Colin Carr, Cellist
Colin Carr has appeared throughout the world as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher.  As a concerto soloist, Colin Carr has played with major orchestras worldwide including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia and Montreal, with Rattle, Gergiev, Dutoit, Elder, Skrowaczewski and Marriner. He has played at the BBC Proms, toured Australia twice and has recently played concertos in South Korea, Malaysia and New Zealand. This season's engagements include tours of Germany and the Netherlands, concerts at the Korean International Music Festival, a series of concerts in New York for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Centre and a performance of the Bridge 'Oration' with the BBC Philharmonic at the RNCM Cello Festival in Manchester.

Recitals take him to major cities each season. During 2006 Carr again performs cycles of the complete Bach Suites for many promoters including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York. As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio he recorded and toured extensively for twenty years. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

His recordings of the unaccompanied cello works of Kodaly, Britten, Crumb and Schuller and Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello performed live at Boston's Jordan Hall (GM Recordings) have been highly acclaimed. He has recorded the Brahms Sonatas with Mr Luvisi for Arabesque. He was also the soloist in Elgar's Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic on a BBC Music Magazine cover CD.  Colin Carr is the winner of many prestigious international awards, including First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award and Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition.

He first played the cello at the age of five; three years later he went to the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Maurice Gendron and later William Pleeth. He was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1998 having been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years; in 1998 St. John's College, Oxford created the post of "Musician in Residence" for him and in September 2002 he became a professor at Stony Brook University in New York.  Colin lives with his wife Caroline and 3 young children Clifford, Frankie and Anya in an old house outside Oxford.
www.carolinebairdartists.co.uk

Kathryn Lockwood, Violist
Kathryn  Lockwood has been distinguished as a violist of exceptional talents in reviews around  the country. The Cleveland Plain Dealer proclaimed, “...Lockwood played the  vociferous viola cadenza with mahogany beauty and vivid character.” 2005 marked  the release of Kathryn’s solo recital CD of Viola Music by Inessa Zaretsky,  “Fireoptics”, which Strad declared “Lockwood is absolutely inside the music's  idiom finding appropriate tonal shadings”.  Kathryn is  a member of the internationally renowned Lark Quartet, and has  been guest artist with ensembles such as Trio Solisti, The Muir Quartet, and  Triple Helix, and has collaborated with artists Branford Marsalis, Cho-Liang  Lin, and the Bill T Jones Dance Company. A native of Australia ,  Kathryn moved to the US in 1991 and captured solo awards at the Primrose International Viola  Competition, and The Washington International Competition for Strings. As a  founding member of the Pacifica Quartet, she was heard live in residence on  National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and on the stages of Carnegie Hall,  Alice Tully Hall, and at The Ravinia Festival.  She has recorded for  Cedille records, including a collaboration with Guarneri String Quartet violist  Michael Tree and for Arabesque and Bribie Recordings.  Recent  faculty positions include University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Boston  University Tanglewood Institute, and in the past, Northwestern University ,University of Chicago ,  Interlochen Academy, Music Institute of Chicago, and National Music Camp in Australia .  She earned her master's degree with Donald McInnes at the University of Southern  California and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music  with Elizabeth Morgan.

Described by critics around the world for their “superb” and “extraordinary” musicianship, Kathryn Lockwood and Yousif Sheronick join forces in a rare combination of viola and percussion.  With heritages stretching as far as Australia, Lebanon and the United States, the Lockwood/Sheronick Project is truly a duo of the world.  Drawing from their melting pot home of New York City, LSP has commissioned composers in the fields of Jazz, European Classical and World Traditions encompassing diverse and creative repertoire that is both aurally and visually alluring.  Along side the viola, the percussion batterie includes the durbahek (goblet drum) and riq (tambourine) from the Middle East as well as the West African djembe and frame drums from around the globe.
www.larkquartet.com

Kyu Young Kim, Violin
Kyu-Young Kim is one of the most versatile and accomplished violinists of his generation.  Hailed by John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune for his “flawless musical and technical command”, Kim is an active soloist and chamber musician.  Most recently he performed in Carnegie Hall and in the major halls of Europe, including the Musikverein (Vienna), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Philharmonie (Cologne, the Cité de la Musique (Paris), the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), the Festpielhaus (Baden-Baden), and the Megaron (Athens).  As a founding member of the Daedalus Quartet, winners of the Grand Prize at the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition, he has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Japan and Panama, and is now a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two Program. He has appeared as soloist with the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, of which he served as Associate Concertmaster for five years, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Poland, and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist, he has performed throughout the U.S. and in Korea, Japan, Germany, and New Zealand.

Mr. Kim is a recipient of the 2007 Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center in recognition of outstanding young artists from the Lincoln Center community.  As a former member of the Pacifica String Quartet, Mr. Kim won the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1998 and served as an artist-in-residence for National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”  Mr. Kim’s other chamber music activities have included collaborations with pianist Gary Graffman and the Juilliard String Quartet, and performances with the Chicago Contemporary Players, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the DaCapo Chamber Players, and the New Juilliard Ensemble. He has toured on four continents with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the Sejong Soloists.  Widely recognized for his teaching and musical outreach activities, Kim has served on the faculties of Columbia University, the University of Chicago, the Music Institute of Chicago, and the Interlochen Summer Festival, among others, and has given outreach concerts to young audiences throughout the United States.  Mr. Kim has received degrees from the Curtis Institute, the Juilliard School, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and has studied with Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Jaime Laredo, Yumi Scott and Shirley Givens.
www.renegadeclassicproductions.com/soyulla.htm and www.daedalusquartet.com

 Joan Panetti, Pianist & Composer
Joan Panetti, pianist and composer, garnered first prizes at the Peabody Conservatory and the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. She received her B.A. degree from Smith College before coming to the Yale School of Music, where she received the D.M.A. in 1974. Her principal mentors were Olivier Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod, Wilhelm Kempff, Alvin Etler, Mel Powell, and Donald Currier. She has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and performs frequently as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles. Most recently, she recorded a disc of works by Schumann, Schubert, Debussy, and Gershwin with her faculty colleague, violinist Syoko Aki, for the Epson label. Joan Panetti's recent compositions include three fantasies (violin and piano, oboe and piano, and cello and piano) as well as songs for mezzo-soprano and piano. In 2004-2005 she performed her piano quintet, In a Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See, with the Tokyo Quartet in Pasadena, San Francisco, at the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, and at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York. The work, commissioned by Music Accord, received wide acclaim. Her piano trio, The Instant Gathers, commissioned by the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, was premiered in June 2006 at the Chelsea Art Museum with the composer at the piano. Her most recent composition, A gust inside the god, for chorus and chamber ensemble was commissioned by the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival for its centenary and premiered in August 2006. Ms. Panetti has served for the past thirty years on the faculties of Yale College and the Yale School of Music, where she has developed a nationally recognized course, Hearing, that emphasizes the interaction between performers and composers. She was also on the faculties of Swarthmore College and Princeton University. In January 2007, Ms. Panetti conducted an interactive workshop on Hearing at the Chamber Music America National Conference in New York. In May 2007, she also taught aspects of the Hearing program, coached chamber music, and gave composition classes at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China. Ms. Panetti was director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and The Yale Summer School of Music and Art from 1981 to 2003. She is the recipient of the Luise Voschergian Award for excellence in teaching from Harvard University, the Nadia Boulanger Award from the Longy School in Boston, and the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Music. She was named the Sylvia and Leonard Marx, Jr. Professor of Music at Yale University in 2004.www.yale.edu/music/faculty.html (Musicianship)

Thomas Sauer, Pianist
Pianist Thomas Sauer is highly sought after as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A frequent collaborator with the renowned instrumentalists Midori and Colin Carr, some of Mr. Sauer’s recent appearances include concerto performances with the Quad-City Symphony; solo performances at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), Merkin Concert Hall, and St. John’s College, Oxford; performances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; duo recitals with Colin Carr at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, Bargemusic (New York City), and Princeton University; duo recitals with Midori at the Philharmonie in Berlin and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels; performances at the Marlboro, Portland, Seattle, El Paso Pro Musica, Four Seasons, and Salt Bay Chamber Music Festivals; performances with members of the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress; and numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet. Mr. Sauer’s recording of five Haydn piano sonatas is available on MSR Classics; a recording with Misha Amory of Hindemith sonatas is available on the Musical Heritage Society label; a recording with violinist Miranda Cuckson of music by Ross Lee Finney on Centaur Records; music of Britten and Schnittke with cellist Wilhelmina Smith is available on Arabesque; and violin sonatas of Mozart with Aaron Berofsky are available on Blue Griffin Recordings. In recent seasons, Mr. Sauer has premiered works by Philippe Bodin, Robert Cuckson, Sebastian Currier, Keith Fitch, David Loeb, Donald Martino, and David Tcimpidis.

A member of the piano faculty of the Mannes College and the music faculty at Vassar College, Mr. Sauer is the founder and director of the Mannes Beethoven Institute.

Wei-Yi Yang, Pianist
Internationally acclaimed pianist Wei-Yi Yang enjoys a flourishing concert career, appearing before audiences in North and Central Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia in solo recitals, chamber music concerts and with symphony orchestras. Winner of the Gold medal and Grand Prize in the Fifth San Antonio International Piano Competition, Mr. Yang has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Korea, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, Scotland, the Great Hall in Leeds, England, and the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland, among many other major concert stages around the globe. An active recitalist and avid chamber musician, Mr. Yang has appeared at international festivals in Novi Sad (Serbia), Monterrey (Mexico), Kotor (Montenegro), Napa Valley and La Jolla (California). Mr. Yang has performed with members of some of the world's finest ensembles, including the London Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra do Estado de Sao Paulo, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II. Recent festival performances have seen Mr. Yang collaborate with such renowned artists as the legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, and the Naumburg-winning Pacifica String Quartet.

Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Mr. Yang was first educated in the United Kingdom, before arriving at New York City’s Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Russian pianist Arkady Aronov. Additionally, Mr. Yang has worked with artists such as Murray Perahia, Vera Gornostaeva, Jerome Lowenthal, Byron Janis, and the late Hans Graf. Under the guidance of Boris Berman, as well as tutelage from Claude Frank and Peter Frankl, Mr. Yang was awarded a doctorate in musical arts by Yale University in 2004. In addition to receiving numerous scholarships and fellowships, Mr. Yang has also garnered top prizes and awards in the Manhattan Concerto Competition, New York’s FiveTown Arts Foundation Competition, the San Jose International Piano Competition, and the Long Island Young Artist Competition. Mr. Yang’s performances have been featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, National Public Radio, WCNY-New York, Minnesota Public Radio, WFMT-Illinois as part of the “Live From Studio One” concert series, and KLRN public television in Texas. Together with violinist Kyu-Young Kim and cellist Pitnarry Shin, Mr. Yang co-founded the award-winning Soyulla Ensemble, which recently debuted at Alice Tully Hall, toured Korea, and released a CD on the Renegade Classics label of works by Mozart and Schumann. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Yang chaired the keyboard department at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, where he was awarded tenure in May 2005. Mr. Yang joined the faculty at Yale University in Fall of 2005.