Pianist Yilin You is an active solo and chamber music performer who has
given recitals throughout the
Violinist Annegret Klaua, a native of Hannover, Germany, is an avid chamber musician,
soloist, and orchestral player, freelancing in the Greater Boston area. She performs
regularly with the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, has played and recorded with Alea
III, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and SONYC (String Orchestra of New York
City), and has taken part in the “New Music Brandeis” concert series,
collaborating with members of the Lydian String Quartet and other regional
artists. Further appearances include chamber music performances at NEC’s Jordan
Hall, the Longy School of Music, Gordon College, Rivers Music School, Middlesex
Community College, and in Newport, Rhode Island. Ms. Klaua received her
Bachelor and Master of Music from Indiana University, Bloomington where she
studied with Paul Biss and Franco Gulli. She went on to earn an Artist Diploma
from the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, Germany, working with John Holloway.
Before coming to Boston, Ms. Klaua lived in Berlin, performing with the
Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Ensemble Oriol. She has appeared at the Aspen
and Sarasota Music Festivals, the International Academy for Early Music,
Innsbruck and was a member of the Spoleto, Italy and Verbier Festival
Orchestras. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in musicology, Ms. Klaua is a teaching
fellow and research assistant at Brandeis University. She was an associate
instructor in violin at Indiana University, has taught in Brookline and Acton,
Massachusetts, and is part of the Musika Teacher Group for the Greater Boston
area. In 2005, Ms. Klaua joined the violin faculty of the
Violist Mark Berger attended Boston University, where he completed his
undergraduate studies in violin with Roman Totenberg and viola with Steven
Ansell. Mr. Berger has performed in summer festivals such as the Kneisel Hall
Chamber Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Berger is a highly
active violist and violinist in the Boston area and has performed with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera,
Emmanuel Music, and Alea III Contemporary Music Ensemble, as well as the New
World, Vermont, and Albany Symphonies. As a composer, Mr. Berger received his
master’s degree from Boston University where he studied with Lukas Foss and
Theodore Antoniou. Mr. Berger’s compositions have been performed by ensembles
such as the Lydian String Quartet, Alea III, the Harvard Group for Contemporary
Music, New Music Brandeis, Studio New Music (in residence at the Moscow
Conservatory), and the Hellenic Ensemble of Contemporary Music (Athens,
Greece). Mr. Berger is a member of the music faculty at Middlesex Community
College, and is currently a PhD candidate at Brandeis University where he is
Director of the New Music Brandeis concert series. He studies composition with
David Rakowski and Martin Boykan.
Clarinetist Shirley Brill was born in
Cellist Jing Li was born in Beijing, China, and immigrated to the United States
when she was three years old. She received her first cello lessons from
her father at the age of eight and has since performed numerous concertos as
well as solo and chamber music recitals all over the world. She has
appeared in festivals such as the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota
Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Piatigorsky Seminar for
Cellists, and her previous cello teachers include Janos Starker, Paul Katz, and
Laurence Lesser. Ms. Li is a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra
and is Principal Cellist of the Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. As a
teacher, she holds a position on the faculty of the
Pianist Jón
Sigurðsson is a
seasoned performer and educator. His degrees include a Master of Music in
piano performance from Arizona State University, as well as a Final Exam and
Teacher’s Diploma from the Conservatory of Reykjavík. He has studied with Helga Laxness, Halldór Haraldsson, Erika Haase, Gerrit
Schuil, and Caio Pagano and participated in masterclasses given by Ruth
Slenczynska, Edith-Picht Axenfeld and Roger Woodward. Mr. Sigurðsson has an active career in solo
performance and has accompanied both instrumentalists and singers in many
concerts in Iceland. He has performed as
concerto soloist in Reykjavík, in both Beethoven’s First and Third Piano
Concertos. The Icelandic Embassy
in Washington, D.C. sponsored a soirée where he and baritone Árni Sighvatsson
performed songs by the Icelandic composer Sigvaldi Kaldalóns. He was awarded a grant from the Guild of
Icelandic Musicians to perform trio music in Iceland. He also organized the music festival, Music
Without Borders, in Reykjavík, where students from the Reykjavík area
worked with American composers Lauren Bernofsky and Wynn-Anne Rossi and
performed their works in the Ýmir Musichall in Reykjavík. Mr. Sigurðsson performed at the Skandinavian
Hjemkomst Festival in Moorhead, Minnesota, in June 2005. His CD recording of music by Barber,
Scriabin, Rossi, Bernofsky, and Moszkowski was recently released by Polarfonia
Classics.
Pianist Margaret Cheng Tuttle, a native of