Manchester Music Festival 2013 Guest Artists
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Jennifer Bates, soprano
"...the songs were sung with such passion, such conviction that I thought I could never forget those words." Maine native, soprano Jennifer Bates enjoys a multifaceted career in the opera, concert and recital worlds. Her most recent engagements include the role Pepik in the NY Philharmonic production of The Cunning Little Vixen, multiple appearances with NY City Opera, Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg with the American Symphony Orchestra, and is the featured soloist at the Bach Vespers Cantata Series just steps from Lincoln Center. Highlights of previous seasons have included performances at Carnegie Hall, singing Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and many European engagements, including Elgar's The Kingdom with Maestro Leonard Slatkin and the Philharmonia in the prestigious Three Choirs Festival, Haydn's Creation with Robert Tear at the Dartington International Summer Festival, Fauré's Requiem with Sir David Willcocks at Royal Albert Hall, and Verdi's Requiem at Windsor Castle. She has also appeared with the Masterworks Chorale in Boston, the Orchestra of London and the London Pro Arte Orchestra. Her repertoire spans the gamut, ranging from Bach, Monteverdi and Couperin to the more avant-garde works of Schönberg, Eisler, and Berg. As a recitalist, she has performed in multiple venues in the US and abroad, including a tour of Great Britain performing Britten's Holy Sonnets of John Donne, and a recital at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. Jennifer is a strong advocate of late 20th and 21st century music, singing numerous premiers of new works and revamping classics of the contemporary repertoire, including Lukas Foss' Time Cycle, and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. She appears regularly on NY City Opera's VOX series and has sung on the ALEA III series in Boston. Ms. Bates was a Chamber Music Fellow at the Aspen Festival, and a Scholar at the Steans Institute for Singers at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. |
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Heather Braun, violin Former MMF Young Artist April 28th, Northshire Bookstore Based in Boston, violinist Heather Braun is a member of the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, and performs regularly as concertmaster and soloist. At Emmanuel Music, she was awarded a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellowship for the 2010-2011 season. She is also an avid freelancer in the New England area, performing regularly with Cantata Singers, Back Bay Chorale, and Firebird Ensemble. Heather attended the Manchester Music Festival as a Young Artist in 2003 and 2004, and since then has performed regularly on series concerts for the MMF. As a Tanglewood Music Center fellow, she received the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize in 2005. Heather performs as the first violinist of the Arneis Quartet, which recently performed at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and Music on Main's Modulus Festival in Vancouver. |
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Scott Brubaker, horn
Scott Brubaker has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1973, when he won his position at the age of 21. Mr. Brubaker has also developed a notable career as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist, performing throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. In Japan he has made fifteen concert tours, seven as a featured soloist with the NY Symphonic Ensemble and the NY Philharmonia Virtuosi. Dedicated to enriching the repertoire for solo horn, and the public's awareness of the horn as a solo voice worthy of greater attention, Mr. Brubaker has commissioned, premiered, and recorded the works of outstanding American composers. Additionally, he has transcribed, published, and recorded several important major works. Mr. Brubaker has performed chamber music with the Marlboro Festival, the Emerson String Quartet, Speculum Musicae, Harmonie Ensemble, I Musici de Montreal, and the MET Chamber Series. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Mr. Brubaker has taught on the faculties of the Brooklyn conservatory and Princeton University. His recordings may be found on the Chandos, Albany, Music & Arts, Well-Tempered, and Koch International labels. |
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Benjamin Elton Capps, cello A "cello phenomenon... with dazzling technique and a fearsomely meaty tone" (Holland Times), "most appealing" (New York Times), "virtuosic and impassioned" (Barre Montpelier Times) is what critics are saying about American cellist Benjamin Capps. With a versatile performing career as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, WQXR's Young Artist Showcase. Capps has appeared as soloist with Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, the Juilliard Pre- College Symphony, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, Manchester Festival Orchestra, Burlington Ensemble and the Manhattan School of Music Composer's Orchestra. Benjamin served as principal cellist of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, and is founder of the New York Chamber Collective. An ardent performer of new music, he can be heard as solo cellist on Innova Records, and his recording of Anna Klein's Fits and Starts (on Tzaddik) was selected as WQXR's free download as the album of the week. Recent performance highlights include a recital tour of China (Xiamin, Fouzhou and Gulangyu), and recital appearances in New York, Greece and Spain, as well as a 10 concert unaccompanied solo recital tour through Vermont. After an hour solo performance and interview on Vermont Public Radio in May, Benjamin is currently preparing the Complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas for live broadcast on on VPR including interviews in January 2013. The sonatas will air in January leading up to performances of the Complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas. Other upcoming performances include concertos with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra and the New York Chamber Vertuosi, solo recitals on the east coast and an exciting colaboration with long time collegues and friends of the Zodiac Trio. A student of David Soyer, Laurence Lesser and Fred Sherry, he attended Manhattan School of Music (B. Mus. '08) and Juilliard (M. M. '10), where he received the Goelet and Mulde Scholarships and is a current recipient of the Piatagorsky Scholorship at the New England Conservatory. www.bencapps.com. |
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Julio Elizalde Young Artists Program Praised by the New York Times for his "catlike ease" at the keyboard and hailed as a "superb pianist" by the Washington Post, American pianist Julio Elizalde is gaining widespread recognition for his musical depth and creative insight. He has given performances at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and Jordan Hall in Boston. Mr. Elizalde is equally active as soloist, recital partner and chamber musician. He is the co-artistic director of the Olympic Music Festival near Seattle, WA. Mr. Elizalde is the pianist of the New York City based New Trio, with violinist Andrew Wan, co-concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Patrick Jee, cellist of the New York Philharmonic. The New Trio emerged as one of the nation's most promising young ensembles after winning the grand prizes at the 2008 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the 2007 Coleman National Chamber Music Competition. In 2010, the trio was awarded the Harvard Musical Association's prestigious Arthur W. Foote Prize for outstanding young musicians and ensembles. The New Trio will be releasing their debut album entitled "Russian Tributes" in late 2013, featuring works of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Mr. Elizalde made his New York City concerto debut in 2007 performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503 with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Anne Manson at Lincoln Center. He regularly appears as the US recital partner to violinist Ray Chen, Sony recording artist and winner of the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, Belgium. He has collaborated with violinists Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Curtis Macomber, cellists Bonnie Hampton and Nathanial Rosen, baritone William Sharp, and soprano Susan Narucki among others. Dedicated to the music of our time, Mr. Elizalde has worked with composers Stephen Hough, Michael Brown, Mario Davidovsky and Osvaldo Golijov. He was a featured performer in Academy Award winning film composer Howard Shore's soundtrack for the 2013 film Jimmy Picard. Most recently, Mr. Elizalde performed with world-renowned violinist Sarah Chang in New York City for Park Geun-hye, the current President of South Korea. Mr. Elizalde has participated at numerous music festivals including the Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, Taos, Yellow Barn, the Olympic Music Festival, and Caramoor. As an educator, Mr. Elizalde has given piano and chamber music master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's college and preparatory divisions, the Music Institute of Chicago, and served on the faculties of the Manchester Music Festival in Manchester, VT and the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program in Putney, VT. In 2012 he served as a juror for the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, IN. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Elizalde earned his Bachelor of Music degree with honors at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Paul Hersh. In May of 2007, Mr. Elizalde graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York City, studying piano with Jerome Lowenthal and Joseph Kalichstein. He has studied chamber music with Emanuel Ax, Seymour Lipkin, and Charles Neidich at Juilliard, Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and the Weilerstein Trio at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Juilliard and completed his piano studies with Robert McDonald. In the fall of 2013, Mr. Elizalde will be in residence at the University of Puget Sound as a Visiting professor of piano. |
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Rachael Elliott April 28th, Northshire Bookstore Rachael Elliott (US), bassoon, is a founding member of Clogs and an active chamber musician in classical & contemporary music. Her first solo bassoon CD features works by Padma Newsome, David Lang, HyeKyung Lee and Tawnie Olson and will be released in 2011. In addition to Clogs, Rachael is a member of of Tuple bassoon duo, Heliand Trio and the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble. She hosts the biennial Bassoon Project weekend of workshops and concerts in Burlington, Vermont for bassoonists of all ages and levels of experience. For more information on her upcoming concerts and activities, visit the Bassoon Project. Rachael teaches bassoon at the University of Vermont, Middlebury College, Duke University and during the summer at Kinhaven Music School. |
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Ronald Feldman Young Artists Program Twice winner of the American Symphony League's ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music, Ronald Feldman has achieved critical acclaim for his work as conductor and cellist. He has appeared as guest conductor with major orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, and the Quebec Symphony, as well as many regional orchestras including the Pro Arte Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Albany Symphony, and the Amarillo Symphony. After successful appearances as guest conductor for three consecutive seasons at Symphony Hall and at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony's summer home, composer and Conductor John Williams appointed Mr. Feldman Assistant Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. He served as assistant to John Williams from 1989-1993. Maestro Seiji Ozawa, Conductor Laureate of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, called Maestro Feldman "an outstanding conductor... I find him to have a deep musical mind which is clearly conveyed through his performances.." John Williams, composer and Conductor Laureate of the Boston Pops Orchestra called Maestro Feldman, "a brilliant conductor, who displays the best leadership qualities... an outstandingly high level of musicianship that imbues his conducting style with strength, taste, and imagination". Mr. Feldman joined the Boston Symphony at the age of 19. He has appeared as cello soloist with many orchestras performing a wide range of concerto repertoire from Dvorak to Ligeti. His many chamber music affiliations have included performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Collage New Music Ensemble, the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, and the Williams Chamber Players. His performances include collaborations with artists Emmanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, and Yo Yo Ma. Mr. Feldman currently directs the Berkshire Symphony, a regional orchestra in residence at Williams College. He was formerly the conductor and Music Director of the New England Philharmonic and the Worcester Orchestra. He is on the faculties of Williams College, the New England Conservatory of Music, and The Boston Conservatory of Music. 2012 marks the beginning of his tenure as Music Director of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of Boston's medical community. Mr. Feldman appears on a compact disk recording of an all-Mozart program with the Bucharest "George Enescu" Philharmonic. This cd received excellent reviews in the March/April 1999 issues of the American Record Guide and Fanfare Magazine. "Feldman secures a polished and alert account of the Mozart Symphony No. 29 K.201".—Bernard Jacobson, Fanfare Magazine "The Mozart symphony No. 29 is given a dazzling reading, effulgent and scintillating with articulation and note length all in sync". He also conducts the London Symphony in a recording of music of John Williams and Kevin Kaska. This recording is with virtuoso trumpet player Arturo Sandoval. In 2001 Mr. Feldman left the Boston Symphony Orchestra to pursue other musical interests. He joined the faculty of Williams College where he is Artist in Residence, Lecturer in Music, Chamber Music coordinator, and Conductor of the award winning Berkshire Symphony. |
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Irene Fitzgerald-Cherry, violin
Australian-American violinist Irene Fitzgerald-Cherry recently completed her MFA in Orchestral Performance at the Swedish National Orchestra Academy in Göteborg, Sweden, where she studied with leaders of the Göteborgs Symfoniker and G öteborgs Operan. She also graduated summa cum laude from NYU Steinhardt with a BM in violin performance and linguistics. Irene is a member of ME2/strings, a string ensemble for the promotion of mental health awareness in Burlington, VT. She also plays for the Berkshire Symphony, the Manchester Music Festival, Leora Chamber Orchestra in NYC, and the Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre, as well as for various local opera orchestras in the upstate New York and Vermont regions. She has studied with Øyvor Volle, Anton Miller, Joana Genova, Victor Costanzi, and Lilo Kantorowicz-Glick. Her chamber coaches have included Johan Stern, Harro Ruijsenaars, Rita Costanzi, Rita Porfiris, Marion Feldman, Shoshana Rudiakov, and David Calhoun among others. Irene is a strong promoter of contemporary music; her most recent project is a recital of solo violin repertoire from the 1950s to the present as part of composer Guy Barash's series Eavesdropping at The Tank in NYC. |
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Yehuda Hanani Young Artist Program Yehuda Hanani's charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements throughout Europe, North and South America, the Orient and his native Israel. An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Hong Kong Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Seoul Symphony among others. He has collaborated with prominent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, Itzhak Perlman and members of the Emerson, Vermeer, Muir, Julliard, Lark, Colorado, and Cleveland Quartets and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. This distinguished artist made the first recording ever of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata, receiving a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and his other discs have won wide recognition. Yehuda Hanani is Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and presents master classes internationally in conjunction with concert tours. As Artistic Director of the Close Encounters With Music chamber music series in the Berkshires and in South Florida, he presents an innovative approach to programming that explores the common roots of all the arts. Soloist, chamber musician, master teacher and ambassador of the arts, Mr. Hanani inspires audiences the world over. His studies were with Leonard Rose at the Julliard School and with Pablo Casals. |
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Austin Hartman
Violinist, Austin Hartman, has distinguished himself as both chamber musician and soloist with performances throughout the United States and abroad. Having served for 12 seasons as founding first violinist of the Biava Quartet, Mr. Hartman was the winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and has performed to acclaim in important venues throughout North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, including Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Baroque Art Hall in Seoul. Other highlights from recent seasons include appearances at the Mostly Mozart, Rockport and Aspen Music Festivals, Chautauqua Institution, and Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Mr. Hartman has earned much recognition as a solo violinist having appeared twice with the Philadelphia Orchestra and was awarded the Gold Medal Prize at the Stulberg International String Competition. He has recorded for the Naxos and Cedille labels and has been heard on London's BBC Radio 3. Austin Hartman has earned Artist Diplomas from both the Juilliard School and Yale School of Music as well as degrees from the New England Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music. |
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Rocco Anthony Jerry, bayan
Rocco Anthony Jerry began studying the accordion at the age of 6 with Paul Bertolozzi, and later with Carmen Carrozza. He was captivated by the use of the accordion by contemporary classical composers, and has focused his energy in working with composers on new works for the instrument. Mr. Jerry performs on a bayan with a range of over 7 octaves on each manual. He has given solo concerts throughout the US including New York City, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, at venues including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institute, the National City Christian Church (Washington D.C.), and other churches and halls in the US. He has performed with several chamber music groups including the Downtown Ensemble and the Flexible Orchestra, and has premiered new works by Daniel Goode, Conrad Kehn, Peter Machajdik, Robert Young McMahan, Arthur B. Rubinstein, Max Simoncic, and Christian Wolff. |
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Darryl Kubian, theremin
DARRYL THOMAS KUBIAN is a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's first-violin section and former principal second violin of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. Kubian has been a featured soloist with the NJSO on the theremin performing the "Cantelina" from Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5. He has performed jazz violin with trumpeter Randy Brecker in a Charlie Parker program entitled "Byrd Lives!" and has arranged and performed Ellington's "Sacred Songs" in collaboration with the Jazz Studies Program at Rutgers University. Kubian's improvisational skills have been highlighted with artists such as Nigel Kennedy, Al Jarreau, Bobby Short and Renée Fleming. In addition to his solo and chamber ensemble performances using modern, electric and period instruments, Kubian has performed in Broadway musicals including The King and I, Show Boat, Crazy for You and Tommy. He has recorded with such noted artists as Trevor Pinnock, Malcolm Bilson, Meredith Monk, Bruno Weil, Zdenek Macal and Phillip Glass. An accomplished composer, the 2007-08 season marked the premiere of Kubian's 3-2-1 Concerto for Electric and Acoustic Violin and Orchestra-an NJSO commission dedicated to then-Music Director Neeme Järvi and NJSO Concertmaster (and soloist) Eric Wyrick. Following its critically acclaimed premiere, Scientific American featured 3-2-1 in its "60-Second Science" blog, describing the work as a "beautiful example of what happens when artists are inspired by scientific discoveries." Kubian's "The Maestro Waltz," a special 70th-birthday piece for Järvi, was the featured encore during a number of 2006 NJSO concerts; it was included in Järvi's biography, The Maestro's Touch. The New Sussex Symphony commissioned Kubian's overture Occam's Razor, premiering the work in May 2009; the Omaha Symphony performed the piece in March 2012. Kubian's music-production company, Xtreme Medium, is involved with many diverse projects, including the score for "Living with Predators" for the Wildlife Conservation Society at The Bronx Zoo, as well as music for the Discovery Channel's "Jaws & Claws" series, U.S.S. Indianapolis and the docudrama Raging Rapids. His compositions for National Geographic includes "Phobias," "Killer Ice," "Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union" and "Really Wild Animals," the latter of which starred Dudley Moore. Other past projects include music for Pangolin Pictures, NHK, CBS, The Learning Channel, Discovery Health and The Travel Channel, Phillip Glass. |
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Caren Levine, piano
A native of New York City, Pianist Caren Levine has gradually established a reputation as one of today's most compelling young artists. She has won acclaim for her musicality, charm and sensitivity, and is known for her intense and impassioned performances. The San Francisco Chronicle described her as "a petite powerhouse, with technique to burn and unimpeachable musicianship. She is one of the finest musicians around, of the highest and most inspiring order." An alumna of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has been on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera House as Assistant Conductor and Prompter since 2003. In 2012, she received a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for The Met Opera's DVD of John Adam's Doctor Atomic. An active performer, Ms. Levine's collaborators include Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Charles Neidich, Susanne Mentzer, Morris Robinson, Susanna Phillips and Barbara Bonney. Caren first performed with soprano Barbara Bonney at the 1996 Tanglewood Music Festival. Since then, they have toured throughout the United States, Canada and Asia at venues which include the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Herbst Theater in San Francisco, Festival Vancouver, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Van Cliburn Concert Series, Seoul Arts Center, and a live televised performance at the Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam on the critically-acclaimed Hennessy concert series. The Los Angeles Times noted that Bonney was "seconded in every way by the excellent Levine." She has also been featured on WNYC Soundcheck with Bass Morris Robinson and on ArtsPass with Tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Ms. Levine has worked as a vocal coach/pianist at The Marlboro Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Tanglewood, Itzhak Perlman Music Program, Berkshire Opera Company, Wolf Trap Opera, and the opera companies in Palm Beach, Sarasota, Central City and Santa Fe. From 1998-2001, Ms. Levine served as Assistant Professor of Piano and Director of the Accompanying Option at California State University, Chico. In addition to her numerous achievements as a classical pianist, Ms. Levine is active as a jazz composer and arranger. Among her numerous recordings, a CD of her own piano compositions entitled Flowers from a Secret Admirer was released on Capstone Records. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Levine has collaborated with the Miro and Artemis string quartets as well as members of the Beaux Arts Trio. She has been invited to perform at The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, International Chamber Music Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, Savannah Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, Fontainebleau American Conservatory in France and The Aspen Music Festival. As a solo performer, Ms. Levine is a winner of the Munz-Chopin Piano Competition in Maryland and gave a recital in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the 1999 Artist's International Auditions. Highlights of her recent performances include rehearsal pianist/harpsichordist for the LA Phil fully-staged production of Don Giovanni at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Maestro Dudamel, prompter for the Met Opera premiere of The Tempest, Doctor Atomic and Satyagraha, concerts at Harvard University, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, solo organist for the National Chorale's Messiah Sing-In at Avery Fisher Hall, and recitals on Marilyn Horne's On Wings of Song concert series broadcast on WQXR. Upcoming performances include a recital with Violinist Zlata Grekov on the Miami Music Association Concert Series and her 10th season returning to the Manchester Music Festival as a guest artist. Ms. Levine received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. She has studied under Martin Canin, Samuel Sanders, Lillian Freundlich, Ken Noda, Richard Goode and Mitsuko Uchida. |
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Stefan Milenkovich Young Artist Program Awarded as Serbia's Brand Personality of the Year for 2010, Stefan Milenkovich is a unique artist with an extraordinary productive longevity, professionalism and creativity. His musical philosophy as well as lifestyle is a true definition of eclectic, exploring general human, musical heritage and experience, in order to connect directly with the audiences and provide fun, engaging and energetic performances. Milenkovich's 2012-13 season includes performances with Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo (Naples, Italy) under the baton of Stefano Ranzani, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover Symphony Orchestra (Germany) with conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Izmir and Antalya Symphony Orchestras (Turkey), as well as performances with Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana (Palermo, Italy). Other collaborations this season include performances with Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona, Orchestra della Fondazione Pro Musica di Pistoia and Orchestra Camerata Strumentale Pratese. As a musician of broad stylistic interests, Milenkovich performed with five-time Grammy Nominee rock band Gorillaz in one of the world's most renowned venues - Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City. The critically acclaimed performance was featured live on MTV. Recent collaborations include performances with Grammy Award Nominee lutist Edin Karamazov, as well as an intense musical partnership with guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and his trio, where Milenkovich explored the realm of improvisation and acoustic-electric violin. Other collaborations include Tango Story project with accordionist Marko Hatlak and Slovenian ensemble Ars Tango, where he performed both as a violinist and a dancer. Milenkovich's numerous appearances with orchestra include Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Radio-France, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Mexico State Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies, and has performed under the baton of such conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Daniel Oren and En Shao. An avid chamber musician, he performs frequently with the Jupiter Chamber Music Series in New York City, Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, High Peaks Chamber Music Festival in Catskill Mountains (New York), and Zagreb Chamber Music Festival in Croatia. In 2012 Milenkovich accepted position of the Artistic Director of DoCha Chamber Music Festival in Champaign, Illinois. Milenkovich started his career at a very young age. He performed for U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a Christmas concert in Washington, DC, at age 10. The following year, he played for Mikhail Gorbachev in Belgrade, Serbia. At age 14, he played for Pope John Paul II and at age 16, Milenkovich gave his 1000th concert in Monterrey, Mexico. By age 17, he was a prizewinner in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (USA), the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), Hannover Violin Competition (Germany), Tibor Varga Competition (Switzerland), Rodolfo Lipizer Competition (Italy), Paganini Competition (Italy), Ludwig Spohr Competition (Germany), and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (England). Deeply committed to international humanitarian causes, in 2002 Milenkovich received the Lifting Up the World With Oneness Heart award for his humanitarian activities, handed to him personally by the guru Sri Chinmoy. In 2003, he received Most Humane Person award in Belgrade, Serbia. He also participated in a number of gala concerts under the auspices of UNESCO in Paris with such artists as Placido Domingo, Lorin Maazel, Alexis Weissenberg, and Sir Yehudi Menuhin, and was active as the First Child Ambassador during the Balkan wars in early 90'. Milenkovich's discography includes four commercial releases of the Italian label Dynamic, featuring J. S. Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Complete Music for Solo Violin - Nicolo Paganini 24 Capricci, N. Paganini Recital, and N. Paganini In cuor piu non mi sento. He also released numerous recordings for the Yugoslavian label, PGP. Milenkovich's recent CD release includes a First Recording disc with the Manchester Music Festival of Vittorio Giannini's Piano Trio and Piano Quintet. Firmly dedicated to pedagogical work, Milenkovich taught in collaboration with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School in New York City, NY, and Perlman Music Program, before accepting his current position as an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
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Vassily Primakov, piano
In recent years, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class importance. Gramophone wrote that "Primakov's empathy with Chopin's spirit could hardly be more complete," and the American Record Guide stated: "Since Gilels, how many pianists have the right touch? In Chopin, no one currently playing sounds as good as this! This is a great Chopin pianist." Music Web-International called Primakov's Chopin Concertos CD "one of the great Chopin recordings of recent times. These are performances of extraordinary power and beauty." In 1999, as a teen-aged prizewinner of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Primakov was praised by Donald Rosenberg of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "How many pianists can make a line sing as the Moscow native did on this occasion? Every poignant phrase took ethereal wing. Elsewhere the music soared with all of the turbulence and poetic vibrancy it possesses. We will be hearing much from this remarkable musician." His first piano studies were with his mother, Marina Primakova. He entered Moscow's Central Special Music School at the age of eleven as a pupil of Vera Gornostaeva, and at 17 came to New York to pursue studies at the Juilliard School with the noted pianist, Jerome Lowenthal. At Juilliard Mr. Primakov won the William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which presented his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall, and while at Juilliard, aided by a Susan W. Rose Career Grant, he won both the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2002 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition. Later that year Primakov won First Prize in the 2002 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions. In 2007 he was named the Classical Recording Foundation's "Young Artist of the Year." In 2009, Primakov's Chopin Mazurkas recording was named "Best of the Year" by National Public Radio and that same year he began recording the 27 Mozart piano concertos in Denmark. BBC Music Magazine (November, 2010) praised the first volume of Primakov's Mozart concertos: "The piano playing is of exceptional quality: refined, multi-coloured, elegant of phrase and immaculately balanced, both in itself and in relation to the effortlessly stylish orchestra. The rhythm is both shapely and dynamic, the articulation a model of subtlety. By almost every objective criterion, Vassily Primakov is a Mozartian to the manner born, fit to stand as a role model to a new generation." Vassily Primakov has released numerous recordings for Bridge Records that include works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Philip Glass, Arlene Sierra and Poul Ruders. In 2011, Mr. Primakov, along with his duo partner, Natalia Lavrova established a new and vibrant record company, L.P. Classics, Inc. Their first release was Anton Arensky: Four Suites for Two Pianos. Most recently, they released Primakov's Live in Concert album that includes works by Medtner, Schumann, Brahms' Handel Variations and Ravel's La Valse. In March 2012 Vassily Primakov became a Yamaha Artist. In 2011, Mr. Primakov, along with his duo partner, Natalia Lavrova established a new and vibrant record company, L.P. Classics, Inc. Their first release was Anton Arensky: Four Suites for Two Pianos. Most recently, they released Primakov's Live in Concert album that includes works by Medtner, Schumann, Brahms' Handel Variations and Ravel's La Valse. |
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Jayn Rosenfeld, flute
Jayn Rosenfeld is one of the leading contemporary music flutists of the present generation. A graduate of Radcliffe College and the Manhattan School of Music, her teachers were James Pappoutsakis, William Kincaid and Marcel Moyse. She was first flutist in the American Symphony Orchestra when it was conducted by Leopold Stokowski and won a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant in 1986. Her many recordings include concerti by Domenico Cimarosa, Dinos Constantinides, Rand Steiger and Leo Kraft, solo works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Leon Kirchner, John Anthony Lennon, Robert Erickson and David Froom, more than seventy works of contemporary chamber music, and a recording of the flute chamber music of Albert Roussel (Centaur). Ms. Rosenfeld is the flutist and executive director of the New York New Music Ensemble, with whom she has played for thirty-five years. She also plays with the League of Composers ISCM, the Richardson Players at Princeton University and the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society. She is the first flutist of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and appears yearly at the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont. Ms. Rosenfeld teaches at Princeton University, and at Greenwich House, where she gives a flute workshop for adult amateurs. |
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Sophie Shao, cello Young Artist Program At the age of nineteen, cellist Sophie Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and has since performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Winner of top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, the New York Times has applauded her "eloquent, powerful" interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb. Highlights of this season includes a thirteen-city tour with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra in performances of the Elgar and Haydn (C Major) concerti, recitals across the country, and her popular "Sophie Shao and Friends" tour of the Northeast. Last season, she premiered Howard Shore's concerto "Mythic Gardens" with the American Symphony Orchestra and returned to the ASO to perform Saint-Saens's "La muse et la poete" at the Bard Music Festival. She performed recitals for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Middlebury College, the complete Bach suites at Union College and in New York City, and presented a "Sophie Shao and Friends" tour including from Brattleboro, VT to Sedona, AZ. Recent performances include Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony, Tan Dun's Ghost Opera with Cho-Liang Lin in Indianapolis, the world-premiere of Richard Wilson's Concerto for cello and mezzo-soprano, and recital and chamber music appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Music Mountain (with the Shanghai Quartet) among many other presenters across the country. She is also a frequent guest at many leading festivals around the country including Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Bard Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Shao can be heard on EMI Classics, Bridge Records (for the Marlboro Music Festival's 50th Anniversary recording), and on Albany Records. Her recording releases in 2009 include Richard Wilson's Brash Attacks on Albany Records and Howard Shore's original score for the movie The Betrayal on Howe Records. She may also be heard on an upcoming release on Koch Records in the music of George Tsontakis. A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of Vassar College and the Bard Conservatory of Music and plays on a cello made by Honore Derazey from 1860 once owned by Pablo Casals. |
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Morrie Sherry, clarinet
Morrie Sherry has performed with the Manchester Music Festival since 1990. She performs as soloist and chamber musician in the New York metropolitan area. Her solo performances include concerts with the Baltimore Symphony, the Manchester Festival Orchestra, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and the Hawthorne Symphony. For several seasons Ms. Sherry played principal clarinet with the Brooklyn Philharmonic for its Children's Concerts with David Amram at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In 2000, she premiered Amram's "Starry Night," commissioned by the Manchester Music Festival and its New York premiere at the Jewish International Arts Festival. Ms. Sherry has performed in numerous recitals in New York area venues, most recently at the Copland House and Merkin Concert Hall. She teaches at the Lucy Moses School and maintains a private studio in New York City. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts and Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. |
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Caroline Stinson, cello
Praised for her vibrant lyricism, fresh interpretations and expressive performances, cellist Caroline Stinson is sought after by orchestras and fellow musicians in the US, Canada and Europe as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician for concerts of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Ms. Stinson's invitations include Carnegie's Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series and Bargemusic in New York, Boston's Gardner Museum, Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian in the United States; the Koelner Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival and Cité de la Musique in Europe, and the Centennial Centre and Winspear Halls in Canada. Performances in recent seasons have included concerto performances with the Syracuse Symphony under Daniel Hege, recitals in New York City for Bargemusic and Wednesdays at One, in Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Oregon with duo partner, Molly Morkoski, appearances at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland with Pierre Boulez conducting Elliott Carter's Triple Duo, and as a returning featured artist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's International New Music Festival, where she appeared in multiple performances broadcast nationally on CBC Radio. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Stinson has commissioned concerti, works for cello solo and with electronics, in addition to chamber music through her work with the Lark Quartet, Open End (a new music and improvisation group she founded with her husband and composer, Andrew Waggoner) and the cello quartet, CELLO. She has performed dozens of premieres in both North America and Europe and has worked closely with composers Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, Paul Moravec, Steven Stucky, Joan Tower, Andrew Waggoner and Chen-Yi. In 2011 she performed Esa-Pekka Salonen's "YTA III" for solo cello at the composer's recommendation at Scandinavia House in New York. As a soloist, she has performed with the Banff Festival and Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestras, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, and the Interlochen World Youth and Syracuse Symphonies. Caroline has performed and toured with a multitude of ensembles including the Bang On a Can All-Stars, ISCM League of Composers and Continuum of New York City and Accroche Note of France. Caroline's début CD, Lines, was released in 2011 on Albany Records and was reviewed by Fanfare Magasine: "She has it all, fabulous tone, great technique, innate musicality, and a real sense of how to project a wide variety of contemporary music." Ms. Stinson has contributed to more than a dozen chamber music recordings for the Naxos, Albany, Koch International, Bridge, Phoenix, Capstone and Innova labels. The diverse works recorded include the Popper Requiem for three celli and orchestra with Maria Kliegel for Naxos, premiere recordings of Steven Stucky's string quartet (Nell'ombra, nella luce) with the Cassatt Quartet, Gabriela Frank's piano quintet with Meme, solo and chamber works by Andrew Waggoner with Open End for Albany Records as well as Aaron Jay Kernis' Ballad for cello and piano. Her recent recording with the Lark Quartet of music by Jennifer Higdon was chosen by New York City's WQXR as "Album of the Week" in March of 2013. Caroline is the recipient of the 2007 J.B.C. Watkins Prize in Music from the Canada Council, first prize in the Hohnen Foundation Cello Competition of Germany, and the American Music Award from the Seventeen/GM National Concerto Competition in the United States. She is the recipient of prizes, grants and scholarships from the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Winspear Fund, the Anne Burrows Foundation of Edmonton and the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as fellowships from the Aspen, Lucerne, Verbier and Sarasota Festivals, and the Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists in Los Angeles. While living in Germany for three years, she studied in courses with Natalia Gutman, Frans Helmerson, Boris Pergamenschikow and Siegfried Palm. She was a student of Tanya Prochazka in Edmonton and earned degrees with honours at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Cleveland Institute of Music with Alan Harris, the Hochschule für Musik Köln (First Prize) as a student of Maria Kliegel, and completed her Master's Degree as an Irene Diamond and Genevieve Kniese Chaudhuri Fellow and her Artist Diploma as a Jerome Greene Fellow at the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick. As of 2013, Ms. Stinson is co-Artistic Director of the Weekend of Chamber Music, a 2-week summer festival of music and year-round educational initiative in the lower Catskill Mountain Region in New York and a new member of the Chroma Piano Trio with Nurit Pacht and Priya Mayadas in New York City. In addition to her active performance career, Caroline has been an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, SUNY Buffalo as part of the Beethoven Cycle for String Quartets, has given masterclasses at Universities and Conservatories across Canada the US and in Europe, and was on the faculty of the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University from 2004-2013. Ms. Stinson currently teaches cello and chamber music at The Juilliard School in New York City in the Pre-College Division and as Assistant Faculty for Joel Krosnick. Born and raised in Edmonton, Canada, Caroline lives in New York City with her husband and son, Henry. |
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Di Wu, piano
Praised in the Wall Street Journal as "a most mature and sensitive pianist" and named one of the "up-and-coming talents" in classical music by Musical America, Chinese-born Di Wu continues to enhance her reputation as an elegant and powerful musician. Her concerts have taken her across the globe, charming audiences from East to West with her "charisma, steely technique, and keen musical intelligence" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and her "fire and authority" (Washington Post). Now based in the United States, Di Wu made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut with Charles Dutoit in 2009. During 2010-11, she returned for another Philadelphia engagement, this time under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Ms. Wu's current American itinerary is highlighted by yet another Philadelphia appearance - a recital presented by that city's distinguished Chamber Music Society - and once again comprises debuts and re-engagements as recitalist and soloist with orchestra on both coasts and numerous cities in between. Di Wu made her professional debut at the age of 14 with the Beijing Philharmonic, and has since appeared with orchestras such as Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Hamburg Philharmoniker, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. In addition to orchestra engagements, Ms. Wu is also sought after as a recitalist. In New York, she made debuts at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and has also appeared in such music centers as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as at the Ravinia Festival and the Portland Piano Festival. Di Wu is also a frequent performer in Europe and, of course, in major venues throughout Asia. Her most recent appearance in Tokyo, at an arena concert recorded and released by Epic Records in Japan, took place before an audience of over 11,000. Ms. Wu's recording of Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Books I and II received praise from Musical America, whose critic wrote "Her account of the Brahms is amazing. She takes all the difficult options (her glissandos are unbelievable!), and she conjures from the piano absolutely gossamer, violinistic textures, joyous humor, and brilliant air-borne tempos." Winner of multiple awards including a coveted prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition; The Juilliard School's Petschek Award; The Virtuosi Prize at Lisbon's prestigious Vendome Competition; and the winner of Astral Artists' 2007 National Auditions, Ms. Wu came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Zenon Fishbein. From 2000 to 2005 she studied at The Curtis Institute with Gary Graffman, subsequently earning a Master of Music degree at Juilliard under Yoheved Kaplinsky, and an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Joseph Kalichstein and Robert McDonald. The petite pianist describes herself as a "huge foodie" and enjoys cooking and sampling New York City's wide array of restaurants. |