Amy Sue Barston and Edward Klorman, Artistic Directors | P. O. Box 717, Canandaigua, NY 14424 | 585-690-1220 | info@lakemusicfestival.org
FESTIVAL ARTISTS 2010
Erik Behr, oboe |Jason Duckles, Cello | Edward Klorman, viola |
Anthea Kreston, violin | Michael Larco, viola | Jonathan Yates, piano |
Formed in 1999, the Amelia Piano Trio is among the most exciting young chamber ensembles to appear in the last decade. Called “remarkable” by Strings and “exemplary” by The Strad, the group has quickly become one of its generation’s most sought-after ensembles. In its short history the Amelia has recorded critically acclaimed CDs for Naxos and Cedille Records, and has been recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
In 2003 the Trio was asked by National Public Radio to be the Young Ensemble in Residence. This exciting week of live concerts and interviews put the Amelia firmly in the foreground of classical music in America, reaching an estimated 1.5 million listeners. Performing fifteen works that spanned the centuries, the Amelia forged a lasting relationship with NPR. In October 2006 the Trio was featured on Chicago’s WFMT in live broadcast performances of the complete Beethoven Trios.
The Amelia members have quickly made their mark as performers and commissioners of new music. Notably, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison wrote first piano trio for the Amelia, a recording of which was released on the Naxos label in the spring of 2007. Other commissions for the Amelia include Augusta Read Thomas’ A Circle Around the Sun and Adam Silverman’s Sturm. The Trio’s most recent commissioning project is a new Triple Concerto, Orpheus and Eurydice, composed by Daron Hagen. The Amelia will premiere the work with the Chicago Youth Symphony in November 2007 and continue to perform this new piece with youth and university orchestras around the country.
The Trio has performed extensively in North America and abroad, including France, Italy, Panama, and the Caribbean. They have released CDs on the Cedille Records label, as well as on the world music label Traditional Crossroads. In addition, members of the Trio have toured North America and Central Asia with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
The Amelia Piano Trio is actively involved in arts education and dedicates a substantial amount of time to educational projects, master classes, and coaching children and adults. The Trio members are professors at the Hartt School of Music and Connecticut College. In addition to developing award-winning outreach programs, the Trio is in residence at the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, where they teach gifted high school and college-aged students the art of chamber music. www.AmeliaPianoTrio.com
Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe are perhaps the most thrilling young duo performing today, offering adrenalized classical concerts that are revolutionizing the piano duo experience for the 21st century. Described as “Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers transposed from the dance floor to the keyboard” (The Southampton Press) and “the intense synchronization of genius” (ThirdCoast Digest), Greg and Liz bring their joyous camaraderie and refined artistry to the concert stage, dazzling audiences around the world as a four-hand and two-piano team.
Greg and Liz met in 2000 as freshmen at The Juilliard School and formed their dynamic musical partnership shortly thereafter. They have since toured North America (and beyond), with notable performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City, St. Paul, Fort Worth, Milwaukee, Orlando, and Washington, D.C., as well as in nearly every New York City venue imaginable, from Carnegie Hall to children's hospitals. Together they have appeared on MTV and NPR, the Cliburn Concert Series, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, and dozens of summer chamber music festivals. In recognition of their singular vision for the advancement of classical music, Greg and Liz have been invited to present at several international leader symposiums, including the 2008 and 2010 Entertainment Gatherings (EG) in Monterey, California and the 2010 Imagine Solutions Conference in Naples, Florida. The Anderson & Roe Piano Duo released their debut album, “Reimagine,” in 2008.
Greg and Liz left an indelible impression at The Juilliard School, where they both earned their bachelor's and master's degrees. They were granted the honor to perform on numerous prominent Juilliard events, and a live performance by the duo is even included on the “Sounds of Juilliard” CD celebrating the school's centennial year. In 2006, given only two months to compose and prepare, the Anderson & Roe piano duo gave the world premiere of their own composition “Star Wars Fantasy: Four Impressions for Two Pianos,” replacing John Williams on Juilliard's “Cinema Serenades” concert in Alice Tully Hall. Additionally, the two directed the groundbreaking project “Life Between the Keys,” a concert that involved the entire Juilliard Piano Class of 2004; this event celebrated the class's unique friendships and chronicled its Juilliard experience in an all-American program of piano music.
The duo’s interactive website andersonroe.net has generated tremendous enthusiasm among fans and Internet bloggers. The duo responds regularly to user questions and comments, and their wildly creative, self-produced music videos have been viewed millions of times on YouTube alone. Greg and Liz believe strongly in the communicative potential of music, and they aim to make classical piano music a relevant and powerful force in society. Their performances, compositions, websites, videos, recordings, and writings all serve this mission, bringing joy to people around the world. As the Northwest Reverb recently stated, “[Anderson & Roe] swept the audience into a cheering mass of humanity, making a strong case that playing piano is the most fun thing that two people could ever do together.” Greg Anderson & Elizabeth Joy Roe are Steinway Artists. [Watch Anderson & Roe preview videos]
Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences around the world. He has performed solo recitals and appeared with orchestras in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw's National Philharmonic. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and in chamber music with the Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi at the Caramoor International Music Festival, and as a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City.
Armstrong’s recent engagements reflect his steadily growing career, performing with major orchestras, including debuts with the Vancouver Symphony, Omaha Symphony and San Antonio Symphony during 2009/10. During the 2008/09 season, Armstrong was the soloist in Mozart’s Concerto K.488 at the Chautauqua Music Festival under the direction of Stefan Sanderling, before embracing Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with both the Fairfax Symphony (Gregory Vajda conducting) and the Nashville Symphony under Günther Herbig. He also appeared with the Toledo, Fairfax, Augusta, Waukesha and Missoula symphonies, and overseas the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico.
2007/08 offered an array of engagements with the Florida Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Boise Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Tallahassee, Charlottesville, Stamford, Harrisburg, Bellevue and Ridgefield, among others. Last summer, he shared the stage with Jennifer Frautschi and Eward Arron to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Peter Oundjian conducting. During the summer, he performed a pre-concert recital at the Mostly Mozart Festival.
Having performed over 35 concertos, Armstrong has impressed his international audiences with a large repertoire ranging from Bach to Babbit and beyond. Before beginning his career as a concert pianist, Armstrong received over 25 national and international First Prizes. In 1996, he was named Gilmore Young Artist. At the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition, where he was the youngest pianist entered, he received the Jury Discretionary Award. The New York Times wrote, "Armstrong may have been the most talented player in the competition....He's a real musician. We'll hear more from him." As the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, Van Cliburn himself, "in a rare showing of enthusiasm for an individual competitor," called Mr. Armstrong "Fabulous! Fabulous!"
Andrew Armstrong’s debut CD, featuring Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim. The critic Bradley Bolen opined: “I have heard few pianists play [Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata], recorded or in concert, with such dazzling clarity and confidence” (American Record Guide, Nov/Dec, 2004). His follow-up CD was issued in November 2007 on Cordelia Records and includes works by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, and the world premiere recording of Bielawa's Wait for piano & drone.
Andrew Armstrong is devoted to outreach programs and playing for children. In addition to his many concerts, his performances are heard regularly on National Public Radio and WQXR, New York City's premier classical music station. www.AndrewArmstrong.com
Appointed concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 at age 24, Juliana Athayde became the youngest person to hold the position since the orchestra's inception in 1922. Prior to joining the RPO, Ms. Athayde was concertmaster of the Canton and Plymouth Symphonies. She has performed as guest concertmaster with the Houston Symphony and National Arts Center Orchestra, and has performed both nationally and internationally with the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2002, she served as concertmaster of the New York String Seminar under the direction of Jaime Laredo for concerts at Carnegie Hall. For many years Ms. Athayde was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and received the prestigious Dorothy DeLay fellowship in 2004.
Ms. Athayde's numerous solo appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra have covered a wide range of composers from Mozart and Brahms to Prokofiev as well as the world premiere of Alan Shawn's violin concerto, commissioned by the RPO. She also has performed as a soloist with the Asheville, Canton, Diablo, Flint, Mid-Texas, New Bedford, Palo Alto, Plymouth, and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Athayde made her solo debut at the age of 16 performing with the San Francisco Symphony. She led the world-renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in performances at Paris’ Cite de la Musique, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
A passionate educator, Ms. Athayde is an Associate Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music and travels the country giving master classes. She holds degrees from the University of Michigan School of Music as well as the Cleveland Institute of Music where her principal teachers were Paul Kantor and William Preucil. At the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ms. Athayde became the first student to graduate from the renowned Concertmaster Academy under the direction of Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil.
Ms. Athayde spends her summers performing along side her husband, RPO principal oboist Erik Behr, at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego as well as the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho. Ms. Athayde performs on a 1948 Celeste Farotte violin and a J.B. Vuillaume bow.
Amy Sue Barston, Cello and Artistic Director
Praised as “passionate and elegant” by The New York Times, cellist Amy Sue Barston has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on stages all over the world, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Ravinia Festival, the Caramoor International Music Festival, BargeMusic, Haan Hall (Jerusalem), the Power House (Australia), the International Musicians Seminar (Cornwall, England), Symphony Center (Chicago), and the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts (Canada).
At age seventeen Miss Barston appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony on live television. The same year, she won Grand Prize in the Society of American Musicians’ Competition, and First Place and the Audience Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Miss Barston began her studies at age three with Nell Novak at The Music Institute of Chicago. She continued with Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California and with Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters degree and was Class Assistant to Mr. Krosnick.
In addition to performing standard cello repertoire, Miss Barston has premiered a variety a works written for her by living composers across the United States. In 2000 she performed as soloist with the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra in the world premiere of a cello concerto written for her by Juilliard professor Kendall Briggs. In 2001-2002, she toured the US and Australia, performing new and traditional music from North, South and Central America. She performed Osvaldo Golijov’s Omaramor for solo cello in twenty cities, receiving twenty consecutive standing ovations. In 2002 Miss Barston performed the world premiere of Ned Rorem's Aftermath at the Ravinia Festival. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of the premiere: "the deep, rich tones of Barston's cello haunted the vocal line like a sorrowing vision."
Miss Barston has performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, the Rockford Symphony, the USC Symphony, the Westchester Symphony, and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, among many others. She made her first solo appearance with orchestra in Guelph, Canada when she was twelve.
Miss Barston is also the cellist of two critically acclaimed chamber ensembles, the Corigliano Quartet and Divahn. The Corigliano Quartet has been hailed by The New York Times as having "an excellent, smooth sense of ensemble, but with each part vigorously alive," and by Strad Magazine as having "abundant commitment and mastery." Divahn is a unique all-female quartet that specializes in Middle Eastern, North African music and improvisation, infusing traditional songs with sophisticated harmonies and arrangements using vocals, tabla, cello, rabel, doumbek, violin and other acoustic instruments.
Miss Barston is, above all, a devoted teacher: in her home, at the New York School for Strings, as an assistant teacher at The Juilliard School, and at numerous summer music festivals, including the National Cello Institute (Los Angles), the American Suzuki Institute (Wisconsin), Sound Encounters (Kansas), and the Japan-Seattle Institute. Several of her students commute for lessons from hundreds of miles away, some from as far away as Alaska and Japan.
Each year, Miss Barston gives recitals, masterclasses, chamber music performances, and solo performances with orchestra throughout the US and abroad. Her upcoming schedule includes solo performances in Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Kansas, Wisconsin, Chicago, and Germany; chamber music performances in England, Germany, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Nebraska, and Florida; and giving masterclasses for young cellists in eleven cities in North America and Germany. www.AmyBarston.com
Praised for her "glowing sound" and "technical aplomb" (The Strad), violinist Elisa Barston is currently the Principal Second Violinist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and was a first violin section member of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Ms. Barston’s principal violin teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos, Robert Lipsett, and Josef Gingold. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music Cum Laude. At Indiana University, where she earned a Master of Music degree, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate, the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship, and the Starling Foundation Grant.
Among her awards, Ms. Barston has garnered top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, First Prize at the Julius Stulberg Auditions, Grand Prize at the International Kingsville Young Performers' Competition, and First Prize in the Seventeen-General Motors National Music Competition.
As a soloist, Ms. Barston has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with the major symphony orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, Seattle, and Taipei, among numerous others. In 1986, she made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.
Erik Behr was appointed principal oboe of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007, having previously served as principal oboe of the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet. Mr. Behr performed as a guest principal with the Atlanta Symphony and as a guest with the Seattle Symphony and the Houston Symphony. He also performs with his wife, Juliana Athayde, at the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Canandaigua Lakemusic Festival and the Mainly Mozart Orchestra in San Diego. He has performed at the Spoleto Festival, with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, as principal oboe with the Haddonfield (NJ) Symphony, with the New York Opera Festival, at the Casals Festival and with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra under Kurt Masur.
In addition, Mr. Behr was the solo English horn in the recording of Honegger’s Concerto da Camera with the RTV Slovenia Orchestra, he has performed concertos with the Houston Ballet Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic and is a member of the World Wind Quintet, performing regularly around the world at festivals such as the Edinburgh International Festival, Kilkenny Festival and Maribor Festival. He was appointed as oboe faculty at the University of Houston in 2006 and has taught master classes throughout the USA, Europe and South Africa. He is currently oboe faculty at Roberts Wesleyan College.
A native of Cape Town, South Africa, he began his oboe studies at the age of 13. Mr. Behr received his bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University in 2001, his master’s from Temple University in 2003 and currently is a doctoral candidate at Rice University. His principal teachers have been Robert Atherholt, Richard Woodhams and Martin Schuring.
A member of the acclaimed Amelia Piano Trio, Jason has received numerous awards for his chamber collaborations, including Grand Prize in the Concert Artists Guild Competition and Top Prize in the Munich ARD International Competition. Jason has also been a member of the Avalon String Quartet and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and has appeared frequently as the cellist for the Mark Morris Dance Group, which tours throughout the United States and Europe. Jason can be heard on the Sony Recording "Enchantment" with Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.
Jason received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and his Master's and Doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a student of Timothy Eddy. He teaches at both Wesleyan University and Connecticut College, and has given master classes at Dartmouth College, the Longy School of Music, and Stanford University.
Dedicated to music of our time, Jason has commissioned works from many composers, including Pulitzer Prize-winner John Harbison. Jason is a recipient of Chamber Music America's ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and can be heard on the labels Sony, Channel Classics, Koch, Traditional Crossroads, and Cedille Records.
Edward Klorman, Viola and Artistic Director
A native of Rochester, Edward Klorman is rapidly emerging as an avid chamber musician and an innovative leader in the music community. He has performed as soloist with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Notturna, and the Queens College Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Charles Neidich. As a recitalist, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, including appearances at Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Wednesdays at One series, Centre d’Arts Orford (Quebec), IMS Prussia Cove (England), and Oberstdorfer Musiksommer (Germany). An avid chamber musician, he has performed as guest artist with the Borromeo, Corigliano, Orion, and Ying Quartets, as well as with such artists as Joseph Kalichstein, Hamish Milne, Charles Neidich, and Bright Sheng. He is a founding member of the Tessera Quartet, with collaborates regularly with pianist and composer Lowell Liebermann. Mr. Klorman teaches viola at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and also teaches music theory at The Juilliard School. He was recently appointed director of the newly created Center for Music Entrepreneurship at the Manhattan School of Music.
As a founder of the Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival, Mr. Klorman is deeply committed to sharing classical music with broader audiences. The Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival's extensive community outreach program - which has included collaborations with Strong National Museum of Play, The Commission Project, as well as local public schools and hospitals - have recently garnered grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Music Fund. In 2007, at the invitation of David Finckel and Wu Han, Mr. Klorman organized the Music@Menlo Winter Residency, an integrated educational residency that used chamber music to teach academic subjects. He has participated in educational outreach programs at The Juilliard School, and has been an invited guest speaker for The Academy – a Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.
Mr. Klorman graduated with distinction from The Juilliard School, where he held the Irene Diamond Scholarship and received the William Schuman Award and the John Erskine Graduation Prize. His major teachers include Hsin-Yun Huang, Daniel Phillips, Thomas Riebl, Steven Tenenbom, and Heidi Castleman, for whom he currently serves as teaching assistant. A musical scholar as well as a performer, Mr. Klorman is pursuing a Ph.D. from the City University of New York, funded in full by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the Department of Education. He has presented illuminating lectures and master classes that integrate music performance and the historical imagination at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Université de Montréal, Aspen Music Festival, and The Juilliard School. Mr. Klorman makes his home in New York City. www.EdwardKlorman.com
Violinist Anthea Kreston has received numerous awards for her chamber collaborations, including honors at the Melbourne and Banff International Competitions, the Grand Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and Top Prize in the Munich ARD International Chamber Music Competition. The San Diego Reader said of her "...Anthea is a soloist of the Heifetz-Shaham-Vengerov caliber, whose musical instincts could make even a mere bagatelle thrill the soul and stir the senses to a frenzy." She made her solo debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C., and tours actively with the Amelia Piano Trio. Anthea has won awars from Chamber Music America for her groundbreaking work with abused children and AIDS patients in Hartford, CT.
Anthea holds a B.A. in Women's Studies from Cleveland State University and a performance degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She is a professor of violin and viola at the Hartt School of Music. Anthea is actively involved with alternative music; she played in the Cleveland-based rock band Daria for several years and frequently performs with her violin/percussion duo Sweet Thunder. Anthea can be heard on the labels New Tangent, Naxos, Cedille Records, Channel Classics, and Traditional Crossroads.
Anthea has started making cheese this year. She has made a lovely mozzarella and has plans for a sharp cheddar. Anthea purchases her milk from a local dairy, which, despite her allergies, also serves as a twenty-four-hour petting zoo. www.AntheaKreston.com
Violist Michael Larco's performances across Europe, Asia, and the United States have taken him to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, Teatro Ponchielli (Cremona, Italy) and Novel Hall (Taipei). He has collaborated in concert with Lynn Harrell, Itzhak Perlman, Alisa Weilerstein and Misha Kopelman. Recent appearances have included a 2009 Chicago “Dame Myra Hess” recital debut, broadcast live on WFMT, with pianist Soojin Ahn, performances at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach), Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall with AD Griffey and Warren Jones, Chamber Music Rochester (NY), Skaneateles Festival (NY) and Monadnock Music (NH). Mr. Larco was a founding member (2000-2005) of New York City based Fountain Ensemble.
In 2005, Mr. Larco was appointed Assistant Principal Viola of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has served as principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur and James Conlon. Mr. Larco regularly performs in the Philadelphia Orchestra and in recent seasons has performed in the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Absolute Ensemble, and String Orchestra of New York.
An active chamber musician and coach, Mr. Larco has been a faculty member at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and School for Strings (NYC). Most recently, he has coached alongside the Biava String Quartet at the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar at The Hartt School (2009). Mr. Larco received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Samuel Rhodes. In 1999, Mr. Larco was awarded the Frank Huntington Beebe Scholarship for studies in Europe. While living in Italy during 1999 - 2000, he studied both at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria with Thomas Riebl and in Cremona, Italy with Bruno Giuranna.
Jonathan Yates has earned high praise as a conductor, solo pianist and collaborative artist for his musicianship, intellect and the remarkable variety of his musical endeavors. He made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert. The following year he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. He has also been heard as a chamber musician at the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Bargemusic and Merkin Hall, as well as at the Caramoor Festival and on the Ravinia Festival Rising Stars Series. He has performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras in North America, Europe and Asia, and has given solo recitals for the La Jolla Music Society, at the National Museum of American History (on fortepiano), and on the University of Chicago Concert Series. He served as Apprentice Conductor of the Chicago Youth Symphony, and for two years as Music Director of the Harvard University Bach Society Orchestra. As a past and founding member of the Amelia Piano Trio, he was presented by Isaac Stern in Weill Recital Hall and at Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan, and was a finalist for the Walter F. Naumburg Chamber Music Prize. He can be heard in chamber music of Hindemith on Cedille Records.
Jonathan is becoming increasingly sought after for his operatic work. He conducted the world premiere of Michael Webster's Hell at Performance Space 122, and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Paride ed Elena at the California Music Festival. He also led the world premiere of the first act of Adam Silverman's Korczak's Orphans at the Austrian Cultural Forum. He teaches French, German and Italian vocal diction at Sarah Lawrence College, and worked for two years as an accompanist at the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. As an ardent devotee of new music, he has been involved in numerous premieres, was the recipient of an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, and participated as a pianist and conductor in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble Tanglewood Workshops. Yates received his Graduate Diploma in conducting from the Juilliard School, where he studied with James DePreist and Otto-Werner Mueller, and was the holder of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. He received his Masters. of Music from State University of New York, where he worked with Gilbert Kalish, and his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, where he studied with Robert Levin. He currently serves as conductor of the Sarah Lawrence College Orchestra.