Jay Campbell, cello

Armed with a diverse spectrum of repertoire and eclectic musical interests, cellist Jay Campbell has been recognized for approaching both old and new works with the same probing curiosity and emotional commitment. His performances have been called “electrifying” by the New York Times, “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by the Washington Post, and on WQXR by Krzysztof Penderecki for “the greatest performance yet of Capriccio per Sigfried Palm”. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jay has soloed in major venues around the globe including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Avery Fisher Hall, Lucerne’s KKL, as well as recitals in Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Kennedy, Mondavi, and Krannert centers. He made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013, and worked with Alan Gilbert in 2016 as the artistic director for Ligeti Forward for the New York Philharmonic Biennale.

Dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of our time, Campbell has worked closely with some of today’s most creative musicians including Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Matthias Pintscher, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, and countless others from his own generation. His close association with John Zorn resulted in the 2015 release of Hen to Pan (Tzadik) featuring all works written for Campbell, and was listed in the New York Times year-end Best Recordings of 2015. Forthcoming discs in 2016 include a disc of Beethoven, Debussy, Stravinsky and Pintscher (Victor Elmaleh Collection), and a disc of works commissioned for Campbell by David Fulmer (Tzadik). Equally enthusiastic as a chamber musician and teacher, Campbell is a member of the JACK Quartet, a piano trio with Stefan Jackiw and Conrad Tao, has served on faculty at Vassar College and has been a guest at the Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Moab, Heidelberger-Fruhling, DITTO, and Lincoln Center festivals.

Luke Fleming, violin

Praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his “glowing refinement,” violist Luke Fleming’s performances have been described by The Strad as “confident and expressive... playing with uncanny precision," and lauded by Gramophone for their "superlative technical and artistic execution.”  Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Melbourne Festival, Bravo!Vail, Festival Mozaic, and the Virginia Arts Festival, as well as concerts and residencies across North and South America, Europe, and Asia. From 2009 – 2015, Mr. Fleming was violist of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, with whom he served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School. He was also awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, as well as the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. Mr. Fleming currently serves as Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, Director of Outreach Activities at Louisiana State University’s School of Music and Dramatic Arts, and Lecturer-in- Residence for Project: Music Heals Us.

In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players, a New York-based chamber music collective, and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, a mission/outreach-centric festival held every summer in his hometown, New Orleans. Mr. Fleming has been featured on a Live from Marlboro CD release on the Archiv Music label, and his recordings with the Attacca Quartet on Azica Records were released to widespread critical acclaim. He has performed as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Sejong Soloists, Ensemble ACJW (Now Ensemble Connect), the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York Classical Players, and the Serafin String Quartet, and has given masterclasses at UCLA, Louisiana State University, Ithaca College, Syracuse University, Melbourne University, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, among others. He has also served on the faculties of the Innsbrook Institute, Renova Music Festival and Houston Chamber Fest. Mr. Fleming holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts, Artist Diploma, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School, a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and a Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Louisiana State University. He is represented by Arts Global, Inc.

Adam Golka, piano

Polish-American pianist Adam Golka was recently selected by Sir András Schiff to perform recitals at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany, Tonhalle Zürich, as well as in Berlin and New York (organized by the 92nd Street Y). Adam has been regularly on the concert stage since the age of sixteen, when he won first prize at the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition. He has also received the Gilmore Young Artist Award and the Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association.

With his extensive concerto repertoire, Golka has appeared as a soloist with dozens of orchestras, among those the BBC Scottish, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis, New Jersey, Milwaukee, Phoenix, San Diego, Fort Worth, Vancouver, Seattle, and Jacksonville symphonies, Grand Teton Festival Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Adam made his Carnegie Hall Isaac Stern Auditorium Debut in 2010, performing Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony, and also performed a cycle of all five Beethoven concerti in 2011 with the Lubbock Symphony, under the baton of his brother, Tomasz Golka.

As a recitalist, he has performed scores of solo concerts, among those at excellent venues such as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York (presented by the Musicians Emergency Fund), Concertgebouw’s Kleine Zaal, and Musashino Civic Cultural Hall in Tokyo, and at festivals such as Mostly Mozart, the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the New York City International Keyboard Festival at Mannes, the Newport Music Festival, and the Duszniki Chopin festival. As a chamber musician, his festival appearances have included prestigious festivals such as Marlboro, Caramoor, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo. Adam Golka has premiered solo works written for him by Richard Danielpour, Michael Brown, and Jarosław Gołembiowski. His début disc, featuring the first sonata of Brahms and the Hammerklavier Sonata of Beethoven, was released in 2014 on First Hand Records.

As a child, Adam studied with his mother, Anna Golka, as well as with Dariusz Pawlas. For most of his teenage years and as a young adult, Adam studied with the late José Feghali, whom he considers his most significant influence. Adam also spent four years at the Peabody Conservatory studying with Leon Fleisher. Since finishing his official studies, Adam has continued his work in inspiring lessons with great musicians such as András Schiff, Alfred Brendel, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Murray Perahia, Ferenc Rados, and Rita Wagner.

Adam Golka acts as Artist-in-Residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

Conor Hanick, piano

The wide-ranging musical abilities and diverse artistic interests of pianist Conor Hanick have led to acclaimed solo and chamber performances around the world and collaborations with music’s most accomplished instrumentalists, conductors, ensembles, and composers.

In performances ranging from the early Baroque to the newly written, Mr. Hanick has collaborated with some of the world’s leading ensembles and conductors, including Pierre Boulez, David Robertson, and James Levine. He has be heard throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia — and in virtually every prominent arts venue in New York City — and been described as “brilliant,” “astounding,” (New York Times) “expert,” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “sparkling,” (Strad) while reminding New York Times chief critic Anthony Tommasini of a “young Peter Serkin.” Although Mr. Hanick has been recognized as a “true champion of contemporary music” (NPR) through his deep commitment to the music of our time, Tommasini wrote that Mr. Hanick’s “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation … benefit works by any master.”
Conor’s season is highlighted by concerto appearances with Carlos Izcaray and the Alabama Symphony in the premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Piano Concerto; collaboration with Alan Gilbert for the NYPhil Biennial in György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto; and performances with the Talea Ensemble, ICE, The Knights, and Chatter. In addition, Conor continues his partnership with cellist Jay Campbell with recitals in Seattle, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and New York, including premiere performances of works written for them by Eric Wubbels, David Hertzberg, and David Fulmer; and will also be heard in the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series, performing solo music of Pierre Boulez.

A recent finalist for the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, Mr. Hanick is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Juilliard School, where he received his Masters and Doctorate degrees studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio. He is a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, produces radio for New York Public Radio’s Q2 Music, and resides in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. 

Mr. Hanick is a Yamaha Artist.

Margaret Dyer Harris, viola

Margaret Dyer has carved out a unique career as one of the US’s finest chamber musicians. This season’s highlights have included appearances with the Daedalus Quartet, the Amphion Quartet, the Hausmann Quartet and alongside the acclaimed clarinet virtuoso, David Krakauer at his sold out residency at The Stone in New York City.  In early Spring, she performed at the American Embassy in Abu Dhabi and in June was a featured artist at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany.

Margaret is in frequent demand as a guest artist with other chamber groups such as ECCO, Decoda, the Knights, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  She was a founding member of Boston’s acclaimed unconducted string orchestra, A Far Cry. She has also collaborated with contemporary music ensembles Le Train Bleu, International Contemporary Ensemble, American Contemporary Music Ensemble and Periapsis, all based in New York City. As a member of Ensemble ACJW, a partnership of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School, she has collaborated with Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Tetzlaff, and Emanuel Ax.  She has also played with the St. Louis Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony,  the Princeton Symphony, New York City Ballet Orchestra, and was guest principal for both the Brooklyn and Long Island Philharmonics.

Margaret has a strong passion for cultural collaboration and community involvement and in 2010, she was granted a fellowship position in The Academy: a program of 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 Yellow Barn Young Artists Festival and has given masterclasses in Mexico City, Lima, Abu Dhabi, and cities across the United States.  Margaret combined her passion for music, engagement and travel when she went down the Amazon River for the Espacios y Canales sound project, an experimental sound project recording original composition against the sounds of the jungle.

Although her training was entirely classically-based, Margaret enjoys collaborating with artists of all styles. Some of these more household names include John Legend, Michelle Williams, Rufus Wainright, David Sylvian, Grizzly Bear, Owen Pallett, and David Saw.  She recently performed on the soundtrack for the acclaimed film, Orchestra of Exiles, and she was a member of 2013 Radio City Christmas Spectacular orchestra. 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, and Fortune Records.

Alexi Kenney, violin

The recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Alexi Kenney has been named "a talent to watch" by the New York Times, which also noted his "architect's eye for structure and space and a tone that ranges from the achingly fragile to full-bodied robustness.” His win at the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition at the age of nineteen led to a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut recital at Weill Hall.

This season Alexi appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Portland, Riverside, and Tulare County symphonies, the Staatstheater Orchestra of Cottbus, Germany, and A Far Cry. Upcoming highlights in the 2017-18 season include recitals on Carnegie Hall’s ‘Distinctive Debuts’ series, at the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University (CA) and at Lee University (TN), as well as performances with the Amarillo, California, Columbus, and Santa Fe symphonies and the Rhode Island and Las Vegas philharmonics. Recent recitals include those at Caramoor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall in Boston, and at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. He has been profiled by Strings magazine, the New York Times, written for The Strad, and has been featured on Performance Today, WQXR-NY’s Young Artists Showcase, WFMT-Chicago, and NPR’s From the Top.

Chamber music continues to be a main focus of Alexi’s life, touring with Musicians from Marlboro and Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute and regularly performing at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Napa Valley, the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove (UK), Ravinia, and Yellow Barn. He has collaborated with artists including Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Steven Isserlis, Kim Kashkashian, Gidon Kremer, and Christian Tetzlaff.

Born in Palo Alto, California in 1994, Alexi holds a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he is currently completing his Artist Diploma as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried. Previous teachers include Wei He, Jenny Rudin, and Natasha Fong.

Euntaek Kim, piano

Euntaek Kim is a classically trained pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor. A native of South Korea, Euntaek began his piano lessons at age three and was admitted to the preparatory division of the Korean National University of Arts at age nine. At twelve, he took his first conducting lesson and gave his first public piano recital in Seoul, presented by the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation. A year later, Euntaek emigrated to the United States to begin piano studies at The Juilliard Pre-College.

Euntaek has appeared at numerous venues around the world, such as the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Steinway Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen, CO, to name a few. Euntaek has participated in summer music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival and School, Music Academy of the West, and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. As a chamber musician, Euntaek has collaborated with members of the Enso, Escher, and Ying quartets. In recent years, Euntaek’s collaboration with Eric Gratz, the concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony, led to a successful release of a CD album in 2016.

Euntaek holds the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and the Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music. His private instructors include Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Berman, and Seymour Lipkin in piano, and Jeffrey Milarsky in orchestral conducting. Euntaek occasionally organizes orchestral concerts in New York City, in which he both performs and conducts.

He lives in New York City with his wife, Sara Rossi, a violist.

Jia Kim, cello

Cellist Jia Kim 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 Hampton Roads and have been broadcasted on WQXR, PBS and KMZT Classical.

As a passionate and active chamber musician, Ms. Kim is one of the founding members of the Fidelio String Quartet and Tristan Piano Quartet which made their debut in New York's Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Ms.Kim has worked with renowned artists such as Frans Helmerson, Robert Mann, Robert Spano, Emmanuel Villaume, John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Cavani String Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, Orion String Quartet among others. She has appeared in performance at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Licoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago Symphony Center's Orchestra Hall, Miami's Arsht Center, Valle De Bravo in Mexico, Toronto's Royal Conservatory, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, EJ Thomas Hall, The Korea Society in NYC, Barclay Center in Brooklyn, Princeton University's Alexander Hall 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 of Performing Arts.

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 at Kneisel Hall in Maine, White Mountains Music Festival, and The Perlman Music Program's Chamber Music Workshop where she was invited to perform with Itzhak Perlman in Israel, Toronto, Mexico City, Virginia Beach, Miami and in New York City.

Recently appointed as the new Artistic Director of International Music Sessions, a unique summer program bringing youth around the world to foster cultural exchange through music, Ms.Kim also serves as faculty of the Brearley School and the New York Youth Symphony's Chamber Music Program. She was invited to do a Visiting Artist Residency at the University of Hawaii and also at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Ms. Kim performs on a 2005 Mario Miralles Cello, by a generous loan from the Maestro Foundation. 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. 

John Moore, baritone

A frequent performer in both Europe and the United States, John Moore is garnering praise for his energetic performances and burnished baritone in both operatic and concert repertoire. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, the upcoming 2016-2017 season sees the baritone in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves with Opera Philadelphia, singing the role of Jan. He also sings performances of Jan with the Prototype Festival, returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Moralès in Carmen, Seattle Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and to the Hyogo Performing Arts Center as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. Future seasons include returns to the Glyndebourne Festival and Seattle Opera.

Last season saw several significant company debuts for the baritone including: Seattle Opera, as Count Almavivia in Le nozze di Figaro; the Bayerische Staatsoper, as Adario in Les indes galantes; Florida Grand Opera, as Tadeusz in The Passenger; Portland Opera, as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Opera Omaha, as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. On the concert stage, he appears at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of NY, under the direction of Kent Tritle, and also the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

The 2014-2015 season saw John Moore return to the Metropolitan Opera stage as Moralès in Carmen, as well as Nachtigal in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and he appeared with their annual Opera in the Parks summer concert series. Additionally, he debuted at the Atlanta Opera as the Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and covered the role of Tadeusz in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of The Passenger.

During the 2013-2014 season, Mr. Moore appeared as Papageno in The Magic Flute and as Fléville in Andrea Chénier with the Metropolitan Opera, Donald in Billy Budd with Glyndebourne at BAM, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Japan. He also toured Russia with members of the Metropolitan Opera.

In the 2012-2013 season, the baritone returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Curio in Giulio Cesare and Simonetto inFrancesca di Rimini, and also returned to the role of Donald in Billy Budd with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Mr. Moore’s 2011-12 season featured a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Yamadori inMadama Butterfly, and Donald in Billy Budd. He was the baritone soloist in the American premiere of Juraj Filas’s Oratorio Spei with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola under the baton of Kent Tritle. In addition to his recital with Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Mr. Moore also gave recitals at his alma mater, Simpson College, and at People’s Symphony Concerts in NY. In the summer, he returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera in a role debut as the titular character in Tchaikovksy’s Eugene Onegin. Mr. Moore concluded the season as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Glyndebourne Opera’s touring ensemble in the United Kingdom.

In the 2010-2011 season, Mr. Moore appeared as Papageno in the Metropolitan Opera’s English production of The Magic Flute, toured with Musicians from Marlboro, performed in recital with the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera as Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. In addition, Mr. Moore took part in a studio recording of Peter Lieberson’s The Coming of Light with CCM.

During the 2009-10 season John premiered Lieberson’s The Coming of Light with Chicago Chamber Musicians, sang Abbé Lorenzo in a new production of Argento’s Casanova’s Homecoming at Minnesota Opera, sang Fiorello at the Met, appeared in concert at the Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa and for the Des Moines Opera Guild, and made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in England singing Donald in Britten’s Billy Budd. In 2007, he made his debut at theMetropolitan Opera singing Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Mr. Moore made his international debut at Welsh National Opera in 2008 singing Figaro in WNO’s acclaimed English Barber of Seville.

Matthias Pintscher, conductor/composer

Matthias Pintscher is the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Beginning in 2016/17 he also takes up post as Principal Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He continues his partnerships with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as its Artist-in-Association, and with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as Artist-in-Residence. Equally accomplished as conductor and composer, Pintscher has created significant works for the world’s leading orchestras and regularly conducts throughout Europe, the U.S., and Australia.

Pintscher’s compositions are noted for the delicate sound world they inhabit, the intricacy of their construction and their precision of expression.

Michell Ross, violin

Hailed as a "Renaissance Woman" and trained with Itzhak Perlman for over a decade, violinist and composer Michelle Ross is unique as both a solo artist and collaborative visionary.  Michelle is the recipient of the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts.  Last season marked Michelle’s Carnegie Hall Debut with Maestro Harry Bicket, and her European Debut as both soloist and conductor, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, in Cite de La Musique.   Michelle also curates Music in the Mountains, a classical music festival presented by Summit Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah.

As a chamber musician, Michelle has toured multiple times with Itzhak Perlman, and has collaborated with a range of artists that includes Mitsuko Uchida, Denes Varjon, members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Cleveland String Quartets. Michelle has been an artist at the Marlboro Music Festival since 2011, and has been touring with Musicians from Marlboro for every season since 2012.  Festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Lucerne Festival, Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, and YAP Ottawa.   Michelle has performed at the Isabella Gardner Musuem, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Avery Fisher Hall, Virginia Arts Center, Union College Concert Series, Smith College, Westbury Gardens, Cite de la Musique, Luzerne Hall, Neue Galerie, Arscht Center Miami, Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

As a composer and improviser, Michelle is extemely interested in collaborative works.  As a composer for contemporary dance, her work has toured with the Aspen Sante Fe Ballet for two seasons through her collaboration with choreographer Norbert De La Cruz III, and has premiered in Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Joyce Theater.  Inventing Wonderland, a multimedia piece, premiered in Lincoln Center's Beyond the Machine Festival.   Michelle frequently collaborates across mediums to create works with choreographers, actors, visual artists, and filmmakers.  Her work has also traveled to Germany and the Philippines. 

Michelle holds a M.M. from the Juilliard School and a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She has studied with Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Ronald Copes, Patinka Kopec.

Fred Sherry, cello

A pioneer and a visionary in the music world, cellist FRED SHERRY has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time through his close association with today’s composers. Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry, and he has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson and Toru Takemitsu, among others.

Mr. Sherry was a founding member of Tashi and Speculum Musicae; a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet; and a close collaborator with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. He has been an active performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since the 1970s and was the Artistic Director from 1988 to 1992.

Fred Sherry created the series “Bach Cantata Sundays” at St. Ann’s Church and conceived and directed the acclaimed “Arnold Schoenberg: Conservative Radical” series at Merkin Concert Hall. He was the creator and director of “A Great Day in New York,” the groundbreaking festival featuring 52 living composers presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall.

In the vast scope of his recording career, Fred Sherry has been a soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings on RCA, Columbia, Vanguard, CRI, Albany, Bridge, ECM, New World, Arabesque, Delos, Vox, Koch and Naxos.  The Fred Sherry String Quartet recordings of the Schoenberg String Quartet Concerto and the String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 were both nominated for a Grammy.

Sherry’s book “25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas” was released by Boosey & Hawkes in July 2011. It will be followed by the long-awaited treatise on contemporary string techniques.

Brook Speltz, cello

Praised for his “fluid virtuosity” and “soulful melodies,” Los Angeles native Brook Speltz has been inspired since childhood by the long tradition of deep musical mastery of artists such as Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Fournier, and the Guarneri String Quartet.  As of May of 2015, he is the new cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet and an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

An extremely versatile cellist, Mr. Speltz has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.  First Prize winner of the prestigious Ima Hogg Competition, he has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and International Contemporary Ensemble, among others, and is a regular performer at England’s IMS Prussia Cove and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro.  An avid and sought after chamber musician, Mr. Speltz has been personally invited by musical giants such as Itzhak Perlman and Richard Goode to collaborate in chamber music recitals and tours throughout the country.  As a result of these collaborations, he has been nominated for the inaugural Warner Music Prize, a newly established prize presented by Warner Music and Carnegie Hall.

A lover of all facets of the music world, Mr. Speltz has enjoyed performing on extensive tours with the cello rock band Break of Reality, whose online video of the Game of Thrones cover immediately went viral and has already received over 8.5 million views.  Their recent U.S. tour raised funds and awareness for music programs in public schools all around the country.  Mr. Speltz studied at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music with Peter Wiley and at the Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick, after his formative years of study with Eleanor Schoenfeld in Los Angeles.  He performs on a 1756 J.C. Gigli on loan from his father, a cellist and his first inspiration in a family of professional musicians.

Milena Pajaro-van da Stadt, viola

A rising star in the viola world, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Milena’s summer festival appearances include Marlboro, Bowdoin, Sarasota, Strings, Bravo! Vail Valley, La Jolla Summerfest, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as Italy's Emilia Romagna Festival, Colombia’s Festicámara, and Mexico City’s Festival de Mexico. Among the conductors with whom she has worked are Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Charles Dutoit, and Otto-Werner Mueller. Milena is a winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition with the Dover Quartet, formerly The Old City String Quartet, currently the graduate quartet in residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Her numerous awards include prizes at the 2009 Tokyo International Viola Competition and the 2006 Sphinx Competition, Junior Division.

Milena has been privileged to collaborate with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Andres Cardenes, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Vadim Gluzman, Cho-Liang Lin, Philippe Quint, Joseph Silverstein, Paul Katz, Ida Kavafian, Soovin Kim, and Mitsuko Uchida. A violin student of Sergiu Schwartz and Melissa Pierson-Barrett for several years, she began studying viola with Michael Klotz at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2005. Milena graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Roberto Diaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, and Joseph de Pasquale. Milena is a foodie—loves the food channel and sampling all sorts of international delicacies—she enjoys baking for friends and family, word and board games, hiking, and just about anything that has to do with her family’s Silkenese puppy, Magellan (“Gelly”). Visit her and the Dover Quartet at http://www.doverquartet.com

Laura Weiner, horn

Laura Weiner is a passionate horn player and advocate for classical music based in New York City. An experienced chamber musician, orchestral performer, soloist, and teaching artist, she is an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW, a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. A high-altitude native of Colorado, she received her Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Northwestern University, and her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a University Fellowship.

Laura has performed with diverse musical groups from symphony orchestras to Broadway pits, and plays regularly with chamber ensembles Decoda and Genghis Barbie. As part of Ensemble ACJW, she performed a wide variety of concerts all across New York in Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and neighborhood locales from clubs to correctional facilities. She was a featured soloist at Zankel Hall under the baton of Robert Spano in March 2013.

Laura has spent her summers performing at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria, Bravo! Vail Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, the Texas Music Festival, and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. Laura’s principal teachers include Gail Williams, William Barnewitz, and Douglas Hill.

 In addition to performing, Laura is enthusiastically devoted to education and community work. She is a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic in two public schools and has led songwriting workshops in residencies all across the United States. When she isn’t practicing, performing, or listening to music, Laura enjoys voracious reading, Tae Kwon Do, and semi-risky outdoor activities.