Soovin Kim, Artistic Director
David Ludwig, Composer-in-Residence
Joan Tower, Distinguished Visiting Composer
Sae Chonabayashi violin
Bella Hristova, violin
Hyejin Kim, violin
Soovin Kim, violin
Arnold Steinhardt, violin
Misha Amory, viola
Burchard Tang, viola
Marc Johnson, cello
Sophie Shao, cello
Evan Premo, double bass
Tara Helen O’Connor, flute
Jonathan Biss, piano
Frank Glazer, piano
Ellen Hwangbo, piano
Jeewon Park, piano
Maho Sone Grazzini, harpsichord
Alan Bise, Recording Engineer
Gabriella Smith, Visiting Young Composer
Violinist Soovin Kim is Artistic Director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival which is quickly gaining national attention for its innovative programming, educational outreach, and work with young composers. Soovin received first prize at the Paganini International Competition when he was only 20 which launched an international concert career. He later was a recipient of such distinguished prizes as the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He performs around the world as a concerto soloist and recitalist as well as with the Johannes String Quartet.
Soovin has released nine commercial CD recordings in recent years including Niccolò Paganini's demanding 24 Caprices and a French album of Fauré and Chausson with pianist Jeremy Denk and the Jupiter Quartet. 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 Vermont Symphony Orchestra, on the Lane Series at the University of Vermont, at Middlebury College, with the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and on Vermont Public Radio. Soovin is passionate about music education and is a professor at Stony Brook University and a visiting international scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
Composer David Ludwig's music has been performed internationally by leading musicians in some of the world's most prestigious locations. His music has been called “entrancing,” and that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this generation,” (Philadelphia Inquirer). It has further been described as “arresting, dramatically hued...” (The New York Times) and has been noted for “a yearning, poetic quality” (Baltimore Sun). The New Yorker magazine calls him a “musical up-and-comer” and the Chicago Tribune says that he “deserves his growing reputation as one of the up-and-comers of his generation.” He has had performances in such venues in as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and has been played on PBS and National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition. NPR Music listed him as one of the Top 100 Composers Under Forty in the world in 2011.
David has written for many prominent artists and ensembles, including soloists Jonathan Biss and Jaime Laredo, ensembles like eighth blackbird and Network for New Music, and orchestras including the Philadelphia, Minnesota, National Symphonies. He has held residencies with many arts institutions like Meet the Composer and the Isabella Gardner Museum, and with summer festivals that include the Marlboro Music School, and the MacDowell and Yaddo artist colonies. He has won numerous awards and honors from nationally recognized arts organizations.
Born in Bucks County, P.A., David holds degrees from Oberlin, The Manhattan School of Music, Curtis, and Juilliard, as well as a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. David is on the composition faculty of the Curtis Institute where he serves the Artistic Chair of Performance and as the director of the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today. During a career spanning more than fifty years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life in the United States as composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Her works have been commissioned by major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras, including the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, and John Browning; and the orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC among others. Tower was the first composer chosen for a Ford Made in America consortium commission of sixty-five orchestras. Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony recorded Made in America in 2008 (along with Tambor and Concerto for Orchestra). The album collected three Grammy awards: Best Classical Contemporary Composition, Best Classical Album, and Best Orchestral Performance. In 1990 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Silver Ladders, a piece she wrote for the St. Louis Symphony where she was Composer-in-Residence from 1985-88. Other residencies with orchestras include a 10-year residency with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (1997-2007) and the Pittsburgh Symphony (2010-2011). Tower studied piano and composition at Bennington College and Columbia University. Her earliest works were serial in concept, but her music soon developed the lyricism, rhythmic drive, and colorful orchestration that characterize her subsequent works. She co-founded the Da Capo Chamber Players in 1969 as pianist — its accolades included the 1973 Naumburg Chamber Music Award — but also wrote several well-received pieces for the ensemble. She is currently Asher Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972. Her music is published by Associated Music Publishers.
Sae Chonabayashi, violin, was born in Ibaragi, Japan and began playing violin at age three. She attended the prestigious Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan from the age of fifteen, where she completed her studies with Koichiro Harada, a founding member of the Tokyo String Quartet. In 2001, Sae came to the United States to study with Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. As a full scholarship student, she continued her studies with Mr. Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory, where she received undergraduate and graduate diplomas. She won third prize in the 2006 Swedish Duo International Competition. At Rice University Sae studied with Cho-Liang Lin.
Sae is a member of the Jasper String Quartet, hailed as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad). Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the quartet holds ensemble-in-residence positions at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Classic Chamber Concerts in Naples, Florida.
With her “commanding stage presence” (The Strad), Bulgarian violinist Bella Hristova engages audiences with equal mastery of “impressive power and control” (The Washington Post) and “expressive nuance” (The New York Times). Highlights from her busy 2012-13 season include performances as soloist with the Mississippi, Modesto, Johnson City, Youngstown, and Richardson symphonies and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall on the Young Concert Artists Series; appearances at the Atlantic Music Festival, the Cactus Pear Festival, the Lake Champlain Chamber Festival; and performances with “Curtis on Tour” in China. An accomplished chamber musician, Bella also performs in the inaugural season of the miXt ensemble, comprised of soloists from the Young Concert Artists roster.
Past seasons have included appearances as soloist with Fresno Philharmonic; the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, the Ulster Orchestra, and with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, as well as performances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Grand Teton Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, and Music from Angel Fire.
First Prize Winner in the 2008-09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Bella made her debut in the YCA Series during the 2009-10 season at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, sponsored by the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. At the Auditions, she was the first recipient of the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship.
Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985, Bella began violin studies at the age of six and since age 13 has lived in the United States. Bella worked with Ida Kavafian and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom at the Curtis Institute of Music. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010. Bella plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.
Describing the artistry of violinist Hye-Jin Kim, Winner of the 2009 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, The Strad proclaimed: “…heart-stopping and unrivaled beauty...supremely musical playing, well-thought out, yet of the moment…” Hye-Jin possesses depth and passion as evidenced by her First Prize win at the 2004 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition when she was only nineteen.
Highlights of her 2011-12 recital tours include performances in the Kravis Center Young Artist Series in West Palm Beach and LeFrak Hall at Queens College’s Copland School of Music. With orchestra, she will be the featured concerto soloist with the Greenwich Village Orchestra (NY), the Minnesota Sinfonia (Minneapolis), and East Carolina University Symphony Orchestra. Also this season, she will tour with Musicians from Marlboro and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove.
Hye-Jin has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Pan Asia Symphony, Minnesota Sinfonia, and Hannover Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed at Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire and Prussia Cove.
Hye-Jin studied with Miriam Fried, Ida Kavafian, and Jaime Laredo at The Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Violin at East Carolina University. Korean-born, Hye-Jin plays a 1687 Gioffredo Cappa violin.
Arnold Steinhardt was born in Los Angeles, receiving his early training from Karl Moldrem, Peter Meremblum and Toscha Seidel, and making his solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at age fourteen. He continued his studies with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Joseph Szigeti in Switzerland in 1962 under the sponsorship of George Szell.
Winner of the Philadelphia Youth Competition in 1957, the 1958 Leventritt Award, and Bronze Medallist in the Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition in 1963, Arnold has appeared throughout North America and Europe as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others.
Arnold is first violinist and a founding member (1964) of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet with which he has made innumerable tours across the globe and recorded dozens of albums for RCA Victor, Philips, Arabesque and Surrounded By Entertainment. The quartet retired in 2009. He is professor of violin and chamber music at Colburn Music School, the University of Maryland, Bard College, and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Arnold has written two books: Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998); and Violin Dreams (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the University of South Florida and Harpur College, he has also received an award for distinguished cultural service from the City of New York presented by Mayor Koch. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010.
Arnold plays a Lorenzo Storioni violin from Cremona, Italy, late 18th century.
Since winning the 1991 Naumburg Viola Award, Misha Amory has been acclaimed as one of the leading American violists of his generation. He has performed with orchestras in the United States and Europe, and has been presented in recital at New York's Tully Hall, Los Angeles' Ambassador series, Philadelphia's Mozart on the Square festival, Boston's Gardner Museum, Houston's Da Camera series and Washington's Phillips Collection. He has been invited to perform at the Marlboro Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Vancouver Festival, the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and he released a recording of Hindemith sonatas on the Musical Heritage Society label in 1993.
Misha is a founding member of the Brentano String Quartet, which enjoys a distinguished concert career in the United States and abroad. Winners of the inaugural Cleveland Quartet Award and the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Quartet was also the inaugural group for the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center's new program, Chamber Music Society II. The Quartet has been in residence at Princeton University since 1999.
Misha holds degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School. His principal teachers were Heidi Castleman, Caroline Levine and Samuel Rhodes. Himself a dedicated teacher, Misha serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School in New York City and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
Burchard Tang began his musical studies on the violin at the age of 3 and at 16 switched to viola, studying with Choong-Jin Chang, principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He continued his musical education at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, former principal violist of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Upon graduation, he was appointed to the viola section of The Philadelphia Orchestra, with which he has appeared as soloist. As a chamber musician, Mr. Tang has appeared at many of the country’s top festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Music from Angel Fire, Seattle, and Caramoor. He is a founding member of the Dolce Suono Ensemble. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. He has soloed with the Temple University, and Temple University Music Prep Orchestras. He is currently on faculty at Temple Music Prep, where he teaches viola and chamber music.
Marc Johnson was born to a musical family in Lincoln, Nebraska. Under the tutelage of his first teacher Carol Work, he won several national competitions and was accepted as a scholarship student at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Ronald Leonard and John Celentano. He continued his studies at Indiana University as a student of Janos Starker and Josef Gingold.
For thirty-five years, Marc performed as the cellist of the renowned Vermeer Quartet. The Quartet appeared regularly in the world's musical capitals on five continents, and made extensive tours yearly in Europe and North America. Their recordings gathered critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, and include a version of the complete Beethoven string quartets on the Teldec label.
Marc continues to pursue an active career since the quartet’s retirement in 2007, appearing in recital, and as soloist with orchestras in North America and Europe, and is a frequent presenter of master classes here and abroad. He and his late wife, the pianist Katherine Johnson, were co-directors of Bay Chamber Concerts, the Next Generation, a series of free chamber music seminars for students from the state of Maine. He joined the faculty of Boston University in September, 2007. In 2008 he was granted an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Dominican University. He was also awarded the Chevalier du Violoncelle by the Eva Janzer Cello Center at Indiana University. His cello is a fine, old Italian instrument made c. 1730 by Francesco Stradivarius.
Both of Marc’s children are musicians. Nicole is the cellist of the Cassatt Quartet in New York, and Kirsten is the Associate Principal Violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He lives in Cushing, Maine.
At the age of nineteen, cellist Sophie Shao received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and has since performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Winner of top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, the New York Times has applauded her “eloquent, powerful” interpretations of repertoire ranging from Bach and Beethoven to Crumb.
Sophie’s recent performances include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony, Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera with Cho-Liang Lin in Indianapolis, the world-premiere of Richard Wilson’s Concerto for cello and mezzo-soprano with the American Symphony Orchestra, and recital and chamber music appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Music Mountain (with the Shanghai Quartet) among many other presenters across the country. She is also a frequent guest at many leading festivals around the country.
Sophie can be heard on EMI Classics, Bridge Records (for the Marlboro Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary recording), Albany Records and Koch Records.
A native of Houston, Texas, Sophie began playing the cello at age six, and was a student of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of Vassar College and the Bard Conservatory of Music and plays on a cello made by Honore Derazey from 1860 once owned by Pablo Casals.
Double bassist and composer Evan Premo is an active chamber musician who performs regularly with Ensemble ACJW at Carnegie Hall in New York City as well as internationally. Evan has performed concerti with numerous orchestras including the 2009 world premiere of his own double concerto for violin and double bass with Andrés Cárdenes and the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Evan has also collaborated with Yizhak Schotten, Katherine Collier, and the Formosa String Quartet. He has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician numerous times on National Public Radio shows Performance Today and From the Top.
Flutist Tara Helen O'Connor is a charismatic performer sought after for her unusual artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone in music of every era. Tara is a member of the innovative woodwind quintet Windscape, a founding member of the 1995 Naumburg Award winning New Millennium Ensemble, and the flute soloist of the world renowned Bach Aria Group.
A 2001 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, she also received two Grammy nominations in January of 2003 for Osvaldo Golijov’s recording entitled "Yiddishbbuk". Tara has recorded for Deutsche Gramophon, EMI Classics, Arcadia, CRI, Koch, and Bridge Records. She was the first wind player to be chosen to participate in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centers Chamber Music Society Two program for emerging artists.
Tara now performs regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire and the Brandenburg Ensemble. An enthusiastic chamber musician and soloist, Tara has collaborated with such artists as Jaime Laredo, Peter Serkin, David Shifrin, Dawn Upshaw, Ida Kavafian, Ransom Wilson, Paula Robison, Charles Wadsworth, the Orion String Quartet, the Saint Lawrence Quartet, the Tokyo Quartet and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She has been featured on A&E's Breakfast for the Arts and has appeared on a “LIve from Lincoln Center” broadcast.
Tara received a Doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and she is professor of flute at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music. An avid photographer, she has photo credits in Time Out, Strad, and Chamber Music America magazines.
American pianist Jonathan Biss is widely regarded for his artistry and deeply felt interpretations, winning international recognition for his orchestral, recital, and chamber music performances and for his award-winning recordings.
In January 2012 Onyx Classics released the first CD in a nine-year, nine-disc recording cycle of Beethoven’s complete sonatas. The first CD features Opus 10, No. 1 in C minor, Opus 22 in B flat major, Opus 26 in A flat major and Opus 81a in E flat major, Les Adieux. Jonathan’s previous recordings include an album of Schubert Sonatas in A Major, D. 959 and C Major, D. 840 and two short Kurtág pieces from Játékok on the Wigmore Hall Live label, a live recording of Mozart Piano Concertos 21 and 22 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Schumann and Beethoven recital discs released by EMI Classics which were recognized with a Diapason d’Or Award and an Edison Award, respectively.
Jonathan, whom The New Yorker describes as playing with “unerring sophistication”, made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2001, and since then has appeared with the foremost orchestras around the world. He is a frequent performer at leading international music festivals and gives recitals in major music capitals both at home and abroad. Last season Jonathan made his much-anticipated Carnegie Hall recital debut.
Among Jonathan’s numerous awards are the Leonard Bernstein Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. He was the first American to participate in the BBC’s New Generation Artist program. In 2010 Jonathan was appointed to the piano faculty of The Curtis Institute. In December 2011 Jonathan’s 19,000-word essay Beethoven’s Shadow was published by RosettaBooks as a Kindle Single on Amazon online stores and subsequently became a top-selling Music e-book in the U.S. and the U.K.
Frank Glazer, 97, has performed as a soloist with major symphonies all over the world, has been artist in residence at Eastman School of Music and Bates College and has performed in a variety of chamber groups including Cantelina Chamber Players and the New England Piano Quartet. He opened the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, debuted at Carnegie Hall with Aaron Copland in the audience and studied under Schoenberg and Schnabel. He continues to practice 4-6 hours a day, keeps a busy concert schedule and says he's busier now than he was as a teenager. He continues to teach and perform at Bates College. He was married to Ruth Gevalt Glazer, a soprano, who died in 2007. He lives in Topsham, Maine.
Ellen Hwangbo, equally at home with solo and collaborative repertoire, is known for her expressive power and passionate interpretations. A top prizewinner of the 2006 MTNA National Young Artists Competition, she also received first prize in the Richardson Award National Scholarship Competition in the same year. She has performed to great acclaim across Asia, Europe, and North America, with recent performances in Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall.
As an active chamber musician, Ellen has performed with world-renowned musicians such as Soovin Kim, Colin Carr, Daniel Panner, Aaron Berofsky, and Ann Ellsworth. Recent new music collaborations include premieres of compositions by Sheila Silver, William Pfaff, and Laura Schwindiger at New York City’s Symphony Space.
Ellen was a fellowship recipient at the Sarasota Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and the Banff Centre, among many others, and this summer will be performing at the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Vermont. She is currently pursuing a doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook, where she is a teaching assistant under luminary pedagogue Gilbert Kalish.
Praised for her “deeply reflective playing” (Indianapolis Star) and “infectious exuberance” (New York Times), pianist Jeewon Park is rapidly garnering the attention of audiences for her dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making her debut at the age of 12 performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Park has performed on prestigious stages such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Seoul Arts Center in Korea.
This season takes Jeewon to major concert halls across the U. S. and Korea. She performs as soloist with the Hwa Um Chamber Orchestra in the Inaugural Festival of the IBK Chamber Hall at the Seoul Arts Center, and returns to the Caramoor International Music Festival as a member of Caramoor Virtuosi where she was a Rising Star in 2007, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, as well as venues such as BargeMusic, the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, the Vilar Performing Arts Center, and the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul.
As a soloist, Jeewon has appeared with the Charleston Symphony, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Monterrey Symphony, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Jeju Philharmonic, among others. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Park has performed at prominent festivals, including Spoleto USA, Norfolk, Great Mountains (Korea), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Music Alp (France), and Kusatsu (Japan). She has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Tokyo, Fine Arts, and Miami Quartets.
Jeewon has been heard in numerous live broadcasts on NPR and New York’s Classical Radio Station, WQXR. Additionally, her performances have been nationally broadcast throughout Korea on KBS television. Jeewon is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale University, where she was awarded the Dean Horatio Parker Prize. She holds the DMA degree from SUNY Stony Brook.
Maho Sone Grazzini is a versatile harpsichord soloist and continuo accompanist, specializing in music of the Italian seventeenth century. Originally from Japan, she is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute, where she studies with Elisabeth Wright, Nigel North and Stanley Ritchie. Before coming to Indiana, Maho studied at the San Francisco Conservatory with Corey Jamason.
Maho has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Japan, Europe, and North America. She is a frequent guest accompanist of the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project and the San Francisco Bach Choir, with whom she has performed several of Bach’s Cantatas and Motets and the St. John Passion. She also appeared with the SFCM Baroque Ensemble at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And she is the mother of an adorable ten-month-old, Dario.
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.
Gabriella Smith (b. 1991) is a composer from the San Francisco Bay Area who currently attends The Curtis Institute of Music where she studies with David Ludwig, Jennifer Higdon, and Richard Danielpour. Her music has been performed throughout the United States and internationally (in Turkey, Switzerland, and France) by Dinosaur Annex, Ensemble39, Contemporaneous, members of Eighth Blackbird, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Azure Ensemble, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, Classical Revolution, and the Berkeley Symphony. In addition to this wonderful opportunity to compose a new work for the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Gabriella has received commissions from One Book One Philadelphia, Dinosaur Annex, the Rock School of Ballet, Monadnock Music, and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Gabriella has participated in many summer music festivals, including the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, Music11 in Blonay, Switzerland, the 2010 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, Monadnock Music, and the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program. Gabriella was named a winner in the 2009 ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Competition and received the First Place Prize in the 2009 Pacific Musical Society Composition Competition. When she is not making music, she enjoys backpacking, birding, scuba diving in the beautiful kelp forests of the Channel Islands, Scottish dancing, and studying science, math, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
Photo Credits:
Joan Tower - Bernard Mindich
Bella Hristova - Steve Riskind
Hyejin Kim - Balazs Borocz
Arnold Steinhardt - Dorothea von Haeften
Misha Amory - Susan Wilson
Sophie Shao - Christian Steiner
Evan Premo - Evan Premo
Tara Helen O’Connor
Jonathan Biss - Jamie Jung
Jeewon Park - Hak Soo Kim, Estro Studio