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Renata Artman Knific  Renata Artman Knific's international career began in London, when she joined the English Chamber Orchestra at the age of 21. As violinist of the Merling Trio, she performs 20 to 40 concerts annually throughout the world, including appearances at Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, St. John's in London and the Banff Center for the Arts. She has premiered many works written for the group, which was a finalist for the Naumburg Foundation Chamber Music Award in 1994. She has also appeared in chamber music festivals and as a soloist throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. She is professor of music and chair of the string area at Western Michigan University and has also taught at the Encore School for Strings, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Lancut Festival in Poland. She is a founding member of the contemporary ensemble Opus. Andres Cardenes  Andrés Cárdenes captured the second prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow and was appointed concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Maestro Lorin Maazel in 1989. The Cuban-born Cárdenes has appeared with more than 80 orchestras worldwide, including those of Moscow, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Houston, Helsinki, Caracas, Barcelona, Brussels, and Shanghai. As a chamber musician, he has toured with the Lincoln Center Chamber Society and has appeared in concert with Christoph Eschenbach, Edgar Meyer, Pinchas Zukerman, Menahem Pressler, Lynn Harrell, Mark O'Conner and Jaime Laredo. He studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University and holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Violin Studies and the Dorothy Richard Starling/Alexander Speyer Jr. Endowed Chair at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Music. He made his Festival debut in 1984, in one evening playing in Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor and Dvorak's Quartet No. 1 in D Major. His most recent appearance was in 2004 as the soloist in Vieuxtemps's Concerto No. 5 for Violin. Edward Castilano Mr. Castilano holds the position of principal double bassist in the Syracuse Symphony and has made numerous solo appearances with the SSO, most recently this February. Graduating in 1976 from the Eastman School of Music, he participated for six seasons in the Spoleto Festival in Italy and in Charleston, SC, and has made several appearances with the Lincoln Center Chamber Players. Mr. Castilano has also played with the Rochester, Philadelphia, Savanna, and Spokane symphonies. Linda Chesis  Linda Chesis, flutist and founder and artistic director of the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, has frequently collaborated with artists such as Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, James Levine and the late Jean-Pierre Rampal and has performed with orchestras and in solo recitals throughout the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Japan and Korea. The top prize winner at the Paris and Barcelona International Competitions, and at the National Flute Association Competition, she has received a Solo Recitalist's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been a guest artist at the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, Bravo! Colorado, An Appalachian Summer, and Music from Angel Fire, among others. She is a founding member of both the Chesis/Cutler flute and harp duo, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble and often performs with flutists Carol Wincenc and Laura Gilbert as The Three Flute Moms. She is a member of the flute faculty and chair of the woodwind department at the Manhattan School of Music. Deborah Chodacki  Deborah Chodacki studied clarinet with Stanley Hasty and Robert Marcellus. She has performed in chamber music festivals, in orchestras and as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Western Europe, including the North Carolina and Grand Rapids symphony orchestras, the Colorado Philharmonic, the American Chamber Symphony, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival and Monterey Summer Music. Before her appointment at the University of Michigan, she taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy, and from 1979 to 1989 she was on the faculty of the East Carolina University School of Music, Theatre and Dance. She has been a returning guest artist at the Festival for two decades. Katherine Collier  Katherine Collier received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the Performer's Certificate and was chosen to be the soloist of Eastman's gala concert of its 50th Anniversary Celebration. She was the first-prize winner of the National Young Artist's Competition and the National Cliburn Scholarship Competition, and was the recipient of a Rockefeller Award. She won a Kemper Educational Grant to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where she completed postgraduate work. Her soloist appearances include the Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, and Eastman-Rochester orchestras. She has performed throughout Europe, the British Isles as well as Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Israel, Mexico, and Canada. She and her husband, violist Yizhak Schotten, made their Festival debut in 1991 with Deborah Chodacki in Bruch's Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Piano and Viola. She and her husband are also founders of the Maui Chamber Music Festival, music directors of Strings in the Mountains Festival, and acclaimed recording artists. She is on the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Steven Doane  Steven Doane is a Professor of Cello at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he has received the Eisenhardt Award for Excellence in Teaching. Doane has given master classes and served as guest teacher at the International Cello Festival in Manchester, and other music colleges in England. His international concert schedule has taken him to Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, and London. In North America, highlights of recent seasons include recitals in Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and concerto performances with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Omaha Symphony and the Victoria Symphony. He plays on a David Tecchler cello, dated 1720. Rosemary Elliott  Rosemary Elliott is assistant professor of cello at the Eastman School of Music, and was on the cello faculty at the Royal College of Music in London. She has guest led the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and Rochester Chamber Orchestra, and performed with the Rochester Chamber Society. Ms. Elliott has participated in festivals in the U.S. and U.K., and has been a member of the performing faculty at the Bowdoin College Summer Music Festival in Maine. Thom Filicia  Prior to his acclaim on NBC/Bravo's Emmy award winning "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" as the interior design specialist for the Fab Five, Thom Filicia garnered praise through his own interior design company in New York City, Thom Filicia, Inc. (TFI). Since 1998, TFI has specialized in residential, commercial and hospitality projects, with a range of high-profile clients in the fashion, entertainment, media, real-estate development, and finance industries. Visit Thom Filicia's website. Eliot Fisk  Guitarist Eliot Fisk made his Festival debut Aug. 18, 1983, in Bach's Sonata in G Minor, originally for violin, and also performed Paganini's Cantabile for Violin and Guitar with Mark Kaplan. He has expanded the repertoire for the guitar through groundbreaking transcriptions of works by Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, and Paganini, as well as through commissions from composers as varied as Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, and George Rochberg. In 2006, by order of King Juan Carlos of Spain, he was awarded the Cruz de Isabel la Católica for his service to the cause of Spanish music. Last season he premiered Robert Beaser's Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra, commissioned by the Albany Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Bruckner Haus of Linz, Austria. He is also founder and director of Boston Guitar Fest, co-sponsored by the New England Conservatory and Northeastern University. A graduate of Jamesville-DeWitt High School and Yale University, he is a professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he teaches in five languages, and at the New England Conservatory. He last appeared at the Festival in 2004. Visit Eliot Fisk's website. Jose Franch-Ballester  Born in Moncofa, Spain into a family of clarinetists and Zarzuela singers, Jose Franch-Ballester has been called "that rare find, an artist whose brilliant mastery of his instrument is matched by sound and secure gifts as a musician," by The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana), and The New York Sun proclaimed, "Young Concert Artists has a winner!" Mr. Franch-Ballester is a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two, and also performs with the woodwind quintet Astral Winds. As a chamber musician, he has appeared at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire (NM), the Usedomer Musikfestival in Germany and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Mr. Franch-Ballester began clarinet lessons at the age of nine with Venancio Rius Marti. He gave his first recital in Valencia at the age of sixteen, and graduated from the Joaquin Rodrigo Music Conservatory in Valencia in 2000. He came to the U.S. to study at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2005. When he is not playing his clarinet, Mr. Franch-Ballester has a passion for archaeology and is an avid photographer. Sarah Franz  Through the years Ms. Franz has appeared in a wide variety of productions. In high school, she appeared in The Alley Theater production of A Christmas Carol for two seasons. She has also performed at the Interlochen Fine Arts Camp in 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2004. She has studied with such teachers as Kathleen Kaun, voice teacher at Rice University, Jan de Chambrier, opera coach at Rice University and Beverley Rinaldi, retired voice teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the summer of 2008 Ms. Franz attended the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy. She is currently attending the Eastman School of Music and studying with Rita Shane. This past spring she played the role of Sally Bowles in Cabaret and this summer she will be portraying Josephine in HMS Pinafore with Class Act Productions. Elinor Freer  Pianist Elinor Freer has built a versatile career as chamber musician and soloist, performing across the United States, Europe, and China. Highlights include performances at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Valery Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam, the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England, and at the Akademie Muizicky Chumeni in Prague. She has also made successive recordings for Dutch radio and performed at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. Ms. Freer is also one of two American pianists selected to perform extensively throughout China in tours designed to promote cultural relations. A featured soloist with numerous orchestras, Ms. Freer also frequently performs at festivals such as Summer Music in Harrisburg, PA, the Festival de Música de Cámera in Mexico, Music in the Vineyards, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. Ms. Freer has been a prizewinner and laureate in many competitions such as the Joanna Hodges and the American Pianists Association, and she has held fellowships at the Steans Institute/Ravinia Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center. She is currently on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. Committed to bringing classical music to new audiences, she continues to present a multitude of educational and community performances across the country in settings ranging from inner city schools to psychiatric hospitals. Brian Giebler  Mr. Giebler is a senior at the Eastman School of Music, where he studies both Voice and Trumpet as a candidate for a Bachelors of Music Degree in Vocal Performance. Brian spent the fall semester of his junior year studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. At Eastman, he has performed as the Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald in their production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, as Toby in The Medium, in Lehár's The Merry Widow, Mozart's famous Le Nozze Di Figaro and Cabaret by Kander and Ebb. Making his international debut in 2006, Brian traveled with the International Opera Theater of Philadelphia to Italy to premiere the operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's La Tempesta. Lindsay Groves  Ms. Groves is an Assistant Principal Cellist of the Syracuse Symphony and a member of the DeVere Trio and the Syracuse Symphony String Quartet. She has soloed with the Brighton Symphony, the Onondaga Civic Symphony, and the Kenai Penninsula Festival Orchestra in Alaska. Her festival appearances include Maine, Colorado, California, Switzerland, and Italy, where she was a Principal Cellist of the Spoleto Festival. She has performed with Opera House Orchestra of the Kennedy Center and the Baltimore Symphony. An avid chamber musician, she founded the Skaneateles Festival in 1980 and was its Music Director for eleven seasons. Mimi Hwang  Mimi Hwang was the cellist and a founding member of the Franciscan String Quartet. The quartet held the position of Wardwell Fellows at the Yale School of Music and was Quartet-in-Residence at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, where she was on the faculty of the Department of Music. First-prize winner of the 1986 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the quartet enjoyed an active career, performing in North America, Europe and Asia. As a soloist, Hwang has performed with the Beijing Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. She received her master's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, her bachelor's degree with distinction at the New England Conservatory of Music and studied with Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, Paul Katz and Eleonore Schoenfeld. She is co-director of Yellow Barn's Young Artists Program and is assistant professor of chamber music at the Eastman School of Music, joining the faculty in 1994. Jupiter String Quartet  The Jupiter String Quartet has recently 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 are members of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two 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. 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, and the Yellow Barn 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. Mark Kaplan  Violinist Mark Kaplan's career began in Europe in 1975, when he was asked to replace Pinchas Zukerman in a concert in Cologne. He has performed in all the principal cities of Europe, including London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan, as well as the Far East and Australia. In the United States he has played with nearly every major orchestra, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Dallas and Houston. He grew up in Syracuse and studied at the Juilliard School under Dorothy DeLay. He is a professor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and previously taught at UCLA. In 1983, he was a Festival soloist in Haydn's Concerto in C Major for Violin. He plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1685 named "The Marquis" after the Marchese Spinola, whose family owned the violin for several generations. W. Peter Kurau  W. Peter Kurau first joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant principal horn (1983-1995) and was appointed principal horn in 2004. Since 1995, he has served as associate professor of horn at the Eastman School of Music, where he also performs as hornist with Eastman Brass and director of the Eastman Horn Choir. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Missouri-Columbia, the State University of New York at Geneseo, Roberts Wesleyan College, Houghton College and Nazareth College and has appeared as a clinician and recitalist throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He earned his bachelor's degree and a performer's certificate from Eastman, an associateship diploma in horn from the Royal College of Music, a certificate of advanced studies in horn from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and his master's from the University of Connecticut. Michelle LaCourse  Michelle LaCourse has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe and in South America, including recent performances in Italy, Spain, and Brazil. Her playing has been described by critics in such terms as a miraculous blend of intense passion and artistic elegance and has a mastery of the instrument like a sixth sense, and with it reveals to us the most profound secrets. An enthusiastic advocate for new viola repertoire, she has also commissioned and premiered several new pieces for the instrument. Her recent recording, Chocolates: Music for Viola and Piano by James Grant was released by MSR Classics in February of 2009. Ms. LaCourse currently teaches viola at Boston University's School of Music, where she is also Chair of the String Department. She first appeared at the Festival in 1987. Elizabeth Ward Land  Elizabeth Ward Land's varied show business career encompasses musicals, plays, concerts, voice-overs, commercials and television. She has appeared in a number of Broadway musicals as well as some the country's finest Regional Theaters. Elizabeth was honored to be chosen as Barbra Streisand's Stand-in for her 2006 Concert Tour. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Drama from the University of the Pacific and a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California at Davis. Liz is married to actor Ken Land. She plays the piano, oboe, guitar and a little ukulele. Michael Larco  Violist Michael Larco has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival (Italy), Yellow Barn, and Tanglewood Music Center, and has served as principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon, and Kurt Masur. He joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 and is also a member of New York City's Fountain Ensemble. Mr. Larco earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School, and teaches at the School for Strings, Diller-Quaile School of Music and St. David's School, all in New York City. Rob Lorey  Rob happily continues his association with musical director Paul Sportelli, having worked with him as a cast member in the original Broadway production of ASPECTS OF LOVE. His career in musical theater has taken him all over the world- including London, Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, and&Auburn- where he appeared as Lumiere in Merry-Go-Round Playhouse's production of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Other Broadway/National Tour credits include BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SHOWBOAT, KING AND I, CHESS, and most recently PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. He has performed regionally from Seattle Rep, to Florida's Riverside Theatre, to Washington DC's Kennedy Center. Additionally, Rob has sung with symphony and pop orchestras throughout North America, including the recent concert version of SOUTH PACIFIC at Carnegie Hall. He has been a featured vocal soloist with The New York City Ballet for over 10 years. Rob can be heard on several Disney soundtracks, numerous voice-overs, and lends his voice to several Japanese morning cartoons. In May, he received a Masters in Social Welfare from New York City's Hunter College School of Social Work. Joanna Manring  Described as a stylish, vibrant singer by Davis Gordon of the Carmel Bach Festival. Ms. Manring has appeared with Syracuse Opera, Oswego Opera, Boston's Winsor Music, and the New York Chorale at Weill Recital Hall. She was a Finalist in the Washington DC Vocal Arts Society's Art Song Discovery Auditions in May. Ms. Manring is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in voice performance at Peabody Conservatory and her teachers include American sopranos Helen Boatwright, Janet Brown, and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. Ms. Manring grew up in the profoundly inspiring community of the Skaneateles Festival, which her grandparents, David and Louise Robinson, helped to found. Visit Joanna Manring's website. Melissa Matson  Ms. Matson, principal violist of the Rochester Philharmonic, has performed at Skaneateles since 1987. A California native, she received her degrees and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. She was a founding member of the Chester String Quartet, which won prizes at the Munich and Portsmouth (England) International String Quartet competitions. She currently teaches viola orchestra repertoire at Eastman. Her teachers and mentors have been Martha Katz, Heidi Castleman, Karen Tuttle, and the Cleveland and Juilliard quartets. Robert Moody  Robert Moody is thrilled to hold three permanent conducting positions: Music Director for the Winston-Salem Symphony in North Carolina, Music Director Designate for the Portland Symphony in Maine, and Artistic Director for Arizona MusicFest in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. He is also a frequent guest conductor with orchestras across the United States, including the symphonies of Seattle, Memphis, Tucson, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Ft. Worth, Anchorage, and Annapolis. Last summer he served as Conductor-in-Residence for the famed Eastern Music Festival. Moody completed his Master's Degree in Conducting at the Eastman School of Music. Visit Robert Moody's website. Adam Neiman  American pianist Adam Neiman, a respected soloist as well as an avid chamber musician, became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II in 2004. Recent engagements include performances with the Santa Cruz Symphony and the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and noteworthy chamber festival appearances in Los Angeles, Manchester, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Seattle, and Tokyo. In addition to his career as a concert pianist, Adam Neiman devotes time to composition; his Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano was premiered at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. Visit Adam Neiman's website. John Novacek  The New York Times has called Grammy-nominated artist John Novacek a "wise, nimble, sensitive artist." Novacek regularly tours the Americas and abroad as a solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. Performance venues include Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Hall, 92nd Street Y, Hollywood Bowl, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Royce Hall, Paris' Theatre des Champs-Elysees, and London's Wigmore Hall. In addition he has appeared at Lucerne Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Wolf Trap, SummerFest La Jolla, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Ravinia. Carter Pann  Composer Carter Pann's music has been performed around the world by ensembles and soloists, including the London Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Budapest Symphony, Irish National Symphony and the New York and Chicago Youth Symphonies; the Radio Symphonies of Berlin, Stockholm and Finland; the National Repertory Orchestra; Richard Stoltzman, the Ying Quartet, pianists Barry Snyder and Winston Choi, and the Antares Ensemble. His honors include the K. Serocki Competition for his Piano Concerto (premiered by the Polish Radio Symphony in Lutoslawski Hall, Warsaw, in 1998), a Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and five ASCAP awards, including the Leo Kaplan award. In 2000 his Piano Concerto was nominated for a Grammy Award. His String Quartet No. 1, Love Letters, appears on the Ying Quartets first Life Music CD. He is on the faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Visit Carter Pann's website. Parker Quartet  Daniel Chong, violin, Karen Kim, violin, Jessica Bodner, viola, Kee-Hyun Kim, cello In fall 2008, the Parker Quartet received the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America and will hold the honor for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. The biennial award promotes a rising young string quartet whose artistry demonstrates that it is in the process of establishing a major career. In February, the quartet worked with Hungarian composer György Kurtág as part of Carnegie Hall's workshop series. They concentrated on a set of works that included Beethoven's Op. 127, Bartok No. 4, and Kurtág's Six Moments musicaux, Op. 44. In 2005, the Parker Quartet gave the North American premiere of the Six Moments musicaux in Weill Hall. The quartet's 2007-08 season included debut performances at the Mostly Mozart and Caramoor festivals. The group served as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence of the Caramoor Center, was an ensemble-in-residence at the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival and since September 2008 has been one of the first quartets-in-residence with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The Parker Quartet was founded at the New England Conservatory of Music and in 2002 and 2003 held the post of NEC's Honors Ensemble. Visit Parker Quartet's website. Peggy Pearson  Peggy Pearson is a winner of the Pope Foundation Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Music. Ms. Pearson has toured internationally and recorded extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as principal oboist, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music from Marlboro. She was a founding member of the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, and winner of the Naumburg Award in 1981. She has been on the faculties at the Tanglewood Music Center, Purchase College, the Conservatory of Music (University of Cincinnati), the Tanglewood Institute and the Boston Conservatory. Gregory Quick  An honors graduate from the University of Michigan, Mr. Quick joined the Syracuse Symphony as its principal bassoonist in 1977. A frequent performer with the Skaneateles Festival, he has also performed with the Summer Music Festival of Arkansas, Rochester Philharmonic, Orchestra Symphonique de Montreal and the Toledo Zoo Band. Derrick Smith  Baritone Derrick Smith sang the role of Joe in Show Boat at its 50th anniversary performance at the California Musical Theater in Sacramento. He performed the dual roles of Porgy and Jake in Porgy and Bess with the Chicago Sinfonietta at Chicago's Symphony Hall, Crown in Porgy and Bess with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Leporello in Don Giovanni with the Malmo Symfoni Orkester in Sweden. He has performed in recital with renowned soprano Renee Fleming and as a soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Oratorio Society and the Chamber Group of the Toronto Symphony. He also performed roles from Porgy and Bess with the Chicago Sinfonietta in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Russia. A graduate of The Eastman School of Music, he has trained and performed with the Glimmerglass Opera Young American Artist Program and the Brereton International Music Symposium in England. He is a senior associate instructor of voice in Eastman's Community Education Department and directs the vocal curriculum of Eastman's Music Horizons summer program for gifted teenage musicians. Barry Snyder  Barry Snyder has developed a reputation as a versatile musician, with solo, concerto and chamber music appearances in a career that spans some thirty years. He won early attention in 1966, when he won the Silver Medal, Pan American Union and chamber music prizes in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Since then, he has made many successful recordings, winning the award of the Diapason d'Or for a recording of the complete cello and piano music of Fauré. Committed to performing 20th century music, Barry Snyder has given several world premieres of contemporary music and is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music. Paul Sportelli  Musical director/conductor and pianist Paul Sportelli is the music director of the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, a duty that requires re-orchestrating big musicals for a smaller band and composing music for plays, and has conducted on Broadway ( Aspects of Love ) and in Toronto ( Beauty and the Beast ). In this season, his 11th at Shaw, he is the musical director for Noel Coward's Play, Orchestra, Play and Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George. Last year, he conducted Sondheim's A Little Night Music and Leonard Bernstein's Wonderful Town. In 2007, the Shaw presented its first world premiere in music theater, Tristan, co-written by Sportelli and Jay Turvey and based on the 1903 short story of the same name by Thomas Mann. He is a 1983 graduate of the Eastman School of Music and is also in the pop band J-Paul. Robert Swensen  Tenor Robert Swensen has appeared across the country, including his Carnegie Hall debut in La Dame Blanche with Opera Orchestra of New York, and performances with Santa Fe Opera Festival, Opera Pacific, Arizona Opera and Kentucky Opera. Other singing engagements have taken him throughout the world to Berlin, Naples, Belgium; Ireland, Venice, Vienna and Paris. Robert has mentored with Nicolai Gedda and Luciano Pavarotti and is the recipient of the several awards, including a Grammy Award for Best Classical Recording of Barber: Antony & Cleopatra. He has recorded with L'Orfeo Records, RCA, Philips Classical, Teldec and New World Records. Robert is currently Associate Professor of Voice at the Eastman School of Music. Conrad Tao  Conrad Tao, 14, was found playing children's songs on the piano at 18 months. He started formal piano lessons at age 3. At 8, he made his concerto debut with the Utah Chamber Music Festival Orchestra. His concerto performances include the Aspen Festival Orchestra, the California Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Carnegie's family concert in Carnegie Hall. At age 10, his piano composition Silhouettes and Shadows won the BMI Carlos Surinach Prize as the youngest winner of BMI's prestigious award for young composers in the Western Hemisphere. He is a five-time consecutive winner of the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer award and his Sonata for Two Pianos was featured at the 2004 award ceremony and performed at the Aspen Music Festival in 2005. He is enrolled in the Juilliard pre-college division studying violin, composition and piano. He first played at the Festival in 2007, as soloist in the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21. Visit Conrad Tao's website. James VanDemark  "Solo double-bass virtuosos may be counted on the fingers of one hand, and James VanDemark, who teaches the instrument at the Eastman School of Music, is now generally reckoned to be among their number." New York Times. At 17, he left high school to become principal bassist with the Hamilton Philharmonic in Ontario and joined the faculty at Eastman when only 23 years-old. James has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Netherlands Radio Symphony, Heidelberg Festival Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, and many others. His chamber music collaborations include appearances with Yehudi Menuhin, Cleveland Quartet, Aspen Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Colorado Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and a duo recital with André Watts. Michi Wiancko  Michi Wiancko is a member of the renowned Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and has also participated in numerous tours with Musicians from Marlboro, as a result of her three consecutive summers in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival. She also performs regularly with the Boston-based Metamorphosen Ensemble and with Battlestar America, a New York-based ensemble performing innovative hip-hop, country, soul and electronica. Ms. Wiancko is co-founder 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. Winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Michi Wiancko made her New York solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as part of the Concert Artists Guild Winners Series. Visit Michi Wiancko's website. David Ying  In addition to his role as the cellist of the Ying Quartet, David Ying performs frequently as solo cellist. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Oakland East-Bay Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the String Orchestra of the Rockies, and the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. He has won numerous awards as a solo cellist, including prizes in the Naumburg International Cello Competition, the Washington International Competition, and a diploma at the Tchaikovsky International Cello Competition. A dedicated and active teacher, Mr, Ying has taught at Interlochen, the Brevard Music Center, and Northwestern University. He is currently on the chamber music and cello faculty of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Keiko Ying  Keiko Ying began studying the cello in Boise, Idaho, at age 10. At 14, she joined the Boise Philharmonic. She studied for two years at Albertson College of Idaho, then transferred to the Eastman School of Music, where she received her bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. She has spent four summers as an Orchestral Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, where she served as assistant principal in the festival and chamber orchestras, and was principal cello for the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in 2005. She has served as principal cellist in CityMusic in Cleveland for the past three years, as a section member in Syracuse Symphony Orchestra and teaches cello at the Eastman Community Music School. Phillip Ying  Phillip Ying, as violist of the Ying Quartet, performs regularly across the United States, Europe and Asia. Recent appearances include engagements in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, and Washington, DC, Australia, France, Mexico, and Taiwan. During summers, he has performed at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Norfolk, Aspen, Colorado, Bowdoin and Steamboat Springs music festivals. He is a recipient of the Naumburg Award for chamber music. Mr. Ying has also been presented numerous times in recital and as a soloist with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony and the Aspen Festival Chamber Orchestra. |
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