Ralph Allen

Ralph Allen, violinist and violist, has a BA in Philosophy from Yale, and degrees in music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, SUNY Stony Brook and the Royal Conservatory in the Hague.  He studied with Dorothy Delay, Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, and Vera Beths, and has performed with opera, baroque, and contemporary ensembles throughout Europe, Israel, the Far East, and the US. He participated in numerous festivals such as Aspen, Tanglewood, The Bach Aria Festival, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), “Encounters” with Isaac Stern and friends in Jerusalem, Kfar Blum (Israel), and Prussia Cove (England).

He performed as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Yale Symphony, The Cleveland Institute of Music Chamber Orchestra, and the Stony Brook Orchestra. While living in Holland, Ralph played with contemporary music groups such as the Schoenberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Music Fabrik (Germany), and Ensemble Remix (Portugal). Recent performances include a tour with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and chamber music performances in New Hampshire, Vermont, Philadelphia, State College, PA, New Bedford, MA, and in Stamford, CT.

In the summers, Ralph teaches at Apple Hill in New Hampshire and the Elm City Music Festival in Connecticut. He teaches violin on Roosevelt Island and at Riverdale Country Day School, and freelances in NYC.

Song-A Cho

An ardent performer and Founder of the Transfiguration Ensemble, violinist Song-A Cho is a winner of the Guderyahn String Competition and a recipient of many scholarship awards including the Edward John Noble Foundation Award from the distinguished Juilliard School. She tours extensively in the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician.

Her live broadcast concerto appearances with the Metropolitan orchestra and the Lake Placid Symphonia has been hailed by the media as “...the next prodigy to watch…” Her performance engagements have taken her to many prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center Washington D.C, and the Staller Center for the Arts. She is also a highly sought out orchestral performer and has held Concertmistress positions at the Tanglewood Music Center, New York String Orchestra, Bach Aria Festival Orchestra, and the Juilliard Orchestra.

She has recently been appointed Concertmistress for the Peconic Chamber orchestra and a member of New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Song-A has worked with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Samuel Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Leon Fleicher, and Robert Spano. Her principal teachers include Joyce Robbins, Joel Smirnoff, Almita and Roland Vamos, and Lewis Kaplan. A dedicated educator, Song-A also serves on the faculty of the Stony Brook School and holds private teaching studio in Selden where she lives with her husband and two children.

Gilad Harel

A native of Israel, clarinetist Gilad Harel is an avid chamber music player, a new music promoter and an active klezmer/world music performer.

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.

Benjamin Hochman

Pianist Benjamin Hochman is achieving widespread acclaim for his performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Mr. Hochman has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, New Jersey Symphony, and National Arts Centre Orchestra under eminent conductors such as Jaime Laredo, Jun Märkl, Bramwell Tovey and Pinchas Zukerman.

This Summer, Benjamin Hochman appears at the Bard Music Festival's Prokofiev-themed season, and will perform Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival in August. During the 2008-2009 season, Mr. Hochman appears with the Daedalus Quartet at Atlanta's Spivey Hall, performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 with the Vancouver Symphony, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Overseas, recitals are scheduled for Barcelona, London and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Mr. Hochman has also been invited by two renowned chamber ensembles, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and the Tokyo String Quartet, to appear in their respective series' at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

Born in Jerusalem, Benjamin Hochman is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music where his principle teachers were Claude Frank and Richard Goode. His studies were supported by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Adam Hollander

Born in the Bronx, Oboist Adam Hollander currently resides in Washington Heights. A graduate of The Curtis Institute and Yale University, Adam enjoys the vast and varying life of a modern classical musician.

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.

Iris Jortner

Iris Jortner, cellist, is a native of Israel. She has performed in important venues in Israel, Europe, China, Australia, and the United States.

Iris has collaborated in chamber music performances with Yefim Bronfman, Michael Tree, Itamar Golan, Levon Chilingrian, the Orion Quartet, the Avalon Quartet, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players. Iris was a member of the Aviv Quartet from 1997-2002. She has recorded the Hoffmeister Quartets for Naxos, and music for oud, cello and piano by Middle Eastern and Western composers for Live Classics. Iris taught cello at the Island Arts Music School (founded by Robin Russell), and cello and chamber music at the University of Virginia.

In the summers, she is on the faculty of the the Apple Hill festival in New Hampshire. She performed in numerous festivals including Verbier, Banff, Tanglewood, Taos, Prussia Cove, Dubrovnick, Kfar Blum, and Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, “Encounters”, Rolandseck, and Schlern. Her teachers include Uri Vardi, Aldo Parisot, Bernard Greenehouse, Paul Katz, Timothy Eddy, and members of the Alban Berg Quartet.

Salley Koo

Salley Koo is a versatile violinist who maintains an active career performing solo and chamber music. Having received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1997 from Harvard-Radcliffe University, where she studied with Lynn Chang, Ms. Koo proceeded to earn both her Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from Yale University in the studio of Peter Oundjian, in addition to having worked with other renowned pedagogues such as Almita and Roland Vamos, David Taylor, Sylvie Koval, and Dorothy Kitchen.

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.

Laura Metcalf

Cellist Laura Metcalf is active in New York City and beyond as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. She is a member of the Sybarite Chamber Players (a string quintet dedicated to eclectic programming and active commissioning), the Tarab Cello Ensemble (a cello octet with whom she has performed in the US and in Mexico), and Ten O’Clock Classics (a collective of soloists devoted to performance and outreach).

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.

Milan Milisavljevic

Milan Milisavljevic is currently Assistant Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera and a former member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

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.

Tawnya Popoff

Canadian violist Tawnya Popoff enjoys a versatile career around North America. In addition to being principal violist with the Vancouver Opera, she is a founding member of the Athabasca String Trio, and performs regularly with VisionIntoArt, the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas.

She was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and has served on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, SUNY Buffalo, American Composers Orchestra and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. As a member of the Cassatt Quartet, she was vitally involved in commissioning, premiering and recording works from leading American composers.

Tawnya Popoff’s viola was played by Boris Kroyt of the Budapest Quartet, generously loaned to her by courtesy of his grandson.

Troy Rinker

An enthusiast of modern music, Troy Rinker has been a participant in hundreds of world premier performances and recordings by composers such as John Corigliano, Sebastian Currier, Charles Wuorinen, David Brynjar Franzson, Frances White, Roscoe Mitchell, Richard Toensing, Peteris Vasks, Mark O'Connor, Brian Ferneyhough, and Peter Kotik, to name a few.

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.

Byron Schenkman

Byron Schenkman is the pianist of the Mira Trio which was formed in 2007. He has been presented in solo recitals in the U.S., Canada, and Chile, and has appeared as guest pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, the Daedalus Quartet, the Northwest Sinfonietta, and Philharmonia Northwest.

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.

Jean Schneider

Jean Schneider began her piano studies at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia at age seven, and by the age of fifteen had performed three times as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In addition to other orchestral appearances, she has been heard in recital in the United States and Europe, as well as in numerous radio broadcasts.

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.

Ella Toovy

Israeli Cellist Ella Toovy has performed worldwide in solo recitals and chamber music concerts in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, as well as in her native country of Israel. Noted for “possessing capacity of cantabile to great finesse–so well balanced with sonority and expression” (Cuban Daily Newspaper) and “breathtaking” (New Music Connoisseur), Ms. Toovy is an active performer and a frequent collaborator currently residing in New York City.

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.

Amie Weiss

Amie Weiss has recently performed with The Knights Chamber Orchestra, Sufjan Stevens, Columbia Composers, Lyric Chamber Music Society of NY, and others. She has toured internationally as a soloist with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and given regional premieres in the USA and France with Ensemble 21 and in Ireland with the Knights. Amie is the co-founder of a chamber music festival in her hometown of State College, PA and a member of the Allsar Quartet which has been in residency at Manhattan's Museum of Biblical Art since 2005. She has given world or regional premieres of music by composers including Brian Ferneyhough, James Dillon, Jay Eckerdt, Alvin Lucier, Mark O'Connor, Stefano Scodanibbio, and Meredith Monk.

In an improvisational context, Amie has performed with the NY Soundpainting Orchestra, Information Night, Imaginary Folk, and Eunoia, in addition to studying North Indian classical music for many years with sitarist Hasu Patel. She has performed music of Asia and Eastern Europe with the Silk Road Ensemble (as a student of the 2004 Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop), Quartet T, Global Encounters, the Knights, and others. Amie graduated from Oberlin as a student of Milan Vitek.

Yonah Zur

An avid chamber musician, Yonah Zur has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York, and has performed at the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, and Tanglewood music festivals and throughout his native Israel. Mr. Zur is currently a fellow of the ACADEMY—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute, and in collaboration with the NYC Board of Education. He is a member of the String Orchestra of New York City and of New York Philomusica.

Chamber music collaborators have included Richard Goode, Gilbert Kalish, Samuel Rhodes, Marcy Rosen, David Soyer, and Arnold Steinhardt. Mr. Zur has appeared as soloist with chamber orchestras in New York, Los Angeles, Jerusalem and in Manchester, Vermont.

A strong advocate of new music, Mr. Zur has given numerous world premieres and US premieres, and he is a regular guest with the various new music ensembles of New York City.

Yonah Zur received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in May 2001, having studied with Robert Mann. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1999 from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance having studied with Avi Abramovich, while serving three years in the Israeli Army as a member of the unit for outstanding musicians.

Mr. Zur devotes much of his time to education in various ways: he teaches music at PS 175 in Queens through the ACADEMY fellowship, he serves on the violin faculty of the Thurnauer School of Music and is coordinator of chamber music there, and he regularly presents educational concerts with NY Philomusica and with SONYC. He also plays the viola, and pursues an interest in conducting. He was a regular recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation awards from 1995 through 2001.