About Us

2010-11 ARTIST ROSTER

JONATHAN BAGG, viola, is Professor of the Practice at Duke University, a member of the Ciompi String Quartet, and co-Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival. His career with the Ciompi includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and around the word, as well as over a dozen recordings. As a solo violist and chamber musician he has brought many new and unfamiliar works to life, many of them written for him. Solo concerts have brought him to venues such as the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Manchester, New Hampshire’s Currier Gallery. Concerto appearances include the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Massachusetts, the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Monadnock Music Orchestra. He has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, and the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals. Bagg’s two solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann and by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), on the Centaur label. Contemporary solo works by Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Centaur and Gasparo Records. His collaborations include many notable musicians, including pianists Bella Davidovich, Menahem Pressler and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, the Tokyo Quartet, and clarinetist David Shifrin.

In reviews of his solo playing, The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity,” while American Record Guide called him “an excellent violist who approaches the music with intelligence, passion, and clarity.” Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke University, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. Before moving to Duke he performed with many of New England’s most prominent musical organizations, appearing often with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and serving as principal viola for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (BA) and the New England Conservatory (MM), where he was a student of Walter Trampler.


JACQUELINE BARTLETT, harp, was born in Detroit, Michigan where she was surrounded with music since her beginning.  Her mother, Mary Bartlett, is a noted harpist, arranger, composer and teacher and Jacquelyn began her musical studies at an early age with her mother.

After continued studies with world renowned harpists, Carlos Salzedo and Alice Chalifoux, Ms. Bartlett, at age sixteen, made her solo debut in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall in a performance of the Handel Harp Concerto which received high critical praise.  She graduated with honors from Interlochen Arts Academy and then attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music where she majored in harp and minored in piano. Her harp teachers also include Lucy Lewis, Lucille Lawrence, and Susann McDonald.

Subsequently, Ms. Bartlett was invited to perform with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Slovac Radio Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Kansas City Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Milwaukee Symphony working with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors such as Eugene Ormandy, Sixten Ehrling, Sergiu Commissiona, Aaron Copeland, James Paul, Izler Solomon, and Pierre Boulez.  Having toured America and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician, Jacquelyn has also appeared frequently at American Harp Society Conferences and the World Harp Congress as a speaker and a performer.

Having served on the faculties of Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Ms. Bartlett currently is a member of the Artist Faculties of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Appalachian State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Community School of the Arts at Spirit Square in Charlotte, NC. A dedicated and passionate educator, Ms. Bartlett is much sought after as a teacher, chamber music coach and presenter for master classes and seminars. Her students have garnered top prizes at national competitions and have been featured in Europe at the World Harp Congress and on Christopher O’Reilly’s National Public Radio Show, ‘From The Top’.

A champion of chamber music, Ms. Bartlett has worked with some of this generation’s most well known composers such as George Crumb, Alberto Ginastera, Dan Locklair and George Rochberg and she continues to bring new compositions to the concert stage as a solo and chamber music harpist, a founding member of FIRE PINK TRIO and a long time member of Mallarme Chamber Players.  For ten years, she was the Founder and Artistic Director of SummerMusic in Blowing Rock, NC and currently she is Artistic Director of Music at St John’s in Valle Crucis, NC.  Ms. Bartlett has written and published articles in professional journals, has edited music for publication and is a recorded artist on the ALBANY, CAPSTONE and NAXOS labels. Her recent World Premiere recording of Dan Locklair’s Concerto for Harp and Orchestra with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra has just been released on NAXOS and has received high, critical praise.


JOHN BECK, JR., percussion, has been a member of the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts since 1998, and is a performer with the Winston-Salem and Greensboro Symphony orchestras, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the Philidor Percussion Group. He is a former member of the United States Marine Band and for 10 years performed regularly with the National and Baltimore Symphonies, Washington and Baltimore Operas, and the Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. Beck has toured the United States as a xylophone soloist with the Jack Daniel's Silver Cornet Band, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the New Sousa Band. He has served on the PAS Education Committee, Board of Directors, NC Chapter President, and has presented clinics at state Days of Percussion, PASIC, Midwest, and MENC events. As an educator Beck has also served on the faculties of the Universities of Utah, Colorado, Nevada - Las Vegas, North Carolina - Greensboro, and Florida State. His CD “Shared Spaces” is on the Equilibrium label, and in 2000 his educational video “Ensemble Techniques and Musicianship for Percussionists” was distributed free to all high schools in North Carolina through a state Arts Council Grant.


CARLA COPELAND BURNS, flute, currently enjoys an active freelancing career with several ensembles including the North Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Opera, and the Carolina Ballet among others.  She has performed over 300 concerts with the North Carolina Symphony, including numerous appearances as Principal flute.  Since 1995 Burns has served as Piccoloist for the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Principal Flute in the Salisbury Symphony, and in the ongoing chamber ensembles Blue Mountain (flute/bassoon) and the Cascade Wind Quintet, a North Carolina Arts Council Touring Roster Ensemble. Burns currently teaches flute at Radford University in Virginia and coaches chamber music at the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop held at the University of North Carolina. She previously served as Principal flute in the Midland-Odessa Symphony and on the faculties of Indiana State University, Mars Hill College, and the Cincinnati-College Conservatory Preparatory Division. Burns holds the Bachelor of Music with Honors from Florida State University, the Master of Music in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Flute Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Burns has recorded with ensembles on the Albany, Centaur, and Klavier labels and has been heard on several editions of NPR’s Performance Today. Her teachers include Nadine Asin, Jack Wellbaum, Carol Wincenc, Lois Schaefer, Charles Delaney and Stephen Preston. www.carlacopelandburns.com

MICHAEL BURNS , bassoon, is the bassoon professor at the University of NC at Greensboro and a Yamaha Performing Artist. His first solo CD Primavera: Music for Bassoon and Piano by Bassoonists was released on the Mark Masters label in 2009 to critical acclaim. He holds the BM degree from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the MM from the New England Conservatory, and the DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has performed in numerous professional orchestras including the Cincinnati and the New Zealand Symphonies and played Principal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abilene Symphonies and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently Burns plays principal with the Asheville Symphony, North Carolina Ballet and North Carolina Opera as well as performing frequently with the North Carolina and Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. Prior to UNCG he taught at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Indiana State University, and Midland College. He remains active as a solo and chamber performer with numerous recitals and master classes throughout North America, Germany, China and the South Pacific, he is bassoonist in the EastWind Ensemble, the Blue Mountain Ensemble, and the Cascade Quintet. Burns has recorded for the Centaur, CAP, Telarc, EMI, Klavier, and Mark labels. He is also an active composer with many of his pieces being published by TrevCo Music and frequently performed. He is archivist for the International Double Reed Society and was co-host for the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro, NC. For more information please visit: www.michaelburnsbassoon.com


JACQULYN CARRASCO, violin, has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and Russia, including solo appearances at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and at the Library of Congress and chamber music concerts with the Cassatt String Quartet. Since moving to North Carolina in 1999, Ms. Carrasco has been featured in solo and chamber music performances at Duke University; the UNC campuses in Chapel Hill, Greensboro, and Wilmington; Music at Blowing Rock; the Foothills Chamber Music Festival; Chamber Music at St. Peter’s in Charlotte; and with the Salisbury Symphony. She joined the Carolina Piano Trio in 2005, and since 2008 has co-directed the Carolina Summer Music Festival in Winston-Salem.

From 1992-2002, Ms. Carrasco was the violinist of the acclaimed contemporary music ensemble Cygnus and also appeared regularly with New York-based new music groups such as the S.E.M. Ensemble, Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Ensemble, Newband and Musicians Accord. Ms. Carrasco has toured extensively with the Mark Morris Dance Group and been a frequent guest at the June in Buffalo Festival at SUNY Buffalo. She has recorded contemporary chamber music for the Nonesuch, Koch, Mode, CRI, Albany and Braxton House record labels.

As a noted performer of Argentine tango music, Ms. Carrasco has appeared with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in concert and on television, as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, with the New York Buenos Aires Connection at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing, and most recently with the Brenda Angiel Aerial Dance Company at the 2010 American Dance Festival. She has also been active as a jazz violinist, and her versatile skills have been featured in commercial, film and theater music, as well as on her CD Since We Met with the Jazz Strings Project. Ms. Carrasco received her B.A., magna cum laude, from UCLA, and her M.M. and D.M.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook, where she studied with Joyce Robbins. Having previously taught at Princeton University, she is now an Associate Professor of Music and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow at Wake Forest University.


JAMES DOUGLASS, keyboard, is assistant professor of collaborative piano and auditions coordinator for the Accompanying and Chamber Music degree program at UNC-Greensboro. He has been involved in diverse genres including chamber music, vocal arts, opera, choral arts, symphonic repertoire, jazz, cabaret, and musical theater. He received the BM and MM in piano performance from the University of Alabama and the DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Southern California where he was a student of Dr. Alan L. Smith; additional studies were with collaborative pianists Anne Epperson and Martin Katz. While at USC he received a Koldofsky Fellowship and the Outstanding Keyboard Collaborative Arts award. Douglass has served on the faculties of Mississippi College, Occidental College LA, USC, and Middle Tennessee State University where he was coordinator of the collaborative piano degree program. In 2003 he began teaching in the summer study program AIMS (American Institute of Musical Studies) in Graz, Austria as the instructor of collaborative piano and a coach in the lieder program with Harold Heiberg. Performances as a collaborative pianist have included recitals and television/radio broadcasts across the United States and in Europe (France, Germany, Austria, Hungary); in master classes given by artists Dawn Upshaw, Carol Vaness, Vladimir Chernov, Norman Luboff, Paul Salamunovich, Natalie Hinderas, Leon Bates. Douglass is an active clinician and a recording with soprano Hope Koehler of John Jacob Niles songs was released on the Albany label in 2008.


GABRIELA LENA FRANK, composer. Identity has always been at the center of Gabriela Lena Frank's music. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her pieces reflect and refract her studies of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. She writes challenging idiomatic parts for solo instrumentalists, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras.

Moreover, she writes, "There's usually a story line behind my music; a scenario or character." While the enjoyment of her works can be obtained solely from her music, the composer's program notes enhance the listener's experience, for they describe how a piano part mimics a marimba or pan-pipes, or how a movement is based on a particular type of folk song, where the singer is mockingly crying. Even a brief glance at her titles evokes specific imagery: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout; Cuatro Canciones Andinas; and La Llorona: Tone Poem for Viola and Orchestra. Frank's compositions also reflect her virtuosity as a pianist — when not composing, she is a sought-after performer, specializing in contemporary repertoire.

A 2009 recipient of a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to assist in research and artistic creation, Frank’s upcoming premieres include a new song cycle for Dawn Upshaw and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; a new work for Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble; Hilos for the Alias Ensemble; a new ballet for Ballet Hispanico; and Escaramuza for the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. A frequent collaborator with artists in other disciplines, Frank is developing a number of projects with the Pulitzer Prize winning Cuban playwright Nilo Cruz, the song cycle for Dawn Upshaw among them.

Recent premieres include Tres Mitos de Mi Tierra (2010) for The King’s Singers; Hailí Lírico (2010) for violinist Robin Sharp and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra; Inca Dances (2008) for guitarist Manuel Barrueco and Cuarteto Latinoamericano — which received a 2009 Latin Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition; New Andean Songs (2007) for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella new music series; Peregrinos (2009) for the Indianapolis Symphony; Hynagogia for Concertante, American Portraits (2008) for the Modesto Symphony, and Two Mountain Songs (2008) for a consortium comprising of the Young People's Chorus of New York, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, and Anima.

Having collaborated with a broad range of artists, Frank's other works include Quijotadas (2007) by the Brentano String Quartet; Jalapeño Blues (2006) for Chanticleer based on the Spanglish poetry of renowned Chicano poet Trinidad Sánchez; Compadrazgo (2007), a double concerto for David Finckel and Wu Han with the ProMusica Orchestra; La Llorona: Tone Poem for Viola and Orchestra (2007) for the Houston Symphony with principal Wayne Brooks under the baton of Hans Graf; Dos Canciones de Cifar (2007) for baritone and piano commissioned by the Marilyn Horne Foundation with Carnegie Hall; Ritmos Anchinos (2006) for the Silk Road Project; Cinco Danzas de Chambi (2006) for viola and piano commissioned by the Aspen Summer Music Festival; Canto de Harawi (2006) for the Da Camera Society of Houston; Manchay Tiempo (2005) for the Seattle Symphony under the baton of Jun Märkl; Inkarrí (2005) for the Kronos Quartet; Illapa: Tone Poem for Flute and Orchestra (2004) for flautist Leone Buyse and the Shepherd Symphony Orchestra; and Three Latin-American Dances (2004) for the Utah Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Keith Lockhart.

Three Latin-American Dances was subsequently recorded by the Utah Symphony for the Reference Recording Label and has been hailed as "dazzling" and exhibiting "wit, brilliance, atmosphere, and poetry (Classics Today), and "a rare treasure of modern orchestral music" (Hong Kong/China Hi Fi Review). Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout (2001), performed by its commissioner, the Chiara String Quartet, was released in early 2007 on the New Voice Singles label. In reference to this recording, the American Record Guide called Gabriela "a remarkable composer." Recent recordings include Inca Dances with guitarist Manuel Barrueco and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano released on the Tonar Music Label; and several chamber/orchestral works for the Filarmonika label as part of the groundbreaking Caminos del Inka project under the directorship of conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya. In 2011, Naxos will release an all-Gabriela Lena Frank disc.

Frank attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she earned both a BA (1994) and MA (1996). She studied composition with Paul Cooper, Ellsworth Milburn, and Sam Jones, and piano with Jeanne Kierman Fischer. Frank credits Fischer with introducing her to the music of Ginastera, Bartók, and other composers who utilized folk elements in their work. At the University of Michigan, from which she received a DMA in composition in 2001, Frank studied composition with William Albright, William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, and Michael Daugherty, and piano with Logan Skelton.

Gabriela Lena Frank's music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer.


DOVID FRIEDLANDER, violin, has been a member of the North Carolina Symphony as Associate Concertmaster since 2005. He previously held a position in the Columbus Symphony and was the Assistant Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. He has also played with Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood Music Festival, and regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony in concerts and on tour, with conductors Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons and Claudio Abbado. In addition to playing with the North Carolina Symphony, Dovid is an active chamber musician in the Raleigh area. He also maintains a full teaching studio and was on the faculty of the Triada Music Festival in 2006 and 2007. Dovid has also enjoyed soloing with the NC Symphony on a number of occasions, most recently playing three performances of Hindemith's Kammermusik No. 4 in January, 2009.

Mr. Friedlander studied with Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster, William Preucil, at the Eastman School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music. While at the Cleveland Institute, he won the Jerome Gross award and his quartet was the recipient of the esteemed Darius Milhaud award. He enjoys traveling and experimenting with cooking with his new wife, Tracy, a horn player, who he met in the NC Symphony. He also loves to spend his time in the park playing with his German shorthaired pointer, Bernstein, and watching his favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dovid plays on an A.S.P. Bernardel violin, made in Paris in 1854.


KAREN STRITTMATTER GALVIN, violin. Before winning her position as Assistant Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony, Karen Strittmatter Galvin was a member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and had an active freelance career in Washington DC, performing regularly with the Washington National Opera and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra in addition to many other DC arts organizations. She is a former member and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra and the Westmoreland Symphony.

Ms. Galvin is also an avid chamber musician. She is a founding member of the Inscape Chamber Music Project of Washington DC and performs with the Laurel String Quartet, which was formed under the guidance of the Guarneri String Quartet. Along with two of her sisters, she has been performing as a member of the Strittmatter Trio since 1988.

A native of Pittsburgh, Ms. Galvin began her musical training with Debbie Ellett, and later Hong-Guang Jia and Huei-Sheng Kao, both assistant concertmasters of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Galvin received her bachelor's degree in violin performance from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with Carolyn Huebl and Cyrus Forough. After graduating, she moved to Washington DC to pursue her Master's degree with Elisabeth Adkins at the University of Maryland. Ms. Galvin performs during the summer with the Colorado Music Festival at Chataqua, in Boulder. Her husband, Shawn, is Principal Timpanist of the United States Navy Band.

LAURA GILBERT, flute, is currently Artistic Director and resident flutist of Monadnock Music, Laura Gilbert has performed around the world as chamber musician, soloist, recitalist and guest lecturer. In addition to founding and
performing with Aureole, a trio comprised of flute, viola and harp, Ms. Gilbert has appeared with Musicians from Marlboro, Alexander Schneider's Brandenburg Ensemble, the Brentano and Saint Lawrence String Quartets, Chamber Music at the 92nd Street "Y", Saint Luke's Ensemble and Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic andSpeculum Musicae. Ms.
Gilbert also performs frequently in a duo with the Greek guitarist Antigoni Goni. As advocates of folk-inspired classical music, the duo has commissioned numerous new works, many of which are included on their debut solo disc “From the New Village,” on Koch International Classics. Ms. Gilbert's extensive discography includes two solo recordings on Koch International: The Flute Music of Serge Prokofiev, and the Flute Music of Toru Takemitsu. In addition to her solo recordings, Aureole has released nine discs on Koch International, the first of which was short-listed for numerous Grammy awards.

Ms. Gilbert has served on the flute and chamber music faculties of Peabody Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, Harid Conservatory, Purchase College, The Aaron Copland School at Queens College, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and Saint Ann's School. Ms. Gilbert studied with Samuel Baron, Julius Baker and Thomas Nyfenger, and received her Bachelor degrees from Sarah Lawrence College, and New England Conservatory of Music, her diploma and Master of Music from Juilliard, and her Doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook.


NEIL LEITER, viola, was born in Raleigh North Carolina. At the age of eight, he started the violin, and later at fifteen, switched to viola. He received his Bachelor degree in viola performance from “Indiana University” (Bloomington) in 2005. His principal teachers include Alan DeVeritch, Paul DeClerck, Tony Nys, Hugh Partridge and Dan Shaughnessy. He plays regularly as a free-lance musician as a member of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, in the Flemish Radio Orchestra (VRO) and in the “Charlemagne Orchestra”.


NATHAN LEYLAND, cello, attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Nathaniel Rosen. Before moving to the Triangle, he was principal cellist of the Des Moines Symphony and member of the Pioneer String Quartet.  Mr. Leyland has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras in Ohio, New York and Connecticut, and as recitalist and chamber musician in much of the United States.  He is currently an active freelancer in North Carolina, performing with the Mallarmé Chamber Players, the Fayetteville Symphony, Tar River Orchestra, Carolina Ballet Orchestra and others.  His hobbies include spending time with his family and playing golf.


PENG LI, cello, joined the North Carolina Symphony as its Assistant Principal Cellist in the fall of 2008. He was a member of the San Antonio Symphony, as well as a sub for the Houston Symphony, Opera and Ballet Orchestras. Mr. Li attended the Tanglewood Music Center in the summers of  2005 and 2006 and was principal cellist for the 2006 premiere of Elliot Carter's opera What Next?, conducted by James Levine. Mr. Li also has performed with the National Repertory Orchestra and Spoleto USA.

A native of Houston, TX,  Mr. Li received a Masters of Music degree from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music under the tutelage of Norman Fischer and Brinton Smith. Prior to attending Rice, Mr. Li graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA with a Bachelors of Music. His principal teachers were Peter Stumpf and Michael Reynolds. As a chamber musician, Mr. Li has also been coached by members of the Cleveland, Muir, Concord and Borromeo String Quartets.

Mr. Li purchased his cello, Gaetano Gadda made in Mantua, Italy in 1932, with the help of a friend and mentor.

RACHEL NIKETOPOULOS, horn, is a member of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra's French horn section. Prior to coming to Raleigh, she was the second hornist of the Virginia Symphony for 7 years.

A graduate of the Universities of Iowa and Missouri (Kansas City), she was a member of the Aspen Festival Orchestra in 1993 and 1994, and has performed with the Charleston Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami (where she met her husband Chris Caudill, who has been the second hornist of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra since 2003). She has been on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival and of Cannon Music Camp in Boone, N.C. In addition to her horn-playing career, Rachel is a certified instructor of the Alexander Technique. She teaches horn and Alexander Technique lessons privately in Raleigh.


DAVID MARSCHALL, viola, has been a member of the North Carolina Symphony since 1987 and was appointed Associate Principal Viola in 2007. Since 1990, he has spent his summers playing in the orchestra of the Santa Fe Opera. David is a member of the chamber ensemble Quercus, and he is a member of New Music Raleigh, an ensemble dedicated to the music of living composers. David has also served as Principal Viola for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra. He was a member of the New Orleans Symphony, the Innsbruck (Austria) Symphony, the Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Colorado Philharmonic. A native of Columbus, Ohio, David studied first at Ohio State, and he received his Master's degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Karen Tuttle. His viola was made in 2009 by Grubaugh and Seifert of California. David's wife, Amy, teaches German and English at Raleigh Charter High School, and they have two sons, Philip and Owen.


JEREMY PRESTON, violin, has performed in Canada and Brazil as well as major concert halls in the United States. He has performed at major music festivals including Tanglewood, Blossom, and Spoleto. Trained at New England Conservatory's Walnut Hill School, Rice University and at the Cleveland Institute of Music, his distinguished teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Lynn Chang, Kathleen Winkler, Sally Thomas and William Preucil. His chamber music coaches include Norman Fisher, Pamela and Claude Frank and members of the Cleveland Quartet and Juillard Quartets. Jeremy has performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and was a concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as well as the Shepherd School Orchestra at Rice University. Mr. Preston is a member of the second violin section of the North Carolina Symphony.


ERIC PRITCHARD, violin, has been a member of Ciompi Quartet since 1995 and was formerly the first violinist of the Alexander and Oxford Quartets. Mr. Pritchard has taught at Miami University, San Francisco State University, City University of New York and the North Carolina School of the Arts. He was winner of the National Federation of Music Clubs Award in Violin as well as the first-prize winner at the Portsmouth (England) International String Quartet Competition and the Coleman and Fischoff national chamber music competitions. He has performed widely as a recitalist and as soloist with the Boston Pops and orchestras in Europe and South America. His major teachers were Eric Rosenblith, Josef Gingold, Ivan Galamian and Isadore Tinkleman and he holds degrees from Indiana University and the Juilliard School.


SUZANNE ROUSSO, viola, was trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, The Eastman School and New England Conservatory earning a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in viola performance. Some of her teachers included Eugene Becker, Max Aronoff, Heidi Castleman and Walter Trampler. From 1989-2001 Ms. Rousso was principal violist of the Greensboro Symphony and performed regularly with the North Carolina Symphony. Additionally she was a faculty member and performer at Eastern Music Festival where she also served as personnel manager. Ms Rousso was appointed Director of Education for the North Carolina Symphony in May 1999. In late 2006, she was appointed Director of Operations and Education of the Portland (Maine) Symphony and also performed as a member of the Vermont Symphony, PortOpera, Opera Boston and the Portland Chamber Orchestra. She returned from Maine to North Carolina in the summer of 2008 to become the Artistic Director of the Mallarmé Chamber Players. She is also an active free-lance player in the Triangle area, performing with groups like the Carolina Ballet, Opera Company of NC, Choral Society of Durham and the NC Symphony. She has recently become Vice President of the Board for the American Federation of Musicians, Local 500.

ERIC SCHWARTZ, composer Eric Schwartz has studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, and both the Interlochen and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. Past teachers have included Margaret Brouwer, Donald Erb, George Tsontakis, and Randy Woolf. Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical archetypes, Schwartz is always at work on a variety of genre bending projects. Formative influences include an amalgamation of the glam metal of the late 80's, and the baroque intellectualism of Arnold Schoenberg. His music has been performed at various venues throughout New York City, from The Knitting Factory to Merkin Concert Hall, as well as such far flung places as Bucharest, Romania and Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has received awards and grants from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, The Society for New Music, The Puffin Foundation, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and The Ohio Federation of College Music Clubs. Schwartz has served on the faculties of New York University, Hunter College, and the Lucy Moses Music School, and is the artistic director of the Brooklyn, NY based experimental music group Forecast Music (forecastmusic.org). He was recently appointed Resident Composer for the Los Angeles based Tonoi contemporary music ensemble's 2007-2008 season. His debut CD "24 Ways of Looking at a Piano", named one of the top classical CDs of 2005 by All Music Guide, is available now from Centaur Records (http://www.centaurrecords.com). His music is also available on Capstone Records, and Trace Label (France), and is published by Staunch Music (UK) and Lovebird Music (US).

MAYRON TSONG, piano, is a Steinway Artist and has been taken by her performances around the globe to almost every state in the continental United States, as well as Canada, Russia, Sweden, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. After her solo recital Debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Harris Goldsmith of The New York Concert Review praised it as "an enlivening, truly outstanding recital. Fanfare Magazine called her a genius, pure and simple perhaps, a wizard.

Winner of numerous competitions and prizes, Mayron has performed and interviewed for many radio broadcasts, including CBC Radio in Canada, WDAV in North Carolina, WFMT Radio in Chicago, Radio 4 in Hong Kong and NPR's The State of Things. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic (Russia), Symphony North (Houston), Longview Symphony Orchestra (Texas), North Carolina Symphony, Red Deer Symphony Orchestra (Canada), and Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra (Canada). Equally active in chamber music collaborations, her summers have taken her to festivals across the United States, Prague and Italy, including Eastern Music Festival, Prague International Piano Master classes and Schlern International Music Festival in Italy. Her collaborations with some of the finest chamber groups and musicians in North America include Jeffrey Zeigler (of the Kronos Quartet), Brentano String Quartet, Philharmonic Quintet of New York, Mir String Quartet, Vega String Quartet, James Campbell, George Taylor and Antonio Lysy.

A native of Canada, Dr. Tsong is one of the youngest musicians to complete a Performer's Diploma in Piano from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto at age 16. While still a student, she was awarded the Millennium Prize for Russian Performing Arts, and she is a three-time recipient of The Female Doctoral Students Grant, a competition that encompasses all disciplines nationwide, awarded by the Government of Canada. Holding graduate degrees in both Piano Performance and Music Theory from Rice University, her impressive pedigree boasts distinguished teachers like John Perry, Gyrgy Sebk, Robert Levin, Anton Kuerti and Marilyn Engle. Gaining recognition as a pedagogue herself, she has appeared around the world as a master class clinician and adjudicator.

She was recently added to Who's Who Among Professional Artists as well as Who's Who Among American Teachers & Educators and she is an Honorary Member of the Tingshuset Music Society in Sweden along with prominent Swedish Artists like Martin Frst and Christian Lindberg.

She is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  In January 2011, she will be Artist Teacher of Piano at The University of Maryland.

RODNEY WYNKOOP is the conductor of the 150-voice Choral Society of Durham and its 32-voice Chamber Choir. He is the founder and director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham (VAE), a highly acclaimed select choir. VAE was chosen to sing at the 2005 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Los Angeles, as well as two southern division ACDA conventions in 2000 and 2004. The Chapel Choir and the Choral Society of Durham have also performed at southern division ACDA conventions. Dr. Wynkoop has conducted all-state choruses and led choral conducting workshops in various parts of the United States, and during the summer of 1991 he was resident guest conductor of a professional civic chorus in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Dr. Wynkoop is also conductor of the Duke Chapel Choir and its chamber choir, the Schola Cantorum and has been the Director of Duke Chapel Music since 1989. He came to Duke University in 1984 and holds the title of Professor of the Practice of Music in the Music Department, where he teaches choral conducting and conducts the 50-voice Duke University Chorale and its Chamber Choir.

Dr. Wynkoop’s work with choruses has earned him high praise for artistic excellence and innovative programming. In 2000, he received the Durham Arts Council’s James L. Nicholson award for his contributions in promoting the careers of local singers and composers, and in 2002, he received the Lara Hoggard Award for Distinguished Service in Choral Music in North Carolina, presented by the North Carolina ACDA. He was awarded Duke University's Presidential Award for Executive Leadership in 2009.

Dr. Wynkoop has directed a diverse repertoire of choral music, spanning a wide spectrum of historical periods and styles. Major works he has performed with orchestra include Britten’s War Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Glass’s Itaipú, and numerous Requiems including those by Brahms, Berlioz, and Verdi. He has led many performances of his choirs with the North Carolina Symphony, and has conducted the world premieres of works by Mendelssohn, Ives, Daniel Gawthrop, Sidney Boquiren, and Chapel Organist David Arcus.

Dr. Wynkoop earned his doctoral degree in choral conducting at the Yale School of Music. A student of Robert Fountain, he received a Masters degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a Bachelors degree in music from Yale University. Before coming to Duke, he held conducting positions at the University of Chicago, the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, and Mount Holyoke College.

He is married to Leigh Joyner Wynkoop, and is the very happy father of twin boys, Andrew and Paul, who have been reshaping his life since 1998.

Founded in 1949, the Choral Society of Durham (North Carolina) has a long-standing reputation for excellence in performing great choral literature with professional orchestra and regionally and nationally known soloists. We also engage in outreach to music students in area public schools. Our 32-voice Chamber Choir, often featured in portions of Choral Society concerts, also presents its own concerts and makes guest appearances in the community.