String Faculty
VIOLIN
Marjorie BAGLEY, graduated in the first class of Pinchas Zukerman at The Manhattan School of Music in New York City, and made her Lincoln Center concerto debut in 1997 with The Little Orchestra Society. She has performed as soloist with The Utah Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, Berkshire Bach Society Orchestra and The Washington Square Music Series. She has consistently received favorable reviews in the press from Strad Magazine, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Wiesbadener Tagblett (Germany), and La Dauphine (France). As first violinist and founding member of the Arcata String Quartet, Bagley performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, London's Wigmore Hall, and across Western Europe and the United States. Bagley has had the opportunity to play with some of the great artists of our time including members of The Guarneri, Emerson, American, Tokyo, and Borromeo String Quartets. She can be heard on three commercial recordings on the VOX label which include a recording of Borodin's Quartet in A minor and his youthful String Quintet in F minor with cellist David Geber. A second recording contains Respighi's Quartetto Dorico alongside the Tokyo Quartet's Il Tramonto with singer Renata Scotto. She premiered Paul Chihara's Kisses Sweeter than Wine with the Utah Symphony and conductor, Keith Lockhart. Bagley graduated summa cum laude from The University of Michigan at the age of eighteen where she studied with Stephen Shipps. As a student of Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec, she received a M.M. degree from The Manhattan School of Music. Other coaches and teachers included Josef Gingold, Rostislav Dubinsky, Isidore Cohen, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet. She has been on the faculties of Utah State University, The Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, The Perlman Music Program and The Kinhaven Music School. |
Leoš ČEPICKÝ born in 1965, began studying the violin at the age of six and took up piano four years later. After six years of study at the Conservatoire in Pardubice, Bohemia, Leoš quickly made his mark as a violinist of remarkable talent. Upon his arrival at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts in 1985, he became a founding member of the Wihan Quartet. Since winning the London International String Quartet Competition in 1991, the Wihan Quartet has developed an impressive international career with regular visits to the US and Japan and to major festivals and concert halls throughout Europe. They are regularly heard on BBC Radio 3 as well as radio and television in the Czech Republic and have made European broadcasts on several occasions.
In 2008, Leoš performed the Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Prokofiev and Beethoven violin concertos in the Czech Republic and was recently invited by cellist Gemma Rosefield and pianist Michael Dussek to play Mendelssohn's Piano Trio Op.49 at the Wigmore Hall. The Trio was subsequently invited to Belfast for a BBC broadcast.
Mr. Čepický has recorded J.S. Bach, Sonatas and Partitas on the Multisonic label. He is currently a much sought-after Professor of Violin at his alma mater. |
As a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1998, he has participated in over 1,300 performances of 117 different operas, including hundreds of live radio broadcasts to more than 40 different countries, numerous productions for video and television, and live High-Definition broadcasts to cinema screens worldwide. Mr. Fischbach was a member of the San Francisco Symphony from 1996-98, appointed by maestro Michael Tilson-Thomas. He toured Japan, Hong Kong and also Europe with the SFS, performing in the Musikverein, Berlin’s Philharmonie, The Paris Opera and The Royal Concertgebouw. He was also a member of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. from 1995-96, appointed by maestro Leonard Slatkin. He participated in performances of over 30 newly commissioned works by American composers and a recording of John Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance, and Symphony No. 1. He also participated in NSO Chamber Music concerts in the Kennedy Center and performed as a member of the National String Quartet. He received his early violin training from his father, Gerald Fischbach. As a high school student, he attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied violin with Stephen Shipps and Elaine Richey. He completed his Bachelor of Music degree, magna cum laude, at Boston University where he studied with George Neikrug and Yuri Mazurkevich, and his Master of Music degree at Northern Illinois University where he studied with Shmuel Ashkenasi. He has had close exposure to a broad range of pedagogical methods, from early training with his father whose influences included Paul Rolland, to his five subsequent private teachers who were themselves pupils of Gingold, Galamian, Dounis, Oistrakh, and Zimbalist. He has given master classes at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and is sought after in New York City as a teacher and audition coach for advanced violinists and violists. His article, Mastering the Unknown: Guidelines for Successful Orchestra Auditions was published by the American String Teachers Association in 2008. |
Garrett FISCHBACH , serves on the faculty of Mannes College of Music, where he teaches weekly Violin Performance Class to more than 50 undergraduate and graduate violin students. Active as a soloist and chamber musician, he performed in 2007 in Shanghai for China’s Oriental Satellite TV Channel as first violinist of a string quartet with faculty members from the Shanghai Conservatory. His 2004 recording of the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo by J.S. Bach, received critical acclaim including reviews in Fanfare Magazine and American Record Guide.
| Jiří FIŠER After his graduation from the Pilsen Conservatory, Mr. Fišer studied in Prague at the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Prof. Antonin Moravec. He finished his studies at summer school in Zurich where he studied with Nathan Milstein. He was one of the first members and Assistant Concertmaster of the Newly founded Suk Chamber Orchestra. In 1985 he joined the Doležal Quartet where he served as its first violinist until 2003. Mr. Fišer has given many chamber music master classes in the Czech Republic and abroad. His students have been prizewinners in many international violin competitions, such as the Kocian, and Beethoven Competitions as well as the Concertino Praga. He has been a faculty member at the Jan Neruda Gymnasium since 1996. |
Stephen B. SHIPPS studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University. He also studied with Ivan Galamian and Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School and with Franco Gulli at the Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He is a former member of the Meadowmount and the Amadeus Trios and has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, Dallas, Omaha, Seattle and Ann Arbor, as well as the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra and the Madiera Bach Festival. He has been a member of the Cleveland Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony and Concertmaster of the Dallas Opera, Concertmaster and Associate Conductor of the Omaha Symphony and the Nebraska Sinfonia, and guest Concertmaster for the Seattle and Toledo symphony orchestras. Mr. Shipps has recorded for American Gramophone, Bay Cities, NPR, RIAS Berlin, and Hessiche Rundfunk of Frankfurt, Melodia/Russian Disc and Moscow Radio. His work on the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Albums has yielded a dozen gold and two platinum records. He has adjudicated major national and international competitions for three decades and serves on the Board of Directors of the Sphinx Competition. He is former Director of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition. Prior to joining the U-M faculty he served on the faculties of Indiana University, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Banff Centre in Canada. As well as serving at UM, he also is the Artistic Director of the International Music Academy of Pilsen in the Czech Republic. This season he is the official on-air announcer of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis as well as serving on their International Advisory Panel. Recently he served as Visiting Professor of Violin at the Prague Academy of Music in the Czech Republic. |
Daniela SOUČKOVÁ graduated from The Prague Conservatory under Prof. Jaroslav Foltyn and graduated in 2005 after studies with Prof. Ivan Straus at The Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague. In 1996, she won First Prize at The Concertino Praga in the category of Trios, and in 1998, she won Third Prize at The International Violin Competition of Ludwig van Beethoven in Hradec nad Moravici. From 1997 to 1999 she took part in the International Master classes in Semmering (Austria) and in 2001-2003 she received a full scholarship to study at the Meadowmount School of Music (U.S.A.) as a student of Prof. Stephen Shipps. She is member of the Bergerettes Piano Trio and has recorded for Czech Radio and TV and performs in the Czech Republic, as well as abroad. |
František SOUČEK, Prague, Czech Republic, is a graduate of the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied with Professor Ivan Straus. He
graduated from the Prague Conservatory in 2000 in the class of prof.
Jaroslav Foltyn and has won numerous international competitions such as
Beethoven (1998), Spohr (2001), Tribune of Young Artists UNESCO (1998),
Concertino Praga (1996), Martinu (2004) etc. František Souček leads The
Penguin Quartet, a leading young Czech string quartet which wonthe first
prize at the Beethoven competition and were semifinalist at Banff and
Geneve International String Quartet competitions. He was awarded a full
scholarship to the Meadowmount School of Music (U.S.A.), where he has
studied with prof. Stephen Shipps. František performed Tchaikowski Sextet
in a group with Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth in the Meadowmount
Benefit Concert. Mr. Souček made numerous recordings for the Czech Radio,
recorded two CD´s with the quartet, both well reviewed in The Strad
Magazine. |
Ivan ŠTRAUS studied at The Prague Conservatory and The Academy of Performing Arts. He completed his postgraduate degree at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. In 1968, he successfully auditioned as Professor of Violin at the Academy of Performing Arts. However, he was forced to leave for political reasons in 1975. He was a soloist of The Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice (1975-1979), Prague Symphony Orchestra (1979-1991) and, together with Josef Palenicek and Alexandr Vectomov, a member of The Czech Piano Trio (1968-1979). Since 1979, he has been the first violinist in The Suk Quartet. After the 1989 revolution, he returned to The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague where he became a professor and also worked as a vice-dean of foreign activities. Prof. Štraus writes articles for the press, records for radio and television and is a jury member for many competitions in the Czech Republic, as well as abroad. He has taught many master classes in Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Holland, the United States, China and South Korea. Apart from promoting a classic repertoire, he also promotes Bohuslav Martinu's work in all his classes of which he is a dedicated expert. |
David UPDEGRAFF has won a distinguished reputation for his wide scope of musical achievement. As a recitalist, he has performed widely to critical acclaim in major cities of the United States and Europe. As a featured soloist with a number of American orchestras, he has performed works ranging from Bach to Sibelius. A strong proponent of contemporary music, Mr. Updegraff has played many world premiere performances of works by prominent American composers. As a chamber music performer, he has collaborated with such artists as Lee Luvisi, Emanuel Hurwitz and David Shifrin. In addition he has played many radio broadcasts and has recorded on the First Edition label. Mr. Updegraff began his teaching career as the assistant to Paul Makanowitzky and has since achieved an international reputation as a teacher of distinction. His students have been winners and laureates in numerous competitions and have appeared as soloists with such orchestras such as The Berlin Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra and The Louisville Orchestra. They have gone on to serve prominently in The London Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Toronto Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony and many others. In 1987, Mr. Updegraff was appointed Professor of Violin at The Cleveland Institute of Music and has been Chairman of the Violin Department there since 1988. Previously, he taught at The University of Louisville and Western Michigan University. Before joining the IMAP faculty, he spent twenty-two summers teaching at the ENCORE School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio. |
Danae WITTER, American violinist, made her debut at the age of twelve, winning the Indianapolis New World Orchestra Young Artist Competition. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree, Cum Laude, from Butler University, where she was the recipient of the Presser Award. She was awarded the Mildred Tuttle Scholarship for Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan where she received two M.M. degrees in Violin Performance and Chamber Music with highest honors. From 2005-07, Ms. Witter served as Teaching Assistant at the University of Michigan and at IMAP. She is currently serving as a Graduate Instructor at the University of Southern California, where she will receive her Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree in May 2011. As a soloist, she has won numerous competitions sponsored by Pi Kappa Lambda, Matinee Musicale and the Federation of Women's Clubs. As an orchestral player, she has performed in the motion picture recording industry in Los Angeles. Ms. Witter is an accomplished writer, assisting in editing the Sevcik project published by Lauren Keiser Publishing Company in New York. She also contributed to the Sevcik teaching article in the December 2009 issue of Strad Magazine. Active in IMAP since its inception, Ms. Witter serves as Assistant Director and member of the Violin Faculty. |
Kirsten YON is in residence at Texas Tech University where she serves as an Artist-Performer and Assistant Professor of Violin and also performs with the Botticelli String Quartet. A sought-after teacher, performer, and clinician, she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music and her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. While pursuing her degrees, Ms. Yon studied with Stephen Shipps, William Preucil, David Updegraff, and Kathleen Winkler. She attended the Meadowmount School for Strings, where she was the first recipient of the Catherine Tait Memorial Scholarship for Teaching and Outstanding Leadership. The winner of multiple competitions, Ms. Yon has been a soloist, concertmaster and performer with numerous professional orchestras across the United States and South America, including the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Cuerdas de Enlace Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Concertmaster positions held include the Bayou City Chamber Orchestra, the Rice University Chamber Orchestra, and most recently the Rice Chamber Players and the Caprock Pro Musica Sinfonietta. Ms. Yon was a founding member of the Champlain Trio, the Athena Quartet, and the Archiano Ensemble, giving concerts and master classes throughout the United States and Brazil to critical acclaim. Students from both her college and pre-college studios have won numerous solo competitions and awards. A frequent master class clinician, Ms. Yon was also a founder and the faculty advisor of Cuerdas de Enlace (String Connection), a Texas Tech University pedagogical outreach program with ties to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Ms. Yon has taught at the Interlochen Center for the Arts as an assistant to William Preucil in the Valade Program and at the Texas Tech University Orchestra Camp. Ms. Yon frequently concertizes with her husband, organist and keyboardist Sigurd Øgaard. |
MASTER CLASSES
Jan FIŠER concertmaster of the Prague Philharmonia is one of the leading young violinists in the Czech Republic. He has won many international competitions including the Kocian Violin Competition, Concertino Praga, Tribune of Young Artists UNESCO and the Beethoven Competition. In 1999, Mr. Fišer was awarded by “Davidoff Prix” the most talented young musician in the Czech Republic. Mr. Fišer is a member of the piano trio, Trio Concertino and with them has made recordings for radio and TV, and also recorded "The Honor to Jaroslav Kocian" for the 40th annual Kocian International Violin Competition. Jan Fišer studied with Prof. Jaroslav Foltyn at the Prague Conservatory and at Carnegie Mellon University with Andrés Cárdenes, Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He also participated in masterclasses led by Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham and Joseph Silverstein. He has appeared on stage not only in the Czech Republic but all around Europe as well as in the USA. |
Endre GRANAT studied violin with his father, Gyorgy Garay, Zoltan Kodaly and Gyorgy Ligeti at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Sandor Zoldy at the Basel Conservatory, Josef Gingold at Indiana University and Jascha Heifetz at the University of Southern California. He is the premier concertmaster for the Hollywood film industry and has been chosen by the greatest Hollywood composers ranging from Miklos Rozsa to John Williams and from Henry Mancini to James Newton Howard as their orchestra leader. He has been concertmaster at the Emmy’s, Grammy’s, and countless television shows and records. For eight years, he has served as concertmaster for the Academy Awards, and will again in 2010.
His solo and symphonic activities on four continents have included performances with conductors such as George Szell, Sir Georg Solti, and Zubin Mehta. He premiered Sequenza #8 by Luciano Berio and is a Laureate of the Queen Elizabeth International Competition and recipient of the Grand Prix du Disque and the Ysaye Medal.
Mr. Granat served as Assistant Concertmaster in the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and Concertmaster for the Goteborg Symphony under Sir Charles Mackerras. He was a Fulbright Scholar and chairman of the Fulbright Committee in Washington D.C. He has been professor of violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Goteborg, Sweden, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Illinois and California State University, Northridge. Currently, he is on the faculty of the University of Southern California.
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Jindra HOLOTOVÁ graduated from the Prague Conservatory and Academy of Music and Drama
(in the class of M. Hlouňová). A former head of the string department of the Pilsen Conservatory. A member of juries in violin competitions - Competitive show of conservatories, Kocian violin contest in Usti nad Orlici, Prague Junior note, Competition of Elementary Music Schools.
Many of the students have been awarded in the competitions, some have studied
at the universities both in the Czech Republic (AMU Prague) and abroad (Germany, the USA), they are members of prestigious ensembles and orchestras. |
Mr. Miroslav VILÍMEC graduated from the Prague Academy of Music in the class of the Czech world
known violinist Vaclav Snitil, the pupil of Jaroslav Kocian. Immediately
after his studies (during the studies he won a number of national
competitions) he became a member of the first violin group of the Czech
Philharmonic Orchestra. After a successfull audition in 1992, Mr. Vilímec
was engaged as the Concert Master of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. The
long list of his solo appearances includes performances with almost all of
the Czech orchestras. The most prestigious is his regular co-operation
with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Symphonie Espagnole op. 21, by
Edouard Lalo, original version of the D major violin concerto by Paganini,
as well as the Concerto for the violin and orchestra no. 4 B flat major,
by Jan Kubelik, conducted by Maestro Vaclav Neumann). Mr. Vilíimec
regularly records for the Czech Radio and the Czech TV. Particularly
significant were the two of his TV programs consisting of compositions by
Jan Kubelik with piano accompaniment of Alfred Holecek and Rafael Kubelik.
Mr. Vilimec has also a number of CD recordings. Very interesting is his
recording of 12 violin concertos by little known French composer Saint-Georges
for the Swiss label Avenira. At present he performs with his brother,
pianist, Vladislav Vilímec. Mr. Vilímec is the Chairman of The Jan Kubelik
Society. The Society maintains the legacy of Jan Kubelik and other famous
Czech violinists. |
Ivan Zenaty was influenced by several significant personalities such as Nathan Milstein, Andre Gertler and Igor Bezrodny, Since 1988, he has been collaborating in private tutorage with Josef Suk, with whom he often performs at international festivals. Ivan Zenaty was appointed a permanent soloist of the Prague Symphony, the Czech Radio Orchestra, and he toured Europe with the Czech Philharmonic. He has performed with Yehudi Menuhin, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Baudo, Neville Marriner and many others. He has appeared with the Berliner Philharmonie at Queen Elisabeth Hall, Barbican and Wigmore Halls (London), Metropolitan Hall (Tokyo), Concertgebouw, Auditorio (Madrid), King David Hall (Jerusalem), Queen´s Hall (Edinburgh), Ford Center (Toronto), and the Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires). His repertoire is unusually wide including about fifty orchestral concertos of all music styles. In his current recording activity, he concentrates on the complete works of great composers. He co-operates with the Dorian recording company, New York. Since 1996, Ivan Zenaty has been professor at the Music Academy in Dresden and he plays the Prince of Orange Violin made in 1743 by Italian master Giuseppe Antonio Guarnieri del Gesu. |
Due to his extensive artistic activity Ivan ZENATY has acquired a leading position among Czech violinists. During his studies at the Prague Conservatory, he made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic, and in 1982 he qualified in the finals of the International P.I.Tschaykowski Violin Competition in Moscow.
In 1987, he was a sovereign winner of the International Prague Spring Violin Competition.
Mr. Zenaty was awarded the title Laureate of the International Tribune of Young Performers UNESCO (1989) and the main prize of the Ruggiero Ricci international master-classes in Berlin (1990) which resulted in his engagement as a soloist of the Berliner Symphoniker.
VIOLA
 Petr HOLMAN (1975) has achieved much success as a soloist as well as a chamber player. He graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Physics in the Charles University Prague and from the Prague Conservatory. Since 1994 he is a member of Zemlinsky Quartet (former Penguin Quartet). With this chamber group, he won many awards in different international competitions (London 2006, Prague Spring 2005, B. Martinu Competition 2004, Zilina 2004, New Talent Bratislava 2003). As a soloist, he became a winner of the International Beethoven Competition and he also performed with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. His interpretation experience is also supported by his membership in symphony orchestras - Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra (Chicago, 1993-1994) and Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (1997-2004). |
Yizhak SCHOTTEN was brought to the United States by the renowned violist William Primrose, with whom he studied at Indiana University and the University of Southern California. Other studies were with Lillian Fuchs at the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Schotten has been on the faculties and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff, Meadowmount, Interlochen, Tanglewood, Chamber Music Northwest, Montreal, Chautauqua, Skaneateles, Montecito, Juneau, and the Fairbanks Festivals. He is also Music Director of the Maui Classical Music Festival in Hawaii, and was Director of Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and SpringFest in Ann Arbor. He was on the American Federation of Musician's Congress of Strings faculty and has also served on the faculties of Rice University and the University of Washington. Currently he is Professor of Viola at the University of Michigan. Very active as master class teacher, he given class on four continents. Professor Schotten has concertized in his native Israel, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Holland, Austria, Mexico, England, Canada and throughout the United States. He has performed with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Thomas Schippers, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Swensen, Arthur Fiedler and others. His solo recitals have included Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, Boston's Jordan Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art. As a member of the Trio d'Accordo, Schotten won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York. He has appeared in concerts at Bargemusic in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Boston's Symphony Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Taipei Philharmonic Festival, the Festival Internacional de Musica Clasica in Mexico, the Amsterdam Kamermuziek Festival, the Festival de Musique de Chambre de Montreal, and at Domaine Forget in Quebec. Formerly a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Schotten has been principal violist of the Cincinnati and Houston symphony orchestras. He was the Artistic Director of the XIV International Viola Congress and has been a featured artist at six other International Congresses. In 1997, he represented the U.S. as a judge and performer at the Tertis International Viola Competition in England. Professor Schotten has recorded seven discs for Crystal Records, and his C.R.I. recording was chosen as "Critics' Choice" for three months in HIGH FIDELITY Magazine. Pearl Records included his playing on its anthology, "History of the Recording of the World's Finest Violists." He has also had numerous broadcasts on National Public Radio. |
Jiří ŽIGMUND
was born in 1966 in Prague. He graduated in 1986 from the Ostrava Conservatory,
where he was taught by Professor Irena Vitkova (violine). In 1988 he started to
play the viola with the Wihan quartet. Then he continued his studies at the
High Music school in Munich with Prof.Heinz Endress. The Quartet takes part
in Master classes by J. Metzger, U. Wiesel, H. Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet)
and A. Kohout (Smetana Quartet).
In 1988, the ensemble was awarded the First Prize of the Prague Spring International
Competition. In 1990, the Wihan Quartet won the International competition of Chamber
Music at Trapani in Sicily. The ensemble demonstrated its high qualities again in
the prestigious London International String Quartet Competition in April 1991 the jury
chaired by Lord Yehudi Menuhin awarded the First Prize unanimously. The audience and
journalists decided to expres their appreciation by awarding the Audience Prize to the
ensemble. In 1996, it was awarded the 3rd Prize in "Chamber Festa" in Osaka in Japan.
This success was followed by a number of performances in Germany, Austria, Great Britain,
Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, New
Zealand and Japan.
The Wihan Quartet has recorded a selection of its rich repertoire for Bonton, Popron,
Lotos (complete Beethoven's String Quartets), Studio Matous and Arco diva. The Wihan quartet
has also cooperated with other quartets and soloist (M. Sadlo, H. Beyerle, B. Pergamenschikov,
M. Bourgue, G. Kremer, M. Collins, J. Suk, P. Devoyon, etc.).
Jiri Zigmund teaches at Trinity College of Music in London and regularly plays solo viola
concerts, alone or with orchestras, in the Czech Republic. He also joins forces with one or
two of the other Wihan members to perform string duos and trios.
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VIOLA MASTER CLASSES
She has been a member of the American Symphony Orchestra (Stokowski), Casals Festival Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Chamber Orchestra and was principal viola of the Cabrillo Music Festival. Her chamber music experience includes the Group for Contemporary Music at Columbia University, Camerata String Quartet, Stanford Chamber Players, and Sitka and Sun Valley Music Festivals. She has participated in numerous first performances of contemporary music, and has presented solo recitals across the country on radio and television. Recently she participated as performer and lecturer in the International Viola Society Congress (Wellington, New Zealand), the International Viola d’Amore Congress (Stuttgart and England), the International Master Courses (Kapaonik, Yugoslavia), and at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Pam is an emeritus winner of the 'Most Valuable Player' award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Her viola playing has been heard on countless records, films, and television shows. She also plays the viola d'amore. She was both Vice President and Secretary of the American Viola Society, and presently serves as Secretary of the International Viola Society. Her articles on the application of scholarly research to performance style have appeared in many journals. |
Pamela GOLDSMITH, was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA, Mannes College of Music, and Stanford University, where she received the degree Doctor of Musical Arts. Her principal teachers were Paul Doktor, William Kroll, and William Primrose. She taught at Stanford, California State Universities Los Angeles, Fullerton, and Northridge, and is presently on the faculty at the University of Southern California.
CELLO
Bagratuni began performing at age ten, and by age fourteen appeared as a concerto soloist performing Saint-Saens’ Concerto with the Armenian State Radio Orchestra. Since then he has performed with all the major orchestras in the former Soviet Union, including the Moscow Philharmonic (under the direction of Valery Gergiev) and has also appeared with numerous orchestras in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His solo appearances include recitals in the major concert halls of the world. Chamber music appearances have included guest invitations with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Newport Music Festival, the “Russian Winter” Festival in Moscow, the El Paso Pro Musica International Festival, Bargemusic, and international festivals in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Korea, China, and Taiwan. Bagratuni has won critical acclaim for his CD releases on the Ongaku and BGR labels, featuring solo works for cello, solo suites by Bach, and sonatas by Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. He also appears on the Marco Polo, Russian Disc, Cambria, and CMH labels. He has recorded for Melodiya and been featured on CBC Radio Canada, WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, NPR, and NHK TV Japan. In addition to his solo activities, he performs as a member of Trio Nobilis, serves as artistic director of the Cello Plus Music Festival and conducts master classes worldwide. A former faculty member of the New England Conservatory and the University of Illinois, Mr. Bagratuni is currently Artist-Teacher and Professor of Cello at the Michigan State University College of Music. |
Winner of the Silver Medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Suren BAGRATUNI has gone on to a distinguished international career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In addition to performing throughout the former Soviet Union, he has toured world-wide, earning enthusiastic praise in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia, he began his musical education there at the age of seven. After winning several national and international competitions, he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory and later in the United States at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Cellist Amir ELDAN was the youngest member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra when he won the position of Associate Principal Cellist at the age of twenty-two. He performed with the Orchestra for three years and was invited by James Levine to perform with the MET Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Eldan was the winner of the concerto competitions at Juilliard, the Aspen Music Festival and the Cleveland Institute of Music and performed at Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Eldan has collaborated with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets, Richard Goode, Kim Kashkashian, Joseph Silverstein, Midori, and Lynn Harrell. Mr. Eldan has presented concerts of Bach’s six cello suites in recitals at Bargemusic, Columbia, La Sierra, and Indiana Universities, the ENCORE School for Strings Blue Ribbon Series, the Windham Chamber Music Festival, and in Israel. He has also performed in the music festivals of La Jolla, Marlboro, and Ravinia, the International Chamber Music Festival in Giverny, France, and the Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England. He has also participated in the Piatigorsky Seminar for cellists and the Kronberg Cello Academy in Germany. Mr. Eldan received his bachelor of music degree cum laude from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he won the cello award for achievement and excellence. He is a doctoral degree candidate at the Juilliard School, where he received his master of music degree, and where he served on the faculty as assistant to Joel Krosnick, with whom he studied. He has also studied with Peter Wiley and Richard Aaron. He has taught at the Heifetz International Music Institute and ENCORE School for Strings and currently is Assistant Professor of Cello at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. |
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Marek JERIE is an outstanding cellist and chamber musician.
He has a professorship at the Lucerne Academy of Music,
and is a teacher of great dedication. His students include chamber
musicians and soloists at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Devoted to his family, he also derives much pleasure from exploring
new places and meeting a wide variety of people on his travels.
His teachers included Stefan Kalyanov, N. Shakhovskaya, N. Gutman, and Y. Slobodkin. Since 1992, he has been a soloist of the Moscow State Philharmony. Besides numerous tours throughout Russia, he has performed with symphonies and chamber orchestras in England, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He performed in such well-known halls as: Liszt-Academy (Budapest, Hungary), Victoria-Hall (Geneve, Switzerland), Megaron (Athens, Greece), The Great Hall of Conservatory (Moscow, Russia), Hercules-Saal (Munich), Auditorium (Madrid). He is also active as a chamber musician performing with musicians Julian Milkis, Michail Petuchov, Nina Kogan, Marina Yashvili, Luba Timofeieva and Boris Berezovsky. He has given Master-classes in Spain, Greece, Sweden and Turkey and has recorded for Russian CD and Pavane Records. As a conductor he studied in Romania at the National University of Music in Bucharest under the guidance of prof. D. Goya (graduated in 2002 ) and in Master-classes with Sir George Solti in USA and Prof. Y. Simonov in Hungary. He has conducted in Hungary, Denmark, Romania, Spain and Turkey. Previously, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, the Musical Academy of Gyoer, Hungary, The Conservatory of Istanbul, and since 2003, is teaching at the Musical Academy of Lund (Sweden). |
Sergei KALYANOV, born into a musical family, graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1992 and as a graduate student in 1994.
Miroslav PETRÁŠ, Associate Professor of
the Academy of Music in Prague (since 1983) was born on July 17th, 1948.
He studied at the Ostrava Conservatory of Music with Prof. Ivan Merka and
at the Prague Academy with Prof. Sasa Vectomov. He is a Laureate of the
Prague Spring International Cello Competition, finalist of the Gasparo
Sado Competition in Florence (Italy) and winner of many National Cello
Competitions. He performed in recitals many countries in Europe, far East
and Americas. Also, he was a guest soloist in Dvorak and Saint-Saens cello
concertos with orchestras in the United Sates on tours of the Prague
Symphony Orchestra (FOK). Those two concertos are also recorded on CD. Mr.
Petras is a member of the famous Czech Piano Trio and Martinu Piano
Quartet. Among all those activities, he teaches at the Prague Conservatory
of Music and externally at the Prague Music High School. |