Artists

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Jonathan Bagg is Professor and Music Department Chair at Duke University. He is violist with Duke’s Ciompi String Quartet, with whom he has performed hundreds of concerts in the U.S. and around the world. He is founding Artistic Director of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, and he directed the Monadnock Music festival from 2006-2011. As an artistic director he has organized many creative collaborations with composers, authors, poets, and choreographers, resulting in a unique multi-media works.

Jonathan has performed at the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Sebago-Long Lake festival, the Great Lakes Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands-Cashiers festival, the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals.

From 2015 he was principal violist and appeared as soloist with the CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra. As an orchestral player he performed with the Boston Symphony and held principal jobs at the Handel and Haydn Society, the New Haven Symphony, and the New Hampshire Symphony.

Jonathan’s most recent solo CD on the Albany label, titled “Elation,” brings together several works he commissioned, including works by Duke colleagues Stephen Jaffe and Scott Lindroth. Other solo discs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann, and by the Viennese composer Robert Fuchs. Contemporary solo works by Robert Ward, Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Albany, Centaur and Gasparo Records. He has also made dozens of CDs with the Ciompi Quartet. He has performed at the SLLMF since 2019.

Eliot 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 celebrating its 40th 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 (The Michael B. Packer Chair), Eliot has performed regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, Cape May Music Festival, Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival as well as with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York City Opera and Ballet, Oratorio Society, American Symphony, Stamford Symphony, New Jersey Symphony and is heard frequently in numerous Broadway shows.

Among Eliot’s commissions are an Octet, a Double Concerto for Flute and Cello, Perhaps a Butterfly, Saratoga Sextet, The Tiny Mustache (a musical) and recently a Dectet (“Inclusion”) commissioned by the New Choral Society. He is recipient of over forty commissions for his “Song to Symphony” for schools (subject of a NY Times feature article Sept. 2006 and winner of a Yale Alumni Grant). In 2002 he received the Norman Vincent Peale Award for Positive Thinking.

Eliot received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University and an M.B.A. from NYU. He is on the cello and chamber music faculty at Columbia University and Teachers College. He has performed at the SLLMF since 1994.

Jered Egan (Bass) has spent the last forty years as a professional freelance musician – equally at home on the concert stage, in a Broadway pit or at Manhattan’s leading cabaret venues. As a chamber musician, he has worked with Bargemusic, the New York New Music Ensemble, Electric Earth Concerts, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the North Country Chamber Players and at the June in Buffalo, Monadnock and Manchester music festivals.

Jered’s orchestral work has included performing with the American Composers Orchestra, New York Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Oratorio Society of New York, Portland Symphony, Albany Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Westchester Philharmonic and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In addition, he has appeared with the Royal Ballet Orchestra at the Metropolitan Opera, toured the U.S. and Asia with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, and has held the position of principal bass with the Berkshire Opera, the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Italy and with the Martha Graham Dance Company.

In the cabaret field, Jered has performed at the Kennedy Center, Savannah Music Festival, Miami’s Performing Arts Center, the Algonquin Hotel’s fabled Oak Room, Café Carlyle, Birdland, 54 Below and Joe’s Pub. He has been a regular performer on the prestigious Lyrics and Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y and at the annual Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention, held at Town Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

On Broadway, Jered made his onstage debut playing and singing in An Evening with Jerry Herman. He has also appeared onstage in Patti LuPone on Broadway and below stage in many Broadway pits from Phantom of the Opera to The Producers.

Jered studied at The Juilliard School and completed his training with fellowships at the Tanglewood and Waterloo music festivals, and at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto (Italy). He has performed with the Festival since 2021.

Violinist Jennifer Elowitch is Founder and Artistic Director Emerita of the Portland Chamber Music Festival. Over the 25 years of her tenure, PCMF evolved into a cornerstone of Portland’s vibrant arts community. She is currently Director of Music at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Massachusetts, where she was the recipient of E.E. Ford Faculty Awards for Exceptional Merit in 2016 and 2021. A noted chamber musician, she has appeared as a guest artist with Electric Earth Concerts, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Winsor Music, and Music from Salem. She has also performed with well-known contemporary ensembles including Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, and the Fromm Players at Harvard.

Jennifer is the Assistant Principal Second Violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs often with the Boston Symphony, with whom she has toured Europe and Japan. In addition to her work at Walnut Hill, she has served on the faculties of the Longy School of Music, the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and the University of New Hampshire. Jennifer has presented workshops and masterclasses as a guest at New England Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music, and recently served as a guest teacher at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK. Her last appearance at the Festival was in 2005.

Classical and electric guitarist Oren Fader (www.orenfader.com) has performed in Asia, Europe, and throughout the United States. Concerto performances include the Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with the New Jersey and the Omaha Symphonies.

Oren has performed hundreds of concerts with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, Bowers Fader Duo, New York Philharmonic, Talea Ensemble, ICE, Mark Morris Dance Group, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has premiered over 250 solo and chamber works with guitar, and can be heard on over 50 commercial recordings and film.

Oren received his undergraduate degree from SUNY Purchase and his Master of Music degree from Florida State University. His major teachers include David Starobin and Bruce Holzman. Since 1994 Mr. Fader has been on the guitar and chamber music faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. He also directs the classical guitar programs at Montclair State University and SUNY Purchase. He has performed at the SLLMF since 2019.

“The guitarist Oren Fader played Brilliantly.” — The New York Times.
“His scholarship, technique, and intelligent musicianship are plainly evident and the beauty of his tone is consistently compelling.”— Guitar Review

Violinist Min-Young Kim is a founding member and first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Daedalus Quartet, winner of the Banff String Quartet Competition. With the quartet, she performs regularly throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, and has been presented by many of the world’s leading musical venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and the Concertgebeouw in Amsterdam.

She has also toured extensively with Musicians from Marlboro, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has also collaborated in festivals and performances with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Cleveland, Takács and Vermeer Quartets.

An advocate for music of our time, Min-Young enjoys working closely with composers and has premiered and performed many new works. In early music, she has performed and recorded on the baroque violin with Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra and New York Collegium.

A graduate of Harvard University and the Juilliard School, Ms. Kim teaches violin and chamber music at the University of Pennsylvania, and was formerly on the faculty of Columbia University and the School for Strings in New York. Her major teachers include Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann and Shirley Givens. Min-Young has performed at the SLLMF since 2016.

Varty Manouelian made her American Debut in 1993 with the North Carolina Symphony as First Prize winner of the Bryan International Competition. She has also been a prize winner at a number of other competitions in Europe, including the Kotzian International Competition and the Wieniawski International Violin Competition. She has recorded and appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras in the United States, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, Poland, Spain and Italy.
Her chamber music performances include Marlboro Music Festival, Apple Hill Festival, Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, El Paso Festival, and Olympic Music Festival, among others. She has collaborated as a chamber musician with such artists as Yuja Wang, Kim Kashkashian, Rohan de Saram, Joshua Bell, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Adès, and members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Tokyo, Brentano, Borromeo, and Mendelssohn string quartets.

Dedicated teacher and educator, Varty is Lecturer of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, teaches violin and chamber music at the Colburn Academy and CSPA, and spends summers coaching chamber music at the Apple Hill Festival in New Hampshire. She has been an active participant at LA Philharmonic’s Music Outreach programs, having taught at YOLA since its inception. Prior to joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2004, she was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

In Los Angeles, Varty frequently performs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella new-music series, as well as at Camerata Pacifica, Monday Evening Concerts, and the Dilijan Series. Her recording credits include archival radio recordings for the Bulgarian State Radio, and CDs on Albany and Bridge Records labels. Her recent CD of Complete Violin Works of Stefan Wolpe (jointly with violinist Movses Pogossian) made the 2015 Top Ten list in Sunday Times (UK). She has performed at the Festival since 2001.

Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a First Prize winner of the “Dr. Luis Sigall” International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition.

A recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant, he has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the United States.

He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, Mihai has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer.

He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet and a member of the acclaimed Apollo Trio. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo.

Mihai studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master’s and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Mihai has performed at the SLLMF since 2016.

Movses Pogossian made his American debut with the Boston Pops in 1990, about which Boston Globe wrote: “There is freedom in his playing, but also taste and discipline. It was a fiery, centered, and highly musical performance…” Prizewinner of several competitions, including the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition, he extensively performed as soloist and recitalist worldwide. As chamber musician, Movses has collaborated with such artists as Kim Kashkashian, Alexei Lubimov, Jeremy Denk, Rohan de Saram, and with members of the Tokyo, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets.

Movses is Artistic Director of the acclaimed Dilijan Chamber Music Series, currently in its 15th season (www.dilijan.larkmusicalsociety.org). Champion of new music, he has premiered over 80 works, and worked closely with composers such as Kurtág, Harbison, Saariaho, Mansurian, and Gabriela Lena Frank. His discography includes the Complete Sonatas and Partitas by J. S. Bach, solo violin CDs “Inspired by Bach,” “Blooming Sounds,” and “In Nomine,” and recently released “Con Anima” album of Tigran Mansurian’s music on ECM label. In his review of Kurtág’s “Kafka Fragments” (with soprano Tony Arnold) Paul Griffiths writes: “…remarkable is Pogossian’s contribution, which is always beautiful, across a great range of colors and gestures, and always seems on the edge of speaking—or beyond.”

Movses is Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and also Founding Director of the UCLA Armenian Music Program. As Head of the Los Angeles Chapter, he actively participates in the Music for Food project which raises awareness of the hunger problem and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change. Movses has performed at the Festival since 2001.

New York based violinist and pedagogue Amy Schroeder is a founding member of the GRAMMY award winning Attacca Quartet and 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, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra, the Spanish National Orchestra with composer John Adams conducting, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.

The Attacca Quartet signed an exclusive recording deal with Sony Classical in 2021 and has since released two critically acclaimed albums on the label: “Real Life,” consisting of electronic music arranged and adapted for string quartet by the Attacca Quartet and electronic composer collaborators, and “Of All Joys,” an album of renaissance music juxtaposed with works from the minimalist period. Amy can also be heard on several critically acclaimed albums released by Azica Records: “Fellow Traveler” works of John Adams, “Seven Last Words,” by Haydn, “Songlines,” works of Michael Ippolito, and on Nonesuch/New Amsterdam Records, the GRAMMY award winning album, Shaw/Attacca Quartet ‘Orange.’

Amy also performs in the Schroeder Umansky Duo with her husband, cellist Felix Umansky of the Harlem Quartet. She currently plays on two different violins, a Fernando Gagliano made in 1771 on loan to her from the Five Partners Foundation, and a violin made by Nathan Slobodkin in 2012. She has performed at the SLLMF since 2019.

Stacey Shames is recognized as one of the world’s foremost harpists, performing as concerto soloist, chamber musician and orchestral principal. Since making her debut at Carnegie Recital Hall, she has appeared as concerto soloist with The Saint Louis Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony, among others. Her extensive list of honors includes First Prize in the AHS Concert Artist Competition, and a top prize in the 11th International Harp Contest in Israel. She has been heard in recital at Jordan Hall, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Weill Recital Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Bargemusic.

Stacey’s performing schedule includes appearances at international festivals with celebrated musicians from around the globe. Her career has featured collaborations with Renee Fleming, Andrea Bocelli, James Galway, Andreas Scholl, Placido Domingo, Joshua Bell, and Gil Shaham, in numerous recording, concert and television appearances. She has accompanied and recorded for some of the most popular musical figures today including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Carly Simon, Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Harry Connick, Jr., Lauryn Hill, George Michael and Celine Dion. She is heard on the soundtracks to over 150 films.

Stacey is the solo harpist of the acclaimed Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom she records and tours. A devoted chamber musician, she is a member of the Aureole Trio, the preeminent merger of Flute, Viola and Harp. The group has released ten recordings and champions works by current composers. She may be heard on the RCA, Bridge, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Blue Note, Albany and Concord labels, having recorded major works by Elliott Carter and George Crumb, among others.

Stacey began her harp studies at the age of six, traveled internationally as a young soloist, and attended the Royal Irish Academy of Music, studying harp, piano and composition. She holds Degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. She is presently the Faculty Lecturer in Harp Performance at Princeton University. Her last appearance at the Festival was in 2018.

Matthew Sinno, a Massachusetts native, joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Viola during the 2021-22 season. Prior to that, he served as Associate Principal and Acting Principal Viola with the Kansas City Symphony. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as a substitute player.

Winner of the 2014 Juilliard Concerto Competition, Matthew performed Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher” in Alice Tully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. Other solo appearances include those with the Kansas City Symphony, Music Academy International Festival Orchestra and Boston Youth Symphony. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly at Sebago Long Lake Music Festival in Maine.

Matthew received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School as well as his post- baccalaureate diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. His primary instructors include Toby Appel, Heidi Castleman, Roberto Diaz and Cynthia Phelps. Matthew has performed at the Festival since 2019.

Bonnie Thron joined the North Carolina Symphony as Principal Cellist in 2000. She is an active chamber musician locally and plays frequently with the Mallarme Chamber Players. She is a member of Three For All, a clarinet trio with her husband, clarinetist Fred Jacobowitz and pianist Anatoly Larkin. She has also been a regular guest on the Washington Musica Viva series and has been teaching at the East Carolina University Summer Camp in the summers.

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 Cellist of the Denver Symphony and played and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. 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 native state of New Hampshire.

Bonnie received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. Her teachers include Lynn Harrell, Norman Fischer and Elsa Hilger. She also received a BSN from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and worked as a nurse for several years as a nurse 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 has
been performing at the SLLMF since 2002.

Winner of the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance, violinist Keiko Tokunaga spends most of her days touring and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Keiko has been praised by the Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes”. She has soloed with various orchestras including the Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In 2021, Keiko founded an online concert series, Jukebox Concerts, in order to provide artistic outlets for musicians who lost their engagements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The performances were made available not only to the subscribers, but also to residents of nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities across the country. Later in the year, she created INTERWOVEN, a multi-cultural ensemble whose mission is to eliminate discrimination against the AAAPI (Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community by integrating the musical traditions of the East and West.

While Keiko played with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet between 2005 and 2019, the ensemble won numerous prestigious awards including the GRAMMY Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance; First Prize of the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011; the Third Prize and the Australian Broadcast Corporation Classic FM Listener’s Choice Award of the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2011.

Keiko is currently on faculty at Fordham University. Between 2008 and 2019, she taught at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. She plays on a J. B. Vuillaume violin from 1845, generously loaned by an anonymous donor. She also enjoys playing on a Baroque-style violin made by Antonio Mariani, circa 1669, formerly in the collection of Gabriel Schaff. Her bow was made by Nicolas Maire circa 1850. She has performed at the SLLMF since 2016.

Praised for his “sublime” playing by Cleveland Classical, cellist Felix Umansky is a frequently sought-after recitalist and pedagogue. His versatile career has taken him all over Europe as well as North and South America where he has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. He has given masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the world, and he has performed and taught at many of the premier summer festivals in the USA.

As cellist of the world-renowned Harlem Quartet, Felix is currently Artist-in-Residence at Montclair State University as well as London’s Royal College of Music. One of his missions as a performer and educator is to bring a wide range of music to as many communities as possible. He has been seen and heard performing compositions from Bach to works written in the 21st Century in venues ranging from jazz clubs to 8th century abbeys to 1500-seat concert halls.

An avid supporter of contemporary music, Felix has performed and premiered works by numerous living composers such as William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Vivian Fung, Chen Yi, Osvaldo Golijov, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Chick Corea, among many others. A native of Carmel, Indiana, Felix holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and an Artist Diploma from Yale University. Outside of Harlem Quartet, he performs with his wife, violinist Amy Schroeder, as the Schroeder Umansky Duo. Felix performs on an 1850 J.B. Vuillaume cello, generously on loan to him. This is his first appearance at the Festival.