Form, Shape, Groove

Adria Sternstein Foster

Praised by the Washington Post for her “molten phrasing” and tone of “sheer iridescence,” Adria Sternstein Foster enjoys a multi-faceted musical career.

Adria is the Principal Flutist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra (KCOHO), the resident orchestra of the Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In this role she performs for the Washington National Opera, Kennedy Center ballet programming and musical theater productions.

For many years Adria performed chamber music for flute, harp and strings throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area with the IBIS Chamber Music Society. She has been heard on NPR’s Front Row Washington and appears in the 2017 documentary film Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.

Recordings include Vivaldi’s flute concerto “Il Gardellino” on the disc IBIS x 2, and Iridescence, a CD of works for flute and harp with KCOHO principal harpist Susan Robinson. In 2022 Adria toured South Africa along with a quintet of orchestra colleagues giving masterclasses and performing music for flute, harp, and strings sponsored by the Classical Movements organization.

A native of New York City, Adria attended LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts and was a student of Bonnie Lichter at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division. She continued her education at Juilliard where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a student of Julius Baker and Jeanne Baxtresser.

Adria is honored to have collaborated on Volume 2 of the indispensable publication for flutists, “Orchestral Excerpts for Flute with Piano Accompaniment,” with her mentor Jeanne Baxtresser, former Principal Flutist of the New York Philharmonic.

For more information please visit www.adriasfoster.com

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).

Ji Su Jung

The first solo percussionist to ever receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ji Su Jung has a distinctive musical voice that is instantly recognizable for its lyricism and sincerity. Her artistic breadth carries her with equal ease from the solo marimba medium to multiple percussion solos and European theatrical performance pieces. 

Born in South Korea, she is a rarity in the world of percussion having begun her studies at the age of four. Her exceptional talent was recognized early on and led to recitals and concerto performances at such a young age that she needed a small platform to stand upon just to reach the keyboard of the instrument. That platform was soon left behind as her stature and musical voice matured and numerous solo performances ensued. In 2011, she came to the United States where she completed her undergraduate studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, thanks to a generous grant from The Brookby Foundation in Wisconsin, and later received her Masters and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of famed percussionist Robert van Sice.

Her exceptional potential quickly blossomed into professional success leading to concerto performances including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with Marin Alsop, Houston Symphony with Daniel Hege, the Aspen Festival Orchestra with Michael Stern, Grand Rapids Symphony with Marchelo Lehninger, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, Boise Philharmonic with Eric Garcia, the Windsor Symphony in Canada with Robert Franz and the Romanian Symphony Orchestra. Miss Jung made her commercial recording debut this season at the invitation of Pulitzer prize winning composer, Kevin Puts performing his spectacular marimba concerto with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony for the Naxos label. Her recitals across America have also won over new audiences for the marimba and her appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C resulted in an unexpected invitation to join the the faculty at The Peabody Institute. Ji Su has garnered numerous prizes in national and international competitions. She was the first percussionist in twenty six years to win the First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2018 Ima Hogg Competition of the Houston Symphony and was a laureate in the International Marimba Competition in Linz, Austria in 2015. NPR radio host Fred Childs welcomed her as an artist in residence for his nationally syndicated program, Performance Today. During her week with him in Minneapolis, she performed many of the seminal pieces in the marimba repertoire introducing the instrument to listeners in every corner of the country. While in Minnesota, Jung’s concerts for children were highly successful reflecting her love for bringing classical music to young audiences. Ji Su has presented master classes at numerous conservatories and universities around the world including the Curtis Institute of Music, New York University’s Stienhardt School, The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and the Beijing Central Conservatory in China and she serves on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music as well as the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

As the repertoire for marimba in mixed ensemble is growing rapidly, Miss Jung has become an active chamber musician alongside her solo concerts. Her first commercial chamber CD of Garth Neustadter’s Seaborne with The Percussion Collective is due for release in 2023. This all-star collection of young percussionists performs recitals and  concertos in major concert venues around the world and she has been a core member since its inception. She has also appeared at the Yellow Barn and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals where she performed with many of today’s greatest chamber musicians including legendary pianist Gilbert Kalish and Roger Tapping, formerly of the Takács String Quartet. Starting in the 2022-2023 season, Ji Su will join forces with luminary flutist Marina Piccinini to form a duo performing in both North America and Europe.

Karla Donehew Perez

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.

Robert DiLutis

Robert DiLutis is currently professor of clarinet at the University of Maryland, School of Music, College Park. Previously Mr. DiLutis was professor of clarinet at the Louisiana State University School of Music from 2009-2012, assistant principal and e-flat clarinetist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and a clarinet professor at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. DiLutis has also served on the faculties of the St. Mary's University in Texas and Nazareth College in New York. Most recently Mr. DiLutis developed and taught an Orchestral Audition Training Program for the Eastman School of Music. His many clinics and master classes have included Ithaca College, Hartt School of Music, Boston University, New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music and the Academia y Banda De Musica De Norena, Oviedo, Spain.

Making his Carnegie Hall Recital debut in 1989, Mr. DiLutis has also performed as a featured soloist with ensembles such as the San Antonio Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Recently Mr. DiLutis toured with the New York Philharmonic on its historic trip to Pyongyang, North Korea. Mr. DiLutis is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with David Weber. In addition to his performance career Mr. DiLutis is the creator of the Reed Machine, a reed-making device used by top professionals around the world. Mr. DiLutis is an Artist for Buffet Group USA , Selmer, Lohff & Pfeiffer and Rovner.

As part of Professor DiLutis' comprehensive program at the university, he is offering classes in Clarinet Choir, Instrument Repair, Single Reed Making, Orchestral Repertoire, Clarinet Master Class, How to Win an Orchestral Audition, Chamber Music, Clarinet, Eb Clarinet and Bass Clarinet lessons. In 2016, Mr. DiLutis had been principal clarinetist with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra for the past 8 years and will tour with the Maryland Clarinet Society to Dublin Ireland this summer. You can hear Mr. DiLutis on his recording on the Delos, Centaur, New World and Tonsehen recording labels.

Steven Beck

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.