10th Anniversary season: in-person and online - North Shore Chamber Music Festival
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10th Anniversary season:
in-person and online
VADIM GLUZMAN ANGELA YOFFE ATAR ARAD WILLIAM WOLFRAM
PAUL NEUBAUER ARIEL STRING QUARTET JANICE CARISSA MASHA
LAKISOVA KATHERINE AUDAS ILYA SHTERENBERG ROSE ARMBRUST
GRIFFIN JOSHUA BROWN ERIC REED JULIAN RHEE JACQUELINE
AUDAS MARLENE NGALISSAMY LISA SHIHOTEN WENDY WARNER MARK
KOSOWER KURT MUROKI VADIM GLUZMAN ANGELA YOFFE ATAR ARAD
WILLIAM WOLFRAM PAUL NEUBAUER ARIEL STRING QUARTET JANICE
CARISSA MASHA LAKISOVA KATHERINE AUDAS ILYA SHTERENBERG
ROSE ARMBRUST GRIFFIN JOSHUA BROWN ERIC REED JULIAN RHEE
JACQUELINE AUDAS MARLENE NGALISSAMY LISA SHIHOTEN WENDY
WARNER MARK KOSOWER KURT MUROKI VADIM GLUZMAN ANGELA
YOFFE ATAR ARAD WILLIAM WOLFRAM PAUL NEUBAUER ARIEL STRING
QUARTET JANICE CARISSA MASHA LAKISOVA KATHERINE AUDAS
ILYA SHTERENBERG ROSE ARMBRUST GRIFFIN JOSHUA BROWN ERIC
REED JULIAN RHEE JACQUELINE AUDAS MARLENE NGALISSAMY
LISA SHIHOTEN WENDY WARNER MARK KOSOWER KURT MUROKI
Vadim Gluzman, Artistic Director
Angela Yoffe, Executive Director
June 9, 11 and 12, 2021
The Village Presbyterian Church
1300 Shermer Road, Northbrook, IL
www.nscmf.org
NSCMF 2O21
COMMUNITY AMBASSADOR
AWARDS
Our Community Ambassador Award is given each
year to recognize an individual, organization, or
corporate partner whose compelling dedication to
the arts and support of the North Shore Chamber
Music Festival empowers us to enrich the cultural life
of Chicago’s North Shore and the State of Illinois.
In celebration of our 10th anniversary milestone,
this season’s Community Ambassador Awards
are gratefully presented to the following wonderful
organizations that have steadfastly supported
NSCMF since its first festival season in 2011.
PIANOFORTE CHICAGO
VILLAGE CHURCH OF NORTHBROOK
SUNSET FOODS OF NORTHBROOK
1O t h
ANNIVER SARY
S E ASON
NORTH SHORE MUSIC ALLIANCE PRESENTS:
VADIM GLUZMAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
ANGELA YOFFE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
JUNE 9, 11, 12, 2021
THE VILLAGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1300 SHERMER ROAD, NORTHBROOK, IL
FESTIVAL ARTISTS:
VADIM GLUZMAN, LISA SHIHOTEN, JACQUELINE AUDAS*, MASHA
LAKISOVA*, JULIAN RHEE*, JOSHUA BROWN* VIOLIN
WENDY WARNER, MARK KOSOWER, KATHERINE AUDAS* CELLO
ATAR ARAD, PAUL NEUBAUER, ROSE ARMBRUST GRIFFIN VIOLA
WILLIAM WOLFRAM, ANGELA YOFFE, JANICE CARISSA* PIANO
ILYA SHTERENBERG CLARINET
KURT MUROKI DOUBLE BASS
ERIC REED FRENCH HORN
MARLENE NGALISSAMY*, BASSOON
ARIEL STRING QUARTET:
ALEXANDRA KAZOVSKY, GERSHON GERCHIKOV VIOLIN
AMIT EVEN-TOV CELLO
JAN GRÜNING VIOLA
MICHAEL VOLPERT MUSIC ADVISOR
* AFSF Recipient
www.nscmf.org
WELCOME TO THE NORTH SHORE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL Dear Friends, Welcome to the North Shore Chamber Music Festival - the music makers! We had a dream. We wanted to start a chamber music festival as a way to enhance and give back to our community. In 2011, we were running errands near our home in Chicago’s North Shore, noticed the Village Presbyterian Church, and quickly realized it would be ideal for such an event. For participating artists, we knew we could draw on a top-notch network of friends and colleagues with whom we have had the good fortune to collaborate throughout the years. What resulted was the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, which takes place each June over three days in Northbrook. If not for the pandemic, 2020 would have marked the 10th anniver- sary of the festival – a noteworthy milestone in the rough-and-tumble non-profit world. During this unprecedented year, we created a new onstage/offstage series presented at the beautiful PianoForte Studios with limited in-person seating that enjoyed a livestream audience of tens of thousands of people in the Chicago area and around the globe. Our concerts were streamed in Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Bright Star Community Outreach, and included perfor- mances by the talented students of The Betty Haag Academy of Music. Today we are extremely proud and moved to welcome you to the celebration! Thanks to all our donors and especially that of our lead sponsor, The Alphadyne Foundation, we are able to offer complimentary access to everyone in celebration of our 10th anniversary and as a gesture of thanks and encouragement to our community here on Chicago’s North Shore and elsewhere. Among the festival highlights are Beethoven’s Septet, Brahms’ grandiose Piano Quintet, Hun- garian composer Ernst von Dohnányi’s Sextet, featuring elements of jazz and what one writer has described as a “lopsided Viennese waltz.” Continuing the festival’s commitment to education, the concert on June 11th features past and present recipients of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund. They will be joined by the festi- val artists - bridging generations in a heartwarming program full of beauty and virtuosity called “Romance from France” This special year, all the Artists will be familiar faces. Violist and composer Atar Arad, violinist Lisa Shihoten, clarinetist Ilya Shterenberg, cellist Wendy Warner and pianist William Wolfram have all appeared numerous times at the festival, including its debut edition in 2011. 2021 is a big year for the North Shore Chamber Music Festival for many reasons. If you are a regular attendee, or joining us for the first time - we are so happy to see you, and experience music together as a sign of a new, brighter beginning. Welcome to the NSCMF - the music makers! Yours truly, Vadim Gluzman Angela Yoffe Artistic Director Executive Director 4 www.nscmf.org
The North Shore Music Alliance, the NSCMF and its Directors
Angela Yoffe and Vadim Gluzman would like to salute the
young performers, and express our deep appreciation to
THE MAGICAL STRINGS OF YOUTH OF THE
BETTY HAAG ACADEMY OF MUSIC
Our special thanks and gratitude to the extraordinary
teacher and human being, the Founder and Director
of the Academy—Betty Haag-Kuhnke—for her
endless enthusiasm, belief and continuous
support of this project.
www.nscmf.org
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2021 AT 7:30PM
THE VILLAGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NORTHBROOK
OPENING NIGHT – MOSTLY BEETHOVEN
ATAR ARAD
Toccatina A La Turk for violin and viola
Lisa Shihoten, violin; Atar Arad, viola
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
String Quartet Op.59. No.3 “Razumovsky”
Andante con moto - Allegro vivace
Andante con moto quasi allegretto
Menuetto (Grazioso)
Allegro molto
Ariel String Quartet
INTERMISSION
NSCMF presents Community Ambassador Awards 2020
PianoForte Chicago
The Village Church of Northbrook
Sunset Foods of Northbrook
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Septet in E-flat major, Op.20
Adagio – Allegro con brio
Adagio cantabile
Tempo di menuetto
Tema con variazioni: Andante
Scherzo: Allegro molto vivace
Andante con moto alla marcia – Presto
Vadim Gluzman, violin; Atar Arad, viola; Mark Kosower, cello; Kurt Muroki,
double bass; Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet; Marlene Ngalissamy, bassoon*;
Eric Reed, french horn
*AFSF Recipients
Tonight’s program will be recorded by WFMT - Chicago’s Classical and fine
arts station.Streaming on The Violin Channel
NSCMF 2021 concerts will be streamed worldwide by Elan Cinema
The North Shore Chamber Music Festival is grateful to
The Village Presbyterian Church for hosting the Festival
PianoForte Chicago for graciously providing the grand piano for the Festival
The Hilton Chicago Northbrook - the official hotel of the North Shore Chamber Music Festival
PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
6 www.nscmf.org
FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2021 AT 7:30PM
THE VILLAGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NORTHBROOK
THE STARS OF TOMORROW!
ROMANCE FROM FRANCE
AFSF Recipients and Festival Artists
MORITZ MOSZKOWSKI
Suite for two violins and piano Op. 71
Allegro energico
Allegro moderato
Lento assai
Molto vivace
Vadim Gluzman, Julian Rhee*, Masha Lakisova*, Joshua Brown*,
Jacqueline Audas* violin; William Wolfram, piano
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
Sonata for bassoon and piano Op. 168
Allegro moderato
Allegro scherzando
Molto adagio – Allegro moderato
Marlene Ngalissamy*, bassoon; Janice Carissa*, piano
PABLO DE SARASATE
Navarra for two violins and piano Op.33
Jacqueline Audas*, Joshua Brown*, violin; Angela Yoffe, piano
INTERMISSION
CESAR FRANCK
Piano Quintet in F minor
Molto moderato
Lento
Allegro non troppo
Janice Carissa*, piano; Masha Lakisova*, Joshua Brown*, violin;
Julian Rhee*, viola; Katherine Audas*, cello
*AFSF Recipients
Tonight’s program will be recorded by WFMT - Chicago’s Classical and fine
arts station.Streaming on The Violin Channel
NSCMF 2021 concerts will be streamed worldwide by Elan Cinema
The North Shore Chamber Music Festival is grateful to
The Village Presbyterian Church for hosting the Festival
PianoForte Chicago for graciously providing the grand piano for the Festival
The Hilton Chicago Northbrook - the official hotel of the North Shore Chamber Music Festival
PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
www.nscmf.org 7
SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2021 AT 7:30PM
THE VILLAGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NORTHBROOK
“BRAHMS AND COMPANY”
JOSEPH HAYDN
Piano Trio No. 39 in G major, Hob. XV/25 (Gypsy Trio)
Andante
Poco Adagio
Finale: Rondo all’Ongarese - Presto
Angela Yoffe, piano; Vadim Gluzman, violin; Wendy Warner, cello
ERNST VON DOHNÁNYI
Sextet for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet & horn in C major, Op. 37
Allegro appassionato
Intermezzo: Adagio
Allegro con sentiment
Finale. Allegro vivace, giocoso
Janice Carissa, piano; Lisa Shihoten, violin; Rose Armbrust, viola;
Mark Kosower, cello, Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet; Eric Reed, french horn
INTERMISSION
2021 Appreciation Award presented to Michael Volpert, Music Advisor
JOHANNES BRAHMS
The Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Allegro non troppo
Andante, un poco Adagio
Scherzo: Allegro
Finale: Poco sostenuto. Allegro non troppo
William Wolfram, piano; Vadim Gluzman, Lisa Shihoten, violin;
Paul Neubauer, viola; Wendy Warner, cello
Tonight’s program will be recorded by WFMT - Chicago’s Classical and fine
arts station.Streaming on The Violin Channel
NSCMF 2021 concerts will be streamed worldwide by Elan Cinema
The North Shore Chamber Music Festival is grateful to
The Village Presbyterian Church for hosting the Festival
PianoForte Chicago for graciously providing the grand piano for the Festival
The Hilton Chicago Northbrook - the official hotel of the North Shore Chamber Music Festival
PLEASE SWITCH OFF YOUR CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES
8 www.nscmf.org
Vadim Gluzman, violin
artistic director, North Shore Chamber Music Festival
Universally recognized among today’s top performing artists, Vadim
Gluzman brings to life the glorious violinistic tradition of the 19th and
20th centuries. Gluzman’s wide repertoire embraces new music and
his performances are heard around the world through live broadcasts
and a striking catalogue of award-winning recordings exclusively for the
BIS label.
The Israeli violinist has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston
Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony
Royal Concertgebouw and many others. He collaborates with leading conductors including
Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Tugan Sokhiev, Sir Andrew Davis, Neeme Järvi,
Michael Tilson Thomas, Semyon Bychkov and Hannu Lintu. Festival appearances include
performances at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Verbier, and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival
in Chicago, founded by Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe, his wife and recital partner.
Highlights of the current season include performances with the Chicago Symphony,
Cleveland Orchestra, Sydney and Melbourne Symphonies, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony
Orchestra, and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Ohio, where he leads performances
as its Creative Partner and Principal Guest Artist. He celebrates the 100th anniversary of
the birth of violinist Henryk Szeryng with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Hamburg NDR
Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony and the Warsaw Philharmonic.
Gluzman serves as Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Peabody Conservatory and
performs on the legendary 1690 ‘ex-Leopold Auer’ Stradivari, on extended loan to him
through the generosity of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Angela Yoffe, piano
executive director, North Shore Chamber Music Festival
Pianist, producer, and educator, Angela Yoffe, is widely admired for
her dazzling musicianship and passion for music education. Yoffe is the
founder and executive director of The Music Makers, an international
organization that produces Chicago’s annual North Shore Chamber Music
Festival, the Music Makers Israel, and the Arkady Fomin Scholarship
Fund, which has provided early career support, guidance and inspiration
to more than 25 gifted young artists from around the world interested in
pursuing a career as a performer.
Yoffe is also founder of the Collaborative Piano Class at the Chicago College of Performing
Arts at Roosevelt University. Her Creative Learning Program has led collaborative projects
with the International Center on Deafness and the Arts and the Lurie Children’s hospital.
Angela Yoffe has performed as a chamber musician and recitalist in New York,
Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, London, Berlin, Paris, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Rome
and Tokyo among others. She has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the
Omaha Symphony, SWR Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony and with
New York’s Jupiter Symphony under the batons of Andrey Boreyko, Gerard Schwarz, Jens
Nygaard, and other leading conductors. Yoffe has been invited to perform at the Verbier
Festival in Switzerland, Lockenhaus Festival in Austria, Festival de Radio France, Schleswig-
Holstein Festival, Colmar Festival in France, MIDEM Festival, Ravinia Festival, Pablo Casals
Festival in Puerto Rico, the Schwetzingen Festspiele, and the Bantry Festival in West Cork.
Angela Yoffe records exclusively for BIS Records and her discography includes a recent
album of Sergey Prokofiev’s Violin and Piano Sonatas with violinist Vadim Gluzman. Her
world premiere recording of Lera Auerbach’s “24 Preludes for Violin and Piano” (composed
www.nscmf.org 9
for Ms. Yoffe and Mr. Gluzman) was released on BIS Records to rave reviews, as well as
their other albums: “Time and Again,” “Ballet for a Lonely Violinist,” and “Fireworks”.
Ms. Yoffe was born in Riga, Latvia into a family of respected musicians. After studying
piano performance in the Soviet Union and Israel, she continued with Joaquín Achúcarro and
Jonathan Feldman in the United States and became an assistant to Dorothy DeLay at the
Juilliard School of Music. Angela resides between Chicago and Tel Aviv with her husband,
violinist Vadim Gluzman, and their daughter Orli.
Atar Arad, viola
Israeli-born violist and composer Atar Arad is a faculty member at the
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington. His summer
activities include teaching at Keshet Eilon, Israel, Domaine Forget, Canada,
Heifetz Institute and the Steans Music Institute (where he is serving as
faculty since 1991).
A Cum Laude First Prize winner at the Geneva International Music
Competition (1972), he has performed worldwide in recitals and as a
soloist with major orchestras and, for seven years, as a member of the celebrated Cleveland
Quartet. His recordings with the quartet and as a soloist for labels such as Teldec, Telarc,
RCA and RIAX are widely acclaimed. His performance of Paganini’s Sonata Per La Grand’
Viola e Orchestra in particular is considered by many as a landmark in the history of the viola.
A “late bloomer” composer, Arad’s compositions include a Solo Sonata for Viola, two
String Quartets, a Viola Concerto (which he premiered in Bloomington, Brussels and in
Stockholm) and more. His Tikvah for Viola Solo was commissioned for the 2008 Munich
International Viola Competition by the ARD. His Listen (three poems by W.S. Merwin) for
tenor, clarinet, viola, cello and bass was written for the International Musicians Seminar’s
concert tour in England with singer Mark Padmore. Epitaph for cello and string orchestra was
written for cellist Gary Hoffman who premiered it in Kronberg, Germany, with the Kremerata
Baltica Orchestra (Arad performed the viola version of this piece at the International Viola
Congress in Rochester, NY). Arad performed and presented his Twelve Caprices for Viola
on several USA, Canada, Israel and European concert tours. The Caprices are published by
Hofmeister Musikverlag, Leipzig.
Recent performances include the Primrose Memorial Concert at BYU and, as a part of
his services as the Lorand Fenyves Distinguished Visitor, in Toronto.
In November 2018, Arad was a featured artist at the International Viola Congress in
Rotterdam, premiering his new concerto for viola and strings, titled “Ceci n’est pas un
Bach”.
Atar Arad is a recipient of the American Viola Society’s Career Achievement Award
(June 2018) and the International Viola Society’s Silver Alto Clef 2018 “in recognition for his
outstanding contributions to the to the viola” (November 2018).
Arad plays on a viola by Niccolo Amati. He uses a set of PI strings by Thomastik.
William Wolfram, Piano
American pianist William Wolfram was a silver medalist at both the
William Kapell and the Naumburg International Piano Competitions and
a bronze medalist at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in
Moscow.
Wolfram has appeared with many of the greatest orchestras of the
world and has developed a special reputation as the rare concerto soloist
who is also equally versatile and adept as a recitalist, accompanist and
chamber musician. In all of these genres, he is highly sought after for his
special focus on the music of Franz Liszt and Beethoven and is a special champion for the
10 www.nscmf.orgmusic of modernist 20th century American composers.
His concerto debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Leonard Slatkin
was the first in a long succession of appearances and career relationships with numerous
American conductors and orchestras. He has also appeared with the San Francisco, Saint
Louis, Indianapolis, Seattle and New Jersey symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the
National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.), the Baltimore Symphony, the Colorado
Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Nashville Symphony, the Oregon Symphony,
the Utah Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony, the Columbus
Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the Grand Teton and San Luis Obispo Mozart festival
orchestras, among many others. He enjoys regular and ongoing close associations with the
Dallas Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony and the Minnesota
Orchestra as well as the musicians of the New York Philharmonic for chamber concerts in
the United States.
Internationally recognized conductors with whom he has worked include Osmo Vanska,
Andrew Litton, Jerzy Semkow, Mark Wigglesworth, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Spivakov, Michael
Christie, Gerard Schwarz, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jeffrey Kahane, James Judd, Roberto
Minczuk, Stefan Sanderling, JoAnn Falletta, James Paul, Carlos Kalmar, Hans Vonk, Joseph
Silverstein, Jens Nygaard, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Vasily Petrenko.
Abroad, Wolfram has appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra of London, the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the RTE Symphony
Orchestra of Ireland (Dublin), the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Bergen Philharmonic
(Norway), the Beethovenhalle Orchestra Bonn, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
and many others.
An enthusiastic supporter of new music, he has collaborated with and performed music
by composers such as Aaron Jay Kernis, Kenneth Frazelle, Marc Andre Dalbavie, Kenji
Bunch, and Paul Chihara. His world premiere performance of the Chihara re-orchestration of
Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton of Andreas
Delfs, was met with great critical attention and acclaim.
Other highlights include several chamber music collaborations, including recitals and
recordings with Oscar Shumsky, recitals with Harvey Shapiro and numerous collaborations
with Leonard Rose. He also performed Richard Strauss’s setting of the Tennyson poem
Enoch Arden with the Oscar-winning actress Louise Rainer, and with actor Jeff Steitzer.
Wolfram has also performed as a guest artist with prominent ballet companies including
ABT, Pittsburgh Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Carolina Ballet and Boston Ballet, working with noted
choreographers including Jiri Kylian, Edward Villella, Robert Weiss, and Agnes De Mille.
Wolfram has extensive experience in the recording studio. He has recorded four
titles on the Naxos label in his series of Franz Liszt Opera Transcriptions and two other
chamber music titles for Naxos with violinist Philippe Quint (music of Miklos Rosza and
John Corigliano). Also for Naxos he has recorded the music of Earl Kim with piano and
orchestra – the RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland behind him. For the Albany
label, he recorded the piano concertos of Edward Collins with Marin Alsop and the Royal
Scottish National Orchestra. He most recently recorded the Bach Goldberg Variations on
the PlayClassics label.
As educator and teacher, Mr. Wolfram is a long-standing member of the piano faculty of
the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, and a regular featured guest at the Colorado
College Music Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also teaches a performance class
and a chamber music class at the acclaimed Manhattan School of Music.
In print and other media Wolfram was the focus of a full chapter in Joseph Horowitz’s
book, The Ivory Trade: Music and the Business of Music at the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition. On television, he was a featured pianist in the documentary of the 1986
Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition.
www.nscmf.org 11A graduate of the Juilliard School, William Wolfram resides in New York City with his
wife and two daughters and is a Yamaha artist.
Paul Neubauer, viola
Violist Paul Neubauer‘s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the
New York Times to call him “a master musician.” He recently made his
Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and
his Mariinsky Orchestra debut with conductor Valery Gergiev. He also gave
the US premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by
Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron
Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia was released on
Signum Records and his recording of the complete viola and piano music by Ernest Bloch
with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos. Appointed principal violist of the New
York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including
the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas,
San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and
Beethovenhalle orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of
the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki,
Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home
Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he
has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal,
and Sony Classical and is a member of SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist
Anne-Marie McDermott. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in
New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Ariel String Quartet
Distinguished by its virtuosic playing and impassioned interpretations,
the Ariel Quartet has a glowing international reputation. Formed in Israel
over twenty years ago, the Quartet was recently awarded the prestigious
Cleveland Quartet Award. The Ariel serves as the Faculty Quartet-in-
Residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music,
where they direct the rigorous chamber music program.
The group’s 2017-18 season features performances for Shriver Hall,
the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, and the New England Conservatory; on
major series around the United States; and in Israel and Europe. In 2016-17, the Ariel Quartet
performed the complete Beethoven cycle in Berlin, following a performance of the cycle for
Napa’s Music in the Vineyards, while 2015-16 featured their debut at Carnegie Hall.
The Ariel has collaborated with the pianist Orion Weiss; violist Roger Tapping; cellist
Paul Katz; and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets, and toured with the
cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the legendary pianist Menahem Pressler. The Ariel was quartet-
in-residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music
Festival, and for the Perlman Music Program, and was the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-In-
Residence at the Caramoor Festival.
Formerly the resident ensemble in NEC’s Professional String Quartet Training Program,
the Ariel has won international prizes including the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Grand Prize
at the 2006 Fischoff Competition, and the Székely Prize for their performance of Bartók, as
well as the overall Third Prize at Banff.
The Ariel Quartet has been mentored extensively by Itzhak Perlman, Paul Katz, Donald
Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Kim Kashkashian, and Martha Strongin Katz, among others, and spent
a formative year in Switzerland for in-depth studies with Walter Levin. The Quartet has received
significant support for the members’ studies in the United States from the America-Israel
12 www.nscmf.orgCultural Foundation, Dov and Rachel Gottesman, and the Legacy Heritage Fund. Most recently,
they were awarded a substantial grant from The A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation.
Janice Carissa, piano
2019 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Janice Carissa, from Surabaya, Indonesia, entered the Curtis Institute of
Music in 2013 and studies piano with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald.
All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full tuition scholarships, and Ms.
Carissa is the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Fellow.
A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Ms. Carissa was recently
awarded the 2018 Career Grant Winner of Charlotte White’s Salon De
Virtuosi. She will perform at WQXR’s Greene Space in New York in November. In Summer
2018, Ms. Carissa participated at Ravinia Steans Music Institute Summer Festival and premiered
the Timo Andres Piano Trio, which she would play in Ravinia’s 2019 Tour along with Miriam
Fried and her colleagues. Following her success at Ravinia, Ms. Carissa was also invited to
collaborate with players of Berlin Philharmoniker’s Scharoun Ensemble in Poland at Penderecki
Center, performing works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Bach. Her other upcoming 2019
engagements include a recital tour series with cellist Zlatomir Fung.
Ms. Carissa was a Young Scholar of Lang Lang’s International Music Foundation; the
runner-up in the 2014 piano competition at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen
Music Festival and School; Star Performance Award Winner of the 2012 American Protégé
International Music Talent Competition in New York; the runner-up in Indonesia Pusaka
International Piano Competition in 2011; and the Top Prize Winner of the IBLA Foundation’s
2006 International Piano Competition.
Ms. Carissa has been featured on television and radio, including Indonesia Mencari Bakat,
Inspirasi Pagi, Sang Juara, Global TV, RCTI, Trans TV, BC TV, Metro TV, TV One, Voice of
America, WHYY-TV, WXQR’s Greene Space, and National Public Radio’s From the Top.
Recent career highlights include her debut with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra playing Mozart
Piano Concerto and a solo recital tour in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Long Island, and New
York. She has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Peter by the Sea;
Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra; Symphony in C; the Eastern Wind Symphony;
Bay Atlantic Symphony; and appears regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Concert
Series. She also has performed at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris for the Auditorium
opening in 2016. Other notable venues include The Sydney Opera House, Stern and Weill
Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Miller Theater in Columbia University,
the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, the Kimmel Center, United Nations in New
York, Oxford University’s St. Hilda’s College, Chicago’s Jay Priztker Pavilion, the Kennedy
Center in Washington DC, the Sydney Opera House, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music’s
Concert Hall in Warsaw, Theatre Hall of the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw, and
performances in Rimini, Ragusa, and Cesena in Italy.
In 2011, Ms. Carissa performed for the President of Indonesia and other dignitaries at the
Presidential Palace in Bogor and for Lady Dewi Sukarno in Bali.
Masha Lakisova, violin
2015 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
“While it is not out of the ordinary for me to come across immensely
and precociously talented youngsters as host of “From the Top,” it is
quite a rarity to be introduced to a very young artist who displays not only
incredible facility but the truest manifestations of artistry: devotion and
dedication, a personal and rigorously integral aesthetic point of view, and
the requisite leadership and responsibility for inspiring her peers. Masha
www.nscmf.org 13Lakisova is just such a rarity, a true artist destined for great things.”– Christopher O’Riley,
Host, NPR’s “From the Top”
At just nineteen, Chicago violinist Masha Lakisova is fast becoming one of the rising stars
of her generation. She has had the privilege of performing in esteemed concert venues in the
United States and all over the world. Masha has appeared as a soloist with orchestras worldwide
such as Kremerata Baltica, HEMU, Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra, Skokie Valley Symphony
Orchestra, and Lake Forest Symphony. At the North Shore Chamber Music Festival, she became
the first recipient of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship in 2015. She was featured on NPR’s “From
The Top” four times, where she received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, and on
WFMT’s Introductions, both as a soloist and as a member of various chamber groups.
She has taken top prizes at prestigious competitions such as 3rd prize at the 2020 Stulberg
and Klein International String Competitions, 1st prize at the 2018 Tibor Junior and 2nd prize at
the 2015 Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competitions, National YoungArts, and the
Walgreens National Concerto Competition. She also became a finalist at the 2013 International
Louis Spohr Violin Competition.
From 2011-2017, Masha was a member of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, where
she served as concertmaster in three orchestras and played first violin in four chamber groups.
Her chamber groups have won two consecutive Gold Medals at the 2016 and 2017 Fischoff
International Chamber Music Competitions. They received 1st Prize in the 2015 and 2016
Rembrandt High School Chamber Music Competitions, as well as 1st Prize and the Audience
Prize at the WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition in 2017. They were also the overall
winners at the 2016 Discover Chamber Music Competition and Silver Medalists at the 2016
St. Paul String Quartet Chamber Music Competition. In 2018, Quartet Bellezza was accepted
to the Julliard String Quartet Seminar.
Masha currently studies with Miriam Fried at New England Conservatory, where she is
a recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship. She graduated from Julliard Pre-College where she
studied with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin, and she has also previously been a student of Grigory
Kalinovsky, Drew Lecher, and Larisa Zhizhin. Masha has taken lessons and masterclasses with
such prominent virtuosi as Ana Chumachenko, Anne Sophie Mutter, Pinchas Zukerman, Shmuel
Ashkenasi, Paul Huang, Augustin Hadelich, and Ida Kavafian. She has collaborated with Vadim
Gluzman, Pavel Vernikov, Svetlin Roussev, Ilya Kaler, Yossif Ivanov, Masumi Per Rostad, Rose
Armbrust Griffin, Ani Aznavoorian, Mark Kosower, Christopher O’Riley, David Schrader, and the
Ariel Quartet.
Masha has been involved with many prestigious summer music festivals. In 2015, she
attended the Heifetz Music Institute and has been a student at the Perlman Music Program
since 2016.
Miss Lakisova is the proud recipient of a magnificent violin by Giovanni Francesco
Pressenda, Turin, 1845 on loan from The Stradivari Society of Chicago thanks to the generosity
of her patron, Edward Manzo.
Katherine Audas, cello
2020 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Katherine Audas is currently pursuing her masters degree in cello
performance with Brinton Smith at Rice University’s Shepherd School of
Music, where she holds the Appassionata Endowed Scholarship in Music.
She graduated cum laude from Rice University with her undergraduate
degree in cello performance where she studied with Norman Fischer.
Katherine made her solo debut at the age of 11 as the winner of the
Young Artist’s Competition of the Meridian Symphony. In August 2019, she was awarded
the silver medal at the IX Concurso Internacional Violonchelo Carlos Prieto. In June 2019,
she competed in the 2019 Ima Hogg Competition where she was awarded the audience
14 www.nscmf.orgchoice award and 4th place. In the past, she was the winner of the Shepherd School of
Music Concerto Competition, the Gold Medal and the Audience Favorite Award winner
at the Young Texas Artists Music Competition, the Grand Prize winner of the Enkor
International Music Competition, and the Grand Prize winner in the junior division of the
Tulsa International Crescendo Music Awards.
Katherine has appeared as a soloist with numerous symphonies, including the Houston
Symphony at the Ima Hogg Competition, the Michoacán Symphony, the Shepherd School of
Music, the Boise Philharmonic, the Walla Walla Symphony, and the Music in the Mountains
Festival Orchestra. She has performed in masterclasses for Gautier Capuçon, Lynn Harrell,
Ko Iwasaki, Alisa Weilerstein, Clive Greensmith, Joel Krosnick, and Lawrence Lesser.
Katherine performs on a 1696 Grancino composite cello.
Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet
Principal clarinetist of the San Antonio Symphony and Principal clarinetist
of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, OH), Ilya Shterenberg
balances a busy career as an orchestral musician, chamber music
performer, and a soloist. Hailed by the press: “He possesses that
miraculous gift of an innate musical sense…music seemed to flow toward
the infinite, as if divinely ordained”, he has been featured as a soloist
performing standard works by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Debussy, as well
as rarely heard clarinet concertos by Krommer and Kurpinsky, as well as the American
premiere of Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.
He has been featured as Principal clarinetist with Cincinnati and Seattle Symphonies,
and has collaborated with such conductors as Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Dennis Russell
Davies, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim, George Solti, Pierre Boulez and others.
Away from the orchestras, Ilya is very active as chamber musician, festival performer,
and educator. He is a member of Olmos Ensemble, a chamber group made up of principal
woodwind players from the San Antonio Symphony. His summer appearances have included
the Colorado Music Festival and Britt Festival, as well as the Piccolo Spoleto Festival – USA.
As an educator, he has been a faculty member of the College of Charleston, the University
of Texas San Antonio, and UT Austin.
A native of Ukraine, Ilya began his music education at the Kosenko Music College, in
Zhitomir, city of his birth. After his immigration to the United States in 1989, he received
an Artist Certificate diploma from the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist
University, after which he did further study at DePaul University in Chicago. His principal
teachers have included Larry Combs, Stephen Girko, and Charles Neidich.
Mr. Shterenberg’s performances have been heard on National Public Radio stations
throughout the country as well as Chicago’s WFMT nationwide classical music network. He
performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber music artist with Cactus Pear Music Festival
and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival.
Ilya is a Buffet Group USA performing artist.
Joshua Brown, violin
2017 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Possessing a rare combination of musical instinct, a unique voice, and
flawless technique, Joshua Brown has found success in performances
and competitions worldwide. He was first recognized for his debut
performance with the Cleveland Orchestra at the age of fifteen, for which
he received glowing reviews from critics: “Had he played from behind
a curtain, you wouldn’t have believed that Joshua Brown…was only
15,” wrote clevelandclassical.com. “His interpretation of Dmitri Shostakovich’s first violin
www.nscmf.org 15concerto was so maturely wrought that it might have come from a seasoned professional.
Brilliantly played and expertly paced, Brown’s performance checked into every emotional
corner of [the] work…Brown was spellbinding throughout his entire time on stage.”
Following that debut, Joshua has gone on to perform regularly with orchestras in
the United States and Europe (including the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Chicago Civic
Orchestra, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and
Rockford Symphony Orchestra, among many others) and has continually garnered praise
from critics (Chicago Classical Review: “…his lithe playing betrays a musical maturity
beyond his 17 years……the young man played with great poise and a silken tone……and
is clearly someone to watch in years to come;” The News-Gazette: “The highlight of the
evening was young Joshua Brown’s solo playing in Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons.’
Brown is clearly a young performer of considerable promise. His sparkling playing in the
Vivaldi ..… gave renewed joy to this often heard composition.” The Augsburger-Allgemiene:
“With finely cut tone, … [Brown] scored with meticulous articulation, lively dynamics and
an understanding of the rhetoric of this music…. Brown … renounced superficial sound
enrichment and preferred to rely on narrative statement, even in the large, technically
excellently mastered cadenza of the first movement.” Feuilleton Regional: “His brilliant
portrayal [in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto], with its lyrical colors and virtuoso drive,
radiated refinement [and] the Kongress Hall [audience] celebrated with standing ovations.”)
Joshua has performed at concert halls on three continents, including the Kennedy
Center in Washington DC, both Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City, Severence
Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, Symphony Center in Chicago, Arnold Katz State Concert Hall in
Novosibirsk, Russia, and Kongress Hall in Augsburg, Germany; has made solo appearances
on NPR’s nationally syndicated program From the Top and on WFMT’s Introductions; and
has been featured on WFMT, WNIU, WCLV, ElmhurstTV, and Fox5DC. He has also been
featured in a number of recitals, including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series,
the Tchaikovsky Festival in Moscow, and Cincinnati’s Matinée Musicale series.
Joshua’s musical ability has been recognized in competitions as well. At the age of
only nineteen, Joshua won the Tenth International Violin Competition of Leopold Mozart
in Augsburg, Germany, securing the First Prize, “Mozart” Prize, the Audience Award,
the Chairman of the Jury Special Prize, the Kronberg Academy Special Prize, and the CD
Production Special Prize. He was also awarded dozens of performance opportunities in
Europe which will take place during the next three years.
Other competition victories include the Cooper International Violin Competition (Second
Prize and the Audience Award) and the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young
Musicians held in Novosibirsk, Russia (the Audience Award, Special Prize, the Academy of
Arts Golden Medal, and the Siberian Academy of Arts Talent Award). Joshua was also a
top prize winner in the 2016 Stradivarius International Violin Competition; was awarded the
Grand Prize for Violin in the 2016 ENKOR International Music Competition; was named the
2016/2017 American Prize Winner for Instrumental Performance; was a National YoungArts
Winner in both 2016 and 2017; was awarded Grand Prize in the 2018 National Stillman-
Kelly Competition; was named a 2018 Yamaha Young Performing Artist; was awarded the
Luminarts Cultural Foundation’s 2019 Luminarts Fellowship for Strings, and was named
the National Collegiate Strings Winner for 2019 by the National Federation of Music Clubs.
Additionally, as part of Kairos String Quartet, Joshua (who alternated between first violin
and viola) won First Prize at the A.N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition and
the Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition and earned Gold Medals in both the Junior
Division of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Competition and the Junior String Division of
the 2018 M-Prize International Chamber Arts Competition, making Kairos the only chamber
group ever to win the top prizes at both Fischoff and M-Prize in the same year.
A recipient of the Stradivari Society of Chicago since 2016, Joshua is grateful to play
16 www.nscmf.orgon a 1679 Pietro Guarneri violin from Cremona. Joshua currently studies violin with Donald
Weilerstein at New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) on a full Deans Scholarship. For
the five years prior to NEC, Joshua studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music
Institute of Chicago’s (MIC) Academy as a Scholarship Fellow (recipient of both the
Rachel Barton Pine Scholarship and the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Fellowship).
Other scholarships include the North Shore Chamber Music Festival’s Haag/Galvin Young
Artist and Arkady Fomin Scholarship, the American Opera Society of Chicago’s Eleanor
Pearce Sherwin Scholarship, the Highland Park Music Club Scholarship, the Parkridge Civic
Orchestra’s International Rotary Scholarship, and the 2019 Luminarts Cultural Foundation at
the Union League Club of Chicago Classical Strings Fellowship. Joshua is passionate about
reaching and connecting with new listeners and towards that end, maintains a very active
presence on his Instagram account @joshuabrownviolinist.
Eric Reed, horn
Eric Reed is an internationally recognized horn player, chamber musician,
and educator. He is the newest member of the American Brass Quintet, and
serves on the horn and chamber music faculties of The Juilliard School. In
addition to his work with the ABQ, Eric performs regularly with the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the
Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He is a former member of the Canadian Brass and
Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, as well as the Oregon, New World,
and Harrisburg symphonies. Based in New York City, Eric has performed with dozens of the
region’s cultural organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and
International Contemporary Ensemble. He has appeared as Guest Associate Principal Horn
with the Philadelphia Orchestra and as Guest Principal Horn with the New Jersey Symphony,
American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and American Ballet Theater.
He is a member of the newly formed Ensemble Échappé, a sinfonietta dedicated to music of
the 21st century. Recent world premieres include works by John Zorn, Eric Ewazen, William
Bolcom, Philip Lasser, Kenneth Fuchs and Timo Andres. Mr. Reed is on the faculty of the Aspen
Music Festival and School and Round Top Festival Institute, and was recently appointed Guest
French Horn Professor at the Middle School Affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.
He holds degrees from Rice University and The Juilliard School. Eric resides in the Bronx with
his wife, violinist Sarah Zun and their son, Oliver.
Julian Rhee, violin
2020 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Violinist Julian Rhee is fast gaining recognition as an outstanding musician and
performer in the US.
The first prize winner of the Johansen International Competition in
Washington DC, Julian was also awarded the Solo Bach, Commissioned
Work, and the Elaine H. Klein Prize at the Irving M. Klein International
String Competition. In 2018, Julian was a Finalist of the National YoungArts
Foundation, where he performed at the New World Center in Miami. Subsequently, Julian
appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and received
his medal at the White House. In the summer of 2018, Julian was the recipient of the
2019 Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Scholarship, and was named the winner of the
Aspen Music Festival Violin Concerto Competition, where he performed with the Aspen
Philharmonic Orchestra at Benedict Music Tent.
An avid soloist, Julian made his Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra debut at age 8, and has
gone on to perform with orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Eugene
Symphony Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, the Madison Symphony Orchestra,
www.nscmf.org 17the Avanti Symphony Orchestra, West Suburban Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin
Philharmonic, the Lacrosse Symphony Orchestra, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and
most recently, the San Diego Symphony. He has performed in an array of venues including
Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Heinz Hall, the Overture Center for the Arts, Teatro El Círculo
in Rosario, Argentina, The Musikverein in Vienna, Bartok Hall in Hungary, New World Center,
and the John F Kennedy Center.
A passionate chamber musician, Julian’s performance on violin and viola earned him and
his String Quartet first prize in the 2018 A.N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition
and Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition, and Gold Medals at the Fischoff National
Chamber Music Competition and the M-Prize International Chamber Arts Competition. This
past summer, Julian appeared with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City, and
also performed with recent Avery Fisher Career Grant Winner Henry Kramer at Pierce Hill
Performing Arts in August.
Julian has appeared alongside internationally renowned ensemble Time for Three on
National Public Radio’s From The Top, 98.7 WFMT’s Introductions, Milwaukee Public Radio
89.7, Milwaukee Public Television, and Wisconsin Public Radio and Television (WPT/WPR).
Julian shares his passion for music by serving in the local community as an assisting
artist and mentor of the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra (WIO), which brings together
musicians of all ages and skill levels. In addition, he regularly speaks and performs at schools
and retirement homes in Wisconsin and Illinois, most recently at West Bend High School
and North Shore Country Day School as its Susan Marshall Artist.
Julian studied with Almita and Roland Vamos as a scholarship recipient at the Music
Institute of Chicago Academy. He is a graduate of Brookfield East High School as Class
President and Valedictorian. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree with
Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory.
Jacqueline Audas, violin
2017 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
Violinist Jacqueline Audas began studying the violin at age three. She
graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BM in violin performance from The
Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. As the recipient of the Winifred
and Maurice Hirsch Memorial Scholarship, she is currently pursuing her
master’s degree in violin performance at Rice, with the renowned Professor
Paul Kantor. Prior to entering college, she studied with the late Arkady Fomin
who was a member of the Dallas Symphony and the director of the New Dallas Conservatory.
At the age of 14, Jacqueline made her solo debut with the Meridian Symphony after winning
their young artist competition. In recent years, she has appeared as a soloist with the Shepherd
School of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Texas Medical Center Orchestra, the Boise
Philharmonic, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, the McCall Summerfest Orchestra,
and the Walla Walla Symphony. Audas has collaborated with a number of conductors including
Guillermo Figueroa, Robert Franz, Yaakov Bergman, and Libi Lebel.
She has performed in masterclasses for Vadim Gluzman, Ivry Gitlis, Chaim Taub, Ida
Kavafian, Grigory Kalinovsky, Arnold Steinhardt, Sergey Ostrovsky and Rachel Barton Pine,
among others. She attended the Keshet Eilon Mastercourse in Israel in 2015 and 2017, the
Sommermusik im Oberen Nagoldtal in Germany in 2017, and the Aspen Music Festival in
2016 and 2018.
In 2017 she was awarded a scholarship from the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund.
18 www.nscmf.orgMarlene Ngalissamy, bassoon
2020 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient
“My goal as a musician and artist is to encourage emotional expression
through music, promote diversity, acceptance and sense of belonging in
diverse communities.”
Born in Moscow, Marlene moved to Canada at the age of 10 and began
learning the bassoon three years later. She quickly developed a deep
passion for the instrument and was accepted at the Montreal Conservatory
of Music where she studied with Mathieu Harel and Stephane Levesque. She completed
her undergraduate diploma in Montreal and her post-bachelor at the Curtis Institute of music
with Daniel Matsukawa.
She had the chance to participate in several workshops: Pacific music festival in Japan,
International Summer Academy of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts
Vienna, Pablo Casals Festival, Orford Academy, Chamber Music Academy of the National
Arts Centre in Ottawa and Domaine Forget. She had lessons with several national and
international masters such as Dag Jensen, Carlo Colombo, Laurent Lefevre, Ole Kristian
Dahl, Stéphane Levesque, Gustavo Nuñez, Christopher Millard, Vincent Parizeau and Louise
Pellerin. She worked with different conductors such as Kent Nagano, Yannick NézetSéguin,
Juanjo Mena, Vasily Petrenko, Allain Trudel, Julian Kuerti, Robert D. Levin and many others.
She is now part of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.
Winner of the first prize in the Canadian Music Competition (2012)and finalist of the
Meg Quigley bassoon competition (2015), she performed with the Edmonton Symphony
orchestra, the Montreal Metropolitain symphony orchestra, the Montreal Conservatory
orchestra and the Youth orchestra of Montreal. She was invited to perform as guest principal
bassoon with the Saint-Paul chamber Orchestra and is frequently performing with the Jupiter
Chamber Players in New-York.
In February 2014, Marlene gave a recital at the Red Path Hall at McGill University as part
of the Montreal High Lights Festival. The performance was recorded and broadcasted on
CBC radio2.
One of the eight laureates of the Developing Artist Grant of the Hnatyshyn Foundation (2013),
Marlene is living in Philadelphia and is freelancing with both Canadian and American orchestras.
She is also part of a community teaching artist program, working along with Penn
memory center, where she is leading a “creativity through music” class for people with
diverse stages of Alzheimer’s disease.Fuchs and Timo Andres.
Lisa Shihoten, violin
Violinist Lisa Shihoten enjoys an active career as a chamber musician,
recitalist, and teacher. She made her New York solo debut at Avery Fisher
Hall under the direction of Kurt Masur, and has received top prizes and
awards from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the
Marcia Polayes National Competition, and the Seventeen Magazine/
General Motors National Competition.
Ms. Shihoten is a member of the Concertante Chamber Players and
the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and has performed at numerous summer festivals,
including the Caramoor Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the North Shore Chamber Music
Festival, the Verbier Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music
Festival. She has also toured throughout Israel, Greece, and Turkey, and in this country regularly
tours in duo recital with organist Ken Cowan.
continued on page 22
www.nscmf.org 192021 Opportunity Award Presentation to
Elizabeth (Lizzi) Volpert
Sponsored by Lifeway Foods
Elizabeth (Lizzi) Volpert, 12, is an ardent artist, a passionate dancer and a
keen writer.
Her interest in artistic expression developed early: when she was 3
years old, inspired by the American Ballet Theater’s production of The
Sleeping Beauty at the Metropolitan Opera, she asked to start attending
ballet classes. Shortly thereafter, art classes followed.
Since then, Lizzi has been devoted to painting and drawing, gradually
experimenting with technique and genre. In spring of 2020, she received
her first commission: a cover portrait for the season brochure for Jupiter Symphony Chamber
Players in New York.
When she was 6, she was admitted to the American Ballet Theater Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis School where she trained in classical ballet for 4 years. After realizing that she
wanted to explore other types of dance, she successfully auditioned for the acclaimed
Nimbus Youth Ensemble. Currently, she is a dancer with Nimbus’s Pre-Professional division,
greatly enjoying training in modern, jazz, hip hop, and ballet, as well as participating in the
company’s many performances.
Lizzi lives in Hoboken, NJ, with her parents and a younger brother, Daniel. She is a
student at Elysian Charter School, where she plays for the school’s basketball team. Her
other interests include interior design and writing: she is finishing her first murder mystery
novel, inspired by the works of Agatha Christie.
Elizabeth Volpert, Nimbus Dance. Photo credit: Megan Maloy Photography
20 www.nscmf.orgWorks by Lizzi Volpert
Top row: Arkady Fomin, Daniel and Lizzi Volpert. Second row: Atar Arad, Julian Rhee, Katherine Audas.
Third row: Janice Carissa, Marlene Ngalissamy, William Wolfram. Fourth row: Angela Yoffe, Ariel Quartet.
www.nscmf.org 21Ms. Shihoten received her Bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School, and her Master’s
degree from the Yale School of Music. Having taught at Princeton University, she teaches violin
at the Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston.
Wendy Warner, cello
Cellist Wendy Warner soared to international acclaim, winning the
international Rostropovich Cello Competition top prize at age eighteen.
Her career took off with concerts conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich
and debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln, Düsseldorf, Berlin and New York
at Carnegie Hall. Strings magazine hailed her “youthful, surging playing,
natural stage presence and almost frightening technique.”
From a musical Chicago family, Warner studied with Rostropovich at the
Curtis Institute of Music from which she graduated. Collaborators have included conductors
Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López Cobos and Michael Tilson
Thomas. She has appeared with leading U.S. orchestras and internationally—from Paris and
London to Serbia and Russia.
Recent season highlights include appearances with the Wichita, Columbus (Georgia),
Wyoming and Alabama Symphonies and return engagements with the Orquesta Sinfónica
Nacional (Peru) and the Xiamen Philharmonic (China). This season she will be featured with the
Hartford and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras and, joining violinist Vadim Gluzman in the Brahms
Double Concerto, the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In 2020 she will return to the prestigious
Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.
Warner played the 2009 world premiere of a newly discovered Beethoven piano trio. With
pianist Irina Nuzova she performed the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas on tour and by
invitation at the U.S. Supreme Court. Other collaborators have included Anne Sophie Mutter,
Gidon Kremer, the Fine Arts Quartet and Chicago Chamber Musicians. She has given recitals in
Milan and Tokyo and is a frequent guest on WFMT in Chicago.
Wendy Warner’s Cedille CDs include Haydn & Myslivecek; Russian Music for Cello & Piano;
Popper & Piatigorsky; The Beethoven Project Trio; Double Play with Rachel Barton Pine; and
Eclipse. On other labels she has recorded Hindemith’s chamber works; Barber’s Cello Concerto;
and compositions by Dalit Warshaw. A CD of Edgar Valcárcel’s Cello Concerto with the Orquesta
Sinfónica Nacional (Peru) will be released soon. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Warner
holds the Leah D. Hamer Distinguished Faculty Chair at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus
State University. She plays a 1772 Joseph Gagliano cello.
Mark Kosower, cello
Universally admired by critics, audiences and fellow musicians, cellist
Mark Kosower has earned an extraordinary international reputation for
his instrumental mastery, musical integrity and powerfully expressive
performances as soloist with orchestras, in recitals, chamber music and as
Principal Cello of the Cleveland Orchestra with which he appears annually
as soloist. He most recently performed the Samuel Barber Concerto at the
Blossom Music Festival with Bramwell Tovey conducting and the Dvorak
Concerto with Herbert Blomstedt conducting during the 2013-14 subscription season.
During the 2014-15 season Mark Kosower will record the cello concertos of Victor Herbert
with JoAnn Falletta and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast for Naxos International. Other international
appearances include the Dvorak Concerto with the Thailand Philharmonic and the Tchaikovsky
Rococo Variations with the Camerata Franconia in Germany. In the United States Mark Kosower
returns to the Toledo Symphony to perform the Friedrich Gulda Concerto with Stefan Sanderling
and appears with the Hawaii Symphony performing the Lalo Concerto with Carlos Miguel Prieto.
continued on page 24
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