Artists

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Sarah Atwood is the Principal Second Violin of both the Boston Lyric Opera and Portland Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra. She regularly performs with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, including international tours to Europe and Asia. She appears in other ensembles such as Emmanuel Music, Odyssey Opera, Monadnock Music, Cantata Singers, A Far Cry, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project. 

A graduate of New England Conservatory, Sarah has performed solo at Carnegie Hall as First Prize Winner of the American Protege International Piano and Strings Competition and been featured on BBC Radio. She has performed and taught throughout the United States, Europe, and Palestine. During the pandemic, she made a project of recording Paganini’s 24 Caprices. This was highlighted by The Strad magazine and French radio, among others. This is Sarah’s first appearance at the Festival. 

Jonathan Bagg has performed hundreds of concerts in the U.S. and around the world as violist with the Ciompi String Quartet. He is Professor of the Practice at Duke University, where he has directed the chamber music program, taught viola and performed extensively for many years. Jonathan is co-Artistic Director of Electric Earth Concerts in New Hampshire, which he founded in 2012 with flutist Laura Gilbert. Their creative programming has included many collaborations with composers, authors, poets, and choreographers resulting in a number of unique multi-media works.

In the summers Jonathan has performed at the Portland and the Sebago-Long Lake festivals in Maine, Detroit’s Great Lakes Festival, the Eastern Music Festival and the Highlands festival in North Carolina, and the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals in Massachusetts. Since 2015 he has been principal violist with the CityMusic Cleveland chamber orchestra, where he performs throughout the year. 

Jonathan has made over 20 recordings with the Ciompi Quartet, most recently A Duke Moment (2024) on New Focus Recordings featuring works by Duke colleagues Stephen Jaffe, Anthony Kelley, and Scott Lindroth. In 2026 New Focus will also release “Viola Revival”, a disc of mid-century American works for viola. His 2014 solo CD on the Albany label, titled Elation, brings together several works he commissioned, including a sonata and trio by Jaffe, and a trio by Lindroth. Other solo CDs are on Bridge, Albany, Centaur and Gasparo Records. 

Jonathan was Chair of Duke’s Department of Music from 2019-2023 and he has also served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Performance. He holds an M.M. from the New England Conservatory and a B.A. from Yale. See www.jonathanbagg.com

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 43^rd 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, Eliot has performed regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, Cape May Music Festival, Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, Bronx Arts Ensemble as well as with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, New York City Opera and Ballet, Oratorio Society, American Symphony, Orchestra Lumos, New Jersey Symphony and 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”).

He is recipient of over fifty 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 holds a DMA from Yale University and an M.B.A. from NYU. He is on the cello and chamber music faculty at Columbia University, Barnard College and Teachers College and Western CT State University.

He has performed at the SLLMF since 1994.

New York City–based Venezuelan violist Ramón Carrero-Martínez is an internationally recognized chamber musician and educator, is the newly appointed Principal Viola of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and a member of the viola faculty at Purchase College’s Conservatory of Music (SUNY). He recently completed the prestigious Ensemble Connect Fellowship at Carnegie Hall (2023–2025), a program that merges world-class performance with dynamic community engagement across New York City’s public schools.  

Ramón has garnered international acclaim as a prizewinner in major competitions as a former member of the award-winning Terra String Quartet. With the quartet, he received the Grand Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and Third Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and Festa. As soloist, he has appeared with The Orchestra San Antonio and the New York Classical Players.  

A versatile chamber and orchestral musician, Ramón has toured and performed extensively across North America, Europe, and Asia, with leading ensembles such as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Twelfth Night, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Experiential Orchestra, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Recent festival engagements include the San Antonio Festival, Concordia Chamber Players, Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, Valley of the Moon Music Festival, Nexus Chamber Music Festival, North Country Chamber Players, and The Cultural Caravan.  

Equally devoted to education, Ramón serves on the faculties of the San Antonio Classical Music Institute, UpBeat NYC and Orchestrating Dreams, and has previously taught with the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He works closely with young musicians from diverse backgrounds, helping them cultivate their artistic identities and prepare for the multifaceted realities of a professional musical life. He is a proud graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned his B.A. and M.M. under the mentorship of violist Daniel Avshalomov. Ramón has performed at the SLLMF since 2024. ramoncarreromartinez.com

Violinist Gabriela Díaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. A childhood cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to supporting cancer research and treatment as a musician.

In 2004, she was awarded a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship to organize a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston; this project is now a part of her chamber music organization and concert series, Winsor Music (winsormusic.org).

A fierce champion of contemporary music, Gabriela has worked closely with many significant composers, including Pierre Boulez, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery, Tania León, and Helmut Lachenmann. She has recently joined the renowned Kronos Quartet as their new second violinist. She is also a member of The International Contemporary Ensemble, A Far Cry, Castle of Our Skins, Sound Icon, is concertmaster of BMOP, and appears frequently with chamber music ensembles throughout the United States.

Gabriela teaches at Wellesley College and the Longy School of Music at Bard College. Critics have acclaimed Gabriela as “a young violin master,” and “one of Boston’s most valuable players.” Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix noted, “…Gabriela Diaz in a bewitching performance of Pierre Boulez’s 1991 Anthèmes. The come-hither meow of Diaz’s upward slides and her sustained pianissimo fade-out were miracles of color, texture, and feeling.” Others have remarked on her “indefatigably expressive” playing, “polished technique,” and “vivid and elegant playing.” Gabriela can be heard on New World, Centaur, BMOPSound, Mode, Naxos, and Tzadik records. Her recording of Lou Harrison’s Suite for Violin and American Gamelan was highlighted in the New York Times article, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music.”

Gabriela is proud to be a core member of the team that created Boston Hope Music, bringing music to patients and frontline workers during the pandemic. More info can be found at gabrieladiazviolin.com. She has performed at the Festival since 2010.

Jered Egan has spent the last forty-five 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 Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the North Country Chamber Players and at the June in Buffalo, Monadnock and Manchester music festivals.

Orchestral work has included performing with the American Composers Orchestra, New York Pops, American Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn 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.

Since moving to Portland, Jered has performed with the Portland Symphony, Bangor Symphony, Opera Maine, Maine State Ballet, Portland Ballet, Oratorio Chorale, ChoralArt, and Aurora Camerata, among others.

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 92^nd 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. He has performed with the Festival since 2021.

Lauded by the New York Times as a “brilliant soloist” and by The Strad for her “marvelous and lyrical playing,” violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron enjoys a versatile career based in New York City. She is a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; the Momenta Quartet, whose vision encompasses contemporary music of all backgrounds alongside great music from the past; and the Toomai String Quintet, an ensemble devoted to playing a variety of styles from around the world and illuminating them through interactive performances.

Emilie-Anne also appears frequently with Musicians from Marlboro, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Knights, Talea Ensemble, A Far Cry, New Asia Chamber Music Society, and Sejong. In addition to regularly leading Orpheus, she has served as concertmaster of the Iris Collective, Sejong, The Knights, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, among others. Emilie-Anne is a founding member of Ensemble Échappé, a new-music sinfonietta, as well as the Gamut Bach Ensemble, in residence with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Her extensively varied international appearances have included recitals in Sweden and at the Louvre in Paris; festivals in Russia, Finland, and Jordan; and recently, major venues in China, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. 

Born in the U.S. to Japanese and French-Canadian parents, and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, Emilie-Anne was trained at The Juilliard School where her teachers were Won Bin Yim, Dorothy DeLay, David Chan, and Hyo Kang. She holds a B.A. in Classics from Columbia University (magna cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors), and a Master of Music degree and the coveted Artist Diploma from Juilliard. Emilie-Anne plays on a 1673 Jacob Stainer violin on generous loan from the Englewood Chamber Players. www.emilieannegendron.com

She has performed at the SLLMF since 2023.

Violist Brian Hong has forged a notable career as an inspiring pedagogue and chamber musician. Currently the Assistant Professor of Viola at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he previously served as violist of the GRAMMY-nominated Aizuri Quartet from 2023-2025. As soloist, Brian has appeared with the Juilliard Orchestra, New York Classical Players, US Army Orchestra, and the National Philharmonic. His festival credits include Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Taos School of Music, and the Perlman Music Program. 

Brian serves on the viola faculty at Kneisel Hall during the summers. His past students have gained admission to the nations’ top conservatories, orchestras, and summer music festivals. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a master’s degree and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School. His teachers and mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Laurie Smukler, Catherine Cho, and Kim Kashkashian.  

In addition to his performance and pedagogy, Brian is an accomplished music administrator. He formerly served as the Program Manager for the Vital Sounds Initiative of Project: Music Heals Us, a nonprofit that defies social barriers and creates compassionate communities through interactive musical programming. He currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music, a collective that serves to break down barriers in classical music by presenting immersive and accessible chamber music performances. In his spare time, Brian can be found brewing espresso or single-origin pour-overs at his home coffee bar. He has performed at the Festival since 2023.

Philadelphia violinist Min-Young Kim is a founding member and first violinist of the Daedalus Quartet with whom she has been presented by many of the world’s leading musical venues including Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Min is also the concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and a core member of ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra) and is a frequent guest with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. She has been featured as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Apollo’s Fire, the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall and with the Bard Festival Orchestra. She performs on historical violin and viola with Apollo’s Fire and Tempesta di Mare and enjoys working closely with composers, commissioning and premiering new works including those of Fred Lerdahl, Anna Weesner, Huck Hodge, and Wolfgang Rihm. 

In her quest to play many strings, Min also plays the viola as well as a five string violoncello da spalla, a six-string electric violin and the guitar. Recent Philadelphia based projects have highlighted Min’s versatility and virtuosity on multiple string instruments including her ‘Fantasia’ program and a collaboration with the radiant vocal ensemble Variant 6 with whom she performed Bach’s Chaconne with hidden chorales as arranged by Helga Thoene and Gabriel Jackson’s Ave Regina Caelorum on a six-string electric violin with multi effects stomp (with videos on YouTube). A graduate of Harvard and Juilliard, Min studied with Shirley Givens, Robert Mann and Donald Weilerstein, and currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Min has performed at the SLLMF since 2016.

Thomas Kraines, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, has gained renown as a versatile cellist, composer, and teacher. He performs as a member of the Network for New Music Ensemble, the experimental five-piece ensemble Unseen Rain, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and as part of the Philadelphia-based improvisation collective People’s Music Supply. In 2025, he and violinist Diane Monroe, vibraphonist Tony Miceli, and bassist Nimrod Speaks formed a chamber jazz quartet, yet to be named.

A former member of the Daedalus Quartet and Peabody Trio, Thomas can be heard on multiple recordings by those ensembles, as well as on CDs by composers Fred Lerdahl, Lori Laitman, and Jan Krzywicki. In 2024, he collaborated with Dan Rothenberg of Pig Iron Theatre and Sebastienne Mundheim of White Box Theatre to create the show “Bartok’s Monster,” which played to sold-out houses at the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia and at Swarthmore College.

Thomas’ solo cello and chamber compositions have been heard around the world. He has performed his own works in collaboration with artists such as Awadagin Pratt, Mimi Stillman, Maria Jette, Ilana Davidson, and Kinan Abou-afach. His “Hansel and Gretel” was recorded by the English Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kenneth Woods, with Henry Goodman narrating.

Thomas has served on the faculty of the Longy School of Music, Princeton University, Peabody Conservatory, Phillips Academy Andover, and Yellow Barn. He currently teaches cello at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also director of the chamber music program, and the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. He studied cello with Frederic Raimi, Orlando Cole, and Joel Krosnick, and composition with Tom Benjamin. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Juliette, daughters Rosalie and Clarissa, and two cats. He has performed at the SLLMF since 2006.

Australian born violist Kathryn Lockwood leads an active and varied career as performer, teacher, and artistic director. Since moving to the United States in 1991 she has played with a virtual who’s-who in the chamber music world and captured sought-after awards in the country including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.

Kathryn’s career launched straight out of graduate school at USC (CA) where she, along with three friends, formed the Pacifica Quartet. As a member of PQ she traveled the world concertizing and recording. After moving to New York in 2001 Kathryn soon claimed the viola chair of the internationally renowned Lark Quartet. Always evolving and thinking out of the box, Kathryn formed the innovative group duoJalal with percussionist and husband Yousif Sheronick.

The accolades speak volumes to Kathryn’s virtuosic ability. The Cleveland Plain Dealer proclaimed Kathryn as a “violist of exceptional talents…Lockwood played the vociferous viola cadenza with mahogany beauty and vivid character” and the Toronto Star wrote: “Lockwood is all slow, sensuous allure with her bowing arm one moment, a tempest of notes the next.” 

For the last six years Kathryn has been keeping busy as artistic director of the Four Seasons in Music concert series at the Sands Point Preserve, Long Island, NY, and for the past four years for MusicFest as part of Telluride Chamber Music in CO. Kathryn is currently tenured faculty at the John Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, previously serving on the faculty at University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Rutgers University in NJ, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Music Institute of Chicago, and National Music Camp in Australia. Recently appointed Curator of the Immersive Residency Program at Montclair State University, she oversees weeklong residency visits of internationally renowned artists and groups.

She has performed at the Festival since 2025.

Violinist Todd Phillips made his solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of thirteen and since then has appeared with many orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and Japan including the Brandenburg Ensemble, the Jacksonville and Honolulu symphonies, Camerata Salzburg and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1982 with the New York String Orchestra and conductor Alexander Schneider. Return engagements at Carnegie Hall soon followed as well as solo performances in Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Boston’s Symphony Hall and the Frankfurt Opera House.

Todd is a founding member of the highly acclaimed Orion String Quartet which has been the quartet-in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mannes College of Music and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The Quartet’s television appearances have included PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center,” three performances on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and A&E’s “Breakfast with the Arts.” Their recordings of the complete Beethoven quartets have received unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

Todd’s experience as a frequent leader of the conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra has led to engagements as conductor/leader with the Camerata Nordica of Sweden, The New World Symphony, Risor Chamber Orchestra in Norway, The Brandenburg Ensemble, the Tapiola Sinfonietta of Finland, and the Mannes Sinfonietta in New York City.

Todd serves on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music where he is Artistic Director of the chamber music intensive program CMI@CIM as well as the CIM Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. Todd has performed at the SLLMF since 2018.

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 2022.

Matthew Sinno joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal Viola in the 2021–22 season. He previously served as Associate Principal Viola of the Kansas City Symphony and has performed with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra.

Winner of the 2014 Juilliard Concerto Competition, Matthew appeared in Alice Tully Hall performing Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher with the Juilliard Orchestra. He has also been featured as a soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, Music Academy International Festival Orchestra, and the Boston Youth Symphony.

Matthew is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Viola at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and teaches at the National Orchestral Institute. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School and a post-baccalaureate diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. His primary teachers include Toby Appel, Heidi Castleman, Roberto Díaz, Cynthia Phelps and David Rubinstein.

He has performed at the Festival since 2019.

Heralded as “one of the great leading cellists of the classical stage” (The Wall Street Journal), Wendy Sutter has established herself as one of the most dynamic and versatile artists of her generation. Acclaimed by major outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Strad Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle, she has performed as soloist across five continents and in many of the world’s foremost concert halls, including The Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre, and David Geffen Hall.

Wendy has appeared with leading orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, and the Royal Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. Her collaborations with esteemed conductors include Jaap van Zweden, Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, Mikhail Jurowski, Dante Anzolini, and Michel Tabachnik.

An active chamber musician, Wendy has performed at celebrated festivals including Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Spoleto, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, and the Gingold Festival. She has also been featured in prominent recital venues including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and Bargemusic.

A noted champion of contemporary music, Wendy has premiered nearly 20 works written for her by leading composers such as Philip Glass, Don Byron, John King, and Martin Matalon. Glass’s Songs and Poems—his first solo cello work, written for her—earned international acclaim and became one of the highest-selling classical downloads on iTunes.

Immediately after her studies at The Juilliard School, Wendy was invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to create and perform Jerome Robbins’s A Suite of Dances, touring the work exclusively with Baryshnikov worldwide, including frequent appearances with New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.

Wendy is the Founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at Churchtown, a chamber music festival based at the historic Churchtown Dairy in New York’s Hudson Valley. Most recently, she completed Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business LEAD program in Corporate Innovation and Leadership. This is her first appearance at the Festival.

Violist Jessica Thompson is a passionate chamber musician who performs regularly throughout the United States and abroad as a member of the Daedalus Quartet. Praised by the New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” Daedalus has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Abroad, the quartet has appeared in leading venues in Vienna, Cologne, Amsterdam, Paris, Tokyo, and Shanghai. The quartet has won numerous awards, including Grand Prize of the 2001 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 2007 Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America. The quartet has been recognized for its commitment to new music and has premiered works by composers such as Fred Lerdahl, Vivian Fung, Joan Tower, Richard Wernick, and Anna Weesner. The Daedalus Quartet has recorded both contemporary and older music for Bridge Records and Naxos.  Daedalus has been in residence at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006.

In addition to her appearances with the Daedalus Quartet, Jessica has performed at numerous festivals, including Aspen, Taos, Marlboro, the Portland, Charlottesville, Mimir, Skaneateles, and Halcyon chamber music festivals, and Bard Summerscapes. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and performs regularly as a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, of which she serves as co-executive director, and with the String Orchestra of NYC. Jessica has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and in recital in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Princeton, and Washington, DC. She currently teaches at Princeton and Columbia Universities as well as serving on the faculty of the Maine Chamber Music Seminar. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Karen Tuttle. Jessica performs on an instrument made in 1818 in Milan by Giacomo Rivolta. She has performed at the Festival since 2025.

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.