Musicians
MARIE-VOLCY PELLETIER Cello
Marie-Volcy Pelletier, cellist, is a native of Paris. She received the Premier Prix in Cello and Chamber Music from the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, France, where she studied with Michel Strauss.
Ms. Pelletier was a member of the Lyon Symphony at the age of 21. Subsequently she won a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Bernard Greenhouse, cellist of the renowned Beaux Arts Trio, at the New England Conservatory. After her studies at NEC she was the acting principal cellist of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona in Spain. Subsequently, while living in London, Ms. Pelletier frequently participated in concerts of the London Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the BBC Orchestra. She has been featured in chamber music concerts and given recitals on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ms. Pelletier was a founding member of the Concert Players String Trio in London, the Forster String Trio and the Kinor Quartet in New York City. She was also a member of the Laurentian String Quartet, which held a residency at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She has performed at the Monadnock Music Festival in New Hampshire; the Light House Chamber Players in Cape Cod, Mass.; the Mohawk Trails Concerts; and the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont.
Ms. Pelletier may be heard on the critically acclaimed CD New England Trios, presented on the Bridge label.
Recognized as a highly effective teacher, Ms. Pelletier is a Lecturer in Cello Performance at Smith College. She is currently a member of the Sage Chamber Music Society and the Elm Chamber Ensemble.
Close this window
To purchase tickets, please make a donation via PayPal of a suggested amount per ticket:
Family: $30 – $100
Adult: $20 – $50
Children: $10 – $40
Please also contact us by phone at (518) 929-5950 or via email and let us know how many tickets you are purchasing and for which concert(s).
Thank you!
JOEL PITCHON Violin
Joel Pitchon, violinist, is active as a soloist, concertmaster and chamber music player and is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Smith College He has received acclaim for his performances with nationally and internationally renowned ensembles.
Joel has served as the concertmaster of numerous orchestras, including the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona (Spain), the New York Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the New Zealand Symphony (guest), the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa, Canada, guest) and the EOS Orchestra (NY). He has participated in many concerts in the United States and abroad with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.
Joel also works extensively in chamber music. He has been a member of the Forster String Trio, the Walden Chamber Players and the Kinor String Quartet, among other groups. For many years Joel was the leader for a series of summer concerts with the New Baroque Soloists. Mr. Pitchon is currently a member of the Elm Chamber Ensemble.
As a soloist he has performed with the Berkshire Bach Society, Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona, Philharmonia Virtuosi, and the EOS Orchestra, to name a few.The New York Times wrote of his playing in the EOS production of Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat“...superb playing by Joel Pitchon....”
He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts including WGBH, WNYC and PBS. Mr. Pitchon was featured on the TV3 Catalunya program Cadencia, and has been interviewed about his work for The Strad magazine. He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, CBS Masterworks and Vox Cum Laude, among others. Recordings include a CD of four Sonatas for violin and piano by Clifton J. Noble, with the composer at the piano for the Gasparo label; New England Legacy, with pianist Jonathan Bass of works by Quincy Porter, Walter Piston and Amy Beach, also recorded for the Gasparo label; Sun Threads, a recording of the chamber music of Augusta Read Thomas, made with the Walden Chamber Players, is available on the ARTCD label; works of composer Donald Wheelock, also with the Walden Chamber Players, is available on the Albany label, and a further edition of works by Piston, Perera and Bernstein for piano trio, New England Trios has been released on the Bridge Records label to very positive critical review.
KRISTA BENNION FEENEY Violin
Krista Bennion Feeney has enjoyed an unusually varied career much in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, music director, and concertmaster. Krista has been a member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble (serving for eight years as director of chamber music) and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s since 1983, where she performs frequently in the roles of concertmaster and violin soloist. She is currently involved in rediscovering and reviving a musical sound world from the past as the founding first violinist of the Serenade Orchestra and Quartet, playing music of the late-18th and early-19th centuries on historic instruments with original instrumental configurations. From 1999-2006, she was the music director of the unconducted New Century Chamber Orchestra based in San Francisco.
She has made several solo appearances with the San Francisco Symphony (making her debut in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e minor at age 15), with the St. Louis Symphony, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of Sol Tierra Luna (a concerto written for her by Terry Riley), the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and at the Kennedy Center, in addition to several historic instrument ensembles.
Highlights of the 2016-2017 season included performances of Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, in which The New York Times review stated “…the violinist Krista Bennion Feeney spun out beguiling figurations and subtle melodic twists…” and Nardini’s e minor violin concerto and Paganini’s La Campanella on historic violin with the American Classical Orchestra. Of her performance in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, she was described by The Times as “…the superb violin soloist…”
She is the founding first violinist of the DNA Quintet, Loma Mar Quartet, and Ridge String Quartet (1979-1991), which, along with pianist Rudolf Firkusny, won theDiapason d’Orand a Grammy Award nomination in 1992 for its RCA recording of Dvorak’s Piano Quintets. The DNA Quintet, comprised of the Loma Mar Quartet with the addition of bassist John Feeney, has released world-premiere recordings of string quartets and quintets of Domenico Dragonetti on historic instruments to critical and popular acclaim, bringing this uniquely beautiful music to light after being hidden for more than 165 years in the British Library. The Loma Mar Quartet has also recorded original works written for the ensemble by Paul McCartney for EMI, and its members were recently featured as soloists in Arnold Schoenberg’s Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance performances. Krista studied violin with Anthony Doheny, then Isadore Tinkleman and Stuart Canin at the San Francisco Conservatory, working later at the Curtis Institute with Jaime Laredo, Felix Galimer and Mischa Schneider.
In May 2014, The Times praised Krista’s playing of a violin sonata by Jean-MarieLeclair, saying: “Her deep notes were rich and melancholy … there was a tender exuberance in both tumbles of notes and sustained phrases … a dramatic interplay of ferocity and light slyness.”
JOHN FEENEY Double-bass
Principal double bass of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Classical Orchestra, and Opera Lafayette, John Feeney is a chamber musician and soloist of international renown. First prize-winner of the Concert Artists Guild and Zimmerman-Mingus International Competitions and a medalist-prizewinner in the Geneva and Isle of Man Competitions, John is also an avid Viennese Violonist and arranger.
“a skilled and passionate performance...bravura passages that feature rapid passage work and double stops, which Mr. Feeney played with flair.”— N.Y. Times.
“he produces a variety of effects and colores, phrasing melodic material with musicality and elegance, and executing passage work with due bravura.”— The Strad.
“charismatic double bass of John Feeney”— N. Y. Times.
DAVID CERUTTI Viola
David Cerutti performs internationally as violist and violist d’amore. He is co-principal violist of Orchestra of St. Luke’s and has been a member of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble since 2008. He appears regularly with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, has been a guest soloist for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is a regular participant in the Helicon Concert Series, founded by the late Albert Fuller. David is a former member of the Smithson String Quartet and has been a guest artist with the Brentano String Quartet and Cygnus Ensemble. He has collaborated with members of Ensemble Archibudelli on a recording of the Mendelssohn and Gade string octets, performed on Stradivarius instruments for the Sony Classical label, and his unedited performance of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 was chosen by National Public Radio as one of seven best live recordings of Bach from Performance Today. His recordings of Brahms’ Sextet No. 2 and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht are soon to be released this year on the Meyer Media label. In 2012, David was featured viola d’amore soloist in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Janáček’s Makropoulos Case, and he is presently collaborating on a viola concerto with Mika Pelo, composer-in-residence at University of California, Davis. In the 2012/2013 season, he joined the Loma Mar Quartet (including fellow Orchestra of St. Luke’s members Krista Bennion Feeney, Myron Lutzke, and Anca Nicolau) in two weeks of performances of Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 for the San Francisco Ballet. He has composed several works and currently is writing a piece for the Seattle-based Odeon String Quartet.
NATHAN WHITTAKER Cello
Nathan Whittaker enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, teacher, and historical cello specialist, with concert stops ranging from New York to Seattle to Dubai. He is Artistic Director of Gallery Concerts (Seattle), a chamber music series on period instruments, and appears frequently with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, New York Baroque Incorporated, ARTek, Twelfth Night, The Sebastians, and the Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble. He has also served on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts and each summer hosts “Cello Day,” a one-day workshop for adult cellists. His performances can be heard on recordings for ATMA Musique, Harmonia, and Centaur, as well as in live broadcasts on NPR, CBC, and KING FM. Dr. Whittaker holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Indiana University. He performs on a 1957 cello by Mario Gadda and a baroque cello by Johann Christian Ficker II, c.1770. When not playing the cello, Nathan enjoys strolling through Hell’s Kitchen, coffee in hand, with his wife, soprano Linda Tsatsanis, and their mischievous mutt, Julep.
EUGENE DRUCKER Violin
Violinist Eugene Drucker, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, is also an active soloist. He has appeared with the orchestras of Montreal, Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Hartford, Richmond, Louisville, Jerusalem, Raanana and the Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Las Vegas Philharmonic. A graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Oscar Shumsky, Mr. Drucker was concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, with which he appeared as soloist several times. He made his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in the fall of 1976, after having won prizes at the Montreal Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Mr. Drucker has recorded the complete unaccompanied works of Bach, reissued by Parnassus Records, and the complete sonatas and duos of Bartók for Biddulph Recordings.
His first novel, The Savior, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007 and later appeared in a German translation called Wintersonate. A second novel, Yearning, was published in 2021.
Mr. Drucker's suite for string quartet, Series of Twelve, was commissioned by the New Music for Strings Festival in Denmark. It was premiered in Copenhagen and Reykjavik in August 2018 and was later performed by the Escher Quartet in the U.S. He has also composed several settings of poetry by Shakespeare and Denise Levertov for voice and strings.
Eugene Drucker has taught at Stony Brook University since 2002, and recently joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. He became Music Director of the Berkshire Bach Society’s "Bach at New Year’s” Concerts in 2017, and was appointed year-round Artistic Director for that organization in 2024. He lives in New York City with his wife, cellist Roberta Cooper.
Violins: Antonius Stradivarius (Cremona, 1686), Ryan Soltis (Moyie Springs, Idaho, 2015)
WILLIAM FRAMPTON Viola
Violist William Frampton has been praised by critics for his “impressive” performances (The New York Times) and “a glowing amber tone” (The Boston Globe). Since his New York recital debut in 2009 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, William has enjoyed a career of performances around the world as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player. Highlights include over 100 performances with a string quartet led by Midori Goto in tours of Asia and North America, appearances as guest artist with Escher Quartet and Johannes Quartet, and world premieres of chamber music by J. Mark Stambaugh and a concerto by Peter Homans. William is Principal Viola of American Symphony Orchestra, Associate Musician with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and member of Harlem Chamber Players String Quartet. He performs in the Broadway orchestras of Hamilton, Wicked, and The Lion King, and on film scores including Barbie, The Joker, West Side Story, The Greatest Showman, The Girl on the Train, and many others.
William is Artistic Director of Music at Bunker Hill, a chamber music series in Southern New Jersey he co-founded in 2008 that brings five professional chamber music performances to Gloucester County, New Jersey every year. The community built as a result of Music Bunker Hill has brought regular collaborations with schools, libraries, orchestras, and civic organizations, contributing to the cultural life of Southern New Jersey. He has performed at festivals including Bard Summerscape, Verbier, and IMS Prussia Cove, and as soloist with conductors including Joseph Silverstein, David Hoose, and Charles Peltz. He holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, and studied with Kim Kashkashian, Samuel Rhodes, Choong-Jin Chang, and Byrnina Socolofsky. William teaches viola and chamber music at The College of New Jersey.
ROBERTA COOPER Cello
Roberta Cooper, cellist, won the Artists International Competition which sponsored her Carnegie Hall debut. She is a member of the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio, which has performed extensively on major series in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and New York City and played several tours of Denmark. Ms Cooper is the assistant principal cellist of the American Symphony Orchestra, and Westchester Philharmonic, as well as a member of the American Composers Orchestra.She has performed in the Berlin Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York City Opera and the ballet orchestras of both the NYC Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Ms. Cooper has been a cellist with harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper and the Berkshire Bach Society for many years. She has performed as guest cellist with the Emerson Quartet in concerts all over the world. Roberta performed in festivals this past summer in Morocco, Napa, Denmark and Iceland. This summer she has been invited to perform at both at Festival Napa and The Lake Tahoe Music Festival. She has recorded many film scores, most recently for “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” and ” True Grit”, as well as on many rock and jazz CDs. Recently she performed and recorded with Sting and Aretha Franklin and has played concerts with kd lang. She was featured as cello soloist on Linda Ronstadt’s album of jazz standards, “Hummin’ to Myself” on the Verve label. Ms. Cooper was a student of Lorne Munroe and Harvey Shapiro at the Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and was awarded the William Henderson Prize for Outstanding Achievement.
AMANDA BOYD Soprano
Soprano Amanda Boyd has been hailed by critics as one of Britain’s “Rising Stars.” Ms. Boyd trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she won the Susan Longfield prize and was supported by the Countess of Munster Trust. She also trained at the National Opera Studio in London, where she was supported by Friends of Covent Garden and the Foundation for Sports and the Arts. Ms. Boyd was coached and supported by Elizabeth Vaughan and Dame Janet Baker throughout her training.
Among her many roles, Amanda Boyd played the title role in Don Boyd’s film Lucia (an adaptation of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor). Other operatic roles include: La Contessa (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro) for the New Opera Festival in Rome, Italy; Ginevra (Handel’s Ariodante) for the Covent Garden Festival; Adina (Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore) for Bel Canto UK and the Cambridge Opera Players; Martha (Flotow’s Martha) for Bel Canto UK; Lucia (Britten’s The Rape Of Lucretia) for Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals; Romilda (Handel’s Xerxes) with The Early Opera Company; Gretel (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel ); Despina (Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte) for The London Opera Players; Cunegonde and Maria (Bernstein’s Candide and West Side Story) with the Columbia Festival Orchestra, NY; Dido (Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas) with Broad Street Players, PS21, Chatham NY; Cleopatra (Handel’s Giulio Cesare) with Upstate Chamber Opera, Albany, NY., Constance Fletcher in R.B. Schlather’s production of The Mother Of Us All at Hudson Hall, NY.
Ms. Boyd’s performances of contemporary works include: the lead as Maeve in the world premiere of Deirdre Gribbin’s Hey! Persephone for the Almeida and Aldeburgh Festivals; the role of Duende in the world premiere of Simon Holt’s A Nightingale’s To Blame for Opera North UK; Edward Barnes’ one- woman opera The Vagabond Queen for Hudson Chamber Opera, Hudson, NY and Soprano soloist in John Kelly’s Find My Way Home at the Joyce Theatre, NYC. Amanda headlined and toured with the band, The Art of Noise, for their album The Seduction of Claude Debussy, in the USA and UK.
Amanda’s regular solo concert appearances include Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music (Sir Simon Rattle at Birmingham Symphony Hall); Poulenc’s Gloria (Sir David Willcocks); Britten folksong arrangements (David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony Orchestra) Britten’s Les Illuminations; Haydn’s Nelson Mass; Honegger’s King David; Handel’s Ode St.Cecelia; (the Broad Street Chorale and Orchestra NY)
Under BoydSong, Amanda continues to keep the Art Song repertoire alive, regularly performing recitals with piano and chamber groups in concert halls, galleries and private homes in the USA and Europe. Most recently, Amanda sang the US premiere of Deirdre Gribbin’s Kindersang at the Lincoln Center, NYC. A song cycle for soprano and violin set to poems written by Kindertransport survivor, Lotte Kramer.
MARIA GIOVANETTI Soprano
Maria Giovanetti is an accomplished and versatile soprano who endeavors to bring classical music to a broad audience, making it accessible and engaging for all. Her artistic ambition is to connect with audiences, bringing the human experience to life through the art of storytelling.
Maria was most recently seen on stage as Rona Lisa Paretti in Up in One’s production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She was also recently engaged with the Berkshire Opera Festival, singing in the chorus of their production of Gounod’s Faust. Last fall, Maria was honored with the Helen Boatwright first place award from the Civic Morning Musicals Vocal Competition in Syracuse, NY. She was also a finalist in the Mendelssohn Club of Albany’s Dolven Vocal Awards. Last February, Maria sang in the Colorado/Wyoming district of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.
Maria received her Master’s degree in Vocal Arts from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory, under the tutelage of Kayo Iwama, Erika Switzer, Richard Cox, and Stephanie Blythe. While at Bard, Maria sang the role of Phyllis in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, performed as a soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and sang the live premiere of a new work by Aaron Kernis with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in NYC. Maria presented her graduate degree recital, Spectrum of Her, a program consisting of all female composers which aimed to explore and amplify the voices and experiences of women.
Originally from Denver, Colorado, Maria completed her undergraduate degree in vocal performance at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA, where she studied with Carole Haber. She also holds a Performance Certificate from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where she studied with Catherine Kasch. Maria is currently a student of Michaela Martens.
PAULINA SWIERSCZEK Soprano
Lauded for her “exceptional voice, cloudless and soaring,” and her “killer side-eye,” soprano Paulina Swierczek is a vibrant storyteller and powerful voice in the operatic and concert repertories. Paulina made her Lincoln Center debut in October 2025 singing the soprano solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, alongside mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and baritone Tyler Duncan, led by Maestro Leon Botstein. Concert highlights include Handel’s Messiah with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s Davide Penitente with the Broad Street Orchestra, and Strauss’s Four Songs under Leon Botstein. A Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artists for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Paulina covered Senta ( Der Fliegende Hollander ) and Berta ( Il barbiere di Siviglia ), and study-covered Salome . She also performed excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier , Falstaff , Die Walkure and Der Meistersinger with the DMMO Orchestra and was seen in scenes as Sieglinde ( Die Walkure), Vanessa and Elettra ( Idomeneo ). Paulina made her DMMO mainstage debut as Chocholka in Cunning Little Vixen in the 2025 season. 25-26 season highlights include Beethoven’s 9th at Lincoln Center, the title role in Act 1 of La Traviata with the Woodstock Symphony, and recitals including Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, Berlioz’s Nuits d’Ete and Messiaen’s Harawi.
HAILEY MCAVOY Mezzo-Soprano
Recognized as a “gorgeous-voiced mezzo-soprano,” (Broadway World), Hailey McAvoy is a versatile performer of opera, song, and concert. McAvoy’s recent operatic performances include appearing as Mem in Paola Prestini’s Sensorium Ex and as Julia Child in Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit with Opera Praktikos. Additional roles in her repertoire include Third Lady (The Magic Flute; MassOpera), Third Woodsprite (Dvorak, Rusalka; Opera Ithaca), the Page of Herodias (Strauss, Salome; Fisher Center of Performing Arts), The Taller Daughter (Mazzoli, Proving Up; Aspen Music Festival), Zosha (Heggie, Out of Darkness; Eastman Opera Theater), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro; Aquilon Music Festival), and in select performances as a Young Artist with Cedar
Rapids Opera and Opera Ithaca.
Equally active as a concert performer, McAvoy has recently made her Greene Space recital debut in a concert broadcast to WQXR with pianist Alison d’Amato. She has also appeared as guest soloist in Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and as a soloist at Opera Ithaca in performance of Molly Joyce’s YouSaidHeSaidSheSaid. In 2024, McAvoy was an artist in residence at Hogfish Regenerative Arts in Portland, Maine, where, in addition to singing the role of Newspaper Vendor in Poulenc’s Breasts of Tiresias, she began developing a concert of original music which explores themes of disability, accessibility, and what it means to feel at home in one’s body.
As a performer with the neurological condition Cerebral Palsy, McAvoy is committed to amplifying the discussion around disability in the arts in order to make the performing arts more inclusive for all. She recently published essays on accessibility in the arts in AGMAzine and Our Singing Bodies and she has appeared as a panelist on accessibility forums with such organizations as Opera Ithaca and Opera NexGen. To learn more about McAvoy’s singing and Cerebral Palsy, visit haileymcavoy.com.
EMMANUEL VUKOVICH Violin
Described as a “true musician” (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich is emerging as an artist of technical assurance, musical integrity, and artistic maturity. He appears as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Natural History, London, and the Hrvatski glazbeni zavod in Zagreb, Croatia, performing with such artists as Ida Haendel, Matt Haimowitz, and Alex Klein. A three-time recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank, the first recipient of McGill University's Schulich School of Music Golden Violin, and grand-prize winner of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Emmanuel is founder and artistic director of the international collaborative The Parcival Project and artistic director of Montreal’s Bach Odyssey.
As winner of the 2019 Stony Brook University concerto competition, Emmanuel recently performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Jens Georg Bachmann conducting the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra at the Staller Centre for the Performing Arts. Other highlights include a performance of Schubert’s Fantasy for violin and piano at Carnegie's Weill Hall with pianist Andrew Armstrong, a live radio recital for the Dame Myra Hess Series at the Chicago Public Library with pianist Ji-Yung Lee, performances of the Brahms Violin Concerto with Roberto de Clara and the Oakville Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Violin Concerti with the Andréas Bello Orchestra in Santiago, Chile, and the Bach Violin-Oboe Concerto with oboist Alex Klein and The Parcival Project.
Upcoming highlights include the creation of a new violin concerto by Sheila Silver inspired by North Indian Hindustani music to be premiered in 2020-21; and an original composition co-created with John McDowell for solo violin, African drum, voice, chamber orchestra, and drum ensemble: Parzival & Fierefiz: A New Narrative of Race will make its world premiere at the University of Toronto in November 2020 in conjunction with the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Wagner’s Parsifal. In June 2020, Emmanuel will record Beethoven’s Archduke and Sheila Silver’s To the Spirit Unconquered piano trios with cellist Thomas Mesa and pianist Kyungwha Chu produced by renowned recording engineer Martha de Francisco.
Completing his Master of Music and Graduate Diploma degrees at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with Lucy Chapman, Soovin Kim, and Donald Weilerstein, Emmanuel is currently completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University working with Philip Setzer and Eugene Drucker of the Emerson String Quartet, Hagai Shaham, Colin Carr, Jennifer Frautchi, Arnaud Sussmann in performance, and Judith Lochhead, Stephen Smith, and Daniel Weymouth in academics. His final graduation recital will present selections from the solo violin Sonatas & Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach, Bartok’s solo violin Sonata, and an original work co-created with John McDowell inspired by Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival.
Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Emmanuel began studying the violin with Danuta Ciring at the Mount Royal College Academy of Music. He went on to work with Dorothy Delay and Masao Kawasaki at The Juilliard School in New York and completed his undergraduate studies with Denise Lupien and André Roy at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. As first violinist of the former Lloyd-Carr Harris String Quartet - Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, he performed close to 400 concerts in Canada, the US, Europe, and Australia and recorded the String Quartets of Canadian composer Brian Cherney. During this time Emmanuel also pursued studies with Peter Brown at McGill University’s School of Environment. He served for three years as co-artistic director and concertmaster of Symphony in the Barn, an international music festival held on Glencolton Farms in Durham, Ontario, and, upon the completion of his undergraduate studies, served as co-manager of Ferme Cadet Roussel, in Mont Saint-Gregoire, Quebec. The documentary film Bach in a Barn portrays Emmanuel’s striving to connect culture and agriculture through this project. In 2011 Emmanuel founded The Parcival Project - an international chamber music collaborative which has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and toured North and South America.
Emmanuel acknowledges the Canada Council for the Arts for its continued support of Canadian artistic exploration.
GILI MELAMED-LEV Piano, Artistic Director
Pianist Gili Melamed-Lev is recognized for her artistic vision, unique artistry and innovative programing. She is an engaging, multi-faceted pianist who enjoys a career as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist.
Ms. Melamed-Lev is the co-founder and Artistic director of Jazz and Classics for Change, a concert series in the Hudson Valley region (NY) and the Berkshires (MA) that is dedicated to connect and to heal through music in our changing world.
She is also a member of the Lev-Evans duo with pianist Mark Evans. Ms. Melamed-Lev garnered rave reviews for her collaboration with Australian actor John McManus during their extended tour of The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. She also partnered with the Actors’ Ensemble and Walking the Dog Theater (WTD).
She has performed throughout the US, Europe and Canada, in collaboration with Eugene Drucker, Aaron Boyd, Michael Roth, Kenneth Cooper, Jenia Pikovsky, Joana Genova, Joel Pitchon, Gilad Rivkin, William Frampton, Ariel Rudiakov, Dima Ratosh, Roberta Cooper, Ashley Bathgate, Ronald Feldman, Inbal Segev, Nathaniel Parke, Linor Katz, Volcy Palletier, Peter Weitzner, Paul Green, Gili Sharett, Judith Mendenhall, Eugenia Zuckerman, Lior Eitan, Shira Eliassaf, Omri Rave, Michael Slatkin, Uzi Shalev, Amanda Boyd-Grout, Lucille Beer, and composers Sheila Silver, Philip Lasser, Brain, Shea and Seth Grosshandler.
Ms. Melamed-Lev was the founder and Artistic Director of The Concerts at Camphill Ghent from 2012-2019. A passionate teacher and vocal coach, she enjoys working with her students.
Born in Jerusalem, Gili Melamed-Lev studied with Bracha Eden, Susan Swilich-Cohen,Sascha Gorodnitzki, Miyoko Nakaya-Lotto and György Sándor, and was a scholarship student at The Juilliard School, Montclair State College and The Rubin Academy (Jerusalem).
2025 SEASON MUSICIANS
to-come.com
ANTHONY BRACEWELL Violin & Viola
Violinist and violist Anthony Bracewell enjoys a dynamic career as both a performer and arts leader. He serves as the Executive Director of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, overseeing the production of the world’s longest-running free outdoor classical concert series.
Currently the Acting Principal Violist of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Anthony has also held roles as Principal Second Violinist with the same ensemble and as Concertmaster for various orchestras including the Manhattan Symphonie and the Geneva Light Opera Company.
Recent performance highlights include tours with the Ulysses Quartet, Tesla Quartet, and Quatuor Arod. Anthony is especially proud of his community engagement work as a member of Jazz and Classics for Change.
Originally from Southern Ontario, Canada, Anthony studied with Paul Kantor, Jaime Laredo, James Dunham, and Paul Neubauer. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, and The Juilliard School.
ANAT COHEN Clarinet, Saxophone
Ever charismatic, prolific and inspired, Grammy-nominated clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. The New York Times writes, “Ms. Cohen on the clarinet was a revelation. Using the clarinet’s upper register, she could evoke infectious joy. In the lower register, her playing could conjure a deep, soulful melancholy. On up-tempo numbers, her improvisations weren’t just bebop fast; they had a clarity and deep intelligence that is really quite rare. She made it look effortless, even as she was playing the most technically difficult of all the reed instruments… she took my breath away.”
Anat has been declared Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007 and has also been named the top clarinetist in both the readers and critics polls in DownBeat for multiple years running. That’s not to mention years of being named Rising Star in the soprano and tenor saxophone categories in DownBeat, as well as Jazz Artist of the Year. In 2009, ASCAP awarded Anat a Wall of Fame prize for composition and musicianship, among other honors. As The Chicago Tribune has said about Anat, “The lyric beauty of her tone, easy fluidity of her technique and extroverted manner of her delivery make this music accessible to all.”
Since 2005, Anat’s series of releases via her Anzic Records label have seen the clarinetist-saxophonist range from infectious swingers to lilting balladry, from small groups to larger ensembles and back again, exploring a universe of music along the way.
MARCELLO GONÇALVES Guitar
to-come.com
One of Brazil’s most acclaimed 7-string guitarists, the Grammy-nominated Marcello Gonçalves is internationally renowned not only as a stellar performer but a sought-after musical director, arranger, producer and educator as well. His boundlessly warm nylon string tone, broad sonic range and irrepressible rhythmic finesse can yield a sound as full as an orchestra, revealing roots deeply planted in Brazilian popular, folkloric and classical music traditions. Gonçalves’ creative synthesis of all these elements has elevated his artistry to a rare and transcendent level. Gonçalves is a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where he created the first academic course for Brazilian 7-string guitar, an instrumental discipline unlike any other. Over many years he has had the opportunity to study with masters Dino 7 Cordas, Mauricio Carrilho and Helio Delmiro, among others. With clarinetist Anat Cohen, a major force in the New York and international jazz and world music scenes, Gonçalves recorded the duo album Outra Coisa: The Music of Moacir Santos (Anzic Records), which received a 2017 Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album, as well as a Premio da Música Brasileira (Brazilian Grammy) nomination for Best Instrumental Album. Gonçalves is also a longtime member of Trio Madeira Brasil, the Premio da Música Brasileira-winning group, with a celebrated catalog of recordings and a history of extensive worldwide touring. Gonçalves has served as a 7-string guitarist, musical director, arranger and/or producer for the likes of João Bosco, Ney Matogrosso, Roberta Sá and Chico Buarque. His duo recordings with cavaquinho player Henrique Cazes have explored the legacies of the early 20th-century Brazilian music pioneers Pixinguinha and Garoto. His work with the group Rabo de Lagartixa has shed new light on the music of legendary Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. In addition, Gonçalves’ collaboration with Portuguese singer António Zambujo resulted in a Latin Grammy nomination for the platinum album Até Pensei que Fosse Minha. As musical director for Brasileirinho, a documentary film about Choro music, Gonçalves helped draw international attention to this unique Brazilian idiom. Directed by Finland’s Mika Kaurismaki, the film premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival in 2005 and was screened in more than 25 countries.
LUKE KRAFKA Cello
Luke Krafka, (BM & MM from The Boston Conservatory, Artist Diploma from CUNY) has performed as a chamber musician and soloist throughout the United States, Western Europe, Canada, China and Mexico. As a winner of multiple chamber music competitions including prize winning at the Alexander/Buono international chamber competition and ICCEC Chamber Competition, he and his duo partner (Ann Bermont) co-founded the Halcyon Chamber Music Series in Brooklyn, NY in 2014. Since then, they have put on over 50 concerts, collaborating with some of the best musicians in the city. Mr. Krafka currently performs chamber music throughout New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and all throughout the east coast at various festivals and music series. He recently released his debut solo album, 'Folklore', performing works by Bach, Ligeti and Kodaly. Luke's album can be found on all major streamingplatforms. Lastly, Luke runs the online cello teaching program, The Primal Cellist, supporting cellists from all over the country to play and perform to their top capabilities.
RHIANNON BANERDT Violin
Violinist Rhiannon Banerdt made her solo debut at age 14 with the New England Symphonic Ensemble in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has since made solo and chamber music appearances at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, New York's Weill Hall at Carnegie, and Boston's Jordan Hall, among others, with performances hailed by Edith Eisler of Strings Magazine as "real music- making-concentrated and deeply felt." Ms. Banerdt is a founding member of the Ulysses String Quartet, winners of the First Prize at the 2018 Schoenfeld International Chamber Music Competition, Grand Prize at the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the 2017 American Prize Chamber Ensemble, and Silver Medal at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. The quartet are currently the first ever quartet-in- residence at GBH music in Boston, and previously served as the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School for 2019-2022 academic years.
A recipient of the 2012 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, Ms. Banerdt was invited to perform with the quartet in Jordan Hall. Other collaborations have included performances with the Emerson Quartet, the Chiara Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, Paul Biss, and Frans Helmerson. Ms. Banerdt has participated in numerous eminent chamber music festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Ravinia's Steans Music Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and the Castleman Quartet Program. Ms. Banerdt holds the position of Assistant Concertmaster with the Cape Symphony. Ms. Banerdt is currently a member of the violin and chamber music faculty at the Bloomingdale School of Music on New York City's Upper West Side. In the fall of 2024, she served as visiting professor of violin at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music. Previously she was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Brooklyn College 2016-2019 and a fellow at the flagship music education organization Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI from 2013-2015.
A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Banerdt attended the New England Conservatory, where she received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honors as a student of Lucy Chapman and Paul Biss, and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she studied with Mark Steinberg.
CALEB VAN DER SWAAGH Cello
Praised for his “entrancing” performances (National Sawdust Log), cellist Caleb van der Swaagh is a versatile chamber musician and soloist. He is an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW (now known as Ensemble Connect) – a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. Caleb is the recipient of the Tanglewood Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Prize and the Manhattan School of Music Pablo Casals Award, and was also a grant recipient from the Virtu Foundation.
In demand as a chamber musician, Caleb is member of Exponential Ensemble, a mixed instrumentation chamber ensemble. He is a first prize winner in the SAVVY Chamber Competition and has performed with such ensembles as The Knights, A Far Cry, Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Borromeo String Quartet, Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble LPR, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Recent festival appearances include appearances at the Chelsea Music Festival, Ottawa ChamberFest, Garth Newel Music Center, Music from
Montauk, 23Arts Summer Music Festival, Edelio Festival, and Birdfoot Festival.
As a recording artist, Caleb’s recent releases include the Against Method with counter)induction on New Focus Recordings and Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Quintet with Phoenix Ensemble on Navona Records. Additional appearances include albums on Albany Records, Bright Shiny Things, Supertrain Records, Linn Records, and Avie Records.
An advocate of contemporary music, Caleb is a member of counter)induction, Ensemble Échappé, and Ensemble Ipse. He also performs regularly with leading contemporary music ensembles including Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Either/Or, S.E.M Ensemble, and Hotel Elefant. He has premiered works by such composers as Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Christian Wolff, Roscoe Mitchell, and Iancu Dumitrescu, among others, as well as performing his own compositions and arrangements.
A native New Yorker, Caleb graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University as part of the Columbia–Juilliard Exchange program with a degree in Classics and Medieval & Renaissance Studies. Caleb received his master’s degree with academic honors from New England Conservatory and later studied at the Manhattan School of Music. His primary teachers are Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, and David Geber. Caleb plays on a cello made by David Wiebe in 2012.
DAVID ROCKEFELLER, JR. Narrator
David has been actively using his voice as a performing instrument since he was ten years old, singing in choir as a boy, then in theatre and Glee Club at High School and College, and as a semi-professional chorister for more than forty years with Boston’s Cantata Singers and – more briefly – the Boston Camerata. More recently, David has focused on narration, often with musical accompaniment.
In his former home city of Boston, he performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra (as John F. Kennedy), the Lexington Symphony, and the Handel & Haydn Society.
In New York City David has appeared as a narrator for musical performances and as a reader of short stories and poetry at the Juilliard School, the Century Association, All Souls Church for Musica Viva NY, and the Colony Club.
Elsewhere, he has performed at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco and has twice presented the epic poem Enoch Arden (for piano and voice) by Alfred Lord Tennyson, at Ol’ Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. He also narrated Joseph Turrin’s Equinox, performing with the New Orchestra of Washington at The Kennedy Center.
David has also appeared in a number of theatrical pieces written by Laura Pedersen, including in Community Service alongside the actor Paula Ewen. He has appeared as a narrator in three of the films directed by his wife, Susan Cohn Rockefeller, and he read for a five-CD set for Audible.com in which he was the voice of Albert Einstein.
JOHN McMANUS Actor
JOHN MCMANUS has worked internationally as an actor, director, and teacher for over 40 years. He was Associate Professor and Head of the Acting Program at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. He teaches acting at MICHA (the Michael Chekhov Association) and teaches and directs from his own studio. He has also taught acting at many other institutions around the globe, including HB Studios, (NYC) and Montclair State University, NJ (USA), Actor’s Center (Australia), The Dipartmento Delle Arti, University, Bologna (Italy), Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiesis (Croatia) and Peredur Center for the Arts (England). John has also taught Eurythmy and Drama in high schools in the United States and Australia. Currently, he is working on developing a performance piece from a Charles Dickens Story called Doctor Marigold.
2024 SEASON MUSICIANS
MAYA LORENZEN Violin
A member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO) since 2016, Israeli violinist Maya Lorenzen has performed around the world as a soloist and ensemble player. She is a prizewinner of the 2016 Karl-Adler Competition (Germany) and 2013 Mehta Chamber Music Competition (Israel). Since 2004, she has received annual awards and scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
With WEDO, Maya has performed under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, Philharmonie de Paris, Pierre Boulez Hall, Waldbühne Berlin, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Maya holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Stony Brook University, and performs with various chamber and orchestral groups both in the US and Europe. Maya received her undergraduate degree in music performance from Tel Aviv University and continued her master’s studies at HfMT Hamburg. She has pursued studies with Haim Taub, Hagai Shaham, Tanja Becker- Bender, Philip Setzer, Jennifer Frautschi and Arnaud Sussmann, and has received coachings from members of the Emerson String Quartet, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Berliner Philharmonic.
Maya has been an invited soloist with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, NK Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Israeli Conservatory Orchestra. She has also served as concertmaster with various orchestras including the Young Israeli Philharmonic.
A current violin teacher at Bard college and a former teaching assistant at Stony Brook University, she is dedicated to teaching her growing violin studio in New York City. Maya is a founding member of Ensemble Volans, which commissioned and performed works by various composers from HfMT Hamburg and HM Freiburg.
GILI SHARETT Bassoon
Bassoonist and clinician Gili Sharett has performed with the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, American Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Israel Opera Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and many Broadway shows. She has been the 2nd bassoonist of the Greenwich Symphony since 2005. Numerous summer festival appearances include Verbier, Brevard, and Bard Summerscape. As a recording artist Dr. Sharett recorded with pianist David Greilsammer and Suedama Ensemble for Naïve, The Light in the Piazza for Nonesuch (Grammy nomination),Water with Grammy award winner Rafi Malkiel for Tzadik and Broadway Carols for a Cure.
She is on the faculty of The Bloomingdale School of Music, Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and The Music Conservatory of Westcehster. She is a recipient of multiple American-Israel Cultural Foundation Creative Excellence Grants. Sharett earned her B.A. at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv Magna Cum Laude, where she won first prize in both the concerto and chamber music competitions. She completed her Masters and Doctoral studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she won the concerto competition and performed Frank Martin’s Concerto for Seven Winds under the baton of Leon Fleisher.
Sharett’s teachers include Mordechai Rechtman, Kim Laskowski, Leonard Hindell, Arlen Fast and Frank Morelli. As an active educator, Sharett has performed for the New York Philharmonic Education series KidZone, as well as Young Audiences, Midori and Friends, and the 92 Street Y. She has taught at Hartwick Music Festival in Oneonta and the Brevard Music Center.
Gili has two daughters, Mai and Liana with her husband, trombonist and composer Rafi Malkiel.
JULIAN MÜLLER Cello
American-German cellist, Julian Müller performs frequently as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in the United States and Europe. Hailed as “...haunting and mesmerizing...” by the USA Today, Julian appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, performing the world premiere of the ballet How They Fade, composed by him and art-pop band, YASSOU, on a commission from the Louisville Ballet Company. Müller has been presented on NPR Live, in collaboration with pianist, Sergei Babayan, performing works of Schubert and Schumann. Müller has performed with Simone Dinnerstein as a member of Ensemble Baroklyn and with Matt Haimovitz’s ensemble, UCCELLO. Müller also appeared as a guest artist on the 10th annual Carolyn Warner and Friends concert, performing with, Stephen Rose, Peter Salaff, and Robert Vernon. Further, Müller has been in the Intensive Quartet Seminar at CIM, the Chamber Music Mentorship Program of Orchestra of St. Lukes, Mannes Baroque Ensemble, NewMusicMannes, and on many Mannes Sounds Festival Series concerts. As an orchestral musician, Müller performs frequently with Orchestra of St. Luke’s and is a member of the Montclair Orchestra. Müller served as principal cellist of the Mannes School of Music Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the Empire State Youth Orchestra. He has also been featured as continuo player for the Mannes Opera’s production of Cosi fan Tutte and CIM’s opera production of Alcina. In 2012 and 2013, Müller was a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar under maestro Jaime Laredo. From 2008-2011, Müller held a section cello position with the Berkshire Symphony.Music festival appearances include: Aspen Music Festival and School, Caroga Lake Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, National Summer Cello Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, Manchester Music Festival Music School, and Yellow Barn (YAP).
In competitions, Müller has won first prize at the Uel Wade Music Competition and first prize at the Schenectady Symphony’s Stefan Concerto Competition.
A dedicated teacher and instructor, Müller served as Assistant Artistic Mentor and coach at the Chamber Music Connection in Worthington, Ohio. Müller is a certified Suzuki Pedagogy teacher, receiving his instruction from Dr. Melissa Kraut. Müller has a private studio in New York City.
Müller holds a Master of Music Degree and Professional Studies Diploma with honors from the Mannes School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Müller is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at Rutgers University, where he studies with Jonathan Spitz. Past teachers include; Timothy Eddy, Georg Faust, Ronald Feldman, and Sharon Robinson.
DANA KELLEY Viola
Violist Dana Kelley is an Artistic Director and member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Praised for her rich and beautiful tone, she has been a top prizewinner in the Sphinx Music Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. She also serves on the viola faculty of the Mannes School of Music at the New School.
Dana’s performance schedule has brought her to many prestigious venues and festivals, including multiple recitals at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall at New York’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, and Bravo! Vail. Dana has collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Nobuko Imai and Miriam Fried, pianists Leon Fleisher, Anne-Marie MacDermott and Misha Dichter, and Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet.
She participated in Ravinia’s Steans Musicians on Tour and frequently performs with The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, A Far Cry, and The Knights chamber orchestras.
Dana received an Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies with the Argus String Quartet as the 2017-2019 Graduate Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School. Dana was a 2014-2016 Fellow in Ensemble Connect – a performance and teaching program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute. She received her Bachelor’s of Music from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, studying violin with Cornelia Heard and viola with Kathryn Plummer, and completed her Master’s of Music degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.
ELI EBAN Clarinet
Eli Eban was appointed principal clarinetist of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra under Lukas Foss immediately after graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music. Shortly thereafter he joined the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of Zubin Mehta. During thirteen seasons with the Israel Philharmonic, he performed and recorded all the major orchestral repertoire with the world's leading conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Georg Solti, Kryzstof Penderecki, and Lorin Maazel.
Eban was the featured soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on many occasions, and he has also performed concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata Academica , the City of London Sinfonia, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Louisville Orchestra, and the Israel Camerata/Jerusalem, among others. He tours extensively as a chamber musician, collaborating with renowned artists and ensembles. He has been guest artist with the Alexander, Audubon, Orion, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv and Ying quartets and was a frequent participant of the famed Marlboro Music Festival. While at Marlboro, Eban was selected by legendary violinist Sandor Vegh to be the first wind player to perform at the prestigious IMS Prussia Cove festival in England, drawing acclaim from the London "Guardian" for his "high-powered, electrifying performances". His subsequent recordings for Meridian Records, London, were cited by critics as being "full of life and highly sensitive". He has also recorded for the Saphir, Crystal and Naxos labels. He was a member of "Myriad" (a chamber ensemble formed by members of the Cleveland Orchestra) and has often traveled to Eastern Europe to perform and teach at the invitation of the European Mozart Foundation.
Eli Eban was a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music for two years before joining the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he holds a distinguished ranks' Rudy professorship. His former students are pursuing active solo careers and have won orchestral positions in Israel, Denmark, Korea, Poland, Singapore, and South Africa. In the USA they can be heard in the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, New Mexico, Toledo, the New World Symphony and in the premier service bands in Washington, D.C. He divides his time between teaching at the Jacobs School of Music, touring as a soloist and chamber musician, and serving as the principal clarinetist of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. His summers are spent performing and teaching at the Sarasota Music Festival and playing principal clarinet in the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
RONI GAL-ED Oboe
Described as ”one of the finest oboe players in the country" - The Jerusalem Post; ”Expressive, wonderful player” – SZ Magazine, Germany; ”Virtuoso and Elegant” – Double Reed Magazine, Germany; and ”Outstanding” and "the star soloist of the evening"– The New York Times -- Roni Gal-Ed is a first prize winner at the International Lauschmann Oboe Competition in Mannheim, Germany, and a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ms. Gal-Ed has worked with leading conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Valery Gergiev, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christian Thielemann, Sándor Végh, and Yoel Levy. As a chamber musician she collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaj Znaider, Johannes Moser, Mathieu Dufour, Alex Klein, Dale Clevenger, Karl Heinz Steffens, Klaus Thunemann, the Jerusalem String Quartet, and the Carmel String Quartet. A recording of a concert with the Carmel String Quartet was broadcast live on The Voice of Music in Israel, and twice on WQXR. Ms. Gal-Ed has also recorded the Hindemith Oboe Sonata and Serenade for the German radio station, Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt, as part of Hindemith's 100th birthday celebrations in Germany. Other recordings include the premieres of Oded Zehavi's "Erelim" (as a soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra), and of Avner Dorman's "Jerusalem Mix."
Roni Gal-Ed has been a regular participant in music festivals around the world, including the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, the PRO Festival Rolandseck, Germany, the Verbier Music Festival, Edinburgh Music Festival, and the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado.
Endorsed by both the Oboe Maker company Buffet Crampon and Légère Reeds, Roni proudly represents them around the world.
From 2001 to 2003, Ms. Gal-Ed played with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under James Levine. In 2003 she became the Principal Oboist of the Bavarian Kammerphilharmonie, a position she held until 2007. In addition, she played, toured and recorded as a guest Principal Oboist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer for eight years. She performed and toured with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Bremen Kammerphilharmonie, and was a frequent guest Principal Oboist with the Stuttgart and Munich Chamber Orchestras. In November 2019 she toured and recorded with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
Back in her native Israel, she served as the Principal Oboist of the Israeli Opera for one year, and then as Associate Principal with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Since moving to New York in 2009, Ms. Gal-Ed has continued to be an active Oboist, performing as a member of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Jupiter Chamber Concerts Series. In 2018, she performed the U.S. premiere of Matthew Greenbaum's oboe concerto "the jig is up" at Lincoln Center. In 2022 she became the Oboist of the world renowned Dorian Wind Quintet.
Ms. Gal-Ed has studied with Paul Dombrecht at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. She then joined one of Europe’s leading oboe programs at the Musik Hochschule in Munich, under the leadership of the late Günther Passin, where she graduated with a Master’s degree.
LIRI RONEN Horn
Liri Ronen is a versatile and experienced young musician, who’s accumulated diverse styles and influences over years of performance, writing and arranging. He started playing French Horn at age 9, quickly followed by guitar and eventually piano. Playing classical music as well as folk and rock songs has led to a merged curiosity of music that exhibits the best of both worlds. Liri began to write music in high school, and while attending Bard College Conservatory for a classical performance degree, he also studied composition, orchestration and arrangement, and film scoring with Composer team James Sizemore and Howard Shore. He’s collaborated on numerous projects with the Film department at Bard as well as independent projects. In 2019 he started the “Oldies Band” club at Bard, which performed live covers of classic songs from the 50’s through the 70’s. Playing a mix of covers and originals has led to the creation of one of his iconic sets - affectionately called “The Chesterfield Supper Club” (after the iconic 40’s radio show hosted by Jo Stafford). This performance, which has been gracing weddings, gatherings and events across the Hudson Valley, includes classic recognizable songs and forgotten nostalgic tracks alongside original music that evokes a similar atmosphere.
Liri’s original music falls anywhere between rock or folk songs to full orchestral compositions; In the summer of 2022 his piece for Horn and Piano “Verdant Place” was featured in the International Horn Society Symposium, and in the summer of 2023 he ventured on a road trip tour with the band Fuel Allowance, in which they busked in the streets of iconic American cities to make enough gas money for their next destination, encircling the entire United states from East to South to West to North and back again.
His greatest inspirations include: Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, The Beach Boys, The Association, Love, Jo Stafford & Paul Weston, Geva Alon, Kaveret and the Mendelssohn family.
OUR HEARTFELT THANKS
… to the musicians and artists who have performed with us in the past:
David Bánóczi-Ruof, violin
Ashley Bathgate, cello
David Bánóczi-Ruof, violin, conductor
George Brooks, saxophone
David Cerutti, viola
Emily Daggett-Smith, violin
Ronald Feldman, cello
William Frampton, viola
Jack Glottman, piano
Ital Kriss, flute, percussion
Utsav Lal, pianist
Myron Lutske, cello
Rafi Malkiel, trombone
Elizabeth Mann, flute
Jamecyn Morey, violin
Martina Angela Müller, painter
William Pilgrim, cello
Franco Pinna, drums, percussion
Goni Ronen, tuba
Serafim Smigelskiy, cello
Jessica Tong, violin
Peter Weitzner, double-bass
Ariel Rudiakov, viola and conductor
Susannah Woodruff, mezzo-Soprano
Alon Yavnai, pianist
Yonatan Yavnai, drums
