The Performers || Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival 2009

Each September, the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival brings fine musicians from around the world for an exciting series of concerts.


			RAPHAEL BELL cello Cellist Raphael Bell is co-founder and co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. He has performed at international festivals such as Ravinia, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Bel-Air, and IMS Prussia Cove. He recently performed at Wigmore Hall in London as a part of the Prussia Cove tour that won the 2007 Chamber Music Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society.MORE


			TIMOTHY SUMMERS violin and viola Violinist Timothy Summers is co-founder and co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. He is second violinist of the acclaimed Orpheus String Quartet and performs on violin, viola, and mandolin with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a chamber musician at venues across the world, and has taught at the Liceo in Barcelona, the Savonlinna Academy in Finland, and the Britten/Pears Institute in Aldeburgh. Mr. Summers holds degrees from Harvard College and The Juilliard School. MORE



			ALISDAIR BEATSON piano Highly regarded as a distinctive and accomplished musician, Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson continues to make an impact on the classical music scene. This season he holds an artistic residency at Perth Concert Hall, and performs in Belgium's Resonances Festival, Bath's Mozartfest, the Recital Hall in Zurich's Tonhalle, and on three separate occasions at Wigmore Hall. MORE


			EMILE CANTOR viola Violist of the acclaimed Orpheus String Quartet, Emile Cantor is a professor at the Folkwang Musikhochschule in Essen, associate professor at the Conservatori del Liceo in Barcelona, teacher at the Royal Academy of Aarhus, and solo-violist of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. Cantor is often invited to be member of juries at international music competitions, including the 2008 International ARD Competition in Munich. MORE


			NICHOLAS CORDS viola Violist Nicholas Cords, a native of St. Paul, Minn., graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music where he worked with Karen Tuttle. He has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, has collaborated with pianists André Previn, Joseph Kalichstein, Gilbert Kalish, and Leon Fleisher, and has participated recently in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. MORE


			JUDITH GORDON piano Pianist Judith Gordon was named Musician of the Year by the Boston Globe in its “Best of 1996 Classical.” She has played with Yo-Yo Ma and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bargemusic, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Phillips Collection. She has performed frequently at Tanglewood and Spoleto USA. MORE


			MARK GOTHONI violin A major prizewinner at a number of international competitions, including the Johannes Brahms Violin Competition in Hamburg in 1990, Gothoni was honored in 1991 as “Debut-of-the-Year” at the Jyväskylä Arts Festival, Finland. Since then he has performed as a soloist and chamber musician around the globe. As first violinist of the Orpheus Quartet and member of the Mozart Piano Quartet he enjoys a worldwide reputation as a chamber musician. MORE


			BENJAMIN HOCHMAN piano Pianist Benjamin Hochman is achieving widespread acclaim for his performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, Seattle Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Portland Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada under eminent conductors such as Pinchas Zukerman, Jaime Laredo, Jun Märkl, Bramwell Tovey, Leon Botstein, Lucas Richman, Arthur Post and Nir Kabaretti.MORE


			MATTHEW HUNT clarinet Matthew has performed at venues around Britain and abroad, including the Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall and St. John’s, Smith Square in London, the Spoleto festival, the Cité des Arts and the British Embassy in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Centre for Performing Arts in Bombay, and has been invited to participate at music festivals in the USA, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, France and Switzerland. MORE


			COLIN JACOBSEN violin Colin Jacobsen has been guest soloist with the symphony orchestras of New York, Albany, Charlotte, Chicago, Eugene, Rhode Island, Nashville, Charleston, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. At the School for Strings 25th anniversary celebration at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Jacobsen gave the world premiere of Ellen Taafe Zwillich's Partita for Violin and String Orchestra. MORE


			PEKKA KUUSISTO violin In November 1995, Pekka Kuusisto became the first Finnish violinist to win the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki and was additionally awarded the special prize for the best performance of the Sibelius Concerto. Past competition successes have also included third prize at the Carl Nielsen Competition in Denmark in 1992, and first prize at the national Kuopio Violin Competition in Finland in 1995. MORE


			MARIE-PIERRE LANGLAMET harp Marie-Pierre Langlamet was born in Grenoble (France) in 1967, and received her first musical instruction at the Nice Conservatoire. Since 1993 she is the principal harpist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductor Claudio Abbado, and since 2002 Sir Simon Rattle). MORE


			DEMARRE MCGILL flute Winner of a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant, flutist Demarre McGill has performed concerti with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony, among others. An active chamber musician, Mr. McGill is a member of the Jacksonville, Florida based Ritz Chamber Players and has been a member of Chamber Music Society Two. MORE


			THADD MCQUADE narrator Thadd McQuade is a teacher and director of performance, with particular interest in collaborative work across conventionally separate disciplines. He was the founder and artistic director of Foolery Theater, based in Charlottesville, and is currently artistic director of Break Theater, a performance research collective with collaborators on several continents. He has worked with the Odin Teatret in Denmark, and Teatr Gardzienice in Poland. MORE


			NOKUTHULA NYGWENYAMA viola Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician garner great attention. Gramophone proclaimed Ms. Ngwenyama’s playing as providing “solidly shaped music of bold, mesmerising character,” and the Washington Post described her as playing "with dazzling technique in the virtuoso fast movements and deep expressiveness in the slow movements.”MORE


			ORPHEUS STRING QUARTET Mark Gothoni and Timothy Summers, violins Emile Cantor, viola; Laurentiu Sbarcea, cello Since its successful United States debut in 1997, the Orpheus Quartet has given annual tours to great public acclaim, performing in the most prestigious halls, such as Wigmore Hall in London, where it has participated in the Hall’s celebrated Schubert-weekend. The Quartet has toured with longtime friend pianist Menahem Pressler in Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. MORE


			LAURENTIU SBARCEA cello Laurentiu Sbarcea, cellist of the Orpheus String Quartet, has lived in Germany since 1984 and also serves as second solo cellist of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. Amongst his chamber music partners were Pavel Gililov, Martha Argerich and Homero Francesch and his current recitals with the Swiss pianist Ulrich Koella have received enthusiastic acclaim. He currently teaches at the Köln Hochschule, department Aachen and gives master classes around the world. MORE


			JAMES WILSON cello Cellist James Wilson has performed in music festivals and series including Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the German Mozart Festival in Augsburg, and the City of London Festival, and with such celebrated artists as Lydia Artymiw, Eliot Fisk, Ruth Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt, and Eugenia Zukerman. He is currently a member of the Chester String Quartet and the newly formed Da Ponte Trio. MORE