2009 CAST & CREW

Flutist STEPHANIE JUTT’s elegant artistry and passionate intellect have inspired musicians and audiences around the world. Her groundbreaking performances of new music, transcriptions, and traditional repertoire have made her a model for adventurous flutists everywhere. Ms. Jutt’s recent all-Brahms recording with pianist Jeffrey Sykes, Stolen Moments, was released in January 2005 on Centaur. New Brahms transcriptions by Ms. Jutt were recently published by International Music Publishing. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, her teachers were James Pappoutsakis, Paula Robison, and Marcel Moyse. Ms. Jutt won the Concert Artist Guild and Pro Musicis International Soloist awards and has performed in recital throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. A dedicated teacher, Ms. Jutt is on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She co-produces the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society summer music festival for three weeks with Jeffrey Sykes in Madison. She has served as a board member and program chair for the National Flute Association.

Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music," pianist JEFFREY SYKES has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. The San Francisco Examiner praised his recent appearance with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players as "a tour-de-force performance [that was] the evening's major delight." He made his Carnegie Hall debut with oboist Gerard Reuter and flutist Stephanie Jutt under the auspices of the Pro Musicis Foundation. A founder and artistic director of BDDS, Dr. Sykes also serves as the music director of Opera for the Young, a professional opera company that gives more than 260 performances a year to schoolchildren in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. In addition, he is the assistant director of Music in the Vineyards of Napa, California. Dr. Sykes holds degrees with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received his doctorate. He has garnered numerous awards, including the Jacob Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education and a Fulbright grant to study at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He resides in San Francisco.

Violinist DARIA ADAMS has been a member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1987. Before joining the SPCO, she was a concert soloist with the New American Chamber Orchestra, performing in the U.S. and Europe.  An active recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Adams has been a guest artist at the chamber music festivals of Newport, Rhode Island; Banff, Alberta, Canada; Nantucket, Massachusetts; Lyon, France; and Vaasa, Finland. Since 1987, she has also participated in the Santa Fe Opera and Strings in the Mountains in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ms. Adams is a founding member of the Blue Baroque Band, a baroque centric ensemble that can be heard on the 10,000 Lakes CD label. With her husband Michael, a violist with the Minnesota Orchestra, she is the founder and artistic director of Music in the Vineyards, a three-week summer chamber music festival in the Napa Valley wineries in California. Ms. Adams holds degrees from the State University of New York, Stonybrook, and the New England Conservatory.

Video artist JASON BAHLING is a founding member of The Rotarians Society, a four-member conceptual art collective. He has contributed videos to productions of "Overviews" and "Interviews" with Jin-Wen Yu Dance, "Aroma/5 Senses" with Doug Rosenberg, "Take-Off" with Li Chiao-Ping Dance, and "The Three Penny Opera" with UW-Theatre. He recently relocated to Portland, Oregon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violinist SUZANNE BEIA, a native of Reno, Nevada, began her musical studies on viola at the age of ten. Three years later she shifted her attention to the violin and made her solo debut at age fourteen with the North Lake Tahoe Symphony. She has appeared frequently as soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S. Before coming to Madison to join the Pro Arte Quartet as second violin, she held the position of principal second violin in the Wichita Symphony and has held concertmaster positions in the Reno Philharmonic, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, the Bay Area Women's Philharmonic, and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. Her chamber music experience has been extensive; she performed for seven years in the Verano Trio and more recently for two years with the Wichita-based Sedgwick String Quartet. She has been invited to perform in such festivals as Chamber Music West, the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, and the Festival de Prades, and has served on the faculties of the Rocky Ridge Music Center and Florida International University. In addition to her duties with the Pro Arte Quartet, Ms. Beia performs with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and is concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Narrator JOHN DEMAIN is music director of the Madison Symphony and artistic director of Opera Pacific and Madison Opera. He is also a sought after guest conductor of orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and around the world. Recent engagements include guest appearances with Los Angeles Opera, State Opera of South Australia, New York City Opera, the Festival Euro Mediterraneo in Rome, and Portland Opera. Mr. DeMain served as music director and principal conductor of the Houston Grand Opera for eighteen years. During his tenure with that organization, he led a history-making production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which he subsequently recorded for The RCA recording, of the production and won the Grammy Award, Tony Award, and France's Grand Prix du Disque. Television audiences have seen Mr. DeMain on PBS's "Great Performances," including a performance of Porgy and Bess at the New York City Opera and telecasts from the Houston Grand Opera and Lincoln Center. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, John DeMain began his career as a pianist and conductor and, after winning the Youngstown Symphony's piano competition, went on to earn a he holds a bachelor’s and master's degree in music from the Juilliard School.

Cellist JEAN-MICHEL FONTENEAU is a founding member of the award-winning Ravel String Quartet, winner of two prizes at the Evian String Quartet Competition and the Les Victoires de la Musique Classique award for the best French chamber music ensemble in 1993. He has toured and performed throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia and Central and South America. Mr. Fonteneau was assistant professor of chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France, and has served on the faculties of summer festivals including the Oberlin at Casalmaggiore program in Italy, the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and ARIA summer academy. Mr. Fonteneau has been very active in presenting new music to many audiences. He has performed national and West Coast premieres of works by composers Ross Bauer, William O. Smith, Joel Lindheimer and Andrew Imbrie. Mr. Fonteneau studied in Paris with cellists Dimitry Markevitch and Mark Drobinsky, as well as with French pedagogue Dominique Hoppenot.

Violinist and violist ARA GREGORIAN is equally accomplished as soloist and chamber musician. He made his debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall in 1997 and his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 1996. He has made chamber music appearances at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Carnegie Hall, and he has appeared as soloist with the Shanghai, Lansing, Pueblo, Michigan State University, East Carolina University, and Las Cruces symphony orchestras in recent years. Mr. Gregorian is the founder and artistic director of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival of Eastern North Carolina and has performed at the Santa Fe, El Paso, Skaneateles, Strings in the Mountains, and Cactus Pear music festivals. He has recorded for NPR, New York’s WQXR, and the Kleos label, and he is a member of the chamber music ensemble Concertante, which has toured throughout the major cities of the U.S. and China. Mr. Gregorian received his BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School and is associate professor of violin/viola at East Carolina University

After being awarded first prize in the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition, clarinetist DORIS HALL-GULATI gave her New York debut, performing the world premiere of John Carbon’s “ Rhapsody for Clarinet and Orchestra” at Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center, with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony. About the performance, Allan Kozinn of The New York Times wrote, “…. a demandingly agile clarinet line, played with both virtuosity and nuance by Doris J. Hall-Gulati, wove its way through a variegated orchestra fabric.” Ms. Hall-Gulati made her Carnegie (Weill) Hall debut playing with the Alaria Chamber Ensemble, and her Merkin Hall debut, premiering Thea Musgrave’s “ Ring Out Wild Bells” with the Philadelphia Trio. An advocate for new music, Ms. Hall-Gulati has performed in music festivals as soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as China and Russia. She can be heard on the MMC, Naxos, and New World record labels. About the recent Naxos recording of Hansen’s “Nymphs and Satyr Ballet Suite,” Paul Cook of classicstoday.com was moved to say, “I was particularly taken [by] Doris Hall-Gulati on the clarinet.” Ms. Hall-Gulati is principal clarinet in the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Berkshire Opera Festivals, as well as bass clarinetist in the Opera Company of Philadelphia. She is on the faculties of Franklin and Marshall College and the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, both located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Violist DAVID HARDING has an extensive solo and chamber music career, having performed throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada, and Central America in such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie and Concertgebouw. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, NPR, and Deutschland Radio, Berlin, and he is frequently featured on CBC Radio in Canada. Mr. Harding regularly performs at chamber music festivals throughout North America and is a member of the Music Toronto Chamber Society, Triskelion String Trio, and the American String Project. Mr. Harding is a seasoned quartet player, having been a former member of both the Chester String Quartet and the Toronto String Quartet. He has made numerous recordings, the latest of which are of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Brahms’s viola sonatas and horn trio. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Harding studied with Paul Dokto and Emanuel Vardi. He was the winner of the Sir John Barbirolli Award at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. Mr. Harding previously served on the faculty of Indiana University-South Bend and is currently professor of viola at the University of British Columbia. Mr. Harding plays on a viola made by Pietro Antonio dalla Costa, Treviso, Italy, circa 1750.

Pianist RANDALL HODGKINSON, grand prize winner of the International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland, and abroad in Italy and Iceland. In addition he has performed numerous recital programs spanning the repertoire from J.S. Bach to Donald Martino. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and performs the four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. Festival appearances include Blue Hill-Maine, Bargemusic, Chestnut Hill Concerts (Madison, Connecticut), Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, Oregon), and Mainly Mozart in San Diego. A CD of solo piano music on the Ongaku label has recently been released to critical acclaim. Other recordings include a live world premiere of the Gardner Read Piano Concerto for Albany records. Mr. Hodgkinson is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the Longy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Wellesley College.
Links to articles about Mr. Hodgkinson:

• CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Too Busy Making Music To Worry About Stardom
• A Flow of Three Composers With a Flavor of the New

A native of Chicago, cellist JOSEPH JOHNSON joined the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2007 as principal cellist. Prior to this, he was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1996. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Steven Doane and went on to earn a master’s degree from Northwestern University. Mr. Johnson has performed worldwide with many orchestras and as soloist and chamber musician. In the U.S., he has appeared at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and Bard Festival, in England, at the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove and the International Cello Festival in Manchester; and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. In 2002 Mr. Johnson was invited to the twelfth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where he advanced to the semifinal round. In the summer of 1997, he was the featured soloist for the American Russian Youth Orchestra’s world tour. Mr. Johnson has returned to Russia to give master classes at the Tchaikovsky School of Music and performed with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and in recital. He is a founding member of Prospect Park Players and the Minneapolis String Quartet. Links to articles about Mr. Johnson:

• Beethoven, cello get spotlight from MSO
• Cellist ready to bow in with symphony

From his appearances on the opera stage to his performances with prestigious symphony orchestras, baritone TIMOTHY JONES is a commanding presence and a favorite of audiences. His outstanding artistry has taken him across three continents, from the Pacific Northwest to Ecuador, Mexico to the Czech Republic. He has appeared with major symphony orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, and the Jacksonville Symphony. In opera houses he has performed leading roles in The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, La Boheme, Falstaff, Macbeth, and La Traviata. His unusual versatility makes him a frequent guest with the Victoria Bach Festival, New Texas Festival, Round Top Music Festival, Ars Lyrica Houston, Cactus Pear Music Festival, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. As a committed performer of contemporary music, Mr. Jones has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions by leading composers of our time. He currently lives in Houston, where he serves on the faculty of the University of Houston.

Cellist PARRY KARP is artist-in-residence and professor of chamber music and cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is director of the string chamber music program. He has been cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet for the past 33 years. Mr. Karp is an active solo artist, performing numerous recitals annually in the U.S., and he has recorded seven solo CDs. He is active as a performer of new music, participating in the premieres of dozens of works, many of which were written for him, including concerti, sonatas, and chamber music. Unearthing and performing unjustly neglected repertoire for cello is a passion of Mr. Karp's. In recent years he has transcribed for cello many masterpieces written for other instruments. This project has included performances of all of the Duo Sonatas of Brahms. With the Pro Arte Quartet he has performed more than 1,000 concerts throughout the Americas, Europe, and Japan. His discography with the group includes more than two dozen recordings, among them the complete string quartets of Ernest Bloch, Miklos Rosza, and Karol Szymanowski. Many of these recordings received awards from Fanfare and High Fidelity magazines. Former students of Mr. Karp's are now teachers and members of professional string quartets and major orchestras throughout North America.
CD Reviews: Late Romantic Music for Cello and Piano (Jonathan Woolf), Violoncello Music by Ernest Bloch (Jonathan Woolf, Rob Barnett)

Pianist and composer AARON JAY KERNIS is winner of won the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Born in Philadelphia in 1960, he and is one of the youngest composers ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. His music is performed on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs around the world. He has been commissioned by many of America‘s foremost performing artists, including soprano Renee Fleming, violinists Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and guitarist Sharon Isbin, and by institutions such as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and the Minnesota, Philadelphia and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras. Upcoming commissions include a choral symphony for Seattle Symphony, a trumpet concerto for Philip Smith and a "New Brandenburg" for Orpheus. His music is available on Nonesuch, Phoenix, New Albion and Argo and CRI and is published by Associated Music Publishers and Boosey and Hawkes. In 1993, he was appointed Composer-in-Residence of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Public Radio, and the American Composers Forum. Since 1998, he has served as New Music Advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and is currently on the faculty at Yale University. Aaron Jay Kernis was born in Philadelphia on January 15, 1960.

Violinist IRINA MURESANU performs as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician and has received top prizes in international violin competitions, including the Montreal International, Queen Elizabeth Violin, UNISA International String, Washington International, and the Schadt String Competitions. She is the winner of the Pro Musicis International Award, the Presser Music Award, and the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association. Recent engagements as soloist include concerts with the Boston Pops, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), the Syracuse Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra (Montreal), the Boston Phiharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Ms. Muresanu has appeared in many festivals in the U.S. and Europe. She currently serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and of the music department at MIT. A native of Bucharest, Romania, she is currently a candidate for her doctorate in musical arts at the New England Conservatory. Irina Muresanu plays an 1856 Joseph Rocca violin and uses a Charles Peccat bow, courtesy of Mark Ptashne.

Composer KEVIN PUTS’ works have been commissioned and performed by orchestras, ensembles, and soloists in North America, Europe and the Far East, and he has received many honors and awards for composition. In April 2008, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra gave the premiered of a piano concerto commissioned through the LACO’s Sound Investment program. Other orchestral performances this season include Symphony No. 1 by the Houston Symphony, Vespertine Elegy by Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, and the premiere of a work for horn and orchestra by the Mobile Symphony, where Mr. Puts holds a Music Alive residency. As the composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony, Mr. Puts wrote a violin concerto for concertmaster Michael Shih, which premiered in 2007. Also in 2007 the Miró Quartet premiered Credo, commissioned by Chamber Music Monterey Bay, and the Eroica Trio premiered a work at the Krannert Center (IllL). In the fall of 2006, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center gave the New York premiere of And Legions Will Rise. Mr. Puts’ honors include the 2003 Benjamin H. Danks Award for Excellence in Orchestral Composition of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2001 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2001-2002 Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

Percussionist DANE RICHESON has performed worldwide as solo marimbist, chamber music percussionist, ethnic percussion artist, and jazz drummer. Mr. Richeson has performed with such diverse artists as Lukas Foss, Bobby McFerrin, and Gunther Schuller; and at festivals including Ravinia, the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Beijing Music Festival. Mr. Richeson has performed on more than 100 recordings and regularly performs with BDDS and the chamber ensemble CUBE in Chicago. He is currently associate professor of music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he is director of percussion studies. Under his direction, the Lawrence University Percussion Ensemble has been awarded state and international honors. Mr. Richeson earned his bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and his master's degree from Ithaca College, with additional studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Drummers Collective, New York City. He has also studied drumming in Ghana, Cuba, and Brazil.

Trumpeter AMY SCHENDEL has received music degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Indiana University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mrs. Schendel has held positions with the Spoleto Festival USA, Wisconsin Brass Quintet, Tanglewood Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In 2001 she was the featured guest soloist with the Indiana University Orchestra as the winner of the Indiana University Brass Concerto Competition. While continuing working towards her master’s degree in the spring of 2001, Mrs. Schendel won a trumpet position with the United States Marine Band, “The President’s Own.” In 2003, she also won a position with the United States Air Force Ceremonial Band, Washington, D.C. In 2003-2004, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Augsburg, Germany, with the former solo-trumpeter of the Bavarian State Opera. Uwe Kleindienst. Currently, Mrs. Schendel holds positions with the Madison Symphony, Dubuque Symphony, and Contrapunctus Brass Trio, and she has been a substitute with the Minnesota Orchestra.

German soprano ANJA STRAUSS’ operatic roles has garnered a wealth of operatic experience, having appeared as include Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Oscar in Verdi’s Un Ballo In Maschera, the Governess in Britten's Turn of the Screw, Blonde in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Mabel in Pirates of Penzance among others. Besides the operatic repertoire, Ms. Strauss has performed a large repertoire of sacred music while touring Europe. During her tenure at the Juilliard School in New York City, she performed Mozart’s Requiem for the September 11 Commemoration at Lincoln Center. A passionate lied singer, Ms. Strauss has performed in recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Goethe Institute in New York City, the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, with the Wagner Society in San Francisco, the Olympic Music Festival in Seattle, the Mozart Society of California in Carmel and in Lübeck, Germany. She enjoys collaborating with contemporary composers, as in the recent premiere of Kirke Mechem’s opera Pride and Prejudice at San Francisco's Symphony Hall. In addition to her active performing career, she serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory’s preparatory division and adult extension.

In 1988, violinist Axel Strauss won the Naumburg Violin Award. A competition that the New York Times called, "in its quiet way, the most prestigious of them all." Equally passionate about teaching and performing, Mr. Strauss joined the San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty in 2001. Since then he has performed throughout North America as recitalist and soloist with major orchestras. His concerto appearances have taken him to Germany, Japan, China, and Eastern Europe. Mr. Strauss is frequently invited to music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, International Music Festival of Saga in Japan, and the Kammermusiktage Mettlach in Germany. Mr. Strauss served as violin teacher at the Hochschule für Musik in Rostock while completing his studies with Professor Petru Munteanu. In 1996 he began working with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School in New York and became her teaching assistant in 1998. His recordings include Kodály's duo for violin and cello, Brahms' sonatas, Op. 120, Sibelius' violin concerto, and Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words." Mr. Strauss performs on a violin by J.F. Pressenda, Turin, 1845, generously loaned to him by the Stradivari Society in Chicago.

Australian-born violist KATRIN TALBOT began her violin studies in Canada and continued them in Missoula, Montana, and Portland, Oregon, before abandoning violin for the lovely inner voice of the viola. On this instrument, she has appeared at the Red Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, as a guest artist with the Pro Arte Quartet and Monte Verde Quartet, and with the Oakwood Chamber Players. She is a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and, on occasion, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, as well as making an annual appearance in the Karp family Labor Day concerts. She has studied viola with Richard Blum and Guillermo Perich and violin with Eugene Andre and Raphael Spiro and has appeared on several chamber music CDs. Ms. Talbot is also a photographer; her book of photographs, Schubert’s Winterreise: A Winter Journey in Poetry, Image, and Song, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and her work has appeared recently in The New York Times. Combining music and imagery is a passion of hers, and she has collaborated on five such live concert presentations at the UW-Madison School of Music, including two of which are being presented this season at Interlochen, New York, and Miami.

Guitarist DAVID TANENBAUM has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, the former Soviet Union and Asia, and in 1988 he became the first American guitarist to be invited to perform in China by the Chinese government. He has been a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, the Oakland Symphony, and Vienna's ORF orchestra. In 1989, as president of the Second American Classical Guitar Congress, he commissioned five new works, including Rosewood by Henry Brant for a large guitar orchestra. He has subsequently conducted Rosewood more than a dozen times on four continents. While his repertoire encompasses diverse styles, Mr. Tanenbaum is especially recognized as a proponent of new guitar repertoire. Mr. Tanenbaum's His three-dozen recordings, which reflect his broad repertoire interests, can be found on New Albion, EMI, Nonesuch, Stradivarius and others. Mr. Tanenbaum is currently chair of the guitar department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received the 1995 Outstanding Professor Award, and he has been artist-in-residence at the Manhattan School of Music.

Music critics emphasize the intensity and artistry pianist CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR brings to the works of masters ranging from Beethoven to Boulez. The New York Times, for instance, has termed him a “superb pianist” who pulls off “astonishing” performances of Messiaen, Nancarrow, and Bach. In recent seasons Mr. Taylor has concertized in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, while in the U.S. he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Boston Pops. As a soloist he has performed in New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls, Washington’s Kennedy Center, the Ravinia and Aspen festivals, and dozens of others. He was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow for 2000, before which he received an Avery Fischer Career Grant in 1996, and the Bronze Medal In in the 1993, he won the Bronze Medal in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; in 1996, he received an Avery Fischer Career Grant; and in 2000, he was named an American Pianists’ Association Fellow. Mr. Taylor now serves as Paul Collins Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He owes much of his success to several outstanding teachers, including Russell Sherman and Maria Curcio-Diamand. In addition to music, he pursues a variety of other interests, including mathematics; philosophy; computing; linguistics; and biking, which is his primary means of commuting.

Executive director SAMANTHA CROWNOVER balances her BDDS duties with her art consulting business. She serves as president of the Friends of the UW Geology Museum Board and is a past president of the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation and the First Settlement Neighborhood, a part of the Capitol Neighborhoods Association. She received a B.A. and M.A. in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as curator at Tandem Press before joining BDDS. She has been on the staff of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy.

Now in his sixteenth season as principal cellist, ANTHONY ROSS has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1988. Through the years he has soloed at subscription concerts in works of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Bloch, and David Ott. A graduate of Indiana University, where he studied with Fritz Magg, Mr. Ross also earned a degree at the State University of New York. Mr. Ross was awarded the bronze medal at the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. His other prizes include the Stulberg Award, the G.B. Dealy Award, and the Parisot International Cello Competition. Before coming to Minnesota, Mr. Ross served as principal cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic in New York and taught at the Eastman School of Music. In addition to serving on the faculties of the Aspen Music Festival, Grand Teton Orchestral Seminar, and Madeline Island Music Camp, he has performed in festivals throughout the United States and in Greece and France. Mr. Ross has recorded Rachmaninoff and Carter sonatas for Boston Records and the Bernstein "Meditations" with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Violinist STEPHANIE SAN’T AMBROGIO joined the Argenta Trio in 2007 at the University of Nevada, Reno where she serves as assistant professor of violin and viola and director of the Orchestral Career Studies Program. Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony for thirteen years she was previously the first assistant principal second violin of the Cleveland Orchestra. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio founded the Cactus Pear Music Festival (www.cpmf.us) in 1996. Her other festival engagements include: Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society, Nevada Chamber Music Festival and the Tuckamore Festival. Her live chamber music performances are frequently aired on NPR's Performance Today and she has produced four CDs to date. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio received her Master of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music, where she was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein, and her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University with James Buswell and Laurence Shapiro. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a 1757 J.B. Guadagnini violin from Milan and a 1986 William Whedbee viola from Chicago

Violinist ELLEN dePASQUALE studied with Jascha Brodsky at the Curtis Institute of Music and Miriam Fried at Indiana University before being appointed concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra in 1996. Ms. dePasquale is a regular guest at music festivals throughout the United States and Europe. She has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, the Evian Music Festival, Indiana University, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, La Musica in Sarasota, the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, the New World Symphony, and the Sangat Music Festival in Mumbai, India. Ms. dePasquale is currently on the faculty of Temple University in Philadelphia and is a former member of the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Encore School for Strings, the Kent/Blossom Music Festival and the University of South Florida. From 1999-2007, Ms. dePasquale served as associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. During her tenure with the orchestra, she was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio and made solo appearances with the orchestra. Other recent solo engagements have included concerts with the Florida Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Textile artist CAROLYN KALLENBORN works with fabric and metal to create flowing garments and sculptural pieces. She shows her award-winning, hand-painted garments and sculptures in galleries and exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her work has been shown in Beijing, China; Cheong-ju, Korea; the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona; Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Indiana; and other shows and galleries in St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta and Cambridge, Mass. In addition, her work has been featured in such magazines as Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal and Shuttle Spindle and Dyepot. She received her BA and MFA in Textile Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ms. Kallenborn taught textiles and design at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before jointing the faculty at Kansas City Art Institute. She is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Design Studies Department. She was an assistant professor in the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute from 2001 - 2007. Ms. Kallenborn currently serves as the coordinator for “Off The Grid,” the 2009 Surface Design Association international textile conference. She was conference coordinator for “Uncovering the Surface,” SDA’s 2005 conference and was coordinator and juror for two major exhibitions for the SDA’s 2003 conference.

At the recommendation of Isaac Stern and Alexander Schneider, violinist CARMIT ZORI came to the United States from her native Israel at the age of fifteen to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Ms. Zori is the recipient of a Levintritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award and a top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in recital at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Her engagements abroad have included performances in Latin America, Europe, Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Australia. In addition to appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ms. Zori has been a guest at the Chamber Music at the “Y” series in New York City, the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the Marlboro Festival in Vermont. Ms. Zori is the artistic director of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, which she founded in 2002. She has recorded on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Elektra-Nonesuch labels.