BETWEEN WORLDS: Dvořák, Ravel, Simon, Ponce

Abi Fayette

Violinist Abi Fayette is the youngest of four children in a musical family. Her violin studies began at age three with her mother and continued on to The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division studying with Ms. Shirley Givens. Other principal teachers include Ann Setzer, Kyung-Wha Chung, and Joseph Silverstein. Fayette received her bachelor’s degree from The Curtis Institute of Music studying with Ida Kavafian and masters degree from New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Soovin Kim. Currently, she is a member of the Grammy Nominated Catalyst Quartet and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, where she also serves as Artistic Director.

Fayette's love for chamber music has led to performances with renowned musicians such as Jonathan Biss, Brett Dean, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Ida Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, Steven Tenenbom, Jörg Widmann, and Peter Wiley. During her time at New England Conservatory, she performed alongside the Borromeo String Quartet as a recipient of their Guest Artist Award. She has performed at numerous festivals such as Kneisel Hall, Music from Angel Fire, The Taos School of Music, and Marlboro Music Festival.

As an active touring musician, Fayette’s performances have taken her all over the world with appearances spanning across the United States, Europe, and Asia. During her time at Curtis, she participated in the school’s Global Touring Initiative as a soloist with The Curtis Chamber Orchestra and as a chamber musician playing alongside her former teacher, Ida Kavafian. She will also appear on future Musicians of Marlboro tours.

Abi performs on a violin made in 1860 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume generously on loan from Marlboro Music.

Carrie Bean Stute

Cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Washington, DC-based Chiarina Chamber Players, a chamber music series and flexible ensemble that has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming. Carrie’s chamber music performances have been broadcast on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington. In DC, she performs with the National Symphony Orchestra, has served as an adjunct professor of music at George Washington University, and is currently 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, and for events hosted by the United Nations and State Department.

A performer who seeks out the voices of today, she collaborates with a growing set of composers, including Reinaldo Moya, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Juhi Bansal, and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon. Carrie authored a doctoral dissertation on the cello works of Pēteris Vasks and in 2021 performed as soloist in the North American premiere of his Cello Concerto No. 2. She took part in the Carnegie Hall workshop “New Voices, New Music” and has performed chamber music at such venues as the Phillips Collection, Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y.

Carrie holds degrees from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (Doctor of Musical Arts), Indiana University, and the Eastman School of Music. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center. Forthcoming in 2024-25 are recordings of chamber music by Carlos Simon (with Domenic Salerni, Efi Hackmey, and Carl DuPont) and clarinet trios by Brahms and Beethoven (with Robert DiLutis and Rita Sloan).

Efi Hackmey

Pianist Efi Hackmey is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players, together with cellist Carrie Bean Stute. Mr. Hackmey is an active soloist and chamber musician in NYC and in the DC area. In 2013 he released an album on the Naxos label, which includes several world premiere recordings (Polish Violin Music with violinist Kinga Augustyn). Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Kennedy Center, Bargemusic, Arion Chamber Music, and the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. He performed many additional concerts in Alabama, California, DC, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Jerusalem Music Center, and in special concerts presented by the Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society. He has performed on Israeli TV Channel 2, and his recordings have been broadcast on the Israeli National Public Radio,and in the US on WTSU, WRWA and WTJB. A review of one of his New York performances quotes “excellent Israeli musician... under his fingers the piano sounded noble, and each phrase was full of character”, and further praises his “highly personal, thought through interpretation.” (Roman Markowicz, “Nowy Dziennik”).

Mr. Hackmey has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system, Montgomery College in Rockville, MD, and Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. He holds a Doctor of Music degree in piano performance 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, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker, David Zinman, Richard Stoltzman and Jaime Laredo.

Njioma Grevious

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.

Paul Laraia

Acclaimed by the Strad for "eloquent” and "vibrant" playing, Paul is the 1st Prize winner of both the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and the 14th National Sphinx Competition, Gold Medalist with High Distinction at the 5th Manhattan International Music Competition and 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, and the Sphinx Virtuosi, in addition to being featured soloist at London's Wigmore Hall, the Shalin Lui Performance Center, the 40th International Viola Congress, the Kennedy Center in DC, and in various venues across NYC, Philadelphia, and Boston.

In 2023 Paul joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at the Berklee School of Music with the hope of passing 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 and a 2024 MPower grant to fund his A Zarabanda Project. Paul’s music, as well as his musical writings have been featured in the NYtimes, Strad Magazine, on NPR, and WQXR multiple times.

Paul regularly performs internationally in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Detroit's Symphony Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Suntory Hall, Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Auditorio Leon de Greiff in Colombia, the Lincoln Center, and many others. Additionally, he has been an artist at 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 was artist in residence for the 2022-2024 seasons. The 2022-2024 seasons also featured Paul’s 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 classical 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.

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. At NEC Paul made musical friends and colleagues that continue to influence him to this day and musical mentors including 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, composes and 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.

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.