YURIY BEKKER
Co-director & Violin
Yuriy Bekker, critically acclaimed violinist and conductor, has led the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina) as Concertmaster since 2007 and was named its Principal Pops Conductor in 2016. Bekker served as the orchestra’s Acting Artistic Director from 2010-2014 and Director of Chamber Orchestra from 2014-2015, playing a major role in the orchestra’s successful resurgence. Mr. Bekker has served on faculty as a violinist and conductor for the Miami Summer Music Festival in Miami, Florida since 2014. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the College of Charleston School of the Arts as a violin professor and as conductor of the College of Charleston Orchestra. He has been Artistic Advisor to the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and was given the Outstanding Artistic Achievement award from the City of Charleston to honor his cultural contributions. Bekker has also held the position of concertmaster for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, and has held additional positions with the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras.Bekker has performed worldwide as a celebrated guest concertmaster, avid chamber musician, and critically-acclaimed soloist. In addition to over a dozen concertos with the Charleston Symphony, he has performed with the Vancouver Symphony (British Columbia), Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chicago Chamber Music Society, European Music Festival Stuttgart (Germany), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Aspen Music Festival, at the Kennedy Center, and in cities including New York City, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Amarillo, Missoula, Asheville, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, Barcelona, Spain and Graz, Austria. He has collaborated with Herbert Greenberg, Claudio Bohorquez, Alexander Kerr, Andres Cardenes, Andrew Armstrong, Robert DeMaine, Sara Chang, Gil Shaham, Ilya Kaler, Joshua Roman, JoAnn Falletta, and Andrew Litton. Bekker’s recent and upcoming engagements include conductor and violinist with the Amarillo Symphony, violinist on Tchaikovsky's and Bruch's Concertos for Violin with the Charleston Symphony, and conductor of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at the Miami Summer Music Festival. As Principal Pops Conductor of the Charleston Symphony, Bekker has recently worked with notable guests artists such as Ben Folds, Tony Desare, Ellis Hall, and Cirque de la Symphonie. His busy upcoming Pops season is packed with exciting repertoire, ranging from John Williams movie music to the classics of Gershwin and Bernstein to the grandest highlights of Italian opera and cinema. Bekker earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees were acquired from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied violin with Nelli Shkolnikova and Ilya Kaler. Born in Minsk, Belarus, Bekker is now a United States citizen, and is a proud husband and father to his wife, Jenny, and their new son, Nathanael. www.yuriybekker.com
Amanda Castellone
Co-director & SOPRANO
Soprano Amanda Castellone, a native of Charleston, holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance from Arizona State University. An active performer of opera, recital, and oratorio, she has performed on many Charleston stages, including the Gaillard Auditorium with the Charleston Symphony, the North Charleston Performing Arts Center with the North Charleston Pops Orchestra, and the Rose Maree Myers Theater with the Charleston Concert Band. She performed extensively as a soloist with Scottsdale Musical Arts; favorite concerts include Missa in C Minor, K. 427/417a (Mozart) and Messiah (Handel). Favorite opera roles include the First Handmaiden in Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot with Arizona Opera, Despina (Così fan Tutte), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), and Frasquita (Carmen). Dr. Castellone holds a Master of Music degree from The Boston Conservatory and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and Biology from Wake Forest University. While at Wake Forest, she debuted the role of Silvia in the world premiere of Manuel García’s salon opera L’isola disabitata (1831). She is an Instructor of Music of the College of Charleston and is the Assistant Director of Opera. At the College of Charleston, along with teaching voice, Dr. Castellone carries a heavy administrative load and is the head of student registration in the department, curator of department social media, and manager of the department website. She is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and is the District Governor of the South Carolina chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Fostering the growth of young musicians is one of her favorite activities.
VIOLIN
YURIY BEKKER
Co-director & Violin
Yuriy Bekker, critically acclaimed violinist and conductor, has led the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina) as Concertmaster since 2007 and was named its Principal Pops Conductor in 2016. Bekker served as the orchestra’s Acting Artistic Director from 2010-2014 and Director of Chamber Orchestra from 2014-2015, playing a major role in the orchestra’s successful resurgence. Mr. Bekker has served on faculty as a violinist and conductor for the Miami Summer Music Festival in Miami, Florida since 2014. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the College of Charleston School of the Arts as a violin professor and as conductor of the College of Charleston Orchestra. He has been Artistic Advisor to the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and was given the Outstanding Artistic Achievement award from the City of Charleston to honor his cultural contributions. Bekker has also held the position of concertmaster for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria, and has held additional positions with the Houston Symphony and the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras.Bekker has performed worldwide as a celebrated guest concertmaster, avid chamber musician, and critically-acclaimed soloist. In addition to over a dozen concertos with the Charleston Symphony, he has performed with the Vancouver Symphony (British Columbia), Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chicago Chamber Music Society, European Music Festival Stuttgart (Germany), Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Aspen Music Festival, at the Kennedy Center, and in cities including New York City, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Amarillo, Missoula, Asheville, Flagstaff, Scottsdale, Barcelona, Spain and Graz, Austria. He has collaborated with Herbert Greenberg, Claudio Bohorquez, Alexander Kerr, Andres Cardenes, Andrew Armstrong, Robert DeMaine, Sara Chang, Gil Shaham, Ilya Kaler, Joshua Roman, JoAnn Falletta, and Andrew Litton. Bekker’s recent and upcoming engagements include conductor and violinist with the Amarillo Symphony, violinist on Tchaikovsky's and Bruch's Concertos for Violin with the Charleston Symphony, and conductor of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at the Miami Summer Music Festival. As Principal Pops Conductor of the Charleston Symphony, Bekker has recently worked with notable guests artists such as Ben Folds, Tony Desare, Ellis Hall, and Cirque de la Symphonie. His busy upcoming Pops season is packed with exciting repertoire, ranging from John Williams movie music to the classics of Gershwin and Bernstein to the grandest highlights of Italian opera and cinema. Bekker earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees were acquired from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied violin with Nelli Shkolnikova and Ilya Kaler. Born in Minsk, Belarus, Bekker is now a United States citizen, and is a proud husband and father to his wife, Jenny, and their new son, Nathanael. www.yuriybekker.com
Karel Abo
Violin
Karel Abo, a Michigan native, began her violin studies at the age of three. She received her Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Michigan State University. Her teachers include Andrew Jennings and Robert Dan. Ms. Abo is an active chamber musician, performer, and teacher. She was a founding member of Emerald Isle String Haven, a chamber music camp in Clarkston, Michigan and served on the faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Western Michigan as a chamber music coach. Additionally, Ms. Abo has accrued extensive experience as an orchestral musician throughout her career. She currently serves as Associate Concertmaster with the Midland Symphony Orchestra and also regularly performs with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony, and Savannah Philharmonic. As a teacher, Ms. Abo currently teaches at the Charleston Academy of Music and has an extensive private studio of both violin and viola students. She has had many pupils go on to pursue degrees in music at schools including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Stony Brook University, and the University of Michigan. Ms. Abo is an active recitalist who is frequently invited as a guest artist to participate in faculty recitals, concerts, and music conferences at universities and colleges. Besides being an active performer throughout South Carolina, Ms. Abo has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, including prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and St. Luke's Cathedral.
Herbert Greenberg
Violin
Herbert Greenberg, a native of Philadelphia, studied with Jascha Brodsky and Ivan Galamian. Further studies at Indiana University with the great pedagogue Josef Gingold led to a Performer's Certificate. Mr. Greenberg has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra; associate concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony and from 1981 to 2001 served as concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has performed over 50 concerti from the Baroque to present day American composers such as Adams and Rouse. Mr. Greenberg has collaborated as a soloist with many of the world's leading conductors including William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Sergiu Comissiona, Gunther Herbig, Hans Vonk, Pinchas Zukerman, Nicholas McGegan, Kazimerz Kord, Emmanuel Krivine, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Alan Gilbert, and David Zinman. He has performed as soloist in Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. Many of his performances have been broadcast on NPR, and he was featured inStrauss' Ein Heldenleben on National television celebrating the inaugural concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. Mr. Greenberg has concertized throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has toured as soloist with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra of Denmark and has led the New Arts Ensemble of Taipei as violinist/conductor on a tour throughout Taiwan. Mr. Greenberg was the first American invited to serve as the concertmaster for the Japan Virtuoso Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble consisting of concertmasters and first chair players from all over Japan as well as the Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Orchestras. Recently, Mr. Greenberg has performed in Budapest, the Czech Republic, and served as violinist/conductor of the Singapore Symphony. He has also served on international juries for the most recent Szymanowski and Wieniawski Competitions. Mr. Greenberg has been invited to serve as guest concertmaster for the Houston, St. Louis, San Diego, Atlanta, and Oregon Symphonies, as well as the National Arts Orchestra of Canada, Prague Symphony, Mav Orchestra of Budapest, and the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester of Norway. With pride, Mr. Greenberg has been associated with and serves as concertmaster for the Defiant Requiem Foundation. Mr. Greenberg performed at the first performance in Theresienstadt, and is devoted to getting the story of life in the Terezin Ghetto told. He has performed works of Klein, Kraza, Haas, and Ullman at Terezin, and served as concertmaster for the award winning film, Remember the Holocaust: Defiant Requiem. After recent success at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Lincoln Center, and Prague, Berlin and Washington are scheduled for this spring. In Minneapolis he was a member of the Minnesota Chamber Soloists. In Pittsburgh he was a founding member of the Previn-Greenberg-Williams Trio and in Baltimore, a founding member of the Baltimore String Quartet. He has collaborated in chamber music with a wide variety of artists such as William Primrose, Michael Tree, Isaac Stern, Josef Gingold, Jaime Laredo, Pinchas Zukerman, Malcom Frager, Josef Kalichstein, Lynn Harrell, and Yo-Yo Ma. Edgar Meyer and Barry Tuckwell. Mr. Greenberg has participated in many festivals and seminars such as New York String Seminar, NOI, Sarasota, and Blossom Festivals. For the past 16 seasons he has been a member of the faculty and concertmaster of the Aspen Music Festival and School. Mr. Greenberg has been a member of the violin faculty at the Peabody Conservatory since 1987 and is currently serving as Faculty Chair. He is also very active in leading Master Classes, most recently at LSU, CCM, YST, and Juilliard. Many of his former students are faculty members, have chamber music careers, and occupy concertmaster and principal positions in major symphony orchestras throughout the world. Mr. Greenberg's students are members of Orchestras such as Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, National, Seattle, Oregon, Houston, St. Louis, Montreal, KBS, Danish Radio, and Israel Philharmonic. Mr. Greenberg has recorded for Sony, Telarc, Argo, and Delos. He plays on the Jean Becker Stradivarius, dated 1685.
ILYA KALER
Violin
Described by the Gramophone as a “magician, bewitching our ears” for his hauntingly beautiful sound, flawless command of the instrument and mesmerizing phrasing, Ilya Kaler is the only violinist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1986), the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki (1985), and the Paganini Competition in Genoa (1981). Kaler is considered to be one of the most outstanding personalities of the violin today whose career ranges from that of a soloist and recording artist to chamber musician and professor. Mr. Kaler has earned rave reviews for his solo appearances with many distinguished orchestras throughout the world, including the Leningrad, Moscow and Dresden Philharmonic Orchestras, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Danish and Berlin Radio Orchestras, the Moscow and Zurich Chamber Orchestras, as well as many of the major American orchestras such as Seattle and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, to name a few. Kaler collaborated with a number of outstanding conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Dmitry Kitaenko, Mariss Jansons, and Jerzy Semkow, performing extensively on five continents. Mr. Kaler released multiple highly acclaimed recordings for the Naxos Records label, which include sonatas by Schumann and Brahms, concertos by Paganini, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Schumann, Dvořák, Glazunov, Szymanowski, and Karłowicz, as well as the Taneyev Suite, Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, and Ysaÿe‘s Six Sonatas for Solo Violin. He has also released a Solo Violin CD under the Ongaku label and recorded extensive recital repertoire for Melodiya Records in Russia. As a member of the Tempest Trio with cellist Amit Peled and pianist Alon Goldstein, Kaler enjoys a very busy touring career and performs in the most prestigious venues to the highest critical acclaim. The trio has recently released their debut CD on the Naxos label, featuring a complete set of piano trios by Antonin Dvořák. One of the most sought-after teachers in the world, Kaler currently serves as the violin professor of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He previously held Professor of Violin positions at DePaul University School of Music, the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY) and at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Bloomington, IN). Summer teaching and performing engagements include the Chautauqua Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, International Violin Mastercourse at the Keshet Eilon Music Center in Israel, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, amongst others. Kaler is also frequently invited as a judge to the world’s most prestigious violin competitions, including the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, Russia), Sibelius International Violin Competition (Helsinki, Finland), Henri Marteau International Competition (Germany), as well as the International Music Competition (Harbin, China). Ilya Kaler received his education at the Moscow Central Music School under Zinaida Gilels and at the Moscow State Conservatory under Leonid Kogan and Victor Tretyakov. Following his formal education, influence and inspiration came from his long-time mentor, violinist and teacher Abram Shtern. www.ilyakaler.com
Michael klotz
Violin/VIOLA
Born in 1978 in Rochester, NY, Michael Klotz has established an international reputation as a performer and pedagogue of the viola. Klotz made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17 and has since then appeared as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestra principal worldwide. After a performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with violist Roberto Diaz, the Portland Press-Herald proclaimed, “this concert squelched all viola jokes, now and forever, due to the talents of Diaz and Klotz”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently proclaimed Michael Klotz to be “a superb violist, impressive, with an exceptionally attractive sound,” and the Miami Herald has consistently lauded his “burnished, glowing tone and nuanced presence.” Michael Klotz joined the Amernet String Quartet in 2002 and has toured and recorded commercially with the ensemble throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Colombia, Belgium, and Spain. Klotz has performed at some of New York’s most important venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, MoMA, Bargemusic, and the Kosciuzsko Foundation. His festival appearances have included Seattle, Newport, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Mozaic, Great Lakes, Cervantino, Festival Baltimore, Festival Mozaic,Piccolo Spoleto, Sunflower, Martha’s Vineyard, Skaneateles, Virginia Tech Vocal Arts and Music Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Beverly Hills, Music Mountain, Bowdoin, Madeline Island, and Miami Mainly Mozart. Passionately dedicated to chamber music, Klotz regularly performs with many of today’s most esteemed artists, having appeared as guest violist with the Borromeo, Shanghai and Ying String Quartets, the Manhattan Piano Trio, and has collaborated with artists such as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, Cho-Liang Lin, Andrés Cárdenes, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Vadim Gluzman, Gary Hoffman, Clive Greensmith, Carter Brey, Michael Tree, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, Cynthia Phelps, Paul Neubauer, Roberto Diaz, Joseph Kalichstein, Jon Nakamatsu, Franklin Cohen, and Alexander Fiterstein, as well as with many principal players from major U.S. and European orchestras. In 2015 he was named a Charter Member of the Ensemble with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth and regularly appears on this series. In 2002 and 2009, he was was invited by Maestro Jaime Laredo to perform with distinguished alumni at anniversary concerts of the New York String Orchestra Seminar in Carnegie Hall. Michael Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the Performer’s Certificate. In 2002 he became one of the few individuals to be awarded a double Master’s Degree in violin and viola from the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, he was the recipient of the Tokyo Foundation and Gluck Fellowships. His principal teachers and influences include Zvi Zeitlin, Lynn Blakeslee, Lewis Kaplan, Toby Appel, Peter Kamnitzer, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Michael Klotz is a dedicated teacher and serves as Senior Instructor and Artist-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami, where he teaches viola and chamber music. Additionally, he teaches a select number of highly gifted pre-college students. Klotz has recently presented acclaimed master classes at the New World Symphony, Cincinnati Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Penn State University, University of Nevada – Las Vegas, Ithaca College, Texas Christian University, and West Virginia University. He is currently a member of the faculty of The Heifetz International Music Institute, an Artistic Advisor and faculty for the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, and a viola coach at the New World Symphony. His former students currently attend and are graduates of prestigious conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music and are already achieving leading roles in the music world. Michael was recently featured in the “Mind Over Finger” podcast series, the November 2013 issue of the “Alumni Spotlight” in the Juilliard Journal and as the subject of Strad Magazine’s “Ask the Teacher” column in the November 2013 issue. Michael Klotz resides in Hallandale Beach, FL with his wife Kelly and sons Jacob and Natan, as well as two dachshunds named Noodle and Strudel, and a cat named Max.
ASAKO Kremer
Violin
Asako Kremer, a native of Tokyo, Japan, moved to US in 1996 and received her Master’s degree from the Mannes College of Music. Then Ms. Kremer received a full scholarship at the University of South Carolina to serve graduate assistantship in performance. She has performed in many Orchestras and Chamber ensembles in southeast and have been very active as a private violin teacher in Charleston. She has been a member of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra since 2003 and currently serves as the assistant principal second violin.
Tomas jakubek
Violin
On Leave for SUmmer 2025
Tomas Jakubek started his violin studies at the age of seven in his native country of Slovakia. He studied violin at the Conservatory in Zilina, then at the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno (Czech Republic) where he received his Masters Degree in violin performance. He has also studied at the Lithuanian Academy of Music in Vilnius under Jurgis Dvarionas, who was a student of David Oistrach. During this time he served as concertmaster for the College of Charleston Orchestra under the direction of Lorenzo Muti. Mr. Jakubek has recently become the violin adjunct faculty at the College beginning in the Fall of 2009. He often performs with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra as well as the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. He has played in various concerts on four continents with the following European orchestras: Junge Philharminie Wien , Europa Philharmonie Magdeburg , Czech Chamber Orchestra Prague , and Czech Philharmony of Brno.
VIOLa
Jan-Marie Joyce
VIOLA
Jan-Marie Christy Joyce is in her 23rd season as Principal Violist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, where she has appeared frequently as soloist. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied under Stanley Konopka, Assistant Principal Violist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Jan-Marie is former Principal Violist of the Canton (OH) Symphony and currently spends her summers as a member of the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra in Colorado where she has served as acting Principal Viola. In the summer of 2005, she was invited to perform in Seattle Opera’s production of Wagner’s “Ring des Nibelungen”. She is on the faculty of the Charleston Chamber Music Intensive and the Charleston International Music School where she teaches viola and coaches chamber music and previously was a member of the faculty at the College of Charleston. Ms. Joyce can be heard on a CD of chamber music for oboe and strings with members of her family. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Trumpet Performance. Jan-Marie is married to CSO bass trombonist Tom Joyce and has three children, Anthony, Emma, and Kenneth.
Michael klotz
Violin/VIOLA
Born in 1978 in Rochester, NY, Michael Klotz has established an international reputation as a performer and pedagogue of the viola. Klotz made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17 and has since then appeared as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestra principal worldwide. After a performance of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with violist Roberto Diaz, the Portland Press-Herald proclaimed, “this concert squelched all viola jokes, now and forever, due to the talents of Diaz and Klotz”. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently proclaimed Michael Klotz to be “a superb violist, impressive, with an exceptionally attractive sound,” and the Miami Herald has consistently lauded his “burnished, glowing tone and nuanced presence.” Michael Klotz joined the Amernet String Quartet in 2002 and has toured and recorded commercially with the ensemble throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Romania, Colombia, Belgium, and Spain. Klotz has performed at some of New York’s most important venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, MoMA, Bargemusic, and the Kosciuzsko Foundation. His festival appearances have included Seattle, Newport, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Mozaic, Great Lakes, Cervantino, Festival Baltimore, Festival Mozaic,Piccolo Spoleto, Sunflower, Martha’s Vineyard, Skaneateles, Virginia Tech Vocal Arts and Music Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Beverly Hills, Music Mountain, Bowdoin, Madeline Island, and Miami Mainly Mozart. Passionately dedicated to chamber music, Klotz regularly performs with many of today’s most esteemed artists, having appeared as guest violist with the Borromeo, Shanghai and Ying String Quartets, the Manhattan Piano Trio, and has collaborated with artists such as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, Cho-Liang Lin, Andrés Cárdenes, James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Vadim Gluzman, Gary Hoffman, Clive Greensmith, Carter Brey, Michael Tree, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, Cynthia Phelps, Paul Neubauer, Roberto Diaz, Joseph Kalichstein, Jon Nakamatsu, Franklin Cohen, and Alexander Fiterstein, as well as with many principal players from major U.S. and European orchestras. In 2015 he was named a Charter Member of the Ensemble with the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth and regularly appears on this series. In 2002 and 2009, he was was invited by Maestro Jaime Laredo to perform with distinguished alumni at anniversary concerts of the New York String Orchestra Seminar in Carnegie Hall. Michael Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the Performer’s Certificate. In 2002 he became one of the few individuals to be awarded a double Master’s Degree in violin and viola from the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, he was the recipient of the Tokyo Foundation and Gluck Fellowships. His principal teachers and influences include Zvi Zeitlin, Lynn Blakeslee, Lewis Kaplan, Toby Appel, Peter Kamnitzer, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Michael Klotz is a dedicated teacher and serves as Senior Instructor and Artist-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami, where he teaches viola and chamber music. Additionally, he teaches a select number of highly gifted pre-college students. Klotz has recently presented acclaimed master classes at the New World Symphony, Cincinnati Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Michigan, Penn State University, University of Nevada – Las Vegas, Ithaca College, Texas Christian University, and West Virginia University. He is currently a member of the faculty of The Heifetz International Music Institute, an Artistic Advisor and faculty for the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival of Miami, and a viola coach at the New World Symphony. His former students currently attend and are graduates of prestigious conservatories, including the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Indiana University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music and are already achieving leading roles in the music world. Michael was recently featured in the “Mind Over Finger” podcast series, the November 2013 issue of the “Alumni Spotlight” in the Juilliard Journal and as the subject of Strad Magazine’s “Ask the Teacher” column in the November 2013 issue. Michael Klotz resides in Hallandale Beach, FL with his wife Kelly and sons Jacob and Natan, as well as two dachshunds named Noodle and Strudel, and a cat named Max.
CELLO
Damian Kremer
Cello
Cellist Damian Kremer, a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has performed throughout the world as a soloist and as a chamber and orchestral musician. Mr. Kremer studied cello at Michigan State University, Western Illinois University, and Boston University, and spent many summers at the Meadowmount Summer School of Music. His primary cello instructors include Owen Carman, Tanya Carey, and Leslie Parnas. He has served as principal cellist of several orchestras, including the Chautauqua Music Festival Orchestra and the Lansing Symphony, and for three years played with the New World Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, Portugal, where he was the cellist of the Fidelio String Quartet of Portugal. Mr. Kremer also served as cellist in the Honolulu and the Savannah Symphony Orchestras, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and is currently with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He also served for several years as adjunct music faculty at the College of Charleston. He now teaches cello privately at home, where he and his wife, CSO violinist Asako Kremer are raising their three children. Mr. Kremer and his wife comprise the Kremer Duo, which performs recitals frequently in Japan, where the Kremer family enjoys much of their summer vacation time.
Wendy Warner
Cello
Cellist Wendy Warner soared to international acclaim, winning the international Rostropovich Cello Competition top prize at age eighteen. Her career took off with concerts conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich and debuts in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Köln, Düsseldorf, Berlin and New York at Carnegie Hall. Strings magazine hailed her “youthful, surging playing, natural stage presence and almost frightening technique.” From a musical Chicago family, Warner studied with Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute of Music from which she graduated. Collaborators have included conductors Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López Cobos and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has appeared with leading U.S. orchestras and internationally—from Paris and London to Serbia and Russia. Recent season highlights include appearances with the Wichita, Columbus (Georgia), Wyoming and Alabama Symphonies and return engagements with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Peru) and the Xiamen Philharmonic (China). This season she will be featured with the Hartford and Santa Fe Symphony Orchestras and, joining violinist Vadim Gluzman in the Brahms Double Concerto, the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In 2020 she will return to the prestigious Piatigorsky International Cello Festival. Warner played the 2009 world premiere of a newly discovered Beethoven piano trio. With pianist Irina Nuzova she performed the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas on tour and by invitation at the U.S. Supreme Court. Other collaborators have included Anne Sophie Mutter, Gidon Kremer, the Fine Arts Quartet and Chicago Chamber Musicians. She has given recitals in Milan and Tokyo and is a frequent guest on WFMT in Chicago. Wendy Warner's Cedille CDs include Haydn & Myslivecek; Russian Music for Cello & Piano; Popper & Piatigorsky; The Beethoven Project Trio; Double Play with Rachel Barton Pine; and Eclipse. On other labels she has recorded Hindemith's chamber works; Barber's Cello Concerto; and compositions by Dalit Warshaw. A CD of Edgar Valcárcel’s Cello Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Peru) will be released soon. An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Warner holds the Leah D. Hamer Distinguished Faculty Chair at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University. She plays a 1772 Joseph Gagliano cello.
PIANO
%20Chris%20Tostevin-Hall.jpg)
TOM HICKS
PIANO
Tom Hicks has been praised for his ‘gorgeously creative playing’ that ‘transports the listener to another place and time’. As a recitalist and chamber musician, he performs internationally and has appeared as a concerto soloist on more than 60 occasions. He is a Yamaha Artist. His recordings for the Metier, Nimbus, and Divine Arts labels include works by Tchaikovsky, Liszt, John Ireland, Rebecca Clarke, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Camden Reeves, and Augusta Read Thomas. His recording of Liszt and Ireland was selected as American Records Guide’s Critics Choice of 2022 and his recording of Augusta Read Thomas was selected as BBC Music Magazine’s Recording of the Month. He has most recently recorded the complete nocturnes by Chopin for release in 2025. He is a gold medallist in numerous competitions and holds degrees and awards from The University of Manchester, The Royal Northern College of Music, Yale University, and Northwestern University. His teachers have included Mervyn Grand, Murray McLachlan, Christopher Elton, Boris Berman, and James Giles. Hicks is Assistant Professor of Piano, Director of Piano, and Artistic Director of the International Piano Series at the College of Charleston in the U.S.A. For more information, please visit www.tomhickspianist.com or follow @tomhickspianist on instagram.
Conducting
Christopher Selby
Conductor
Dr. Christopher Selby is the author of Habits of a Successful Orchestra Director, and co-author of the Habits of a Successful String Musician series, a collection of string method books for middle and upper level orchestras published by GIA. He is an active clinician and conductor, and he has presented sessions at The Midwest Clinic, the 2016 NAfME National Conference, five American String Teacher Association (ASTA) National Conferences, and numerous state conferences across America. He currently directs the high school orchestras at the School of the Arts in Charleston, SC, where he led the school’s Symphony Orchestra to win the 2016 ASTA National Orchestra Festival’s top award of Grand Champion in the competitive public school division. Dr. Selby earned his music education degree from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, and a Masters and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. Before taking his current job at the Charleston School of the Arts, Dr. Selby taught orchestra in traditional elementary, middle and high schools for eighteen years. He was the Orchestra Coordinator in Richland School District Two from 2001 to 2012, where he taught high school and supervised the district’s orchestra curriculum and instruction. Dr. Selby guest conducts at Regional and All-State Orchestras, and he currently serves on the Council for Orchestral Education in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). From 2012-2014, he was the Chair of the ASTA Committee on School Orchestras and Strings. Dr. Selby was the President of the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA) from 2011-2013, and he is currently serving a second term as the President of the state’s Orchestra Division. He was named the SC ASTA Orchestra Teacher of the Year in 2009, and has written articles for NAfME and in ASTA’s American String Teacher. Dr. Selby will be at CCMI to teach master classes on July 23–24.