Who has Played at The Ballroom

Blanco Performing Arts strives to bring compelling, engaging performers to the hill country. There have been many wonderful performers over the years, some famous, some waiting to be discovered, all fabulous. 

​Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet will celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide.

The  group ’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to  have set the standard for this repertoire. 

The Quartet’s 2018-19 season features additional performances of their major project together with the National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh, which offers a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war on people, their hearts, and their minds. The Quartet will also collaborate again with the renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative projects cement the American String Quartet’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional.

The Quartet's diverse activities  have  also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, including a recent recording for the BBC; tours of Asia; and performances with the  New  York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances of an  all -sextet program with Roberto and Andrès  D íaz, many tours of South America, and performances of the complete Beethoven cycle of string quartets at the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel. 

The American’s additional extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. Most recently the  group  released "Schubert's Echo," which pairs Schubert's monumental  last  quartet with works bearing its influence by Second Viennese masters Alban Berg and Anton Webern. This repertoire posits that the creative line from the First to the Second Viennese Schools is continuous – and evident when these works are heard in the context of each other.  

As champions of  new  music, the American has given numerous premieres, including George Tsontakis’s 2015 Quartet No. 7.5, “Maverick,” Richard Danielpour's Quartet No. 4, and Curt Cacioppo's a distant voice calling. The premiere of Robert Sirota’s American Pilgrimage took place in September 2016, and will be performed around the U.S. in the cities the work celebrates. In January 2009 the Quartet premièred Tobias Picker’s String Quartet No. 2 in  New  York City in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Manhattan School of Music. 

Formed when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet’s career began with the  group  winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in  New  York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

The Argenta Trio is the world-class piano trio-in-residence at University of Nevada Reno. Depending on how you count, 2012 was the 25th anniversary of the Argenta Trio, acquiring its silvery moniker in 1987. Or we can go back to the trio’s inception as “The UNR Piano Trio” in 1962 and extol its 50-year heritage of exemplary music making.

The trio, like all great ensembles, has seen personnel changes over the intervening years. The current line up of violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianist James Winn came together in 2009 with the addition of Mr. Atapine. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio joined the trio in 2007 when John Lenz was the cellist. Jim Winn is the anchor member having joined Argenta in 1997..... 

Elaine Barber began playing the harp at the age of ten, and began playing professionally in her native Mississippi four years later. She earned her MM in harp performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, studying with Beatrice Rose. Ms. Barber is Principal Harpist for Austin Symphony, and a regular guest with San Antonio Symphony.​

Also an early music specialist, she plays renaisssance and early baroque music with Texas Early Music Project and Austin Baroque Orchestra. She has been a featured soloist at the American Harp Society National Conference, and with Mozart Festival Texas, Austin Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Mississippi Symphony, Shepherd Symphony, and Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. She performs regularly as harpist for the Allegro Chamber Trio along with flutist Megan Meisenbach and violist Bruce Williams. As an orchestral musician she has performed with Austin Opera, Spoleto USA, Houston Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Mississippi Symphony and Mississippi Opera. 

She has performed with Ray Charles and Renee Fleming, for the King of Norway and the Governor of Mississippi, on movie and video game soundtracks and children’s TV shows. She plays chamber music in Central Texas for Mason Chamber Music Festival, Austin Chamber Music Center, REVEL, Musical Offerings, Cactus Pear Music Festival, and Trio Copine. She has recorded for the Naxos, Nonesuch and Matador labels, and has premiered solo and chamber works by Gordon Jones, James Sclater, Peter Stopschinski, P. Kellach Waddle and Charles Rochester Young.

Ms. Barber maintains a private teaching studio in Austin and has been on the faculty of Mississippi College, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Austin Chamber Music Center, University of Texas Harp Camp, and Abilene Summer Music Festival.....

Martha Carapetyan grew up in a musical family. There were always rehearsals and concerts to attend and her love of music grew from those early years. In high school, she was accepted into the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and learned the art of practice and performance from many great musical masters. Her studies took her to North Texas State University and Indiana University to earn her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, respectively. Her most significant passion, other than raising her children, has been to spend her life as a professional violist and teacher.

Martha’s symphonic career began after she won a position in the New World Symphony in Miami, the nation’s most distinguished training orchestra. Over the last three decades, Martha has had the good fortune to be able to perform with the Houston and San Antonio Symphonies, as well as the Austin Opera (formerly the Austin Lyric Opera). She is currently a tenured member of the Austin Symphony and spends the rest of her time engaging students in her viola studio.

Martha co-founded the Central Texas Viola Society, a chapter of the American Viola Society and has helped organize many events in the areas of both teaching and performing. Her extensive teaching background ranges from beginning level orchestral students at the Austin Waldorf School to adjunct lecturer in viola at Baylor University.

Eager to share her love of good viola playing with high school students, Martha co-founded the Austin Viola Workshop with Dr. Ames Asbell. The Workshop is a weekly class which explores fundamentals of viola playing, viola repertoire and the ever-expanding literature for viola ensembles, all in a collegial and supportive atmosphere.

It is important for Martha to impress upon her students the importance of mastering the viola repertoire and doing so in a way which promotes comfort and wellness for the whole musician. She is always seeking to deepen her knowledge of healthy movement and good physical habits, whether through Alexander Technique, The Feldenkrais Method, yoga, or any other disciplines which have as their basis good use and posture.

In reviewing pianist Scott Cuellar’s debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, David LaMarche of the New York Concert Review described Mr. Cuellar’s performance as “virtuosic in scope and expression, like a great man of the theater,” and praised his “ability to illuminate both the external structure and the emotional core of the work he plays.”

He has been described by Cleveland Classical as possessing “nerves of steel, a formidable technique, and an architect’s understanding of structure,” and the Lima News lauded his “poignant sensitivity to the expressive demands of the music that far surpasses his years."
Mr. Cuellar won the gold medal at the 2016 San Antonio International Piano Competition, where he also received prizes for the best performance of both a Romantic work (Schumann’s Humoreske), as well as of a Russian work (Prokofiev’s 4th Sonata). He was the 1st place winner in the solo division of the 2013 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, where he also took 2nd place in the concerto division, and was the winner of the Krenek Prize for the best performance of a sonata by Ernst Krenek. Additionally, he was the 3rd place winner of the 2016  New  Orleans International Piano Competition, the winner of both the Rice and Oberlin concerto competitions, and was a semifinalist in the 2015 Honens Piano Competition.

He has given solo recitals at major venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Bösendorfersaal, the Newport Music Festival, the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in the People’s Republic of China and as a guest recitalist at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He has performed in solo and collaborative settings at major venues including the Kennedy Center, the Sede Histórica of Peru’s Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Lima, Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall,  New  York’s Merkin Hall, Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall, and the Greene Space of WQXR  New  York. He has appeared as a soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, the Oberlin Orchestra, the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and several others.

Mr. Cuellar has performed with  artists  such as violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Aloysia Friedmann, and Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, and clarinetist James Campbell. He has performed at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and this summer will perform at La Jolla’s Summerfest, as well as the Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival. He has been heard on WQXR in  New  York, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Houston Public Media, and WGTE Toledo.
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Mr. Cuellar holds a Master of Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin, and holds a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Alvin Chow. During his time at Oberlin, he won three of the largest prizes offered to pianists: the Oberlin Concerto Competition, the Arthur Dann Competition, and the John Elvin Prize for Juniors. Mr. Cuellar is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he studies with Jon Kimura Parker.

Recognized as a truly important pianist of his generation who continues to captivate audiences at home and abroad, James Dick brings keyboard sonorities of mesmerizing brilliance to performances that radiate intellectual insight and emotional authenticity. 

A student of the renowned Dalies Frantz and Sir Clifford Curzon, Dick's early triumphs as top prizewinner in international competitions were a mere prelude to an eminent career highlighted by acclaimed performances in the world's premier concert halls. Dick performs nationally and internationally with major orchestras under the baton of distinguished conductors. He has been guest soloist with well-known chamber music ensembles. He has judged the international Tchaikovsky and Cliburn competitions. Dick has commissioned and premiered original compositions. A passionate supporter of arts education, in 1971 he established the Round Top Festival Institute, among the most distinguished educational projects in the United States, where young musicians develop skills in solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire. He received the honor of being named Officier des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2012, and was named Texas State Musician in 2003. In 2009, Dick received the Texas Medal of Arts in Arts Education as well as the University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Hailed by The Strad as “an impressive protagonist proclaiming a magnetic, outgoing personality, a lustrous, vibrant tone, and excellent intonation,” violist Susan Dubois is considered one of the leading young artist-teachers of viola today. From New York’s Carnegie Hall to Argentina’s Teatro Colón, Dubois has won the hearts of audiences worldwide with her commanding and persuasive performances.

Chosen as the sole viola winner of Artist International’s 23rd Annual Auditions, Dubois was presented in her solo New York Recital Debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. She also was selected as a prizewinner and recitalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in the United Kingdom. As a member of the jury, Dubois has judged major competitions such as the Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings, and the Primrose International Viola Competition. 

Dubois holds a Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, and Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California where she studied with Donald McInnes. A former teaching assistant of Karen Tuttle at The Juilliard School, Dubois earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and was awarded the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in Music.

Acclaimed by the Salt Lake Tribune as, “marrying unimpeachable technical skill with a persuasive and perceptive voice,” violinist Kathryn Eberle is the Associate Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony. Ms. Eberle has also served as Guest Concertmaster with the Richmond and Omaha Symphonies in addition to performing frequently with the St. Louis Symphony.

Eberle performs annually as soloist with the Utah Symphony. She made her solo subscription series debut with the Utah Symphony in April 2014 performing Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade. During the 2018/19 season, Eberle performs Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with flutist Mercedes Smith and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell, Schnittke’s Moz-Art a la Haydn with violinist Claude Halter as well as the Dvorak and Beethoven Romances. In the 2019/2020 season she will perform Edgar Meyer’s Violin Concerto with the USO. Other solo appearances include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Louisville Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, and the Bahia Symphony in Brazil.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Eberle has collaborated with such artists as Edgar Meyer, Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt, Ricardo Morales, and members of the New York Philharmonic. Her festival appearances include Aspen, Banff, Yellow Barn, Encore School for Strings, Missillac, Sewanee, Laguna Beach, Fairbanks Summer Arts, Innsbrook and Festival Mozaic. She is a frequent performer on the Nova Chamber Music Series in Salt Lake City and recently presented a complete cycle of the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with pianist Jason Hardink on Nova’s inaugural Gallery Series. Hardink and Eberle were also featured in a critically acclaimed production of The Kreutzer Sonata, a unique collaboration with Plan B Theater Company.

A committed pedagogue, Ms. Eberle is on the faculty of Utah State University teaching the Orchestra Excerpts Seminar. She has given numerous master classes including guest appearances at Vanderbilt University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Dixie State University, Brigham Young University and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival.

Ms. Eberle received a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School studying with Sylvia Rosenberg. She previously studied with Robert Lipsett both at the Colburn School and the University of Southern California where she received the String Department and Symphony awards upon graduation. Ms. Eberle performs on a J.B. Vuillaume violin made in 1870.

Maimy Fong, pianist & vocal coach, has played everywhere from Weill Hall at Carnegie, to Dell Hall at the Long Center. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in piano with a concentration in vocal accompanying from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She also completed Master’s and Doctoral degrees in piano performance at the University of Texas at Austin School of Music.

She has worked for the Des Moines Metro Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, and El Paso Opera. She has been with CYC since its inception in 2005. In Austin, she maintains an active schedule as a freelance pianist, teacher, and coach. In 2009, she helped co-found and is now artistic director of the “Feed Your Soul” Music Series at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Laura Fraticelli studied with Walter Ujaldón and Eduardo Fernández. The love for music gave her the courage to emigrate to Europe where she continued her studies at the Royal College of Music in London and then later at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where she was accepted in the class of the rename guitarist Zoran Dukic.

She has been praised for her beautiful tone and passionate interpretations. "When Laura plays the guitar it sounds as if the strings are made of velvet. Exquisite and sensitive, yet distinct" (Vimmerby Tidning, Sweden)

Ohio native Keira Fullerton began her musical training at age three. After moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1991, she continued her studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music and appeared as soloist with the Toronto Symphony in 2000 as winner of the TSYO concerto competition. Ms. Fullerton earned her Bachelor’s Degree in 2003 from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying with Desmond Hoebig and in 2005 completed her Master of Music degree with Stephen Geber at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

She has attended many summer festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen and Sarasota Music Festivals, and Spoleto U.S.A., as well as performing in the Crested Butte Music Festival and the Colorado Music Festival. 

Before joining the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra cello section as Assistant Principal in 2008, Ms. Fullerton was Assistant Principal cellist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in Winnipeg, Manitoba for three seasons. From 2012-2014, she served as Acting Associate Principal of the FWSO. Ms. Fullerton has performed multiple times with the Houston Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as performing as acting principal of the Canton Symphony in Ohio and as guest principal of both the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and the Waco Symphony.  She has been featured in several chamber music series in Winnipeg, Fort Worth and Dallas, and also appeared as a collaborative guest artist in the International Clarinet Association’s Clarinetfest 2010 in Austin, Texas. While in Winnipeg, Ms. Fullerton taught through the University of Manitobas Preparatory Division.  She performs on a Prague cello circa 1820.

Ecuadorian-American pianist Washington García Eljuri began his musical studies at the age of 6. Among his teachers  have  been Genoveva Granja, Toshko Stoyanov, Ann Schein, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Julian Martin. Dr. García holds a bachelor of music from the National Conservatory of Music in Ecuador, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated at the age of 25 as the youngest Latin American to have  received a doctoral degree in piano performance from that prestigious university.

He is the recipient of the “Condecoración Dr. Vicente Rocafuerte”, the highest Cultural Achievement Award given by the Ecuadorian National Assembly to individuals who have  demonstrated excellence in the arts. This award is equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom or Congressional Gold Medal in the United States.

The success of his first public performance at the age of 6 led Dr. Garcia to perform at the most important cultural centers in Ecuador. He was awarded first prizes at the Guillermo Wright-Vallarino National Piano Competition held in Quito, the Elizabeth Davis Memorial Piano Competition and the 19th International Young  Artist  Piano Competition in Washington  D .C., the 2004 Baltimore Music Club Piano Competition, and the Harrison Winter Piano Competition. As the winner of the Harrison Winter at the Peabody Institute, Dr. García was selected to perform with the Peabody Concert Orchestra. He was also a top prizewinner at the Yale Gordon Piano Competition and the Russell Wonderlic Piano Competition.

From a very early age, Dr. García became a seasoned veteran of the concert platform, performing extensively throughout his native country. Since his debut with the Ecuadorian National Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15, he has been an active recitalist, soloist, and lecturer in prestigious venues in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Japan, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. In the United States, he has offered solo recitals and master classes in almost 30 states.

Dr. García’s international debut took place in Santiago, Chile, where he performed for former President Patricio Aylwin at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Seminar. Subsequently, he was chosen from a large field of contestants from 33 countries by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington  D .C. to receive one of two $25,000 grants awarded to pianists in its Fellowships of the Americas Program. As a result, he came to the United States to begin intensive piano studies with Professor Julian Martin at the Peabody Institute. Under the auspices of the Fellowships of the Americas Program he was invited to play at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Department of State and the Mexican Cultural Center in Washington  D .C., among others. He was also invited to perform at the National Library and Archives in Ottawa, Canada, where he performed on Glenn Gould’s piano. Dr. Garcia has performed in Ecuador with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra and the Loja Symphony Orchestra. Other engagements as guest soloist include concerto performances with the Green Valley Chamber Orchestra in Las Vegas and the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra in Maryland. He also toured Italy with the Texas State University Chamber Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and most recently he was featured as guest soloist with the Austin Symphony in Texas, the Springfield Symphony in Massachusetts and the Omaha Symphony, under the batons of maestros Peter Bay, Kevin Rhodes and Thomas Wilkins, respectively. Garcia has performed and recorded for Radio Television Hong Kong, Opus Classical Radio in Mexico City, WFMT in Chicago, TV Spain, Rogers Broadcasting Company in Canada, and worldwide broadcasts through Univision. He has also been featured in several journals and magazines including the Austin and Texas Monthly, Time Out Jakarta, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, The Washington Post, and several others in Asia, North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East.

In addition to awards granted by the Peabody Institute and the Ecuadorian government, including the prize “Monseñor Leonidas Proaño” and the award “Al Mérito Laboral,” Dr. García received sponsorship by United Airlines. He was also named a Presser Scholar and grant recipient by the Presser Music Foundation. Additionally, he was awarded the Texas State Quarterly Team Award in recognition of outstanding service and the Friends of Fine Arts Awards for Scholarly/Creative Activities and Service. Dr. Garcia was a recipient of a full scholarship by the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in addition to scholarships by The Lloyds Bank, The Zaldumbide Rosales Foundation and the British Embassy in Ecuador.

Dr. García served on the faculty of the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University and is a faculty member at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Tuscany, Italy and the Peabody Piano Week in Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently the Director of the School of Music at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he is also a full Professor of Piano. Previous to his appointment at UNO, Dr. Garcia was a Professor of Piano at Texas State University, where he was also the Assistant Director of the School of Music.

Washington García became a Steinway  Artist  on 2014 and a citizen of the United States on March 2013. He lives with his wife Valeria and sons Mateo and Nico in Omaha, Nebraska.

Celtic musician Abby Green released her first solo CD, Éíníní, in 2008. One reviewer remarked, "quite simply, gorgeous. Her voice is polished without ever sounding slick or generic." When Fig for a Kiss was released in 2011, another reviewer commented, "Her considerable talents with the language, and in music, are on ample display with the release of her excellent second album."

In early 2015, Abby's first book, a collection of songs was published. This work is born from the belief that traditional music is meant to be shared. She wrote and arranged harmonies for many of the choruses hoping to create a world where audiences and groups of people will sing some of this amazing music together. With the release of her third CD in 2015, Why Should I?, Abby continues performing Celtic festivals nationwide.

Whether the song calls for energetic rhythms or chord choices that echo the intensity of a broken heart, Abby plays her Irish bouzouki and shares her rich soaring voice to tell the tale in Irish, Scots Gaelic, and in English.  As a native Texan, her love of Celtic songs, languages, and tunes has been a true journey of discovery.  She enjoys unlocking the treasures of beautiful music often hidden behind the veil of languages unusual to our English speaking eyes and ears.  

As a full time musician, she performs with Istanpitta Early Music Ensemble as  lead and harmonizing vocalist, frame drum percussionist, and storyteller.  She can be heard on three Istanpitta CDs.  Abby has also enjoyed singing and recording with Texas Early Music Project and collaborating with other independent  artists .  Her work has been preserved in both live and studio performances.

Pianist Christopher Guzman continually performs for audiences throughout North America, Europe and Asia, while maintaining an active teaching schedule. He is a multiple prizewinner in many international competitions, including the Walter M. Naumburg Competition, the Seoul International Music Competition and the Isang Yun Competition of South Korea.

Recently, Mr. Guzman garnered the grand prize (Blanche Selva) and several special prizes at the 10th Concours International de Piano d ’Orléans in Orléans, France. This major European prize will allow him to record a CD of modern music in France, as well as tour the country giving masterclasses and performing recitals.

Mr. Guzman has performed as soloist with many large ensembles, including the San Antonio Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Corpus Christi Symphony and The EOS Orchestra of  New  York City. He has performed concerti with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and in Spoleto, Italy during the orchestra’s first summer residency at the 2003 Festival Dei Due Mondi. Mr. Guzman has appeared in recital in such varied venues as Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Spoleto’s Teatro Caio Melisso.  

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Guzman has performed in such venues as Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, the Vancouver Recital Series and others. He performs regularly with some of the world’s most exciting soloist and with members of major symphony orchestras; his recital with violinist Ilya Gringolts on National Public Radio’s Saint Paul Sunday continues to broadcast across the United States and online. He continually performs with members of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the  New  York Philharmonic, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, to  name  a few.

Of special interest to Mr. Guzman is music of our time. He has collaborated with one of the nation’s preeminent contemporary chamber ensembles, Speculum Musicae, and numerous times with the  New  Juilliard Ensemble, including tours of the U.S. and France. The New York Times hailed his “coiled, explosive playing” of works by Christopher Theofanidis and Joseph Pereira at New York’s Society for Ethical Culture in 2002. He is a member of Second Instrumental Unit, a provocative new music ensemble based in the Northeast, and has participated in world premieres by such composers as Donald Martino, Bernd Franke and Paul Schoenfield.  

Born in Texas, Christopher Guzman began studying piano at age nine and violoncello two years later. He has studied at the University of Texas at Austin, New England Conservatory, and at the Juilliard School. He has taught classes at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, State University of New York at Buffalo, and at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. He is currently Associate Professor of Piano at The Pennsylvania State University.

Based in the DFW area the group was most recently composed of cellist Karen and bassoonist Kevin Hall, violinist Jennifer Chang and violist Aleksandra Holowka, who have welcomed various guest musicians for concerts, many of whom also are in the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. It has presented more than 60 concerts during its seven-season history. The Hall Ensemble has been unique among Fort Worth chamber music groups in that it has presented many of its concerts in homes rather than traditional concert venues.

Childhood fascination with the harp blossomed into an exciting and successful career as a professional harpist and recording artist for this Houston native. As a self-proclaimed “crusader for music of great heritage”, Therese Honey draws on her vast knowledge of early music history and her stunning virtuosity to bring alive for her audiences the incredibly beautiful music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque eras.

Honey’s unique specialization keeps her in demand for lectures, concerts and festival engagements across the United States. With a vast and varied repertoire that includes familiar classical and popular favorites, she is a first choice for performances at social occasions as a soloist or with chamber groups.

Therese Honey delights and entertains her listeners when she performs on any one of her collection of harps, which range in size from the modern gold Concert Grand harp to the ancient Celtic harp.
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Therese Honey is a specialist in Celtic and Early harps, with a background in classical pedal harp. Therese tours throughout the United States and in 1997 she performed at the 20th Annual Carolan Festival in Keadue, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

Therese performs early music in the Houston area as well as with the Texas Early Music Project (TEMP). She presents concerts of Medieval and Renaissance music on copies of historical harps and wire-strung and other folk harps of ancient design.

She performs traditional music solo and as a member of Wyndnwyre, with an emphasis on the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Wales and 13th-century Medieval music. Therese occasionally joins forces with Istanpitta for performances of Medieval music. She has an active teaching studio in the Houston area and tours throughout the US as a clinician and adjudicator. In addition to her private studio, Therese teaches workshops on Medieval, Renaissance and Celtic repertoire, arranging and style, and Harp Ensemble. She is a dynamic teacher who inspires and motivates her students to learn more about the harp: its technique, repertoire and history.

Sean Kennard has won top prizes in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), the International Music Competition of Viña del Mar (Chile), the Vendome International Piano Competition (Portugal), the Sendai International Music Competition (Japan), the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (USA), the National Chopin Competition, the Iowa Piano Competition, the American Pianists Association, and the International Chopin Competition of the Pacific.

The Washington Post praised Kennard’s “powerful and involved music making,” describing him as “a strong luminous pianist.” His 2011 debut album received a rave review in American Record Guide, which pronounced it “a hidden gem,” attesting to its “perfect blend of lyricism and romantic passion,” “huge romantic sound, and bold melodic vision.” It proclaimed that he “plays the dickens out of the Stravinsky [Three Movements from Petrushka]” and “plays Chopin’s Preludes with more poise and vision than most pianists who  have  recorded them.” Fanfare affirmed the enthusiastic reception, naming the album “a very desirable disc” and citing “Kennard’s mastery of Chopin’s idiom,” its “impression of complete effortlessness” and “emotional responsiveness.” The review characterized his playing as “full of life and sparkle,” summing up: “while  I  wouldn't necessarily say that Kennard outclasses Ashkenazy, Rubinstein, Moravec, Ohlsson…in this repertoire, he surely equals them.”

Grammy winning artist Jonah Kim made his solo debut with Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2003. The same year, he also appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra where the Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan called him simply, “the next Yo-Yo Ma.”

Mr. Kim has soloed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, New Philharmonia, Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional, Orchestra Filarmonica, Symphony of the Americas and many others. He has played in prestigious venues such as New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, California’s Montalvo Arts Center, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Kravis Center in Palm Beach, the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, the Phillips Collection and the John F. Kennedy Center in D .C. where Anne Midgette of the Washington Post praised, “he flirted with the line, shaped it, wrapped it around his fingers, pulled it out in a new dimension, all with practiced ease.”

Highly sought after internationally also as a chamber musician, Mr. Kim is a founding member of the “hip, unstuffy, and malleable  group ” Ensemble San Francisco. He frequents festivals  like  the Atlantic Music Festival, Bari International Music Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, Chamber Music Silicon Valley, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Music in May Santa Cruz, and San Luis Obispo’s Festival Mozaic. As a fellow at the Curtis Institute, he formed a piano trio with Joel Link, currently first violinist of the award-winning Dover Quartet, and international piano sensation Yuja Wang. Coached by some of the leading musicians of their day, they explored the piano trio literature extensively. Since then, Mr. Kim has collaborated with world class  artists  on four continents, sharing the stage with Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, Jon Nakamatsu, Martin Beaver, Chee-Yun Kim and Romie de Guise-Langlois in recent seasons. In a review of his performance at Alliance Français, San Francisco Classical Voice critic David Bratman exclaimed, "this was an excellent performance, the best  I ’ve heard of this piece."

Born in Seoul, Korea, Mr. Kim immigrated to the United States in 1995. His father possessed a keen ear for music despite no formal musical training and introduced him to the cello through VHS tapes of Pablo Casals playing the Bach’s Solo Cello Suites. Learning by imitation, the seven-year old was awarded a full scholarship to the Juilliard School within the year. So began his professional training at Juilliard, but it was not until he met world renowned soloist and pedagogue Janos Starker the following summer that he became certain music was his calling. Attending a  New  York City public school, learning to speak English, and adjusting to life in the United States was not always easy. Starker’s invitation to come study with him was pivotal, inspiring the young cellist to continue with renewed motivation. Starker later remarked, “Jonah is an exceptional talent. He is at the top of his generation.”

Mr. Kim was awarded full scholarships and graduated with top marks at only seventeen years of age from two of the most prestigious conservatories, The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music, regarded as two of the most exclusive educational institutions in the world. His biggest musical influences include Janos Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma. He has also studied with cellists Peter Wiley, Orlando Cole, David Soyer, Joel Krosnick, Aldo Parisot, Lynn Harrell, violinists Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, and pianists Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Seymour Lipkin, Claude Frank and Edward Aldwell

Mr. Kim is the recipient of two Grammy Awards and records across a spectrum of genres. He is also active in the community, dedicated to sharing music and reaching out in ways that positively impact and heal people in  need , bringing music to veterans, ailing patients and children of low income families. As a teacher, his students  have  been awarded scholarships to universities and conservatories in the U.S. and Europe. His masterclasses  have  been described as “captivating and hilarious… relevant to not only musicians, resonating with  all  walks of life.” Between performances, he shares his knowledge with young talent from over 30 countries at Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Camp.

Mr. Kim plays a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello made in 1845 generously on loan, as well as a 2016 Haide Lin, an award winning instrument at the Indianapolis Violin Society of America Competition. His bows are made by Jules Fétique and Émile Auguste Ouchard.

Cellist Matthew Kufchak, a dedicated chamber musician from a young age, has performed for audiences all over the world, from Vienna’s iconic St. Stephen’s Cathedral to Carnegie Hall. He was a silver medalist in the Junior Division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has studied under many of the great quartet musicians of the 20th century, including members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, and Cleveland Quartets. 

He was featured on NPR’s “From the Top” radio and television programs, and received the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in 2007. As cellist of the Cordova Quartet, Matthew performed across the United States and Canada, including a collaboration with Grammy-Award-winning jazz artists Billy Childs and Dianne Reeves, quintet performances with pianists Anton Nel and Robet McDonald, and a set at the 2015 SXSW Music Festival. The Cordova Quartet also completed a two-year residency at the University of Texas, where they studied with the Miró Quartet. Recent projects have included performances for the Austin Camerata chamber music festival and with KINETIC, a chamber orchestra based in Houston. 

Matthew is a committed educator. He maintains a private teaching studio and coaching schedule. He completed his Bachelor and Master degrees in Cello Performance at Rice University, where he studied with Desmond Hoebig and Lynn Harrell, and finished an Artist Diploma at the University of Texas at Austin with Joshua Gindele. In his Free time, he enjoys photography, drinking craft beer, and attempting to brew the perfect cup of coffee. He also loves cooking with his wife Bailey and playing with his dog Mikey. ​

Victoria Luperi was appointed associate principal clarinet with the Pittsburgh Symphony in June 2016. She previously served as principal clarinet with the Fort Worth and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras, and has performed with the Grand Teton, Tanglewood, Verbier, and Mainly Mozart Festivals.

Ms. Luperi premiered “Fantasía sobre Yma Sumac,” a piece for solo clarinet and orchestra written for her by John B Hedges (Miguel Harth-Bedoya/Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra). She has appeared as a soloist with the Madison Symphony, Signature Symphony in Tulsa, Debut Orchestra (Los Angeles), Philharmonia of Kansas City, Córdoba Symphony, Córdoba Chamber Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Luperi has collaborated with members of the Emerson, Vermeer, and Guarneri Quartets, and performed at the Marlboro and Mimir Festivals, the Académie musicale de Villecroze in France, the Oregon Bach Festival, Chicago’s Latino Music Festival, and the Forth Worth Chamber Music Society.

Ms. Luperi has served as Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, Adjunct Faculty at Texas Christian University, and has been on faculty at Brandon University (Canada), the  New  York Summer Music Festival, the Filarmónica Jóven de Colombia, and the Buffet Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.

Victoria Luperi is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Donald Montanaro. She began her music education in her native Argentina with Oscar Gieco, and later studied with Richard Hawkins and Yehuda Gilad. Distinctions include the First Prize in the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, the Interlochen Fine Arts Award, and the Banco Mayo Award of Buenos Aires. She has appeared in concert broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today, WRR 101.1, WFMT, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Ms. Luperi is a Buffet  Group  USA Performing  Artist , and a Vandoren  Artist  and Clinician.

Jolente De Maeyer received the first violin lessons at the age of four. When she was 14 years old, Jolente was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to pursue her musical studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School near London. She continued her studies with Natasha Boyarsky at the Royal College of Music in London, Stephan Picard at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin and Augustin Dumay at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium.

At the age of 6, Jolente started participating in several national and international competitions. That year she became the youngest ever laureate of the Young Tenuto Competition and also received First Prizes in the Charles de Bériot Competition Brussels. Later on Jolente became a prizewinner in several international competitions  like  Cardona International Competition in Portugal, International Violin Competition Liana Issakadze in Russia (2004) and the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition in London (2005). She also became a semi-finalist in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2009.
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Jolente performed as a soloist with the Brussels Philharmonic, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Orchester Royal de Chambre de Wallonnie, Orchester Philharmonique Royal de Liège, The Bruges Chamber Orchestra, Nuove Musiche, the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg State Academic Capella Chamber Orchestra and the St Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony Orchestra. Conductors Jolente has worked with include Philippe Herreweghe, Patrick Davin, Etienne Siebens, Pascale Rophé, Silveer Van den Broeck, Dirk Brossé, James Stobart, Michel Tilkin, Stefaan Fraas, Alexander Chernushenko and Rudolf Werthen.

In 2013 Jolente made her debut in America (Texas) with the Waco Symphony Orchestra and Stephen Heyde, where she performed Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. This was followed by a recital tour with Nikolaas Kende in Texas. In Belgium Jolente regularly performs in halls  like  Bozar, Flagey, the Elisabeth Hall, the Singel and the Roma and she participated in festivals such as the Festival of Flanders, Festival de Montpellier and Menton. Furthermore, she has performed in such countries as Russia, France, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, The Netherlands, Spain, as well as at London's Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland.
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Since 2003, Jolente has formed a duo with her husband pianist Nikolaas Kende. Together they formed the Rubens ensemble in 2007. Jolente recorded the 6th Violin Concerto or Henri Vieuxtemps in 2010 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège with Patrick Davin. This recording received the René Snepvangers prize from the Belgian Music Press in 2011. In 2013 Jolente recorded the 2nd Violin Concerto of Saint Saëns with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège with Christian Arming.

Pianist Melissa Marse performs extensively worldwide and in American venues including Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Pierpont Morgan Library, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Gardner Museum. Her Carnegie Weill debut recital (with the Lincoln Piano trio) was presented by the late Isaac Stern in 2001. 

Additionally, she has been returning guest artist for CarnegieKids, and was music director, coach, and pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s Growing Up With Opera. She collaborates with members of the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, London Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony, and for three years has played in the Mark O’Connor Piano Trio.

Pam Vliek Martchev served as principal flute with the Boulder Philharmonic in Colorado for 10 seasons, and has been a guest principal flutist of the Santa Barbara Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, and Long Beach Opera.

For 2 seasons she subbed as 2nd flute with the LA Philharmonic. She has been featured on many chamber music series such as La Jolla Summerfest, Jacaranda, Dilijan, Le Salon de Musique, Luscious Noise, PIE, Bruman at UCLA, LACMA Sundays Live, Chamber Music Unbound in Mammoth, The Divan Consort, and Hear Now. You may have heard her on movie soundtracks such as Spiderman 3, CDs with grammy winner Billy Childs, television specials with Andrea Bocelli and Mariah Carey, and in the pit for broadway shows such as King and I, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked. Ms. Vliek Martchev went to Manhattan School of Music for their pre-college program and her Bachelor of Music. She has been a guest teacher at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC); University of Oregon, Eugene; and Manhattan School of Music. Her students have auditioned successfully for conservatory degrees across the country, and CA All-Southern and All-State ensembles. She is currently a Haynes Ambassador Clinician, and is the flute teacher at San Diego State University, Pt. Loma Nazarene University, SDSMI, and University of San Diego.

Demarre McGill is a leading soloist, recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Diego and Baltimore symphony orchestras and, at age 15, the Chicago Symphony.

In 2018 he performed and presented master classes in South Africa, Korea and Japan, was soloist with the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and on May 20, 2018 performed with the Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington DC in a program entitled "Bernstein the Humanitarian.”

Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, he previously served as principal flute of the Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He recently served as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and earlier with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

A founding member of The Myriad Trio, and former member of Chamber Music Society Two, Demarre has participated in the Aspen, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Seattle and Stellenbosch chamber music festivals, to  name  a few.  He is the co-founder of The Art of Élan and, along with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Michael McHale, founded the McGill/McHale Trio in 2014. Their first CD, "Portraits," released in August 2017, has received rave reviews. 

Media credits include appearances on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, & Network's The Gifted Ones, NBC's Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, with his brother Anthony when they were teenagers, on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

A native of Chicago, Demarre McGill began studying the flute at age 7 and attended the Merit School of Music. In the years that followed, until he left Chicago, he studied with Susan Levitin. He received his Bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and a Master's degree at The Juilliard School. In September of 2017 he was named Visiting Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, having been labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer for their “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity.” For the past twenty years the Quartet has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from passionate critics and audiences alike.

Based in Austin, TX, and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of  all  backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music. Highlights of recent seasons include a highly anticipated and sold-out return to Carnegie Hall; a performance at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s inaugural residency; the world premiere of a  new  concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts; performances of the complete Beethoven Cycle at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall; and debuts in Korea, Singapore, and at the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival. The Quartet’s 2018-19 season includes performances for the  New  York Philharmonic with Gabriel Kahane; collaborations with Anton Nel, Clive Greensmith, and Martin Beaver; and appearances at La Jolla’s  new  Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, and for the Detroit Chamber Music Society and the LMMC in Montreal. Other recent highlights include performances at the Phillips Collection, Chamber Music Monterey Bay, the Green Music Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Emerald City Music in Seattle, as well as collaborations with David Shifrin, Jeffrey Kahane, and Wu Han, and a performance of the complete Beethoven cycle in just nine days for Chamber Music Tulsa. Since 2003 the Miró has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, and in 2005, the Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Miró Quartet took its  name  and its inspiration from the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works — with subject matter drawn from the realm of memory, dreams, and imaginative fantasy — are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the 20th century.

Lauded for his “impassioned and vigorous” playing (Pianomania), pianist Evan Mitchell has established himself as a bold and versatile artist. Evan’s richly varied schedule consistently includes solo recitals, concerti, chamber music, and performances as an orchestral keyboardist. His performances have been deemed “incredibly beautiful” (Fanfare), “amazing” (Fort Worth Weekly), and “no less than stunning” (Lima News). Evan’s new recording of world premieres with bassist Szymon Marciniak is earning rave reviews; most recently, Bass World called their performances “intoxicating,” calling this “a seminal recording.” He is also featured on the 2012 release “Piano de Pampa y Jungla: A Collection of Latin American Piano Music.”

Evan’s performances have been heard in New York’s Steinway Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, in ten countries on four continents, and broadcast on WFMT (Chicago), WFHB (Bloomington, IN), FM 91 (Northwest Ohio), Shanghai Classical FM Radio, and KXII-TV (Sherman, TX). His solo highlights include debuts for Cliburn at the Modern, the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), and at several major venues in Shanghai. He has played concerti with such ensembles as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Lima Symphony Orchestra, and the Victoria Symphony; collaborated with conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Case Scaglione, Darryl One, Crafton Beck, and Richard McKay; and has performed chamber music with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, and Rio de Janeiro (OSB). Recent engagements include concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, and a debut on the longstanding Basically Beethoven Festival (Dallas).

Equally in demand as a collaborative pianist, Evan has performed in recital with such major artists as double bassist Gary Karr, flutists Leone Buyse and Jim Walker, clarinetists Corrado Giuffredi and Michael Webster, and hornist Javier Bonet. He has been engaged for several seasons on the Mount Vernon Music and Color of Sound chamber series and served as a staff accompanist for conventions held by the International Society of Bassists and BassEuro; the Myrna Brown Flute Competition and Cliburn Junior International Piano Competition; and the TCU Flute and Double Bass Festivals. 

A passionate and articulate advocate for the arts, Evan looks constantly for ways to reach new audiences, and to inspire in others a love for music. The Texas Commission on the Arts has honored Evan as a Texas Touring Roster Artist since 2014, and this season, he returns for a ninth year as a featured artist for Cliburn in the Classroom®, the signature educational outreach program of the Cliburn. Other performance affiliations include Avant Chamber Ballet, Texas Winds Musical Outreach, Fort Worth Opera, and DFW-based Open Classical, whose motto – “Music that’s dressed down, not dumbed down” – summarizes a mission to present classical music in less formal, unconventional spaces. 

Evan has captured first prize in the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Five Towns Competition, and the PianoTexas International Festival Concerto Competition. Most recently, he gave a recital at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City as a quarterfinalist in the Honens International Piano Competition.

Evan holds degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (BM, MM) and Texas Christian University (DMA), where his principal teachers have included John Owings, Arnaldo Cohen and the late José Feghali, and he has worked with numerous renowned artist-teachers including Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, Barry Douglas, and Ann Schein. He has served on the faculty of Tarrant County College and has recently given guest masterclasses at the University of Florida, Santa Fe College, Texas Wesleyan University, Western Kentucky University, and Southwestern University. For more information, please visit www.evanmitchell.net.
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Johannes Moller is, since 2018, the Ambassador of ZhengAn Guitar in China, which is the largest investment of it's kind in Guitar history. ZhengAn is a city in Guizhou which  have  made guitar manufacturing and guitar culture its main priority. The city has encouraged hundreds of guitar manufacturing companies to set up their production there. Currently about five million guitars are produced there every year. Currently a concert hall dedicated to guitar as well as a guitar museum and a 99 meter guitar tower is under construction. 

In 2010 Johannes was awarded the first prize in the Concert Artist Competition Guitar Foundation of America (GFA), considered by many to be the most prestigious classical guitar competition in the world. Today Johannes performs close to a hundred concerts per year and have a large following in China, Europe, Australia, North & South America. An engraving of his name can be found on on the walls of the Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam (as a recognition of excellence given by the Vriendenkrans Concours). All these things are indicative of the musical calibre we have come to expect from international concert players, yet Johannes is known primarily for things other than his performing excellence.

Acquiring his skills in both performance and composition at an early age and in a free setting provided Johannes with the highly characterised and idiosyncratic voice that many listeners around the world  have  come to admire. It seems clear that it was an instinctive urge to  create  that drove this course, and with these beginnings Johannes was set to become an icon of 21st century music-making.
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Johannes has earned a Bachelor of Music with Honors from the Royal College of Music in London and he has received two Masters degree from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and from the Amsterdam Conservatory.

A native of Orlando, Florida, cellist Joanna Morrison completed her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees at Boston University studying under Leslie Parnas and George Neikrug. In 2007 Ms. Morrison won a position in the Honolulu Symphony and served as principal cello of the Hawaii Symphony from 2012 to 2015.

Concert tours have taken Ms. Morrison to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea as well as much of Europe and the United States performing under conductors including Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck. An avid chamber player, Ms. Morrison has collaborated with artists including Jon Kimura Parker, Chee-Yun Kim, Joyce Yang and Thomas Sauer and has studied under members of the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets. While in Hawaii, Ms. Morrison was a member of Chamber Music Hawaii’s Galliard String Quartet and the Ebb and Flow Arts modern ensemble. She has received fellowships to summer festivals around the world including Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, AIMS in Graz, Austria, International Festival Institute at Round Top, Blossom Music Festival, Cascade Music Festival and Verbier Festival where she served as principal cellist for the world tour with Charles Dutoit and Martha Argerich. In recent summers Ms. Morrison has been on faculty at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and participated in the Britt Festival in Oregon. Joanna Morrison resides in San Diego with her husband, violist Ethan Pernela, their daughters, Zoe and Madeleine, and two dogs, Mochi and Riley.

The Myriad Trio​ is a unique ensemble of soloists and chamber musicians, three principal players of major symphony orchestras have joined together to embark on the beautiful instrumental combination that Debussy made famous with his Sonate for Flute, Viola and Harp. Playing both traditional and contemporary works, Demarre McGill, Che-Yen Chen, and Julie Smith Phillips arrange and commission new works for this ensemble of flute, viola & harp. They have toured the US and Asia.

Called "a genuine virtuoso" by the Dallas Morning News, Julia Pautz has been a member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra since 2010. A native Texan, Ms. Pautz earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music degree with honors from the University of Southern California and a professional studies certificate from The Colburn School. Following her studies Ms. Pautz joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. In Texas she also served on faculty of the preparatory department at Texas Christian University.

While in Los Angeles Ms. Pautz studied with renowned violin pedagogue Robert Lipsett. She has also held a Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and attended the New York String Orchestra Seminar. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Ms. Pautz has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center, ENCORE School for Strings, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Basically Beethoven series, the Abiquiu Chamber Music series and the Blanco Performing Arts series. While a member of the Texas-based Hall Ensemble chamber group, Ms. Pautz toured throughout the southwestern United States to critical acclaim.

Julia Pautz now happily splits her time between making beautiful music with her colleagues and mothering her busy preschooler Jackson.

Artist archive Continued

A native of Oregon, Ethan Pernela joined the viola section of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in spring of 2015. Ethan completed his Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Graduate Diploma with honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied with James Dunham and Martha Strongin Katz.

After receiving a fellowship to the New World Symphony in 2007, Mr. Pernela won a viola position in the Honolulu Symphony under the baton of Andreas Delfs. Prior to his move to Honolulu, he performed with the Saint Louis Symphony, Portland Symphony, World Symphony Orchestra of Korea, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Verbier Chamber Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, where he served as principal violist. Ethan also performed in festivals including Yellow Barn, Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Musicorda and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Orchestral concert tours have taken Mr. Pernela to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore as well as much of Europe and the United States, working with conductors including Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, David Zinman, Manfred Honeck and Michael Tilson Thomas. An active chamber musician, Mr. Pernela has been a member of Chamber Music Hawaii’s Galliard String Quartet as well as the Ebb and Flow Arts modern ensemble. He has collaborated with artists including Donald Weilerstein, Jon Kimura Parker, Chee-Yun, Joyce Yang, Natasha Brofsky and the Borromeo String Quartet. His passion for chamber music comes from his work with Eric Rosenblith and Raphael Hillyer at New England Conservatory, where his quartet was accepted into the Honors Ensemble Program. When not playing viola, Ethan Pernela enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, cellist Joanna Morrison, and their two dogs, Mochi and Riley.

REVEL was formed in 2008 by cellist Joel Becktell and pianist Carla McElhaney to fill an abandoned niche in classical music. Their musical heroes——Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich… (the whole list is extremely long)——would never have recognized the formal, some would say “uptight,” classical music scene of the mid- to late 20th century.

Frankly, it wasn’t doing much for Carla and Joel either. So they established REVEL to return the classical music experience to its radical roots, a place where musicians and their friends got together in intimate settings to let their hair down and revel in great music.

In 2010 they began to collaborate in concert with other favorite musicians, including violinist Cármelo de los Santos, violinist David Felberg, clarinetist James Shields, tenor JR Fralick, saxophonist Sunil Gadgil, baritone Ryan Heller, saxophonist and jazz vocalist Liz Love, harpist Elaine Barber, violist Matt Diekman, percussionist Graeme Francis, double bassist Pat Harris, the Bel Cuore Saxophone Quartet, and many more. The results have been inspiring. Classical music lovers have found in REVEL a new expression for their passion, and non-classical audiences have awakened to a genre and repertoire far more rich and inspired than they previously imagined.

Colombia’s celebrated classical music star, virtuoso pianist Eduardo Rojas, is renowned for his delicate touch, colorful tone and the deep musicality with which he delivers his powerful, fiery renditions of European and PanAmerican repertoire. His flawless technique, vast knowledge of composition theory and historical background of the works he choses to present, earn him the admiration and respect of fellow musicians and critics while his big heart, courage and humanity win him the love of his audiences.

Eduardo Rojas has performed as soloist works by Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Grieg and others with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the Bogotá Philharmonic, Valle Philharmonic (Cali, Colombia), EAFIT University Symphony Orchestra (Medellín, Colombia), the Panamá National Symphony Orchestra (Panama City), the American Wind Symphony (Pennsylvania),  New  Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving (Texas), the Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), and the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra (Wisconsin). His tour with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia was a great success and marked the start of an active relationship between Rojas and Colombia’s system of youth orchestras, the Batuta Foundation.

Eduardo Rojas has represented his native country at various music festivals in Bolivia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and has been a featured guest  artist  at the Popayán International Music Festival in Colombia and at the celebrations for Chopin’s 200th birthday at the renowned Luis Angel Arango Concert Hall in Bogotá, Colombia. His recital programs span the gamut of classical European as well as North and South American composers. His uniquely authentic renditions of works by Ástor Piazzolla, Hector Villalobos, George Gershwin and others are always highlights of his solo recitals.

For 2013 Eduardo Rojas returned once more to his home country to perform Piano Sonatas at the 1st Bogota Beethoven Festival and in Summer to present Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2 on tour with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia with a grand finale at the  New  World Symphony Center in Miami, Florida. Another highlight on  last  year’s calendar was the performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto #5 with the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra.

Eduardo Rojas has finished recording his first classical album – Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 1 – to be released later this year. He is currently in the studio to record an album of Latin American Art Music featuring composers Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ástor Piazzolla and others.

In addition to his concertizing and recording schedule Eduardo Rojas devotes time to support programs for music education and cultural exchange between North and South America.

Born in Barranquilla, Colombia, Eduardo Rojas began taking piano lessons with his father, Eduardo Rojas, at the age of five. At age thirteen he entered the University of Cauca where he completed his studies under the tutelage of Uruguayan pianist Manfred Gerhardt. In 2005 he was awarded a full scholarship to Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Rojas received his  Artist  Diploma in 2009 and his Master in Piano Performance in 2011. His piano teachers included Harold Martina, Veda Kaplinsky, Joseph Kalichstein, José Feghali, and Steve Harlos.

Gabriel Sánchez is on the keyboard staff of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden and collaborates often with DSO musicians including new Concertmasters, Alexander Kerr and Nathan Olson.

Sánchez was a top prize winner in the 1997 Casablanca International Piano Competition in Morocco and is a laureate of other international competitions, including the Marguerite Long in Paris (France), the Gina Bachauer in Salt Lake City (USA), and the Paloma O' Shea in Santander (Spain). He has performed throughout the United States and internationally in recital and as soloist with orchestra, including performances at Pianofest in the Hamptons, New York, with the Dallas Symphony under Kerry-Lynn Wilson and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco and the Irving Symphony under Hector Guzman.

Robert Carlos Contreras Roman, Mexican music critic, wrote that Sanchez performed with "gran passion yexpresividad estilistica." In London, he performed at the Royal Academy of Music, in Paris at the Salle Gaveau, in Santander, Spain at the Palacio de Festivales, in Casablanca, Morocco at the Salle de l'Office des Changes, and in the Dominican Republic with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional. In Thessaloniki, Greece, he performed a solo recital to benefit Lions Club International.

He studied at London's Royal Academy of Music under a full scholarship and continued his studies at the University of North Texas under his beloved teacher and mentor, Vladimir Viardo, 1973 Van Cliburn Gold Medalist.

Sánchez is in high demand as a collaborative pianist and has partnered in recitals with Stanislav Katenin (principal bassoon, National Philharmonic of Russia), Gordon Hunt (principal oboe, Philharmonia Orchestra, London), Jacques Zoon (former Principal Flute, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam), Mark Nuccio (Associate Principal Clarinet, New York Philharmonic) and Paul Edmond Davies (former Principal Flute, London Symphony Orchestra), as well as world renowned artists Gary Schocker, Alexa Still, Marco Granados, Thomas Robertello, Rolf Smedvig, Ian Clarke, Mike Mower and Jean Ferrandis.

Recent MSR CD releases, all received with critical acclaim, include Ballade, Works for Flute and Piano (with Kara Kirkendoll Welch, flutist), Scree (with Elena Yarritu, flutist) and Rêver en Couleurs (with Lisa Garner Santa, flutist). Recent reviews include: Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News, "Sánchez dispatched [the Nielsen Flute Concerto piano reduction] with such èlan that it sounded utterly idiomatic," Carla Rees, Music Web International, "[he] plays with wonderful sensitivity," and American Record Guide, "…Sánchez is superb."

Mr. Sánchez is also a dedicated educator. He taught piano, music history, music theory and accompanying at the celebrated Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts in Dallas from 1996-2003. Since then, he has maintained a select private piano studio and has been involved with DSO educational outreach programs, and served on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado.

Esther Sanders is an active performer and teacher currently living in Austin, Texas. She was appointed Principal Second Violin of Austin Opera in 2013 and joined the First Violin section of the Austin Symphony in 2015. She gives recitals and house concerts as a soloist and chamber musician, including performances with Tetractys, a new music concert series based in Austin. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Esther Sanders has performed as a soloist with the Richmond Symphony and Petersburg Symphony. 

She has also given chamber music performances in Vienna and southern France as part of the Aix Festival. She received a Bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University where she studied with Christian Teal. While in Nashville, she performed with the Nashville Symphony and Chattanooga Symphony, taught at Belmont University’s Belmont Academy, and was an active studio musician playing on several soundtracks for Sony Playstation, Sega, and Warner Brothers. She has performed with artists such as Michael Buble, Il Volo, and Michael W. Smith. 

Esther received a Master’s degree in violin performance from UT Austin where she studied with Sandy Yamamoto. She also worked with the Miro Quartet and David Kim. An avid teacher of all ages and levels, she maintains a private violin studio and is on faculty at Texas Lutheran University, Concordia University, Austin Community College, Texas Strings Camp, and Austin Chamber Music Center. ​

Described by Gramophone Magazine as a "violinist who most often takes your breath away" and praised as an "expressive and passionate chamber musician" by the San Antonio Express-News, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader.

Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and member of the Argenta Trio, she is also Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she founded in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. Previously First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra, under Christoph von Dohnányi, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons. Ms. Sant'Ambrogio has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2009, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and the following year was appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra. That same year she was awarded UNR's prestigious Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to her active performing career, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many who  have  won positions in America's symphonies and universities.

Ms. Sant'Ambrogio has a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs. Audiophile Review described her Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas CD as one of "fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding." Her other releases include Late Dates with Mozart; Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola and Soaring Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola, II on the MSR Classics label, as well as Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn on Bridge Records. In addition to her performances as violinist, violist and Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, Ms. Sant'Ambrogio frequently performs and teaches at various festivals including: Bach, Dancing & Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Nevada Chamber Music Festival (NV); Music in the Vineyards (CA); Round Top Festival Institute (TX); and, Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada).

Her chamber music activities  have  included performances and recordings with such noted  artists  as William Preucil, Ida Kavafian, Richard Stoltzman, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson, Jon Kimura Parker and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Bridge Records and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances are heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today. Ms. Sant'Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest  artist  with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland's Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant'Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Buswell.

The  name  Sant'Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant'Ambrogio, former Principal Cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For thirty years the Sant'Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp, which was founded by grandmother Isabelle Schiebler Sant'Ambrogio, a celebrated concert pianist. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant'Ambrogio family for four generations. Ms. Sant'Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy, the city from which the family  name  Sant'Ambrogio originates. She and her graphic designer husband Gary Albright, enjoy exploring Lake Tahoe with their daughters, nineteen-year-old Isabel and seventeen-year-old Gabrielle.

Critics have hailed Michael Schneider as “a pianist with exceptional insight” and a “performer with great panache” in performances across the states and abroad. Michael has performed in legendary venues such as the château of George Sand in Nohant, France, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and the Library of Congress. 

He has been a featured guest artist at the International Chopin Festival in France, the Music Festival of the Hamptons, directed by Lukas Foss, ‘Pianotune’ Festival in Brussels, the Hungarian Festival in Cancun, Mexico, the American Liszt Society Annual Conference, the Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, CA, and for seven summers was an audience favorite at Pianofest in the Hamptons. On February 5, 2011, with one day’s notice, Michael gave a full length solo recital in place of the cancelled San Angelo Symphony Concert due to inclement weather.
 
In recent years, Michael has performed the Liszt E-flat Concerto with the San Angelo Symphony, the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Irving  New  Philharmonic Orchestra, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with the San Angelo and Plano Symphonies, the Brahms  D  minor Concerto with the Lewisville Lake Symphony, and the Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos with the UT University Orchestra. Other concerto appearances  have  included the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (IL), the Richardson Symphony Orchestra (TX), the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra (OK), the Harding University Orchestra (AK), and the Big Spring Symphony (TX).
 
Championing the music of Franz Liszt, Michael is quickly becoming known for his portrayal of Franz Liszt in his monodrama “Liszt and the  Last  Years”, which combines an original script based off of factual events with performances of works completed with a PowerPoint backdrop. This has been featured at the annual conventions of the Music Teachers Association of California and the Texas Music Teachers Association as well as performed at the University of Texas at Austin for numerous donor groups. Other lecture/presentations Michael has given include “Gottschalk: Life and Works”, “The Common Mistakes of Practicing”, and “Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue” – a children’s book by Anna Harwell Celenza read by Michael while providing soundtrack from the piano.
 
As a collaborator, he has performed recitals with violinists Frank Almond (concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony), Jun Iwasaki (concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony), cellist Boris Andrianov (3rd prize winner of Tchaikovsky Competition) and many others. He is a regular performer with Mélange Musical, a chamber series in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex. In July 2010, with only a few days notice, he performed with several stars in the trombone world, including full recitals with Jorgen van Rijen (international recording  artist ), Ian Bousfield (principal trombonist of the Vienna Philharmonic), and Jacques Mauger (trombonist of the Paris Opera and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire). In 2014, Michael finished recording a CD entitled "Multiple Personae: The Family of Clarients" for clarinet and piano by Virko Baley with clarinetist Dr. Timothy Bonenfant on the TNC Classical Label.
 
Michael is the creator and artistic director of the San Angelo Piano Festival, a classical music festival in West Texas with an emphasis on the piano repertoire. Annual events include guest  artist  recitals, impromptu musicales, a composition contest, and a young  artist  program that includes a competition, master classes and a showcase recital. Michael is also a co-creator of the Austin Piano Festival, established in 2013.
 
Michael holds degrees from the University of North Texas, where he studied with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Mr. Paul Schenly. After two years as adjunct Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University in Ohio, he returned to Texas to study with Anton Nel at the University of Texas at Austin where he received his Doctorate of Music in May 2011. In the fall of 2010, Michael guest taught in place of  artist -in-residence Dr. Michelle Schumann at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. He has also been adjunct faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and Concordia University-Austin.

Principal clarinetist of the San Antonio Symphony and Principal clarinetist of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Ilya Shterenberg balances a busy career as an orchestral musician, chamber music performer, and a soloist.

Hailed by the press: “He possesses that miraculous gift of an innate musical sense… music seemed to flow toward the infinite, as if divinely ordained”, he has been featured as a soloist with San Antonio and Charleston symphonies, performing works by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Debussy, and Strauss, as well as rarely heard clarinet concertos by Krommer and Kurpinsky.

He has been featured as Principal clarinetist with Cincinnati and Seattle Symphonies and has collaborated with some of the most notable conductors of our time, including Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Dennis Russell Davies, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim, George Solti, Pierre Boulez and others.

Away from the orchestras, Ilya is very active as chamber musician, festival performer, and educator. He is a member of the Olmos Ensemble, a chamber  group  made up of principal woodwind players from the San Antonio Symphony. His summer appearances  have  included Colorado Music Festival and Britt Festival, as well as the Piccolo Spoleto Festival – USA. As an educator, he has been a faculty member of the College of Charleston, the University of Texas San Antonio, and UT Austin.

A native of Ukraine, Ilya began his music education at the Kosenko Music College, in Zhitomir, city of his birth. After his immigration to the United States in 1989, he received an  Artist  Certificate diploma from the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, after which he did further study at DePaul University in Chicago. His principal teachers  have  included Larry Combs, Stephen Girko, and Charles Neidich.

Mr. Shterenberg’s performances  have  been heard on National Public Radio stations throughout the country as well as Chicago’s WFMT nationwide classical music network. He performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber music  artist  with Cactus Pear Music Festival and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival.

Ilya is a Buffet Crampon USA performing artist.

Celebrating its 25th season, SOLI Chamber Ensemble has upheld its reputation for giving new voice to 20th and 21st century classical contemporary music and for its strong commitment to commissioning new works. Known for breathing life into the music of living composers, SOLI has twice been voted “Best Chamber Ensemble” by The San Antonio Current and continues to mesmerize audiences with its cutting edge performances around the country and the world.

Winner of 2013 CMA/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award

​Founded in 1994, the San Antonio, Texas-based ensemble annually presents seasons of innovative programs and breaks down stereotypes linked with classical music by performing in art galleries and other intimate spaces, allowing audiences to get up close to the performers and the music, and enhance their concert going experience. SOLI’s touring schedule has taken them to such cities as Alba, Busca, San Remo, New York City, Houston, Denver, Austin, Colorado Springs, Louisville, and Dallas, and more. SOLI was one of the first chamber groups invited to perform in the first-ever classical music event at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music & Media Festival in Austin, Texas. SOLI performed the music of American composers Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Michael Torke, and John Adams to a sellout crowd at this Boosey & Hawkes Music Company-sponsored program.

SOLI’s strong commitment to commissioning new works has resulted in more than over 80 works from emerging and established composers. The ensemble has premiered works by Steven Mackey, Matthew Aucoin, Clarice Assad, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, Robert X. Rodriguez, Tim Kramer, David Heuser, Alexandra Gardner, Elliott McKinley, Erich Stem, and many others.

SOLI is also deeply devoted to education. Each season, SOLI presents a series of short concerts for young people entitled “SOLI Saturday’s”. These concerts introduce the music of today and tomorrow to our next generation of listeners. As Trinity University’s Ensemble in Residence since 2008, SOLI performs frequently on the campus, conducts open rehearsals, advises, guides and coaches student chamber groups, and closely works with the student composers. Annually SOLI takes its residency program on tour to other universities and colleges throughout the U.S.

SOLI’s outreach programs enables music to reach audiences that otherwise may not be able to attend live performances of any kind. SOLI uses the music of our time to reach people in hospitals, hospices, clinics, and rehabilitation centers

SOLI has received numerous awards including the 2013 Chamber Music America/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award, and grants from the City of San Antonio, Department of Arts & Culture, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Tobin Endowment, New Music USA’s Creative Connections, the Cornyation Foundation, Meet the Composer, The Russell Hill Rogers Fund for the Arts, the Argosy Foundation, The Amphion Foundation, among others.

Formed in 2009, the Texas Guitar Quartet has been hailed as “Impeccable in every respect” by Classical Guitar Magazine. Throughout the United States, Central America, Spain, and China, audiences have embraced the quartet for their daring programs, dazzling virtuosity and joyful music making. 

Recent highlights include performances for the Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra 2016 (Nicaragua), Victoria Bach Festival, Guitar Foundation of America Convention, Festival Internacional del Noreste (Mexico), and Texas Music Festival. During the summer of 2015, the quartet presented a series of concerts in historic cathedrals along the Camino de Santiago, Spain.

The TxGQ premiered a landmark  new  work by lauded American composer Nico Muhly in collaboration with Grammy-winning chamber choir Conspirare, Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and the Dublin Guitar Quartet. The  group  continues to push the boundaries of the guitar quartet medium by premiering  new  works by Joseph Williams II, Peter Lieuwen, Mark Anthony Cruz, Benoit Albert, and John Truitt and creating daring arrangements of orchestral works by Mozart, Beethoven and Ravel.

Red, the quartet's first album, was released to critical acclaim and was praised by Guitar International as a “tremendous accomplishment for the classical guitar...the TxGQ perform with virtuosity, clarity, balance, and a refined character which will no doubt help to establish them as one of today’s leading guitar quartets.” Their upcoming album, Icon, features the complete 40th Symphony by Mozart and was released in 2017.

The TxGQ has been featured in concertos with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra (Maestro Marcelo Bussiki), Camerata Bach and Nicaraguan Youth Symphony (Maestro César Bermúdez Rodriguez), Sam Houston State University Symphony Orchestra (Maestro Zachary Carretin), Abilene Philharmonic (Maestro David Itkin), and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (Columbus, GA). Their commitment to performing outreach concerts led them to be part of the Texas Commission on the Arts Texas Touring  Artist  Roster from 2010 to 2018. The TxGQ is Isaac Bustos, Joseph Palmer, Jay Kacherski, and Alejandro Montiel.

Quickly becoming one of the most talked about and sought after musical ambassadors to Generation Z, violinist Chloé Trevor has combined her technical brilliance, spirit for classical music and her passion for mentoring the youth of today to connect with audiences in exciting and innovative ways. Silver medalist of the Ima Hogg Competition, critics have acclaimed Chloé for her “dazzling technique”, “excellent musicianship”, “huge tone”, “poise and professional grace”, and “bold personality unafraid to exult in music and ability”.

She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras worldwide, including the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Latvian Chamber Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic, Plano Symphony, and the Knoxville Symphony. She made her New York concerto debut in 2013 and Avery Fisher Hall debut in 2014.

Chloé was the Grand Prize winner at the 2006 Lynn Harrell Competition and the 2005 Lennox Competition. She has been a featured soloist with the Dallas Symphony at the Meyerson Symphony Center, and with the Missouri Symphony on tour throughout the state. At age thirteen she appeared on the nationally syndicated radio program From the Top.

Chloé has appeared as a soloist with the Lutoslawski Filharmonie (Poland), the Teplice Philharmonic (Czech Republic), and a tour with the Latvian Chamber Orchestra. She was also invited as a soloist in the Young Prague Spring Festival to give recitals and perform the Mendelssohn Concerto in and around Prague. 

More recent performances included Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Dallas Symphony and Prokofiev's 2nd Concerto both at Sala São Paulo in Brazil and with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra as a result of winning the Cleveland Institute of Music's Concerto Competition.

She went on to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Houston Symphony and recitals at the Music in the Mountains Festival with pianist David Korevaar. She opened the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra’s 2010-11 season with the Barber Violin Concerto and the Missouri Symphony’s “Hot Summer Nights” 2011 Opening Gala with the Brahms Concerto. She returned to perform the Beethoven Concerto with the Knoxville Symphony for their Diamond anniversary season.

In 2013, Chloé performed the Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the Missouri Symphony and was a guest soloist with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in the Czech Republic for their annual Christmas concert. In November 2014, the Dallas Morning News described Chloé as an artist “supplying tonal refinement, technical facility and natural musicality” in her performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5. Chloe’s September 2017 performance of Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 2 was hailed as “thrilling and seamless” by Arts+Culture Magazine, “[bringing] out the nuanced drama inherent in Glass’ music.”

Having recently concluded her first tours of Australia, Singapore, Spain, and Mexico, Chloé’s upcoming engagements include multiple recitals in North America and appearances with Filarmonia Xalapa, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, the Midland Symphony Orchestra, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, and the El Paso Symphony Orchestra.

Dedicated to music education and outreach, Chloé regularly connects with students and teachers through interactive performances, masterclasses, and lectures, both in person and online. With an extensive and ever-growing following via social media, Chloé enjoys spreading her message of positivity and encouragement to hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis in order to influence present and future generations of classical musicians. Summer 2018 marks the inaugural year of the Chloé Trevor Music Academy, an intensive two-week program for string players and pianists offering one-on-one instruction, chamber music coaching, masterclasses, orchestral training, and career guidance by the world's premier soloists, teachers, and conductors. 

Chloé was introduced to the violin at age 2 by her mother, Heidi Trevor Itashiki, Dallas Symphony violinist. She later studied with Arkady Fomin, Dallas Symphony violinist and Artistic Director of the New Conservatory of Dallas. Chloé has made numerous appearances on the concert stage with her father, internationally recognized conductor and teacher, Kirk Trevor. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with David and Linda Cerone, and her graduate degree as a scholarship student at Rice University studying with Kenneth Goldsmith. Chloé plays on a Carlo Landolfi violin made in Italy in 1771 and bows by Etienne Pajeot and Émile-Auguste Ouchard.

Soloist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, producer, and arts administrator Jonathan Tsay maintains an artistic career as diverse as his interests. A recent multi-city tour of Taiwan included solo recital stops at the National Recital Hall in Taipei, Kaohsiung Music Hall, and the Pingtung Arts Center. Other recent solo engagements include performances for The Cliburn, Music at Southminster in Ottawa, Blanco Performing Arts, and Fine Arts Chamber Players.

A sought after collaborator, Dr. Tsay has also performed alongside some of the world’s premier musicians, including Chee-Yun, David Cooper (Principal Horn, Berlin Philharmonic), Jing Wang (Concertmaster, Hong Kong Philharmonic), dramatic soprano Alessandra Marc, Chloé Trevor (“musical ambassador to Generation Z”), the Cézanne Quartet, and Nathan Olson (Concertmaster, Dallas Symphony Orchestra). Jonathan performs regularly as Principal Keyboard of the Las Colinas Symphony. Jonathan also serves as Artistic Director of Ensemble75, a chamber music series based out of Dallas, Texas.

Jonathan's recordings can be found in Brahms - A Listener's Guide: Unlocking the Masters Series, as well as on Chloé Trevor’s album Immortal and Danse Macabre. A solo CD, Portfolio, was released in 2009, and Jonathan's collaborative album Harmonic Allusions was released in September 2017. Away from the piano bench, Jonathan is the host of the classical music podcast entitled "Between the Barlines" which explores the lives of the various personalities that make up the classical musical landscape in the DFW Metroplex.

Increasingly popular as a masterclass teacher, Dr. Tsay has given masterclasses for Taiwan National University of the Arts, Kaohsiung Normal University, Soochow University, Stephen F. Austin State University, and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He has served on the screening jury for the Dallas International Piano Competition as well as adjudicator for numerous competitions including the Texas Music Teacher's Association Solo Competition and Austin Youth Music Ambassadors.

Dr. Tsay started his piano studies with Carolyn Savko at the age of five. Under the tutelage of Dr. Carol Leone, Jonathan earned a Bachelors of Music with Honors at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. Jonathan entered l’Université de Montréal as a Masters of Music student of Marc Durand, and received his doctorate through an accelerated program. Jonathan’s musical background also includes composition studies with Simon Sargon and David Karp, and conducting with Jack Delaney and Paul Phillips.

Violist Blake Turner, a native of San Antonio, Texas, has appeared in a wide range of venues around the world including performances in China, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the World Trade Center in Curaçao, Netherland Antilles, and Miami’s New World Center. Blake is an accomplished orchestral musician, performing regularly as Assistant Principal Viola of the Austin Symphony and as a substitute with the Houston and New World Symphonies. He also performed with the San Antonio Symphony after winning the American Viola Society’s Orchestral Excerpt Competition. 

Blake is a sought after chamber musician who has performed alongside members of the Cordova and Miró Quartets and collaborated with musicians such as Robert McDonald and Anton Nel. Blake has been invited to appear at music festivals in Aspen, Colorado, and Madeline Island, Wisconsin, and developed a winter concert series in collaboration with the Aspen Music Festival to bring chamber music to Aspen during ski season. Blake is an active music educator. He has coached chamber music ensembles at the Austin Chamber Music Center and Rice University’s Preparatory Program, and assisted the Austin Symphony in redesigning their education programming. Blake completed his Bachelor’s degree in viola performance at Rice University and received a Master’s degree in chamber music performance from The University of Texas at Austin. His principal teachers include Ivo van der Werff, James Dunham and John Largess of the Miró Quartet. Beyond classical music, Blake enjoys bluegrass and fiddling. He has won first prize in several regional fiddling competitions in the Texas Hill Country and particularly enjoys impromptu jam sessions with his brothers. ​​

Collin Turner grew up as a Suzuki student studying piano with Vickie Pautz and violin with Suzy Perlman. He studied Violin Performance at Mercer University as part of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in Macon, Georgia and performed chamber music at the Rome Chamber Music Festival. 

Collin graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy from Southern Methodist University. Throughout his years at SMU, he performed as a violinist in the renowned Meadows Symphony Orchestra and studied with Kim Chee-Yun. He recently completed his 6-month Music Therapy internship at Florida Hospital in Orlando specializing in work with infants in the NICU. While in Orlando, Collin set up a heartbeat recording station to record patients’ heartbeat and assisted the patients in composing lyrics and music to go along with the heartbeat. This was an effective intervention for patients recovering from heart transplant surgery and cancer to document their experience. Collin is a Board- Certified Music Therapist for Southwestern Music Therapy LLC in Dallas, Texas. He uses his music skills in violin, guitar, percussion, piano, and voice to develop and implement goal-driven, specialized treatment interventions to maximize each client’s potential. ​

United States Air Force Band of the West Freedom Brass

The Vienna Boys Choir is made up of 100 choristers between the ages of nine and fourteen, divided into four touring choirs. Each choir spends nine to eleven weeks of the academic year on tour. Together, the choirs give around 300 concerts each year, attended by almost half a million spectators around the world. The choir regularly tours Europe, Asia and Australia, and the Americas. The choir’s first journey to Chile took place in 1936. On Sundays, the boys perform with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Vienna State Opera Chorus in Vienna’s Imperial Chapel, as they have done since 1498. In 2012, the choir opened its own concert hall, MuTh; the state-of-the art facility seats 400 and has proven highly popular with both artists and audience. The choir’s repertoire includes everything from medieval to contemporary music. Motets and lieder form the core of the touring repertoire, as do the choir’s own arrangements of Viennese music. The choir also performs children’s operas and world music.

​The first ever sound recording of the choir was made on a wax cylinder in 1907; since then, the boys have recorded 43 shellacks, 55 singles, 128 LPs and 150 CDs on every major label. In 2015, the choir signed a longterm deal with Deutsche Grammophon. A CD of holiday music was released in 2015, a CD offering a selection of music by Strauss followed in 2018. 26 films and 17 TV documentaries attest to the choir’s international appeal. The Vienna Boys Choir performs with major orchestras, such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Muti (honorary member of the Chapel Imperial), Andrés Orozco Estrada, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young. A particular highlight are the appearances at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's New Year’s Concert. In 2012 and 2016, the boys performed under the baton of Mariss Jansons.

Hailed by the Washington Times as “beauteous soprano Laurelyn Watson” and by the  New  York Post for her “gorgeously sung Mabel,” soprano Laurelyn Watson woos audiences with her beautiful voice. Miss Watson has been lauded by the New York Times for her recent appearance at New  York’s City Center as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance: “But first honors are taken by Laurelyn Watson…. {whose} pure, agile lyric soprano negotiates the coloratura runs of her music with impressive ease.”

Her creation last season of the role of Kay in Sorg Opera’s production of Curtis Tucker’s new opera The Strangers Tale earned her the following mention in Opera News: “Watson’s Kay was sheer delight, a combination of an engaging stage persona and a lush soprano voice.” This season, Miss Watson makes her debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, presented by the Performing Arts Foundation and will return to the Music at Saint Alban’s concert series as soprano soloist in the March presentation of Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass.

Laurelyn Watson sings regularly with regional opera companies and orchestras such as Sorg Opera, Lake George Opera, The Buffalo Philharmonic and the Sioux City Symphony and is a leading soprano with the  New  York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP). With NYGASP, she has toured the country and performed at such venues as City Center, Wolf Trap,  New  Jersey Performing Arts Center and The Mann Center. Winner of the National Arts Club’s Voice Competition, she has appeared in solo recital and in concert at the Liederkranz Foundation, Caramoor, the Hewlett-Woodmere Library and Steinway Hall. In 2005, Miss Watson appeared as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Hal Linden at  New  York City Center to great critical acclaim (above), as Yum-Yum in The Mikado with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kay in the world premiere of The Stranger’s Tale with Sorg Opera, and The Sultana Rose-in-Bloom in Arthur Sullivan’s rarely performed The Rose of Persia at Symphony Space. She also performed as soprano soloist in concerts with the Lake George Opera and the Music at Saint Alban’s concert series. Miss Watson returns to City Center as Angelina in Trial by Jury and Yum-Yum in The Mikado this January. She is a graduate of The Manhattan School of Music, University of North Texas, the Bel Canto Institute, and The Sommelier Society of America. For Music at Saint Alban’s, she has performed in solo recital and as soprano soloist in Saint Alban’s Festival Choral Society performances of John Rutter’s Gloria, Igor Stravinsky’s Mass and Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in  D  and Johannes-Passion (Saint John Passion).

An internationally celebrated soloist and chamber musician, clarinetist Nathan Williams has recently been praised for his “sublime control”, “silky sound”, and “dazzling technique”. He is the principal clarinetist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston and, along with pianist Audrey Andrist and violinist James Stern, is a founding member of Strata, a trio that for more than 20 years has been honing and augmenting this ensemble’s repertory.

Strata’s latest commissions include works by Stephen Paulus, which the trio premiered in Merkin Concert Hall, and by Kenneth Frazelle, which Strata premiered on the Secrest Series in Winston-Salem, NC. Most recently, Strata participated in a commissioning consortium for a new trio by Libby Larsen which they premiered in March, 2016.

Williams is a frequent guest performer and teacher across the country and abroad. He has been heard in Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, and the Kaufman Center at the 92nd Street Y in New York. Abroad he has given concerts in Austria, Canada, China, France, Italy, Israel, Hungary, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Portugal. Broadcasts of his performances can be heard regularly on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”. He has recorded for Albany Records, Composers Recordings, Inc., Naxos, New Dynamic Records, and Arizona University Recordings.  During the summer months, he teaches and performs at festivals such as the Xi’an International Clarinet Festival in China, the International Clarinet Festival in Taichung, Taiwan, as well as serving on the artist faculty of the Adult Chamber Music Institute at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan.

His students have garnered prizes in national and international competitions, most recently including the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition, Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Young Artist Competition, the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition, the Texas Young Artists Competition, Minnesota Orchestra, the Theatro Municipal de Sao Paulo, and the Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra. Former students hold positions in major symphony orchestras and universities in the United States and abroad, including the St. Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Danish National Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Santa Barbara Symphony.

A graduate of the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria (Artist’s Diploma), the Eastman School of Music (MM), and the Juilliard School (DMA), Williams is an artist/clinician for Vandoren and a Buffet Group USA Performing Artist. He performs exclusively on Buffet R13 Prestige clarinets, Vandoren V12 reeds, and uses mouthpieces made by Brad Behn and Vandoren.

WindSync is a collective of five outstanding North American wind musicians who come together as performers, educators, and community-builders. WindSync concerts are intimate, joyful, and thoughtfully programmed with people and places in mind. The quintet eliminates the "fourth wall" by performing from memory, connecting quickly and memorably with audiences. Recent winners of the Concert Artists Guild and Fischoff competitions, they approach their mixed repertory of wind quintets and arrangements with the highest level of artistic dedication.

WindSync has appeared in recital at the Met Museum, Schubert Club, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In 2015, WindSync was invited by the Library of Congress to perform the world premiere of Paul Lansky's "The Long and the Short of it", commissioned by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Their 2018-2019 season includes performances at the New School, Ravinia, and the Hobby Center, and premieres by composers Ivan Trevino, John Steinmetz, and Marc Mellits.
 
WindSync takes a special interest in reaching children, families, and underserved audiences. Part of the burgeoning creative placemaking movement, the ensemble has recently focused on performance in public spaces in Houston and in Opelousas, LA. They have been featured in educational concerts presented by the Seattle Symphony, Midland Symphony, and Orli Shaham's "Baby Got Bach", and their concerts for young people reach over 10,000 students per year.
 
Advocates of 21st century musicianship models, the members of WindSync have led master classes at New World Symphony, Texas Music Festival, and the University of Maryland Renegade Series, among others. WindSync has also served as ensemble-in-residence for Adelphi University, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington (KY), and the Grand Teton Music Festival. www.windsync.org/

The Zenith Quintet from Austin's chamber music cooperative, REVEL, is an electro-acoustic project created by saxophonists Rami El-Farrah, Sunil Gadgil, Michael Hertel, and Spencer Nielsen of the Bel Cuore Quartet, and Revel’s pianist and co-founder, Carla McElhaney.

BCQ and McElhaney first came together in 2012 as featured guest artists at The University of Texas at San Antonio, performing composer Asha Srinivasan’s Janani for Saxophone Quartet and Piano during her UTSA residency. It is not without significance that Janani is a piece celebrating birth and new life; it served as the catalyst for the formation of Zenith, a sky’s-the-limit collaboration between forward-thinking  artists  from two of Austin’s most beloved and original chamber ensembles.

After making their debut as the Zenith Quintet on After Hours Concerts at Springdale Farm, the ensemble went on to appear on the Donald Grantham Concert Series, the Blanco Performing Arts Series, the Texas Lutheran University Guest  Artist  Series, and on a variety of Revel events. In addition to premiering original arrangements of works by an eclectic array of composers, including Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Aero Smith, and more, Zenith premiered their first commission, Zackery Wilson’s joySTICK IT, a piece for saxophone quartet, keyboard, and fixed media, which later went on to win both 2nd Prize and the Public Prize at the 2014 International Alkema Composition Contest in The Netherlands. Later, in collaboration with Revel, Zenith premiered Son of Cimetiére for Saxophone Quartet and Piano Trio by award-winning composer Donald Grantham.

Zenith is  now  officially under the REVEL umbrella to collaborate with Revel on an ongoing basis, and to actively commission progressive composers to create new works for their unique configuration.