2023 Faculty and Guest Artists

Faculty

Joana Genova, violin and Artistic Director

Bulgarian-born violinist Joana Genova has built a diverse career as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist, and pedagogue. She is co-artistic director of Taconic Music in Manchester and Adjunct Professor and chamber music coordinator at Montclair State University. As the second violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet, Joana has concertized throughout the Midwest, Arizona and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City and recorded Reflections and Whimsies: Chamber Music for Strings and Voice by Frank Felice and Robert Paterson’s String Quartets 1-3. From 2017- to 2022 Joana served as Assistant Professor at the University of Indianapolis. She has been Artist Associate at Williams College since 2007 and joined Bennington College as Instructor in violin and viola in the Fall of 2022.

Joana concertizes with Williams and Taconic Chamber Players and appears as a frequent guest at festivals and concert series. She has performed internationally in Bulgaria, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and has enjoyed collaborations with the Shanghai Quartet, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Horszowski Trio, Enso Quartet, Toby Appel, Andrés Cárdenes, Carmit Zori, Nathaniel Rosen, Nathaniel Parke, Michael Haber, Danwen Jiang, Austin Hartman, Renee Jolles, Michael Rudiakov, Tom Landschoot, Sophie Shao, Jon Klibonoff, Ruth Laredo, Davide Cabassi, David Krakauer, Deborah Buck, Drew Petersen, among others.
Her recordings include Chamber Music of Vittorio Giannini (MSR Classics), Vision: Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries (Eroica Classical Recordings) and Four Seasons x2: Piazzolla and Vivaldi (Manchester Music Festival). She has appeared live on GNAT-TV and CAT-TV in Vermont, Wish TV Indianapolis, WQXR Albany, Vermont Public Radio-Live, WBAA and WICR in Indiana.
As soloist, Joana has been featured with the Metropolitan, Rockaway, Danbury, and Berkshire symphonies, Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Manchester Festival Orchestra, Yonkers Philharmonic, and under the baton of Raymond Leppard with the University of Indianapolis Gala Orchestra.  She was concertmaster of the Amsterdam Bach Consort, a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Brooklyn Philharmonic and New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and assistant concertmaster of Carmel Symphony Orchestra in Indiana. Currently Joana is principal second violin of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, and guest concertmaster of Sage City Symphony in Bennington.

Joana made her solo debut at age 12 with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra and is a top prizewinner of the Svetoslav Obretenov National Competition in Bulgaria. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and her master’s in chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Her teachers include Boyanka Shopova, Alexander Spirov, Peter Brunt, Ilya Grubert, and Samuel Thaviu. Joana performs on a Johannes Cuypers violin made in The Hague in 1786.

Ariel Rudiakov, viola and Artistic Director

Violist and conductor Ariel Rudiakov is co-founder and Artistic Director of Taconic Music in Manchester, Vermont; Music Director and conductor of the Danbury (Conn.) Symphony Orchestra, and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Indianapolis, where he conducts the chamber orchestra and coaches chamber music. He attended pre-college at Manhattan School of Music and went on to receive Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at SUNY Purchase and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a scholarship student at Yale’s master’s program, where he studied performance with Jessie Levine and chamber music with members of the Tokyo String Quartet. He enjoys a diverse musical life, performing to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and abroad with many fine musicians and ensembles including the Shanghai, Jupiter and Indianapolis Quartets, current and former members of the Tokyo, Juilliard and Guarneri quartets, pianists Ruth Laredo, David Deveau, Michael Brown, Andre Michel Schub, and Drew Peterson, among many others. He is a former member of the New York Piano Quartet and Equinox String Quartet, and a founding member and president of SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City).

Ariel Rudiakov was Artistic Director of the Manchester (Vt.) Music Festival from 2000 to 2016. Among his recordings are the complete string quartets by Camille Saint-Saëns and the piano quintet by Vittorio Giannini (MSR Classics), which Fanfare Magazine described as “utterly superb”.  Composers Richard Lane, Philip Lasser, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson have dedicated works to Ariel, who is active in commissioning and recording new music. At the podium, he has collaborated with noted musicians Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Michael Rudiakov, Bernard Greenhouse, David Deveau, Christopher O’Reilly, and others. Resident and guest conducting positions have included the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Symphony, Bergen, and Yonkers Philharmonics, Antara Ensemble, Manchester Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Sage City Symphony and recording sessions with Dance Theater of Harlem.

Ariel plays a viola made by Geoffrey Ovington in 2000.

Amadi Azikiwe, viola

Amadi Azikiwe, violist, violinist, and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, including an appearance at the US Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center. Abroad, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, Nigeria, India, Japan, and Hong Kong.
As a soloist, Mr. Azikiwe has appeared with the Prince George’s Philharmonic, Delaware Symphony, Virginia Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, the City Island Baroque Ensemble of New York, the National Symphony of Ecuador, and at the Costa Rica International Music Festival.
Currently, Mr. Azikiwe is Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. He is also Community Engagement Director of the Harlem Chamber Players and a member of the Pressenda Chamber Players.
As an orchestral musician, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and as guest principal violist of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.
A native of New York City, Mr. Azikiwe first studied music with his mother, after which he began training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. His studies continued at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and at Indiana University as a student of Atar Arad.

Heather Braun, violin

Heather Braun performs as first violinist of the prize-winning Arneis Quartet and as a member of the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music and Taconic Music Chamber Players. Heather began teaching violin and chamber music at the Boston University School of Music in 2014 and joined the Saint Anselm College faculty in 2016. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, China, and Italy, including venues such as the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Cabot Theater, Concord Free Library, Frederick Collection, Music on Main (Vancouver), Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Stanford University, Swarthmore College, University of Indianapolis, and Williams College.

Heather has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Boston, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Danbury, CT and Manchester, VT. She has performed as visiting concertmaster for the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and as a guest artist with the Greenwich Chamber Players. Other chamber music and solo collaborations include performances with Tony Arnold, Randall Hodgkinson, Marc Johnson, Robert Levin, St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Shanghai Quartet.
Heather earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Boston University, studying with Peter Zazofsky. While a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, she received the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize; other awards received include the Zulalian Foundation Award (BU), the John Lad Prize (Stanford University) and Silver Medal at the ICMEC Competition. Heather is on the faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Taconic Music Chamber Intensive and Danbury Chamber Music Intensive. She has also taught at Point Counterpoint, Duxbury Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. Her recordings include chamber music by John Wallace, as a violinist soloist and member of the orchestra for Bach Cantatas with soprano Kendra Colton, and on Elena Ruehr’s latest album, Icarus, released in the spring of 2022 and featured on NPR and BBC Proms.

Davide Cabassi, piano

Davide Cabassi made his debut at the age of thirteen with Rai Symphony Orchestra of Milan playing the Shostakovitch’s Second Concerto conducted by Vladimir Delman, starting a career as soloist which led him to perform with the major European and American orchestras including the Munchner Philharmoniker, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Russian Chamber Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmoniker, Fort Worth Symphony, Enid Symphony, Big Spring Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Cordoba, Orchestra Haydn Bolzano, Orchestra Verdi Milano, Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicali Milano, Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, Orchestra Romantique Paris, OSI of Lugano, OFT of Turin, Orchestra of the Arena of Verona, Tiroler Festspiele Erl Orchestra and many others.
He has played for the most important Italian musical Institutions such as Società del Quartetto, Serate Musicali, Società dei Concerti, Brescia and Bergamo Piano Festival etc. and abroad, invited both in Europe and in more than 35 American states, in China and Japan in places such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, Gasteig in Munich, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Louvre and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Forbidden City Hall and NCPA in Beijing, Roque d'Antheron and Tiroler Festspiele.
Passionate about chamber music, Davide played in numerous chamber ensembles, from duo to decimino (in 2018 he founded the Baggio Sinfonietta) and his large repertoire shows his particular interest in contemporary music - many are the compositions dedicated to him and performed in world premiere.
A long collaboration with the Teatro alla Scala has led him to play for étoiles such as Roberto Bolle, Svetlana Zacharova, Massimo Murru and Sylvie Guillem. Along with concert activity, Davide has undertaken an intense recording activity. He has released his first recordings for labels such as Sony BMG (his first album Dancing with the orchestra won the Classic Voice magazine's 2007 Critics Award for best debut of the year), Concerto Classics and Col-legno. In 2012 was his debut for Decca, with an extraordinarily successful album (Mozart Sonatas and Variations) and he began recording Beethoven's complete piano sonatas.
Cabassi began studying piano at a very young age, graduating with honors in the class of Prof. Edda Ponti at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and was the first Italian admitted to the International Piano Foundation in Cadenabbia, on Lake Como, with William Grant Naborè, KU Schnabel, L. Fleisher, D. Bashkirov, R. Tureck, A. Weissemberg, and many others. He teaches in Italian conservatories since 2003 and his students are regular prize winners in major international competitions. He is the artistic director of the Kawai a Ledro, Un piano in Ateneo (Kawai - Cattolica, Milan), Incontri Contemporanei (Milan), and of the Shigeru Kawai International Competition. In 2010 together with his wife, the Russian pianist Tatiana Larionova, he founded Primavera di Baggio concert series, aiming to enhance and relaunch the disadvantaged suburbs of his city, involving children and "invading" the association spaces, especially those redeemed by the mafia.

Hannah Holman, cello

Hannah Holman joined the New York City Ballet Orchestra at the beginning of the 2012-2013 season. Her career has encompassed orchestral and chamber music, solo performances, and teaching. In a review of the second CD she recorded with pianist Réne Lecuona, Fanfare magazine declares "her tone and technique are the stuff that cello legends are made of "... Holman's cello sings with a lustrous tone that's hard to resist."
In addition to her work with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Hannah is the principal cellist of the Quad City Symphony, a position she has held since 2008. She began her professional career in England playing with the English String Orchestra under Yehudi Menuhin and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle. Her previous orchestral work also includes serving as assistant principal cello with the Michigan Chamber Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony; and the American Sinfonietta.

Hannah is fortunate to have a diverse career allowing much time for solo work.  She is currently in postproduction of CD #3 with Réne Lecuona featuring cello sonatas by women composers from the past. In 2022 Hannah performed Jerome Robbin’s Suite of Dances on stage as part of the NYCB Move’s tour to the Vail Dance Festival and Schelomo by Bloch with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements with the QCSO have been the Korngold’s Cello Concerto and Jennifer Higdon’s Soliquoy, which she also played with the Solomon Chamber Orchestra in Indiana. Hannah is in the middle of a video project highlighting the lives of women cellists from the past and performed six pieces with the Iowa City Community Chamber Orchestra, each piece focusing on a different cellist.  In 2020 she performed in Carnegie Hall as part of the Bach Cello Suite Festival, celebrating 300 years of the cello suites.  Upcoming concerto appearances include the Korngold’s Concerto with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in her hometown. 

An active chamber musician, Hannah is a founding member of Trio 826, with Susanna Klein, violin and Julia Bullard, viola, the Beaumont Piano Trio, which performed around the United States and England, and Quadrivinium, an ensemble in residence at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. From 2002-2011, she was a member of the Maia Quartet, the University of Iowa's quartet in residence, which toured China, Japan, and the US, including teaching residencies at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, and the Austin Chamber Music Center. She regularly performs in chamber ensembles with musicians from throughout the United States.

 A dedicated private teacher who finds great fulfillment in helping students of all ages grow musically, Hannah was on the University of Iowa faculty from 2002-2012 and has served on the faculties of the University of Northern Iowa, Biola Conservatory, Worcester College (UK), Michigan State University Community School, and Virginia Union University. She has participated in numerous festivals and has been on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival since 2001 and currently teaches at the International Cello Institute, the Five Seasons Music Festival, and Taconic Music.  Hannah is the founder and Artistic Director of a new music school based in the Quad Cities, The Deanery School of Music.

Hannah studied at the Eastman School of Music and Michigan State University, where she completed her Bachelor of Music degree. She obtained her Master of Music Degree with Fritz Magg at the New England Conservatory. Her musical education began at age 5 with her grandmother, whose 1925 Becker cello she plays today. She is eternally grateful for the fine teaching of a transformative teacher, Louis Potter, during her junior high and high school years.

Hannah - whose hobbies include foodie and thrifting activities, as well as traveling to new places- divides her time between NYC and Iowa City, Iowa, where she lives with her son, Matisse, and their cat, Ripley. 

Danwen Jiang, violin

Danwen Jiang has concertized as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across the United States and around the world. She was called by the Boston Globe “an intelligent, agile and breathtaking violinist”, and by The American Record Guide “an exceptional violinist. The Fanfare Magazine described her performances as “absolutely exquisite”.

Jiang has collaborated in concerts with members of the renowned Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, Emerson, and Shanghai String Quartets, The Boston Players, American Chamber Players, and other distinguished musicians such as André-Michel Schub, Lilian Kallir, Igor Kipnis, Ani Kavafian, Eric Rosenblith, Stanley Drucker, and Regina Carter. She has appeared at Sanibel Chamber Music Festival, Yale Chamber Music Series, Rutgers SummerFest, Taconic Music, Montecito International Music Festival in the United States, Music&More SummerFest in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Festival du Quercy Blanc and Festival Dan le Gard in France, Harpa International Music Festival in Iceland, InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy and Germany, and Victoria International Music Festival in Canada.

A highly regarded string pedagogue, Danwen Jiang is Professor of Violin in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University in the United States, where she was a recipient of the Professor of the Year Special Recognition Award, President’s Tenure/ Promotion Faculty Exemplar Award, and Distinguished Teacher Award. She was a recipient of Outstanding Teacher’s Award in Hong Kong International Violin and Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Music Teachers National Association’s National Young Artist String Competition. Previously, Jiang taught at Oberlin Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College and University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. As guest professor, she has taught at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart in Germany, Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney in Australia, Vancouver Academy of Music in Canada, and Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland.

Thomas Landschoot, cello

Praised for his charismatic playing and his virtuoso and poetic music making, Belgian cellist Thomas Landschoot enjoys an international career as a concert and recording artist and pedagogue. He has toured North America, Europe, South America and Asia and has appeared on national radio and television worldwide. He has soloed with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Tempe Symphony, Prima la Musica, Symphony of the Southwest, Shieh Chien Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Flanders, Scottsdale Philharmonic, Bucharest Festival Orchestra, Flemish Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung City Symphony, Loja Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band, and has appeared at Bargemusic, Park City, Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, Eureka, Utah, Red Rock, Park City, Manchester, Fresno, Madeline Island, Waterloo, Killington and Texas Music Festivals. His recordings are available on Summit, Organic, Kokopelli, ArchiMusic and Centaur Records. He is a member of world class Rossetti Quartet. Tom has also performed with the Takacs, Dover and Arianna Quartets and members of the Cleveland, Vermeer, Tokyo, and Orion Quartets. Past collaborations include Lynn Harrell, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalich, Cho-Liang Lin, Martin Beaver and Martin Katz. An avid promoter of music of our time, he has commissioned and premiered over 20 new works for cello, including concerti by Dirk Brosse and Frank Nuyts. He has served as a faculty member at the Music Academy of the West, Castleman Quartet Program, Killington, Meadowmount, Foulger International, High Peaks, Madeline Island, Manchester, Montecito, and Texas Music Festival. Tom has given masterclasses at conservatories and universities throughout Asia, the U.S., Europe and South America. Tom teaches at the Arizona State University; his students can be found among the ranks of national and international competition winners, occupy principal positions in major orchestras and teach at Universities around the US and abroad. Thomas Landschoot is the Artistic Director of the Sonoran Chamber Music Festival, as well as the President of the Arizona Cello Society. He Performs on a cello by Tomaso Balestrieri (1776) and a Dominique Pecatte bow.

2023 Guest Artists

Arneis Quartet

“With high risks came high reward, and the Arneis Quartet offered an intense, indelible experience…” (The Boston Globe)

The Arneis Quartet performs an eclectic range of programs from the standard to contemporary, including commissions of new works and interdisciplinary collaborations in New England and throughout the world.  Known for playing with “a conviction that commands attention” (Fanfare) and “a unique collective sound which is as warm and full of sparkle as liquid gold” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), the quartet is playfully named after the Arneis grape—a varietal that is difficult to grow, but which yields an exquisite white wine.  

The Boston-based Arneis Quartet has brought their energetic approach and adventurous programming to traditional concert venues as well as salon-style concerts and community engagement activities since 2009.  Collaborating with living composers serves as a key part of the quartet’s artistic mission.  Gramophone praised their “vivacious rendition” of Elena Ruehr’s String Quartet No. 8 on a recently released recording of her works.  Arneis collaborated with Coro Allegro to premiere Andrea Clearfield’s here i am: i am here, based on open letters by LGBTQ+ youth advocates Mimi Lemay and Sam Brinton.  Other recent premieres and collaborations include works by Jonathan Berger, Julien Labro, Ketty Nez, Aaron Travers, and John H. Wallace.  Future projects are in development with Susie Ibarra, Van Anh Vo, and Anthony Green.

Committed to community engagement and music education, the Quartet has worked with music students at the Boston Arts Academy, Perkins School for the Blind, and the Boston Public Schools. Quartet members are on the faculties of Boston University and St. Anselm College; the Quartet also works with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras and work with students in the Intensive Community Program.  Outside of their Boston home, Arneis has taught master classes and served as a residency quartet at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Point Counterpoint, Swarthmore College and Lyceum Music Festival. They have brought their programs to communities in California, Michigan, Ohio, and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Wayne du Maine, trumpet

A native of St. Louis, MO, Wayne J. du Maine has been performing successfully in the New York City area for over thirty years. As a trumpeter, Wayne has performed and recorded with such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He currently holds the principal chair with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the American Composers Orchestra. Mr. du Maine has also led the Hartford Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Westchester Philharmonic as conductor of educational concerts. As a trumpet soloist, he has performed numerous concerti with the Concordia Orchestra as well as orchestras from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Springfield (MA), and Mid Coast (ME). As a longtime member of the Manhattan Brass, Wayne has presented and created numerous educational outreach programs for K-12 students in the five boroughs, CT, NJ, and PA. He enjoyed his 20 years as a faculty member of Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program, where he led the trumpet ensemble and was founder, music director, and conductor of the MAP Orchestra. He has also taught at Columbia University, Princeton University, Bar Harbor Brass Week, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. Wayne is currently the Director of Bands at the Elisabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ, where he leads the Jazz Ensemble, Concert Bands, Jazz Quintet, Rock Band, and Trumpet Ensemble. Mr. du Maine dedicates his summers to performing at music festivals. This began back in the late 80s, when he spent three summers with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra performing as principal trumpet under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has since performed at festivals including Spoleto, Aspen, Vermont Mozart, Manchester (VT), Berkshire Choral, Bard, and, most recently, the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival. Wayne has also been contracted to play many Broadway shows like Titanic, Music Man, Man of La Mancha, and The King and I. He has served as associate conductor for Fiddler on the Roof, the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific, and The Scottsboro Boys. A major highlight of his career was having the opportunity to perform with Prince at his Paisley Park home in Chanhassen, MN. Wayne can be heard on Prince’s Newpower Soul recording. Mr. du Maine holds degrees from the Juilliard School where he received the Peter Mennin and William Schuman Awards for outstanding excellence. He has been an associate musician with the Metropolitan Opera for 26 years. As a member of ensembles such as Absolute, Xenakis, and Orpheus, he has toured five continents. He has been Program Director of Brass at NYU Steinhardt since 2017.

Oren Fader, guitar

The guitarist Oren Fader played Brilliantly.” —The New York Times

“His scholarship, technique, and intelligent musicianship are plainly evident and the beauty of his tone is consistently compelling.”—Guitar Review

Classical and electric guitarist Oren Fader has performed in Asia, Europe, and throughout the United States. Concerto performances include the Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with the New Jersey and the Omaha Symphonies. Mr. Fader has performed hundreds of concerts with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, Bowers Fader Duo, New York Philharmonic, Talea Ensemble, ICE, Mark Morris Dance Group, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has premiered over 250 solo and chamber works with guitar, and can be heard on over 50 commercial recordings and film. Mr. Fader received his undergraduate degree from SUNY Purchase and his Master of Music degree from Florida State University. His major teachers include David Starobin and Bruce Holzman. Since 1994 Mr. Fader has been on the guitar and chamber music faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. He also directs the classical guitar programs at Montclair State University and SUNY Purchase. orenfader.com

Robert Fertitta, piano

Robert Fertitta received his education at The City University of New York where he studied musicology with a specialization in music analysis. He was also a student of counterpoint, harmony, solfege and analysis with Nadia Boulanger. Mr. Fertitta retired from The State University of New York at Purchase in 2007 after thirty years on the faculty. He oversaw the musicianship curriculum and was director of the college choir. He remains active as a performer, lecturer, workshop presenter, adjudicator of competitions and music reviewer for The American Organist Magazine. Mr. Fertitta has appeared as organ soloist with the Westchester Philharmonic in Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony, Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, and Copland’s Organ Symphony. During the 1988 inaugural season of PepsiCo’s Summerfare in the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, Mr. Fertitta performed on the 59-rank Flentrop organ in solo recitals as well as with the Frankfurt Opera Company in the John Cage production, Europeras, and with the Philharmonia Virtuosi in the silent film presentation of Ben-Hur. He has accompanied the Canticum Novum Singers, the Dessoff Choirs and the Collegium Antiquum. As pianist, he has given solo recitals, chamber music programsand master classes. Mr. Fertitta has also done some conducting -in the Messiah Sing-Ins at Avery Fisher Hall and at various commemorative Bach and Mozart festivals with students, faculty and alumni. Robert is also a renowned photographer of stained glass windows. His work is featured on hundreds of church websites and in many books, articles and magazines.

Tim Kantor, violin

Violinist Timothy Kantor enjoys performing around the globe at some of the world’s greatest concert halls and chamber music series. As a member of the Afiara Quartet in Toronto, Mr. Kantor has performed hundreds of concerts and helped to develop several innovative projects. One of the quartet’s projects, Spin Cycle with DJ Skratch Bastid, culminated with a Juno Award-nominated album and a solo performance with the Toronto Symphony. Collaborations include those with such varied artists as scratch DJ Kid Koala, Academy Award-nominated producer KK Barrett, and jazz virtuoso Uri Caine.

Before joining the Afiara Quartet, Mr. Kantor was concertmaster of the Evansville (Indiana) Philharmonic and a founding member of the Larchmere String Quartet, in residence at the University of Evansville. He has performed as a member of the Kuttner String Quartet in residence at Indiana University, the chamber music and Quartet in the Community residencies at the Banff Centre, the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar. He has also performed chamber works with many of today’s leading musicians, including Joshua Bell, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Atar Arad, William Preucil, Alexander Kerr, and the Pacifica Quartet. Mr. Kantor has been featured as an artist on American Public Media’s “Performance Today”, CBC Radio, and local classical radio stations in both Cleveland and Toronto. He is devoted to the performance of new music and has participated as soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician with the new music ensembles at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University.

A dedicated teacher and coach, Mr. Kantor is the Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music. Mr. Kantor also teaches at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont and the Programa Gabriel del Orbe in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Mr. Kantor graduated with honors from Bowdoin College, earned a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and pursued doctoral studies at Indiana University. His former teachers include Jaime Laredo, Paul Kantor, Stephen Kecskemethy, Andrew Jennings, and Mark Kaplan. Off the clock, Mr. Kantor enjoys auto racing and basketball.

Troy Rinker, double bass

Troy Rinker, Jr. is an active member of the New York City music scene. A member of several ensembles, he has performed with Lumos, the West Side Chamber Orchestra, New York Sinfonia, New York City Chamber Orchestra, The New Jersey Festival Orchestra, New York Symphonic Ensemble, Oratorio Society of New York, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, SONOS Chamber Orchestra, EOS Chamber Orchestra, SEM Ensemble, the New Jersey Symphony, New York Pops, and the Stamford Symphony. Mr. Rinker teaches at the Third Street Music School, the School of Mahanaim, and in the summers plays chamber music and teaches at the Kinhaven Music School.

His summer festival credits include OK Mozart, Tanglewood, Spoleto, the Naumburg Bandshell concerts, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, and Caramoor. Mr. Rinker can be heard on labels Sony Classical, Telarc, Naxos, North/South, and in studio recordings for television and film.