David Bloch (1939 - 2010)

Musicologist/pianist David Bloch passed away August 6, 2010. He was a pioneer in the rediscovery of the music of Terezín, and a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board. His family wrote: "We hope and believe that his musical legacy will endure also, and that his life-work of bringing the music of Terezin back in to awareness has contributed greatly to the the memory of the artists and restoration of their music to its rightful place in history as was his quest. In this music he shall also be remembered."

David Bloch was Associate Professor of Music at Tel Aviv University, founder and director of the Group for New Music, and the Terezin Music Memorial Project. He published articles about the music of Terezin in musicology journals, conference proceedings, and in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He recorded for the Israel Broadcasting Authority, the BBC, and Voice of Cairo, and produced CDs for a number of labels.

In the millennium year, he produced a Gideon Klein 80th Anniversary Retrospective Concert at Tel Aviv University, and, with members of the Group for New Music, gave two concerts at a music festival in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In August 2001 he participated in a series of workshops at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., with other researchers from the U.S.A., Germany and Israel, on the subject of “Culture in Ghetto Settings.”

Leon Botstein

“Your mission to promote the preservation, understanding and performance of music related to the Holocaust is a noble and important one…”

Conductor/historian Leon Botstein was born in Zurich in 1946 and moved to New York with his family in 1949. He attended the University of Chicago and Harvard University, studying violin with Roman Totenberg and conducting with Richard Wernick and Harold Farberman. In 1975 he was appointed President of Bard College, where he holds the Leon Levy Professorship of Humanities. Named music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in 1992, Botstein restored the ensemble to prominence through thematic concerts, performances of rare repertory, and innovative educational programs. He became music director of the American Russian Youth orchestra in 1995. Botstein has appeared extensively as a guest conductor in Europe, Asia and South America, and founded the Bard Music Festival in 1990. President Botstein was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Samuel Brylawski

Sam Brylawski is editor of the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Records, an authoritative index to over 150,000 recording sessions being compiled by the University of California at Santa Barbara. He recently retired from the Library of Congress after working there more than 30 years. He was head of the Recorded Sound Section in its Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, overseeing a collection of nearly three million published and unpublished recordings. As head of the Recorded Sound Section Sam had responsibility for the acquisition, conservation and cataloging of the Library's vast audio collections.

Sam writes and lectures on recordings, American popular music, and audio preservation. He co-produced the six-disc set, The Library of Congress Presents Historic Presidential Speeches (1908-1993). At the Library of Congress he acted as executive director of the National Recording Preservation Board and managed its Congressionally-mandated study of the state of audio preservation. His work also included planning the National Audio Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, now under construction. He is the curator of the Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment at the Library of Congress, where one can enjoy his exhibition on the history of vaudeville, "Bob Hope and American Variety."

John Corigliano

American composer John Corigliano was born in New York in 1938, son of the violinist John Corigliano. After studying at Columbia University (B.A. 1959), he worked as a music programmer for the New York Times radio station, WQXR, and as music director for WBAI (NYC). He also produced recordings for Columbia Masterworks (1972-3) and worked with Leonard Bernstein on the Young People’s Concerts series for CBS (1961-72). He has taught at the Manhattan School, the Julliard School, and Lehman College-CUNY, where he was named Distinguished Professor in 1984. During the period 1987-90 he served as the first Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Corigliano’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship (1968), the Grawemeyer Award (1991), two Grammy awards for Best Contemporary Composition (1991, 1996), the Composition of the Year award from the International Music Awards (1992) for his opera The Ghosts of Versailles, and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Symphony No.2 for String Orchestra. He was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1991. John Corigliano was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Bob Goldfarb

"By combining new music with historical works in programs at the highest artistic level, and bringing that music to a worldwide audience through recordings, Music of Remembrance provides an unparalleled service to its audiences and to the musical art."

A vice president with Arts Consulting Group, Bob Goldfarb has been active as a consultant in public and commercial broadcasting for 20 years, specializing in strategic planning, product design, research, and managing change. A Connecticut native and an honors graduate of Harvard College, Goldfarb earned his MBA at Harvard Business School. He has held executive positions at radio stations, in the classical-music industry, and at record labels, and is a frequent speaker and panelist at professional conferences.

Most recently, Goldfarb was program director and consultant at Classical KING FM, one of the nation's leading classical-music broadcasters. A broadcaster since his teens, he has specialized in classical-music radio since 1972; previous associations as an executive or consultant include stations KUSC, KFAC, WCRB, WQXR, WFMT, WQED. He has also been Director of U.S. Operations for Teldec Records, a Hamburg-based classical record label and a part of Time-Warner; headed the U.S. operations of the British label Conifer; and led the American Composers Alliance, an association dedicated to the advancement of contemporary music.

Goldfarb wrote a regular column about classical-music radio for the trade publication Radio and Records, as well as occasional articles for the public-broadcasting publication Current. His article "The Invisible Art: New Music in America," appears in the collection Reflections on American Music.

Richard Goode

A native of New York, pianist Richard Goode has been hailed for music making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness. His ability to enter and illuminate the different worlds of each composer he plays has inspired one critic to remark, "You'd swear the composer himself was at the keyboard, expressing musical thoughts that had just come into his head."

During the 2005-2006 season, Carnegie Hall will feature Richard Goode in an expansive eight event Carnegie Perspective. He will perform piano concerti with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fisher, his first all-Beethoven recital since the early '90's, four chamber music concerts in Zankel Hall with distinguished colleagues such as Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Jeffrey Kahane, Matthew Polenzani, Brentano String Quartet, and Pomerium, a lecture / demo in Weill Hall, as well as two talks / demos at the Met Museum.

In addition, Goode will give recitals in London, Brussels, Barcelona, Zurich, Madrid, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. His collaboration with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fisher continues with a tour this fall that will complete a cycle of the Beethoven concerti at Wigmore Hall. In the winter of 2006, he will perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Bernard Haitink as well as a European tour with the SWR Freiburg Orchestra. The 2004-2005 season saw an addition to Mr. Goode's extensive discography with the release of his recording of Mozart sonatas as well as recitals in major music capitols and festivals in Europe and in the United States.

Mr. Goode studied with Elvira Szigeti and Claude Frank, with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. He has been serving with Mitsuko Uchida as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival since 2000, and resides in New York with his wife, Marcia.

Speight Jenkins

Speight Jenkins, general director of Seattle Opera, is recognized nationally as a leading authority on opera and a politically active arts advocate.

Before coming to Seattle Opera, Jenkins was well known for hosting Metropolitan Opera telecasts, for his arts criticism as a major opera journalist, and for his music lectures, especially those on the works of Richard Wagner.

Jenkins has been widely acknowledged during his tenure at Seattle Opera. Seattle Times listed Jenkins among its “Top Achievers of 1995: The Best of Puget Sound” for his role in presenting three sold-out cycles of the Ring. In 2001, the Seattle Times named Jenkins one of the 150 most influential people who have shaped the character of Seattle and King County. He has been featured in major articles in the New York Times, Seattle Times, Seattle P-I, Opera Now, and other publications.

Appointed by President Clinton to the National Council on the Arts in 1996, Jenkins served on the Council until September 2000. In 1999, he played an active role speaking out for Proposition One, a levy designating $38 million in city funding for the renovation of the Seattle Center Opera House. Because of the important role he played in the passage of Proposition One, Jenkins was named a “Newsmaker of the Year” by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Jenkins is a graduate of the University of Texas and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After gaining his law degree at Columbia University, he served four years in the United States Army as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Jenkins is an annual guest on “Opera Quiz”, an intermission feature on the Chevron-Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Music of Remembrance welcomes Speight Jenkins to its Advisory Board.

Gary Karr

“With nearly 50 religious, racial or economic wars still raging, we are constantly reminded of man’s most profound flaw which is his willingness to commit murder. Few organizations address this point more vividly than Music of Remembrance, with its focus on one of the greatest travesties in human history.”

Gary Karr, acclaimed as “the world’s leading solo bassist” (Time magazine), is the first solo doublebassist in history to make that pursuit a full time career. Karr has expanded the repertoire of works for the doublebass with orchestra through commissions to such American composers as John Downey, Robert Rodriguez, and Lalo Schifrin.

Since his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Karr has performed with orchestras worldwide, including the Chicago Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Hong King Philharmonic, the McGill Chamber Orchestra (Montreal), the Simon Bolivar Orchestra (Caracas, Venezuela) the Jerusalem Symphony, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and each of the major orchestras of Australia.

Garry Karr’s legendary influence on concepts of instrument design and of playing technique has raised the standards of performance on the doublebass around the world. Following thirty years of teaching at Juilliard, Yale, the New England Conservatory, including twenty years at the Johannesen International School of the Arts in British Columbia, where he now lives, Karr has begun his own international summer school for the doublebass. The Karr Doublebass Foundation was formed in 1983 to ensure that its assemblage of fine instruments would be played by talented artists, at no cost to them. Garry Karr’s personal collection, including his 1611 Amati, previously owned by Serge Koussevitsky, will be in the Foundation’s legacy.

On November 4, 2000, Music of Remembrance presented Mr. Karr in the world premiere performance of Lori Laitman’s Holocaust 1944, a song cycle for baritone voice and doublebass, composed specifically for him. Gary Karr joined MOR’s Advisory Board in December 2000.

Kurt Masur

Conductor Kurt Masur was born in Brieg, Silesia (now Brzeg, Poland) in 1927. He studied piano and cello at the Landesmusikschule, Breslau (1942-4), and conducting at the Leipzig Conservatory (1946-8). He was appointed repetiteur and staff conductor at the Halle Landestheater in 1948, and was subsequently first Kapellmeister at the city theatres of Erfurt (1951-3) and Leipzig (1953-5). Masur served as conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra from 1955-8 and 1967-72, and became Generalmusikdirektor of the Mecklenburg Staatstheater, Schwerin, in 1958. In 1960 he moved to the Komisch Oper in Berlin, collaborating there with the producer Walter Felsenstein on several brilliant new productions. From 1964 he worked as a guest conductor before resuming his duties in Dresden. In 1970 he received the crowning appointment of his early career: Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a position he held for 26 years before being named the orchestra’s first conductor laureate. While in Leipzig he was credited with restoring a vanished glory to the orchestra and that city’s musical life, and made recordings of Beethoven (including a complete cycle of the symphonies), Mendelssohn, Bruckner and Brahms. On October 9, 1981, he conducted the inaugural concert of the new Leipzig Gewandhaus.

Masur made his British debut with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in 1973, and his United States debut the following year in Cleveland. In 1976 he became principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and in 1988 took the same position at the Leipzig Philharmonic Orchestra. In October 1989, as the government of East Germany began a series of threatening military maneuvers, Masur joined a group of leading citizens and before a Leipzig audience of 70,000 made a speech exhorting calm negotiation. Masur quickly gained heroic stature at home and an enhanced reputation around the world. From 1991 to June 2002 he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he has recorded works ranging from Beethoven’s Egmont incidental music to Janacek’s Sinfonietta and Berg’s Lulu-Symphonie. At his retirement he was named Conductor Emeritus of the New York Philharmonic, the only conductor other than Leonard Bernstein to be so honored.

Masur received the German Grosses Verdienstkreuz in 1995, and was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor in 1996. He was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Thomas Pasatieri

Thomas Pasatieri was born in New York in 1945. A prolific composer by the age of 15, he studied with Nadia Boulanger before receiving a scholarship to The Juilliard School at the age of 16. His composition teachers there included Vittorio Giannini and Vincent Persichetti. At 19 he received the first doctorate awarded by Juilliard. He also studied with Darius Milhaud at Aspen where, at 19, his chamber opera, The Women, won the Aspen Festival prize. Other honors include the Richard Rodgers Scholarship, the Marion Freschl Prize, the Irving Berlin Fellowship, and an Emmy Award.

Pasatieri has taught at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Cincinnati Conservatory. He directed the Atlanta Opera from 1980 to 1984 and, early in 1984, moved to California to work in films and television. He now resides in New York, and divides his time between composing and the presidency of his film production company, Topaz Productions.

Pasatieri has composed more than 400 songs, many with chamber ensemble accompaniment. His songs and operas have been performed by such artists as: Janet Baker, Frederica von Stade, Shirley Verrett, Catherine Malfitano, Evelyn Lear, James Morris, Thomas Stewart, and the late Jennie Tourel. Highly emotional characters in strong theatrical situations are characteristic of many of Pasatieri’s operas, including his most successful work, The Seagull, based on the Chekhov play, and The Trial of Mary Lincoln, written for television. His many film orchestrations include Road to Perdition, Finding Nemo, and Angels in America.

Pasatieri’s Letter to Warsaw (2003), commissioned by Music of Remembrance, received its world premiere on May 10, 2004, at Benaroya Hall, Seattle. Based on poems of Warsaw ghetto cabaret artist Pola Braun, this 75-minute chamber orchestra work features guest soprano Jane Eaglen and conductor Gerard Schwarz. Thomas Pasatieri is a member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Murray Perahia

“I am very happy to support your organization.”
“I am in admiration of all the work that you are doing”

Pianist Murray Perahia was born in New York in 1947. He began piano lessons at an early age with Jeanette Haien, and later graduated from the Mannes College of Music in conducting and composition while continuing his piano studies with Artur Balsam. He spent summers at Marlboro, Vermont, where he was encouraged by Rudolf Serkin, and collaborated in chamber music with Casals and members of the Budapest Quartet. During this period, he also studied with pianist Mieczslaw Horszowski. In March 1972 he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic and, later that year, won first prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition.

Perahia’s playing has always been recognized as exceptional. He acknowledges that he owes much to the advice, inspiration and friendship of Vladimir Horowitz. In the late 1970s he began to record all the Mozart concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducting them from the piano. His discography also includes recordings of Mendelssohn, Beethoven sonatas, and all the Beethoven concertos with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. More recently, his recordings of Schumann’s Kreisleriana and piano concerto, and Chopin’s ballades and two concertos have been acclaimed. Murray Perahia was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Steve Reich

Composer Steve Reich, an artist who has gained international renown over the course of a distinguished career, was born in New York in 1936. Reich graduated with honors in philosophy from Cornell University in 1957. He studied composition with Hal Overton, and at The Juilliard School with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti. Mr. Reich received his M.A. in Music from Mills College in 1963, where he worked with Darius Milhaud and Luciano Berio.

In 1966, convinced that composition and performance should be united, Reich founded the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians for the performance of his own music. Since 1971 this ensemble has frequently toured the world. In June 1997, in celebration of Mr. Reich’s 60th birthday, Nonesuch released a 10-CD retrospective box set of his compositions. He won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best Small Ensemble for his piece Music for 18 Musicians. A major retrospective of his work was presented by Lincoln Center in July 1999. Earlier, in 1988, the South Bank Centre in London mounted a similar series of retrospective concerts.

Reich’s 1988 piece, Different Trains, marked a new compositional method in which speech recordings generate the musical material for musical instruments. The New York Times hailed Different Trains as “a work of such astonishing originality that breakthrough seems the only possible description…” In 1990, Mr. Reich received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Composition for Different Trains as recorded by the Kronos Quartet on the Nonesuch label. Different Trains was performed at MOR’s Holocaust Remembrance concert in April 2001, with Mr. Reich as sound engineer in the performance.

Over the years, Steve Reich has received commissions from the Holland Festival, San Francisco Symphony, the Rothko Chapel, flutist Ransom Wilson, the Brooklyn Academy of Music for guitarist Pat Metheny, West German Radio, Cologne, the Music Foundation for clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Betty Freeman for the Kronos Quartet, and Festival d’Automne, Paris, for the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution.

In 1994, Mr. Reich was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, to the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in 1995, and, in 1999, awarded Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Steve Reich was named 2001 Composer of the Year by Musical America. He is a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Toby Saks

Cellist Toby Saks has been Professor of Music at the University of Washington since 1976, and Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society since its inception in 1982. Ms. Saks has performed in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, and the former U.S.S.R. Her chamber music credits include the Sitka, Boston Chamber Music Society, Vancouver, Cascade Head, Bargemusic, St. Cere, New Mexico, Amsterdam, Juneau, Marlboro, Stratford, Spoleto and Anchorage festivals. In 1988 she led musicians of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival on a two-week tour of the Soviet Union.

Toby Saks was first prizewinner at the International Pablo Casals Competition in Israel and a top prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. A recipient of Fulbright and Rockefeller grants, she studied with Leonard Rose at Juilliard, and with Andre Navarra at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. Ms. Saks made her Town Hall debut at age 18 after winning the New York Young Concert Artists auditions. She was a member of the New York Philharmonic from 1971-76. Toby Saks was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: Seattle Chamber Music Society

Paul Schoenfield

“It’s a great ‘chesed’(act of loving kindness) to be performing music of those composers who perished during the war, and I encourage you in your commitment.”

Composer-pianist Paul Schoenfield began studying piano at age six and wrote his first composition the following year. At 22 he received his doctorate in musical arts from the University of Arizona. Prior to this he was an assistant to Nikolai Lopatnikoff at Carnegie-Mellon University. Schoenfield’s music has been performed by many leading orchestras worldwide: the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, Cleveland Symphony, Savannah Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he has received numerous commissions, and has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Fund, the Bush Foundation, Meet The Composer, and Chamber Music America.

Schoenfield is one of an increasing number of composers whose music is inspired by a wide range of musical experience: popular styles both American and foreign, vernacular and folk traditions, and the historical traditions of cultivated music-making, often treated with sly twists. In a single piece he frequently mixes ideas from entirely different worlds.

Paul Schoenfield’s music was first heard at a Music of Remembrance concert in November 1999, which featured the West Coast premiere of Sparks of Glory. Our Holocaust Remembrance concert on April 7, 2002, included the world premiere of Camp Songs, commissioned by MOR. Camp Songs was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The work is a setting of five poems written in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by non-Jewish Polish political dissident, Aleksander Kulisiewicz. Camp Songs will be featured in a new English translation at MOR’s concert on November 8, 2004, marking the 66th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Paul Schoenfield has been a member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board since January 2000.

Gerard Schwarz

The 2005-06 season marks Gerard Schwarz's 21st year with the Seattle Symphony. In September 2001 Maestro Schwarz became Music Director of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1982 to 2001 he was Music Director of New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival and currently serves as Conductor Laureate. Mr. Schwarz co-founded the New York Chamber Symphony in 1977 and served as its Music Director through the ensemble’s 25th anniversary season in 2002.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Gerard Schwarz began his conducting career in 1966. Within 10 years he was appointed Music Director of the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, the Eliot Feld Dance Company, the Waterloo Festival and the New York Chamber Symphony, as well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1981 he established the Music Today contemporary music series in New York City, and served as its Music Director through 1989.

In 1983 Gerard Schwarz came to the Seattle Symphony as Music Advisor. The following year he was appointed Principal Conductor, and since 1985 has held the post of Music Director. Maestro Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony have released more than 80 compact discs for Delos, EMI, Koch International, New World, Nonesuch, Reference Recordings, RCA, Master Musicians Collective (MMC) and Artek.

Gerard Schwarz was named 1994 Conductor of the Year by the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts. He has also received the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University, an honorary Doctorate of Music from The Juillliard School, as well as honorary doctorates from Fairleigh Dickinson University, the University of Puget Sound, and Seattle University. In May 2002 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awarded special recognition to Maestro Schwarz for his efforts in championing the works of American composers and the music of our time. Schwarz was recently appointed to the National Council on the Arts.

Schwarz's concert prelude, In Memoriam*, was composed in 2005 for his son Julian Schwarz, as first recipient of the David Tonkonogui Memorial Award, established by MOR in memory of the beloved cellist.

In 2005, Schwarz’s original work In Memoriam for cello and string orchestra was premiered at MOR’s May 2005 concert In Defiance. It was performed by Julian Schwarz, the first recipient of the David Tonkonogui Award. Music of Remembrance P.O. Box 27500 Seattle, WA 98165-2500 Phone: 206-365-7770 Fax: 206-985-6924 info@musicofremembrance.org A frequent guest conductor with Music of Remembrance, he was a founding member of MOR’s Advisory Board.

*Voted Best New Work of 2005 – Seattle Weekly, Music Critic Gavin Borchert

David Shifrin

Clarinetist David Shifrin is Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Currently Professor of Music at Yale University, he has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. Mr. Shifrin was appointed Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in March 1992. He was honored by the Society in fall 2001 when he opened the season as featured soloist in an all-Mozart program.

Mr. Shifrin continues to garner honors and esteemed positions in his field. In 2000 he received the prestigious Avery Fisher prize, and was a recipient of a Solo Recitalists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition to his chamber music performances, Mr. Shifrin is an eagerly sought concerto soloist, and has the distinction of regularly performing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in its original version on a specially built basset clarinet. The Delos recording by Mr. Shifrin and the Mostly Mozart Festival orchestra of this same work received a Record of the Year award from Stereo Review. David Shifrin was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

David Stock

Composer/conductor David Stock is Professor of Music at Duquesne University where he conducts the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble. He has been Composer-in-Residence of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, and is Conductor Laureate of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble which he founded in 1976. He retired as Music Director of PNME at the end of the 1998/99 season after 23 years of dedication to new music and the living composer.

In November 1992 he was selected by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to receive the Creative Achievement Award for Outstanding Established Artist. Among his many commissions are Kickoff, premiered by the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur during the orchestra’s 150th anniversary; Violin Concerto, premiered by Andres Cardenes and the Pittsburgh Symphony under Lorin Maazel for that orchestra’s 100th anniversary; and the Second Symphony, premiered by the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz. Stock’s compositions have been performed throughout the United States, and in Europe, Mexico, Australia, China and Korea. His works have been recorded on CRI, Northeastern, MMC and Innova.

As guest conductor he has appeared with Australia’s Seymour Group, Poland’s Capella Cracoviensis and Silesian Philharmonic, Mexico’s Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva, Eclipse (Beijing), the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Monday Evening Concerts, the Syracuse Society for New Music, the Minnesota Composers Forum, the American Dance Festival, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, the Chautauqua Symphony, the American Wind Symphony, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

David Stock’s instrumental trio, A Vanished World, was commissioned by Music of Remembrance and received its world premiere on April 30, 2000. He was a founding member of MOR’s Advisory Board.

Bret Werb

Bret Werb has served as musicologist to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 1992. He has produced three CDs for the museum: Krakow Ghetto Notebook; Rise Up and Fight!: Songs of Jewish Partisans; Hidden History: Songs of the Kovno Ghetto, and is currently working on a website showcasing the museum’s music collection. A contributor to the recent edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, he has lectured widely on the topic of Holocaust related music.

Werb earned his M.A. in ethnomusicology at UCLA with a thesis on the Yiddish stage composer Joseph Rumshinsky. He is currently a doctoral candidate at that institution. Bret Werb has been a member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board since spring 2003.

Pinchas Zukerman

Violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv in 1948. His father, also a violinist, encouraged a childhood talent for music and, at age eight, Zukerman entered the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. In 1961 he was heard by Isaac Stern and Pablo Casals, on whose recommendations he received scholarships enabling him to enter The Juilliard School, with Stern as his legal guardian. There, Zukerman studied with Ivan Galamian and extended his interest to the viola. He appeared at the 1966 Spoleto Festival in Italy, and was joint winner of the Leventritt Competition in 1967. The resulting solo engagements throughout North America were supplemented by his substituting for an indisposed Stern. Since Zukerman’s New York debut at Lincoln Center in 1969, he has toured frequently in Europe. With a prolific discography, he has earned 21 Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards.

Zukerman’s conducting career began in 1970 with the English Chamber Orchestra. In 1971 he first directed performances of Bach and Vivaldi concertos with himself as soloist, and in June 1974 he made a successful conducting debut with the (then New) Philharmonia Orchestra at the Festival Hall, London. He was artistic director of the South Bank Summer Music Series, London (1978-80) and music director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (1980-86). Currently Zukerman is Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and of the Pinchas Zuckerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music. He was a founding member of Music of Remembrance’s Advisory Board.

Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, Second Edition

Barston, Elisa

Elisa Barston, violin, Currently the Principal Second Violinist of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Elisa previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and was a first violin section member of the Cleveland Orchestra. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music cum laude. At Indiana University, where she earned a Master of Music degree, Ms. Barston was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate, the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship, and the Starling Foundation Grant. Among her awards, Elisa has garnered top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, First Prize at the Julius Stulberg Auditions, Grand Prize at the International Kingsville Young Performers' Competition, and First Prize in the Seventeen-General Motors National Music Competition. As a soloist, Elisa has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, with the major symphony orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Seattle, and Taipei, among numerous others.

Boaz, Holly

Holly Boaz, soprano, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Music, also holds a Masters in Music from The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. Recent performances include her debut with Connecticut Opera as the High Priestess in Verdi's Aïda, and Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Aspen Music Festival. Upcoming engagements include Musetta with the Midland Symphony Orchestra and several recitals with pianist Shelby Rhoades. In summer 2006, she will sing La Comtesse de Folleville in Music Academy of the West's production of Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims. In the 2006-07 season, she will sing the role of Alice Ford in Falstaff with Seattle Opera Young Artist Program. She has won awards from The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Schubert Club, the Richardson Awards, and the Society of American Musicians. This is her debut with Music of Remembrance.

Cerminaro, John

John Cerminaro, horn, principal horn of the Seattle Symphony, has appeared as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras. A native of Texas, he made his debut at the age of sixteen with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently studied at The Juilliard School, where he was a recipient of the Naumburg Award. Appointed to the New York Philharmonic in 1969, Cerminaro served as principal horn until 1979, when he left to join the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the same capacity for seven seasons. During this period, several new works for solo horn were composed for him. An alumnus of the Aspen Music School since 1964, he has made frequent solo and chamber music appearances there. In celebration of his 30th season at Aspen, he was soloist in 1994 with Robert Spano and the Aspen Festival Orchestra in Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 2. Cerminaro may be heard on numerous recordings, including an acclaimed 1994 performance of the Brahms Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Cecile Licad.

Davis, Jadd

Jadd Davis, tenor, is a 2005 graduate in Music from Eastern Washington University and, recently, an Issaquah resident. The Butte native has appeared throughout the Northwest in theater, opera and oratorio. Locally, he has appeared in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and The Sound of Music at the 5th Avenue Theatre. His repertoire includes Candide, Tony in West Side Story, The Baker in Into the Woods, Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls, Tobias in Sweeney Todd, and many others in musical theater. He has appeared at Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater, Eastside Musical Theater, OperaPlus! of Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, Allegro Ensemble, Spokane Centerstage, the Crepe de Paris cabaret, Northwest Bach Festival, and many other venues. This is his first appearance with Music of Remembrance.

Davis, Raymond

Raymond Davis, cello, has been principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony since 1961. A student of Leonard Rose, Davis did his undergraduate work at Juilliard in New York, and spent his collegiate summers at Rose’s school in Meadowmount. Mr. Davis’ previous appointments include principal cellist for the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony. He has served on the faculty of the American Federation of Musicians’ Congress of Strings.

Raymond Davis has served as Artist in Residence for Seattle Pacific University, and on the faculty of the University of Washington School of Music. He enjoys teaching, and also performs regularly in recital in the Northwest. His performance in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s Letter to Warsaw marks his first appearance with Music of Remembrance.

DeLuca, Laura

Laura DeLuca, clarinet, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1986. She is co-founder of the Seattle Chamber Players, and her extensive chamber music appearances have also included performances with the Icicle Creek and Methow festivals, and in Portugal with the Moscow Piano Quartet. A frequent performer with Music of Remembrance, she was the clarinetist for Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs (his first MOR commission), recorded on MOR’s Art from Ashes, Vol. 1, and on MOR’s For a Look or a Touch, performing the Heggie title work. Ms. DeLuca was the solo clarinetist in the Academy Award-winning documentaries The Long Way Home and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. She received her formal training at Northwestern University.

Dombourian-Eby, Zart

Zart Dombourian-Eby, piccolo, is principal piccolo of the Seattle Symphony. She received her B.A. and M.M. degrees from Louisiana State University before earning a Doctor of Music degree under Walfrid Kujala at Northwestern University. She has given master classes throughout the country and has performed with many of our nation's orchestras including the Chicago Symphony. She serves on the National Flute Association's Board of Directors and has appeared as soloist and teacher at NFA conventions. Her solo CD, in shadow, light, is available on Crystal Records, and her edition of the three Vivaldi Piccolo Concertos was published in 2006 by Theodore Presser.

Drumheller, Michael

Michael Drumheller, baritone, is making his debut with Music of Remembrance. He has been a soloist with Boston Lyric Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Philharmonic, Orchestra Seattle, Seattle Opera previews, Longwood Opera, Cascade Symphony, Choral Sounds Northwest, and many others. Born in Richland, Washington, Drumheller holds a Master of Music degree from Boston University (where he was a student of the renowned singer and teacher Phyllis Curtin), and has BS and MS degrees from MIT. An alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, his diverse musical background includes playing tympani in symphony orchestras and drumming and singing in his own rock band. He has had the honor of being a featured performer in many productions of the late, distinguished Northwest conductor Hans Wolf and regularly volunteers as a soloist with the Northwest Chorale, which raises money for Northwest Harvest.

Finkelstein, Mara

Mara Finkelstein, cello, studied at the Gnessin College of Music and the Tchaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow before coming to the United States in 1989. Currently principal cellist of the Northwest Sinfonietta, she has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Cornish Chamber Series, Silsbee Piano Trio, Seattle International Music Festival, and Fear No Music Twentieth Century Ensemble. She has appeared regularly with Music of Remembrance since its inaugural year, and is the cellist in Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet recorded on MOR’s Art from Ashes, Vol. 1, and in Gerard Schwarz’s In Memoriam on MOR’s 2008 recording, available on Naxos records.

Goff, Scott

Scott Goff, flute, has been principal flutist of the Seattle Symphony since 1969. He received a B.A. in 1964 from the University of Washington, studying flute with Sidney Zeitlin, and his Master's degree at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Julius Baker. Before returning to Seattle, he was associate principal in Pittsburgh and principal flutist with the Atlantic Symphony (Halifax). He has appeared as soloist on numerous occasions with these ensembles, including featured soloist on Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts.

Gordon, David

David Gordon, trumpet, was appointed principal trumpet to the Seattle Symphony in September 2002. Prior to coming to Seattle, he served as principal trumpet of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Gordon has performed at prestigious music festivals throughout the world, including Tanglewood, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), and the Pacific Music Festival (Japan). A graduate of Columbia University with a BA in philosophy, Gordon also studied at Juilliard, where his teachers included William Vacchiano and Mark Gould.

Gray, Walter

Green, Jonathan

Jonathan Green, double bass, joined the Seattle Symphony as Assistant Principal Bass in 1998. Before moving to Seattle, he performed with the San Diego Symphony for eleven seasons, including three years as Principal Bass, and with the San Antonio Symphony and the Tulsa Philharmonic. He has also performed at the Icicle Creek Music Festival, the Sedona Chamber Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival (Boulder), and the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s Summerfest. He was the doublebassist in MOR’s commission of Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs, which is recorded on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Gulkis Assadi, Susan

Susan Gulkis Assadi, viola, is principal violist of the Seattle Symphony. She enjoys a varied career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist and teacher. She received her Bachelor of Music in 1988 from The Curtis Institute, where she studied with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. Before assuming her current position with the Seattle Symphony in 1992, she served as principal violist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Ms. Gulkis Assadi was a founding member of the Seattle-based Bridge Ensemble.

Ms. Gulkis Assadi has appeared regularly on Music of Remembrance concerts since its inaugural year. MOR’s commission of David Stock’s A Vanished World was composed specifically for her. She has recorded this, and Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet, on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Hart, Megan

Megan Hart: Soprano Megan Hart holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. Major operatic credits include Almirena in Händel's Rinaldo at Central City Opera, Tytania in Brittens A Midsummer Nights Dream, Tatyana in Tchaikovskys Eugene Onegin, the title role in Donizettis Rita, Lauretta in Puccinis Gianni Schicchi, Sybil in Lowell Liebermanns The Picture of Dorian Gray, Fiordiligi in Mozarts Cosan tutte, Elle in Poulencs Voix humaine, Blanche in Poulencs Les Dialogues des Carmélites, La Contessa in Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro, and Gretel in Humperdincks Hel und Gretel.

Hauck, Ross

Ross Hauck, tenor, is also a cellist and pianist, and newly a resident of Seattle. This is his debut with Music of Remembrance. Recent opera roles have been with Sacramento Opera as Almaviva in Barbiere di Siviglia, and with Tacoma Opera as Belmonte in Abduction from the Seraglio. Concert appearances have been with the National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and others. Recital highlights include the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and with the New York Festival of Song. Ross is an alumnus of the Wolf Trap Opera Company and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Hausmann, Ben

Ben Hausmann, oboe, acting principal oboist of the Seattle Symphony, previously served as principal oboist of L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the Florida Philharmonic, and the Savannah Symphony. A student of Elaine Douvas at The Juilliard School, Ben also studied with Richard Woodhams at the Aspen Music Festival as its Oboe Fellow from 1999-2002. A frequent guest of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony, Ben has also served as principal oboist of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra since 2003. His performance of Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto with the Aspen Music Festival Sinfonia was broadcast in 2002 on NPR. He is also a pianist and composer; his composition Variations of Four Notes had its premiere at the Seattle Symphony in 2007.

Herold, Teresa

Teresa Herold, alto, holds a Bachelor's in music from the University of Southern Maine and is earning her Master's in music from Indiana University, where her roles have included Auntie in Britten's Peter Grimes and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. The recipient of an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Indiana District), Herold has appeared with the Lafayette Symphony and has participated in Central City Opera's and Opera Theatre of St. Louis's young artists programs. Last season, she sang Mrs. Grose in Britten's Turn of the Screw as a member of Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program. She returns to the program for the 2006-07 season.

Hindrichs, Emily

 

Hughes, Nathan

Nathan Hughes, oboe, joined the Seattle Symphony as principal oboe in December 2002. Prior to coming to Seattle, he served as principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and as associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony.

Mr. Hughes’ solo appearances have included the Seattle Symphony, Savannah Symphony, and the Verbier (Switzerland) Festival Orchestra. A prolific chamber musician, he has collaborated with Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode at the Marlboro Music Festival, Andre Watts at Lincoln Center, and with the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. He has also participated in numerous music festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Sarasota Music Festival, and with the Jerusalem International Festival Orchestra.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Nathan Hughes earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Elaine Douvas. Mr. Hughes currently teaches at the University of Washington. His performance in Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses marks his first appearance with Music of Remembrance.

James, Auston

Auston James, tenor, is making his first appearance with Music of Remembrance. Most recently, he has appeared with Seattle Children's Theatre as the Snail in A Year with Frog and Toad and Horton the Elephant in Seussical. Locally, Auston has performed with A Contemporary Theatre, The Seattle Repertory Theatre, Tacoma Actor's Guild, The Bathhouse Theatre, The Group Theatre, The Cabaret de Paris, Pioneer Square Theatre, Civic Light Opera,The Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Seattle Opera.

Keylin, Leonid

Leonid Keylin, violin, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1991. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he began his musical education at the age of six, and was accepted at the Special Music School for Gifted Children of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He won numerous awards and prizes, performing as a recitalist and as soloist with orchestras in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and other major cities in Russia. After immigrating to the United States in 1979, he graduated from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay. He has appeared regularly with Music of Remembrance since its inception, performing on MOR’s first CD, Art from Ashes, Vol. 1. He has also recorded for Melodiya, CBS, Angel, Musical Heritage. 

Klein, David

David Klein, narrator, has been a professional actor for more than 35 years, half in Seattle and half in New England. Locally, he has been seen at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, ACT, Book-It Repertory Theatre, and the Seattle Shakespeare Company.

Kocmieroski, Matthew

Matthew Kocmieroski, percussionist, is principal percussionist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. He regularly performs with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and Northwest Chamber Orchestras, and is on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts and the Seattle Youth Symphony. He served for ten years as artistic director and percussionist of the New Performance Group, and was a founding member of both Taneko and Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet. He appears regularly with the Seattle Chamber Players, and has performed with other ensembles locally and throughout the United States.

Matthew Kocmieroski has collaborated with many composers on new works. A native of Long Island, New York, he studied at the Mannes College of Music. His performance in Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses marks his first appearance with Music of Remembrance.

Korn, David

David Korn, male soprano, is a native of New York and holds both a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Opera Performance from The Manhattan School of Music. In May 2002, Korn made his Alice Tully Hall debut as a soloist in Melillo's David. At the Aspen Opera Theater Center, he has performed the roles of Amore in Cavalli's Giasone, Miles in Britten's The Turn of the Screw, and (in the AOTC's Master Class series) Cherubino in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. This season, Korn joined Seattle Opera as the first male soprano to participate in their Young Artist Program, singing the role of Miles in The Turn of the Screw. This is his debut with Music of Remembrance. Future engagements include his Seattle Opera debut as an Apparition in Verdi's Macbeth, Amore in L'incoronazione di Poppea with Central City Opera and a 2007 return to Seattle Opera singing Nireno in Giulio Cesare.

Krimsky, Seth

Seth Krimsky, bassoon, received his B.M. from the University of Southern California in 1983, where he studied bassoon performance with Norman Herzberg. He continued post-graduate studies at U.S.C under the guidance of Michael O'Donovan, with a special emphasis in baroque performance. He has worked as principal bassoonist with such ensembles as Santa Monica Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Glendale Symphony, Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Summer festivals during this time included the Ojai Festival, The Bakersfield Music Festival, The Academy of the West, and The Tanglewood Festival.

In 1984, he became the Principal Bassoonist for the Cape Performing Arts Board Orchestra of Capetown, South Africa, an Opera and Ballet orchestra that served the entire Cape Province. While in Capetown, Seth won the National Young Artists Competition and appeared as a soloist in Capetown, Johannesburg and Durban, in addition to recording a series of performances for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. In 1986 he acquired positions with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. He was appointed the Principal position in 1990 and continues to serve in that capacity. During his time in Seattle, Seth has also been an active chamber music performer, sharing an especially long and happy association with the Seattle Chamber Players. He has also appeared as Principal Bassoonist with the Mostly Mozart Orchestra of Lincoln Center, and the Waterloo Festival Orchestra.

Matanovic, Anya

Anya Matanovic, soprano, earned her Bachelor's in music from the University of Southern California, where she sang the role of Gretel in USC Opera's production of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. She has sung with Aspen Opera Theater, placed second in the 2004 Northwest Region Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, and took first place in the 2004 Sun Valley Opera Competition. Matanovic finished her second summer as an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera in 2006, where she sang Papagena on the mainstage in Mozart's Magic Flute. In 2005, she joined Seattle Opera's Young Artist Program and sang Flora in Britten's Turn of the Screw. The Issaquah native returns to the program for the 2006-07 season.

McKay, Maureen

Maureen McKay, soprano, earned her undergraduate music degree at Columbus State University (during which time she sang with College Light Opera Company and the International Lyric Academy in Rome) and her Masters at Ohio State University, where she won the 2003 Concerto/Aria Competition. A recent alumnus of Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program, in 2005 she sang Susanna in the Young Artists production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and in 2006, Flora in Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Also in 2005, she sang Johanna in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd with Wolf Trap Opera, appeared with The National Symphony Orchestra, The Oregon Symphony and performed Lori Laitman's song cycle "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" in her debut with Music of Remembrance. Upcoming engagements include Ismene in Telemann's Orpheus and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Wolf Trap Opera, and the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra. This fall McKay makes her New York City Opera debut as Despina in Cosí fan tutte.

Miller, Mina

Mina Miller, Music of Remembrance Artistic Director and concert pianist, was born in New York, NY, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. She earned her Ph.D. in Music from New York University. She performed solo recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Tivoli International Music Festival (Copenhagen), and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland); concert engagements took her throughout North America, Great Britain, Europe, and Scandinavia. In 1998, her career as a recitalist and concerto soloist metamorphosed when she founded Music of Remembrance and began serving as the organization’s president and artistic director. A central artistic participant—she was the pianist in the world premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs, Thomas Pasatieri’s Letter to Warsaw, and Lori Laitman’s The Seed of Dream—Miller’s bold leadership has made Music of Remembrance the home of “some of Seattle's best musicians” (Seattle Times), drawing national attention by engaging guest artists such as soprano Jane Eaglen, tenor Vinson Cole, and Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz. Recognized for her musical advocacy of Holocaust musicians and of new, Holocaust-related chamber works, Miller has lectured in Seattle and internationally on the Holocaust’s cultural and artistic legacy. She received the Pathfinder Award from The Puget Sound Association of Phi Beta Kappa in May 2003. In 2006, the Women’s Endowment Foundation (a supporting foundation of The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle) named her a Phenomenal Woman honoree. As a pianist, Miller enjoys an international reputation for her interpretations of the music of Carl Nielsen. Under the sponsorship of the Danish Government and the Danish Cultural Institute, she made extensive tours of Denmark. A reissue of the original double CD (for Hyperion Records/London) of Nielsen’s complete piano music is available on Danacord, while her CD of Janáček’s major piano works is available on Ambassador. Most recently, she can be heard on the 2008 MOR recording For a Look or a Touch (Naxos) as the pianist in Lori Laitman’s song cycle, The Seed of Dream.

Mirel, Julie

Julie Mirel, mezzo-soprano, is a versatile performer whose national career has spanned opera, musical theater, symphony, cabaret and Jewish music. Born in Chicago, she trained at the conservatories of Oberlin College and the University of Cincinnati, where she studied with the Metropolitan Opera basso Italo Tajo. Ms. Mirel began her operatic career at the Cincinnati Opera. She has been a frequent soloist with the Seattle Symphony in such works as Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeas, the Mozart Requiem, and Schubert’s Rosamunde. She was the mezzo-soprano in MOR’s commission of Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs, which is recorded on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Muzzolini, Valerie

Valerie Muzzolini, harp, has been the principal harpist with the Seattle Symphony since age 23. Born in Nice, Ms. Muzzolini began to study harp at age 7, and made her first national television appearance when she was nine. She studied with Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche at the Nice National Conservatory, where she graduated with top honors in 1994. She received her bachelor degree from The Curtis Institute of Music, and went on to Yale University for graduate studies. She has performed at the Tanglewood and Verbier festivals, and performed under the baton of conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink. She is the harpist in David Stock’s A Vanished World, recorded on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Niederloh, Angela

Angela Niederloh, mezzo soprano, made her MOR debut with Schoenfield's Ghetto Songs. The Portland, OR, native currently serves as a faculty member at Portland State University and Pacific University, and gives music clinic workshops for choirs and individuals. A recent participant in the Houston Grand Opera Studio, she was last seen at Portland Opera as Angelina in La Cenerentola and Melibea in Il viaggio a Rheims. Her other operatic engagements have included Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte (San Francisco Opera Center), The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera Omaha), Annio in La Clemenza di Tito, and Mrs. Slender in Salieri's Falstaff (Wolf Trap Opera). On the concert stage, her solo credits include performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Camarata Pacifica, Oregon Symphony, Boston Baroque Orchestra, New York Festival of Song, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Columbia Symphony. A National Finalist in the 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she is also a winner of the Eleanor Lieber Award, among others.

Novacek, Steven

Steven Novacek, guitar, has an extensive professional concert repertoire, encompassing solo, duo, trio, chamber and orchestral concerti works. Novacek has appeared at numerous festivals and concert halls in North America and Europe including New York's Merkin Hall, Seattle's Benaroya Hall and Meany Theater, France's Rencontres Internationales de la Guitare, Denver's Guitar Foundation of America and Colorado Music Festival, Oregon's Abbey Bach Festival, British Columbia's EXPO '86, and Los Angeles' American Guitar Society. His work appears on several recordings on the Ambassador, Overture, Naxos and Klavier labels. Currently, Novacek directs the guitar and lute program at the University of Washington and the classical guitar department at Cornish College of the Arts.

Parce, Erich

Erich Parce, stage director, is a frequent guest vocalist at Music of Remembrance, American baritone Erich Parce has performed and recorded MOR's world premieres of Paul Schoenfield's 2003 Pulitzer-finalist Camp Songs and Lori Laitman's "Holocaust 1944" and The Seed of Dream. Turning his opera expertise to stage direction, Mr. Parce has recently directed productions of La bohème, La Traviata, The Magic Flute, Gianni Schicchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Susannah. Next season he will direct Le nozze di Figaro for Washington East Opera, Rigoletto for Fargo-Moorehead Opera and Carmen for Skagit Opera. As a baritone, Parce has sung at opera companies throughout North America and Europe, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Greater Miami Opera, L'Opera de Nice and L'Opera de Montreal. His repertoire ranges from the dramatic lead roles of Carlisle Floyd's operas The Passion of Jonathan Wade and Of Mice and Men (at Miami Opera and San Diego Opera), to the comedy of Dandini in La Cenerentola and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro (at Italy's Spoleto Festival and Charleston). Seattle Opera highlights include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and the father in Hansel and Gretel. A regular guest of the Seattle Symphony, Parce was heard recently in Handel's Messiah and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. Past seasons have included Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and David Diamond's On Sacred Ground (recorded on the Delos label), and he has performed Carmina Burana many times with the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Seattle Chorale Company. The Bellevue resident's concert repertoire also includes Mendelssohn's Elijah, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony, and the Brahms and Fauré Requiems.

Rafanelli, Paul

Paul Rafanelli, bassoon, a native of Seattle making his debut with Music of Remembrance, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1992. He studied at the University of Washington, Manhattan School of Music, and The Juilliard School, and was previously a member of the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Italy with the Festival dei Due Mondi, and in the U.S. with the Grand Teton, Spoleto, Waterloo and Britt Festivals. Rafanelli has been a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Seattle Chamber Players, Quake Ensemble, Icicle Creek Music Festival, and the Satori Wind Quintet (NYC). Since 1997 he has been the bassoon instructor at the University of Puget Sound.

Roman, Joshua

Joshua Roman, cellist, makes his MOR debut with Schoenfield's Ghetto Songs. Principal cellist with the Seattle Symphony, Roman received his Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2004, studying with Richard Aaron; then in 2005, his Masters, studying with Desmond Hoebig, principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Recent solo recitals include appearances in New York, Seattle, Tokyo, and Osaka. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Northwest Sinfonietta, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Cascade Symphony and the Wyoming Symphony. In 2007, he was appointed Artistic Director of TownMusic, a recital series at Town Hall in Seattle, and participated in the Seattle Chamber Music Society's summer season.

Schwarz, Jody

Jody Schwarz, flute, received her BM and MM from The Juilliard School, where she was a student of Samuel Baron. While at Juilliard, she participated in the Lincoln Center Institute’s Chamber Music in the Schools Program, performing hundreds of educational chamber concerts throughout New York City. She was a member of the Musica Æterna Orchestra and the Music Today Contemporary Ensemble in New York. In Seattle, Ms. Schwarz has been soloist with the Seattle Symphony’s New to Seattle series. Ms. Schwarz taught and performed for three summers at the Aspen Music Festival, and has participated in the Waterloo and Sarasota Festivals.

Jody Schwarz has appeared regularly on Music of Remembrance concerts since its inaugural year. MOR’s commission of David Stock’s A Vanished World was composed specifically for her. She has recorded this, and Herman Berlinski’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Schächter, Arie

Arie Schächter, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 2004. Born in Israel, Schächter studied at the Givatayim Conservatory and Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv, before being awarded a full scholarship to study with Masao Kawasaki and Catharine Carroll at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. There he earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees in music, and taught for several years. Schächter has performed at the Aspen music Festival, the Caramoor Chamber Music Festival, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and has also collaborated with members of the Tokyo String Quartet and the Cleveland String Quartet.

Sheppard, Craig

Craig Sheppard, piano, is Professor of Piano and Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor of Music at the University of Washington School of Music. A graduate of both Curtis and Juilliard, he studied with Rudolf Serkin, Sir Clifford Curzon, Eleanor Sokoloff, Sascha Gorodnitzki and Ilona Kabos. Following his 1972 New York debut at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sheppard won the silver medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition. He has performed the complete solo works of Brahms and Bach’s Klavierübung in major European cities, and has taught at the University of Lancaster, Yehudi Menuhin School, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Sheppard has performed with all the major orchestras in Great Britain, and those of Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Rochester, Dallas and Seattle. Recent concert and recording projects have included the 32 Beethoven sonatas, and major works of Bach: the Six Partitas, Inventions and Sinfonias, and both books of The Well Tempered Clavier, among others. A frequent performer with MOR, he is the soloist in Krasa’s Overture for Small Orchestra on MOR’s Brundibar recording (Naxos).

Shmidt, Mikhail

Mikhail Shmidt, violin, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1990. Born in Moscow, he attended a music school for gifted children from age six, and received his master’s degree from the Gnessin Institute of Music. He has performed with the Moscow State Symphony and the Moscow Radio String Quartet, and as concertmaster of the Camerata Boccherini Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Shmidt has recorded for Melodiya and Erato, and has toured extensively in the USSR, and in Eastern and Central Europe. He is a founding member of the Seattle Chamber Players. Mikhail Shmidt has recorded Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs (his first MOR commission) and Schulhoff’s Five Pieces for String Quartet on Art from Ashes, Vol. 1, and performs in the Heggie title work on MOR’s For a Look or a Touch.

Smith, Morgan

Morgan Smith, baritone, making his Music of Remembrance debut, made his professional opera debut in 2001, in the role of Donald in Britten's Billy Budd with Seattle Opera. There he has also sung Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Capt. Peter Niles in the revised world premiere of Mourning Becomes Electra, Morales in Carmen, and Sonora in La Fanciulla del West, as well as the title role in Don Giovanni and Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro in Seattle Opera Young Artist productions. Next January, the White Plains, NY, native will sing the title role in Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera. Smith has also performed Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro at Austin Lyric Opera and Don Alvaro in Il Viaggio a Reims at Portland Opera, among other engagments. The baritone has appeared with many symphony orchestras, including Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Seattle Symphony, and St. Louis. Future engagements include Carmina Burana with the Hartford Symphony, Prince Yamadori at San Francisco Opera, Dandini in La Cenerentola at Portland Opera, and the role of Ted Steinert in the world premiere of Pasatieri's Frau Margot at Ft. Worth Opera.

Smith, Page

Page Smith, cello, made her Music of Remembrance debut in March 2008, in a reprise performance of Jake Heggie's For a Look or a Touch. She is a soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and Auburn Symphony and plays frequently with the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Opera. She was principal cellist for the Northwest Chamber Orchestra for 25 years, and has performed frequently as soloist with all three. She was also principal cellist of the Aspen Chamber and the New Jersey symphonies. In the Northwest she performs regularly in chamber music series, at festivals, and as a cello soloist. She has also performed in musical theater orchestras, at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theater and Paramount Theater. Her cello was made by Ch. J. B. Collin-Mezin in 1889.

Tonkonogui, David

Music of Remembrance mourns the passing of our esteemed colleague and beloved friend, cellist David Tonkonogui. Along with his wife Mara, David was a part of Music of Remembrance beginning with our very first concerts. Through his passionate musicianship, his wisdom and generosity he was an inspiration to us all. David's humanity and artistry have enriched and enlarged our lives. We miss him, and will remember him forever.

David Tonkonogui, cello, has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1990. Born in Moscow, he received his Master of Music degree, and the Doctor of Music Arts from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied cello with Natalia Shakhovskaya, and chamber music with Dmitry Shebalin of the Borodin Quartet. A first-place winner in the 1984 National Chamber music competition, Mr. Tonkonogui was co-principal cello with the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. He has performed in numerous festivals throughout Europe, Japan and the United States. A founding member of the Seattle-based Bridge Ensemble, he has recorded on the RCA, Koch International and Melodia labels.

He has appeared regularly with Music of Remembrance since its inaugural year, and is the cellist in Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs, recorded on Art from Ashes, Volume I.

Wells Yablonsky, Jeannie

Jeannie Wells Yablonsky, violin, a member of the first violin section of the Seattle Symphony, has won numerous awards and competitions, including first prize of the Society of American Musicians Competition, the Heerman Violin Competition, and the Chicago Symphony Youth Auditions. She graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music where she studied with Dorothy DeLay, and earned a Master of Music from the Yale University School of Music. She has performed in many American festivals, including Aspen, Norfolk, Cleveland Chamber Music Seminar, Interlochen, and the Grand Teton Festival. She represented the United States in a concert for peace in Tokyo, Japan.

Ms. Wells Yablonsky was the Assistant Concertmistress of the Symphony Orchestra of Barcelona (Spain), and the Bergen Philharmonic (Norway). She has recorded the chamber music of Glinka, and her chamber music partners have included violinist Vadim Repin, violist Yuri Bashmet, cellist Nathaniel Rosen, and pianist Aida Gavrilova.

She held the position of Lecturer in Violin at Yale University, and was a professor at the Westchester Conservatory of Music. Since moving to Seattle in June 1996, she has been a sought after chamber musician, performing often with the Seattle Chamber Players and the “City Music” series at Town Hall. She has appeared regularly on Music of Remembrance concerts since 2001, including the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s Fragments of Isabella and Lori Laitman’s Fathers.

Yang, Amos

Amos Yang, cello, joined the Seattle Symphony in fall 2002. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician in major concert halls throughout the United States, the Far East and Europe, and has collaborated with noted chamber musicians such as the Ying Quartet, pianists Ann Schein and Melvin Chen, violinist Earl Carlyss, and composer Bright Sheng. Yang’s numerous awards include the Eastman School of Music’s highest honor, the Performer’s Certificate, and first prizes in both the American String Teacher’s Association and Grace Vamos competitions. He has served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College, and the Interlochen Advanced String Quartet Institute. Mr. Yang holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School.