Virginia Eskin   Pianist

photo credit: Susan Wilson

Virginia Eskin has performed as a soloist throughout the United States and Europe. Her concerto appearances include the Annapolis, Buffalo, Louisville, New Hampshire, Rochester, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Utah Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Classical, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Boston Pops. She has also performed as a soloist with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, with the New England Ragtime Ensemble, and at the Sedalia (Mo.) Ragtime Festival. In addition to numerous recitals and chamber music programs, her recent concerto performances include Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, Shostakovitch Concerto No. 1, and the Amy Beach Piano Concerto.

Following a concert performance of works by Beethoven, Chopin and Ravel, Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer wrote, “The harder the music, the better Eskin plays. … She’s not just a pianist but a communicator.” Another Globe critic wrote that her performance of the Pagannini Variations “had the grand manner down cold … fearless and right on technically, and burning all bridges and taking no prisoners.” American Record Guide, reviewing her Fluffy Ruffle Girls CD, calls her technique “impeccable … she displays a wonderful affinity for ragtime.” Reviewing her November 2002 performance of Gideon Klein’s piano sonata written during the Holocaust, the Berkshire Eagle wrote, “The formidable … Virginia Eskin … succeeded in recreating a musical vision of an artist’s life … .”

Virginia Eskin’s many recordings include works by American composers Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Rebecca Clark and George Chadwick. She has recorded with the Hawthorne Quartet – Chamber Music From Theresienstadt (Channel Classics), Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, (Koch) and Silenced Voices (Northeastern), and with the Portland String Quartet – Dvorak’s Piano Quintet (Arabesque). She is widely known for her “Ragtime Project” – Fluffy-Ruffle Girls (Koch 1999), American Beauties: The Rags of Joseph Lamb (Koch 2000 re-release), and Spring Beauties featuring works by contemporary composers (Koch 1998). Recent releases include a solo CD, Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (Koch), and works by Marion Bauer and Ruth Crawford (Albany). Her latest CD (with Irina Muresanu, violin, and Deborah Boldin, flute), features previously unrecorded works by Marion Bauer (Albany 2001). Virginia Eskin Receives Honorary Degree at Keene State College Commencement

Ms. Eskin appears regularly on college campuses as both a speaker and performer. She is a lecturer for the Boston University Evergreen Series and has served as a guest on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” She is a member of the Music Department faculty at Northeastern University and holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, awarded by Keene State College (NH) to recognize her contributions to women’s music.

Ms. Eskin frequently appears with chamber music groups throughout New England. Among her 2003 engagements were recitals with the Portland String Quartet and the Hawthorne Quartet, performances at the Rockport (MA) Music Festival and with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, and recitals at Monadnock Music in Peterborough, NH and at the Currier Gallery in Manchester, NH.

www.virginiaeskin.com

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Gregory Vitale is an active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. He is concertmaster of the New England String Ensemble (NESE), and has appeared as guest soloist with NESE on numerous occasions. He has also appeared as soloist with many other orchestras, including the Brookline Symphony, Wellesley Symphony, Cascade Festival Orchestra and the Nashua Chamber Orchestra. In Boston, Greg has participated in numerous live WGBH radio broadcasts. He has also performed with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops and Pops Esplanade orchestras, the Boston Ballet and Boston Lyric Opera. Greg has a particular interest in exploring the twentieth century repertoire. Recently, Greg performed Hartmann’s Concerto Funebre with NESE under the direction of Susan Davenny Wyner.

Greg also performed the Barber and Vaughn-Williams violin concertos with orchestra, both 20th century works which are gaining in widespread appeal. At an early age, Greg won first prize in the New England Conservatory Competition and was an ARTS Competition semifinalist. Varied interests led him to pursue academics at Phillips Exeter Academy and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then worked for a stint on Wall Street before delving into music full-time.

Among his other accomplishments, Greg was a soloist at the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg, and he was awarded a Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival. Showing his more whimsical side, he was once concertmaster of the Walt Disney All-American College Orchestra at Epcot Center. His past teachers include Josef Gingold, Denes Zsigmondy and Stephanie Chase. Greg’s parents are both violinists; his mother is in the Boston Ballet while his father is retired from the Boston Symphony.

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Christine Vitale   Violinist   Music Coordinator, Opus One

photo credit: Susan Wilson

A native of Germany, Christine studied at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, with Vesselin Parashkevov, before she came to the United States in 1995. As a recipient of the Starling Scholarship Award she continued her studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) with Kurt Sassmannshaus and Piotr Milewski, as well as with Dorothy DeLay. She graduated in 2000 with a Masters of Music degree from Boston University, where she studied with the concertmaster of the BSO Malcolm Lowe.

Christine participated at the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Music Centre and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Her chamber music experience include recitals in Europe and Philadelphia and Boston and she had chamber music coaches of worldwide acclaim such as Menahem Pressler, Peter Oundjian, Samuel Sanders, Henry Meyer, the Muir String Quartet and Christiane Edinger. Highlights of her performance career include a live performance on WCUG Cincinnati public Radio, serving as concertmaster for the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra on a tour to Portugal, and playing as a soloist with the New England String Ensemble in Jordan Hall. Christine performed in chamber music concerts and series at the French Library, King’s Chapel, Goethe Institute, Brandeis University, Longy School of Music and with the ‘Art of Music Chamber Players”.

Christine is a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the New England String Ensemble, and performs with the Boston Pops and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Auros Group for New Music, and the Cantata Singers, among others.

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Piotr Buczek   Violinist

Piotr Buczek was born in Chorzow, Poland. He was a founding member of the Penderecki String Quartet, which since 1991 remains the quartet- in- residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo (Ontario, Canada). Mr. Buczek began violin studies at the age of eight. In 1986, he graduated from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, receiving a Diploma of Art with special distinction.

In 1986, Mr. Buczek left Poland to continue his music education in the United States. From 1986-88 he was an assistant to Ralph Evans of the Fine Arts Quartet at the Chamber Music Institute in Milwaukee, where he received his Master’s Degree and studied with Pinchas Zukerman, Yo Yo Ma, Ursula Oppens, Shlomo Mintz, and others. Later, at the University of Maryland, he studied with Daniel Heifetz and Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley of the Guarneri Quartet.

He has performed throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas with the Penderecki Quartet and as a soloist and chamber musician. His discography includes eleven CD’s with the Penderecki Quartet. His chamber music partners have been: pianists Janina Fialkowska, Lev Natochenny, Jamie Parker, cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Pieter Wispelwey, violinist Martin Beaver, clarinetist James Campbell, Fine Arts and St. Lawrence String Quartets, Gryphon Trio, Hilliard Ensemble and many others. He is frequently heard on CBC Radio. In the fall of 1993 he performed a North American premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki String Trio in Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City. In 1995 he appeared as a soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra during the Takefu Music Festival in Japan.

His experience performing period instruments includes concerts with Sinfonia Calcania of Boston, Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra of Boston, master-classes and workshops with Jeanne Lamon, Jaap Schroder and Ken Slovik. His pedagogical experience includes eight years of teaching violin at Wilfrid Laurier University,Canada, coaching master-classes and teaching chamber music as an artist-in-residence at Trenton College, Furman University, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and many clinics and festivals throughout Canada and USA. Presently he studies under Roman Totenberg at Boston University while completing his DMA in violin performance.

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Ala Jojatu   Violinist

Mrs. Jojatu was born in Moldavia and began studying the violin at age of six. After graduating from high school she was invited to study with Stefan Gheorghiu at the Bucharest Academy of Music (1997-1999). In 1999 she won a full scholarship to attend the The Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Lynn Chang. Mrs. Jojatu is now working towards her Master’s degree at Boston University with the Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm Lowe.

Among her numerous awards, Mrs. Jojatu won the concerto competition at The Boston Conservatory performing Alban Berg’s violin concerto, second prize at "Jeunesse Musicales" international violin competition, first prize at Kishinev and Brasov international violin competitions and Honorable Mention at Kloster Schontal international violin competition.

While attending the Tanglewood Music Festival in the summers of 2000 and 2001 she played under renown conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon, Robert Spano, James de Priest; and studied with violinists Joel Smirnoff of the Juilliard String Quartet, Pamela Frank and Andy Jennings.
Mrs. Jojatu currently resides in Littleton, MA with her husband Mihail Jojatu, cellist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

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Krista Buckland Reisner   Violinist

A musician of great versatility, Krista has a diverse musical life that ranges from soloist to orchestra musician. Krista toured across Canada as a solo recitalist after winning the Eckhardt-Gramatte Competition for 20th-Century Music, and has played concertos in cities ranging from New York City to St. John’s, Newfoundland. She has also toured the globe as an orchestra player, performing with groups such as Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

For five years, Krista held the position of Principal Second Violin in the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. She now lives in Boston where she is Principal Second in the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and is on Faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Krista’s musical interests are broad. As an advocate for new music and ideas, she was commissioned by the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra to premiere a concerto written specifically for her by Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum. She appeared, to critical acclaim, as violinist/dancer in a piece she created with choreographer Kelly Arnsby on Toronto’s Collaborations series. She was the violist/performance artist in the Banff Centre’s multimedia opera Kafka’s Chimp, and this year she is developing a multi-media performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in Boston’s New Gallery Concert Series.

As a studio musician, Krista has recorded albums with Canadian stars like Natalie MacMaster and John MacDermont and recently backed up Diana Krall at the 2000 Juno Awards, and she has made a solo recording of Count Wilhelm van Wassener’s concertos for 4 violins for Naxos records. Playing baroque violin, Krista has toured New Zealand, recorded with the Grammy-nominated Boston Baroque, been broadcast on CBC radio with the Aradia Baroque Ensemble, and performed frequently in Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society. Other exciting projects for this year include performing in Carnegie Hall as the violinist in Boston’s new music group Alea III and making the Boston premiere of John Adams’s Road Movies for violin and piano.

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Sheila Vitale was born in Akron, Ohio, and was fortunate to study with such great teachers as Josef Gingold, and then later with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School of Music. Married, and then becoming a BSO wife, she finished her schooling at the New England Conservatory where she studied with Joseph Silverstein.

Ms.Vitale is currently a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra for which she occasionally acts as concertmaster or principal second violin. Through the years, while raising a family, she has performed with Boston's finest musical organizations including the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and the Boston and Lyric Opera companies.

One of the highlights of Ms. Vitale's career was winning first prize in a competition, allowing her to perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. Currently, Sheila is maintaining a busy private violin studio in Marblehead. She also teaches on a volunteer basis for Girls Inc., an after-school program for underprivileged girls in Lynn.

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Rebecca Gitter   Violist   member, Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)

Born in Canada in 1978, Rebecca Gitter began violin studies at the age of seven and viola studies when she was thirteen. In May 2001 she received her bachelor of music degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music where she was a student of Robert Vernon, having previously studied in Toronto, Ontario. While at CIM, she was the recipient of The Institute's Annual Viola Prize and the Robert Vernon Prize in Viola, and twice received honorable mention in the school's concerto competition resulting in solo performances.

Among other honors, she was the 2000 recipient of Toronto's Ben Steinberg Jewish Musical Legacy Award and prior to being appointed to the BSO viola section, she was offered a position in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. During the summers she has participated in the Taos School of Music, Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists and The National Academy and National Youth Orchestras of Canada. Rebecca joined the viola section of The Boston Symphony Orchestra in August 2001.

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Jennifer Stirling   Violist

Jennifer Stirling was born and educated in Great Britain where she attended the Guildhall School of Music. As a student there she studied with David Takeno and was awarded a silver medal in the performance section of the LGSM diploma exam. In 1985 Ms. Stirling pursued further studies in violin performance at the New England Conservatory under Masuko Ushioda, Paul Kantor, and Eric Rosenblith. After receiving her Bachelor degree in Music from NEC, she performed regularly in numerous groups throughout New England, including Emmanuel Music, the Portland Symphony, the New Hampshire Symphony, the Boston Quartet, the Andover Chamber Ensemble, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, as well as with the New England String Ensemble.

As a chamber musician she has participated in summer festivals at Yellow Barn, Vermont; Hampden-Sydney, Virginia; and at the Prussia Cove International Musician's Seminar in the UK. Ms. Stirling has had extensive experience with contemporary music, performing at the Warebrook Festival in Vermont, with Cygnus of New Jersey, the Stony Brook Quartet, and in a tour with the Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt. Locally, she is a founding member of the Piscataqua Chamber Players and the Tara Ensemble. She has been involved for many years as a teacher and chamber music coach and is committed to a large studio at Phillips Exeter Academy.

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Lisa Suslowicz  Violist

photo credit: Christian Steiner

Lisa Suslowicz was born in Chicago and grew up in Miami, Florida. She began piano lessons at age 6 and began to learn the viola at age 9. Lisa attended Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, and later, the New England Conservatory in Boston where she completed both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees.

In 1989, Lisa co-founded the Griffon String Quartet, Grand-Prize Winner of the 1991 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. In Boston, Lisa has performed as Principal Violist with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra since 1992, and performs regularly in the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the Boston Esplanade Pops, the New England String Ensemble, and is a substitute player for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1997, Lisa performed with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as a contracted section player, and while living in Melbourne co-founded the Génése Musicale Chamber Ensemble which has been recorded and broadcast nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Ms. Suslowicz maintains a private studio at the New England Conservatory Extension division, a teaching post she has held since 1993.

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Mihail Jojatu   Cellist   member, Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO)

Mihail Jojatu was born in Romania and studied at the Bucharest Academy of Music before coming to the U.S. in 1996. He attended the Boston Conservatory of Music where he studied with former BSO cellist Ronald Feldman and worked privately with Bernard Greenhouse. Presently, Mr. Jojatu is working toward his Performance Diploma at Boston University under BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin.

Mr. Jojatu's numerous awards include winning the Aria Concerto Competition at the Boston Conservatory and the Carl Zeise Memorial Cello Prize while attending the Tanglewood Music Center. He has performed as guest soloist with the Radio Television Orchestra of Bucharest, and he also has won many prizes in Romania for solo and chamber music performance. He is currently a member of the Triptych String Trio based in Boston. Mihail Jojatu joined the BSO cello section in December 2001.

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Rafael Popper-Keizer   Cellist

photo credit: Susan Wilson

Rafael Popper-Keizer’s approach to playing the cello has earned him unqualified praise from such noteworthy practitioners as Mstislav Rostropovich, Joel Krosnick, Gary Hoffman, and Jules Eskin. Although he maintains an active presence in the Boston contemporary music scene, having worked closely with composers such as Leon Kirchner, Arthur Berger, George Rochberg, and Gunther Schuller, Mr. Popper-Keizer is an avid proponent of early music, in which capacity he has performed frequently with harpsichordist John Gibbons. Mr. Popper-Keizer was invited to the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1998 and 1999, where he had the opportunity to understudy Don Quixote for Yo-Yo Ma with Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Popper-Keizer has been featured as a soloist throughout the United States, including recitals in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall; the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; and as a guest artist on the faculty concert series at Grinnell College. As a chamber musician, Mr. Popper-Keizer has appeared nationwide in various capacities, including performances in the Rockport Chamber Music Festival in Massachusetts, the Warebrook Festival of Contemporary Music in Vermont, and the International Musical Arts Institute in Maine. Locally, Mr. Popper-Keizer has concertized with many of Boston's most esteemed chamber musicians, including members of the Borromeo String Quartet, the Museum of Fine Arts Trio, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra; as well as recent appearances with the Boston Trio, flautist Eugenia Zuckerman, and pianist Virginia Eskin.

Mr. Popper-Keizer has toured extensively with the CORE Ensemble, a nationally acclaimed percussion trio with over twenty recent commissions to its name, through which he was recently invited to appear as both soloist and chamber musician in the contemporary music festival ‘Contrasts’ in Lviv, Ukraine. Recent engagements include appearances as soloist in the Dvorak Concerto, with the University Orchestra of Santa Cruz; and in the Beethoven Triple Concerto, with the Indian Hill Symphony in Massachussetts. Mr. Popper-Keizer is also currently engaged with pianist Nobuko Amemiya in the production of a compact disc of cello sonatas by Grieg and Franck to be released by Centaur Records.

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Jennifer Lucht   Cellist

photo credit: Christian Steiner

Jennifer Lucht has been heard in chamber music performances at the Kennedy Center, Weil Recital Hall, New York's 92nd Street Y, Tanglewood, the Ravinia and Bravo! Vail Festivals, and on NPR's live broadcast "Performance Today". A member of the Calyx Piano Trio and the Auros Group for New Music, she has been praised for "superb" playing by the Boston Globe and "beautiful, finely detailed sound" by the Boston Herald. She has been concerto soloist with the Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble and the Vermont Symphony and has performed throughout the United States and Canada with the Auros Group for New Music, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

An avid performer of new works, Jennifer has premiered numerous solo and ensemble pieces. Most recently, she gave the world premiere of the interactive cello and computer work I'll Have An Electric Mahabharata, Please by Auros Composer-in-Residence Anthony Cornicello at the Hartt School of Music this spring.

Recognized with top prizes in the Carmel and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions, Jennifer received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees with performance honors at Indiana University and continued her education with post-graduate studies at New England Conservatory. Her former teachers include Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Laurence Lesser, Colin Carr and Carter Brey. Jennifer has been guest cello faculty at Wellesley College, and currently teaches at the Longy School of Music and Project STEP. Jennifer is also Assistant Artistic Director of the Coastal Carolina Chamber Music Festival in New Bern, North Carolina, which celebrated its inaugural season in 2003.

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Melanie Dyball   Cellist

Melanie Dyball was born in Melbourne, Australia, and began cello lessons at age five. In 1988 she received the Licentiate Diploma with Honors from Trinity College of Music (London). Later, Melanie earned undergraduate and graduate diplomas in cello performance at the New England Conservatory, Boston, studying with Laurence Lesser. Melanie has won awards and competitions in both the United States and Australia, including the prestigious Queen’s Trust award.

Prior to her move back to the United States last year, Melanie served on the faculty of Brighton Grammar School, Melbourne, Australia. She also taught cello at the college level at Monash University. Well known to Australian audiences, Melanie has appeared as a concerto soloist with various orchestras and has recorded recital programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including “Sunday Live”, “Young Australia”, “In Tempo”, and “The Australian Experience”. In 1994 Melanie won a position with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 1997 she co-founded the chamber ensemble, “Genese Musicale” which has also been recorded and broadcast nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corperation.

Since her return to Boston, Melanie has performed in many musical ensembles, including the Boston Ballet, New England String Ensemble and as assistant principal cellist in the Boston Philharmonic. She has coached chamber music and given cello sectionals at GYBSO and New England Conservatory Extension Division, and is on the faculty of the Community Music Center of Boston in the South End.

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