Phoenix Quartet
Mary Ann Ramos, Stephanie Fong, Gabe Bolkosky, Alicia Doudna
Beginning in the fall of 2008, The Phoenix String Quartet has been in residence at the University of Michigan School of Music Theatre and Dance in Ann Arbor. The Phoenix String Quartet works and resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they perform and teach as the core members of the nonprofit arts organization The Phoenix Ensemble. The quartet serves on the faculty of PhoenixPhest!, their annual chamber music workshop.
The Phoenix Quartet has performed in such venues as the Dennos Museum Center Concert Series, the Ives American Music Festival, the Grove Street Music Festival, Peaks to Plains, PhoenixPhest!, and recently completed a five-city tour in Mexico as featured artists of the Festival Artistico Coahuila. Members of the quartet have worked with many of the great chamber musicians of our time in cluding the Cleveland, Juilliard, Guarneri, Takacs and Cavani string quartets. Among them they hold degrees from The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, The Cleveland Institute of Music, and University of Michigan.
About the Quartet
Violinist Gabriel Bolkosky is the executive director and founding member of the Phoenix Ensemble. Through this orgnaization and other projects, he has worked with great composers such as William Bolcom, John Harbison, Thomas Ades, George Tsontakis, Bernard Rands, Sydney Hodkinson, Derek Bermel, Ned McGowan, and Christopher Rouse.
At the University of Michigan, Gabe studied violin with Paul Kantor and jazz with Ellen Rowe and Ed Sarath. He also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music under Donald Weilerstein. Gabe maintains a strong interest across many musical genres and regularly performs in both classical and improvised settings.
Over the past decade, Gabe has devoted much of his time to working with young people. He has worked with thousands of students, teaching violin and improvisation. He has served as guest artist at many workshops and schools around the country and is currently teaching violin at the University of Michigan. For more information, see www.gabrielbolkosky.com.
Violinist Alicia Doudna is a native of Charleston, Illinois. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory. Her teachers have included John Kendall, Mimi Zweig, David Updegraff, and Lucy Stoltzman and she has played in masterclasses for various artists, including Dorothy Delay and Ida Kavafian. She has studied chamber music with the Cavani Quartet, the Takacs Quartet, Itzhak Perlman and members of the Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets. An avid chamber musician, she has performed throughout the country at Kneisel Hall, the Yellow Barn Music School and Festival, The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, and in France at le Festival de Musique de Chamber du Larzac. She has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard and Ronald Copes. She has also performed with the Radius Ensemble of Boston, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) and Ann Arbor’s Phoenix Ensemble. Ms. Doudna was the music director and violin instructor of the Peninsula Strings Program in Blue Hill, ME and she is the assistant to Merry Peckham, Cavani Quartet cellist, and director of chamber music at the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, NY. She currently resides in Ann Arbor, MI where she teaches privately and performs with the Phoenix Ensemble.
Cellist Mary Ann Ramos has appeared as soloist with several orchestras, including the Gateway Festival Orchestra, the University City Symphony, the Alton Symphony, and the Kirkwood Symphony. She holds prizes in various competitions, among them the Mexican National Cello Competition and the Music Teachers National Association. Ms. Ramos is the cellist of the Phoenix Quartet, which resides, teaches, and performs in Ann Arbor, MI, as core members of the non-profit arts organization, The Phoenix Ensemble. She has performed at festivals nationally and internationally, including SummerMusic Chamber Music Festivel (Iowa), Kneisel Hall (Maine), Festival du Chambre du Larzac (France), and Festival Artistico Coahuila (Mexico). As a chamber music coach, she has taught at festivals such as PhoenixPhest!, Insbrook Institute, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, and the Kneisel Hall Young Musicians Program. Mary Ann has also been involved in the Sphinx organization for a number of years, as a semi-finalist, as a member of the Sphinx Symphony, and in the Sphinx Laureates Concert at Carnegie Hall. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Laurence Lesser, her Master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, as a student of Richard Aaron, and her Doctorate at the University of Michigan, as a student of Anthony Elliott.
Violist Stephanie Fong is a native of Oakland, California, where she began her musical studies at the age of seven. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her principal teachers include Martha Strongin Katz and Ian Swensen. In addition to attending numerous festivals including the Aspen Music School and Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Yellow Barn Music School and Festival, and Kneisel Hall, Ms. Fong has performed extensively as a chamber musician with artists such as Gilbert Kalish, Robert Mann, Menahem Pressler, and Donald Weilerstein, among others. Ms. Fong was named a Presser Scholar in 2000 and an award winner at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in 2006. She is currently freelancing in the Greater Boston area performs regularly the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.