Svend Rønning, Artistic Director ~ Jerry Kracht, Artistic Director Emeritus


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Artistic Directors

SVEND RØNNING, Artistic Director,
is one of the most active musicians in the Puget Sound, serving as Chair of the Faculty of Stringed Instruments at Pacific Lutheran University and Concertmaster of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. As soloist, he has appeared with various orchestras, including the Charlottesville Symphony, the Prague Radio Symphony and Orchestra Seattle and has served as Concertmaster for several orchestras around the country, including the Charlottesville Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, and the Tacoma Opera.  Dr. Rønning has an extensive experience in chamber music, having founded the Rivanna String Quartet at the University of Virginia and currently serving as violinist with the Regency String Quartet at PLU. His performances at Second City number over a dozen. Dr. Rønning graduated from Pacific Lutheran University where he was mentored by violinist Ann Tremaine and SCCS Artistic Director Emeritus Jerry Kracht, and has worked with a number of other distinguished teachers including Syoko Aki, Sidney Harth, Jaap Schröder and members of the Tokyo String Quartet. He is a former faculty member of the University of Virginia and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. This is Svend Rønning's fourht year as Artistic Director of the Second City Chamber Series.

JERRY KRACHT, Artistic Director Emeritus, served as Second City Chamber Series artistic director for twenty-five years--from 1982 to 2007--and as frequent clarinetist on the Series from it inception in 1977 through the close of the 2006-2007 season. During that time he oversaw the programming and production of nearly 150 concerts, performing on some 80 of them himself.

Under his leadership, Series offerings were more than doubled over the years, with venues added at Lakewold Gardens and First Lutheran Church in addition to the original Annie Wright School--all of which are still home to the Series.  He also led the Series to awards for artistic excellence by both the Tacoma Arts Commission and the Pierce County Arts Commission and established an educational adjunct for young musicians, the Young Chamber Players.

Dr. Kracht taught clarinet and conducted the University Symphony Orchestra at Pacific Lutheran University for over thirty years.  He is now emeritus professor of music there, where he was also a founding member of the Camas Wind Quintet and the Regency Concert Series.  In addition to his many performances in the Northwest--both for Second City Chamber Series and Pacific Lutheran University--he has performed in Canada, Japan, The Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong, Australia, Norway and Germany.  He begins his new advisory role as artistic director emeritus at Second City Chamber Series in 2007. 

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Artist Biographies
SECOND CITY CHAMBER SERIES
2010-2011: THE 34th SEASON "FLAGS OF THE WORLD"

Concerts at the Garden I: Russia and the Soviet Union
Thursday, June 24, 2010; 7:30 pm

NATALYA AGEYEVA, pianist, has dazzled audiences throughout the United States and internationally, including Italy, Austria, and Israel, as well as on tour in her native Russia. Her performances have also been broadcast several times locally on KING-FM in Seattle and televised in Moscow and Chicago. She has appeared at a broad range of venues, including the Governor's Mansion in Olympia, Carnegie Hall in New York, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and the Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow. An artist of great versatility, Ms. Ageyeva has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestras internationally. She has also been an active participant in many music festivals, including the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Summer Festival, Methow Valley Music Festival in Winthrop (Washington), Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series in Seattle, the Second City Chamber Series in Tacoma (Washington), and the Green Lake Music Festival in Wisconsin. Ms. Ageyeva began formal piano lessons at the age of thirteen when she was accepted by the prestigious Special Music School for Talented Children in Moscow, and graduated with honors in the Masters Program from the world-renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she studied with Valeriy Kastelsky. While at the Moscow Conservatory, she was offered extensive solo and orchestra appearances throughout the former Soviet Union. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Washington with distinguished pianists Bela Siki and Robin McCabe. Ms. Ageyeva is currently focusing on her solo career and is performing extensively in the U.S. She previously taught at Moscow Conservatory and University of Washington, and has adjudicated piano competitions in Chicago and Seattle. Ms. Ageyeva is a founding member and Artistic Director of the Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle.

Brittany Boulding, violinist, is currently the concertmaster for the Auburn Symphony Orchestra and the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a substitute concertmaster for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. She has been a violinist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Oakland East Bay Symphony. Ms. Boulding received her BM from Rice University as a student of Kenneth Goldsmith and her Professional Studies Certificate from the Colburn School under the tutelage of Robert Lipsett. During the summer season Ms. Boulding performed as Concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center, Banff Center, Spoleto USA and Evergreen Music Festival orchestras, and as Assistant Concertmaster of the National Repertory Orchestra and National Orchestra Institute. Ms. Boulding’s violin career also extends far past her experience as a classical musician. Since the age of six she has been performing with her family the internationally acclaimed MAGICAL STRINGS touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and Ireland.

Julian Schwarz was born in Seattle into a musical family and made his orchestral debut at the age of 11 playing the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 with the Seattle Symphony with his father, Music Director Gerard Schwarz, on the podium. Since then he has appeared as soloist with many of the Seattle area orchestras including the Bellevue Philharmonic, Philharmonia Northwest and the Port Angeles, Eastern and Sammamish symphonies. Mr. Schwarz was one of the featured soloists on an extensive US tour with the Moscow State Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with appearances at Georgia Tech in Atlanta; the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts in New York City; University of Connecticut in Storrs; George Mason University in Fairfax, VA; the Orange County Performing Arts Center, CA; and the performing arts series at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Cal Poly Arts in San Luis Obispo, among others. He has performed as a chamber musician at the Aspen, Interlochen, Eastern, California Summer and Encore music festivals. In both 2007 and 2008, Mr. Schwarz won the highly regarded Northwest Sinfonietta Youth Concerto Competition. The resulting performances as soloist with Music Director Christophe Chagnard led to his appointment as assistant conductor under Chagnard with Seattle’s Lake Union Civic Orchestra, with which he has conducted Borodin’s Second Symphony and Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice at Seattle’s Town Hall. Julian Schwarz started piano lessons at the age of five and began his cello studies the following year with the late David Tonkonogui; subsequent teachers have included Toby Saks and Lynn Harrell.

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Concerts at the Garden II: United States
Thursday, July 22, 2010; 7:30 pm

STEPHEN BRYANT, violinist, is known for his enthusiasm and passion for music. He was born in Long Beach, California and studied violin in Southern California with Vera Barstow, Pavel Farkas and Paul Shure. Mr. Bryant was Concertmaster of the YMF Debut Orchestra under Calvin Simmons and a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Neville Marriner. In Canada, he was Principal Second Violin of the Edmonton Symphony for ten years before joining the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra violin section, where he performed as Assistant Concertmaster for four seasons. In 1998-99, Mr. Bryant ventured to Asia to perform in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra's inaugural season as Principal Second Violin under Music Director, Kees Bakels. He also performed in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2000/01 season as Principal Second Violin under Edo deWaart. Presently in his fourth season with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Bryant has performed with the St. Helens String Quartet, Seattle Chamber Players, and the Metropolitan and BeauMetro String Quartets.

SUE JANE BRYANT, violist, was born in New York and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She studied violin in California with William Whitson, Kenneth Goldsmith, Glenn Dicterow and Manuel Compinsky, who interested her in playing viola. Ms. Bryant is a graduate of California State University at Fullerton with a Bachelor of Music in Performance. As a member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, she performed two seasons as a violinist, before switching to viola for the following eight seasons. In 1989 she became a member of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and held the position of Assistant Principal Viola to 2003. In 1998, Ms. Bryant performed as Sub-Principal Viola with the newly formed Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra during their inaugural season under Music Director Kees Bakels. She has a wealth of chamber music experience extending from the Los Angeles based Ysaye Quartet, to the Debut Quartet in Edmonton which participated in the 1986 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Presently, she is violist of the Beau Quartet. Recently, Ms. Bryant has relocated with her family to the Seattle area, and has since performed with the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Chamber Players, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and the BeauMetro Quartet.

RACHEL PEARSON

CHARLES ROBERT STEPHENS has enjoyed a career spanning a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music. He has sung on numerous occasions at Carnegie Hall in a variety of roles with Opera Orchestra of New York, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Masterworks Chorus, and Musica Sacra, as well as a guest soloist with most of New York’s premiere ensembles including Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, Ascension Music, L’Opera Francais de New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, and many others. Now based in Seattle he has sung with Seattle Symphony, Tacoma and Spokane Symphony and Opera Companies, Portland Chamber Orchestra and many other the orchestras and opera companies in the Pacific Northwest. He joined the roster of Seattle Opera in 2010 for the premiere of Amelia by Daron Hagen. Locally he sings Carmina Burana, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast, Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. A native of New London, Connecticut, Mr. Stephens is the recipient of a Sullivan Grant and was a finalist in both the Washington International Competition and the Zachary Society Auditions. He is a Liederkranz Competition winner where he sang Scarpia, Silvio, and Don Giovanni. He received his training at the University of Connecticut, Boston University, the Goldovsky Opera Institute, and the Santa Fe Opera.

RICHARD TREAT, cellist, joined the Regency String Quartet and the string faculty of Pacific Lutheran University in September, 2006. A native of Los Angeles, Richard earned both Bachelors and Masters Degrees from California State University at Los Angeles, where he studied with Stephen De'ak, Eleonore Schoenfeld, and Lucien LaPorte. Mr. Treat has worked with several orchestras in greater Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Pasadena, Long Beach, and Glendale Symphonies. In addition, Richard has been principal cellist of the Santa Barbara and South Coast Symphonies, the Mozart Camerata, and the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra and played for many years with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and the Deodara String Quartet. He is now a member of the Max Aronoff Institute faculty in Kenmore, and is regularly featured in performances of solo and chamber music in the Northwest.

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Masterpiece I: Israel
Friday, October 8, 2010; 7:30 pm

EUROPA CHAMBER ENSEMBLE (Mara Finkelstein, Jane Harty and Leonid Keylin)

EUROPA specializes in chamber music from Western and Eastern Europe including Russia and is based in Seattle. Its members include: violinist LEONID KEYLIN, Seattle Symphony member and concertmaster of numerous New York based ensembles, trained in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Juilliard School; cellist MARA FINKELSTEIN, principal cellist with the Northwest Sinfonietta, trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia; and, pianist JANE HARTY, Director of Music Northwest and long-time PLU faculty member, trained at L'Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, France and the University of Southern California.

CINDY RENANDER, clarinetist, earned the Doctor of Music degree in clarinet performance from Florida State University in December 2008, and also holds a degree from New England Conservatory of Music. She currently performs around the Puget Sound, teaches clarinet lessons, teaches online music classes at Tacoma Community College, and is Managing Director of Second City Chamber Series. She has formerly served on the faculty of Lander University in South Carolina, and has been a member of Northwest Sinfonietta, Tacoma Opera Orchestra, and Orchestra Seattle. She currently is a member of Tacoma Concert Band, where she plays any auxiliary clarinet that is needed, from the little E-flat clarinet, to the bass clarinet or the big contralto clarinet. She resides in University Place with husband John Falskow, and children Karl and Dana

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Spotlight I: China, Japan and Korea
Sunday, November 14, 2010; 4:00 pm

MARI CORPUZ

REGINA YEH has delighted audiences with her dynamic performances throughout the United States and abroad, including France, the UK, Slovak Republic, and on tour in her native Taiwan. She has been featured soloist and in recital at major venues throughout the United States, including Benaroya Hall in Seattle and New Mexico’s Popejoy Hall, at the Chicago Cultural Center for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and with the Manhattan Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jersey Semkov. Her performances have also appeared on KING radio in Seattle, WFMT radio and channel 25 television in Chicago and televised in the Slovak Republic and on North American Chinese Television. Ms. Yeh has won first prizes at the Pacific International Piano Competition, the National Federation of Music Club’s Biennial Student Awards Competition, and was the grand prize winner of the Allegro Music foundation/BAJ Classics competitions in New York. She was also the recipient of scholarships from the Chopin Foundation of the United States. An active collaborative artist, Ms. Yeh has appeared at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, performed as a guest artist with the Adirondack Ensemble in New York, and served as accompanist of the Harlem Boys’ Choir. Her many chamber performances included unusual programming such as concerts featuring music for piano six hands at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Ms. Yeh was accepted at age thirteen as a pupil of the renowned Hungarian pianist and pedagogue, Bela Siki, with whom she eventually completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Washington, graduating with a Magna Cum Laude distinction. She then attended the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2003. A devoted Artist-Teacher, Ms. Yeh teaches master classes at colleges and universities while maintaining a rigorous performing and teaching schedule across the United States and abroad. Having served on the keyboard faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle since 2001, where she was frequently featured as a soloist and chamber musician, Professor Yeh was recently named the Director of Piano Studies at Pacific Lutheran University.

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Masterpiece II: France
Sunday, January 9, 2011; 7:30 pm

JAMES BROWN--tenor, conductor, stage director, and voice teacher--is an active proponent of both early and new music. James is the Chair of Vocal Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA  and has sung with such opera companies and presenters as New York City Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Bronx Opera, Rogue Opera (Oregon), Chautauqua Opera, Seattle Early Music Guild, Skylight Opera Theatre (Milwaukee), Aspen Opera Theater and The Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy. The tenor has sung roles under the baton of such well-known conductors as James Conlon, John DeMain, Richard Hickox, Julius Rudel and Robert Spano and early music directors Rinaldo Alessandrini, Arthur Haas, Andrew Lawrence King and Stephen Stubbs. Mr. Brown has sung the title roles in New York State Baroque’s productions of Rameau’s Pygmalion, Handel’s Jephtha and Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelist).
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in voice performance from Loyola University/New Orleans, a Master of Music degree in voice from The Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

SHELBY RHOADES, an Ohio native, is currently in demand as a recitalist and coach/accompanist in the New York City area. She most recently is based at The Juilliard School as an Associate Coach since 2008 and currently on is on the music staff as principal coach for the AshLawn Opera Festival. Ms. Rhoades has also been a coach fellow for the Aspen Music Festival Opera Theater during the summers of  2003-08. Other engagements have included music staff for Seattle Opera/Young Artists Program, coach/accompanist for Tacoma Opera, musical director for Pacific Lutheran University Opera Theater, musical director for the Seattle regional production of Opera America, and music staff for the Annas Bay Music Festival, WA. In the spring of 2007, she assisted in musical preparation for the world premiere in Seattle of “For a Look or a Touch” with baritone Morgan Smith, by Jake Heggie.  Ms. Rhoades has worked with maestros such as Julius Rudel, George Manahan, Gary Thor Wedow, and Anne Manson. She has also worked with renowned singers such as Jane Eaglen, Vinson Cole, and Lawrence Brownlee. Ms. Rhoades holds degrees in piano, accompanying, and vocal performance and has served as faculty for the University of Washington, Seattle, Pacific Lutheran University, Albion College, and Anderson University.

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Spotlight II: Washington State meets Norman Rockwell
Friday, March 11, 2011; 7:30 pm

REGENCY STRING QUARTET (Betty Agent, Bryan Boughten, Svend Ronning and Richard Treat)

BETTY AGENT is an instructor of viola at PLU and serves as violist of the Regency String Quartet. She has been a member of the Spokane Symphony, and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra and served as faculty member for the Marrowstone Music Festival and viola coach for the Seattle Youth Symphony. An active recitalist, chamber player and free-lance musician, Ms. Agent has performed in the Arts West Chamber Music Series, Second City Chamber Music Series, and the Governor's Chamber Music Festival. She is currently a member or the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and faculty member of the Max Aronoff Viola Institute.

BRYAN BOUGHTEN is currently a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and is an Affiliate Artist at Pacific Lutheran University where he serves as a member of the Regency String Quartet. Previously he held the position of principal Second Violinist of the Spokane Symphony and also performed as a member of the Spokane String Quartet, which is in residence at Eastern Washington University. For many years he was a member of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared as soloist with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and the Thalia Symphony Orchestra. Teachers include Emanuel Zetlin, Denes Zsigmondy, Manuel Compinsky, Ruggiero Ricci, Veda Reynolds and Marilyn Garner.

SVEND RØNNING, violinist, is Artistic Director of the Second City Chamber Series, Chair of the Faculty of Stringed Instruments at Pacific Lutheran University, and Concertmaster of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Rønning graduated from Pacific Lutheran University where he was mentored by violinist Ann Tremaine and SCCS Artistic Director Emeritus Jerry Kracht. He is a former faculty member of the University of Virginia and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University.

RICHARD TREAT, cellist, joined the Regency String Quartet and the string faculty of Pacific Lutheran University in September, 2006. A native of Los Angeles, Richard earned both Bachelors and Masters Degrees from California State University at Los Angeles, where he studied with Stephen De'ak, Eleonore Schoenfeld, and Lucien LaPorte. Mr. Treat has worked with several orchestras in greater Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Pasadena, Long Beach, and Glendale Symphonies. In addition, Richard has been principal cellist of the Santa Barbara and South Coast Symphonies, the Mozart Camerata, and the Pasadena Chamber Orchestra and played for many years with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and the Deodara String Quartet. He is now a member of the Max Aronoff Institute faculty in Kenmore, and is regularly featured in performances of solo and chamber music in the Northwest.

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Masterpiece III: Cuba and Uruguay
Friday, April 8, 2011; 7:30 pm

LYRIC BRASS QUINTET (Paul Evans, Gina Gillie, Zachary Lyman, Matthew Swihart and Keith Winkle)

PAUL EVANS, tubaist, is the Principal Tuba of the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and Lecturer of Tuba and Euphonium at Pacific Lutheran University. An active performer in the Pacific Northwest, Paul also performs with the Northwest Sinfonietta, Bellevue Philharmonic, Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and with the Lyric Brass at PLU. He studied tuba performance with Ron Munson in Seattle, Steve Call at Brigham Young University, and Gary Ofenloch at the University of Utah. Before coming home to the Pacific Northwest Paul was Principal Tuba of the Boise Philharmonic and played frequently with the Utah Symphony. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has been soloist with the Boise Philharmonic, Tacoma Symphony, and Lyric Brass. Paul lives in Tacoma with his wife, soprano Karen Early Evans, and their three beautiful daughters.

GINA GILLIE teaches horn as an Assistant Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University. She studied horn performance with Douglas Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her Masters degree in 2006 and her Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2009. Dr. Gillie completed her Bachelors degree at Pacific Lutheran University in 2004, studying with Kathleen Vaught Farner. As an orchestral player, she is currently Assistant Principal with the Tacoma Symphony and has also played with the Northwest Sinfonietta, the LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra, the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and the Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of two faculty chamber ensembles at PLU, the Camas Wind Quintet and the Lyric Brass Quintet. A lover of early music, she lectures and performs frequently on natural horn and baroque horn.

ZACHARY LYMAN is an Assistant Professor of Trumpet and Music Theory at Pacific Lutheran University, where he teaching classroom music, private lessons, directs the PLU Trumpet Ensemble, and performs with the Lyric Brass Quintet. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Trumpet Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Iowa where he was the recipient of the Iowa Performance Fellowship. Mr. Lyman holds the Bachelor of Music Degree in Trumpet Performance with Honors from The College of Wooster (Ohio) and the Master of Music Degree with Honors and Distinction in Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers include Charles Schlueter, principal trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and David Greenhoe, principal trumpet of the Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lyman has performed as a member of the Boston Philharmonic, Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, and Tacoma Symphony Orchestras under such conductors as Gunther Schuller, Stanislaw Skrowaczewsky, and Sergiu Comissiona. 

MATTHEW SWIHART received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1995 and his Master of Music degree from Rice University in 1998. At Rice University, he studied under the late Armando Ghitalla, Principal Trumpet Emeritus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and world-renowned pedagogue. Matt has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he performed under conductors including Seiji Ozawa, Christoph Eschenbach, Mitislav Rostropovich, Robert Spano and Andre Previn. He has performed with the United Nations Global Warming Conference Orchestra and the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Northwest Sinfonietta, Village Theatre, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Monterey, and Cincinnati Opera and Ballet Orchestras. Matt has performed at St. James and St. Mark's Cathedrals in Seattle. Matt is the managing member of the Mosaic Brass Quintet. He is also a member of the Lyric Brass Quintet, the faculty brass ensemble at Pacific Lutheran University. Matt serves as an adjunct trumpet professor at Pacific Lutheran University and maintains a private trumpet studio in Seattle comprised of students ranging from young beginners to serious amateurs and college music majors.

KEITH WINKLE, trombonist, is a regular member of the Tacoma Symphony, Tacoma Opera, Lyric Brass Quintet, Bellevue Philharmonic, Northwest Sinfonietta, Washington Brass Ensemble, Seattle Choral Company Orchestra and the Mosaic Brass Quintet. Mr. Winkle appears occasionally with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, 5th Avenue Theatre, Paramount Theatre and the Pacific Northwest Ballet orchestra. He serves on the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University and Western Washington University. Keith resides outside of Snohomish with his family on their mini-farm.

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Masterpiece IV: Australia
Friday, May 20, 2011; 7:30 pm

FINISTERRA PIANO TRIO (Simon James, Kevin Krentz and Tanya Stambuk)

SIMON JAMES, violinist, performed around the world as a soloist and chamber musician. He has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Orchestra, and is currently the Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he serves as concertmaster of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra and has performed as guest concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony and the Bolshoi Theatre’s production of Swan Lake. Mr. James is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music where his teachers include Erick Friedman and Syzmon Goldberg. While attending the Manhattan School he performed in the Master Classes of Henryk Szeryng, Joseph Gingold, the Tokyo Quartet, the American Quartet and members of the Beaux Arts Trio. Mr. James has performed as soloist with the Seattle Symphony on many occasions, and has acted as Concertmaster on many occasions. He has also lead the orchestra of the Seattle Opera in recent productions of “Der Rosenkavalier”, “La Boeheme”, “Julius Ceasar”, the “Flying Dutchman”, ‘Iphegenie en Tauride”, “I Paggliaci”, “I Puritani” and “Aida”. An active teacher with a large studio of gifted students, Mr. James is the newest addition to the highly regarded “Coleman Studio”. In addition to countless motion picture sound tracks, he has recorded concerti with the Seattle Symphony, the Premiere of the Richard Englefield violin concerto with the Bratislava Radio Symphony and several acclaimed chamber music albums with Harpist Juliet Stratton and clarinetist Sean Osborn. He is married to Flutist Erin James and is the proud father of Felicity and Bronwyn James.

KEVIN KRENTZ, cello, is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Although he began his musical life as a cellist at 12, he soon dropped the cello to sing for the rest of his youth. He  only decided to devote his energies to the cello at the age of 20 after finally deciding on a career in music after such a late start. In 2000, Mr. Krentz was a winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, with his clarinet, piano, and cello trio, In Flight 3. In addition to his chamber music credits, he has also won several concerto competitions and the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle Award/Tour Competition. He has been featured on NPR in multiple broadcasts of live performances as well as KING FM's Live! By George program and has performed throughout the U.S. to critical acclaim. Mr. Krentz was Assistant Principal Cellist for  Gustav Meijer in the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the prestigious Chamber Music Ann Arbor Spring Festival as well as the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the Methow Valley Music Festival among others. He is very active as a recording studio session player in Seattle where he can be heard on many major films, as well as commercials, video games, and CD’s from Dave Matthews Band to Evanescence.  Kevin can also be heard as the solo cellist on the  movie, Bordertown, starring Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Lopez, and Martin Sheen. Sought after for his ability to improvise his own parts, Kevin can be heard on many different artist's projects. Since 2007, Mr. Krentz has been Artistic Director of the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival and is a dedicated and well-known teacher in Seattle.

TANYA STAMBUK, was hailed as "a player with a powerful technique, ideas of her own, and considerable promise" by the New York Times upon the occasion of her debut at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Since then, her concert career has taken her across the United States and throughout Western and Eastern Europe.
She has performed with the Orchestre de Toulouse in France, the Virginia Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra in Orchestra Hall, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Lake Charles Symphony and Rapides Symphony Orchestra in Louisiana, Washington's Olympia Symphony, Tacoma Symphony and Oregon's Rogue Valley Symphony. Ms. Stambuk has been heard in recital at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in Croatia, the Robert Schumann Summer Festival in Germany, and in the Auditorio Nacional Carlos Alberto in Portugal where she won the international piano competition. She has made guest appearances on radio in New York City, Moscow, and in Croatia, and has appeared on a television program entitled IN PRAISE OF WOMEN PIANISTS. She premiered Norman Dello Joio’s newly revised Fantasy Variations for Piano and Orchestra in Florida and North Carolina which led to numerous performances of the music of Norman Dello Joio, and has unexpectedly led to her being considered an authority on and interpreter of the music of American composers. Ms. Stambuk has recorded the piano works of Norman Dello Joio on the Centaur label. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School, (BM and MM in Piano Performance) and Rutgers University (DMA in Piano Performance). She credits Robert Turner, Sasha Gorodnitzki, and Ilana Vered as her major mentors in learning the art of piano performance. 

MARA GEARMAN, violinist, is an accomplished player with extensive experience in both orchestral and chamber music settings. She regularly performs with the chamber groups American String Project and Seattle Chamber Players, and has collaborated with such prestigious performers as Ani Kavafian, Peter Wiley, Vladimir Feltsman, and Dale Clevenger, the legendary principal horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She is also a founding member of the Barston String Quartet as well as Trio Tara with pianist Oksana Ezhokina and Laurie DeLuca, clarinet. Ms. Gearman has held or been awarded a number of orchestral appointments, including principal viola (at age twenty) under maestro Rossen Milanov, and principal viola at the Kansas City Symphony and at the Oregon Symphony under music director James DePriest. Currently she is the second desk violist for the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under maestro Gerard Schwarz. As a solo performer, Ms. Gearman has won awards at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions, performing viola solos ranging from American composers Alan Shulman and Derek Bermel to Hungarian composer Miklos Rozca. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, her primary teachers included Roberto Diaz, Pinchas Zukerman, and Karen Tuttle, as well as additional study in Canada, Germany, Holland, and Switzerland with Nobuko Imai, Barbara Westphal, and Gerard Causse. Gearman has just been appointed to the faculty at Cornish College of the Arts, in Seattle.

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