Noah Geller
Acting Assistant Concertmaster
Philadelphia Orchestra

Violinist Noah Geller, winner of numerous competitions and prizes, has performed throughout the United States and abroad.  He joined the first violin section of The Philadelphia Orchestra in January 2008 and was appointed Acting Assistant Concertmaster for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons. A laureate of the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Mr. Geller performed recitals in Queenstown, New Zealand and chamber music with the New Zealand Trio in Auckland’s Town Hall.  Previously he received top prizes in the Corpus Christi International String Competition,the Skokie Valley Symphony Young Artists’ Competition and Wisconsin Public Radio’s Neale-Silva Young Artists’ Competition in Madison, Wisconsin.  Mr. Geller has also won competitions at the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara) and the Chicago Youth Symphony, resulting in solo performances with those orchestras.  Following performances at the Tanglewood Music Center, he was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. 

In addition to his activities with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Geller is enthusiastically involved in chamber music.  He has performed at the Marlboro, Kingston, Saratoga, and Taos festivals, and has appeared on the Lyon and Healy, Dolce Suono, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Lyric Chamber Music Society Series, among others.  In addition, he is an original member of Shir Ami, an ensemble dedicated to the music of composers whose lives were adversely affected by the Holocaust.  

Mr. Geller has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has served in concertmaster and principal positions for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra.

A previous student of Jennifer Cappelli, Mr. Geller received his Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Hyo Kang, Cho-liang Lin, and Donald Weilerstein.

Robert dePasquale
Former Associate Principal
Second Violin
Philadelphia Orchestra

Elina Kalendareva, a native of Tashkent (USSR), joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2002.  She holds a Masters Degree from the Moscow Conservatory where she studied with Igor Bezrodnyi.  As a member of the Moscow Conservatory Quintet, she recorded a CD of music by Taneyev and Glinka for the Chant du Monde label.  Since moving to America in 1994, Ms. Kalendareva performed as a soloist with the Liederkrantz Symphony Orchestra in New York and as a recitalist for the Ascending Artists series.  Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra, she played with the American Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Ms. Kalendareva is a founding member of the Society Hill Strings Quartet.

Davyd Booth joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973.  A native of Clarksburg, West Virginia, he made his professional debut at the age of 13.  He toured the United States for four years, giving recitals and performing with such orchestras as the San Antonio and Pittsburgh symphonies.  At 16 he made a concert tour of Mexico.  He studied violin at the New School of Music with Jascha Brodsky and piano with Susan Starr.  Mr. Booth is co-music director and harpsichordist for the Amerita Chamber Ensemble, and he is active in music education.  He is on the faculty of Temple University Preparatory Department where he serves as conductor of two student orchestras.  He has also served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania, New School of Music, and Rutgers University. Mr. Booth was a member of the Philarte String Quartet for 15 years and is currently a member of the Wister String Quartet.  He is also very active in The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, participating in over 200 fundraising events and musical activities, such as the “Musicians on the Fringe” Concert at South Street’s Theater of the Living Arts in January 1998, for which he played the accordion. Since 1998 Mr. Booth has been the harpsichordist for The Philadelphia Orchestra.  He also serves as the Orchestra’s second keyboard player, and has been featured on piano, celesta, harmonium, organ, synthesizer, and accordion. Among his other interests, he is an avid orchid grower, with two greenhouses and 8,000 plants.

Meichen Liao-Barnes is Associate Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School where her teachers included Yumi Ninomiya, Arnold Steinhardt, Ivan Galamian, and Dorothy Delay. Upon graduation from the Juilliard School, she was awarded a recital in Town Hall. She continued professional studies with David Arben.

Mrs. Barnes has performed with the Lincoln Chamber Players, the Brandenburg Ensemble, and toured with Music from Marlboro. Solo appearances include the Hartford Symphony, Concerto Soloists, Philly Pops, and the Philadelphia Orchestra as winner of their Greenfield Senior Student Competition. Festival appearances include the Schneider Seminar, Blossom Music Festival, Grand Teton Festival, Sarasota Festival and Meadowmount. She has appeared with Isadore Cohen, David Soyer, Felix Galimir, and Alexander Schneider.

She is a top prizewinner with the Great Neck Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Juilliard Concerto Competition, and the Washington International Competition. She enjoys teaching both privately and at Temple University.

Charles Parker
Violinist
Esther Boyer College of Music, Temple University

Charles Parker was invited to join the School Orchestra of America for it's European tour when he was 15, cementing his involvement with the violin and music.  He has studied with some of the finest teachers, including Ivan Galamian, Paul Zukofsky and Helen Kwalwasser.  He himself is a teacher at Temple University and Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges.  He has been coordinator of chamber music for Temple's "Center for Gifted Young Musicians" since it's inception and received the 2011 "Inspiration Award".  A member of the Opera Company of Phila, he also performs regularly with the Pennsylvania Ballet, Orchestra 2001 and other Philadelphia organizations.  He was the Artistic Director and violinist of the Davidsbund Chamber Players for 25 years, has toured internationally with The New York Chamber Soloists, and was a member of the Vermont Mozart Festival. 

Kirsten Johnson
Associate Principal Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra

Kirsten Johnson joins The Philadelphia Orchestra as associate principal viola at the start of the 2007-08 season.  Ms. Johnson made her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 17, and she since has performed with many orchestras, including the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, the Concertante Chamber Ensemble, and the Juilliard, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Peninsula symphonies.

Ms. Johnson has participated in chamber music festivals nationwide, performing at Bargemusic, the Caramoor International Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, the Cape & Islands Chamber Music Festival, Pensacola Chamber Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, and Bay Chamber concerts.  She participated at the Marlboro Music Festival for three summers and continues to perform on Music from Marlboro tours.  As a chamber musician, she has appeared in performances with the Orion, Vermeer, St. Lawrence, and Colorado quartets. 

A first-prize winner of the 1997 Washington International Competition, Ms. Johnson’s recent recital engagements include performances at the Kohl Mansion Chamber Music Series near San Francisco, the concert series at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts series in Chicago, and the St. Croix Concert Series in Stillwater, Minnesota.

Ms. Johnson received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Michael Tree.  She pursued further studies with Samuel Rhodes at the Juilliard School.  Her other teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos and James Dunham.

Renard Edwards
Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra

Violist Che-Hung Chen joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in the spring of 2001. A three-time top prize-winner at the Taiwan National Instrumental Competition, Mr. Chen began his studies at the age of six with Ben Lin in Taipei. Heentered The Curtis Institute of Music at age 14, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale and served as principal violist of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Chen was the first prize winner at the seventh Banff International String Quartet Competition as a member of the Daedalus Quartet. He was also awarded the Pièce de Concert Prize for the best performance of the commission work and the Székely Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet. As a participant in the Marlboro Festival, Mr. Chen hastoured with “Musicians from Marlboro,” and performed on their fiftieth anniversary concerts in Boston and New York's Carnegie Hall.He has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Orion, Mendelssohn and Tokyo quartets, and with artists such as Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lang Lang, and Hilary Hahn.

Rachel Ku
Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra

Violist Rachel Ku joined the viola section of The Philadelphia Orchestra as the youngest member of the Orchestra in September, 2004, at the age of 19. She has been studying viola since age eight and piano since age five, and made her solo debut in Taipei in 1995. She has since made solo appearances with the Witherspoon Chamber Orchestra, the Dwun-Hwa Orchestra, the Rice University Chamber Orchestra, and the Curtis Chamber Ensemble. In January 2005, Rachel performed Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher” as soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra as part of the orchestra’s subscription concert series.    

Rachel has received several awards and honors, including first prize in the 2004 Delaware Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition and second prize in the 2002 Riverside Symphonia Caprio Young Artists Competition. She was rewarded first prize at the 1997 Taiwan National Viola Competition, as well as second prize and fifth prize in the 1996 Taiwan National Viola and Piano competitions, respectively. During the summers she has participated in numerous music festivals such as Marlboro, Sarasota, Kneisel Hall, Taos, Angel Fire, International Music Festival in Saluzzo, Italy, and Encore School for Strings. She has collaborated as chamber musician with such artists as Kim Kashkashian, Steven Isserlis, Julian Rachlin, Chantal Juillet, David Kim, Arnold Steinhardt, Peter Wiley, and Marcy Rosen.

Violinist and violist Jonathan Chu is widely sought-after as a chamber musician and recitalist. He has toured throughout Japan and Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and is a former member of the St Louis Symphony and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. A former guest principal with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Chu has performed with the Fader Piano Quartet, was a prizewinner at the Coleman Competition in Pasadena, California, and performed as part of Caramoor’s “Rising Stars” series. Mr. Chu is a founding member of the Io String Quartet and has attended the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, and Taos music festivals. Mr. Chu is a graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree along with a second major in economics. He received a Master of Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert Mann and was the concertmaster of  the Juilliard Orchestra.

Hai-Ye Ni
Principal Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra

An exceptional musician renowned for her fluid technique, gorgeous tone and brilliant, expressive performances, cellist Hai-Ye Ni enjoys a distinguished, multi-faceted career as principal cellist of the acclaimed Philadelphia Orchestra, and as a sought-after soloist and chamber musician. Ms. Ni has performed on classical stages around the world, appearing as soloist with such symphony orchestras as Chicago, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco, the Orchestre National de Paris. Her recital credits include the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Wallace Collection in London. She has collaborated with some of today’s foremost artists, including pianist Yefim Bronfman and violinists Joshua Bell, Cho-Liang Lin, and Pinchas Zukerman, and festivals such as Ravinia, Aspen, and Pablo Casals.

Highlights for the 2010-2011 season included The Philadelphia Orchestra performance featuring Ms. Ni as soloist in composer Tan Dun’s The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video and Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra and a solo recital with pianist, Cecil Licad, for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.  She also performed with the Limburg Symphony in Netherland, the Brahms Double Concerto and the Elgar concerto with the Shanghai Symphony.  Ms. Ni also performed in chamber music with Gil Shaham at the La Jolla SummerFest, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for chamber orchestra at the Bravo Festival in Vail.  

In October 2009, Ms. Ni performed with pianist Lang Lang on the Carnegie Hall series, “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture”.  Ms. Ni made her solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in January 2010, in Saint-Saens’ Cello Concerto in A Minor.

As a recording artist, Hai-Ye Ni’s most recent CD, “Spirit of Chimes”, is a collaboration with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Helen Huang. Ms. Ni is featured on the March 2008 Ondine recording of works by Shostakovich with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Her 1998 debut solo CD is on the Naxos label.

Ms. Ni is interested in working with young people and educational outreach.  She has given masterclasses at Curtis, Manhattan School of Music, the Shanghai Conservatory, and will be giving a masterclass at Manned College in New York in April 2012.
Ms. Ni has championed many new music.  She has performed pieces by Bright Sheng, Zhou Long, Paul Moravac, and Chen Yi.  Ms. Ni will be performing works of the American composer, Gunther Schuller, for her upcoming recital in 2012 at the University of Texas and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  

Considered among the most accomplished cellists of her generation, Ms. Ni first came to national attention in 1990 when she won first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and made her New York debut in 1991. She became Principal cellist of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2006. Other honors include second prize in the 1997 Rostropovich Competition (France) and first prize in the 1996 International Paulo Cello Competition (Finland).

Hai-Ye Ni was born in Shanghai, China, and began her cello studies with her mother and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She has a Masters degree from the Juilliard school.

John Koen
Acting Assistant Principal Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra

John Koen joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1990, and in 2011 was made Acting Assistant Principal Cello. He graduated from The Curtis Institute where he studied with David Soyer and Peter Wiley of the Guarneri Quartet. He collaborates in chamber music with artists Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Christoph Eschenbach, Stephen Hough, Lang Lang, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and many others.

Joseph Conyers
Assistant Principal Bassist
Philadelphia Orchestra