About

Cellist David Ying is well known to concert audiences as the cellist of the Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet. With the Quartet he has performed worldwide in celebrated music venues from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. The quartet is also known for its enterprising view of concert performance, which has led to visits to the White House as well as correctional facilities, and to business schools as well as hospitals. In its collaborations, the quartet has performed with chamber music greats Menachem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and Paul Katz, as well as explored new musical territory with folk musician Mike Seeger, the Turtle Island Quartet, and even actors, dancers, chefs and magicians. With the Quartet, David has created a wide range of recordings that have received consistent acclaim, as well as a Grammy Award and four Grammy nominations. Their recorded work ranges from traditional-­‐ Tchaikovsky’s three string quartets and his Souvenir de Florence-­‐ to contemporary-­‐ three albums of their LifeMusic commissions. It also includes unique collaborations with the Turtle Island Quartet, pianist Billy Childs, and Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. In October 2011, the quartet released the two string quartets and piano quintet of Anton Arensky (Sono Luminus). David first pursued chamber music avidly as a teenaged student at the Eastman School of Music with his piano trio, which was awarded first prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Later he would also win the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, this time with the Ying Quartet. David is also highly regarded as an individual artist, having been awarded prizes in the Naumburg Cello Competition and in the Washington International Competition. As a solo cellist, he often performs with his wife, pianist Elinor Freer. Together they are also artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival. Their imaginative view of music has helped to earn the festival a devoted following and national recognition, including a special ASCAP award for adventurous programming. A graduate of both the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, David owes a debt of gratitude to his many fine teachers, who include Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, Paul Katz, Steven Doane, Robert Sylvester, and Nell Novak. David presently serves on the cello and chamber music faculty at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, where he and Elinor reside with their two children. Read More

About

Janet Ying is a founding member of the Ying Quartet, whose fascinating career path began in 1992 in Jesup, a small town in northeast Iowa. Among the first groups to be awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to live and perform in a rural area, Ms. Ying explored connections between concert music and everyday life, performing throughout the community in places like schools, workplaces, social clubs, churches and banks. In the process of doing so, she forged a vision for making music an integral part of community. At the same time, Ms. Ying was recognized for musical excellence with the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1993, and since then has performed extensively across the United States and abroad.

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Phillip Ying, as violist of the Ying Quartet, has performed across the United States, Europe and Asia. He is a recipient of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music, has won a Grammy for a collaborative recording with the Turtle Island String Quartet, and has been nominated three additional times, most recently for a collaborative album with pianist, Billy Childs.

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At home as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster, violinist Robin Scott enjoys a broad musical career.  He has competed internationally, winning 1st prizes in the California International Young Artists Competition and the WAMSO Young Artist Competition, and 2nd Prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Irving M Klein International String Competition, and the Stulberg International String Competition.  He has soloed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lille (France), the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and many others.  He has given numerous recitals and performances throughout the United States and abroad, in such venues as Weill Hall and the Schubert Club in St. Paul.

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Grammy-award winning violinist, Austin Hartman, has distinguished himself as a chamber musician, soloist and educator with performances throughout the United States and abroad that critics have hailed as a “top flight…masterclass in chamber music.” His performances have been featured in venues throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa that include Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Baroque Art Hall in Seoul. Since joining the Pacifica Quartet in 2017, Mr. Hartman has served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where the quartet is in-residence and on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival where he co-directs the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies. He has collaborated with some of today’s most acclaimed artists that include members of the Cleveland, Shanghai, Tokyo, Vermeer, and Juilliard Quartets as well as Menahem Pressler, Sharon Isbin and Anthony McGill. For twelve seasons, he was the first violinist and founding member of the Biava Quartet an ensemble that garnered the 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and captured top prizes at the Premio Borciani and London International String Quartet Competitions. As a soloist, Mr. Hartman has made numerous appearances with orchestras throughout his career that include two guest appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1999, he was awarded the Gold Medal prize at the Stulberg International String Competition and since that time he has continued to present solo recitals around the world that included a number of humanitarian concert performances featured in China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Taiwan and Zambia. His discography can be heard on the Albany, Naxos, and Cedille labels and in 2020, along with his colleagues, he won a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance of the Year. As an educator, Mr. Hartman has served on the faculty of numerous summer festivals including the Brevard Music Center, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institutes and the Luzerne Music Center. Prior to joining the Pacifica Quartet, Mr. Hartman was the Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Indianapolis where he conducted the orchestra and opera theatre while also co-founding the Indianapolis Quartet. He has earned Artist Diplomas from both the Juilliard School and Yale School of Music as well as degrees from the New England Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music.

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Brandon Vamos is professor of practice (cello) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a member of the Pacifica Quartet, the school’s quartet-in-residence.

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Daniel Ching, a founding member of the Miró Quartet, began his violin studies at the age of 3 under tutelage of his father. At age 5, he entered the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division on a full twelve‐year scholarship, where he studied violin with Serban Rusu and Zaven Melikian, and chamber music with Susan Bates. At the age of 10, Daniel was first introduced to string quartets.A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daniel studied violin with Kathleen Winkler, Roland and Almita Vamos, and conducting with Robert Spano and Peter Jaffe. He completed his Masters degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with former Cleveland Quartet violinist Donald Weilerstein. He also studied recording engineering and production with Thomas Knab of Telarc, and subsequently engineered the Miró Quartet’s first promotional disc. Daniel is on faculty at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches private violin students and coaches chamber music. He concurrently maintains an active international touring schedule as a member of the Miró Quartet.

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Violist John Largess began his studies in Boston at age 12 in the public schools, studying with Michael Zaretsky of the Boston Symphony, and later as a student of Michael Tree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1995, he graduated from Yale University to join the Colorado String Quartet as interim violist with whom he toured the United States and Canada teaching and concertizing. The following year he was appointed principal violist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina, a position he held until joining the Miró Quartet in 1997. Also an active speaker and writer about all things chamber‐musical, in 2004 Mr. Largess was invited to give a week‐long audience lecture series as a part of the Eighth International String Quartet Competition at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada; he repeated this series in 2007 and again in 2010.

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Cellist Joshua Gindele, a founding member of the Miró Quartet, began his cello studies at the age of 3 playing a viola his teacher had fitted with an endpin. As cellist for the Miró, Josh has taken first prizes at several national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In 2005, the Miró Quartet became the first ensemble ever to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant.

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A founding member of the American String Quartet, Laurie Carney (violin) holds the distinction of performing quartets longer than any other woman in this elite field. The American String Quartet began concertizing while she was still an undergraduate at Juilliard. Apart from the Quartet, she has per­formed trios with her husband, cellist William Grubb, and pianist Anton Nel; duos with violist Michael Tree; and as an ensemble partner to such artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Salvatore Accardo, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Misha Dichter, Ralph Kirshbaum, Alain Meunier, and Frederica von Stade. Carney’s concerto appearances include performing Mozart’s Sin­fo­nia Con­cer­tan­te with the Bournemouth Symphony, Basque National Orchestra, and the Welsh National Orchestra. She gave the premiere of Gianpaolo Bracali’s Fantasia for violin and piano. Most recently, Robert Sirota composed his Violin Sonata No. 2 for her, and in addition to per­forming the premiere last spring, she will record the work later this season. A faculty artist at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 1974 and the Manhattan School of Music since 1984, Carney has held teaching positions at the Mannes College of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins Uni­ver­si­ty, University of Ne­bras­ka, University of Michigan, Shepherd School at Rice Uni­ver­si­ty, and the Taos School of Music. Her dedication to the development of young players brings frequent invitations to offer master classes, most recently in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and New Mexico. Carney is a member of a prodigious musical family: her father was a trumpeter and edu­ca­tor, her mother a concert pianist, and all three siblings are professional violinists. Her violin is by Carlo Tononi (Venice, 1720).

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Praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his “glowing refinement,” violist Luke Fleming‘s performances have been described by The Strad as “confident and expressive…playing with uncanny precision,” and lauded by Gramophone for their “superlative technical and artistic execution.”   Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Melbourne Festival, Bravo!Vail, and Festival Mozaic. Formerly the violist of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award.  He was awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition.

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Peter Winograd (violin) joined the American String Quartet in 1990. He gave his first solo public per­for­mance at the age of 11, and at age 17 he was accepted as a scholar­ship student of Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. Re­cog­nized early as an ex­cep­tion­ally prom­is­ing young artist, Winograd was a top prize winner in the 1988 Naumburg Inter­na­tional Violin Competition. He then made his New York debut to critical acclaim and has since appeared as a guest soloist with numerous orchestras and in recital across the country and abroad, including annual collaborative performances with cellist Andrés Díaz at the Florida Arts Chamber Music Festival. In 2002 Winograd performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Hartford Symphony; his father, Arthur Winograd, was the featured guest conductor. Winograd has been a mem­ber of the violin and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music School (where the American is Quartet-in-Residence) since 1990. Born into a gifted musical family, Winograd began his studies with his parents. His mother was a pro­fes­sion­al pianist, and his father was the founding cellist of the Juilliard Quartet and a conductor of the Hartford Symphony in Hartford, Connecticut, where Winograd grew up. He holds bach­e­lor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. His wife, violinist Caterina Szepes, is a reg­u­lar participant in the Marlboro Festival and a member of the Metropolitan Opera Or­ches­tra. His violin is by Giovanni Maria del Bussetto (Cremona, 1675).

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Simin Ganatra, a Grammy-award winning violinist, has won wide recognition for her performances throughout the United States and abroad. She has been described by critics as an “excellent and unique violinist” and heralded for “creating a miraculous sense of flow and otherworldly beauty.” She has performed in such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Corcoran Gallery, and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Collaborations include performances with Michael Tree, Toby Hoffman, and the St. Lawrence Quartet. She is the recipient of several awards and prizes, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and first prizes in the Union League of Chicago Competition, the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, the Minnesota Sinfonia Competition, and the Schubert Club Competition. Originally from Los Angeles, Ganatra studied with Idell Low, Robert Lipsett, and most recently Roland and Almita Vamos. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she was concertmaster of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra and recipient of the Louis Kaufman Prize for outstanding performance in chamber music. She is currently on the faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the University of Chicago.

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William Fedkenheuer is widely respected as a performer, teacher, and consultant. Uniquely drawing on two decades of experience onstage and off as a member of three internationally renowned string quartets (The Miró, Fry Street, Borromeo Quartets), he dedicates his life to serving others through performance, teaching, personal and professional development.

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Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1994, Wolfram Koes­sel (cello) has performed as a cham­ber musician, recitalist and soloist through­out the world. The Strad praised his “ex­cep­tion­al­ly attractive cello playing.” As a soloist he has per­formed con­certos through­out the United States as well as with Japan’s Osaka Symphony Orchestra and or­ches­tras in Ger­many and South America. He also has appeared often with the New York Meta­mor­pho­ses Or­ches­tra, which he cofounded in 1994. His collaborations include performances with leg­end­ary tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, distinguished dancer Mikhail Barysh­ni­kov, and cellist Yo Yo Ma, among many others. Koessel also appears with a wide range of ensembles, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Trio+ (a group he formed with violinist Yosuke Kawasaki and pianist Vadim Serebryani), which performs creative and collaborative concerts throug­hout Japan, the United States, and Canada. Koessel served as music director of the Mark Morris Dance Group from 2004 to 2008 and has toured extensively with the company both nationally and internationally, performing in several world premieres. In the fall of 2009, he was the featured performer in a new dance work, performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in C. His cello is by Giovanni Cavani (Modena, 1917).

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