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Guest Faculty
The Cypress String Quartet based in San Francisco, is the quartet-in-residence at San José State University. Members Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, violins; Ethan Filner, viola; and Jennifer Kloetzel, cello, have been highly acclaimed at major concert venues around the world since forming the ensemble in 1996. Widely celebrated for their passionate dedication to chamber music and for the exuberance and power of their performances, the Cypress Quartet is as passionate about teaching as performing. They have reached an estimated 100,000 students nationwide through educational activities, including Native Americans in rural New Mexico and inner-city students in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago. In September 2004 the Cypress was selected by the faculty of the Juilliard School to receive the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach in recognition of their national leadership in music education. In addition, the Cypress String Quartet has built a respected body of new music, commissioning and premiering over 25 works from many of America’s leading composers. Four such commissions are listed on Chamber Music America’s list of “101 Great American Ensemble Works.”
www.cypressquartet.com
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Faculty
Michael T. Jamanis, Artistic Director, received a Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, a Master of Music from Yale University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rutgers University. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, and has worked with such artists as Leonard Bernstein, Arnold Steinhardt and Joseph Fuchs. He is chair of the string department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music and violinist of the Academy’s resident chamber ensemble, the Newstead Trio. He is a visiting professor at China Northwest University for Nationalities and also a member of the faculty at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster Pennsylvania.
Allan Schiller, violinist, studied at the Paris Conservatory and received a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School of Music where he studied under Oscar Shumsky. Mr. Schiller was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and won first prize in a competition at the Brussels Conservatory. Subsequently he has been on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Manhattan School and Lehman College and was a member of the New York Philharmonic from 1964 until 1999. He was formerly a member of the Gramercy Quartet and the Alacorde Trio.
Sara Male, cellist, is a founding member of the highly acclaimed Newstead Trio, the ensemble-in-residence at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music. She received an Associate of the Arts in Music from the Victoria Conservatory where she was presented the Principal Emeritus Award. Her major teachers include Bernard Greenhouse, Zara Nelsova and Timothy Eddy. Ms. Male holds a Bachelor of Music with high honors from Rutgers University, and a Master of Music from Mannes College. She is a former member of the Saskatoon Symphony and highly sought after as a chamber music recitalist.
Ning Mu, viola, has received numerous awards for excellence in interpretation in China and has performed in chamber music recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Bruno Walter Auditorium and Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Artistic Diploma from the St. Louis Conservatory, and his Master of Music from Rutgers University. Additionally, Mr. Mu is a member of the Beijing Piano Quartet and the Beijing String Quartet. He serves a principal violist of the Saginaw Symphony Orchestra and is founder and director of the International Music Festival and School in Bogotà, Columbia. He is currently on the string faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music.
Matthew Herren, cello, is a graduate of the Juilliard School and has been on the faculty of the International Institute for Young Musicians at the University of Kansas and has also previously served on the Vivace! faculty. He has appeared as a chamber musician, recitalist and concerto soloist throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has received many awards, notably first prize in the Vienna Modern Masters’ International Performers’ Award Competition and his performances have frequently been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today. He has recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Atlantic, Artek, Helicon, and London Decca labels.
Xun Pan is chair of the piano department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and his Master of Music from Syracuse University, as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University. He has presented highly acclaimed solo performances worldwide from Carnegie Hall to the Beijing Concert Hall. A noted chamber musician, he is the pianist of the Newstead Trio, the resident ensemble at the Academy and frequently serves as a judge at international piano competitions.
Hedi Salanki is Professor of Music at the University of West Florida where she teaches piano performance, harpsichord performance, keyboard interpretation, ear training, musical structure and style, counterpoint and chamber music. She earned a Doctorate in Harpsichord Performance from the Juilliard School, as well as degrees and diplomas in piano performance from the Liszt Academy, the Bartok Conservatory, and Rutgers University.
Ivo Kaltchev, piano, has been a prizewinner of international piano competitions and is a Bosendörfer Artist. He has performed in musical centers throughout the world, including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Beijing China Conservatory of Music and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall. He holds degrees and diplomas from Yale and Rutgers Universities, the Sofia Academy of Music (Bulgaria) and the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Music in Germany. He is Associate Professor of piano and chair of the piano division at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Simon Mauer, violin, completed music studies at the Conservatory of Biel-Bienne in Switzerland and continued his studies in the United States with Geoffrey Michaels at Swarthmore College and Joyce Robbins at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Mr. Maurer is an accomplished musician, performing orchestral, chamber, operatic and solo repertoires throughout the eastern United States and Switzerland. He is currently concertmaster of the Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra and assistant concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Sinfonia. He is currently conductor of the Pennsylvania Academy of Music’s Sinfonia Orchestra.
The Newstead Trio is one of the most distinguished piano trios in North America. The Newstead Trio's performances are personified by warmth, energy and depth of expression. After twelve years together, they have performed for audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, Hungary, Singapore and China, where they gave their concerto debut performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Shenzen Symphony Orchestra. The Newstead Trio's innovative and uniquely accessible concert programming combines traditional piano trio literature with more contemporary works. These presentations are characterized by a dramatic variety that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences worldwide. They have also commissioned numerous works by widely respected composers and have included a world premier performance on each of their three CD's. Highlights of the season include a four-city tour in China, a week long residency at Dartmouth College and numerous performances in the United States, including California, Florida and Texas. The Newstead Trio will also be recording a CD devoted to Mozart piano trios in honor of his 250th “birthday.”
www.newsteadtrio.com -
