| PERFORMANCE FACULTY LISTING |
| PIANO/KEYBOARD Barolsky, Ruth Piano Gross, Kelly Piano Hallahan, Bob Jazz/Piano Moore, Barbara Piano Sablinsky, Content Piano Tung, Mimi Piano Walker, Paul Harpsichord/Organ |
STRINGS |
| WOODWINDS Cox, Alan Flute Decker, Jeff Saxophone/Jazz Studies Garlick, Nancy Clarinet Perry, Scott Oboe Roberts, Elizabeth Bassoon |
| BRASS D'earth, John Trumpet Kellner, Steve Trombone, Low-Brass Neebe, Paul Trumpet Slayton, Barry Euphonium/Tuba Zook, Ian Horn |
| PERCUSSION Davis, Kevin Afro-Cuban Percussion Fang, I-Jen Percussion Jospe, Robert Jazz Drumming Tripathi, Nitin Tabla |
| HARP Jellison, Anastasia |
| GUITAR, BANJO, MANDOLIN Frostic, Pete Mandolin Howard, Greg Chapman Stick Larrabee, Adam Banjo Rosensky, Mike Jazz and Guitar |
VOICE |
E-Mail: absoprano@comcast.net Amanda Balestrieri, soprano, was born and educated in England, and won two merit scholarships to Jesus College, Oxford University, where she read Modern Languages (German and French) and received her BA and MA degrees. She received diplomas from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in voice, piano (Lloyd Hartley Memorial Prize), and violin, appeared as soprano soloist in Oxford and London, and toured in Europe with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner. Now residing in the United States, Ms. Balestrieri appears regularly as a concert and recital soloist, and has sung under the baton of Christopher Hogwood, Leonard Slatkin, and Peter Phillips. She has performed in recital at the 92nd Street Y in New York and at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, been broadcast on National Public Radio's Performance Today, appeared at the Lincoln Center with the Four Nations Ensemble, and at Merkin and Florence Gould Halls in New York. Balestrieri received critical acclaim for her performances with the famed St. Thomas Choir and with the New York Collegium in New York and Boston, with Opera Lafayette in Washington DC, and with Santa Fe Pro Musica in New Mexico. She has also made appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in works by Mozart, Vaughan Williams, and Schubert. Much in demand for her skills in baroque repertoire, Balestrieri performs regularly with the premier period instrument orchestras and ensembles across the country, and has appeared in several productions of baroque opera in New York, Boston, and Washington. She also performs 20th century and contemporary works, including French chamber works for voice and flute, and Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light with Anonymous Four. She has been featured at the Washington National Cathedral in Messiah and St. John Passion, in several Mozart anniversary performances including his great Mass in C Minor, and was recently described as "spellbinding" in her performance of Lucretia, Handel's tour-de-force solo cantata, at the Saratoga Baroque festival. "Balestrieri's big voice was rich and supple. Her breath control was superb through the long, technically demanding lines. Her intensity was never forced...passion and grief were palpable." This season, she will perform several major works, including Bach's Matthäuspassion, Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Handel's Lucretia, and Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben. Ms. Balestrieri's live recording of Mozart's solo cantata Exsultate Jubilate was released in 2005 on the Virginia Arts label. She has recorded for the Koch and Bard labels, and she appears as the soprano soloist in a new recording of Handel's Alexander's Feast with the Washington Bach Sinfonia, released in January 2007 on the Dorian label. |
||
 Ayn Balija, violaE-Mail: violayn@yahoo.com E-Mail: atb3y@virginia.edu Following her dreams, Ayn Balija earned her BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and MM from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Jeffrey Irvine and Peter Slowik continue to be her principal instructors and mentors. Between degrees Ayn explored various teaching philosophies including Karen Tuttle's Coordination philosophy and the Suzuki Violin method. Upon completing her undergraduate studies she was a founding instructor of the Oberlin Community Music School. For four years, she provided Suzuki violin lessons, group classes, chamber music coachings, and music theory classes to Lorain County. An avid orchestral musician, Ms. Balija performs with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, OH, Red {an orchestra}, Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and Camerata Chicago. For the 2006-2007 season she was asked to tour with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on their East Coast Tour. During summers, she has attended numerous festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Banff Center, Credo, and the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. She participated as an orchestral musician, chamber coach, mentor, and quartet fellow. Starting the summer of 2006, Ms. Balija was awarded the Aspen Mentor Fellowship to aid in the instruction of aspiring orchestral musicians. Her passion for teaching at the collegiate level developed while serving as an assistant to her conservatory instructors. Other interests include modern music and early music performances on the baroque viola. She has had the opportunity to study with members of Apollo's Fire including Jeanette Sorrell and Cynthia Roberts. Currently she serves as Lecturer of Viola at the University of Virginia and principal violist of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra. | ||
Ruth Barolsky, piano B.A. from Rochester University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. She studied with Content Sablinsky and performs locally as an accompanist and in recital. She is past President of the Charlottesville Music Teachers Association and on the board of the Wednesday Music Club. |
||
|
||
David Colwell, violin, concertmaster E-Mail: david.colwell@virginia.edu Since his solo debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in 1995 at the age of 14, violinist David Colwell has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, Canada, and the United States, and has been recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. As a winner of a Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship in both 1998 and 1999, David was afforded the opportunity to study at the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria with Igor Oistrakh, Michael Frischenschlager, Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Igor Ozim. In the summers of 2004 and 2005, he studied and performed at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. In June of 2005, David made his formal Ravinia Festival debut at the Martin Theater with a performance of Mozart's Piano Quartet in G minor. As a member of the Mondrian Piano Quartet, David participated in the Banff Centre's Chamber Music Residency in the summer of 2007. Other recent memorable performances have included chamber music collaborations with Edgar Meyer, Timothy Eddy, Paul Katz, Barry Shiffman, Henk Guittart, and Ralf Gothóni. A native of Alberta, Canada, David received his first violin lessons from Dr. Elfreda Gleam and William van der Sloot. After further studies with Ranald Shean and Edmond Agopian, he began his undergraduate education in 1997 at the University of Alberta where he studied with Dr. Martin Riseley. In September of 2001, he entered the studio of Peter Oundjian and Ani Kavafian at Yale University School of Music and was awarded the Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts degrees in 2003 and 2005 respectively. He is currently working towards his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale. David is grateful to the Winspear Fund for its generous support of his studies from 2001-2005. David joined the performance faculty at the University of Virginia in 2006 where he serves as concertmaster of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra and first violinist of the Rivanna String Quartet. In addition, he maintains a full studio of violin students and coaches undergraduate chamber ensembles. |
||
Alan Cox, flute, Thomas C. & Margaret M. MacAvoy ChairE-Mail: amc7s@virginia.edu Flutist Alan Cox has been named to the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia where he will serve as principal flute of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Cox currently serves as principal flute of the American Sinfonietta and is a member of New York's Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. He has worked extensively in New York City and San Francisco. While in San Francisco, he was principal flute of the San Francisco Opera, Sinfonia San Francisco, and the San Francisco Chamber Symphony, as well as being solo flute of the Anchor Chamber Players and appearing in numerous recitals and concerto engagements. In New York Mr. Cox has been principal flute of such prominent ensembles as the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Philharmonia Virtuosi, the Opera Orchestra of New York, and has been a member of the New York Chamber Symphony and solo piccolo of the Metropolitan Opera. He has additionally appeared frequently with the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony. He has participated in tours throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea. A founding member of the New York New Music Ensemble, he has given premiere performances of works by Joseph Schwantner, Peter Maxwell Davies, Tod Machover and other leading composers. He has been a faculty member of Rutgers University, where he was a member of the Raritan Winds, the faculty woodwind quintet, the Juilliard School, SUNY-Binghamton, and Westminster Choir College. He has recorded for Columbia, Warner Bros., Opus One, Delos, Musical Heritage Society, Finnadar, ROM Productions, Mediaphon, and Sony Classical. Mr. Cox studied with Julius Baker at the Juilliard School, where he earned Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, and collaborated with Mr. Baker as editor for a number of publications, including Baker's Daily Exercises for the Flute. He also studied with Marcel Moyse and William Bennett. Mr. Cox is also a composer. He acknowledges guidance from such diverse teachers as Vincent Persichetti, Lester Trimble, Elliott Carter, Roger Sessions, and Vladimir Ussachevsky, but considers himself primarily self-taught. His output ranges from solo and chamber works to a song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra, "Illuminations", set to texts by the poet Arthur Rimbaud, to a piece for large orchestra, "Six Orchestral Images after Magritte", musical depictions of paintings by the surrealist painter Rene Magritte. |
||
Kevin Davis, Afro-Cuban Percussion |
||
John D'earth, trumpet, jazz-theory, and improvisation |
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
 Kelly Gross, pianoE-Mail: clibe2009@yahoo.com Kelly Gross is a graduate of the Critical and Comparative Studies in Music program at the University of Virginia (M.A.) and has recently served full-time as a private piano instructor at Charlottesville's Music Education Center. She has studied with David Griswold (University of Redlands, CA), James Barnes (Hampton University, VA) and Mimi Tung (University of Virginia) and was featured soloist with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. While at the University of Virginia she also studied cello with Stephen Feldman and Brooks Whitehouse, participated in the New Music and African Drumming and Dance Ensembles, studied Ghanaian master drumming with Michelle Kisliuk, and helped found the Jewish Concert Series. As well as pursuing performance interests in accompanying, chamber music, and 20th century repertoire, her current research interests continue with a focus on gender, embodiment, and vocality in music and film. Her publications include: Michelle Kisliuk and Kelly Gross, "What's the 'It' That We Learn to Perform?: Teaching BaAka Music and Dance," in Performing Ethnomusicology: Teaching and Representation in World Music Ensembles, ed. Ted Solis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004) and Kelly Gross, "Female Subjectivity, Disability and Musical Authorship in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blue," in Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music, eds. Neil Lerner and Joseph Straus (New York: Routledge Press, 2006). Finally, she is a proud to be an active member of the Charlottesville Music Teacher's Association. |
||
|
||
E-Mail: stickist@aol.com Web: Mr. Howard's Website Musician and composer Greg Howard is one of the world's most active Chapman Stick players. He has released eight CDs and performs all over North America, Europe and Japan. His music blends a wide variety of influences from jazz, Latin and flemenco to pop and progressive rock, with heavy doses of free and structured improvisation. He has given over 2000 performances on this unusual instrument since 1985, including Lincoln Center's 2000 Electronic Evolutions concert and the 2003 Montreal Jazz Festival. The Chapman Stick is an electric American stringed instrument that combines bass, melody and chords all at once. Emmett Chapman invented this instrument to embody his unique two-handed tapping method of playing guitar he discovered in 1969. Howard has taught hundreds of Stick students at seminars around North America and Europe, and he has written a comprehensive method book for the instrument ("The Stick Book, Volume 1", published by Stick Enterprises in Los Angeles). |
||
Anastasia Jellison, harp |
||
Iris Jortner, Cellist, was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. As an active chamber musician she has collaborated with Yefim Bronfman, Michael Tree, Itamar Golan, Levon Chilingrian, the Orion Quartet, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players, and has performed in numerous festivals including Verbier, Banff, Tanglewood, Taos, Prussia Cove, Dubrovnick, Kfar Blum, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, Isaac Stern's Encounters, and Rolandseck. Iris was a founding member and cellist of the Aviv Quartet between 1997-2002. She has performed at important venues including Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, Theater du Chatelet, Vienna Concert House, Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Merkin Hall, and the Manoel Theater, and has recorded for Naxos and Live Classics. Iris toured in Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Israel, and the USA. She studied with Uri Vardi, Aldo Parisot, Bernard Greenhouse, Paul Katz, Dmitri Ferschtman, Timothy Eddy, and members of the Alban Berg Quartet. Ms. Jortner has earned her BM degree from the Eastman School of Music, her MM from the Amsterdam Conservatory, a Chamber Music Dipolma from the Hochschule of Musik in Cologne, and her Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes College of Music. She taught at Marywood University (Pennsylvnia), Opus 118 Harlem Center for Strings, and is on the faculty of the Apple Hill Summer festival.Iris was a recipient of the American-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarships, received a special award from the New York Foundation of the Arts, the "Performer of Connecticut Award", prizes by the Ministries of Education of Israel and Germany, and special prizes at Tanglewood for outstanding chamber music performances. |
||
|
||
Steve Kellner, trombone |
||
Adam Larrabee, banjo |
||
Barbara Moore, piano |
||
Edmund Najera, voice |
||
| Stephanie Nakasian, non-classical voice E-Mail: nakasian@virginia.edu Web: Ms. Nakasian's Website  Stephanie Nakasian (BA, MBA, Northwestern Univ.) is recognized by the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz as one of the leading jazz singers in the world today with 5 CDs as a leaders and numerous radio broadcasts for the internationally syndicated radio show Riverwalk. She is the author of the book "It's not on the Page! How to Integrate Jazz and Jazz Rhythm into Choral and Solo Repertoire" which she has presented in workshops at over 18 state and national music education conferences including the MENC, MTNA and IAJE nationals. Her jazz style is compared to Ella Fitzgerald, June Christy and Rosemary Clooney and her improvisation workshops are popular with students from elementary school through professional levels and teacher training seminars around the U.S. and in Europe. Her performances as a headliner include the Kennedy Center, Northsea Jazz Festival, JazzPartyatSea Cruise, NC Jazz Festival...and hundreds of school and club concerts. She is married to and musically partnered with jazz piano great Hod O'Brien and they have a daughter Veronica who also tours as a jazz singer at the age of 9. Ms. Nakasian's teaching is both technique and coaching oriented for non-classical repertoire students including theater, pop, folk, rock, gospel and jazz. Students learn to use their voices safely and effectively opening up tone and strengthening sound and correcting flaws in pitch and quality while working on repertoire of the student's choosing. A recital is normally held at the end of the semester. For more information visit www.stephanienakasian.com |
||
|
||
 Chris Owens, voiceE-Mail: bubbacansing@yahoo.com Website: Mr. Owens' Website Christian Dwight Owens began his professional career as an apprentice with Houston Grand Opera and Santa Fe Opera. After his recent transition from baritone to tenor, career highlights include Radames in Aida with Indianapolis Opera; Radames in Aida and Cavaradossi in Tosca with New York Grand Opera, Malcolm in a concert performance of Macbeth with Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall, and concerts in Hawaii, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Alabama. As a baritone, he sang the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Houston Grand Opera and Washington Opera), Der Heerufer in Lohengrin and Schaunard in La Boheme (Houston Grand Opera), Albert in Werther and The Mogul in the world premiere of Argento's The Dream of Valentino (Washington Opera). Other major roles include Michele in Il Tabarro, Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Escamillo in Carmen, Top in The Tender Land (Copland), Il Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Germont in La Traviata, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Figaro and Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro, Tonio in I Pagliacci, Alfio in Cavaleria Rusticana, and Bilby in Bilby's Doll (with Carlyle Floyd). The vast list of artists Mr. Owens has performed opposite includes Cecilia Bartoly, Jose Carreras, Mignon Dunn, Placido Domingo, Richard Paul Fink, Mirella Freni, Eva Marton, and Juan Pons. He has performed roles under the baton of such internationally known conductors as Yves Abel, Placido Domingo, John Demain, Christoph Eschenbach, Heinz Fricke, Christopher Keene, Vincent LaSelva, and Julius Rudel. Mr. Owens academic credentials include degrees from Samford University (Birmingham), Southern Seminary (Louisville), and post graduate studies at University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music and University of Houston. His teachers and coaches include Arthur Levy, Andrew White, Randall Richardson, Elena Nikolaidi, Martin Katz, Craig Rutenberg and Thomas Grubb. Concert highlights include Carmina Burana with The Houston Symphony Chorus in Mexico City and The Alabama Symphony and Ballet, Mozart's Requiem with The Alabama Symphony and The Virginia Consort, a Wagner Gala with The Hawaii Opera Theater, and a concert of Wagner arias and scenes at the German Embassy, Washington, D.C. Mr. Owens has received generous support from The Corbett Foundation, The Dieterle Foundation, The Sullivan Foundation, The Olga Forrai Foundation, The New York Wagner Society, and The Washington Wagner Society. His website is www.chiatenor.com. |
||
 Scott Perry, oboe, Jason I. & Ellen U. Eckford ChairE-Mail: sp7j@virginia.edu California-born Scott Perry holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music and is currently a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University. An active freelance musician, he has performed with orchestras throughout the West and the Midwest, including the Seattle Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Scott has performed on three continents for audiences which have included heads of state, royalty, and even the Pope. Scott is currently the Principal Oboe of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra, the oboist of the Albemarle Ensemble, and is a member of the music faculty at the University of Virginia. |
||
| Elizabeth Roberts, bassoon, Ann Saunders Roberts Chair E-Mail: ear4x@virginia.edu 
Ibby Roberts, a native of Alexandria, Virginia, holds a B.S. in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois. She taught
kindergarten for two years in suburban Chicago, then began pursuing her dream of becoming a professional musician. She earned a Professional
Studies Diploma and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Harid Conservatory, where she studied with Arthur Weisberg, and a Master of Music
Performance degree at the University of Southern California, where she studied with Stephen Maxym. During her second year at USC she was
elected to Pi Kappa Lambda, and was selected to be a Presidential Fellow. Upon graduating she was awarded the Dean's Special Commendation.
She has also studied bassoon with Nancy Goeres, and contrabassoon with Lew Lipnick.
|
||
| Michael Rosensky, jazz and classical guitar E-Mail: mlr5q@virginia.edu B.M. from Manhattan School of Music, B.A. University of Virginia, M.A. University of Virginia. Studies with Emily Remler. Has taught at Longwood College, the Tandem School, and Piedmont Community College. Extensive freelance experience as a jazz guitarist. Has appeared in concert in New York City with the New Music Consort, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and Christopher Lamb, principal percussionist with the New York Philharmonic, along with other chamber and contemporary music performances at Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and at the Bowdoin and Brandeis summer music festivals. A co-founder of the New Music Chamber Ensemble, Ekko!, he is actively involved in premiering and commissioning new works. |
||
| Content Sablinsky, piano cs2c@virginia.edu |
||
 David Sariti, violin, Robert D. Cross Memorial ChairE-Mail: djs6k@virginia.edu On the UVa faculty since 2005, David Sariti is an active performer, pedagogue, and author. A frequent recitalist, he has recently appeared at Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, and on UVa's McIntire Chamber Music Series. His activities as a chamber musician include the Garth Newell Music Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and regular concerts with UVa's Rivanna Quartet. Accomplished also on the Baroque violin, he performs with the Washington Bach Consort, The Bach Sinfonia, and is involved with Monticello in a project to perform and record works from the collection of Thomas Jefferson. He also performs at UVa as Principal Second Violinist of the Charlottesville and University Symphony. Dr. Sariti has taught violin and music history at the Hartt School, and is a coach and clinician passionately devoted to the advancement of string pedagogy. In addition to recent masterclasses at Garth Newell, his articles have been featured in American String Teacher, California Music Teacher, and American Music Teacher. Sariti completed his doctorate at Hartt in the Honors Chamber Music program, writing on "The Austro-German Violin Sonata, c. 1650", and recently edited a sonata by Heinrich Lizkau (1657) for its first-ever publication, by King's Music of London. He also holds degrees from the University of Akron and Ithaca College; principal studies were with Katie Lansdale, Pamela Gearhart, and Debra Moree, and additional work with Pamela Frank and members of the Cleveland and Miami quartets. | ||
| Barry Slayton, Euphonium/Tuba E-Mail: bestuba@virginia.edu |
||
E-Mail: ps4a@virginia.edu Master of Music from University of North Texas, Bachelor of Music from James Madison University. His former teachers include Sam Cross, Ed Rainbow, Tom Lederer and Mark Bernat. Mr. Spaar currently holds the Robert and Ruth Cross Principal Bass Chair in the Charlottesville University Symphony Orchestra. He is the founder and bassist of the Free Bridge Quintet, U.Va.'s jazz quintet-in-residence. He is also a member of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his teaching duties, Mr. Spaar maintains a very active freelance career as both a jazz and classical bassist. |
||
 James Taylor, voiceE-Mail: jtaylorbaritone@gmail.com American baritone James Taylor has been described as "...impressive... a rich, focused baritone," "Richly musical," and "superb...his rich voice has great beauty as well as dramatic power." At home in opera as well as the concert and recital stages, he has appeared with numerous opera houses and symphony orchestras including the New York City Opera National Company, San Francisco Opera's Western Opera Theatre, Central City Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, and Connecticut Grand Opera, the Arkansas Symphony, the Alabama Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Riverside Symphonium, the Choral Society of Durham, and the Richmond Choral Society. Mr. Taylor has also given recitals in the US, Europe, and Asia, including recital tours of the Netherlands and Malaysia. He made his Alice Tully Hall debut as Claudio in Berlioz' Beatrice et Benedict in the New York premiere of the work, and was chosen as a member of the San Francisco Opera's Merola Program in 1993, where he performed Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for the company at Villa Montalvo and on tour with Western Opera Theatre. He was a featured soloist with the National Chorale for its performances of Händel's Messiah in Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Taylor has appeared in a variety of operatic roles including Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La Boheme, Germont in La Traviata, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Escamillo in Carmen, Figaro and the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. As a soloist, Mr. Taylor has performed such works as Carmina Burana, Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the Requiems of Faure and Durufle, Bach's Johannes Passion, Magnificat, and Weihnachts Oratorium, Haydn's The Creation and The Seasons, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Ravel's Don Quichotte et Dulcinee, Dona Nobis Pacem and The Five Mystical Songs of Vaughan-Williams. Upcoming performances include recitals of Schumann's Dichterliebe and Ravel's Don Quichotte a Dulcinee in Richmond and Washington DC, baritone soloist in Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art and Schubert's Mass in G with the Richmond Choral Society, baritone soloist in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Choral Society of Durham, Germont in La Traviata with the Asheville Lyric Opera, and a return to Ash Lawn Highland as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Mr. Taylor holds degrees from Birmingham Southern College and Yale University. He resides in Richmond, VA with his wife, Sheridan, and their two daughters, Virginia and Margaret. |
||
| Dawn Thompson, voice Ms. Thompson teaches vocal production and technique, improvisation, jazz and contemporary song styles to students at all levels. She specializes in helping students find what she refers to as the "natural voice." Ms. Thompson studied at the University of Virginia and at Fordham University. She lived and worked for many years as a freelance vocalist in New York City, studied dance there, and worked with several dance theater companies. She founded the original music group Cosmology (Vanguard Records) and was featured in the vocal group Cakewalk led by Henry Krieger (Dream Girls, etc.) She has performed and/or recorded with guitarists John Abercrombie and John Scofield, bassist Rick Laird (Mahavishnu Orchestra,) saxophonists Michael Brecker and Dave Liebman, and jazz legends like Ralph Towner, John Coates Jr., Lionel Hampton and Teo Macero. Recently she performed with Pat Metheny on her own composition, The Visitors. She has also performed and recorded with singer/songwriter Dave Matthews. She was featured on a PBS special and has performed at jazz festivals around the country. She co-founded the group Code Magenta (Espresso Records) with DMB saxophonist LeRoi Moore and Chapman Stickist Greg Howard. She also co-founded the Thonpson D'earth Band (Cosmology Records) with her husband, John D'earth with whom she also performs regularly in the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra. Her most recent CDs are Mercury, with the Thompson D'earth Band, John D'earth - Thursday Night - Live at Miller's (both on Cosmology Records) and Code Magenta (Espresso.) |
||
| Nitin Tripathi, tabla E-Mail: nirutrip@yahoo.com |
||
|
||
 Paul Walker, harpsichord and organE-Mail: pmw6q@virginia.edu M.M. in Organ Performance from the University of Kansas; further study at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany; Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His academic professors have included David Fuller, James McKinnon, and Jeremy Noble; organ study with Michael Schneider and James Moeser, harpsichord with Hugo Ruf. Included in the Early Music Ensembles under his leadership are Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vocal Ensemble, Viola da Gamba Consort, Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, and Recorder Consort. Academic specialties and interests encompass many aspects of music before 1750, including extensive research in the early history of fugue and the music of J. S. Bach and his predecessors. His teaching includes the Medieval, Renaissance, and early Baroque portions of the undergraduate history curriculum, as well as specialized courses in such topics as Bach and the fundamentals of basso continuo playing. Among Professor Walker's significant publications are the book Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach (University of Rochester Press, 2000) and the articles on fugue and related topics for the second edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Professor Walker founded and still directs the Charlottesville-based early music vocal ensemble Zephyrus, which is about to enter its fourteenth year and which released its third CD, of Flemish music ca. 1500, in the fall of 2004. |
||
 Ian Zook, hornE-Mail: irz5z@virginia.edu Ian Zook, horn, is an active orchestral and solo performer and has appeared in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. As a member of the performance faculty at the University of Virginia, he serves as principal horn of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra and performs with the Albemarle Ensemble. An active freelancer in Philadelphia, Mr. Zook also performs with the Princeton and Haddonfield Symphony Orchestras in New Jersey, and as a substitute musician for the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony and the Vermont Symphony. Most recently, he performed with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland under conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Mikhail Pletnev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Manfred Honeck. Additionally, he played with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and conducted Mozart's Gran Partita for the opening night of the Windows Chamber Music series. In 2006, Mr. Zook toured as principal horn of the Pacific Music Festival in Japan under the baton of Valery Gergiev with concerts in Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo for collective audiences nearing 50,000 in number. He performed alongside principals members of the Vienna Philharmonic in both orchestral and chamber music, and also worked with principal musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic. Formerly an active freelance musician in Michigan, Mr. Zook held positions with the Dearborn, Adrian, and Birmingham-Bloomsfield Symphony Orchestras, as well as a mentorship with the Detroit Civic Orchestra. He also performed on Naxos' Grammy Award-winning recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience under Leonard Slatkin. Mr. Zook has also performed both orchestral and chamber music at the National Orchestral Institute, Sarasota Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. A proponent of period-instrument performance, he has played natural horn with the New York Collegium and the Washington Bach Consort. He was also a featured performer at the 2005 Northeast Horn Workshop playing trompe de chasse. A native of North Carolina, Mr. Zook received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a Master of Music from the University of Michigan. He is currently a candidate for Doctor of Musical Arts at Rutgers University. |
||
 |
 |
|
Pamela Beasley, voice
Jeff Decker, saxophone, jazz and classical; jazz studies
I-Jen Fang, percussion, James E. & Yolonda T. Roberts Chair
Pete Frostic, mandolin
Nancy Garlick, clarinet, Henry Jacob Javor Chair
Bob Hallahan, jazz piano
Iris Jortner , cello
Robert Jospé, percussion
Paul Neebe, trumpet, Dr. & Mrs. Kennerly H. Digges Chair
Mimi Tung, piano