2026-27 Season Artists

American cellist Ashley Bathgate has been described as an “eloquent new music interpreter” (New York Times) and “a glorious cellist”(The Washington Post) who combines “bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops”(New York Magazine). Her “impish ferocity”, “rich tone” and “imaginative phrasing” (New York Times) have made her one of the most sought after performers of her time. The desire to create a dynamic energy exchange with her audience and build upon the ensuing chemistry is a pillar of Bathgate's philosophy as a performer. Dynamism drives her to venture into previously uncharted areas of ground-breaking sounds and techniques, breaking the mold of a cello's traditionally perceived voice.

For ten years Bathgate was a member of the acclaimed sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars. She also served as the cellist of the GRAMMY winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird for several years, and is currently a member of the chamber ensemble HOWL; TwoSense with pianist Lisa Moore; Bonjour, a low-strung, percussive quintet; and the Anzu Quartet. She serves as the Artistic and Executive Director of Avaloch Farm Music Institute.

For more information about Ashley, please visit www.ashleybathgate.com.

Jill Levy has served as Artistic Director and violinist of the Saratoga Chamber Players for 30 years, bringing together musicians from Europe, Canada, and the U.S. since 1994. She recently retired as concertmaster of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, having joined them in 1993. Her numerous solo performances with them include the December 2008 performance with Jaime Laredo of Bach’s “Double Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra,” and 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 scheduled to solo with them again in Spring 2020. As a winner of competitions, she twice performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The New York Times review of the ASO Carnegie Hall appearance in May 2011 praised the “graceful solo from the concertmaster, Jill Levy.” Ms. Levy is also featured on the Saratoga Chamber Players CDs of Live Performances. She 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.

Grammy-nominated pianist Andrius Žlabys has received international acclaim for his appearances with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including The New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Rotterdam Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires. He joined the Boston University keyboard faculty in Fall 2021.

Born in Lithuania and trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, Žlabys was 18 years old when the Chicago Tribune wrote: “Pianist-composer Andrius Žlabys is one of the most gifted young keyboard artists to emerge in years.” He was also heralded by The New York Sun in a review titled “A Shining Hope of Pianists” after his recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Mr. Žlabys’s concerts have included appearances on many of the world’s leading stages, such as Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Phillips Collection, Teatro Colón, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and Suntory Hall. He has also appeared at numerous festivals both in the U.S. and abroad, including the Menuhin, Salzburg, Lockenhaus and Caramoor music festivals, and made his Carnegie Hall debut at the Isaac Stern Auditorium with the New York Youth Symphony conducted by Misha Santora in 2001 in a performance of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. He was also invited the following season as soloist with Kremerata Baltica to perform Benjamin Britten’s Young Apollo at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall.

Andrius Žlabys has enjoyed collaborations with several esteemed musicians, including violist Yuri Bashmet, violinist Hilary Hahn, and an enduring collaboration with violinist Gidon Kremer with whom Zlabys has toured extensively in Europe, Japan, South America, and the U.S.

In 2003, Žlabys received a Grammy nomination for his recording of Enescu’s Piano Quintet with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica. A multifaceted musician of wide-ranging repertoire, Andrius Žlabys holds a special reverence for J. S. Bach, while remaining a strong advocate for the contemporary stage with numerous works commissioned by and written for him.

He began piano studies at the age of six in his native Lithuania with Laima Jakniuniene at the Ciurlionis Art School and continued his studies in the U.S. with Victoria Mushkatkol (Interlochen Arts Academy), Seymour Lipkin (BM, Curtis Institute of Music), Sergei Babayan (AD, Cleveland Institute of Music), and Claude Frank (MM, Yale School of Music).

Canadian violinist Jessica Tong has garnered international acclaim as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, having been described as an "outstanding talent" (Performing Arts in Canada) with "keen sensitivity and receptivity" (Bloomington Herald Times), who "allow[s] us to savour her sense of ardour and intensity, but never at the detriment of her tonal beauty." (ClassiqueInfo France).

She has been a top prizewinner at the Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition, the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Music and Yellow Springs International Chamber Music Competitions and has served as first violinist of both the Vinca and Larchmere String Quartets, during which time she was Artist-in-Residence for the Perlman Music Program in Florida, the ProQuartet Odyssée Program in France and at the University of Evansville in Indiana.

A pupil of Pamela Frank, Jessica has also studied with Kathleen Winkler, Donald Weilerstein, and Zhang yun Zhang, and has been mentored as a chamber musician by members of the Alban Berg, Vogler, Artemis, Cleveland and Brentano Quartets.

She is currently the Associate Violin Professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Co-Artistic Director of Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, and Artistic Director of Neskowin Chamber Music in Oregon. For more information, visit www.jessicatong.com

Described by the New York Times as having “especially eloquent playing,” violinist/violist Ken Hamao is a dynamic musician renowned for his sensitive interpretation, and has concertized extensively throughout the world in notable venues such as Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Melbourne Recital Centre, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, and Lincoln Center. 

As a member of the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet, Ken is Professor of the Practice at Harvard University’s Department of Music. He has also held guest faculty positions at the New England Conservatory and Dartmouth College. Prior to joining the Parker Quartet, he was a member of the Ensō String Quartet from 2014 to 2018, with whom highlights include worldwide tours of Australia, Brazil, Colombia, and New Zealand. As a soloist, he has performed concertos by Giya Kancheli, Kurt Rohde, and Tan Dun, the latter of which with the composer at the podium. He also appears frequently with Argento Chamber Ensemble, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and Talea Ensemble.

In addition to music, Ken’s passions include attempting to make a bowl of ramen entirely from scratch, cheering on his beloved Tottenham Hotspur while attending various live football matches around the world, and amateur woodworking.

Bassist and composer Gregg August spans the classical, avant-garde, jazz and Latin jazz worlds making him one of the most versatile musicians on the scene today. He is an associate member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as a member of the American Composers Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Gregg is also the former Principal Bass of La Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As a jazz bassist Gregg is a member of the JD Allen Trio, having recorded 10 albums with the group. He also played and served as an arranger for many years with Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

In 2020 Gregg released his album Dialogues on Race (Iacuessa Records) for which he received a GRAMMY nomination in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble category. An extended suite for a 12 piece large jazz ensemble, three vocalists, strings and narrator, the work deals with the subject of race relations in the United States. He utilizes poems by Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Marilyn Nelson and others to create a musical conversation that is intended to help bring awareness and foster understanding on the issues surrounding race.

Gregg was awarded two Grand Prizes by the International Society of Bassists for the 2020 David Walter Composers Competition in both the Chamber Ensemble and Bass Ensemble categories. He has also composed many full length concert works, including Variations on a Theme by Pérotin which was commissioned and premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in 2021, as well as Una Rumba Sinfonica, a commission from the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute and Earshot, which was premiered by the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Equally at home as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ayano has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to recent performances at Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Hall, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Stravinsky Violin Concerto.

As a recording artist, Ayano has released a variety of albums including a solo album of works for violin by Larry Bell and more recently, three albums as the first violinist of the Ying Quartet: an album of the complete quartets by Robert Schumann, an album of the complete quartets by Anton Arensky, and a third album, “American Anthem” (Sono Luminus), featuring works by Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson.

An avid chamber musician, Ayano has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Kingston, Skaneateles, Caramoor, Bowdoin, and Moab music festivals, as well as at Prussia Cove’s International Musicians Seminar, the Canberra International Festival (Australia), and the Adams Festival (New Zealand).

Ayano, whose principal teachers and mentors include Miriam Fried, Robert Mann, Eszter Perenyi, Michele Auclair, and Robert Levin, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. She graduated with her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School and then went on to study at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. From 2010-2015, Ayano was first violinist of the renowned Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. Since 2015, she has been on faculty of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

Violist Stephanie Fong is a native of Oakland, California.  She enjoys a versatile career as a chamber and orchestral musician. 

Stephanie performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and has served on the chamber music faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music, Gordon College, the Innsbrook Institute Summer Music Academy, and the Peaks to Plains Suzuki Institute.

Stephanie has also concertized with groups such as Mistral Music, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, A Far Cry, Winsor Music, Boston Artists Ensemble, Enso String Quartet, Phoenix Ensemble, and Radius Ensemble, among others. 

She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where her principal teachers were Martha Strongin Katz and Ian Swensen.

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, cellist Estelle Choi has garnered top prizes as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She has gained international recognition as a founding member of the Calidore String Quartet, an ensemble that celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2020. Praised by The New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct" the Calidore won the Grand-Prize of the 2016 M-Prize international chamber music competition. As a member of the Calidore, Ms. Choi is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, recipient of the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award, BBC 3 New Generation Artist and Borletti-Buitoni Trust recipient. Ms. Choi and the Calidore are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and alumni of the Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Ms. Choi's artistry with the Calidore has been broadly praised by critics like Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times who wrote that “her tone is rich, deep and powerful, giving the impression that music and the room are a single living being."

Ms. Choi studied with John Kadz in Calgary, Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory. She instructed cello performance and chamber music at the University of Houston. With the Calidore, Ms. Choi currently teaches and performs at the University of Delaware.​

Praised for having “a magnificent personality, a superb energy, a total command and an extremely convincing taste” (La Libre Belgique), Placci is enjoying a growing international reputation that has already earned him solo appearances throughout Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States at renowned venues such as the Great Philharmonic Hall (Shostakovich Hall) and Glinka Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, the Kursaal in Baden-Baden, the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, the Auditori in Barcelona, the Teatro Comunale and Mozart Hall in Bologna, the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, the Auditori Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, and the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton.

Winner of the prestigious XXVI Vittorio Veneto Competition on a unanimous vote of the jury presided over by Maestro Bruno Giuranna, Placci is the recipient of numerous other international awards and prizes, such as the Brahms-Preis and Baden-Baden Philharmonie Foundation Carl Flesch Preis in Germany and the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize at Tanglewood. He was a top prize winner at the 2006 Washington International Competition.

Since his solo debut at the age of 13 with the Bologna Symphony, Placci has appeared in solo performances with major symphony orchestras such as the Barcelona Symphony, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain (RTVE), the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Annapolis Symphony, the Bologna Symphony, Milan’s Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, Teatro di San Carlo of Napoli Symphony, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, the St. Petersburg State Philharmonic, the Padova e del Veneto Orchestra, the Teatro Argentino La Plata Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Guayaquil, and I Virtuosi Italiani, among others. He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Hansjörg Schellenberger, Gunter Pichler, Franco Petracchi, José Luis Novo, Arthur Fagen, Marco Boni, Carlo Boccadoro. 

Placci is also an avid chamber musician and has performed with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Robert Levin, Toby Hoffmann, and Marcus Thompson. His recital performances range from duo recitals in prominent concert seasons (such as Musica Insieme and Accademia Filarmonica Mozart in Bologna, Società del Quartetto di Vicenza, Asolo Musica, and Steinway Hall Boston) to trio appearances as a founding member of the Fortuna Piano Trio with Kyung-Mi Lee and Michelangelo Carbonara, which won the 2007 Emanuel Ax–Villecroze Academy Award in France and toured South America and Italy. The ensemble’s Brahms and Schubert trios recording was published by Nascor Recordings. In other chamber music settings, he has been invited to perform in seasons such as the Boston Chamber Music Society.  Over the years, Placci has been broadcast live on prominent radio stations such as BBC Radio, RTVE (Spain), Bartok Radio (Hungary), WGBH Boston, and RaiRadio in Italy. 

At age 26, Placci was the youngest-ever faculty to have been appointed at Boston Conservatory at Berklee; and in 2016, he was presented with both the Boston Conservatory Outstanding Faculty of the Year award and the Massachusetts American Strings Teachers Association (ASTA) Best Studio Teacher of 2016 award. He has given master classes in top international universities and institutions across the world, and has been guest faculty at the Modena Conservatory, where he has had regular residencies since the 2021–2022 academic year.

As the laureate of the 2007 International Markneukirchen Violin Competition, and the 2007 Sion-Valais International Violin Competition, Sunmi Chang has performed widely and to acclaim throughout North America and Europe as a solo artist and chamber musician. In 2008, she was the soloist of the Asian Tour to Seoul, Beijing, and Shanghai with the Yale Philharmonia, performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

She started playing the violin at the age of seven with Professor Nam-Yun Kim in South Korea. Before starting her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England in 1995, she had already won several national competitions including the Wol-Gan Music Competition, 20th Junior Korean Newspaper Competition, and Cho-Sun Daily Newspaper Competition. While studying at the Yehudi Mehuhin School in England, she performed regularly in concerts at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Purcell Room. In 1998 and 1999, she toured with the Yehudi Menuhin School orchestra playing Bach Double Concerto for two violins conducted by Lord Menuhin at the UNESCO Headquarter in Paris, Guilford Cathedral etc. After graduating from the YMS she went to Germany to continue pursuing a musical career and to study at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule in Berlin with Professor Eberhard Feltz. She has taken part in various summer festivals and master classes with Mauricio Fuks, Maya Glezarova, Felix Andrievsky, Zakhar Bron, Robert Masters, Zvi Zeitlin, Rainer Kussmaul, Boris Kuschnir, Igor Ozim, Midori, and Lord Menuhin.

As a chamber musician, Sunmi won the first prize at Plowman Chamber Music Competition and has collaborated with renowned artists including Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Steven Taylor, Marcy Rosen, Edward Arron, Wu Han, and David Finckel. In 2006 and 2007, she was invited to take part in the Rising Stars Series at the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and in 2009 she was one of eleven international program artists for Music@Menlo, an internationally acclaimed chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area.

She completed her studies with Peter Oundjian and Ani Kavafian earning the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music degree at Yale University, where she won the School of Music Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition in 2006 performing the Bartok Violin Concerto No.2 with the Yale Philharmonia. She won a position in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2009, and was a full time tenured member of the orchestra from 2009 until 2015.

As well as being an active performer she is a dedicated teacher educating the next generation of young musicians. Starting September, 2023, Sunmi will start her role as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance. Prior to joining the University of Oregon, Sunmi taught at West Virginia University. She was a faculty member at the Chamber Music Institute Program at Music@Menlo for many years and was also a board member and a judge of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Youth Chamber Music Competition. In 2020, Sunmi completed a Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan.

Currently, she also serves as the artistic director of Summit Chamber Music Series, which aspires to bring joy, peace, comfort and encouragement to Morgantown, WV by presenting world-class chamber music performances throughout the season.