Performers

The Skyros Quartet has performed extensively, traveling around Asia and North America. In their hometown of Seattle, the quartet has concertized at Benaroya Hall as part of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, has been featured artists numerous times at Resonance at Soma Towers, and are seen in frequent performance around the Puget Sound region. They have been heard at the Aspen Music Festival and School (Aspen, Colorado) and the Sunflower Music Festival (Topeka, Kansas). In 2014, Skyros was invited to Ontario, Canada, where they were guest artists at QuartetFest 2014 at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario) and performed at the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (Ontario, Canada).

Hailed for the "awesome purity of his playing" (New York Concert Review) and described as a "prodigiously skilled protagonist", Bulgarian cellist Lachezar Kostov has performed as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in USA, Japan and Europe. In 2006 Mr. Kostov was the National Winner at the MTNA competition. Lachezar Kostov gave his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 together with his longtime friend and chamber music collaborator pianist Viktor Valkov.

Winner of the 2015 Astral Artists National Auditions, and Gold medalist at the 2012 New Orleans International Piano Competition, Viktor Valkov has been highly acclaimed by the critics as “lion of the keyboard” and “sensational”. Among numerous chamber music and solo appearances, during the last few concert seasons Mr.Valkov also performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, and West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

John D. Rojak joined the American Brass Quintet in 1991. He is bass trombonist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, IRIS, New York Pops, Little Orchestra Society, Stamford Symphony, and played for the 16-year run of Broadway’s Les Misérables. He has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus, New York Chamber Symphony, and as solo trombone of Solisti NY. He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, for Pope John Paul II in New York's Central Park and St. Patrick's Cathedral, and for Pope Francis in Madison Square Garden.

Cellist Samuel Magill has had a rich and varied career as soloist, chamber musician, and enjoyed a highly successful orchestral career. His first Naxos CD of the Cello Concerto by Vernon Duke was hailed as "flat-out magnificent" by the American Record Guide, while The Strad wrote of his world premier recording of Franco Alfano's Cello Sonata "Magill's husky, dark timbre matches the Cello Sonata's yearning intensity to perfection".

Hailed as “a first-class ensemble” (Orange County Register) “exuberant and technically dazzling” (Long Beach Gazette) and “one of the best young chamber groups around today” (Philip Setzer, Emerson String Quartet), Trio Céleste has quickly established itself as one of the most dynamic chamber music ensembles in the country.

Maestra Barbara Day Turner is the founder and Music Director of the San José Chamber Orchestra. An ardent advocate for new music, she has premiered more than 130 works just with SJCO. Named the 2012 Silicon Valley Arts Council "On Stage" Artist Laureate, Maestra Day Turner is also Music Administrator and Conductor of the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, where she has led critically acclaimed productions of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, Puccini’s La bohème, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Verdi’s Otello, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Showboat and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

DANIEL ZEHRINGER is Associate Professor at Wright State University, where he serves as head of the Trumpet Studio and Brass Division, coordinator of the Faculty Brass Quintet, and conducts the Wright State University Trumpet Ensemble.

Native to Indonesia, Yudha is an accomplished pianist who has performed in the US, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, France, and Germany. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra in addition to being a frequent soloist with the Duke University Symphony Orchestra. She is a notable music educator haven given master classes and presentations all over the United States and Southeast Asia. She recently presented lecture recitals at TEDx Talks, the Ohio Music Teachers Association Conference, the College Music Society (CMS) National Conference, and CMS Regional Conference.

This remarkable quartet - hailed as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the New York Times - is a multi-faceted ensemble taking chamber music in new directions. Touring music of the masters as well as original works from visionary composers of our time, the Fry Street Quartet has perfected a "blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity" (Strad). Since securing the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the quartet has reached audiences from across the globe exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with "profound understanding...depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness" (Deseret Morning News).

Musica Pacifica has, since its founding in 1990, become widely recognized as one of America’s premier baroque ensembles, lauded for both the dazzling virtuosity and the warm expressiveness of its performances. They have been described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell). At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists perform with Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists, and appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad.

Viennese born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot has settled in Canada since 1987 where she now is full professor for viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal since 1990. She is principal violist of the Laval Symphony Orchestra and has an exhaustive background in chamber music and solo playing, performing in various formations and at various international festivals. Jutta likes to tour the world via the International Viola Congresses, where she shares with passion her new discoveries of forgotten music written for the viola, mainly around the turn of the 20th century.

Brooklyn-based pianist Beth Levin is celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers. The New York Times praised her “fire and originality,” while The New Yorker called her playing “revelatory.” Debuting as a child prodigy with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age twelve, Levin was subsequently taught and guided by legendary pianists such as Rudolf Serkin, Leonard Shure and Dorothy Taubman, Another of her teachers, Paul Badura-Skoda, praised Levin as a pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber.

Deb Scott grew up on the flat plains of Lubbock, Texas. With not much else to do but play trombone, she began soloing at an early age. By the time she was in high school, she had performed the Lars-Erik Larsson Concertino with her high school orchestra, performed with professional symphonies, and played regularly in a jazz combo. She graduated with top honors from Texas Tech University and also received the top award for her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado.

Czech violinist and producer Vít Muzík (b. 1972) is one of the most multifaceted musicians working on the contemporary classical music scene. His abilities both as a performer on the concert stage and in the recording booth have led to appearances on more than 60 recordings in the Navona and Ravello catalogs, making him one of PARMA Recordings' most frequent collaborators.

The Bowed Piano Ensemble, founded by composer Stephen Scott at Colorado College in 1977, has evolved into a small experimental-music orchestra whose ten players conjure, from one open grand piano, long, singing lines, sustained drones, chugging accordion-like figures, crisp staccato tones reminiscent of clarinets, deep drum tones and more, often simultaneously, to create a rich, contrapuntal new-chamber-music tapestry.

World-renowned for its highly polished performances as the pied-pipers of Early Music, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band has delighted audiences throughout the United States, Europe, Canada and South America. The ensemble, founded in 1980, recreates the elegant sounds of the official, professional wind bands of the late Medieval and Renaissance periods, as well as the rustic music of the peasantry. Piffaro's ever-expanding collection of shawms, sackbuts, dulcians, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, harps, and a variety of percussion, are careful reconstructions of instruments from the period.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1989 and immigrating to Israel at a young age, Israeli violinist and recording artist Boris Abramov has established himself as a virtuosic soloist and chamber musician, performing across the world with several chamber ensembles and orchestras. Boris is the recipient of several awards and prizes; including the National Winner of the 2008 MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Competition for strings in Denver CO and was awarded a special prize at the 2009 Pablo de Sarasate International Competition in Pamplona, Spain.

Christopher Nichols is a versatile clarinetist with performances as a soloist and in ensembles across the United States and abroad. Dr. Nichols regularly performs with orchestras in the Mid-Atlantic such as the Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the Kennett Symphony and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He is a member of Christiana Winds and has recently collaborated with the acclaimed Serafi n String Quartet, the Taggart-Grycky Duo, and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Michelle Batty Stanley is Associate Professor of Music at Colorado State University where she teaches flute and chamber music. Michelle is a regular performer in solo, chamber and orchestral settings. From early music to new music, Michelle is a passionate performer and strong advocate of the musical arts. She is a regular international artist and has enjoyed giving masterclasses from China to the U.S..