Music of the Spheres Society: Artists' Biographies

Artist Biographies for the 2007-2008 Chamber Music and Lecture Series

Stephanie Chase, violinist

“One of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse News), Stephanie Chase is a remarkably versatile musician who excels in the virtuoso soloist's repertoire, period instrument practice, contemporary music, chamber music, and music education. Her appearances as soloist include 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).
    Ms. Chase’s 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. Gramophone has hailed her recording of Brahms’s Horn Trio as “one of our best sellers... incredibly smooth, lyrical playing.” Stereophile featured Ms. Chase's recording of Ravel’s Tzigane as a "Record to Die For." Her diverse solo repertoire encompasses Bach and Vivaldi to Bernstein and Zwilich and includes over fifty-five concerti plus major works for violin and orchestra. Her 2005 appearance with the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was received by standing ovation and a review in which the critic declared that it was “one of the best I have ever heard, live or recorded” (Christopher Hyde, Portland Press Herald).
    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 of the orchestra's Youth Competition. Her early violin teachers were her mother, Fannie Chase, and Sally Thomas of the Juilliard faculty. As a teenager, she embarked on extensive national tours as a soloist and recitalist. After her Carnegie Hall debut at age eighteen, she became a pupil of the legendary Belgian violinist, Arthur Grumiaux, which was followed by summer chamber music studies at the famed Marlboro Festival with many of the 20th century's most prominent musicians. Stephanie Chase’s triumphant win at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow led to international fame and the award of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1987.
    Also renowned as a violin pedagogue, Ms. Chase gives master classes throughout the United States and in Mexico and has been on the faculties of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Boston Conservatory. She is currently teaching violin at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, has served as judge for violin competitions at the Juilliard and Mannes Schools as well for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Competition, and has given lectures on period instrument practice at Juilliard, Mannes and the CUNY graduate center.

Her recent interest in music arrangement, as heard in "A Fantasy about Carmen" at the Society’s October 2004 concert, comes from her late father, Bruce Chase, a noted arranger and composer for radio and television whose popular symphonic arrangements are often heard performed in concert by orchestras such as the Boston Pops and Milwaukee Symphony. Her arrangement of "A Fantasy about Carmen" for string orchestra was premiered in December 2004 by the students of the Perlman Music Program, in which they were conducted by its founder, Itzhak Perlman. It was played again on February 14, 2005, as part of the PMP’s gala program at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall, and was performed in Seattle in June of 2005, in a performance by the American String Project.

Stephanie Chase's album of music for violin and piano by Rudolf Friml, in which she is partnered by pianist Sara Davis Buechner, was released by Koch Records in Fall, 2006. Her latest project for Koch is an album of music for violin and guitar by the Italian virtuoso Mauro Giuliani, in collaboration with guitarist Richard Savino. This music was recorded on period instruments and is scheduled for release in 2007.

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 and has appeared several times on the Trinity St. Paul’s Concert Series. At Brick Church in New York City, she was soprano soloist in Dave Brubeck’s La Fiesta de la Posada, conducted by Mr. Brubeck. At Riverside, she was soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Kodaly’s Missa Brevis with the Jose Limon Dance Company, the John Rutter Requiem and Franz Liszt’s Christus. She has appeared on the Christ Chapel concert series at Riverside and was a featured soloist for the world premiere of Harmonia Sacra by Richard Pearson Thomas.

Ms. Hudson is also a featured soloist on the Riverside Choir’s recording of Behold the Star and is heard once again as a featured soloist on the Riverside Choir’s 2002 recording of best-loved anthems. In March of 2003 she was named a semi-finalist in the American Traditions Competition in Savannah, Georgia and was previously a semi-finalist in the McAllister Awards and Liederkranz Foundation Awards. In December of 2004, Ms. Hudson was presented in recital at the Donnell Library and in March of 2005 at the Wiregrass Museum in Dothan, Alabama under the auspices of Continental Harmony sponsored by the American Composers Forum. In February of 2006 Ms. Hudson was featured soloist with “Elysian Chamber Ensemble” at the Two River Too Series in Red Bank, New Jersey. She returned to the Donnell in the spring of 2006 with composer Richard Pearson Thomas and was featured with Mr. Thomas in the spring of 2006 on the Rabi-Warner Faculty House concerts at Columbia University.

Ms. Hudson is on the Music Education and Theater faculties at Kean University in New Jersey, a member of the voice faculty at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and coordinator of Applied Music at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City.

Warren Jones, pianist

Warren Jones frequently performs with many of today's best-known artists, including Barbara Bonney, Ruth Ann Swenson, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Denyce Graves, Stephanie Blythe, Håkan Hagegård, Bo Skovhus, Samuel Ramey, James Morris, John Relyea, and Joseph Alessi. In the past he has partnered such great singers as Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Tatiana Troyanos and Martti Talvela. His collaborations have earned consistently high praise from many publications: The Boston Globe termed him "flawless" and "utterly ravishing"; The New York Times, "exquisite"; and The San Francisco Chronicle said simply, "He is the single finest accompanist now working."

Mr. Jones has been featured in an interview with Eugenia Zuckerman on "CBS Sunday Morning" in which his work as a performer and teacher was explored, and he has appeared on television across the United States with Luciano Pavarotti. He has often been a guest artist at Carnegie Hall and in Lincoln Center's "Great Performers Series," as well as the festivals of Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Caramoor. His international travels have taken him to recitals at the Salzburg Festival, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, the Maggio Musicale Festival in Florence, the Teatro Fenice in Venice, Paris' Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Opéra Bastille, Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Cultural Centre in Hong Kong and theatres throughout Scandinavia and Korea.

Mr. Jones has been invited three times to the White House by American presidents to perform at concerts honoring the President of Russia, and Prime Ministers of Italy and Canada — and three times he has appeared at the U.S. Supreme Court as a specially invited performer for the Justices and their guests. As a guest at the Library of Congress, Mr. Jones has appeared with the Juilliard Quartet in performances of the Schumann Piano Quintet. He was featured in the United Nations memorial concert and tribute to Miss Audrey Hepburn, an event which was telecast worldwide following Miss Hepburn's death.

Recent seasons have included his debut with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall (performing the Sextet of Ernst von Dohnanyi), performances with the Brentano Quartet (Schubert Trout Quintet), and an invitation to teach a master class at The Juilliard School under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Several recordings with Mr. Jones have caught the public's ear: on BMG/RCA Red Seal, he is featured with Håkan Hagegård in songs of Brahms, Sibelius and Stenhammar in a recording which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1999; on the Samsung Classics label, with Korean soprano Youngok Shin in A Dream, her first recital disc with piano; and for NPR Classics, a recitalof spirituals with Denyce Graves, entitled Angels Watching Over Me. Other compact discs featuring Mr. Jones include: I carry your heart, with Ruth Ann Swenson on EMI; Every Time We Say Goodbye, with Samuel Ramey on SONY Classics; and Fauré Songs with Barbara Bonney and Håkan Hagegård on RCA Red Seal. A critically-acclaimed survey of the songs of Edward Grieg with Mr. Hagegård has also been issued by BMG/RCA Victor.

Mr. Jones' recording of Copland and Ives songs with Mr. Ramey for Decca/Argo was also nominated for a Grammy Award; and he can be seen on the best-selling Deutsche Grammophon video/laser disc of his memorable Metropolitan Museum of Art concert with Kathleen Battle. Mr. Jones is a member of the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where highly gifted young artists work with him in a unique graduate degree program in collaborative piano. Each summer he teaches and performs at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. For ten years he was Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and for three seasons served in the same capacity at San Francisco Opera. Mr. Jones is also a prominent musical jurist, having been a judge for the Walter Naumberg Foundation Awards, the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Artists' Association International Fine Arts Competition, and the American Council for the Arts. In the Spring of 1997 he joined the jury of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, at Mr. Cliburn's special invitation.

Born in Washington, D.C., Mr. Jones grew up in North Carolina and graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts — where he was recently honored with the Conservatory's Outstanding Alumni Award. A resident of New York City, Mr. Jones enjoys cooking, exercise, historical novels, and lively political discussion.

James Wilson,

cellist

Cellist James Wilson consistently performs to the delight of audiences throughout the world, from small towns to the world’s most illustrious venues. Acclaimed for his singing tone, and intelligent and soulful approach to music, one critic described Wilson as "not merely an advanced technician of his instrument: he is masterful at shaping notes and contouring phrases." He has appeared in America’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, Casal’s Hall in Tokyo, and the Sydney Opera House. As recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed at music festivals around the world such as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the City of London Festival, the Deutches Mozartfest in Bavaria, the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.

Wilson has collaborated with such diverse artists as violinist Joshua Bell, flutist Eugenia Zukerman, pianist Christopher O’Reily, guitarist Eliot Fisk, actress Claire Bloom, and the Tokyo String Quartet. He has also been a member of the Shanghai and Chester String Quartets, touring extensively worldwide with both groups. Mr. Wilson’s performances have been broadcast on West German Radio and Bavarian Radio in Germany, CBC radio in Canada, and CBS television and National Public Radio in the USA. He has recorded for the Delos and Music Masters labels.

Championing musical works from all periods, Mr. Wilson’s performs repertoire ranging from early the Baroque to new works written especially for him including works by Bright Sheng, Elena Ruehr, Lowell Liebermann, Mathew Burtner, and Zhou Long, among others. Mr. Wilson has recently begun performing on Baroque cello.

A devoted advocate for the arts and arts education, Mr. Wilson has served on the faculties of the University of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching both performance and academic music courses. He has led masterclasses in Hong Kong, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Mexico, and has served in educational projects in Michigan, Texas and Virginia. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Richmond Festival of Music, co-ordinating performances and out-reach activities throughout the Richmond metro area, and this fall he is Visiting Artist-in-Residence and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Mr. Wilson currently lives in New York City. His last appearance with the Music of the Spheres Society was in April 2007.

Jon Manasse, clarinetist

Among the most distinguished clarinetists of his generation, Jon Manasse’s recent solo appearances include acclaimed concerto performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and the prestigious Tokyu Bunkamura Festival in Tokyo. He ralso made his debut in London’s Barbican Centre, performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as appearances with the orchestras of Annapolis and Jackson. As a guest soloist with orchestra, he has appeared with the Augsburg, Dayton and Evansville Philharmonic Orchestras, Symphony Nova Scotia and the National Chamber Orchestra in Canada, and the Alabama, Florida West Coast, Oakland East Bay and Princeton Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Manasse has performed with the New York Ensemble at major concert venues as well as on tours of Japan and Southeast Asia and debuts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Osaka.
    An avid chamber musician, Jon Manasse has been featured in programs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at numerous New York venues that include Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theatre (on Lincoln Center’s “Great Performers Series”), The Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse, and Merkin Concert Hall. His festival appearances include chamber music concerts at Caramoor, Newport, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Colorado Springs, Crested Butte, the Cape and Islands, the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival and France’s Festival International des Arts. Among these appearances are collaborations with Germany’s Trio Parnassus and the Manhattan, Shanghai, Borromeo, Moscow and Ying String Quartets.
    Mr. Manasse recently served as currently principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Additionally, he has served as guest clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic, Mostly Mozart Orchestra, New York Pops Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New Jersey and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, under the batons of Valery Gergiev, André Previn, Gerard Schwarz, Zdenek Macal, Robert Craft and Hugh Wolff.
    Mr. Manasse is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with David Weber and was the winner of two concerto competitions and the recipient of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Scholarship. His competition honors include a top prize in the Thirty-Sixth International Competition for Clarinet in Munich and being the youngest winner of the International Clarinet Society Competition. His critically acclaimed CDs on the XLNT label encompass the complete clarinet concerti and works for clarinet and piano of Weber; world premier recordings of 20th century clarinet works; and “Clarinet Music from 3 Centuries,” which features Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet (with the Shanghai Quartet) and music by Spohr, Gershwin and James Cohn.
    Jon Manasse is an official “Performing Artist” of the Buffet Crampon Company, the Parisian firm that is the world’s oldest and most distinguished clarinet maker. In 1995, he was appointed to the faculty of the Eastman School of Music. He joined the artist’s roster of the Music of the Spheres Society immediately following his acclaimed performance with the group in February 2002.

Todd Crow, Pianist

Todd Crow has been widely acclaimed for performances in North and South America and Europe. The New York Times has described his playing as “heroic, [showing] endless flair, color and stamina.” The Times of London has called his playing “spine-chilling” and “exhilarating,” and The Wall Street Journal raved that his playing exhibited “stunning control and a wonderful sense of musical architecture.” In recent years he has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, England, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere, and in recital or chamber music at the Berlioz/Dutilleux Festival in Manchester, England, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. 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. He is heard on BBC Radio in both live and recorded performances, and the WFMT Radio Network is currently broadcasting last season’s Jerusalem Symphony concerts where he is heard performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1.

Since 1996, he has been music director and pianist of the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine. In addition to frequent appearances at the Bard Music Festival, he has been heard at the Casals Festival, Music Mountain, Maverick Concerts, and other festivals. His CDs include sonatas of Haydn and Schubert, Liszt’s piano solo transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, works of Sergei Taneyev, the complete works for cello and piano by Mendelssohn (with cellist Mark Shuman), and Ernst Toch’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the NDR-Hamburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein. His most recent CD contains music by Erno Dohnányi (Bridge Records).

Born in Santa Barbara, California, he is an honors graduate of the University of California and the Juilliard School. At the age of thirteen he was awarded an indefinitely renewable scholarship for the study of music composition by the Epstein Foundation of Chicago, and as a teenager won prizes for his works including a competition sponsored by the National Society of Arts and Letters. At age fifteen, he won the Santa Barbara Symphony Young Artists Competition. In 1986 he received the University of California’s Distinguished Alumni Award and he is currently the George Sherman Dickinson Professor of Music at Vassar College.

Harumi Rhodes, violinist

A leading young artist of today, violinist Harumi Rhodes has been performing extensively with some of the most prestigious musicians worldwide. Having just completed her residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she has also joined the Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Seattle Chamber Music Societies. Some of her recent solo engagements include performances in the 2007 Vermont Mozart Festival featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Harumi is a founding member of piano trio, Trio Cavatina, with pianist, Ieva Jokubaviciute and cellist, Priscilla Lee. Harumi has also participated in several Musicians from Marlboro tours. As an avid supporter of contemporary music, Harumi had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees. She has also recorded Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet and most recently performed at Zankel Hall in a tribute to George Perle. Harumi 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.

Erin Keefe, violinist

Winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, American violinist Erin Keefe is quickly establishing a reputation and earning praise as a compelling artist who combines exhilarating temperament and fierce integrity. A top prize winner of several International Competitions, she recently took the Grand Prizes in the 2006 Schadt Competition and the Corpus Christi International String Competition, and was the Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai (Japan) and Gyeongnam (Korea) International Violin Competitions, resulting in performances and immediate re-engagements in the US, Europe and Asia.
    Highlights of the 2006-07 season included an appearance with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poland, multiple performances with the Allentown Symphony and the Sendai Philharmonic in Japan as well as recitals in the United States, Germany and Korea. Ms. Keefe was also featured in the Opening Night program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall, leading a performance of the Dvorak Viola Quintet which included David Finckel and Paul Neubauer.
    Ms. Keefe has appeared in recent seasons with many leading artists of today including the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andres Diaz, Edgar Meyer, Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, David Soyer, Colin Carr, Leon Fleisher and William Preucil. She also performed on a program with Michael Tilson Thomas premiering his own chamber music at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Her recording credits include Schoenberg's Second String Quartet with Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge for Robert Craft and the Naxos Label, as well as live performances of the Bartok Contrasts and Dvorak Piano Quintet recorded for Deutsche Gramophone. Ms. Keefe’s festival appearances have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia and the Seattle, OK Mozart and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals.
    As a member of Lincoln Center's prestigious Chamber Music Society Two program for the 2006-09 seasons, Ms. Keefe will appear in numerous programs at Lincoln Center as well as on tour throughout the US. During the 2007-08 season, she will make her debut with the New Mexico Symphony in three performances of the Dvorak Concerto, as well as her debut with the Boston Chamber Music Society at Jordan Hall in Boston.
    Ms. Keefe earned a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music Degree from The Curtis Institute. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, Brian Lewis, Mitchell Stern and Teri Einfeldt.

Elizabeth Mann, flutist

Elizabeth Mann has served as principal flute of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble for the past seventeen seasons. She has toured the United States performing the Mozart Flute Concerto under the baton of Andrè Previn; traveled throughout Spain and Japan performing the Brandenburg Concerti with renowned violinist/conductor Jaime Laredo; and was guest artist at the Lochenhaus Festival in Austria under the direction of Gidon Kremer. In 1998 Ms. Mann and Mr. Kremer played the U.S. premiere of the Gubaidalina Concerto for Flute and Violin with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has appeared in recital at the Aldeborough Music Festival in England, the Library of Congress and at Carnegie Hall. Other solo performances include concertos with the Boston Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the National Chamber Orchestra of Baltimore.
In past seasons, Ms. Mann has played principal flute with the Minnesota Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and acting associate principal flute with the Boston Symphony. She performs regularly with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and as principal flute of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Ms. Mann has been highlighted in many of the concerts. She has received critical acclaim for performances with Samuel Ramey, Joan Sutherland and Victoria de Los Angeles, among others.
Elizabeth Mann began studying flute at age eight. She won the Boston Young Artist Concerto Competition at age 12, performing as soloist with the Boston Symphony. Ms. Mann is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Julius Baker. She can be heard on recordings by CBC Masterworks, Deutsche Grammophon, Angel Records, MusicMasters and New World Records. She, along with Deborah Hoffman, principal harpist of the Metropolitan Opera, has released the CD Reflections: Transcriptions for Flute and Harp on Arabesque Records.

Dov Scheindlin, violist

Acclaimed by the New York Times as an "extraordinary violist" of "immense flair," Dov Scheindlin has been violist of the Arditti, Penderecki and Chester String Quartets. His chamber music career has brought him to 28 counties around the globe, and won him the Siemens Prize in 1999. He has appeared as soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Paris Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. Mr. Scheindlin has recorded extensively for EMI, Teldec, Auvidis, Col Legno, and Mode, and won the Gramophone Award in 2002 for the Arditti Quartet's recording of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Pulse Shadows. As a member of the Arditti Quartet, he gave nearly 100 world premières, among them new works by Elliott Carter, György Kurtág, Thomas Adès, and Wolfgang Rihm. He has also been broadcast on NPR, BBC, CBC, the German WDR, HR, SWR, NDR, MDR and SFB networks, as well as French, Swiss, Austrian, Dutch and Belgian national radio networks.
Dov Scheindlin was raised in New York City, where he studied with William Lincer and Samuel Rhodes at the Juilliard School. He has taught viola and chamber music at Harvard, Wilfrid Laurier University, Tanglewood, and Saarbrücken. He has regularly participated in summer festivals such as Salzburg, Tanglewood, and Aspen, and has also been acting violist of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. His chamber music partners have included members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Tokyo, and Borodin String Quartets, as well as concertmasters of the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Metropolitan Opera, Saint Paul Chamber and National Symphony Orchestras.
After living six years in London, Dov Scheindlin has recently returned to his hometown of New York. He plays a viola made by Francesco Bissolotti of Cremona, made in 1975.

Bion Tsang, cellist

Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America Online as CultureFinder’s “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello Society as “Artist of the Month,” and most recently in print in the newly published book 21st Century Cellists.
    Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Taiwan National Orchestra. In recent seasons, he made solo debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the U.S. premiere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello Solo and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, the Boston premiere of the Korngold Cello Concerto, Op. 37, and the world premiere of a new concerto written for him by Noam David Elkies.
    As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Kyoko Takezawa, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Tucson, Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.
    Mr. Tsang’s discography includes a recently released recording of the Kodaly Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello, Op. 8 as well as a forthcoming set of the complete Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello recorded on the 1713 “Bass of Spain” Stradivarius. During the last two seasons, in an unusual twist, he performed the Kodaly Sonata in a production of There, After... and the Bach Suites in Plaza X both by the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company. He has performed all six Bach Suites in one sitting first in Austin and later in Seattle at Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall. In addition, Mr. Tsang has toured the complete Beethoven works for cello and piano with pianist Anton Nel in, among other venues, the new Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, with the latter performance recorded and commercially released on the Artek label.
    Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to perform two more concerts with Maestro Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these performances was broadcast worldwide on the CBS Festival of Lively Arts television series. While still in his teens, he became the youngest cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the youngest recipient ever of an Artists International Award. He was also chosen as a Finalist of the NFAA’s Arts Recognition and Talent Search and subsequently as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At age nineteen, Tsang became the youngest cellist to win a prize in the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition.
     Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.
    Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX where he is on the music faculty of The University of Texas at Austin. He was the recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award after just his first year of service and in 2004-05 was named "Instrumentalist of the Year" by the Austin Critics Table. In 2005-06 he was also visiting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. In his spare time, Bion helps his family run the Paul J. Tsang Foundation, a nonprofit organization named in honor of Bion's father and formed to help facilitate educational or career opportunities for promising students and professionals in the arts and sciences. He also enjoys golf, following the ups and downs of the Miami Dolphins, and especially playing with his two sons, Bailey and Henry.

John Novacek, pianist

Pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe, and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over thirty different concerti with dozens of orchestras. Venues include Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Zankel Hall, Weill Hall, 92nd Street Y, Hollywood Bowl, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Royce Hall, Paris’ Theatre des Champs-Elysees, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Hall, and most of the major concert halls of Japan. In addition he has appeared at Lucerne Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival (Lincoln Center), Wolf Trap, SummerFest La Jolla, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger (Norway) International Chamber Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), and Ravinia.

Novacek took top prizes at the Leschetizky, Etude Music Club, Carmel Music Society, Mannes Concerto, and Joanna Hodges International Piano Competitions. He has played on radio broadcasts worldwide, often heard on syndicated programs such as NPR’s Performance Today, First Hearing, St. Paul Sunday, and CBC’s Westcoast Performance, and he’s been a featured performer on many television shows including Tonight Show and Entertainment Tonight.

A much sought-after collaborative artist, Novacek has played with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Emmanuel Pahud, Truls Mork, Julius Baker, and Leila Josefowicz. He’s given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, George Rochberg, John Williams, John Harbison, Sebastian Currier, and John Zorn. He studied piano with Peter Serkin, Bruce Sutherland, and Jakob Gimpel, chamber music with Jamie Laredo and Felix Galimir, also occasionally coaching with Gary Graffman and Isaac Stern. Novacek’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Pacific Symphony, Concertante, Millennium, the Harrington String Quartet, and the Three Tenors. Novacek has recorded over thirty CDs encompassing solo and chamber music by most major composers from Bach to Bartok, and many contemporary and original scores.

He records for Philips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Warner Classics, Koch International, Universal Classics, Ambassador, Pony Canyon, Four Winds, Arkay, Virtuoso, and EMI Classics; CD titles include Road Movies (2004 GRAMMY nomination for Novacek: “Best Chamber Music Performance”), Great Mozart Piano Works, Spanish Rhapsody, Novarags (original ragtime compositions), Classic Romance, Hungarian Sketches, Intersection, Romances et Meditations, and with Ms. Josefowicz, Americana, For the End of Time, and Recital (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE: five star rating).

Hsin-Yun Huang, violist

Hsin-Yun Huang established herself as one of the leading violists of her generation in September 1993, when she won the top prize in the International Competition of the ARD in Munich. She was simultaneously awarded the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award, which included a scholarship grant as well as concerto and recital appearances in Japan. Ms. Huang was also the youngest-ever gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis International Competition on the Isle of Man. As a result of these successes, she has been telecast in concerto appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the Zagreb Soloists in Paris, and the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo; other appearances include live broadcast solos with the Berlin Radio Symphony, Russian State Philharmonic and the National Symphony of Taiwan.
    A native of Taiwan, Ms. Huang currently resides in New York and is an active soloist and chamber musician in the U.S. and abroad. She appears annually in Taiwan with its National Symphony, and recently appeared in a nationally broadcast recital for its President, Chen Shui–Bian. Her festival appearances include the Spoleto, ChamberMusic Northwest, Marlboro Music, Prussia Cove, Newport, and Vancouver chamber music festivals, and her collaborative appearances include concerts with Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, and Michael Tree.
    Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo Quartet from 1994-2000. With the Quartet, her festival appearances include the chamber music festivals of Spoleto, Orlando (held in the Netherlands), Bravo! (Vail), Santa Fe, Prague, Stavanger (Norway), and in prominent venues that include Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Japan’s Casals Hall, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1998, the Borromeo Quartet was awarded the Cleveland Quartet Prize and chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be members of “Society II,” which resulted in their participation in a “Live from Lincoln Center” telecast.
    Ms. Huang came to England at age fourteen to study with David Takeno at the Yehudi Menuhin School. Her studies continued at the Curtis Institute, with Michael Tree, and subsequently at the Juilliard School, where she earned her Master of Music Degree while studying with Samuel Rhodes. Ms. Huang currently serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music. Ms. Huang joined the artist’s roster of the Music of the Spheres Society in the Autumn of 2003.

Jon Nakamatsu,

pianist

One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, Jon Nakamatsu is a frequent concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He enjoys a continuously expanding career based on a deeply probing and illuminating musicality as well as a quietly charismatic performing style.
   Initially brought to global attention in June 1997 by being named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Jon Nakamatsu subsequently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood, as well as with many other orchestras in this country and abroad. Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated with many of today's leading conductors, including George Cleve, James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Jahja Ling, Stanislaw Skrowaczeski, and Michael Tilson Thomas. His 1998-99 season was highlighted by a White House performance hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton.
    Jon Nakamatsu's extensive recital tours throughout the United States and Europe have featured debuts in New York City (Carnegie Hall), Washington, DC (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Paris, London and Milan. The recipient of the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for his semifinal round chamber music performances at the Cliburn competition, he has subsequently collaborated with various chamber ensembles, including the St. Lawrence, Prazak, Tokyo and Ying String Quartets. Mr. Nakamatsu has also made three United States tours as the guest soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet.
    Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR's "Performance Today," Jon Nakamatsu has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and magazine, and is featured in "Playing with Fire," a documentary on the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, aired nationwide on PBS. Earlier, in 1995, he was named the First Prize winner of Miami's Fifth United States Chopin Piano Competition. He records exclusively for harmonia mundi usa, which has released six CDs, including the music of Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Foss, Wolf, Brahmms, Liszt and Gershwin.

Andrew Warshaw

Andrew Warshaw, Guest Lecturer: How Vertebrate Movement Patterns Shape Musical Structures

Neurodevelopmental movement patterning refers to neurologically "hard-wired" coordination of head, spine, and limbs in locomotion. Human neurodevelopmental patterns correspond with those of other vertebrates: spinal undulation in snakes, two-legged homologous jumping in frogs, contralateral movement in other mammals, etc. Experimental investigation of correspondences between stages of vertebrate movement and neural activity in humans has been minimal, but such constructs – originally theorized to treat cerebral palsy patients in the 1940s -- have in the past sixty years gained currency with thousands of occupational and physical therapists, dancers, and psychologists. Andrew Warshaw proposes a neurodevelopmental terminology for the physical actions of musicians. The terms, fourteen permutations of four categories of vertebrate movement, all evident in the actions of musicians, identify neurodevelopmental movement factors in rhythmic and pitch-wise musical actions. These Locomotion-Encoded Musical Patterns (LEMPS) are intended as technical descriptors of movement content in musical passages. With examples from scores for percussion and string instruments, evidence is offered of the uniqueness and significance of each LEMP, such that structures organized by particular LEMPS produce effects characteristic of those LEMPS. These structures also share qualitative attributes with corresponding vertebrate movement patterning, arguing for an evolutionary movement legacy inherent to instrumental performance. Audio and video examples illustrate how LEMPS terminology may provide distinctive appraisals of musical structure, development and transformation, and also prove useful in improvisational and compositional contexts.

Andrew Warshaw is Associate Professor of Music and Dance and Music Director of the Dance Department at Marymount Manhattan College, the largest college-level Dance department in New York City. A former professional dancer himself, his theorization of Locomotion-Encoded Musical Patterning reflects thirty years of thought about the relationships of music and movement.

Martin Nass

Martin Nass, Guest Lecturer: The Mind of Robert Schumann

The renowned Freudian analyst (and accomplished amateur violinist) explores the mind of the famed composer.

Martin Nass has been a practicing psychoanalyst for over 40 years. He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from New York University in 1954 and a Certificate in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in 1965 from the New York University Postdoctoral Program, where he has been Clinical Professor and supervisor since 1971. He is also Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he established and directed a graduate psychology program for many years.

Currently, aside from his work at NYU, he is a member of the faculty and is training and supervising analyst at The New York Freudian Society and is in the private practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic supervision in Greenwich Village.

For many years, he has been actively engaged in the study of the creative process in composers, has interviewed many prominent contemporary American composers, and has written numerous articles and given many presentations at psychoanalytic meetings.

Martin Nass has been playing and studying the violin since the age of eight and is actively involved in amateur chamber music ensembles. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Composers Conference at Wellesley College since 1990.

Stewart Pollens

Stewart Pollens, Guest Lecturer: The Music of the Spheres

The historian and musical instrument expert explores the concepts of the "music of the spheres."

Stewart Pollens is the founder and director of Violin Advisor, LLC, a consulting firm that advises musicians, collectors, institutions, and investors on the acquisition of fine violins.
   Trained as a violin maker and harpsichord and organ builder, Mr. Pollens was the conservator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1976-2006. His work there included the general maintenance and repair of the museum's encyclopedic collection of over 5000 instruments, as well as research, writing, and lecturing on the collection. He was also responsible for determining the authenticity of instruments, performing condition evaluations, and preparing instruments for display in the permanent galleries, special exhibitions, loan, and for use in concerts and recordings.
    Stewart Pollens has written extensively on stringed and early keyboard instruments, including The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari, The Early Pianoforte and François-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker. He is a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and writes on a regular basis for The Strad. He wrote the article on dendrochronology - the science of determining the age of wood through an examination of its growth rings - for the book Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù.
   Mr. Pollens's book The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari (Biddulph) has been hailed as "the standard work on the evolution of Stradivarius's designs" (Giles Whittell, The Times, October 27, 2000). This book contains life-size photographs of all of the extant wood forms and patterns used by Stradivari in the construction of his violins, violas, and cellos, and includes an analysis of their geometry.
   Stewart Pollens is currently writing a book on the other instruments made by Stradivarius - including his lutes, guitars, and harps - for publication in 2008 by Cambridge University Press.

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