2024 Guest Artists

Sofya Gulyak · Karen Leistra-Jones · Alexander Kobrin · John Perry · Dmitry Rachmanov · Victor Rosenbaum · American String Quartet · Trio Chimera · Gabriel Chamber Ensemble

In September 2009 Sofya Gulyak was awarded the 1st prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the Sixteenth Leeds International Piano Competition – the first woman in the history of the competition to achieve this distinction. Since then she has appeared all over the world to great acclaim. Her recital programs are frequently reviewed in superlatives, and her concerto appearances with major orchestras are noted in glowing terms by the world’s music press. Sofya  has been praised for her "tremendous precision and coloration...exquisite soft playing ...with delicacy" and described as a “Rach star"(Washington Post). Sofya Gulyak’s resume includes prizes from many prestigious piano competitions: she is a 1st prize winner of William Kapell International Piano Competition in the USA, Maj Lind Helsinki International Piano Competition, Tivoli Piano Competition in Copenhagen, Isang Yun International Piano Competition in South Korea, San Marino Piano Competition, winner of Busoni Competition in Italy and prize winner of Marguerite Long Piano Competition in Paris. Recitals and concert appearances have been numerous, with Sofya Gulyak having performed all over the globe in such venues as La Scala Theatre and Sala Verdi in Milan, Herculessaal in Munich, Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Kennedy Center in Washington, Palais de la Musique in Strasbourg, Hong Kong City Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Tokyo Opera City Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, Musashino Cultural Centre in Tokyo, National Hungarian Opera in Budapest, National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Teatro Municipal and Cidade des Artes in Rio de Janeiro, Auditorium Manzoni in Bologna, Salle Molière in Lyon, Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, King Theatre in Rabat, Kursaal in Bern, Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen etc. Sofya Gulyak appeared as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic, Rio de Janeiro Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Orchestra dell’ Arena di Verona, Orchestra Filarmonica di Bologna, Budapest Philharmonic, Enescu Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Slovak Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Copenhagen Symphony, Ulster Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Shanghai Philharmonic, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Oulu Philharmonic, Leipzig Philharmonic, Pensacola Symphony, Tatarstan Symphony, Philippines Philharmonic, Morocco Philharmonic and others. She collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Mark Elder, David Hill, Donald Runnicle, Vasily Petrenko, Carlo Rizzi, Alexander Lazarev, Alan Buribayev, Eiving Gullberg Jensen, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Theodor Guschlbauer, Giancarlo Guerrero, Rory McDonald, Danail Rachev, Fabio Mastrangelo, Michele Mariotti, Marat Bisengaliev, Fuat Mansurov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Daria Stasevska, Eiji Oue, Mario Kosik, Jesus Medina, Christian Zimmermann, Peter Rubardt and others.

The festivals in which Sofya Gulyak participated include Klavier Ruhr Festival, Chopin Festival in  Duszniki-Zdroj, Festival de Sceaux, International Keyboard Festival in New York, International Strasbourg Festival, Busoni Festival, Harrogate Festival, “Joy of Music festival” in Hong Kong, Kraków Piano Festival, New Zealand Piano Festival, Ravello Festival, Festival Chopin in Paris, Shanghai International Piano Festival and many others.

Sofya Gulyak’s recording of Russian piano music (Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev) was released on Champs Hill Records in 2013 and received a 5 stars review in Diapason magazine (“What a pleasure to hear the piano blossoming and projecting  in  the  most  vivid  of ways when played by Sofya Gulyak. The  singing  sound  alongside  dazzling  and powerful execution distinguishes an outstanding natural pianist”) and glowing review from “Gramophone” (“This is a stunning debut album…”) and “Guardian” magazines (“Sofya Gulyak is a fearless pianist, never afraid to scale  the  most  technically  demanding heights of  the  repertoire  and  equally  proud  to  wear  her  heart  on  her  sleeve”). Her CD with Brahms music was released on Piano Classics 2015 and has got praising review from American Record Guide (“The Handel Variations is among the top contenders on record. From the very first notes she takes charge and envelops  us  in  a  thrilling sequence of  variations  that  will  send  goose  bumps  to  susceptible  listeners.  She keeps  you  on  the  edge  of  your  seat,  as  the  music  presses  ever  forward.  Sometimes I was reminded of the young Argerich”) and “Fanfare” magazine (“Her musicality is beautifully  attuned  to  the  spirit  of  Brahms…I  must  praise  Kazan-born  Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak, whose impressive reading places a stronger emphasis than Perahia’s  on  the  continuity  of  the  variations…She’s  a  natural  Brahmsian  whatever his moods.”) … Her next CD with the Chaconnes for piano was released in 2017 on Champs Hill records (“…A fascinating collection, superbly realised and beautifully recorded…"- Artdesk; “Gulyak is a musician of exceptional depth and profundity, and a pianist with seemingly unlimited technical resources… I can’t wait to hear more of her…Of particular note are her beautiful versions of the Nielsen, the Casella, a ferocious Busoni Toccata, and a sparkling account of the Handel Chaconne."-Fanfare Magazine) As chamber musician Sofya Gulyak collaborated with Wihan, Chilingirian, Arianna quartets, Quartetto di Venezia, soloists of English Chamber orchestra, violinists Olivier Charlie and Marianne Piketty, viola player Tatjana Masurenko, baritone Loa Falkman, cellists Quirine Viersen and Yuki Ito (with whom she recorded a CD of Rachmaninoff’s music for Champs Hill Records).

Sofya Gulyak is a native of Kazan (Russia) where she studied in a Special Music College under Nailya Khakimova, and then in Kazan State Conservatoire under Professor Elfiya Burnasheva. After that she continued her studies at the Piano Academy "Incontri col Maestro" (Imola, Italy)  with Boris Petrushansky and at the Royal College of Music in London with Vanessa Latarche.

Sofya Gulyak attended as a jury member of the international piano competitions in Italy, Serbia, France, Germany, Russia, Greece, United States, China, South Korea, Singapore, etc. and was invited to teach master classes in China, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Mexico, USA, Canada, Germany. She is presently a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music in London. Recently she was appointed a Piano Professor at the Jacobs School of Music at the University of Indiana-Bloomington. Her playing has been broadcast on radio and TV in Russia, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, United States, Finland, Denmark, Serbia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom (BBC3 and BBC4) and other countries.

Karen Leistra-Jones received her Ph. D. in Musicology from Yale University in 2011, and is currently Associate Professor of Music at Franklin & Marshall College. Her research interests include the history and aesthetics of musical performance, the Schumann-Brahms circle, art song, and song cycles. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Musicology, Music & Letters, 19th-Century Music, and the Journal of the American Musicological Society. Current projects include a book-length study of Beethoven performance in the long nineteenth century and a study of lullabies and cultural constructions of motherhood from the eighteenth century through the present day.

“He surrendered neither the smoothness nor the dynamic fluidity that the modern piano allows, and he gave his sense of fantasy free rein, and creating an almost confessional spirit ." — The New York Times
Called the “Van Cliburn of today” by the BBC, pianist Alexander Kobrin has placed himself at the forefront of today's performing musicians. His prize winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. The New York Times has written that Mr. Kobrin was a “fastidious guide” to Schumann’s “otherworldly visions, pointing out hunters, flowers, haunted corners and friendly bowers, all captured in richly characterized vignettes.” “This was a performance that will be revered and remembered as a landmark of the regeneration of exceptional classical music in Central New York.”-critic wrote after Mr. Kobrin’s performance of Second Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms with Syracuse Symphony in Syracuse,NY.

In 2005, Mr. Kobrin was awarded the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, TX. His numerous successes in competitions also include top prizes at the Busoni International Piano Competition (First Prize), Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Top Prize), Scottish International Piano Competition in Glasgow (First Prize)

Mr. Kobrin has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Verdi, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Berliner Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Swedish Radio Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with such conductors as Mikhail Pletnev, Mikhail Jurovsky, Mark Elder, Vassiliy Sinaisky, James Conlon, Claus Peter Flor, Alexander Lazarev, Vassiliy Petrenko and Yuri Bashmet.

He has appeared in recital at major halls worldwide, including Carnegie Zankel Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Louvre Auditorium,Salle Gaveau and Salle Cortot in Paris, Munich Herkulesaal and Berliner Filarmonia Hall in Germany, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Sheung Wan Civic Centre in Hong Kong, as well as Sala Verdi in Milan and many others. Other past performances have included recitals at Bass Hall for the Cliburn Series, the Washington Performing Arts Society, La Roque d'Antheron, the Ravinia Festival, the Beethoven Easter Festival, Busoni Festival , the renowned Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Festival Musique dans le Grésivaudan ,the International Keyboard Institute & Festival, annual concert tours in Japan, China and Taiwan.

Though widely acclaimed as a performer, Mr. Kobrin’s teaching has been an inspiration to many students through his passion for music. From 2003 to 2010 he served on the faculty of the Russian State Gnessin’s Academy of Music. In 2010 Alexander Kobrin was named the L. Rexford Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, and since 2013 until 2017 has been a member of the celebrated Artist Faculty of New York University’s Steinhardt School. In July 2017, Mr.Kobrin has joined the faculty of the renowned Eastman School of Music in Rochster,NY. Mr. Kobrin has also given masterclasses in Europe and Asia, the International Piano Series and at the Conservatories of Japan and China.
Mr. Kobrin has been a jury member for many international piano competitions, including the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano,Hamamatsu International Piano Competion, the Blüthner International Piano Competition in Vienna, E-Competition in Fairbanks, AK and the Neuhaus International Piano Festival in Moscow.

Mr. Kobrin has released recordings on the Harmonia Mundi, Quartz, and Centaur labels, covering a wide swath of the piano literature. His Schumann album,released on Centaur Records has been included into top-5 albums of the year in 2015 by Fanfare Magazine. Gramophone Magazine raved about his Cliburn Competition release on Harmonia Mundi, writing that “in [Rachmaninoff’s] Second Sonata (played in the 1931 revision), despite fire-storms of virtuosity, there is always room for everything to tell and Kobrin achieves a hypnotic sense of the music’s dark necromancy.”

Mr. Kobrin was born in 1980 in Moscow. At the age of five, he was enrolled in the world-famous Gnessin Special School of Music after which he attended the prestigious Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. His teachers have included renowned professors Tatiana Zelikman and Lev Naumov.

John Perry, distinguished artist and teacher, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Eastman School of Music where he was a student of Cecile Genhart.  During those summers, he worked with the eminent Frank Mannheimer.  Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, he continued studies in Europe for four years where he worked with Wladyslav Kedra, Polish concert artist and professor at the Akademie für Musik in Vienna, and Carlo Zecchi, renowned conductor, pianist, and head of the piano department at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome.

Mr. Perry has won numerous awards including the highest prizes in both the Busoni and Viotti international piano competitions in Italy and special honors at the Marguerite Long International Competition in Paris. Since then he has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America to great critical acclaim. Also a respected chamber musician, Mr. Perry has collaborated with some of the finest instrumentalists in the world.

He also enjoys an international reputation as a teacher, presenting master classes throughout the world. He often is a jury member at some of the most prestigious international piano competitions. His students have been prize winners in most major competitions and include two first-prize winners in the Rubinstein, four first-prize winners in the Music Teacher's National Association national competition, and first-prize winners in the Naumburg National Chopin competition, the Cleveland Competition, Beethoven Foundation competition, the Federated Music Clubs, and the YKA, AMSC, and YMF competitions, and finalists in the Chopin International in Warsaw, the Van Cliburn, the Queen Elisabeth, Leeds, Dublin, Busoni, Viotti and the Three Rivers competitions.

Mr. Perry is professor at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, professor of piano at Mason Gross Schoo of the Arts, Rutgers University, and Professor Emeritus of the USC Thornton School of Music.  In addition, he recently founded a music school, John Perry Academy of Music in Los Angeles, where he serves as Artistic Director.  During the summer he is artist professor at the Lake Como International Piano Academy, the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada, the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida, the Orford Music Festival in Quebec, the Morningside Music Bridge Program in Calgary, Alberta, the Internationaler Klaviersommer Cochem, Germany, the International Music Festival in Perugia, Italy, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, Montecito International Music Festival in Santa Barbara, and the John Perry Academy Summer Piano Festival in California.  In January he is main guest artist at the Sydney Piano Festival in Australia.

His recordings are available on the Telefunken, Musical Heritage Society, CBC, ACA and Fox labels. 

Pianist Dmitry Rachmanov has garnered much acclaim for his passionate performances, refined musicianship and brilliant pianism. Hailed as an "indisputable musician" by the Brussels' Le Soir and "suave and gifted pianist' by the New York Times, Rachmanov has been heard at venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington DC's Kennedy Center, London's Barbican and South Bank Centres, and Beijing Concert Hall, and his tours brought him to Canada, Mexico, Europe, Russia, Turkey and the Far East. He has recorded for Naxos, Navona, Omniclassic, Master Musicians and Vista Vera labels, and collaborated as a soloist with Manhattan Philharmonia, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Ukraine National Symphony, National Orchestra of Porto, Portugal and Vidin Sinfonietta, Bulgaria, among others.

A strong proponent of the Russian repertoire, he gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak's Piano Sonata, broadcast nationwide by the NPR, and his recital "The Art of the 19th Century Russian Character Piece" was noted by the New York Times for "considerable color and focus" he brought to each work. A founding member and President of the Scriabin Society of America (<https://scriabinsociety.com/>), Rachmanov has given recital tours featuring the music of Scriabin in commemoration of the composer’s memorial centennial (1915-2015), including appearances in Moscow, Paris, Budapest, Beijing & Shanghai and in the US. His recital at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was called “indeed a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review.  More recently he has been working on the project of creating a video anthology of Scriabin’s major piano works.  In the fall of 2018 Dmitry Rachmanov participated in the 100th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Scriabin Memorial Museum in Moscow by presenting at the centennial conference and performing a recital at the museum’s Grand Hall.

Dr. Rachmanov's interest in historical performance practice brought him to the Massachusetts' Frederick Historic Piano Collection, where he has made regular appearances performing recital series on period instruments. His album “Beethoven and His Teachers,” recorded in collaboration with the pianist Cullan Bryant on the collection’s period instruments and released by Naxos in 2011, has received critical accolades.

An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov has served as the Artistic Director of the American Liszt Society Festival “Liszt and Russia” hosted by California State University Northridge in June of 2016. He is a founding member and President of the ALS’s Southern California Chapter.

Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Professor of Piano at CSU Northridge, where he serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies.  A sought-after master class clinician and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has appeared as a guest artist/teacher at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, University of Michigan, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Beijing Central, Shanghai and Harbin Conservatories as well as East China Normal and Shanghai Normal Universities, among others. Dr. Rachmanov has been a frequent competition adjudicator in the US and abroad, including Gina Bachauer International Artists, Brahms Poertschach, Austria, and Los Angeles International Piano Competition, among others.

Rachmanov is a graduate of The Juilliard School (BM & MM) and he holds DMA from Manhattan School of Music. His teachers include Nadia Reisenberg, Arkady Aronov, Alexander Eydelman, and he coached with Yvonne Lefebure, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Menahem Pressler, Vitaly Margulis and John Browning. A prizewinner of international competitions, he was awarded a fellowship from the American Pianists Association and received the George Schick Award for Outstanding Musicianship at Manhattan School of Music. In 2008 Dr. Rachmanov was named the Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar of the Year at California State University, Northridge.  In 2015 he became an honoree of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars for his dedicated service to the International Community at CSUN, and he was a recipient of the Outstanding CAPMT (California Music Teachers National Association) Member, State Recognition Award. In 2018 he was named the Academic Affairs Research Fellow in the Mike Curb College at CSUN.  He has served as co-director of the ChamberFest @ CSUN Chamber Music Festival.  He was also a recent resident at the Brahmshouse in Baden-Baden, Germany.

Dmitry Rachmanov is a Steinway Artist.

Internationally known pianist and teacher, Victor Rosenbaum, has received critical acclaim since his first Boston debut recital after joining the New England Conservatory faculty in 1967.  Of that Boston performance the Boston Globe wrote: Rosenbaum “makes up for all the drudgery the habitual concert-goer has to endure in the hope of finding the real, right thing”.  His critical praise continues to this day.  Describing his most recent CD, “Brahms: The Last Piano Pieces” (Bridge), which was released in fall 2020, Glyn Pursglove of MusicWeb International said: “Rosenbaum’s account of of these pieces seems to me impeccable.  The whole disc is magisterial; a mature pianist bringing deep thought and empathy to a series of mature pieces which stand revealed, as clearly as I have heard, as masterpieces.  This will be the disc I turn to when I next want to hear any of these remarkable pieces”.  Retired from New England Conservatory after 55 years of consecutive teaching, the 2022-23 season brought him guest teaching and performing residencies in Puerto Rico, Israel, Japan, Korea, Austria, Bulgaria, and Taiwan, where he was recently appointed Visiting Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at National Taiwan Normal University.

Over more than five decades, Rosenbaum has concertized widely as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Europe, Israel, Brazil, Russia, and Asia (including 25 annual trips to Japan) in such prestigious halls as Tully Hall in New York and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. A committed chamber music performer, he has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Arnold Steinhardt, Robert Mann, Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Malcolm Lowe, Walter Trampler, and the Brentano, Borromeo, and Cleveland String Quartets, and was a member of two trios: The Wheaton Trio and The Figaro Trio.  Rosenbaum has played and/or taught at many summer festivals, among them Tanglewood, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Kfar Blum and Tel Hai (in Israel), Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall (Blue Hill), Musicorda, Masters de Pontlevoy (France), the Heifetz Institute, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, the International Music Seminar in Vienna, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Festival at Walnut Hill School, the Puerto Rico International Piano Festival,The Art of the Piano Festival in Cincinnati, the Atlantic Music Festival, Piano Texas, the Adamant Music School, and the Eastern Music Festival, where he headed the piano department for five years. Rosenbaum is also a contributor to the online site “Musicale” (WeAreMusicale.com).

Recital appearances have brought him to Chicago, Minneapolis, Tokyo, Taipei, Vienna, Beijing, St. Petersburg (Russia), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and New York, among others.  In addition to his absorption in the music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (in particular Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and Brahms), Rosenbaum has performed and given premieres of works by many 20th and 21st Century composers, including John Harbison, John Heiss, Peter Westergaard, Norman Dinerstein, Arlene Zallman, Donald Harris, Daniel Pinkham, Miriam Gideon, Stephen Albert, and many others.  A musician of diverse talents, Rosenbaum is also a composer and has frequently conducted in the Boston area and beyond.

Rosenbaum, who studied with Elizabeth Brock and Martin Marks while growing up in Indianapolis, and went on to study with Rosina Lhevinne at the Aspen Festival and Leonard Shure in New York (while earning degrees at Brandeis University and Princeton), has become a renowned teacher himself.  During his long tenure on the faculty of New England Conservatory, he chaired its piano department for more than a decade, and was also Chair of Chamber Music. On the faculty of Mannes School of Music in New York from 2004-2017, he has also been Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, a guest teacher at Juilliard, and presents lectures, workshops, and master classes for teachers’ groups and schools both in the U. S. and abroad, including at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, and Guildhall School, the conservatories of St. Petersburg and Moscow, Beijing Central Conservatory, Shanghai Conservatory, the Toho School in Tokyo, Tokyo Ondai, Seoul National University, most major schools in Taiwan, and other institutions such as the Menuhin School near London, and the Jerusalem Music Center.  Rosenbaum’s students have established teaching and performing careers in the US and abroad, and have won top prizes in such competitions as the Young Concerts Artists, Charles Wadsworth International Competition, New Orleans International Competition, Casagrande International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer Competition, and the New York International Competition, among others.  Rosenbaum’s sixteen years as Director and President of the Longy School of Music (1985-2001) transformed the school into a full-fledged degree granting conservatory as well as a thriving community music school. 

In addition to his Brahms disc, Rosenbaum’s recordings on the Bridge and Fleur de Son labels include a Mozart CD, three Schubert discs, one of which was described as “a poignant record of human experience”, and two recordings of Beethoven which the American Record Guide named as among the top classical recordings of 2020. 

The New York Times put it succinctly after his performance at Tully Hall: Rosenbaum “could not have been better”.  And a headline in the Boston Globe summed up the appeal of Rosenbaum’s playing: “Fervor and Gentleness Combined”.

(Mr. Rosenbaum can be reached at vrosenbaum@aol.com)

“…luxurious, beautifully sculpted performances”

— THE NEW YORK TIMES 

 Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.  

Recent seasons featured performances of the Quartet’s major project together with the National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh, which offers a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war. The Quartet also collaborated with the renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative collaborations cement the American String Quartet’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional. 

The Quartet's diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, including a recent recording for the BBC; tours of Asia; and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances of an all-sextet program with Roberto and Andrès Díaz, many tours of South America, and performances of the complete Beethoven cycle of string quartets at the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel.  

The American’s additional extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. Most recently the group released "Schubert's Echo," which pairs Schubert's monumental last quartet with works bearing its influence by Second Viennese masters Alban Berg and Anton Webern. This repertoire posits that the creative line from the First to the Second Viennese Schools is continuous – and evident when these works are heard in the context of each other.  

As champions of new music, the American has given numerous premieres, including George Tsontakis’s Quartet No. 7.5, “Maverick,” Richard Danielpour's Quartet No. 4, and Curt Cacioppo's a distant voice calling. The premiere of Robert Sirota’s American Pilgrimage was performed around the U.S. in the cities the work celebrates. The Quartet premiered Tobias Picker’s String Quartet No. 2 in New York City in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Manhattan School of Music.  

Formed when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet’s career began with the group winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year.  Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Trio Chimera features Marta Ceretta, piano Stefano Raccagni, violin Giorgio Lucchini, cello.

Chimera is a creature from Greek mythology, threefold and allegorical. But not only that. For us it is a tribute to Robert Schumann's Grillen, precisely "chimeras" (the fourth Fantasiestück op.12), and La Chimera, by the Italian writer Dino Campana. Chimera is a recurring figure in Italian culture, from the Etruscan statue in Arezzo to Gabriele d'Annunzio's collection.

Founded in 2021 and based in Milan, Trio Chimera is one of the most promising young ensembles in Italy. Until 2023 the trio studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern (CH) with Patrick Juedt, and at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona with the Quartetto di Cremona. Further musical inspiration brought out by their meeting with Mischa Maisky, Amiram Ganz (Altenberg Trio Wien), Antonio Meneses (Beaux Arts Trio), Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartet), Henk Guittart (Schoenberg Quartet) and Clive Greensmith (Tokyo Quartet). In 2023 the trio has been officially admitted to the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), and thus had the opportunity to study with Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet), Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet), Minna Pensola (Meta4 Quartet), Ernesto Molinari (Klangforum Wien).

In 2022 the trio was awarded Best Italian Ensemble at the Filippo Nicosia International Chamber Music Competition (IT), and won second prize at the Giulio Rospigliosi International Competition (IT). In 2023, they won first prize at the Lancaster International Piano Festival Competition (USA). In less than two years, the ensemble has played in cities such as Budapest, Tirana, Bern, Vilnius and Addis Abeba. Among other commitments, in their home country they were invited to the 66th Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the 55th Festival delle Nazioni in Città di Castello, the 25th Viotti Festival in Vercelli and the 23rd Festival Pergolesi Spontini in Jesi.

The Gabriel Chamber Ensemble, now celebrating its 32nd season in Schuylkill County, is a Non-Profit Organization, dedicated to present high quality performances of chamber music repertoire. Professional guest artists are frequently invited to join the Ensemble in order to offer a wide selection of chamber music masterpieces. GCE delights its audiences with its informative and fun presentations, its quality of performance, and its informality.

The GCE has been successfully received in Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont, and Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to its artistic achievements, GCE has initiated community and educational outreach programs to develop chamber music audiences and the musicians of the future. And to further its mission, the Ensemble created the Gabriel Youth Orchestra to provide an opportunity for middle and high school students from throughout the region to play in a professionally managed and conducted setting.

A Steinway Artist, Chinese-American pianist Xun Pan received his early musical training from his grandmother and pianists-parents, Pan Yiming and Ying Shizhen. He continued his studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Syracuse University in New York, and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Dr. Pan has won many international piano competitions and awards, beginning with first prize in the 1986 China National Piano Competition in Beijing, and the "Mr. Luis Sigall" International Piano Competition in Chile in 1987, the International Festival Piano Competition in Korea in 1990, the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York in 1992, and the Artists International Competition in New York in 1993. A student of Theodore Lettvin, Dr. Pan has performed solo recitals worldwide from Carnegie Weill Hall to the Beijing National Center for Performing Arts. He has performed in Moscow, Santiago, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, London, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Taipei, Budapest, Salzburg, Sicily, New York, Seoul, Pyongyang, Biel, Bern, Brussels, Vina Del Mar, Washington DC, Lisbon, Toronto, Boston, San Jose, San Francisco, and many other cities in the world. He "…excites his audience with extraordinary power and masterful technique." (The Star-Ledger)

A noted chamber musician, Dr. Pan is the pianist of the Newstead Trio, Trio Clavino, and Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. Their work has been broadcast live on radio and television, and they have released several highly-acclaimed recordings. Trio Clavino toured seven cities in China with Fulbright Grants managed by US Embassy in Beijing in 2014, and again in 2016. Dr. Pan has served as a judge in many competitions include "Frinna Awerbuch" International Piano Competition in New York, United States Music Open Competition in Oakland, CA, United States International Music competition in Stanford, CA, Pancho Vladigerov International Piano Competition in Shumen, Bulgaria, and Maria Clara Cullell International Piano Competition in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Dr. Pan is the Director of Keyboard Studies of The Tell School of Music at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and is a visiting professor at many universities and conservatories in China, includes Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music, Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China Northwest University for Nationalities, Fuzhou University, Yantai University, Shandong University, Qinghai Normal University, and Wenzhou University. He also taught master classes at Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, Frost School of Music at University of Miami, University of West Florida, Benjamin T Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, Dartmouth College, Mozarteum University (Austria), Bellini Music Institute (Italy), Tbilisi State Conservatoire (Georgia), and others. He taught and served as the Chairman of the Piano Department at Pennsylvania Academy of Music between 1996 and 2009.

Dr. Pan is one of the founding members and the Co-Artistic Director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival in Pennsylvania, USA. Dr. Pan’s recent project was performing the entire 32 piano sonatas, 10 piano/violin sonatas, and 8 piano/cello works of Beethoven to celebrate his 250th anniversary of birth.

Simon Maurer grew up in Switzerland and studied music at the Conservatory in Biel. He continued his studies in the U.S. with Geoffrey Michaels and Joyce Robbins. Maurer is an accomplished musician performing chamber music solo and orchestra concerts throughout the eastern United States, Europe and China. He currently plays violin, viola, Baroque violin.

A founding member of Gabriel Chamber Ensemble (GCE), he has performed with the ensemble for over 32 years and is the artistic director of the concert series in Schuylkill Haven. Other chamber music ensembles in which Maurer performs include the Ravel Trio, Trio Clavino, and the Pennsylvania Chamber Ensemble. He is also currently Assistant Concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, performs with Valley Vivaldi, Satori, and Allentown Symphony Orchestra.Maurer currently conducts a string Orchestra in residence at Albright College in Reading Pa, Sunday Sinfonia, a mixed group of Albright Students and Community members.

Maurer ventures in the practice of jazz and free style improvisation. He has been a featured soloist in Philadelphia area jazz clubs, has performed at "Jazzfest" in Schuylkill County. He has recorded numerous projects with folk singers and rock groups such as Maggi, Pierce and EJ and Zen for Primates.Maurer teaches violin, viola, cello and bass in Lancaster, and in his studio in New Ringgold.

Maurer lives on a converted 20-acre YMCA camp, where he built his own 2000 square foot concert hall and enjoys the outdoors. Tennis is the preferred exercise. He has three granddaughters and one grandson.

A native of Minersville, Pennsylvania, Dana Allaband studied under Simon Maurer, Sylvia Ahramjian, James Stern and Arnold Steinhardt and has received degrees from West Chester University of Pennsylvania and University of Maryland. Dana has concertized in Venezuela, Romania, Cameroon, Carnegie Hall and various universities across the country. She is principal second violinist of Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, has served as concertmaster with Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Kennett Symphony and Anthracite Philharmonic and performs as an orchestral musician with Reading Symphony and Baltimore Symphony. As an active chamber musician, Dana has performed as second violinist with Elysian Camerata and is currently violinist with the Monteverde String Quartet and Mill Race Collective, and has most recently become a member of the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble. Expressing her interest in various genres of music, Dana has performed rock music with Rachel Barton Pine and tango music with Trifilio Tango. She regularly appears as first violinist with Philadelphia singer/songwriter Andrew Lipke and the Azrael String Quartet and is also the violinist with One Alternative.

Mrs. Allaband is the recipient of the 2016 LLMEA Private Teacher Award. She coaches chamber music each summer at the Bear Crossing Chamber Music String Camp and Vermont Music and Arts at Lyndon State College, VT. Dana is currently an adjunct professor at Albright College and maintains a private violin and viola studio located in the heart of London Grove, Pennsylvania.

Agnès Maurer, violist, is a native of France, where she studied the violin privately. At the age of sixteen, she joined the Ensemble Instrumental Andrée Colson, a professional chamber orchestra. In the United States she studied with Karen Tuttle at Peabody Conservatory, Kim Kashkashian at the New School of Music and Geoffrey Michaels.

She teaches violin and viola at her home studio and also directs a summer music camp for young string players (Bear Crossing Music Camps, New Ringgold, PA).

Maurer is principal violist with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, the Lehigh University Choral Arts Orchestra and the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra. She is a co-founder, executive director, and member of the Gabriel Chamber Ensemble (now in its 32nd season), and is a member of the Pennsylvania Chamber Ensemble, and Satori.

Her solo appearances include performances of Stamitz, Handel-Casadesus, and Telemann Viola Concerti, "Harold in Italy" by Berlioz, Hindemith "Trauermusik" and Mozart Symphonie Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra with Schuylkill Symphony Orchestra, Musica Sacra Atlanta, Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, Bloomsburg Chamber Orchestra and others.

Dr. Ai-lin Hsieh received her early musical training in both piano and cello. She holds a BM in Cello Performance from Soochow University, Taiwan, a MM from the Eastman School of Music, and a DMA from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her teachers include Steven Doane, Evelyn Elsing, and Kenneth Slowik. She also received coaching from members of the Guarneri Quartet and the Ying Quartet.

Performance highlights include a collaborative performance with legendary cellist Mistislav Rostropovitch in Taipei and a concerto performance with the University of Maryland Philharmonia Ensemble that won critical acclaim from the Washington Post. She was a member of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Hsieh is currently Assistant Principal Cellist of the York Symphony and is on the music faculty of Messiah College teaching cello performance.