American cellist Julie Albers is recognized for her superlative artistry, her charismatic and radiant performing style, and her intense musicianship. She was born into a musical family in Longmont, Colorado and began violin studies at the age of two with her mother, switching to cello at age four. Albers was awarded the Grand Prize at the XIII International Competition for Young Musicians in Douai, France. Julie made her major orchestral debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1998, and thereafter has performed in recitals and with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. In 2014, she was named principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She regularly participates in chamber music festivals around the world, and is active with the Albers String Trio and the Cortona Trio. She is an Assistant Professor at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Julie performs on a N.F. Vuillaume cello made in 1872.

Mr. Beaver was first violin of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet from June 2002 until its final concert in July 2013. As such, he appeared to critical and public acclaim on the major stages of the world, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Sydney Opera House.
As a member of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Beaver was privileged to perform on the 1727 Stradivarius violin from the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments, on generous loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation. Recordings of the Tokyo String Quartet during his tenure notably include the complete Beethoven quartets on the Harmonia Mundi label. Mr. Beaver is proud to be a founding member of the Montrose Trio with pianist Jon Kimura Parker and cellist Clive Greensmith. Mr. Beaver plays a 1789 Nicola Bergonzi violin.

Concert tours and major performances have taken place throughout North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia and are frequently recorded for national and international radio and television networks. His numerous CD recordings on various labels may be found in all major music stores, music streaming services and music sales websites.

In constant demand as a chamber musician, he has collaborated extensively with internationally renowned performers and leading artist teachers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He also regularly performs duo piano recitals with his wife, Bernadene Blaha, appearing at prestigious festivals and concert venues throughout the world.

Fitz-Gerald is Professor of Keyboard Studies and Director of Keyboard Collaborative Arts at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles and a regular guest teacher at many internationally acclaimed music festivals. A winner of several major competitions, grants, scholarships, and awards, he enjoys an international reputation as teacher presenting master classes and lecture-symposiums throughout the world. His students are prize-winners in major international piano and chamber music competitions and his former students can be found performing, recording and teaching at the finest conservatories, universities and music institutions throughout the world.

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra. As chamber musician she has performed with the Boston Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Charlottesville, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Music Festivals.

Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two GRAMMY-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet, of Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra , and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet. Her most recent releases are with pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records: the first devoted to the three sonatas of Robert Schumann; the second, American Duos, an exploration of recent additions to the violin and piano repertoire by contemporary American composers Barbara White, Steven Mackey, Elena Ruehr, Dan Coleman, and Stephen Hartke. She also recorded three widely praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; the violin music of Ravel and Stravinsky; and 20th-century works for solo violin. Other recordings include a disc of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk.

Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins In Consortium. She currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.

Acclaimed international pianist, Bernadette Harvey, was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2000 by then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, for her contribution to Australian Music. Bernadette has won many accolades since her first medal in a Sydney Eisteddfod at the age of two and a half, including the ABC ‘Young Performer of the Year’ in 1987. She appeared with the Tokyo Quartet and the Shanghai Quartet in the premiere of Carl Vine’s Piano Quintet, Fantasia in 2013. She and the Shanghai Quartet later presented the Australian premiere of the Bright Sheng Piano Quintet, Dance Capriccio. Bernadette is renowned for championing new solo piano works, many of which are recorded on the Tall Poppies label. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is Artistic Co-Director of the Festival alongside Peter Rejto.

Violist Milena Pájaro-van de Stadt has been praised for her “exceptionally rich, deep tone” (Washington Classical Review) and her “silky tone and beautiful, supple lines” (The Strad). She was the founding violist of the multi-Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet from 2008 to 2022, during which time the ensemble swept the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, won the Gold Medal at the 2010 Fischoff Competition, and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Cleveland Quartet Award. A first-prize winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and a laureate of the Sphinx and Tokyo International Viola competitions, she has appeared as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic and the Jacksonville Symphony and made an acclaimed Wigmore Hall recital debut in 2011. She performs with the piano quartet Espressivo! alongside Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and Anna Polonsky, and is a regular guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, she has taught at Curtis and Northwestern University and has joined the University of Michigan as Associate Professor of Viola as of fall 2026.

Baritone Randall Scarlata is admired for a repertoire that spans five centuries and sixteen languages. Praised by The New York Times as “an intelligent and communicative singer,” he has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco symphonies, and at festivals including Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Vienna, and Salzburg. He is a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Art Song Society, and a leading interpreter of new music, having premiered works by George Crumb, Paul Moravec, Richard Danielpour, and Ned Rorem, among many others. His discography includes some 25 recordings; his Schubert Winterreise with pianist Gilbert Kalish earned a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Vocal Solo. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School and a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, he won first prizes at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the Das Schubert Lied competition. Mr. Scarlata teaches at the Peabody Conservatory and holds an Endowed Berkshire Master Teacher Chair at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Oboist James Austin Smith “proves that an oboist can have an adventurous solo career” (The New Yorker). He is co-principal oboe of the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, an artist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and a regular performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he was a member of the Bowers Program. As founder and artistic director of Tertulia Chamber Music, he curates intimate evenings of music, food, and drink in New York, San Francisco, and beyond. Mr. Smith is professor of oboe and chamber music at Stony Brook University and has taught at the Manhattan School of Music and London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He holds degrees in music and political science from Northwestern University and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, was a Fulbright scholar in Leipzig, and is an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. His principal teachers were Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli, and Ray Still. He makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut in April 2027.

Co-Artistic director Peter Rejto is committed to presenting the finest chamber music, both well-loved works and new, unfamiliar ones, performed by some of the world’s finest musicians. Highlights of his international career as a cellist include the world premiere of Gerard Schurmann’s Gardens of Exile with the Bournemouth Symphony broadcast live over the BBC, and the recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Cello Concerto in Hungary. Mr. Rejto is a founding member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and a former professor of the University of Arizona School of Music as well as professor emeritus at the Oberlin College Music Conservatory. He has directed the programming and selected the musicians for every Festival, beginning with the first in 1994.