Verona Quartet, 2022 Bravo! Vail Chamber Musicians in Residence

Acclaimed for its “bold interpretive strength, robust characterization and commanding resonance” (Calgary Herald), the Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group’s singular sense of purpose most recently earned them Chamber Music America’s coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and a reputation as an “outstanding ensemble… cohesive yet full of temperament” (The New York Times). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence, in addition to holding residences at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Indiana University Summer String Academy and North Carolina’s Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.

The Verona Quartet has appeared across four continents, enchanting audiences at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City), Kennedy Center, Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.), Jordan Hall (Boston), Wigmore Hall (U.K.) and Melbourne Recital Hall (Australia), and has performed at festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor, Alpenglow, and Bravo! Vail, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The quartet curates the UpClose Chamber Music Series under the auspices of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, bringing the visceral energy of classical music to diverse audiences in venues ranging from concert halls to craft breweries, and unlocking the secrets of the music through the “intimate way they communicate with each other and the audience” (The Arts Fuse, Boston).

A string quartet for the 21st century, the Verona Quartet champions the rich breadth of the string quartet repertoire from the time-honored canon through contemporary classics. Notable commissions and premieres include works by composers Julia Adolphe, Sebastian Currier, Corey Dundee, Texu Kim, as well as Michael Gilbertson’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated Quartet.

In addition to advocating contemporary music, the quartet strives for a dynamic, imaginative approach to collaboration and programming that champions cross-cultural and interdisciplinary enterprises. Such recent projects include a live-performance art installation with artist Ana Prvački, performances with dancers from Brooklyn’s Dance Heginbotham, artistic exchanges with traditional Emirati poets in the UAE, and a collaboration with GRAMMY-winning folk trio I’m With Her.

Drawing from the mentorship of the esteemed Cleveland, Juilliard and Pacifica Quartets, the Verona Quartet’s rapid rise to international prominence was fueled by top prize wins at the Wigmore Hall, Melbourne, M-Prize and Osaka International Chamber Music Competitions, as well as the 2015 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Their debut album, Diffusion—featuring the quartets of Janacek, Ravel and Szymanowski—will be released on Azica Records in the summer of 2021. Their second album, SHATTER, will showcase the works of American composers Julia Adolphe, Michael Gilbertson and Reena Esmail, in collaboration with Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak.

The ensemble’s “thoughtful, impressive” (Cleveland Classical) performances emanate from the spirit of storytelling; the Quartet believes that this transcends genre and therefore the name "Verona" pays tribute to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

Jonathan Ong, violin

Singaporean violinist Jonathan Ong is a founding member of the acclaimed Verona Quartet. He has performed across the world in international venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Beijing and Shanghai Concert Halls, Melbourne Recital Hall, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

Jonathan has been recognized with top prizes at international competitions across four continents, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, London's Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition; the M-Prize, Osaka, Melbourne and Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competitions; the Fischoff and Coleman National Chamber Music Competitions; the Singapore National Violin Competition and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artists Competition. As a member of the Verona Quartet, he was featured as Musical America's "New Artist of the Month" in May 2016, and has appeared on National Public Radio, WQXR New York Classical Radio, WFMT Chicago Classical Radio and The Weekly Special on PBS.

Jonathan has served as concertmaster of orchestras at the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival and Indiana University, and was previously concertmaster of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra for two seasons. He has collaborated with eminent artists such as Renee Fleming, Cho-Liang Lin, Orion Weiss, David Shifrin, Burt Hara, Jorja Fleezanis, Atar Arad, the Pacifica Quartet, as well as musicians of the MET Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and LA Philharmonic. A strong proponent of new music, he has premiered works by composers such as Richard Danielpour, Michael Gilbertson, Robert Aitken and most recently a new work by Sebastian Currier, co-commissioned by Boosey & Hawkes and the Chelsea Music Festival. 

Jonathan is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Indiana University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His principal mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Alexander Kerr, Paul Kantor, Fredell Lack, Lynn Blakeslee and Lynette Lim.  He has served as a teaching assistant at The Juilliard School and Indiana University, and is on faculty at the Indiana University Summer String Academy. He has also taught and given masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory, San Jose State University and NYU-Abu Dhabi, and has held educational residencies at the Lunenberg Academy of Music Performance (Nova Scotia, Canada), and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. 

Jonathan is a recipient of scholarships and grants from numerous organizations such as the Dorothy R. Starling Foundation, Lee Foundation, Shaw Foundation, and the National Arts Council of Singapore. He grateful for the loan of a c. 1686 Joseph Guarnerius filius Andreae violin from the Rin Collection, and an American bow from an anonymous donor.

Dorothy Ro, violin

One of CBC’s “30 hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30”, Dorothy Ro is a member of the acclaimed Verona Quartet. She has performed on international stages that include London’s Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Melbourne’s Recital Hall, as well as Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. 

Dorothy has garnered top prizes at international competitions, including London’s Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne and MPrize International Chamber Music Competition, Quatuors à Bordeaux; the Fischoff and Coleman National Chamber Music Competitions, the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Canadian Competition, and the Canadian Kiwanis National Competition. Other awards include a grant recipient from the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation and the Nova Scotia Talent Trust. 

As an avid chamber musician, Dorothy has collaborated with celebrated artists including Cho-Liang Lin, Renée Fleming, Orion Weiss, David Shifrin, Anne-Marie McDermott, as well as members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Cavani, Borromeo, Dover, and Pacifica Quartets. She has appeared at major international festivals including the Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival and School, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy. She is currently the principal second violin of the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, served as principal second violin of CityMusic Cleveland between 2011 and 2013, and has played with East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and Symphony Nova Scotia. 

Ms. Ro is a graduate of the The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Her mentors include Paul Kantor, Donald Weilerstein, David and Linda Cerone, and Alex Kerr. She has served as teaching assistant at the Juilliard School and is on faculty at the Indiana University Summer String Academy. She has also taught and given masterclasses at Oberlin University, San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, Advanced Suzuki Institute at Stanford University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and La Jolla MusicFest.  Her other teaching credits include residencies at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. 

Dorothy is currently represented by Concert Artist Guild Management as a member of the Verona Quartet and plays on a Nicolas Vuillaume violin and a Victor Fétique bow, which she both acquired in her home province of Nova Scotia. 

Abigail Rojansky, viola

Abigail Rojansky is the violist of the Verona Quartet, the current Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School in New York City. As a part of the Verona Quartet, Ms. Rojansky was also Graduate Quartet in Residence at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Originally a violinist, Ms. Rojansky began her studies at the age of eight in the San Francisco Bay Area, California under Patricia Drury and Erika Miranda. Just two years later upon being accepted to the Crowden School of Music, a unique secondary school for promising young musicians, she took up the viola alongside the violin and maintained both until pursuing a Bachelor of Music in viola performance from Oberlin Conservatory studying with Karen Ritscher between 2007-2011.  While at Oberlin, she also received a minor in Musicology and a Focus in Conducting. Ms. Rojansky has pursued viola studies with Helen Callus, and Madeline Praeger as well. In 2013, Ms. Rojansky completed her Master of Music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Atar Arad and is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School.

Ms. Rojansky has performed as soloist with the Youth Music International Festival Orchestra and the Diablo Valley Chamber Orchestra. She has also participated in several festivals including the Mannes Beethoven Institute and the Domaine Forget International Music Festival in Quebec, Canada. She has performed chamber music recitals with Eric Kim, Don Ehrlich, Miles Graber, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Chih-Yi Chen,  Atar Arad and James Campbell.

Ms. Rojansky’s work with the Verona Quartet has included numerous television and radio appearances and  more than ten top prize wins at national and international chamber music competitions including the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. As a part of the Verona Quartet, Ms. Rojansky is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild Management having won the Victor Elmaleh Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2015. She has performed across the United States and in the U.K., Australia, the United Arab Emirates, China, Singapore, Japan, Germany, and Quebec in venues such as Wigmore Hall, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Walt Disney, Davies Symphony, Beijing, Izumi and Esplanade concert halls.

Jonathan Dormand, cello

Cellist Jonathan “JD” Dormand has performed internationally on stages including London’s Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, as well as New York’s Weill Recital Hall and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Jonathan’s performances have been praised by the Boston Globe for being “elastic in phrasing and transparent in detail.” Ariane Todes, the former editor of the Strad magazine, noted “Dormand is a fine and thoughtful player, for whom everything works securely and easily.”

 Jonathan is a Laureate of the Isang Yun International Cello Competition 2012 in South Korea, and the Pierre Fournier Award 2015 in London, where he was awarded a Major Incentive Grant. Further awards have been from the Hattori Foundation, Countess of Munster Musical Trust and a Williamson Foundation grant in California.

 His principal teachers were Gillian Thoday at Chetham’s School of Music, Hannah Roberts at the Royal Northern College of Music, Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory and Ralph Kirshbaum at USC Thornton School of Music. Jonathan pursued further guidance from David Geringas in Los Angeles and Steven Isserlis at IMS Prussia cove.

 Jonathan’s work as a Chamber musician has been extensive. He has appeared at major international festivals including IMS Prussia Cove “Open Chamber Music”, t Symphony’s Ravinia Festival, Yellow Barn, Sunset ChamberFest (Los Angeles) and the Verbier Festival. He has collaborated with acclaimed musicians such as pianists John O’Conor and Peter Frankl, violinists Midori, Phillipe Graffin and Donald Weilerstien, ‘cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and singers Lucy Shelton and Rod Gilfrey. Jonathan was a founding member of the cello quintet SAKURA, declared by the L.A. Times as “superb” and “brilliant” with whom he performed at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival 2016.

 Dormand’s passion for contemporary music has led to performances at Carlsbad Contemporary Music Festival and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Soluna’ Festival. Additionally, Jonathan has been the featured soloist of contemporary cello concertos with Ensemble TIMF in South Korea, Thornton Edge  and USC Symphony in California and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain.  Many of Jonathan’s performances have been recorded and broadcast on the radio in both in Europe and USA.

 As an orchestral musician, Jonathan has served as guest principal cellist with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Royal Northern Sinfonia and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. A committed and dedicated teacher, Jonathan has taught at Yellow Barn’s Young Artist Program. In addition to being on the faculty at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.