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Raphael Bell, cello and Artistic Director
Raphael Bell enjoys a varied career as a principal cellist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival director. He is currently principal cello of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, co-Artistic Director of La Loingtaine in Montigny-sur-Loing, France, co-founder of the Camerata Fontainebleau, and co-founder and Artistic Director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival.
As a chamber musician he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Salle Gaveau, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Luzerner Theater, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and Kyoto Concert Hall, and at festivals including Seattle Chamber Music, Ferrara Musica, Wiener Festwochen, Elba Festival, Ravinia, Verbier and Resonance Festival Belgium. He was part of the IMS Prussia Cove tour that won the Chamber Music Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, and has collaborated with musicians such as Steven Isserlis, James Ehnes, Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov, Ivry Gitlis, and with quartets including Brooklyn Rider, Dante, Taurus, Orpheus, and Oxalys Ensemble.
Raphael gave the world premiere of Olli Mustonen's Triptych for three cellos with Steven Isserlis and Steven Doane. Solo performances include concertos with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Nagaokakyo Ensemble, Tokyo Luft Ensemble, and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under Edo de Waart and the Brahms Double Concerto with Philippe Herreweghe. As a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for many years, he played in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra’s celebrated Mahler Symphony Cycle with Claudio Abbado. He has been guest principal in Les Dissonances, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and worked with the Munich Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique.
Raphael studied at The Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro, and later with Mario Brunello, Steven Isserlis and Ferenc Rados.
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Photo by Geoffroy Schied
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Timothy Summers, violin and Artistic Director
Violinist Timothy Summers is a member of the first violin section of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and has performed on violin, viola, and occasionally mandolin with the orchestra at venues across the world. He has been co-director of the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival since 2000, and he served as second violinist of the Orpheus String Quartet. Mr. Summers currently teaches violin on the faculty of the Universität der Künste (UdK) Berlin, and has taught violin, orchestral playing, improvisation, and chamber music worldwide. He is also artistic director of the MCO’s ‘Future Presence’ VR project with sound artist Henrik Oppermann, and serves on the orchestra’s board.
Mr. Summers has performed as a chamber musician at festivals across the United States and Europe, and has also performed extensively as an improviser with electronics. He was also for several years a participant in the Emmanuel Music cycle of Bach Cantatas in Boston, led by the late Craig Smith and John Harbison.
Mr. Summers spent the 2005-2006 year as artist-in-residence at the Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music in Århus, funded by a grant from the Fulbright Commission, and worked in collaboration with improvisation artist Steven Nachmanovitch on improvisation and digital music projects. He continues to develop music learning and analysis tools for digital media, with a concentration on AR/VR and sonic interaction.
He holds an A.B. from Harvard University in English and American Literature and an M.M. in violin Performance from the Juilliard School. Timothy Summers was a student of Ronald Copes and Robert Mann at the Juilliard School, Mark Rush at the University of Virginia, James Buswell at New England Conservatory, and Robert Levin at Harvard University.
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Andrew Armstrong, piano
Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Prague’s Rudolfinum, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Ehnes, Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and as a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, Boston Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the JupiterSymphony Chamber Players.
Recent and upcoming seasons find Andy continuing to perform as soloist and chamber musician around the globe, from London to Geneva and Dresden, from Australia to Hong Kong and Singapore, across Canada and the United States, while continuing to build and grow the flourishing chamber music series he directs in Beaufort and Columbia, SC and in New Canaan, CT.
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Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein is considered one of today’s most exceptional artists. Fiterstein has performed in recital, with distinguished orchestras, and with chamber music ensembles throughout the world. He won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant Award. The Washington Post has described his playing as “dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness” and The New York Times described him as “a clarinetist with a warm tone and powerful technique.”
As soloist he has appeared with the Czech, Israel, Vienna, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, Belgrade Philharmonic, Danish National Radio Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic, China National Symphony Orchestra, KBS Orchestra of South Korea, Jerusalem Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, Kansas City Symphony, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. During the 2015-16 season he performed as soloist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra on tour to Asia with concerts in Taiwan, Singapore, and Indonesia. He has performed in recital on the Music at the Supreme Court Series, the Celebrity Series in Boston, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Kennedy Center, the Louvre in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Tel Aviv Museum, and NYC’s 92d Street Y.
A dedicated performer of chamber music, Fiterstein frequently collaborates with distinguished artists and ensembles and regularly performs with the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Among the highly regarded artists he has performed with are Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Emanuel Ax, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Pinchas Zukerman, and Steven Isserlis. Fiterstein performed with the Dover, Pacifica, Jerusalem, and Shanghai String Quartets as well as with Ensemble Wien-Berlin. He spent five summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and appeared at the Caramoor, Moab, Music@Menlo, Montreal, Toronto, Jerusalem, and Storioni Chamber Music Festivals. He is currently co-artistic director of the Sedona Winter MusicFest in Arizona.
Fiterstein is a founder of the Zimro Project, a unique ensemble dedicated to incorporating Jewish art music into chamber music programs. He performed as principal clarinet of the West-East Divan Orchestra at the invitation of Daniel Barenboim and has appeared as guest principal clarinet with the Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, KBS Orchestra with Yoel Levi, and with the St. Paul and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras.
Fiterstein has a prolific recording career and has worked with composers John Corigliano and Osvaldo Golijov and had pieces written for him by Samuel Adler, Mason Bates, Paul Schoenfield, and Chris Brubeck, among others. His most recent recording released by Naxos is a performance of Sean Hickey’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony. Fiterstein was born in Belarus and immigrated to Israel at the age of 2 with his family. He graduated from the Juilliard School and won first prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. An award recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, he previously served as clarinet professor at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Minnesota. Fiterstein is a Buffet Crampon and Vandoren Performing Artist.
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R.J. Kelley, horn
Resident in the New York area since 1990, R.J. Kelley has been heard with such distinguished ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, NY City Opera, NY City Ballet, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus, Aspen Wind Quintet, and many others.
Equally comfortable touring with Branford Marsalis and Orpheus, appearing on "Saturday Night Live" with Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page, or giving Bach's Quoniam under direction of Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott, or Joshua Rifkin; playing the Carnivale di Venezia with the Duke Ellington orchestra, recording Mozart's complete Concerti for horn (MusicMasters/Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy/Thomas Crawford), R.J. has garnered critical praise ranging from "Dazzling!" (San Francisco Chronicle) to "...resident magician of the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy..." (Hartford Courant).
RJ currently serves as principal horn of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under Nicolas McGegan; Santa Fe Pro Musica & Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra/Kenneth Slowik (NM,DC); American Classical Orchestra/Thomas Crawford (CT); Portland Baroque Orchestra/Monica Huggett (OR); Washington Bach Consort/Reilly Lewis; he has been featured as concerto soloist with the above-named ensembles, as well as the Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Connecticut Orchestra, The Governor's Musicke (Williamsburg, VA), Tafelmusik (Toronto), Capella Nuova (Stockholm, Sweden), and others.
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Matthew Lipman, viola
American violist Matthew Lipman has been praised by the New York Times for his “rich tone and elegant phrasing” and by the Chicago Tribune for a “splendid technique and musical sensitivity.” Recent seasons have included appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, and the Zürich Tonhalle; was invited by Michael Tilson Thomas to be a soloist at the New World Symphony Viola Visions Festival; and has appeared in chamber music with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Berlin Philharmonie and Vienna Musikverein, the latter of which was released by Deutsche Grammophon STAGE+. An alum of the Bowers Program, he performs regularly on tour and at Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he occupies the Wallach Chair.
In 2022, he made his Sony Classical debut on The Dvořák Album, and his 2019 solo debut recording, Ascent, was released by Cedille Records, marking world premieres of the Shostakovich Impromptu and Clarice Assad Metamorfose. Additionally, he recorded the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with violinist Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by the late Sir Neville Marriner.
An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and major prize winner at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, he studied with Heidi Castleman at Juilliard and Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy. Lipman is on faculty at Stony Brook University and performs on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz viola, made for him in New York.
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Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin
Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti has a musical career of broad versatility. Before becoming the inaugural Director of Mercer University’s McDuffie Center for Strings, she was concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra and Oregon Symphony.
She has premiered concertos for GRAMMY winner Matt Catingub and her Mercer colleague Christopher Schmitz, collaborated with James Ehnes for Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Two Violins” and Bartók’s “44 Duos” -- both contributions to Chandos recordings receiving consecutive Juno Awards for Classical Album of the year 2014 and 2015 -- and she performed the complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets in Seoul, Korea with the Ehnes Quartet. They have recorded Barber, Sibelius, Shostakovich and Schubert quartets, in 2021, mid and late Beethoven quartets, and most recently in 2022, Dvořák’s “American” String Quintet with violist Paul Neubauer.
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Recognized as a deeply expressive artist, Moretti enjoys the opportunity to travel and perform concerts around the world. Her many festival appearances include Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, Evian, La Jolla, Meadowmount, Seattle, Music@Menlo and Manchester Music Festival. She has served as guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, Pittsburgh; the New York Pops and Hawaii Pops; and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado and Grand Teton.
The Cleveland Institute of Music has honored her with an Alumni Achievement Award, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music their Fanfare Award, and she was named to Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals" in 2018. Director of the McDuffie Center since 2007, Amy Schwartz Moretti holds the Caroline Paul King Violin Chair and has developed and curates the Fabian Concert Series. She led the Center’s Young Artists in an ensemble performance at Carnegie Hall, was featured with a McDuffie Center student at the Supreme Court Grand Hall in Washington DC, and celebrates the many awards Center students achieve, including one of her violin students who won the 2022 MTNA National Young Artist String Competition.
Moretti lives in Georgia with her husband and two sons, enjoying swimming and being at the soccer field with her boys.
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