Music of the Spheres Society: Artists' Biographies

Artist Biographies for 2009/2010

Stephanie Chase, violin	“One of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse News), Stephanie Chase excels in the virtuoso soloist's repertoire, period instrument practice, contemporary music, chamber music, and music education. As violin soloist she has appeared with the world’s most illustrious orchestras, among them the Chicago Symphony, London Symphony and New York Philharmonic, and her playing is widely acclaimed for its "elegance, dexterity, rhythmic vitality and great imagination" (Boston Globe). Her recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Romances, the first ever on period instruments, has been declared “one of the twenty most outstanding performances in the work’s recording history” (Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Cambridge University Press) and honored with the highest possible ratings by BBC Music Magazine and Classic CD. Born in Illinois to musician parents, Stephanie Chase gave her first public performance at age two and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony at eight as the youngest winner ever of the orchestra's Youth Competition. After her Carnegie Hall debut at age eighteen, she became a pupil of the legendary Belgian violinist, Arthur Grumiaux. Stephanie Chase’s triumphant win at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow has led to international fame and the award of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. In addition to her solo and chamber music appearances, Ms. Chase gives master classes throughout the United States and teaches violin at NYU’s Steinhardt School.
Harumi Rhodes, violin	A member of the Trio Cavatina, which won the prestigious 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition, violinist Harumi Rhodes performs extensively with some of the most prestigious musicians worldwide, including a residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II and as guest artist with the Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Seattle Chamber Music Societies. Some of her recent solo engagements include performances in the Vermont Mozart Festival in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Harumi Rhodes has also participated in several Musicians from Marlboro tours. As an avid supporter of contemporary music, she had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees, has recorded Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet and most recently performed at Zankel Hall in a tribute to George Perle. Ms. Rhodes received degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Ronald Copes and Earl Carylss, and the New England Conservatory studying with Donald Weilerstein, where she received the Gunther Schuller Award. In 2009 Harumi Rhodes was made an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society.
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola	Violist Hsin-Yun Huang is recognized as one of the leading violists of her generation. Her solo performances have included concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris, the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo, the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Philharmonic, and the Naumburg Orchestra in New York City’s Central Park. Ms. Huang is in constant demand in her native Taiwan, appearing with the National Symphony of Taiwan, and with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. Her festival appearances include Spoleto, Chamber Music Northwest, Marlboro Music, Aspen, Music@Menlo, El Paso Chamber Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Vancouver Chamber Music, An Appalachian Summer, Rockport Chamber Music, Newport, Saltbay Chamberfest, La Musica in Sarasota and Mount Desert Chamber Music. International festivals have included Prussia Cove, St. Nazaire, Festival de Divonne, Spring Festival, Rome Chamber Music, Cartagena International, Stavanger, and the Moritzburg. Ms. Huang has collaborated with many distinguished artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, Joseph Silverstein, Gary Hoffman, and Michael Tree. Recent performances include collaborations with the Guarneri Quartet and a tour with the Orion String Quartet and the Bill T. Jones Dance Company under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has collaborated extensively with the Brentano String Quartet and is a former member of the Borromeo Quartet. She recently founded the Variation String Trio with violinist Jennifer Koh and cellist Wilhelmina Smith. Currently residing in New York City, Ms. Huang is on the faculties of The Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music.
Darrett Adkins, 'cello	Cellist Darrett Adkins belongs to a new generation of American musicians who are redefining the concert experience. His critically acclaimed performances of contemporary music have inspired critics to call him “stunning,” “intensely involving,” “heroic,” and “fiery.” His appetite to bridge the world between the established tradition and the avant-garde enables him to explore repertoire in almost every genre – from the classical cannon, to the contemporary frontier. Mr. Adkins’ has given many important first performances, among them the American premiere of Donatoni’s cello concerto at Tanglewood, where he also performed Birtwhistle’s Meridian, and the world premiere of Andrew Mead’s Cello Concerto with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. In addition, he gave the first New York performance of Luciano Berio’s sequenza XIV, which he has recorded for release on Naxos’s complete sequenzas collection, the first such recording. With Red {an orchestra} he helped develop and premier the new dramatic work “Schubert Songbook” which features himself on cello and soprano Arianna Zuckerman in a dramatic setting of orchestrated Schubert songs. Besides receiving degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Norman Fischer, and the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Krosnick, Adkins also earned a Master of Music degree from Rice University. He is originally from Tacoma, Washington and now lives in Oberlin, Ohio with his wife Ingrid and their four children.
James Wilson, 'cello	‘Cellist James Wilson performs throughout the world and is noted for his singing tone and intelligent but soulful approach to music. The Los Angeles Times has described him as a musician "with something to say and a commanding way of saying it," and he has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Casal's Hall in Tokyo, and the Sydney Opera House, and at diverse music festivals that include those in Hong Kong, London, Bavaria, New York and Aspen. Wilson has collaborated with artists such as violinist Joshua Bell, flutist Eugenia Zukerman, pianist Christopher O'Riley, guitarist Eliot Fisk, actress Claire Bloom, and the Tokyo String Quartet, as well as with ensembles that include the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Richardson Chamber Players, the Music of the Spheres Society, and the Alliance Players. A former member of the Shanghai and Chester String Quartets, he recorded and toured extensively worldwide with both groups and is heard on the Delos and Music Masters labels. A champion of musical works from all periods, Mr. Wilson performs on Baroque as well as modern cello in repertoire ranging from the seventeenth century to new works written especially for him. He has served on the faculties of Princeton University, the University of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University and is currently the Artistic Director of the Richmond Festival of Music (VA) and on the faculty at Columbia University.
Kurt Muroki, double bass	Double bassist Kurt Muroki, who recently was appointed a member of the faculty at SUNY Stony Brook, has collaborated with the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Tokyo string quartets, the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, and artists Jaime Laredo, Toru Takemitsu, Peter Schickele, John Zorn, and Brian Ferneyhough. Winner of numerous competitions, including first prize in the Aspen Music Festival double bass competition, he is the first bassist to win the New World Symphony concerto competition and the Honolulu Symphony Young Artists competition. He is an artist member of the Lincoln Ctr Chamber Music Society and has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jupiter Chamber Players, Concertante Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae, Ensemble Sospeso, Sequitur, the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, Tokyo Opera Nomori, New York City Ballet, Ensemble 21, Marlboro Music Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum Artists, and the American Chamber Ensemble. A native of Maui, Hawaii, Mr. Muroki is currently teacher of double bass at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and serves on the faculties of The Juilliard School, New Jersey City University, and SUNY Stony Brook, and Mercer University. Kurt plays on a Nicolo Amati double bass once owned by the famous bassist Domenico Dragonetti.
Jon Manasse, clarinet	Among the most distinguished classical artists of his generation, clarinetist Jon Manasse is internationally recognized for his inspiring artistry, uniquely glorious sound and charismatic performing style. A graduate of the Juilliard School and a professor both there and at the Eastman School of Music, Manasse has six critically acclaimed CDs. He is an avid chamber musician, is principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and serves as Co-Artistic Director of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. Jon Manasse's solo appearances include New York City performances at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Hunter College's Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse, Columbia University, Rockefeller University and The Town Hall, fourteen tours of Japan and Southeast Asia - all with the New York Symphonic Ensemble - debuts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Osaka and concerto performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, both at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and at the prestigious Tokyu Bunkamura Festival in Tokyo. With orchestra, he has been guest soloist with the Augsburg, Dayton, Evansville, Naples and National philharmonics, Canada’s Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Chamber Orchestra and the Alabama, Annapolis, Bozeman, Dubuque, Florida West Coast, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jackson, Oakland East Bay, Pensacola, Princeton, Richmond, Seattle, Stamford and Wyoming symphonies, under the batons of Leslie B. Dunner, Peter Leonard, Eckart Preu, Matthew Savery, Alfred Savia and Lawrence Leighton Smith. Of special distinction was Mr. Manasse’s 2002 London debut in a Barbican Centre performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Hope Hudson, soprano	Hope Hudson, soprano is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in New York, having obtained Bachelor’s, Master’s and Professional Studies degrees in vocal performance. She is also a recent graduate of Teachers College Columbia University with a Master of Education degree and is now a candidate for the Doctor of Education in College Teaching at Teachers College. Ms. Hudson has been a frequent performer at the Aldeburgh Festival in England and sang the role of The Female Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at the Festival. She has been featured on BBC radio performing the songs of Britten, having studied them extensively under the tutelage of Sir Peter Pears. Ms. Hudson is active in both oratorio and concert work. In June of 2008, Ms. Hudson performed Tom Cipullo’s song cycle “Of A Certain Age” at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Commissioned by Ms. Hudson, the cycle won the 2008 Composition Competition sponsored by NATS. Ms. Hudson is an Affiliate Artist in the Theater Department of Kean University and is an Adjunct Professor in both the Music Education and Theater faculties at Kean. Her students have been winners in the New York City NATS Auditions and have also won Kennedy Center Collegiate Honors. Ms. Hudson also maintains private studios in Garden City, New York and New York City.
Todd Crow, piano	Pianist Todd Crow is widely acclaimed for performances in North and South America and Europe. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the American Symphony in 1992 and his London orchestral debut at the Barbican Centre with the London Philharmonic in 1986, and has performed recently with the Jerusalem Symphony in Israel, and with Milano Classica and I Solisti Aquilani in Italy. Mr. Crow has also been heard in recital or in chamber music at Washington’s National Gallery of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The BBC Radio features him in both live and recorded performances and he is heard on many American radio stations. Since 1996, Mr. Crow has been music director and pianist of the Mount Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine. His CDs include sonatas of Haydn and Schubert, works by Taneyev and Dohnányi, Liszt’s piano solo transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Ernst Toch’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the NDR-Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, and most recently, Schubert’s unfinished Sonata in C major in a new completion by Brian Newbould. Born in Santa Barbara, California, Todd Crow is an honors graduate of the University of California and the Juilliard School. In 1986 he received the University of California’s Distinguished Alumni Award and is currently the George Sherman Dickinson Professor of Music at Vassar College.
William Wolfram, piano	American pianist William Wolfram was a silver medalist at both the William Kapell and the Naumburg International Piano Competitions, and a bronze medalist at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. A versatile recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, he has won the respect of musicians and critics across the country and abroad. Wolfram has several recordings on the Naxos label, has played recitals in cities throughout the U.S. and Europe, and has performed with dozens of the finest orchestras in the world. William Wolfram's 2009-10 season includes appearances with the North Carolina Symphony, under Andrew Litton, in Lowell Liebermann's Piano Concerto No. 2; with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Music Director JoAnn Falletta conducting, in Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 2; and with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Canada), under Edwin Outwater, in Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3. He also performs with the City of Birmingham Symphony, conducted by Andrew Litton. In the 2008-09 season Wolfram appeared with Andrew Litton and the Minnesota Orchestra, Andreas Delfs and the Milwaukee Symphony, and the orchestras of San Antonio, Florida and Edmonton, among others. Recently he performed the Corigliano Piano Concerto with the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop. He also appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center, Leon Botstein conducting; the Phoenix Symphony under Michael Christie; and the Rochester Philharmonic, with Jerzy Semkow.

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