Regular Faculty - Week One
PIANO
Jan Deats, pianist, was a scholarship student at Oberlin Conservatory and received her Master’s Degree from Southern Methodist University. She has been a student of Gyorgy Sandor, Alexander Uninsky and Menahem Pressler. She has performed for 30 years in The McCall Deats Duo, cello and piano. She is Chair of the Piano Department at the Rockland Conservatory of Music.
Lily Friedman, Music Director, pianist, was a founding member of The New York Piano Trio, winner of Artists International Competition, and awarded a debut performance at Carnegie’s Weill Hall. She has been a participant in the Marlboro Festival, the Orono, Maine Festival, and has performed in a large variety of chamber ensembles throughout the New York metropolitan area and New England, as well as in France and the former Soviet Union. Among her more notable performances have been the entire Beethoven Sonatas for Piano and Violin with New York Philharmonic violinist Anna Rabinova, and the entire Beethoven oeuvre for piano and cello with Juilliard professor Andre Emelianoff. She is co-founder and Music Director of Summertrios, a chamber music organization which offers four one-week residential programs to adult amateur musicians. It has served thousands of amateur musicians and provided intensive training in chamber music for dozens of young professionals. She holds a Masters Degree from The Juilliard School where she was a student of Beveridge Webster and an ABD in the Doctoral Program at Teachers College of Columbia University. Independently, she studied piano with Irma Wolpe, and chamber music with Menahem Pressler, Arthur Balsam, Isidore Cohen, Rudolf Serkin, and Joseph Fuchs. She has been a performing participant in the Menahem Pressler Master Classes for the past 14 years.
Efi Hackmey, pianist, has appeared in the United States and Europe, including concerts in Weill Recital hall at Carnegie Hall; Weiner Saal Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria; and Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, Germany. In his native Israel, Mr. Hackmey has performed at the Recanati Auditorium, Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the Jerusalem Music Center; and in concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society in Eilat. He was featured on Israeli TV Channel 2, the most popular TV channel in Israel, and on the "Voice of Music" channel of the Israeli National Public Radio. Mr. Hackmey is currently on the piano faculty at DePauw University School of Music in Indiana. He has taught at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Associate Instructor of piano and music theory. Mr. Hackmey received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees with distinction from Tel Aviv University. During his studies in Tel Aviv he won second prize in the Tel Aviv University Piano Competition. He is currently a doctoral candidate in piano performance at Indiana University. His main teachers were Menahem Pressler and Pnina Salzman. He has also worked with such renowned artists as Emmanuel Ax, Lazar Berman, Charles Rosen, Janos Starker, David Zinman and Jaime Laredo.
Denise Kahn, pianist, studied at the Oberlin Conservatory and has a Master’s degree from The Mannes College of Music. Her primary teachers include Bruce Hungerford, Murray Perahia, Edward Aldwell, and Sophia Rosoff. She maintains a very busy studio in Manhattan teaching mainly serious adult amateurs. She has a full program of activities for her students, including chamber music, performance workshops, Feldenkreis workshops and theme parties. A chapter in the book, Piano Lessons, by Noah Adams is devoted to Denise’s teaching. She was a founding member of the Cameo Trio and is a member of the faculty of The Mannes College of Music, Extension Division. Denise has enjoyed coaching at Summertrios for the last 16 years.
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VIOLIN
Angelia Cho, violinist, has performed all over the United States, and in England, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Israel. She has been lauded by critics for her expressive and dynamic performances. She has appeared as soloist with many ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Israel Kibbutz Orchestra, the Allegro Society, and the NEC Symphony, and has collaborated with conductors Mark Laycock, Daniel Meyer, Luis Biava, Shlomo Mintz and David Lobel. In 2007, she joined the Academy two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute. She received her Bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute and her Masters degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.
Arthur Dibble, violinist, violist, is active in New York’s Broadway Show scene and with the American Symphony Orchestra. He recently toured with Barbara Streisand throughout the United States and Europe. He was formerly a member of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and performs frequently with the Harrisburg, Long Island, and Riverside Symphony Orchestras. Currently he is principal violist of the Key West Symphony. His chamber music performances throughout the world include collaborations with Cho-Liang Lin, Lynn Harrell, and Gil Shaham. A dedicated educator, Mr. Dibble was professor of viola and chamber music at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and Washington University in St. Louis. He is a teaching artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and holds degrees from Duquesne University and The Juilliard School.
Erin Keefe, violinist, is a winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 200th Schadt Competition, and the 2004 Corpus Christi International String competition; she also was awarded Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen and Gyeongnam (Korea) International Violin competitions. During the 2006-2007 season she performed the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poland, the Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Allentown Symphony, and led a performance of the Dvorak Viola Quintet in the opening night program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ms. Keefe has appeared with the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andres Diaz, Edgar Meyer, Wu Han, Richard Goode, David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalish, William Preucil, and Michael Tilson Thomas. She has recorded Schoenberg's Second String Quartet with Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry and Jennifer Welch-Babidge for the Naxos Label; and the Bartok Contrasts and Dvorak Piano Quintet for Deutsche Grammophone. She has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Musica Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia and other festivals. She was recently a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two program. Ms. Keefe holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a B. M. degree from the Curtis Institute. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, and Arnold Steinhardt.
Christopher Lee, violinist, became a protege of Zino Francescatti at the age of 16. He studied at The Curtis Institute and The Juilliard School, earned a doctorate degree, became a Fulbright Scholar, and has been awarded four honorary doctorates. His teachers were Dorothy Delay, Henryk Szeryng, and Nathan Milstein who observed, ". . . he has the most beautiful violin sound of his generation." Lee has received many awards, including the Guggenheim, Carl Flesch International Competition, J.S. Bach Competition and the Fritz Kreisler Prize. He has performed as a soloist under conductors Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Commissiona, Lucas Foss, Arthur Fiedler and others. His love of teaching has led him to the faculties of Taipei University Academy of Fine Arts; the Shanghai Conservatory; the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland, where he was Szeryng's teaching assistant; SUNY at Stonybrook, where he was assistant to Isidore Cohen; Princeton; and The Julliard School. Further, he teaches at Kean University in New Jersey, New York University, Summertrios, and in his private studio. He has served as concertmaster of the New Jersey Symphony, the American Symphony, the Little Orchestra Society and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He is a founding member of the New York Piano Trio.
Linda Rosenthal, violinist, performs throughout North America, Europe and Asia in recitals as a soloist and as a chamber musician. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of “Juneau Jazz & Classics,” an annual festival that features world-renowned jazz and classical artists. She is also Artistic Director of the Lake Placid Chamber Music Seminar for Adults and Professor of Music at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, where she makes her home. In addition to a busy schedule performing solo and chamber music, Ms. Rosenthal also tours “Strings & Stories,” a show for young audiences that was commissioned by and premiered at the Kennedy Center in 1995. Since then, Ms. Rosenthal and Los Angeles actor Bill Blush have performed the show annually for thousands of children in schools, libraries, and theaters throughout the United States. Ms. Rosenthal has commissioned and premiered more than a dozen works, including pieces for solo violin, electric violin, violin and narrator, as well as “Glacier Blue,” a Concerto for Solo Violin and Big Band. Her three solo CDs feature the sonatas of Copland, Piston and Porter; favorite violin encores; and, “Fiddle de Bop,” a collection of Americana music for violin and piano. Ms. Rosenthal plays on a violin made in Turin, Italy in 1772 by J. B. Guadagnini.
Jill Schultz, violinist, holds a Bachelor’s degree from City College, a Masters of Music degree from Stony Brook University and an EdD from Teachers College of Columbia University. She has performed with the Goldovsky and Lake George Opera Companies, the New Jersey Symphony, the Stamford Symphony, and the NYC Ballet. She has taught at the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, and the Lucy Moses School, and has served as an educational consultant to the Lincoln Center Institute and the Little Orchestra Society. She is currently teaching in the Scarsdale (NY) school district, which, in 2009, was named the Best Community for Music Education by NAMM. Dr. Schultz has just received an award from Live at Lincoln Center for "Outstanding Student Performances" as demonstrated by her student orchestra.
Yuval Waldman, violinist (also conductor), made his debut as a solo violinist at the age of eight. He gave his Carnegie Hall Debut in 1969 as winner of Jeunesses Musicales – Carnegie Hall International Competition. A graduate of The Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and The Juilliard School, he has performed worldwide as a violinist, conductor and chamber player. He is founding Music Director of the Madeira Bach Festival in Portugal and the Jefferson Music Festival at Kennedy Center; and principal conductor of the New American Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded for Sony, Omega, Newport Classic and Angel Records.
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VIOLA
Andrew Knebel, violist, is a graduate of the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford where he was a student of Steve Larson. He holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance and Music Education. He was a member of the Honors Chamber Program at the Hartt School, “Performance 20/20”, a tuition-free, invitation only program. He has participated in Master Classes with John Largess (Miro String Quartet), Chauncey Patterdon (Miami String Quartet) and Heidi Castleman. Andrew is also a coach for the Young People’s Institute for Chamber Music in Stamford, CT.
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CELLO
James J. Cooper III, cellist, attended The Curtis Institute of Music as a student of David Soyer and Peter Wiley. He is principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra as substitute cello. He also participates in the Philadelphia Chamber Music Series and the Post Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music concerts. He is principal cellist of The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, which has performed across Europe and in many South American countries. He has performed solo in the chamber music series at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Robert LaRue, cellist, is a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra at Lincoln Center and First Prize winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition (Mstislav Rostropovitch, jury chairman). Formerly he was cellist of the New England String Quartet; currently he is a member of Seraphim (a contemporary music ensemble). LaRue is a graduate of the Curtis Institute, the New England Conservatory, and Juilliard; he has also attended Indiana University School of Music. His teachers included Soyer, Greenhouse, Lesser, Starker, Tsutsumi, and Parisot; he studied chamber music with Mischa Schneider (Budapest Quartet), Felix Galimir, Menahem Pressler, and Bernard Greenhouse (Beaux Artes Trio), Eugene Lehner (Kolisch Quartet), Rostislav Dubinsky (Borodin Quartet), and Samuel Sanders.
Brian Snow, cellist, pursues an active performing career in New York City, where he is a member of Newspeak Ensemble, the Omni Ensemble, and the Praxis String Quartet. He has appeared as a soloist with the Riverside Orchestra and Crescent City Symphony (New Orleans) and has performed with Mark Morris Dance Group, Alarm Will Sound, All-American Rejects ACME, Fireworks Ensemble, singer-songwriter Brett Aaron, the Emerson String Quartet, and Meredith Monk. He has recorded with the Yale Cellos, Sonya Kitchell, Ratatat, Kenny Werner, and Jonsi of Sigur Ros. Brian has won top prizes at the Paranov, Emerson String Quartet, and Longy concerto soloists competitions. Currently a DMA candidate at Suny Stony Brook, he holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music and from Yale, and his cello teachers include David Finckel, Aldo Parisot, and Colin Carr. A dedicated teacher, Brian is a faculty member at Brooklyn Conservatory, Brooklyn Poly Prep, the Berkeley-Carroll School, and the 92nd St. Y School of Music.
Andrey Tchekmazov, cellist, is a Grand Prize winner of the Vittoria Gui International Chamber Music Competition in Florence and Premio Trio de Trieste in Trieste, as well as Premio della Critica in Italy. Mr. Tchekmazov has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Russia and Asia. His appearances include the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Osaka Symphony Hall in Japan, Brazil’s Sala San Palo, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall. Among his other prizes and awards are the Koussivitzky Competition, Stadt, and the Russian National Competition in Moscow. As a frequent performer with the Jupiter Chamber Players and Lyric Chamber Music Society in New York, and at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Tchekmazov has “impressed his audiences with his big, warm tone and…Russian brand of virtuosity” (Strad, London-New York).