Cellist Ronald Thomas has been Artistic Director of Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989. Mr. Thomas sustains one of the most active and varied careers in today's music world as performer, teacher, and artistic administrator. His solo appearances with orchestra include the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Handel & Haydn and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestras of Boston, and the Blossom Festival Orchestra among many others. Mr. Thomas has played recitals in virtually every state in the U.S. including the cities of New York, Washington D.C., Boston and Los Angeles as well as numerous concerts in Europe and Asia.
In great demand as a chamber music collaborator, Ronald Thomas is the co-founder and artistic director of the Boston Chamber Music Society with whom he appears regularly and has produced a number of highly acclaimed recordings. He has also appeared numerous times with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. Other chamber music appearances include the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Bravo! Colorado Chamber Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, the Blossom Festival, the Chamber Music Northwest Festival, The Sarasota Festival and the Yale at Norfolk Festival as well as the festivals of Dubrovnik, Edinburgh and Amsterdam and others. Mr. Thomas is the artistic director of Chestnut Hill Concerts of Madison, CT and, until 2002, was a founding member of the Resident Artists committee and the Board of Overseers at Bargemusic in New York City. While he was member of the Boston Musica Viva and the Aeolian Chamber Players he premiered countless new works including those by Gunther Schuller, Michael Colgrass, Ellen Zwillich, Donald Erb, William Bolcom, and William Thomas McKinley.
Ronald Thomas is former member of the faculties at M.I.T., Brown University, the Boston Conservatory and the Peabody Conservatory. Prior to winning the Young Concert Artists auditions at the age of 19, Mr. Thomas attended the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute. His principal teachers were Lorne Munroe, David Soyer, and for early studies, Mary Canberg.

Pianist RIEKO AIZAWA is known for her rare combination of technical mastery and musical sensitivity, earning the admiration of musicians and critics alike. While in her teens, Rieko performed at the opening concerts of Tokyo's Casals Hall, followed by her U.S. debut in concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Concerto highlights include the San Francisco Symphony under Schneider, the New Japan Philharmonic with Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra with Heinz Holliger, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Hugh Wolff, the St. Louis Symphony with David Loebel, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Recitals have included Seattle's Meany Hall, Houston's Da Camera Society, Premiere Performances in St. Louis, the Caramoor Festival and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Her 02-03 season includes her debuts on Ravinia's Rising Stars and the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival's series. Rieko has collaborated with the Guarneri Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet, the Orion Quartet, and numerous Musicians from Marlboro touring chamber ensembles. In 1996 Rieko received her Masters degree from Juilliard while studying with Peter Serkin, and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin, and was awarded the prestigious Rachmaninoff Prize.

Since making her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the age of sixteen, violinist Jennifer Frautschi has been heard in concerts throughout the United States, Europe and Mexico. Recipient of the 1999 Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has won First Prize awards in the Washington International Competition, Irving Klein International String Competition, Kingsville (TX) International Music Competition, GM/Seventeen Magazine's National Concerto Competition, ARTS (Arts Recognition and Talent Search) and The Juilliard Concerto Competition. She was a top prize recipient in the 1998 Naumburg Violin Competition and the only American Laureate in the 1997 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition in Belgium. Named a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 1990, Ms. Frautschi has recently concluded a recital tour of Switzerland, live recital broadcasts on Radio Suisse Romande, WNYC (New York) and National Public Radio, as well as return engagements at both the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Caramoor International Music Festival, where she performed with Emanuel Ax and David Finckel. Born in 1973, Ms. Frautschi began studying the violin at the age of three with Elizabeth Mills and continued her studies with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California School of Music. She has attended Harvard University and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann and served as a teaching assistant to The Juilliard String Quartet.

THOMAS HILL, clarinetist, holds both a Bachelor's and Master's Degree with Honors from The New England Conservatory. As a chamber music artist, Mr. Hill has performed, toured, recorded and broadcast throughout the Americas and in Asia as a member of The Aeolian Chamber Players in New York, and since 1983 with the acclaimed Boston Chamber Music Society. Mr. Hill is principal clarinetist of The Boston Philharmonic, and has also served as principal clarinetist of The New Haven Symphony, The Long Beach Symphony, The Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra of Boston, The Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The San Diego Symphony, and The Cascade Festival Orchestra in Oregon. In addition to his private studio, his teaching credentials include artist-professor affiliations with the New England Conservatory, the Boston Conservatory, The Longy School of Music, The Chinese Foundation for The Performing Arts and the university systems of New York, California, Massachusetts and Missouri. And he has been a visiting artist/teacher in a wide range of musical settings.

Grand Prize Winner of the International American Music Competition, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, RANDALL HODGKINSON has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland and abroad in Italy and Iceland. In addition, he has performed numerous recital programs spanning the repertoire from J.S. Bach to Donald Martino. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and he performs the four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. Mr. Hodgkinson's festival appearances include Blue Hill (Maine), Bargemusic, Chestnut Hill Concerts (Madison, Connecticut), Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Hodgkinson is presently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. His performance of the work has been released on Albany Records. His other recordings include solo works by Roger Sessions and Donald Martino for the New World label, chamber music with the Boston Chamber Music Society for Northeastern Records, and the Morton Gould Concerto with the Albany Symphony for Albany Records.

Hailed by critics for her poetic lyricism and scintillating virtuosity, pianist Mihae Lee has performed extensively in solo recitals and chamber music concerts throughout North America, Europe and Asia. She has appeared frequently as a soloist with das Symphonie Berlin in the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Berlin and in recitals in Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall and the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. An active chamber musician, Ms. Lee is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, appearing regularly both in Boston and on tour in this country and abroad. Her recordings of Brahms, Shostakovich, Bartok and Stravinsky with the members of BCMS were critically acclaimed by High Fidelity, CD Review and Fanfare magazines, the reviews calling her sound “as warm as Rubinstein, yet virile as Toscanini.” Ms. Lee appears frequently at numerous international festivals, including Dubrovnik, Amsterdam, Groningen, Great Woods, OK Mozart, Mainly Mozart, Chestnut Hill, Rockport, Sebago-Long Lake and the Seattle Chamber Music Festivals. In addition to many years of performing regularly at Bargemusic in New York, she has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has collaborated with the Muir, Cassatt and Manhattan string quartets. She is often heard over the airwaves on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and on WNYC and WQXR in New York City and WGBH in Boston. Born in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Lee had her professional debut at the age of 14 with the Korean National Orchestra after becoming the youngest grand prizewinner at the prestigious National Competition held by the President of Korea. In the same year, she came to the United States and subsequently won many further awards including First Prize at the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition and The Juilliard Concerto Competition. She holds B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School and the Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory studying with Martin Canin and Russell Sherman, and has released compact discs on the Etcetera, Northeastern, BCMS and Bridge labels.

IRINA MURESANU, violin, has won universal acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Ms. Muresanu has appeared as a soloist with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Boston Pops, the Metropolitan Orchestra in Montreal, the Boston Phiharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, and many others. An active chamber musician, Ms. Muresanu recently joined the Boston Trio, the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, and the Walden Chamber Players. Ms. Muresanu was a member of the Raphael Trio from 2000 to 2002. Her recent appearances include Bargemusic in New York; the Rockport Festival in Massachusetts; Bay Chambers concert series and Bowdoin Festival in Maine; the Strings in the Mountains festival in Colorado; Reizend Music festival in Netherlands; Festival van de Leie in Belgium; and the Rencotres de Musiciennes in France. Her recordings include an Albany Record premiere recording of Marion Bauer's Sonata for Violin and Piano (with Pianist Virginia Eskin), and a VPRO Radio CD with chamber works of E. Korngold. Ms. Muresanu currently serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, the Prep Division of New England Conservatory of Music, and the Music Department at MIT. She recently completed the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the New England Conservatory. Her violin is an 1856 Joseph Rocca and a Charles Peccat bow courtesy of Mr. Mark Ptashne.

HENG-JIN PARK, piano, was born in Korea and raised in the Boston area. She studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with Leonard Shure and Russell Sherman. She made her solo debut with the Boston Pops performing the Schumann Concerto at the age of 15 and has returned to perform as soloist with the Boston Pops since then. She has also performed as a soloist with the New England Philharmonic, L'Orchestre Symphonique Française, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, appeared on the Fleet Boston Celebrity Series in the Boston Marquee series, and recently collaborated with the Borromeo String Quartet in a performance of the Brahms Piano Quintet. She has appeared in concerts at New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, Ambassador Auditorium in California, Jordan Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Gardner Museum; and at festivals including Taos, Banff, the Ernen Music Festival in Switzerland, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. She recently released a CD of the Complete Brahms Sonatas for violin and piano with Eric Rosenblith and the two artists toured Korea in December, 2003. Ms. Park has given master classes at the University of Kansas, the Longy School of Music, Penn State University, Brigham Young University, and has taught chamber music at the Tanglewood Institute. She has been on the faculty of the Yellow Barn Music Festival and currently of the International Musical Arts Institute, New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and M.I.T.

HARUMI RHODES, violin, became a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II in 2005. She has been a participant of the Marlboro Music Festival, and toured with "Musicians from Marlboro," giving concerts at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Washington D.C.'s Freer Gallery, Philadelphia's Convention Center, and Boston's Gardner Museum. Ms. Rhodes has performed on numerous occasions with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Minnesota Chamber Music Society, Mainly Mozart Festival, and Bargemusic. As a guest artist, she has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Borromeo String Quartet, Walden Chamber Players, and the North Country Chamber Players. She recently led the first recording of Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet on the Tzadik Composer Series Label and performed with the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan with Seiji Ozawa conducting. Ms. Rhodes received her Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory as a student of Donald Weilerstein, and her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Earl Carlyss, Ronald Copes, and Shirley Givens.

Marcus Thompson has appeared as viola soloist, recitalist and chamber music player in series throughout the Americas, Europe and the Far East. He was featured as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, with The Boston Pops and has recorded with the Slovenian Radio Symphony and the Czech National Symphony. Mr. Thompson has received critical acclaim for performances of the John Harbison Viola Concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta, and for performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Boston and London. His repertoire ranges from the contemporary to the exotic with works performed on the viola d’amore by Ariosti, Vivaldi and Hindemith. Mr. Thompson, who is a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, earned the doctorate degree at The Juilliard School following studies with Walter Trampler. Born and raised in The Bronx, N.Y.C., he currently lives in Boston where, as the Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music, he founded and leads programs in chamber music and performance study at MIT and served on the viola faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Previous Seasons' Artists

Christiaan Bor, violin, made his debut with the Concertgebow Orchestra of Amsterdam at age sixteen and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and in chamber music in thirty countries throughout Europe, Russia, the Middle and Far East, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Canada and the United States. Mr. Bor was born in Amsterdam (1950) and began playing the violin at the age of five as a student of his father, Jan Bor. He studied with Herman Krebbers at the Muzieklyceum in Amsterdam, and continued his musical education with Jascha Heifetz at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Mr. Bor is the founder and music director of the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society and has recorded for Philips, Pelican, CBS, Fidelio and Vanguard Classics.

Sarah Carter began her cello instruction at age seven. Growing up in Seattle, she studied with Toby Saks. Since then, she has soloed with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Youth Symphony and the Bellevue Philharmonic. She has participated in master classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Josef Gingold, Gar Hoffman, Franz Helmerson, Janos Starker, Joel Krosnick, Paul Katz, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleischer and Claude Frank, among others. She has collaborated with such artists as Glbert Kalish, Kim Kashkashian, Samuel Rhodes and Vera Beths. Ms. Carter was the winner of the 1999 Corpus Christi International Young Artists Competition, as well as the 1998 ASTA National Solo Competition. She has performed solo recitals at La Jolla, Ravinia and Camerata Musica. In addition, she has made concert appearances with the chamber music societies of Boston, Seattle and Andover, as well as at Bargemusic, Tannery Pond, the Casals Festival in Prades, France and with the chamber ensemble Metamorphosen. In 2002 and 2003, Ms. Carter participated in the “Rising Stars” residency program at Caramoor. She was a participant at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival for two summers, and will complete her third summer at the Marlboro Music School and Festival this year. Ms. Carter recently joined the Denali Piano Trio, along with colleagues from Marlboro, and they recently completed their first successful tour of the UK. Ms. Carter attended the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in the spring of 2004. She is currently a senior at Harvard University, where she is pursuing an undergraduate degree in psychology.

Heralded as "a musician of remarkable gifts" by the Chicago Tribune, cellist Allison Eldredge has captivated audiences throughout the world with her deeply communicative tone and commanding technique. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Ms. Eldredge has performed with many of the world's foremost orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Boston Pops, Montreal Symphony, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has toured North America, Europe and Asia as featured soloist with such prominent ensembles as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Haifa Symphony and leading ensembles of Japan. In June, she made her seventh recital tour of Japan, including an appearance on NHK National television. Sought after as a chamber musician, Ms. Eldredge has shared the stage with numerous acclaimed artists, such as Andre Previn, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma and Gil Shaham, and has appeared at many of the major chamber music festivals. She is a member of the distinguished Boston Trio. Also active as a recording artist, her most recent recordings include two CD's on the Denon label: Music by Chopin and Fauré, and "If I Loved You," arrangements of Broadway and film music for cello and piano, which were hailed by Fanfare magazine as "passionate, illuminating and always enchanting." Ms. Eldredge's radio and television credits include appearances on New York's WQXR, Boston's WGBH and ABC's Good Morning America. She also has the distinction of being invited to play at the White House. Born in New York City, Ms. Eldredge is a graduate of The Juilliard School. Now living in the Boston area with her husband, pianist Max Levinson, and their daughter Natalie, Ms. Eldredge serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

Chosen as “Musician of the Year” of 1996 by the Boston Globe, pianist Judith Gordon is flourishing as a soloist, collaborative artist and imaginative programmer. The wide range of composers with whom she has worked or who have written music for her includes John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Libby Larsen, Peter Lieberson and Martin Brody. She has appeared in concert with many superb artists and ensembles including mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, soprano Lisa Saffer, cellists Andres Diaz and Yo-Yo Ma, violist Cynthia Phelps, violinist Andrew Kohji Taylor, oboist Douglas Boyd, the Borromeo, Lydian and St. Lawrence string quartets, and many members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Gordon gave her New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Introductions Series and was warmly received by the NY Times. She has appeared at Weill Hall in New York, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum and regularly performs in the many concert halls in Boston. She has appeared twice with the Boston Pops, and has been invited numerous times to perform on the FleetBoston Celebrity Series, including her 2001 recital “Judith Gordon and Friends,” which featured specially commissioned new works by Martin Brody, Alan Fletcher, David Home and Lee Hyla alongside the music of Brahms, Ravel and John Harbison.
Judith Gordon is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers were pianists Patricia Zander and Gilbert Kalish. She currently makes her home in Boston, MA.

Pianist Max Levinson is known as an intelligent and sensitive artist with a fearless technique. He has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New World Symphony, Boston Pops, San Antonio Symphony, Louisville Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and in recital throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Levinson's international career was launched when he won First Prize at the 1997 Dublin International Piano Competition, the first American to achieve this distinction. He then received overwhelming critical acclaim for his two solo recordings on N2K Encoded Music and was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in March 1999. Max Levinson is a graduate of Harvard and the New England Conservatory, receiving an Artist Diploma and the Gunther Schuller Medal. His teachers include Patricia Zander, Aube Tzerko and Bruce Sutherland. He serves as Co-Artistic Director, with Andrew Kohji Taylor, of the Janus21 Concert Series in Cambridge and is on the faculty at Boston Conservatory and Brown University. He currently lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife, cellist Allison Eldredge, and their daughter Natalie.

Cynthia Phelps is principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, where she has performed Berlioz’ Harold in Italy, the Bartok Concerto for Viola, Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Concerto for String Quartet by Benjamin Lees, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and a concert specially commissioned for her (and violist Rebecca Young) by Sofia Gubaidulina. She appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as numerous other orchestras throughout the world. As a chamber musician, she performs regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and Music from Copland House. She has toured South America, Israel, and Germany as a member of the Zukerman and Friends Ensemble; appeared with the Guarneri, American, Brentano, and Prague String Quartets, and the Kalichstein-Ronbinson-Laredo Trio among many others; and performed in recital in Paris, Rome, London, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington. Ms. Phelps is a recipient of the Pro Musicis International Award, and top prize at both the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Washington International String Competition. Her appearances on television and radio have included Live from Lincoln Center on PBS-TV, National Public Radio, Radio France, and RAI in Italy.

The 3rd Tucson Winter Chamber Music, 1996

Violist Robert Rinehart, a member of the New York Philharmonic, is also an active chamber musician. He has appeared at the Spoleto Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A founding member of the Ridge String Quartet, Mr. Rinehart has performed in every major music center in the United States, as well as in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, and has collaborated with Benny Goodman, Rudolf Firkusny and the Guarneri String Quartet, among many others. His chamber music recordings include albums which have received a Grammy Award, two Grammy nominations and the Diapason d’Or. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Rinehart studied violin there with Isadore Tinkleman and at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jaime Laredo, David Cerone and Ivan Galamian. He is a member of the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Romanian-born violinist Andy Simionescu moved to the United States with his family at the age of ten and is a graduate of the New York High School of Performing Arts, The Juilliard Pre-College Division and the Curtis Institute of Music where his principal teachers were Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg. He has received numerous awards including the First Prize in the Concert Artists Guild and the Washington International Competitions. A Presidential Scholar in the Arts, he was also the recipient of a Career Grant from the Yale Gordon Trust. Andy’s solo performances have been praised by critics for their “passion” and “elegance” and have taken him to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, Tokyo’s Casals Hall and throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East. He was awarded a fellowship with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra where he led the orchestra in several concerts. His acclaimed return to Bucharest in 1992, where he performed the Mendelssohn Concerto with the George Enescu Philarmonic and an all-Beethoven sonata recital, was televised nationally. A sought-after and prolific chamber musician, Andy has played more than three hundred concerts over a ten-year period with the Bowdoin Trio. He also performs regularly with his wife, Pamela Frank, who he met as a child at Carnegie Hall. One of his more notable performances was a six-recital series at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Library of Congress, where he gave the premiere of Robert Starer’s Duo, which was written for him. In addition to his work with the trio, he currently tours the United States regularly as leader and soloist with the Vivaldi Traveling Virtuosi. He plays on a Sergio Peresson violin, which was made for him in 1983. An avid tennis player, Andy makes his home in the New York area.

Cellist Wilhelmina Smith was a prizewinner in the 1997 Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and made her debut as a soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1988. She has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and in the 2000 season was invited by Esa-Pekka Salonen to perform as guest principal cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic during their opening week.
Formerly a dancer, Ms. Smith also collaborated with Michail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project performing Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk Style for cello and piano. She is founder and Artistic Director of Salt Bay Chamberfest and Artistic Director of the Pensacola Chamber Festival. Having toured extensively with Musicians From Marlboro, she took part in their unprecedented European tour honoring the late Rudolf Serkin in 1991. She was a founding member of the Windham String Quartet and a member of the Mannes Trio. In 1999, Ms. Smith joined several acclaimed musicians to form Music from the Copland House — a new, innovative chamber group that features the music of Aaron Copland, his influences, his contemporaries and his legacy. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, she studied with David Soyer of the Guarneri String Quartet, Peter Wiley, Gary Hoffman and the late Felix Galimir.

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster in September 1998. In addition to her orchestral career, she has performed as soloist with more than 40 orchestras nationwide. An active chamber musician, Ms. Staples has participated in the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Brightstar, Martha’s Vineyard and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, and she has been a faculty artist at the Aspen, Bowdoin and Sarasota music festivals. She appears on three Stereophile compact disks with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. At the age of 26, Ms. Staples was appointed associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, a position she held for three years. In addition, she taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Encore School for Strings and Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and she was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio. Currently on leave from the Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Staples has recently joined the faculty of The Juilliard School, teaching orchestral excerpts. A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Staples was a scholarship student at the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, a Young Musicians Foundation Scholar and a W.M. Keck Scholar at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, spending summers at the Encore School for Strings. She earned an Artist Diploma from the University of Southern California. Ms. Staples performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesu, c. 1720. on loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California. Ms. Staples is married to percussionist Barry Centanni. They have two children, Michael and Laura.

Scott Yoo won first prize in both the 1988 Josef Gingold International Violin Competition and the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. In 1994 he received an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and was named 1995 Young Artist-in-Residence of NPR’s “Performance Today.” As a chamber musician, Mr. Yoo has appeared with Bargemusic, Boston Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Strings in the Mountains and the Colorado College, Las Vegas, New Hampshire and Seattle festivals. In 2003-04, Mr. Yoo celebrated his tenth season as co-founder and Music Director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that he has led in its subscription series in Boston as well as over ninety performances on tour. Mr. Yoo and Metamorphosen have made eight recordings for Albany, Archetype, New World and Sony Classical. Mr. Yoo has guest-conducted the Dallas and Indianapolis Symphonies and is conducting the Columbus, Honolulu, Oregon and Utah Symphonies in 2003-04. Scott Yoo began his violin studies at the age of three and performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony at age twelve. He has studied violin with Roman Totenberg, Albert Markov, Paul Kantor and Dorothy DeLay, and conducting with Michael Gilbert and Michael Tilson-Thomas. In 1993 Mr. Yoo graduated with honors and a B.A. in Physics from Harvard University.

At the recommendation of Isaac Stern and Alexander Schneider, violinist Carmit Zori came to the United States from her native Israel at the age of fifteen to study with Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo and Arnold Steinhardt at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Ms. Zori is the recipient of a Levintritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award and a top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. Carmit Zori has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in recital at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Her engagements abroad have included performances throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as in Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Australia, where she premiered the Violin Concerto by Marc Neikrug. In addition to her appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ms. Zori has been a guest at chamber music festivals and concert series around the world. Ms. Zori was an artistic director and frequent performer at Bargemusic in New York and is now the artistic director of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, which she founded in 2002. She has recorded on the Arabesque, Koch International and Elektra-Nonesuch labels.