Amelia Piano Trio

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

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Corigliano Quartet

Hailed as one of today's most exciting and dynamic young string quartets, the Corigliano Quartet has won the acclaim of audiences and critics across the USA. The New York Times called them "musicians who seem to say, 'Listen to this!'" and described them as having "an excellent, smooth sense of ensemble, but with each part vigorously alive." The Strad praised them for their "abundant commitment and mastery," while the Baltimore Sun said that in the Corigliano Quartet's hands, "Beethoven's intense originality sounded more potent than ever," and enjoyed the quartet's "profound beauty" and "riveting power."

The Corigliano Quartet is dedicated to the presentation of new American music. The group was founded in 1996 with the blessing of Pulitzer, Grammy and Oscar-winner John Corigliano. "They are truly one of the great quartets of the new generation," said the composer. "Their fiery intensity, musical sensitivity, and bold programming make for an absolutely stunning concert experience." The group's dedication and passion for new works has made them one of the most sought after interpreters of contemporary music today. For their efforts in bringing new music to a wider audience, the quartet was recently presented with the ASCAP/CMA Award For Adventurous Programming.

Comprised of violinists Michael Jinsoo Lim and Lina Bahn (who alternate at first violin), violist Melia Watras, and cellist Amy Sue Barston, the Corigliano Quartet rapidly climbed the ranks of the chamber music world. One year after its formation, the group drew the attention of Isaac Stern, who invited them to the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. The following season, the Corigliano won the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and both First Prize and the Grand Prize at the 1999 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The group has performed in many of the nation's leading music centers, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Corcoran Gallery. Recent performances have taken the Corigliano to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. They have also made appearances in Italy, Mexico, and Korea, where they gave the Korean premiere of Corigliano's Farewell Quartet. They have been heard in numerous radio broadcasts, including NPR's All Things Considered, and WFMT-Chicago's Live From Studio One. The group's festival appearances include performances at Ravinia, the Aspen Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), Strings in the Mountains, and Marrowstone Summer Music. The Corigliano Quartet has held residencies at the Juilliard School, where they served as the teaching assistants to the Juilliard String Quartet; Indiana University, where they served on the faculty as Visiting Lecturers; Dickinson College, and the New York Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Program.

The Corigliano Quartet’s 2007 CD release on Naxos, featuring the complete string quartet works of John Corigliano as well as a work by former Corigliano student Jefferson Friedman, has been hailed from coast to coast. The New York Times praised the quartet for their “knockout performances,” while the San Francisco Chronicle praised the ensemble for its “fervor and imagination.” The Corigliano has recorded for CRI, Albany, Aguava New Music and Bayer Records. Under the mentorship of Atar Arad, the group formed while its members were students at Indiana. www.CoriglianoQuartet.com.

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Juliana Athayde, violin

A native of the San Francisco Bay area, violinist Juliana Athayde was named Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2005. In addition to her frequent solo appearances with the RPO, Ms. Athayde has appeared with the New Bedford, Canton, Diablo, Flint, Mid-Texas, Plymouth, and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras. She made her debut at the age of 16 as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony. During the summer, in addition to her performances in Canandaigua, Ms. Athayde appears as a guest artist at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho.

Born to musician parents and the oldest of four musical siblings, she began her studies at the age of two. Receiving her B.M. from the University of Michigan studying with Paul Kantor, she continued her studies in Cleveland, where she became the first graduate of the Concertmaster Academy – a program designed by Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil to prepare only the most qualified students for a career as a concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra. From 1999-2005, Ms. Athayde was a fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival and was awarded the prestigious Dorothy Delay fellowship. Ms. Athayde plays on a 1948 Celeste Farrotte violin.

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Amy Sue Barston, cello

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 multiple appearances in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Ravinia Festival, The Caramoor International Music Festival, Haan Hall (Jerusalem), The Power House (Sydney, Australia), The Banff Centre for the Performing Arts (Canada), The International Musicians’ Seminar (Cornwall, England), and Chicago’s Symphony Center.

At age seventeen, she appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on live television. The same year, she was the Grand Prize winner in the Society of American Musicians’ Competition, and won First Place and the Audience Prize in the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition. Amy studied with Nell Novak at the Music Institute of Chicago, Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, and Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters degree. Amy 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 music and improvisation using vocals, percussion, violin, cello, and an array of exotic Mediterranean instruments. Above all, Amy is 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. 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.

www.amybarston.com

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Elisa Barston, violin

Elisa Barston is currently Principal Second Violin of the Seattle Symphony. Previously, she has served in the first violin sections of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. In 1993-1994, Ms. Barston was Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. She has performed virtually all over the world as both soloist and chamber musician. Among her list of honors is the Grand Prize in the International Kingsville Young Performers’ Competition, First Prize in the Seventeen Magazine-General Motors National Concerto Competition, First Prize in the Julius Stulberg Auditions, and top prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition (including the Audience Prize), the Young Musicians’ Foundation National Debut Competition, and the Illinois Young Performers’ Competition. As first violinist of the North Shore String Quartet, she won the First Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 1983, as well as the esteemed Kuttner Quartet Competition held at Indiana University in 1993.

In 1987, at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Ms. Barston made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Taipei Symphony. Solo and ensemble concerts have taken her to the Far East, as well as throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. Critics have praised her “extraordinary accomplishment and potential, ...immaculate intonation, . ..and ever sensitive musicality.” Strad Magazine applauded her “glowing sound, tasteful phrasing and technical aplomb.” The Chicago Sun Times noted her “big, richly colored tone.” California journalists have called her a “talent worth watching.”

Ms. Barston received her Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from Indiana University in 1993 where she studied with world-renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold. During her two years at Indiana University, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate (1992), the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship Award (1991-1993), and the Starling Foundation Grant (1993). Ms. Barston is a 1991 graduate of the University of Southern California where she received the “Outstanding Graduate of the Year” award, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance under the tutelage of Robert C. Lipsett. Her previous major teachers include Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Elaine Skorodin, and Betty Haag. She has also worked with Donald Mclnnes, Yuval Yaron, Eleonore Schoenfeld, David Cerone, and Jascha Brodsky in both solo and chamber music.

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Robert Dilutis, violin

Robert DiLutis has performed as Assistant Principal and E-flat clarinetist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 1996. Mr. DiLutis has served on the faculties of the Baltimore School for the Arts and Eastman School of Music. Most recently Mr. DiLutis has developed and is teaching an Orchestral Audition Training Program for the Eastman School of Music as well as E-flat clarinet, Bass clarinet and the Clarinet Choir. His many clinics and master classes have included Ithaca College, Hartt School of Music, Boston University, New England Conservatory and the Tanglewood Institute.

Making his Carnegie Hall Recital debut in 1989, Mr. DiLutis has also performed as featured soloist with ensembles such as the San Antonio Symphony, River City Consort and the Rochester Philharmonic.

Mr. DiLutis is a graduated of the Juilliard School where he studied with David Weber. Previous to his studies in New York, he studied with William Blayney at the Peabody Conservatory in Maryland. Mr. DiLutis is an Artist for Buffet USA and plays Buffet clarinets exclusively.

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Rebecca Gilbert, flute

Since joining the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Flute in September 1996, REBECCA GILBERT’s expressive and versatile playing has illuminated the RPO’s classical and pops performances. Rebecca has also performed as Acting Principal Flute of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Guest Assistant Principal Flute with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood.

As an active soloist/recitalist, Rebecca has performed solo and chamber music concerts with the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester, Live from Hochstein, Skaneateles Festival, Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and the Charles Ives Center for the Arts Contemporary Music Festival, and the Chautauqua Chamber Players. She is a regularly featured soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed concerti with the the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Penfield (NY) Symphony Orchestra.

A Wisconsin native, Rebecca began playing the flute at age 9. She earned a MM from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and attended the Centre International De Formation Musicale in Nice, France. Her principal flute teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Randolph Bowman, Kyril Magg, and Gwen Powell. Her hobbies include dancing, running her dog, reading, yoga, and cooking.

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Maya Hartman, piano

Equally at ease with Elliott Carter as with Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maya Hartman is a pianist of wide ranging interests and experiences. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestra and in recital in the United States, Canada, England, Switzerland, and her native Israel. Her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio, WQXR (New York) and WFMT (Chicago).

Ms. Hartman is a passionate advocate of music of our own time and has premiered many new works. At the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland) she played Schoenberg's Piano Concerto under the baton of Pierre Boulez and worked closely with members of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. This She has also performed Elliott Carter’s Dialogues for piano and orchestra.

Ms. Hartman regularly performs solo recitals that combine well-known and more obscure composers. Recent programs include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Charles Griffes, Stravinsky, Bartok, Milton Babbitt, and Arthur Berger at venues including Barge Music, Steinway Hall, the Bruno Walter Auditorium, and the Dame Myra Hess live broadcast series in Chicago. She was also the 2nd place prizewinner at the National Federation of Music Clubs 2007 Young Artist Competition.

In addition to solo performances, Ms. Hartman performs a wide range of chamber music. She has been invited to numerous chamber music festivals including the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove (England), Yellow Barn Festival (Vermont), Summertrios (Pennsylvania), Canandaigua Lake Chamber Festival (New York), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music (Connecticut), Kneisel Hall (Maine), and the Scotia Festival of Music (Halifax). www.MayaHartman.com

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Kathleen Murphy Kemp, cello

KATHLEEN MURPHY KEMP is Assistant Principal Cello of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has been a full time member of the cello section since 1977. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she earned a Bachelor of Music and the Masters of Performance and Literature as well as the Performers Certificate. Kathleen serves on the Collegiate and Community Education faculties of the Eastman School as well as being co-chair of the string faculty of the Hochstein School. She is the Co-ordinator of the Orchestra Studies Diploma Program at Eastman. She is also a member of “The Cello Divas”. She has participated in Chamber Music Rochester series, Roycroft Chamber Music Festival, Skaneateles Festival, Fortissismo Festival, Academy of Medicine Salon Concerts as well as Aspen Music Festival and Sarasota Festivals. She and husband Randy have two children, Megan - an elementary and middle school string teacher in Arizona, and Michael, a percussion major at Duquesne University.

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Edward Klorman, viola

A native of Rochester, Edward Klorman is rapidly emerging as one of most exciting violists of his generation and as an innovative leader in the music community. He has performed as soloist in Eastman Theatre, as well as with 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 collaborated with such renowned artists as the Orion String Quartet, Ying Quartet, Claude Frank, Joseph Kalichstein, and Charles Neidich, with performances in such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Music@Menlo, Sarasota Music Festival, and Taos School of Music. Mr. Klorman makes his New York City concerto debut this spring performing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Stefan Jackiw and the Camerata Notturna. In April, he will perform the same work with RPO concertmaster Juliana Athayde and the Rochester Chamber Orchestra.

A founder of two chamber music series – the Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival and Music at the Bowery (at the historic St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in Manhattan’s East Village) – 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.

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Liana Koteva, violin

Violinist Liana Koteva holds degrees in Music Performance from the Eastman School of Music and the Harid Conservatory of Music and has won numerous National and International Awards and Competitions including the "Outstanding Young Musician Award" in 2003 from the Cultural Council in Bulgaria. Originally from Sofia, Bulgaria and raised in a family of well-known musicians, she started playing the violin at age 6 and came to the US in 1994 to pursue a career in music.

Liana is a founding member of Duo Supernova and the Magnolia Trio. She performs extensively as a recitalist and a chamber musician in the US and Europe. She has commissioned, performed and recorded numerous pieces by eastern European composers. Some of them as well as her CD of the Complete Brahms Piano/Violin Sonatas can be found online and at select Barnes & Noble and Borders Stores. Ms. Koteva has been a full time member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 2001 and performs regularly with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra as well as the Chautauqua Symphony.

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Melissa Matson, viola

Melissa Matson is the principal violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and an associate professor of strings (part-time) at the Eastman School of Music. She performs regularly with Chamber Music Rochester and with the Skaneateles (NY) Festival, and is artistic director of First Muse: ChamberMusic@RochesterUnitarian, a series of concerts at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester. A California native, Ms. Matson received her degrees and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. She was a founding member of the Chester String Quartet, which performed extensively throughout the U.S. and won prizes at the Munich and Portsmouth (England) International String Quartet competitions during her five-year tenure.

Ms. Matson has presented the premieres of works written especially for her by Verne Reynolds, David Liptak, and Jeff Tyzik, and has been a chamber music participant in the Aspen, Norfolk, and Grand Teton summer festivals. She has presented workshops in orchestral excerpts and viola performance at ViolaFest in Binghamton NY, and served on the jury of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2005. Her teachers and mentors have included Martha Katz, Heidi Castleman, Karen Tuttle, and the Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets. She lives in Honeoye Falls with her husband, and enjoys working with fiber arts. Her viola was made by Mattheus Albani in 1650.

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Jon Nakamatsu, piano

One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation,Jon Nakamatsu appears frequently as concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He enjoys a continuously expanding career based on a deeply probing and illuminating musicality as well as a quietly charismatic performing style. Initially brought to global attention in 1997 by being named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, he has subsequently appeared as soloist with major orchestras worldwide and as recitalist in such venues at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Kennedy Center, along with appearances in Paris, London, and Milan. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with such leading ensembles as the Brentano, St. Lawrence, Prazak, Tokyo and Ying String Quartets and the Berlin Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet.

Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR's "Performance Today," Mr. Nakamatsu has been profiled by "CBS Sunday Morning" and is featured the documentary "Playing with Fire," which aired nationwide on PBS. He has released six CDs on harmonia mundi, including an orchestral album containing performances of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Nakamatsu’s most recent release is his second orchestral album with the RPO, featuring Gershwin’s Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue, conducted by Jeff Tyzik. A former high school German teacher, Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in German Studies and a master’s degree in Education. Jon Nakamatsu and his duo-partner, the renowned clarinetist Jon Manasse, serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. www.jonnakamatsu.com

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Shannon Nance, violin

Shannon Nance is the newly appointed assistant concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been a member of the violin section of the RPO since 1993 and holds two degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Catherine Tait and Zvi Zeitlin. Shannon is an active chamber musician in the Rochester area, and can often be heard collaborating with colleagues from the RPO and faculty members of the Eastman School of Music on the recital series of Society for Chamber Music in Rochester, the Academy of Medicine and Morning Chamber Music in Kilbourn Hall. Shannon plays on a 1798 Joseph and Antonius Gagliano violin.

Originally from Lincoln, NE, Shannon grew up in a musical home learning piano from her mother, Penny Kunkel, and being surrounded by many styles of music. Shannon has made Rochester her home, where she lives with her husband Wesley (trumpeter in the RPO) and four young children (Brooke, Brandon, Brianna and Bridget). Shannon and Wes began studying ballroom dance two years ago, and have enjoyed discovering the connection between music and dance.

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Martha Sholl, bassoon

Bassoonist Martha Sholl is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Syracuse Symphony. Prior professional appointments include principal bassoon in the Binghamton Philharmonic, Tri-Cities Opera Orchestra, and the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. She has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio Society, Chamber Music Rochester, Fortissimo, Lake Placid Sinfonietta, and the Chautauqua Institution Orchestra, among others. In the summer, Ms. Sholl joins her colleagues from the Rochester Philharmonic at the Bravo Festival in Vail, CO, and has performed at the Skaneateles Festival, and at Music in the Mountains, in Durango, CO. As a student of K. David Van Hoesen, she received both the Bachelor (with distinction) and Master of Music Degrees at the Eastman School of Music. She is a former student of Shirley Curtiss, of the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. Ms. Sholl has given Master Classes at SUNY Fredonia and Ithaca College, has served as a mentor for the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and was selected for inclusion in the 2004 edition of Who’s Who in America. Ms. Sholl is on the faculty at Syracuse University, SUNY Geneseo, and Roberts Wesleyan College.

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Noam Sivan, piano and composer

Noam Sivan is an original and versatile musician, combining composition, piano performance, improvisation, and conducting. His compositional output includes works in most genres, among them the opera Fruits of Folia premiered by the Mannes Opera, Homage to Ravel premiered by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the song cycle The Cabin of Loneliness premiered by Talamus voices and members of the Israel Philharmonic, and the Piano Concerto which Mr. Sivan premiered himself in the double role of soloist & conductor. He has also composed works for dance in collaboration with Juilliard choreographers that were presented in Alice Tully Hall and the Juilliard Theater.

As a pianist he has performed the Asian premiere of Viktor Ullmann Piano Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, and Bach's Goldberg Variations encored by an original improvisation on the piece for TV broadcast in his native Israel. Known for his "fanciful improvisations" (Washington Post), Noam Sivan is on the faculty at Mannes College where he founded the Improvisation Workshop and is a doctoral fellow at the
Juilliard School. He has lectured as guest composer at SUNY Stony-Brook and Bar Ilan Universities.

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Dennis Whittaker, bass

Dennis Whittaker wears many hats as a professional bassist and educator. He is the Principal Double Bassist for the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, a member of the Houston Ballet Orchestra, the Bass teacher and String Area Coordinator for the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, has a full private teaching studio, and is a bass pedagogy consultant. He has appeared on six world premeire compact discs with the Houston Grand Opera, various recordings with Houston artists, and on recordings as principal Bass with the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.

He was the winner of the Gary Karr Foundation National Double Bass competition in 1987. He has performed recitals, concerts and master classes in Japan, China, Italy, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Louisiana.

Mr. Whittaker performs as a substitute bassist with the Houston Symphony and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Whittaker earned his Bachelor’s in Music Education from Baylor, his Masters in Music from Northwestern. His teachers include Paul Ellison, Eugene Levinson, Jeff Bradetich, Mark Whitney and Michael Cameron. Mr. Whittaker’s students are represented in the National Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New World symphony, Aspen, Tanglewood, Domaine Forget and the Pacific Music Festival.

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