Alianza Quartet

Recent grand-prize winners of the 2007 Plowman National Chamber Music competition, the Alianza String Quartet has been described as “a showstopper” (Columbia [Mo.] Daily Tribune), “among the best in the USA” (Ezra Laderman, President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters), “a group of tremendous vision and integrity” (Clive Greensmith, cellist, Tokyo String Quartet). They received glowing reviews for their recent 2007 Carnegie Hall, New York debut when they performed Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18 No.4 and the Mendelssohn Octet with their mentors, the Tokyo String Quartet. Bernard Holland of the New York Times reported that “the Alianza players are musical, well trained and have an unusually elegant sound. I do not fear for their future.” Another reviewer praised their “elegant phrasing – rock-steady intonation, burnished sound and lively, characterful playing.”

The Alianza String Quartet was officially formed in 2004 at Yale University’s School of Music. The quartet is comprised of members from the United States, Australia, Korea and Russia/Spain and is currently in residence as post-graduate associates of the Yale School of Music where it is mentored by the Tokyo String Quartet. As part of this residency, the Alianza Quartet also coaches graduate and undergraduate ensembles at the Yale School of Music and Department of Music in their capacity as teaching assistants to the Tokyo String Quartet.

The Alianza Quartet recently returned from successful summer residences 2007 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Pacific Music Festival (PMF), Japan. In Japan, they performed at the Sapporo Clock Tower Concert Hall, Sapporo’s Kitara Concert Hall, and the Hakodate Arts Hall in Hakodate. Their PMF residency culminated in a performance with members of the Tokyo String Quartet of Dvorak’s String Sextet at the Sapporo Art Park “Leonard Bernstein Memorial Stage.” Highlights of the Alianza Quartet’s 2006 summer included their European debuts at the Aldeburgh Festival, UK, the French Academy in Rome (Villa Medici), Italy, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, France. While at these festivals the quartet were given the opportunity to work closely with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Mahler Chamber Orchestra and composers Michael Jarrell and Jerome Combier, whose works they premiered.

Within the USA, the quartet has performed throughout the east coast and mid west with performances at Merkin Concert Hall and Juilliard’s Paul Recital Hall in New York City, Yale University’s Sprague Memorial Hall and British Art Center, University of Notre Dame DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts, Columbia, Mo. They have been fortunate to coach intensively with the Tokyo Quartet, Syoko Aki and Aldo Parisot at Yale from 2004 until the present, and with the Juilliard String Quartet at the Juilliard Quartet Seminar in 2005 and 2006. They have won the Yale School of Music Chamber Music Competition and have been finalists at the Coleman National Chamber Music competition.

The Alianza quartet maintains a strong commitment to contemporary music. They have worked intimately with Yale composers-in-residence Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick, performing their quartets on new music concerts for Yale. Ezra Laderman has recently written his 12th and last string quartet for the Alianza quartet. The quartet is also in the process of recording three Laderman quartets for Albany records.

Engagements for 2007-2008 include the world premiere of Laderman’s newest quartet, performances in New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Boston, numerous concerts in the Connecticut area.

The Alianza String Quartet is represented by Lisa Sapinkopf Artists and they are an organization member of Chamber Music America.

Eric Huebner

Pianist Eric Huebner has drawn world-wide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. His playing has been described as “full of grace and light” by critic Paul Griffiths and “masterfully precise” by Village Voice critic Kyle Gann. Mr. Huebner has worked with a number of the world’s leading conductors including Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Alan Gilbert and Oliver Knussen and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Riverside Symphony, Redlands Symphony and the Juilliard Orchestra. At Carnegie Hall, Mr. Huebner recently performed Gyorgy Ligeti’s Piano Concerto with David Robertson conducting and was subsequently invited to perform Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques as part of a Live from Lincoln Center gala broadcast on PBS. Since 2001, Huebner has been a member of the award winning ensemble Antares, appearing at such venues as the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the Krannert Center in Champagne-Urbana, University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium and at numerous other universities and venues throughout the United States.

In addition to a career as soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Huebner is an active freelancer in the New York City area. He has appeared with many of the city’s leading new music ensembles including Speculum Musicae, Zankel Band, Manhattan Sinfonietta, So Percussion, Continuum, New York New Music Ensemble, American Modern Ensemble, ACME and Flexible Music. Highlights of this past season included a performance of Iannis Xenakis’ Eonta in Los Angeles, concerts in Illinois, Arkansas, New Mexico, Connecticut, New York and California with Antares, a recital of the solo and two piano music of Stravinsky at St. Bartholemew’s Chapel in New York City and solo appearances at the Ojai Festival.

Mr. Huebner has been heard on PBS and NPR, and on radio stations KMOZ (Los Angeles), WNYC (New York), Radio Bremen (Germany), ORF (Austria) and the BBC. He has recorded for the Col Legno, Centaur, Bridge, Albany, Tzadik, Innova and Mode labels and currently serves on the adjunct piano faculty at Lehman College in New York, A recent Albany Records release of the piano music of Daniel Rothman was met with critical acclaim and a disc of the complete piano music of Roger Reynolds featuring Huebner and the pianist Yuji Takahashi will be available from Mode Records this spring. Mr. Huebner holds a B.M. and M.M. from The Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.

Jasper String Quartet

Fresh from winning four of chamber music’s most prestigious prizes — the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Silver Medal at the 2008 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs 2008, and the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman competition — the Jasper String Quartet is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, where they study with the Tokyo String Quartet.

Formed at Oberlin Conservatory in 2003, the Jasper String Quartet recently graduated from Rice University’s graduate quartet program, where they studied with James Dunham, Norman Fischer and Kenneth Goldsmith.  Career highlights include appearances at the Kennedy Center, Paul Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, the Vigeland Museum (Oslo, Norway), the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music and Santa Fe Pro Musica Series.  They are dedicated to presenting contemporary music and standard repertoire to a broad audience and have collaborated with pianists, vocalists, dancers, and visual artists. 

The Jaspers attended the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies, the Emerson Quartet International Chamber Music Workshop, the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. As representatives of the 9th Banff International Quartet Competition, they embarked on “guerilla chamber music,” performing concerts in unusual settings around Alberta.

The Jasper Quartet is named for Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada.

For more information, please visit www.jasperquartet.com.

Gilad Harel

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 Fountain Chamber Music Society, New York, Gilad Harel is also the clarinetist of the Proteus and the Fountain Ensembles. He is performing with the Manhattan Sinfonitta, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the New York Art Ensemble, America’s Dream Chamber Artists, and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the New Millennium Ensemble, Sospeso Ensemble and the Zephyros Wind Ensemble.

Gilad Harel plays Cuban music with the Quinteto Roberto Rodriguez, and Klezmer music with Klezshop and the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra.

As an instructor, Gilad Harel is on the Faculty at the 92nd Street Y, New York, and the Saint Ann’s School, Brooklyn. This summer, he is invited to be on the faculty at the XI International Summer Course in Shropshire, UK.

Gilad Harel is a graduate of the Juilliard School, New York, the Paris National Conservatory, Paris, and the Israeli Conservatory of Music, Tel-Aviv.

Trio Cavatina

Formed in early 2005, Trio Cavatina is deeply rooted in a strong sense of shared musical values and is rapidly emerging as one of today’s outstanding chamber ensembles.  Their 2007-2008 season began with notable debut appearances at Kneisel Hall’s “Emerging Artists” Series in Blue Hill, Maine, at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival as well as with an appearance at the closing concert of the Chamber Music America conference in New York City.  In the spring of 2008, the ensemble continued with concerts in New York City, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Boston, and Sarasota, Florida.  Last April, the Trio performed in its first international tour with debut concerts in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania.  Highlights of the 2006-2007 season included the Trio’s New York City debut at the Schneider Concerts at the New School and Boston debut at Jordan Hall.  Trio Cavatina also appeared at New York’s Merkin Hall, at the Brattleboro Music Center, and on the Performers of Westchester Concert series and recently completed the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program.  In addition to the classical and romantic trio repertoire, Trio Cavatina is committed to performing 20th century and newly composed works and has worked with American composer Leon Kirchner. 

Raman Ramakrishnan

Cellist Raman Ramakrishnan is a member of the Daedalus Quartet, winner of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition. With the quartet, he has performed coast-to-coast in the United States and Canada, in Japan and Panama, and across Europe on a tour developed by the European Concert Halls Organization, which also provided for a Carnegie Hall debut. The quartet was in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 2005 until 2007, and is currently in residence at Columbia University and at the University of Pennsylvania.

Raman has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and has performed chamber music on Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series, at Bargemusic, and at the Marlboro, Bravo! Vail, Charlottesville, Lincolnshire (UK), Mehli Mehta (India), OK Mozart, and Four Seasons Chamber Music Festivals. He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed frequently with the Zankel Band, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and the contemporary chamber group Proteus, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2001. As a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, he has collaborated with musicians from the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra and performed in New Delhi and Agra, India and in Cairo, Egypt. This past season he performed concertos in Lake George, Newburgh, and New York City, and he presented a recital program in Seattle's Town Hall with the pianist Byron Schenkman.

Raman was born in Athens, Ohio and grew up in East Patchogue, New York. His father is a molecular biologist and his mother is the children's book author and illustrator Vera Rosenberry. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s from The Juilliard School. His principal teachers have been Fred Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff. His cello was made in Cremona, Italy in 1996 by Edson Puozzo. He lives in New York City with his wife, the violist Melissa Reardon.

Jessica Thompson

Violist Jessica Thompson is an accomplished solo and chamber musician who performs regularly throughout the United States and abroad as a member of the Daedalus Quartet.  The quartet, Grand Prize winner of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition, is currently in residence at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, and from 2005-2007 was quartet-in-residence with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two.  Ms. Thompson has performed at numerous festivals, including Aspen, Taos, and Marlboro, and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro.

Ms. Thompson has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and in recital in cities such as Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC. In 2004 she was invited to perform at the International Viola Congress on a program of works by American women composers.  She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Karen Tuttle.

Assaff Weisman

Pianist Assaff Weisman has been captivating audiences with his intensity, lyricism and communicative style since his solo debut at the age of twelve. The Greenville News observed “this piano virtuoso has facile fingers that toss off daredevil passages with ease and a mind for music that is as nimble as his fingers.”

Mr. Weisman’s performances have taken him to some of the major venues in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. These include appearances at the Rudolfinum in Prague, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Philips Hall in The Hague, the Millennium Piano Festival in Spain as well as in Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. As first prize winner in the 2006 Iowa International Piano Competition he has appeared as soloist with the Sioux City Symphony, American Chamber Orchestra, Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of Peru.

Mr. Weisman’s radio credits include WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase” featuring works of Haydn and Scriabin, “The Voice of Music” in Israel as well as multiple appearances on WGBH radio in Boston where he has recorded repertoire ranging from Bach to André Previn. He is still the youngest person to appear on that station making his debut at the age of twelve. His 2002 release of an all Schubert recording for Yamaha’s “NYC Rising Star” series quickly became one of its best sellers.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Weisman has taken part in the Aspen Music Festival, Campos do Jordão (Brazil), Lima Chamber Music Festival (Peru), The Music Festival of the Hamptons, Verbier (Switzerland) and is a director and founding member of the recently-formed Israeli Chamber Project. Making his home in New York City, Mr. Weisman can often be heard in such local venues as Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, St. Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church and Rockefeller University. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Herbert Stessin and where he now is a member of the Evening Division piano faculty. Prior to his studies in New York Mr. Weisman studied with Professor Victor Derevianko in Israel and was supported by scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Itamar Zorman

Praised in the Israeli press for his "wonderfully sweet tone", Violinist Itamar Zorman has performed in Carnegie Hall as a soloist with the American Symphony orchestra under conductor Glen Roven, as chamber musician at Lincoln Center with Concertante Chamber Players, and in Weill Recital Hall. He has performed as a soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Ramat Gan Camerata, Hadera orchestra, Hasharon chamber orchestra and the Greenwich Village Orchestra. He played the Israeli premier of Menachem Wiesenberg's Double concerto for Classical and Klezmer violin, with Klezmer violinist Sophie Solomon, conductor Doron Solomon and the Be'er Sheva Sinfonietta. He appeared in several Television programs and has recorded for the Austrian radio, WQXR (including its "Young Artist Showcase") and the Israeli radio numerous times. Itamar is a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural foundation and the Ilona Feher foundation, as well as member of the young musicians unit of the Jerusalem Music Center. He is a founding member of the "Israeli Chamber Project", a chamber music group dedicated to performing in the Israeli Periphery.

Itamar participated in many master classes around the world, working with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Handel and Ivry Gitlis. He also took part in international music festivals, including the NAC Young artist program in Ottawa (Canada), Keshet Eilon (Israel), Voice of Music (Israel), Masters de Belesbat (Frnace), The Heifetz International Music Institute (New Hampshire) and Chatauqua (New-York), and ISA Prague-Vienna-Budapest (Austria).

Itamar won the first prizes in the Claremont Competition (2004), the Rubin Academy Jerusalem contest (2004), the Israeli Conservatory competition (2002), and the ISA Prague-Vienna-Budapest competition for contemporary music. Recently, he won 1st prize in the Ben-Haim solo competition in Israel (2006), 1st prize in the Jerusalem Academy's chamber
music contest (leading a string quartet) and 1st prize in the Buchman-Mehta School of music at the Tel-Aviv University. In 2001 he won a special prize in Kloster Shontal International competition for young violinists in Germany.

In 1998, he sang as boy-soprano with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta and Daniel Oren the solo part of Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and the world premier of Noam Sheriff's work "Bereshit" (Genesis) in Israel's 50th anniversary celebration.

Born in Tel-Aviv 1985 to a family of musicians, Itamar has graduated from the Israeli conservatory of music in Tel-Aviv, where he started his violin studies at the age of six with Sally Bockel. He continued his violin studies with Prof. David Chen and Nava Milo. He was the first violinist in the Israeli Army Quartet and graduated from the Jerusalem academy of music in 2006, where he was a student of Hagai Shaham. Later on, Itamar continued his studies with Robert Mann, and is currently a student of Sylvia Rosenberg at The Juilliard School, pursuing his Master of Music degree. He plays on a Ceruti violin on loan to him from Yehuda Zisapel.

Brian Sacawa

Praised as "an inventive musician" (The New York Times), "inspired" (The Washington Post), and a "sharp new music saxophonist (Time Out New York), Brian Sacawa has firmly established himself as an important contemporary voice for his instrument. Active internationally as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, his versatile career has led to appearances ranging from the concert stage to club settings as well as the premieres of over 50 new works by both established and emerging composers. Mr. Sacawa's critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning recordings can be heard on the Naxos, Innova, Equilibrium, and BiBimBop record labels. With composer/turntablist Erik Spangler he performs in the genre-bending duo Hybrid Groove Project and curates Mobtown Modern, a new music series at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, MD. He is also the author of the blog Sounds Like Now. Mr. Sacawa lives in Baltimore with his wife, music journalist Molly Sheridan.

Celeste Golden

Celeste Golden, Bronze Medalist in the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, began her musical studies at the age of three in Dallas with Arkady Fomin. At 15 she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music where she was a student of Jamie Laredo and Ida Kavafian. Presently she studies with Paul Kantor and David Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Celeste made her orchestral debut at age 11, and has since performed with orchestras around the world including the Latvian Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, The Amadeus Chamber Players in Hannover, Germany, The Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia in Brussels, Belgium, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and others.

In addition to her most recent prize in Indianapolis, Celeste has won first place in the solo competition, concerto competition, and Grant Prize of the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, and third prize at the Irving Klein Competition. She has also won third prize in the Ima Hogg International Music Competition in Houston, Texas, and was a semi-finalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Lidia Kaminska

Accordionist Lidia Kaminska, the winner of Astral Artistic Services’ 2007 National Auditions, has performed extensively in both the U.S. and Europe. Her chamber music, concerto, and solo performances explore the complex and expressive range of the accordion as a classical instrument, and her repertoire includes a broad range of classical, contemporary, and avant-garde music. Ms. Kaminska conceived her first album, Breaking Boundaries, as part of her mission to change the perception of the accordion from parlor entertainment to a serious classical instrument; Philadelphia Magazine claims “she transforms the accordion into a massive force — more pipe organ than squeezebox — and burns through [classical repertoire] with virtuosic speed and technique.”

Ms. Kaminska began playing the accordion at the age of eight. By eleven she was competing in international competitions in Bulgaria and Germany, and just a year later gave solo performances in Holland, Austria, and Germany, as well as in her native Poland. Upon receiving a Masters degree from the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, she came to the U.S. to study at the University of Missouri/Kansas City; at 25 she became the first (and only) person in the U.S. to receive a Doctorate in Accordion Performance.

The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Ms. Kaminska received First Prize in the 2002 Accordion Teachers Guild International Competition in Orlando, Florida, the Special Prize in New York City’s International Tango Music Competition, with the Argentine tango ensemble Tango Lorca, and recently received Second Prize at the 2007 Coupe Mondiale International Competition for Ensemble Music. She has researched and performed the works of Astor Piazzolla extensively. Also possessing a special interest in new music, Ms. Kaminska has premièred works by Julia Alford Fowler and Paul Rudy, and has appeared with the contemporary music ensembles New Ear and Musica Nova. She has also performed with both the Owen/Cox Dance Group and at the world première of BalletX; she went on to collaborate with Mathew Neenan of BalletX, and with dancer/choreographer Jorge Laico, for Pennsylvania Dance Theatre.

Ms. Kaminska has been a featured soloist with the Kielce Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland, the Strings of Lodz, the Concord Chamber Orchestra, the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra. Recently, she was presented at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Philadelphia Magazine also featured her in its 2006 Best of Philly issue, and her interview with Marty Moss-Coane was recently broadcast on WHYY and NPR.

This spring marked Ms. Kaminska’s debut on the bandoneón, at New York’s Lincoln Center. The Haddonfield Symphony also features her as soloist in Piazzolla’s Aconcagua concerto for bandoneón in May 2008.

Michael Djupstrom

The work of composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom has been recognized through honors and awards from such institutions as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Composers Forum, and the Académie musicale de Villecroze, among many others. His compositions have been presented across the United States, Europe and Asia; as a pianist, Djupstrom has performed often as a member of the Phoenix Trio, an ensemble that seeks to promote classical music beyond its conventional performance spaces and typical audiences.

Djupstrom was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and studied music formally at the University of Michigan. Other training included fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Brevard Music Center, as well as studies in Paris with Betsy Jolas. He currently lives in Philadelphia, where he teaches piano at Settlement Music School and courses in music theory and orchestration for Boston University’s online programs in music.

Charles Brink

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