Bulgarian-born violinist Joana Genova, co-artistic director of Taconic Music, has built a diverse career as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist, recitalist, and teacher. Jim Lowe of The Rutland Herald has written of her, “Genova played with an infectious mix of passion and warmth, coupled with the requisite virtuosity.”

Joana performs at festivals and concert series with The Indianapolis Quartet, Vermont Symphony’s Jukebox Quartet, Taconic String Quartet, and as a guest musician, appearing at venues throughout United States and Europe, most recently in Italy and Bulgaria. 

Joana serves as Artist Associate at Williams College and Violin Instructor at Bennington College. Previously, she was Adjunct Professor and Coordinator of Chamber Music at Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music, and Assistant Professor of Violin and Director of String Activities at the University of Indianapolis.

Collaborations include The Shanghai Quartet, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Horszowski Trio, Andrés Cárdenes, Carmit Zori, Nathaniel Rosen, Nathaniel Parke, Danwen Jiang, Austin Hartman, Renee Jolles, Michael Rudiakov, Tom Landschoot, Sophie Shao, Roberta Cooper, Jon Klibonoff, Ruth Laredo, Gili Melamed-Lev, Davide Cabassi, David Krakauer, Deborah Buck, Duo Jalal, Raman Ramakrishnan, Hannah Holman, Heather Braun, Willis Delony, Eugene Drucker, and Drew Petersen, among others. She has appeared live on GNAT-TV and CAT-TV in Vermont, WISH-TV Indianapolis, WQXR Albany, Vermont Public Radio, and WBAA and WICR in Indiana. Joana’s recordings include Chamber Music of Vittorio Giannini; Vision: Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries; Four Seasons x2: Piazzolla and Vivaldi; Reflections and Whimsies: Chamber Music for Strings and Voice by Frank Felice; Mark Ortwein: Stretching Boundaries; Robert Paterson’s String Quartets 1-3; Maxine Linehan’s This Time of Year, and Stephen Dankner: Four Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Willis Delony.

As a 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 is principal second violinist of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a guest concertmaster of the Carmel Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic and Viva Bach Festival. Joana has been member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Amsterdam Bach Consort, Brooklyn Philharmonic and New Haven Symphony.  

A graduate of the National School of Music and Dance “Dobrin Petkov” in Plovdiv, where she made her solo debut at age 12 with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra, Joana is a top prizewinner of Bulgaria’s “Svetoslav Obretenov” National Competition. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and her Master’s in Chamber Music at the Rotterdam Conservatory in The Netherlands. 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.

Violist and conductor Ariel Rudiakov is co-founder and Artistic Director of Taconic Music, and is on the faculty of Bennington College as viola instructor. He is Music Director and Conductor of the Danbury Symphony Orchestra and Yonkers Philharmonic, and Assistant Conductor of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra (CT).

Ari enjoys an active and diverse musical life, performing to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and abroad; most recently, chamber music for the 2024 Pikes Falls Festival (VT). He is a former member of the New York Piano Quartet and Equinox String Quartet, and a founding member and past president of SONYC (String Orchestra of New York City). Ari was Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival (VT) 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 Ari, who is active in commissioning and recording new music.

At the podium, Ari’s past 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. From 2017 to 2022, he was conductor of the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) Chamber Orchestra, and chamber music coach. He attended pre-college at Manhattan School of Music and went on to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees at SUNY Purchase Conservatory and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ari was a scholarship student at Yale University’s master’s program, where he studied viola with Jessie Levine and chamber music with members of the Tokyo String Quartet. He plays a viola made in 2000 by Geoffrey Ovington.

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.

Young Woong Cho, D.M.A., is an internationally acclaimed pianist and dedicated educator whose career spans over 16 years across Korea, Russia, and the United States. His multifaceted musical journey encompasses solo performance, chamber music, collaborative piano, and a passionate commitment to teaching students of all levels and ages.

As an educator, Young Woong’s experience is both extensive and diverse. During his doctoral studies at Boston University, he served as a teaching assistant, honing his pedagogical skills. In the greater Boston area, Dr. Cho has been a valued piano instructor at various music schools. He also holds a faculty position at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where he works as a collaborative pianist, vocal coach. His teaching expertise spans solo piano, piano ensemble, chamber music, and collaborative piano.

Young Woong’s performance career is equally impressive and varied. He is particularly renowned for his chamber music performances and his ability to connect with audiences. His time at Montclair State University included guidance from the Shanghai Quartet. In 2013, he founded The Cali Trio, which has performed extensively along the East Coast at such prestigious venues as the Alexander Kasser Theater, Jed Leshowitz Recital Hall, and the Van Vleck House & Gardens in New Jersey.

Expanding his artistic vision, Dr. Cho launched the chamber music series “Young Woong Cho & Friends” in 2016, serving as founder and artistic director. This series has brought diverse chamber music performances to audiences across Korea. In 2017, he founded the ensemble ‘The Music,’ which explores a wide range of chamber music repertoire for multiple pianos.

Dr. Cho’s entrepreneurial spirit in music continued with the establishment of The SMI (Stage of Musical Inspiration) in early 2020. This international performing organization introduces young, talented musicians from around the world to audiences in the United States, Korea, and beyond. Presently, Young Woong maintains an active performing career as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and chamber musician, dividing his time between South Korea and the United States.

In a performing career spanning over four decades, pianist Willis Delony has won acclaim as a leading classical/jazz crossover artist. His innovative concert explorations of the two musical worlds are showcased in a series of solo piano recordings on the Centaur label.  A New World A' Comin' – Classical and Jazz Connections was released in 2001. Double Dance – Classical and Jazz Connections II was released in 2008. Out of Character – Classical and Jazz Connections III, was released in October 2014. Also part of the series is an independent release from 2018 entitled Butterfly Room – Connections for Solo Piano. The project continues with Between the Notes, which was released by Centaur in 2021.  Previous album credits include a recording of sonatas by Samuel Barber and Sergei Prokofiev, also on the Centaur label, and a jazz album entitled Civilized Conversations, featuring Delony and bassist Bill Grimes. He collaborated with bassoonist William Ludwig on the Mark Records release, Rhapsody in Bassoon, which features the world premiere recording of André Previn’s Sonata for Bassoon and Piano. He also appears with oboist Johanna Cox Pennington on her album Orion Nocturne on the Albany label. His most recent project is a double album with violinist Joana Genova featuring the Four Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Stephen Dankner, which was released by Centaur in April, 2024. His newest jazz album, Standards and Improvisations – the Music of Joe Makholm, is set for a spring, 2026 release on the Centaur label.

Delony has appeared as piano soloist, chamber musician, jazz performer, and pianist/arranger/conductor with orchestras throughout the United States as well as orchestras in Canada, the former Soviet Union and China. As a solo and collaborative recitalist, he has performed classical and jazz concerts throughout the U.S. as well as France, Germany, the former Soviet Union, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina. His pops orchestra arrangements have been performed throughout the U.S. and Canada, including over 50 scores written for the Minneapolis-based jazz vocal quintet Five By Design, He collaborates regularly with leading contemporary composers, having premiered the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Stephen Dankner with the LSU Symphony Orchestra in 2015. He has recorded and performed his own solo piano works plus solo works by Paris-based American composer Joseph Makholm and jazz composer Les Hooper. In January 2017, he premiered Greg Yasinitsky’s Jazz Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Due in part to the strength of this performance, the work was awarded The American Prize in composition. Delony’s new jazz concerto, Ebbs and Flows – Fantasy for Piano, Winds, Vibraphone and Double Bass, was premiered in 2025 with the composer at the piano in collaboration with the LSU Wind Ensemble directed by Damon Talley.

Delony is the Boyd Professor of Piano and Jazz Studies in the School of Music at Louisiana State University, where he has been a member of the music faculty since 2000. From 1986-2000 he served on the music faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University and is a former member of the music faculty at Delta State University. He received the LSU Distinguished Faculty Award in 2019 and was named the SEC Professor of the Year for LSU in 2020. In October, 2025, he was inducted into the Steinway and Sons Teachers Hall of Fame, recognizing his contributions in both classical and jazz piano.

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. 

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.

Drew Petersen is an acclaimed New York-area based American pianist celebrated for his compelling and poetic performances across a diverse repertoire, from Bach to Zaimont. Recognized as a sought-after soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, he has earned numerous accolades, including the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2017 American Pianists Awards, and the Christel DeHaan Classical Fellowship.

The 25/26 season includes recitals in series from San Diego, CA to Westfield, NJ with a program ranging from Mozart to Liszt and John Adams, as well as concerto debuts with the Baltimore and Hartford Symphonies. 2018 marked the release of his first solo recording of music by Barber, Carter, and other American composers on the Steinway & Sons label for which BBC Music Magazine acknowledged his presence as a rising star.

A frequent radio contributor, Petersen has performed on platforms such as McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase, From the Top, and Performance Today. His performances and profiles have been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and the award-winning documentary “Just Normal” by Kim Snyder. An enthusiastic chamber musician, he has appeared on France Musique as part of a Verbier Festival piano trio.

His inclusion in Andrew Solomon’s bestseller Far From the Tree sparked a national dialogue on raising extraordinary and different children. Dedicated to advocating for classical music and the arts, he was awarded the 2006 Davidson Fellows Award for his project, Keeping Classical Music Alive. He has also collaborated with Young Audiences NY to bring performances to New York City’s public schools.

Petersen is also a passionate traveler whose career takes him all over the world, where he explores new cuisines and connects with locals just as eagerly as he performs for fresh audiences. A Harvard graduate, he earned his Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Social Science with honors at just 19 years old. He also completed both his undergraduate and graduate music studies at the prestigious Juilliard School, where he was awarded the renowned Kovner Fellowship. Deeply committed to the role of music in today’s global society, Petersen has gained a unique perspective on how musical performances can uplift and enrich humanity. Through his extensive concert experience, he hopes to share his musical journey with others, inviting audiences to witness the transformative power of the arts firsthand.