2023-24 Artists
Jennifer Curtis, violin
(Schubertiade III)
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The New York Times described violinist Jennifer Curtis’s second solo concert in Carnegie Hall as “one of the gutsiest and most individual recital programs.” She was celebrated as “an artist of keen intelligence and taste, well worth watching out for.”
Curtis navigates with personality and truth in every piece she performs. Jennifer is a long-time member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and founder of the group Tres Americas Ensemble. She has appeared as a soloist with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra in Venezuela and the Knights Chamber Orchestra; performed in Romania in honor of George Enescu; given world premieres at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York; collaborated with composer John Adams at the Library of Congress; and appeared at El Festival de las Artes Esénias in Peru and festivals worldwide.
An educator with a focus on music as humanitarian aid, Jennifer has also collaborated with musical shaman of the Andes, improvised for live radio from the interior of the Amazon jungle, and taught and collaborated with Kurdish refugees in Turkey.
Jennifer currently teaches part-time violin at Duke University. She plays on a 1777 Vincenzo Panormo.
Caroline Stinson, cello
(Schubertiade III)
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Caroline Stinson, cello, is a native of Canada and has made her career across North America and Europe as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in traditional, 20th century and contemporary repertoire. Cellist of the internationally acclaimed Ciompi String Quartet and Associate Professor at Duke University in North Carolina, Ms. Stinson’s concert invitations include Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Museum of Modern Art’s Summergarden Series, Bargemusic and Le Poisson Rouge in New York, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian; the Koelner Philharmonie, Lucerne Festival and Cité de la Musique in Europe, and the Centennial and Winspear Centres in Canada.
An active recitalist and chamber musician, Caroline is invited regularly as guest and has appeared at the Rencontres d’été Strasbourg, France, Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter, Denmark, Manchester Music, Newburyport and Caramoor Music Festivals in the USA. Since joining the Ciompi Quartet in 2018, she has performed with the group across the US, in Taiwan and Italy and has given solo recitals in New York City presented by the League of Composers and in Denmark.
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
(Schubertiade III)
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Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s powerfully and intricately crafted performances have led critics to describe her as possessing “razor-sharp intelligence and wit” (the Washington Post) and as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” (the New York Times). In 2006, she was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
In 2021, Sono Luminus released Ms. Jokubaviciute’s latest recording Northscapes, which features works by twenty-first century composers from the Nordic and Baltic countries of Europe. Gramophone magazine described it as “a fascinating, well-balanced programme, played with engrossingly undemonstrative virtuosity… Jokubaviciute navigates the contrasting demands of each work with hugely impressive skill.”
Jokubaviciute’s recital programs and recording projects bring her to stages in major cities in the US and in Europe. She made her orchestral debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival and has since performed concerti with orchestras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Washington, DC; and Fargo, ND.
A much sought-after chamber musician and collaborator, notably with violinist Midori, Ms. Jokubaviciute’s chamber music endeavors have brought her to major stages throughout North America and extensive touring in Europe, Japan, India, and South America. She also regularly appears at international music festivals and has established herself as a mentoring artist at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and Kneisel Hall in Maine. She was a founding member of the Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition Winner Trio Cavatina.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music, Ms. Jokubaviciute is currently Associate Professor of Piano at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Suzanne Rousso, viola
Mallarmé Artistic Director
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Violist Suzanne Rousso accepted an appointment as artistic director of the Mallarmé Chamber Players in 2008. In this capacity she is responsible for all aspects of Mallarme’s eclectic programming. The ensemble is known as one of the region’s most diverse collectives of musicians.
Her previous administrative and educational engagements included service as Director of Operations and Education of the Portland (Maine) Symphony and Director of Education for the North Carolina Symphony. She was on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival and served as that organization’s personnel manager.
Violist Rousso has performed with the North Carolina Symphony, as Principal violist of the Greensboro Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Portland Chamber Orchestra and orchestras of North Carolina Opera, Carolina Ballet, the Choral Society of Durham, PortOpera and Opera Boston.
Ms. Rousso was educated at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and at New England Conservatory, earning Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in viola performance. Her teachers included Eugene Becker, Max Aronoff, Heidi Castleman and Walter Trampler. As a high school student she was lucky to study at the prestigeous Juilliard Pre-College.
In 2009, she received a Regional Artist grant from the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County and later a Durham Arts Council’s Emerging Artist grant that enabled her to acquire a baroque viola and enter into the field of historically-informed performance. Pursuing this interest, she attended the Amherst Early Music Festival, Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute and Tafelmusik’s winter baroque intensive. She has participated in both Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, is a member of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra and a regular player with Duke Chapel’s Bach Cantata Series in which Mallarmé is a musical partner.
Her service to the arts extends beyond performance and administration. She has served on the boards of the American Federation of Musicians Local #500 and Arts North Carolina, an advocacy organization for arts and arts education in NC.
Jeff Scott, horn
(Mosaics)
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is the Associate Professor of Horn at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, hornist of the Imani Winds, a former member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theater of Harlem orchestras and has performed numerous times with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis.
Additionally, Mr. Scott was an orchestra member for The Lion King’s Broadway run from 1997 to 2005, as well as the 1994 revival of Show Boat. In the studio, Scott has performed on movie soundtracks by Terence Blanchard, Hans Zimmer and Tan Dun, and has collaborated with the likes of the late Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Chris Brubeck, Jimmy Heath, and others. He has toured with the backing ensembles of Barbra Streisand and Luther Vandross. Insatiable in his appetite for all aspects of the creative process, Scott has served as composer or arranger for a multitude of projects, including an Off Broadway production of Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee and the staged production of Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot! in addition to many original works for solo winds and ensembles of all kinds. Scott is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied under David Jolley. He earned a master’s degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook under William Purvis, and he continued his studies with Scott Brubaker and Jerome Ashby.
Peter Askim, composer
(Mosaics)
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As a conductor, he has led the American Composers Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony and Vermont Symphony, among others, and is known for innovative programming, championing the work of living composers and his advocacy of underrepresented voices in the concert hall. He has conducted premieres by composers such as Brett Dean, Aaron Jay Kernis, Allison Loggins-Hull, Jessica Meyer, Nico Muhly, Rufus Reid, Christopher Theofanidis, Jeff Scott and Aleksandra Vrebalov, and led the American premiere of Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America. His work was featured on HBO and National Public Radio conducting folk-rock legend Richard Thompson’s soundtrack for The Cold Blue. He has collaborated with such artists as Miranda Cuckson, Matt Haimovitz, Vijay Iyer, Jennifer Koh, Nadia Sirota, Sō Percussion and Jeffrey Zeigler, and the bluegrass band Balsam Range. As a composer, he has been called a “Modern Master” by The Strad and has had commissions and performances from such groups as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Cantus Ansambl Zagreb and the American Viola Society.
With the creation of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Askim founded a festival dedicated to the next generation of performers, composers and choreographers. Founded in 2013, the Festival encourages young artists, ages 20-30, to focus on artistic development, entrepreneurial career strategies and the music of living composers. The Next Festival Composer and Composer/Choreographer workshops connect early-career performers, composers and choreographers in innovative and highly collaborative laboratory for the creation of new works. The Festival has been awarded grants by the Amphion, ASCAP and BMI foundations, and the Copland Fund for Music. Immediately recognizing the devastation of the COVID pandemic on young artists, he began providing free workshops, masterclasses and resources to support young artists through challenging times beginning in March of 2020. Through the Festival, he has presented over 50 Guest Artists, including Pulitzer, Grammy, and MacArthur award winners.
With the Raleigh Civic Orchestras, Askim has pioneered collaborative, multimedia concert events focused on social and environmental justice and has programmed a newly commissioned world premiere on each concert for the last seven seasons. Themes have included Martin Luther King, Jr.’s North Carolina “I Have A Dream” speech and a work for Virtual Reality and orchestra highlighting the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Voting Rights Act. During the pandemic, Askim premiered nine new works by composers harnessing latency and technology in innovative approaches to distance collaboration. Under his direction, the orchestras have received multiple grants recognizing diversity in programming, including from New Music USA and the Women’s Philharmonic Association.
Andrea Edith Moore, soprano
(Schubertiad II)
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brings to her performances an “opalescence that is particularly served by her impressive phrasing and inherent musicality” (operagasm.com), and “wows audiences with her powerful and flexible soprano voice, her acting ability, and her dedication and drive” (CVNC). Andrea has enjoyed a wide range of collaborations with artists and ensembles including Vladimir Ashkenazy, David Zinman, Eighth Blackbird, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance company, the Hamburger Kammeroper, My Brightest Diamond and the Red Clay Ramblers.
Equally at home in the music of our time and of the distant past, she has starred in roles ranging from The Governess in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Micaëla in Carmen, Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Sara in Higdon’s Cold Mountain. An accomplished concert soloist, she has garnered particular acclaim for her interpretations of the Bach Cantatas and German Lieder, at venues including the Teatro Colon, Baltimore Lieder Weekend, Duke Chapel, and Richard Tucker Foundation.
Andrea’s commitment to voices from her native North Carolina has led her to commission, premiere, and perform composers including Kenneth Frazelle, Daniel Thomas Davis, Sue Klausmeyer, Robert Ward, and numerous others. She produced, premiered, and developed Family Secrets: Kith and Kin with North Carolina Opera, and is especially proud to feature this new work as her debut recording.
Andrea is a prizewinner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was a fellow with four-time Grammy-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird at the Blackbird Creative Lab and has twice received the Yale School of Music Alumni Award. She holds degrees from Yale University, Peabody Conservatory of Music at The Johns Hopkins University and UNC School of the Arts.
Andrea performs full time, teaches privately and, with her husband owns two restaurants: Alley Twenty Six in Durham and James Beard “American Classic” Crook’s Corner Chapel Hill, NC.
Keiko Sekino, piano
(Schubertiad II)
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enjoys an active career as a solo recitalist and chamber musician in the United States and abroad, having performed at such venues as Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Bennett-Gordon Hall at Ravinia Park, and Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, Spain. She has participated in festivals including Ravinia, Norfolk, and Yellow Barn in the United States and Kuhmo, Encuentro de Música y Academia de Santander, La Gesse, and Pontino in Europe.
In 2006, Keiko Sekino was one of four pianists invited to participate in the Carnegie Hall Professional Workshop with Thomas Quasthoff. As a duo with soprano Awet Andemicael, she worked with baritone Thomas Quasthoff and pianist Justus Zeyen on Lieder by Schubert, Wolf, and Strauss in public masterclasses and was presented in a recital at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
An accomplished chamber musician, Ms. Sekino has shared the stage with violinists Ana Chumachenko and MinJung Kang, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Daedalus Quartet, and Enso Quartet. Her recording of Schumann’s complete works for cello and piano with cellist Emanuel Gruber has been released from Delos label.
Keiko Sekino completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and holds additional degrees from Yale University in economics and music. Among her teachers are Peter Frankl and Robert McDonald. She has also worked closely with Elisso Virsaladze, Claude Frank, Boris Berman, and Margo Garrett. She serves as Associate Professor of Piano and Director of Applied Piano Studies at the East Carolina University School of Music.
Luke Ellard, clarinet
(Schubertiad II)
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strives for art that continually reaches out, valuing a relational spirit, informed engagement, and unapologetic authenticity.
For Luke, collaboration is what gives music life. As clarinetist, they have performed with members of Bang On a Can All Stars, Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Arkansas Symphony, and Lone Star Wind Orchestra. Their current performance projects center around their self-produced solo cross-genre/electronic band LE and commissioning new exciting works for the clarinet.
Their collaborative spirit is reflected in their life as a composer as well, drawing inspiration from a personal and communicative place. Their music has been performed by groups such as New Trombone Collective (Blue Interjections, finalist in the 2013 Slide Factory International Composition Contest), the North Texas Wind Symphony (The Seer, concerto for Bassoon and Wind Ensemble), HOCKET (someone else’s days, #What2020SoundsLike), the University of Texas Symphony Band (Shifting Tides), Michigan State University Concert Band, Barkada Quartet (threads of execution), the Mother Falcon String Quartet (all I’m feeling right now, winner of Golden Hornet Composer Lab’s String Quartet Smackdown III), and in collaboration with cellist Nick Photinos (haven’t yet, Bang on a Can Summer Festival).
Dr. Ellard joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Fall of 2023 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Clarinet, having previously served on faculty at the University of Oklahoma and Midwestern State University while teaching privately and performing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Luke earned their Doctor of Musical Arts in Clarinet Performance with related studies in Contemporary Music and Music Entrepreneurship at the University of North Texas, studying under Kimberly Cole Luevano. Additionally, Luke has earned degrees from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (James Campbell & Eric Hoeprich), the University of Texas at Austin (Yevgeniy Sharlat, Dan Welcher, & Donald Grantham), and Louisiana Tech University (Lawrence Gibbs, Joe L. Alexander).
Candace Bailey, piano
(Mosaics)
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is a native North Carolinian and currently lives on her ancestral farm in a rural area in the Coastal Plains region. Her undergraduate degree (BM) is in Piano Performance, and her AM and PhD are in Musicology. During the 2020–2021 academic year, she was a fellow with the Humanities Unbounded program at Duke University.
Dr. Bailey began her musicology career with a focus on music in Britain during the seventeenth century, specifically keyboard music practices. In the 2000s, she expanded her research agenda to include women and music in the nineteenth-century United States, with a focus on music in the South.
When not working on her research projects or teaching, she performs locally as a soprano, pianist, organist, and harpsichordist. Her hobbies include gardening, cooking, painting, and traveling. Growing up, she dabbled in many of the same accomplishments as the women whose lives she studies – times may change, but they change slowly.
Mark Bergman, bass
(The Golem, Bassist Bass)
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is the Director of Strings and Orchestral Studies at Sheridan College and the double bass studio instructor at the University of Wyoming. He teaches double bass, electric bass, cello, viola da gamba, composition, songwriting, and music history. As an ensemble leader, Mark directs the Sheridan College Symphony Orchestra, the Sheridan College Viol Consort, and the professional early music ensemble Wyoming Baroque. He is also the Assistant Principal Double Bassist of the Billings Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, Mark performs with Assisi Performing Arts in Assisi, Italy, and the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon. Mark has an active background as an orchestral double bassist. He is the former Principal Double Bassist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra in Cuiabá, Brazil. He formerly served as a Professor of Music History and Ensemble Director at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
bio
With Wyoming Baroque, Mark released three CDs, two featuring his original compositions for historically informed performers. Mark published two books about popular music pedagogy and authored multiple articles selected for publication with the peer-reviewed Online Journal of Bass Research. In 2022, the International Society of Bassists awarded him their Grand Prize in Research for his article about e-portfolio learning. Mark received the 2018 Performing Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council to recognize his work as a composer and performer. He earned his doctorate from George Mason University in 2015. He also holds degrees from Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music.
David Wilson, violin
(The Golem)
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David Wilson has been playing violin since 1963, when his parents enrolled him in the then-nascent Suzuki program at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and as they say, the rest is history. Though he was drawn primarily to the physical sciences throughout his childhood, by the time he was in high school it had become clear that nothing would do but a life in music, and in due time he earned several degrees in violin performance and held a number of professional orchestra jobs. He had been very interested in baroque instruments since he was a teenager and listened to the old Harnoncourt recording of Bach’s Mass in B minor with chills running down his spine. In 1989 it finally occurred to him to get some actual training in baroque music; so he went off to the Early Music Institute at Indiana University and he has been playing baroque violin ever since. His interests outside of music include cosmology, zymurgy, and science fiction—and he would love to discover a science fiction novel about a homebrewing cosmologist.
Leonid Finkelshteyn, bass
(Schubertiad 1)
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Double bassist Leonid Finkelshteyn enjoys an active career as a performer and teacher. Currently principal bassist of the North Carolina Symphony, which he joined in 1996, and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra in North Carolina, since 1999, Finkelshteyn also serves on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and the Eastern Music Festival in addition to maintaining a large private studio.
As a soloist, he has made numerous concerto appearances with the North Carolina Symphony, Young Artists Orchestra at the Eastern Music Festival, ECU Symphony Orchestra, Punta Gorda Symphony in Florida and the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra in Wisconsin, including works by Bottesini, Bruch, Koussevitsky and Tubin.
Finkelshteyn has also performed the North American premiere of Gareth Glyn’s Microncerto and the world premiere of J. Mark Scearce’s Antaeus, a Concerto for double bass and orchestra, which the North Carolina Symphony commissioned for Finkelshteyn. In 2018, Finkelshteyn performed a premiere of the Double Bass Concerto by Terry Mizesko, which was written and dedicated specifically for him.
He has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and The Cleveland Orchestra, and has appeared with the All-Star Orchestra, under the direction of Gerard Schwarz, as part of an award-winning series of programs for PBS.
A native of Leningrad in the former Soviet Union, he joined the Symphony Orchestra of The Leningrad Philharmonic at only 19 years of age, while still a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he earned a master’s degree, graduating with honors. His primary teachers were Peter Weinblatt and Sergei Akopov. Eventually, he became Principal Double Bassist of the Symphony Orchestra and was a prize winner of the Soviet Union Bass Competition before emigrating to the U.S. in 1990.
Jennifer Streeter, harpichord
(The Golem)
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Jennifer Streeter, harpsichordist, has
performed throughout the United
States and Europe with critically
acclaimed ensembles such as the
North Carolina, Indianapolis, and
Seattle Baroque Orchestras, Three
Notch’d Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble, Alkemie, Raleigh
Camerata, and as concerto soloist with the Monte Carlo
Philharmonic, North Carolina Baroque, and Indiana University
Baroque Orchestras. She has been a featured artist at the
Bloomington, Magnolia, and Amherst Early Music Festivals and on
the nationally syndicated radio show Harmonia. She holds masters’
degrees in harpsichord and recorder from the Early Music Institute at
Indiana University, studying with Elisabeth Wright and Eva Legêne.
Originally from Europe, she now calls Cary, NC home where she is a
freelance performer, recorder and harpsichord teacher, and
Myofascial Release therapist
Mimi Solomon, piano
(Schubertiad)
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American pianist Mimi Solomon enjoys a multi-faceted career as a chamber musician, soloist, and teacher. She has performed throughout the United States, China, Japan and Europe, has appeared as soloist with orchestras including Shanghai Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, and Yale Symphony Orchestra, and has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts including the McGraw-Hill Young Artist’s Showcase, France 3, France Inter and National Public Radio.
An avid chamber musician, Solomon regularly appears at music festivals on both sides of the Atlantic such as Santander, IMS Prussia Cove, Lockenhaus, Rencontres de Bel-Air, Ravinia, Taos, Norfolk, Yellow Barn, Charlottesville, La Loingtaine, and Aspen. Mimi spends part of every year coaching and performing chamber music at Kinhaven Festival in Vermont, and has taught at Cornell University, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ithaca College and is a co-director of MYCO.
Solomon returned to the US after nearly a decade in Paris, during which in addition to being active as a chamber musician and soloist, she perfected her French and gained an assiduous understanding of where to find the best French delicacies. She graduated cum laude in East Asian Studies from Yale and went on to receive a Master of Music from Juilliard. Her main teachers were Peter Frankl and Robert McDonald, and she has also played regularly for Ferenc Rados and studied the fortepiano with Patrick Cohen. Her studies were generously supported by a Beebe Grant and two Woolley Scholarships from the Fondation des États-Unis. She currently lives in Chapel Hill with her husband, violinist Nicholas DiEugenio.
Nathan Leyland, cello
(Schubertiad)
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Cellist Nathan Leyland was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, later moved to Lynchburg, Virginia and began his cello studies in their public school system at the age of nine. Nathan attended the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Tchaikovsky Competition gold medalist Nathaniel Rosen, a former student and teaching assistant to the late Gregor Piatigorsky. Mr. Leyland has performed as soloist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Symphony Orchestra, The Southeastern Ohio Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, and the Welsh Hills Chamber Orchestra, to name a few. Nathan began his professional career at the age of 20, becoming the cellist of the Pioneer String Quartet. In addition to that appointment, he was Principal Cellist of The Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Leyland moved to North Carolina in 2001 and began performing regularly with some of the area’s professional ensembles such as the North Carolina Symphony, Carolina Ballet, North Carolina Opera, North Carolina Master Chorale, and the Choral Society of Durham. Currently, he is the principal cellist of the North Carolina Opera, Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Tar River Symphony Orchestra, and a member of The Mallarme Chamber Players. Along with these positions, Leyland is an avid chamber musician and recitalist, having performed in venues across the U.S.
Jacqueline Wolborsky, violin
(Schubertiad)
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Jacqueline Saed Wolborsky is Principal Second Violin of the North Carolina Symphony and a Lecturer of Violin at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was previously a member of the Charleston Symphony and an Adjunct Professor of Violin at the College of Charleston. She has been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, and South Carolina Philharmonic, and was honored with the Russell Award at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition.
Wolborsky has performed at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., as a co-founder of LACE (Living Arts Collective Ensemble) and with fellow NCS musicians in a trio setting. She has performed for Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel in Chicago and, in 2001, for the Vice President of the United States in Washington, D.C. She has spent past summers at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, with the Chautauqua Symphony in New York, at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in Chicago, at Keshet Eilon in Israel, and at the Weathersfield Festival in Vermont. She has worked with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, and Vermeer Quartets; and with Yuri Bashmet, Joseph Silverstein, and Claude Frank, among others. She has toured with Joshua Bell, James Levine and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Wolborsky received her bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, as a student of Roland and Almita Vamos, and her master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and received her Suzuki teacher training. Along with her love of playing the violin, she is a residential real estate broker in the Triangle region.
Matvey Lapin, violin
(The Golem)
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Matvey Lapin, violin, enjoys a multifaceted career as a recitalist, chamber music performer,
orchestra leader and teacher. His professional engagements brought him around the world, including most of Europe, Japan and Korea.
A Russian native, he accomplished his
conservatory training in St. Petersburg, and has completed his DM coursework in violin performance at IU Jacobs School of Music, minoring in historical violins and music history.
A former member of Grammy-nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet, Matvey collaborated with such musicians as Alex Kerr and Barthold Kuijken, among others. Duo Amabile, a chamber music duet 5formed with his wife, pianist Katya Kramer-Lapin, performs intensively across the US and Europe.
As a historically informed performer, Matvey collaborates with Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, Three Notched Road and North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, among others.
Demanded teacher, Matvey currently maintains private studios in Cary NC and Danville, VA. Matvey records for Naxos, Oclassica and Melodiya.
Barbara Krumdieck, cello
(The Golem)
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Baroque cellist Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, studied with Phoebe Carrai at the Hilversum Conservatory of Music in The Netherlands. While in Europe, she participated in several performance and CD recording projects with Concerto Köln, including performances at the Paris Opera House and The Palace of Versailles. A specialist in the continuo playing of 17th and 18th-Century music, Ms Krumdieck performs in many baroque chamber ensembles, and along with her sister Frances Blaker is a founding member of Ensemble Vermillian which has recorded three CDs of 17th-Century German chamber music. Ms Krumdieck is the co-founder and executive director of the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra (www.ncbaroqueorchestra.org), a period instrument orchestra which performs instrumental concerts under the conductor Frances Blaker, as well as concerts with various choirs throughout the southeastern United States, including S.C. Bach, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Charlotte Master Chorale and Raleigh Bach Soloists. She is the artistic director of Music at St. Alban’s concert series (www.musicatstalbansdavidson.org) in Davidson, NC and former artistic director of Center City Concerts in Charlotte, NC. In 2015 she founded Early Music for Grace, a 5-day concert festival in Berkeley, CA in memory of her daughter.
Samuel Gold, viola
(Violapalooza)
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began studying the viola at the age of four with Sherida Josephson of the Des Moines Symphony. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he studied primarily with Martha Strongin Katz and Roger Tapping, and the University of Iowa, where he studied with Christine Rutledge and Elizabeth Oakes.
Gold has performed at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Taos School of Music, and the Montreal International String Quartet Academy. In May of 2008 he performed as soloist with the University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra after winning the school’s concerto/aria competition.
Gold is currently the principal viola of the North Carolina Symphony.
Jonathan Bagg, viola
(Violapalooza)
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… is Professor of the Practice at Duke University and violist with the Ciompi String Quartet. His career with the Ciompi includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and around the world, as well as dozens of recordings. He is a founding Artistic Director of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, and he directed the Monadnock Music festival from 2007-2011. As an Artistic Director, his programming has included many creative collaborations with composers, authors, poets, and choreographers resulting in several unique multi-media works.
He has performed at the Portland and Sebago-Long Lake festivals in Maine, Detroit’s Great Lakes Festival, the Eastern Music Festival and the Highlands festival in North Carolina, and the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals in Massachusetts.
From 2015-2020, Bagg was principal violist and soloist with the CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra. As an orchestral player he appeared often with the Boston Symphony, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, and the New Hampshire Symphony, where he was principal viola.
Bagg’s most recent CD on the Albany label, titled “Elation,” brings together several works he commissioned, including a sonata and trio by Duke colleague Stephen Jaffe and a trio by Scott Lindroth. His other solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann, and by the Viennese composer Robert Fuchs. Contemporary solo works by Robert Ward, Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Albany, Centaur and Gasparo Records.
Currently Chair in the Department of Music, Bagg has directed the chamber music program at Duke, and he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Performance.
Scott Rawls, viola
(Violapalooza)
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…. has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Recent chamber music endeavors include performances with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Bill Preucil, Kurt Nikkanen, Paul Rosenthal, Jinjoo Cho, Zuill Bailey, and Sergey Antonov. Last season, he was a featured artist at chamber festivals ranging from Sitka Summer Chamber Music Festival and El Paso Pro Musica to Northwest Bach Festival. His solo and chamber music recordings can be heard on the Centaur, CRI, Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels.
A strong proponent of new music, Rawls has premiered dozens of new works by prominent composers. Most notable, he has toured extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians. As the violist in this ensemble, he performed numerous premieres of Daniel Variations, The Cave and Three Tales by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Holland Festival, Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Under the baton of maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. And during the summers, Rawls plays principal viola in the festival orchestra at Brevard Music Center where he also coordinates the viola program.
Dr. Rawls currently serves as Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He holds a BM degree from Indiana University and an MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, John Graham and Julius Levine.
Annie Jeng, piano
(Violapalooza)
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…
Hailed for her “brilliant pianism” (Gramophone) and “acrobatic” performances (Take Effect), Taiwanese-American pianist Annie Jeng has performed widely as a solo and chamber musician at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy, the Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain, the Kennedy Center, New York City, China, and at numerous academic institutions as a guest artist. As an advocate for pushing the boundaries of traditional performances, Annie has performed and curated concerts at breweries, parking deck rooftops, intimate living room settings, and other unconventional spaces, all with the aim of making the arts more accessible and interdisciplinary. Annie has presented at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conferences at collegiate, state, and national levels, The National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), and College Music Society (CMS) conferences. She is the current President of Greensboro Music Teachers Association (GMTA) and serves on the board for the North Carolina Music Teachers Association (NCMTA). Annie is also the Assistant Director of Piano for the Brancaleoni International Music Festival (brancaleonifestival.com) in Piobbico, Italy.
Annie has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works. She is the pianist of Khemia Ensemble (khemiaensemble.com), a contemporary chamber ensemble that is dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music by cultivating inclusive place-making, collaborative mentorships, and authentic storytelling through immersive, multimedia performances. She also released the album “World Map” with Parma Recordings as the former pianist of Four Corner’s Ensemble. Her latest commissioning project, Circles and Lines, consists of new pedagogical works by women composers that introduces contemporary piano techniques to intermediate pianists. As a strong believer in creating a better and more equitable “normal” in the piano community, she also founded A Seat at the Piano (ASAP) in the summer of 2020 (aseatatthepiano.com). ASAP is a 501(c)(3) that is dedicated to the promotion of inclusion in the performance and study of solo piano repertoire. In collaboration with the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, she has co-created an online course on women composers, been invited to speak on panels, present workshops, and serves on the Career Develop and Innovation subcommittee chair for NCKP.
Annie received her DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Michigan, where she also received her MM. She earned her BM in Piano Performance with a minor in Public Health from New York University. Her primary teachers have included Logan Skelton, José Ramón Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Faye Bonner. She is currently Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. (Let’s connect online: www.anniejeng.com)
Teddy Robie, piano
(Violapalooza & The Bassist Bass)
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… A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, Robie began studying piano and violin at the age of 6. By age 13, he had already made solo appearances with the Winston-Salem and Raleigh Symphonies, garnering praise for precocious readings of Mozart and Tchaikovsky.
Described as “a poet at the piano” (New York Sun) and praised for his “striking pianism” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), pianist Teddy Robie has performed extensively both as soloist and chamber musician in Canada, Taiwan, Italy, and across the United States.
Robie has performed in many prestigious venues, including the Rising Stars series at Ravinia, the Performances series in San Francisco, the Peggy Rockefeller series in New York, Alice Tully Hall, and at Cleveland’s Mixon Hall master’s series. He has also appeared live numerous times on WQXR (New York) and WCLV (Cleveland), and has been a frequent guest performer on WFMT (Chicago). Robie has won prizes in numerous competitions, including Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer Scholarship competition, the Fischoff National Chamber Music competition, and the SUNY Stony Brook concerto competition.
An avid chamber musician as well as soloist, Robie has collaborated with many renowned artists, including Roger Tapping, Donald Weilerstein, Catherine Cho, Bonnie Hampton, Joan Kwuon, Joel Smirnoff, Violaine Melancon, and Jean-Michel Fonteneau. Festival appearances include Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Pianofest in the Hamptons, and faculty at the Heifetz Institute and Luzerne Music Center. Robie is a regular guest at many chamber festivals across the country, including The Bronx Arts Ensemble, Chatter (New Mexico), and The Taos Music Ensemble.
Robie’s teachers have included Jerome Lowenthal, Robert McDonald, Veda Kaplinsky, Randall Hodgkinson, and John Ruggero. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, and is now a doctoral candidate at SUNY Stony Brook, where he studies with Christina Dahl. Robie recently returned to the Triangle, where he maintains a private teaching studio in Cary and continues to perform.