FESTIVAL ARTISTS & SPECIAL GUESTS

Violinist Philip Setzer, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began studying violin at the age of five with his parents, both former violinists in the Cleveland Orchestra. He continued his studies with Josef Gingold and Rafael Druian, and later at the Juilliard School with Oscar Shumsky. He has appeared with the National Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony (David Robertson, conductor), Memphis Symphony (Michael Stern), New Mexico and Puerto Rico Symphonies (Guillermo Figueroa), Omaha and Anchorage Symphonies (David Loebel) and on several occasions with the Cleveland Orchestra (Louis Lane).

Currently serving as the Distinguished Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at SUNY Stony Brook, Mr. Setzer was recently appointed as the Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont. A visiting Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Setzer has also been bestowed the title of Artistic Director of Strings Chamber Music. He serves as Director of the Shouse Institute, the teaching division of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit. As a regular faculty member of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center, Mr. Setzer wrote an article about those workshops that appeared in The New York Times on the occasion of Isaac Stern's 80th birthday celebration in 2000.

A versatile musician with innovative vision and dedication to keep the art form of the string quartet alive and relevant, Mr. Setzer was the co-creator of the Emerson’s two highly-praised collaborative theater productions: The Noise of Time, premiered at Lincoln Center in 2001 and directed by Simon McBurney, is a multi-media production about the life of Shostakovich and was performed 60 times throughout the world; in 2016, Mr. Setzer teamed up with writer-director James Glossman for the Emerson’s latest music/theater project, Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy. Premiered at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Black Monk has been performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Princeton University, Wolf Trap, Ravinia Festival, Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea and Stony Brook University. He plays a violin made for him in 2011 by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.

Appearances:
MMF Thursday Nights - Season Opener
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Two
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Four
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five
Music & Mixer - MMF@50 Presentation and Young Artists Solos I
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion

Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, enjoys a multi-faceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording at the highest levels. Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004 as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Silicon Valley’s innovative chamber music festival Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, and as Artistic Director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Her recent concert activities have taken her from New York’s Lincoln Center stages to the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to countless performances of virtually the entire chamber repertoire, her concerto performances include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label, which has released her performances of the staples of the cello-piano duo repertoire with cellist David Finckel. Her more than 80 releases on ArtistLed, CMS Live, and Music@Menlo LIVE include masterworks of the chamber repertoire with numerous distinguished musicians. Wu Han’s educational activities include overseeing CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A recipient of the prestigious Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Season Opener

Co-Artistic Director of CMS since 2004, cellist David Finckel’s dynamic musical career has included performances on the world’s stages in the roles of recitalist, chamber artist, and orchestral soloist. The first American student of Mstislav Rostropovich, he joined the Emerson String Quartet in 1979, and during 34 seasons garnered nine Grammy Awards and the Avery Fisher Prize. His quartet performances and recordings include quartet cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvorák, Brahms, Bartók, and Shostakovich, as well as collaborative masterpieces and commissioned works. In 1997, he and pianist Wu Han founded ArtistLed, the first internet-based, artist-controlled classical recording label. ArtistLed’s catalog of more than 20 releases includes the standard literature for cello and piano, plus works composed for the duo by George Tsontakis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Edwin Finckel, Augusta Read Thomas, and Pierre Jalbert. In 2022, Music@Menlo, an innovative summer chamber music festival in Silicon Valley founded and directed by David and Wu Han, celebrated its 20th season. As a young student, David was winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s junior and senior divisions, resulting in two performances with the orchestra. Having taught extensively with the late Isaac Stern in America, Israel, and Japan, he is currently a professor at both the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University, and oversees both CMS’s Bowers Program and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. David’s 100 online Cello Talks, lessons on cello technique, are viewed by an international audience of musicians. Along with Wu Han, he was the recipient of Musical America’s 2012 Musicians of the Year Award.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Season Opener

In recent years, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class importance.

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.

Vassily Primakov has released numerous recordings for Bridge Records, Tavros Records and Naxos.

In 2011, Mr. Primakov, along with his duo partner, Natalia Lavrova established a new and vibrant record company, LP Classics, Inc. Primakov’s Chopin recording on two discs featuring 3 sonatas, 4 Ballades and 4 Scherzos was featured as “Album of the Week” on WQXR.

In March 2012 Vassily Primakov became Yamaha Artist.

Appearances:
Fundraiser & Reception - Pianist Vassily Primakov in Concert
Music & Art with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition

Praised for her “deeply reflective playing” (Indianapolis Star) and “infectious exuberance” (The New York Times), Korean-born pianist Jeewon Park has garnered the attention of audiences for her dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making her debut at the age of 12, performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, pianist Jeewon Park has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician in prestigious venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Seoul Arts Center. Park is a frequent performer at Bargemusic and Caramoor International Music Festival where she was named a Rising Star in 2007. A passionate chamber musician, she has appeared at prominent festivals throughout the world, including Seattle Chamber Music Society, Spoleto USA, Bridgehampton, Lake Champlain, Manchester, Seoul Spring, Great Mountains (Korea), Tucson, Appalachian Summer, Central Vermont, Taos, Eastern Music Festival, Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Music Alp in Courchevel (France), and Kusatsu Summer Music (Japan).

The 2022-2023 season marks her 10th season as the co-artistic director, along with her husband, Edward Arron, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute. In 2021, Ms. Park’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with cellist Edward Arron was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. Subsequently, they received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. She came to the US in 2002 after winning all major competitions in Korea. Park is a graduate of Yonsei University, The Juilliard School, Yale University and SUNY Stony Brook where she earned her DMA.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Two

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician in major concert halls throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

The 2021-22 season marks Mr. Arron’s 13th season as the artistic director and host of the acclaimed Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut. He is also the co-artistic director with his wife, pianist Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes Quartet, and he appears regularly at the Caramoor International Music Festival, where he has been a resident performer and curator of chamber music concerts for over a quarter of a century. In 2013, he completed a ten-year residency as the artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series.

Edward Arron is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. In 2016, Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016.

Appearances:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Two
Strings & Things: A Musical Playdate with Cellist Edward Arron and MMF Young Artists

A Yale University faculty member since 1987, clarinetist David Shifrin is artistic director of Yale’s Chamber Music Society, the Yale in New York concert series, and the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival. He has performed with CMS since 1982 and served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004, inaugurating CMS’s Bowers Program and the annual Brandenburg Concerto concerts. He was the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, from 1981 to 2020. Winner of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000), he is also the recipient of a Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A top prize-winner in the Munich and Geneva competitions, he has held principal clarinet positions in numerous orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra and the American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski. His recordings have received three Grammy nominations and his performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review. His most recent recordings are the Beethoven, Bruch, and Brahms clarinet trios with David Finckel and Wu Han on the ArtistLed label, a recording for Delos of works by Carl Nielsen, and an album of Poulenc’s music for clarinet. His 2012 Delos recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwillch’s Clarinet Concerto was chosen as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the National Recording Preservation Act by the Library of Congress in 2023. Shifrin performs on clarinets made by Morrie Backun in Vancouver, Canada, and Légère synthetic reeds.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three

Praised for her "unusually rich and resonant voice" (Opera News), contralto Sara Couden (“SA-ra COO-den”) is a premiere interpreter of operatic, concert, and song repertoire.

In 2023, Sara sings the roles of Ottavia in West Edge Opera’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Catiscià in Il Ducato (the Lamplighters’ Renaissance Italian setting of The Mikado), and Osmiro in Olimpia vendicata with Ars Minerva. She is the alto soloist in the Mozart Requiem with Eureka Symphony, Alma Mahler’s Five Songs with the California Symphony, and Messiah with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Tucson Symphony, and at Duke University.

In 2022, Sara made company and role debuts at St. Petersburg Opera (Florida), as Juno/Ino in Handel's Semele, as well as the Marquise of Berkenfield in Donizetti’s Fille du régiment, and a role debut as the Nurse in Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-bleue with West Edge Opera. She covered Erste Magd in Elektra and Mrs Sedley in Peter Grimes at the Metropolitan Opera. For concert work, Ms. Couden returned to the Charleston Symphony for Beethoven 9, sang Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder at the Staunton Music Festival, and made her Seattle Symphony debut in Messiah. In the field of recital/art song, Sara performed a concert of viola/piano/alto works for Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, and recorded art songs composed by Artur Schnabel with Jenny Lin, piano, under the Steinway label.

In previous seasons, Ms. Couden made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Albine in Thais, her Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra debut as Israelitish Man in Judas Maccabaeus, her San Francisco Symphony debut in Beethoven 9, and her Cincinnati May Festival debut as alto soloist in Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater. She toured Japan with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki in Bach's B Minor Mass, and performed Third Lady in Die Zauberflote with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos and Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with West Edge Opera, and sang "Urlicht" as the alto soloist in Mahler's Second Symphony with the Santa Cruz Symphony. She has performed numerous Handel roles, including Bradamante, Cornelia, Ino, Juno, Dejainira, Irene, and Narciso. She completed the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera in 2017, and has been a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Couden holds a Master of Music with Honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an AD in Early Music, Chamber Music, and Oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three

Lawrence Dutton is the violist of the Emerson String Quartet, winner of nine Grammy Awards. He has collaborated with many of the world’s great performing artists, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Lynn Harrell, and has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras around the world. He has recorded works by Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith for the Bravo cable network. Currently Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University, and Mercer University, Mr. Dutton earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at the Juilliard School. As a member of the Emerson String Quartet, he was a winner of the 2004 Avery Fisher Prize.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three

Jenny Lin, a Steinway Artist, has made a name for herself on the world stage thanks to her “remarkable technical command” and “gift for melodic flow” (The New York Times). The Washington Post has extolled her “confident fingers” and “spectacular technique,” while Gramophone has hailed her as “an exceptionally sensitive pianist.”

She was born in Taiwan, raised in Austria, and moved to New York, where she resides. At the age of four, with no piano at home, she began playing the instrument at her grandmother’s house. Educated in Europe and the US, she has built an international reputation distinguished by inventive collaborations with a breadth of artists, and has performed widely with renowned orchestras and symphonies at the world’s most notable concert halls.

Lin has a close affinity with Philip Glass, whose Etudes she performs globally, and which inspired her to embark on a commissioning initiative, The Etudes Project. She is the featured pianist in Elliot Goldenthal’s original motion picture score for Julie Taymor’s film, The Glorias, and the central figure in Cooking for Jenny by Felix Cabez for Elemental Films, a musical documentary portraying her journey to Spain, among other media appearances such as CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Performance Today. Her discography numbers more than 50 recordings, ranging from the classic piano canon to modern milestones to Broadway songs. Her passion for education led her to create “Melody’s Mostly Musical Day,” a musical picture book for children told in classical piano pieces, which she developed into a multimedia concert that has toured the continent.

Fluent in English, German, Mandarin, and French, Lin holds a bachelor’s degree in German Literature from The Johns Hopkins University and studied music at the Hochschule für Musik, and at the Peabody Conservatory. She resides with her family in New York City and serves on the faculty of the Mannes College The New School for Music.

She was recently appointed Executive Director of the Manchester Music Festival, effective Fall 2023 to begin overseeing its 50th Anniversary Season.

Appearances:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three
Melody's Mostly Musical Day with pianist Jenny Lin, MMF Young Artists and special guest Mary Anne Van Degna

Hailed by The New York Times as “a major artist” following her New York recital debut in 1975, Nancy Allen joined the New York Philharmonic in June of 1999 as Principal Harp. She maintains a busy international concert schedule as well as heading the harp departments of The Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and teaching at Stony Brook University. In addition, Allen appears regularly with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. In May 2000 Allen was featured in the Philharmonic’s US Premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Concerto for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, with Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur and Principal Flute Robert Langevin.

Allen’s busy performing schedule includes solo appearances at major international festivals, and has featured collaborations with soprano Kathleen Battle, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and guitarist Manuel Barrueco, and with flutist Carol Wincenc and Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps in their trio, Les Amies. She has appeared on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center with The Chamber Music Society, as well as with Battle, and has performed as a recitalist for “Music at the Supreme Court” in Washington, D.C. Allen’s recording of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the Tokyo Quartet, flutist Ransom Wilson, and clarinetist David Shifrin received a Grammy Award nomination; she can also be heard on Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, and CRI.

Allen is a native of New York, where she studied with Pearl Chertok and undertook private lessons in piano and oboe. The summer of 1972 took her to Paris, where she studied with Lily Laskine. During that same year, she entered The Juilliard School to study with Marcel Grandjany. In 1973, Allen won the Fifth International Harp Competition, in Israel, and was later awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Award.

Allen’s students hold positions in prominent orchestras around the world. She currently resides in New York with her daughter, Claire, who studies piano and cello.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Four

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been noted for its evocative, layered atmospheres; attention to detail; and unique soundworld identifiably her own. Recently named one of the Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music by The Washington Post, Snider’s works have been commissioned and / or performed by the New York Philharmonic; San Francisco Symphony; National Symphony Orchestra; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Will Liverman; Deutsche Grammophon for mezzo Emily D'Angelo; vocalist Shara Nova; percussionist Colin Currie; eighth blackbird; A Far Cry; and Roomful of Teeth, among others. Recent works include Mass for the Endangered, a 45-minute Trinity Wall Street–commissioned work for choir and ensemble on a libretto by Nathaniel Bellows, recorded by Gallicantus, and released on Nonesuch / New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim in Fall 2020; You Must Feel With Certainty for VOX Ensemble, commissioned by The Guggenheim Museum for its Hilma af Klint retrospective; The Blue Hour, a collaborative song cycle for Shara Nova and A Far Cry based on poetry by Carolyn Forché; and Embrace, a 45-minute orchestral ballet with choreographer George Williamson commissioned by the Royal Birmingham Ballet, which premiered at Sadler's Wells in 2018. Upcoming projects include an opera on 12th-century polymath St. Hildegard von Bingen commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects. Penelope and Unremembered, her first two LP song cycles, earned critical acclaim from The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Gramophone magazine, NPR, and Pitchfork, among many others. The winner of the 2014 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Lebenbom Award, Snider has a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan University and a master of arts degree and Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music. She is a founding co-artistic director of Brooklyn-based non-profit New Amsterdam Records. Her music is published by G. Schirmer.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Four

Chris Baechtel is a bassist committed to blurring the dividing lines between genres and collaborating with living artists to bring fresh musical experiences to life. With extensive background in classical orchestral traditions, he aims to use this skill set as a means of fully expressing himself in music outside of the western classical music canon, such as contemporary classical music, American folk music, and early music.

Chris’s recent recital and chamber music performances have consisted almost entirely of music by living composers. He has performed professionally with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Andrea Boccelli, and on LA-based concert series such as Monday Evening Concerts and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Noon To Midnight.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a graduate diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His primary mentors have been Chris Hanulik, Scott Dixon, and Hal Robinson.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Four

Colin Carr appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. Conductors with whom he has worked include Rattle, Gergiev, Dutoit, Elder, Skrowasczewski and Marriner. He has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has twice toured Australia.

With his duo partner Thomas Sauer he has played recitals throughout the United States and Europe including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Wigmore Hall in London. 2016 sees them playing a program of Britten and Adès for both the Chamber Music Societies of New York and Philadelphia. Colin has played complete cycles of the Bach Solo Suites at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Gardner Museum in Boston and in Montreal, Toronto, Ottowa and Vancouver.

As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, he recorded and toured extensively for 20 years. Chamber music plays an important role in his musical life. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York's Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Recent CD releases include the complete Bach suites on the Wigmore Live label and the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations on the MSR Classics label with Thomas Sauer. Colin is the winner of many prestigious international awards, including First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award, Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition and also winner of the Young Concert Artists competition.

He first played the cello at the age of five. Three years later he went to the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Maurice Gendron and later William Pleeth. He was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1998, having been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years. In 1998, St. John’s College, Oxford created the post of “Musician in Residence” for him, and in September 2002 he became a professor at Stony Brook University in New York.

Colin's cello was made by Matteo Gofriller in Venice in 1730. He makes his home with his wife Caroline and 3 children, Clifford, Frankie and Anya, in an old house outside Oxford.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Three

Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel is celebrated for his versatility and originality. He has been honored with an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and top prizes in the Naumburg and Geneva competitions, and has performed alongside world-renowned orchestras like the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. He has performed recitals and chamber music at venues including Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Lucerne Festival, Bravo! Vail, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Music@Menlo. An advocate of contemporary music, he has premiered compositions in the United States and Europe, collaborating closely with composers Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. Recent milestones in his career encompass a performance of Carlos Chávez’s Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with The Orchestra Now, a debut at Mostly Mozart, and a critically acclaimed recording of Richard Strauss and Kurt Leimer’s music with the Bern Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago for Schweizer Fonogramm. An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program, he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Vonsattel is Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is on the faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five

Violinist Sarah Crocker Vonsattel has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2008. She previously held positions in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony. Sarah has appeared as soloist with the musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, among others. Recent performances include appearances at Lake Tahoe Summerfest, the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, the Bronxville Chamber Music Series, Downtown Music at Grace Church, the New Marlborough House Concerts, and the Syracuse Society for New Music. As a founding member of the Verklärte Quartet, Sarah was a Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, leading to concert tours in the U.S. and Italy with this ensemble. A proponent of new music, Sarah has appeared with the iO string quartet and the Talea Ensemble and can be heard on the Bridge Records label performing the music of Poul Ruders and Tod Machover. She has appeared as both performer and faculty member at festivals including the Orfeo International Music Festival (Italy), the Wellesley Composers Conference (Massachusetts), and the Musical Friends Academy (Tunisia). She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of David Updegraff, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Ronald Copes and Naoko Tanaka. In her spare time, she enjoys distance running and traveling.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five

The recipient of a prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 25-year-old American violist Matthew Lipman has been hailed by The New York Times for his "rich tone and elegant phrasing" and by the Chicago Tribune for his "splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” In demand as a soloist, he has recently performed concertos with the Minnesota, Illinois Philharmonic, Grand Rapids Symphony, Wisconsin Chamber, Juilliard, Ars Viva Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Innsbrook and Eggenfelden Festival orchestras and recitals at the WQXR Greene Space in New York City and the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Highlights this season include a debut solo album on Cedille Records, which will include his own transcription of Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy and a world premiere by Brazilian composer Clarice Assad, and several performances of the Telemann Viola Concerto in Alice Tully Hall. The Telegraph praised Mr. Lipman as “gifted with poise and a warmth of timbre” on his Avie recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville Marriner, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard classical charts. He was the only violist featured on WFMT Chicago’s list of "30 Under 30" top classical musicians and has been profiled by The Strad and BBC Music magazines. Mr. Lipman performs internationally as a chamber musician with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a member of CMS Two, at the Music@Menlo, Marlboro, Bad Kissingen, Malaga, and Ravinia Festivals, and regularly with distinguished artists like Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, and Pinchas Zukerman. A top prizewinner of the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International Viola Competitions, he received his bachelor's and master's degrees as an inaugural Kovner fellow from The Juilliard School, where he continues to serve as teaching assistant to Heidi Castleman, and is currently mentored by Tabea Zimmermann in Kronberg, Germany. A native of Chicago, Mr. Lipman performs on a fine 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola loaned through the generous efforts of the RBP Foundation and an 1845 Dominque Peccatte viola bow.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, cellist Estelle Choi has garnered top prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She has gained international recognition as a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, an ensemble that celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2020. Praised by The New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct” the Calidore won the Grand-Prize of the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition. As a member of the Calidore, Choi is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award, BBC 3 New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust recipient. Choi and the Calidore are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and alumni of the Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Choi’s artistry with the Calidore has been broadly praised by critics like Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times who wrote that “her tone is rich, deep and powerful, giving the impression that music and the room are a single living being.” Choi studied with John Kadz in Calgary, Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory. She instructed cello performance and chamber music at the University of Houston. With the Calidore, Choi teaches and performs at the University of Delaware. She holds a Masters degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor and Artist Diploma from the Colburn Conservatory of Music.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five

Soprano Christine Goerke has appeared in the major opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Opera , New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and the Saito Kinen Festival. She has sung much of the great soprano repertoire, starting with the Mozartand Handel heroines and now earning critical acclaim for the dramatic Strauss and Wagner roles. She has received praise for her portrayals of the title roles in Elektra, Turandot, and Ariadne auf Naxos, Brünnhilde in the Ring Cycle, Kundry in Parsifal, Ortrud in Lohengrin, Leonora in Fidelio, Eboli in Don Carlos, The Dyer's Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Cassandre in Les Troyens, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Alice in Falstaff, and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmelites.

Ms. Goerke has also appeared with a number of the leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra (in Boston, Carnegie Hall, and the Tanglewood Festival), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Radio Vara (at the Concertgebouw), Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms, and the Hallé Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival. She has worked with some of the world's foremost conductors including James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davies, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Claus Peter Flor, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the late Robert Shaw, Patrick Summers, Jeffery Tate, Christian Thielemann, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Edo de Waart.

Ms. Goerke's recording of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Classical Recording and Best Choral Performance. Her close association with Robert Shaw yielded several recordings including Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes, Poulenc's Stabat Mater, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Dvorak's Stabat Mater. Other recordings include the title role in Iphigenie en Tauride for Telarc and Britten’s War Requiem, which won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

This season, Ms. Goerke returns to the Metropolitan Opera to play Ortrud in Lohengrin, the Washington National Opera for the title role in Elektra, and to Detroit Opera for a role debut as Amneris in a concert production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida. She also appears in concert with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, performing Berlioz' La mort de Cléopâtre, and with the Festival de Launaudière, singing Sieglinde in the first act of Wagner's Die Walküre.

Ms. Goerke was the recipient of the 2001 Richard Tucker Award, the 2015 MusicalAmerica Vocalist of the Year Award, and the 2017 Opera News Award.

Appearance:
MMF Thursday Nights - Program Five

As the founder of MPD Culture Consultants, Menon Dwarka (he/him/his) is an arts leader with over 25 years of experience in executive director, artistic director, and community arts leadership positions in both Canada and the United States. Dwarka's expertise lies in leveraging technology to create diverse programming and administrative spaces, while also applying a post-colonial lens to IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Success) initiatives.

Dwarka has successfully guided arts and culture organizations of all scales, including grassroots organizations such as Toronto's 918 Bathurst Centre, where he served as both Artistic and Executive Director. He has also been a valued board member for organizations such as the Canadian Opera Company, where he was chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee. In the United States, Dwarka led the music departments at the 92nd Street Y and Harlem School of the Arts and served as the Executive Director of the Greenwich House Music School. As Senior Vice President of Arts Consulting Group, Dwarka completed IDEAS audits for the Winnipeg Symphony, ArrayMusic, and the Toronto Musicians Association.

Dwarka is a public speaker and has been featured on platforms including CBC Television, WBAI Radio, TVOntario's The Agenda, and The Walrus Talks. His expertise is also showcased through regular appearances on Sesame Street. He was a part of the inaugural cohort of the Banff/Toronto Arts Council Cultural Leaders Lab and served on the City of Toronto's Economic Development and Culture's Strategic Planning Committee, a group specifically formed to advise the City on the creation of Toronto's 2018-2022 Culture Plan.

Dwarka holds BMus and MMus degrees in Music Composition from the University of Toronto, and was an ABD Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Stony Brook.

Appearance:
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion

Judith Lochhead is a music scholar whose work focuses on music cultures of the present from multiple perspectives: performance practices, artist-led research, music criticism, music analysis, and music history. Some recent publications include: Sound and Affect: Sound, Music, World, eds. Lochhead, Eduardo Mendieta, and Stephen Decatur Smith (2021); “On Kaija Saariaho’s Microsonology,” Oxford Handbook on Spectral Music (2022); “Timbre Realities,” Oxford Handbook on the Phenomenology of Music (2023); and “Multiplicities, Truth, Ethics: A Queering Analysis of Chaya Czernowin’s Anea Crystal,” Queer Music Theory (2023). Lochhead is a Professor of Critical Music Studies at Stony Brook University.

Appearances:
GIVEN A CHANCE - Concert and Discussion
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”

Eric Feidner is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Innovation Officer for Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. His team continues 170 years of innovation at the iconic piano company and is responsible for technology in product development, software development, information technology, recorded music production, and content creation. Notably, they developed and brought the new Spirio product line to market starting in 2015 with continuous innovation and enhancement since then. Prior to this he served as President of Steinway’s former subsidiary, ArkivMusic, which he founded in 2001 and sold to Steinway in 2008.

Appearence:
Music & Mixer - MMF presents The Steinway Spirio and Young Artists Solos II

Sonja Wermager is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Williams College. She specializes in 19th-century German music and culture, with a particular emphasis on the life and works of composer Robert Schumann. She has previously published on Schumann's plans for a Martin Luther oratorio in 19th-Century Music and completed her dissertation at Columbia University, focusing on the question of why Schumann began composing sacred music in the early 1850s. Other research interests include the intersection of music and medicine in the nineteenth century, as well as Reformation history. 

Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”

Gail Newman is the Harold J. Henry Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Williams College. She has published widely on language, narrative, and subjectivity in German Romanticism, contemporary Austrian literature, and psychoanalysis. Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Mari Ruti, engages with creativity in our contemporary world.

Appearance:
MMF Talks “The Romantic Era”

Mary-Anne Van Degna lives in Dorset with her husband, Bob.

She loves being part of this wonderful program with the Manchester Music Festival especially when it’s focus is on the children of our community.

Appearance:
Melody's Mostly Musical Day with pianist Jenny Lin, MMF Young Artists and special guest Mary Anne Van Degna