Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio Artistic Director & Violin • Winner of the 2010 Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Nevada, Reno, Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio has been enjoying her position on the UNR faculty and as a member of the Argenta Trio since 2007. Previously Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony and First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra, Stephanie was recently appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra by Music Director Theodore Kuchar. Praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Founder and Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival celebrating its 15th season, Stephanie has a discography of over sixty orchestral and chamber music CDs. Her recent releases include Late Dates with Mozart, Klassics4Kids and Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola. Argenta Trio:The Mendelssohn Trios is expected to be released in the summer of 2011. In addition to her active performing career over two decades, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many of whom have successfully chosen careers in music. Cactus Pear Music Festival, presents chamber music performances, Young People’s Concerts, Kinder Konzerts, a full scholarship Young Artist Program, an Xtreme Composer Competition, American composer commissions and master classes in the South Texas region. In 2004, she was named a Ford Salute to Education Award winner for her outstanding contributions to music education through her creation of Cactus Pear Music Festival and her life’s dedication to private teaching. In addition to her performances as violinist, violist and Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed and taught at various festivals including: Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Nevada Chamber Music Festival (NV); Music in the Vineyards (CA); Round Top Festival Institute (TX) and Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada). Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, James Buswell, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances are frequently heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland’s Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Oliver Buswell. The name Sant’Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant’Ambrogio, former Principal Cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For thirty years the Sant’Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp, which was founded by grandmother Isabelle, a concert pianist. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant’Ambrogio family for four generations. Stephanie continues this love and dedication with her own students. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy and a viola by Jacek Zadlo of Chicago, 2008. In the moments when one of these instruments is not nestled under her chin, she and her husband Gary Albright enjoy life with their daughters, twelve-year-old Isabel and ten-year-old Gabrielle, who now also study music.
Katarzna Bryla Violin • Katarzyna Bryla is a brilliant young violinist, born in 1982 in Poznan, Poland. After graduating with a bachelor and masters degrees from the Academy of Music in Poznan, where she studied under Professor Bartosz Bryla and Professor Jadwiga Kaliszewska, she entered the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD, on a full scholarship, where she now studies with Maestro Herbert Greenberg. Katarzyna has won an impressive number of national and international violin competitions. Among them first prizes in the National Children's Art Competition in Warsaw at the very young age of eight, National Violin Competition in Gdansk; National J. S. Bach competition in Zielona Gora where she was also awarded a special prize for the best performance of Bach, and the International Contemporary Music Competition in Warsaw. Other top prizes include National Violin Competition in Wroclaw; National Violin Competition in Olszlyn, National J. S. Bach Competition in Zielona Gora, International Krzysztof Penderecki Competition in Cracow and the National Violin Competition in Elblag. Katarzyna has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Sun Festival in Singapore, and at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. In addition to her solo career, Ms. Bryla is also an active chamber music player. She has received top prizes in many chamber music competitions for her trio and quartet playing, such as the National Chamber Music Competition in Wroclaw in both 1997 and 1999 and top prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Lodz. With guitar she received the Grand Prix in the International Chamber Music Competition Chitaralia in Przemysl, with duo partner Lukasz Kuropaczewski. Despite her young age, Katarzyna has already performed with many major Polish orchestras and appeared in music centers in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, England, Gran Canaria and the United States.
Dustin Budish Viola • A native of Reno, Nevada, Dustin Budish began his musical training at the age of eight studying the piano, but soon realized his true passion was for the viola. He went on to study at the Cleveland Institute with Jeffrey Irvine and then at the New England Conservatory with Martha Katz. While in school, Dustin was a founding member of the Mephisto Quartet, which worked with and performed alongside members of the Cavani, Tokyo, Vermeer, and Cleveland Quartets, and received the Russell Award at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in 2001. As a Chamber musician, Dustin has performed at the Ravinia and Norfolk Festivals, and in 2005 was invited to Israel to perform with Maxim Vengerov’s Mozart Project with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. As a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Dustin was recently featured as a soloist with the orchestra as a winner of the annual concerto competition under Maestro Alasdair Neale’s direction. Also while in Miami, he served as artistic advisor to the “Friends” of New World, catering custom innovative fusions of classical music with hip-hop, electronic, reggae and funk while working with talented up and coming performers.
Christina Edelen Harpsichord • Hailed as a "superb harpsichordist" by the Kansas City Star, Christina Edelen brings a depth of experience, knowledge, and virtuosity to a career in early keyboard performance and teaching that has spanned two decades in the United States and Europe. On harpsichord, organ, clavichord, and fortepiano, Christina has performed as soloist and in numerous ensembles and festivals, including Opera Atelier, Santa Fe chamber music festival, and the Berkeley, San Antonio, and Bloomington Early Music Festivals. She studied at the Indiana University Early Music Institute and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and was a finalist at the Bodky International Competition. She is a popular teacher and lecturer, and has served on the faculties of Baylor University and the University of Houston. Christina is also active as a church organist in Amsterdam and Haarlem as well as the United States. She is currently concluding doctoral research in musical treatises of 17th century England. Recordings include the complete sonatas for Harpsichord and Flute of Boismortier and a selection of English Baroque Organ Concertos. With her husband cellist Fred Edelen, they comprise the Duo Edelen. They have appeared at the early music festivals of Boston, Berkeley, Bloomington, Columbus, and San Antonio. As Artistic Co-Directors and founders of Early Music Southwest in Houston, Duo Edelen have performed regularly with internationally acclaimed Baroque specialists including Baroque violinists Stanley Ritchie and Amy Kauffman, flutist Colin St. Martin, and tenor Tony Boutté. In conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston they have created a highly successful Baroque concert series in the museum's Rienzi collection. Duo Edelen are founding members of Trio La Poplinière, and are sought after as recitalists, continuo players, and teachers. They currently reside in Amsterdam.
Fred Edelen Cello • Fred Edelen performs throughout the US and Europe on both modern and Baroque cello as orchestral cellist, chamber musician, and recitalist. Currently a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he was formerly cellist with the Houston Symphony and Principal Cellist of the San Antonio Symphony. Described as a "masterful soloist" with "astonishingly expressive style and gorgeous tone," he has appeared as soloist with the Phoenix, San Antonio, and Houston Symphony orchestras, and was a prize winner at the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition. An avid performer on Baroque cello, Mr. Edelen studied at the Early Music Institute at Indiana University and continued his Baroque studies as a Fulbright scholar in The Hague. He has performed with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center, and returns to the US each summer to teach and perform at the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio. He performs extensively with his wife harpsichordist Christina Edelen as Duo Edelen.
Aloysia Friedmann Viola • Founder and Artistic Director of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (www.oicmf.org) in the Pacific Northwest, Aloysia Friedmann’s broad ranging career has included national and international tours, performances with New York’s most prestigious musical ensembles including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and a special onstage role on Broadway alongside Dustin Hoffman in The Merchant of Venice. The New York Times praised her “fiery spirit” after her Carnegie Recital Hall debut. Recent and upcoming festival performances include Amelia Island, Cactus Pear, Green Music, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Strings in the Mountains, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival, performing with musicians including Peter Schickele, William Preucil, Chee-Yun, Alisa Weilerstein, Gabriel Kahane, Lucy Shelton, the Miró Quartet and Lynn Harrell. Aloysia Friedmann is featured as both performer and producer on several festival recordings. Chamber Music America recognized Ms. Friedmann’s artistic leadership with its 2008 CMAcclaim Award and most recently she was invited to be on the 2011 CMA National Conference Committee. In Houston, Ms. Friedmann is Associate Concertmaster for the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and also was Acting Concertmaster for Houston Grand Opera’s world premiere performances of Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair. She has taught as an Affiliate Artist of Viola and Violin at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. Ms. Friedmann graduated from The Juilliard School and also studied at the University of Washington. She is married to concert pianist Jon Kimura Parker and they have a daughter, Sophia Keila. Aloysia Friedmann plays on a Grancino violin and a Grancino viola. The violin was made in 1695 in Milan and the viola, circa 1675, was once owned by British composer and violist Rebecca Clarke.
Jeff Garza Horn • Hailed by the San Antonio Express-News as "a musician of rare authority", Jeff has been principal horn of the San Antonio Symphony since September 2004 and is sought after throughout the United States as a teacher, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. During the summer season, Jeff is principal horn of the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon and, beginning in July 2010, he will also be joining the Festival Mozaic Orchestra of San Luis Obispo, California as principal horn and as a featured player on the festival’s chamber music series. Jeff has previously held principal positions with the Houston Grand Opera, Utah Festival Opera and has served as guest principal horn of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In January 2007, Jeff served as principal horn during the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's European tour, including performances in Berlin, Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest. Past engagements also include positions with the New World Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, National Repertory Orchestra, Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra and Houston Ballet Orchestra. While with the Houston Grand Opera, Jeff participated in several national and international broadcasts for NPR World of Opera and PBS Great Performances as well as recordings on the Albany and Ondine labels.
Dave Harding Viola • David Harding has an extensive solo and chamber music career, having performed throughout Europe, the United States, Canada and Central America, in such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Concertgebouw, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, NPR and Deutschland Radio. David is frequently featured on CBC Radio in Canada. He regularly performs at chamber music festivals throughout North America including amongst others the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Strings in the Mountains, CO, Sitka Chamber Music Festival, AK, Festival of the Sound, ON, and the Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival, TX. David is a member of Trio Verlaine and the American String Project, (a collaboration between quartet players, soloists and concertmasters.) David is a seasoned chamber musician, having been a former member of the Chester String Quartet, Toronto String Quartet and Triskelion String Trio. He has collaborated with members of the Cleveland, Tokyo and St. Lawrence quartets, and has made chamber music recordings for Sony, Crystal, Chesky, Innova and New Albion record labels. David’s latest CD projects include a recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations, with Triskelion for CBC records, Brahms’ Viola Sonatas and Horn Trio for Skylark Music and an innovative disc of flute, viola, harp works by Ravel and Debussy with Trio Verlaine for Skylark Music. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, David’s principal teachers were Paul Doktor, Emanuel Vardi and Tibor Vaghy. He was the winner of the Sir John Barbirolli award at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. David has given master classes at the Banff International Centre for the Arts and numerous universities throughout North America. Having served on the faculty of Indiana University South Bend, he is currently Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the University of British Columbia. David plays on a viola made by Pietro Antonio della Costa, Tresviso Italy, circa 1750.
Lorna McGhee Flute • Scottish-born Lorna McGhee was formerly co-principal flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a position she held until immigrating to Canada in 1998. She has performed as guest principal with many orchestras, including the London Symphony, Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and Pittsburgh Symphony. As a soloist, Lorna has given concerto performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the UK and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Toronto Philharmonia, & Victoria Symphony in Canada. In July 2004 she performed Penderecki's flute concerto with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra (USA) under the baton of Krystos Penderecki himself. As a chamber musician and recitalist, she has performed throughout Europe and North America in such venues as London's Wigmore Hall, Barge Music in New York, the Louvre, Paris and the Schubertsaal of Vienna's Konzerthaus. Her recitals have been broadcast on CBC Radio in Canada, BBC Radio, NPR( USA) and Netherlands Radio. She has made chamber music recordings for EMI, Decca ASV, Naxos and Meridian. Along with Duo partner Heidi Krutzen, Lorna has released two CDs on Skylark Music: "Taheke, 20th century Masterpieces for flute and harp" and "Canada, New Works for flute and harp." Both discs reflect the Krutzen/McGhee Duo's commitment to expanding the repertoire, with four of the Duo's own commissions amongst the diverse repertoire presented. As a member of Trio Verlaine ( with Heidi Krutzen, harp and David Harding, viola) Lorna has most recently recorded “Fin de Siècle,” a CD of music by Debussy and Ravel for Skylark Music. Lorna is regularly featured in chamber music festivals in Canada and the States, including the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and Sitka Summer Music Festival. As a teacher, she has served on the faculty of the University of Michigan, and is currently teaching at the University of British Columbia. She has given master classes at major universities, conservatoires and flute festivals in the UK, USA and Canada. She has performed for the National Flute Convention, British Flute Convention and Austrian Flute Society. Lorna has been a resident artist/teacher at the Banff International Centre for the Arts on several occasions. Lorna studied with David Nicholson at the RSAMD and with William Bennett at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Excellence.
Dmitri Pogorelov Violin & Viola • Critically acclaimed violinist Dmitri Pogorelov has won prestigious solo and chamber music competitions in his native Russia at an early age, which led to numerous performances with orchestras in the USA, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and Russia. Dmitri has appeared in chamber music concerts with principal players of Chicago, Houston, Baltimore, Saint Louis, San Antonio, Colorado, Hartford, Charlotte and Seattle Symphonies, Cleveland and Concertgebouw Orchestras, Rochester and Florida Philharmonic Orchestras, San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, and Frankfurt State Opera orchestras. As part of Dmitri’s interest in contemporary chamber music, he has recently recorded works by Eric Ewazen, Gunther Schuller, and Yehudi Wyner for Albany Records. A seasoned orchestral performer, Dmitri has worked under Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Sir Mark Elder, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Larry Rachleff, and Esa-Pekka Salonen as Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra. Currently Dmitri is the 1st violinist of the Kontras String Quartet, the new Quartet in Residence with the Western Piedmont Symphony, and the Orchestra’s Concertmaster; he is a violin faculty member at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, NC. Dmitri holds degrees in music performance from DePaul and Lynn Universities, having worked with world renowned violinists Ilya Kaler, Elmar Oliveira and Sergiu Schwartz.
Beth Rapier Cello • Born into a family of distinguished musicians, Beth Rapier began her professional career at age 16 as an apprentice with the Louisville Orchestra. After studies at Indiana University and in New York with Janos Starker, Fritz Magg and Timothy Eddy, she performed, toured and taught for two seasons with the Apple Hill Chamber Players of New Hampshire. A member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1986, Beth was appointed Assistant Principal Cello in 1991 and has been featured as soloist in works by Haydn, David Ott, and a world premiere by Kevin Puts. She has also appeared as soloist with the Colorado Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and many regional ensembles. An award winner at several chamber music competitions, she has performed throughout Taiwan, Japan, Europe and the US. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, a 2000 winner of a McKnight Foundation Award. During its 16 years, the quartet performed regularly at such venues as the Boston Chamber Music Society, Festival Mozart (France), New School and the Barge in New York. She is a frequent guest at chamber music festivals, including Cactus Pear, Music in the Vineyards, and Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. Beth has recorded quartets by Beethoven and Bartok for Boston Records and Shostakovich, Faure, and Brahms Quartets for Artegra. In April 2005, sher was again named a McKnight Foundation Award winner for her performance of cello duos with her husband Anthony Ross. Together, they organize an annual chamber music benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity.
Tony Ross Cello • Minnesota Orchestra Principal Cello Anthony Ross has been a soloist many times with the orchestra, performing concertos by Dvorák, Victor Herbert, James MacMillan, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Elgar and Shostakovich, among others, as well as many chamber works. In October 2009 he was featured in the Schumann Cello Concerto under the baton of Stefan Sanderling; in May 2010 he played the Brahms Double Concerto alongside Acting Concertmaster Sarah Kwak in concerts led by Mark Wigglesworth. He returned to the solo spotlight in October 2010, performing Walton’s Cello Concerto under Gilbert Varga’s direction. Tony was principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic in New York before joining the Orchestra in 1988; he assumed his current position in 1991. Away from Orchestra Hall, Ross is active as a chamber musician, festival performer and educator. He has appeared in the Mostly Mozart, Cactus Pear (San Antonio) and Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (Madison) festivals, and has performed on stages from Pensacola, Florida, to Rhodes, Greece. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Festival and the Grand Teton orchestra seminar. Tony’s recordings include Bernstein’s Three Meditations with the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue, the George Lloyd Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, and works of Rachmaninoff and Elliott Carter for Boston Records. A graduate of Indiana University, Tony earned a master’s degree at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. In 1982 he was awarded the bronze medal at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition, and he received McKnight Fellowships in 2001 and 2005.
Ilya Shterenberg Clarinet • Principal clarinetist of the San Antonio Symphony and former principal clarinetist of the Charleston Symphony, Ilya has performed extensively in the United States and abroad, in broadcasts on National Public Radio and Chicago’s WFMT classical music network. As a soloist, his repertoire with orchestras have included such rarely heard clarinet concertos as those by Franz Krommer and Karol Kurpinsky, as well as the American premiere of Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra. He has performed frequently as a recitalist and chamber music artist with Cactus Pear Music Festival, the Olmos Ensemble, Colorado Music Festival, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival – USA. Ilya teaches clarinet at the University of Texas San Antonio.
Craig Sorgi Education Director, Young Artist Program [YAP]• Since 1982, Craig has been a member of the San Antonio Symphony First Violin section and during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 concert seasons he was appointed the orchestra's Acting Assistant Concertmaster. Craig is also the Concertmaster of the San Antonio Opera, a position he has held since 1999. In 2005, he was invited by Maestro David Mairs to be the Concertmaster of the Mid-Texas Symphony. Craig is the Adjunct Professor of Violin at Trinity University and is very active as a chamber music performer and solo recitalist in the South Texas area for over 25 years and is a frequent performer of new music. As Education Director of CPMF's Young Artist Program since 2009, Craig has helped build the YAP into a much sought after full-scholarship fellowship program for talented and serious young musicians.
Jeffrey Sykes Piano • Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music," Jeffrey has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. The San Francisco Examiner praised his appearance with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players as “a tour-de-force performance [that was] the evening’s major delight.” Recent activities include a Carnegie Hall recital under the auspices of the Pro Musicis Foundation, a live broadcast over WGBH, Boston Public Radio, and a tour of Chile with violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio sponsored by the US State Department. The Well-Tempered Ear commented that “Mr. Sykes displayed the ideal Chopin touch and tone. His fleet fingers captured the lightness of the bel canto singing style in Chopin, with its filigree runs and quickly turned ornaments, all making the hard sound effortless and graceful.”
Mr. Sykes is the founder and artistic director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Wisconsin, a highly-acclaimed and innovative chamber music festival now in its twentieth season. He is a regular guest artist in the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio. In 2007, he served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards, a chamber music festival in Napa Valley, California. In 2009, Sykes joined with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau to form the San Francisco Piano Trio. He has recorded for the Albany, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear record labels.
For the last sixteen years, Mr. Sykes has served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young. He works extensively as a vocal coach throughout the US and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He also joined the faculty of California State University-East Bay in the fall of 2008 where he directs the piano accompanying program.
Dr. Sykes holds degrees with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. He then was a Fulbright scholar at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. A recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education, he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ryo Yanagitani piano • Ryo Yanagitani has distinguished himself as one of Canada's most promising young concert artists. His most recent success includes winning the gold medal at the 10th San Antonio International Piano Competition, where he was also given special recognition for a performance of the complete Chopin Ballades. Among other honors, he is also the grand prize winner of the Hugo Kauder International Piano competition and a laureate of the Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition, the Dr. Luis Sigall International Piano competition in Vina del Mar (Chile), and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Ryo has made concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and the Moroccan Symphony Orchestra among others. In addition to many solo recitals, he has been in demand as a chamber musician, performing in a wide range of settings, from the duo sonata repertoire to large ensembles. His most recent collaboration with cellist Dai Miyata has resulted in a concert tour of Japan, and they will be releasing a CD in the upcoming season. He is presently an active member of the Musique a la Mode chamber ensemble in New York, specializing in the performance of new music and unusual works seldom heard in public. He is also pianist of Duo Chrysalis with cellist Jacques Lee Wood, and their collaboration has taken them on a tour of performances across the United States and Korea. A recipient of many scholarships and awards, Ryo has been endowed twice by the Canadian Arts Council with a grant as an Emerging Artist, and is a recipient of the Arthur Foote Scholarship from the Harvard Musical Association. He was also recently awarded the Sony Foundation of America Career Grant through the Salon de Virtuosi of New York. He is an artist-in-residence of the Maxwell Shepherd Fund of Connecticut, as well as a pianist with the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation. Ryo is also increasingly recognized not only as a performer but also a pedagogue, and is frequently asked to adjudicate competitions and conduct masterclasses. Ryo received his Masters of Music degree from the Yale School of Music under Boris Berman, a Bachelor Degree in Piano Performance from the University of British Columbia under Doctor Henri-Paul Sicsic, and an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute under Sergei Babayan. He recently completed his residency requirement for the Yale School of Music Doctor of Musical Arts Degree. Ryo is currently an instructor for the Chamber Music Program at Yale.
Aron Zelkowicz cello • Aron Zelkowicz has been recognized by critics and colleagues alike for his ability to communicate with audiences, students, and communities. With a career encompassing a broad range of activities as a cellist, performer, teacher, and administrator, he has cultivated a repertoire both classical and ethnic, familiar and obscure. He currently serves as the Founder and Director of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, which presents rare and diverse works from Jewish musical traditions to Pittsburgh audiences every spring. Currently in its seventh season, the Festival has featured renowned ensembles and guest artists from the orchestral, chamber, early music, rock, and world music genres in innovative and thematic programs. Under his guidance the Festival has commissioned several works from major composers, received major grants and mainstream critical acclaim, and has been featured in full-length radio and cable television broadcasts. As a chamber and orchestral musician, Aron has performed at the Tanglewood, Banff, Aspen, Sarasota, Chautauqua, Colorado, and Sunflower music festivals, the New York String Orchestra and Juilliard Quartet Seminars, with members of the Emerson and Cleveland Quartets, and on European and American tours with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He enjoys relating directly to both adults and children with outreach programs and personal introductions to his concerts, as he has done with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, the Proteus Ensemble, Piccolo Spoleto’s Spotlight chamber music series, as well as his own Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival. As a teacher and coach to young string players, Aron has given master classes at universities and colleges throughout the U.S. and served on the faculties of Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp in Vermont and the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. Born in Ottawa, Canada, Aron grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania and received degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and SUNY Stony Brook (DMA), where his major teachers included Anne Martindale Williams, Paul Katz, Steven Doane, Janos Starker, and Colin Carr. He plays a cello made in 1705 by Giovanni Grancino and resides in New York City. www.aronzelkowicz.com and www.pjmf.net
Carmit Zori violin • At the recommendation of Isaac Stern and Alexander Schneider, violinist Carmit Zori came to the United States from her native Israel at the age of fifteen to study with Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo and Arnold Steinhardt at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Carmit is the recipient of a Levintritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award and a top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition.She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in recital at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Her engagements abroad have included performances throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as in Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Australia, where she premiered the Violin Concerto by Marc Neikrug. In addition to her appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ms. Zori has been a guest at chamber music festivals and concert series around the world, including the Chamber Music at the “Y” series in New York City, the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the Marlboro Festival in Vermont. Ms. Zori was an artistic director and frequent performer at Bargemusic in New York, and is now the artistic director of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, which she founded in 2002. She has recorded on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Elektra-Nonesuch labels. Ms. Zori is also a professor of violin at SUNY Purchase.
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