Festival 2010 bios

2010 Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival Musicians
	Peter Rejto, Artistic Director and Cello, has performed throughout the US and abroad in hundreds of performances as soloist and with the Los Angeles Piano Quartet of which he is a founding member. Mr. Rejto has appeared at the summer festivals of Aspen, La Jolla, Round Top, Carmel Bach, Marlboro, Fairbanks, Sitka, Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, and BRAVO! Colorado. His many honors include winning the Young Concert Artists International competition and the Debut Award of the Young Musicians Foundation, Los Angeles. He has recorded for Sony Classical, Silva Classics, Summit, Music Masters, and Pickwick.
	Bernadene Blaha, Piano, has performed recitals throughout Europe and the Americas and has appeared as soloist with numerous major orchestras. She has received top prizes in several international competitions, resulting in two highly acclaimed recital appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. A highly regarded chamber musician, Ms. Blaha has appeared at many festivals, including those in Newport, La Jolla, Banff, and Round Top, among others, and collaborates with major ensembles. Her first solo recording of selected works of Chopin was praised by Piano & Keyboard as having “integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.” Ms. Blaha is a graduate of the Juilliard School and is currently on the Keyboard Faculty of the University of Southern California.
	Roger Chase, Viola was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore. He also worked with the legendary Lionel Tertis. Mr. Chase made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979. He has performed around the world and has been a member of many ensembles, including the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of London, and the London Chamber Orchestra. Currently teaching at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Chicago’s Roosevelt University, he has also taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Guildhall School of Music in London, and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Mr. Chase has recorded for EMI, CDR, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin, and Floating Earth labels.
	Robert Davidovici, Violin is acclaimed internationally as a virtuoso who combines spectacular technique, wide-ranging repertoire, and magnificent artistry with a compelling stage presence. The Boston Globe has said that “His technique is of the ‘wow’ variety; his tone as huge as he cares to make it.” Mr. Davidovici is the recipient of several distinguished First Prize honors, including the Naumburg Competition and the Carnegie Hall International American Music Violin Competition. Born in Rumania, he studied with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School, where upon graduating he became a teaching assistant to the Juilliard String Quartet. In addition to his international solo, concerto, recital, and chamber music performances, Mr. Davidovici is Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at Florida International University in Miami. Additionally, he is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Ft. Worth. He has recorded as violin soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra for Cala Records. Other recordings are available from New World Records, Centaur, Clavier, and Meistermusic.
	Steven Doane, Cello has earned an international reputation both as performer and teacher. Formerly principal cellist of the Milwaukee Symphony and Rochester Philharmonic, and a member of the Naumburg Award winning New Arts Trio during the 1980s, Mr. Doane has since built a performance career as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He holds the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Eastman School, where he has been on the cello faculty since 1981, and the Piatigorsky Commendation for teaching excellence from the New England Conservatory. Mr. Doane was an Associate in Cello at the Royal College of Music in London from 1995–99, and following a series of Master Classes at the Royal Academy in London was named Visiting Professor by that institution. His recordings have been lauded by the international music press and are found on the Bridge, Pantheon, Daedmon, Gasparo, and Sony labels. Most recently he has become the cellist of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet.
	Kateřina Englichová - Harp, a resident of Prague, first came to the US as a Fulbright Scholarship winner in 1989 to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Since 1993 she has performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras of Philadelphia, Prague, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and many others. She also appears with some of the world’s finest chamber musicians, including Josef Suk, Cynthia Phelps, Eugenia Zukerman, Jan Machat, the Prazak String Quartet, and the Martinu Quartet. In 2000 she was awarded the Chamber Music Association Prize of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for her many contributions as performer and teacher. She has been finalist for the Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, a prize winner in the Elisabeth Herbert Harp Competition in Trenton, and the top winner of a Pro Musicis International Award in New York. She has recorded for various record labels, including Supraphon, New World, and Harmonia Mundi.
	Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Piano, performs frequently in recital and as soloist with orchestras. A frequent guest at summer festivals, Mr. Fitz-Gerald is also on the faculties of Banff, Round Top, and the International Chamber Music Institute at Melbourne, Australia. He has collaborated with international artists such as Richard Stolzman, Camilla Wicks, and the Bartok, St.Petersburg, and St. Lawrence String Quartets. Mr. Fitz-Gerald has won several prestigious competitions, including the CBC National Radio Auditions and the Young Artists’ National Piano Competition. The Blaha/Fitz-Gerald Duo performs extensively throughout Canada under the auspices of the Piano Six and Cross Country Classics programs. Mr. Fitz-Gerald also enjoys an international reputation as a teacher, presenting Master Classes, lectures, and symposiums throughout the world. He is Professor of Piano at the University of Southern California, with the distinction of having students who are prize winners in many major international piano and chamber music competitions.
	Axel Strauss, Violin, is the first German musician to win the Naumburg Violin Award (1998). In that same year Mr. Strauss made his American debut at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and his New York City debut at Alice Tully Hall, establishing a reputation for virtuosity and musical sensitivity. The Salt Lake Tribune writes, “Strauss quickly established that he is a virtuoso to be reckoned with....His interpretive prowess was delightful.” Mr. Strauss has appeared in recitals and as soloist nationally and internationally, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Budapest, Moscow, Berlin, and Shanghai, among others. He has collaborated with conductors such as Maxim Shostakovitch, Rico Saccani, Joseph Silverstein, and Alasdair Neale. Festival appearances in the US and abroad include performances with chamber music partners Menahem Pressler, Kim Kashkashian, Joel Krosnick, Robert Mann, and Bernhard Greenhouse. Mr. Strauss studied at the Music Academies of Lübeck and Rostock with Petru Munteanu. Prior to moving to the US he won a series of European musical competitions, including top prizes in the Bach, Wieniawski and Kocian competitions. In 1996 he began working with the late Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and became her teaching assistant in 1998. He maintains a busy performance schedule and serves as Professor of Violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Recordings by Axel Strauss are found on the BPOlive, Naxos, Organum, and Oehms Classics labels. He performs on an 1845 violin by J. F. Pressenda of Turin on extended loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society in Chicago.
The Miró String Quartet is considered one of America’s most dynamic chamber groups, having risen to the top of the international chamber music scene in only a decade, captivating audiences and critics around the world with its youthful intensity and mature interpretations. Founded in 1995 at the Oberlin Conservatory and named for the Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, the ensemble attained nearly immediate success, winning First Prize at the 50th annual Coleman Chamber Music Competition (1996) and taking both the First and Grand Prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition that same year. Other awards include First Prize at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 2000. In 2005, the Quartet was the first ensemble to be awarded both the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Cleveland Quartet Award. The quartet has performed both classical and contemporary repertoire worldwide, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic’s Kammermusiksaal, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and at the Dresden Music Festival, among others. Radio broadcasts include NPR’s Performance Today and Saint Paul Sunday and radio networks shows from Europe, Canada, and Israel. The Quartet has appeared on PBS, NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s World News Tonight, and various programs of the CBC. The Miró Quartet is currently the Faculty String Quartet-in- Residence at the University of Texas at Austin. Members include: Daniel Ching, Violin; Sandy Yamamoto, Violin; John Largess, Viola; and Joshua Gindele, Cello. Through the initiative of Mr. Gindele, the group recently launched a new website (www.ClassicalLounge.com), the first online networking community for classical music lovers. He writes: “Through our teaching and touring, we meet people all over the world who share our love of music. This site will give us all a place to gather as a global community of classical music lovers.” The website offers performance downloads, touring itinerary, and inside information from the road. The group hopes other musicians will choose to use their site as a way to share recordings and to keep fans up-to-date on artists’ activities. The Miró Quartet also serves on the Advisory Council of Community MusicWorks of Providence, an organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Rhode Island’s inner-city youths and families through classical music. The ensemble recently released the first of a planned series of recordings of Beethoven Quartets, the six works of Opus 18. They intend to perform and record the remaining 10 quartets over the course of several years, when the players are approximately the same age as Beethoven when he wrote them.
	Christopheren Nomura, Baritone, “has a wonderfully expressive face and a first-class baritone voice — warm, robust and clear,” says the The Boston Globe. He has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and the Naumburg. Mr. Nomura has emerged at the forefront of a new generation of American singers performing internationally on operatic, concert, and recital stages. These include major Mozart, Puccini, and Rossini operas; repertoire with the Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and the Boston Pops; and performances under noted conductors such as Bernstein, Ozawa, Hogwood, and Pearlman, among others. A Bach specialist, Mr. Nomura has performed at leading American chamber music festivals. These have led to collaborations with such ensembles as the Borromeo and St. Lawrence String Quartets and pianists Martin Katz, Charles Wadsworth, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. His recordings can be found on the Sony, Dorian, Teldec, London, Denon, TDK, and Telarc labels. He holds a Masters Degree and Artists Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music.
	James Reel, commentator, is a freelance journalist and critic. He contributes regularly to Fanfare, Strings, All Music Guide and the Tucson Weekly. His work has also appeared in such publications as Salon.com and the National Catholic Reporter. He has previously toiled as editor of the Tucson Weekly, arts editor of the Arizona Daily Star and music director of KUAT Radio. He has written program notes for Arthur Weisberg's Ensemble 21 and liner notes for New World Records, Koch International Classics and Musical Heritage Society. His books include The Timid Soul's Guide to Classical Music.
	Carol Wincenc, Flute, is one of the most respected and acclaimed flutists performing today. A First Prize winner of the Naumburg Solo Flute Competition, she appears worldwide with orchestras, in recitals and concertos, and with her trio Les Amies. Equally sought after as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has appeared at major festivals and collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, and Cleveland String Quartets. She created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals with performances in St. Paul, New York and San Francisco. Currently Professor of Flute at both the Juilliard School of Music and Stony Brook University, Ms. Wincenc received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Brevard Music Center. A prolific recording artist, she has notable performances on the Music Masters, Naxos, and Telarc labels.
	Patrick Zimmerli, Composer, has produced an extensive oeuvre of both jazz and classical compositions. Since 2005 Mr. Zimmerli has presented the concert series Emergence, which is dedicated to the creation and performance of new work. Featuring his nine-piece ensemble — in which he plays saxophone — and special guests from the classical, jazz, and electronic music communities, the series has presented more than 40 premieres. His work has been performed at MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum, on NPR’s Fresh Sounds, at the Jazz Composers’ Collective, and at major chamber music festivals throughout the US. From 2002–05 Mr. Zimmerli was Composer in Residence with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. Awards include First Prize in the first annual BMI/Thelonious Monk Institute Composers’ Competition. His music has been recorded on the Arabesque, Blue Note, Songlines, Koch, Antilles, Jazz City, and Naive labels, and he has written extensively for radio, TV, and film. Mr. Zimmerli teaches at Columbia University, where he earned degrees leading to a DMA in Music Composition.