Carlysle String Quartet (formerly Tailem Quartet)
Rachel Homburg and James Steendam, violins
Merewyn Bramble, viola; Sharon Draper, cello
2008
Chamber Music Session
Australia
www.carlyslestringquartet.com.au

Sookkyung Cho
2008
Chamber Music Session
Piano
Korea

Bachelors of Music: The Juilliard School; Master of Music: The Peabody Institute

Steve Danyew’s music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as “striking” and “rich with feeling” by the Palm Beach Post. Danyew is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the highly-coveted BMI Student Composer Award. The winning work, The Night Eagle for orchestra won the 2006 Frost Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition and was subsequently premiered by the Frost Symphony under the direction of conductor Chung Park. His work Lhotse for two saxophones was awarded 2nd prize in the 2006 APSU National Young Composers Competition, and was recently named a regional winner of the 2008 SCI/ASCAP National Student Composers Competition. Danyew was been named a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Awards three times (2006, 2007, 2008) and has received an ASCAPLUS award for 2008. Goodnight, Goodnight for choir was recently awarded 1st prize in the 2008 Ithaca Choral Composition Competition. Steve has served as a composer fellow and commissioned composer for the Composers Conference at Wellesley under the direction of Mario Davidovsky, and has been a composer fellow at the Yale Summer Music Festival, studying with Martin Bresnick.

Steve received his B.M. Music Theory & Composition with honors from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Danyew serves as Executive Director and Composer-in-Residence of the Miami-based chamber ensemble Project Copernicus (www.projectcopernicus.org). Danyew is currently studying towards a M.M. in composition at the Eastman School of Music.

Michael Driscoll
2008
Baritone/ Conductor
Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Worrkshop
USA
mdriscoll@alum.wpi.edu

Michael Driscoll is Director of Choirs at Brookline High School, a position he has held since September 2003. At Brookline High School he directs three choirs, advises three student-run a cappella ensembles, teaches music theory and class piano. He has been Music Director of Saengerfest Men’s Chorus, a Boston-based community chorus of 65 singers, since October of 2001. He has led Saengerfest Men’s Chorus on tours to Portugal, Vancouver, Canada and London, England. Michael was Associate Conductor of The Masterworks Chorale under the direction of Steven Karidoyanes and Assistant Conductor for four years under Allen Lannom. He has also directed the choirs at Emerson College and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In the Fall of 2007 Driscoll was invited to guest prepare Chorus pro Musica’s performance of Faure’s Requiem and Roger Ames’ Requiem for Our Time. He will guest conduct Chorus pro Musica in March 2009 in a program featuring Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Bach Cantata 161, and the New England premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Köthener Messe.

Michael received his Masters degree in Choral Conducting at the New England Conservatory where he studied with Simon Carrington, a former founding member and co-director of the King’s Singers. He began conducting as an undergraduate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), directing Simple Harmonic Motion, a 14-member male a cappella group, for three years. He was Assistant Director of the WPI Men’s Glee Club for three years and directed the WPI Concert Choir for two years.

Driscoll graduated from WPI in 1997 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Music. He completed his Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at WPI in 1999 and worked as a software development engineer for two years prior to beginning graduate studies in Choral Conducting at New England Conservatory in the Fall of 2001.

Luke Fleming
2007
Chamber Music Session
Viola
USA
lukewfleming@gmail.com

With recent performances hailed by The New York Sun as “superbly coordinated…a mysterious world of sound,” Luke Fleming is quickly establishing himself as an exceptional solo and chamber recitalist. Recent concerts have included performances in Alice Tully Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, Paul Hall and Scandanavia House in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, Thisted Musiktheater in Denmark, and in various venues across the U.S.

Mr. Fleming attended the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Music Festival in the summer of 2008, and has been awarded a fellowship to perform at the Marlboro Music School and Festival for the summer of 2009. In chamber concerts at the Sarasota Music Festival, he was singled out by local concert reviewers as a “spectacular violist,” with quartet performances praised as “incandescent…their silken tone and superbly nuanced playing surpassed the work of many well-established quartets.” He has participated in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Encuentro Musica de Santander (Spain), Letnia Academia Musyzcna (Poland), The Quartet Program, and the Interlochen Arts Festival. For the past three summers, he has performed at the Thy Masterclass Kammermusikfestival (Denmark), where his performances were praised in Strad as “confident and expressive.” As a resident artist in the Trinity Artists Concert Series in New Orleans, Mr. Fleming has appeared in numerous solo and chamber recitals and was nominated by the New Orleans Times-Picayune for “Best Chamber Music Performance” of 2004. Also an accomplished interpreter of contemporary and avant-garde music, Mr. Fleming was invited to give solo performances at the SEAMUS National Electroacoustic Music Convention and more recently at the 2007 and 2008 FOCUS! Festival in New York.

Mr. Fleming received his Masters of Music degree from the Juilliard School in 2007 and is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at Juilliard, studying with Samuel Rhodes. Mr. Fleming currently represents Juilliard as its recipient of the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF), as a part of which he has performed in chamber concerts across the U.S. and Europe. He has also been a recipient of the Morse Fellowship for three years, and was awarded Second Prize in the Juilliard Concerto Competition. He has performed as principal violist in the Juilliard Orchestra (with which he has toured the U.S.), was a founding member of the conductorless Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, and regularly performs in the AXIOM and New Juilliard Ensemble. He has performed in Lincoln Center’s Chamberfest, at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and with the Academy at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Fleming holds a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London as well as a Bachelor of Music Summa Cum Laude from Louisiana State University. A New Orleans native, Mr. Fleming places great importance on arts performance and education in his home state. He teaches and coaches regularly at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and has taught music classes and interactive workshops in numerous Louisiana and New York City public schools.

William Green
2006
Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop
Tenor
USA
wgreen@leeuniversity.edu

A successful leader in choral music for over twenty years, William R. Green is Assistant Professor of Choral Music at Lee University where he conducts the Choral Union and Chorale, as well as teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Kentucky and the Master of Music from Georgia State University. Dr. Green performed and recorded with Robert Shaw as a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus. The impact of this musical experience led Green to doctoral research on Shaw’s techniques on rhythm and phrasing, specifically in relation to the works of J.S. Bach.

In addition to his work with Shaw, Green has collaborated with many of the leading conductors of our time including John Rutter, Yoel Levi, Z. Randall Stroope, Ann Howard Jones, and Jefferson Johnson. He has led performances of many of the major works for chorus and orchestra, including Handel’s Messiah, the Requiems of Mozart and Faure, Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Mass in C Major, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, and the works of Bach, Britten, Poulenc, Vivaldi, and Schubert, among others.

Dr. Green also serves as the Artistic Director and Conductor of Choral Arts of Chattanooga. This exceptional ensemble provides professionally trained singers the opportunity to perform the finest choral masterpieces and contemporary literature. Of his work with this ensemble Ruth Cartlidge of The Chattanooga Pulse said, “Green’s touch with the waves of sound in Brahms’ Nänie was simply lovely. There is an aura of suppressed energy in his pianissimos that would make many choral directors envious.”

Dr. Green is active nationally and internationally as a guest conductor, adjudicator and clinician most recently working with choirs from Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina. He has presented workshops throughout the United States, as well as in Central America and Israel.

Anna Khanina
2008
Chamber Music Session
Piano
Germany/ Russia
annakhanina@hotmail.com

Moscow native, Anna Khanina is proud to take her place among distinguished young pianists of her generation. She started her musical education at the age of five, and in 1996 she graduated with honors from the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow, where she studied with Lidia Grigorjeva. Upon her graduation, she immigrated to Germany, where she began studies with Professor Bernd Goetzke (former student of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli) at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. In 1999 she graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Magna cum Laude. In 2001 she earned a Master’s degree from the same institution, and subsequently went on to pursue an Artist Diploma in the Soloist-Class in 2001. At the same time, while pursuing her studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Anna simultaneously pursued a second Master’s degree in Performance at the Gnessin Academy of Music, where she again graduated with honors in 2004. In 2007 she completed a Piano Performance Diploma at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where she studied as a full-scholarship student of Solomon Mikowsky. Upon her graduation in 2007, Ms.Khanina was accepted into the Doctoral of Muscial Arts Program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook as a full-scholarship student studying with Gilbert Kalish.

Anna Khanina is a laureate of many international competitions. Among her prizes are First Prize at the International Piano Competition “Classica Nova“(in memoriam Dimitri Shostakovich) in Hanover (1997, Second Prize at the Ciutat de Carlet International Competition in Spain (2003), 3rd Prize at Nueva Acropolis International Competition in Madrid (2003), 2nd Prize at the International Competition Silvio Bengalli Piano Prize in Val Tidone, Italy (2004), and 5th Prize at the Panama International Piano Competition (2006).

Until 1996 Khanina mainly played in Russia. Since 1997 concerts have taken her all over Germany, Asia, United States, and Israel. She was live broadcast on WFMT Chicago and The Voice of Music radio from Jerusalem Music Centre. Her engagements include concerts with Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra, and Bacau Symphony Orchestra.

She was invited to many renowned festivals, such as the Schleswig-Hollstein Music Festival, Braunschweig Classix Music Festival, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the summer home of the Yale School of Music.

During her studies she has actively taught students of different ages and levels, worked as an accompanist at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and is currently a Teaching Assistant at SUNY Stony Brook.

Jacquelyn Matava
2008
Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop
Alto
USA
jamatava@vassar.edu

Jacquelyn grew up in Farmington, Connecticut and is in her senior year at Vassar College where she double majors in music and economics. At Vassar, she studies voice privately with Christine Howlett and is also a member of the Vassar College Choir (conducted by Ms. Howlett) and Madrigal Singers (conducted by Drew Minter). Ms. Matava has sung as a soloist in performances of Schubert’s Mass in E-flat, Mozart’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah as well as several major works with the Vassar College Choir and Madrigals. She has performed as a soloist with the Vassar College Choir and Women’s Chorus on tours in Germany (March 2007) and Spain (March 2008). In April 2008 she gave her junior recital, which included works by Wolf, Fauré, Mozart, and Rossini, and performed in Vassar’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as the Sorceress. She spent the 2008 summer as intern for the New Jersey State Opera. Ms. Matava is in the process of applying to graduate schools for vocal performance.

Craig Matherne
2008
Chamber Choir and Choral Conducting Workshop
Baritone
USA
cmatherne7@stcharles.k12.la.us

It was a joy to conduct and sing in the Norfolk Chamber Choir. From the start, the singers were ready to perfect subtle, musical details and discuss techniques used to produce a wide array of vocal sounds. I recall a moment in which we all focused to achieve maximum relaxation in the jaw and to not allow the chin to come forward. It was an incredible opportunity to discover small details that truly changed the choir's sound.

Isabelle O'Connell
2008
New Music Workshop
Piano
Ireland
isabelle.oc@gmail.com
www.isabelleoconnell.com

Pianist Isabelle O’Connell has performed across the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy and Ireland. In May 2008 she joined the CRASH ensemble for their Australian tour including performances at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival. She was presented in her critically acclaimed New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2002. Receiving a standing ovation, the New York Concert Review wrote: “She has the technical prowess… and a spirit and intelligence to bring it all together.” She has developed a reputation for her dynamic performances of contemporary music at new music festivals in Ireland and in the U.S. In 2007, Isabelle was co-Artistic Director of “New Music, New Ireland, New York”, a concert that showcased contemporary Irish composers at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. In 2005 she performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in a concert of music by John Adams, conducted by the composer himself. The New York Times described it as “a zesty account…the ensemble played the piece brilliantly”. In 2006 she performed at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, USA, with composer/singer Meredith Monk and members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Isabelle is currently a member of REDSHIFT, a bicoastal new music ensemble based out of New York and San Francisco. She also has a particular interest in music involving extended piano techniques and is frequently invited to give masterclasses and workshops on the topic.

Isabelle made her début as concerto soloist at the National Concert Hall in 1999. In 2004 she made her debut with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductor William Eddins. She has given recitals at festivals in Europe and the US including the Pablo Casals Festival (France), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (USA), Mannes Contemporary Music Festival (USA), Sligo New Music Festival (Ireland), Waterford New Music Week (Ireland) and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (Ireland). In 2003 Isabelle was invited to do a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where she collaborated with various artists including the New Zealand String Quartet.
In addition to winning an award from Artists International in 2001, Isabelle was the recipient of the Tibor Paul Medal, the 1998 Mabel Swainson Pianoforte Award at the Feis Ceoil (which led to her debut recital at the John Field Room in Dublin) and the Ulster Bank Music Foundation Piano Award (making a television appearance on the Late Late Show). Some of her other awards have included a Fulbright scholarship (1999), a Bank of Ireland Millenium Scholarship (2000) and a John F. Kennedy scholarship (1999-2002).

Isabelle has appeared on television and radio on both sides of the Atlantic, including WFMT Chicago, BBC3, RTE and TV3. Her concerto and recital performances have also been broadcast on Lyric FM radio. In 1997, she represented Ireland in Germany, recording a CD that featured young European pianists and she has recently been awarded a grant from the Irish Arts Council to record her first solo CD featuring piano music by contemporary Irish composers. Isabelle holds a Masters degree from Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. in Performance from the Royal Irish Acadeny of Music.

Naftali Schindler
2008
Composer
Chamber Music Session
www.naftalischindler.com

Naftali Schindler was born in Boston in 1982, but grew up in Israel. He began his musical studies at age 15, studying piano and composition with Shlomo Schnall. Upon returning to the US in 2001, he studied composition and theory at Boston University, graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree. His teachers at BU included Martin Amlin and Theodore Antoniou. He presented his work in master-classes given by Lukas Foss, Samuel Adler, and David Liptak, among others. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at Yale University, studying with Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, and Ezra Laderman. His music has been performed across the US, including performances by The Travers Siblings, Alea III, Yale Philharmonia, Pykka Quintet, and a performance of his Petrarch sonnets by the BU Symphony Orchestra, as part of the 2006 BU honors concert. He has been commissioned by Alea III, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, among others. He is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda and Chai Society, and is a recipient of the John Day Jackson Prize. Naftali is also an aspiring throat-singer in the Tuvan manner.

Colin Stokes
2008
Chamber Music Session
Cello
USA
colin.e.stokes@gmail.com

Colin Stokes, a student of Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott, is pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance at the Eastman School of Music. He studied with Troy Stuart from 1998 until his graduation from the Baltimore School for the Arts in 2006. In 2006 he was invited to perform in Baltimore's Community Concert Series at 2nd Presbyterian and with Yo-Yo Ma at the Meyerhof and Strathmore Symphony Halls. Colin received the 2006 Baltimore School for the Arts Joan G. and Joseph Klein, Jr. Scholarship for the Most Promising Performing Artist. Most recently, he made several appearances on the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival's Master Series. He has performed with artists Syoko Aki, Allan Dean, June Han, Ani Kavafian, Jesse Levine, Yo-Yo Ma, Patti Monson, James Taylor and Wei-Yi Yang.

Lidiya Yankovskaya
2007, 2008
Chamber Choir and Choral Cinduting Workshop
Alto/ Conductor
lidiya@LidiyaYankovskaya.com
www.lidiyayankovskaya.com