Yehuda Hanani (Artistic Director)
Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist.” by The New York Times, Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. He has won wide international acclaim as soloist, chamber musician and inspiring pedagogue, and joined the faculty at the Mannes School in New York City this year. His concerto appearances have been with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Taipei and Seoul symphonies among many other orchestras, and he has toured with I Solisti de Zagreb, conducting from the cello. A frequent guest at Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Yale at Norfolk, Great Lakes, Casals Prades, Finland Festival, Ottawa, Oslo, Round Top Institute, Manchester, and the Australia Chamber Music festivals, he has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Escher, Ariel, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets. His recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and on CD and in live performances, he has given premières of works of Nikolai Miaskovsky, Lukas Foss, Leo Ornstein, Paul Schoenfield, Thea Musgrave, Joan Tower, Eduard Franck, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Tamar Muskal, Virgil Thomson, William Perry and Pulitzer Prize winners Bernard Rands and Zhou Long. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. Among the early designers and proponents of thematic programming, his engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Detroit, Calgary, Scottsdale, the Berkshires, and at the Frick Collection in New York City. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, Mr. Hanani’s studies were with Leonard Rose at Juilliard and with Pablo Casals. He has inspired scores of cellists as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. Artistic director of Berkshire High Peaks Festival, he presents master classes internationally at conservatories and for orchestras, including the Juilliard School, University of Indiana at Bloomington, New England Conservatory, McGill University, Paris Conservatoire, Berlin Hochschule für Music, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School in London, Tokyo National University, Jerusalem Academy of Music, the Central Conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and the New World Symphony in Miami. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. His objective is to instill a sense of wonder and adventure in young musicians, to lead them to technical mastery and bridge tradition with innovation.
“One of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist…”
— The New York Times
Annie Brooks
Pianist Annie Brooks enjoys a varied and exciting career as a chamber musician, solo recitalist and opera coach. Passionate and engaged in the chamber music community, Brooks has performed with the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, notably their Premieres! series, which features premieres and commissions from composers all over the world. Brooks’ work with her fellow artists has led her to performances from Seattle to Fort Worth, and New York to North Carolina. Working with a vast array of ensembles, she has taken part in the Marrowstone Summer Music Festival, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Piccolo Spoleto, and Providence Chamber Music Series in Charlotte. Brooks regularly plays orchestral piano with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and is currently the pianist for the Charlotte Symphony Choruses. Equally as dedicated to vocal repertoire and opera, she has worked as a coach and pianist with Wolf Trap Opera, Stony Brook Opera, the Occasional Opera Company, Aspen Opera Theater Center, North Carolina Opera, Opera Carolina and Fort Worth Opera. Her affinity for complex and contemporary operas has led to her participation in a variety of premieres and workshops, including the premiere of David Brooks’ opera Urban Legend, and the Double Exposure project with Opera Philadelphia in May 2018. Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Brooks received her Bachelor of Music degree magna cum laude from Western Washington University, and a Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University. She is Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Wingate University, where she gathers colleagues from around the country to collaborate as guest artists on Wingate University’s Recital and Concert Series.
Colin Carr (Master Class)
Colin Carr appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. He has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has twice toured Australia.With his duo partner Thomas Sauer he has played recitals throughout the United States and Europe including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Wigmore Hall in London. Carr has played complete cycles of the Bach Solo Suites at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Gardner Museum in Boston and in Montreal, Toronto, Ottowa and Vancouver. As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, he recorded and toured extensively for 20 years. Chamber music plays an important role in his musical life. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.Recent CD releases include the complete Bach suites on the Wigmore Live label and the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations on the MSR Classics label with Thomas Sauer. The winner of many prestigious international awards, including First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award, and Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition, his studies were at the Yehudi Menuhin School, with Maurice Gendron and later William Pleeth. He was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1998, having been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory for 16 years. In 1998, St. John’s College, Oxford created the post of “Musician in Residence” for him, and since 2002 he has been professor at Stony Brook University.
Diego Fainguersch (Master Class)
After many years of performing in the United States and Europe, Argentine cellist Diego Fainguersch returned to Buenos Aires in 2010 to fulfill the position of principal cello with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colon. Until that time, Diego was a member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet. This critically acclaimed ensemble served as the quartet in residence at Ohio Weslyan University, initiated the summer festival Scale the Summit, toured internationally with innovative programs, participated in community educational programs Music goes to school, and played for numerous recordings by Naxos, among others.
Diego has played with the esteemed Symphony, Ballet, and Chamber Orchestras of Cincinnati as well as having served as principal cello in many regional orchestras in the Ohio and Pennsylvania areas. As a sought-after soloist, Diego’s interpretations of Haydn and Dvorak have captivated audiences. He has performed in some of the world’s top music festivals, including the Curitiba Music Academy (Brazil), Roman-sur-Isere (France), the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca (Italy), and Domaine Forget (Canada).
Currently, Diego is the professor of cello at the Institute of Art at the Teatro Colon and previously has served as professor in two of Buenos Aires’ State Conservatories. In the United States Diego instructed at the Preparatory Department of the University of Cincinnati and at Ohio Weslyan. His participation as guest professor in summer festivals has included the Youth Chamber Music Camp
of Ohio and the Scale the Summit in Colorado. In addition to being invited to fulfill the position of adjunct professor in 2012 at the University of Cincinnati as a sabbatical replacement for Yehuda Hanani, Diego had previously served as assistant to him for several years, as well as to David Premo at Carnegie Mellon University.
First prize winner of the 2006 Concerto Competition and 2007 Chamber Music Contest at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Diego is also recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Fulbright and Antorchas Foundation Music Scholarships. In great demand as a teacher, he has led master classes and music festivals throughout North and South America. Diego’s teachers have included Yehuda Hanani at CCM, David Premo and Ann M. Williams at Carnegie Mellon University, Patrick Gabard at the Lyon Conservatory in France, and Wladimir Glagol at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires in Argentina. He has participated in master classes led by M. Rostropovich, W. Strehle, P. Muller, and Y. Chiffoleau.
Diego plays a cello made by George Gemunder in 1887, generously offered by Mr. and Mrs. Hale Oliver.
Eliot Fisk
Guitarist Eliot Fisk is known worldwide as a charismatic performer famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. After nearly 50 years before the public he remains as his mentor Andres Segovia once wrote, “at the top line of our artistic world.” In the 2017-18 season Fisk continues to break new ground for the guitar with marathon performances of his transcriptions of all 6 Bach solo cello Suites, duo performances with guitar legend Angel Romero and with a new trio formed with virtuoso guitarists Joaquin Clerch and Aniello Desiderio. The release of Robert Beaser’s monumental guitar Concerto (dedicated to Eliot Fisk) on LINN records in 2017 elicited rave reviews online and in print. Also in 2017, he premiered Son Dementes Cuerdas with the Arditti String Quartet with performances on two continents culminating in a performance at Wigmore Hall in London also featuring the Sequenza XI for solo guitar composed for and dedicated to him by Luciano Berio. Eliot Fisk has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and many others. He has performed with a dizzying array of chamber music colleagues including flutist,Paula Robison; clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman; cellist Yehuda Hanani; violinists Ruggiero Ricci, Gidon Kremer and Joshua Bell, the Shanghai, Juilliard, Miro and Borromeo Quartets. He has invented numerous cross over projects with among others Paco Peña (flamenco guitar); Joe Pass and Bill Frisell (jazz guitar) chanteuse, Ute Lemper and Turkish music specialist, Burhan Öçal. The repertoire of the classical guitar has been transformed through his innumerable transcriptions, and he remains a prolific recording artist. Recent releases include Ralf Gawlick’s Kollwitz Konnex for soprano and guitar (Musica Omnia) Anthony Paul de Ritis’s Pop Concerto with Gil Rose leading the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a pair of CDs of new music dedicated to and transcribed by Fisk of works by Beaser, Corigliano, Schwertsik, and Rochberg (Wildner Records) and duo discs with flamenco legend, Paco Peña (on Nimbus Records) and cellist, Yehuda Hanani (Albany Records). Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia and studied interpretation with the legendary harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University, from which he graduated “summa cum laude” in 1976, and where, directly following his own graduation in 1977, he founded the guitar department at the Yale School of Music. He is Professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and in Boston at the New England Conservatory where in 2010 he received the Krasner Award as “Teacher of the Year.”
Gila Goldstein
A versatile musician who has captivated audiences around the world with her artistry, pianist Gila Goldstein has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Korea, the Philippines, Europe and Israel.
Notable performances included the Berliner Symphoniker, Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta Da Camera in Mexico City as well as recitals and concerts at Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall in New York City, Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, Beijing Concert Hall in China, Seoul National University in Korea, the Purcell Room at the South Bank Center in London, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Musée de Louvre and Cité des Arts in Paris, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Gardner Museum and Tsai Performing Center in Boston, Dame Myra Hess concert series, Ravinia’s “Rising Stars” Series and Symphony Hall in Chicago, ”Great Performances“ series in St. Louis, Israel’s Henry Crown Hall in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum, among others. A Board member of the American Liszt Society (ALS) and the Founder-President of its New York Chapter since 1992, she has been a frequent guest performer at the ALS annual festivals around the United States and Canada. She also performed at festivals such as La Jolla, Yellow Barn, Sonus, Summit, Colburn, OpusFest, Jewish Music Festivals in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and London and the Israel Festival. Gila Goldstein has been a sought-after pedagogue for nearly two decades and has given numerous master classes in the USA, China and Korea. She is currently a member of the piano faculty at Longy School of Music in Boston as well as at Brown University, where she serves as the director of piano studies. Previous teaching positions included Boston University, BU Tanglewood Institute and New York University. A champion of the music of Israel’s leading composer Paul Ben-Haim for over two decades, Ms. Goldstein has recorded two volumes of his entire piano and chamber works on the Centaur label. She obtained her music degrees in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Nina Svetlanova and the Tel-Aviv University School of Music, with Victor Derevianko, both disciples of the legendary pianist and pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus.
Do Yeon Kim
A native of South Korea, cellist DoYeon Kim has won first prize in the Adrian Boyer Competition, the 34th Music Education Journal Competition and the Grand Rapids Federation of Musicians Madura Scholarship Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the Bayview Music Festival Orchestra and Acronym Baroque and has been a guest performer with the chamber series Close Encounters With Music in Great Barrington. International summer festivals have included The Quartet Program, Bowdoin and Aspen. Kim completed her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance at the University of Cincinnati in the studio of Yehuda Hanani, a Master of Music degree in Cello Performance at the Eastman School of Music in the studio of Alan Harris and is now pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati as a teaching assistant. An avid chamber musician, she has worked with members of the Ying, American, Shanghai, Ariel, and Cavani quartets, and is a member of the Dante Deo Trio which was founded at the Eastman School of Music in 2012 and Miclot Production chamber society based in New York City. She recently made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as first prize winner of the 2016 American Protege International Strings and Piano Competition. She has been a scholarship fellow and music coordinator of Berkshire High Peaks Music Festival since 2014 and now joins the faculty.
Jay Lesenger (Master Class)
During Jay Lesenger’s more than 40 year career as stage director, administrator and teacher, he has become known for intelligent, honest productions which are dramatically compelling and musically knowledgeable. Mr. Lesenger has produced and directed more than two hundred opera productions for the New York City Opera, Chautauqua Opera Company, Atlanta, Hawaii, Milwaukee, New Orleans (the world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s “Pontalba”), Opera Carolina, Opera Pacific, Palm Beach, Pittsburgh, San Diego,Virginia and many others. His European debut was with Opera Nordfjord, Norway, and he has directed for Volkstheater Rostock in Germany. For 21 years, from 1994 to 2015, Jay was the General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company, the longest serving general director in the company’s history. As a nationally recognized teacher of acting for singers, he has taught on the School of Music opera faculties at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University as well as for the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. Jay has also staged productions for Mannes/The New School, the Manhattan School of Music, Julliard, Indiana University and the Academy of Vocal Arts. Jay is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and other vocal competitions. He holds a Masters degree from Indiana University and a Bachelors of Music & Theater from Hofstra University. Upcoming: “River of Dreams” for Bridge Street Theater/Catskill and “The Ghosts of Versailles” for The Glimmerglass Festival/Cooperstown and The Royal Opera of Versailles.
Dr. Kivie Cahn-Lipman (Master Class)
Dr. Kivie Cahn-Lipman holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Juilliard School, and the University of Cincinnati, where he received his doctorate in the studio of Yehuda Hanani. He is the founding cellist of the International Contemporary Ensemble—with which he performs regularly to international critical acclaim—as well as founder, lironist, and director of the baroque string band ACRONYM and gambist with the viol consort LeStrange. Mr. Cahn-Lipman appears on more than forty recordings on labels including Nonesuch, Naxos, New Focus, New Amsterdam, New World, Tzadik, ArsPublica, Kairos, Mode, Tundra, Starkland, Olde Focus, Canteloupe, Stradivarius, and ECM, and his recording of the complete Cello Suites of J.S. Bach was praised for its “eloquent performances,” “fresh thinking,” and “energy and zeal” (The Strad). As a chamber musician, he has performed frequently in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and other major venues on four continents, as well as live on WNYC 93.9 in New York and WFMT 98.7 in Chicago. He taught cello at Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges from 2005-2012 and at The College of New Jersey from 2015-2017, and he has been on the faculty of the Cortona Sessions for New Music each summer since 2012. He joined the faculty of the Dana School of Music in 2017.
Irina Muresanu
Praised by the Boston Globe as “not just a virtuoso, but an artist,” Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu has won the hearts of audiences and critics alike with her exciting, elegant and heartfelt performances of the classic, romantic and modern repertoire. She achieved early international acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician winning top prizes in several prestigious international violin competitions including the Montreal, Queen Elizabeth, Pro Musicis, Presser Music Award, and the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Boston Pops, Miami Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), Syracuse Symphony, Metropolitan Orchestra (Montreal), the Transvaal Philharmonic (Pretoria, S. Africa), Romanian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Radio Flamande (Brussels), and the Boston Philharmonic. In 2013, Muresanu introduced her “Four Strings Around the World” project, a solo violin recital featuring works of composers inspired by various musical cultures around the world. In November 2015 she received a Creative and Performing Arts Award from the University of Maryland that will allow the commissioning of new works for this project. Her recent recording releases include the Thomas Oboe Lee’s Violin Concerto (dedicated to Ms. Muresanu) on the BMOP label and the complete William Bolcom Violin and Piano Sonatas on the Centaur label with pianist Michael Lewin. An active chamber musician and recitalist, Ms. Muresanu is a member of the Boston Trio. Festival appearances have included Bay Chambers and Bowdoin in Maine, Strings in the Mountains and San Juan Music Festival in Colorado, Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, Festival van de Leie in Belgium, and the Renncontres des Musiciennes Festival in France. Irina Muresanu currently serves on the faculty the University of Maryland and Boston Conservatory and has taught in the Harvard and MIT music departments. She received an Artist Diploma degree and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory. She plays an 1849 Giuseppe Rocca violin and an Etienne Pajeot bow.
Carolyn Regula (Festival Broadcast Host)
Carolyn Regula began cello at age 8, held a principal chair at age 11 and won her first concerto competition at age 15. Recently, she has soloed with the New England Repertory Orchestra, Nashua Chamber Orchestra and collaborated with the Muir Quartet, Ying Quartet, and Time for Three. Her mentors have included Stephen Geber, Michael Reynolds, Mihail Jojatu, Peter Howard, and Dave Eggar. She has attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, Berkshire High Peaks, and Mostly Modern Festival. She earned both a Dual Bachelor’s in Cello Performance and Music Theory & Composition, as well as a Master’s in Cello Performance from Boston University and recently graduated with her Performance Diploma from the Mannes School in New York City, studying with Yehuda Hanani. In addition to live performance and teaching, she has developed a virtual career where she is known as “The Cello Doll,” attracting non-traditional audiences to classical music. Since July 2018, Cello Doll has been making a name for herself on social media as a classical trained cellist with a gothic flare, fiery passion and persevering attitude. Through original arrangements that mash-up popular and classical music, she chooses pieces that complement each other and presents them in original music videos. Her Instagram reached 12K followers before her one-year anniversary in 2019.
Giora Schmidt
Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm,” violinist Giora Schmidt has appeared as soloist with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic. In recital and chamber music, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Music Academy of the West. He has collaborated with eminent musicians including Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Lynn Harrell. Born in Philadelphia to professional musicians from Israel, Giora began playing the violin at the age of four. A graduate of the Juilliard School, his teachers have included Geoffrey Michaels, Patinka Kopec, Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman, with additional guidance from Pinchas Zukerman. Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, he is currently on the artist faculty at New York University and Orford Musique Academy (Quebec) in the summer. He previously taught at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School and Perlman Music Program. Through technology and social media, he continues to find new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers around the world. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, The Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders award, and was a Starling Fellow at Juilliard.
Alexander Shtarkman
Alexander Shtarkman’s debut recitals in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City prompted strong words of praise from audiences and critics alike. Martin Bernheimer wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Alexander Shtarkman. Remember the name… He plays the piano with all the strength, flash and eagerness that his age would suggest. He also plays with the sensitivity and mellow refinement one associates with certain grand old men of the keyboard, most of them Russian.” James Keller of The New Yorker staff wrote of Mr. Shtarkman’s 92nd Street Y appearance – “Shtarkman’s was a debut recital of importance. In fact, debuts just don’t come much better than this. Of the young pianists currently entering the international spotlight, Shtarkman is unquestionably among the most musicianly.” Recital appearances in the United States include the Ambassador Foundation, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, Tisch Center for the Performing Arts, Ravinia Festival’s Rising Stars Series, San Francisco Performances, Regional Arts Foundation at the Kravis Center, The Peace Center and Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Orchestral appearances include the Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta at Orchestra Hall, Northwood Festival Orchestra, Marin Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque In August 1995, Mr. Shtarkman was awarded the First Prize of the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy. As a result of this prize, he was offered over sixty recitals and orchestral engagements in Europe within the following seasons. Shtarkman is a major prizewinner of the 1989 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the 1994 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. He won the First Prize of the First Taipei International Piano Competition and was engaged for numerous concerts throughout Asia. Mr. Shtarkman performs extensively in Europe and Asia, South and North America, Russia and the former Republics of the USSR. He is a frequent guest performer at the prestigious Great and Small Halls of the Moscow Conservatory. Since 2002 Mr. Shtarkman has been on the Piano Faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Michael Isaac Strauss
Known for his “rich tone and lyrical acumen” (Chicago Tribune), violist Michael Isaac Strauss has performed around the world as a soloist, recitalist, in chamber music, and in symphonic settings. His love for the intimate concert setting has led to performances on concert series, live radio broadcasts, and festival appearances across Europe, North America, and Asia. A former member of the distinguished Fine Arts Quartet, Strauss made several European and domestic tours with them, as well as a critically acclaimed recording of Mozart’s complete viola quintets on the Lyrinx label. He is a founding member of the new Indianapolis Quartet, in residence at the University of Indianapolis since 2016, where he also serves on the faculty. Strauss has also taught at Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music since 2016 and is the violist for the Dana Piano Quartet, in residence at Youngstown State University. Strauss’ solo work is featured on several CDs—the debut recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Viola Sonata, David Finko’s Viola Concerto, Stamitz’s works for solo viola with orchestra (Centaur), and the Suzuki Viola School CDs, Volumes 8 and 9. He has also recorded chamber works by living composers with the Philadelphia-based Orchestra 2001, the complete string quintets by Mozart with the Fine Arts Quartet, and he recently released Wordless Verses (Naxos)—trio works inspired by poetry for oboe, viola, and piano with the Jackson Trio. Strauss was principal violist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for 20 years and has served on the faculty of several prominent schools including Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, and Swarthmore College. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and performs on a viola attributed to Matteo Albani of Bolzano, Italy in 1704.
Danielle Talamantes
“It’s not often that a fortunate operagoer witnesses the birth of a star!” critics hailed Danielle Talamantes’ recent role début as Violetta in La traviata. This season, Talamantes sings Mimì in La bohéme with Fairfax Symphony and returns to The Metropolitan Opera to sing Frasquita for their productions of Carmen. In addition, she will appear as a soloist in multiple classical masterworks including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Carnegie Hall, Verdi’s Requiem with the National Philharmonic, Fauré’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with Eugene Concert Choir, and in the National Philharmonic’s Bernstein Choral Celebration concert. In recent seasons, Talamantes performed the role of Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Princeton Festival; Mimì in La bohéme with the St. Petersburg (FL) Opera and Symphony of Northwest Arkansas; the title role of Susannah with Opera Roanoke; Anna in Nabucco and Frasquita in Carmen with The Metropolitan Opera; Violetta in La traviata with Finger Lakes Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Cedar Rapids Opera Theater; a début at Spoleto Festival USA as Sergente in Veremonda. Additional concert works include “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman!” with Close Encounters With Music in Great Barrington and at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts; Mozart’s Requiem with Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Cathedral Choral Society, and Fairfax Symphony; Brahms’ Requiem with National Philharmonic, Choralis and St. Mary’s College; Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, Bach’s Magnificat, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with the National Philharmonic; Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Handel’s Laudate pueri dominum, and Charpentier’s Te Deum with The City Choir of Washington; Händel’s Messiah with Phoenix and La Jolla symphony orchestras, United States Naval Academy, National Philharmonic, The New Choral Society, and Austin Symphony & Chorus Austin; Poulenc’s Gloria with Arizona State University’s Symphony Orchestra; Verdi’s Requiem with Choral Artists of Sarasota and the Oratorio Society of VA; soprano soloist in Bob Chilcott’s Requiem at Alice Tully Hall; Dvořák’s Stabat Mater at North Carolina Master Chorale; Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Manchester Symphony Orchestra; and recitals and masterclasses with El Paso Pro Musica, Washington & Lee University, James Madison University and Point Loma University. Her debut album, Canciones españolas, was recently released on the MSR Classics label and the album Heaven and Earth, A Duke Ellington Songbook has followed.
Kerry Wilkerson
Kerry Wilkerson’s solo career has taken him from coast to coast performing major oratorios and recitals. A singer with unique evenness in register, he has been described by the Washington Post as an “exuberant” performer possessing the “amber tone of a lyric baritone with the imposing weight demanded by Handel’s low-lying writing.” He has enjoyed a celebrated career as a member of the United States Army Chorus, singing and conducting for world leaders, Supreme Court Justices, politicians and dignitaries of many nations during official ceremonies and protocol events. Wilkerson has sung professionally with the US Air Force Singing Sergeants and the critically acclaimed Robert Shaw Festival Singers in many of the most prestigious concert halls throughout the United States and Canada. He is well known to Washington, DC audiences through his solo recitals and regular guest appearances with choruses and orchestras such as the Händel Choir of Baltimore, the National Philharmonic Orchestra, City Choir of Washington, Choralis, and the Oratorio Society of Virginia. The 2018/19 season includes performinag the role of Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera Roanoke, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with American University Chorus, Händel’s Messiah with the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s The Bellswith Spokane Symphony, Faure’s Requiem with Eugene Concert Choir, Kodaly’s Te Deum with Oregon Music Festival, Bach’s B minor mass with City Choir of Washington, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Choralis and Durfle’s Requiem with the Washington Chorus. His Carnegie Hall debut was made in June of 2017, as baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Sancta Civitas, presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). Highlights during the 2017/18 season included performances with the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Bach’s Magnificat, Händel’s Messiah with the Austin Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Fairfax Symphony and as a featured artist in a Bernstein & Friends concert with Close Encounters With Music in the Berkshires. Mr. Wilkerson has joined the faculty of George Mason University.
Peter Zazofsky
Violinist Peter Zazofsky has enjoyed a richly varied career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator that spans thirty years and thirty countries on five continents. He has performed with many of the great orchestras in the U.S. and Europe, including the Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta, Minnsota, and Hong Kong, collaborating with maestros Tennstedt, Ozawa, Ormandy, Kurt Sanderling and Charles Dutoit. As a recitalist, Mr. Zazofsky has given innovative programs in Carnegie Hall, Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aries. He also tours the world’s music centers as first violinist of the Muir String Quartet, for which he has performed many complete cycles of the Beethoven quartets. A native of Boston, he first studied with Joseph Silverstein before entering the Curtis Institute, where he continued with Ivan Galamian, Dorothy Delay and Jaime Laredo. Graduating in 1976, Zazofsky went on to win top prizes in several international violin contests, including the 1979 Montreal Competition and 1980 Queen Elisabeth in Brussels. He is a frequent visitor to Israel, where he has given over forty performances of concerti, from Beethoven and Sibelius to Bach, Berg and Brahms. In recent years Peter Zazofsky added several new facets to his career. He has given premieres of new works written for him by composers in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Spain, and he recorded concerti by Robert Chumbley and Frederick van Rossum in Belgium and Poland. He has also encouraged creation of new works by American composers Joan Tower, Sheila Silver and Richard Danielpour. Long committed to teaching, Zazofsky holds the position of Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Boston University and serves as a jury member for the violin competitions in Montreal, Brussels and Odense, Denmark.
Jeffrey Zeigler
One of the most innovative and versatile cellists of our time, Jeffrey Zeigler has been described as “fiery” and a player who performs “with unforced simplicity and beauty of tone” by the New York Times. Acclaimed for his independent streak, Zeigler has commissioned dozens of works, and is admired as a potent collaborator and unique improviser He is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize, the President’s Merit Award from the National Academy of Recorded Arts, the Chamber Music America National Service Award and The Asia Society’s Cultural Achievement Award. Following his eight-year tenure with the renowned Kronos Quartet, his multifaceted career has led to collaborations with a wide array of artists from Philip Glass and Tanya Tagaq to Yo-Yo Ma, from Laurie Anderson and John Corigliano to Hauschka and the Pulitzer Prize winning scientist Siddhartha Mukherjee. He has also performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Royal Danish Radio Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra under the batons of Peter Oundjian, JoAnn Falletta, Dennis Russell Davies and Dmitry Sitkovetsky. This Fall, Zeigler released his most recent solo cello album, Houses of Zodiac. The album is his first full collaboration with his wife, trailblazing composer Paola Prestini. It is a multimedia experience that combines spoken word, movement, music, and imagery into a unified exploration of love, loss, trauma and healing. The project takes its title from the twelve houses of the zodiac and draws inspiration from explorations of the subconscious including Anaïs Nin’s House of Incest and the poetry of Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy and Natasha Trethewey. Filmed by Murat Eyüboglu at MASS MoCA and Studio Polygons in Tokyo, Japan, the digital experience will feature the performances and original choreography of New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin and Butoh dancer Dai Matsuoka, a member of the acclaimed Butoh troupe Sankai Juku. Other upcoming highlights include being featured in a new cello opera entitled The Old Man and the Sea directed by Karmina Silec with music by Paola Prestini and libretto by Royce Vavrek. Zeigler was the Music Director for two eco-documentaries that exist at the intersection of art, science, and community. Directed by Murat Eyüboglu, part one was entitled The Colorado and premiered at the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center, and Stanford Live and at over 30 film festivals. An excerpt of Part two, The Amazon, was presented at the Margaret Mead Festival at the American Museum of Natural History. Zeigler is the Label Director of National Sawdust Tracks, the non-profit, in-house record label of National Sawdust, an artist-led, multidisciplinary new music venue in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. National Sawdust Tracks releases content that reinterprets genre, facilitates provocative collaboration, and encourages new ways of listening. Recent releases include albums by Kamala Sankaram and music by the winners of the Hildegard Competition for Female, Trans, and Non-Binary Composers. Mr. Zeigler has released dozens of recordings for Nonesuch Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Cantaloupe, Smithsonian Folkways and National Sawdust Tracks and has appeared with Norah Jones on her album Not Too Late on Blue Note Records. Zeigler can be heard on the film soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino’s Academy Award winning film, La Grande Bellezza, as well as Clint Mansell’s Golden Globe nominated soundtrack to the Darren Aronofsky film, The Fountain. Zeigler can also be seen making an on screen cameo performing the music of Paola Prestini in Season 4 of the Amazon Prime’s Golden Globe Award winning series Mozart in the Jungle. Jeffrey Zeigler is the Director of Mannes Prep at New School University where he also teaches cello and chamber music at Mannes School of Music. Zeigler is a member of the Board of Directors of Chamber Music America and the Violoncello Society of New York and is on the Honorary Committee of the Sphinx Organization.
