Erin Keefe, Violin

Winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, violinist Erin Keefe is currently a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two program. A top prize winner of several International Competitions, she recently took the Grand Prizes in the Schadt Competition and the Corpus Christi International String Competition, and was the Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai, and Gyeongnam International Violin Competitions. Ms. Keefe has performed as soloist with orchestras in Korea, Japan, the United States and throughout Europe and has made recordings for the Naxos and Deutsche Gramophone labels. She has appeared at the Marlboro, OK Mozart, Music@Menlo, Seattle and Bridgehampton chamber music festivals and has collaborated with artists such as Leon Fleisher, The Emerson Quartet, Edgar Meyer, Richard Goode, Paul Neubauer, David Soyer and Gary Graffman. Ms. Keefe attended The Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School where she studied with Arnold Steinhardt, Ida Kavafian, Philip Setzer and Ronald Copes.

Stephen Rose, Violin

Stephen Rose is Principal Second Violin of the Cleveland Orchestra. He joined Cleveland in 1997 as section violinist after spending the previous four years as first violinist of the Everest Quartet. While Rose was with the Quartet, the ensemble won First Prize at the 1995 Banff International String Quartet Competition and gave highly acclaimed performances in important venues throughout Europe and North America. Rose is a member of the violin faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Encore School for Strings, and Kent/Blossom Music. In 2005, he was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In addition to participating in the annual Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Rose frequently appears at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Music at Gretna, and Festival der Zukunft in Switzerland. Rose received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1992 from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music Degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers at these institutions included William Preucil, David Cerone and David Updegraff. While at Eastman, Rose was named winner of the 1993 Starling Foundation Competition for Violinists.

Curt Thompson, Violin

Founder and Director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Curt Thompson serves as Associate Professor of Violin at TCU. Festival performances have been included in the ‘Top 10’ musical events of the year by both the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Thompson has given recitals throughout Europe and Latin America, and has been a featured artist in festivals in Brazil, Mexico, and Spain. As a concerto soloist, Thompson has appeared with the San Angelo Symphony Orchestra, Texas Chamber Orchestra, Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra (Colombia), and will appear with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Peru. He has served as Concertmaster of the Fort Worth Symphony (by special invitation) and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy. In 2002, he maintained a violin studio at the Indiana University School of Music and has given master classes at the Bulgarian State Academy of Music (Sofia) and Royal Academy of Music, London. His debut CD of the violin sonatas of Charles Ives was released on the Naxos label in 2003. Thompson holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University. His teachers at Rice University included Nelli Shkolnikova and Sergiu Luca.

Akiko Tarumoto, Violin

Akiko Tarumoto has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Prior  to this, she was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2000 to 2004.   Ms. Tarumoto received her BA in English Literature from Harvard College in 1998 and her Master of Music from The Julliard School in 2000. Her teachers have included Dorothy DeLay and Glenn Dicterow. She has attended music festivals in Aspen, Taos and Spoleto. While in Los Angeles, she was on the faculty at La Sierra University, and later at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where she was a member of the string quartet in residence. She was featured as soloist with the Philharmonic during both the winter season and at the Hollywood Bowl and was a frequent performer on the Philharmonic chamber music series. She has also been heard as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s Summergarden chamber music series in New York.

Isabel Trautwein, Violin

Isabel Trautwein joined the first violin section of the Cleveland Orchestra in 2002. She previously served as Principal Second Violin and Resident Musician of the St. Louis Symphony, Concertmaster of the New World Symphony, and member of the Houston Symphony. She was also a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Pacifica Quartet, based at the University of Chicago. As a soloist, Trautwein has appeared with the orchestras of the Musikhochschule Lubeck, Cleveland Institute of Music and St. Louis Symphony. She also teaches annually in the Innsbrook Festival in Missouri. Trautwein was born in Alabama but moved to her family's native Germany at the age of 12 where she stayed until completion of her Bachelor's degree at the Musikhochschule Luebeck. Highlights of those years include extensive touring with Claudio Abbado's EC Youth Orchestra and being a founding member of the Artemis quartet. Trautwein returned to the United States to pursue graduate studies with Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute. Festival appearances have included Taos, Aspen and the Grand Tetons.

Che-Yen Chen began studying viola at the age of six and is a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. Che-Yen, also known as Brian, came to the United States and studied at The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. He was a member of the award-winning Avalon String Quartet, and he held a faculty position at Indiana University-South Bend, where he taught viola and chamber music. Chen holds the principal viola position of the San Diego Symphony. He captured the first prize of the 2003 William Primrose Viola Competition and President Prize of the 2003 Lionel Tertis Viola Competition.    He will make his New York concerto debut with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra as the winner of NASO Concerto Competition. Chen has performed throughout the United States and abroad in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jordon Hall, Library of Congress, Kimmel Center, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall and Snape Malting Concert Hall.

Kirsten Docter is a member of the Naumburg Chamber Music award-winning Cavani String Quartet. She was the first prize winner of the 1991 Primrose International and 1992 American String Teachers Association Viola Competitions. As a member of the Cavani Quartet, Ms. Docter performs regularly in major series and festivals throughout North America and Europe. Appearances include the Carnegie Hall Centennial Series in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Ambassador Series in Los Angeles and Festival de L’Epau in France. The Quartet records for the Azica Records label. Docter has collaborated with such musicians as Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Donald Weilerstein, Franklin Cohen, Warren Jones and Stephanie Blythe. A faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, she has also taught at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Docter has performed and taught at numerous summer festivals including Interlochen Arts Camp, Madeline Island Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Yale Summer School of Music and Art at Norfolk, Britt Arts Training Program and Perlman Music Program. She currently serves on the faculty of the Encore School for Strings. Docter is a graduate of the Oberlin College Conservatory and The Curtis Institute of Music. Major teachers include Karen Tuttle, Jeffery Irvine and Lynne Ramsey. Docter resides in Cleveland, OH with husband Paul Cox and their two sons.

Jesús Castro-Balbi, Cello

Cellist Jesús Castro-Balbi performs as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. His performances have been broadcast nationally and internationally. Among other awards, Dr. Castro-Balbi is the winner of the First Prize at the first Carlos Prieto Latin American Cello Competition in Mexico, as well as the Aldo Parisot Award at Yale. Castro-Balbi is the cellist of Clavier Trio and the Lin/Castro-Balbi Duo ensemble that released Rapsodia Latina in 2007. The album of music inspired by Latin America includes seven world premiere recordings and is available at www.filarmonika.com. Castro-Balbi has given master classes and lectures at the Boston Conservatory, the Juilliard School, the Yale School of Music, and in Korea, Peru and Venezuela. He is a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon, France; Indiana University; Yale; and The Juilliard School. Dr. Castro-Balbi created and developed the Texas Cello Society, the TCU Cellofest, the TCU Cello Ensemble, the Faculty & Friends Chamber Music Series, and is the cello professor at TCU.

Paul Unger is Assistant Principal Bass of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and adjunct faculty member at Texas Christian University. He has appeared with the Honolulu, Fort Wayne and New World Symphonies and as a featured soloist with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet and Arlington Ballet. He is accomplished in a variety of musical styles, and these abilities have put him on stage with many nationally known jazz and popular artists. Unger is   a member of the California-based Astor Chamber Players and internationally acclaimed jazz group Flipside. His playing has been featured on 12 recordings. Says David Lewis of Cadence Magazine, “Not only is Unger a first rate rhythm player, but there is no question of his ability to extend his technique well beyond mainstream expectations.” In addition to his performing credentials, Unger wrote and directed “The Last Supper,” an award-winning film presented at the Tribeca Film Festival and other festivals worldwide. More recently he composed music  for feature films “Seventy-Eight” and “Deadroom.” Unger is an accomplished pedagogue and specialist in bass repertoire. He has extensive teaching experience as a private bass instructor and was co-instructor of the Bass Orchestral Repertoire class at the University of North Texas from 2002-2004.  His teaching portfolio includes classes and lectures presented at both the 2000 and 2004 Texas Bass Symposium and the 2007 ASTA National Conference.

Born in New York, Brant Taylor began cello studies at age eight. His varied career includes solo appearances and collaborations with leading musicians throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as orchestral, pedagogical, and popular music activities. After five years as cellist of the award-winning Everest String Quartet and one year with the Saint Louis Symphony, he was appointed by Daniel Barenboim to the Chicago Symphony in 1998.
Mr. Taylor has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the San Antonio Symphony, New World Symphony (under the batons of Michael Tilson-Thomas and Nicholas McGegan), Raleigh Symphony, Racine Symphony, Lafayette Symphony and Midland-Odessa Symphony. He also performs with the band  Pink Martini, and has appeared in this role on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien",  at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with major orchestras across North America. Taylor is a faculty member at the DePaul University School of Music and has led pedagogy, repertoire and audition  training classes at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, the University of Michigan and the New World Symphony. Taylor is a frequent guest at music festivals including the Festival der Zukunft in Ernen, Switzerland, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Arizona Musicfest (principal cello), the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Music Festival Santo Domingo, Michigan's Village Bach Festival and Music at Gretna. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University, where his primary teachers were Paul Katz and Janos Starker.

First Prize winner in the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 2000, Alessio Bax has already established himself as an accomplished performer throughout the world. He had previously won various international competitions including, at the age of 19, the First Prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. Festival appearances include London's International  Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals in England, the Ruhr Klavierfestival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and BeethovenFest in Germany. As a recitalist, Bax has been  seen regularly at the main music halls in Rome, Milan, Madrid, Paris, London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, New York, Washington and Mexico City. He has performed with more than 70 orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, the Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston Symphony, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Yomiuri Symphony, Tenerife Symphony, Spanish Radio Television, Basque Symphony, Rome Symphony and Hungarian Symphony. He has worked with     a number of esteemed conductors such as Marin Alsop, Petr Altrichter, Sergiu Commissiona, Alexander Dimitriev, Vernon Handley, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Owain Arwel Hughes, Kenichiro Kobayashi, Rossen Milanov, Jonathan Nott, Dimitry Sitkovetsky and Sir Simon Rattle. As an active chamber musician, he  has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis and Nobuko Imai, among others. Bax has recorded "Baroque Reflections" for Warner Classics, which    won an Editor Choice's award from Gramophone. He also participated in the "Barenboim on Beethoven" documentary that has been released on EMI as a DVD set and he recorded the complete works of Ligeti for two pianos and piano  four hands as part of Lucille Chung's Ligeti project.

Since winning the coveted Gold Medal at the Seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, José Feghali has appeared in more than 500 performances worldwide. These include concerts with such renowned orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic, and symphony orchestras of Chicago, Saint Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Baltimore and the National Symphony. Feghali has performed with such eminent conductors as Kurt Masur, Neeme Järvi, James DePriest, Yuri Temirkanov, Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Sanderling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph Eschenbach, Eduardo Mata, Sergiu Comissiona, Hans Graf, David Zinman, Hans Vonk and others. Equally active as a recitalist, Feghali has appeared on such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Ambassador Auditorium and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. In addition, Feghali regularly collaborates in chamber music performances, including recitals with renowned flutist James Galway, cellist Truls Mørk, and violinist Olivier Charlier, with whom he performed at the Palace of Versailles in 1999. Feghali’s recordings include a CD of music inspired by dance on the Koss Classics label. He has also recorded Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and an all-Chopin solo recital album for future release. Feghali is Artist-in-Residence at TCU and associate director of the Mimir Chamber Music Festival.

Born in Curaçao, Harold Martina has collaborated with such celebrated performers as violinists Eugene Fodor, Daniel Heifetz, Henryk Szering, Erick Friedman and Ruggiero Ricci; cellists Pierre Fournier, André Navarra, Leonard Rose, Adolfo Odnoposoff and Janos Starker; sopranos Maria Stader and Sheila Armstrong; flautist Gary Schocker; and bandoneonist Daniel Binelli. He has performed with extraordinary acclaim in Europe, the United States, Central and South America, Israel and Japan and has made numerous recordings in Europe and the USA. Martina toured with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Zinman, and has performed as soloist in the United States with the Dallas Symphony, State Symphony Orchestra of New Jersey, Boston Symphony Players, East Texas State Orchestra, Knox Galesburg Symphony, Battle Creek Symphony and others. He completed his advanced studies with Professor Richard Hauser at the Vienna Academy of Music and became the first student to graduate Summa Cum Laude by unanimous vote from the Academy. In 1975, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands appointed him as a Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassaufor his outstanding contribution to music. In 2001, the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, named its recital hall Harold Martina Auditorium. Martina is a Visiting Artist at the TCU School of Music.

Grammy-nominated pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. In the latter capacity he has presented more than 30 different concerti with dozens of orchestras. Venues include Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Paris’ Theatre des Champs-Elysees, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, and most of the major concert halls of Japan. In addition he has appeared at Lucerne Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Wolf Trap, SummerFest La Jolla, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger in Norway, International Chamber Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad in Switzerland, and Ravinia. He has played on radio broadcasts worldwide and is often heard on syndicated programs such as NPR’s Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday, and as featured guest composer/performer on A Prairie Home Companion. A much sought-after collaborative artist, Novacek has played with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Emmanuel Pahud, Truls Mork, and Leila Josefowicz. He has given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, George Rochberg, John Williams, John Harbison, and John Zorn. He studied piano with Peter Serkin, Bruce Sutherland and Jakob Gimpel. Novacek’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Pacific Symphony, The 5 Browns, Concertante, and the Three Tenors. He has recorded more than 30 CDs for Philips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Warner Classics, Sony/BMG, Koch International, Universal Classics, Ambassador, Pony Canyon, Four Winds, Arkay, Virtuoso and EMI Classics.