Amy Sue Barston and Edward Klorman, Artistic Directors | P. O. Box 717, Canandaigua, NY 14424 | 585-690-1220 | info@lakemusicfestival.org
FESTIVAL ARTISTS 2008
Formed in 1999, the Amelia Piano Trio is among the most exciting young chamber ensembles to appear in the last decade. Called “remarkable” by Strings and “exemplary” by The Strad, the group has quickly become one of its generation’s most sought-after ensembles. In its short history the Amelia has recorded critically acclaimed CDs for Naxos and Cedille Records, and has been recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming.
In 2003 the Trio was asked by National Public Radio to be the Young Ensemble in Residence. This exciting week of live concerts and interviews put the Amelia firmly in the foreground of classical music in America, reaching an estimated 1.5 million listeners. Performing fifteen works that spanned the centuries, the Amelia forged a lasting relationship with NPR. In October 2006 the Trio was featured on Chicago’s WFMT in live broadcast performances of the complete Beethoven Trios.
The Amelia members have quickly made their mark as performers and commissioners of new music. Notably, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Harbison wrote first piano trio for the Amelia, a recording of which was released on the Naxos label in the spring of 2007. Other commissions for the Amelia include Augusta Read Thomas’ A Circle Around the Sun and Adam Silverman’s Sturm. The Trio’s most recent commissioning project is a new Triple Concerto, Orpheus and Eurydice, composed by Daron Hagen. The Amelia will premiere the work with the Chicago Youth Symphony in November 2007 and continue to perform this new piece with youth and university orchestras around the country.
The Trio has performed extensively in North America and abroad, including France, Italy, Panama, and the Caribbean. They have released CDs on the Cedille Records label, as well as on the world music label Traditional Crossroads. In addition, members of the Trio have toured North America and Central Asia with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project.
The Amelia Piano Trio is actively involved in arts education and dedicates a substantial amount of time to educational projects, master classes, and coaching children and adults. The Trio members are professors at the Hartt School of Music and Connecticut College. In addition to developing award-winning outreach programs, the Trio is in residence at the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, where they teach gifted high school and college-aged students the art of chamber music. www.AmeliaPianoTrio.com
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Hailed as one of today's most exciting and dynamic young string quartets, the Corigliano Quartet has won the acclaim of audiences and critics across the USA. The New York Times called them "musicians who seem to say, 'Listen to this!'" and described them as having "an excellent, smooth sense of ensemble, but with each part vigorously alive." The Strad praised them for their "abundant commitment and mastery," while the Baltimore Sun said that in the Corigliano Quartet's hands, "Beethoven's intense originality sounded more potent than ever," and enjoyed the quartet's "profound beauty" and "riveting power."
The Corigliano Quartet is dedicated to the presentation of new American music. The group was founded in 1996 with the blessing of Pulitzer, Grammy and Oscar-winner John Corigliano. "They are truly one of the great quartets of the new generation," said the composer. "Their fiery intensity, musical sensitivity, and bold programming make for an absolutely stunning concert experience." The group's dedication and passion for new works has made them one of the most sought after interpreters of contemporary music today. For their efforts in bringing new music to a wider audience, the quartet was recently presented with the ASCAP/CMA Award For Adventurous Programming.
Comprised of violinists Michael Jinsoo Lim and Lina Bahn (who alternate at first violin), violist Melia Watras, and cellist Amy Sue Barston, the Corigliano Quartet rapidly climbed the ranks of the chamber music world. One year after its formation, the group drew the attention of Isaac Stern, who invited them to the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. The following season, the Corigliano won the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and both First Prize and the Grand Prize at the 1999 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
The group has performed in many of the nation's leading music centers, including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Corcoran Gallery. Recent performances have taken the Corigliano to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. They have also made appearances in Italy, Mexico, and Korea, where they gave the Korean premiere of Corigliano's Farewell Quartet. They have been heard in numerous radio broadcasts, including NPR's All Things Considered, and WFMT-Chicago's Live From Studio One. The group's festival appearances include performances at Ravinia, the Aspen Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), Strings in the Mountains, and Marrowstone Summer Music. The Corigliano Quartet has held residencies at the Juilliard School, where they served as the teaching assistants to the Juilliard String Quartet; Indiana University, where they served on the faculty as Visiting Lecturers; Dickinson College, and the New York Youth Orchestra Chamber Music Program.
The Corigliano Quartet’s 2007 CD release on Naxos, featuring the complete string quartet works of John Corigliano as well as a work by former Corigliano student Jefferson Friedman, has been hailed from coast to coast. The New York Times praised the quartet for their “knockout performances,” while the San Francisco Chronicle praised the ensemble for its “fervor and imagination.” The Corigliano has recorded for CRI, Albany, Aguava New Music and Bayer Records. Under the mentorship of Atar Arad, the group formed while its members were students at Indiana. www.CoriglianoQuartet.com.
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[See individual bios for pianists Maya Hartman and Noam Sivan]
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Juliana Athayde was appointed concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2005 and made her RPO Philharmonics debut in April 2006. Prior to joining RPO, Ms. Athayde was concertmaster of the Canton and Plymouth Symphonies. In the winter of 2002, she served as concertmaster of the New York String Seminar under the direction of Jaime Laredo for concerts at Carnegie Hall. For the past five years, she was a member of Michael Stern’s Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis.
Ms. Athayde has performed as a soloist with the Asheville, Canton, Diablo, Flint, Mid-Texas, Palo Alto, Plymouth and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she made her solo debut at the age of 16 performing with the San Francisco Symphony. She led the world-renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in performances at Paris’ Cite de la Musique, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
Ms. Athayde earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where she was a student of Paul Kantor. She went on to earn a Master of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the spring of 2005, Ms. Athayde became the first and only student to graduate from The Concertmaster Academy, a brand new program at CIM. Under the direction of Cleveland Orchestra concertmaster William Preucil, the program is designed to prepare the most qualified students for a career as concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra. For the past six summers, Ms. Athayde was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and received the prestigious Dorothy DeLay fellowship in 2004. Ms. Athayde performs on a 1948 Celeste Farotte violin.
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Praised as “passionate and elegant” by The New York Times, cellist Amy Sue Barston has performed as a soloist and chamber musician on stages all over the world, including multiple appearances in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Ravinia Festival, The Caramoor International Music Festival, Haan Hall (Jerusalem), The Power House (Sydney, Australia), The Banff Centre for the Performing Arts (Canada), The International Musicians’ Seminar (Cornwall, England), and Chicago’s Symphony Center.
At age seventeen, she appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on live television. The same year, she was the Grand Prize winner in the Society of American Musicians’ Competition, and won First Place and the Audience Prize in the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition. Amy studied with Nell Novak at the Music Institute of Chicago, Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, and Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters degree. Amy is also the cellist of two critically acclaimed chamber ensembles, the Corigliano Quartet and Divahn.
The Corigliano Quartet has been hailed by The New York Times as having "an excellent, smooth sense of ensemble, but with each part vigorously alive," and by Strad Magazine as having "abundant commitment and mastery." Divahn is a unique all-female quartet that specializes in Middle Eastern music and improvisation using vocals, percussion, violin, cello, and an array of exotic Mediterranean instruments. Above all, Amy is a devoted teacher: in her home, at the New York School for Strings, as an assistant teacher at The Juilliard School, and at numerous summer music festivals. Several of her students commute for lessons from hundreds of miles away, some from as far away as Alaska and Japan. Each year, Miss Barston gives recitals, masterclasses, chamber music performances, and solo performances with orchestra throughout the US and abroad.
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Elisa Barston is currently Principal Second Violin of the Seattle Symphony. Previously, she has served in the first violin sections of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. In 1993-1994, Ms. Barston was Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. She has performed virtually all over the world as both soloist and chamber musician. Among her list of honors is the Grand Prize in the International Kingsville Young Performers’ Competition, First Prize in the Seventeen Magazine-General Motors National Concerto Competition, First Prize in the Julius Stulberg Auditions, and top prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition (including the Audience Prize), the Young Musicians’ Foundation National Debut Competition, and the Illinois Young Performers’ Competition. As first violinist of the North Shore String Quartet, she won the First Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 1983, as well as the esteemed Kuttner Quartet Competition held at Indiana University in 1993.
In 1987, at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Ms. Barston made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Taipei Symphony. Solo and ensemble concerts have taken her to the Far East, as well as throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel. Critics have praised her “extraordinary accomplishment and potential, ...immaculate intonation, . ..and ever sensitive musicality.” Strad Magazine applauded her “glowing sound, tasteful phrasing and technical aplomb.” The Chicago Sun Times noted her “big, richly colored tone.” California journalists have called her a “talent worth watching.”
Ms. Barston received her Master of Music degree in Violin Performance from Indiana University in 1993 where she studied with world-renowned violinist and pedagogue Josef Gingold. During her two years at Indiana University, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate (1992), the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship Award (1991-1993), and the Starling Foundation Grant (1993). Ms. Barston is a 1991 graduate of the University of Southern California where she received the “Outstanding Graduate of the Year” award, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance under the tutelage of Robert C. Lipsett. Her previous major teachers include Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Elaine Skorodin, and Betty Haag. She has also worked with Donald Mclnnes, Yuval Yaron, Eleonore Schoenfeld, David Cerone, and Jascha Brodsky in both solo and chamber music.
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Equally at ease with Elliott Carter as with Sergei Rachmaninoff, Maya Hartman is a pianist of wide ranging interests and experiences. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestra and in recital in the United States, Canada, England, Switzerland, and her native Israel. Her performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and WQXR (New York).
Ms. Hartman is a passionate advocate of music of our own time and has premiered many new works. At the prestigious Lucerne Festival (Switzerland) she played Schoenberg's Piano Concerto under the baton of Pierre Boulez and worked closely with members of the Paris-based Ensemble Intercontemporain. This December she will play Elliott Carter’s Dialogues for piano and orchestra as well as Milton Babbitt’s Three Compositions for Piano in a concert celebrating Milton Babbitt’s 90th birthday in Pittsburgh, PA.
Ms. Hartman regularly performs solo recitals that combine well-known and more obscure composers. This season she will perform works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Charles Griffes, and Arthur Berger at venues including Barge Music, the Bruno Walter Auditorium, and the Dame Myra Hess live broadcast series in Chicago.
In addition to solo performances, Ms. Hartman performs a wide range of chamber music. This summer, Ms. Hartman was one of only 12 musicians invited to participate in Music@Menlo’s International program for chamber music. She has been invited to numerous chamber music festivals including the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove (England), Yellow Barn Festival (Vermont), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music (Connecticut), Kneisel Hall (Maine), and the Scotia Festival of Music (Halifax).
Ms. Hartman began her studies at age 4 with her mother and now holds a DMA from SUNY-Stony Brook and an MM and BM with high distinction from Indiana University. Her principal teachers were Gilbert Kalish, Menahem Pressler, and Edward Auer. A dedicated teacher, she is on faculty at SUNY-Stony Brook and at the Lucy Moses school in New York City. www.MayaHartman.com [back to top]
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A native of Rochester, Edward Klorman is rapidly emerging as one of most exciting violists of his generation and as an innovative leader in the music community. He has performed as soloist in Eastman Theatre, as well as with the Queens College Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Charles Neidich. As a recitalist, he has performed throughout North America and Europe, including appearances at Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Wednesdays at One series, Centre d’Arts Orford (Quebec), IMS Prussia Cove (England), and Oberstdorfer Musiksommer (Germany). An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with such renowned artists as the Orion String Quartet, Ying Quartet, Claude Frank, Joseph Kalichstein, and Charles Neidich, with performances in such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Music@Menlo, Sarasota Music Festival, and Taos School of Music. Mr. Klorman makes his New York City concerto debut this spring performing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Stefan Jackiw and the Camerata Notturna. In April, he will perform the same work with RPO concertmaster Juliana Athayde and the Rochester Chamber Orchestra.
A founder of two chamber music series – the Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival and Music at the Bowery (at the historic St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery in Manhattan’s East Village) – Mr. Klorman is deeply committed to sharing classical music with broader audiences. The Canandaigua Lake Chamber Music Festival's extensive community outreach program - which has included collaborations with Strong National Museum of Play, The Commission Project, as well as local public schools and hospitals - have recently garnered grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Music Fund. In 2007, at the invitation of David Finckel and Wu Han, Mr. Klorman organized the Music@Menlo Winter Residency, an integrated educational residency that used chamber music to teach academic subjects. He has participated in educational outreach programs at The Juilliard School, and has been an invited guest speaker for The Academy – a Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute.
Mr. Klorman graduated with distinction from The Juilliard School, where he held the Irene Diamond Scholarship and received the William Schuman Award and the John Erskine Graduation Prize. His major teachers include Hsin-Yun Huang, Daniel Phillips, Thomas Riebl, Steven Tenenbom, and Heidi Castleman, for whom he currently serves as teaching assistant. A musical scholar as well as a performer, Mr. Klorman is pursuing a Ph.D. from the City University of New York, funded in full by a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the Department of Education. He has presented illuminating lectures and master classes that integrate music performance and the historical imagination at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Université de Montréal, Aspen Music Festival, and The Juilliard School. Mr. Klorman makes his home in New York City.
[back to top]Noam Sivan, piano and composer
Noam
Sivan is an original and versatile musician, combining composition, piano
performance, improvisation, and conducting. His compositional output includes
works in most genres, among them the opera Fruits of Folia premiered
by the Mannes Opera, Homage to Ravel premiered by the Jerusalem
Symphony Orchestra, the song cycle The Cabin of Loneliness premiered
by Talamus voices and members of the Israel Philharmonic, and the Piano
Concerto which Mr. Sivan premiered himself in the double role of soloist
& conductor. He has also composed works for dance in collaboration
with Juilliard choreographers that were presented in Alice Tully Hall
and the Juilliard Theater.
As a pianist he has performed the Asian premiere of Viktor Ullmann Piano
Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, and Bach's Goldberg
Variations encored by an original improvisation on the piece for TV broadcast
in his native Israel. Known for his "fanciful improvisations"
(Washington Post), Noam Sivan is on the faculty at Mannes College where
he founded the Improvisation Workshop and is a doctoral fellow at the
Juilliard School. He has lectured as guest composer at SUNY Stony-Brook
and Bar Ilan Universities.
Dennis Whittaker wears many hats as a professional bassist in Houston, Texas. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education from Baylor University, and with a Master’s of Music from Northwestern University. His teachers include Paul Ellison, Jeff Bradetich, Eugene Levinson, Mark Whitney and Michael Cameron. In 1987, Mr. Whittaker won the Gary Karr Foundation National Double Bass competition, and was the recipient of a fine bass donated by the Karr foundation. He has been the principal Double Bassist of the Houston Grand Opera since 1996, and appears on six world premeire recordings with that organization. He is the instructor of Double Bass at the University of Houston Moores School of Music since 1997. He has served as string area coordinator and coordinator of the “Tuesday recital” series, has hosted the Texas Double Bass symposium, and maintains a presence of master classes, low string festivals, and hosting visiting master classes in the state of Texas. Before teaching at the University of Houston, he taught orchestra in the public schools in Waco and Houston for seven years. He has acted as a substitute bassist with the Houston symphony since 1996, appearing on two recordings with them under the Telarc and Koch labels, and having joined them on tours to Japan and Europe. He has also substituted with the Houston Ballet Orchestra, the Houston Sinfonietta, and the River Oaks Chamber orchestra. He is a freelance bassist in Houston, serving in symphonic, chamber, jazz and studio capacities, appearing on numerous CDs with local artists.
Mr. Whittaker has performed master classes and performances in ShangHai, China, Amsterdam, Japan, Germany, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and Louisiana. He has also performed at the Aspen music festival, and as principal bass for the Festival de dui Mondi in Spoleto, Italy for GianCarlo Menotti’s nintieth birthday. He is currently the bass teacher for the Sound Encounters program in Ottawa, Kansas, for the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, and serves as a reviewer for Double Bassist magazine in London, England.
Mr. Whittaker’s students have enjoyed success at programs such as Tanglewood, Aspen, the Disney Young Musician’s orchestra, Domaine Forget, the Golden Gate bass festival, Tanglewood Young Musician’s Institute, Interlochen, Texas Music Festival, Round Top Music festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Instrumenta Festival (Mexico) and The Bach Festival. His students have gone on to study at Julliard, Mannes, the University of Southern California, Rice University, Northwestern University, Boston University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Baylor University and Indiana University. Mr. Whittaker is a proud member of the American Suzuki Strings Association, American String Teachers Association, The Texas Music Educator’s Association, the Texas Orchestra Director’s Association, the International Society of Bassists, Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Mu Alpha.
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