A winner of Astral Artists’ 2016 National Auditions, violinist Katie Hyun has been described as “a virtuoso by any measure” (The Berkshire Review). Passionate about incorporating different styles, her recent debut recital with Astral Artists in Philadelphia featured a program that showcased virtuosic works on both the Baroque and modern violins (going back and forth between the two). Festival appearances include Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Bravo! Vail in Colorado, Tippet Rise Arts Center in Montana, Mostly Mozart in New York, OBX Chamber Music Series in North Carolina, Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans, and New York in Chuncheon in South Korea. Katie currently serves as the concertmaster of NOVUS Trinity Wall Street, in addition to solo and chamber performances throughout the States. On Baroque violin, she frequently appears with the Trinity Baroque Orchestra and Seraphic Fire.
Katie is also the founder and director of Quodlibet Ensemble, a small chamber orchestra committed to bridging the gap between different styles of playing. Quodlibet has performed at the Shepherd Music Series in Collinsville, Yale British Arts Center, Drew University in Madison, NJ, Rockefeller University in NYC, and most recently the Baryshnikov Arts Center in NYC. Quodlibet is set to appear at the Five Boroughs Music Festival in October 2020.
As someone who feels very strongly about social justice, Katie serves on the faculty of Musicambia, an organization that brings music education to correctional facilities. In addition, Quodlibet is partnering with VotesArt to make voter registration available in future events and to help spread the message that every voice matters.
Katie was a founding member of the award winning Amphion String Quartet, which won the Concert Artists’ Guild Management in 2011 and a spot on the roster of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Program. The Amphion String Quartet’s debut CD was also featured on the New York Times’ ‘Best of 2015.’ Additionally, the quartet has performed in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, La Jolla Music Festival, the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, OK Mozart, the Chautauqua Institution, and Caramoor Music Festival.
Katie received her Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music, studying Baroque violin with Robert Mealy and modern violin with Ani Kavafian, and her Masters Degree at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, where she studied with Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, and Philip Setzer. She also studied with Aaron Rosand and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received her Bachelor of Music degree.
Violinist Rebecca Anderson has appeared worldwide as a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. Known for her “incisive musicality” (The Oregonian), recent appearances include chamber music performances at Carnegie Hall and tours across Europe, Asia, and South America.
Ms. Anderson’s passion for chamber music has led to festival appearances with Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, and Music From Angel Fire. She has performed on concerts presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, as well as appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Library of Congress.
As an educator and arts advocate, Ms. Anderson co-founded the Anderson-Sasaki duo in 2019, creating residencies that strengthen community through varied interactive performances and presented recitals. During the 2020-21 academic year, she is a Visiting Artist at the Crane School of Music SUNY Potsdam (‘20) and Interim Director of the Violin Program and Visiting Lecturer at Cornell University (‘21).
Ms. Anderson is founding co-director of VOTESart, an organization that uses music to promote voter registration and civic engagement across the country. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and Ensemble Connect (formerly Ensemble ACJW).
Originally from San Diego, violinist Alex Fortes is recognized for his versatility and warmth. Recent chamber music and orchestral performances have included engagements in France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Indonesia as well as throughout North America with groups such as the Dalí Quartet, Henschel Quartett, Franklin String Quartet, the Momenta Quartet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Knights, and A Far Cry. His playing is featured on A Far Cry’s 2014 GRAMMY-nominated album, Dreams and Prayers. He holds degrees from Harvard College and Mannes College, and his teachers include Mark Steinberg, Peter Zazofsky, Hernan Constantino, Mary Gerard, and Michael Gaisler.
George Meyer plays the violin and writes music. He has performed his own compositions in a variety of settings, including Chamber Music Northwest, the Savannah Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Telluride and RockyGrass Bluegrass Festivals, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, and the Kyoto International Festival. In 2016, Ensemble Quodlibet premiered his Concerto Grosso, a 15-minute work for string orchestra with solo string quartet, in New York City. He has appeared in performance with his father Edgar Meyer, and with Jerry Douglas, Mike Marshall, and Sam Bush.
His violin teachers include Naoko Tanaka, Laurie Smukler, Stephen Miahky, Lucy Chapman, Jennifer Frautschi, Carolyn Huebl, and Carol Smith. He holds degrees from Harvard College, where he studied with Elaine Scarry and Helen Vendler, and from the Juilliard School. He is from Nashville, TN.
Ben Russell is a violinist, vocalist and composer who has played all over the world with all sorts of people. He is a member of American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and co-creator of the songwriting collective Founders.
Ben began his career in 2005 by winning the Principal 2nd Violin chair of Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine which he held for 8 years. In 2006 he co-founded Bryant Park Quartet, a classical string quartet dedicated to teaching chamber music to high school and college students around the country. In 2008 he became a member of ACME, a daring new-music group focused primarily on the work of living American composers. In 2017, ACME released its first portrait album containing nearly all original music composed by members of ACME.
In the past 10 years, Ben has performed with several ensembles including International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea, A Far Cry, Wordless Music Orchestra and Mark Morris Dance Group. He has toured and recorded with several artists including Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, The National, Blonde Redhead, Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson and has appeared on stage with Björk, Jonny Greenwood, and Paul McCartney.
After releasing his self titled solo album of original music for violin and voice in 2012, he co-created Founders which combines classical and folk musics with original compositions and pop arrangements. Founders released its debut album, You & Who, in early 2014.
Ben studied violin performance at BIOLA and Amsterdam Conservatory and received his Masters from New England Conservatory.
Beth Wenstrom’s playing has been praised for its “vitality and eloquent phrasing, as well as agility” (The Strad). As a soloist and concertmaster, she has performed with Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, Sebastian Chamber Players, and New York Baroque Incorporated. A dedicated chamber musician, Beth is a founding member of Wayward Sisters, winner of the 2011 Early Music America/Naxos Competition as well as an original member of the “eclectic and electrifying early-music ensemble,” ACRONYM (Boston Globe). An enthusiastic pedagogue, Beth serves as string coach for the baroque ensemble at SUNY Stony Brook and has taught violin and baroque orchestra at Oberlin Conservatory on numerous occasions. During the summer she has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin and the Amherst Early Music Festival.
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A passionate performer and educator, Dorothy Kim shares her love for music on stage and in classrooms. Ms. Kim began her musical journey at the age of 4, learning the piano from her mother, then proceeded to learn violin at the age of 7. At the age of 16, Ms. Kim switched to viola and attended Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division. Ms. Kim briefly studied at Manhattan School of Music for her Bachelor’s of Viola Performance under the studio of Karen Ritscher, then transferred to CUNY Queens College. She graduated cum laude from CUNY Queens College with her Bachelor’s of Viola performance and studied with Daniel Phillips of the Orion Quartet. Ms. Kim was awarded the Walter and Vera Wels Scholarship Endowment for Viola students in 2017 and the Discimus and Serviamus Music Award in 2017. Ms. Kim then pursued her Masters of Viola Performance at Montclair State University under the tutelage of Kathryn Lockwood and held a position as Orchestra Graduate Assistant. Ms. Kim also participated in the Lyrical Opera Academy Music Festival (Italy), Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (USA), Great Mountain Chamber Music Festival (South Korea), and ClasClas Young Artist Program (Spain). She is also an active Baroque violinist and violist, and has been a featured soloist in many performances in New York City and Queens. Ms. Kim has performed in famed venues such as Baryshnikov Arts Center, Carnegie Hall, DiMenna Center, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, LeFrak Hall, and the U.N of South Korea. She also teaches group violin lessons at her church in Bayside, Queens and actively holds a violin/viola private studio. Her students currently attend the MAP program held by Juilliard, and have won the young artists chamber music competition held by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Besides performing and teaching, Ms. Kim is also deeply involved in arts management in New York City. She is currently an orchestra manager and librarian for the So&So Orchestra, which is a freelance orchestra funded by the Brooklyn Army Terminal, and the Director of Development for Quodlibet Ensemble, which is an ensemble that performs strictly Baroque and contemporary pieces.
Hailed for her “magnetic, wide-ranging tone” and her “rock solid technique” (Philadelphia Inquirer), violist Ayane Kozasa enjoys a career that spans a broad spectrum of musical personas. Winner of the Primrose International Viola Competition, her two additional awards at the competition defines her passion for music: the best chamber music and best commissioned work performances. Following the competition, she joined the Astral Artists roster, and became a grant recipient from the S&R Foundation, an organization recognizing and supporting young, aspiring artists of all mediums. Her international solo opportunities have been a platform to unearth seldom heard works and commission new pieces, an aspect of viola playing that she loves. Most recently, she commissioned a work by Brooklyn composer Paul Wiancko for viola and piano, which she premiered at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Evermay Chamber Series in Washington, D.C. with pianist Amy Yang.
Chamber music has also been a vital part of Ayane’s musical career, and her interests have led her to appearances at numerous festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Olympic Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival. She is a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet, the 2017-18 Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, grand prize winner of the 2018 MPrize Chamber Arts Competition, and first prize winner of the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. The quartet has proved to be a multi-faceted group, commissioning and touring works by world-renowned composers such as Caroline Shaw, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Paul Wiancko, Lembit Beecher, and Gabriella Smith, as well as pushing the boundaries of unique and thoughtful programming. Their debut CD “Blueprinting” was recently released on New Amsterdam Records, a record of works by the aformentioned composers, and nominated for a GRAMMY. Her passion for chamber music has also blossomed in the form of the viola/cello duo “Ayane & Paul,” a duo that is known for their creative programming and intimate connections with their audience. Ayane is also a member of Quodlibet Ensemble, an early/modern music mixed ensemble.
From 2012 to 2016, Ayane served as the principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She is also a member of the IRIS Orchestra, and has played with notable ensembles such as the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, The Philadelphia Orchestra, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Most recently, much of her musical work has involved being a mentor to aspiring young musicians, including being guest faculty at the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp and a mentor at the Olympic Music Festival and Musikiwest Summer Festival.
Ayane is deeply grateful for the mentorship she received from her past teachers, Nobuko Imai, Kirsten Docter, Roberto Diaz, Misha Amory, and Michael Tree. Outside of music, she loves to perfect her pie baking skills, create fonts, go camping, and run into ocean waves.
Violist Kyle Miller made his concerto debut in 2005 with the Reading (Pennsylvania) Symphony Orchestra as ‘the dog’ in P.D.Q. Bach’s Canine Cantata, Wachet Arf! After that watershed performance, Kyle went on to study at the New England Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and The Juilliard School, the last at which he earned master’s degrees in both viola performance and historical performance. A member of ACRONYM, Diderot String Quartet, Four Nations Ensemble, New York Baroque Incorporated, and Quodlibet Ensemble, Kyle also has appeared onstage with A Far Cry, Apollo’s Fire, Clarion Orchestra, the English Concert, the Knights, Opera Lafayette, the Sebastians, Seraphic Fire, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Kyle has performed regularly at the Carmel Bach Festival and the Staunton Music Festival; and as a member of Diderot String Quartet, he has served as a guest artist and coach at Oberlin College’s Baroque Performance Institute. In 2015, Kyle was selected to be an English Concert American Fellow. In 2017 and 2018, Kyle wore a wig and frock coat on Broadway, where he performed in a run of Claire van Kampen’s play Farinelli and the King.
Cellist Hannah Collins, winner of De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, is a dynamic performer who takes an active role in expanding the repertoire for cello. She has commissioned solo works by composers such as Caroline Shaw and Timo Andres and studied European solo cello works in France and The Netherlands with support from the Presser Foundation. Hannah continues to catalyze and champion the works of compelling young composers with New Morse Code, her duo with percussionist Michael Compitello. New Morse Code’s 2017 debut album Simplicity Itself on New Focus Recordings was described by icareifyoulisten.com as “an ebullient passage through pieces that each showcase the duo’s clarity of artistic vision and their near-perfect synchronicity.”
Hannah has given solo and chamber music performances at festivals such as Orford Centre d’arts, Kneisel Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival, and Musique de Chambre à Giverny. She is a member of the Chanterelle Trio and Cantata Profana, and has recently performed with Quodlibet Ensemble, Bach Aria Soloists, A Far Cry, Talea Ensemble, and The Knights. Praised for her “incisive, vibrant continuo” playing (S. Miami Classical Review), Hannah also appears regularly as a Baroque cellist with the Sebastians, New York Baroque Incorporated, and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra.
Hannah earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale and holds graduate degrees in cello performance from the Yale School of Music and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. She is an alumna of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship focused on performance, teaching artistry, and arts advocacy run by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute. Her principal mentors have included Stefan Reuss, Ole Akahoshi, Aldo Parisot, Michel Strauss, Robert Mealy, and Marcy Rosen. Hannah is currently Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of Kansas School of Music and Assistant Director of the Avaloch Farm Music Institute.
Michael Unterman enjoys an active performing career on both modern and baroque cellos. He is a core member of the self-directed string chamber orchestra A Far Cry and serves as principal cellist of Boston Baroque, earning Grammy nominations with both groups in 2019.
In September 2019, Michael began in a new role as Artistic Director of Five Boroughs Music Festival, a concert series presenting a wide range of world-class chamber music in venues throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Michael cut his teeth in concert programming and production through his work with A Far Cry, whose members act as co-artistic directors. As a frequent curator and production lead, his projects have been praised as “just the kind of imaginative artistic agenda that more groups should be prodded to try” (The Boston Globe), “the way good programming should proceed” (Arts Fuse), and “gorgeous and remarkably unified” (Washington Post). Underpinning this behind-the-scenes work is a motivation to create nurturing environments for music and musicians, something instilled by many of his early mentors, including his cello teacher Judy Fraser, quartet coach Heilwig von Koenigslow, his mother and pianist-collaborator Kathy Bjorseth, and Tom and Isobel Rolston, former directors of the Banff Centre where Michael spent many a formative week.
Michael has also performed recently with Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Quodlibet Ensemble, at the Washington National Cathedral, and at the Birdfoot Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans and Staunton Music Festival in Virginia. As a cellist who enjoys a wide variety of musical roles, Michael has received critical praise for his “soulful and sultry solos,” “nuanced, sensitive, and wholly gorgeous collaboration” (Classical Scene), and “heroic continuo” accompaniment (Parterre Box). He has earned degrees from the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School, studying with Laurence Lesser, Natasha Brofsky, and Phoebe Carrai, and was also a Fulbright Scholar to Barcelona in 2008-09, where he studied with Lluis Claret and the Quartetto Casals.
Paul Wiancko has led an exceptionally multifaceted musical life as a composer and cellist. As a performer, he has collaborated with Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Nico Muhly, and members of the Guarneri, Takács, JACK, Parker, Orion, Kronos, and Juilliard quartets. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the Future”, Paul’s own compositions have been described as “dazzling”, “compelling” (Star Tribune) and “vital pieces that avoid the predictable” (Allan Kozinn). His 26-minute quartet LIFT is featured on the Aizuri Quartet’s Grammy-nominated album Blueprinting, one of NPR’s top 10 classical albums of 2018.
An avid chamber musician, Paul’s performances with Musicians From Marlboro have been described as “utterly transparent” and “so full of earthy vitality and sheer sensual pleasure that it made you happy to be alive” (Washington Post). In 2009, he joined the award-winning Harlem Quartet, with whom he spent 3 years performing and teaching extensively throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Africa. Paul currently writes and performs as a member of the viola and cello duo Ayane & Paul and appears regularly with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME).
Winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award for Composition, Paul has been invited to be composer-in-residence at the Caramoor, Spoleto USA, Angel Fire, Twickenham, Newburyport, Portland, and Methow Valley Festivals. Recent works have been premiered by the Parker Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Alexi Kenney, Tessa Lark, yMusic, and the Raleigh Civic Symphony. In 2020, Paul’s works will be premiered by the Grammy-winning Kronos and Attacca Quartets, among several others. NPR recently wrote, “If Haydn were alive to write a string quartet today, it may sound something like Paul Wiancko’s LIFT.”
Paul Wiancko performs on a 2010 Mario Miralles violoncello and lives in New York. He is passionate about woodworking and hiking, and never travels without a tenkara fly-fishing rod.
Joe Magar has spent his career exploring the versatility of the double bass and is as comfortable on the bandstand as he is in a bass section. Joe tours nationally with the Mari Black World Fiddle Ensemble and the Danny Burns Band. He has appeared at some of the country’s premier music festivals and theaters including Austin Celtic Festival, Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival, Saltwater Celtic Festival, Appaloosa Roots Festival, City Winery (NYC and Nashville), World Cafe Live, Yachats Celtic Music Festival and Fire in the Kitchen.
As a chamber musician, Joe has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Strathmore Center for the Performing Arts. He is a founding member of Quodlibet Ensemble, a chamber orchestra dedicated to exploring the repertoire of the past and present, and appears on the group’s debut recording of Arcangelo Corelli’s concerti grossi. He is also an enthusiastic performer of new music in many genres, with appearances including the Evolution New Music Series, the American Composers Orchestra’s Composers Out Front Series and the Incubator Arts Series.
Joe Magar is a Michigander by birth, a Baltimorean by choice and has received degrees in music from the University of Michigan and Yale.
Bassist Max Zeugner is currently Associate Principal Double Bass with the New York Philharmonic. Prior to joining the Philharmonic in 2012, he enjoyed a 7 year stretch in Europe which included stints as Principal Bass with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and the BBC Philharmonic, and appearances with the London Symphony, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic. These days, when not on stage with the NY Phil, he enjoys playing and coaching chamber music and also working as a part time electric bassist and tennis coach.
Keyboardist and conductor Jeffrey Grossman specializes in vital, engaging performances of music of the past, through processes that are intensely collaborative and historically informed. As the artistic director of the acclaimed baroque ensemble the Sebastians, in recent seasons Jeffrey directed concerts including Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions and Handel’s Messiah from the organ and harpsichord, in collaboration with TENET Vocal Artists. Jeffrey is a frequent performer with TENET, the Green Mountain Project, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and numerous other ensembles across the country. For thirteen seasons, he toured portions of the rural United States with artists of the Piatigorsky Foundation, performing outreach concerts to underserved communities. Jeffrey can be heard on the Avie, Gothic, Naxos, Albany, Soundspells, Métier, and MSR Classics record labels. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he holds degrees from Harvard College, the Juilliard School, and Carnegie Mellon University. Jeffrey teaches baroque performance practice at Yale University. www.jeffreygrossman.com