The Musicians of ClassNotes
Sharon Roffman, violin
Annaliesa Place, violin
Tai Murray, violin
Jesse Mills, violin
Michi Wiancko, violin
Nurit Pacht, violin
Jasmine Lin, violin
Melissa Reardon, viola
Maurycy Banaszek, viola
Clancy Newman, cello
Joel Noyes, cello
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
Nathan Farrington, double bass
Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Jonathan Vinocour, viola
Caitlin Sullivan, cello
Sharon Roffman
Sharon Roffman, a prize winner at the 2003 Naumburg Foundation International Violin Competition, graduated from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Itzhak Perlman. Having made her solo debut with the New Jersey Symphony in 1997, Ms. Roffman has now embarked on a diverse career that includes performances as soloist with orchestra, in recital, as chamber music collaborator and in educational outreach presentations. Ms. Roffman made her Carnegie Hall debut as a featured soloist in Vivaldi's Concerto for Four Violins with Itzhak Perlman playing and conducting; Ms Roffman performed the same piece in a "Live from Lincoln Center " broadcast showcasing the Perlman Music Program in 2003. Ms. Roffman has been a frequent guest performer in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln's Center "Meet the Music" and "Inside Chamber Music" series; she has spent several summers performing at the Marlboro Music Festival, and as a child spent many years performing on Sesame Street . Ms. Roffman is also the newest member of Counter)Induction, a critically acclaimed chamber music group devoted to performing works of contemporary composers. Ms. Roffman is on the faculty of the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly , NJ , the Manhattan School of Music, and is a professor of violin and Concert Artist at Kean University . Her former teachers include Peter Winograd, Robert Lipsett, Patinka Kopec and Nicole DiCecco.
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Jesse Mills
Jesse Mills, violin, has performed as soloist with the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the New Jersey Symphony, the Sarah Lawrence College Symphony, the Plainfield Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and Aspen Music Festival's Sinfonia Orchestra as winner of the Festival's E. Nakamichi Violin Concerto Competition. As a chamber musician, Mr. Mills has collaborated with such artists as Richard Goode, David Soyer, Donald Weilerstein, Anton Kuerti, Peter Wiley, Miriam Fried, Claude Frank, and Fred Sherry, and performed in such venues as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, New York City's Merkin Concert Hall and Bargemusic, the Rising Stars series at Caramoor, the Ravinia Festival's Bennett-Gordon Hall, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. Mr. Mills was featured on the opening night of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "A Great Day in New York" series with pianist/composer Peter Schickele, broadcast live on WNYC 93.9 FM in New York. A member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, he recently formed Nurse Kaya, an ensemble comprised of string quartet plus bass and drums which plays in traditional venues such as concert halls and clubs, as well as in schools, hospitals, and jails. Nurse Kaya was recently awarded a Residency Partnership Grant from Chamber Music America. Mills is also a member of the Denali Trio, with cellist Sarah Carter and pianist Ashley Wass. Mr. Mills received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Robert Mann in 2001. Other teachers include Christiane Pors, Naoko Tanaka and Itzhak Perlman.
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Michi Wiancko
Michi Wiancko, violin, made her New York solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, after winning the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Other debuts include soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1997, and with the New York Philharmonic in December of 2003 for a Young People's Concert in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. She has toured extensively throughout the country as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, and has appeared in such major venues as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Frick Museum in Pittsburgh, Redlands Bowl, Banff Centre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery, Library of Congress, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and numerous others. Ms. Wiancko has participated in several tours with Musicians from Marlboro, and spent three consecutive summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. She has performed regularly with the Boston-based Metamorphosen Ensemble, both as a member and as soloist. She has also performed nationwide with the renowned modern dance ensemble, the Mark Morris Dance Group. Ms. Wiancko was a participant in Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall, as well as the Aspen Festival Center for Advanced Quartet Studies and Music Academy of the West. A native of Southern California, Michi Wiancko began her violin studies at the age of 3. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, she studied with Donald Weilerstein and then completed her Master's degree at The Juilliard School, working closely with Robert Mann.
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Annaliesa Place
Annaliesa Place, violin, performs as soloist and chamber musician across the United States and abroad. Recent career highlights include performances at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival with Claude Frank, Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, the French Embassy in Madrid, and Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival. Ms. Place was featured on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center as part of the National Symphony's Beethoven Festival. This year, Ms. Place held a residency in Taiwan at Women's College of Arts and Technology which included quartet performances, lectures, and masterclasses. Ms. Place received a B.M. from Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a M.M. from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers have included Vasile Beluska, David Russell, David Updegraff, Victor Danchenko, and Robert Mann. Ms. Place is on the faculty of the Thurnhauer School of Music and the Dwight-Englewood School. She also enjoys performing as a member of the newly formed East Coast Chamber Orchestra.
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Nurit Pacht
Nurit Pacht, violin, was chosen by France's "Le Monde de la Musique" as one of the "Stars of the Year 2000." Ms. Pacht grew up in Texas and at the age of 12 made her first solo public appearance on National Television. At age seventeen, she made her U.S. solo debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, Ms. Pacht has embarked on a diverse career. She was featured in the stage director Robert Wilson's multi-media piece, Relative Light, performing solo works by J.S. Bach and John Cage throughout Spain and Italy. Ms. Pacht performed Philip Glass' duos for violin and piano with the composer at the piano. She has toured as soloist with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and performed the world premiere of Noam Sheriff's Violin Concerto "Dibrot", a work dedicated to her, with the Israeli Contemporary Players in a radio broadcast from Jerusalem and in the Contemporary Music Festival in Tel-Aviv. Ms. Pacht was also the soloist on a tour of China of the Young Israel Philharmonic performing in the major concert venues of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the spring of 1996, immediately following the cease-fire, Ms. Pacht performed in six of the worst war-devastated cities of Bosnia to enthusiastic audiences of the three ethnic minorities, with the sponsorship of the United Nations and the European Mozart Foundation. Most recently, Ms. Pacht could be seen performing with choreographer Bill T. Jones.
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Jasmine Lin
Jasmine Lin began violin studies at age four. Since then she has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States and abroad. She was a prizewinner in the International Paganini Competition and took second prize in the International Naumburg Competition. The New York Times describes her as an "unusually individualistic player" with "electrifying assertiveness" and "virtuosic abandon". As a chamber musician, Ms. Lin has been a participant of the Marlboro Music Festival and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia, and was a member of the Chicago String Quartet. She is currently a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and recently founded the Formosa Quartet, which won first prize in the London International String Quartet Competition this past April. The Formosa's recording of works by Mozart, Debussy, Wolf and Schubert on the EMI Debut Series was released in January. Ms. Lin is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music. She gave her New York debut in Merkin Hall, where the program included her poetry set to music. Her poem "The night of h's" received Editor's Choice Award from the International Poetry Foundation. In her spare time, Ms. Lin loves to salsa dance.
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Tai Murray
Tai Murray, violin, has burst on the scene with an energy and artistry that spans rarely-heard concerti to a broad array of chamber music. Recent seasons have included appearances with the orchestras of Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Dallas, Charlotte, Oakland, Sacramento and others throughout North America. She was invited to perform the Dvorák Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra in August 2005 in Berlin. She has toured three times with the Musicians from Marlboro, is in her second year as a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center II and performs regularly with the Ritz Chamber Players. Her 2005-06 recital appearances include New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Louisville.
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Joel Noyes
Joel Noyes, cello, a native of Maine, began his studies at the age of four. Most recently he won a coveted position as a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2002. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Noyes has performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Bargemusic, Ltd. Summer festival appearances include Marlboro Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Sarasota, Taos, and Music from Angel Fire. Mr. Noyes has collaborated with many of the world's leading chamber musicians, including Gilbert Kalish, Kim Kashkashian, Ida Kavafian, David Soyer, Steven Tenenbom, and Peter Wiley. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, he was a student of David Soyer. Other teachers included Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet.
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Clancy Newman
Clancy Newman, cello, has won numerous honors including first prize in the 2001 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, first prizes at the National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Competition, the Juilliard School Cello Competition, the National Society for Arts and Letters Cello Competition, the Australian National Youth Concerto Competition in Brisbane, and the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition--which provided two years of concert engagements throughout the United States, as well as the 2000 audition for Astral Services. He performed as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony in the Juilliard Theater, and with the Longwood Symphony in Boston's Jordan Hall. Mr. Newman became the first Astral artist presented in recital in Philadelphia's recently inaugurated Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. He developed an interest in composition at an early age, an activity to which he still devotes much of his time and energy; his compositions have been performed in nine states. Mr. Newman attended the Sydney Conservatorium in Australia, the Taos School of Music, the Vervier Academy in Switzerland, the Piatigorsky Seminar, and participated for several seasons in the Marlboro Music Festival. He also frequently toured as a part of the Musicians from Marlboro series. Upon receiving a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, he became one of the first students to complete the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Mr. Newman's teachers included David Gibson, Joel Krosnick, and Harvey Shapiro.
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Alisa Weilerstein
Alisa Weilerstein, cello, is internationally renowned as one of the premiere soloists and chamber musicians of her generation. Since her first public concert at the age of 4, Ms. Weilerstein has performed with the nation's top orchestras, given recitals throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and regularly participates in prestigious international festivals. Her highly praised debut disc, recorded with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, was released on EMI Classics in 2000. That same year, she was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Ms. Weilerstein is already continually engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and abroad, and has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Bournemouth, Cincinnati, Colorado, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco, among many others. Ms. Weilerstein was nominated by Carnegie Hall to be an "ECHO" Rising Star in 2001, and she is an alumna of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society II. Born in 1982, she made her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at age 13. She made her Carnegie Hall debut two years later. Ms. Weilerstein holds a B.A. in History from Columbia University.
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Melissa Reardon
Melissa Reardon, viola, made her debut as a soloist with the Boston Symphony at the age of 13 and has since garnered top prizes in several international competitions, including Fischoff, HAMS International, and most recently, First Prize in the 2003 Washington International Competition. She has performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, the Boston Chamber Music Society, at Bargemusic, and on tour with the Silk Road Ensemble in 2003. Reardon has also participated in numerous festivals, including Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute for Young Artists, Sarasota Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and the Marlboro Music Festival. She has studied with Samuel Rhodes, Hsin-Yun Huang, Michael Tree, Karen Tuttle, Joseph dePasquale, and Kim Kashkashian. Reardon received her BM from the Curtis Institute of Music and her MM and GD from the New England Conservatory of Music.
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Maurycy Banaszek
Maurycy Banaszek, viola,
was born in Warsaw, Poland.
He has participated in many international music
festivals (including the Marlboro, Seattle, Santa Fe,
Kingston, Martha's Vineyard festivals in USA,
Aldeburgh Festival in England, Warsaw Autumn Festival
in Poland). He has toured with the Musicians from
Marlboro and has appeared at the Barge Music in New York.
As a founding member of The Elsner String Quartet he
has played in such prestigious venues as the Carnegie
Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Gewandhaus
in Leipzig, among others. In August 1998 he was
invited by the members of the legendary Amadeus String
Quartet to perform at the Amadeus Quartet 50th
Anniversary Gala Concert in London. He was recently invited to be the soloist with the New
Jersey Lyric Orchestra at their Carnegie Hall debut
performance and with the Metamorphosen Chamber
Orchestra in Jordan Hall, Boston. He was also chosen
by Gidon Kremer to participate in Chamber Music
Connects the World Festival in Kronberg, Germany where
he performed with the Guarneri String Quartet.
Mr. Banaszek is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in
New York where he studied with Michael Tree. He plays a viola made by Hiroshi Iizuka in
Philadelphia in 1997.
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Alexander Fiterstein
Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet, is the First Prize winner of the 2001 Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition, and the First Prize winner of the 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions (YCA). Now at 26 years of age, he has already performed as a soloist with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Lincoln Center, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing. In recital, Mr. Fiterstein has appeared on the "Music at the Supreme Court" Series, at the National Gallery of Art, at the Kennedy Center, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie's Weill Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Louvre in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. Mr. Fiterstein was recently chosen as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society II for the seasons 2004-2006. He also participated in the Marlboro Music Festival since 2001, and toured with Musicians from Marlboro. He performed chamber music with Daniel Barenboim, Richard Goode, Emanuel Ax and the Avalon, Borromeo, Colorado, Daedalus and Jerusalem String quartets. His upcoming engagements include concerts at the 92nd St. Y with Ensemble Wien-Berlin, a debut at the Caramoor music festival with the Mendelssohn Quartet, concerts at the Bard festival, and the Jerusalem International Chamber music festival. Alexander Fiterstein has worked with composers such as John Corigliano and Osvaldo Golijov, and had pieces written for him by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates and Betti Olivero among others. Born in Minsk, at the age of two he emigrated to Israel with his family, and later came to New York to study at the Juilliard School. He is a recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall award in Tokyo, and a first prize winner of the "Aviv" competitions in Israel. He received awards from the America-Israel cultural foundation since 1991.
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Nathan Farrington
Nathan Farrington, bass, began studying bass at the age of ten with the assistant principal of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, John Pellegrino. Nathan currently performs as associate with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Iris Chamber Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. During the summer of 2000, Nathan became the youngest bass player ever to be awarded a fellowship to the prestigious Aspen Music Festival. He was also winner of the Aspen Music Festival Bass Concerto Competition. In 2001, he appeared as a soloist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra after having won the orchestra's concerto competition. In 2003, Nathan attended the Tanglewood Music Center as a Fellow, and in January 2005 he won the Philadelphia Orchestra's Albert M. Greenfield Competition. The only bass player to have done so, he will appear as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra in November 2006. An avid chamber musician, Nathan attended the renowned Marlboro Music Festival during the summers of 2004-'05, and will return for the summer of 2006. Also, he has made a number of chamber music appearances in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, and appears regularly on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion". Nathan was a member of his high school's golf, baseball, and tennis teams. A recent recipient of a Dublin-Worthington Rotary Academic Scholarship, as well as the Sodohex Marriott Scholarship, Mr. Farrington is currently in his final year at the Curtis Institute of Music where he studies with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer.
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Jonathan Vinocour
Violist Jonathan Vinocour has performed to critical acclaim as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Boston 's Jordan Hall, Gardner Museum and Sanders Theater , New York 's Metropolitan Museum , 92nd Street Y and Town Hall, the Freer Gallery and Kennedy Center in Washington DC , the Kimmel Center , and Ravinia's Rising Stars series. He has also toured extensively with Musicians from Marlboro and is a frequent guest of the Boston Chamber Music Society. His avid devotion to chamber music has taken him to festivals like Marlboro, Aspen , Portland , Prussia Cove (UK), and Tanglewood where he was awarded the Henri Kohn Memorial Prize. Jonathan has also collaborated with members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, Juilliard, Mendelssohn, Orion, and Shanghai Quartets as well as Kim Kashkashian, Jaime Laredo and Paula Robison. Originally from Rochester, NY, Jonathan completed graduate degrees with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory of Music. Prior to his studies there, he majored in chemistry at Princeton University where he graduated with honors and won the Sudler Prize, the university's highest prize in the arts. His previous teachers include Heidi Castleman and George Taylor, and he has worked in master classes with Misha Amory, James Dunham, John Graham, Sam Rhodes, Thomas Riebl, and Karen Tuttle.
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Caitlin Sullivan
Cellist Caitlin Sullivan enjoys a diverse career as a performing and teaching artist. Some of her upcoming engagements include a recital debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie as a winner of the 2006 Artists International Presentations auditions, as well as the new principle cellist of the Chelsea Symphony. She will also be joining the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a Teaching Artist for their Educational Programs in the fall of 2006. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Sullivan was invited to join the 2005 National Eurythmy Tour where she performed Dvorak's 'Dumky' piano trio in fifteen North American cities. Ms. Sullivan has given numerous chamber music recitals in the New York area, including Alice Tully Hall, the Irish American Historical Society, and South Oxford Space in Brooklyn . As soloist, Ms. Sullivan performed the Haydn Cello Concerto in D Major with the Eastman Symphony as well as the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra at age 18. Ms. Sullivan is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she received her Master's degree as a student of Timothy Eddy. She completed her Bachelor's degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Steven Doane. Other programs of study have included the Taos School of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center , International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove, England , Aspen Summer Music Festival, and the Juilliard Pre-College . Ms. Sullivan is a faculty member at Belvoir Terrace, a performing arts summer program located in Lenox , MA .