Soovin Kim, Artistic Director
David Ludwig, Composer-in-Residence
Marc Neikrug, Special Guest/Composer
Soovin Kim, violin
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Elena Urioste, violin
John Dalley, violin and viola
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Teng Li, viola
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Edward Arron, cello
Natasha Brofsky, cello
Clancy Newman, cello
Evan Premo, bass
Helen Huang, piano
Ellen Hwango, piano
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Hyunah Yu, soprano
Joshua Smith, flute
Eduardo Leandro, percussion
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.
Violinist John Dalley was born into a musical family and began playing the violin at the age of three. After studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Efram Zimbalist, he joined the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and was a member of the Oberlin String Quartet. One of the four original founding members of the Guarneri String Quartet, John has toured extensively throughout the United State, Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia both as a soloist and as a member of the Quartet. He has also made numerous recordings for the RCA, Phillips and Surroundby labels, with such notable artists as Artur Rubenstein, Leonard Rose, Pinchas Zuckerman, and members of the Budapest Quartet. John has held teaching positions at both the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Maryland, where all four members of the Guarneri Quartet were Artists-in-Residence. When not on tour, John divides his time between New Jersey and Northern Michigan.
Avery Fisher career grant recipient violinist
Jennifer Frautschi
has created a sensation in recent seasons with
appearances as soloist with Pierre Boulez and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Christoph Eschenbach and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
at the Ravinia Festival, and at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Selected by Carnegie Hall for its Distinctive
Debuts series, she made her New York recital debut in 2004. As part of the European Concert Hall Organization's Rising Stars series, Ms. Frautschi also made debuts that year at ten of Europe's most celebrated concert venues, including London's Wigmore Hall, Salzburg Mozarteum, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and La Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Ms. Frautschi’s 2011-12 highlights include the world premiere of James Stephenson’s Violin Concerto, a piece written for her, with the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä, and performances of the Berg Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Holland and Granada International Music Festivals. She will also perform Barber Concerto with the Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, James Conlon conducting, and premiere Les Bijoux, a violin concerto by Richard Aldag, with the Napa Valley Symphony. As chamber musician she will perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Boston Chamber Music Society, and perform on all-gut strings with period instruments at DaCamera of Houston and the Helicon Foundation in New York.
Her growing discography includes three widely-praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, and highly-acclaimed discs of music of Ravel and Stravinsky, and of 20th century works for solo violin. She has also recorded several discs for Naxos, including the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft; two GRAMMY-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet, of Schoenberg's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet; and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk, which was released in April 2011.
She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the "ex-Cadiz," on generous loan to her from a private American foundation.
Elena Urioste, featured on the cover of Symphony
magazine as an emerging artist to watch, has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her lush tone, the nuanced lyricism of her playing, and her commanding stage presence. Elena's debut performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010 were praised by three separate critics for their "hypnotic delicacy," "expressive poise," and "lyrical sensitivity." Since first appearing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age thirteen, she has made acclaimed debuts with major orchestras throughout the United States, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Pops, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Richmond, San Antonio, and Sarasota symphony orchestras. In Europe, Elena has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and Hungary's Orchestra Dohnányi Budafok.
As first-place laureate in both the Junior and Senior divisions of the Sphinx Competition, Elena debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004 and has returned annually as soloist. She was a first-prize winner of the Sion International Violin Competition, which also awarded her its audience prize and the prize for best performance of the competition's newly commissioned work. In 2009, Elena made her Wigmore Hall recital debut as one of three recipients of the prestigious London Music Masters Award. Earlier that year she debuted at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. She has collaborated with acclaimed conductors Sir Mark Elder, Keith Lockhart, Robert Spano, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Alondra de la Parra; pianists Christopher O'Riley and Ignat Solzhenitsyn; cellists Zuill Bailey and Carter Brey; and violinists Shlomo Mintz, Cho-Liang Lin, and David Kim. Elena has been a featured artist in the Marlboro, Ravinia, La Jolla, and Sarasota Music Festivals, as well as Switzerland's Sion Valais International Music Festival.
Her media credits include the popular radio programs From the Top and Performance Today; appearances on Telemundo and NBC's Today Show; and a McGraw Young Artists Showcase performance for a live studio audience at WQXR's Greene Space in New York City. She is featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Breaking the Sound Barrier, and in numerous magazines including Symphony, Strings, Philadelphia Music Makers, and Careers and Colleges. Her first CD was released on the White Pine label.
Elena is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, and Ida Kavafian. She completed graduate studies with Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School. Other notable teachers include David Cerone, Choong-Jin Chang, Soovin Kim, and the late Rafael Druian.
The outstanding instruments now being used by Elena are an Alessandro Gagliano violin, Naples c. 1706, and a Pierre Simon bow, both on extended loan from the private collection of Dr. Charles E. King through the Stradivari Society.
Hsin-Yun Huang (viola) has appeared as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony of Taiwan, among others. She has collaborated with the Guarneri, Juilliard, Brentano, Orion, and St. Lawrence quartets, and was the Borromeo Quartet’s violist for six years. Chamber music engagements have taken Huang to festivals in Vancouver, Rome, Dresden, Stavanger in Norway, and Spoleto, Italy. Recent highlights include engagements with the Naumburg Orchestra in Central Park and the City of London Sinfonietta, and the premiere of Steven Mackey’s Ground Swell at the Aspen Music Festival. At age 17 she was the youngest-ever gold medalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Other honors include top prize at the ARD Competition in Munich and Japan’s Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award. Hsin-Yun Huang is on faculty at The Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music.
Cellist Edward Arron is recognized worldwide for his 
elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Ed made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi’s Concerto for
Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival. Ed appears regularly as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Ed is in his sixth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber
ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. He is also the artistic director of the Caramoor Virtuosi and of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Summit County, Colorado. Ed performs regularly at Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New York’s Town Hall, and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. He began his studies on the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and, at age ten, moved to New York to continue his studies. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.
Cellist Natasha Brofksy is active as a performer and teacher. As cellist of the Naumburg award winning Peabody Trio, she performs regularly on chamber music series in the United States and abroad. She has also collaborated with many fine ensembles, including the Takács, Prazak, Borromeo, Jupiter Quartets and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and enjoys frequent collaborations with Boston Symphony oboist Keisuke Wakao as well as violinist Lucy Chapman and violist Roger Tapping. During nearly a decade living in Europe, she was a member of the Serapion Ensemble and the String Trio Opus 3, and held principal positions in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Brofsky is on the cello faculty and serves as Assistant Chair of Strings at the New England Conservatory, and is a faculty member at the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival. A sought after teacher, she has given master classes at many fine colleges and conservatories, including San Francisco, Peabody, Boston University, Longy School, the Guildhall School in London and for El Sistema in Venezuela. Her recordings can be heard on the Aurora, New World and Artek labels.
In 2001, cellist Clancy Newman won the coveted
first prize of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg International Competition; Naumburg presented him in recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, a performance that garnered enormous critical acclaim. He was also named the recipient of a 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and as such appeared on A & E’s “Breakfast with the Arts”. Upon receiving a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School, he became one of the few students to complete the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University, where he received a B.A. in English. Mr. Newman has performed as soloist throughout the United States, as well as in France, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and Korea, and he can often be heard on NPR’s “Performance Today”. He has been a member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center and Musicians from Marlboro, and is a current member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians. Also an active composer, he has been featured on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Double Exposure” series and the Chicago Chamber Musicians’ “Freshly Scored” series. In October 2010, his trio, the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman trio, premiered his Juxt-Opposition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He has received commissions from Astral Artists, the Barnett Foundation, the Carpe Diem String Quartet, and the UBS Chamber Music Festival of Lexington.
Grammy-nominated flutist Joshua Smith
captivates audiences with his "superlative control" an
d “breathtaking sensitivity”. He came to national attention at the age of 20 when he was appointed Principal Flute of The Cleveland Orchestra and hailed as a "flute phenomenon." Today, he is equally at home as a leading soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. He has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra on numerous occasions, performing works ranging from Bach to Takemitsu, including the concertos of Mozart, Penderecki, and Nielsen. Upcoming solo performances with the Orchestra include a work being commissioned by the Orchestra from composer Jörg Widmann for performance during the 2010-11 season.
Joshua received a Grammy nomination for best chamber music performance in 2010 for And Then I Knew 'Twas Windfrom his 2008 Telarc recording, Air, with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis and violist Cynthia Phelps featuring music by Takemitsu and Debussy. This season, Delos will release his second disc of Bach Sonatas with harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, following up on the success of his first acclaimed Delos disc of Bach Sonatas with Mr. Vinikour. His recording of the Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp with Maestro Dohnányi and harpist Lisa Wellbaum on the Decca/London label was chosen by Performance Today as "The recording of this piece to own." He can be heard on over 100 Cleveland Orchestra recordings on the Deutsche Gramophon, London/Decca, Nonesuch, and Teldec labels.
Joshua is dedicated to performing chamber music, and appears regularly as a chamber musician and recitalist throughout the United States and abroad. He is intrigued with finding new outlets for his music and bringing classical music to new audiences, is excited about bringing chamber music colleagues into non-traditional venues -- bars, parks, schools, and street-corners throughout Cleveland in the upcoming season. In 2007, he served as guest curator of music for the Cleveland Museum of Art, creating a series of chamber music concerts, which were presented in the galleries of the museum’s special exhibit, “Monet in Normandy.”
In great demand as a teacher, Joshua serves as head of the flute department of the Cleveland Institute of Music and is a faculty member and head of woodwinds at Kent/Blossom Music's professional training program.
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, Ms. Hwangbo 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.
Ms. Hwangbo 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.
Known for her deep musical and emotional commitment to a wide range of repertoire, Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s ability to communicate the essential substance of a work has led critics to describe her as possessing ‘razor-sharp intelligence and wit' (The Washington Post) and as ‘elegant and engaging' (The Wall Street Journal). In 2006, she was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
Over the last seasons, Ieva made her Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon, her orchestral debut in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and her chamber music endeavors have brought her to stages around the world such as: London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Lima, Peru, Panama City, Panama, and on national tours with Musicians from Marlboro. She has recently given solo recitals in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Vilnius, Lithuania, and at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery in Washington DC, after which The Washington Post called her a ‘splendid colorist' and described her performance as ‘magical tone-painting'.
In June of 2009, Ieva’s piano trio—Trio Cavatina—won the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and made its Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2010. Last fall to great critical acclaim, Labor Records released Ieva’s Alban Berg Tribute recordings of Berg’s piano sonata and previously unrecorded or unknown works written in tribute to Berg.
A much sought after chamber musician, she regularly appears at international music festivals including: Marlboro, Ravinia, Bard, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England. Earning degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and from Mannes College of Music, her principal teachers have been Seymour Lipkin and Richard Goode.
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 gained recognition for its
“expressive directness” (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 as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and been
his music 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 2011.
Ludwig
has had commissions and performances from many prominent artists and ensembles,
including soloists Jonathan Biss and Jaime Laredo, ensembles eighth blackbird
and Network for New Music, and orchestras including the Philadelphia,
Minnesota, and 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 further won numerous awards and honors from
nationally recognized arts organizations.
Born
in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig holds degrees from Oberlin, The Manhattan School
of Music, Curtis, and Juilliard, as well as a PhD from the University of
Pennsylvania. Ludwig 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.
Composer Marc Neikrug has had an international career for 30 years. He has
written chamber music, symphonic music, music-theater and opera. Major
performances have taken place with the New York, Los Angeles and Buffalo
Philharmonics, as well as the symphonies in Pittsburgh, Houston, Atlanta,
Cincinnati, New World (Miami), St. Louis, Washington DC, Chicago, Utah, Dallas,
Phoenix, New Mexico, the Minnesota and Cleveland orchestras, and the St. Paul
and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras.
Marc's works have been performed internationally, by the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, the BBC Symphony, London Synfonietta, English Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Liege Orchestra, Lisbon Orchestra, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Osaka Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Festival performances have been at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, Aspen, Angel Fire, La Jolla, Marlboro, Menlo, London’s South Bank, Aldeburgh, Berlin Festival, Franfurt Festival, Schleswig Holstein, Zurich, Melbourne, Tokyo’s Music Today, and Jerusalem.
Marc's music theater work ‘Through Roses’, was commissioned by London’s South Bank Festival with the National Theater. Since its premiere in 1980 it has had hundreds of performances in fifteen countries and has been translated into 11 languages. There are three CD’s on Deutsche Grammaphon, Enya, and Koch International. There have also been two films produced, a documentary by Christopher Nupen, and a feature film directed by Jurgen Flimm and starring Maximilian Schell. Los Alamos, an anti nuclear opera written in 1988, is the only American opera ever commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Its American premiere was at the Aspen Music Festival.
Marc has been composer in residence at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, Angel Fire, Bravo Vail, and La Jolla festivals.
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.
Photo credits:
Soovin Kim by Woo-Ryong Chai
Jennifer Frautschi by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Elena Urioste by Jonathan Nimerfroh
Clancy Newman by J. Henry Fair
Joshua Smith by Nannette Bedway
Hsin-Yun Huang by Lin Li
Ieva Jokubaviciute by Janette Beckman
David Ludwig by Pete Checchia