Sara Davis Buechner, piano, is a major prize winner in international piano competitions: the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Leeds, Salzburg, Sydney and Vienna. She won the Gold Medal of the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City and was a Bronze Medalist in the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.

Ms. Buechner has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Saint Louis and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and abroad with the Japan Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and many others. She was a featured artist at the Piano 2000 Gala Concerts in the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony, and made her debut at Lincoln Center's "Mostly Mozart" Festival.

Ms. Buechner's recording of piano music by George Gershwin was selected as a "Record of the Month" by Stereophile magazine; her 1997 world première recording of the Busoni version of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations was profiled in the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times; and her recording of Hollywood piano concertos by Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman won Germany's Deutsches Schauplatten Preis for best soundtrack. Pro Piano has released her CD of the complete piano music of Stephen Foster, and her fourth recording for Koch International was recently released featuring piano music by Rudolf Friml.

Profiles of Ms. Buechner have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Paris Match, Noticias del Argentina, Out, Blade and Frontiers magazines; and she has been featured on the television programs Entertainment Tonight, Extra, In the Life, and Bynon. Her appearances on radio include profiles on NPR's The Fishko Files and Performance Today, WFMT's Dame Myra Hess Recital Series and WNYC's New Sounds with John Schaefer.

In 2003 Ms. Buechner was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of British Columbia - Vancouver.
www.sarabuechner.com

Jane Coop, piano, has toured extensively throughout North America, Britain, Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Japan. She has given recitals in New York, London, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Prague, Beijing and Tokyo.

As a concerto soloist, Ms. Coop has worked with conductors John Eliot Gardiner, Andrew Davis, and Rudolf Barshai. She has also appeared with the Royal Philharmonic, Seattle and Oregon Symphonies, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra and every major orchestra in Canada. With Maestro Mario Bernardi, Ms. Coop has recorded two full CDs of concertos with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and with the CBC Radio Orchestra. Next season sees her performing with the Toronto Symphony and Scotia Symphony.

An active recording artist with a current discography of thirteen titles on both Skylark Records and CBC Records, Ms. Coop’s recordings have received multiple Juno nominations [Canada's highest recording honor] and continue to garner praises as “one of the finest Chopin discs of the decade” [InTune Magazine]
She has collaborated with many of Canada’s leading instrumentalists and is frequently invited to perform at chamber festivals throughout North America. With violinist Andrew Dawes, she has recorded and performed the complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle throughout Canada. Ms. Coop is a regular guest artist and teacher at the prestigious Kneisel Hall Festival in Blue Hill, Maine.
Ms. Coop’s major teachers were Anton Kuerti and Leon Fleisher. She is currently Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

The Chiara String Quartet has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the American Academy in Rome, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, and Harris Hall in Aspen, Colorado. They have premiered award-winning works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Jefferson Friedman, and Nico Muhly, among others, and have released world premiere recordings of new masterworks on their New Voice Singles label, including Robert Sirota's Triptych and Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout. The Chiara Quartet was recently awarded the Guarneri Quartet Residency Award for artistic excellence by Chamber Music America. They are only the second group to receive this honor. Other awards include a top prize at the Paolo Borciani International Competition, winning the Astral Artistic Services Audition, and winning First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The Chiara trained at The Juilliard School, mentoring for two years with the Juilliard Quartet as recipients of the Lisa Arnhold Quartet Residency. Since 2005, the Quartet is in residence at the School of Music of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
www.chiaraquartet.net

Cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival. Since that time, Mr. Arron has appeared in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East.

The 2006-2007 season marks Mr. Arron’s fourth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Each performance of the MMAinC is broadcast live on New York’s classical radio station, WQXR. Mr. Arron is also the artistic director of the Caramoor Virtuosi and of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Summit County, Colorado. For four seasons, he was the artistic administrator and resident performer for WQXR’s “On A-I-R” series, a weekly radio program dedicated to chamber music.

Mr. Arron has performed numerous times at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New York’s Town Hall, and the  92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. Past summer festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, BRAVO! Colorado, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Piccolo Spoleto, Santa Fe, the North Country Chamber Players, the Chamber Music Conference of the East, and Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron has participated in the Silk Road Project and is currently a member of MOSAIC, an ensemble dedicated to contemporary music.

Edward Arron began his studies on the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and, at age ten, moved to New York, where he continued his studies with Peter Wiley.
He graduated in 1998 from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro.
www.edwardarron.com

Nathan Hughes


Susie Park


Sophie Shao


Jennifer Stumm


Gilles Vonsattel

Nathan Hughes, oboe, is Principal Oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He previously served as Principal Oboe at the Seattle Symphony and as acting associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony. He was guest principal oboe of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics as well as the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Baltimore.

As chamber musician, Mr. Hughes has performed with the Met Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall as well as at the Marlboro, Santa Fe and Seattle chamber music festivals. He has been active in festivals worldwide serving as principal oboe of the Aspen Chamber Symphony, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and San Diego's Mainly Mozart Orchestra, and appearing at the Lucerne, Sarasota, Spoleto and Tanglewood festivals. As soloist, Mr. Hughes has appeared with the Met Chamber Ensemble, Seattle Symphony, Savannah Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Sinfonietta Polonia in Poland.

Mr. Hughes is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. His teachers have included John Mack, Elaine Duvas, and John de Lancie.

Susie Park, violin, has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay in California, all of the major Australian orchestras including those of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania, West Australia and Canberra, Korea’s KBS orchestra, the Lille National Orchestra under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin in France and the Wellington Sinfonia, New Zealand. Highlights of this season include performances of Mozart’s Sinfonie Concertante with Jaime Laredo and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in Alice Tully Hall, New York, recitals in Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston, a live radio recital for WGBH Boston and appearances in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 92nd St. Y in New York, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Centre and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

Winner of numerous awards and honors, Miss Park was a laureate in the 2002 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She won first prize in the senior division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists, second prize in the junior division of the Henryk Wieniawski/Karol Lipinski Competition, first prize in the Richard Goldner Concerto Competition, the City of Sydney Reg Marsh Award for Most Outstanding String Performer and the Ernest Llewellyn String Award. She took top honors at the national string division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Young Performer’s Award and her performance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was televised nationally, earning her the Victorian Premier’s Award.

A passionate chamber musician, Ms Park is the newly appointed violinist of the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio. Miss Park is also in professional residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. She will be performing in the 2006-2007 season with Society members Wu Han, Gary Hoffman and Ida Kavafian. She has participated in numerous tours with Musicians from Marlboro to critical acclaim as a result of her three consecutive summers in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. Collaborations include performances with members of the Guarneri Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, Samuel Rhodes and Jaime Laredo and her numerous festival appearances include Music from Angelfire in New Mexico, Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, England, the Ravinia Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Austria and Israel’s Keshet Eilon.

Ms. Park is a founding member of ECCO, a conductor-less chamber orchestra comprised of some of the most talented young chamber musicians, soloists and principal string players in major American orchestras.
A native of Sydney, Australia, Ms. Park first picked up the violin at age three making her solo recital debut at the age of five in a Suzuki showcase. Prior to moving to the US, Ms. Park studied in the preparatory division of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has taken master classes with Yehudi Menuhin, Pinkas Zukerman, Pamela Frank, Steven Isserlis, Menachem Pressler and with members of the Juilliard and Emerson string quartets. Ms. Park holds her Bachelor of Music degree from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music where she studied under the tutelage of renowned violinists Jaime Laredo and Ida Kavafian. She served as Concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony in the 2001-2002 season, and as Concertmaster of the 2002 New York String Orchestra Seminar in Carnegie Hall. She currently studies with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried in the Artist Diploma program at the New England Conservatory

Jennifer Stumm, viola, received First Prize and the Victor and Sono Elmaleh Award in the 2006 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Other recent prizes include highest honors in the William Primrose Viola Competition, the Geneva International Competition and the Vriendenkrans Concours of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, all in 2005.

Ms. Stumm is an ardent advocate for her instrument. She has appeared in major venues and cities including Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester playing Don Quixote with Yan-Pascal Tortellier conducting, and on the Rising Stars Series of the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. Her broadcast performances include those on the BBC 3 as well as the Dutch and German National Radio Networks. In the 2006 – 2007 season, she gives her New York recital debut on the CAG Winners Series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with additional engagements in London, Montreal, Amsterdam, Denver and a series of performances and educational residencies across the American south.

Deeply committed to chamber music, Jennifer Stumm is a member of the London-based Aronowitz Ensemble, recently named to the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. Her collaborative partners have included members of the Beaux Arts Trio, Guarneri, Juilliard, Vermeer and Alban Berg Quartets, the period ensemble L’Archibudelli and pianist Christopher O’Riley, and she is a regular participant at the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, both in Cornwall, England and on tour. Ms. Stumm spent three summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and has appeared at the Steans Institute at Ravinia, the Aldeburgh Festival, Festival Dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, the Kronberg Academy and Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, among others.

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Jennifer Stumm began playing the viola at the age of eight in her school’s orchestra program and has loved the instrument ever since. She now devotes time to master classes and educational outreach in the hope that younger musicians will be similarly encouraged. Ms. Stumm holds a Bachelors of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she was a student of Karen Tuttle and received her Masters of Music degree from The Juilliard School. She also pursued interests in astrophysics and politics at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate. Currently, Jennifer Stumm divides her time between musical commitments in the U.S. and Europe, where her recent mentors have been violist Nobuko Imai and cellist Steven Isserlis. She plays a 1776 Mantegazza viola.
www.concertartists.org/stumm

At the age of 19, cellist Sophie Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, launching her international career. She has since performed throughout the United States, Europe, Taiwan and Japan, having appeared with such ensembles as l’Orchestre de Paris (with Christoph Eschenbach), the Houston Symphony, and the Russian State Academic Symphony among many others. Winner of a top prize at the 2001 Rostropovich Competition and a laureate of the XII Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002, the New York Times applauded her “eloquent, powerful” interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb.

Highlights of the 2006-2007 Season include her debut with the American Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein in a performance of the Elgar Concerto, a performance of Haydn D Major Concerto with the Maggini Chamber Orchestra, and recitals at New York’s Bargemusic, Vassar College and the Bedford Chamber Series. In addition to her solo appearances at Chamber Music Northwest and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Ms. Shao makes chamber music appearances at the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild, Middlebury College, Union College (Schenectady) and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (where she has been performing regularly since 1998).

Last season’s highlights included performances with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan (Shostakovich First Concerto) and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra (Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations); solo appearances at Princeton University, Vassar College and at the Bard Music Festival; performances at the Rome Chamber Music Festival with Robert McDuffie; and tours throughout the United States with Concertante. Ms. Shao also collaborated with Martha Argerich in a performance of the Shostakovich Quintet and with Andre Watts and violinist Jennifer Frautschi in Portland, OR in a performance of Schubert’s B-flat Major Trio.

Ms. Shao can be heard on EMI Classics - playing Andre Previn's Reflections under the direction of the composer, on Bridge Records – for the Marlboro Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary Album, and on Albany Records – featuring Richard Wilson’s Solo Cello Suite, “Lord Chesterfield to his Son,” and “Motivations” with the composer at the piano.
A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.
www.sophieshao.com

Swiss-born pianist Gilles Vonsattel, winner of the Walter W. Naumburg  Foundation's 2002 International Piano Competition, made his Lincoln Center  debut that year at Alice Tully Hall, and has appeared as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the National Symphony of Ireland, and the Boston Pops. With repertoire that ranges from Bach’s Art of the Fugue to Xenakis, Mr. Vonsattel has performed in major venues such as Boston's Symphony Hall, Cleveland's Severance Hall, Herbst  Theatre in San Francisco, the Benedict Music Tent at the Aspen Music  Festival, and Tokyo’s Opera City Hall. Most recently, he was the top  prizewinner at the 2006 Geneva International Piano Competition, leading to  numerous European engagements in the 2007-08 season and an upcoming  recording with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève. Mr. Vonsattel was also a  prizewinner at the Cleveland and Dublin Piano Competitions. He has been  heard frequently on National Public Radio's Performance Today, and gave the  world premiere of Ned Rorem’s Sound Points at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully  Hall.

Recent chamber music appearances include debuts at the Musée du Louvre in  Paris and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He has participated  in the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Academy of the West. Mr.  Vonsattel has appeared in recital at the Caramoor International Festival and  was one of the festival’s Rising Stars series in 2006. He is a member of the  Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's prestigious Chamber Music Society Two residency for young artists, and has collaborated with artists such as  Kim Kashkashian, Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, David Shifrin, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Mr. Vonsattel has shown a significant interest in expanding the conventional classical concert experience, appearing alongside pop and rock groups, most  recently opening for Eluvium and Amiina at New York's Wordless Music Series. Also in New York, he participated in a workshop at the  Guggenheim Museum with renowned neuroscientist Scott Small, investigating the relationship between music and memory. He has been deeply involved in  classical music outreach in the United States, giving masterclasses at  universities and schools.

His 2007-08 season includes recitals at La Roque d'Anthéron, at the Musée  d'Orsay, Zürich's Tönhalle, and at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, as well as  numerous appearances at New York's Lincoln Center. His recording of  Bartók's Contrasts for Deutsche Gramophon will be available for download on  iTunes.

Mr. Vonsattel has studied with pianist David Deveau in Boston, received his   B.A. in political science and economics from Columbia University and his  M.M. from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Jerome Lowenthal.

Gilad Harel


Cornelius Dufallo


Eric Nowlin


Kenji Bunch and Monica Yuki Ohuchi


Yves Dharamraj

A native of Israel, clarinetist Gilad Harel is an avid chamber music player, a new music promoter and an active klezmer/world music performer. He can be heard in New York's most prestigious concert halls and in its downtown jazz/world music clubs.
Co-artistic director of the Fountain Chamber Music Society, Gilad is also the clarinetist of the Proteus and Fountain Ensembles. He is performing with the Columbia Sinfonietta, and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center , the New Milennium Ensemble, Sospesa Ensemble and the Zephyros Wind Ensemble.
Gilad Harel plays Cuban music with the Quinteto Roberto Rodriguez, Balkan/Jazz with the Cardamon Quartet, and Klezmer music with Klezshop and the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra.

As an instructor, Gilad Harel is on the faculty at the 92nd Street Y, the Bergen Academy of Music in New Jersey, and the Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn.
Gilad is a graduate of the Juilliard School, the Paris National Conservatory and the Israeli Conservatory of Music, Tel-Aviv.
www.giladharel.com

Cornelius Dufallo (A.K.A. Neil), violinist, is project-director, violinist, and resident composer for the contemporary music ensemble Ne(x)tworks, as well as a violinist in the amplified string quartet known as ETHEL (represented by ICM Artists). His ongoing commitment to cutting edge, boundary-breaking music has produced collaborations with such diverse artists as Ornette Coleman, Oliver Lake, Butch Morris, and Anthony Coleman. Dufallo was a founding member of the Flux quartet from 1997-2002. Currently Dufallo is working on Realeyes, a continuing project with sound designer Stephan Moore scored for violin, electronics, and 16 track hemispheric speaker system. His own compositions have been performed by such groups as the Flux Quartet, NurseKaya, the Cutting Edge Ensemble, Ne(x)tworks, and Ethel. As a performer he has commissioned and premiered works by many of todays most prominent composers including Kenji Bunch, Joan La Barbara, John King, Don Byron, Marcello Zarvos, and Jed Distler. In recent years Dufallo has appeared at international festivals in Melbourne and Oslo, as well as American festivals such as Ojai, Summergarden, Lincoln Center's A Great Day in New York, and Carnegie Hall's When Morty Met John... festival. In 2006 his own ensemble, Ne(x)tworks, presented Silomusic, a series of concerts, talks, and open rehearsals at Brooklyn's new art space, the Issue Project Room. Dufallo's projects have received grants from the Copland Foundation, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has recorded for such labels as Mode, Tzadik, and Cantaloupe. Dufallo holds Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees from New York's Juilliard School. Neil is a composer and publisher member of ASCAP.
www.corneliusdufallo.com

Violist Eric Nowlin has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as abroad. Past accomplishments include receiving second prize in the Naumburg Competition, first prize in the 2003 Irving Klein International String Competition; first prize in the 2002 Hellam Young Artists Competition; grand prize in the 2001 Naftzger Young Artists Competition; and winner of the 2001 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition, which led to a performance of Hindemith's Konzertmusik with Roberto Minzcuk conducting the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.

Performances have included solo engagements with the Springfield Symphony in Missouri, Santa Cruz Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, and the Kumamoto Symphony in Japan, as well as recitals in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Mexico. Mr. Nowlin has been featured on NPR, WQXR in New York, WGBH in Boston, WFMT in Chicago, as well as television programs in Wisconsin and California. As an active chamber musician, Mr. Nowlin participates in festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia. He is a regular member of the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and also tours with the Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute. In addition to solo and chamber music performances, Mr. Nowlin performs regularly as a substitute in the viola section of the New York Philharmonic.

An active advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Nowlin is a founding member of the new music series Elastic Arts Room in New York City. The series presents programs that explore the philosophical and cultural contexts of music today through performance and discussion.

Mr. Nowlin received a Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation grant in 2004, and plays on a 1700 Matteo Goffriller viola on generous loan from the Barton Foundation. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School, as a scholarship students of Samuel Rhodes.

The Washington Post wrote that violist Kenji Bunch “is on the brink of a distinguished career,” and The New York Times called him “a composer to watch.” Mr. Bunch continues to be recognized for creating works that show a distinctive and appealing musical voice.

During the 2005-2006 season, Mr. Bunch’s Lichtenstein Triptych, a Magnum Opus Commission, receives performances by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra gives a performance of Arachnophobia. Double Talk for Marimba, Trumpet and Orchestra was premiered by the East Texas Symphony in September and receives a subsequent performance by the Stockton Symphony. Mr. Bunch has been selected as American Composer-in-Residence at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival for the summer of 2006. Next season, the Mobile Symphony will premiere a new viola concerto as part of Mr. Bunch’s “Music Alive” residency.

Last season, Mr. Bunch’s The Torment of the Metals for Brass Quintet, commissioned by the Extension Ensemble, was premiered in the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process Series. Young Concert Artists commissioned Mr. Bunch to write a new work for clarinet and piano, Cookbook, which received its world premiere at the Washington debut of YCA clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester, and Chamber Music Amarillo (TX) commissioned Mr. Bunch to write a Viola Quintet that was premiered by the Harrington String Quartet and the composer on viola. Mr. Bunch’s Broken Music, for cello and piano, was performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in February 2005.

Mr. Bunch has been commissioned by the English Chamber Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the Naumburg Foundation, the Ahn Trio, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Zoom! Festival of New Music, Collegium Novum-Zurich, the New Juilliard Ensemble and Windscape. His works have been performed at London’s Barbican Hall, Tel Aviv’s Rubin Academy, and New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Museum of Modern Art. YCA violinists Timothy Fain and Nicolas Kendall performed Three American Folk Hymn Settings at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2004. Mr. Bunch’s work Sonnet 128 was premiered at the 2003 Tanglewood Music Festival as part of the "Measure for Measure: Shakespeare in Music” Series with Sigourney Weaver as narrator.

EMI Classics has released four of Mr. Bunch’s works on CD to critical acclaim: his Fantasy for violin and orchestra, performed by the English Chamber Orchestra and violinist Ittai Shapira, and three works premiered by the Ahn Trio - Swing Shift, Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Percussion, and Slow Dance. Swing Shift has received additional acclaim since its premiere on January 17, 2003, in Lafayette, Louisiana, as a new work choreographed by David Parsons for the Parsons Dance Company. German record label GENUIN Musikproduktion released Kenji Bunch’s Suite for Viola and Piano this year, featuring YCA alumna Naoko Shimizu.

Mr. Bunch was chosen as Young Concert Artists' Composer-in-Residence in 1998. During his two-year tenure, YCA commissioned two works specifically for members of the YCA roster. Suite for Viola and Piano was written for violist Naoko Shimizu, who premiered the piece in the YCA Series in New York and Washington, DC. Mr. Bunch’s second commission, Paraphraseology, was premiered by marimbist Makoto Nakura and violinist Stefan Milenkovich at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and has been released by Kleos Classics.

A native of Portland, Oregon, Kenji Bunch received his Bachelor’s Degree at The Juilliard School in viola as a student of Toby Appel, and was awarded a Master’s Degree in composition and viola, with Robert Beaser. He has also worked with Eric Ewazen and Stanley Wolfe. Mr. Bunch’s honors include the prestigious William Schuman Prize for Outstanding Leadership in Music and the Lillian Fuchs Prize for Viola and from The Juilliard School, grants from ASCAP (1999 and 2000), Meet The Composer (1999 and 2000), and the Leonard Bernstein Composers' Fund (2000). Mr. Bunch performs frequently as violist and plays fiddle in the bluegrass band Citigrass NYC. He is currently a faculty member at the Juilliard Pre-College program, teaching composition and viola.
www.kenjibunch.com

Throughout his career, Yves Dharamraj, cello, has developed a reputation as a dynamic cellist who blends an immaculate command of the instrument with deep musical understanding to express his fresh artistic interpretations. Regarded as “a strikingly mature and gifted musician” (Edmonton Sun), the young Franco-American cellist enjoys a career as concert soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician that takes him to major venues across the United States, Canada, and abroad. Recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Houston Symphony, the AAC Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall and the Juilliard Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.

In 1998 following studies with Mussie Eidelman and Scott Kluksdahl, he matriculated at Yale University where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, a Master of Music degree, and an Artist Diploma under the guidance of the renowned pedagogue Aldo Parisot. He now serves as Joel Krosnick’s teaching assistant while continuing his doctoral studies at the Juilliard School. Dharamraj plays a 1719 Stradivari cello, the “Duke of Marlborough,” a generous gift to The Juilliard School from Daniel Saidenberg, lent to him from the Juilliard Rare Instrument Collection.
www.nextworksmusic.net/member-bios

Japanese-American pianist Monica Yuki Ohuchi has performed to wide acclaim from audiences across the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe both as a soloist and chamber musician. Highlights in Monica’s upcoming season include her solo recital engagement at the Toronto Opera Company Richard Bradshaw Amphitheater as part of their Piano Virtuoso series, as well as chamber concert engagements across the United States. Monica has previously performed in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Brooklyn's Bargemusic, and Meany Hall of Seattle. She has been featured in live radio and television broadcasts on New York's WQXR, Seattle's KING FM, Delaware Today, a television broadcast of rising stars, and the WE Network. Monica made her orchestral debut at age ten with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. Now, in her mid-twenties, Monica is a seasoned performer, having been invited as guest soloist for such orchestras as the Rain City Symphony, the New Millennium Symphony Orchestra of Gijon, Spain, Orchestra Seattle, and Seattle Junior Symphony Orchestra.

Monica has been awarded top prizes in numerous national and international piano competitions. Since capturing first prize at the Chinese International Piano Competition at the age of five, Monica most recently won first prize at the 2006 William Garrison International Piano Competition, and was awarded a solo recital engagement to take place in the fall of 2007. Monica is also the first prize winner of the Wayne Nadeau International Piano Competition, and winner of the Dorthy A. Anderson International Piano Competition. Monica is the only two-time national champion of the Music Teacher’s National Association Piano Competition, and is a four-time grand prize winner of the WIAA Washington State Piano Competition. She was also named a New York Steinway Hall Recital Award Recipient.

As a chamber musician, Monica frequently performs with acclaimed violist and composer Kenji Bunch. In the 2006-2007 season, the duo is scheduled to perform throughout the United States with concerts in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, and Alabama. In the summer of 2007, Monica will perform in the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival in Corvallis, OR, and with the Craftsbury Chamber Players in Vermont. Monica recently served as Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre in Banff, Canada, collaborating with pianist Sarah Rhee in duo-piano repertoire. In December of 2006, Monica traveled with the Five Seasons Chamber Music Players on a ten-day tour, performing concerts in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Chicago, Illinois; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Philadelphia, and New York City. Monica was recently featured in a live broadcast on New York's Classical Music Station, WQXR, performing works by Piazzolla in a piano trio and a piano-duo with pianist Greg Anderson. The performances were part of a month long concert series held at the Instituto Cervantes, "In the Gardens of Spain". She also recently performed in the world premiere of a piano quartet by cellist and composer Mike Block. In February of 2004, Monica performed in a piano trio, collaborating with the Parson's Dance Company in an exciting production of music and dance held at The Egg in Albany, New York

In addition to her concert schedule, Monica uses her talents as a passionate advocate for charitable causes, and has organized and performed benefits for many organizations: Coalition of Concerned Legal Professionals of New York State, The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Washington State, SAGE Eldercare of New Jersey, Amnesty International, the Bellevue Art Museum, and the 2001 Dominican Plane Crash Relief Effort.

A native of Seattle, WA, Monica began her piano studies at the age of two with her mother. Monica holds both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School where she studied with Julian Martin. Her past teachers include Martin Canin, Bela Siki, and David Brown. She has also coached with such distinguished artists as Murray Perahia, Jacob Lateiner, Robert McDonald, Brian Zeger, Toby Appel, Bruce Brubaker, and Craig Sheppard. Monica was awarded a full scholarship to study as an Artist Diploma candidate at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music where she currently is under the tutelage of Marc Durand.

Monica is the only daughter of Fumio Ohuchi, professor of Physics and Engineering at the University of Washington, and Sumiyo Ohuchi, piano teacher in Bellevue, Washington. She and Kenji Bunch were married in May 2007.
www.monicaohuchi.com

Jupiter String Quartet

Lenneke Ruiten

The Jupiter String Quartet has just been awarded the Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, a prize which “honors and promotes a rising young string quartet whose artistry demonstrates that it is in the process of establishing a major career.” They have also been selected to join Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two for a three-year residency beginning in 2007, and have been awarded the Netherland America Prize, which will sponsor a tour of the Netherlands in the Spring of 2008. In 2004 the quartet captured the Grand Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and First Prize in the 8th Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were also awarded the Szekely Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet. The Austin Critics Table honored them with the Award for Outstanding Chamber Music Performance in 2006.

This season, the Jupiter String Quartet appears at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the San Antonio Chamber Music Society, Princeton University, UC San Diego, the Evergreen House Foundation (MD), the Washington Performing Arts Society, Kansas State University, Mary Baldwin College (VA), the Krannert Center (IL), the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center (AL), Chamber Music Albuquerque, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (NY), New York's Merkin Concert Hall, and in Stanford's “Lively Arts” series, among others. In October, they perform Mozart's Two-Viola Quintet in D Major at MIT with violist Marcus Thompson.

Winners of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Quartet was also awarded the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Prize, which sponsored their debut at Carnegie's Zankel Hall, the Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, the La Jolla Music Society Prize, the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival Prize, and the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center Prize. The Quartet holds YCA's Helen F. Whitaker Chamber Music Chair.

The Quartet has performed at such venues as New York's Lincoln Center, Boston's Jordan Hall and London's Wigmore Hall and has been enthusiastically received at major music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor International Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Honest Brook Music Festival, the Tuckamore Festival, and the Yellow Barn Music Festival. They have collaborated with such artists as Roger Tapping, James Buswell, Paul Katz, Yong Hi Moon, and the Miami String Quartet.  They have been heard on NPR's Performance Today, on WQXR in New York, on WGBH in Boston, and on Chicago's classical station, WFMT 98.7.

The Jupiter String Quartet places a strong emphasis on developing relationships with future classical music audiences through outreach work in the school system and educational performances. They also enjoy working with aspiring chamber musicians, and have served on the faculties of the chamber music programs at the Snowmass Suzuki Institute and the Austin Chamber Music Festival. From 2004-06, the Jupiter String Quartet was enrolled in the Professional String Quartet Training Program, earning Master of Music degrees in Chamber Music, at The New England Conservatory. They still reside in Boston.

Lenneke Ruiten, soprano.
After her successful performance during the Delft Chamber Music Festival 2005 the Dutch newspaper De Haagse Courant wrote about Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten: 'Her rendition of several songs by Debussy was sublime. Freshness of sound, subtlety of interpretation, what more can you ask for? Since Elly Ameling, no Dutch singer has reached such heights in this repertoire…'

Lenneke Ruiten studied voice with Maria Rondèl and Meinard Kraak, gaining her solo performance diploma in the Hague with distinction. She went on to study opera in Munich at the Bavarian Theatre Academy, and concert singing and Lieder with Edith Wiens and Helmut Deutsch at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. She specialized in German Lieder at the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien in Austria, and in French songs at the Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France, with Elly Ameling, Robert Holl, Hans Hotter, Robert Tear, Walter Berry and Rudolf Jansen.

In 2001 Lenneke Ruiten won first prize at the Erna Spoorenberg Vocalists Presentation in Utrecht, while in 2002 she was awarded the first prize, the press prize, the audience prize, the Caroline Kaart prize for the best Dutch participant and the youth jury prize at the International Voice Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch.

Lenneke Ruiten has worked with orchestras including the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Residentie Orchestra, the Cologne WDR Orchestra, the NDR Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Dresden Barock Orchestra, the Combattimento Consort and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, with conductors such as Rolf Beck, Frans Brüggen, Helmuth Froschauer, Michail Jurowski, Yakov Kreizberg, Gerard Korsten, Alessandro de Marchi, Arnold Östman, Christoph Poppen, Ed Spanjaard and Jan Willem de Vriend.

She gives concerts in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Munich (Prinzregententheater), Cologne, Hannover, Dresden, Frankfurt (Kaisersaal), Geneva (Victoria Hall), Bern (Kultur-Casino), Montreux (Stravinsky Auditorium), Zürich (Tonhalle), Luzern (KKL), Brussels, Dublin, New York, Liechtenstein, Japan, France and Austria. She is a regular guest performer at prestigious festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and at the Robeco Summer Concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Brandenburg Summer Concerts and the Delft Chamber Music Festival.

Lenneke Ruiten has sung Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro (Munich, Prinzregententheater), Elisa in Il Re Pastore (Amsterdam, Concertgebouw), Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande (Nationale Reisopera), concert arias by Mozart, orchestral songs by Strauss, and oratorios and concert works by Bach (Jauchzet Gott, St. Matthew's Passion, St. John's Passion, Weihnachtsoratorium, Magnificat), Händel (La Resurrezione), Mozart (Exsultate Jubilate, Requiem, Mass in c), Haydn (Schöpfung), Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms (Requiem), Poulenc (Stabat Mater, Gloria), Barber (Knoxville), Britten (Spring Symphony), H. Andriessen (Miroir de Peine), Szymanowski (Slopiewnie), Orthel, Henze, Hamel and Kagel.

In addition to opera and concert singing Lenneke Ruiten has a special passion for Lieder. She works with the pianists Thom Janssen and Rudolf Jansen. The Dutch broadcasting corporation AVRO brought out a live recording on CD of the song recital Lenneke Ruiten gave in the Recital Hall of the Concertgebouw in 2003. In 2005 her new CD Mélodies Françaises appeared, to wide acclaim.

Lenneke Ruiten's engagements in the coming seasons include performances with the Nationale Reisopera, the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, at the Rheingau Music Festival and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, and with the WDR Orchestra.
www.lennekeruiten.com

The Grand Tour Orchestra is a period-instrument orchestra devoted to the Musical Enlightenment. In its inaugural season (2006-2007) it presented three concerts at the Teatro of the Italian Academy at Columbia University. Charles Brink is the founder and Music Director of the orchestra.

Charles Brink, conductor, began his flute studies with Jacob Berg in St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving his Bachelor's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory he studied with Fenwick Smith at the New England Conservatory and received his Master's of Music in modern flute performance in 1993. That summer he was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival. In 1995 he received a Fulbright to study at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. He frequently performs with period instruments ensembles such as his own Bouts Ensemble, the Four Nations Ensemble, the New York Collegium and others. Charles founded The Grand Tour Orchestra in 2006.
www.thegrandtourorchestra.org

Lenneke Ruiten, soprano. For her biography, please see under Sunday, March 9, 2008.  Lenneke replaces Judith van Wanroij.

American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Houtzeel was recently nominated one of the best up-and-coming singers by OPERNWELT Magazine. She has appeared at the Zurich, Tel Aviv, Antwerp, Graz and St. Gallen opera houses where her roles have included the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), Octavian, Idamante, Nicklausse, Don Ramiro (Mozart's La finta giardiniera) and Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia). She was recipient of the first Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Award and a laureate of the Queen Elizabeth competition. Ms. Houtzeel has worked the conductors Philippe Jordan, Asher Fisch, Philippe Herreweghe, Dennis Russell Davies, Pinchas Steinberg, Eric Ericsson and Claus Peter Flor. In 2007 she will perform in the Musikverein in Vienna as soloist in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn as well as perform and record the title role of Lully’s Armide with Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC.

Matthew Garrett, tenor, has already attracted the attention of opera companies and orchestras as a young tenor "to watch." This past season, he appeared as Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Pedrillo in the same work with Chicago Opera Theater and for the Cincinnati May Festival, the roles of The Leader and The Sailer in a double bill of The Padlock and Dido and Aeneas for Chicago Opera Theatre, and the role of Sam Sharkey in Paul Bunyan with Opera Omaha. During the past two seasons, he has made debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and New World Symphony, performing Soldat in Der Kaiser von Atlantis under James Conlon, and the Opera Orchestra of New York as Harry in La Fanciulla del West, the latter engagement marking his Carnegie Hall debut. With San Francisco Opera's Merola Center, he sang Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro and, with Glimmerglass Opera, he sang the 2nd Malingerer in The Good Soldier Schweik (later broadcast on National Public Radio). This summer, he will return to Glimmerglass for their production of Monteverdi's Orfeo. Next season includes appearances onstage with the Syracuse Opera as Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Connecticut Opera as Belmonte.

On the concert stage, Mr. Garrett has appeared at in recital at New York's Merkin Concert Hall, New York's Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in March to solo in Bach's St. John Passion, the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Monmouth Symphony of New Jersey as tenor soloist in Carmina Burana, and in recital with the New York Festival of Song. He has also appeared as tenor soloist in Bach's B-minor Mass with the Church of St. Ignatius-Loyola, Orff's Carmina Burana with the Brooklyn Conservatory Orchestra, Haydn's Theresienmesse with Central City Orchestra and Chorus, Beethoven's Mass in C with the Juilliard Choral Union, Mozart's Requiem with the Brown University Singers, and Mozart's Zaide with BachWorks. As a recitalist he has performed Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin in Lincoln Center. In 2002 Mr. Garrett covered the Tenor Soloist in the new production of Rodion Shchedrin's concert opera The Enchanted Wanderer with the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of Lorin Maazel. The current season includes his debut in Europe onstage with the Basel Festival Orchestra under the auspices of the Swiss Global Cultural Foundation.

Mr. Garrett is a recent graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center in New York City where he appeared as Le Petit Vieillard in L'Enfant et les Sortilèges and Jenik in The Bartered Bride during his final year.
www.matthewgarrett.net

Baritone Thomas Meglioranza was a winner of the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg International Competition, the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the 2002 Joy in Singing Award and the 2003 Franz Schubert and Music of Modernity International Competition in Graz, Austria.

In March 2006, Mr. Meglioranza was featured in a special benefit performance at Broadway’s New Victory Theatre, entitled Twin Spirits: The Words and Music of Robert and Clara Schumann, directed and conceived by the renowned stage director John Caird, and starring Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, who portrayed Robert and Clara in words. Mr. Meglioranza was featured as Robert Schumann in song, singing lieder with pianist Jeremy Denk, and also sang a duet from Don Giovanni with the renowned soprano Barbara Bonney. This stellar event raised much-needed funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Classical Action, and also featured violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Natasha Paremski.

Mr. Meglioranza’s 2005-06 season featured a wide variety of other engagements in New York City, including his debut with the MET Chamber Ensemble under James Levine, performing Milton Babbitt's Two Sonnets, at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, in addition to solo recitals at Symphony Space, the Neue Galerie and Columbia University’s Italian Academy, and a collaborative program presented by Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music. With orchestra, he was featured in three different programs with Andrew Parrott and New York Collegium, and was a soloist for The Messiah at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Other season highlights included his debut with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and Nicholas Kraemer in Bach’s St. John Passion, as well as song recitals for the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Pro Musica of Detroit, the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts in Clemson, SC, and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

On the operatic stage, Mr. Meglioranza stars in the role of Prior Walter in the June 2006 North American premiere of Peter Eötvös' Angels in America, with a libretto (in English) by Mari Mezei, based on Tony Kushner’s multi-award-winning play. This production, presented by Opera Unlimited (a joint venture of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Opera Boston), is directed by Steven Maler, Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Vice President for Artistic Programming at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts, and conducted by Music Director Gil Rose.

Mr. Meglioranza’s 2004-05 season featured a performance of Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Andrew Parrott and New York Collegium that was “warmly and beautifully” sung, according to The New York Times, as well as his Kennedy Center debut, singing Copland's Old American Songs with Murry Sidlin and the National Symphony the JFK Center’s 10th Annual New Year’s Gala. He made debut appearances with the Grant Park Symphony (Fauré Requiem), and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (Haydn Creation). He also sang The Messiah in Portland with both the Oregon Symphony and the Portland Baroque Orchestra as well as Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Northwest Florida Symphony. Collaborative performances included two critically acclaimed concerts on the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” series. He gave his Chicago recital debut on the Dame Myra Hess Series singing an all-Schubert program (broadcast live on WFMT-FM), and he performed Winterreise at the Kosciusko Foundation in New York City.

In March 2004 Mr. Meglioranza starred as Chou En-lai in Opera Boston’s celebrated production of Nixon in China, and he was praised by The Boston Globe for delivering his character’s “inner music with quiet rapture.” Other highlights from recent seasons include debut performances with the Houston Symphony (Handel’s Messiah and a return engagement that same season for Carmina Burana), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Bach Cantata No. 152) and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Bach B minor Mass), as well as Carmina Burana with the New York Choral Society for the opening of the American Ballet Theatre’s spring 2003 season at the Metropolitan Opera House, and critically acclaimed New York recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.

A passionate interpreter of Baroque music, Mr. Meglioranza has performed with numerous period instrument ensembles, including New York Collegium, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Trinity Consort. He has frequently collaborated with such respected conductors as Andrew Parrott, Nicholas McGegan, Jane Glover, Nicholas Kraemer and Bernard Labadie.

Recently praised by The New Yorker magazine as “an unusually sensitive interpreter of English-language song,” Mr. Meglioranza is also in high demand for his illuminating performances of contemporary music. He has sung John Adams’ Wound Dresser at Tanglewood under Reinbert DeLeeuw, John Harbison’s Words from Paterson at the Bowdoin Music Festival, and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky in Sapporo under the direction of the composer. He has also had many works written for him, including Jorge Martín’s Plundered Hearts (commissioned for Mr. Meglioranza with the assistance of CAG) and an upcoming premiere by Pierre Jalbert, commissioned by the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music. Other recent premieres include critically acclaimed songs by Lee Hyla and Roger Reynolds, both set to poetry of Paul Auster, at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

On the operatic stage, Thomas Meglioranza's portrayal of Don Giovanni, under the baton of Julius Rudel with the Aspen Opera Theater, was hailed by the Denver Post as "a triumph." Other recent opera performances include Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas) with Atlanta's New Trinity Baroque (now available on a critically acclaimed CD), and concert versions of Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (Thésée) conducted by Andrew Parrott and Purcell's King Arthur (all baritone roles) conducted by Bernard Labadie, both with the New York Collegium.

A graduate of Grinnell College and the Eastman School of Music, Thomas Meglioranza is of Thai, Polish and Italian heritage. He currently resides in New York City, where his other interests include cooking and martial arts.
www.meglioranza.com

Baritone Randall Scarlata won First Prize at the 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, as well as The Diallo Prize, The Lindemann Vocal Chair and The Walker Fund Prize, which sponsored his Washington, DC debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center.

Randall Scarlata has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the California Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, and the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra. On May 4, 2004, Mr. Scarlata makes his New York orchestral debut at Alice Tully Hall.

In recital, Mr. Scarlata has performed Dichterliebe as guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall, Wolf’s complete Italianische Liederbuch at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and concerts for the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC, at Merkin Concert Hall, at New York’s Morgan Library, at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, at Princeton University, at the Cleveland Art Song, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music and Marlboro Music Festivals, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society. He has also given recitals abroad, in Vienna, Salzburg, Hamburg, Nice and Caracas.

Mr. Scarlata has performed opera roles including the Count in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Maximillian in Candide, Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, the role of Scrooge in Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol with the Virginia Opera, the premiere of Musgrave's The Mockingbird with Boston Musica Viva, and the U.S. premiere of HK Gruber's Gloria: A Pigtale at the Aspen Music Festival. He has performed the role of Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion, the world premiere of Samuel Adler’s Ever Since Babylon in Washington, DC, and the title role in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat.

Mr. Scarlata’s awards include First Prize at the 1997 “Das Schubert Lied” International Competition in Vienna, First Prize at the 1997 Joy in Singing Competition in New York, the 1998 Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award of The Juilliard School, and Second Prize at the 1999 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation International Vocal Competition.
Randall Scarlata earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and studied in Vienna on a Fulbright Grant. He received his master’s degree at The Juilliard School as a student of Beverley Johnson, and was a member of the Juilliard Opera Center. Mr. Scarlata has studied with Gérard Souzay and participated in masterclasses of Elly Ameling, Dalton Baldwin, Graham Johnson, Ernst Haefliger, Christoph Eschenbach, Roger Vignoles and Peter Schreier.
www.randallscarlata.com

Duo Prism


Eric Poland

Duo Prism

Comprised of pianist Rieko Aizawa and violinist Jesse Mills, Duo Prism is a dynamic ensemble committed to the full spectrum of works composed for this instrumentation. The metaphor of a three-sided prism represents the perfectly balanced relationship which these two artists together make with the composers of the works that they present.

In May of 2006, Duo Prism won 1st Prize at the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Verona, Italy. Since its inception in 2005, Duo Prism has performed throughout the United States and they are scheduled to return to Italy for a tour in 2007. Based in New York City, the duo enjoys opportunities to work with contemporary composers in addition to their exploration of the vast traditional repertoire. They are in the process of performing the complete sonatas by Beethoven, and they aim to commission new works in the upcoming season.

Both Aizawa and Mills are graduates of the Juilliard School. Aizawa also studied at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski. A native of Japan, Aizawa made her United States debut in 1988 with the New York String Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Schneider, at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall.

Mills earned a Grammy nomination for his work on a CD of Arnold Schoenberg's music, released by NAXOS in 2005. He is known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. Mills recently made his concerto debut at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, and he also recorded a disc on the Verve label with jazz pianist Makoto Ozone.

Duo Prism has a passion for understanding the voice of every composer; they seek to illuminate the music as well as their own joy recreating it.

Jesse Mills, violin
Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. In 2004, Mills made his professional concerto debut with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra conducted by Nicholas McGegan in a unique partnership with Salsa trombonist, Jimmy Bosch. This project combined a classical performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with Mills as violin soloist, and a Salsa band arrangement of the same piece, fronted by Bosch and Mills as improvising soloists. As a chamber musician Mr. Mills has performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie's Weill Hall, Columbia University's Miller Theater, Boston's Gardener Museum, the CooperArts Series at Cooper Union, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. An avid performer of contemporary works, Mr. Mills was a member of the FLUX Quartet for two years; this ensemble is dedicated to the performance of music written in the past 50 years. Through his collaboration with cellist Fred Sherry, Mr. Mills has performed various compositions of Zorn, Wuorinen, Webern, Schoenberg, among others, and they have made recordings on NAXOS, Tzadik, and Stretch records. He can also be heard on New Spirit – a new recording for the Verve label by jazz pianist, Makoto Ozone. Mr. Mills is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Robert Mann and Itzhak Perlman.

Rieko Aizawa, piano
In 1988, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa was brought to the attention of Alexander Schneider by the recommendation of pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged her as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo's Casals Hall; later that year, Schneider presented Rieko in her U.S. debut concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. The Washington Post celebrated her performance: "She played with a beautiful, limpid tone and a sense of characterization and cohesiveness that is unusual." Since then Rieko has performed in solo and orchestral engagements throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall and Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Highlights of recent seasons have included acclaimed performances with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, the St. Louis Symphony under David Loebel and, most recently, a wonderfully received performance with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Rieko has performed as a guest with string quartets including the Guarneri Quartet and has participated in festivals such as the Marlboro and the Evian in France. Rieko is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski as his last pupil. In 2005 Rieko's solo debut recording of Scriabin's and Shostakovich's "24 Preludes" was released by Altus in Japan.

Eric Poland
Recently hailed as a “commanding young percussionist” by the New York Times, Eric Poland has established himself as a versatile percussionist in New York City. He has premiered numerous works by some of today’s leading composers with groups such as the Zankel Band, Continuum, The Locrian Chamber Players, The Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and as a member of Fireworks Ensemble.
He has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Mark Morris and Martha Graham Dance companies and as part of the Lincoln Center Festival and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. Eric is also an active Broadway musician and has played in many different shows including Wicked, Mamma Mia!, Spamalot, A Chorus Line, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Aida, Oklahoma, and Footloose
He recently worked with Roger Waters, formally of Pink Floyd, in a New York premiere of songs from his opera “Ca Ira” and also with Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. Eric can be heard on a Deutsche Grammophon release of Luciano Berio’s “Folk Songs” with soprano Dawn Upshaw and on the soundtrack to “Hollywoodland”. He holds his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the Juilliard School where he was a student of Gordon Gottlieb.