2025-26 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.

Emilie Anne Gendron and Alex Shiozaki, violins;

Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello

Momenta: the plural of momentum – four individuals in motion towards a common goal. This is the idea behind the Momenta Quartet, whose eclectic vision encompasses contemporary music of all aesthetic backgrounds alongside great music from the recent and distant past. The New York City-based quartet has premiered over 200 works, collaborated with over 250 living composers and was praised by The New York Times for its “diligence, curiosity and excellence.” In the words of The New Yorker’s Alex Ross, “few American players assume Haydn’s idiom with such ease.”

The Momenta Quartet's 2024-25 season is made possible, in part, through the support of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

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 Violin Professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia, Chamber Music Director of the Composers Conference, and Co-Artistic Director of Avaloch Farm Music Institute. For more information, visit www.jessicatong.com