2025-2026 Musicians

Ara Gregorian

Violinist/violist ARA GREGORIAN made his debut as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center, and in cities throughout the world including Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Helsinki. Gregorian is the founder and artistic director of Four Seasons and has appeared at the SpringLight (Finland), Storioni (Holland), Casals (Puerto Rico), Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong), Voice of Music (Israel), Vail, Taos and Sante Fe festivals. He has performed extensively as a member of the Cooperstown and Daedalus quartets and the chamber music ensemble Concertante. Gregorian has served on the violin/viola/chamber music faculty at East Carolina University since 1998 and is the Chair of String and Piano Chamber Music at New England Conservatory.

Rieko Aizawa

Praised by the NY Times for her “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing”, Japanese pianist RIEKO AIZAWA made her debut at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Schneider, and has performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and Wigmore Hall in London. The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has performed with the Guarneri and Orion quartets, is a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and prize-winning Duo Prism, and is co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival. Aizawa is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School, was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski, and studied additionally with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin. She is on the faculty at Bard College and Brooklyn College.

Edward Arron

Ani Aznavoorian

The Strad magazine describes cellist Ani Aznavoorian as having “scorchingly committed performances that wring every last drop of emotion out of the music. Her technique is well-nigh immaculate, she has a natural sense of theater, and her tone is astonishingly responsive.” Ms. Aznavoorian is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician with some of the most recognized ensembles, and she has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony, the International Sejong Soloists, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Edmonton Symphony. This season marks Ms. Aznavoorian’s fifteenth year as Principal Cellist with Camerata Pacifica. 

Ms. Aznavoorian received the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her outstanding cello playing and artistry. Some of her other awards include first prizes in the Illinois Young Performers Competition (televised live on PBS with the Chicago Symphony), the Chicago Cello Society National Competition, the Julius Stulberg Competition, and the American String Teachers Association Competition. She was a top prizewinner in the 1996 International Paulo Competition, held in Helsinki, Finland. As a recipient of the Level I Award in the National Foundation for the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, Ms. Aznavoorian was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and performed as soloist at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. where she met former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

As a first-year student at The Juilliard School, Ms. Aznavoorian won first prize in the institution’s concerto competition—the youngest cellist in the history of the school’s cello competitions to do so. As a result, she performed with the Juilliard Orchestra in a concert with conductor Gerard Schwarz at Avery Fisher Hall. With only 12 hours notice, Ms. Aznavoorian stepped in to replace Natalia Gutman in three performances of the Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with the San Jose Symphony—concerts that were hailed by the San Jose Press. Other notable appearances include concerts at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia’s Bennett Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, WFMT Live from Studio 1, and NPR’s Performance Today. She has been a member of the renowned string ensemble the International Sejong Soloists, and also performs frequently on the Jupiter Chamber Music series in New York. Ms. Aznavoorian received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where she studied with Aldo Parisot.

In addition to performing, teaching plays an important part in Ms. Aznavoorian’s career. She has been a member of the distinguished music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and in the summers has served on the faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. Ms. Aznavoorian enjoys performing new music and has made the world premiers of many important pieces in the cello repertoire. Some of these include Ezra Laderman’s Concerto No. 2 with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith, Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano on stage at the Hamburg Staatsoper with the Hamburg State Ballet—choreographed by John Neumeier, and Lera Auerbach’s Dreammusik for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, which was written for her and commissioned by Camerata Pacifica. Ms. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records, and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.

Andy Billings

A native of Greenville, North Carolina, violist ANDY BILLINGS has appeared at Festivals such as Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Encore Chamber Music Institute, and Chamber Music on the Hill. As a passionate chamber musician, Andy has collaborated with artists such as Colin Carr, Emanuel Gruber, Jorge Richter, and Carmit Zori. Andy received a bachelor’s degree in music performance from East Carolina University where he studied with Ara Gregorain and Hye-Jin Kim and completed the fellowship program with the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. He has a masters degree in music performance from Rice University in Houston, Texas where he studied with Ivo Van-der Werff. In his free time, Andy enjoys running, swimming, and trying new restaurants.

Christopher Buddo

Double bassist J. CHRISTOPHER BUDDO has performed at the Birch Creek Summer Music Festival, the Bedford Springs Music Festival, the Vivace International Music Festival and the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. He has appeared with the Fort Worth, Waco, Des Moines, Quad-City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo-Cedar Falls and Roanoke symphony orchestras. As a conductor, Buddo has directed the Iowa City Youth Orchestra and was the founding conductor of the Waco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Buddo served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at East Carolina University from 2012-2021 and as Director of the School of Music at ECU from 2006-2012. He previously held positions at Baylor University and the University of Northern Iowa, and is currently Professor of Double Bass at East Carolina University.

Serena Canin

A native of New York City, violinist Serena Canin is an active chamber musician, teacher and presenter.As a founding member of the Brentano Quartet, she has performed to critical acclaim around the world;she has also been heard at the Marlboro Festival, Chamber Music Quad Cities, Salt Bay Chamberfest,the Festival Internacional de Cartagena, the Continuum Series at Alice Tully Hall, and on tour with Music from Marlboro and the Brandenburg Ensemble.She has worked with young musicians at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mannes Beethoven Institute, and the Chamber Music Center of New York. Serena is the director of Music Middays, a noontime series promoting young musicians in New York, where she lives with her husband, pianist Thomas Sauer, and their two sons.She holds degrees from Swarthmore College and The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann.

Colin Carr

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. Chamber music plays an important role in his musical life. He is a frequent visitor to international festivals 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. He has held teaching positions at the New England Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Music. St John’s College, Oxford created the post of “Musician in Residence” for him. Since 2002 he been a professor at Stony Brook University in New York.

Catherine Cho

CATHERINE CHO draws upon her experiences as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and artistic director to support and mentor artists in their quests to engage and enrich their high values as future leaders. She is devoted to fostering the next generation of performers and teachers through the development of artistic excellence, inspired curiosity, and clarity of vision through a holistic view of the whole person. Her work as a teacher in the Juilliard Community Engagement Seminar highlights her passion for connection through art and communication.  Cho has served on the Violin and Chamber Music Faculty of the Juilliard School since 1994. When away from her teaching and performing, you may find her tending her Zen garden, practicing yoga, or catching up with the Times. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Todd Phillips, and son, Brandon.

Micaela Fruend Haimov

Dr. MICAELA FRUEND HAIMOV, a passionate violinist and violist, is dedicated to teaching, performing, and fostering enthusiasm among classical musicians and their community. As a founding member and Executive Director of NYC-based classical orchestra Kollective366, she aims to introduce new audiences to historically informed performances. Micaela has performed at Carnegie Hall with New Music for Strings Festival Orchestra, collaborated with members of the Emerson String Quartet, and previously served as Artistic Director and violist with Three Village Chamber Players on Long Island during her Musicivic Artist residency. Micaela holds a Bachelor’s in violin performance and an Advanced Performance Studies Certificate in viola performance from East Carolina University, where she studied with Ara Gregorian and Melissa Reardon. She obtained her Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in viola performance from Stony Brook University, having studied with Lawrence Dutton, Nicholas Cords, and Matthew Lipman.

Emanuel Gruber

Cellist EMANUEL GRUBER has been principal cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and co-principal of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; a member of the Sequoia Quartet and the Tel Aviv Piano Quartet; and leader of the Israel Cello Ensemble. He has performed at the Salzburg (Austria), Bath (England), San Sebastian (Spain), Eilat (Israel), Musical Spring (St. Petersburg) and Rostropovich Cello (Riga) festivals, and has served on the jury of the Davidoff International Cello Competition. Gruber has collaborated with artists such as Sir Neville Marriner, Rudolf Barshai, Philippe Entremont and Janos Starker, and was awarded the Pablo Casals Prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and first prize in the Concert Artist Guild Auditions. Gruber has been visiting professor at Indiana University, has taught at the Academies of Music of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and is currently professor of cello at East Carolina University.

Ieva Jokubaviciute

Pianist IEVA JOKUBAVICIUTE made her Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival in 2005 and was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2006. She has performed concerti with orchestras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Washington, DC; and Fargo, ND and has appeared at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Four Seasons, Bard, Caramoor, La Lointaine (France) and Prussia Cove (England) festivals. Jokubaviciute won the 2009 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition as a member of Trio Cavatina and has toured with violinist Midori in Europe, Japan, India, North and South America. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Kennedy Center; with Musicians from Marlboro; and at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Jokubaviciute received degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music and is Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University.

Michael Kannen

Cellist MICHAEL KANNEN was a founding member of the Brentano String Quartet and for seven years performed with that group on stages around the world. During those years, the Quartet was awarded the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Naumburg Award, and the Segal Award from Lincoln Center, and appeared in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Sydney Opera House. Kannen has been a member of the Apollo Trio and the Meliora and Cooperstown string quartets, has appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has performed at Spoleto in Charleston, Italy, and Australia. Kannen has been faculty at Yellow Barn and Taos School of Music. For 22 years he was Director of Chamber Music at the Peabody Conservatory, where he still teaches, and in 2019 received the Johns Hopkins Excellence in Teaching Award.

Ani Kavafian

Violinist ANI KAVAFIAN has performed as soloist with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco and Seattle symphony orchestras. She has appeared at the White House on three separate occasions for three different presidents. Kavafian has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1979, performs frequently with her sister, Ida Kavafian, and has appeared in solo recitals at New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully halls. She has appeared at the Four Seasons, Music from Angel Fire, Bravo! Vail and Bridgehampton festivals, and recorded the Mozart violin concerti with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Kavafian has held teaching positions at Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music, McGill University in Montreal and Stony Brook University. She is currently full professor at the Yale University School of Music.

Ida Kavafian

The versatile violinist/violist IDA KAVAFIAN recently completed her 35th year and final year as Artistic Director of Music from Angel Fire.  She is co-founder of Tashi, OPUS ONE, Trio Valtorna and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival (running it for ten years), frequent artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio and faculty member of The Curtis Institute (where she holds the Nina von Maltzahn Violin Chair).  She has premiered numerous new works including concerti by Toru Takemitsu and Michael Daugherty, toured and recorded with jazz greats Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis and Fiddler/Composer Mark O’Connor, appeared with the Guarneri, Orion, Shanghai and American String Quartets (as violist), and has had a solo feature on CBS Sunday Morning.  A graduate of Juilliard studying with Oscar Shumsky, she made her NY debut under Young Concert Artists with the pianist Peter Serkin.  Together with her husband, violist Steven Tenenbom, she breeds, trains and shows prize-winning Vizsla dogs, which presently include a Gold Grand Champion as well as a Master Hunter.

Alan Kay

Praised by the New York Times for his “spellbinding” performances and “infectious enthusiasm and panache,” ALAN R. KAY is Principal Clarinetist and a former Artistic Director of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is the recipient of the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award, a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with the sextet Hexagon. A founding member of the Windscape Quintet, he is a regular guest in chamber music venues throughout the world including the Yellow Barn, Orlando (Holland), and Bowdoin festivals and curated a concert series at the Cape May Music Festival for 25 years. Kay teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University, where he also serves as Executive Director of the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. He has served on the juries of Young Concert Artists, Concert Artist Guild, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Hye-Jin Kim

Violinist HYE-JIN KIM was awarded first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition. She has performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic, and has been presented at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Kim has appeared at the Four Seasons, Marlboro, Ravinia, Music from Angel Fire, Prussia Cove and Music@Menlo festivals and was a member of the Cooperstown Quartet. She has toured as a member of Musicians from Marlboro and recently founded “Lullaby Dreams,” an initiative that brings beauty and humanity to babies and families in NICUs and children’s hospitals through music. Kim is associate professor of violin at East Carolina University.

Yeesun Kim

Cellist YEESUN KIM has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a founding member of the Borromeo String Quartet, in duo with violinist Nicholas Kitchen, and as a soloist, including engagements at the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Opera Bastille in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul, Carnegie Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and the Library of Congress and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Kim has recorded and performed for NPR’s Performance Today and NHK Radio and Television in Japan, and appeared on Live from Lincoln Center. She currently serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in the cello and chamber music departments and teaches each summer at the Taos School of Music and at the Heifetz Institute.

Nicholas Kitchen

NICHOLAS KITCHEN has performed throughout the world both as soloist and chamber musician and as founding first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet. He has done extensive projects with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. He has performed in some of the world’s great concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea. He is the Artistic Director of the Heifetz International Music Institute and Faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music. Nicholas is winner of the Arion Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music, the Evian International Quartet Competition, the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Martin E. Segal Award and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Maria Lambros

Violist MARIA LAMBROS has performed as a member of four of the country’s finest string quartets in venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She was a member of the Ridge and Mendelssohn string quartets, a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Meliora String Quartet, and is currently a member of the Cooperstown Quartet. Lambros has appeared at the Four Seasons, Helsinki, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Tanglewood, La Jolla, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals. She has performed with the Guarneri, Cleveland, Juilliard, Muir, Brentano, Borromeo, and Orion quartets and was named one of “Montana’s Leading Artists and Entertainers of the 20th Century.” She is founder and artistic director of Our Joyful Noise Baltimore and is on faculty at the Peabody Conservatory.

Yura Lee

Violinist/violist YURA LEE is one of the very few musicians that is equally virtuosic on both violin and viola. She has performed with major orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She has given recitals in London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and has received numerous international prizes, including top prizes in the Mozart, Indianapolis, Hannover, Kreisler, Bashmet, and Paganini competitions. As a chamber musician, she regularly takes part in the festivals of Seattle, Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, La Jolla, Caramoor, to name a few. She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as both violinist and violist; she is also a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society. Lee plays a fine Giovanni Grancino violin kindly loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society by generous sponsors. Her viola was made in 2002 by Douglas Cox, who resides in Vermont. Lee is a professor at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

Robert McDonald

ROBERT MCDONALD has toured extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. He has performed with major orchestras in the United States and was the recital partner for many years to Isaac Stern and other distinguished instrumentalists. He has participated in the Marlboro, Casals, and Luzerne Festivals, the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, and has broadcasted for BBC Television worldwide. He has appeared with the Takács, Vermeer, Juilliard, Brentano, Borromeo, American, Shanghai, and St. Lawrence string quartets as well as with Musicians from Marlboro. His discography includes recordings for Sony Classical, Bridge, Vox, Musical Heritage Society, ASV, and CRI. Mr. McDonald’s prizes include the Gold Medal at the Busoni International Piano Competition and the Deutsche Schallplatten Critics Award. A member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School since 1999, Mr. McDonald joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in Piano Studies. During the summer, he is the artistic director of the Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico.

Jesse Mills

Since his concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival, violinist JESSE MILLS has established a unique career, performing music from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. Mills earned two Grammy nominations for his work on several discs of Arnold Schoenberg’s music, released by NAXOS. As a composer and arranger, Mills has been commissioned by Columbia University’s Miller Theatre and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He is co-founder of the prize-winning Duo Prism, and of the Horszowski Trio. Mills is co-artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Silverthorne, Colorado. He studied with Dorothy DeLay, Robert Mann, and Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School. He is on the faculty at Brooklyn College and the Longy School of Music. He has received awards for musical achievement from the Third Street Music School in 2010 and from the Chamber Music Center of New York in 2023.

Adam Neiman

American pianist ADAM NEIMAN has performed as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, and Utah, as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra. He has performed throughout the US and Canada and internationally in Italy, France, and Japan. In 1995, Neiman became the youngest-ever winner of the Gilmore Young Artist Award, and the following year won the Young Concert Artists Auditions. Neiman’s live performance of the Brahms Rhapsodies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival on NPR’s Performance Today was nominated for a Grammy Award. He has received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and is artistic director of the Manchester Music Festival. Neiman is Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Music Conservatory at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Paul Neubauer

Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing have earned him praise as “a master musician” from The New York Times. In 2025, he will release two albums for First Hand Records, each featuring the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album, which includes the revised version of the Viola Concerto, and a Shostakovich album, featuring the monumental Viola Sonata.

At age 21, Mr. Neubauer was appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, a position he held for six years. He has since appeared as a soloist with over 100 orchestras, including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki Philharmonics; the Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth Symphonies; and the Mariinsky, Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle Orchestras. He has also premiered viola concertos by Béla Bartók (including the revised version of the Viola Concerto), Reinhold Glière, Gordon Jacob, Henri Lazarof, Robert Suter, Joel Phillip Friedman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Detlev Müller-Siemens, David Ott, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tobias Picker, and Joan Tower.

In addition to his solo career, Mr. Neubauer performs with SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, exploring a wide range of repertoire, including salon-style songs. He has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded for numerous labels, including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical.

Mr. Neubauer is a frequent performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and serves as the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.

Leonardo Perez

Praised for his “assured and lovely” playing (Classical Voice of North Carolina), LEONARDO PEREZ is Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. An avid chamber musician, he has made numerous appearances at concert series throughout North America including performances at the Antigonish Performing Arts, Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance and Musique Royale series, at the Scotia Festival, and with the Music Room Chamber Players in Halifax, NS. Perez has appeared regularly as a Next Generation Artist with Four Seasons. He holds degrees from East Carolina University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Iowa and his principal teachers include Ara Gregorian, Hagai Shaham, Scott Conklin, and Dora Mullins.

Daniel Phillips

Violinist DANIEL PHILLIPS is co-founder of the Orion String Quartet, which gave its last concert in April 2024 presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln after an illustrious 37-year career.  A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, St Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, Heifetz Institute, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director.  He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and serves on the faculties of the Bard College Conservatory and the Juilliard School. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Todd Phillips

TODD PHILLIPS made his solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of 13 and has appeared with many orchestras throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan since then, including the Brandenburg Ensemble, Jacksonville and Honolulu symphonies, Camerata Salzburg and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Phillips is a founding member of the highly-acclaimed Orion String Quartet, which has been the quartet-in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mannes College of Music and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Zvi Plesser

Israeli cellist ZVI PLESSER enjoys a wide-ranging career as a soloist, chamber music performer, educator and music director. As a soloist Mr. Plesser plays regularly in his home country with all the orchestras. On the world stage he has performed with such orchestras as Berlin Philharmonic, Saint Martin in the Fields, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, Shanghai Philharmonic, and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Mr. Plesser devotes much of his time to chamber music. He has performed on some of the world’s leading stages, including Vienna’s Konzerthouse, Berlin’s Philharmonie, NYC’s Carnegie Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall, among others. He is frequently invited to music festivals around the world including Four Seasons and Mayfest in the US, Utrecht International Music Festival, Rolandseck, ClasClas and Salon de Provence in Europe as well as Le Point in Japan. Mr. Plesser is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Zara Nelsova. Mr. Plesser is a professor at the Jerusalem Academy of Music. In the fall of 2024, he will begin teaching at the Juilliard School.

Raman Ramakrishnan

Cellist RAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN enjoys performing chamber music, old and new, around the world. For two decades, as a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and the Daedalus Quartet, he toured extensively through North and South America, Europe, and Asia and recorded for Bridge Records and Avie Records. Ramakrishnan is currently a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and is on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. He has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington D.C. and has performed chamber music at Caramoor, Bargemusic, with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and at the Aspen, Four Seasons, Kingston, Lincolnshire (UK), Marlboro, Mehli Mehta (India), Oklahoma Mozart, and Vail festivals. Ramakrishnan has served on the faculties of the Kneisel Hall and Norfolk chamber music festivals.

Jorge Richter

Violist JORGE RICHTER is associate professor of music at East Carolina University. He holds a BM in violin performance from the Parana State School of Music and Fine Arts in Curitiba, Brazil, an MM in conducting from Andrews University, and a DMA in conducting from Michigan State University where he studied with Leon Gregorian. Richter has held similar positions at Truman State University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Tennessee, has performed at the Utah and Four Seasons chamber music festivals, and has served as guest conductor of the Espirito Santo Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to his conducting duties, Richter teaches violin, viola and chamber music at East Carolina University.

Marcy Rosen

MARCY ROSEN, cello, has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. The New Yorker magazine dubbed her “a New York legend of the cello,” and the Los Angeles Times has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures.” She has performed throughout the world and in all 50 of the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative Master Classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia. She is a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and has been co-artistic director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival in Maryland since 1986. Since first attending the Marlboro Music Festival in 1975, she has taken part in 25 Musicians from Marlboro tours and performed in concerts celebrating the 40^th, 50^th, and 60^th anniversaries of the festival. A graduate of the Curtis Institute, Ms. Rosen is currently Professor of Cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, also serving as artistic director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. In 2024, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Evnin Rising Stars program at the Caramoor Center for the Arts.

Thomas Sauer

Pianist THOMAS SAUER has performed at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Merkin Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Musikgebouw and at Berlin’s Philharmonie. He has appeared throughout the world with his long-time duo partner Colin Carr, as well as with Midori and the Brentano String Quartet; has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; has appeared at the Four Seasons, Taos, Portland, Seattle, Marlboro and Music@Menlo festivals; and performed as soloist with the Quad-City and Tallahassee symphonies. Sauer’s varied discography includes recordings of Beethoven and Haydn piano sonatas for MSR Classics, the complete cello and piano works of Mendelssohn with Colin Carr on Cello Classics and a disc of Hindemith sonatas with violist Misha Amory on the Musical Heritage Society label. Sauer is a member of the music faculty of Vassar College and the piano faculty of the Mannes College of Music.

Amy Schwartz Moretti

With a distinguished career of broad versatility, violinist AMY SCHWARTZ MORETTI is equally accomplished as chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist, and educator. Recognized as a deeply expressive artist, she appears as soloist and chamber music artist at music festivals and concert series internationally. She is a member of the Ehnes Quartet, touring and recording with violinist James Ehnes, violist Che-Yen Chen, and cellist Edward Arron. In 2007, she became the inaugural Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Georgia, leading their new string program for gifted young artists within the School of Music supported by full-tuition scholarships.  Since then, together with founder Robert McDuffie, she has developed and guided this unique program.  She has established and expanded the Fabian Concert Series bringing esteemed artists to campus for performances and classes.  

As professor and Director of the McDuffie Center at Mercer University, she is honored to hold the Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings and teach the violinists of the Center. Before joining Mercer University, Amy was concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony in Portland. Her professional career began as concertmaster of The Florida Orchestra in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater. She has served as guest concertmaster for the Atlanta, Houston, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, The New York Pops and Hawaii Pops, and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado, Grant Park and Grand Teton. 

She has received multiple Juno awards for her recordings with James Ehnes and has also recorded for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Onyx Classics, CBC Records, BCMF/Naxos and Sono Luminus. Recent projects include the 2024 recording of a concerto written for her by composer Christopher Schmitz, and the filming of the documentary, “Chaos Becomes Order,” illuminating the process of the concerto’s collaboration with the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Stefan Sanderling. 

The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree. In 2018, Moretti was selected as one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of the Year, and in 2022, she received the Macon Arts Alliance Cultural Award, given to individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the cultural life of Central Georgia. Amy lives in Georgia with her husband and two sons. She performs on her treasured Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin made in Paris in 1874.

Peter Stumpf

PETER STUMPF is Professor of Cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Prior to this appointment, he was principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which followed twelve years as associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. A dedicated chamber musician, he is a member of the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio and appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, in Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Cologne. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia, and at numerous Festivals, including the Casals Festival, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, and with pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Concerto appearances have been with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic among others. As a recitalist, he has performed at the Universities of Hartford, Syracuse, and Delaware; at Jordan Hall in Boston; and at the Phillips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, DC. His awards include first prize in the Washington International Competition, the Graham-Stahl Competition, and the Aspen Concerto Competition.

Macintyre Taback

Born in New York City, MACINTYRE TABACK began his cello studies at the age of 11. Taback is the founder of the Bennetts Point Cello Seminar in Charleston, SC, which held its first festival this year. He has recently performed at IMS Prussia Cove, the Perlman Music Program, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons, and the Kronberg Academy’s ‘Chamber Music Connects the World”. Taback has worked with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, and the Brentano Quartet, and has recently collaborated with Gidon Kremer, Lawrence Power, and the Emerson, Borromeo, and St. Lawrence Quartets. Taback completed his undergraduate studies with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott at Eastman, where he received the Performance Certificate and Harris Cello Prize. He is currently pursuing his DMA at New England Conservatory under Laurence Lesser, Donaid Weilerstein, and Vivian Weilerstein, and plays a cello made by David Tecchler in Rome, 1723.

Steven Tenenbom

STEVEN TENENBOM is the violist of the Orion String Quartet, which has served as the quartet-in-residence of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Mannes College of Music, and the Santa Fe Music Festival. He has appeared with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets, the Kalichstein-Loredo-Robinson and Beaux Arts trios, TASHI, and as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Brandenburg Ensemble. Tenenbom has had a long association with the Marlboro Music Festival, including many tours across the United States, Japan, and France, and has appeared at the June Music, La Jolla Mostly Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest, Four Seasons, Music from Angel Fire, and Bravo! Colorado festivals. He is co-founder of Opus One and is on the faculties of the Curtis Institute, The Juilliard School, and the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Gilles Vonsattel

Swiss-born American pianist GILLES VONSATTEL is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, and a winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions. He has appeared with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and has performed recitals and chamber music at many major festivals. He has premiered numerous works by composers including Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, Anthony Cheung, and George Benjamin. An alum of the Bowers Program, he holds degrees from Columbia University and the Juilliard School. Vonsattel is Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and serves on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Xiao-Dong Wang

Violinist XIAO-DONG WANG was the first prize winner at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and the Wieniawski-Lipinski International Violin Competition at the ages of thirteen and fifteen. He has performed with orchestras around the world including the Royal Philharmonic in London, the London Mozart Players, the Adelaide, Perth, and Queensland symphony orchestras and the Sydney Opera Orchestra, and his recording credits include the Bartok Concerto No. 2 and Szymanowski Concerto No. 1 for Polygram Records. Wang has appeared on both violin and viola in chamber music concerts at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center and at the Four Seasons, Aspen, Ravinia and Voice of Music in the Upper Galilee festivals. Wang was the resident soloist of the Shanghai Symphony for the 2012-13 season, appearing three times as soloist with the orchestra as well as presenting chamber music concerts and master classes. Wang was a founding member and artistic director of Concertante, where he collaborated with world-renowned musicians and made a vast number of chamber music recordings.

Zhu Wang

Praised as “especially impressive” and “a thoughtful, sensitive performer” who “balanced lyrical warmth and crisp clarity” (Tommasini, The New York Times), pianist Zhu Wang was awarded First Prize Winner at 2020 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, and 2024 New Orleans International Piano Competition. His Carnegie Hall debut made The New York Times’ “Best of Classical Music 2021” list. Zhu’s artistry, hailed for its depth and imagination, continues to shine in concerti, solo recitals and chamber music, solidifying his reputation as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation.