Kate Dillingham, cellist enjoys an active career both in the United States and abroad. She has performed as soloist with The St. Petersburg Philharmonic, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra, The Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. At home in New York, she appears regularly with orchestras, opera companies, chamber music ensembles, premieres new works, and in Disney’s Broadway production of “The Lion King”.

Ms. Dillingham has recorded three solo CDs, which are commercially available through iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon.com. She made her New York debut in 2002 at Merkin Concert Hall, and since has appeared numerous times as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, and Symphony Space in New York, and has been presented twice by invitation at the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

Ms. Dillingham is currently Instructor of Cello at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. This past season, she toured the western United States with the Barbizon Chamber Orchestra; a newly formed ensemble, as principal cellist and contractor. The Barbizon received standing ovations and high praise for their inspired and exciting performances. Other activities include having served as Artistic Director of FEAST; a series that combines chamber music performances and gourmet food. She is the artistic coordinator of Connecticut Alliance for Music’s outreach program in Bridgeport, CT that brings high quality performances and coaching to youngsters. She is currently developing programming centered on Music and Architecture, Music and Medicine and Music and the Environment to be presented at Lehigh University.

Ms. Dillingham received both a Bachelor (summa cum laude) and a Master of Music from Rutgers University, where she studied with Bernard Greenhouse. She also studied with Maria Tchaikovskaya at the Moscow Conservatory. Ms. Dillingham and Mr. Greenhouse collaborated on an edition of the Sonatas for Violoncello and Keyboard BWV 1027-1029 by J.S. Bach, published by G. Schirmer Inc., which she presented in a combined concert and lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ms. Dillingham is highly sought after for her polished and sensitive playing. The press has deemed her “an excellent cellist; dignified, intelligent, and compelling. An adventurous, dedicated champion of contemporary music, she performed with admirable control, conviction, and authority.”

Scottish pianist Geoffrey Duce has performed throughout Europe, in Japan, Hong Kong and in the USA. He has appeared as soloist with the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie, with numerous British orchestras, including the Scottish Sinfonia and the Edinburgh Philharmonic, and with the New York Sinfonietta.

Geoffrey has given recitals in London's Wigmore Hall, New York's Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall. He won the Young Artists Award from Britain's National Federation of Music Societies, and was awarded the Prix de Piano at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. Also in demand as a chamber musician and accompanist, he has recorded for BBC Radio and Hong Kong Radio, and has performed in Berlin's Konzerthaus and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Geoffrey initially studied in Manchester, before receiving a DAAD scholarship to the Universität der Künste, Berlin. He has just completed his doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music, New York, where he currently teaches.

During this current concert season, Gilad Harel gave the world premiere of Jonathan Kerern's concerto for clarinet, piano, narrator and ensemble, at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

Featured by the Manhattan Sinfonietta, Mr. Harel played Donald Martino's Triple Concerto at Lincoln Center's Merkin Hall and at Harvard University. Gilad also gave the American premiere of Ofer Ben Amotz's opera "The Dybbuk" - a chamber opera with the clarinetist being one of the actual characters in the play.

Co-Artistic director of Fountain Chamber Music Society, New York, Gilad Harel is also the clarinetist of the Proteus and the Fountain Ensembles. He is performing with the Manhattan Sinfonietta, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Sexteto Roberto Rodriguez, Klezshop, and the Metropolitan Klezmer Orchestra.

Gilad Harel is a graduate of the Juilliard School, New York, the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, and the Israeli Conservatory of Music, Tel-Aviv.

As a member of the Knights, Adam recorded two albums for Sony this October and will travel to Germany and Ireland.

Besides a recent stint as Principal oboe of the Richmond Symphony, Adam has also recently performed with the New Jersey Symphony and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Based in Amherst, Massachusetts, COLLEEN JENNINGS has been performing and teaching around the globe for many years. As a member of the Kammerorchester Basel in Switzerland and a resident there for 4 years, she toured extensively throughout Western Europe. She continues her membership with the ensemble today making periodic appearances.

Also while in Switzerland, she co-founded the chamber ensemble Ex Luce with soprano, Ana Arnaz. The ensemble seeks to bridge early, contemporary and traditional music in its varied programs some of which include works written for the ensemble. Other performing highlights include a recent European tour with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra led by world renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, performing Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons and Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. Locally, Colleen performs as principal second violin with the Opera North Orchestra and as a section player with the Springfield Symphony.

She also teaches private violin lessons from her home and at the Williston Academy in Easthampton. In addition she offers a group Celtic Fiddle Class at the Northampton Community Music Center. Colleen received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters of Music degree from Rice University.
 

Ms. Koo has been a guest soloist with numerous orchestras in the United States, and has performed recitals in Europe and across North America. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Koo has collaborated with world-renowned musicians such as Peter Frankl, Yo Yo Ma, Colin Carr, and as well with members of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Peabody Trio, Emerson Quartet, Takacs Quartet and the symphony orchestras of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Ms. Koo has performed with the Hartford and New Haven Symphony Orchestras, and has served as concertmaster for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra.

A past participant of the Banff Centre Winter Residency, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Taos School of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Pacific Music Festival, Ms. Koo has served as a faculty member at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire, Vermont’s Chamber Music Intensive Program at Yellow Barn, the Opus 118 We Want Music! program in East Harlem, New York, Elm City ChamberFest, and the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut, in addition to maintaining an extensive private teaching studio. She is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at Stony Brook University under the guidance of Pamela Frank and Philip Setzer.

She has appeared on the Festival Chamber Music Series in Weill and Merkin Halls, and performed chamber music in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tenri Institute, Detroit’s Orchestra Hall, the J.P. Morgan Library, and many others. She has performed as a soloist with the Ensemble 212 Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa, and was a semi-finalist in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition. She has attended the IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses and Open Chamber Music, and the Taos, Aspen, Sarasota, and Fontainebleau (France) music festivals. Laura is currently assistant principal of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and has appeared numerous times in the New World Symphony.

She serves on the cello faculty of Opus 118 Harlem School of Music, through which she also teaches group cello lessons at New York PS 129. Laura received her masters degree in 2006 from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy.

A native of Maine, flutist Roberta Michel now lives in New York City and is an active performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral music. Michel recently won the Artists International Special Presentation Award and was presented in her debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall for which she was described in the New York Concert Review as a “solid craftsman” who “riveted with her performance, inspiring one to want a repeated hearing”. Michel has performed with groups throughout North America including the Portland String Quartet, SEM Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Greeley Philharmonic in venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Kennedy Center.

Dedicated to the advancement of new music and described for her “extreme adventurousness” (New York Concert Review), Michel has premiered numerous works. She is a founding member of The Cadillac Moon Ensemble, a quartet dedicated to commissioning and performing new works. The group was recently signed on the New Dynamic Records label and will record its debut CD in 2011. For more information, please see CadillacMoonEnsemble.com. Michel’s flute and piano duo, Duo RoMi, in addition to performing standard repertoire, is invested in performing new works and promoting composers of our day.

Michel holds a BM with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder, an MM from SUNY-Purchase College, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Her teachers include Robert Dick, Tara Helen O'Connor, and Alexa Still. Michel was a Bang on a Can Summer Institute fellow and a participant in the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance at Mannes College, as well as participating in festivals at Banff and Domaine Forget.
 

The Strad magazine has recently described him as "resourceful and full of fantasy", "very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone." He has won prizes at competitions such as ARD, Lionel Tertis and Aspen Lower Strings Concerto Competition and has performed at festivals such as Marlboro, Cascade Head and Grand Tetons.

As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Robert McDuffie, Norman Fischer and members of the Guarneri and Mendelssohn String Quartets.

As a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra member Mr. Rinker regularly appears on all of New York's concert stages, including Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, the 92nd Street Y, BAM, and Carnegie Hall. A member of several ensembles, Mr. Rinker performs regularly with the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, SONOS Chamber Orchestra, EOS Chamber Orchestra, SEM Ensemble, New York Pops, American Composer’s Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Stamford Symphony.

His summer festival credits include OK Mozart, Tanglewood, Spoleto, the Naumburg Bandshell concerts, the Kilkenny Arts Festival, and Caramoor. Mr. Rinker can be heard on labels Sony Classical, Telarc, and North/South, in addition to several studio recordings for television and film.
 

In 2006 Schenkman was voted “Best Classical Instrumentalist” by the readers of the Seattle Weekly. His CD of Haydn Piano Sonatas has been acclaimed for its “elegance, wit, and refinement” (American Record Guide), “imaginative, cleanly articulated form” (Seattle Times), and “astonishing sense of humor” (All Music Guide). Previously harpsichordist and artistic director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, he received the Erwin Bodky Award for "outstanding achievement" from the Cambridge Society for Early Music in 1999. He can be heard as a harpsichordist on dozens of solo and chamber music CDs.

Schenkman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received the Master of Music degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University School of Music. For more information: byronschenkman.com.

An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with other artists in concerts throughout the U.S. and in Europe and is Associate Piano Faculty at the Sarasota Music Festival and guest artist faculty at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire. Ms. Schneider has earned degrees from the University of Southern California where she studied with John Perry, the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany under Robert Levin, and Stony Brook University as a student of Gilbert Kalish.

As a Fulbright scholar, she studied for two years with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She currently lives in New York City where she teaches privately.

Following her growing interest in contemporary and twentieth century chamber music, she has founded the LINK ensemble, a mixed instrumental (Pierrot) ensemble, performing the growing body of repertoire written for this quintessential contemporary consort. The ensemble has generated growing interest from audiences and composers alike.

As a dedicated teacher in growing demand, she is a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music Pre College Division, the Lucy Moses School and the New York Youth Chamber Music Program. Ella is a Doctoral candidate at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.