| SHMUEL ASHKENASI, violin Shmuel Ashkenasi, first violinist on the Vermeer Quartet and professor of violin at Northern Illinois University holds an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. He performs extensively as a soloist in the United States, Europe, South America, the former Soviet Union, and Japan. His personal recording credits include the Paganini "Violin Concerti" with the Vienna Philharmonic, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; the Mozart "Violin Concerto No. 5, KV 219;" and the Beethoven "Romances" with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, recorded for Tudor Records. In 1962, he was awarded second prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, causing an international sensation as well as a musical triumph since his country, Israel, had no diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union at the time. He then went on to win the Merriweather Post Contest in Washington, D.C. He began musical training in Tel Aviv, and later studied with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute. In 1969, Ashkenasi founded the Vermeer Quartet, a preeminent string quartet. |
| DAVID EHRLICH, violin Violinist David Ehrlich began his professional career as concertmaster and soloist with the Tel Aviv Chamber Orchestra and toured as guest soloist with other Israeli chamber orchestras. He served as concertmaster and soloist of the Colorado Festival Orchestra, Filarmonica de Caracas, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, and was associate concertmaster with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In 1984 he joined the Audubon String Quartet at Virginia Tech as first violinist. With the quartet, Ehrlich toured all over the world, performing on some of the most prestigious stages and appearing on radio and television. He has conducted masterclasses and lectures at New England Conservatory, USC, Oberlin, Cleveland Institute of Music, Chautauqua-NY, Tel Aviv University, Arizona State University, Ireland, Venezuela, Czech Republic, and many others. He has recorded on RCA, Telarc, and Centaur labels. Since 2004, Ehrlich has served as the Outreach Fellow of Fine Arts at Virginia Tech, where he is involved in developing music programs in underserved communities of southern and southwest Virginia. Together with his wife, Teresa, he founded the Renaissance Music Academy and he is also the artistic director of Musica Viva, a chamber music concert series based in Blacksburg. Ehrlich performs on a violin made by Carlo Bergonzi (1735), through the generosity of the Virginia Tech Foundation. |
| ALEXANDER FITERSTEIN, clarinet
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| BETH GUTERMAN, viola A native of Belmont, Mass., Beth Guterman is one of the most sought after young violists of her generation. In the past few seasons,Guterman has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in Zankel Hall, Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Perelman Theatre, Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as well as having toured across America, Europe and Asia. She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has appeared frequently in Alice Tully Hall with performers David Finckel and Wu Han, and Menahem Pressler, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, Kyoko Takezawa, Paul Neubauer, Colin Carr, Gary Hoffman, and Edger Meyer, among others. With the Chamber Music Society, Guterman recorded chamber works for the Deutsche Gramophone label.She has toured across the world playing the Mendelssohn Octet with Gil Shaham, and Piano Quartets with Joseph Kalichstein. She performed as guest artist with the Orion Quartet, members of the Guarneri Quartet, and with the Claremont and Cavatina Trios. Guterman has participated in many summer festivals including the Marlboro Music festival, Music@Menlo, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Steans Institute at Ravinia, Festival Montreal, SummerMusic, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Her recordings appear on the Deutsche Gramophone, Tzadik and Naxos labels.One of two violists ever accepted for the program, Guterman received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory studying with Kim Kashkashian. Guterman received a bachelor of music and master of music degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Masao Kawasaki. She has also studied viola with Misha Amory, Catherine Carroll, Heidi Castleman, and Michael Zaretsky. Guterman is currently principal violist in the IRIS Chamber Orchestra and the ChamberOrchestra of Philadelphia.She has been a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) since 2008. |
| MARC JOHNSON, cello Marc Johnson was born to a musical family in Lincoln, Nebraska. He won several national competitions at a young age and was accepted as a scholarship student at the Eastman School of Music. While there, he studied with Ronald Leonard and John Celentano. He continued his studies at Indiana University where he was a student of Janos Starker and Josef Gingold. Johnson began his professional career while still a student. At the age of 18, he became the youngest member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, where he played for four seasons. He has also been a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He continued to have success in competitions, winning first prize in the prestigious Washington International Competition, among others. For 25 years, Johnson performed as the cellist for the Vermeer Quartet. The quartet appeared regularly in the world's musical capitals on five continents, and made extensive annual tours in Europe and North America. Their recordings gathered critical acclaim and include a version of the complete Beethoven string quartets on the Teldec label. They can also be heard on the Alden, Cedille, Orfeo, and Naxos labels. They received three Grammy nominations, appeared regularly at music festivals, and held residency positions with Northern Illinois University, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Johnson continues to pursue an active career since the quartet’s retirement in 2007, appearing in recital, and as soloist with orchestras in North America and Europe. He is also frequent presenter of masterclasses in the U.S. and abroad. He and his late wife, pianist Katherine Johnson, were co-directors of Bay Chamber Concerts, the Next Generation, a series of free chamber music seminars for students from the state of Maine. He has been active in the commissioning of new works for both cello and string quartet, and has recorded for CRI Records. He joined the faculty of Boston University in 2007 and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Dominican University in 2008. He was also awarded the Chevalier du Violoncelle by the Eva Janzer Cello Center at Indiana University. His Italian cello was made by Francesco Stradivarius (c. 1730). |
| MICHAEL KLOTZ, viola A native of Rochester, New York, Michael Klotz is the violist of the Amernet String Quartet, whose members are artists-in-residence of Florida International University School of Music in Miami. Klotz made his debut as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic at age 17. Since then he has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician on four continents. Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded a performer's certificate. In 2002, he became one of few individuals to receive a double master's degree in violin and viola from the Juilliard School. |
| DMITRY KOUZOV, cello A versatile performer, cellist Dmitry Kouzov has performed on five continents with orchestras and in solo and duo recitals and chamber music performances. He has appeared with the St. Petersburg Symphony (Russia), National Symphony of Ukraine, South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic (Czech Republic), and Symphony Orchestra “Classica” (Russia). Kouzov received first prize at the International Beethoven Competition in the Czech Republic and is a two-time laureate of the International Festival-Competition “Virtuosi of the Year 2000” in Russia and winner of the New York Cello Society Rising Star Award. His credits include numerous performances at many prominent concert venues throughout his native Russia. He made his New York orchestral debut at Alice Tully Hall in 2005, under the baton of Maestro Raymond Leppard. Highlights of Kouzov’s recent seasons include a debut with the Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, as well as solo appearances, duo recitals, and chamber music appearances at the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals Rising Stars Series. Most recently, he made his recording debut on Naxos with three C.P.E. Bach Gamba Sonatas and a recital CD “Two Hundred Years of Cello Masterpieces” on Marquis Classics. Kouzov has appeared in command performances before Mikhail Gorbachev and Prince Andrew, Duke of York and is a founding and active member of the Manhattan Piano Trio, performing extensively throughout United States. Currently Kouzov is an assistant professor of cello at the University of Illinois and was previously a faculty member at the Juilliard School and Oberlin Conservatory. He holds bachelor and master of music degrees from the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and an artist diploma from Juilliard. |
| PETER LAUL, piano . |
| MILANA STREZEVA, piano
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| MATHIAS TACKE, violin Mathias Tacke, violin, was the second violinist of the acclaimed Vermeer Quartet from 1992 until 2007 and, prior to that, a member of the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, one of the most important professional groups specializing in contemporary music. In this capacity, he gave countless first performances, including works by most of today’s leading composers. With the Vermeer Quartet, he gave performances in practically all of the most prestigious festivals, including Tanglewood, Taos, Ravinia, South Bank, Berlin, to name only a few. He appears internationally as a soloist and chamber player, performing a wide range of repertoire from the Baroque to music of our time and has made numerous recordings for such labels as Sony, ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, and Cedille. Three of the Vermeer Quartet recordings were nominated for the Grammy Award. Tacke is professor of violin and chamber music at Northern Illinois University and guest lecturer for string chamber music at Northwestern University. |
| BENJAMIN WYATT, cello Cellist Benjamin Wyatt enjoyed an active career as a freelance musician in Los Angeles and New York, and has performed extensively abroad as well as at home, including performances in Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. In addition to solo, chamber, and orchestral work, he has worked in popular and commercial idioms, including film and television sound tracks and Broadway musicals. He has been a guest artist the past three summers at the Aspen Music Festival. Other festival performances have included those at Spoleto, Corona Del Mar, and Sarasota. His chamber music performances have been broadcast live in New York and Los Angeles, and he has been hailed as "virtuosic" by the Los Angeles Times. Wyatt completed his graduate education at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and his undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Wyatt is also active as a Baroque cellist, performing with numerous period instrument ensembles as both soloist and continuo cellist. As a Baroque cellist, he has played with such ensembles as Musica Angelica, the American Classical Orchestra, Angeles Consort, Con Gioia, and Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra. He joined the Renaissance Music Academy in 2007, where he teaches cello, Suzuki cello group classes, and chamber music. He is a member of the Avanti Ensemble and is also a faculty member with Virginia Tech's Outreach and International Affairs. |
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