About the Artists

Performers scheduled for 2009-2010 include:

Barbara McKenzie

Pianist Barbara McKenzie is an artist who displays “a sensitivity and intensity that one rarely finds, even from the most venerated artists” (Westfalische Rundschau).

A native of North Carolina and the recipient of many international awards and prizes as soloist and chamber player, Ms McKenzie was selected to be an Artist in Residence by the North Carolina Arts Council. In this capacity, she founded the American Music Festival in 1990. She founded Chamber Music Wilmington in 1995, and serves both organizations as Artistic Director and Artist in Residence.

Elizabeth Anderson

Cellist Elizabeth Anderson. 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, she made numerous appearances on the world's most prestigious chamber music series, including those at New York's Lincoln Center and at Jordan Hall in Boston. As a member of the quartet, she was a Grand Prize Winner of The Naumburg Chamber Music Award, The Fischoff Competition, The Coleman Competition and The Cleveland Quartet Competition. Anderson studied with Jacqueline Du Pre, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Yo-Yo Ma, Wallace Rushkin and Leonard Rose. She holds Bachelor of Music degrees from the Juilliard School and California State University at Sacramento and a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music. Ms Anderson currently performs at Lincoln Center as a member of the New York City Opera.

Janine Hawley

Mezzo soprano Janine Hayley has achieved accolades for her critically acclaimed performances from New York to Tel Aviv. She sings in roles from Carmen to Cherubino in opera houses throughout the United States including Opera Company of Philadelphia, New York City Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey and Boston Lyric Opera, receiving critical praise for her lush quality, dark timbre, technical facility and charming presence. A favorite among conductors she has performed with the Detroit, Colorado and Louisville Symphonies and in concert at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall and Weill Recital Hall.

Nicolas Duchamp

Nicolas Duchamp is one of the most successful young flutists  in France today, known for his warm tone, distinctive charm and creative poetic eloquence. The principal flutist for the French national Opéra Comique since 2004, Duchamp has performed as a soloist with many of the country’s leading chamber music ensembles and orchestras.

"One of the finest working flutists in the world today"
Richard  Cowan, Founder/Artistic Director Lyrique en Mer/Festival de  Belle Ile

"an artist of the highest quality, both from the purely
instrumental and musical aspects of his art"
Brian Schembri,  Music Director Malta National Theatre "Manoel"

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The Degas Quartet is one of America’s finest performing ensembles, celebrated by audiences and critics alike for vibrant performances of classical and contemporary repertoire.The Degas Quartet has performed in many of the world’s finest halls, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, Aspen’s Harris Hall, and the Library of Congress.

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Jonathan Holden

English born Clarinetist Jonathan Holden is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama – one of London’s premiere music conservatories, where he took lessons with distinguished soloist Joy Farrall, Andrew Webster of the English National Opera, and celebrated recording artist Dame Thea King. His studies there led him to play under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis and Pierrre Boulez, and with the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras. An accomplished ensemble player, Jonathan is now Principal Clarinetist of the West Shore Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Kalamazoo Symphony and Traverse Symphony orchestras. Beyond his enthusiasm for the symphonic repertoire, Jonathan is an ardent chamber musician and soloist. He made his solo concert debut at the age of seventeen and has since performed concertos at numerous venues in Britain and the United States. He now serves as Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Tenor Glenn Siebert has appeared with many of the world’s most acclaimed symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and many others. Mr. Siebert’s operatic appearances include leading roles in the operas of Mozart, Britten, Donizetti, Rossini with the Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera, and the Opera Theater of St. Louis, to name just a few. Mr. Siebert’s recordings include Mendelssohn’s Paulus with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Seattle Symphony, Berlioz’s Lelio with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Schubert’s Mass in Eb with the Atlanta Symphony, Nothing Divine is Mundane: Songs of Virgil Thomson and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Brussel’s Anema Eterna. Mr. Siebert is a graduate of Indiana University and is currently on the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The Fry Street Quartet

Hailed as “a triumph of ensemble playing” (New York Times), the Fry Street Quartet has perfected a “blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity” (Strad). Since securing the Millennium Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2000, the Fry Street Quartet has reached audiences from Carnegie Hall to Sarajevo and Jerusalem, exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with “profound understanding, …depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness” (Deseret Morning News).

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Emanuel Gruber

Soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Emanuel Gruber started his cello studies with the distinguished Romanian pedagogue Paul Ochialbi. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Jerusalem and in Tel Aviv and under the auspices of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation completed his musical training with Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker.

He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Neville Marriner, Rudolph Barshai, Shlomo Mintz, Pinchas Zukerman, Miriam Fried, Philippe Entremont, Jean Bernard Pommier, Tamas Vasary, and Janos Starker. He is the winner of Pablo Casals prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchersta and Concert Artists’ Guild in New York. Mr. Gruber was principal cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and co-principal of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He was member of Sequoia Quartet, Camerata Trio, Tel Aviv Piano Quartet and leader of the Israel Cello Ensemble. He is founding member of the Tel Aviv Chamber Music Society and currently teaches cello and chamber music at East Carolina University.

Emanuel Gruber plays a David Tecchler Cello made in Rome in 1706.

Jacqui Carrasco

Violinist Jacqui Carrasco has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, which included solo appearances at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and at the Library of Congress, Canada and Europe. She joined the Carolina Piano Trio in 2005, and since 2008 has co-directed the Carolina Summer Music Festival in Winston-Salem.

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, and with the New York Buenos Aires Connection at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing. She has also been active as a jazz violinist, and her versatile skills have been featured in commercial, film and theater music. 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.

Jonathan Bagg

Jonathan Bagg, violist of the Ciompi String Quartet and Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival in New Hampshire. His career with the Ciompi spans 23 years and includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and abroad, as well as over a dozen recordings. His work outside the Quartet as a solo violist and chamber musician is distinguished by his interest in bringing new and unfamiliar works to life, including many pieces written for him. In reviews of his solo playing, The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity.” Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke University. 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.

Kronos Quartet

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, 2003

This audacious ensemble which is now
celebrating its 30th anniversary has changed our perception of not just what a string quartet can be, but what music can be in the 21st century global village. - Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times

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Presented by CMW in cooperation with
UNCW Arts in Action Performance Series &
UNCW Office of Cultural Affairs.