HAMMERMUSIK
ARTISTS and FOUNDERS
Brandon Acker is a specialist on early plucked instruments such as the theorbo, baroque guitar, and lute. His latest passion has been running his successful Youtube channel which now has over 460,000 subscribers and 36 million views. His channel provides educational content about early plucked instruments as well as guitar tips and artistic performance videos. In 2020, he and his wife started an online school for "all things that go pluck!" called Arpeggiato. The school offers lessons from professional musicians from around the world on lute, baroque guitar, vihuela, mandolin, oud, classical guitar, and more. His online beginner classical guitar course "Classical Guitar Pro" currently has over 1000 students enrolled.
Brandon’s performance career has varied from starting out playing electric guitar in metal bands to his current main focus researching and performing on early plucked instruments from the Renaissance, Baroque periods. He has toured extensively through England, Canada, Scotland, and Wales, and performed with notable groups such as the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Piffaro, the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, the Newberry Consort, Haymarket Opera Company, Music of the Baroque, Third Coast Baroque, Opera Lafayette, and Bella Voce. For more information, please visit www.brandonackerguitar.com or check out his YouTube channel.
A native of Wisconsin, USA, Eoin Andersen began violin lessons at the age of 5. HIs teachers have included Sr. Noraleen Retinger, Gerald Fischbach, David Taylor, Efim Boico, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. He studied film production and arts management at New York University and graduated in 2000.
He made his concerto debut with the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed the concertos of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Piazolla with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Beethoven Triple concerto with the Shanghai Symphony, and the New Zealand premiere of Esa- Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Christchurch Symphony. As a former member of the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, he toured the US and Europe performing chamber works of Schumann and Bartók among others.
Eoin has performed as Guest Concertmaster of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the RTÉ National Symphony of Ireland, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and as Guest Principal with the Mahler and Australian Chamber Orchestras, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, and frequently with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He has recorded extensively in the Sinfonia of London, as well as toured with the John Wilson Orchestra.
He was a long-time member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. As a founding member and director of the Mahler Chamber Soloists, he performed in South America and throughout Europe, and has collaborated with the pianist Fazıl Say, the choreographer Sasha Waltz, soprano Anna Prohaska, Kristian Winther, Daniel Blendulf, Maximillian Hornung, Jeremy Denk, Simone Dinnerstein, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and Ian Bostridge. He has made chamber music performances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, and Sarasota Festivals in the United States, and at the Il de Re Festival in Bordeaux, in Aix-en Provence, in a Pacific Music Festival sponsored tour of Japan, at the Lucerne Festival, at the Canberra International Festival, and at the ICMF Wassenaar in the Netherlands, among others.
Eoin was Principal Second Violin of the Orchester der Öper Zürich from 2011-2018. He became Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2015, where he performed until leaving that position in 2018.
Rose Armbrust Griffin, Viola
Violist Rose Armbrust Griffin received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, her Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, and her Masters of Music from Indiana University. During her time at The Curtis Institute of Music, she held the James and Betty Materese Annual Fellowship. Most notably, Rose was awarded a PerformersCertificate at the conclusion of her Masters for “recognition of her outstanding musical performance.” Her teachers include Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yung Huang, Roberto Diaz,Michael Tree and Atar Arad.
As an active chamber musician, Rose has collaborated with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Vadim Gluzman, Peter Wiley and the Amernet String Quartet. Her chamber music performances include concerts at The
Kennedy Center, Avery Fischer Hall, Music from Angelfire, Zankel Hall, Ravinia’s SteansInstitute and The Musica Bella Concert Series. She has been guest artist at The North Shore Music and the Kingston Chamber Music Festivals and has performed with The Chicago Ensemble, The Jupiter Chamber Players, The Pilgrim Chamber Players, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Rembrandt Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series. Rose was the viola teacher for The Juilliard School’s summer program in Shanghai, China. Currently, she performs with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, substitutes with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and enjoys performing chamber music with the Omnibus Quartet.
Rose has performed as soloist with the Bogota Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock’s Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Curtis Chamber Orchestra and the Indiana University’s Chamber Orchestra. She was awarded first prize in the Chicago Viola Society and Rembrandt Chamber Players Competitions and was a prizewinner at The Fichoff Chamber Music Competition.
Rose is currently the viola instructor at Wheaton College and teaches Introduction to Music History, Introduction to Music Theory and Viola Literature courses. Because of her love of teaching and chamber music, she enjoys working with students at Midwest
Young Artists Conservatory.
Rose has recorded for Albany Records. She plays on a 1989 Marten Cornelissen that was borrowed during her time at Curtis and was subsequently purchased after she realized she couldn’t live without it.
Rose and her husband Darrin have three daughters. Lucy (7), Cecilia (5) and Gigi (3).Lucy is currently working on Gossec Gavotte, Cecilia on Twinkle Twinkle and Gigi is well.... trying to keep up.
Victor Santiago Asuncion, Piano
Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.
A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.
His recordings include the complete Sonatas of L. van Beethoven with cellist Tobias Werner, Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with cellist Joseph Johnson, the Rachmaninoff Sonata with the cellist Evan Drachman, and the Chopin and Grieg Sonatas, also with cellist Evan Drachman. He is featured in the award winning recording “Songs My Father Taught Me” with Lynn Harrell, produced by Louise Frank and WFMT-Chicago. Mr. Asuncion is the Founder, and Artistic and Board Director of FilAm Music Foundation, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to promoting Filipino classical musicians through scholarship, and performance.
He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 2007 from the University of Maryland at College Park under the tutelage of Rita Sloan. Victor Santiago Asuncion is a Steinway artist.
Ben Babbitt is a composer and producer working mainly within contemporary electronic music, performance, and scoring for visual media. Babbitt created the score and sound design for BAFTA award-winning video game Kentucky Route Zero, as well as the feature film Paris Window directed by Amanda Kramer, and recently co-scored The African Desperate, the debut feature film by artist Martine Syms that premiered at the 2022 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Also active as a producer, arranger and session musician, Ben has worked on albums by artists including Angel Olsen, Weyes Blood, Eartheater, How to Dress Well, Alice Boman, Tyler Matthew Oyer and recently contributed string arrangements to the Grammy-nominated debut album by The Marias. As a composer, Babbitt has worked with Wildup, members of the Calder Quartet, roomfullofteeth, and soprano Micaela Tobin.
His work as both a solo artist and collaborator has been presented at the V&A Museum, London; the Art Institute of Chicago; SCI-ARC, Los Angeles; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts; MOMA, NYC; 3HD Festival, Berlin; the Getty Museum, LA ; MOCA, LA; and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Liam Byrne divides his time between making very old and very new music on the viola da gamba. He spent the early stages of his career performing and recording with many leading European early-music ensembles, including the Huelgas Ensemble, Dunedin Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, and the viol consorts Fretwork, Phantasm, L’Acheron, Hathor Consort, and Concordia. In recent years, Mr. Byrne’s collaborations have included a growing number of bands, composers, folk musicians, contemporary music ensembles, and electronic musicians, alongside his historical concerns.
David Lang, Donnacha Dennehy, Nico Muhly, Greg Saunier, Valgeir Sigurðsson, and Edmund Finnis are all among the composers who have written new works for him. He has also performed with Damon Albarn, Efterklang, Mugison, Shara Nova, Martin Hayes, Cleek Schrey, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Bryce Dessner, and many others. In 2015 Mr. Byrne was the first musician to be named artist-in-residence at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A); he has since created a number of sound and performance installations for museums including the V&A, Dulwich Picture Gallery, and, in collaboration with kinetic sculptor Harrison Pearce, for Baert Gallery in Los Angeles.
Liam Byrne holds a bachelor of music degree from Indiana University, where he studied with Wendy Gillespie, and a master of philosophy from Oxford University, where he studied with Laurence Dreyfus and Margaret Bent. He is professor of viola da gamba at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Liam Byrne is a member of the Icelandic artist collective and record label Bedroom Community, with which he released his debut solo album, Concrete, in May 2019.
Ramón Carrero-Martínez, Viola
New York-based Venezuelan violist Ramón Carrero-Martínez won the Grand Prize at the 2022 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Terra String Quartet, a young and vibrant ensemble based in NewYork City, and he has won other competitions in the US, Italy, and Venezuela as both a soloist and a chamber musician.
His most recent engagements include the Semifinals of Sphinx Competition 2023, Tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra 2023, and his debut as a soloist with the New York Classical Players performing the world premiere of James Ra's “Triple Viola Concerto”. As a chamber musician, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Haydn Hall of the
Esterházy Palace, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others, and festivals such as Esterhazy Palace String Quartet Festival, Musica Mundi International Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival, and Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Carrero-Martinez was an “El Sistema” member and previously studied economics in Venezuela. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Daniel Avshalomov.
For more information, please visit ramoncarreromartinez.com
David Cunliffe, cello
David Cunliffe is a Grammy-nominated cellist known for his captivating performances, “whose polish gives way to moments of artful recklessness”(WQXR). He has performed with renowned orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish and Royal Scottish Symphony, and has toured extensively with the Balanescu Quartet across Australia, Europe and the United States. David is a founding member of the acclaimed and twice Grammy nominated Lincoln Trio, which has performed to audiences across the US, from Carnegie's Weil Hall to the Ravinia Festival, with a standout appearance celebrating the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial alongside President Barack Obama. Passionate about new music, David has premiered numerous compositions and has collaborated with composers from around the world including composers George Crumb, Michael Nyman, Terry Riley, Jennifer Higdon, Augusta Read Thomas, Stacy Garrop, David Ludwig and Conrad Tao.
In 2013 David, along side violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and violist Aurelien Pederzoli, founded the Black Oak Ensemble. Their recent release “Avant l’orage”, a double album of French string trios, reached #1 in the Billboard Classical Charts in July 2022 and was featured as Album of the week on Symphony Hall Sirius XM.
Mr Cunliffe is a fervent advocate for cultural diversity in music, actively supporting organizations like the Chinese Fine Arts Society and the Korean Sejong Cultural Society. He is currently on faculty at Northwestern Bienen School of Music and is artist in residence at the Merit School of Music and the New Music School. He also holds positions at the Music Institute of Chicago and the Midwest Young Artists Academy.
A native of England, David studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and continued his studies at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland where he toured with Camerata Lysy and Yehudi Menuhin. His teachers included Margaret Moncreiff, Christopher Bunting, Moray Welsh, Antonio Lysy and Radu Aldulescu.
In his spare time he enjoys eating curry, following his beloved London soccer team, Arsenal and learning the finer points of American Football aided by his wife, violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, who is an ardent supporter of the Broncos.
Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, Viola
Aurélien is a graduate of the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with world-renowned teacher Jean Lenert. He then attended the Bern Hochschule, Switzerland, where he was in the master class of Professor Monika Urbaniak and received guidance from Professor Igor Ozim. His primary teacher was Veda Reynolds, professor at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
In 2008, Aurelién founded the Anaphora Ensemble which appeared frequently on national radio and performed in eclectic places, from the Green Mill to Symphony Hall. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Pederzoli was first violinist of the Corky Siegel Chamber Blues band and toured nationally and internationally with them. Other collaborations include Rachel kolly, Christian Chamorel, Daniel Baremboim, Kent Nagano, the Ysaye quartet, H.J Lim, members of Eighth Blackbird, Shmuel Ashkenasi, the Lincoln Trio, and Mathieu Dufour, to name a few.
From 2009 until 2014, Aurelién was one of the violinists and founding member of the Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago. In 2015, Mr. Pederzoli founded (alongside Desirée Ruhstrat and David Cunliffe) the Black Oak Ensemble, a project based string trio, and has been performing with them ever since. 2018 marked the release of their debut album Silenced Voices, to critical acclaim, followed by their Sophomore CD, "avant l'orage" on the Cedille Label.
Aurelien performs regularly with the Orchestra of St Luke's and The Orpheus Chamber orchestra. He is one of the founders of the music festival Cordes en Gascogne, based in the southwest of France.
Benjamin Forster, Timpani
Benjamin Forster, born in the Bavarian town of Vilsbiburg, studied in Munich at the Richard Strauss Conservatory and the Music Academy.
He was an academic with the Munich Philharmonic and the Bavarian Orchestra Academy. Numerous temporary jobs in many symphony orchestras and opera houses gave him the opportunity to work with many artistic personalities at a young age.
After two years at the Zurich Opera House, Benjamin Forster became principal timpani of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. From 2019 to 2021 Benjamin Forster was solo timpanist with the Berlin Philharmonic. As a professor for timpani he teaches at the ZHdK in Zurich.
In addition to the orchestra, Benjamin Forster plays as a chamber musician
Karen Forster, Viola
Karen Forster, born in Edmonton, Canada, is principal violist of Philharmonia Zurich. Following her Bachelor studies in Vancouver, she gained a Master of Music from the renowned Julliard School as a student of Karen Tuttle.
She made her solo debut at Lincoln Center in New York , performing William Walton’s Viola Concerto. She then went on to complete her studies with a Soloist Diploma in Hannover Germany. After four years as principal violist of Basel Symphony Orchestra, Karen Forster was appointed the same position at Zurich Opera House and Philharmonia Zurich, where she can also be heard as a soloist and chamber musician.
She is equally passionate about period performance and plays both as a soloist and member of La Scintilla. Nurturing the talent of young musicians is of particular importance to her, which has led to teaching positions at the Musikhochschule Luzern and the Orchestra Academy of Philharmonia Zurich.
Manuela Hoelterhoff, Artist, Founder
A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, writer, and entrepreneur, Manuela Hoelterhoff was the Executive Editor of Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. She supervised a team of reporters, columnists, photographers and editors whose work covered arts, auctions, dining, wine, books, movies, TV, theater autos, gadgets, travel, music, architecture, design and philanthropy for the Bloomberg Professional Service and Bloomberg.com/muse.
Prior to Bloomberg she worked at The Wall Street Journal as a critic, editor and member of the editorial board. She helped launch Conde Nast Traveler in 1987 and Smart Money Magazine in 1992.
At The Wall Street Journal she wrote on a variety of topics over the years -- art, architecture, television, books, travel and politics. In 1983, she received the Pulitzer Prize for her columns. She is also the author of `Cinderella & Company: Backstage at the Opera With Cecilia Bartoli.’’
She wrote the libretto for David Lang's `Modern Painters’, an opera about the Victoria tastemaker John Ruskin that was staged at the Santa Fe Opera.
Lynn Kabat, Cello
Madeleine Kabat is a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s cello section. She was named Acting Assistant Principal Cellist in 2015, where she served as Acting Principal for her first 7 months with the orchestra. Ms. Kabat has performed in the cello sections of the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony, and has appeared as guest principal cellist with the Orquesta Philarmonia Mexico, Madison Symphony, Mansfield Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and CityMusic Cleveland.
Following her solo debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at age 18, Madeleine has been featured as soloist with dozens of orchestras; most recently the Rapides Symphony (LA), Kettle Moraine Symphony (WI), Amarillo Symphony (TX), Renova Festival Orchestra (PA), Lima International Music Festival Orchestra (Peru), Gulf Coast Symphony (MS), Minot Symphony (ND), Red de Escuelas de Musica Orquesta (Medellin, Colombia), Cleveland Philharmonic (OH), Spoleto Festival Orchestra (SC), Festival Mozaic Orchestra (CA) and Marin Symphony (CA). In 2012 she made her solo debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on an invitation to represent the Oberlin Conservatory. Madeleine has stepped in at the last minute for soloist Alban Gerhardt to rehearse Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto with the Madison Symphony, to perform the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Springfield Symphony in Missouri, and with the Bach Dynamite & Dancing Society as a last minute replacement for Parry Karp.
An avid chamber musician, Madeleine has recently performed in recital with pianists Simon Trpceski in Houston and Orion Weiss in Los Angeles, and at the Lev Aronson Legacy Festival in Dallas, Northwestern State University (LA), and the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Brookfield WI. In 2019 she performed alongside legendary cellist Lynn Harrell in Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht and Mendelssohn’s Octet, and in 2021 performed chamber music with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter on a memorial concert for Lynn Harrell in Los Angeles. In 2011, Madeleine was named Visiting Artist at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA. During the summer she performs at the Lakes Area Music Festival (MN), Festival Mozaic (CA), and is a faculty artist at the Renova Chamber Music Festival (PA). Ms. Kabat has appeared on faculty at Clazz, (a festival in the Tuscany region of Italy), as featured artist for the Lima International Chamber Music Festival in Peru, and has also performed chamber music at Bravo! Vail, La Jolla’s SummerFest, Carnegie Hall and {Le} Poisson Rouge in NYC, as well as in China, Korea, and Colombia, and Switzerland. She has also given masterclasses at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, Northwestern State University, Eastern Michigan University, Minot State University (ND), Sahmyook University (Seoul, Korea) and at La Jolla’s SummerFest.
Ms. Kabat began cello lessons in Cleveland at age 11, and has won top prizes in the competitions of Fischoff, Hellam, and Klein International. She holds diplomas from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, the Juilliard School, and Oberlin Conservatory, where she was a teaching assistant for Professor Darrett Adkins.
https://youtu.be/IdZbTMW66yw?si=oDxvqo7MgA0cQpda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdZbTMW66yw
HADDON KAY, CELLO
Born in 1999, Chinese-American cellist Haddon Kay began studying cello at the age of four. He first gained recognition when he became a finalist for the Chicago Symphony Young Artist Competition and performed the Barber Cello Concerto with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
The following summer, he became the principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas for an international tour in Asia. Most recently, he has continued his studies in cello performance at Northwestern University under the tutelage of Professor Hans Jensen.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in 2022 and will continue his Master’s studies at Northwestern as a recipient of the Eckstein Scholarship. Additionally, Haddon competed in the 2nd Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium and was a winner of Northwestern University’s Concerto/Aria competition, after which he performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Victor Yampolsky.
Haddon is a founding member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, formed in 2021 at the Bienen School of Music, which recently won Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition. He has also appeared four times as a semi-finalist at the Fischoff Competition and has won 1st prizes at the Rembrandt and Discover Chamber Music Competitions with various groups. As the cellist of those ensembles he has also appeared on National Public Radio’s From the Top and on Chicago radio’s WFMT Introductions.
In addition to playing the cello, Haddon is an avid volleyball player and was on Northwestern University’s men’s club volleyball team..
Henry Kramer, Piano
Praised by The Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances, pianist Henry Kramer is developing a reputation as a musician of rare sensitivity who combines stylish programming with insightful and exuberant interpretations. In 2016, he garnered international recognition with a Second Prize win in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Most recently, he was awarded a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center – one of the most coveted honors bestowed on young American soloists.
Henry emerged as a winner in the National Chopin Competition in 2010, the Montréal International Competition in 2011 and the China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2012. In 2014 he was added to the roster of Astral Artists, an organization that annually selects a handful of rising stars among strings, piano, woodwinds and voice candidates. The following year, he earned a top prize in the Honens International Piano Competition.
Kramer has performed “stunning” solo recital debuts, most notably at Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Award, as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. At his Philadelphia debut, Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked, “the 31-year-old pianist personalized interpretations to such a degree that works emerged anew. He is a big personality.”
A versatile performer, Kramer has soloed in concertos with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, collaborating with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Stéphane Denève, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Hans Graf. Highlights of the 2021-22 season included a solo recital at the BravoPiano! festival in Hilton Head where he premiered a work he commissioned by composer Han Lash, performing Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto with the Hartford Symphony to rave reviews, features on series in Washington (Phillips Collection), Durham (St. Stephens), and Seattle (Emerald City Music), concerts throughout Southern California with Camerata Pacifica, and summer appearances at the Anchorage, Lakes Area, Rockport, and Vivo music festivals. Appearances in the 2022-23 season include a debut with New York's Salon Séance, recitals with Newport Classical, Toronto's Koerner Hall, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and additional appearances in Ithaca, Detroit, Seattle, and Montréal.
His love for the chamber music repertoire began early in his studies while a young teenager. A sought-after collaborator, he has appeared in recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest. His recording with violinist Jiyoon Lee on the Champs Hill label received four stars from BBC Music Magazine. This year, Gramophone UK praised Kramer’s performance on a recording collaboration (Cedille Records) with violist Matthew Lipman for “exemplary flexible partnership.” Henry has also performed alongside Emmanuel Pahud, the Calidore and Pacifica Quartets, Miriam Fried, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Teaching ranks among his greatest joys. In the fall of 2022, Kramer joined the music faculty of Université de Montréal. Previously, he served as the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Throughout his multifaceted career, he also held positions at Smith College and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music.
Kramer graduated from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Julian Martin and Robert McDonald. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. His teachers trace a pedagogical lineage extending back to Beethoven, Chopin and Busoni. Kramer is a Steinway Artist.
Lisa Lee, Violin
Lisa Lee made her solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 16 and has since appeared as soloist with the Pacific Symphony, Macau Youth Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, San Domenico Da Camera Orchestra, Fremont Symphony, and Opole Philharmonic of Poland. She has been invited to perform at such festivals as Ravinia, Marboro, Evian, International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Caramoor, and Lucerne. Her chamber music partners have included Gary Graffman, Nobuko Imai, Andras Schiff, David Soyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Donald Weilerstein, Andres Diaz, and Arnold Steinhardt. During the 2007-08 season, she performed across the United States and Sweden with the Lark Quartet and taught at the University of Massachsetts Amherst as resident quartet. Lisa spent countless seasons touring throughout western Europe and Scandinavia, and the United States with the Swedish group Camerata Nordica and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under the artistic direction of Terje Tonnesen.
Lisa continues to perform as founding member of The Lee Trio with her sisters, cellist Angela Lee, and pianist Melinda Lee Masur. The Trio’s “gripping immediacy and freshness” and "rich palette of tone colours" [The Strad] is marked by audiences and critics across the globe. The Lee Trio is devoted to working with and performing the music of living composers. Piano trios by composers including Nathaniel Stookey, Philip Lasser, Uljas Pulkkis, Laurence Rosenthal, Julian Yu and Sylvie Bodorova have been given their world, American and European premieres by The Lee Trio.
As a Fulbright Scholar, and recipient of the Leni Fe Bland Scholarship and the National Hennessy Cognac Foundation Scholarship, Lisa has been awarded top prizes from the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto, Tadeusz Wronski International Solo Violin, Pacific Symphony Orchestra Young Artists, San Francisco Symphony Concerto, California Youth Symphony Concerto, Irving M. Klein International String, International Sheffield Violin, and the Salieri-Zinetti Chamber Music International competitions. Lisa can be heard in chamber music recordings on the BIS, Delos, and Koch labels.
Lisa is graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her mentors include Zaven Melikian, Arnold Steinhart, David Takeno, Donald Weilerstein, and Denes Zsigmondy. Her 1872 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume is on generous loan.
John MacFarlane, Violin
An artist of remarkable versatility, John Macfarlane is a sought-after orchestral leader, chamber musician, conductor, vocalist, and educator. He is Assistant Principal Second Violin of the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Artistic Director of Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, and Guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, he is a featured artist with Rembrandt Chamber Musicians, Bach Week, Rush Hour Concerts series, Dame Myra Hess series, and Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
He held the position of concertmaster with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, and Spoleto Festival. He performed as guest concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony. He has also performed with The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
As a conductor, he has been featured on live radio broadcasts on Chicago’s WFMT for the Rush Hour Concerts Series, has conducted multiple concerts with the Strings Music Festival, and served as Assistant Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.
A dynamic advocate for the arts, he is a frequent masterclass clinician for the Betty Haag School and presents motivational seminars to advanced youth orchestras.
He received a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Certificate in Music Theatre from Northwestern University and a Master of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Maryland.
Pallavi Mahidhara, piano
Praised for her unique artistry and charismatic stage presence, Indian-American pianist Pallavi Mahidhara has appeared in solo and orchestral concerts across five continents, including performances at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the Teatro del Lago in Frutillar, Chile. She is the Second Prize winner and of
the 69th Geneva International Piano Competition, and of the VI International Prokofiev Competition in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Other awards include the Olivier Berggruen Prize at the Gstaad MenuhinFestival, the Steinway Förderpreis in Germany, the Astral Artists National Auditions in the US, and on multiple occasions, the “Sobresaliente” Award from the hands of Queen Sofía of Spain.
Pallavi is the Executive Producer, Writer, and Host of the “The Conscious Artist”, a podcast designed to promote Mental Health Awareness for musicians, artists, and all human beings. She holds degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music and Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, and studied with Dimitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía. As the first female Indian pianist to attend these institutions and host a podcast on mental health in Western classical music, she fervently
embraces her role as cultural ambassador, artist, and mentor.
Pallavi has performed at important festivals such as Marlboro Music, Verbier Festival, and Gstaad Menuhin Festival. She has given chamber music performances with renowned artists such as Diemut Poppen, Wolfram Christ, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Arnold Steinhardt, Peter Wiley, and Michael Rusinek, István Várdai, Pablo Ferrández, Josef Spacek, and Theo Fouchennert. She has performed under the direction of Arjan Tien, Thomas Sanderling, Daniel Boico, Róbert Farkas, Daniel Abad
Casanova, and Pablo Gonzalez, among others.
Upcoming performances in the 2023-2024 season include appearances in Europe and the US, and recitals with renowned chamber music colleagues, including two European tours with fellow colleagues from The Curtis Institute of Music. 2022-2023 highlights included a solo recital at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, a recital with renowned cellist Gary Hoffman, chamber music
performances at Lincoln Center with members of the New York Philharmonic, and orchestral performances around the US including with Eugene Symphony under Maestro Joseph Young, and Symphony Tacoma under Maestra Sarah Ioannides.
Sonia Mantell, Cello
Illinois native Sonia Mantell joined the Minnesota Orchestra cello section in September 2020.
She studied at New England Conservatory and DePaul School of Music under the tutelage of Natasha Brofksy and Brant Taylor, respectively. She was appointed co-principal cellist of the NEC orchestras and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. While attending DePaul, she won the Concerto Competition with violinist Ari Urban and performed the Brahms Double Concerto with the DePaul Symphony.She has attended summer festivals at Aspen, National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West and Tanglewood Music Center.
Mantell has recently been an active performer in Chicago. She won a substitute position with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where she has played with the orchestra and on the MusicNow series of contemporary music. She has also performed with Music of the Baroque and the Rembrandt Chamber Series. She participated in the inaugural year of the 2017 Barnes Ensemble Festival in Philadelphia. Most recently, she played with Lyric Opera of Chicago for a one year position in their 2018-19 season and then won a cello section position with the orchestra in December of 2018. She returned to Tanglewood for five summers, the last two as the cellist of the New Fromm Quartet program.
Mantell has collaborated in chamber music performances with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher, members of the Jack Quartet, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera Orchestra.
Owen Pallett, Musician, Founder
Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist, who performs solo as Owen Pallettor, before 2010, under the name Final Fantasy. As Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds.
From the age of 3, Pallett studied classical violin, and composed their first piece at age 13. A notable early composition includes some of the music for the game Traffic Department 2192; Pallett moved on to scoring films, to composing two operas while in university. Apart from the indie music scene, Pallett has had commissions from the Barbican, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, Bang on a Can, Ecstatic Music Festival, the Vancouver CBC Orchestra, and Fine Young Classicals. They have been noted for their live performances, wherein Pallett plays the violin into a loop pedal; Pallett uses Max/MSP and SooperLooper to do multi-phonic looping, which sends their violin signal to amplifiers across the stage.
Pallett is also known for touring and recording with Arcade Fire. In January 2014, Pallett and Arcade Fire member William Butler were nominated for Best Original Score at the 86th Academy Awards for their original score of the film Her (2013). Elsewhere, Pallett has contributed arrangements and instrumentation to the works of pop acts like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, as well as rock performers such as R.E.M., Linkin Park, Franz Ferdinand, the National and Alex Turner.
Alexander Polzin, Artist, Founder
Born in East Berlin in 1973, Alexander Polzin originally trained as a stonemason. He enjoys an international career as a sculptor, painter, stage designer and opera director. In addition, he develops unique collaborations with writers, composers, musicians, choreographers and scholars from all over the world.
Polzin’s sculptures and paintings can be seen today in public spaces across the world. For example his Giordano Bruno Monument in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz (this sculpture is also installed at the Central European University in Budapest and the City Hall in Nola, Italy). Additionally his Fallen Angel is at the Collegium Helveticum, Zürich;; Socrates for Tel Aviv University, The Couple, for the foyer of the Opéra national de Paris, Bastille, Dante Heads at Teatro Real in Madrid, and The Couple II for La Monnaie/De Mund Royal Opera House in Brussels. In May 2016 a memorial sculpture to Paul Celan was unveiled by the mayor of Paris in the Anne Frank Garden.
Major exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Budapest, Bucharest, Naples, Berlin’s Institute of Advanced Studies, Bard College in New York, Einstein Forum Potsdam, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Teatro Real - Madrid, NCPA Beijing, Salzburg Easter Festival and Anna Akhmatova Museum in St. Petersburg.
His most recent solo exhibitions were held in London in 2015 (Maestro Arts) and Berlin in 2014 / 2016 (Galerie Kornfeld). In January 2015 solo exhibitions of his work were shown at Grand Théâtre de Genève to coincide with his designs for Iphigénie en Tauride and the Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop showed "Aus meinem Augenfenster, Hommage an Thomas Brasch". In 2015 his artworks were exhibited at the Vatican Museums in Rome. The exhibition has also been shown in The House of Representatives, Berlin and City Museum, Wrocław.
An exhibition of his work focussed around his friendship with György Kurtág was featured at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2016. In 2017 Galerie Rhomberg presented “All or Nothing” at the Kitzbühel Country Club in Austria.
Polzin has been the recipient of “Artist-in-Residences” at the International Artists House in Herzliya, Israel, Kollegium Helveticum - Zurich, Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, and the Centre for Advanced Study at the Käte Hamburger Collegium for Research in the Humanities in Bonn. Polzin has also been a visiting professor at ETH Zurich and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Sommer Ulrickson, Choreographer, Founder
California-born choreographer/director Sommer Ulrickson graduated in Theater Arts from the University of California in Santa Cruz in 1995, winning both the Chancellor’s and the Dean’s Honors for her original theatre productions. Since then she has forged a career as choreographer, actor and director and worked in collaboration with composers, directors and actors throughout the US and in Europe. A renowned educationalist, she teaches and gives workshops to performers in all disciplines.
From 1995–1998 she was Choreographer for the award-winning “Fifth Floor Theater Company” based in San Francisco, and during this time also formed her own dance company “Torque”. In 1998 she was awarded the Chancellor’s Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and moved to Germany. She worked with Johann Kresnik at the Volksbühne Berlin, and as physical dance trainer to the “Sasha Waltz & Guests” dance company and the Schaubuehne’s Thomas Ostermeier Company. She co-founded the “wee dance company”, creating works and touring throughout Europe. Sommer continues her work as director and choreographer, receiving state funding and commissions from various theatres for the creation of original works and for the development of new musical-theatre pieces, in collaboration with various composers.
In the opera house recent work includes Jephtha (director Claus Guth) for Dutch National Opera in co-production with Opéra national de Paris, where it was staged in January 2018, as well as Lachenmann’s Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (director David Hermmann) and Salome (also with Claus Guth) at the Deutsche Oper. Other projects that season included a new production of Salome at the Berlin Staatsoper, directed by Hans Neuenfels. Recent work includes co-directing Fidelio at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in collaboration with sculptor/ stage designer Alexander Polzin, as well as Ferne Naehe, a new opera commissioned by Hellerau Festspielhaus in Dresden. Productions in 2020-2021 include a new production of Salome (with Claus Guth) at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Other recent work includes the co-creation of a new project entitled Love in Fragments. Working alongside Alban Gerhardt, Gergana Gergova and Alexander Polzin the artists investigate aspects of love through music, movement, and art. The production premiered at the 92Y in New York in March 2019. The European premiere will take place at Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon. Next season sees the premiere of The Art of Being Human at the Boulez Saal in Berlin. Music of the 16th and 17th centuries, dance and visual arts come together in this interdisciplinary performance created by Sommer Ulrickson, Alexander Polizn, and Laurence Dreyfus.
Her creations include theatre pieces for the Freiekammerspiele Magdeburg, Theater Osnabrück, Deutsches Theater Berlin, Sophiensaele Berlin and the experimental Neuköllner Oper Berlin, including Wagner for Sale, an original theatre piece commissioned for the Wagner anniversary year. Other recent highlights include the creation of Creatures of Habit – an original piece for the Gerhart Hauptmann Theater, Goerlitz (2015).
Sommer has also worked regularly as choreographer and director at the Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall, where recent work includes Shockheaded Peter – A Junk Opera and Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Kristian Winther, Violin
Kristian Winther is widely recognized for his ability to perform as a virtuosic violin soloist and as an energetic and brilliant chamber musician, seeking musical challenges performing classic, contemporary and rare works.
As violin soloist, Kristian has appeared with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Christchurch and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Auckland Philharmonic, Gruppo Montebello and Orchestra Romantique.He has performed under the batons of conductors including Jessica Cottis, Olli Mustonen, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Marcus Stenz, Oleg Caetani, David Robertson and Fabian Russell.
In the role of leader / director he has performed as Guest Concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Melbourne and WesternAustralian Symphony Orchestras, and as leader/director of ACO Collective.A devoted chamber musician, Kristian was formerly violinist in the TinAlleyString Quartet, winning first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition, which was followed by tours of the USA, Canada and Europe. He has also performed chamber music with Anthony Romaniuk, Daniel de Borah, Anne Sophie von Otter, AngelaHewitt, Steven Osborne, Anna Goldsworthy, Richard Tognetti, Brett and Paul Dean, Konstantin Shamray, Hue Blanes and Joe Chindamo.
As an original musician of the Play Onseries since 2016, Kristian has performed music from the 16th to the 21st centuries atdiverse venues including an underground car park in Collingwood and a nightclub in Berlin.Other recent solo / chamber music highlights include performing all of JS Bach’s unaccompanied sonatas and partitas at the Canberra Festival in a single day, the complete Schumann String Quartets in one concert on raw gut strings, and Reger’s monumental violin concerto at the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands.
Committed to performing new repertoire, Kristian has performed the world premiere of Olli Mustonen’s Sonata for Violin and Orchestra (with the composer conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), as well as the Australian premieres of works by Louis Andriessen, Knussen, Kurtag, Salonen, Rihm, Widmann, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and numerous Australian composers. Kristian also gave the Australian premiere of John Adam’s concertante work for string quartet and orchestraAbsolute Jestwith the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian and New Zealand premieres of Brett Dean’s violin concertoThe Lost Art of Letter Writing.
Kristian performs on a violin crafted by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, 1859, on generous loan from UKARIA Cultural Center.
Watch Kristian here.