Top Things to Do in Summer. Your guide to enjoying summer in the Cincinnati region!
Elizabeth AndersonCello; August 6Cellist Elizabeth Anderson joined the Cassatt String Quartet in 2014 and has toured extensively in the United States, Mexico, China and Japan. She is also Assistant Principal Cello of the New York City Opera, and has won the highest praise from critics for her recordings on the RCA Red Seal, Telarc and Nonesuch labels. Deeply committed to new music, many renowned composers have dedicated works to her, including Samuel Adler, Michael Rose and Kenneth Frazelle. As a founding member of the celebrated Meliora Quartet, Grand Prize Winner of The Naumburg Chamber Music Award, The Fischoff Competition, The Coleman Competition and The Cleveland Quartet Competition, she has performed at Lincoln Center, the Corcoran Gallery, Library of Congress, and Jordan Hall. An active concerto soloist, Elizabeth has performed with the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Orchestra and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. As recitalist she has toured throughout the U.S. And Europe, and has been a frequent guest at international music festivals around the world and in the U.S, including Aspen, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Music Festival of Arkansas, Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and the Portland Chamber Music Festival.
Elizabeth was a faculty member at the Eastman School of Music, Florida State University, Middlebury College, and the Longy School of Music. Formerly Associate Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she studied with Jacqueline DuPre, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Yo‑Yo Ma, Wallace Rushkin and Leonard Rose.
She holds degrees from The Juilliard School and California State University at Sacramento, and the Eastman School of Music. She is also a performer of North Indian classical music as a cellist and vocalist. Her newest CD, “Latifa Noor” includes improvisations on Indian Raga for cello and voice. She has performed at the SLLMF since 2013.Jonathan BaggViola; July 16Jonathan Bagg is Professor of the Practice at Duke University and violist with the Ciompi String Quartet. His career with the Ciompi includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. And around the world, as well as many recordings.
Currently co-Artistic Director of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, he also directed the Monadnock Music festival from 2007-2011. His festival programming has included creative collaborations with authors, poets, and choreographers, resulting in many newly commissioned works. Most recently, in 2018, “A Forest Unfolding” involves 4 writers, 4 composers, and features novelist Richard Powers as narrator. Jonathan directs the chamber music program at Duke, where he has served as Chair, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and is currently Director of Performance. He is principal viola of CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician he has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, and the Highlands, NC, Mohawk Trail, and Castle Hill festivals. Jonathan’s solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann, and by the Viennese composer Robert Fuchs (Centaur records), and by Duke colleagues Stephen Jaffe and Scott Lindroth (Albany Records).
Contemporary solo works by Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, Robert Ward, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Albany, Centaur and Gasparo Records. This is is Jonathan’s first appearance at the SLLMF. Eliot BailenCello; July 23, 30Eliot Bailen has an active career as an artistic director, cellist, composer and teacher. Strings Magazine writes, “At Merkin Hall ‘cellist Eliot Bailen displayed a warm focused tone, concentrated expressiveness and admirable technical command always at the service of the music.” Founder and Artistic Director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, now in its 36 th year, whose performances the New York Times has described as “the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert,” Eliot is also Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at Rodeph Sholom in New York and Artistic Director of the New York Chamber Ensemble. Principal Cello of the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, New York Chamber Ensemble, Orchestra New England, Teatro Grattacielo and the New Choral Society, Eliot also performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, the Cape May Music Festival, the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, as well as with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York City Opera and Ballet, the American Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony.Heard frequently in numerous Broadway shows, in 2015 Eliot was solo cellist for ‘ Allegiance.’ As a composer, he has received many commissions including a Double Concerto for Flute and Cello (2012) and his Saratoga Sextet, for the Saratoga Chamber Players (“The crowd loved it!” Schenectady Daily Gazette 6/14).
Recently Eliot’s musical, The Tiny Mustache, received a third grant for further development from the Omer Foundation after its successful debut. He has received over thirty commissions for his “ Song to Symphony” project, an extended school residency program that was recently awarded a special Alumni Grant from the Yale School of Music. Eliot received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University and an MBA from New York University.
He is on the cello and chamber music faculty at Columbia University and Teachers College, and has performed at the SLLMF since 1994. Catherine ChoViolin; Aug 13Praised by the New York Times for her “sublime tone,” violinist Catherine Cho has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Detroit, National, Montreal, Edmonton, and National Arts Centre orchestras, the KBS and Seoul Philharmonic in Korea, the Barcelona Symphony, and the New Zealand Symphony. Her collaborations with distinguished conductors include, Robert Spano, and Hugh Wolff. Mihae LeePiano; July 16, 23, 30, Aug 6, 13Praised by the Boston Globe as “simply dazzling,” Korean-born pianist Mihae Lee maintains a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director. She has been captivating audiences throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in solo and chamber music concerts, in such venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Academia Nationale de Santa Cecilia in Rome, Warsaw National Philharmonic Hall, and Taipei National Hall.
Catharine LeesViola; Aug 6Violist Catharine Lees maintains an active career as recitalist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and andragogue. As Professor of Viola at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), she served as Chairman of the String Department from 2009 to 2017. She was also the host chair of the 2010 International Viola Congress.
Linton Chamber Music Series 3
She was a member of the Artist/Faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Principal Violist of the Aspen Chamber Symphony for 25 seasons. She is also coordinator of the event exchange agreement between Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea, and CCM. Catharine has been featured on numerous occasions as soloist with the Aspen Chamber Symphony, CCM Chamber Players, and Wired. Upcoming features include appearances with orchestras performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and with the CCM Philharmonia in Strauss’ Don Quixote. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with prominent artists including Gil Shaham, Jaime Laredo, Sarah Chang, Alisa Weilerstein, Don Weilerstein, Vivian Weilerstein, Joseph Swensen, as well as members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Tokyo, Cleveland, American, LaSalle, and Ariel string quartets. She has been featured in broadcasts on WGUC, WFMT, NHK Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, NPR, and WOSU. Catharine’s passion for teaching and the advancement of pedagogy/andragogy led to her collaboration with Dorothy DeLay resulting in Essentials for Viola.
She has presented annual master classes at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Memphis, Beijing Central Conservatory, Sookmyung Women’s University, and Yeungnam University (Daegu, South Korea), as well as in Tainan and Taipei, Taiwan. Catharine earned her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory, where she studied viola with Masao Kawasaki, violin with Henry Meyer, and chamber music with the LaSalle and Tokyo string quartets.
Catharine has performed at the SLLMF since 2018. Timothy LeesViolin; Aug 6Timothy Lees, Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, enjoys an exciting and eclectic career as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Since his arrival in Cincinnati as Concertmaster in 1998, he has also been appointed as a member of the violin faculty of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). A member of the Sarasota Festival faculty since 2004, Timothy has also been a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he performed as Concertmaster of both the Aspen Chamber Symphony and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.From Bach to Bartok, Timothy’s flexibility and command of the solo violin repertoire is evident through his numerous solo appearances with the Cincinnati Symphony as well as on many other stages throughout North America. As a recitalist, he has been featured in solo recitals in cities throughout the United States and at festivals including Sarasota, Spoleto, Sebago-Long Lake, Mainly Mozart festivals, among others.An avid and highly sought-after chamber musician, Timothy frequently collaborates with prominent artists including Jaime Laredo, Joseph Silverstein, Yefim Bronfman, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley, and has appeared as guest artist with the St. Lawrence and Jupiter string quartets.
He is featured regularly in chamber music series including the Linton Music Series, CCM Faculty Artist Series, Oberlin Conservatory Series, and Concert Nova, as well as the Aspen Music Festival Faculty Artists Series and the Spoleto Festival Series. He has recorded on the Telarc, Bridge Records, and Fanfare Cincinnati labels.A native of Philadelphia, Timothy received the coveted Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Charles Castleman. Prior to his arrival in Cincinnati, he served as Concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival, the Pittsburgh, New Jersey, and the Charleston symphony orchestras. Timothy performs on a J. Vuillaume violin, c.
1845, and has performed at the SLLMF since 1999. Adrian MorejonBassoon; July 23Praised for his “teeming energy” and “precise control” by the New York Times and having “every note varnished to a high gloss” by the Boston Globe, bassoonist Adrian Morejon has established himself as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician.
As a soloist, Adrian has appeared in New York, Boston, Vienna, Prague, Memphis, and Miami with the Talea Ensemble, IRIS Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the Miami Symphony. He is a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet, the Talea Ensemble, and the Radius Ensemble, and has appeared with numerous other chamber ensembles and festivals.Adrian is co-principal of IRIS Orchestra and has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the Boston Pops, and others.
He is a prize winner of the IDRS Gillet-Fox and Moscow Conservatory international competitions and a Theodore Presser Foundation Grant recipient. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. He currently teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Boston Conservatory, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and Brooklyn College. Adrian has performed at the SLLMF since 2016. Volkan OrhonBass; August 6Acclaimed for his musicality and virtuosity, Volkan Orhon has established himself as one of the top double bassists in the world today. He was a finalist and prizewinner in the Concert Artists Guild Solo Competition in New York City, and was the co-first place winner of the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition.
Additionally, he distinguished himself as the first double bass player ever to win the grand prize overall and first prize for double bass at the American String Teacher’s Association Solo Competition. Volkan has performed with internationally recognized musicians including Gary Karr, Fazil Say, the Emerson and Tokyo string quartets, and has performed recitals and as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Bursa State Conservatory and Eskisehir Anatolian University (Turkey), Paris Conservatory, Norwegian Academy of Music, Arizona State University, University of Michigan, Butler University, Northwestern University and North Carolina School of the Arts. As an orchestra musician, he served as principal bass in the Orchestra Iowa and performed with the Detroit Symphony, Hartford Symphony and Connecticut Opera Orchestra. Volkan has recorded CDs under the Albany, Centaur, and Crystal Records labels. Most recently he recorded the Double Bass Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, a work written for him by composer David Gompper. This recording will be released under the Naxos label in 2020. As a pedagogue, Volkan has been an invited clinician to workshops across the United States and abroad, including European double bass conferences Bass2018 LUCCA, Bass Bass2010 Berlin, Bass2008 Paris, Ouro Branco Festival in Brazil, Suzuki Association of the Americas, American String Teachers Association and the International Society of Bassists. Born and raised in Turkey, he spent much of his youth touring Europe.
After graduating from the Ankara State Conservatory under the tutelage of Tahir Sumer, he became a member of the Ankara Presidential Symphony Orchestra. Volkan came to the United States to continue his studies with Gary Karr. He is currently professor of double bass at the University of Iowa and has performed at the SLLMF since 2012. Susan RotholzFlute; July 23, 30Praised by the New York Times as “irresistible in both music and performance,” flutist Susan Rotholz continues to be in demand as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and teacher.
Winner of Young Concert Artists with Hexagon Piano and Winds and of Concert Artists Guild as a soloist, Susan is Principal Flute of the Greenwich Symphony and The New York Chamber Ensemble, and a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The New York Pops and the Little Orchestra Society. She has recorded and toured internationally with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Co-founder of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, she also appears each season with the Cape May Music Festival, Greenwich Chamber Players, Saratoga Chamber Players and the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival. Susan attended the Marlboro Music Festival and was the principal and solo flutist with New England Bach Festival for 25 years.
Amy SchroederViolin; July 30New York based violinist and pedagogue Amy Schroeder has been hailed by the Washington Post as “an impressive artist whose playing combines imagination and virtuosity.” She has soloed with orchestras including the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Amherst Symphony, the Clarence Symphony, the Hilton Head Symphony, and the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra. As a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, Amy has soloed with the Spanish National Orchestra with composer John Adams conducting, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra with Marin Alsop conducting. Since its inception, the Attacca Quartet has won an array of awards including the grand prize in the Osaka International String Quartet Competition, the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award, the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association, and the Lotos Prize in the Arts from the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation. The quartet has also held residencies in prestigious venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and currently at the Texas State University in San Marcos.
They recently spent six years performing all 68 of Haydn’s string quartets, and are currently performing the Beethoven Cycle in venues around North America. Amy also performs regularly in the Schroeder Umansky Duo with her husband, cellist Felix Umansky. She recently joined the violin faculty at Vassar College and also maintains a private violin studio in New York City. Amy studied at the Juilliard School where she received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance as well as an Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies. She is currently playing on a Fernando Gagliano violin made in 1771, on loan to her from the Five Partners Foundation.
In New York, Amy teaches violin and piano to students of all ages, and in her spare time she enjoys composing, traveling with her husband, and scuba diving. This is her first appearance at the SLLMF.Matthew SinnoViola; July 23Massachusetts native Matthew Sinno was appointed Associate Principal Viola of the Kansas City Symphony in 2018. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Winner of the 2014 Juilliard Concerto Competition, Matthew performed Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher in Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. In 2019, He appeared as soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, playing an arrangement of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” featuring solo viola as the voice of Freddy Mercury. Matthew has attended several summer festivals such as Perlman Music Program and Music Academy of the West. He also performs at Chestnut Hill Concerts in Connecticut. Matthew holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music. His primary teachers include Cynthia Phelps, Heidi Castleman, Roberto Diaz, Toby Appel, Ed Gazouleas and David Rubinstein.
This is Matthew’s first appearance at the SLLMF. Ronald ThomasCello; August 13Artistic Director of Chestnut Hill Concerts since 1989, cellist Ronald Thomas sustains a full and active career as a solo performer, prominent chamber musician and administrator, an orchestral Principal Cellist, and a conservatory cello instructor. His solo appearances include performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the St. Louis, Baltimore and Seattle symphony orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Handel and Haydn Society, among others. Ronald has performed recitals in virtually every state in the United States, in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston and Los Angeles, as well as numerous concerts in Europe and Asia. In great demand as a chamber musician, Ronald was also co-founder and artistic director of the Boston Chamber Music Society for 26 years, where he appeared regularly and produced a number of highly acclaimed recordings.
He has also appeared frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both at Alice Tully Hall and on tour. Other chamber music festival appearances include the Seattle, Bravo!
Colorado, Chamber Music Northwest, Spoleto, Blossom and Norfolk festivals, as well as the festivals of Dubrovnik, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, among others. Ronald was a member of the Players in Residence Committee and the Board of Overseers at Bargemusic in New York. While he was member of the Boston Musica Viva and the Aeolian Chamber Players, he premiered countless new works, including compositions by Gunther Schuller, Michael Colgrass, Ellen Zwillich, Donald Erb, William Bolcom and William Thomas McKinley. He was Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and artistic partner of San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival. Before winning the Young Concert Artists auditions at the age of nineteen, Ronald attended the New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute. His principal teachers were Lorne Munroe, David Soyer and Mary Canberg.
He is currently on the faculty of Mannes College at the New School in NYC, and has taught at the Peabody Institute, the Boston Conservatory, MIT, Brown University and Wellesley College. Ronald has performed at the SLLMF since 2018. Bonnie ThronCello; July 23, 30Bonnie Thron joined the North Carolina Symphony as Principal Cello in 2000. She currently is a member of the piano quartet Quercus and has frequently played with the Mallarme Chamber Players.
She also performs regularly on the Washington Musica Viva series and in the summers she plays in the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival in Maine. Previously Bonnie was a member of the Peabody Trio, in residence at the Peabody Institute, during which time the group won the Naumberg Chamber Music Competition. Early in her career Bonnie was Assistant Principal Cello of the Denver Symphony for one season, and she played and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. She has had a long history with the Apple Hill Chamber Players as a guest artist and chamber music coach, and was involved in the group’s first Playing for Peace tour to the Middle East in 1991. Bonnie has performed concertos with the North Carolina Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Panama National Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and various other orchestras in North Carolina and her original home state of New Hampshire.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, and her teachers include Lynn Harrell, Harvey Shapiro, Norman Fischer and Elsa Hilger. Bonnie also received a BSN from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and worked as a nurse for several years at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and as a case manager in home care nursing, during which time she was also a cello teacher at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Bonnie performs frequently with her husband, clarinetist Fred Jacobowitz.
They have one son, Louis, who, as an undergraduate computer science major at NC State University, is gently introducing his parents to the tools of the 21 st century! Bonnie has performed at the SLLMF since 2002.Keiko TokunagaViolin; July 16Praised by Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes,” violinist Keiko Tokunaga performs globally as a soloist and chamber musician.
The Cincinnati International Wine Festival’s generous support continues to have an incredible impact on Linton Chamber Music’s ability to reach close to 5,000 people each season through the beauty, power, and fun of great music.Linton Chamber Music provides extraordinary concerts to the Greater Cincinnati community that truly allow audiences to experience the energy of music-making in a unique, up-close and personal way. Each of Linton’s three series, the Linton Chamber Music Series, Encore! Linton Series, and Peanut Butter and Jam Sessions feature top artists performing great music in an intimate setting to engaged audiences. Under the artistic leadership of internationally-acclaimed musicians, Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson, Linton audiences experience world-class chamber music performances. Various combinations of instruments and the mix of players bring a “fresh” approach and energy to performing and programming that inspires both audiences and artists.
Artists also connect with audiences by sharing their perspectives on the music and composers from the stage. Performances are held in intimate and acoustically warm settings where audiences surround the musicians and help to foster Founding Director, Dick Waller’s vision and atmosphere of “music-making among friends.” The Sunday afternoon Linton Chamber Music Series takes place at the historic First Unitarian Church in Avondale. This concert series features unique ensembles comprised of classical music’s finest individual artists from across the world, country and region including musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Linton Series features many of the same artists presented on the main Linton Music Series. Concerts take place on Monday evenings and are performed at Congregation Beth Adam in Loveland, reaching a broader audience.This extraordinary music opportunity is one of the best things about Cincinnati.– Linton Audience MemberThe intimate nature of chamber music makes it an ideal way to introduce young children and their families to classical music. Linton’s Peanut Butter & Jam Sessions are the only classical music series in Greater Cincinnati specifically designed for children age’s two to six. Created over 25 years ago, PB&J Sessions are unique in their format, which encourages children to sit up close to the musicians and become involved in the music-making experience through movement, dance, song and games, and also invites parents and grandparents to share the experience with their children.A wonderful way to encourage music appreciation, expose to different instruments, teach listening skills, encourage confidence in a group setting, and a wonderful activity to share with the whole family.– PB&J ParentWith Linton Chamber Music and Encore!
Linton venues located in central Avondale and suburban Loveland and PB&J Sessions offered in various locations throughout Greater Cincinnati, Linton reaches a broad spectrum of audiences by making its concerts accessible throughout the region. Linton Chamber Music audiences of all ages are given the unique opportunity to experience incredible artists in warm and intimate settings that are very different from the grandeur of Music Hall yet equally as powerful and inspiring.