ChamberFest Brown County Meet the Artists!

ChamberFest Brown County is seven days of classical music concerts and events held in various venues in Nashville, Indiana from August 14-20, 2022. Below are some of the artists on this years roster!

Catherine Bowman is the author of the poetry collections Can I Finish, Please?, The Plath Cabinet, Notarikon, Rock Farm, and 1-800-Hot-Ribs which was reissued by Carnegie-Mellon University Press as part of their Contemporary Classics Series. She is the editor of Word of Mouth: Poems Featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” an anthology of poems by poets she has reviewed, and featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Consider. Her poems have appeared in several editions of Best American Poetry as well as many other literary mCatagazines and journals, such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, The Kenyon Review, River Styx, The Los Angeles Times, Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, Sycamore Review, Open City and Conjunctions. Her writing has been awarded the Peregrine Smith Poetry Prize, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for Poetry, the Dobie Paisano Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, and Yaddo artist residencies. She was the recipient of a faculty teaching award and the IU President’s Arts and Humanities Award. She has served as director of the MFA Creative Writing Program and held The Ruth Lilly Professor in Poetry. She is the recipient of the 2020 Tracy M. Sonneborn Award. She received the Provost Professor award and was named Provost Professor in 2020.

Soprano Catherine Compton is visiting lecturer in music in voice and opera theater at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she teaches applied voice and serves on the production staff of IU Opera Theater. 

Previously, she served on the voice faculty of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she taught applied voice, diction, and music entrepreneurship. She directed UTRGV Opera Theater, and her production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld was awarded first place in the 2017 National Opera Association Collegiate Opera Production Competition. As a Fulbright fellow in Leipzig, Germany, Compton sang with the Leipzig Bach Festival, Mendelssohn Haus Museum, and Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. Recent performances in the U.S. include Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel at Indiana University, the Brahms Requiem with the Truman State Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s Cantata 51 with the Brownsville Chamber Orchestra, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Central Iowa Symphony. Operatic roles include Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), and Gretel (Hansel & Gretel), among others.She is dedicated to researching and performing music by women composers, with special focus on nineteenth-century lieder by women. She was named a 2021 PEO Scholar Award winner in support of her research.

Compton is passionate about helping students develop and maintain fulfilling and sustainable singing practices. She has presented master classes and lectures on vocal health and habilitation, music and gender, and German lieder, among other topics. Additionally, her teaching and approach to music education is enhanced by her work as an arts administrator and producer. She has served as an administrator with organizations including IU Opera and Ballet Theater, UTRGV Patron of the Arts, Off-Broadway School of Fine Arts in Boulder, CU Presents Artist Series, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Colorado Music Festival, and Metropolitan Opera Guild. 

Compton was a 2018 NATS Intern with the National Association of Teachers of Singing. 

She has completed coursework for the Doctor of Music in Voice degree at the Jacobs School of Music and holds a certificate in vocology from IU and an M.M. in voice performance and pedagogy from the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. She was a graduate assistant for the Musicians’ Wellness Initiative at CU and has studied Alexander Technique in the U.S. and Germany. Compton received further vocal training at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. She has a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Iowa State University and taught K-12 music in Rosendal, Norway, in partial fulfillment of her teaching license.

Performance Today describes classical guitarist Jordan Dodson as “one of the top young guitarists of his generation.” A winner of Astral’s 2013 National Auditions, he is an active soloist and chamber musician based in New York City. He has received awards from the 2011 Lillian Fuchs Chamber Music Competition, the 2010 Indiana International Guitar Competition, and the 2008 American String Teachers Association Competition. In 2013, he was a Young Artist in Residence on American Public Media’s Performance Today. 

He recently appeared as soloist with the Alabama Symphony, Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra and gave the regional premiere of A Concerto of Colours by Stephen Goss with the CCM Chamber Players. A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Dodson has commissioned and premiered dozens of pieces internationally. He performs in several New York City chamber ensembles including the Metropolis Ensemble and the New York City Guitar Quartet and recently collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), NOW Ensemble, the American Modern Opera Company, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Contemporaneous. In the fall of 2011, Mr. Dodson was one of two students selected to inaugurate the Curtis Institute of Music’s classical guitar studio, bringing to the school not only a new instrument, but also new repertoire and new possibilities for music-making. 

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Jordan Dodson holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and his teachers have included Clare Callahan, David Starobin, and Jason Vieaux. He plays a Gary Lee guitar.

British-Cypriot pianist Andreas Ioannides enjoys a diverse and exciting career rooted in his passion for performing and teaching. He has given recitals throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America, appearing in venues such as Boston Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Hamburg Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center, the Temppeliaukio Kirkko in Helsinki and the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro. He has received enthusiastic reviews by the Boston Globe, and his performances have been broadcast on television and radio across three continents.

Andreas has made concerto appearances under maestros Neil Varon, David Effron, Paul Nadler and Roberto Tibiriçá. His chamber collaborations include such artists as Joseph Swensen, Atar Arad, Peter Stumpf and composer PQ Phan. A prize winner in the BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro and the Hastings International Piano Competition in the UK, he recently turned his attention to recording projects, including a 2-disc album released by Naxos in 2020 in honor of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Andreas has served as Lecturer of Piano at Indiana State University and is currently Assistant Lecturer of Piano at the Cork School of Music at Munster Technological University in Cork, Ireland. He is also Artistic Director of RiverSong Music Inc., a non-profit organization that promotes community education and enrichment through classical music . He holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University, mentored by pianist Menahem Pressler.

Mark Kaplan has been professor of violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2005. Prior to that, he served as professor with distinction at UCLA.

He has established himself as one of the leading violinists of his generation. His consummate artistry has resulted in solo engagements with nearly every major American orchestra, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Chicago and National Symphony Orchestras, and the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. He has collaborated with many of the world’s foremost conductors, among them Ormandy, Tennstedt, Maazel, Ashkenazi, Dutoit, Bychkov, Conlon, Ivan Fischer, Foster, Gatti, Masur, Rattle, Robertson, Salonen, Semkov, Skrowaczewski, Slatkin and Zinman; and has appeared regularly at festivals such as Aspen, Blossom, Chautauqua, Grant Park, Ravinia, Saratoga and Wolf Trap.

Kaplan has also maintained a flourishing international career since his European debut in 1975 when he was asked on short notice to substitute for Pinchas Zuckerman, playing the Bartók Concerto in Cologne under the baton of Lawrence Foster. In subsequent seasons he has made highly acclaimed concerto and recital appearances in all the musical centers of Europe–London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan–as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Among the particularly memorable musical experiences for Mr. Kaplan have been Beethoven violin concerto performances with Klaus Tennstedt together with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, several appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and his many projects involving the solo works of Bach.

In addition to his solo music-making, Kaplan is also devoted to chamber music. He appears with pianist Yael Weiss and cellist Peter Stumpf as the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio, with recordings and concerts tours world-wide. Prior to that he performed and recorded extensively for two decades in the Golub-Kaplan-Carr trio, with cellist Colin Carr and the late pianist David Golub.

Kaplan has a wide range of repertoire available on compact disc. His second recording of the solo violin works of JS Bach will be issued in early 2016 on Bridge Records, as will a Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio recording of Fred Lerdahl’s “Times 3”, while 2014 saw the release (also for Bridge) of a CD with new American Piano Trios, joining a 2011 recording of Brahms and Smetana Trios. Other recent recordings include concerti of Berg and Stravinsky, the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole and the Concierto Espagnol of Joan Manen, all under the baton of Lawrence Foster, as well as Lewis Spratlan’s Concertino and the tone poem, Le Ménétrier, by Max d’Ollone. Kaplan’s discography also includes the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 and Dohnanyi Violin Concerto No. 2, violin concerti of Paganini, Wieniawski and Viotti; the Brahms Double Concerto; Spanish Dances of Sarasate; various works of Bartók including the Solo Sonata; violin and piano sonatas of Schumann with Anton Kuerti; and trios of Brahms, Debussy, Dvorak, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Smetana and Tchaikowsky. The Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio’s recording, on Arabesque Records, of Tchaikovsky and Smetana trios, received an INDIE Award for “Best Classical Album by an Ensemble.”

He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay and recipient of the Fritz Kreisler Memorial Scholarship. He plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1685, known as the Marquis.

A native of Queens, New York, Andrea Levine is adjunct associate professor of music in clarinet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Levine was appointed principal clarinet of the Louisville Orchestra in 2003. She served as acting principal clarinet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for the 2017-18 season. She won the position of interim assistant principal clarinet of the Colorado Symphony during the 2011-12 season. She also won the position of interim second clarinet of The Cleveland Orchestra during the 2007-08 season and joined it on two European tours. Prior to Louisville, she spent a year as a member of the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida. Before joining New World, she served as interim principal clarinet of the Akron Symphony while completing a Professional Studies Diploma at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music.

In addition to serving as principal clarinet of the Britt Festival Orchestra, she holds the same position with the Artosphere Festival. She has appeared as guest principal clarinet with the Cincinnati Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Detroit Symphony.

Her teachers include Daniel Gilbert, Kenneth Grant, Franklin Cohen, Yehuda Gilad, and Mitchell Estrin.

The LINCOLN STRING QUARTET, now in its 25th season, comprises four members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The quartet has been heard in venues across Chicago, including the Northwestern Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Chicago Symphony Chamber Music Series, Dempster Street Pro Musica, and on WFMT, and has performed in Santiago, Chile at the invitation of the Fundación Beethoven. Its members have performed chamber music across the U.S., in Europe, and in Asia. 

Violinist Qing Hou has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1997. A native of China, Hou studied at the Central Conservatory in Beijing before coming to the United States in 1988 to continue her studies. She holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the New England Conservatory. Before joining the CSO, she was a member of the San Francisco Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Hou has performed on series and at festivals in Boston, Madison, Napa, El Paso and Sun Valley as well as in Europe. She has been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and regularly performs in the Chicago area in various ensembles. In 1997, Qing, along with her sister, CSO violinist Lei Hou and CSO violist Lawrence Neuman (now Qing’s husband), founded the Lincoln String Quartet. As a soloist, Hou has appeared with orchestras in Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, and China. In 2003, she made her first appearance as soloist with the Chicago Symphony performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G Major conducted by Daniel Barenboim. 

Violinist Lei Hou joined the Chicago Symphony in 1997. Prior to her engagement with the CSO, she won a position in the first violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra. She also has served as assistant principal second violin of the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., for six years, appointed by Mstislav Rostropovich. As an active chamber musician and soloist, Hou has performed with Pinchas Zukerman at the Ravinia Festival and Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival, with Yefim Bronfman at Symphony Center and with members of the Guarneri and Alban Berg quartets at the Marlboro Festival. She also has extensively performed as leading violinist of chamber groups formed with musicians from the Chicago Symphony and the German Radio Orchestra in concert tours in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Hou has been a featured soloist in concerts for National Public Radio, WFMT of Chicago and WBJC FM of Baltimore. She has served on the faculties of the music schools of the University of Maryland and the American University. A native of Dalian, China, she studied at the Middle School of Music in Shanghai, China. She also attended the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Hou earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance at the Peabody Conservatory where she was invited to study with Berl Senofsky under full scholarship. 

Violist Lawrence Neuman has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991. Before coming to Chicago he was violist with the Miami String Quartet. As a chamber musician he frequently is heard throughout the Chicago area and has performed across the United States, in Europe, and in Asia. He has appeared at festivals and chamber music series in Boston, Marlboro, La Jolla, Madison, Napa, Portland and Davenport. Chamber music collaborators have included such artists as Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Lydia Artymiw, Gil Shaham, Simone Lamsma, and Aaron Rosand. During the 1998/99 season Neuman took a leave of absence from the CSO to serve as principal viola of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. For over 20 years he has taught viola and chamber music at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Neuman attended the Eastman School of Music, the University of Southern California and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and he was a student of Heidi Castleman, Donald McInnes and Robert Vernon. 

Cellist John Sharp joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1986 as one of the youngest principal players in its history. A top prize winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony in performances of the Britten Symphony for Cello and Orchestra with Mstislav Rostropovich conducting, the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim, and in concertos conducted by Music Director Riccardo Muti, Sir Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, and Michael Tilson Thomas. An active chamber musician, Sharp has performed at the festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Vail, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and recorded Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence” with the Vermeer Quartet. Born in Texas, Sharp studied the cello with Lev Aronson and later with Lynn Harrell at the Juilliard School, where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. Prior to his appointment in Chicago, he served as principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony. He has given masterclasses throughout the United States and in Europe and is currently a professor of cello at Roosevelt University. Sharp plays a rare cello made by Joseph Guarnerius in 1694. John Sharp regularly performs as a duo and in chamber music with his wife, violinist Liba Shacht.

Known for her verve and sensitivity, Japanese pianist Futaba Niekawa pushes the boundaries of her artistry as a soloist and collaborative pianist across genres and disciplines. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Taiwan, and Japan and to date has released five recordings (PARMA Recordings, Petrichor Records) and her live performances have been recorded for radio broadcast. 

In demand as a collaborative pianist, Niekawa has performed with Atar Arad, James Campbell, Charles Castleman, Gabriele Ragghianti, and the members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra among others. She has been engaged as a collaborative pianist at the Banff Centre, New England Conservatory, Meadowmount School of Music, and the IU Summer String Academy. Praised as “a beautifully balanced duo” by Gramophone Magazine, Niekawa’s long-term duo partnership with violinist Kerry DuWors, duo526, has led to numerous performances, recordings, and artist residencies at the Banff Centre and Avaloch Farm Music Institute. Niekawa’s passion for multi-disciplinary collaboration and performing music of her generation have developed into artistic partnerships with composers, dancers, poets, and visual artists. In her leisure-time she plays free-improvisation.

Niekawa is currently a Lecturer in Music (Chamber and Collaborative Music) at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her dedication to pedagogy, mentoring, and performance practice is shown through workshops at duo526’s annual Sonata Seminar, and invitations as a guest teacher at universities across North America. 

Elisabeth Pridonoff is internationally known as a pianist and pedagogue and for over three decades was on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her students have won many prestigious awards and hold positions at institutions all over the world. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she earned MM degrees in piano with Adele Marcus and Sasha Gorodnitzski and in voice with Hans Heinz and Anna Kaskas.

She was first-place winner of national and international competitions including the Midland-Odessa, Shreveport, El Paso and Oklahoma City Symphony and as a soloist has performed with the Nashville Symphony, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the Shreveport Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Boise Philharmonic, the Illinois Philharmonic, and Graz Festival.  She has given performances and master classes all over the world including the United States at Tully and Merkin Halls in New York, Boston (Baltic Series), the Kennedy Center, Baltimore, Toronto Town Hall, at the Moscow Conservatory, Siena, Rome (by invitation from the U.S. Ambassador), Munich, London, Monterrey (Mexico) at the Sociedad Artistica Technologicao and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Other appearances include NPR’s The Sunday Show and St. Paul Sunday with Bill McGlaughlin, the nationally televised CBS Sunday Morning and festival appearances at Chautauqua, San Luis Obispo Mozart, Arcady, Western Arts, Lyric Arts, Shreveport, and Graz. She has adjudicated national and international piano competitions including the Kapell, Virginia Waring, Chicago Symphony, Wideman, and World Piano.​

Her students have won prizes in the Second International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Kiev, Ukraine (First), Missouri Southern International (first, third, and finalist): Ninth Biennial American Pianists Association National Piano Fellowship Audition (Fellowship Award); Shreveport Wideman (first, second); Midland-Odessa (first); Young Keyboard Artists Association (two seconds); Ibla (Italy) Grand Prize International Piano Competition (third); and the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (second). Her international career also includes performances as part of the Pridonoff Duo with her husband Eugene Pridonoff who were interviewed for a cover story (with cover photo) in Clavier Magazine and later published in China’s Piano Artistry magazine. Formerly Co-Artistic Director of the Prague International Piano Institute she has served on the faculties of International Piano Week of Belgium, the Barcelona Festival, and the Amalfi Festival. She continues to teach at the Brevard Music Festival and now serves as Co-Artistic Director of the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Piano Performance (IIASPP), LLC.

With her leadership roles as President of the Wyoming School Music Association, and positions on the Board of Directors of Chamber Music Cincinnati, the Matinee Musical Club of Cincinnati, Wyoming Fine Arts Center, and the Cincinnati School House Symphony, Elisabeth Pridonoff continues to nurture the cultivation of artistry with purpose internationally through the IIASPP.

​Elisabeth Pridonoff, is an Emeritus Professor of Piano at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and is currently residing in Arizona.

Peter Stumpf is professor of cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Prior to his appointment, he was principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Stumpf’s tenure in Los Angeles followed 12 years as associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His professional orchestral career began at the age of 16 when he joined the cello section of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and an Artist’s Diploma from the New England Conservatory. ​A dedicated chamber music musician, he is a member of the Johannes String Quartet and has appeared on the chamber music series at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, the Boston Celebrity Series, the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and at the concert halls of Cologne. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Ottawa, Great Lakes, Ojai, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, the Casals Hall Ensemble in Japan, and with pianist Mitsuko Uchida in performances of the complete Mozart Piano Trios. 

He has collaborated with pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emmanuel Ax, Jorge Bolet, Yefim Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Andras Schiff, Jean Yves Thibaudet, Mitsuko Uchida, and with the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. Most recently, the Johannes Quartet has collaborated with the Guarneri Quartet on tour in performances including commissions from composers William Bolcom and Esa Pekka Salonen.

Concerto appearances have been with the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, the Vermont Symphony, the Connecticut String Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, the American Youth Symphony, and at the Aspen Music Festival. As a recitalist, he has performed at the Universities of Hartford, Syracuse, and Delaware, at Jordan Hall in Boston, and at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he performed the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J. S. Bach on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society Series and on the Chamber Music in Historic Sites Series in Los Angeles. His awards include first prize in the Washington International Competition, the Graham-Stahl Competition, and the Aspen Concerto Competition and second prize in the Evian International String Quartet Competition.

As a former member of the Boston Musica Viva, he has explored extended techniques, including microtonal compositions and numerous premieres. As a teacher, he has served on the cello faculty of the University of Southern California, Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, the New England Conservatory, and guest artist faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music as well as at the Yellow Barn Music Festival and the Musicorda Summer String Program. He has conducted master classes at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music, Iowa and Pennsylvania State Universities, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Seoul National University, Temple University, and at the Universities of Delaware and Michigan.

Award winning artist, John Marcel Williams, is establishing a reputation as an outstanding soloist and chamber musician. By age 16 he had garnered over 20 prizes at competitions, including the first prize at the Boston Guitar Festival youth competition, Rosario Guitar Festival, Classical Minds Guitar Festival, and the second prize at the international Guitar Foundation of America young artist competition. In addition he was awarded first prize at the James Stroud competition and won the 2020 Pittsburgh Concert Society Audition.  

John’s unique musicality and refined technique can be seen in his performances. He is frequently invited to play and teach at venues across the United States as well as internationally. In 2018, John toured Panama as a guest artist for the Panama Guitar Festival where he not only performed but gave masterclasses and adjudicated for the Panama Guitar Competition. Other engagements include solo recitals at Oberlin College and Moravian College and he was a guest artist for the 2019/20 season of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society. John Marcel has made numerous media appearances on various radio and TV programs, most notably performing on NPR’s program, “From the Top,” where he was also awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award.  In 2019 John debuted with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra led by Maestro John Devlin, performing Elmer Bernstein’s Guitar Concerto.    Williams started his collegiate studies with Manuel Barrueco at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 2011, and received both his undergraduate and masters degree in guitar performance. In 2021, he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he received a performance diploma studying with both Jason Vieaux and David Starobin. John is also a member of the newly formed New York City Guitar Quartet. In the fall of 2021, he was appointed as an adjunct professor for classical guitar at Rowan University. He currently resides in Philadelphia where he maintains a private teaching studio and is the Artistic Director for the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society. 

Recipient of a prestigious 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant – the first baroque artist in the respected program’s history – and Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is a rising star on both the historical performance and modern violin stages. Her growing reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances all across the globe with renowned early music ensembles such as the American Bach Soloists and The Academy of Ancient Music, and tours with Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, among others. Equally accomplished on the modern violin, Rachell made her first public appearance with the Philharmonia Northwest at age 11 and has since performed as a soloist with such orchestras as Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá and the Seattle Symphony. Rachell made her conducting debut with the Seattle Symphony last fall when she directed Vivaldi’s ​Four Seasons​ from the violin. She is serving as concertmaster for Seattle Baroque Orchestra’s 21- 22 season.

Along with acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, Rachell is co-founder of the New York-based Twelfth Night, a versatile ensemble that focuses on music from all periods on historical instruments. She is also a founding member of New Amsterdam Consort, a period-instrument string ensemble specializing in one-on-a-part performances of music from the Renaissance through the high Baroque, also based in NYC. 

A recent graduate, Rachell holds a Masters in Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School and a M.M. from Indiana University. Residing in Seattle, Washington, among her awards and honors are a 2021 Jeffrey Thomas Award, a 2019 Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant and a 2017 Kovner Fellowship from The Juilliard School, and grand prize in the 52nd Sorantin International String Competition. She performs on a baroque violin from the school of Joachim Tielke ca. 1700, and on a modern violin by Carlo de March made in 1953. Ms. Wong is represented by Artist Manager Marianne LaCrosse of CTM Classics. For more information, please visit www.rachellwong.com.