Cellist Jia Kim, recently chosen as recipient of the prestigious 2017 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund in its 10th and final year, began her cello studies at the age of ten in Korea, where she has won first place in the Korean Music Association Competition, the National Symphony Orchestra Competition of Korea and the Young Musician Foundation's National Debut Concerto Competition. Since then Ms.Kim has taken the stage in cities across the United States, South America, Europe and South Korea. Her performances have been reviewed by the New York Times, Vermont Today, South Florida Classical Review, the HamptonRoads and have been broadcasted on WQXR, PBS and KMZT Classical.

 As a passionate and active chamber musician, Ms.Kim has worked with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Frans Helmerson, Robert Mann, Kim Kashkashian, Robert Spano, Emmanuel Villaume, John Williams, as well as the Juilliard String Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Orion String Quartet, A Far Cry, leading her to stages including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall, Miami's Arsht Center, Valle De Bravo in Mexico, Toronto's Royal Conservatory, Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Korea Society, Barclay Center, Al-Hussein Cultural Center at the National Music Conservatory of Jordan, and many more. 

     Ms. Kim is a recipient of numerous awards including the Jack Smith Memorial Award, Most Promising Young Talent at the 2005 Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition in California, and Performing Arts Scholarship at the Cerritos Center of Arts Education.  She has received full Scholarship to the Crossroads School in Santa Monica and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

     As a teenager, she spent five summers at The Perlman Music Program Summer Music School in Shelter Island which gave her life changing experiences. She has also participated in festivals such as Académie musicale de Villecroze, Kneisel Hall, White Mountains Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, The Perlman Music Program's Chamber Music Workshop where she was invited to tour with Itzhak Perlman in Israel, Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, Miami and in New York City. 

    A devoted educator, Ms.Kim has worked with students from the Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Tel Aviv Conservatory of Music, American Academy of Jordan, Jerusalem Music Center, and Grand Valley State University.  She serves as faculty of the Brearley School, New York Youth Symphony's Chamber Music Program, and has been invited to do a Visiting Artist Residency at the University of Hawaii and College of William and Mary.  In 2016, she served as Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America Competition and was appointed as new Artistic Director of International Music Sessions, a unique summer program bringing youth around the world to foster cultural exchange through music. 

       Ms. Kim performs on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, by a generous loan from Tarisio.  She is evermore grateful to her mentors and teachers Ronald Leonard, Toby&Itzhak Perlman, and to Joel Krosnick, whom she studied with at The Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music.

Violinist Rebecca Anderson is a versatile soloist and chamber musician based in New York City. Recent performances range from solo appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, contemporary music premieres with A Far Cry and eighth blackbird, and collaborative projects with Questlove and Ben Folds.

Ms. Anderson's solo appearances have taken her across the country as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Olympia Symphony, and Columbia Symphony orchestras. Most recently, she was a first prize winner at the 2013 American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition for senior division violin. Other awards include the 2008 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts youngARTS Gold Award, which led to being named a Presidential Scholar in both the Arts and Academics and an invitation to perform at the Kennedy Center. She was also awarded the bronze medal and Bach Award at the 2008 Stulberg International String Competition.

Ms. Anderson's passion for chamber music has led to festival appearances with Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, Music From Angel Fire, and collaborations with Ani and Ida Kavafian, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts, and David Shifrin. She has performed on concerts presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, as well as appearances at the Kennedy Center and Library of Congress.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Ms. Anderson is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, studying with Ida Kavafian, Pamela Frank, Ronald Copes, and Donald Weilerstein. Having recently completed the Rebanks Family Fellowship at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, she is happy to be back in New York City as a fellow with Ensemble Connect (formerly Ensemble ACJW) for the 2016-2018 seasons.

Daring, versatile, charismatic and passionate, American violinist Robyn Bollinger is a young artist on the rise. Just out of conservatory, Ms. Bollinger is carving a career as a soloist and chamber musician. Already recognized for her musical creativity, rich tones, emotional depth, and technical mastery, she is a recipient of a prestigious 2016 Fellowship from the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship Fund for her multimedia performance project entitled “CIACCONA: The Bass of Time,” which she began touring in 2018. Having made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age twelve, Ms. Bollinger has since performed with orchestras and at festivals nationwide, among them the Boston Pops, the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra, and the music festivals of Aspen, Lake Champlain, Maui, Marlboro, and Rockport.

Summer 2018 performances announced to date include appearances at the Halcyon Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, and Orcas Island Music Festival.

Robyn Bollinger's 2018-19 season features a mix of solo and chamber music performances. Announced engagements include debuts with the symphony orchestras of Knoxville (Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto), Helena (Piazzolla, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), Charleston (Paganini, Violin Concerto No. 1), and California (world premiere by composer-in-residence Katherine Balchwritten specifically for her). She makes a six-city tour of the East Coast with the Musicians from Marlboro that includes concerts at Connecticut's Greenwich Library Series, Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall in New York City, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Series, the Smithsonian Museum's Freer Gallery in D.C., the Union College Concert Series in Schenectady, NY, and Boston's Isabella Steward Gardner Museum's Sunday Afternoon Series. Ms. Bollinger also performs in and around Boston with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the Grammy award-winning ensemble A Far Cry.

Highlights of Bollinger’s 2017-18 season included appearing as soloist with the Orchestra of Indian Hill (MA), Symphony in C (NJ), and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, as a guest in a special concert for the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and in concert for Boston’s Music For Food concert series. Her tour of “CIACCONA: The Bass of Time,” a multi-media concert that tells the story of one of the oldest musical ideas, the repeating bass line, through solo violin music met with success at Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Emory University, National Sawdust (Brooklyn, NY) and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Boston Globe praised “...she did more than just perform dauntingly difficult works by Biber, Bach, Bartok, and Berio. She melded them into an evening-length exploration of the ciaccona as such — a Baroque dance form that has morphed over the course of centuries.... Throughout the night, Bollinger’s technique proved equal to every challenge, with playing that was poised, precise, and musical” and The Boston Musical Intelligencer called her an engaging and original talent.”

Robyn Bollinger records for Crier Records. During the 2017-18 season, she released her debut solo CD and DVD, both titled “CIACCONA: The Bass of Time.” James Oestreich of The New York Times reviewed the CD, and selected her performance of Biber’s Sequenza VIII as one of “8 Best Classical Music Moments of the Week on YouTube,” writing: “It was the concept that drew me to the new CD, CIACONNA: The Bass of Time, from Crier Records, but it was the young violinist Robyn Bollinger who held me captive. Through solo works of Biber, Bach, Bartok and Berio, Ms. Bollinger explores the lineage of the chaconne or passacaglia, call it what you will, with its often obsessive focus on a bass figure.” As a member of A Far Cry, she recorded the Grammy nominated “Dreams and Prayers” and “Visions and Variations.” The all- premieres CD includes arrangements of works by Hildegard von Bingen and Ludwig van Beethoven and Osvaldo Golijov, as well as works by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol written for and premiered by A Far Cry.

A sought-after collaborator, Ms. Bollinger is a popular figure on the chamber music stage, both as a member of the renowned, Grammy-nominated Boston-based ensemble A Far Cry, and for her work at Festivals, and on chamber music series. She has performed in Midori’s Music Sharing International Community Engagement Program “ICEP” in Japan, performed in recital in Japan’s Phoenix Hall, (Osaka), Oji Hall, (Tokyo), and Tokyo National Arts Center, and served as a Young Artist Fellow for Music for Food, the national musician-led initiative for local hunger relief. A former member of the Newman String Quartet, which took the silver medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, she has also served as a member of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival's Young Trio in Residence (2015 - 2017). Collaborations include the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Jupiter Chamber Players at Lincoln Center, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Mistral Music, and with members of the Borromeo, Cleveland, Juilliard, Johannes, Lydian, Mendelssohn, and Pro Arte quartets, among others.

In addition to the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, Ms. Bollinger’s talent has been recognized with numerous awards, among them an Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant from New England Conservatory for her ground-breaking "Project Paganini," a performance project featuring all twenty-four Paganini Caprices. Ms. Bollinger has received top prizes at many international competitions, among them the International Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in France, and the Louis Spohr International Competition in Germany. She has been specially recognized with prizes for her performances of Bach and Beethoven works at several competitions. A familiar figure on radio, Ms. Bollinger came to national attention through her 2014 residency on PRI’s “Performance Today” and several appearances on NPR's "From the Top."

Born in Philadelphia in 1991, Robyn Bollinger is a former recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, where she received both her Bachelor’s and Master's degrees with honors. Ms. Bollinger’s former teachers include Miriam Fried, Soovin Kim, and Paul Kantor. From July 2013 to May 2017, Ms. Bollinger played a 1778 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin on generous loan from the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute Instrument Bank. As of May 2017, she now performs on a beautiful 2017 violin made by the world-renowned luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz, on loan from a private collection.

Winner of the Media Prize at the 2017 Belvedere Competition in Moscow, baritone John Brancy has been hailed by the New York Times as “a vibrant, resonant presence”. The New Jersey native is also winner of the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition and the
Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Recent and upcoming engagements include the title role in Eugene Onegin for Florida Grand Opera, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos for Opera de Lorraine and Albert in Werther at Stadttheater Klagenfurt. Brancy has appeared at Carnegie Hall, for the Glyndebourne Opera, Opera Frankfurt, and the San Francisco and Kansas City symphonies. “A Silent Night: A WWI Mimorial in Song” with pianist Peter Dugan is currently in release.

Hsuan-Fong Chen enjoys a diverse  career performing in concert halls, theaters, and studios in New York and around the world.  Most recently, she could be heard as the oboist in Rocktopia on Broadway. Chen has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, Orchestra of St Luke’s, The Knights, Novus New York, Talea Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Hsuan Fong has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Lake George Music Festival. As an active chamber musician and is looking forward to being heard on an upcoming Naxos release with featuring Beethoven’s serenades for winds to be released in 2020. Hsuan-Fong earned degrees at the Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. 

Catherine Cho is recognized for her remarkable virtuosity, combining technical mastery of her instrument with an extraordinary and distinctive musicality. Praised by The New York Times for her "sublime tone", she has appeared worldwide as soloist with many orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as in recital. Her repertoire ranges from the traditional works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms to those of Bartók, Korngold and Berg, in addition to music of our time.

Catherine Cho's orchestral engagements have included appearances with the Detroit, Montreal, and Washington DC's National Symphony orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Edmonton Symphony, the Korean Broadcasting Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Haifa, and New Zealand, the Het Gelders Orkest in Holland, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony performing with distinguished conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Robert Spano, Sixten Ehrling, Hugh Wolff, and Franz-Paul Decker. A regular guest on tour with "Musicians from Marlboro", Ms. Cho has also been a frequent participant in their summer Music Festival in Vermont since 1993.

She has performed as special guest soloist with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center for two ballets by renowned choreographer Peter Martins including the New York premiere of his ballet Viva Verdi. Her concert performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with the Buffalo Philharmonic under the baton of Jo-Ann Falletta, was taped live and broadcast nationwide on National Public Television in January 2002. In broadcasts heard around the world, Catherine Cho has appeared on such stations as Radio Frankfurt (Germany), CBC (Canada), WQXR (New York City), and National Public Radio. Her performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the Korean Chamber Ensemble was recorded live and released on Credia Classics.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Catherine Cho has performed on the prestigious stages of Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society at New York's Lincoln Center, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Casals Hall in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, and on Ravinia's "Rising Stars" series in Chicago. She has performed the complete cycle of Violin Sonatas by Beethoven at HOAM Art Hall in Seoul, Korea with pianist, Mia Chung, and a recital of five Beethoven Sonatas at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Cho has appeared at the Aspen, Marlboro, Bridgehampton, Eastern Shore, Santa Fe, and Skaneateles Festivals as well as at Bargemusic and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR. She has collaborated with such renowned artists as Richard Stoltzman, Andras Schiff, Anton Kuerti, Mitsuko Uchida; the members from the Guarneri, Orion and Juilliard String Quartets, and the Beaux-Arts Trio. She has been invited for several summers to teach at Mark O'Connor's String Conference in San Diego where she has collaborated with Mark O'Connor and Natalie MacMaster. Ms. Cho was a member of the Johannes String Quartet from 2003 to 2006, and is a founding member of the chamber ensemble, La Fenice.

Among her various awards, scholarships, and achievements, Ms. Cho was a recipient of both the 1995 Avery Fisher Career Grant and, Korea's 1995 World Leaders of Tomorrow Award as presented by the Korea Central Daily News in recognition of outstanding achievement and commendable leadership in the Arts. She was the recipient of the 1994 Sony ES Award for Musical Excellence; a top prize winner at the 1991 Hannover International Violin Competition, the 1989 Queen Elizabeth Music Competition of Belgium, the 1987 Montreal International Music Competition. In 1995 Catherine Cho served on the jury of the Montreal International Violin Competition. In 1996 she was selected for the Janet and Avery Fisher Music Residency Program at Goucher College. Ms. Cho holds a Masters Degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang, and coached chamber music with Felix Galimir. Her former teachers include Ruggiero Ricci, Franco Gulli, and Michael Avsharian. Ms. Cho is a faculty member of The Juilliard School, and has taught at the Heifetz Institute, Killington Music Festival, Seoul Music Festival, Starling-DeLay Symposium, Perlman Music Program, Great Mountains Music School and Festival, and coached chamber music at the New York String Seminar.

Devoted to the cause of promoting peace through music, Catherine Cho was VP of the Board of Musicians For Harmony for several years, and is an artist member of Music For Food, a musician led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.

Catherine lives in Brooklyn, NY with her devoted husband, Todd Phillips, and her sweet son, Brandon. She is the stepmom of three lovely stepchildren, Lia, Eliza, and Jason. When she is away from her teaching and performances, you may find Catherine making soup in her crock pot, baking, practicing yoga, catching up with the New York Times, or creating crafts with her family.

Violinist Jinjoo Cho is an artist model of the 21st-century. Since her concert debut at age 7, she has been numerously recognized as the winner of world’s most prestigious competitions such as the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Montreal International Musical Competition, Buenos Aires International Violin Competition, Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition, and a laureate of 2011 Isang Yun International Music Competition. As a charismatic female solo artist, a vibrant and engaging chamber musician, a devoted teacher, an innovative artistic director, and a published writer, Jinjoo is redefining what it means to be a consummate classical artist in the modern society.

Jinjoo can be found performing in distinguished international venues and festivals alike Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, the Herkulessaal of Munich, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele, Seoul Arts Center, and Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, with world’s leading orchestras and musicians as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Phoenix Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, James Gaffigan, Michael Stern, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Tan Dun, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Tito Muñoz, Mathieu Herzog, Itamar Golan, and Roger Tapping. She regularly tours with creative programs that include works of living composers and lesser-known repertoire.

A passionate teacher, Jinjoo is on the violin faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and has previously taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. She is also the Founder/Artistic Director of ENCORE Chamber Music, an intensive summer training program for talented young performers in Cleveland, and regularly gives master classes worldwide.

Jinjoo is an alumna of Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM, PS) where she studied with Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo. She also received training at the Curtis Institute of Music, Kronberg Academy, Aspen Music Festival and School, Perlman Music Program, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Music@Menlo, and Banff Centre’s Chamber Music Residency Program. Jinjoo’s artistic personality was greatly influenced by the Cavani String Quartet, members of the Cleveland Quartet, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, and conductor David Zinman. Jinjoo now lives in Montreal with her toy poodle, Miso, and enjoys visiting art galleries, collecting kitchen magnets and stationeries, and listening to Indie Rock in her spare time.

Described by critics as “scintillating” and celebrated for her “rich, expressive playing” (MusicalAmerica), violinist Francesca dePasquale leads a dynamic career of performance, pedagogy, and community engagement. Francesca is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and recipient of the prestigious 2014-2016 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. Earning her the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award, her self-titled debut album released in March of 2016 encompasses works that scope from Bach to a new commission from composer Paola Prestini for violin and electronics. For the album and accompanying recital tour, Francesca was praised for “sincerity, intensity” and “individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine). Additionally, she was featured in Strings magazine and on SiriusXM, WNYC, WQXR, WRTI (Philadelphia), and WFMT (Chicago).

2017-2018 season highlights include debut recital and chamber music appearances for the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Rutgers University, and Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove (Cornwall, England). This season also marks debut appearances for the Busan Maru International Festival (Busan, Korea), Macon Concert Association (Atlanta, Georgia), Friends of Chamber Music (Reading, PA), and Beacon Hill Concert Series (Stroudsburg, PA) with the Aletheia Piano Trio.

Since her debut as soloist at age 9 touring Spain with the Main Line Chamber Orchestra, Francesca has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Colburn Orchestra, Galesburg Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, and Santa Cruz Symphony. As recitalist, she has collaborated with artists Meng-Chieh Liu, Natalie Zhu, John Root, and Reiko Uchida on series such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, In Situ at National Sawdust, California Music Center, and the Perlman Music Program.

An active chamber musician, Francesca has performed with renowned artists Paul Coletti, Thomas Cooley, Jennifer Frautschi, Nicholas Kitchen, Ronald Leonard, Robert Levin, Merry Peckham, Itzhak Perlman, Jeffrey Sykes, Roger Tapping, Richard Todd, and Donald Weilerstein. She has performed for Chesapeake Chamber Music, the Heifetz International Music Institute, Marinus Ensemble, Lyrica Chamber Music, Music at Bunker Hill, 23Arts Initiative, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Manhattan Chamber Players, Music in the Vineyards, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Colburn Chamber Music Society, and the Perlman Music Program. Francesca is the violinist of the Aletheia Piano Trio alongside pianist Fei-Fei Dong and cellist Juliette Herlin. Additionally, she has collaborated with dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside for the Fall for Dance Festival alongside composer Stefan Levin, as well as performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Brooklyn based orchestral collective The Knights, and A Far Cry.

Francesca is a member of the violin faculty at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts and served as the Starling Fellow teaching assistant to Itzhak Perlman from 2013-2016 at the Juilliard School, where she is currently teaching assistant to Catherine Cho. Additionally, Francesca is a member of the violin faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute and its Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. Committed to classical music outreach and its power to connect entire communities, Francesca has served as a mentor for the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles program, appeared on the Philadelphia Orchestra Sound All Around series, and traveled to São Paulo, Brazil for an educational residency of Juilliard Global.

Francesca graduated from the Juilliard School with a Master of Music degree, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. As a student of Robert Lipsett, Francesca earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music. Previous teachers include Hirono Oka and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt. Francesca performs on a 1968 Sergio Peresson violin and a François Nicolas Voirin bow. Please visit http://francescadepasquale.com for more information.

Violinist Miki-Sophia Cloud enjoys a rich musical life as a chamber musician, orchestra-leader, educator and artistic director. Recently chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Sun-Law Vuillaume Fellowship, Miki-Sophia is driven and inspired by music's ability to connect people more deeply to one another and to themselves.

Since 2009, Miki-Sophia has been a core member of the self-conducted chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, where her work as one of its concertmasters, soloists, and 17 artistic directors has been hailed by The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker and garnered a 2014 GRAMMY nomination. Acclaimed for her thoughtful and innovative approach to the concert experience, Miki-Sophia’s programming has been described as “ingeniously crafted” by The Boston Globe.

Miki-Sophia is a member of the New York-based Solera Quartet, winners of the 2017 Pro Musicis International Award and 2018 Guarneri Quartet Residency from Chamber Music America. In addition to their concert schedule, the Soleras are passionate about sharing music with incarcerated communities, and have performed dozens of concerts in prisons and jails across the country.

An alumna of Harvard College, Yale School of Music, Vienna Academy of Music, and New England Conservatory, Miki-Sophia joined the faculty of Dartmouth College in 2016, where she mentors a vibrant studio of bright and inquisitive violinists.

Miki-Sophia is honored to play an 1855 violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, graciously on loan to her through the Tarisio Trust: Eric Sun-Karen Law Vuillaume Fellowship.

One of the most diverse clarinetists of his generation.

Praised by Opera News for his “exemplary clarinet playing,” Mark Dover’s vast array of musical experiences have helped him establish himself as one of the most diverse clarinetists of his generation. In January of 2016, Dover joined Grammy-nominated wind quintet, Imani Winds. As both part of Imani Winds and as a featured artist, Dover has collaborated with pianists Gil Kalish, Fabio Bidini, Jon Nakamatsu, and Alpin Hong; violinists Caroline Goulding, Alexi Kenney, and Francesca de Pasquale; and cellist Brook Speltz of the Escher String Quartet. Dover has conducted master classes at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, Manhattan School of Music and Rutgers Mason Gross School of The Arts. Dover has performed with the Detroit Symphony under Leonard Slatkin, the Cleveland Orchestra under David Zinman at the Kent/Blossom Festival, numerous times with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, and other symphony and chamber orchestras throughout the Northeast. Dover has participated in numerous festivals, including Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and the Spoleto Festival, USA.

Dover is committed to new music, and has given several world premieres of works written for him. In 2017 Dover commissioned Jonathan Ragonese’s Non-Poem 4 and gave the world premiere live on WFMT Chicago and WKCR NYC with pianist Jeremy Jordan as part of the Live at National Sawdust series. In 2015, Dover performed the world premiere of Michael Thurber’s Quadruple Concerto, Three Musketeers, commissioned by and broadcasted nationally on NPR’s From the Top with the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra and soloists Kris Bowers, Charles Yang, and Michael Thurber.

In addition to his work in the classical world, Dover has an extensive background in jazz and improvised music. He is a frequent collaborator with Vulfpeck, an American funk band formed in his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. His playing can be heard on their album, Thrill of the Arts. Dover has performed and/or recorded with numerous jazz, pop, and soul musicians, including Edward Simon, Brian Blade, Scott Colley, David Binney, Bernard Purdie, Cyrille Aimée, Darren Criss, Theo Katzman, Joey Dosik, Dave Malloy, Phillipa Soo, Stephen Pasquale, Michael Thurber, and Charles Yang. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Dover received his masters of music from Manhattan School of Music and his bachelor of music from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. His major teachers include David Krakauer, Deborah Chodacki, Nathan Williams, and Jay DeVries.

Mezzo-Soprano Kara Dugan has been praised by the New York Times for her “vocal warmth and rich character”. Recently, Ms. Dugan performed with Michael Tilson Thomas, premiering his work, Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind, with the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Her upcoming performances include an all-Ravel concert with the New World Symphony, under the baton of Stéphane Denève, and a recital for the Charles Ives Concert Series in Danbury, Connecticut.

Ms. Dugan has appeared with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival, Crested Butte Music Festival, Joye in Aiken, pianoSonoma, Rite of Summer Music Festival, the Mainly Mozart Music Festival, and on three international tours with Juilliard's Historical Performance Department, Juilliard415. She has spent summers with The Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Amherst Early Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Wolf Trap Opera. This summer she will be in residence at the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont.

Pianist Peter Dugan was hailed “a formidable soloist” by the Washington Post after his recent Kennedy Center debut with baritone John Brancy.  Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, Mr. Dugan is equally at home in classical, jazz, and pop idioms.  This season, he makes his debut as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson  Thomas. 

A sought-after crossover artist, Mr. Dugan has performed in duos and trios with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell to Jesse Colin Young and Glenn Close. The Wall Street Journal described Mr. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang as a “classical-meets-rockstar duo.” Mr. Dugan’s recent chamber music recitals include the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, St. John’s College Recital Series, and a Weill Hall debut presented by Carnegie Hall.  His debut album A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song pays homage to composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.

Mr. Dugan holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied under Matti Raekallio. He resides in New York with his wife, mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, and serves on the piano faculty at the Juilliard School Evening Division. Mr. Dugan is a Yamaha Artist.  More at www.peterduganpiano.com.

Flutist Francesca Ferrara has followed her music from Santa Monica, California, where she grew up, to New York City. With the goal of building community, she dedicates her life to performing, teaching, and advocating for new music. She frequently collaborates with composers and is a core member of the New York City based ensemble, Amalgama. Francesca has also been a performer with Argento New Music Project, ShoutHouse ensemble, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Princeton Pro Musica orchestra, Camerata Washington Heights orchestra, and in August of 2018 was a resident fellow in the Contemporary Performance Institute at Brandeis University. Along with performing, Francesca is an active flute teacher, and teaches private lessons through the Willam Academy of Music. With a passion for collaboration and sharing new music with a wider community, Francesca co-produces the concert series, Blank Canvas at Future Space in Bushwick. Francesca holds a Master of Music degree in Contemporary Performance from Manhattan School of Music where she was a student of Tara O’Connor, and a Bachelor of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory where she studied with Sarah Brady.

Margaret Dyer Harris currently holds positions as Assistant Principal violist in the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, violist in Wicked on Broadway, and she is a new member of The Knights chamber orchestra. She was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, and she has performed with various other chamber groups including ECCO, Decoda, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra.  Margaret’s first exposure to chamber music was in her childhood living room, watching her mother, Saskia, join friends to read quartets of Beethoven, Mozart, and lots of Haydn and, since then, she has had the pleasure of performing these works all over the world (and sometimes in her childhood living room with her mother).  Recent seasons’ highlights have included appearances with the Daedalus Quartet, the Amphion Quartet, the Parker Quartet, the Hausmann Quartet, the Peabody Trio and alongside the acclaimed clarinet virtuoso, David Krakauer.  She has also performed with Emannuel Ax, Daniel Hope, Christian Tetzlaff, and Gil Kalish.  Margaret is also in frequent demand as a guest-Principal symphonic violist, most recently appearing in that role with the Sarasota Orchestra, the Santa Fe Opera, Princeton Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Long Island Philharmonic.  Margaret has a strong passion for cultural collaboration and community involvement and in 2010, she was granted a fellowship position in Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect: a program created by Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.  In addition to creating engaging chamber music programs for hospitals, detention centers, and other community centers across the city,  she was a guest teacher at Curtis High School on Staten Island during the two-year fellowship. She has also been a guest artist and teacher at the Guildhall School in London, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Yellow Barn Young Artists Festival and she has given masterclasses in Mexico City, Lima, Abu Dhabi, and cities across the United States.  In 2016, Margaret visited Sing Sing Correctional Facility several times as a guest artist for Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program, working with prisoners who were learning instruments and learning to write songs in order to prepare for two culminating performances of their works for other inmates. Margaret holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory. She can be heard on recordings by NEOS Label, Iris Records, Crier Records, and Fortune Records.

Jonathan resides in New York City where he performs as a classical, jazz, and commercial trumpeter. He received his education from the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, and is a candidate for a doctorate at City University of New York, Graduate Center. He has studied with many of the top trumpet teachers in the United States, including James Thompson, Mark Gould, and Raymond Mase.

As a classical artist, he has performed with the New York City Ballet, Harrisburg Symphony, Stamford Symphony, and Hudson Valley Philharmonic. As a jazz artist, he has toured around the world and throughout the United States with the Grammy award winning composer Maria Schneider. He has also performed with the Gil Evans Project at both the Jazz Standard in New York and Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. He can regularly be heard on Broadway’s top productions such as Wicked, Kinky Boots, Phantom of the Opera, and King Kong.

Jonathan maintains a trumpet studio at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division and the Leman Preparatory School Conservatory.

Clarinetist John Hong enjoys an international career performing in myriad notable institutions, ensembles, and television, including the American Ballet Theater, the MostlyMozart Festival, and the Emmy award winning series Mozart in the Jungle. For his performances, he has been hailed by The New York Times for playing “quirky theatrical and musical elements with aplomb” and by The Chicago Tribune for his “deft solo playing.” A Texas native, Mr. Hong is an alumnus of The Juilliard School. Learn more at www.johnhong.me. 

Pianist

        Hailed by the press for his “bold, rich sound” (Strad Magazine) and “nuanced musicianship,” (The New York Times), Israeli cellist Michael Katz has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, Tokyo’s Oji Hall, and Jerusalem's Henry Crown Auditorium. His musicianship has been recognized with many awards, among them all three prizes at the 2011 Aviv Competition, and first prizes at the Juilliard School’s 2010 Concerto Competition and the 2005 Turjeman Competition.

        High in demand as a chamber musician, Mr. Katz has collaborated and performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, Peter Frankl, Roger Tapping, Charles Neidich, and others.  As the cellist of the Lysander Piano Trio, Mr. Katz was a winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and was awarded first prize in the 2011 Coleman competition and 2011 J.C. Arriaga competition.  His festival appearances include performances at Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Lucerne, Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Malaga Clasica, and the Holland Music Sessions. Deeply committed to audience engagement and community outreach, Mr. Katz was a Fellow in Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect from 2014-16

        Born in Tel-Aviv, Mr. Katz began his cello studies at age seven, and his early teachers included Zvi Plesser, Hillel Zori and the late Mikhail Khomitzer. Mr. Katz received his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory as a student of Laurence Lesser and his Master of Music from the Juilliard School where he studied with Joel Krosnick. He has completed a Doctor of Music degree at SUNY Stony Brook as a student of Colin Carr.

Cello

The winner of the Second Prize at the 2016 Queen Elisabeth Competition and the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School, pianist Henry Kramer is establishing himself as one of the most exciting American musicians of his generation. His performances have been praised by critics as “triumphant” and “thrilling” (The New York Times), and “technically effortless” (La Presse, Montreal). A Maine native, Mr. Kramer has also earned top prizes in the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition, the 2011 Montreal International Music Competition, and the 6th China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He was also a prizewinner in the 8th National Chopin Competition in Miami and received the 2014 Harvard Musical Association Arthur Foote Award. He is a winner of Astral’s 2014 National Auditions.

Henry has been invited to play with orchestras across the globe including the National Belgian Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey, the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Montreal, and the Yale Philharmonia.  He has soloed under the batons of preeminent conductors Marin Alsop, Jan Pascal Tortelier, and Stéphane Dénève. Upcoming, Mr. Kramer is featured in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the National Orchestra of Belgium and Hans Graf, and in Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in the Dominican Republic. This season he also returns to Symphony in C for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and for a chamber music program with the Orchestra of St. Luke's Chamber Players.

In past seasons, Mr. Kramer has been a guest performer in recitals at Portland Piano International (Oregon), The Cliburn Foundation, and the National Chopin Foundation in Miami and in important venues like Carnegie Hall (Zankel and Wiell) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He recently performed Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Toshi Shimada, as well as Beethoven’s Chorale Fantasy with Robert Moody and the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  Deeply committed to the chamber music repertoire, he has been featured in performances at Lincoln Center, and has participated in the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Music@Menlo’s International Program, and the Verbier Festival Academy, where he was awarded the Tabor Prize in piano. Recently, he appeared on Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute tour, which included performances at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and New York’s Morgan Library, as well as an unprecedented appearance in Havana, Cuba, as a cultural ambassador.

Mr. Kramer holds both a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he received the Charles S. Miller Prize for the most outstanding first-year pianist. He currently pursues doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music, and was recently appointed as the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College.  His musical mentors have included Julian Martin, Robert McDonald, and Boris Berman.

Violist Caitlin Lynch has gained recognition and critical acclaim as an artist who enjoys a vibrant and diverse musical career. Having performed in fourteen countries on five continents, Ms. Lynch’s performances include memorable collaborations with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Bjork. She has performed with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, Cavani, and Aeolus String Quartets, members of the Weilerstein Trio, and with Alarm Will Sound, A Far Cry, Atlanta Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Ms. Lynch performs regularly with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, Wordless Music, and Metropolis Ensemble. She has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, whose tours have featured her concerti performances across North America and Europe.

Ms. Lynch has performed at major venues across the globe, including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls, National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing), NYC’s Bargemusic and Le Poisson Rouge, Sapporo Art Park (Japan), Jerusalem Music Centre, Miami’s New World Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, among others. Summer festival performances include the Lincoln Center Festival, Chelsea Music Festival, Festival Mozaic, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, and the Pacific Music Festival’s Quartet Program.

Ms. Lynch is the Artistic Director, founder, and violist of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley. PCM is an innovative chamber music series and educational outreach program created to celebrate music and community in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. In addition to bringing chamber music concerts of the highest caliber to the Willamette Valley, PCM provides workshops free of charge in the Salem-Keizer School District for orchestral students of all ages, collaborates with students in public concerts, and raises funds for local music education.

Ms. Lynch has been Artist in Residence at Cleveland’s Judson Manor senior living community, an ongoing intergenerational relationship that has been lauded by CBS and NBC News, The Plain Dealer, and the New York Times.

A passionate teacher, Ms. Lynch is a faculty member at Third Street Music School and the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program. Additionally, she has taught in the public schools of Harlem as a Morse Fellow at The Juilliard School, traveled to South America to teach masterclasses and orchestral sectionals for El Sistema’s Sinfonia por la Vida, and worked as the

chamber music teaching assistant at the Perlman Music Program Summer Music School. She has been featured as a Visiting Artist in a teaching and performance residency at The College of William and Mary, and served on the faculty at Stonybrook University’s Summer Chamber Music Camp.

Ms. Lynch is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the prestigious Morse Fellowship, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was honored with the Robert Vernon Prize in Viola. She also studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster. Her performances can be heard on NPR, WQXR (NYC), WCLV (Cleveland) radio, as well as PBS, New York Public Media’s WNET, and the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation’s NHK.

Known for his sweet and “sumptuous” (New York Times) tone, American-born Doori Na took up violin at the age of four and began his studies with Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He quickly made his first performance with orchestra at age seven with the Peninsula Youth Symphony as the first prize winner of the concerto competition. Thereafter Mr. Na went on to win top prizes in The Sound of Music Festival, The Korea Times Youth Music Competition, the Chinese Music Teacher’s Association, The Menuhin Dowling Young Artist Competition, The Junior Bach Festival, VOCE of the Music Teacher’s Association of California, and The Pacific Musical Society. Receiving full scholarships to private high school Crossroads School of Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica, he moved to Los Angeles to study with renown violin teacher, Robert Lipsett, at The Colburn Music School. There he appeared as soloist with the Palisades Symphony, Brentwood Symphony, and Torrance Symphony. During that time, the summer of 2004 was Mr. Na’s first time at the Perlman Music Program where his expression and musical identity were greatly influenced. He has been a part of the program ever since and participated in many of their special residencies in Florida, Vermont, New York, and Israel.

Currently living in New York City, Mr. Na plays with numerous ensembles around the city. He has played with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with tours in the US, Japan, and Europe performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Musiverien in Vienna. Other orchestras include American Symphony Orchestra at Bard College, American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, and Riverside Symphony at the Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.  The music of our time has also been an integral part of Mr. Na’s New York life. He is part of the New Music Project of Argento Chamber Ensemble performing the works of Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Tristan Murail, and many more. One of his favorite groups to work with is New Chamber Ballet, where he has been a member since 2013. He provides live solo music for dance at their regular venue of City Center Studios and have also gone on tour to Lake Tahoe, Germany, and Guatemala.

Chamber music has always been a big part of Mr. Na’s growth as a musician. His first endeavor playing in an ensemble was with the Luna Trio as a teenager, and were finalists at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2016. From then on, he has collaborated with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and has been fortunate to tour with Itzhak Perlman at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Other notable experiences include performing at the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach with the Bonhoeffer Trio and Les Amies trio.

Mr. Na has also found that teaching and doing outreach is essential to being a well rounded musician. He currently works at the Juilliard School as a teaching assistant to Catherine Cho and gives lessons as well as running play-through classes for the students. In 2015, he returned to the Music Teacher’s Association of California to give a masterclass and recital for their annual convention. Outreach to schools includes going to Sarasota, Florida with the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, Brazil with Juilliard Global Ventures, the British International School of Chicago with Juilliard President Joseph Polisi, and more.

Mr. Na attended the Juilliard School with the Dorothy Starling and Dorothy Delay scholarships and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree where he studied under Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Donald Weilerstein. He was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and was fortunate to play on a Guadagnini and Vuillaume violin from the Juilliard School’s prestigious violin collection.

Romanian violinist and conductor Radu Paponiu began studying the violin at age seven, moving on to study privately with Carmen Runceanu and Stefan Gheorghiu After coming to the United States at the invitation of the Perlman Music Program, Radu continued his studies at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California, where he earned both a Bachelor of Music degree and an Artist Diploma degree in violin performance, working privately with Robert Lipsett.

Winner of the “Rotari Atheneum” prize, Radu has made solo violin appearances with orchestras such as the Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Bucharest Conservatory Orchestra, “Ion Dumitrescu” Philharmonic Orchestra, Lyceum Strings Orchestra, Central European Initiative Youth Orchestra, and Oltenia Philharmonic Orchestra. As a recitalist, Radu has performed in Thayer Hall and Mayman Hall at the Colburn School, Romanian Atheneum, History Museum of Bucharest, and the Cultural Center of Arcus.

Radu has been a guest artist for music festivals in the United States, Canada, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, and Hungary, including the Perlman Music Program, Banff Chamber Music Workshop, and the Aspen Music Festival. He has performed chamber music with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Martin Beaver, Moses Pogossian, Clive Greensmith, Merry Peckham, and members of the Ebène String Quartet. Radu is former Concertmaster of the Colburn Chamber Orchestra, Culver City Chamber Orchestra, Central European Initiative Youth Orchestra, as well as Assistant Concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Symphony.  Radu has also participated in numerous masterclasses with artists such as Robert Mann, Donald Weilerstein, Christian Altenburger, Alexander Arenkov, as well as members of the Tokyo, and American string quartets.

Mr. Paponiu recently completed his Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with Hugh Wolff. While in Boston, Radu was also Conductor Apprentice with the Handel&Haydn Society, working closely with Harry Christophers and Richard Egarr. During the 2016-2017 season, Radu guest conducted the Naples Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, as well as participated in a conducting workshop with the New World Symphony lead by Michael Tilson Thomas. Additionally, Radu has participated for two consecutive summers in the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen, where he furthered his studies under the guidance of Robert Spano, Larry Rachleff, Leonard Slatkin, Hugh Wolff, Patrick Summers, and Frederico Cortese. Radu currently resides in Naples, Florida, where he serves as Assistant Conductor for the Naples Philharmonic, and Director of the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Navah Perlman began concertizing at a young age, playing as a soloist with the Independent School Orchestra in New York City when she was 11 years old. Her teachers included Ronit Amir Lowenthal and Herbert Stessin. She also studied chamber music with Felix Galimir, Robert Mann and Dorothy DeLay.

As she continued her studies, Navah made appearances with youth orchestras and professional regional orchestras, gradually starting a professional career as a pianist. Over the span of her career she has played with many major orchestras including the Montreal Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. In addition to her orchestral performances, Ms. Perlman has played numerous solo recitals in cities such as Philadelphia, Scottsdale, Memphis, and Miami, and an abundance of chamber music. Her festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia Festival and the Barns at Wolf Trap. For many years, Ms. Perlman was in a piano trio with cellist Zuill Bailey and violinist Kurt Nikkanen, whose position was later held by violinist Giora Schmidt.  In 2017, Navah debuted her one woman show entitled, “Navah Perlman: A Musical Memoir”, a performance of music alongside narration and photographs,  and will continue to present this show into the 2018 season. 

Navah Perlman is an active and respected performer of residency and educational outreach activities. While in residence, Ms. Perlman teaches students of all ages in master classes, speaks to school assemblies and has also conducted pedagogy workshops for teachers. She has participated in several chamber music residency programs, including those at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the University of California at Davis,  Stanford University and the University of Iowa, teaching and performing in partnership with the Cavani String Quartet. 

In addition to performing and outreach, Navah has taken on other roles in the realm of music. She was appointed as the Director of Chamber Music Programming in partnership with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta in 2015, helping to bring chamber music to a wider audience in the Adirondack region of New York State. Navah is also a proud member of the Board of Concerts in Motion, a not-for-profit organization in New York City that brings uplifting, live music to more than 30,000 individuals served by over 80 essential service agencies throughout the five boroughs of New York City. 

As the daughter of violinist Itzhak Perlman, starting at a young age Navah had the honor and privilege of participating in and witnessing exciting historical moments in music. Growing up in New York City with a successful musician father meant much time spent with her parents musician friends, going to countless concerts at the neighborhood concert halls (Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center) through the back stage door, and generally being unaware of how unusual this was. Navah was fortunate to meet many of her favorite musicians over a period of years, including Vladimir Horowitz on several occasions; Navah was present in the sessions of Horowitz's final studio recording and actually sat on the floor next to the piano while he played during one of the sessions.

Navah has also had the honor of accompanying and collaborating with her father on numerous occasions. She toured in Japan with him, playing duo recitals, in 1998. But some of the performances she has given with him have been out of the ordinary. At age 11, Navah’s father was asked on short notice to participate in a Nuclear Freeze concert, joining other celebrities at the Beacon Theater in New York at the height of the Cold War. Navah ended up accompanying her father for his appearance, playing a transcription of a Chopin Nocturne with him just after actress Meryl Streep, the host of the event, had introduced them. Navah has also performed at the White House with her father when he was asked by the Clinton administration to honor his beloved teacher, Dorothy DeLay, when she was receiving an award. The list of amazing moments is a long one, and not taken for granted.

Navah lives in New York City with her husband Robert Frost and their four children. Navah and her husband met growing up in the same apartment building, dated through high school and college, and have been married for 25 years. 

French pianist Yannick Rafalimanana has developed an international concert career performing recitals and chamber music concerts regularly throughout Europe, the United States, South America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Winning the first prize in the 2012 Tufts/New England Conservatory Soloist Competition, he made his US debut in Symphony Hall in Boston, playing Schumann Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the baton of Keith Lockhart.
He recently performed at the Berliner Philarmonie, in Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Chamber Hall, in the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Kennedy Center in Washington, live on Boston’s radio station WBGH, in Jordan Hall with the Borromeo String Quartet, in Boston with violists Kim Kashkashian and Thomas Reibl, in Poland with violinists Andreas Reiner, Arnold Steinhardt and in Shelter Island (NY) sharing the stage with Itzhak Perlman. He also made his Brazil recital debut performing at the Mube Museum and his Israel debut performing at the Jerusalem Music Center.

Mr. Rafalimanana has won numerous awards and prizes in several competitions, including the Borromeo Quartet Guest Artist Award, the Bruxelles J-Musiciens Competition, the Brest Piano Competition, and the International Ravel Academy's Rotary-Lions Competition.

As a soloist, he has performed regularly with the Orchestre CNR de Lille, Orchestre Impromptu, and the Ensemble Parisien. He recently founded and conducted the LFO - a chamber orchestra based out of Boston, involving NEC students, with whom he has also played as a soloist. Mr. Rafalimanana also performs frequently with the Trio La Plata, a group formed in Paris in 2006.

An advocate of new music, he has great experience as a collaborative pianist with orchestras, and it has led him to work under the batons of Peter Eotvos, Jean Deroyer, Thomoty Brock, Zolt Nagy and John Heiss and perform in such venues as La Cite de la Musique and Radio France in Paris, Jordan Hall and Harvard Music Association in Boston and at the “Poisson Rouge” in New York. He also works often with the Ensemble Le Balcon under Maxime Pascal in Paris.

Mr. Rafalimanana has participated in numerous summer festivals; among them are the Perlman Music Program, the Greatlakes Chamber Music Festival, the Brussels Chamber Music Festival, Krzyzowa Music Festival. He has collaborated with some of most well known musicians, such as Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Joseph Kalichstein, Kim Kashkashian, Gary Hoffman, Paul Katz, Narek Hakhnazaryan , Roger Tapping, Julian Arp, Frank Stadler, and Andrej Bielow.

Born in Lille, France, Mr. Rafalimanana began his musical studies at the Conservatory of Lille under the tutelage of Alain Raes. He later graduated with first prizes in both Piano Performance, and Chamber Music and Collaborative Piano Performance, from the 'Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris'. Among his teachers are Bruno Rigutto, Michael Levinas and Jean-Claude Pennetier. His chamber music and collaborative piano coaches include Francois Salque, Michel Moraguais, David Walter and Jean Koerner. Mr. Rafalimanana graduated from the New England Conservatory with a Graduate Diploma in Piano Performance and a Master of Music in Chamber Music under Vivian Weilerstein.

Mr. Rafalimanana is teaching Chamber Music at the Folkwang University of Arts since 2015.

Violinist and composer Michelle Ross is unique as both a solo artist and collaborative visionary. In 2013, she had her Carnegie Hall debut with Maestro Harry Bicket, and her European debut as both soloist and conductor, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris as part of Play/Direct, in Cite de La Musique. She is the recipient of the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts.  Her debut CD Discovering Bach: the Complete Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach was recently released by Albany Records, and her public performance project 'Discovering Bach' and blog was noted by Alex Ross.

A noted soloist and chamber musician, Ross is also in demand as guest concertmaster all around the world, recent highlights including appearances with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra throughout Europe, MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis in Russia, the Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse and the Orchestre d'Auvergne.  Ross is the Artistic Director and Founder of Music in the Mountains, a classical chamber music festival atop Summit Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah.  In 2016 Michelle also launched the inaugural season of Chamber Music at Eleventh Street Arts Gallery in NYC.

As a chamber musician, she has toured extensively with Itzhak Perlman, and also collaborates with Mitsuko Uchida and Dénes Várjon, as well as members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Cleveland String Quartets.  Ross was an artist at the Marlboro Music Festival from 2011-2014, and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro since 2012.

As a composer and improviser, Michelle is extremely interested in creating multimedia and collaborative works, and was recently awarded a New Music USA grant for her work with RendezVous. Her work has toured with the Aspen Sante Fe Ballet for three seasons. She has also had premieres in Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Joyce Theater and in Lincoln Center's Beyond the Machine Festival.

Michelle holds a M.M. from the Juilliard School and a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where she studied in the Columbia/Juilliard joint degree program. She has studied with Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho and Ronald Copes.

Flutist Leo Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in his hometown of San Francisco. Now a member of Ensemble Connect—a two-year fellowship through Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute—Leo delights in bringing engaging chamber music programs to community venues and concert stages alike across New York City and beyond. He has performed as soloist with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, on new music concerts at National Sawdust and Electronic Music Midwest, and as a fellow at the Bowdoin and Norfolk chamber music festivals. Leo holds a master’s degree in flute from Yale School of Music where he studied with Ransom Wilson, and undergraduate degrees in music and physics from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he studied with Erin Lesser.

Roger Tapping joined the world-renowned Juilliard Quartet and the Juilliard School viola faculty in 2013. In addition to its regular performance schedule in North America, Europe and Asia the Juilliard Quartet continues to add to its large recording catalogue, including a recent ground-breaking iPad video app of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet.

Mr Tapping had moved from London to the USA in 1995 to join the Takács Quartet. During his decade with them, their career included many Beethoven and Bartok cycles in major cities all over the world. Their Decca/London recordings, including the complete quartets of Bartók and Beethoven, placed them in Gramophone Magazine’s Hall of Fame and won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy and three more Grammy nominations, among many other awards.

In recent years he was on the viola faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he also directed the Chamber Music program. He has also taught at the Boston Conservatory and at Longy.

In the summers his summer faculty activities include the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, the Tanglewood String Quartet Seminar and Yellow Barn. He has also given viola master classes at Banff and at other festivals and conservatories in North America, Europe and Asia.

Born in England in 1960, Mr. Tapping played in a number of London’s leading chamber ensembles, making several highly-acclaimed CDs, before joining Britain’s longest established quartet, the Allegri Quartet. He taught at London’s Royal Academy of Music, was principal viola of the London Mozart Players, a member of the English Chamber Orchestra and a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He has performed frequently as a guest with many distinguished quartets from the U.S. and Europe, and he was a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Mr. Tapping is a member of the Order of the Knight Cross of the Hungarian Republic, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham, and is a fellow of the Guildhall School of Music in London.

Violinist Danbi Um has appeared as soloist with the Israel Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Herzliya Chamber Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, and Dartmouth Symphony, among others, and in venues as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Perelman Theater at Kimmel Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Kumho Arts Hall, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Bennett Gordon Hall of Ravinia festival, and for the Seattle Chamber Music Society. She is a winner of Astral Artists' 2015 National Auditions, and was recently selected as a member to join Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center for its 2015-2018 seasons. With CMS, she has performed in Saratoga Springs, at Alice Tully Hall, Harris Theater, at St. Cecilia's Music Center, and at Vancouver Playhouse.

An avid chamber musician, she has made appearances at Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Moab, Caramoor, and North Shore Chamber Music Festival. She tours frequently with 'Musicians from Marlboro' including a National Tour, and has played with Jupiter Chamber Players. Further engagements include recitals at Women’s Museum in Washington D.C., at the Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, and in New York, as well as a return appearance at Music@Menlo for a Carte Blanche recital, and at Moritzburg Festival in Dresden, Germany.

She received a second prize at the Young Artists Division of the Menuhin International Violin Competition, and a third prize at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition. At age ten, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. She also holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University. Her teachers include Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, and Hagai Shaham. She plays on a 1683 "ex-Petschek" Nicolo Amati, on loan from a private collection

Cello

Praised by the critics for her “rare emotional sensitivity and internal articulation”, Greek violinist Areta Zhulla is quickly establishing herself as a passionate and dynamic artist. She has been recently named “Young Artist of the Year” by the National Critics Association of Music and Drama in Greece, and is a recipient of the Triandi Career Grant as well as the Tassos Prassopoulos Foundation Award.

Ms. Zhulla has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia, at many renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Auditorium du Louvre, Alice Tully Hall, Kennedy Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Arts Centre of Canada. She has been featured on Auditorium du Louvre’s Rising Stars Series, and she made her Megaron Hall debut in Athens in 2010, performing under the baton of legendary French conductor Michel Plasson and the Athens State Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements include solo performances with the Camerata Orchestra of Greece, the Boca Raton Symphonia, Westchester Philharmonic, and the State Symphony of Thessalonica.

A passionate educator, Ms. Zhulla currently serves as teaching assistant to Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School. She also serves as chamber music faculty at Juilliard's Pre-College's division, as well as at the Perlman Music Program Summer School. Ms Zhulla has served as guest violin faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 2012 and 2013, and frequently leads masterclasses in festivals nationally and abroad.

A chamber music fanatic, Ms. Zhulla has been a member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center, where she performed regularly with some of today’s most acclaimed artists, and she appears frequently as guest artist with The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Ms. Zhulla was a member of the LK String Quartet, which was praised by The Washington Post for its “warm tone, elegant finish, a vivid engagement with the scores’ drama and ensemble that was tight as a drum.” Memorable collaborations include performances with legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, as well as collaborations with Pinchas Zukerman, Orli Shaham, Gilbert Kalish, Colin Carr, Ida Kavafian, and the Cavani String Quartet. Ms. Zhulla has appeared in such music festivals as Music@Menlo, The Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall, and Pinchas Zukerman’s Young Artists Program in Canada, and has studied for seven summers at the Perlman Music Program Summer School.

Ms. Zhulla holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School in New York City, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho, and was a recipient of the Vergotis Scholarship. Other teachers include Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec and Lefter Zhulla.