes much of his time to teaching younger
violinists and violists as a faculty member of the Temple University's
Esther Boyer College of Music and Preparatory Division. Simon Chaussé has sung with opera companies in Canada and United States including McGill Opera Studio, L'Opéra-Francais de New York, Amato Opera, Delaware Valley Opera, Vermont Opera Theater, and Echo Valley Arts. In 2000 he created the role of Antoine in Erik Nielsen's opera A Fleeting Animal. In 2003 at the Barre Opera House Simon sang the role of Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute to great acclaim. Since then he has concentrated his soloist activities in Vermont, singing with the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra, Capital City Concerts series with Artistic Director Karen Kevra, pianists Mary-Jane Austin and Michael Arnowitt, and the Rutland Area Chorus and Orchestra under Rip Jackson. Last April he sang the bass solos in Haydn's Creation with the Northeast Kingdom Chorus. Simon has sung in recital in Europe, Japan, Canada,
and the USA. He often collaborates with pianist Dalton Baldwin,
who invited him for a recital tour of Japan in November 2000. In
2001 Mr. Baldwin also invited him to Iceland to participate in a
gala concert alongside Elly Ameling, among others. Simon has won
several prizes in International Art Song Competitions in France,
Spain, Canada, and the USA. He has studied interpretation with such
artists as Frederica Von Stade, José Van Dam, Gérard
Souzay, and Dalton Baldwin. In the last year he has sung recitals
in Montreal, New York City, Middlebury College, and Montpelier,
Vermont. More recently he was the Pirate King in The Pirates
of Penzance conducted by William Metcalfe at the Vergennes Opera
House. Based in Sofia, Bulgaria, the American cellist Geoffrey Dean is an Associate Professor of Music at the American University in Bulgaria and, since 1997, a member of the Sofia (formerly Dimov) Quartet, an official ensemble of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed at Opera Bastille in Paris, Gasteig in Munich, Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, Vienna's Joseph Haydn Institute, as well as for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and Queen Margrete II of Denmark in Copenhagen. As a soloist, Mr. Dean has appeared with leading Bulgarian orchestras, including those of Sofia, Plovdiv, Shumen, and Bourgas. His ongoing advocacy of new and neglected works has resulted in world and regional premieres of about 200 compositions, notably the European premiere of Arthur Foote's Cello Concerto. In addition to regular live broadcasts on Bulgarian National Television, over 30 of which have been chosen for BNTV's Golden Archive, he has made numerous recordings for Bulgarian National Radio and has also been broadcast on PBS Radio and RV (USA) and Deutscheslandfunk (Germany). A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Indiana University School of Music, he is also a recognized writer on musical subjects whose articles have been published in Strings magazine (USA) and other publications. A founding music faculty member at the American University in Bulgaria and its Fine Arts Program Coordinator since 1996, Mr. Dean has presented demonstrations and master classes at universities in Greece, Turkey and the United States. He spends his summers in residence at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont.
Sara Doncaster earned
her Ph.D. in Theory and Composition from Brandeis University. She
has received awards and commissions for her compositions from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Vermont Arts Council,
the Hungarian Chamber Symphony Orchestra, the Corporation of Yaddo,
the MacDowell Colony, the Ragale Foundation, and the Vermont Symphony
Orchestra, among others. A resident of Irasburg, Vermont, Dr. Doncaster
has been an elementary and middle-school music teacher in the Orleans
Essex North Supervisory Union and a private piano teacher for six
years. She is the director of the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival,
a three-day celebration of modern music taking place every three
years in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Current projects include
an opera, an orchestral work for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra,
a choral work for Social Band (Burlington), and a new work for tenor
and six instruments for the Empyrean Ensemble in California. Benjamin Gish is the director of the Walla Walla Valley Academy String Orchestra and has a large studio of cellists and bassists ranging in age from pre-school through college. He directs the Walla Walla Symphony Youth Orchestra and is adjunct artist/faculty at Walla Walla University. Several of his students have won top awards in state, regional, and national competitions as well as major scholarships to colleges and universities. Mr. Gish is married to Connie Camp Gish and they have two children, daughter Dr. Julia Salerno (violinist on faculty of Eastern Washington University), and son Jamie, a senior at Walla Walla Valley Academy and a cellist in their orchestra. Larry Hamberlin, an associate professor of music history at Middlebury College, earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 2004 and has previously taught at Tufts University and Williams College. His articles have appeared in American Music and the Journal of the American Musicological Society, and he is a contributor to forthcoming reference books on Verdi, American music, and Jewish culture. His most recent book is Tin Pan Opera, published by Oxford University Press, and he is under contract with W. W. Norton and Co. to co-edit with Richard Crawford a second edition of "An Introduction to America's Music." An essay that appeared in The Unknown Schubert (Ashgate, 2008) began as a pre-concert talk for the RCMS. Formerly the music director of the Randolph Singers and conductor of the Rochester Town Band, he has composed music for those groups and written incidental music for the White River Valley Players' productions of The House of Mirth and, with Dorothy Robson, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Performing Piano Stories, he and actor Ethan Bowen present classic short fiction in dramatic readings with musical accompaniment. Larry lives in Middlebury and looks for excuses to come back to Rochester whenever he can. Heliand Trio blends the warmth of clarinet and bassoon with the depth and expressivity of the piano. Audiences delight in the trio’s vivacious energy and dynamic performances. Heard live on VPR Classical and in concerts throughout Vermont, Heliand Trio has been hailed for its passionate performances of classical music. Last year, their November tour was selected as a ‘Pick of the Week’ by Seven Days. Vanessa Holroyd holds a Bachelors degree in Literature from Yale University, a Master's
degree in Flute Performance from McGill University, and an Artist
Diploma from the Longy School of Music. In August 2002 Vanessa was
one of the top prizewinners in the Young Artist Competition sponsored
by the National Flute Association. Her awards included a special
prize for the best performance of Dan Welcher's "Florestan's
Falcon," commissioned specifically for the competition. An
active freelancer and solo performer, Vanessa is also a member of
the Arcadian Winds, a Boston-based wind quintet dedicated to new
music and educational outreach. She is on the music faculty of Philips
Academy Exeter and on the chamber music faculty of the Boston Youth
Symphony. Her principal teachers include Robert Willoughby, Timothy
Hutchins, Michael Parloff, and Ransom Wilson. She currently lives
in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, with her husband and two-year-old
daughter. Cynthia Huard Cynthia Huard has appeared in recital as a pianist and harpsichordist throughout the United States and in Europe. A much sought after collaborative pianist she frequently performs with renowned vocalists. Yumi Hwang-Williams began violin studies at the age of ten in Philadelphia, one year after emigrating from South Korea. At fifteen she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and was accepted as a student of Jascha Brodsky and Yumi Ninomiya-Scott at the Curtis Institute of Music. She has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and is concertmaster for the Cabrillo Music Festival. She is a faculty member of the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver. Her interpretations of Aaron Jay Kernis's Lament and Prayer, Michael Daugherty's Fire and Blood and Christopher Rouse's Violin Concerto have earned approval from the composers as well as critical acclaim. Yumi has performed with the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Santa Rosa, and Fort Collins, and has made numerous solo appearances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The past season she performed Isang Yun's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. She was also soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in performances of Mozart and Barber. The current season sees her perform Dvorak with the CSO, Brahms with the Denver Philharmonic, and Thomas Adès' new violin concerto at the Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz. An avid chamber musician and recitalist, Yumi has collaborated with such artists as Gary Graffman, Ida Kavafian, Joanna MacGregor, Christopher O'Riley, John Kimura Parker, and Robert Koenig, and has performed Lou Harrison's Grand Duo with Dennis Russell Davies as pianist. She is also a member of the piano trio Tre Voce, which made a triumphant Carnegie Hall debut in February 2006.
The Johannes Quartet comprised of four impressively gifted instrumentalists in their own right, is one of the great chamber music groups of our time. They play with technical polish, with deep musical understanding, and with uncommon inspiration. The Johannes is all I could ever dream of in a string quartet." (Arnold Steinhardt, Guarneri Quartet) The Johannes brings together the first American to win the Paganini Violin Competition in 24 years, Soovin Kim; a Concert Artist Guild Competition winner, Jessica Lee; the principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Choong-Jin Chang; and the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Peter Stumpf. Their collaboration was forged at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and shaped and mentored by the Guarneri String Quartet whose style was influenced by the Budapest String Quartet decades before. They are continuing this legacy of excellence. In addition to its recent broadcasts on Performance Today and St. Paul Sunday Morning and a triumphant Carnegie Hall debut, the Johannes has had great successes with audiences and critics alike in Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., among others. The 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons included the group's collaboration with the legendary Guarneri String Quartet in a program featuring William Bolcom's Octet: Double Quartet written for them and commissioned by the Music Accord Consortium of presenters as well as a newly commissioned string quartet, "Homunculus", written for the Johannes by Esa-Pekka Salonen. For their performances of these groundbreaking works, they received acclaim from audiences all over the country including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. Residencies and performances with Middlebury College, the Islip Arts Council and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society were also highlights. During the 2010-11 season the Johannes Quartet tours Vermont, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. In Summer 2011, they return for their bi-annual appearance at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The Quartet will be making their fourth appearance in Rochester, Vermont this summer.
Vermont born violinist Owen Kevra-Lenz, has been performing solo, orchestral and chamber music for the past 16 years. He has played for some of the world's leading musicians including Jamie Laredo, Joseph Silverstein and Lawrence Dutton. As a member of the Vermont Youth Orchestra for 7 years, Owen frequently assumed leadership positions including concertmaster during his senior year of high school. With the VYO, he had the opportunity to perform with world-renowned artists including violinist Jamie Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, as well as the Amelia Piano Trio. During his time in the VYO they embarked on a tour of China, to numerous cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. He won the Vermont Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition in his senior year, and he played the Barber Violin Concerto with the VYO on New Year's Eve. Owen has also performed as a member of the Green Mountain Opera Festival orchestra in productions of The Barber of Seville, Lucia di Lammermoor and Carmen. Other orchestral experience has included participating in the All State and All New England orchestras throughout high school. In 2010, Owen was part of a piano trio that performed Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in C minor for the renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. Owen is currently a junior at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory, where he has been an active member of the Symphony Orchestra and chamber programs as well as performing contemporary music and baroque choral works. Owen's teachers have included Lynn Chang, Theodore Arm, Evelyn Read and Mary Gibson. He currently studies with Laurie Smukler.
American violinist Soovin Kim is increasingly sought after for the character, nuance, and excitement
of his performances as concerto soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist,
both in the U.S. and abroad. Particularly known for his breadth
of repertoire, Mr. Kim typically takes on everything from Bach to
Paganini to the big romantic concertos to new commissions within
a single season. He has performed in the U.S. with orchestras such
as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Baltimore, San Francisco,
and Indianapolis Symphonies, in Europe with the Stuttgart Radio
Symphony and the Prague Chamber and Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestras,
and in Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and KBS Symphony. His
CD of the 24 Paganini Caprices was released to critical acclaim
by Azica Records in 2006, and a recording of the Fauré A
Major Sonata and the Chausson Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Quartet
will be released in early 2007. Mr. Kim won first prize in the 1996
Paganini International Competition and was also awarded the Henryk
Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and most recently
the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He plays on the 1709 "ex-Kempner"
Stradivarius, which is on temporary loan to him. Erik Kroncke has been described by the New York Sun as “a bass of astounding depth and warm timbre.” He performs opera roles throughout the United States and Europe as well as winning competitions in the song repertoire. This season, Mr. Kroncke won an award from the Gerda Lissner International Competition in the Wagner division. He appeared as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Theater of the Rockies, and as Leporello in Don Giovanni with Satori Opera. Clarinetist Elisabeth LeBlanc was born in Quebec and raised in Vermont. In 1999 she received her
Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School as a student of Ayako
Oshima. From 2002 to 2004 she attended McGill University, earning
her Master of Music in the Orchestral Training Program.Currently
Elisabeth resides in Vermont, where she plays chamber music regularly
with pianist Annemieke Spoelstra and bassoonist Rachel Elliott while
continuing to work with Simon Aldrich in Montreal. This past summer
Elisabeth returned to Canada to perform in the 2006 season of the
Boris Brott Music Festival in Hamilton, Ontario. In her spare time
Elisabeth enjoys long-distance running and hiking the Green Mountains. Toronto-based conductor and pianist Yuri Meyrowitz has been gaining recognition for his musical abilities since his earliest years. Winning an award from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation at the age of nine prompted his family's move to New York, and soon afterward his musical development came under the guiding influence of the legendary Rosina Lhevinne, who, granting him a full scholarship, continued to oversee his musical progress until shortly before her death fifteen years later. His teachers at the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, in addition to Mme. Lhevinne, include Edward Steuermann, Nadia Reisenberg, Jan Gorbaty, Olga Strumillo, Jacob Lateiner, and Stefan Wolpe. Later on, he was a conducting student of Otto Werner Mueller at Yale University. He has appeared numerous times in broadcasts for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has concertized extensively throughout North America and Europe, and currently devotes most of his time to musicological research, chamber music, and teaching. His piano playing has been hailed for its "great intensity and sensitivity, lyricism," and "exceptional artistry" (Frank Hruby, Cleveland Press), as well as its "breathtaking pianistic power" (Claude Gingras, La Presse, Montreal). The Ottawa Citizen's Jacob Siskind has said of him: "He is obviously a musician rather than [simply] a pianist," and the New York Times' Will Crutchfield, after praising his "transparent textures," his "shading [of] the dynamic spectrum with a fine hand," and his "brilliant virtuosic command of rhythm," concluded: "He is a pianist of decided profile; one would like to hear more."
Terry Moore, Concertmaster of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, is from Rochester, Minnesota, and has music degrees from Indiana University and the Catholic University of America. His violin teachers include Daniel Guilet, Dorothy DeLay, and Lorand Fenyves. He served in the U.S. Army “Strolling Strings,” performing frequently in the White House for the President. Terry was a member of the Toronto Symphony and for nine years was concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra, where he also co-founded the Youth Orchestra in Tampa. He has performed with the orchestras in Richmond, Aspen, Grand Rapids, and Flagstaff and the Sarasota Opera, and was a faculty member at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He recently performed Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto and Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the Hilton Head Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Concerto with the Savannah Orchestra. Terry is also a composer and arranger.
Erik Nielsen's catalog includes music for chorus, orchestra, wind ensemble, solo instruments, chamber music, and electronic music. His works have been performed in Canada, Europe, and Australia as well as the United States, by ensembles including the Amabile, Chiara, Emerson, and Ying String Quartets; the National Symphony Orchestra; the Killington and Manchester Chamber Players; Bread and Puppet Theater; the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble; the Vermont Symphony; the Vermont Youth Orchestra; and Village and Northern Harmony. He has won awards from ASCAP and the Vermont Arts Council, and in 1991 was chosen Vermont Composer of the Year by the Vermont Music Teachers Association. His most recent commissions include chamber works to be premiered by the Chiara Quartet in March 2008 and by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble in April 2008, in addition to the song cycle premiered this summer by the RCMS. He has also recently received commissions from the Vermont All-State Music Festival and the Vermont Youth Orchestra. His new work The Crane Maiden will be toured by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble during the 2008-9 season. Erik's Clarinet Quintet was premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2004, and in 1995 his Piano Quintet was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Manchester Chamber Players. In 2000 his opera A Fleeting Animal, a collaboration with David Budbill, was premiered to great acclaim at several locations in Vermont. Erik is Composer-in-Residence at East Hartford, Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, and Simsbury High Schools in Connecticut, composition mentor at BFA-St. Albans High School in Vermont, and composition mentor with the Vermont Midi Project. He also teaches music theory and composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Erik lives in Brookfield, Vermont.
Robert Penny was
born in Singapore and grew up in Australia. At Indiana University
he studied with Helga Winold and Janos Starker and baroque performance
practice with Stanley Ritchie. Robert is a software developer and
an active musician in the Boston area folk dance community. He performs
regularly at the New England Folk Festival, and plays for English
country dances around Boston as a member of the Shandy Hall String
Quartet. Formerly a frequent performer in chamber music recitals
in the Boston area, Mr. Penny has played on WGBH's "Morning Pro
Musica" program as a member of the Tamarak Piano Trio, and has played
with many Eastern Massachusetts groups, including Boston Baroque,
Emmanuel Music, and the Handel and Haydn Society. His recordings
include Boston Baroque's CD of Handel's Concerti Grossi, op. 3,
for the Telarc label. This fall Robert will present the world premiere
of Tom Pixton's "Concerto Moldovanesc" at the Folk Arts Center of
New England. Julia Salerno is a Professor of Violin and Viola at Eastern Washington University. She was awarded scholarships for music study at the University of Michigan where she received her B.M. in violin performance, and University of Southern California, where she received her M.M. and D.M.A., respectively, in violin Daniel Santelices is a member of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and the Baroque Artists of Shreveport, and was formerly the Instructor of Violin & Chamber Music at Northwestern State University of Louisiana in Natchitoches. “Mr. Dan” has been on the faculty of the Centenary College Suzuki School in Shreveport since 1991, where he teaches violin and conducts the Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Santelices has twice been the recipient of Suzuki Association of America Grants for short-term teacher training and has been a clinician at Suzuki summer and weekend institutes in Texas, Michigan, Vermont, and New Hampshire. He was President of the Ark-La-Tex Youth Symphony Orchestra Board and is Director/Founder of their Chamber Music Program. Mr. Santelices also has been a regular Guest Conductor-Clinician for the area's parish-wide Honor Orchestras. He was named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006. In his spare time, Mr. Santelices enjoys playing racquet sports, in-line skating, and collecting thoroughbred racing memorabilia.
Byron Schenkman was voted "Best Classical Instrumentalist" by readers of the Seattle Weekly in 2006. He performs as a solo pianist, chamber musician, and as harpsichordist and artistic director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. A recipient of the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music, Mr. Schenkman has recorded more than thirty CDs of seventeenth and eighteenth century repertoire, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. As a pianist, he has been a featured guest with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, the Daedalus Quartet, the Northwest Sinfonietta, and the Philharmonia Northwest. He has played solo piano recitals in Boston, New York, Peterborough (NH), Portland (OR), Seattle, Vancouver, Winston-Salem, and on a Chilean tour sponsored by Partners of the Americas. His CD of Haydn sonatas on modern piano has been acclaimed for its "elegance, wit, and refinement" (American Record Guide), "imaginative, cleanly articulated form" (Seattle Times), and "astonishing sense of humor" (All Music Guide). In 2009 he participated in the Haydn and Mendelssohn bicentennial celebrations with performances at the Frick Collection in New York and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Schenkman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received his Master of Music degree with honors in performance, from the Indiana University School of Music. He is currently an adjunct instructor of piano and harpsichord at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
Sarah Schenkman grew up in a musical family in Norfolk, Virginia. Among her teachers were Ronald Leonard, Joel Krosnick, and Claus Adam, as well as her brother Peter. She has played with orchestras in Grand Rapids, Toronto, Sarasota, Greenville, Richmond, Charleston, the National Ballet of Canada, and the Aspen Music Festival, and she was a member of the Savannah Symphony for 10 years. Currently she is co-principal cello of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and principal cello of the Savannah Orchestra, has a teaching studio, and is a frequent chamber music performer and a champion of new music for cello. Sarah is married to violinist Terry Moore and they have one son.
Peter Stumpf enjoys as multifaceted a career as any cellist. After serving 12 years as the Associate Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Peter Stumpf became the Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the beginning of the 2002/2003 season. He is in great demand as a chamber musician around the world, performing on series at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw, and Casals Hall in Tokyo with some of the greatest living artists such as Emmanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Andras Schiff, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Radu Lupu, Mitsuko Uchida, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Mr. Stumpf has performed concertos with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, and the Virginia Symphony. He has also been heard in recital at Jordan Hall in Boston, at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C., and at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. As a member of the Boston Musica Viva he has explored extended techniques including microtonal compositions and numerous premieres. Mr. Stumpf served on the cello faculty of the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, the New England Conservatory, and guest artist faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as at the Yellow Barn Music Festival and the Musicorda Summer String Program. He received a bachelors degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory.
St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) has established itself among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. Their mission is to bring every piece of music to the audience in Whether playing Haydn or premiering a new work, the SLSQ has a rare ability to bring audiences to rapt attention. They reveal surprising nuances in familiar repertoire and illuminate the works of some of today's most celebrated composers, often all in the course of one evening. John Adams was inspired to write works expressly for the quartet after hearing them in concert. His "String Quartet", written for the SLSQ, was premiered by them in January 2009. In spring 2011, the quartet will premiere a new work by Osvaldo Golijob, also composed for them. This forthcoming work is expected to build on the success of their previous collaboration, which culminated in the twice-Grammy nominated SLSQ recording of the composer's Yiddishbbuk (EMI) in 2002. SLSQ maintains a busy touring schedule. The 2010–11 season included two trips to Europe with concerts in Germany, Belgium, Italy, Finland and Estonia. In North America, the SLSQ returns to Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, New York and Philadelphia in addition to concerts in North Carolina, Georgia, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Florida, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma. During the summer season SLSQ will continue its long association with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston S.C. and Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the quartet's founding in Canada, SLSQ in 2009 commissioned five Canadian composers and performed their work across the country. Since 1998, the SLSQ has held the position of Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University. This residency includes working with music students as well as extensive collaborations with other faculty and departments using music to explore a myriad of topics. Recent collaborations have involved the School of Medicine, School of Education, and the Law School. In addition to their appointment at Stanford, the SLSQ are visiting artists at the University of Toronto. Violist Lesley Robertson is a founding member of the group, and hails from Edmonton, Alberta. Cellist Christopher Costanza is from Utica, NY and joined the quartet in 2003. Violinists Geoff Nuttall and Scott St. John both grew up in London, Ontario; Geoff is a founding member and Scott joined in 2006. Depending on concert repertoire, the two alternate the role of first violin. All four members of the quartet live and teach at Stanford in the Bay Area in California.
Since early childhood, Sara Traficante has been captivated by musical expression. She began flute study at age seven in her hometown of Dundas, Ontario, with David Gerry through the Suzuki approach and continued further studies with Suzanne Shulman. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman School of Music and was awarded the Performer's Certificate. She studied flute with Bonita Boyd, piccolo with Anne Harrow, and baroque flute with Kristian Bezuidenhout. While at Eastman Sara achieved honors in the chamber music department for her wind quintet and flute, cello, and piano trio. She completed her Master of Music degree from McGill University, studying flute with Timothy Hutchins. During her studies, she performed with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the Group of the Electronic Music Studio. In March 2004 Sara was awarded a debut recital in Montreal for Radio-Canada CBC and was broadcast on the series "Jeunes Artistes de la Cha'ne Culturelle." She has performed as soloist with orchestras on several occasions, and in recitals in Canada, USA, Ireland, and Taiwan. Newly appointed to the faculty of SuzukiMusic in Ottawa, Sara teaches flute and early childhood music. She maintains an active performing schedule with particular interest in commissioning and performing new works by young Canadian composers. Her other musical interests include singing, songwriting, and creating innovative arts education projects.
Soprano Beth Thompson is well known in the north country for her versatility and eclectic tastes. Her varied repertoire includes everything from art song, oratorio, and opera to Broadway and contemporary folk music. No stranger to Rochester Chamber Music Society audiences, she has presented recitals of songs and arias with Cynthia Huard (most recently last summer) and collaborated with Ms. Huard and French horn player Ted Thayer, as well as helping out with musical examples for Larry Hamberlin’s talk about popular songs inspired by Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. She received critical acclaim for her starring roles in the Opera Company of Middlebury’s productions of Puccini’s Tosca (June 2005) and Lennox Berkeley’s Ms. Thompson co-produces the Middlebury College Music Department’s annual Broadway musical revue. In 1999 she recorded a single-song CD of “The Journey” (written by Nick Kaiser) as a fund-raiser for breast cancer research and programs in Vermont. Ms. Thompson holds degrees in singing from Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University School of Music, where she studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano Eileen Farrell. She taught singing at the University of Vermont from 1987 to 1993 and has served on the voice faculty of Middlebury College since 1992. She also maintains private voice studios in Middlebury, Rutland, and Dorset and at her home in Danby. A native Philadelphian, Daniel Williams serves as the Philadelphia Orchestra's second horn player. He began his horn studies at the age of nine in the Philadelphia public school system and then went on to attend Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. While at Curtis, Dan performed with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in its summer season. In 1975, during his senior year at Curtis, he became a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His primary teachers have been F. Mason Jones, John Simonelli, Ward Fearn, and Glenn Janson, all former members of the Philadelphia Orchestra horn section. Dan currently serves on the faculty of Temple University.
Violinist Katherine Winterstein holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Charles Castleman, and a Master of Music degree from Boston University's School for the Arts, where she studied with Peter Zazofsky. She was a member of the Seneca String Quartet and has collaborated in chamber music settings with Andres Diaz, Ida Kavafian, Ann-Marie McDermott, Steven Tenenbom, and Peter Zazofsky. In addition, she has performed in Washington DC's Embassy Series, Boston's Ashmont Hill Chamber Music Series, the Staunton Music Festival, and the McIntire Chamber Music Series at the University of Virginia. She appears regularly with the Craftsbury Chamber Players, the Boston-based Chameleon Arts Ensemble, the Firebird Ensemble, the Art of Music Chamber Players, and Musicians of the Old Post Road. She has appeared as soloist with the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Virtuosi, and other orchestras. Katherine is concertmaster of the Vermont Symphony, assistant concertmaster of the Portland Symphony, and the acting assistant concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and she performs regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque. Currently she is on the performance faculty of Middlebury College.
Tim Woos is from New Haven, Vermont and just completed his first year as a composition student at the Curtis Institute of Music. Well known in the Vermont music community, Tim's compositions have been performed by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Vermont Youth Orchestra, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra and Rachael Elliott's Bassoon Project. Recently, his composition "String Quartet" was premiered by a quartet led by violinist Soovin Kim at a winter concert of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. Tim has performed the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with the Vermont Youth Orchestra and appeared as a bassoon soloist with the Vermont Symphony. Tim Woos burst onto the national music scene in 2010 with his appearance on "From the Top", where he performed his "Suite for Bassoon Quartet" with three other bassoonists. Christopher O'Riley, host of the show, has performed Tim's piano solo, "Here and Now", all over the country. Middlebury Town Hall Executive director, Douglas Anderson says of Tim, "In ten years he'll be a household name." In commenting on what it takes to be a great composer, David Ludwig, Tim's composition teacher at Curtis says, "Some things you can quantify, like how clearly or effectively does he express himself. Some you can't define, like how does one person's work touch our hearts more than another's. Whatever the gift is, Tim has it."
|
- Rochester Chamber Music Society (RCMS) is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit