Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music,” pianist Jeffrey Sykes has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. He has garnered praise for his interpretations of music both old and new: 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.” And 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.”

Together with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Sykes is a founding member of the San Francisco Piano Trio. Praised for its virtuosic ensemble playing throughout a wide repertoire ranging from the trios of Haydn and Beethoven to those of Leon Kirchner and Astor Piazzolla, the trio recently appeared on San Francisco Performances’ Salon at the Rex series and has upcoming performances on series in the Bay Area and the Midwest. Mr. Sykes’ other 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 sponsored by the US State Department.

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 twenty-first season. He is a regular guest artist in the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, Texas and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, California; and in 2007, he served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards. He has recorded for the Albany, CRI, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear record labels.

For the last eighteen years, Mr. Sykes has served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young, a preeminent producer and presenter of opera for children that has introduced more than 2 million children to opera. 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 and vocal coaching programs.

Mr. 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 continued his education as 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.

Described by Gramophone Magazine as a “violinist who most often takes your breath away” and praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. Professor Emerita at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and former member of the Argenta Trio, she is also Founder and Artistic Director Emerita of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she created in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. Previously First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2010, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra with whom she performs frequently as a soloist. That same year she was awarded UNR’s prestigious Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to her active performing career, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many of whom have won positions in America’s symphonies and universities. 

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs. Fanfare Magazine wrote about her Soaring Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola, II release, “she play[s] with immaculate technique, impeccable intonation, lustrous tone, and emotional warmth.” And Audiophile Review described her Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas as “fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding.” Her other releases include Late Dates with Mozart; Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola on the MSR Classics label; Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn on Bridge Records; and Love Comes in at the Eye: Songs & Instrumental Works on Albany Records. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio frequently performs and teaches at various summer music festivals and chamber music societies including: Bach, Dancing & Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Music in the Vineyards (CA); Round Top Festival Institute (TX); Salon Concerts (TX) and, Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada). Continuing her deep commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion throughout her four-decade professional career, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio frequently programs marginalized and lesser known female composers to introduce her students and the general public to these neglected artists.

Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as Ida Kavafian, Richard Stoltzman, Joyce Yang, David Shifrin, Jon Nakamatsu, Richard Goode, Jon Kimura Parker, and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Albany, Bridge and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances have been aired 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 and his 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 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 in the Berkshires founded by grandmother Isabelle Sant’Ambrogio, a celebrated concert pianist and pedagogue. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant’Ambrogio family for four generations. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy, the city from which the family name Sant’Ambrogio originates, and her contemporary viola was made by Jacek Zadlo in Chicago in 2008. She and her graphic designer husband Gary Albright have enjoyed exploring Lake Tahoe and the West Coast for the past eighteen years, but have recently relocated to Cleveland, Ohio to be closer to their grown children Bella and Brie, and to enjoy the rich cultural life that this city on the lake has to offer.