Bravo! Vail was proud to present the 2020 Festival Musicians. Bravo! Vail's artistic director, Anne-Marie McDermott, had personally invited each of the musicians to perform for the re-imagined season.
Along with Anne-Marie McDermott, each musician performed a very important role in fulfilling Bravo's mission of enriching people's lives through the power of music. Each of them expressed pure joy at the opportunity to spend the summer in the Vail Valley, performing for the incredible community of music lovers.
“I will never forget the conversations with musicians that we invited to come to Vail this summer. It was important that they were not only great musicians, but also could embrace the spirit that we wanted to bring to our Vail community. And after months of uncertainty, the thought of being able to come together and make music was overwhelming. My sense was that once live music came to Vail, there would be an exhilaration and joy like none of us had ever experienced, even for those of us with long careers in music, and that’s exactly what happened. Every single performance was life-changing. We were—and remain—filled with gratitude to have had the opportunity to make music together in the beautiful Vail Valley during this unforgettable season."
–Anne-Marie McDermott, Music Director
Internationally recognized as one of today's most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
The phenomenal Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff Competition, at which they won every prize. Named the Cleveland Quartet Award-winner, and honored with the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Dover has become one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world.
Hailing from Honolulu, Hawaii, Zoë Martin-Doike is an exciting and versatile artist. She recently won second prize in the William Primrose International Viola Competition, attended the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and was selected to participate in the Steans Institute at Ravinia Spring Tour with director Miriam Fried.
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is a consummate artist who balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs over 100 concerts a year in a combination of solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. Her repertoire choices are eclectic, spanning from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin to Kernis, Hartke, Tower and Wuorinen.
Violinist Kerry McDermott is a first violinist with the New York Philharmonic, joining as its youngest member at the age of twenty-one, and she has appeared as soloist with them throughout North America.
18-year old violinist Clara Neubauer attends The Juilliard School as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship in the studios of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin.
Violinist Oliver Neubauer attends the Juilliard School where he is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship and a student of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. Prior to his studies at Juilliard, Oliver took part in the Perlman Music Program and attended the Juilliard Pre- College Division and the Dalton School in NYC. Oliver has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Sound Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony of Westchester.
Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2018 he made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and his Mariinsky Orchestra debut with conductor Valery Gergiev. He also gave the U.S. Premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han.
Praised for his “fluid virtuosity” and “soulful melodies,” Los Angeles native Brook Speltz has been inspired since childhood by the long tradition of deep musical mastery of artists such as Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Fournier, and the Guarneri String Quartet. As of 2015, he is the new cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet and a season artist of the Chamber Music Society.
A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), Amy Yang has toured with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Tito Muñoz and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and collaborated with Anne-Marie McDermott, Richard Goode, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Roberto Díaz, Joseph Silverstein, members of Guarneri String Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dover Quartet, Aizuri String Quartet, Jasper String Quartet, Third Coast Percussion and A Far Cry.
Internationally recognized as one of today's most acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman stands among a handful of artists regularly sought by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the press and audiences alike.
As guest soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welzer-Möst, Mr. Bronfman participated in the opening concerts of Carnegie Hall’s 2019-2020 season followed immediately by the inauguration of a season-long Artist-in –Residence project with the Vienna Symphony in both the Musikverein and Konzerthaus. During the fall he also participated in farewell concerts for Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic, Japan with the Vienna Philharmonic and Andrés Orozco-Estrada as well as season opening events in Houston, Seattle and Rhode Island. The second half of the season will see return visits to orchestras in Hamburg, Munich, New York, Montreal, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Diego, Madison, Portland, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Pittsburgh and Boston. In recital he can be heard celebrating Beethoven’s 250th in Berlin, Toronto, Denver, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Kalamazoo and Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Jurowski, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap Van Zweden, Franz Welser-Möst, and David Zinman. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, his partners have included Pinchas Zukerman, Martha Argerich, Magdalena Kožená, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Emmanuel Pahud and many others. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals with Isaac Stern in Russia, marking Mr. Bronfman's first public performances there since his emigration to Israel at age 15.
Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, Mr. Bronfman has been nominated for 6 GRAMMY® Awards, winning in 1997 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of the three Bartok Piano Concerti. His prolific catalog of recordings includes works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff and Brahms with Emanuel Ax, the complete Prokofiev concerti with the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, a Schubert/Mozart disc with the Zukerman Chamber Players and the soundtrack to Disney's Fantasia 2000. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 GRAMMY® nominated Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 commissioned for him and performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label; Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk; a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Mr. Bronfman's designation as a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives' artist for the 2007-08 season; and recordings of all the Beethoven piano concerti as well as the Triple Concerto together with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Truls Mørk, and the Tönhalle Orchestra Zürich under David Zinman for the Arte Nova/BMG label. Now available on DVD are his performances of Liszt's second piano concerto with Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic from Schoenbrunn, 2010 on Deutsche Grammophon; Beethoven's fifth piano concerto with Andris Nelsons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the 2011 Lucerne Festival; Rachmaninoff's third concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle on the EuroArts label and both Brahms Concerti with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra (2015).
Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music, under Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher, and Rudolf Serkin. A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, in 2010 he was further honored as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University and in 2015 with an honorary doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.
The phenomenal Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff Competition, at which they won every prize. Named the Cleveland Quartet Award-winner, and honored with the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Dover has become one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world. The Quartet’s rise from up-and-coming young ensemble to occupying a spot at the top of their field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings). With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the Quartet’s distinctive sound has helped confirm its status as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (New Yorker). The Quartet serves as the quartet-in-residence for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and Peoples’ Symphony in New York, and was recently named the first-ever quartet-in-residence for the Kennedy Center.
In 2018-19 the Dover Quartet performs more than a hundred concerts around North America, including performances at the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Spivey Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, and Carnegie Hall. In addition, the Dover’s season features tours of Hong Kong, Europe, and Australia, collaborations with Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Peter Serkin, Anthony McGill, and Roomful of Teeth, and premieres of new works by Caroline Shaw and Matan Porat. The Quartet was thrilled to be invited by the maverick filmmaker and cultural icon David Lynch to be featured at his Los Angeles Festival of Disruption.
Cedille Records released the Quartet’s sophomore album, entitled Voices of Defiance: 1943, 1944, 1945 in October 2017. The recording takes listeners on a powerful journey through works written during World War II by Viktor Ullmann, Dimitri Shostakovich, and Simon Laks. The 2016-17 season saw the release of its all-Mozart debut recording on the Cedille label, a nod to the 1965 debut album of the Guarneri Quartet, whose founding violist, the late Michael Tree, joined the Dover Quartet on the recording.
In addition, the group has participated in three complete Beethoven quartet cycles, including the University at Buffalo’s famous “Slee Cycle” – which has presented annual Beethoven quartet cycles since 1955 and has featured the likes of the Budapest, Guarneri, and Cleveland Quartets – and will record the cycle over the next three seasons. The group’s world-class collaborators have included pianists Anne-Marie McDermott, Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Peter Serkin, and Jon Kimura Parker; violists Roberto Díaz and Cynthia Phelps; bassist Edgar Meyer; and the Pacifica and Escher Quartets.
In the spring of 2016, the Dover Quartet was recognized with the Hunt Family Award, one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, and in past years has taken top prizes at the Fischoff Competition and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. All four Quartet members are consummate solo artists: first violinist Joel Link took first prize at the Menuhin Competition; violinist Bryan Lee and violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt have appeared as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic, respectively; and cellist Camden Shaw released a solo album debut on the Unipheye Music label. As Strad observes, “With their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement, and taut ensemble,” the Dover Quartet is “pulling away from their peers.”
Hailed as “the next Guarneri Quartet” (Chicago Tribune), the Dover Quartet draws from the lineage of that distinguished ensemble, as well that of the Cleveland and Vermeer Quartets; its members studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley. It was at Curtis that the Quartet first formed, and its name pays tribute toDover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber. The group has since returned for residencies to Rice in 2011-13, and to Curtis, where it became the conservatory’s first Quartet-in-Residence, in 2013-14. In addition, in 2015 the Dover was appointed the first Resident Ensemble of Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in the 116-year history of New York City’s oldest concert series.
The Dover Quartet is dedicated to sharing its music with under-served communities and is actively involved with Music for Food, an initiative enabling musicians to raise resources and awareness in the fight against hunger.
The Dover Quartet plays on the following instruments:
Joel Link: Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris circa 1857, on loan by Desirée Ruhstrat
Bryan Lee: Riccardo Antoniazzi, Milan 1904
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt: Michele Deconet, Venice, 1780, the ‘Kroyt,’ generously on loan from the grandson of Boris Kroyt of the Budapest Quartet
Camden Shaw: Frank Ravatin, France, 2010
Hailing from Honolulu, Hawaii, Zoë Martin-Doike is an exciting and versatile artist. She recently won second prize in the William Primrose International Viola Competition, attended the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and was selected to participate in the Steans Institute at Ravinia Spring Tour with director Miriam Fried. This fall, Zoë begins her tenure in the Caramoor Rising Stars Program and joins the viola section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Zoë is also an active violinist: she earned a bachelor’s degree in violin performance with renowned artist, Pamela Frank, at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she served as concertmaster during the 2011-12 school year, and was a founding violinist of the Aizuri Quartet, which won third prize in the Wigmore Hall International Quartet Competition in 2014 and held residencies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia while she was a member.
This past spring, Zoë earned her master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she double-majored in violin and viola under the tutelage of Mimi Zweig and Atar Arad respectively. She was the violist of the quartet selected for the coveted Kuttner Quartet Fellowship and to have had the opportunity to perform both the Walton Viola Concerto and the Brahms Violin Concerto with university orchestras during her time at IU. Zoë has also performed as violin soloist with the Honolulu, Indianapolis, Richardson and Bloomington Symphony Orchestras, and most recently appeared with the World Youth Orchestra in Rome.
Passionate about chamber music, Zoë has attended the Steans Institute at Ravinia as well as the Sarasota, Norfolk, and Taos Chamber Music Festivals, and has collaborated with renowned artists Roberto Diaz, Peter Wiley, Jonathan Biss, and Mitsuko Uchida. Zoe has been featured on the NPR shows “From the Top” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” and has had the distinct pleasure of performing for his holiness, the Dalai Lama.
Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott is a consummate artist who balances a versatile career as a soloist and collaborator. She performs over 100 concerts a year in a combination of solo recitals, concerti and chamber music. Her repertoire choices are eclectic, spanning from Bach and Haydn to Prokofiev and Scriabin to Kernis, Hartke, Tower and Wuorinen.
With over 50 concerti in her repertoire, Ms. McDermott has performed with many leading orchestra including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Symphony, Houston Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi, Hong Kong Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, New Jersey Symphony and Baltimore Symphony among others. Ms, McDermott has toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.
In the recent seasons, Ms, McDermott performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, Alabama Symphony, San Diego Symphony, the Oregon Mozart Players, and the New Century Chamber Orchestra.
Recital engagements have included the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, The Schubert Club, Kennedy Center, as well as universities across the country. Anne-Marie McDermott has curated and performed in a number of intense projects including: the Complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas and Chamber Music, a Three Concert Series of Shostakovich Chamber Music, as well as a recital series of Haydn and Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Most recently, she commissioned works of Charles Wuorinen and Clarice Assad which were premiered in May 2009 at Town Hall, in conjunction with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
As a soloist, Ms. McDermott has recorded the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas, Bach English Suites and Partitas (which was named Gramophone Magazine’s Editor’s Choice), and most recently, Gershwin Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra with the Dallas Symphony and Justin Brown.
In addition to her many achievements, Anne-Marie McDermott has been named the Artistic Director of the famed Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado, which hosts the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony in addition to presenting over 40 chamber music concerts throughout the summer. She is also Artistic Director of two new Festivals; The Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival and The Avila Chamber Music Celebration in Curacao.
As a chamber music performer, Anne-Marie McDermott was named an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 1995 and performs and tours extensively with CMS each season. She continues a long standing collaboration with the highly acclaimed violinist, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg. As a duo, they have released a CD titled “Live” on the NSS label and plan to release the Complete Brahms Violin and Piano Sonatas in the future. Ms. McDermott is also a member of the renowned piano quartet, Opus One, with colleagues Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom and Peter Wiley.
She continues to perform each season with her sisters, Maureen McDermott and Kerry McDermott in the McDermott Trio. Ms, McDermott has also released an all Schumann CD with violist, Paul Neubauer, as well as the Complete Chamber Music of Debussy with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Ms. McDermott studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Dalmo Carra, Constance Keene and John Browning. She was a winner of the Young Concert Artists auditions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Ms. McDermott regularly performs at Festivals across the United States including, Spoleto, Mainly Mozart, Sante Fe, La Jolla Summerfest, Mostly Mozart, Newport, Caramoor, Bravo, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, Music from Angelfire, and the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, among others.
Violinist Kerry McDermott is a first violinist with the New York Philharmonic, joining as its youngest member at the age of twenty-one, and she has appeared as soloist with them throughout North America. Ms. McDermott has garnered prizes in major competitions including the Montreal International Violin Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow - where she also received a special award for "Best Artistic Interpretation". At age seventeen, Ms. McDermott became the youngest winner in the history of Artists International Auditions which resulted in her New York recital debut. She has performed throughout Holland with Reizend Muziek, as well as North American tours with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Muir String Quartet. Ms. McDermott has also appeared at Summerfest La Jolla, Angel Fire, Music in the Vineyards, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Colorado, Caramour, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Wolftrap, Mostly Mozart, OK Mozart, Newport, Ravinia and on three continents with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles. She has recorded for Cala, New World Records and Melodia, and her media appearances include a PBS/ABC/BBC Documentary, the motion picture FAME and an AT&T commercial for National Network Television. She is a member of The McDermott trio with her sisters, pianist, Anne-Marie and cellist, Maureen.
18-year old violinist Clara Neubauer attends The Juilliard School as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship in the studios of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. She has participated in the Perlman Music Program on Shelter Island and the PMP Winter Residency in Sarasota, Florida since 2017. Clara made her concerto debut with the National Repertory Orchestra at the age of 10 and her Lincoln Center debut at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Young Ensembles Concert in 2013. She was a winner of the 2020 National YoungArts competition and recipient of the Silver Medal, 1st Prize Winner in the 2019 Symphony of Westchester Competition, and 1st Prize Winner in the 2017 Adelphi Competition. Concerts this past season include concerto performances with the Symphony of Westchester and the Little Orchestra Society, as well as performances in London and Paris with Music@Menlo, the Mostly Music Series, Neue Galerie, Great Performers Series in Palm Beach, Tenri Cultural Institute, and the Union Club. In the 2017-18 season, Clara performed as soloist with The Little Orchestra Society, the Dalton Orchestra, and the New York Concerti Sinfonietta. An avid chamber musician, Clara was a winner of the 2017 Young Musicians Competition at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a Young Performer at the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute for five years. Born on 9/11/2001, Clara shared the stage with Bernadette Peters and Robert DeNiro hosting a 9/11 Memorial benefit and can be heard leading the audio tour guide at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. In her free time, Clara loves to read, cook, watch opera, and play ping-pong.
Violinist Oliver Neubauer attends the Juilliard School where he is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship and a student of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. Prior to his studies at Juilliard, Oliver took part in the Perlman Music Program and attended the Juilliard Pre- College Division and the Dalton School in NYC. Oliver has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the National Repertory Orchestra, the Sound Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphony of Westchester. Oliver was the recipient of the Gold Award at the 2018 National YoungArts Competition, winner of the 2017 Young Musicians Competition at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and winner of the Artist in You Competition sponsored by the Doublestop Foundation. He has participated in masterclasses with Ana Chumachenco (at the 2019 Kronberg Violin Masterclasses), Ani Kavafian, Edward Aaron, Jorja Fleezanis, Daniel Phillips, and others.
He has also performed and worked with Carter Brey, Fred Sherry, Ani Kavafian, Michael Kannen, Ara Gregorian, the Ulysses Quartet, and Steve Tenenbom. Oliver’s festival appearances have included the Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Mostly Music Series, Summerfest La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Lake Champlain Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music in the Vineyards, Art in Avila in Curaçao, and Music from Angel Fire.
In 2013, Oliver made his debut with the New York Philharmonic as the narrator for Britten’s Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. Outside of music, Oliver loves playing chess (having competed in numerous national tournaments), playing ping pong, and discussing philosophy.
Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2018 he made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti and his Mariinsky Orchestra debut with conductor Valery Gergiev. He also gave the U.S. Premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han. In addition, his recording of the Aaron Kernis Viola Concerto with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, was released on Signum Records and his recording of the complete viola and piano music by Ernest Bloch with pianist Margo Garrett was released on Delos. Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College.
Praised for his “fluid virtuosity” and “soulful melodies,” Los Angeles native Brook Speltz has been inspired since childhood by the long tradition of deep musical mastery of artists such as Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Fournier, and the Guarneri String Quartet. As of 2015, he is the new cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet and a season artist of the Chamber Music Society. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist throughout the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. First Prize winner of the prestigious Ima Hogg Competition, he has performed with the Houston Symphony, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and International Contemporary Ensemble, and is a regular performer at England’s IMS Prussia Cove and on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. Chamber music tours with Itzhak Perlman and Richard Goode caused him to be nominated for the inaugural Warner Music Prize, a newly established prize presented by Warner Music and Carnegie Hall. He has also toured with the cello rock band Break of Reality, whose cover of music from Game of Thrones has received over 19 million views online. The band’s recent US tour raised funds and awareness for music programs in public schools all around the country. After studying with Eleanor Schoenfeld, Mr. Speltz attended the Curtis Institute of Music with Peter Wiley and The Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick. He performs on an 1857 J.B. Vuillaume on loan from his father, a cellist and his first inspiration in a family of professional musicians.
A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), Amy Yang has toured with Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Tito Muñoz and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and collaborated with Anne-Marie McDermott, Richard Goode, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Roberto Díaz, Joseph Silverstein, members of Guarneri String Quartet, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dover Quartet, Aizuri String Quartet, Jasper String Quartet, Third Coast Percussion and A Far Cry. Her solo recital on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Series follows engagements with the Houston Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Mansfield Symphony and Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata at UNAM.
Ms. Yang has premiered music by Caroline Shaw, Avner Dorman, Michael Hersch, Ezra Laderman, Paul Wianko and Hua Yang. Festival appearances include Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Prussia Cove, Verbier Academy, Bravo! Vail, Ojai Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart, Caramoor, Music from Angel Fire, among others.
Her discography includes a solo album, “Resonance”, (MSR Classics, 2019), chamber albums with Itamar Zorman (BIS Records, 2019), Tessa Lark (First Hand Records, 2019) and José Franch-Ballester (iTinerant Records, 2011), as well as the live Aldeburgh Festival recording of Michael Hersch’s epic “I hope we get a chance to visit soon” (New Focus Records, 2020).
Ms. Yang is on chamber music faculty at Curtis Institute of Music, and is program director and piano faculty of Curtis Summerfest’s Young Artist Summer Program. She enjoys making line drawings and tracing the mysteries of neuroscience. She and her husband are happy parents to a twenty-month-old boy named Sören. www.amyjyang.com
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