In 2001, a group of some of today’s most exciting young string players envisioned the creation of a conductor-less chamber orchestra, based upon democratic principles, whose focus is purely on music-making. This organic approach, their passion, and commitment resulted in the creation of ECCO - the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Its members are soloists, principals in major American orchestras, and marvelous chamber musicians, many trained at Marlboro. ECCO combines the strength and power of a great orchestral ensemble with the personal involvement and sensitivity of superb chamber music. Their New York City “Town Hall” debut in February of 2004 and their US debut tour in April 2006, which included the Kennedy Center, confirmed ECCO’s position as the most exceptional ensemble of today’s generation whose fresh interpretations of new and old works coupled with passionate and joyous playing earned them standing ovations and an immediate re-engagement. ECCO made their international debut in 2007 at the Seoul Music Festival and Academy in Korea.The members of ECCO are accomplished musicians who have soloed and played with the top orchestras and chamber ensembles in the United States and Europe.
The artists of ECCO have soloed with such great orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Austin Symphony, Boston Symphony. Members of ECCO may also be seen performing with various chamber ensembles throughout the country, including Los Angeles Piano Quartet, Metamorphosen Ensemble, Time for Three, Jupiter String Quartet, Silk Road Ensemble, Elsner String Quartet, Delancey Quartet, Enso String Quartet, Momenta String Quartet. Several ECCO musicians are current or past members of Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic.
Click here for the ECCO Personnel that will be joining us this August.
Cellist Colin Carr appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, BBC Symphony, and the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal. Colin’s most memorable performances include the Dvořák Concerto to close the Prague Autumn Festival, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, with Sir Colin Davis conducting, at Royal Festival Hall in London. As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, he recorded and toured extensively for 20 years. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Colin’s GM recordings of the unaccompanied cello works of Kodaly, Britten, Crumb, and Schuller, as well as his Bach Suites, are highly acclaimed.
Colin first played the cello at the age of five. He was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1998, having been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years. In 1998, St. John’s College, Oxford created the post of “Musician in Residence” for him, and in September 2002 he became a professor at Stony Brook University in New York. Colin’s cello was made by Matteo Gofriller in Venice in 1730. He makes his home with his wife Caroline and 3 young children, Clifford, Frankie and Anya, in an old house outside Oxford.
Horn soloist Eric Ruske is an artist of international acclaim. At the young age of 20 he was named Associate Principal Horn of The Cleveland Orchestra and also toured and recorded extensively during his six-year tenure as hornist of the Empire Brass Quintet. His impressive solo career began when he won the 1986 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the 1987 American Horn Competition, and in 1988, the highest prize in the Concours International d’Interprétation Musicale in Reims, France. Eric appears on numerous recordings including the complete Mozart Concerti with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Camber Orchestra, and four solo discs including a collection of unaccompanied horn repretoire entitled Just me and my horn.
Eric is an active chamber musician, and has appeared with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Festival de Música de Santa Catarina in Brazil, and the Moab Music Festival. A student of Dale Clevenger and Eugene Chausow, he grew up in LaGrange, Illinois and is a graduate of Northwestern University. He is Professor of Horn and a member of the faculty of Boston University and directs the Horn Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He lives in Boston with his wife Jennifer Frautschi and their lovely daughter Siena.
Regarded as a musician of great insight and sensitivity, Israel-born pianist and composer, Matan Porat has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Irish National Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber and Symphony Orchestras with such conductors as James Conlon, Lawerence Foster and Mendi Rodan. An avid chamber music player, Matan has participated in many distinguished festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Verbier, Bath, the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, and upon invitation of Daniel Barenboim in the West-Eastern Divan workshops. Other chamber appearances include performances with the Ysaÿe and Jerusalem Quartets, Kim Kashkashian, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Mathieu Dufour, Emmanuel Pahud and David Soyer. Matan Porat currently resides in Berlin.
Recognized as one of today's most gifted artists, and enjoying an active career as both pianist and conductor, Ignat Solzhenitsyn's lyrical and poignant interpretations have won him critical acclaim throughout the world. His extensive touring schedule in the United States and Europe has included concerto performances with numerous major orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Naples, St. Petersburg, Israel, and Sydney, and collaborations with such distinguished conductors as André Previn, Herbert Blomstedt, Yuri Temirkanov, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gerard Schwarz, Charles Dutoit, James DePreist, Krzysztof Penderecki, David Zinman, Jerzy Semkov, James Conlon, Lawrence Foster and Maxim Shostakovich.
Ignat is in his sixth season as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, having served as its Principal Conductor for the previous six years. He also serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Solzhenitsyn is also in demand as guest conductor, having recently led the orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Seattle, Indianapolis, Buffalo, North Carolina, Toledo, New Jersey, Virginia, and Nashville. A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, he serves on the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been featured on many radio and television specials, most recently CBS Sunday Morning and ABC’s Nightline. Born in Moscow, but raised in Vermont, he resides in the United States with his wife and three children.
Composer David Ludwig’s music is performed by today’s leading musicians in some of the world's most prestigious venues. His music has been called “wonderfully satisfying,” and that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this generation,” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. The New York Times recognizes it for its “expressive directness” and the Baltimore Sun notes its “yearning, poetic quality.” His works have been performed in such venues in the United States as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and have been heard on PBS and NPR's Weekend Edition. Ludwig has received commissions from many prominent artists and ensembles, including groups like the Grammy Award-winning “eighth blackbird” ensemble, soloists like violinist Soovin Kim and pianist Jonathan Biss, and orchestras including the Minnesota, Vermont, and Richmond Symphony.
Ludwig has won numerous awards and participated in many residencies with orchestras, summer music festivals, and artist colonies. He holds degrees from Oberlin, The Manhattan School, The Curtis Institute, Juilliard and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Ludwig joined the faculty of Curtis in 2002 where he serves on the composition faculty, as the acting chair of musical studies, and as the artistic director of the 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Recording Engineer Alan Bise is the owner
of Thunderbird Records, dedicated to releasing musical works of contemporary American Indians. Its catalog includes artists such as the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, and the string quartet ETHEL. For over 10 years, he has served as the Classical Producer for Azica Records and has produced projects for many labels and clients across the world. Known for helping to create exciting and passionate projects, Alan has produced records that have received Grammy Nominations and appeared on the Billboard Classical Chart and Amazon Best Sellers list. He is also committed to new audience development and created and produced Offbeat, a successful radio show that gives listeners an inside look in the world of classical music in a unique manner. Alan has produced records for numerous labels includig Azica, Naxos, Albany/Troy, and EMI/Universal. He serves as Broadcast Producer and Director of Audio for the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill, Maine and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival. In 2009 he was appointed to summer faculty of the Interlochen Arts Academy.
Alan is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and spent his summers working at the Aspen and Tanglewood Music Festivals. Alan began his professional career in Dallas working at TM Century, the nation’s leading provider of broadcast services. There, he rose to the rank of senior mastering engineer and was responsible for recordings reaching over 4,000 stations worldwide. Alan returned to CIM in 1999 where he was appointed Director of Audio Services. Dedicated to audio education, he trained 20 students annually in recital recording, and was a faculty member in the Audio Recording Degree Program. Alan is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and the Audio Engineering Society.
Soovin Kim is a violinist who concertizes around the world. His primary studies were at the Cleveland Institute of Music and then the Curtis Institute of Music from which he graduated. He received first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was only 20, and was later named the recipient of the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He performs regularly as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and as a founding member of the Johannes String Quartet.
Soovin is an artist-in-residence at both Stony Brook University in New York, and Kyung Hee University in Seoul. Soovin released his second recording with Azica Records in the summer of 2008, a French album of Fauré and Chausson with Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet. His first CD with Azica Records, Niccolò Paganini's demanding 24 Caprices for solo violin, was released in 2006. Soovin grew up for much of his childhood in Plattsburgh, NY. He joined the Vermont Youth Orchestra as its then-youngest member at age 10, and later served as its concertmaster for three years. He is often heard in the Champlain Valley through his performances with the VYO, the Vermont Symphony, on the Lane Series at the University of Vermont, at Middlebury College, and on Vermont Public Radio. Soovin plays the 1709 “ex-Kempner” Stradivarius.