Praised for here “genuinely memorable performances” by BBC Music Magazine, pianist Miki Aoki is widely recognized for her diverse abilities as pianist and as a collaborative artist.  Ms. Aoki has performed as a soloist with National Symphony, London Soloist Chamber Orchestra, Hamburg Camerata, Washington Sinfonietta and Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México. The legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman invited Ms. Aoki to his Chamber Music festival in Long Island, USA in 2006.  She has also been invited by International Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg, Mattheiser Sommer-Akademie Bad Sobernheim, International Summer Academy Bad Leondfelden, International Mendelssohn Summer School, International Violin Masterclasses at Kronberg Academy and KONTUREN Brühl.

 Ms. Aoki joined the Munich ArtisTRIO in 2017 and is currently a teaching assistant at SUNY Stony Brook in New York where she is pursuing DMA under the guidance of Gilbert Kalish.

Riana Anthony, born and raised in Yamagata, Japan, began studying the cello at the age of nine. Since moving to Honolulu, Hawai’i, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Riana made her Honolulu Symphony debut at the age of 12, and has since appeared as soloist with the Shanghai City Symphony and the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in the Future Masters Concert Series at the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, and at Kennedy Center through the Conservatory Project. Riana is a recent recipient of The Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarships from the Musician’s Club of Women in Chicago, and the first prize winner of the 2017 Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Performance Competition.

 An avid chamber musician, Riana has performed at the Rome Chamber Music Festival and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. She won first prize at the 2016 Dover Quartet Competition, and was a prizewinner at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition. Riana has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Liechtenstein Internationale Musikakademie, Schiermonnikoog Festival, Cello Akademie Rutesheim Masterclasses, Mortitzburg Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Gstaad String Academy at the Menuhin Festival, PyeongChang Music Festival, and Summer Campus at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.

 Riana received her undergraduate degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, studying under cellists Julie Albers and Hans Jørgen Jensen. She completed her graduate studies under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen at Northwestern University, and since September 2017, is an Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the guidance of Gary Hoffman. She plays a fine 18th century cello by William Forster.

Praised by the German press for his sold-out Berlin debut at Konzerthaus in Gendarmenmarkt, Zsolt Bognár has also made recent debut performances in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Munich, Brussels, Vienna, and in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Mr. Bognár subsequently released an album of works of Schubert and Liszt, recorded in Berlin with producer Philipp Nedel. Recipient of the 2007 Arthur Loesser Prize and having studied with Sergei Babayan for over ten years, Mr. Bognár frequently performs chamber music with members of the Cleveland Orchestra in live NPR broadcasts. Winner of several international piano competitions in America and in Europe, he is also the host of “Living the Classical Life”, a filmed series of portraits highlighting the life, music, psychology, and work process of prominent musicians from around the world, presented by Elyria Pictures in New York. His musical collaborations and diverse projects were the recipient of two International Festival Society Grants to spend two summers with Martha Argerich in Lugano, and he has given two TED talks in San Francisco.

Born in Davis, California, American cellist Eunghee Cho was recently awarded Second Prize and the special award for Outstanding Chinese New Piece Performance at the Alice & Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China. He began studying cello with Julie Hochman at the age of eight, and holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance and a Minor in Natural Science from the University of Southern California’s Thorton School of Music, where he earned First Prize in the Solo Bach Competition. He recently completed a Master's degree at the New England Conservatory of Music where, in the Fall, he will pursue the Doctor of Musical Arts under the tutelage of distinguished pedagogue Laurence Lesser. His previous instructors include Paul Katz, Andrew Shulman, Andrew Luchansky, and Richard Andaya.

Mr. Cho has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras around the country including the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and Sacramento State Symphony Orchestra. Currently Principal Cellist of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Cho also frequently leads the cello sections of the Cape Symphony, Unitas Ensemble, and Eureka Ensemble. An avid chamber musician, Eunghee has collaborated with artists such as Midori Goto, David Shifrin, François Salque, and Kineko Okumura, and has performed as a guest artist with A Far Cry, Da Camera Society, and the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento. He has participated in classes at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival and Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and has attended the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Rencontres Franco Americaines de Musique Chambre in Missillac, France. Mr. Cho is the Artistic Director of the inaugural Mellon Music Festival in Davis, CA. He performs on a 1930 Anselmo Gotti cello on generous loan by the Colburn Foundation.

Critics have certainly taken notice of cellist Jonah Ellsworth after solo performances with the Boston Symphony, Akron Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, and New Bedford Symphony Orchestras, among others. Ellsworth has been referred to as “a kind of unrepentant Tannhäuser” and “a player to watch,” by the Boston Globe and Clevelandclassical.com. The Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that he is “fearless [with a] complete range of expressive richness.”

 Mr. Ellsworth has also appeared with Symphony Pro Musica, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra under the baton of the late Gunther Schuller, Symphony by the Sea, performing Brahms’ Double Concerto with violinist Yoojin Jang, and the Boston Philharmonic, performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Boston Trio.  As the winner of the New England Conservatory’s concerto competition, Jonah performed Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the NEC Philharmonia in March of 2016. He has been a finalist of the Stulberg International String Competition in Michigan, received a prize from the Harvard Musical Association, and appeared on PBS’s nationally televised broadcast of “From the Top,” taped live in Carnegie Hall.

 Jonah completed his Bachelor of Music at New England Conservatory, and is currently pursuing his Graduate Diploma under the tutelage of Laurence Lesser. He previously studied with Peter Wiley at the Curtis Institute of Music, as well as Andrew Mark and Natasha Brofsky.  He has attended the Marlboro Music Festival, Meadowmount Music School, Greenwood Music Camp, and Orford Arts Center in Canada.

A native of Chicago, violist Leah Ferguson joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2016. Leah received her early training from Roland Vamos. She received a Bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Robert Vernon, and a graduate diploma at the Juilliard School as a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Cynthia Phelps.

 Leah has participated in festivals including Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Verbier Festival and the Perlman Music Program. She has toured with Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and performed as a guest artist with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Ferguson has performed with ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, as Assistant Principal of the Rochester Philharmonic, and as guest Associate Principal of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

 Her performances have been featured on WQXR’s The Greene Space, WCLV Cleveland, WFMT Chicago and HBO television show “Masterclass”. Leah Ferguson plays a viola made in 2007 by Stefan-Peter Greiner.

Cellist, Annie Jacobs-Perkins, praised for her “hypnotic lyricism” and “ability to make the audience forget where they were” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), is a graduate of the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music, where she studied with Ralph Kirshbaum, and also received minors in Narrative Studies and German Studies. As the cellist in two acclaimed trios, the Callisto Piano Trio and the Aristeia Clarinet Trio, Annie enjoys an active chamber music schedule in Los Angeles. In 2016 the Aristeia Trio was offered management by Classics Alive Artists after winning the Frances Walton Competition in Seattle. Also in 2016, the Callisto Piano Trio became the youngest group in the 43-year history of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition to win a top prize in the senior division. After attending the International Holland Music Sessions in the summer of 2017, the Callisto Trio was selected to participate in the New Masters on Tour Program, and will give their debut recital in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in January of 2019. 

 Annie has sat as principal cellist of the Thornton Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. At age seventeen, she was selected to be associate principal for the New York String Orchestra’s 2014 concerts in Carnegie Hall. In 2015 she won the Thornton School’s Solo Bach Competition and the Burbank Philharmonic’s Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition. Previous teachers include Kathleen Murphy Kemp, Doleen Hood, and David Geringas.  This summer Annie will be attending the Perlman Music Program and Yellow Barn, and in the fall, she will be pursuing her Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Laurence Lesser.

Violinist, Carmen Johnson-Pájaro began studying violin at age 5 in Birmingham, Alabama. Carmen enjoys an eclectic career, performing music spanning centuries and genres. A passionate chamber musician, Carmen performed extensively with her honors piano trio, Trio Noir, while at the Eastman School of Music. She has performed honorary solo and chamber music recitals in Kilbourn and Hatch Halls. As a freelance performer in Boston, Carmen has performed with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Nova, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and Palaver Strings. Over the years, she has also developed a love of early music and Baroque violin. She currently plays with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra under the direction of the esteemed Sarah Darling and Phoebe Carrai.

 Beyond performing and teaching, Carmen has a deep commitment to community-based work as an artist. During her undergraduate years, Carmen was selected to participate in “Heifetz-on-Tour” and “Music Inspire Africa” (MIA). These programs took her to cities in Rhode Island, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, performing with colleagues, playing side-by-side with local community and youth orchestras, and teaching at various schools, as well as an AIDS orphanage. While at New England Conservatory, Carmen was a teaching fellow with the Communitty Performances and Partnerships program, and received a grant for her project, REMIX, a music program working with male teens in a juvenile detention center.

 Carmen has spent her summers at the Heifetz International Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Meadowmount School of Music, and others. She holds a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she was a Lois Rogers Scholar and a recipient of the Links Scholarship. Carmen’s primary teachers include Paul Biss, Juliana Athayde, Ayano Ninomiya, and Sergiu Schwartz.

Violinist, Dylan Kennedy is the founder and director of the Keuka Lake Music Festival. The first ever recipient of three Entrepreneurial Musicianship awards from the New England Conservatory, Kennedy has established himself as a leading entrepreneur of his generation. As a performer, he has been praised for his “exceptionally well crafted dynamics and phrasing” and for “not shying away from the challenges” (Sarasota Harold Tribune).

Kennedy has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, Penfield Symphony Orchestra, Hochstein Alumni Orchestra, Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra, Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra, and at Bowling Green State University. Kennedy has won the Albright Award at the Rochester Philharmonic League Young Artist Competition, the David Hochstein Recital Competition, and gave live performances on the radio show ‘Live from Hochstein’ on WXXI in three consecutive years. He was also awarded 3rd prize in the Lewisville Lake Symphony International String Competition, and was a quarter-finalist in the Prague Spring International Competition.

As concertmaster, Kennedy has led the NEC Chamber Orchestra, Moritzburg Festival Orchestra in Germany, CIM Orchestra, and Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and currently serves as Principal 2nd Violin of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Jerome Lowenthal, Joseph Silverstein, Martin Chalifour, and Peter Lloyd, and has been a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society. He has attended and performed at several summer music festivals, including the Sarasota Music Festival, National Arts Centre of Ottawa Young Artists’ Program, Music Academy of the West, and the Meadowmount School of Music.

Kennedy completed his Master’s Degree at the New England Conservatory under Professor Ayano Ninomiya, and his Bachelor’s Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Professor Ivan Zenaty, with minors in Economics and Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. A native of Rochester, NY, he previously studied with the late Distinguished Kilbourn Professor, Zvi Zeitlin, at the Eastman School of Music.

Daniel Ketter recently completed a DMA in Cello Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music and is currently a PhD candidate in Music Theory. Since 2013, at Eastman, he has been a classroom instructor for aural skills and music theory and has served as teaching assistant for Alan Harris’s cello studio. His current research interests include analytical approaches to solo melodic instrumental music, essential voices in Schenkerian theory, and a collaboration with the Natural History of Song. Recent performance projects have included a lecture recital, titled “Heinrich Schenker, Author of J. S. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites,” performing as co-director and cellist for Sunset Concerts of Rochester, NY, and performing as co-director and cellist for a new music initiative called Music in the American Wild. The American Wild Ensemble recently recorded a two-hour album of eleven original works to be released in spring 2018 under the ArtistShare label. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, these works were commissioned and performed for a tour of seven national parks celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016.

 In Rochester, Daniel teaches cello and chamber music at the Hochstein School of Music and Dance and co-directs the Eastman Cello Ensemble. This summer, Daniel will be teaching music theory at Eastman, presenting at the Eastman Leadership Academy and Eastman Cello Institute, and returning to North Cascades National Park Complex with the American Wild Ensemble for a series of performances and educational events. Daniel has a MM in cello performance and pedagogy from the Peabody Conservatory and graduated with high distinction from both the Eastman School of Music (BM ’10, cello performance) and from the University of Rochester (BA ’10, mathematics).

A native of Rochester, NY, Mr. Kittelberger joined Rochester City Ballet after receiving his training at the Timothy M. Draper Center for Dance Education and other local dance institutions. Solo roles with RCB include the Mouse King, Lead Chinese, Italian Ice, the Nutcracker Prince, and the Snow King in The Nutcracker, the Suitor in Don Quixote, and Prince Ivan in Firebird. In addition, Mr. Kittelberger was the male lead in Gershwin in the Park, a soloist in Robert LaFosse’s Correspondence, a featured soloist in MECA: Color Sound Music and in Jamey Leverett’s Push & Pull, A Common Thread, How to Break a Heart, LumaVoce, and was Fitzk in her world premiere of The Blood Countess. He was a guest performer in Ballet Manchester’s “Classical Dance on the Hill”, with dancers from American Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Ballet, and was a featured performer in Hoedown, Tangazo and Bravo! Colorado, with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Kittelberger was chosen by guest choreographer Patrick Corbin to be in the world premiere of Shady III, and danced as the Waltz Boy in Balanchine’s Serenade. Mr. Kittelberger is regularly a guest performer in Central Illinois Ballet’s The Nutcracker. In September 2011 he toured Japan as a guest performer with Les Ballets Grandiva.

Robert May is a singer and composer based in New York City. A graduate of The Juilliard School in voice, he makes his living in the city as a freelance musician, performing, teaching, and coaching. Robert lent his voice to the off-Broadway show The Trial of Martin Luther and performed his original songs in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Robert had the pleasure of arranging and singing spirituals for MetLiveArts, the performance component of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with members of the New York City Ballet in a preliminary showing in March 2018. The final performance in March 2019 will feature the same personnel in addition to original music by incarcerated men at San Quentin prison. Active in the professional choral scene in New York, Robert has sung with the New York Virtuoso Singers, Pro Arte Singers, Bard Festival Chorale, and MasterVoices. Robert is passionate about teaching, maintaining a studio of beginning to professional singers. Robert is active in the music program at his church under the leadership of his wife, Martha, leading the congregation in song as well as arranging hymns. As a composer, Robert orchestrated music for a student-run production of Büchner’s play Wozzeck at Juilliard in 2015, and his barbershop quartet arrangement of “The Lusitania Went Down” was performed in the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission Ceremony at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City in April of 2017.

The band of Zach Page and Josh Page - Modern alt/folk brothers celebrating all styles, new and old!

Zach, in addition to being the cofounder main producing force behind Brothers Page, performs on stage live throughout the world. Performances include the School Of Rock All-Stars at Zappanale in Germany, Lollapalooza Music Festival, and many venues that include Cleveland House of Blues, the Knitting Factory (LA & NYC), The Roxy, Starland Ballroom, and as well as the legendary CBGB's and BB Kings. He has performed with amazing musicians such as Peter Frampton, Zappa's Mike Keneally, Perry Farrell, Nuno Bettencourt and toured with John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia) and Jon Anderson (YES). Along with being an incredible electric guitarist Zach specializes in Classical Guitar studying with Yasha Kofman at the Classical Guitar School of New York. 

Zach's mastery of guitar helped him land roles in several feature films like "August Rush", "The Ten" and "A Little Help", as well as the documentary "Woodstock Now and Then" directed by Barbara Kopple. He also played guitar in the onstage rock band in the Broadway production of Jason Robert Brown's "13 The Musical" as well as the Goodspeed production. He enjoys combining his love of acting with his passion of playing the guitar and hopes to continue to do both in the future.

Josh, In addition to being the co-founder and producer of Brothers Page, is a born operatic tenor with a decade of singing training. After winning the David Foster and Friends talent competition in 2009 he began performing throughout the nation. Most recently sharing the stage on tour with Jackie Evancho performing throughout the West Coast CA: Indio, San Diego, L.A., Fresno, San Francisco, Sacramento as well as in Utah, Georgia, and New Jersey. Performing with many renowned symphonies; San Diego Symphony, Utah Symphony, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, and many more. In a moment of sheer fate Josh shared the stage at the MSG Arena in NYC with Josh Groban singing a duet! It was an unplanned shock that lead to his first review in the NY times "-with his own sonorous tenor, harmonizing seamlessly enough that Mr. Groban looked momentarily dumbfounded." as well as mentioned in Variety. 

His love for alternative rock, and great bands moves him to create music of this generation in combining all of the organic and electric elements making ours the first generation to be born into an internet world.

Mexican-American violist, Alexander Peña, serves as Director of ROCmusic, a life-transforming music education program that offers group and private instruction to at-risk youth within economically disadvantaged communities in Rochester, NY. His non-profit collaborative, an El-Sistema-inspired program, is a partnership between the Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester), Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Hochstein School of Music & Dance, Eastman Community Music School, City of Rochester, the Rochester City School District, and the Gateways Music Festival.

 Peña is a founding violist and Youth Education Director at the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota since 2009. An advocate for new music and contemporary art, he joined forces with New York-based Sound ExChange Project’s ‘HEX’, a platform for performing artists dedicated to exploring alternative ways of presenting classical music, and has been featured on live radio broadcasts including Rochester’s 91.5 WXXI “Backstage Pass”. Peña is a Senior Instructor of Viola/Violin and Conducting at the Eastman Community Music School where he conducts five ECMS ensembles, including the New Horizons Orchestras. Alexander enjoys performing chamber music and has received accolades in the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition and the Music Teachers National Association Competition, winning National 2nd Place String Chamber Music Division in 2013.

 A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Peña earned a Bachelor and Master of Music in Viola Performance and Music Education, the Arts Leadership Certificate, and the Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize. Peña was recently honored to participate in the Community Arts Education Leadership Institute through the National Guild of Community Arts Education in 2016.

Elizabeth Rodbell received her training from the Timothy M. Draper Center for Dance Education and graduated in three years from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music BA in Dance program, with an outside field in Political Science. Ms. Rodbell received additional summer intensive training with full scholarships from The State Street Ballet, Chautauqua, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Miami City Ballet. Additionally, she was offered a scholarship to train year round at the Harid Conservatory. While at Indiana University, she performed lead Merliton and Doll in The Nutcracker, and was a demi soloist in Balanchine’s Four Temperaments. With the Rochester City Ballet she performed as the Magical Doll and Arabian in The Nutcracker, a Noble Woman and a Ghost in Jamey Leverett’s The Blood Countess, Winter Fairy in Cinderella, soloist in Bravo! Colorado, 4Play, and LumaVoce, and corps de ballet roles in Carmen, Incantation, and George Balanchine’s Serenade. While training at the Draper Center, she regularly performed with the Rochester City Ballet in their productions of The Nutcracker, Carmen, Push & Pull and Peter and the Wolf.

Korean violist ​Jenni Seo ​ is an immersive and versatile soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician who has performed extensively with international artists all over the United States in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Hahn Hall, Granada Theater, Walt Disney Hall, Loberto Theater, Van Wezel Hall for the Performing Arts, the Sarasota Opera House, and many more. The winner of the 2011 ASTA National Solo Competition, Seo is the recipient of the​ Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship, Beatrice Scacher-Myers Scholarship, the C.V. Starr Scholarship, and the Juilliard Alumni Scholarship. A recent alumna of the Music Academy of the West, Ms. Seo is also a returning artist of the Perlman Music Program Summer School, Chamber Music Workshop, and its traveling residencies to Stowe Sarasota and Tel-Aviv. She has been coached by world-renowned chamber musicians such as Merry Peckham, Donald Weilerstein, Roger Tapping, as well as additional members of the Cleveland, Takacs, and Juilliard String Quartets. She was previously the violist of the Bordone Quartet, which recently performed at Alice Tully Hall, on WQXR, the Harvard Club of NYC, and in Mountain Lake, Florida.

Ms. Seo has worked under influential conductors including Alan Gilbert, Emmanuel Villaume, Itzhak Perlman, Larry Rachleff, Leonard Slatkin, Jeffrey Milarsky, Michael Tilson Thomas, James DePriest, Nicholas McGegan, Osmo Vanska, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and James Gaffigan. She frequently performs with the Baltimore Symphony, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Ms. Seo has studied with Cynthia Phelps, Heidi Castleman, Steven Tenenbom, and Donald McInnes.  

A native of Penn Yan, NY, Amy Stuart attended SUNY Purchase College, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Concentration in Ballet. While attending Purchase College, Ms. Stuart performed roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Grand Pas de Deux, and lead Marzipan in The Nutcracker, lead Pas de Deux in Taryn Kaschock Russell's Psalm and Allegros, principal dancer in Matthew Neenan's As It's Going, and corps de ballet in Balanchine's Valse-Fantaisie. In 2015 Ms. Stuart joined the Rochester City Ballet under the directorship of David Palmer. Her recent performance credits with RCB include Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Adiemus, Summer of Love, and Mist by director David Palmer and Yanis Pikieris, Dewdrop, lead Spanish, Merliton, Snow and Flowers  in The Nutcracker, Swan in Jimmy Orrante's The Ugly Duckling, as well as Jamey Leverett's Gershwin Preludes with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Stuart additionally works as Assistant Director for Administration with the New York State Summer School of the Arts school of ballet located in Saratoga Springs, NY; a summer intensive program which she attended herself for four consecutive years. Ms. Stuart is beyond excited to partner with the Keuka Lake Music Festival this year to bring the art of ballet back home to the Finger Lakes!

Pianist, Dina Vainshtein is collaborating with some of the most promising musicians of recent years. Now based in Boston, she is the daughter of two pianists, and studied with Boris Berlin and at the prestigious Gnessin Academy in Moscow. While there, she received the Special Prize for Best Collaborative Pianist at the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Competition. In 2000, Ms. Vainshtein came to the United States to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she worked with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Donald Weilerstein. Her talents vaunted her to numerous performing opportunities, from Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City, to the Caramoor Festival, Music at Menlo, the Ravinia Festival, Music Academy of the West, and tours to Europe, Russia and Asia.

 To this day, Donald Weilerstein regards Ms. Vainshtein as “an extraordinary collaborator.  She is an extremely fine musician and one of the most empathetic, dynamic and supportive chamber players I know.” Her discography includes a recital disc with New York Philharmonic Concertmaster, Frank Huang, and an album of Emile Sauret’s violin showpieces featuring Michi Wianko, both on the Naxos label. For nearly a decade Dina Vainshtein has been affiliated with the New England Conservatory and the Walnut Hill School in Massachusetts where she teaches chamber music.

Violinist and conductor, Alyssa Wang, originally from San Francisco, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in violin performance in 2016 from Carnegie Mellon University under the tutelage of Andres Cardenes. She was the winner of the Carnegie Mellon School of Music Concerto Competition, the Pittsburgh Female College Association Prize, the Carnegie Mellon Women’s Award, and the Senior Leadership Award, as well as the recipient of the 2015 Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award, Harry G. Archer Award, and Paul J. Baum Fund Award. During her senior year at Carnegie Mellon she helped to run the Heritage Scholarship Campaign, which raised over $180,000 to start a substantial undergraduate merit scholarship for future School of Music students. She is currently at the New England Conservatory pursuing a double Master’s Degree in violin and conducting with Malcolm Lowe and Charles Peltz, respectively. Recently she made her Jordan Hall conducting debut in the Gunther Schuller Memorial Concert in November of 2017. At New England Conservatory she regularly conducts the NEC Lab Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Ensemble. During her time at NEC, she has won fellowships with the Grammy-nominated ensemble, A Far Cry, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. As a conductor, she has attended the Pierre Monteux School, served as assistant conductor at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and studied at the Eastern Music Festival with Gerard Schwarz. Next summer she is excited to be the first assistant conductor of the New Hampshire Music Festival under the mentorship of Paul Polivnick.

Music critics, fellow musicians, and audiences are calling Ivan Zenaty “the most important Czech violinist of this time.” Besides the technical perfection one would expect, he is also appreciated for his taste, style and a captivatingly beautiful tone. With his exceptional wealth of repertoire including more than 50 violin concertos, he is a favored guest artist with many international orchestras. Known for his versatility, his engagements also include solo recitals and chamber music collaborations.

The springboard to his international career came as a result of being a prize winner in the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition, followed immediately by debut engagements with the Moscow and Czech Philharmonic. Other successes include First Prize at the Prague Spring Competition, as well as being a chosen laureate of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Young Performers. In the subsequent years following his victories, Mr. Zenaty made his orchestral and solo debuts in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Jerusalem.

The musicianship of Ivan Zenaty has been influenced the most by his personal encounters with Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci and André Gertler. Studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the tutelage of Igor Bezrodny had the greatest impact on his technical approach to the violin.

The great Czech musical tradition was passed on to Mr. Zenaty through his mentor Josef Suk, which resulted in many subsequent years of professional partnership, and culminated in a recording of the complete works of W. A. Mozart. Other collaborations include great artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Valery Gergiev and Neville Marriner.

Ivan Zenaty’s prolific output of over 40 CD’s includes the complete works of Telemann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schulhoff, Dvořák and Grieg. His new recording of the complete works of Dvořák has attracted extraordinary attention, as has his recording of both violin concertos by J. B. Foerster with the BBC Symphony Orchestra London and its music director Jiri Belohlavek.

A natural counterbalance to Ivan Zenaty’s concert and recording activities is his work as an acclaimed teacher. Mr. Zenaty has taught at the Hochschule fur Musik in Dresden, and in the Fall of 2012 was invited to join the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Summer activities include teaching at the Meadowmount School of Music.

Thanks to the Harmony Foundation of New York, Ivan Zenaty plays a rare Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin made in 1740.