Founded in 2015 by pianist Efi Hackmey and cellist Carrie Bean Stute, Chiarina brings distinctive chamber music performances and innovative programming to an intimate neighborhood setting in Capitol Hill, DC. With a roster of world-class artists, our mission is to create an engaging, inclusive listening experience that connects audience members, performers, and music by a wide spectrum of composers from the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries. We believe that live performance is the cornerstone of our art, and should be accessible. We strive to build bridges with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Recognized in the Washington Post for putting on “some of the most compelling chamber music programs in town” and selected as one of Washington Classical Review’s Top Ten Performances of 2021, Chiarina is the recipient of grants from Chamber Music America, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, including that organization’s inaugural Franzén Award for the Arts. To open its 2022-23 season, Chairina will collaborate with the Grammy award-winning Attacca Quartet in a Capitol Hill mini-residency, with public concerts and visits to neighborhood public schools.
During its 2021-2022 season, Chiarina presented “The Best Cuisine,” a commission and world premiere by Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon, a project made possible by a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America. Other highlights of the past season included a performance of Schoenberg’s monodrama Pierrot Lunaire, the addition of new and award-winning performers to our roster, the authentic sounds of American composers working today, and celebrated works by Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and more. Chiarina’s performances have been featured on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington.
Chiarina’s guest artist roster has featured performers from such ensembles as the Orion and Attacca String Quartets, Lincoln Chamber Music Society, Orpheus and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, Baltimore and National Symphony Orchestras, and faculty members from such institutes as the Juilliard and Mannes Schools, Peabody and Bard Conservatories, and the University of Maryland.
The inspiration for Chiarina’s namesake comes from Robert Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9, for piano. The name reminds us not only of Schumann’s imaginative spirit, but of his pianist-composer wife Clara, one of the most consequential musical figures in 19th-century Germany.
Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players. Known for his “feather-light pianism” (Washington Classical Review), Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, the Kennedy Center and Bargemusic...Read More
A versatile performer bringing “sonorous life” to the stage [Cleveland Plain Dealer], cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Capitol Hill-based chamber music series Chiarina Chamber Players. A recipient of a 2020 Classical Commissioning grant from Chamber Music America...Read More
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The Aizuri Quartet has established a unique position within today’s musical landscape, infusing all of its music-making with infectious energy, joy, and warmth, cultivating curiosity in listeners, and inviting audiences into the concert experience through its innovative programming, and the depth and fire of its performances.
Praised by The Washington Post for “astounding” and “captivating” performances that draw from its notable “meld of intellect, technique and emotions,” the Aizuri Quartet was named the recipient of the 2022 Cleveland Quartet Award by Chamber Music America, and was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition along with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. The Quartet's debut album, Blueprinting, featuring new works written for the Aizuri Quartet by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records to critical acclaim (“In a word, stunning” — I Care If You Listen), nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and named one of NPR Music’s Best Classical Albums of 2018. The Aizuri Quartet’s follow-up to Blueprinting will be released on Azica Records in 2023.
The Aizuri Quartet continues its innovative approach to programming into the 2022-23 season. Sunrise creatively juxtaposes Bartók’s Fourth quartet with Haydn’s Op. 76 No. 4 (“Sunrise”) alongside Tanya Tagaq’s Sivunittinni and a Clara Schumann song arranged by quartet cellist Karen Ouzounian. The quartet continues to perform the Aizuri Songbook; arrangements of popular songs, lieder, and song-inspired quartets, which the players sing and play simultaneously. Spring 2022 sees The Art of Translation, exploring the highly personal and expressive ways in which composers transform visual art and poetry into music and consider the dynamic nature of art, via Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and newer works by Lembit Beecher, Paul Wiancko, and Hannah Kendall.
With Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, the Aizuris perform Music and Migration, at the Civic Music Association in Des Moines, Armstrong Auditorium near Oklahoma City, and Okoboji Performing Arts in Northwest Iowa. Music and Migration, which includes newly commissioned works by George Lewis and Layale Chakher, is an examination of the players’ personal and family relationships to and experiences with migration, both as a physical journey and a state of mind.
The 2022-23 concert season sees notable debuts including presentations by Carnegie Hall, Dallas Chamber Music Society, Brevard Music Center’s new Parker Concert Hall, Tippet Rise Arts Center the Library of Congress, Ottawa ChamberFest, Texas Performing Arts, New Orleans Friends of Music, and the Celebrity Series of Boston. Additional appearances include returns to Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Women’s Music Club of Toronto and institutional engagements with Auburn University’s Gogue Performing Arts Center, the Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Nevada Reno, University of Mississippi’s Ford Center, the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, Amherst College, Shenandoah Conservatory, and the University of Hartford.
In early 2022 the Aizuri Quartet was named fellows to the Artist Propulsion Lab, a project of WQXR, New York City’s Classical radio station. The Quartet’s fellowship includes live-broadcast performances, radio content, and the release of a new AizuriKids video, featuring music by Elizabeth Cotten, stop-motion animation by Lembit Beecher, and an interview with Rhiannon Giddens.
The 2021/22 season saw notable performances, including concerts with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken David Masur, in which Aizuri Quartet performed John Adams’s Absolute Jest. With legendary indie rock band Wilco, Aizuri Quartet opened five concerts at the United Palace in Harlem and appeared with Wilco on The Tonight Show with Stephen Colbert. Also in 21/22, the quartet premiered David Ludwig’s Organistrum with Anthony McGill and Demarre McGill at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and unveiled new works by Paul Wiancko and Lembit Beecher at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC.
The Aizuris view the string quartet as a living art and springboard for community, collaboration, curiosity and experimentation. At the core of its music-making is a virtuosic ability to illuminate a vast range of musical styles through the Aizuri’s eclectic, engaging and thought-provoking programs. The Quartet has drawn praise both for bringing “a technical bravado and emotional power” to bold new commissions, and for its “flawless” (San Diego Union-Tribune) performances of the great works of the past. Exemplifying this intrepid spirit, the Aizuri Quartet curated and performed five adventurous programs as the 2017-2018 MetLiveArts String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, leading The New York Times to applaud Aizuri Quartet as “genuinely exciting,” “imaginative,” and “a quartet of expert collaborators.” For this series, the quartet collaborated with spoken word artist Denice Frohman and shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki, commissioned new works by Kinan Azmeh, Michi Wiancko and Wang Lu, as well as commissioned new arrangements of vocal music by Hildegard von Bingen and Carlo Gesualdo, which was paired with the music of Conlon Nancarrow, Haydn and Beethoven in a program focused on music created in periods of isolation.
The Aizuris believe in an integrative approach to music-making, in which teaching, performing, writing, arranging, curation, and the quartet’s role in the community are all connected. In 2020, the quartet launched AizuriKids, a free, online series of educational videos for children that uses the string quartet as a catalyst for creative learning and features themes such as astronomy, American history, and cooking. These vibrant, whimsical, and interactive videos are lovingly produced by the Aizuris and are paired with activity sheets to inspire further exploration.
The Aizuri Quartet is passionate about nurturing the next generation of artists, and is deeply grateful to have held several residencies that were instrumental in its development: from 2014-2016, the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the 2015-2016 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and the resident ensemble of the 2014 Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.
Formed in 2012 and combining four distinctive musical personalities into a powerful collective, the Aizuri Quartet draws its name from “aizuri-e,” a style of predominantly blue Japanese woodblock printing that is noted for its vibrancy and incredible detail.
Violist Dana Kelley is an active chamber musician and member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She is also a member of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for the 2021-2022 season. Praised for her rich and beautiful tone, Dana has been a top prizewinner in the Sphinx Music Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. She also serves on the viola faculty of the Mannes School of Music at the New School.
Dana’s performance schedule has brought her to many prestigious venues and festivals, including multiple recitals at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall at New York’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, and Bravo! Vail. Dana has collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Nobuko Imai and Miriam Fried, pianists Leon Fleisher, Anne-Marie MacDermott and Misha Dichter, and cellist Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet.
Dana received an Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies with the Argus String Quartet as the 2017-2019 Graduate Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School. Dana was a 2014-2016 Fellow in Ensemble Connect - a performance and teaching program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute. She received her Bachelor’s of Music from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, studying violin with Cornelia Heard and viola with Kathryn Plummer, and completed her Master’s of Music degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.
Domenic Salerni is a violinist, composer, arranger, and teacher. A member of the multiple GRAMMY© Award-winning Attacca Quartet, Domenic is based in Brooklyn, NY. As a musician with wide-ranging interests, Domenic is always excited to collaborate with creatives from all walks of life.
Recently, Attacca Quartet was featured on Sylvan Esso’s “Live from Electric Lady,” playing arrangements by Gabriel Kahane including “Will the Night,” a tune by the late Mimi Parker of the band Low. In addition to a busy touring schedule including appearances at Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, Kings Place, London, the Amsterdam Strijkkwartet Biënnale, the Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, and the Petit Palau de la Musica, Barcelona this season, Attacca looks forward to performing this summer at the Ojai Festival, Kronos Quartet Festival in San Francisco, and an appearance at Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center made possible by Carnegie Hall.
Last summer, Domenic and the rest of his quartet mates were asked to compose original music for the podcast “The Sound: Mystery of Havana Syndrome” produced by Project Brazen and Goat Rodeo Productions.
Domenic looks forward to the premiere of his Piano Trio No. 2 “Elegiac” based on Ukrainian themes at Richmond, Virginia’s newest chamber music series, The Belvedere Series, in April. In August, he will join the Palaver Strings at the Screen Door Festival in Maine, where he will perform his own original arrangements of 60s Civil Rights Era protest songs (The Freedom Singers, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Pete Seeger, and more) with tenor Nicholas Phan. This set of songs will be recorded by Palaver with engineer Alan Bise on Azica Records in September.
In the summer of 2021, Domenic’s first string quartet, “Trilobites,” after a short story by Breece D J Pancake, was premiered at the inaugural Appalachian Chamber Music Festival in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Domenic was the first violinist of the Dalí Quartet from 2016-2020, where he collaborated extensively with musicians like Ricardo Morales and Olga Kern. The Dalí Quartet recorded the Brahms and Shostakovich piano quintets with Kern for Delos Records in 2019. With the Dalí Quartet, Domenic was a recipient of the Atlanta Symphony Talent Development Program’s 2019 Aspire Award.
As a guest artist of the Chiarina Chamber Players, Domenic was a recipient of a 2020 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant for the song cycle “The Best Cuisine” by Carlos Simon, which was premiered with guest bass-baritone Carl DuPont in 2021.
In 2020, as part of his response to the COVID-19 outbreak, Domenic helped set up the Philadelphia Musicians Relief Fund which has since raised over $100,000 in aid and continues to provide support for Philadelphia area musicians.
In 2010, while a graduate student at the Yale School of Music, Domenic composed and performed an original film accompaniment to the first full-length Italian feature film, Giuseppe De Liguoro’s “Dante’s Inferno” (1911). Domenic holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music, where he was a winner of the 2010 Yale Chamber Music Society Award.
Domenic can be found on albums released by Nonesuch Records, Sony Classical, Better Company Records, Loma Vista Recordings, Delos Music, Artek and his more experimental projects can be found on Bandcamp.
Lin Ma was appointed principal clarinetist of the National Symphony Orchestra by Gianandrea Noseda in 2018. Prior to joining the NSO, he has served as assistant principal and Eb clarinetist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2015. He also played a one-year position as second clarinet in the Houston Symphony. Ma won the 2014 Ima Hogg International Competition and performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Later, he appeared as soloist at the Baytown Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season opener. In addition, Ma has soloed with National Repertory Orchestra at the NRO music festival in 2013.
Ma earned his Master of Music degree at Rice University, under the tutelage of Richie Hawley, and he holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Richard Hawkins. Ma has also studied at the Idyllwild Arts Academy with Yehuda Gilad, and the Middle School attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Yuanfu Huang.
Ma is a Buffet Crampon Performing Artist, and he plays on Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces.
In the world-première of Tom Cipullo’s Josephine with UrbanArias, The Washington Post wrote: “... the afternoon belonged to Melissa Wimbish, who was creating the role of Josephine Baker in this world-première ... Beautifully prepared, vocally stunning, and theatrically riveting, Wimbish effortlessly held the audience in her hand throughout this one-woman show.”
Melissa Wimbish is consistently recognized for her captivating stage work and technical prowess across genres. Her astonishing ability to move between classical, contemporary, and pop styles has resulted in an adventurous career. This season, she was the soprano soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion, Dett’s The Ordering of Moses, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. A gifted interpreter of living works, the coloratura soprano has accumulated dozens of contemporary opera and art song project credits including Stella-Rondo in Why I Live at the P.O., Jessica Meyer’s 20 Minutes of Action with Sandbox Percussion Ensemble, the History Teacher in the world-premiere of Paul’s Case with UrbanArias, and the US-premiere of Harriet: a chamber opera at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival.
Melissa made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut after winning the Grand Prize in the NATS Artist Award National Competition as well as the Franco-American Prize for her command of French diction. Other career milestones include Bernstein’s MASS at The Kennedy Center, Mysteries of the Macabre with Baltimore Symphony, Nimue in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Camelot, The Ordering of Moses with In Series, the first staged version of Elvis Costello and Brodsky Quartet’s The Juliet Letters, and her groundbreaking, self-directed pandemic recital for the INVISION series.
Melissa lives in Baltimore where she co-leads the pop duo, Outcalls. Their third studio album, Greatest Hits, Vol. 1, was released in February 2022. Learn more at melissawimbish.com and outcallsband.com.
Described as “superb” by the Chicago Classical Review, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious is an emerging, passionate and versatile solo, chamber and orchestral musician and performer. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a winner of its John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic achievement. In 2023, Njioma won the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition and joint prizes in the CAG/YCAT auditions. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Chicago Philharmonic, Western Michigan Symphony and the Newark Symphony Orchestra.
A founding member of the Abeo Quartet, Njioma completed studies with Ryan Meehan and the Calidore String Quartet at the University of Delaware as a fellow in the Graduate String Quartet in Residence Program. In 2023, Abeo won Third Prize in the Bad Tolz International String Quartet Competition. In 2022, Abeo won First Prize and Audience Favorite Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and was invited to participate in the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition. As undergraduates the quartet studied with the Juilliard String Quartet and has also been coached by members of the Alban Berg, Quatuor Ebene, Takács, Artemis, Brentano, Miró, Dover and Emerson quartets.
Njioma is a frequent chamber music series player and has performed at festivals including Rockport Chamber Music, Music@Menlo, Norfolk Chamber Music, Perlman Chamber Music Workshop and more.
Njioma began her studies at 4 years old and was a scholarship recipient through Boston’s Project STEP string training program for black and Latino youth. Since then she has performed in numerous volunteer concerts, and as a Juilliard Gluck Fellow performed regularly for the medically vulnerable, retirees and children. These days Njioma loves teaching composition and collaboration to NYC children from underrepresented communities through the Opportunity Music Project.
Meredith Riley enjoys a varied career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, teacher, jazz violinist, and musical collaborator. She is currently contracted on a one year section violin position with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. Previously, Meredith was Associate Principal second violin of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Virginia. Prior to Richmond, she was a member of the Erie Philharmonic and Canton Symphony, and appeared as guest Concertmaster of Johnstown Symphony all while completing graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University under the direction of Andrés Cárdenes. Ms.Riley received her BMus in Violin Performance at the University of Texas.
Since 2016, Ms. Riley has been touring with Sphinx Virtuosi throughout the US, each year performing in the country’s most renowned concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Ordway Concert Hall, The Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, The Kennedy Center, The New World Center and more. As a devoted chamber musician, Riley has performed with the Smithsonian Chamber Players on the Axelrod Stradivarius violins at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. She has performed with Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia and records and collaborates frequently with Spacebomb Records in Richmond, VA. Meredith is currently on faculty as an adjunct professor of violin at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ms. Riley’s accolades include recognition in the Young Texas Artist Awards, Crescendo Music Awards, National Sphinx Competition, a Bank of America Fellow for the National Alliance for Audition Support, a Sphinx MPower Grant recipient, and selection as a Young Artist for the Starling Delay Symposium at the Juilliard School. Solo appearances include those with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, New England String Orchestra, both University of Texas Symphony ensembles, the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, Sunflower Festival Orchestra, and Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic.
Equally at home in the solo, chamber, and orchestral stages, Sarah Frisof is a passionate flutist and educator. As a soloist, Ms. Frisof was the second-prize winner of both the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition, and she was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kobe International Flute Competition. As a committed proponent of contemporary music, Ms. Frisof frequently premieres major works. In June of 2016, Ms. Frisof and her collaborative partner, Daniel Pesca, piano, released their first album, The Flute Music of Joseph Schwantner, an authoritative recording of all of Schwantner’s major works for flute. Her second album, Beauty Crying Forth, a survey of music by female composers across time, was released in August of 2020.
In addition to Ms. Frisof’s work as a solo artist, she is an active orchestral and chamber musician, having worked with major symphony orchestras across the country, including the Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Kansas City Symphony and many others. In the summers, Ms. Frisof plays with several festival orchestras including the Sunflower Festival (Topeka, KS), and Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO). Ms. Frisof is an active member of Sound Impact, a chamber collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the US and abroad through live performance, educational programs, and creative collaborations with other artists and art forms. Ms. Frisof currently serves as the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Maryland.
Violinist Wanzhen Li was appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. by Christoph Eschenbach in September of 2015. The Boston Globe describes her playing: "Li established a sense of nostalgia... that provided a framework for the musical journey. Her tone seemed to cry. It was great playing; fun to hear." As a soloist, Ms. Li appeared with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, Binghamton Philharmonic, Guilford Symphony, Grosse Point Symphony, and Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra.
Ms. Li has performed frequently with violinist Itzhak Perlman, accompanying him to Israel, Florida, and Vermont for residencies with the Perlman Music Program. She has also performed solo recitals as part of the Perlman Music Program's Alumni recital series at the Clark Arts
Center.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Li has been invited to prestigious festivals including Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, The Perlman Chamber Music Program, and "Spannungen: Musik im Krafwerk Heimbach" in Germany. She has shared the stage with artists including Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Peter Frankl, Laurence Lesser, Alban Gerhardt, Paul Katz, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and musicians from the New York Philharmonic. Her solo and chamber performances have been broadcast on German radio “Deutschlandfunk”, IPRInterlochen public radio, and released on the Avi-Music record label.
Prior to joining the NSO, Ms. Li performed frequently with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Soloists, and the Grammy Award-nominated ensemble A Far Cry. She has also led the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and New England
Conservatory Philharmonia as concertmaster.
Ms. Li maintains a private teaching studio and is a chamber music coach and teacher for the
NSO’s Summer Music Institute and Fellowship Programs throughout the year. In addition, she has served on faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Wu Han, China.
Based in New York City, violist Celia Hatton has performed throughout Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and the US. Her solos as Principal Viola of Experiential Orchestra can be heard on GRAMMY winning album “The Prison.” She is a member of A Far Cry and Co-Principal of Chamber Orchestra of New York. She has performed with The Knights, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and toured internationally as Principal Viola of Sphinx Virtuosi. Hatton is an Honorary Ambassador for the New York in Chuncheon Festival in South Korea. Her world premieres include string quartets by Colin Matthews, Derek Bermel, and Felix Jarrar. She has performed with Harlem String Quartet, Blair String Quartet, Manhattan Chamber Players, and North Country Chamber Players. She can be heard on the movie scores of Joker (2019), I Tonya, A Dog’s Purpose, Goldfinch, The Greatest Showman, and West Side Story (2021). Hatton earned degrees from New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian and Manhattan School of Music with Karen Dreyfus.
A founding member of the Catalyst Quartet, Karla Donehew Perez maintains a busy performance schedule throughout the United States and around the world. Born in Puerto Rico, Donehew Perez began playing the violin at age three and made her solo debut with the Puerto Rico Symphony at 9 years old. At age 12, her family moved to California where she continued her studies with Anne Crowden, director and founder of The Crowden School.
Donehew Perez completed her bachelors and masters degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying performance with the heralded violin teachers Paul Kantor, David Cerone, and William Preucil. She has performed as featured soloist with the Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, and the New World Symphony among others. As a chamber musician, she has performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, Zuill Bailey, Awadagin Pratt, Anthony McGill, Stewart Goodyear, Fredericka Von Stade, Garry Karr, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Takács quartets. Donehew Perez has been guest concertmaster at the Tucson Symphony and spent two years as a fellow at the New World Symphony, where she was often concertmaster or principal second violin.
Donehew Perez performs on a violin made in 2013 by renowned German luthier Stefan Peter Greiner, supported in part by a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, and a fine violin bow by Victor Fetique on generous loan from the Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.
1st Prize winner of the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, 1st Prize winner of the 14th National Sphinx Competition, and Gold Medalist with High Distinction at the 5th Manhattan International Music Competition, violist Paul Laraia has established an international career performing as soloist and chamber musician. Acclaimed by the Strad for his "eloquent” and "vibrant" playing, Paul has been soloist with major orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Filharmonica de Bogata, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, New Haven Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and has been featured soloist at London's Wigmore Hall, the Shalin Lui Performance Center in Rockport MA, the 40th International Viola Congress, the Kennedy Center in DC, and in various venues across NYC, Philadelphia, and Boston.
Paul has given hundreds of performances globally in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Kennedy Center in DC, Detroit's historic Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Auditorio Leon de Greiff in Colombia, and at New York's Lincoln Center. Additionally, he has been an invited artist at major festivals such as the Yellow Barn, Sarasota, Vail International, Festival Del Sole, incheon music hic et nunc!, Hong Kong Generation Next Arts, Macau International, Sitka, Banff, Grand Canyon, and Portland’s Chamber Music Northwest, where he is artist in residence for the 2022-2024 seasons. The 2022-2023 season also features Paul’s string quartet, Catalyst Quartet, as artists in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where they curated a series of inspired collaborations and performances throughout the year.
Paul has performed and collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our times such as Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Anthony Mcgill, Yo-Yo Ma, Jorg Widmann, Vadim Repin, Edgar Meyer, Donald Weilerstein, Khatia Buniatishvili, Kim Kashkashian, Anthony Marwood, Zlatomir Fung, Paul Huang, JP Jofre, and incredible artists of other genres such as Herman Cornejo, Cecile Mclorin Salvant, Aaron Diehl, Machine Dazzle, Caleb Teicher, and Calvin Royal. An avid new music proponent, Paul has worked directly with many of the leading voices in composition such as Jessie Montgomery (played together in Catalyst Quartet), David Ludwig Serkin, Gabriella Lena Frank, Richard Danielpour, Jimmy Lopez, Todd Machover, and maintains an especially close artistic partnership with Taiwanese composer Shiuan Chang, with whom he is crafting a new work as a requiem for peace in our troubled times.
Paul comes from a Philadelphian viola lineage, beginning studies with Brynina Socolofsky (student of Leonard Mogill), and then continuing with Choon-jin Chang (Principal, Philadelphia Orchestra) and Che-hung Chen, through Temple University’s Center for Talented Youth and the Settlement Music School. In 2007, Paul entered the New England Conservatory of Music with full merit scholarship and began the most central stage of his training under Kim Kashkashian for 4 years, making musical friends and colleagues that continue to influence him to this day. Other major musical influences from his time at NEC include Dimitri Murath, Roger Tapping, Donald Weilerstein, Paul Katz, and after NEC, Steven Dann at the Glenn Gould School.
Paul believes that it is crucial to expose the highest level of classical music to all people, and actively engages in community performances, gives masterclasses, performs new music, and explores the boundaries of how classical music is traditionally presented. Paul has brought music to inner city schools, Native American Reservations, hospitals, nursing homes, and has presented concerts to areas and communities with limited access to live concert music. As of 2023 Paul has joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at the Berklee School of Music in order to pass on his belief in music’s power to heal and to connect people. Paul is also a recipient of the Sphinx Organization's 2019 MPower artist-grant for his innovative work in self produced/engineered recording projects. Paul’s musical work, as well as his musical writings have been featured in the NYtimes, Strad Magazine, on NPR, and WQXR multiple times.
Paul performs on a beautiful Hiroshi Iizuka viola in the ‘viola d’amore’ style, a prized Belgian bow by Pierre Guillaume awarded by the Bishops Strings shop in London, and is a proud supporter of Pirastro’s Eva Pirazzi Strings.
The Thalea String Quartet brings their signature vibrancy and emotional commitment to dynamic performances that reflect the past, present, and the future of the string quartet repertoire while celebrating diverse musical traditions from around the world. Fueled by the belief that chamber music is a powerful force for building community and human connection, the Thalea String Quartet has performed across North America, Europe, and China, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Massey Hall, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. They have shared the stage with luminaries of the chamber music world, including members of the Emerson, Borromeo and St Lawrence String Quartets, and they have performed alongside celebrated artists including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, violist Lawrence Power, acclaimed Canadian band BADBADNOTGOOD, and visionary hip hop artist Jay Electronica.
Committed to shaping and contributing to the future of the string quartet repertoire, the Thalea String Quartet has premiered dozens of new works and have collaborated on new commissions with composers including Paola Prestini, Anthony R. Green, Akshaya Avril Tucker, and Tanner Porter.
Winners of the 2021 Ann Divine Educator Award from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the members of the Thalea String Quartet have been celebrated for their innovative approach to education and community engagement. Pioneers of virtual educational program ming, TSQ has developed a variety of digital content, including two digital video series for stu dents of all ages and the CHAMPS Virtual Chamber Music Seminar, which brought together stu dents from across North America for an eight-week intensive study of the music of Florence B. Price, Joseph Haydn, and Antonín Dvořák. The members of the TSQ have presented master classes and workshops at institutions across North America, including the Berklee College of Music, the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and San Francisco State University. They have presented lectures and led discussions at institutions including the University of Maryland, Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and Wayne State Medical School in Detroit, where they presented a workshop on non-verbal communication to first year medical students alongside the Emerson String Quartet.
The Thalea String Quartet is the Doctoral Fellowship String Quartet at the University of Maryland. The quartet has also held fellowship positions at the University of Texas at Austin and the San Francisco Conservatory. They served as Associated Artists at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium for the 2019-20 season and were the 2019-20 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. They were top prize winners at the 2018 Fischoff Competition and 2018 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition.
Christopher Whitley (violin) is originally from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Kumiko Sakamoto (violin) is from Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada; Lauren Spaulding (viola) is from San Antonio, Texas; and Alex Cox (cello) is from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Derek Powell was appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra in 2020 by music director Gianandrea Noseda. Prior to joining the NSO, Derek served in the military as a violinist in the U.S Army Band “Pershing’s Own” where he performed at the White House for State visits and other high profile events. As a military musician he also regularly performed in service of congressional and military leadership in addition to giving performances to the general public. Derek is a frequent guest artist with 21st Century Cosort, Inscape, and is a regular performer-educator with Sound Impact, a music collective using music education and engagement to further positive social change. Derek also coaches with the NSO’s Youth Fellowship program.
Derek earned a Bachelor of Science double major with honors in neurobiology and music from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and graduated with his Master of Music degree from Rice University, where he was awarded the Distinguished Fellowship in Violin. Derek continued his studies as a fellow in the New World Symphony, “America’s Orchestral Academy”, in Miami Beach, Fl under the baton of music director Michael Tilson Thomas. His primary teachers include David Perry, Kathleen Winkler, Felicia Moye, and Eugene Purdue. In the summer Derek performs with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and has previously performed with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland and the Strings Festival Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, CO.
Philip Kramp is a versatile performer and teacher whose playing has been heard worldwide. Praised by the New York Times for his “impressive” performances, he has participated in chamber music festivals at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Sarasota and many others.
Based in Washington, DC, Phil is a former violist in the Kansas City Symphony and a former faculty member of the University of Kansas. Currently, Phil is on the faculty at the University of Maryland and he plays regularly with the National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has performed on tours worldwide with many orchestras and can be heard on recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble and The Roots. Phil can also be heard on many motion picture soundtracks and television shows.
In chamber music settings, Phil plays regularly with the Chiarina Chamber Players, as well as in concerts with members of the National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a past participant of the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed on several tours with Musicians from Marlboro. He is also a regular participant and the Twickenham Music Festival and the Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, Colo. Phil has also enjoyed collaborating with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has performed alongside many of the world’s greatest artists, such as Richard Goode, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, Arnold Steinhardt, Marcy Rosen, Miriam Fried and many others.
In competitions, Phil has won prizes in the Irving Klein String Competition, Chicago Viola Society Competition, NEC Concerto Competition and has participated in the Stulberg Competition and the HAMS Viola Competition. Phil received his formal training at the Curtis Institute and the New England Conservatory. His primary mentors include Michael Tree, Roberto Diaz, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Joe DePasquale, Peter Wiley and Steven Tenenbom.
Eugena Chang joined the cello section of the National Symphony Orchestra in 2016 under the Music Director of Christoph Eschenbach. She was previously in the Minnesota Orchestra from 2007-2016. She was only 20 years old when she started, being the youngest in the orchestra. She also acted Associate Principal in the Minnesota Orchestra from 2012-2013 and 2015-2016.
Chang was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 14. She studied with Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, and William Stokking. While she was at Curtis she participated in numerous chamber music, orchestra and solo performances. She attended Itzhak Perlman's summer music program from 2002 to 2006, studying there with Ron Leonard and Paul Katz, and she has also studied with Eleonore Schoenfeld in California. Her last year at Curtis, she served as principal cello and also subbed in the Philadelphia Orchestra.
As the recipient of numerous awards, prizes, and scholarships, Chang has appeared across the nation as a recitalist and chamber musician, and several of her performances have been broadcast on radio and television. In 2009, she made her Paris recital debut at the Auditorium du Louvre.
National Symphony Orchestra Assistant Principal Bassist Richard Barber was born into a musical family, beginning piano studies at age seven and double bass at age nine. His decision to pursue music (and not science) as a career was made at age 18. That decision took him to Baltimore, where he studied with former National Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassist Harold Robinson, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in three years from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Winning his first audition two weeks after graduation, Barber moved to Arizona to join the Phoenix Symphony. After three seasons in Phoenix and two summers touring Europe with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, he joined the National Symphony Orchestra in 1995 as a section bassist and was promoted to assistant principal in 1996. Since then he has been particularly active in the orchestra's chamber music and education programs. He also appears regularly with The 21st Century Consort, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. He plays a double bass made ca. 1620 in Italy by the Brescian master Giovanni Paolo Maggini.
Pianist Steven Beck continues to gather acclaim for his performances and recordings. Recent career highlights include performances of Beethoven’s variations and bagatelles at Bargemusic, where he first performed the Beethoven sonata cycle.
An experienced performer of new music, Beck has worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl, and has performed with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble. He is a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Knights, and the Talea Ensemble. He is also a member of Quattro Mani, a piano duo specializing in contemporary music. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orpheus, the Mariinsky Orchestra and many others.
Mr. Beck’s discography includes Peter Lieberson's third piano concerto (for Bridge Records) and a recording of Elliott Carter’s “Double Concerto” on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist.
Patrick Morgan’s playing has been praised by the Washington Post as “riveting” and “...a mystical experience.” He has been performing in the DC area since 2008. Patrick accepted a position with the United States Marine Band and Chamber Orchestra at the age of 22, and was appointed principal clarinet in 2015. As a teacher, he has given masterclasses at universities across the country, including Northwestern, Eastman, Baylor, and the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he was a student of Howard Klug. He lives in Springfield, VA with his wife and two children.
Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players, a chamber music concert series and flexible ensemble in Washington, DC, founded in 2015. A recipient of a prestigious 2020 Classical Commissioning grant from Chamber Music America, Chiarina has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming, called “some of the most compelling chamber programs in town” by the Washington Post.
Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, the Kennedy Center and Bargemusic, and in the Friends of Mozart series. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Jerusalem Music Center, and in special concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society. His recordings include a 2013 album on the Naxos label, which includes several world premiere recordings (Polish Violin Music with violinist Kinga Augustyn). Efi is often featured on WETA Classical’s Front Row Washington. He has been praised for his “highly personal, thought-through interpretation” (Polish Weekly) and “feather-light pianism” (Washington Classical Review).
Efi is also interested in reaching out to new audiences, and in this context he has toured west Texas, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Maryland and North Carolina as part of his collaboration with the Piatigorsky Foundation. On these tours he performed with cellist Evan Drachman and soprano Raquela Sheeran in high schools, public libraries, retirement communities and more.
Efi has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system, Montgomery College in Rockville, MD, Levine School of Music, and Summertrios chamber music festival. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman.
A versatile performer bringing “sonorous life” to the stage [Cleveland Plain Dealer], cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Capitol Hill-based chamber music series Chiarina Chamber Players. A recipient of a 2020 Classical Commissioning grant from Chamber Music America, grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the inaugural John Franzén Award for the Arts from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, Chiarina has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming. Carrie’s performances have been broadcast on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington.
In DC, Carrie has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and 21st Century Consort. She currently serves as assistant principal cellist of “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, where she performs in such diverse settings as the White House, area public schools, the Phillips Collection, and for events hosted by the United Nations and State Department. Carrie also serves as a professorial lecturer of cello and chamber music at George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.
In 2021 Carrie performed as soloist in the North American premiere of Pēteris Vasks’s Cello Concerto No. 2. A performer who seeks out the voices of today, she collaborates with a growing set of composers, including Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon, who composed a work for Chiarina in 2020. She took part in the Carnegie Hall workshop “New Voices, New Music” as a member of the NY-based ensemble Hotel Elefant. She has performed chamber music at such venues as Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y. Her work with small ensembles and orchestras can be heard on the Albany, Avie, BSO Classics, and GlorClassics recording labels.
Carrie was a fellow at the New World Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, Aldeburgh Festival, and the Sarasota and Norfolk chamber music festivals. Carrie served as an adjunct instructor at CUNY Queens College, where she taught cello and chamber music, and also served as a faculty member at the DC Youth Orchestra Program, the Opus 118 School in Harlem, and at national youth orchestra festivals in Colombia and Honduras. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Orchestra of the Americas’ Global Leader Program, which offers fieldwork and training for teaching artists. She holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and The Graduate Center at City University of New York, where she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Her teachers include Steven Doane, János Starker, and Marcy Rosen.