PhoenixPhest Grande! Faculty

violin
Gabriel Bolkosky
Scott Esty
Daniel Foster
Christian Howes (jazz and improvisation)
Joan Kwuon
Almita and Roland Vamos (masterclasses)

cello
Miriam Bolkosky
Derek Snyder
Diane Winder

piano
Michele Cooker
Vera Parkin

Biographies

Violin

Gabriel Bolkosky is the executive director and founding member of The Phoenix Ensemble. Through this organization 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 including Harvard, Brandeis, Dartmouth, Princeton, the University of Michigan, the Walden School and the Aspen Music Festival, where he played in the Contemporary Ensemble. He will be teaching violin at the University of Michigan in 2009-10. For more information, see his web site: www.gabrielbolkosky.com.

Scott Esty lives and teaches in Oregon, where he performs with the Oregon Symphony and the Portland Opera Orchestra and directs a teaching studio of 20 young violinists. Scott has performed across the country with some of today’s finest musicians, including the Shanghai String Quartet and pianists Brian Ganz, Adam Neiman, and Audrey Andrist. As violinist with the Portland-based modern ensemble Fear No Music, Scott premiered and recorded music by a wide range of contemporary composers, and gained the distinction of being one of the few violinists to perform upside down. Prior to moving to Oregon, Scott was Associate Concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony. As a member of the KSO’s resident String Quartet, he appeared in regular concerts on the KSO concert series as well as touring area schools, community centers, and prisons with educational lecture/concert presentations of his own design. Scott has taught at Suzuki Institutes across the country, but PhoenixPhest is his favorite.

Violinist Carolyn Huebl is sought after as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She is currently Assistant Professor of Violin at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and violinist with the Blakemore trio. Critics have called her playing “unfailingly sensitive”, “utterly fearless”, and “pristine.”

Since her appearance with the Detroit Symphony at the age of seventeen, Carolyn has soloed with orchestras and given recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Argentina and Canada. Both as a soloist and a member of the Blakemore Trio, she is an enthusiastic and convincing interpreter of contemporary music, and has commissioned several new works. As a chamber musician, she has been featured on NPR, recorded for Naxos records, and performed at festivals across the country.

Prior to her appointment at Vanderbilt, Carolyn was Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Pittsburgh Symphony, with whom she toured Europe, Japan, and the United States. Carolyn often serves as Concertmaster of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, and was recently appointed to the faculty of the Brevard Music Center as Principal Second Violin. She has also been on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, the National Music Camp at Interlochen, and the Killington Music Festival, and has presented master classes at leading schools of music across the country. Her students have been prize-winners in national competitions, and hold orchestral and teaching positions throughout the United States.

She received her DMA from the University of Michigan as a student of Paul Kantor and her BM and MM from the Cleveland Institute of Music with Donald Weilerstein.

Violinist Joan Kwuon is praised by the New York Times for her “fiery, intensely musical and impassioned playing.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Ms. Kwuon made her Tanglewood Music Festival debut with the Brahms Violin Concerto at the invitation of Sir André Previn. Following this debut, she was presented in her New York debut in recital at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Kwuon’s virtuosity and radiant stage presence have been recognized by media ranging from The Today Show, CBS News and Lifetime Television to National Public Radio.

Highlights of Ms. Kwuon’s recent seasons include the United States tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday, she performed Mozart Violin Concerti conducted by Charles Dutoit and Matthias Bamert. Ms. Kwuon was the featured soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra and André Previn performing the Sibelius Concerto, and with Maestro Previn and the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall performing Mozart Concerto No. 3. She also appeared with Orchestra Europa with conductor Nayden Todorov, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Thierry Fischer, the Bulgarian National Academic Orchestra, the Jyväskylä Sinfonia of Finland with Patrick Gallois; the Moscow State Radio Symphony with Sergei Kondrashev; the NHK Symphony Orchestra with Heinz Wallberg; the Busan Philharmonic; Louisiana Philharmonic and the International Sejong Soloists.

As a recitalist, Joan Kwuon made her Metropolitan Museum debut in 2006 and has been presented by venues including University of Illinois’ Krannert Center, Universities of Georgia, Rockefeller, Iowa, George Mason, Wooster College and the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. She has appeared in Boston on WGBH, on “Around New York” on WNYC, and is a frequest guest on “Live from WFMT” in Chicago. Ms. Kwuon has been engaged as guest artist at numerous international music festivals including Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, Cité de la Musique and Consonance in France, the Summer Festival in Prague, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla’s Summerfest. She has enjoyed collaborations with Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, the Juilliard String Quartet, Bright Sheng, Heidi Grant Murphy, Vladimir Feltsman, and Tony Bennett.

Ms. Kwuon received advanced degrees from Indiana University, The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has taught at the Juilliard School and is currently on the faculty at The Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Almita Vamos

Six-time recipient, Presidential Excellence in Teaching Award. Winner, Distinguished Service Award, American String Teachers Association; named Distinguished Teacher by National Endowment for the Arts. Winner, Chautauqua Award and Concert Artists Guild Award. Faculty member, Music Institute of Chicago. Former faculty member, Western Illinois University, University of Minnesota, and Oberlin Conservatory. Cofounder, Weathersfield Summer Music Festival. Students have won top prizes in numerous international competitions. Studied with Mischa Mischakoff and Louis Persinger at the Juilliard School.

Roland Vamos

Former member, Houston and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, Contemporary String Quartet. Recordings on Rizzoli and Atlantic labels. Active as performer and conductor; adjudicator at national and international competitions. Faculty member, Music Institute of Chicago. Former faculty member, Western Illinois University and University of Minnesota. Cofounder, Weathersfield Summer Music Festival. Winner, Distinguished Teacher in the Arts Award, American String Teachers Association. Students have won top prizes in numerous international competitions. Studied with Oscar Shumsky and William Lincer.

Viola

Rebecca Albers, violist, has performed throughout North America, Asia, and Western Europe. Her performances have been seen on national television in the United States and China and heard on National Public Radio and French National Radio.  Ms. Albers currently resides in Ann Arbor, MI as a member of the Phoenix Quartet and a recent addition to the University of Michigan’s viola faculty. She also tours extensively with the Albers Trio, a string trio formed with her sisters Laura and Julie Albers, with fiddler Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio and she recently joined the NY-based East Coast Chamber Orchestra for its 2007 season.

Ms. Albers received her BM and MM degrees from the Juilliard School where she studied with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang. While studying at Juilliard, she frequently performed as a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra and also at times with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, Ms. Albers has been teaching since she was 12 years old.  From 2005-2008 she taught in collaboration with Heidi Castleman in the Juilliard School’s college and pre-college divisions. She is also on the faculty of the North American Viola Institute in Orford, Quebec, and was recently the featured guest artist at the Ohio Viola Society’s “OHH Viola” master class day.

As the winner of Juilliard 2002-2003 viola competition, Ms. Albers made her New York solo debut with the Juilliard Orchestra, performing the New York premiere of Samuel Adler’s Viola Concerto in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. She made her European recital debut in 2008 at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. Ms. Albers has been a participant at such festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar, and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove (UK), and the Perlman Music Program. As a chamber musician, she has performed across the United States and Europe, with such artists as Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and St. Lawrence String Quartets. In September of 2003, she performed in the inaugural concert in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Upcoming engagements include a west coast tour with Musicians from Marlboro, a tour of England with the International Musician’s Seminar, and performances with the Albers Trio, the Appalachia Waltz Trio, and the Phoenix Quartet.

Dee Martz, Professor of Viola at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point since 1979, also served as Director of the American Suzuki Institute and the Aber Suzuki Center from 1986-2009. Mrs. Martz’s studies as a merit scholarship student with David Dawson at Indiana University led to her membership in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, la Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional del Peru, the Indiana String Quartet, the J.S. Bach Chamber Orchestra and her current position as principal violist in the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra.

An active member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Dee was elected to the Board of Directors in 2001 and served as its secretary until 2007. She served as Chair of the Institute Committee, Viola Coordinator for the 1996 and 2004 Teachers Conference, as a member of the Latin American committee and as part of the Teacher Development Challenge Team that formulated the new teacher trainer application and evaluation process.

A frequent performer and clinician Dee Martz has presented at many SAA Conferences as well as in 25 states, the territory of Puerto Rico, several provinces of Canada, Chile, Peru and Australia. Mrs. Martz has the privilege of performing on the 1773 Cosio Guadagnini viola which is on loan from the Copernicus Cultural Foundation.

Cello

A native of Detroit, Miriam Bolkosky began her cello studies at the age of four and made her solo debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at fifteen. Ms. Bolkosky has performed extensively with the Boston Pops, National Lyric Opera, Berkshire Opera, New York City Opera National Company, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and Chicago’s Symphony II. The Washington Post applauded her performance as soloist at the John F. Kennedy Center as one filled with a “poignant beauty born of pathos.” Her recording of Donald McCullough’s “Holocaust Cantata” can be heard on Albany Records. An active chamber musician, she has given numerous recitals including performances at Paul Hall, Harris Hall, the Cape May Festival, the Cayman International Chamber Music Festival, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Carnegie Hall. She is a member of the Ann Arbor based Phoenix and Cassini Ensembles, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio, as well as Boston’s Radius Ensemble. She holds degrees from The University of Michigan and The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Solow, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, and Alan Harris.

Ms. Bolkosky has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, the Music Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Montclair University, and the Suzuki School of Newton. She currently freelances and teaches in Boston.

Derek Snyder has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in the United States and Europe, and has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of some of the country’s most exciting ensembles, including the Cavani and Cleveland string quartets, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Detroit, Montreal and Baltimore Symphonies. He is a founding member of The Phoenix Ensemble and cellist in the tango band Oblivion Project, which explores the music of Astor Piazzolla. In 2003, his arrangements of the music of Graham Nash were performed by the Contemporary Youth Orchestra with the composer. He has created numerous transcriptions and arrangements for cello ensembles, focusing primarily on the music of jazz great Dave Brubeck and nuevo tango master Astor Piazzolla. His arrangements of music by Brubeck (as preformed by the Yale Cellos) can be heard on the Naxos label.

Derek’s principal teachers have been Tanya Carey, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, Laurence Lesser, and Colin Carr. He is the founder and education director of The Cleveland Cello School. For more about Derek, see www.cellocelli.com.

Diane Winder, professor of cello at Eastern Michigan University since 1988, is active as a recitalist and in symphonic and chamber music. The Alexander Trio, EMU’s faculty piano trio, tours with repertoire from Classical through Contemporary periods. Orchestral experience includes principal positions with the Plymouth and Charlotte Symphonies, as well as the St. Louis Philharmonic. She has also played seasons with the Knoxville Symphony and at summer festivals such as Brevard, Bear Valley, the Alaska Festival of Music, and the Superior String Alliance (SSA). Additionally, Winder has performed on viola da gamba and Baroque cello. She served as instructor of viol at The Florida State University and appeared there in faculty early music ensembles. Related groups include chamber music at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival and seasons with the Cappuccino Quartet and Orianna.

Recently Winder became music director and conductor for the Young Strings Camp of SSA in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and was a founding member of both the Michigan Cello Quartet, as well as Xantippe, an historically informed trio featuring violin, cello and flute/recorder.

As a conductor, Winder has led a variety of student and faculty groups, including the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra, the award-winning Tennessee Tech Chamber Orchestra, and a professional chamber orchestra in Albania.

At EMU Winder teaches private cello and orchestration, and coaches chamber music. She is also a Faculty Associate in the University Honors Program. She has experience with courses in theory-music literature, music appreciation, and a cello-double bass techniques class, and studio double bass. She holds performance degrees from the University of the Pacific, Converse College and the D.M. from The Florida State University. While at Eastern she has been recognized as Advisor of the Year in the College of Arts and Sciences, and as an outstanding teacher by the state of Michigan. She has previously taught at Tennessee Tech. She is author of articles for state ASTA with NSOA chapters and for The Instrumentalist.

Bass

Diana Gannett, chair of strings and professor of double bass at the University of Michigan, specializes in double bass. She has spent most of her professional life on the East Coast as teacher and performer. As a chamber musician, she has performed with the artists of the Guarneri, Emerson, Laurentian, and Stanford Quartets and the Borodin Trio, as well as the Iowa Center for New Music, American Chamber Players, New Band, and the Oberlin Dance Collective. As a soloist, her programs have included over twenty contemporary premieres and several solo improvisations, as well as traditional repertoire. She is recorded on Irida records, has a solo CD titled Ladybass and a duo CD, Duetti Dolce. Previous appointments include the faculties of Yale University School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Hartt School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Connecticut, Oberlin College Conservatory in Ohio, University of Iowa School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the University of South Florida. For many years she held the position of principal double bass at Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her students have been winners in many solo competitions (ISB, ASTA, EMF, Aspen, and various regional competitions) and have also won positions in many fine professional orchestras and teaching institutions.

Piano

Partner to many distinguished musicians, pianist Michele Cooker has performed on concert series and participated in festivals throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. She has appeared on PBS and has performed programs broadcast live for WFMT radio in Chicago and the CBC in Canada. Michele Cooker teaches piano privately at the Kerrytown Concert House and is a member of the Board of Directors.

Vera Parkin is widely known as a collaborative pianist. She has been a keyboardist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1986 and is  a frequent participant in the orchestra’s Community Partnerships  Outreach Concerts. She was formerly a member of the New Music Ensemble, Synchronia and a regular performer on the SLSO’s Discovery Series. Ms. Parker’s most frequent duo partner is Mexican violinist, Manuel Ramos of the St. Louis Symphony. They have performed in  Washington D.C., Mexico, Kansas City and many local venues together. Ms. Parker collaborates with many other SLSO members as well, and participated in two recordings with SLSO artists this season. She toured through Austria, Germany, Italy and The Czech Republic. As a pedagogue, Ms. Parker is involved with many levels of music  education. She was the founding director of the Preparatory Program  for Gifted students at the Community Music School of Webster  University, and continues as the program’s Artistic Director. She is involved in Suzuki string education, having served as an accompanist  for John Kendall, the first American to bring the Suzuki method to  America. In her private teaching, she works with young children  though college level. Additionally, Ms. Parker serves as an adjunct  faculty and staff accompanist at Webster University and the University of Missouri-STL. During the summer months, she is the director of student life and a teaching artist at the Innsbrook Institute and Music Festival.