We are very grateful to all of our supporters for a wonderful 2017-2018 season! Stay tuned for next season’s events and in the meantime…
Award winning Israeli violinist and recording artist Boris Abramov has established himself in recent years as a young promising artist, performing across the world as a soloist as well as chamber and orchestral musician. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1989, Mr. Abramov immigrated to Israel in 1990, and began studying the violin at the age of 6 with Stella Zlatkovsky. Since 2001, Mr. Abramov received annual scholarships and prizes from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and was declared second prize winner in Israel’s Rising Star National Music Competition in 2004. Mr. Abramov has been heard on Israeli Radio broadcasts, playing chamber music at the Jerusalem Music Center and at age 16, served as Concertmaster of the Israel Youth Philharmonic Festival.
At the age of 17, Mr. Abramov continued his studies at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University in the United States, where he completed his Bachelor’s (cum laude), Masters and Artist Diploma degrees with the renowned violinist and pedagogue Sergiu Schwartz. Since his move to the United States from his native of Israel, Mr. Abramov has participated in several music competitions as a soloist winning several awards at a national and international level; among them include: 3 time Concerto Competition Winner at Columbus State University, National Winner of the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Competition for strings in 2008 in Denver, USA and was awarded a special prize at the 2009 Pablo de Sarasate International Competition in Pamplona, Spain.
Mr. Abramov solo career included appearances with the Jerusalem Festival, Columbus Symphony, Lagrange Symphony, Brevard Symphony, Auburn Symphony and Verde Valley Sinfonietta Orchestras, as well as concerts in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and the United States. Recent chamber music engagements included performances with the American Chamber Players as well as performances at the XX Homecoming Chamber Music Festival in Russia collaborating with world renowned performers such as Alexander Kobrin, Alexander Buzlov, Maxim Rysanov and Roman Mintz. Frequent chamber music collaborations include Wendy Warner, Carmine Miranda, and Sergiu Schwartz.
Boris Abramov’s upcoming album, Mozart-Beethoven Violin and Cello Duets with the renowned Cellist Carmine Miranda, was awarded the Silver Medal at the 2017 Global Music Awards, and set to be released on November 10th by Navona Records.
In May 2014, Mr. Abramov was appointed principal second violinist of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and currently serves as Professor of Violin at Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University, (USA).
Mr. Abramov is a Dogal Artist performing exclusively on Dogal Capriccio Violin Strings and performs on a Anthony Wrona violin made in 1959, in Buffalo, New York.
Dr. Eun-Joo Kwak is an internationally admired concert artist and educator, whose professional engagements have taken her across Europe, Asia, and North America. A native of South Korea, her career was launched with top prizes in the Samick National Piano Competition (South Korea), Tokyo International Piano Duo Competition (Japan), International Beethoven Sonata Competition (Memphis, TN), and others. Her diverse concert life has included concerto appearances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul), Sun-Hwa Philharmonic Orchestra (Seoul), Racine Symphony Orchestra, Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, and numerous university orchestras. She has given recitals in significant venues, such the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), World Piano Conference (Novi Sad, Serbia), American Landmark Festival (New York), Taipei National Recital Hall (Taiwan), with several broadcast internationally (WFMT-Chicago, KBS-Seoul, Christian Radio-Taiwan, Wisconsin Public Radio-Madison). An avid chamber musician, she was a member of the international prize-winning Cheng and Kwak Piano Duo, the Clarus Piano Trio, and has performed with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. Her professional recordings are available from Northwestern University Press, Vienna Modern Masters label, and the Naxos Music Library.
Kwak continues to be in great demand as clinician, adjudicator and lecturer. Twice she was a judge for the International Smetana Piano Competition (Czech Republic), and has been an invited guest of the Isidor Bajic Conservatory (Serbia), Shin-Zhu Teachers University (Taiwan), Music Teachers National Association, PianoArts of Milwaukee National Competition, New York State School Music Association, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association, and many other organizations.
After completing the Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Seoul National University, Kwak emigrated to the United States, where she earned the Master of Music from Roosevelt University and Doctor of Music from Northwestern University. She studied with Jeong-Joo Oh, Kui-Hyun Kim, Pawel Checinski, David Kaiserman, Sylvia Wang, and took master classes with such artists as Robert Levin, Ursula Oppens, and Garrick Ohlsson. Professor Kwak previously taught at Truman State University, Northwestern University, Carthage College, Cardinal Stritch University, and is now Keyboard Area Chair/Assistant Professor of Piano at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.
Matthew Slotkin is an acclaimed performer, teacher, and scholar, and has appeared in leading venues on six continents. A commitment to contemporary music has resulted in premieres of numerous works by composers including Linda Buckley, John Anthony Lennon, Scott Lindroth, John Orfe, and many others. Festival performances include concerts at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Walled City Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, the Chautauqua Institution, the Guitar Foundation of America, and the World Saxophone Congresses in Scotland, Thailand and Slovenia. He has performed on numerous classical guitar society concert series including New Zealand (GANZ), Montreal, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Iowa, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Great Lakes. He has given performances with many prominent chamber ensembles including Cantata Profana, Metropolis Ensemble, Mallarmé Chamber Players, Duo Montagnard, and Dez Cordas. Recordings on the Summit, Centaur, and Liscio labels have been praised as “wonderful…a very enjoyable disc” (Soundboard), and “a magnificent achievement…the concept of this program is brilliant” (American Record Guide). Soundboard magazine called him an “exceptional” player, and a recent concert review from the Classical Voice of North Carolina states that “Slotkin performed brilliantly.” Slotkin is an Associate Professor of Music at Bloomsburg University, where he has directed the guitar program since 2004. He has given masterclasses at numerous institutions and festivals including the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, Victorian College of the Arts (Australia), ESMAE (Portugal), National University of La Plata (Argentina), the Alexandria Guitar Festival, and many others. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied guitar with Nicholas Goluses.
Matthew Slotkin is an acclaimed guitar performer, teacher, and scholar, and has appeared in leading venues on six continents. He has released eight recordings on the Centaur, Liscio and Summit record labels, several of which have received critical praise from leading publications including American Record Guide, Fanfare and Soundboard. A commitment to contemporary music has resulted in world premiere performances of over fifty works in both solo and chamber music settings, and Slotkin has given performances with many prominent chamber ensembles including Cantata Profana, Metropolis Ensemble, Mallarmé Chamber Players, Duo Montagnard and Dez Cordas. Slotkin is an Associate Professor of Music at Bloomsburg University, where he has directed the guitar program since 2004.
“Clearly knowing the power of sonority” (Philadelphia Inquirer), the music of Baljinder Sekhon has been presented in over 500 concerts in twenty countries. From works for large ensemble to solo works to electronic music, Sekhon’s demonstrate a wide range of interests and styles. Sekhon’s compositions for saxophone and percussion instruments are widely recognized as pioneering work in those genres with numerous presentations, CD recordings, and guest lecture appearances.
The U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” presented a portrait concert of Sekhon’s chamber music in Arlington, VA, in March 2017. Also in 2017, his saxophone works were presented at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and at the EurSax2017 Conference. His recent Double Percussion Concerto and his choral work There Are No Words were both premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium Perelman Stage. His recent orchestral work The Offering is a 22-minute, three-movement concerto for saxophone and orchestra that received its premiere by saxophonist Doug O’Connor and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. His work Civil Variations for orchestra was performed at the Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival in 2015 and Ancient Dust, also for orchestra, was premiered at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music (Marin Alsop, director) where it was described as “still and mysterious, animated, haunting and peaceful” by the Epoch Times. In 2009, Sekhon composed a voice and chamber orchestra work for Grammy-nominated soprano Tony Arnold. Musica Nova premiered the resulting work, Post, under the direction of acclaimed conductor Brad Lubman. Recent commissions include Sekhon’s involvement in the Global Premiere Consortium Commissioning Project, which resulted in his work Sonata of Puzzles for the top saxophonists around the world. Consortium members for this project include Artur Mendes, Tim McAllister, Dale Underwood, Connie Frigo, Chien-Kwan Lin, John Sampen, Jérôme Laran, Seung-Dong Lee, Douglas Braga, Clifford Leaman, and Yo Matsushita, among more than forty other saxophonists. In addition, over forty percussionists recently joined together to commission Passageways, a solo steel pan and percussion ensemble work, The Passageways commission was initiated by percussionist David Gerhart who served as the soloist for the work’s premiere in 2015 with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Percussion Ensemble. Most recently, Sekhon completed a new work for solo marimba entitled Distances, commissioned by Michael Burritt and a large consortium of soloists.
Additional platforms for the performance of Sekhon’s music have included the Seoul Arts Center, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, National Orchestra Institute, The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, the Paris Conservatory, MATA’s Interval Series, New World Symphony’s Musician Forum Series, the World Saxophone Congress, International Viola Congress, Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Bang On a Can Festival, Root Signals Electronic Music Festival, Stallenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (South Africa), and a full concert of his works at John Zorn’s contemporary art space The Stone. Several commercial recordings of Sekhon’s music have been released, including two by the McCormick Percussion Group (USA), a recording of Drifting Seeds by the Couloir Duo (Canada), Bunker by the Evolution Duo (Netherlands), Compass by the Juventas New Music Ensemble on New Dynamic Records, Gradient by the Heisler/Yeh duo on AMP Records, Double Percussion Concerto by the USF Wind Ensemble on Mark Records, Gradient by Jerome Laran on Klarthe Records (France), Regeneration by Phillip O’Banion on BCM&D Records, and Sonata of Puzzles by Artur Mendes (Portugal) and by Adam Estes on Albany Records (USA). Sheet music of Sekhon’s works is available internationally from Keyboard Percussion Publications, Glass Tree Press, Steve Weiss Music, Le Vent Music (Taiwan), AvA Musical Editions (Europe), and Southern Percussion (UK). A portrait CD of Sekhon’s music, featuring the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, line upon line percussion trio, guitarist Dieter Hennings, and the McCormick Percussion Group will be released on Innova Records in 2018.
Sekhon serves as Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of South Florida where he received a 2017 Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher award, he and holds the PhD and MA from the Eastman School of Music where he is a three-time recipient of the Howard Hanson Orchestral prize and served as president of the highly acclaimed OSSIA New Music Ensemble. Sekhon also holds a BM from the University of South Carolina. Additional honors include the Wayne Brewster Barlow Prize, New Music USA’s Composer Assistance Grant, Audio Inversions, Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition, Brian M. Israel Prize, Boehmler Foundation Commission, Met Life Creative Connections Grant, Belle Gitelman Prize, Barbara B. Smith Prize, multiple awards from ASCAP including the Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2006), and he was named the MTNA/FSMTA Commissioned Composer of 2012. His numerous appearances as a percussionist include those at the L.A. Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series in Walt Disney Hall, Festival Spazio Musica in Cagliari, Italy, and at the Bang On a Can Marathon in New York City.
Taiwanese-American Dr. Rong-Huey Liu is one of Southern California’s most active oboists, holding principal positions in Long Beach Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Fresno Philharmonic, and Riverside County Philharmonic. In high demand as a multi-faceted soloist, Liu has performed concertos of Bach, Corigliano, Daugherty, Ferran, Kalliwoda, Lebrun and Mozart, Navarro, to name a few. As the featured soloist in the world premiere of Saul’s “Kiev 2014: Rhapsody for Oboe and Orchestra”, she garnered critical acclaim for her “sublime playing and crisp performance, filled with quiet perseverance and passion.” Her Lebrun Oboe Concerto performance with Long Beach Symphony earned the review of “Her radiant tone easily filled the cavernous Terrace Theater, and she played with consummate grace and musicality. She put on an awesome technical display in the finale and played with assurance as Lebrun took the instrument way up high and way down low. And in the second movement, a lovely little song that is just cute as a bug’s ear, she was downright charming.” Her festival credits include performances at Ojai Summer Music Festival, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, Southwest International New Music Festival, International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, and at the Cactus Pear Music Festival her playing was noted by San Antonio critics for “sweetness shaped by a sense of crisp articulation” and for leading a performance of a “razzle-dazzle piece…the audience was thrilled”. As a recording artist, she has recorded on the “Fireflies in the Garden”, “Star Wars VIII”, “Lady Bird”, “Ferdinand”, and on the recording of Chris Botti, the Isley Brothers, and Andrew Bocelli, to name a few.
Rong-Huey holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Her teachers include Rong-Yi Liu, Joseph Robinson, and David Weiss. She is oboe professor at California State University Fullerton School of Music, La Sierra University and Riverside City College Coil School for the Arts.
Joseph Murphy has been the saxophone professor at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania since 1987. He has also been director of bands, department chair, and taught a variety of courses. He received the bachelor of music education from Bowling Green State University (OH), and the masters and doctorate degrees from Northwestern University. Dr. Murphy was the music director of Tiffin (OH) Calvert High School from 1983-85. In 1985‑86 he received a Fulbright Award for a year of study in Bordeaux, France where he received a Premier Prix. In June 1996 Dr. Murphy performed a solo recital at Lincoln Center. He has performed in all 50 states, 8 Canadian provinces, 24 countries, and 6 continents. He has performed in New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Sydney, Athens, Tokyo, Bangkok, Johannesburg and at 8 World Saxophone Congresses. He has premiered over 60 new works and is a clinician for the Selmer Corporation and Rico Corporation and has been recorded on Erol (France), Mark, and Opus One labels. Dr. Murphy’s memberships include Music Educators National Conference, Music Teachers National Association, North American Saxophone Alliance, National Association of College Wind & Percussion Instructors, College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha, and Kappa Kappa Psi. His award winning website is www.saxophone-education.com
Praised as “spectacular” and a “virtuosic tour-de-force” (New York Concert Review) cellist Patrick Jee has earned international acclaim for his bold musicality, rich sound, and passionate performances. He has made appearances at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, and Wigmore Hall as well as special performances at the United Nations and on CNN, American Morning.
In 2006, Mr. Jee won the Grand Prize in the Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition as well as top awards in other major competitions such as the Andre Navarra and Irving Klein. Mr. Jee joined the New York Philharmonic in 2013 after previously serving as the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Principal Cello of the Grant Park Orchestra.
His transcription of the Glazunov Meditation, published by International Music Co., won the Music Publisher’s Association’s Paul Revere Award. His transcription of Corelli’s “La Folia” Variations was released in 2013 as well as J.S. Bach’s Two Part Inventions and Bernard Romberg’s Three Themes of Mozart both for violin and cello.
Mr. Jee is on faculty at New York University and holds a B.M. from the Juilliard School and a M.M. from Yale University where he studied with Aldo Parisot. He can be heard on the Albany, Urtext, and HM record labels.
Appointed Artistic Director of the Olympic Music Festival in 2014 and praised as a musician of “compelling artistry and power” by the Seattle Times, the gifted American pianist Julio Elizalde leads an active career as soloist, chamber musician, artistic administrator, curator, and educator.
He has performed in many of the major music centers throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to popular and critical acclaim. Mr. Elizalde has collaborated with a wide range of artists including violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pamela Frank, composers Osvaldo Golijov and Stephen Hough, baritone William Sharp, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets.
Mr. Elizalde is a founding member of the New Trio, grand prize winner of the Fischoff and Coleman National Chamber Music Competitions. In 2012, he was honored to be the youngest juror in the history of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Elizalde received a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied with Paul Hersh. He holds a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Joseph Kalichstein, and Robert McDonald.
Andrew Wan was named concertmaster of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) in 2008. As soloist, he has performed worldwide under conductors such as Maxim Vengerov, Vasily Petrenko, Bernard Labadie, Carlo Rizzi, Peter Oundjian, Michael Stern and James DePreist and has appeared in recitals with artists such as the Juilliard Quartet, Vadim Repin, Marc-André Hamelin, Daniil Trifonov, Menahem Pressler, Jörg Widmann, Emanuel Ax, James Ehnes, and Gil Shaham.
His discography includes Grammy nominated and Juno award-winning releases on the Onyx, Bridge, and Naxos labels with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Juno and Opus-award winning New Orford String Quartet. In the fall of 2015, he released a live recording of all three Saint-Saëns violin concerti with the OSM and Kent Nagano under the Analekta label to wide critical acclaim, garnering a Prix Opus and an ADISQ nomination.
Mr. Wan graduated from The Juilliard School with three degrees and is currently Assistant Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, Director of the Soloists of the OSM and Artistic Partner of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Andrew Wan performs on a 1744 Michel’Angelo Bergonzi violin, and gratefully acknowledges its loan from the David Sela Collection.
Rapidly gaining recognition, the New Trio has been garnering enthusiastic reviews all over the country. The Washington Post describes them as “Ravishing,” with a “warm subjectivity, intensity, and consciousness,” and the Seattle Times adds, “Aside from individual virtuosity, there was a welcome flexibility and warmth of expression in everything they did.”
Formed in 2004 at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the trio has since gone on to win Grand Prizes at the 2008 Fischoff, 2007 Coleman, and 2007 Plowman Chamber Music Competitions in addition to being the recipient of the Harvard Musical Associations’ Arthur W. Foote Prize, given to the most promising ensemble of 2010.
The New Trio has given performances at prominent venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Jordan Hall as well as being presented by chamber music series and festivals across the country including: The Cleveland Chamber Music Society, The Friends of Chamber Music of Reading (PA), The Perlman Music Program (Shelter Island, NY), The Olympic Music Festival (Quilcene, WA), and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Highlights of the trio include being selected to perform for President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy at the Cooper Union’s Great Hall in New York City as well as collaborating with violinist Itzhak Perlman at Pro Musica Hebraica’s inaugural concert In Washington D.C. In 2008, the New Trio was awarded the Gluck Community Service Fellowship, which enabled them to bring chamber music to inner-city schools, hospitals, retirement homes, and shelters. The trio continues its commitment to education having given lectures and master classes throughout the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and San Francisco areas.
The New Trio’s members hold artist diplomas and doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School, Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. It has been in residence at the Juilliard School and New England Conservatory where they worked intensely with the Weilerstein Trio, Emanuel Ax, Robert McDonald, Mark Steinberg, Bonnie Hampton, Joseph Kalichstein and Charles Neidich.
Dr. Jennie Congleton holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Music Degree with Honors from The New England Conservatory of Music. She is a retired university professor of fine arts, and after an early retirement has spent several years traveling the world as a presenter on art and music history on luxury cruise ships. She has performed on the viola, violin, and baroque violin as a soloist, in chamber music groups, and as an orchesta member in the United States and Europe. Jennie’s continuing travels, interest in music and history, and sense of humor bring not just information to her audiences, but insight that enhances their artistic experiences.
Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Nuno Antunes began his music studies at the C.N.R. of Leiria, at the age of 11, continued his education at ANSO (Lisbon), and earned a MM at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with David Krakauer. Mr. Antunes’ appearance in competitions has resulted in several prizes, including the R.D.P. Young Musicians Prize and the Portuguese Young Clarinetist Competition.
Recognized for versatility in different musical styles, Nuno Antunes has performed extensively as a recitalist, chamber musician and in various professional orchestras, in the U.S., Mexico and Europe. His love for chamber music led to the creation of The Gene Project, a unique combination of clarinet, bassoon and harp. He is also a founding member of the Ensemble 54 clarinet quartet, and collaborates regularly with several other chamber music groups.
Mr. Antunes had his NYC debut as a soloist in 2007, performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in the Musica Bella Concert Series. Invited to give a recital at the XX International Clarinet Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), he was also a soloist with the Orquestra Académica Metropolitana, and with the Miami Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Antunes is a member of the IRIS orchestra and the Sylvan Winds quintet. He teaches clarinet at the Horace Mann School and is on the faculty for the Killington Summer Music Festival. Currently Mr. Antunes plays on the Broadway show Fiddler on the Roof.
“The program succeeded in highlighting new talent…Saeka Matsuyama as a lyrical soloist in the last movement of Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto”. – The New York Times
Saeka Matsuyama combines flawless technique with breathtaking artistry to create an inspiring, introspective, and invigorating musical experience. A native of Nishinomiya City, Hyogo, the Japanese violinist remains in high demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.
She has held recital and orchestra appearances in US, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, South America, and Japan. Highlights of Ms. Matsuyama’s past seasons include concerto appearances with the leading orchestras of Japan: Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, among others. In July of 2008, she performed Thomas Ades’ Violin Concerto as its Japan premier at Suntory Hall, Tokyo. Her recital appearance at the Philia Hall in Yokohama, Japan has been broadcasted on NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).
In 2007, she was invited to present at ‘Goodbye Alice’ to commemorate Alice Tully Hall’s renovation, and in 2008, she appeared at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as her Philadelphia Debut, presenting the Brahms Double Concerto. Most recently, Ms. Matsuyama released two CDs with the works of Brahms, Franck, short works, and completed a 6-week recital tour.
The recipient of numerous international competition and audition awards, Ms. Matsuyama’s past accolades include: the S&R Foundation Award in 2007, the Astral Artists 2006 National Auditions, the 2005 Juilliard/Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra Auditions, the 2005 Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition, 2004 Sendai International Violin Competition, the 2003 Hannover International Violin Competition, the 2000 St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Competition, the 1999 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition, and the 1998 Kobe Newspaper/Matsukata Hall Competition.
Saeka Matsuyama has participated in such internationally-renown summer festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Academy, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Accademia Musicale di Siena, the Encore School for Strings, the Aspen Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and the Music Masters Course in Kazusa, Chiba, Japan. She also continues to conduct private masterclasses in the United States and Japan.
Saeka Matsuyama started her violin studies at age two. She moved to New York from Japan at the age of nine, at which time she matriculated at Juilliard’s Pre-College program under the tutelage of Dorothy DeLay and Robert Chen. She earned a Bachelor, a Master of Music and an Artist Diploma degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Michael Gilbert, Ronald Copes, Donald Weilerstein, and Glenn Dicterow. She served as an Assistant Teacher for Ronald Copes.
Throughout Saeka Matsuyama’s years at the Juilliard School, the conservatory has acknowledged her artistic excellence with several scholarships including the prestigious Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship, Teplitsky Memorial Scholarship, and Jean Doyle Loomis Scholarship.
Theodore Buchholz is the cello professor and head of strings at the University of Arizona. Described by newspaper critics as a “Virtuosic cellist,” he debuted in New York’s Merkin Hall, and this season he will perform as recitalist and chamber musician in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Tokyo, Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, Utah, Vermont, and Michigan. Dr. Buchholz studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Theodore served as a professional orchestral musician for ten years, and has collaborated in chamber performances with leading ensembles. He is a member of True Concord whose CD recording is currently nominated for a Grammy Award. He is the Cello Forum Editor for the award-winning journal American String Teacher. As a leader in music education, Theodore Buchholz regularly appears as a guest artist, teacher, and clinician across the country. He currently serves as President of the American String Teachers Association of Arizona and is the Co-Director of the Tucson Cello Congress. During the summers Dr. Buchholz teaches and performs at the Killington Music Festival in Vermont and the Bay View Festival in Michigan.
Prizewinner of the Aleksander Glazunov International Competition (Paris), Dr. Elena Chernova-Davis has enjoyed a career as soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster in her native Uzbekistan and throughout the United States. After graduating with honors as a full-scholarship student from the Tashkent State Conservatory, she came to the United States to continue her studies with soloist Elmar Oliveira and first violinist of the Vermeer Quartet Shmuel Ashkenasi. She is a recipient of the Irene Alm Memorial Award for excellence in performance and scholarly research and has worked with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Esa Pekka-Salonen, Gerard Schwarz, Miguel Harth-Bedoya and Jeffrey Tate to name but a few. Collaborating with various New York ensembles including musicians from the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, MET Opera Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony, her recent performing venues include Carnegie Hall – Isaac Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, and the New Jersey State Theatre among others. As a passionate and dedicated teacher her philosophy is to guide development and tailor an individual approach to each student that encourages growth, curiosity and motivation. She is currently on the faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
The counties that comprise Northeastern Pennsylvania are Bradford County, Carbon County, Lackawanna County, Luzerne County, Lycoming County, Monroe County, Pike County, Schuylkill County, Snyder County, Sullivan County, Susquehanna County, Tioga County, Union County, Wayne County and Wyoming County. Northumberland County, Montour County, Columbia County, Lehigh County, Northampton County, and Centre County, Pennsylvania may also be considered part of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The region overlaps with the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, the Wyoming Valley, the Coal Region, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and, by some definitions, the Lehigh Valley.
Hailed as an “Exemplary Leader” by the New York Times for leading members of the New York Philharmonic and the Manhattan School of Music in Carnegie Hall, violinist Daniel Andai has shared his versatile artistry as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, concertmaster, conductor and recording artist in major concert venues in over 50 countries across five continents, the Middle East, the Caribbean and over 30 United States. He is a prizewinner of national and international competitions and has soloed with orchestras around the world.
Daniel Andai is concertmaster, frequent soloist and guest conductor of The Miami Symphony Orchestra (MISO). He was also concertmaster and frequent soloist of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York with whom he recorded multiple Billboard rated SONY Classical CD’s, made numerous televised solo appearances and was featured on AeroMexico’s inflight entertainment systems.
He has held concertmaster positions with orchestras in Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, and France, performed in the sections of the New York Philharmonic and the Miyazaki Festival Orchestra in Japan, and worked closely with members of major string quartets and symphony, opera and ballet orchestras around the world. He is also Principal Conductor of the Alhambra Orchestra.
Daniel Andai is the Dean of Music at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida and the Artistic Director of the Killington Music Festival in Vermont. Dr. Andai previously was the violin professor and The Marialice Shivers Endowed Chair in Fine Arts at the University of Texas in Edinburg and served on faculties at Miami-Dade College and New World School of the Arts. He holds degrees from the University of Miami, the Manhattan School of Music and Lynn University.
Zhi Yi (Emma) Dong, born in Beijing, China P.R.C., currently studies at Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School in Kingston, PA. Emma has been playing the violin since the age of four. She took part in the Performing Arts Institute at Wyoming Seminary in the summers of 2012, 2013 and 2014. In the summer 2015, she studied and performed for five weeks at the Killington Music Festival. Emma has studied music theory and composition at Wyoming Seminary, and has written a string quartet which was performed at the school last spring. The same quartet was programmed again at the Killlington Music Festival. Emma has studied with Mr. Xiong Da Jiang and Mr. Hai Yu. She currently studies with Mr. John Michael Vaida.
Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist and teacher. Born into a musical family, Mr. Phillips began violin studies at age four with his father Eugene Phillips, a composer and former violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He continued his professional training at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Sally Thomas, and has worked extensively with and served as teaching assistant to Sandor Vegh. As a winner of the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1976, he performed acclaimed debut recitals in New York’s Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street “Y.” Mr. Phillips has performed as soloist with many of the country’s leading symphonies, and appears regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto USA and the International Musicians Seminar in Cornwall, England. He has toured and recorded in a string quartet (for SONY) with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Daniel Phillips is a founding member of the Orion String Quartet, which tours internationally. They have residencies at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at the Mannes College of Music. Available on CD are the Mendelssohn Octet with the Guarneri String Quartet as well as an all-Dvorak CD with pianist Peter Serkin. A quartet written for them by Wynton Marsalis, called “At the Octoroon Balls” is also available on SONY. The Chamber Music of Lincoln Center presented the Orion Quartet in a cycle of the complete Beethoven string quartets in six free concerts in May, 2000 each concert honoring a different children’s arts organization in New York City. They did Beethoven Cycles in Kansas City and Pittsburgh last season, and are doing the cycle this season at Indiana University in Bloomington and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In a year-long project, the quartet performed internationally in a unique collaboration with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Check out the quartet’s website, www.orionquartet.com, for a complete look at its accomplishments and busy touring schedule.
Christiane Appenheimer-Vaida, cello, completed her musical studies at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Frankfurt, Germany, under the tutelage of Professor Susanne Mueller-Hornbach and has undertaken additional studies with Gerhard Mantel, Siegfried Palm, Hubert Buchberger, Ulrich Voss, Menachem Pressler (Beaux Arts Trio), and Edna Golandsky.
Before moving to Northeastern Pennsylvania, she taught at Justus-Liebig- University, Giessen, and headed the string department for the Buseck Music School while performing regularly both as soloist and chamber musician throughout Germany.
Currently a member of Marywood University’s string faculty, Ms. Appenheimer-Vaida teaches applied cello, chamber music and cello methods, as well as all levels of cello instruction in Marywood’s award winning String Project. She also serves as artist-in-residence at Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School in Kingston, Pennsylvania, where she teaches String Ensemble, music theory and chamber music while maintaining a private cello studio. In addition, Ms. Appenheimer-Vaida is the artistic director of an annual chamber music festival at Wyoming Seminary. Most recently the festival has featured the music of Arnold Schoenberg (2010), Alfred Schnittke (2011), Dimitri Shostakovich (2012), Ernest Bloch (2013), Bela Bartok (2014), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (2015), and Antonin Dvorak (2016). During the summer, she is on the faculty of the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. Ms. Appenheimer-Vaida is an active free-lance performer with various chamber ensembles and orchestras in the region.
Having given solo and ensemble performances to critical acclaim in over a dozen countries across five continents, Amy Iwazumi enjoys a diverse career as a musician, web developer and graphic designer, and the co-founder and chief of operations of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chamber Music Society.
She has performed in major venues in the United States such as the Isaac Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall; Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall), Alice Tully Hall, Rose Theater, and Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Lincoln Center; Harris Hall and the Bayer-Benedict Music Tent in Aspen, Colorado; and the Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Abroad, she has given performances at notable venues such as the Wigmore Hall in London, UK; Salle Cortot in Paris, France; Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, Korea; and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan. She has also made TV and radio appearances on WQXR, NPR and CNN in the United States; Viva La Mañana and Tu Mañana in El Salvador; TeleClub in Costa Rica; KBS in South Korea; and NHK Radio in Japan.
She is no stranger as an orchestral musician, serving as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington performing the Brahms First Symphony. She has also served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Opera Orchestra under the direction of Miguel Harth-Bedoya performing the world premiere of Stephen Paulus’ “Heloise and Abelard.”
She has performed at several music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, Festival Ljubljana in Slovenia, Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea, Holland Music Sessions in the Netherlands, La Jolla Summerfest in California, Pablo Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Salzburg Sommerakademie in Austria, and the Taipei International Arts Festival in Taiwan.
Her compositions have also gained recognition, receiving a Special Citation from the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award Competition. Her orchestral work, “Thoughts” has been chosen and performed by the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in Lincoln Center. Recently, “The Japanese Four Seasons,” an arrangement of four Japanese songs has been commissioned by the Inoue Chamber Ensemble and performed in Brazil to critical acclaim. The work has also been performed at Columbia University as part of their “Nuances of Peace” series.
Ms. Iwazumi is also a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant which supported a four-month cultural research residency in Japan where she furthered her studies playing the Shamisen, a three-stringed traditional Japanese instrument, and her practice of Omotesenke school of tea ceremony.
At age eight she was accepted as a scholarship student to the Juilliard Pre-College Division studying violin with the late Dorothy DeLay and composition with Eric Ewazen. She continued her studies with Ms. DeLay at The Juilliard School receiving her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, and studied chamber music with Martin Canin, the late Jacob Lateiner, the late Seymour Lipkin, and Joel Smirnoff.
“This is true talent, a genuine diamond that you so rarely see.”–St. Petersburg Times
An Inca Indian and a native of Peru, pianist Hwaen Ch’uqi is a world-renowned soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has performed throughout the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Russia, Taiwan, and Japan. His labors have brought him to such venues as Seiji Ozawa Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Knitting Factory, and Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is co-founder of several ensembles including Duo Feathers, a piano duo which performs completely from memory; the Florestan Piano Quartet; Blue Ivory, a piano-banjo duo which seeks to fuse elements of genres particular to each instrument; and Johnny Carcrash, a piano-saxophone duo specializing in free improvisation.
Mr. Ch’uqi’s gifts as a composer of the highest order are being increasingly recognized. In 2009, he, in collaboration with five other composer-pianists, was commissioned to produce a second book of Hexameron Variations. The work was a feature of the 2010 conference of the American Liszt Society. In 2011, he was commissioned by Lynnann Wieringa of Notes and Tones Music Studio to produce a suite of pieces with a pedagogical bent, written for piano students at the late intermediate/early advanced level. In March, 2012, he was a finalist at the 17th International Piano Duo Composition Competition in Tokyo, Japan. He has completed a massive first piano sonata, several chamber sonatas, a song cycle, suites for solo piano, a cycle of twenty-five preludes for piano, four hands, and a children’s musical.
Mr. Ch’uqi’s published output includes four CD recordings and a growing collection of scores. He is currently authoring a partial autobiography called The Redemption of Hwaen Ch’uqi, and he is the subject of an upcoming documentary entitled Coda.
Hwaen Ch’uqi holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied under Natalya Antonova. He quickly distinguished himself as one of the rare pianists to be three times invited as a fellow to the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center; there, he studied with such luminaries as Gilbert Kalish and Leon Fleisher. He was a semifinalist at the Second Sviatoslav Richter International Piano Competition in Moscow and was awarded the Special Prize.
It is Mr. Ch’uqi’s fervent prayer that such music as he is privileged to render might serve as a catalyst for wondrous change in the lives of all who hear it.
Violinist and violist John Vaida performs regularly as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. He is a dedicated teacher, serving on the faculty at Mansfield University and Wilkes University, and Artist-in-Residence at the Wyoming Seminary College Preparatory School. During the summers he is on the faculty at the Killington Music Festival. An avid chamber musician, he is the executive director and co-founder of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chamber Music Society, an organization dedicated to fostering the growth of chamber music in the Northeastern Pennsylvania region.
He has given performances in the United States and Europe, most notably at venues such as Weill Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Tenri Institute in New York City; the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, New York; the Goodrich Theater in Oneonta, New York; and the Kirby Center for Creative Arts in Kingston, Pennsylvania. He has appeared on numerous occasions on radio and television including most recently on WVIA FM’s Simply Grand concert series.
Mr. Vaida has collaborated with renowned artists such as Daniel Phillips of the Orion String Quartet, Randolph Kelly of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and violinist Sergiu Schwartz. He has performed as a member of numerous groups and festivals including the Florestan Piano Quartet, the Terrace Piano Quartet, the Eastman Chamber Music Society, the Manchester Chamber Orchestra, Tangueros De Ley (an Argentinian Tango ensemble), the Killington Music Festival, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Scranton Bach Festival, the Sunflower Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Waterville Valley Music Festival, and AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria. An advocate of new works, in recent years he has premiered compositions such as Three Little Lights by Baljinder Sekhon and the Viola Sonata no. 2 by Hwaen Ch’uqi, both of which were written for him.
Mr. Vaida’s principal teachers have included Charles Stegeman, Daniel Phillips, and Zvi Zeitlin. He holds a B.M. from Duquesne University and a M.M. degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, and has studied chamber music with Randolph Kelly, Jean Barr, Richard Killmer, and members of the Ying Quartet.
Mr. Vaida plays on a violin made in 1974 by celebrated Chicago maker Carl G. Becker.
Jonathan Weber maintains a versatile musical career in multiple genres as a violinist, violist, conductor and composer. A graduate of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (CUNY) and classically trained under violinist Daniel Phillips, Mr. Weber has collaborated in the chamber music field with artists including Daniel Phillips and Timothy Eddy of the Orion String Quartet, Tara Helen O’Connor of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Windscape, oboe virtuosos Ronald Roseman and Randall Wolfgang, and the Bach Aria Group. Mr. Weber has also made solo and ensemble appearances with symphony orchestras both in the United States and abroad. Branching into alternate musical genres such as jazz, hip-hop, country, and rock, Mr. Weber has performed with artists including Billy Joel, Roger Daltrey, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Taylor Swift, Idina Menzel, Sarah McLachlan, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Herbie Hancock, Savion Glover, Jay-Z, Beyonce Knowles, Alicia Keys, The Roots, the Trans Siberian Orchestra, and fusion band DBR & The Mission (Opus 3 Artists) for which he has received critical acclaim. As an active New York freelancer, Mr. Weber performs regularly in the Broadway circuit and has also appeared on occasion with jazz band: Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. CD credits include Billy Joel: Live at Shea Stadium, Jay-Z: Kingdom Come, Albert Hammond Jr.: Como Te Llama, and Boardwalk Empire Volume 3: Music from the HBO series. Mr. Weber has also participated in television and film score collaborations with artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto and Steven Van Zandt. Journeying into the cinematic medium, Mr. Weber has appeared as an on-screen musician in films such as Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), Sex and the City 2 (2010), Billy Joel: The Last Play at Shea (2010), the HBO Miniseries: “Mildred Pierce” (2011) and Annie (2014). He has also made performance appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Rachel Ray Show, The View, Christmas: Live at Rockefeller Center”, PBS programs: Great Performances and Soundstage, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he made his televised conducting debut in 2014, performing in collaboration with comedian Dana Carvey and The Roots. Mr. Weber currently serves as a faculty member at the Lawrence Eisman Center for Preparatory Studies in Music (CPSM) at Queens College (CUNY), the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and has served on the faculties of the University of Buffalo Summer Strings Workshop, the New York Summer Music Festival in Oneonta, NY, and the Odyssey Chamber Music Festival at the University of Missouri.
Cellist Miho Weber continues to excite audiences with her thought-provoking performances throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In New York, she regularly performs at Bargemusic, Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium and Weill Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, the Stone, and the United Nations. Miho’s recent chamber music projects have included collaborations with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in the Memling Ensemble, Glass Farm Ensemble, and Cre.Art Project. She has performed with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Paragon Orchestra, and String Orchestra of New York City throughout the United States as principal cello. Her popular engagements have included a performance with Imagine Dragons on Saturday Night Live and Josh Groban at the US Open, as well as a concert celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations featuring Robert Davi, Kyi-Mani Marley, Geoffrey Oryema, and Robin DiMaggio. She has recorded for Innova, Naxos, and the Eroica Classical labels. Miho has held residencies at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre, and Schleswig-Holstein. She is a chamber music coach for the New York Youth Symphony, as well as providing outreach through the New York Pops. Miho is the founding director of InterPlay Chamber Music and is on faculty at the Riverdale Country School. During the summers, she has held positions at Blue Mountain Festival, Point CounterPoint, New York Summer Music Festival, and the Odyssey Music Festival. She currently serves as the Artistic Director for the Middlebury Adult Chamber Music Workshop and Festival.
