SSMF 2009 Faculty Artists

Flute - Patricia George

Internationally known flutist and teacher Patricia George travels extensively performing and teaching her "Famous Flute Spa" masterclasses.  Recent engagements include the San Diego (CA) Flute Guild, Rochester (NY) Flute Association, Greater Portland (OR) Flute Society, Midwest Clinic (Chicago, IL), Texas Flute Society (North Texas State University), Texas Women's University, Northern Arizona University, University of Nevada: Reno, Southwest Texas University, Millikin University (IL),  Ball State University (IN), Madison Flute Society (University of Wisconsin), Raleigh (NC) Flute Society, Philadelphia (PA) Flute Society, and the National Flute Conventions in Dallas, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Pittsburgh.  She has presented clinics for public school music programs in Alaska, California, Illinois, Idaho, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.

 
As a performer she has toured the United States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Her performances have been heard on National Public Radio affiliates in Tennessee, Idaho and Utah.  With Trio Terra Nova, she has appeared at the International Double Reed Conventions held in Arizona, Wisconsin, and at the Centre for the Arts in Banff, Canada, in addition to regularly scheduled performances at Temple Square Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, UT; Brigham Young University - Provo; Brigham Young University - Idaho, and throughout the Intermountain West.

Ms. George is the Principal Flute of the Idaho State Civic Symphony and Sewanee Festival Orchestra.   Previously she performed as an orchestra member and concerto soloist with the Elkhorn Music Festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Quincy (IL) Symphony, Rochester (NY) Philharmonic, Eastman-Rochester Symphony and the Amarillo Symphony. 

A Consulting Editor for "Flute Talk" magazine, she writes the monthly column "The Teacher's Studio."  She has written for Idaho Music Educator's "Notes," the National Flute Association's "Flutist Quarterly," Chamber Music America, Idaho Falls Post Register, and the Idaho State Journal.  Ms. George is a regular contributor to FLUTE, a 2200-member international internet flute list.   Of her writing's Sir James Galway wrote:  "This is a public note of thanks to Patricia George for all the time she took to write her words of great wisdom on the list.  I thought her postings were really great, very wise and experienced based."  He also wrote:  "I have to tell you how much your enthusiasm inspires me and I am sure I speak for other on the list in this regard."

She performs on sterling silver Verne Q. Powell Flutes, one made in 1964 and the other in 1997.  The results of her experiments into the acoustics of the flute, particularly those relating to the crown, are now being used by many flute manufacturers.  She is a Clinician for Conn-Selmer, Inc. - Armstrong Flutes and is a Verne Q. Powell Artist.

Ms. George is the Flute Professor at Brigham Young University - Idaho, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival (The University of the South, Sewanee, TN) and the American Band College (The University of Southern Oregon).  Previously she served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music of The University of Rochester and Idaho State University where she was awarded the ISU Faculty Achievement Award in 1995 for outstanding teaching and service.   She earned the Bachelor of Music degree (with distinction) in Applied Music, the Master of Music degree in Performance and Musical Practice, and the Performer's Certificate in Flute from the Eastman School of Music. Her teachers include the legendary American flutists Joseph Mariano (Rochester Philharmonic), William Kincaid (Philadelphia Orchestra), Julius Baker (New York Philharmonic) and Frances Blaisdell.

Ms. George has been active in the 6,000 member National Flute Association serving first on the Long Range Planning Committee.   Currently she is completing a term as Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee.

Clarinet -  John Marco has performed for forty years as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician.  In his thirty-five years in New York City, he has appeared in a wide variety of settings with many of that city’s finest players.  He has performed as chamber musician and soloist at the Fontana Festival in Michigan and the Lorraine Festival in France.  He has appeared with the Emerson String Quartet and was clarinetist and artistic director for the chamber ensemble Partita.  Having served on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music and Hunter College of the City University of New York, Mr. Marco is now a resident of Wisconsin, where he is on the faculty of University of Wisconsin – Platteville.  His chamber music work continues as clarinetist of Rountree Ensemble and Lake Trio.  A frequent soloist, he has performed the concertos of Mozart, Weber, Copland, Hindemith and Nielsen on numerous occasions.   The New York Times has called him “a brilliantly gifted clarinetist” and also that “He is good enough to make any performance exciting.”  His recording with pianist Gary Hammond and cellist Astrid Schween on Partita Records of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas Opus 120 and Trio Opus 114 drew a superb review from American Record Guide, which wrote “…this is a fantastic release… The performances are flawless.  Do search out this recording – it is outstanding.”   His performance with Lake Trio of works by Mozart, Uhl and Bruch will soon be released by Partita Records.  Also about to be released is John Marco’s educational video Clarinet Essentials

Bassoon - Hunter Thomas

Horn - David Brockett is serving as Acting 3^rd Horn of the Utah Symphony for the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. During the two previous seasons he played 2^nd Horn with The Cleveland Orchestra; over the past two decades he has spent four full seasons and portions of many others with that orchestra, appearing in subscription concerts at Severance Hall and the Blossom Music Festival, playing on numerous recordings, and touring around the world. David was Acting Assistant Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Acting Principal Horn with the Cincinnati Pops for the 1990-91 season, and has also performed frequently with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Key West Symphony, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, the Erie Philharmonic, the Akron Symphony, the Blossom Festival Concert Band, the Detroit Concert Band, and as Featured Alto Horn Soloist with the Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band. He has played in the orchestras of the Pittsburgh Opera, the Cleveland Opera and Ballet, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

 

David was a founding member of the Burning River Brass, with which he made four CDs and went on more than a dozen national tours. He also performed and toured with the Cleveland Chamber Brass in the 1990s, including a residency at the Odenwald Festspiele in Germany. He has taught at Penn State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Kent State University, Cleveland State University, the University of Akron, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He arranges music for brass and has frequently conducted university and festival brass ensembles.

 

David has played on numerous radio, television, and film soundtracks, including Tom Selleck’s Last Stand at Saber River and several NBC television specials.

 

David Brockett was born in London, Ontario and grew up in the Detroit area. He earned a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music from the University of Akron. His principal teachers included Roy Waas, Richard Solis, Albert Schmitter, and Dale Clevenger.

 

This is David’s third season teaching and performing at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. He is in residence for the entire 2009 festival, performing with faculty brass and woodwind groups and participating in the direction of the annual Brass Concert.

 

David Brockett lives in Cleveland is married to soprano Adele Karam.

Trumpet - Russ DeVuyst

Mr. DeVuyst has been the Associate Principal trumpet with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 1992. Russell began his musical studies at the age of 10 with his father Roger Devuyst, and with local teachers, Joseph Jalowy and Nedo Pandolfi. A native of Woonsocket Rhode Island, he has performed in a variety of bands, combos and ensembles of ethnic, popular and classical origins at an early age. He attended the Boston Conservatory where he received a Bachelor of Music Education degree and continued his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music earning a Masters of Music degree with a Distinction in Performance. He has studied the trumpet with a variety of performers and teachers, namely, Roger Voisin, André Come, Gerald Goguen and Charles Schlueter, of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; William Vacchiano and Mel Broiles of the New York Philharmonic and MET Opera Orchestras; Vincent Cichowicz, Arnold Jacobs and William Babcock of the Chicago Symphony, among others.

 

He was awarded a Fellowship to attend the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox Massachusetts; a summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Among the many activities at the Center, he performed and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

 

Before his appointment with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Russell has been the Principal trumpet with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Caracas Philharmonic in Venezuela and the Venezuela Symphony, the Boston Opera Company, the Orchestra Symphonica del la Mineria in Mexico City, the Orchestra della R.A.I. of Turin, Italy and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, he has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

He has recorded with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestras on several discs for the Decca, EMI and Sony label.

 

As well as performing full time with the Montreal Symphony, Russell is Professor of Trumpet at the Schullich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

 

Trombone - Mark Babbitt

In constant demand as soloist, orchestral musician and teacher, Mark Babbitt enjoys a high degree of success in all areas of trombone performance.

Tuba - Eric Bubacz
Eric Bubacz has an extensive career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral performer. He studied for three years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY before transferring to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he completed his Bachelor of Music. While in school, Eric was a member two different brass quintets, both of which competed and placed second at the New York Brass Conference Quintet Competition. During the summers, he attended several noted festivals including: The National Repertory Orchestra, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Sully Music Festival, Centre d’Arts Orford, Harmony Ridge Brass Seminar, Festival of Art and Musical Excellence and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he was the first tubaist to win the Chamber Music Prize. Shortly after graduating from Curtis, he attended the Colonial Euphonium and Tuba Institute where he won second prize at the International Tuba Solo Competition. He also placed first on tuba in the International Women’s Brass Conference Solo Competition.

Percussion - Michael Bump
Michael Bump is Associate Professor of Percussion Studies at Truman State University. Prior to this he served as Assistant Professor of Percussion at the Ohio State University and Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Mississippi. He holds the D.M.A. as well as M.M. degrees in percussion performance and literature from the University of Illinois, and the B.M.E. degree from the University of Memphis. Performance studies have been with such artists as Jared Spears, Tom Siwe, Fred D. Hinger, Frank Shaffer, and Paul Yancich. He has also studied composition with Jared Spears, Herbert Brun, and Scott Wyatt. Michael has served as State chapter president for the Percussive Arts Society in both South Carolina and Mississippi. He is a member of that organization's New Music/Research and College Pedagogy Committees, and has organized and performed on international new music/research events at previous Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Among his professional experiences, Michael has held the position of principal timpanist with the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, Asheville Symphony Orchestra, and the Cullowhee Music Festival in North Carolina. He has also served as percussionist/assistant timpanist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Opera Orchestra, Chicago City Ballet, Columbus Symphony Orchestra and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. Having been active in the marching percussion idiom, Michael served as percussion coordinator and arranger for the Memphis Blues Drum and Bugle Corps, as well as an instructor/arranger for the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, and the University of Illinois Indoor Drumline. As a steel pan enthusiast, he was a founding member of the I-Pan steel ensemble, and arranged for and co-produced the group's debut CD in 1994. Michael is a clinician/endorser for the Pearl/Adams Corporation, Innovative Percussion, Inc., and Sabian Ltd., and has works for percussion published by Arrangers Publishing Co., Studio 4 Productions, Media Press, and Music for Percussion, Inc. He has also written articles for Percussive Notes and The Instrumentalist.  To find out more infromation about Michael Bump and the percussion program at Truman State University, please click here.

Harp - Marian Shaffer
Marian Shaffer is Principal Harpist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stephens College, graduating summa cum laude with a concentration in both harp and piano. She studied both instruments for one year at the Vienna Academy for Music and the Performing Arts, and then received a Fulbright scholarship to Cologne, Germany for further study.

In 1974 Marian graduated from the University of Memphis with a Master of Arts in Music and German. She has performed with the Memphis Symphony since that time, four seasons as a pianist and 27 seasons as Principal Harpist. In 1995 Mrs. Shaffer was awarded a Rockefeller cultural exchange grant to collaborate on a harp method book based on the traditional Sones of Mexico. She is on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, University of Memphis, Rhodes College, the Hutchison School, and the Sewanee Summer Music Center.

Piano - Gary Hammond, William Wolfram and Regina Yeh

Gary Hammond - Pianist Gary Hammond has been praised in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America as a recitalist and chamber musician of the first rank.  The New York Times has described his playing as “eloquent-a strong feeling of musical expression and intelligent thought”.

Mr. Hammond’s performances have taken him to Glazunov Hall in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia; the Musikdagar Festival in Sweden; the Auditorio Nacional in Costa Rica.  He has appeared at Weill Hall and Merkin Hall in New York; Ordway Hall, St. Paul; Boston’s Gardner Museum; Glenn Memorial Hall, Atlanta; Meany Hall, Seattle; the Hochschule in Munich, and Hong Kong’s City Hall.  He has been heard on New York’s WQXR, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on live broadcasts from WNYC and Radio 4 Hong Kong.  

Mr. Hammond performs regularly with the acclaimed cellist Astrid Schween as part of the Schween-Hammond Duo.  In New York he opened the Young Concert Artists series at the Morgan Library with soprano Marvis Martin and baritone Randall Scarlata, and presented the complete piano and violin sonatas of Beethoven with violinist Frank Almond for the New York chapter of the American Beethoven Society.  A recording at WQXR of a Paquito d’ Rivera piece with flutist Marina Piccinini resulted in an invitation to perform on d’ Rivera’s set at the Blue Note.   

A native of Seattle, Mr. Hammond is a graduate of the University of Washington and the Juilliard School.  His teachers include Randolph Hokanson, Bela Siki, Josef Raieff and Herbert Stessin.  He is on the faculties of Hunter College, City University of New York; the Graduate Center, CUNY; and the Sewanee Music Festival, University of the South. He has served as Artist-in-Residence at Emory University, and has appeared at other festivals including the Academies Internacionales du Grand Nancy, France; Musiques en Mer, Italy; the Colorado College Music Festival, Colorado Springs; the Hot Springs Music Festival, Arkansas; and the Oregon Coast Music Festival, Coos Bay.  Mr. Hammond has recorded for the Altarus and Partita labels; the American Record Guide commented on his all-Brahms disc with cellist Astrid Schween and clarinetist John Marco, “…this is a fantastic release, with performances at or near the top of the list.  Do search out this recording-it is outstanding.”  His release on the Naxos label of the Celebre Tarantelle by Gottschalk and other Creole Romantic pieces has also received critical acclaim.  Mr. Hammond has been a frequent participant in the Friends and Enemies of New Music series in Manhattan, has collaborated with the American Composer’s Orchestra, with singer Marni Nixon and actresses Claire Bloom and Luise Rainer.

Violin - Janet Sung, Harvey Thurmer and Katherine Lehman

Janet Sung - Violinist JANET SUNG enjoys an acclaimed international career as a virtuoso soloist, praised for her lustrous tone, dynamic interpretations and bravura performances.

            Janet Sung has been guest soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Aspen Chamber Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Adrian, Boise, Corpus Christi, Delaware, Dubuque, Fargo-Moorhead, Hartford, Owensboro, Wheeling and Wyoming. Abroad, she has been heard with South Korea’s Pusan Philharmonic Orchestra and Russia’s Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra and National Symphonic Orchestra of Bashkortostan. Her solo performances have frequently been aired on radio and television, nationally and internationally, including multiple broadcasts of her performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto on NPR’s “Performance Today.” Acclaimed for her compelling performances of traditional works from Vivaldi to Berg, she also reveals her repertoire’s diversity by presenting the works of 20^th and 21^st century composers and regularly touring with fiddler Mark O’Connor’s American String Celebration.

            In recital, Janet Sung has been presented in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Louisville, New York City and Pittsburgh, as well as in Odense, Denmark, Lausanne, Switzerland and Queenstown, New Zealand. She is also a frequently heard artist at distinguished music festivals, including: Aspen Music Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival.  Ms. Sung also tours nationally with the American Chamber Players.

            Janet Sung was chosen by Leonard Slatkin as the recipient of the Passamaneck Award, for which she performed at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Music Hall for the Y Music Society Concert Series. A winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s Nakamichi Violin Competition, she has also been awarded other top prizes and grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, National Federation of Music Clubs Competition and Cho Chang Tsung Foundation.

            A native of New York City, Janet Sung began violin studies at the age of seven, making her public debut the following year. At age nine, she made her orchestral debut, performing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The following year, she began a decade of private studies with the renowned violin pedagogue, Josef Gingold, a period that overlapped with her attendance

at Harvard University, from which she graduated with honors with a double degree in anthropology and music. Subsequently, Ms. Sung was invited to study on full scholarship with the esteemed teacher, Dorothy DeLay, at The Juilliard School. She also studied extensively with Masao Kawasaki, David Cerone, Eugene Phillips and the Juilliard String Quartet.

            Highly sought after as an artist-teacher, Janet Sung has conducted masterclasses throughout the country, including The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, Harvard

University and The Juilliard School.  Recently appointed Assistant Professor of Violin at the State University of New York at Fredonia School of Music, she also serves as faculty at the Juilliard School (initially as the Starling/DeLay Institute Fellow), the Hot Springs Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival and the Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp. During the 2003-2004 season, Ms. Sung returned to Harvard University as the Clifton Visiting Artist for the “Learning from Performers” program, whose previous guests included Isaac Stern, James Galway, Mark Morris and Quincy Jones.

            Janet Sung plays a c.1600 Maggini violin.

Harvey Thurmer - Mr. Thurmer enjoys a varied career as a soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician and pedagogue. A native of Tennessee, his studies included work with mentors Dorothy DeLay and Louis Krasner at the New England Conservatory, and Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

After finishing his studies in Austria, he performed extensively as a chamber musician in Europe, with appearances at the Salzburg Festival, the Cheltenham Festival in England, London’s Wigmore Hall, Zurich TonHalle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Paris Salle Gavaeu, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. As a member of the Franz Schubert Quartet of Vienna, he held teaching positions at the Graz Musickhochschule and the Royal College of Music in Manchester England. He has taught at the Lappland Festival in Sweden, the Lake District Summer Music Festival in England, and the Summer Acadamy in Graz, Austria. He has collaborated with artists such as cellist David Soyer of the Guarneri quartet, pianists Jorg Demus and Cyprien Katsaris, and clarinetists Peter Schmiedl of the Vienna Philharmonic, and Alois Brandhoffer. Mr. Thurmer continues to perform annually as concertmaster of the Echternach Festival Chamber Orchestra in Luxemburg. As a member of the Oxford String Quartet he has performed and taught most recently in Seoul, South Korea and Nagasaki, Japan.

As a soloist Mr. Thurmer toured with the Salzburg Philharmonie in South America performing in Santiago, Chile, Lima, Peru, and Buenos Aires Argentina, as well as in Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. In this country he has appeared in recital and as soloist in Tennessee, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida, and Washington D.C.

Since his return to the US in 1989, Mr. Thurmer completed a doctorate in performance and pedagogy while an assistant to violinist Thomas Moore at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.  He continued his involvement with chamber music as a member of the Gables Quartet of Miami, the DaVinci Quartet in Denver and the Oxford String Quartet, the resident quartet at Miami University of Ohio. Mr. Thurmer is actively involved in the promotion and recording of new music.  He has worked with composers Gyorgy Kurtag, Bright Sheng, Chen Yi and Michael Colgrass. His recording of Kurtag’s “Kafka Fragmente” with soprano Audrey Luna, available on the Ars Moderno label, represents the first recording of this monumental work by American artists. He currently is an Associate Professor of Violin at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio and concertmaster of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Richmond, Indiana.

This summer will mark Mr. Thurmer’s sixth season at Sewanee, the first being as a student at age 14. He has subsequently returned in 1990, 1991 and now since 2007, as a continuing faculty artist.

Katherine Lehman - Ms. Lehman has been a member of the music faculty at The University of the South since 1995, and also serves as violinist of the St. Luke's Trio and concertmaster of the University Orchestra. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Kansas, and her master of music degree (with certificate in performance) is from Northwestern University, where she served as concertmaster of the Northwestern University Orchestra under Victor Yampolsky. She has also studied with Zvi Zeitlin at the Eastman School of Music, and has performed in master classes conducted by Dorothy Delay, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Guarneri Quartet.

Viola - Hillary Herndon, Jonathan Kane

Jonathan T. Kane -

Mr. Kane is in his fifth season as acting Assistant Principal Violist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, in Mexico under the direction of Fernando Lozano. He is on the faculty at the University of Veracruz School of Music, Instituto Superior de Música del Estado de Veracruz, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and was the principal violist of the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil del Estado de Veracruz under the direction of Louis Herrera de la Fuente. 

 

He started playing the violin at the age of 9 and began playing the viola at the age of 13. Within one year of studying the viola, he became the principal violist of the Florida West Coast Youth Orchestra. During the next few years he formed a string quartet, “Wolfs-Gang”, and won the First National String Quartet Competition at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, where he studied chamber music with the Miami String Quartet and renowned chamber musician, Felix Galimir.  An avid chamber musician, Mr. Kane has formed other string quartets such as the KLEF Quartet in Miami, Florida, and most recently the Tamayo String Quartet in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.

At the age of 17, he won the Wendell Irish Viola Competition, and later that year he went to the Harid Conservatory where he studied with Victoria Chiang and received a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance. He then received his Master of Music in Viola Performance from the University of Miami, where he was the teaching assistant to Pamela McConnell. He has studied with violist such as Victoria Chiang, Michael McClelland, Heidi Castleman, Ellen Rose, Dorothy Stahler, Michael Zaretsky, and jazz with Jimbo Ross. He has played in masterclasses for Yuri Bashmet, Karen Tuttle, Eric Shumsky, the American String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Tashi Quartet, and the Turtle Island String Quartet. 

 

Jonathan Kane has been principal violist of the University of Miami Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Gold Coast Opera, the Florida Symphonic Pops Orchestra, Ballet Etudes, the Henry Mancini Jazz Orchestra, and the Hollywood Festival Orchestra that did a 3 week tour of Taiwan. He has played viola in orchestras like the Palm Beach Opera, The Florida Philharmonic, the New World Symphony Orchestra, and the Naples Philharmonic. Mr. Kane has played in orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Jack Elliot, Philippe Entremont, Louis Herrera de la Fuente, Anton Guadagno, James Paul, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Markand Thakar. He has also played with many great jazz musicians such as Dianna Crawl, Oscar Peterson, Dave Grusin, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and Ernie Watts while he was studying jazz at the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angles.  Mr. Kane has also participated in the Tanglewood Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Santo Domingo Music Festival in the Dominican Republic, the Casals Music Festival in Puerto Rico, and the Hot Springs Music Festival.

 

As a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician, Mr. Kane has toured the United States, Mexico, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, and most of Europe. He has played in the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angles, Bellas Artes and Nezhualcoyotl in Mexico City, and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

 

Jonathan is currently living in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico with his wife and two beautiful daughters.

Cello - Natasha Farny, Paul York

Natasha Farny - American cellist Natasha Farny has distinguished herself as a talent of significant versatility and experience among today's younger generation of string virtuosi.  An accomplished soloist, Dr. Farny has performed with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the Orchard Park Symphony, and the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra.  As a doctoral student at Juilliard, she won the prestigious Juilliard Cello Concerto Competition in 2000, and performed Henri Dutilleux's "Tout un Monde Lointain" with the Juilliard Symphony, under the direction of Robert Spano.  That same year, she won the FOCUS! 2000 New Music Festival Competition, and gave the world premiere performance of Norwegian composer Olav Anton Thommessen's Cello Concerto "Through Reflection."

An avid chamber musician, Dr. Farny has given sonata recitals in Leipzig’s Mendelssohn Haus Recital Series and participated in a recording and performance project with the Berlin-based Manon Quartet.  She has appeared in numerous venues across the American Midwest including a live sonata recital on Chicago Public Radio at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, at Auer Hall and Recital Hall in Bloomington, Indiana and in Norman, Oklahoma.  As a new music promoter and supporter, Dr. Farny has presented recitals in the Boston and Rhode Island areas featuring the music of Marti Epstein and Elaine Bearer, and has embraced multi-media spectra by marrying live music with noted dance and theater companies throughout the New York and New England area.

A distinguished scholar in music, Dr. Farny completed a monograph of Beethoven's Cello Sonata, Op. 102, No. 1, under the supervision of renowned Beethoven scholar and writer Maynard Solomon, and was awarded the Citibank grant of 2000 to study, fully-funded, in Leipzig, Germany. During this year of study, Dr. Farny attended the Kronberg Cello Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Masterclasses.  Performances included appearances at the Internationales Kammermusikfestival, organized by Christian Giger, principal cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and chamber music tours with Gewandhaus Orchestra members in the Berlin, Frankfurt, and Heidelberg metropolitan areas.

Music festivals Dr. Farny has attended include the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall England, the Bay View Music Festival in Michigan (where she was a guest member of the Westbrook String Quartet), the Colorado Music Festival, the Bowdoin Music Festival, Tanglewood, and the Artur Balsam Chamber Music Festival in Indiana.  After pursuing undergraduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale University, Dr. Farny earned a master of music degree at the Eastman School of Music and a doctor of musical arts degree at the Juilliard School. Primary teachers have included such luminaries as Orlando Cole, Stephen Doane, Ronald Feldman, Joel Krosnick, and Harvey Shapiro.  Additionally, Dr. Farny has benefited from the tutelage of some of the most renowned chamber players in the world, including the Juilliard String Quartet, Felix Galimir and Karen Tuttle, and has participated in European master classes for cellists such as Ralph Kirschbaum, Steven Isserlis, Frans Helmerson and the late Boris Pergamenschikov. Dr. Farny is Assistant Professor of Cello at SUNY Fredonia.

Paul York - An accomplished soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Paul York has appeared in recital and with orchestras in the U.S. and abroad.  Mr. York serves on the string faculty at the University of Louisville, where he maintains an active teaching and performing schedule. Recent solo appearances include a performance of Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma and he will perform recitals on a tour of Japan in April of 2006.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. York is a member of the Louisville String Quartet and was a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission of the Arts Touring ensemble as well as ensemble-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University.

As a champion of contemporary music, Mr. York has commissioned works for the cello by such composers as Stefan Freund, Marc Satterwhite, Steve Rouse, Paul Brink, and Fredrick Speck.  He also premiered Alfred Bartle’s new orchestration of Bartok’s First Rhapsody for cello with the Sewanee Festival Orchestra and in February of 2005 he performed the cello concerto Colored Field by Aaron Kernis with the Louisville Orchestra.

Mr. York has participated in numerous summer festivals.  He is currently a member of the artist faculty at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, where he performs solo and chamber works, in addition to his teaching schedule.  He has also performed at Strings in the Mountains in Colorado, the Abilene Chamber Music Series, and served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. He has held principal cello positions with numerous regional orchestras and performed as a member of the cello section of the Saint Louis Symphony under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.

Mr. York received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and his master of music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other teachers include Gabor Rejto, Owen Carman, and Louis Potter.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Mr. York was selected to participate in the prestigious Piatigorsky seminar at the University of South California. Mr. York can be heard on the CRS label and has recorded a CD of French Baroque chamber music with Promenade at the University Southern Mississippi where he previously served as a faculty member.  He is presently recording a CD new works written specifically for him.

Double Bass - Sydney King

Sidney A. King - Mr. King is the instructor of double bass at the University of Louisville School of Music.  He has recently retired as the assistant principal bassist of the Louisville Orchestra, having held that position from 1984-2006.  As an active soloist and chamber musician, Mr. King performs frequently throughout the Midwest in various recital settings, including service for fourteen years as a core member of the Kentucky Center Chamber Players.   He has held a position on the board of directors of the International Society of Bassists (2003-2006). 

 

He has been a performer at the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1992, often serving in titled positions with that orchestra.  Mr. King has performed as principal bassist with the Houston Grand Opera, the Texas Opera Theater, the Sunflower Music Festival, and the Des Moines Metro Opera.  He has also performed with the Detroit Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony.  Mr. King also served as the double bass instructor at Indiana University Southeast and has long been involved in music education, teaching and coaching many youth ensembles as well as giving numerous solo performances in public and private schools.