JILL LEVY is now in her 15th season as Artistic Director and violinist of the Saratoga Chamber Players, bringing together musicians from Europe, Canada, and the U.S. since 1994. She currently serves as concertmaster of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, having joined them in 1993. Her numerous solo performances with them include the premiere and recording of Evan Chambers' "Concerto for Irish Fiddle and Violin" which was released on the CD Brutal Reality by Albany Records. She is also featured on the Saratoga Chamber Players CD of Live Performances. Ms Levy has performed at the Blossom, Sebago-Long Lake Festivals, with the Pittsburgh Chamber Soloists, the Williams Chamber Players (Williams College), and North Country Chamber Players. She has been a member of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble in Sherman, CT. since 1993. She is a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. Ms. Levy is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Jascha Brodsky and Arnold Steinhardt. She has also worked with Franco Gulli at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. As a winner of competitions, she twice performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
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SARAH ADAMS began her musical training in Cleveland where she won the inaugural Cleveland Orchestra String Competition. She studied at the Eastman School and received her BA and MM from Kent State University. Sarah attended the Juilliard School where she received the Professional Studies Certificate. During her tenure as violist of the Cassatt Quartet, the quartet studied with Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner and members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, America, Vermeer, Orion and Emerson Quartets, going on to become top prize winners at the Banff String Quartet Competition. Ms. Adams is a member of the New York Chamber Ensemble, the resident ensemble at the Cape May Chamber Music Festival, as well as violist of Parnassus and also the Roerich Quartet. She performs frequently with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has performed and recorded with the Smithsonian Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Adams has been assistant principal violist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and is currently principal violist of the Riverside Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. She is a member of the American Ballet Theatre and also performs frequently with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, American Ballet Theater and the New York Chamber Symphony. She has served on the faculty of Long Island University and Queens College and teaches viola and chamber music at Columbia University. She lives in Westchester with her four children, Quinn, Eugene, Hannah and Winona and their dog, Buddy.
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ELIOT BAILEN is principal cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble, Westfield Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra New England, Teatro Grattacielo, the Garret Lakes Arts Festival Orchestra and the New Choral Society. Founder and Artistic Director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble whose performances the New York Times has described as “the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert.” (July, 2005), Mr. Bailen also performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, 'Modern Works' and the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival and is founder of the Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series in New York. He is assistant-principal cello of the Stamford Symphony and appears frequently with leading New York area orchestras such as New Jersey Symphony, New York City Opera, American Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He has recorded for Nonesuch, Koch International, Deutche Grammophon, Delos, New World, Beanstalk, BMG and Flying Dutchman Records and has been heard as solo cello in numerous Broadway shows. Mr. Bailen received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University and is on the cello and chamber music faculty at Columbia University. Graduating in 1977 with High Honors in Music and French Literature from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Mr. Bailen also holds an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University where he was awarded the coveted Slater Prize for Entrepreneurship. In 2002, he was awarded the Norman Vincent Peale Arts Award for Positive Thinking. Mr. Bailen has also gained national attention as a writer and producer of children's music. Winner of the 1990 Parent's Choice Gold Medal and winner of numerous ASCAP Popular Awards, Mr. Bailen was a featured guest artist on Nickelodeon's "Eureeka's Castle" airing from 1993 through 1997. Mr. Bailen’s "Song to Symphony" project, an extended school residency program that presents children's original work in an orchestral setting, was the subject of a NY Times feature article (Sept. 2006).
Mr. Bailen and his wife, the flutist, Susan Rotholz, live in New York City with their twin sons David and Daniel and their daughter Julia.
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ERIC BARTLETT, cello, established himself as an artist of formidable talent and artistic integrity even before joining the New York Philharmonic in 1997. He served as principal cellist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival orchestra and co-principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for 14 years. He appeared frequently as a member soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is featured on several of their Deutsche Grammaphon recordings. Other solo appearances include the Cabrillo Festival, the Anchorage Symphony, the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen and Juilliard orchestras, and the New York Philharmonic’s Horizons ‘84 series. Mr. Bartlett is the recipient of a Solo Recitalist’s Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and a special Performance Award as a finalist of the 1987 New England Conservatory/Piatagorsky competition. Recent solo appearances include the Cabrillo Music Festival and the Brattleboro Music Center in Vermont. Mr. Bartlett has participated in over 90 premieres and has commissioned new works for the cello. In 1986 he gave the Warsaw premiere of Elliott Carter’s Sonata for Cello and Piano. He has recorded the cello music of Larry Bell, “River of Ponds,” for North-South Records and has served as either artist-president or vice president of Speculum Musicae since 1990.
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EVA BURMEISTER, violinist, grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia where she began violin lessons at age 7. At 14, Ms. Burmeister moved to Boston, Massachussettes to obtain musical training at the New England Conservatory of Music. Ms. Burmeister was one of the first students to complete the prestigious Juilliard/Columbia joint program where she received a BM from The Juilliard School as a student of Joel Smirnoff while simultaneously completing a BA from Columbia University in Art History.
While in the joint program, Ms. Burmeister was a rotating concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble for contemporary music. She continued on at Juilliard in the Masters program while teaching classical music in New York City public schools as a Morse Fellow.
From 1995-1999, Ms. Burmeister received a full scholarship to study at the Apsen Music Festival where she was the first recipient of the Time Warner Prize. In the winter of 1999, Aspen selected Ms. Burmeister to travel to Japan to represent the festival in recital and masterclass.
In 2000, Ms. Burmeister was the first American woman to win a position in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Germany where she was a member for six years. While in Leipzig, Ms. Burmeister was a frequent guest with Ensemble Modern with whom she toured Europe and the Neuisches Bachisches Collegium, a conducterless group specializing in Baroque music. Ms. Burmeister was also a member of the Leipziger Sinfonietta, a 13-member contemporary ensemble. As a chamber musician, Ms. Burmeister performed regularly in the Gewandhaus chamber series.
Since returning to the United States in 2006, Ms. Burmeister joined the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and the Lark Chamber Artists and plays frequently as a guest with The Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New England Baroque Soloists.
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RONALD CARBONE, violist, enjoys a diverse musical life encompassing chamber music, recording and solo performances. He is principal violist of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra; a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s as well an associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. For ten years he was an ensemble member of Spectrum Concerts, Berlin and the Composers String Quartet. He is also on the faculty of Vassar College and the Chamber Music Conference at Bennington College. He currently has recordings on Naxos, CRI, Albany, and Reference-Records, Labels. Mr. Carbone was a member of the Portsmouth Chamber Ensemble, the Lexington Trio and the Griffes string Quartet, recipients of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, Inc. award and two Artists International awards. He was also a member of the Atlanta Orchestra Symphony and Barcelona City Orchestra.
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LINDY CLARKE is a graduate of the New England Conservatory. A founding member of the Claring Chamber Players and the New York Baroque Consort, she has been heard widely as chamber musician and soloist. Ms. Clarke is a charter member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and also performs with the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Opera Orchestra of New York, and the Philharmonia Virtuosi. Summer festivals include Caramoor, Summertrios, the New England Bach Festival, Summerkeys and the North Country Chamber Players.
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SARAH CLARKE, viola, is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, which performs extensively in New York and tours widely in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and the Middle and Far East. She is a founding member of the Claring Chamber Players and a former member of the New Amsterdam Chamber Players. She has been a frequent participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and toured with them 8 times. For many years she was principal violist at the Bard and the OK Music Festivals. She has also performed at the Caramoor and Mostly Mozart Festivals in New York. Ms. Clarke received her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. She has recorded for Nonesuch, Columbia, ProArte and Deutsche Grammaphon.
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JACINTHE COUTURE, piano, winner of the Prix d’Europe piano competition and first-prize winner of several other competitions, debuted at Carnegie Hall and subsequently soloed with the Montreal Symphony. She has performed chamber music with such artists as Janos Starker, Chantal Juillet and Christopher Bunting in her native Canada as well as in Europe and the United States. She currently teaches at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec.
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JOHN FEENEY is principal bass of the Orchestra of St. Luke's and a member of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. He is a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Grand Tour Orchestra, a period instrument group, and can be heard frequently playing chamber music in NYC's major venues and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Feeney was first prize winner of the 1980 Concert Artists Guild and the Zimmerman-Mingus International competitions and a medalist and prize winner in the 1978 Geneva and Isle of Man competitions. His numerous performances of double bass concerti include appearances with such orchestras as the American Symphony and St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums and Symphony Space. He has recorded extensively for Sony, EMI, CBS, RCA, Telarc, MusicMasters, Nonesuch, BMG, and Arabesque Records. He began his bass studies with Linda McKnight and holds both Bachelor's and Master's degree from The Juilliard School where he was a scholarship student of David Walter. ,
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AARON GRAD, (b. 1980) is a young American composer and guitarist, whose music embraces both his roots in popular culture and his training in the Western tradition. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he was a listless student of piano and violin from age five. At ten he started fresh on guitar, and was soon writing songs, forming bands, and playing his first jazz gigs. Mr. Grad moved to New York in 1998 to study jazz guitar at New York University, but he was quickly seduced by the “downtown” new music scene. While completing his Bachelor of Music degree in three years, he performed with his own groups at The Knitting Factory and Cornelia St. Café, and founded and directed a concert series at Judson Memorial Church. In the past six years Mr. Grad’s emphasis shifted to composing, and his catalog has grown to include over 80 works.
In the fall of 2006, Mr. Grad enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory to pursue a Master’s Degree in Composition in the studio of Christopher Theofanidis. His current project, Mandala of the Two Realms, is a work for large orchestra in which the four movements provide music to accompany live onstage performances of Tai Chi forms. The fall of 2007 will bring two world premieres: Confused Blues, commissioned by the Peabody Jazz Orchestra and featuring bass soloist Michael Formanek, and Re:Porter, a piece commissioned by the Saratoga Chamber Players (NY) for baritone and chamber ensemble, inspired by the songs of Cole Porter and featuring texts by Mr. Grad.
The 2005-06 season featured three world premieres for Mr. Grad. On January 22, 2006 the Jolles Duo performed Whiskey & Fred for violin and harp at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Islip, New York. On March 19, 2006, members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic offered Creatures of Kings County, scored for flute, clarinet, piano, bass and percussion, with narration written by the composer. This is the first work ever commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic for their Music Off the Walls chamber music series at the Brooklyn Museum’s Cantor Auditorium. In August 2006, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble (CT) presented The Aeolian Harp, for guitar, flute, violin, viola and cello, based on a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Besides these world premiere performances, this season also featured a New York premiere performance of the song cycle Clear White on texts by Charles Wright, performed at St. Paul’s Chapel, as well as Mr. Grad’s recording debut, with the piece Lepidopterology for flute, clarinet and piano appearing on the disc “New American Masters, vol. 1” by the Palisades Virtuosi (NJ).
The highlights of 2004-05 included a recital of Mr. Grad’s works at the Rose Studio of Lincoln Center. This concert featured world premiere performances of Portria (tenor, oboe and strings), Coo/Rant and Slash Fantasy (acoustic and electric bass) and the Sonata for Violin and Piano, as well as performances by the composer’s band Q-Diamond (guitar, saxophone, bass and drums) with the composer on guitar. On June 14, 2005, Grad’s Concertino for Clarinet was debuted by Alan R. Kay and the New York Chamber Ensemble at the Cape May Music Festival. This work earned the composer an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2006, as well as grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer.
Mr. Grad previously studied privately with Randall Woolf and Carlos Carrillo, but he credits the bulk of his education and opportunities to his jobs for orchestras in New York. He first worked as the Production Assistant for the American Composers Orchestra, then stepped up to Production Manager for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and finally served as Production Manager and Librarian for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Since 2005, Mr. Grad has been the official Program Annotator for Orpheus, writing program notes and performing interviews that appear in the Carnegie Hall house programs. He is a member of ASCAP, the American Music Center and the American Composers Forum. He currently lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his girlfriend, Jen and their cat, Fea.
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GABRIELA GRANADOS started her dance training at the age of four, studying a wide range of classical and regional Spanish dances as well as Flamenco, classical Ballet and Latin American folklore. In 1985, her professional studies took her to Spain, where she performed in three of Madrid's most famous Tablaos Flamencos: Los Canasteros, Las Brujas and Zambra. She has also performed in full-length ballets such as: The Nutcracker, Giselle, Les Sylphides, Carmen, and Pugni's Grand Pas de Quatre, among others.
Ms. Granados has been in the faculty of the Neubert Ballet Institute for over a decade, an artist in residence at LaGuardia High School of Music, Art & the Performing Arts, in the faculty of Broadway Dance Center, a freelance teacher at Fazil's Times Circle Rehearsal Studios, and a guest teacher and lecturer for the Dance Department of New York University and Barnard College.
Her choreographic credits include the creation of Spanish dances for Ballet Municipal de Lima, Cuadro Flamenco for Pancho Villa in New York, La Traviata for Virginia Opera, Carmen for Orlando Opera, La Vida Breve for DiCapo Opera Theatre, El Amor Brujo for Wesleyan University Ensemble of the Americas, Goyescas and La Vida Breve for Bronx Symphony and numerous dances for American Bolero Dance Company, which she founded in 1996 to present other aspects of Spanish music and dance, besides Flamenco.
Her work brings an authenticity, enthusiasm and versatility to her dancing, choreography and her dance company which encompasses classical and folkloric Spanish dances, 18th Century Bolero, Zarzuela and Flamenco. As Artistic Director, dancer and choreographer of ABDC, Ms. Granados has successfully presented her productions in New York City, the Mid-Atlantic States and Athens, Greece, and was also invited to perform at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. The New York Times describes Granados' signature production Olé! Olé! as"exuberant and stylish," and her solo work as "stunning...a tour de force."
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ALAN R. KAY, clarinetist, is one of the most versatile and respected musicians of his generation. He was honored with membership in the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2002 and serves as Principal Clarinet with New York's Riverside Symphony. He also performs as principal clarinet often with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and at American Ballet Theater. Mr. Kay's honors include a Presidential Scholars Teacher Award, the C.D. Jackson Award at Tanglewood, Juilliard's 1980 Clarinet Competition, and the 1989 Young Concert Artists Award with Hexagon, the piano and wind sextet later featured in the documentary film, "Debut." A founding member of Windscape and Hexagon, he also appears frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and as a guest of numerous string quartets and chamber ensembles, including the Mendelssohn, Rossetti, Miro, and Shanghai Quartets. A guest artist at many of the country's finest summer festivals, Mr. Kay returned last summer for his second season at Bravo! Vail Valley Music and his sixth season at the esteemed Yellow Barn Festival. His accalaimed performance of Weber's Concerto at the 2005 Windham Chamber Festival was heard frequently throughout the U.S. on N.P.R.'s "Performance Today." Mr. Kay serves as Artistic Director of the New York Chamber Ensemble. His series of thematic programs at the Ensemble's Cape May Music Festival draws growing audiences each year. Also a conductor, Mr. Kay studied orchestral conducting as a Bruno Walter Scholar at Juilliard with Otto-Werner Mueller and has led ensembles at Purchase College, Juilliard, in Buck's County (PA), Staten Island, California and New York City. Mr. Kay taught at the Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany in 2004 and teaches at the Manhattan, Hartt and Juilliard Schools. He has served on the juries of the International Chamber Music Competition in Trapani, Italy, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. A virtuoso of the wind chamber music repertoire, Mr. Kay has recorded CD's with Hexagon, Windscape and the Sylvan Winds. He also appears on many other chamber music, orchestral and new music CD's. He lives with his two boys, Noah and Jonathan, ages 12 and 9 in Leonia, New Jersey.
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JEANNETTE KOEKKOEK is a graduate of the Amsterdam Sweelink Conservatory where she studied with Jan Wijn, Holland's most distinguished professor of piano. In 1983, upon earning her performer's diploma, she was a laureate at the prestitious Tromp Piano Competition in the Netherlands. Ms. Koekkoek continued her studies with the late Aube Tzerko in Aspen and Los Angeles and was invited to participate in master classes with Mischa Dichter and Menachem Pressler. She has performed in Europe, the Far East, and the United States with such internationally renowned artists and ensembles as clarinetist Howard Klug and cellist Susan Moses, the Fine Arts Quartet and the Florida Symphony String Ensemble. She is a founding member of the Netherlands Piano Quartet and of the Miami-based Sagee Piano Trio. Her recordings include works for piano and violin by contemporary Dutch composers. Ms. Koekkoek is a member of the faculty of the String Academy at Indiana University in Bloomington.
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THOMAS MEGLIORANZA, baritone, hailed for his “vocal distinction and expressive warmth” (The Boston Globe), is one of the country’s most sought-after and unique young singers, displaying a compelling artistry and a remarkably versatile voice that is equally at home in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi, to Schubert, to Babbitt to Gershwin. He was the top male prizewinner at the 2005 Walter W. Naumburg International Competition, and was a winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the 2002 Joy in Singing Award and the 2003 Franz Schubert and Music of Modernity International Competition in Graz, Austria.
Mr. Meglioranza recently starred as Prior Walter in the North American premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America (based on the Tony Kushner play) with Opera Boston under the baton of Gil Rose. The current season also includes his debut with the MET Chamber Ensemble with James Levine, performing Milton Babbitt’s Two Sonnets at Carnegie Hall, Erwin Schulhoff’s Cloud Pump at the Ravinia Festival with James Conlon, and solo recitals at Symphony Space, the Neue Galerie and Columbia University’s Italian Academy. With orchestra, he is featured in three different programs with the New York Collegium and sings Messiah at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Other season highlights include his debut with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and Nicholas Kraemer in Bach’s St. John Passion, as well as recitals for the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Pro Musica of Detroit, the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts in Clemson, SC, and the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
Mr. Meglioranza’s 2004-05 season featured the role of Christus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Andrew Parrott and New York Collegium that was “warmly and beautifully” sung, according to The New York Times, as well as his Kennedy Center debut, singing Copland’s Old American Songs with Murry Sidlin and the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center’s 10th Annual New Year’s Gala. He made debut appearances with the Grant Park Symphony (Fauré Requiem), and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (Haydn Creation), and sang Messiah in Portland with both the Oregon Symphony and the Portland Baroque Orchestra as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Northwest Florida Symphony. New music performances included two critically acclaimed appearances on the Guggenheim Museum’s “Works & Process” series. He gave his Chicago recital debut on the Dame Myra Hess Series singing an all-Schubert program (broadcast live on WFMT-FM), and he performed Winterreise at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City.
In March 2004 Mr. Meglioranza starred as Chou En-lai in Opera Boston’s celebrated production of Nixon in China, and was praised by The Boston Globe for delivering his character’s “inner music with quiet rapture.” Other highlights from recent seasons include performances with the Houston Symphony (Messiah and a return engagement that same season for Carmina Burana), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Bach Cantata No. 152) and the Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Bach B minor Mass), as well as Carmina Burana with the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, and critically acclaimed New York recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.
A passionate interpreter of Baroque music, Mr. Meglioranza has performed with numerous period instrument ensembles, including New York Collegium, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque, Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Trinity Consorr, and has collaborated with such Baroque luminaries as Andrew Parrott, Nicholas McGegan, Jane Glover, Richard Egarr, Nicholas Kraemer and Bernard Labadie.
Recently described in The New Yorker as “an unusually sensitive interpreter of English-language song,” Mr. Meglioranza is also in high demand for his illuminating performances of contemporary music. He has sung John Adams’ Wound Dresser at Tanglewood under Reinbert DeLeeuw, John Harbison’s Words from Paterson at the Bowdoin Music Festival, and Aaron Jay Kernis’ Brilliant Sky, Infinite Sky in Sapporo under the direction of the composer. He has also had many works written for him, including Jorge Martín’s Plundered Hearts (commissioned for Mr. Meglioranza with the assistance of CAG) and a 2006 premiere by Pierre Jalbert, commissioned by the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music.
On the operatic stage, Thomas Meglioranza’s portrayal of Don Giovanni with the Aspen Opera Theater and Julius Rudel, was hailed by the Denver Post as “a triumph.” Other recent opera performances include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas) with Atlanta’s New Trinity Baroque (now available on a critically acclaimed CD), and concert versions of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie (Thésée) conducted by Andrew Parrott and Purcell’s King Arthur (all baritone roles) conducted by Bernard Labadie, both with the New York Collegium.
In March 2006, Mr. Meglioranza was featured in a special performance at Broadway’s New Victory Theatre entitled Twin Spirits: The Words and Music of Robert and Clara Schumann, directed and conceived by John Caird, and starring Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, portraying Robert and Clara in Words. Mr. Meglioranza, playing Robert Schumann in Song, performed Lieder and duets with soprano Lisa Saffer and pianist Jeremy Denk. This event, which raised over $150,000 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Classical Action, also featured violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Natasha Paremski.
A graduate of Grinnell College and the Eastman School of Music, Thomas Meglioranza is also an alumnus of Tanglewood, Aspen, Marlboro, Bowdoin, the Pacific Music Festival and the Steans Insititute at Ravinia. He is of Thai, Polish and Italian heritage and currently resides in New York City, where his hobbies include pork cookery and running
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PATRICK PRIDEMORE, French horn, has been a member of the New York freelance musician community since 1997. Since then he has established himself as an in-demand player in not only the classical genre, but in the Broadway, jazz, and rock scenes as well. Patrick attended both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. He lives in Inwood with his beautiful wife Vanessa and crazy cat Bert.
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Flutist SUSAN ROTHOLZ made her New York debut to critical acclaim in 1981 as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award. Since then she has performed throughout the world as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral flutist. Ms. Rotholz is principal flutist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Ensemble the New England Bach Festival. She has played principal with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony, American Ballet Theater, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Stamford Symphony and has been a member of the New York Pops Orchestra since 1981. She also performs regularly with The New York City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society and others. She was the principal flute for the 2005 PBS broadcast performance of Steven Sondheim’s ‘Passions’ for Live from Lincoln Center, and is the flutist for the 2006-7 Encore! performances at City Center. This spring Susan became the principal flutist for Roundabout Theater’s revival of 100 Degrees in the Shade. In 1988, Ms. Rotholz won the Young Concerts Artists International Competition as a founding member of Hexagon, a chamber ensemble for piano and winds, which made its New York debut in 1989 and was featured on the nationally aired PBS documentary, "Debut," in 1990. Hexagon's CD, Les Petites Nerveux, was released in 1996 by Bridge Records. Ms. Rotholz has commissioned and premiered many new works by such composers as Robert Beaser, Elizabeth Brown and Edie Hill and has recorded George Crumb's Night of Four Moons with the acclaimed soprano, Dawn Upshaw, for Nonesuch Records. Her recording of the J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas and Solo Partita with Kenneth Cooper, forte-piano, released in March 2002 by Bridge Records was described by the New York Times as “irresistible in both music and performance.” Familiar to audiences at music festivals around the country, Ms. Rotholz has performed at Marlboro, Caramoor, Salt Bay Chamber Fest, Portland Chamber Music and Cape May festivals. She is co-founder with her husband, Eliot Bailen, of the acclaimed Sherman Chamber Ensemble in Sherman, CT and the Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series in New York and performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players and the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Rotholz holds degrees from Queens College (BMus) and Yale University (MM) and is on the faculties of Columbia University, Queens College and Manhattan School of Music pre-college division. Her principal teachers were Marcel Moyse, Thomas Nyfenger and Gerald Beal. In 2002, Ms. Rotholz was awarded the Norman Vincent Peale Arts Award for Positive Thinking. Susan and Eliot live in New York City with their twin sons David and Daniel and their daughter Julia.
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JUDITH SERKIN began her cello studies in Puerto Rico with Marta Casals Istomin and continued with David Soyer, of the Guarneri Quartet, at the Curtis Institute of Music. She was also a student of Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. Ms. Serkin was a member of the Iceland Symphony and of both the Guilford and the Hebrew Arts (now known as the Mendelssohn) String Quartets. A founding member of the Soldier Creek Music Festival in Nevada, she has been a frequent participant at the Yellow Barn and Marlboro Music School and Festivals in Vermont. She has also been on numerous Music from Marlboro tours. Ms. Serkin has performed across the United States and Canada and has toured extensively throughout France and Japan. She makes her home in Guilford, Vermont and is presently serving on the faculty of the Brattleboro Music School.
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JOANN STERNBERG, clarinet lives a varied musical life in New York, as a member of the DaCapo Chamber Players, the Riverside Symphony, the Greenleaf Chamber Players and Sequitur, and performing regularly with such ensembles as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Musicians from Marlboro and New York Philomusica. Her summer festivals have included Marlboro, Tanglewood and Schleswig-Holstein. After receiving a B.A. in English from Tufts University and a B.M. in Clarinet Performance from the New England Conservatory, Ms. Sternberg continued her studies at Yale University with David Shifrin and at the Juilliard School with Charles Neidich, receiving an M.M. from Juilliard in 1991. In addition to several recordings with Orpheus for Deutsch-Grammophon, Ms. Sternberg’s discography includes recordings on the Nonesuch, Troy, CRI, Archetype and St. Cyprien labels. Ms. Sternberg lives on the Upper West Side with her husband Bill and their young children Joshua and Rebecca.
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DIANE WALSH, whose many awards over a 35-year international career include the top prizes at the Munich International Piano Competition and the Salzburg International Mozart Competition, regularly performs solo recitals, chamber music and concertos worldwide. In recent seasons she has played Mozart’s Concerto No. 25 with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Strauss’s Burleske with the Syracuse and Delaware symphony orchestras, Berg’s Kammerkonzert with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City, and, with David Zinman conducting, Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 in upstate New York at the Skaneateles Festival, where she was the artistic director from 1999 to 2004.
Ms. Walsh has also appeared with the radio symphonies of Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin, the San Francisco Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, toured with Orpheus and the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and soloed with orchestras in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Russia. She has given solo recitals at the 92 Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, Merkin Concert Hall and the Miller Theatre in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonic Hall in Leningrad, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and in other major cities in the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. Summer festivals where she has performed include Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bard and many others.
Her recordings include Sonatas and Preludes, on Bridge Records, which offers piano sonatas by Barber, Bartók and Prokofiev and the Preludes of Frank Martin; works by Copland on Copland, also from Bridge, which won a 2004 Classical Recording Foundation Award and a 2004 Classical Internet Award; and the Bartok Sonatas for violin and piano with Emerson String Quartet violinist Eugene Drucker, on the Biddulph label. She has also recorded for Newport Classic, Sony Classical, Nonesuch, Koch International, Stereophile, CRI, Music and Arts and Book-of-the Month Records. More information about her career and recordings may be found at www.dianewalsh.com.
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STEPHEN WALT is principal bassoonist with the Albany (NY) Symphony and the Berkshire Bach Ensemble and is a member of the Avanti Wind Quintet. He is Artist-Teacher of Bassoon at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he became a member of the woodwind faculty in 1999 and is Director of Woodwind Chamber Music at Williams College. His primary teachers were Sherman Walt and Arthur Weisberg. As a free-lance musician he has performed with orchestras, opera companies and chamber music ensembles throughout the eastern United States, including performances with the Leontovych, Muir and Shanghai String Quartets. Mr. Walt has been guest artist at the Monadnock, Musicorda and Hampton-Sydney (VA) Festivals, the Music Festival of the Hamptons (NY), Music from Greer (AZ) and has appeared in the Mohawk Trail Concerts and Williamstown Chamber Concerts series. In addition, he is a member of the faculty at the Chamber Music Conference of the East. He has recorded for CRI, Decca, Gasparo, Nonesuch and Albany Records. Mr. Walt is founder and Co-Director of Williamstown Chamber Concerts with his wife, Marlene.
Mr. Walt plays on a Heckel bassoon made in 1958 for his father, Sherman Walt, the eminent former principal bassoonist with the Boston Symphony orchestra. The instrument is nicknamed "The Brussels" as it was exhibited at the 1958 World's Fair in that city as an example of German artisanship.
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SCOTT JACKSON WILEY, guitar, has performed widely as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist both in the United States and in Europe. Mr. Wiley studied conducting under Michael Charry at the Mannes College of Music and under Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine. He won honors at the Conservatory of Barcelona, Spain where he studied under the great Spanish guitarist, Narciso Yepes. His many years in Spain have given him an enduring interest in Hispanic music and culture and he is music director and guitarist for Caprichos Boleros, a company specializing in Spanish Classical Dance. As conductor, Mr. Wiley is in his eighth season as Music Director of the South Shore Symphony of Rockville Centre. Under his baton the South Shore Symphony has distinguished itself for its high standard of performance and has significantly expanded its repertoire, concert season and outreach into the local community. An experienced conductor of opera, symphony and contemporary music, Mr. Wiley’s career has taken him to Europe and South America, as well as throughout the United States. Fluent in five languages, Mr. Wiley has aided many singers in preparation of their operatic roles.
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MINEKO YAJIMA, violin, has performed in chamber music concerts throughout North America and Japan with the Yajima-Robin Duo and the Hudson Trio. She is the principal second violin of the Mostly Mozart Festival, a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Little Orchestra Society. She is also concertmaster of the Princeton Chapel Camerata and the Berkshire Bach Society Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Yajima spent 15 summers teaching with the late Joseph Fuchs at the Chamber Music Institute at Alfred University. Since 1996, she has been coaching and performing string ensembles during the summer at the Tenri Chamber Music Institute in Japan, which gives her an opportunity to stay in touch with her native culture. Miss Yajima graduated from the Juilliard School of Music as a student of Joseph Fuchs.
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ROBIN ZEH, violin, maintains an active and diverse schedule as a performing artist in the New York City area and abroad. Frequently in demand as concerto soloist, she has appeared with the Bronx Symphony, Centre Symphony, Greenwich Village Orchestra, Hunterdon Symphony, and South Shore Symphony as well as with the Jose Limon Dance Company and New Jersey Ballet. A recently appointed member of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, Robin also performs regularly with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s both in Carnegie Hall as well as at Caramoor. As chamber musician she is widely involved in the classic as well as contemporary literature and has performed premiers of works by Dick Hyman and Susan Kander as a member of the Kinor Quartet, with Music From Japan at Merkin Hall, Perspectives Ensemble, Sequitur, American Modern Ensemble, and Bargemusic. Ms. Zeh was one of the last students to work with renowned teacher and chamber musician Felix Galimir at Mannes, where she was also winner of the Concerto Competition. She has been broadcast on the McGraw-Hill “Young Artists’ Showcase” on WQXR and is a three-time recipient of an Arthur Foundation Grant. Robin has recorded for Naxos, Harbinger, Centaur, and Buena Vista Records.
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CAROL ZEAVIN, violin, graduated cum laude from UCLA, where she served as concertmaster of the UCLA Symphony under Mehli Mehta. She was a member of the Amici Quartet at SUNY-Binghamton, and the Buffalo Quartet at SUNY-Buffalo. She came to NYC in 1976 to found the Columbia Quartet, and gave her NY debut recital in 1981. She has served as Principal Second with American Ballet Theatre, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Paul Taylor Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem and the New York Chamber Symphony. She performs with Speculum Musicae and has recorded contemporary chamber music with Speculum and the Group for Contemporary Music for Nonesuch, Columbia Records, Bridge Records, New World Records, and Koch International. She is also a licensed Special Educator with a Master of Science in Education degree and a Master of Education degree from the Bank Street College of Education.
