As Principal flutist of the Richmond Symphony, Mary Boodell has won acclaim not only for her orchestral playing but for her numerous chamber music performances as well. Praised for her "lovely tone, excellent technique and seamless phrasing," she is equally at home in baroque and contemporary music. Ms. Boodell has performed at festivals across the US and Europe, including at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl, the Eastern Music Festival, and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. In Richmond, she has founded two chamber groups—the Quadrivium Players at the VA Museum of Fine Arts (in residence at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1999-2001) and a current ensemble in residence at Westminster Canterbury—and has performed frequently in both the Richmond Chamber Player’s August Interlude series and the Richmond Festival of Music. She has collaborated with esteemed artists such as the Shanghai Quartet, Jaime Laredo, and Yolanda Kondanassis. Born in Chicago, Ms. Boodell received her Bachelor of Music at the Oberlin Conservatory and her Master of Music at Northwestern University. A longtime passion for the baroque flute brought her back to Oberlin (summer 2006) for studies with Sandra Miller and Michael Lynn at the Baroque Performance Institute and subsequently solo engagements at the Staunton Music Festival.
Philip Borter, cello
Philip Lawrence Borter is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Performance at the Eastman School of Music, where he studies with professor Steven Doane. He sits as a principal cellist in the Eastman Philharmonia and is enrolled in the Catherine Filene Shouse Arts Leadership Program. Philip’s undergraduate education took place at the Cleveland Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Richard Aaron. In 2006, he completed his Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance, graduating with Honors and was recipient of the Dean’s Award. Intensive chamber music studies led to opportunities to work with members of the Cavani, Cleveland, Emerson, Juilliard, Miami, Takács, and Vermeer String Quartets. Philip maintains a busy schedule of performing in recitals and festivals across the east coast. Some of the festivals he has attended include: the Baroque Performance Institute, Chautauqua, ENCORE School for Strings, Kneisel Hall, and National Orchestral Institute. His instructors have included distinguish pedagogues such as Joel Krosnick, Eleanor Schoenfeld, Steve Geber, James Wilson, and Neal Cary. The cello that Philip performs on has been generously awarded to him by the Virtu Foundation, an organization that matches talented young musicians with quality instruments.
David Cerutti, viola
David Cerutti performs internationally as violist and violist d'amore. A resident of New York, he enjoys a diverse musical life encompassing chamber music, recording, orchestral and solo performances. He appears regularly in the US and abroad with groups such as Orpheus, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. A former member of the Smithson String Quartet, he is a founding member of Trigon and has been a guest artist with the Brentano String Quartet, the Cygnus Ensemble, and St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. Performing on Stradivarius instruments, he collaborated with members of Archibudelli on a recording of the Mendelssohn and Gade string octets, for the Sony Classical label. His unedited performances of J.S. Bach's Sixth Brandenburg Concerto was chosen by National Public Radio as one of seven best live recordings of Bach from "Performance Today", and was subsequently released on CD. He is a regular participant in the Helicon Concert Series in New York, and performed as featured soloist in Athanasia Tzanou's Epigramma I on the Double Exposure series at the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. He earned his Master's Degree at the Mannes College of Music, where he was a student of Karen Tuttle.
Laura DeLuca, clarinet
Laura DeLuca, clarinetist, joined the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera in 1986 and is a co-founding member of the Seattle Chamber Players, a Seattle-based contemporary music ensemble praised internationally for their innovative programming and riveting performances. Laura has appeared as soloist with the Seattle Symphony in performances of Copland's Clarinet Concerto and Robert Starer's Rikudin (Dance movement) from his concerto, Kli Zimer. Most recently, she soloed with the Seattle Youth Symphony and in 2006 will appear with the Southeast Orchestra of Texas in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. Laura has performed extensively on dozens of recordings including more than ninety compact discs with Seattle Symphony as well as many movie soundtracks including the solo clarinet work on the Academy Award-winning feature length documentaries, The Long Way Home and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. Other chamber music activities include performances in Portugal with the Moscow Piano Quartet and a film score premiere by Wayne Horvitz. Seattle-area appearances include Music of Remembrance, Icicle Creek Festival and Methow Music Festival. Laura received her formal training at Northwestern University where she studied with the celebrated Robert Marcellus. A committed teacher, she has taught at University of Puget Sound, Marrowstone Music Festival and MidSummer Music Retreat.
Carl Donakowski, cello
Currently Associate Professor of Cello at James Madison University in Harrisonburg Virginia, Mr. Donakowski holds the B.M from Indiana University; the D.M.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an Artist Diploma from the Musikhochschule Freiburg. His major teachers were Timothy Eddy, Janos Starker, Gary Hoffman and Christoph Henkel. He was a finalist in the 1989 Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin. His recital performances have aired on WQRS Detroit, WQXR New York and Sudwestfunk Radio Baden-Baden. As a chamber musician, he has been a member of the North Shore Pro Musica, the Fontana Chamber Music Society and the Orpheus Piano Trio. As a member of the West End Chamber Ensemble, he participated in National Endowment for the Arts/Chamber Music America Rural Residency Chamber Music Initiatives in Georgia and Kansas. He previously served on the faculties of Central Michigan University School of Music and Alma College.
Claire Jolivet, Baroque violin
Violinist Claire Jolivet has rapidly established herself as one of the country’s leading interpreters of baroque and early classical repertoire. She maintains a busy career appearing regularly with chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout the Northeast, including The New York Collegium, Sarasa, Repast, Concert Royal, Clarion, and Ars Antiqua. She was for many years a member of the Four Nations Ensemble, with whom she appeared to critical acclaim on major concert stages in the US and abroad. Currently she plays with the newly-founded Dodd String Quartet, and with the Germany-based Trio del'Aire. She is the concertmaster of Opera Lafayette in Washington DC and of the New York based Grand Tour Orchestra. She has also performed as a guest with Musica Pacifica, Tafelmusic, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and with Opera Fuoco in Paris. On modern violin, Ms. Jolivet freelances in the many orchestral ensembles in the New York area, such as the Stamford Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Joseph Kalichstein, Paula Robison and Kathleen Battle, and has recorded on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and ASV - Gaudeamus labels.
Jessica Lee, violin
Violinist Jessica Lee, the First Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, was featured in the “Launch Pad” column of The Strad (June 2007), as the magazine’s “pick of up-and-coming musicians” for that month. Ms. Lee is an active chamber musician and became a member of the Johannes String Quartet in 2006. She has toured frequently with ‘Musicians from Marlboro,’ including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Gardner Museum. She is also a member of the conductor-less string ensemble ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), with which she has performed at Town Hall and the Kennedy Center. Ms. Lee has also appeared on the Concerti di Mezzogiorno Recital Series at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Festival de Musica de Camera in Lima, Peru, and the FOCUS! Festival in New York. She has also performed as guest soloist with such orchestras as the American Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Hampton Youth Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has been a participant at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.
A native of Virginia, Jessica Lee began playing the violin at age three and quickly captured national attention with a feature article in LIFE magazine. Following studies with Weigang Li of the Shanghai Quartet, she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree under the tutelage of Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. In May 2003, she completed her studies with Robert Mann for a Master of Music Degree at the Juilliard School and currently resides in New York.
Anthony Manzo, bass
A sought-after chamber musician, Anthony Manzo wishes his double bass were eligible for its own frequent flyer account. He performs regularly in Washington with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the national Symphony, in Chicago with the Baroque Band, and as solo bassist of San Francisco’s acclaimed New Century Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Manzo played in the New World Symphony in Miami before moving to Norway to play with the Bergen Philharmonic. He then spent seven years performing, recording, and touring the world with the Munich Chamber orchestra. Recent chamber music collaborators include the members of the Auryn Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Garth Newel Piano Quartet. He lives in Washington, D.C., and plays a double bass by Jean Thibouville Lamy, made in Paris around 1890.
Leslie Mutchler, mezzo-soprano
An alumnus of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera, Ms. Mutchler has been a regular presence on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage since her Washington National Opera company debut in October of 2004 as Inez in Il Trovatore, under the baton of Maestro Heinz Fricke. In addition, Ms. Mutchler was seen as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, again under the baton of Maestro Fricke. She was also chosen by Plácido Domingo to perform opposite him in Washington National Opera’s production of Trilogy: Domingo and Guests in Three Acts, where she appeared as Hanna in Act Three of Franz Lehar’s Die Lustige Witwe. Ms. Mutchler has been seen on opera house stages throughout the United States, including appreances as an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe and Chautuaqua Operas, Opera Company of Philadelphia , Opera North (Hanover, New Hampshire) and numerous appearances with the Indianapolis Opera, most recently as Stephano in Romeo et Juliette, where local reviewers praised her performance as a “standout”. Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Mutchler’s repertoire includes Bach’s Messe in h-moll and Matthaus-Passion, and Mahler’s Second Symphony (performed under Roberto Abbado). Ms. Mutchler holds both Bachelor and Master’s degrees from the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, where she was awarded the Richard Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. A native of the nation’s capitol, Ms. Mutchler resides in Washington, DC.
David Newman, baritone
American baritone David Newman enjoys an active and varied concert career throughout North America. Hailed as “electrifying” by the Washington Post and noted by the Sacramento Bee for his “rather perfect oratorio voice,” he is in particular demand as a Baroque specialist. He has performed Messiah with Tafelmusik, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and with Masterwork Chorus in Carnegie Hall; St. John Passion with the American Bach Soloists, Carmel Bach Festival, Chorale Delaware, and the Bach Chamber Orchestra of Honolulu; and St. Matthew Passion with the Bach Society of St. Louis, Baroque Choral Guild, San Francisco Bach Choir, and a national tour with the combined forces of Santa Fe Pro Musica and the Smithsonian Chamber Players. In his debut with the Washington Bach Consort, Mr. Newman was noted by the Baltimore Sun for his “exquisitely phrased, velvet-toned Mache dich, mein Herz.” Other notable appearances include Bach’s B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio with The Bethlehem Bach Choir, Coffee Cantata, Easter Oratorio, and Christmas Oratorio with the Santa Fe Bach Festival, and Haydn’s Creation with The Honolulu Symphony. He was also a featured soloist in the Sorbonne’s 2003 Festival Berlioz in Paris with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared regularly as a guest artist with the Four Nations Ensemble, including performances in Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall, and has also performed with the Spoleto Festival, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Opera Birmingham, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Russian National Orchestra. His recording of Alexander’s Feast with The Bach Sinfonia was recently released on the Dorian label. Mr. Newman teaches voice at James Madison University.
Diane Pascal, violin
Diane Pascal is an acclaimed soloist and chamber musician in the USA and abroad. She is the Second/First Concertmaster of the Camerata Salzburg, Artistic Director of the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra and has appeared as Concertmaster of the Mostly Mozart Orchestra in New York City. Chamber music has long been at the core of Ms. Pascal's professional musical activities. She is currently a member of the acclaimed, Munich-based Rosamunde Quartet. As first violinist of the Lark Quartet she recorded, among others, the works of Schumann, Kernis,and Schnittke for the Arabesque label. She has also appeared with the Pascal Trio, the Salzburger Solisten, and performed at the International Musician's Seminar at Prussia Cove, England, the Nordland Musik Festuk, Norway, Barge Music in New York City, as well as at many other festivals in the USA, Germany and Japan. As a member of Camerata Salzburg under the direction of Sandor Vegh, Ms. Pascal appeared frequently as soloist with this and other ensembles in Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany. In 1986, she won first prize in the Austrian-American Society's "Mozarteum" Competition and in 1989, she received a Diplom D'Honor at the Maria Canals International Violin Competition in Barcelona, Spain. Ms. Pascal attended The Juilliard School and holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Ivan Galamian and Jascha Brodsky. Her graduate studies were with Sandor Vegh at the Hochschule "Mozarteum" in Salzburg.
Lori Piitz, piano
Canadian pianist, Lori Piitz, has lived, performed and taught in both North America and Europe, and is currently on the piano faculty at James Madison University. Prior to moving to Virginia, Ms. Piitz lived in Germany for 9 years where she participated in recitals for the Wagner Society and the New Music Association of Germany, as well as at the International Flute Congress in Frankfurt. She performed several concerti with the Neusäss Chamber Orchestra and presented a cycle of Beethoven works for cello and piano, with cellist Helga Winold, in Munich. In addition Ms. Piitz was the pianist for the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra and regularly performed chamber music with members of the orchestra. She has been a guest at the Festival of the Sound in Canada, the Schleswig-Holstein and Villa Musica Festivals in Germany, the Schubert Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at the Mozart Bicentennial Series in Avery Fisher Hall, New York. Ms. Piitz and her duet partner, Gabriel Dobner, have performed in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In 2006 they returned to Germany to present recitals commemorating the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Ms. Piitz holds Masters and Doctoral degrees in piano performance from Indiana University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Ottawa, where she was awarded the prestigious ‘Isobel Firestone’ performance scholarship. Her teachers include Menahem Pressler, Leonard Hokanson, Jean-Paul Sevilla, Evelyn Greenberg and Helgi Fatovic. She was twice awarded full scholarships to the Banff Center of Fine Arts where she worked with Martin Isepp and Marek Jablonski. Ms. Piitz has been heard on the French and English networks of CBC Radio, as well as on the Südwestfunk in Stuttgart, Germany. A winner in the Canadian Music Competitions, she was also a finalist in CBC television’s “Virtuoses en Herbe” Competition. Since moving to Virginia Ms. Piitz has participated regularly in a number of festivals, including the Contemporary Music Festival at James Madison University, the Bach Festival in Harrisonburg, the Richmond Festival of Music and the Staunton Music Festival. Previous teaching engagements include the University of Ottawa, Eastern Mennonite University and the Augsburg/Nürnberg Hochschule für Musik.
Theresa Salomon, Baroque violin and viola
Violinist Theresa Salomon, a native of Germany, has been an active performer in this country since 1993. She has performed on numerous international festivals, such as Festival Presence in Paris, the Gulbenkian Festival in Lisbon, the Prague Spring Festival, the Ostfriesland Festival in Germany, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, and the Ostrava Days for New Music in the Czech Republic, where she was soloist with the Janacek Philharmonic. Since her debut in New York in 1997, which was presented by Artists International, Ms, Salomon has performed on Baroque and modern violin with such esteemed groups as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Rebel Baroque Orchestra, the New York Collegium, and the SEM Ensemble. She also directs a new music series at Music Under Construction, and collaborates frequently with its dance branch, Dance Under Construction.
Carsten Schmidt, piano and harpsichord
Since his 1984 debut with the Essen Philharmonic in Germany, Carsten Schmidt has performed extensively in Europe, North America and Japan. He has been heard at many international venues, including, among many others, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the German Mozart Festival, and the Kaleidoscope New Music Festival in Moscow. In 2004, he made his New York solo recital debut at Merkin Hall. His performances have been broadcast around the world on National Public radio, the Dutch Concertsender, Westduetscher Rundfunk, Bavarian Radio and All-Russian radio. After graduating with distinction from the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, Carsten Schmidt continued his studies at Indiana University, where he received the Artist Diploma. He also holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. He has taught at Indiana University, and since 1998 is Professor of piano and harpsichord at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Mr Schmidt is also the Artistic Director of the Staunton Music Festival.
Molly Sharp, viola
Molly Sharp is the Principal Violist of the Richmond Symphony and has played with the Richmond Symphony since 1993. In addition to playing in Richmond, she has played with the Nashville Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra, the Cascade Music Festival in Bend, Oregon and the Sante Fe Symphony. Molly received a Bachelor’s Degree from Vanderbilt University/Blair School of Music, studying with Kathryn Plummer. She received her Master’s Degree in 1992 from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Heidi Castleman and apprenticed with the Cavanni Quartet. Chamber music studies have included summers at the Taos School of Music and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival-Yale Summer School of Music. Professionally Molly has performed at the Stauton Chamber Music Festival, the Richmond Music Festival, and is a member of the Oberon String Quartet in residence at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond. She also performs regularly with the Richmond Symphony String Quartet, comprised of the principal string players from the orchestra. In addition to playing the viola, Molly plays fiddle and sings with the Trevillian Ramblers.
James Wilson, cello and Baroque cello
For the past fifteen years, cellist James Wilson has consistently performed to the delight of audiences throughout the world. As recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed at music festivals such as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the City of London Festival, the Deutches Mozartfest in Bavaria, the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. At home in New York City, he has performed with many groups including the Music of the Spheres Society, Music from Copland House, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, with which he has also served as principal cellist. He has also been a member of the Shanghai and Chester String Quartets, touring extensively worldwide with both groups. A devoted advocate for the arts and arts education, Mr. Wilson currently teaches cello and chamber music at Columbia University. He has also served on the faculties of the University of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University. As the Artistic Director of the Richmond Festival of Music, he has co-ordinated performances and out-reach activities throughout the Central Virginia area for the past three years.
Carmit Zori, violin
At the recommendation of Isaac Stern and Alexander Schneider, violinist Carmit Zori came to the United States from her native Israel at the age of fifteen to study with Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo and Arnold Steinhardt at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Ms. Zori is the recipient of a Levintritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award and a top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. Carmit Zori has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in recital at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. Her engagements abroad have included performances throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as in Israel, Japan, Taiwan and Australia, where she premiered the Violin Concerto by Marc Neikrug. In addition to her appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ms. Zori has been a guest at chamber music festivals and concert series around the world, including the Chamber Music at the “Y” series in New York City, the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and the Marlboro Festival in Vermont. Ms. Zori was an artistic director and frequent performer at Bargemusic in New York, and is now the artistic director of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, which she founded in 2002. She has recorded on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Elektra-Nonesuch labels.
The James River Singers
Founded in 1995 by Thomas Colohan and reorganized in 2001 by current Artistic Director Jeffrey Riehl, the James River Singers is a classical chamber choir dedicated to presenting high-quality choral concerts within and outside of the Richmond, Virginia community. The members are volunteers from the greater Richmond area who are selected by audition. The choir's repertoire includes a cappella and accompanied repertoire from a wide variety of style periods and musical traditions. The James River Singers is widely admired for its creative programming and musical excellence and has performed on a number of distinguished concert series in the Richmond and Washington areas, including the Washington National Cathedral's Summer Series.
