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Strings Camp Fees & FinancialsStrings Camp Childrens Program Information

Faculty Listing
Strings International Music Festival Teaching Faculty
       

All students attending the Strings International Music Festival will receive
two private lessons with a member of our World Class Faculty.

Additional lessons may also be purchased.

 
 
 
Strings International Music Festival Teaching Faculty:
Mei-Chen Liao
Violinist
Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia


Ms. Liao is a violinist with the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia. As the Concertmaster of the Taipei Symphony, Ms. Liao has toured extensively throughout Japan, Korea, and the United States and has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Hartford Symphony. Ms. Liao, a winner of the Washington International Violin Competition and Juilliard Concerto Competition, has also toured with "Music from Marlboro." She holds a Bachelor of Music from Philadelphia's Curtis Institute, where she studied with Yumi Ninomiya-Scott, Ivan Galamian and Arnold Steinhardt. Ms. Liao also studied with Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School where she received her Master of Music.
Charles Parker
Violinist
Esther Boyer College of Music, Temple University

Charles Parker, violinist, is a Lecturer in Violin at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, and is the Director of Chamber Music forTemple Prep's Center for Gifted Young Musicians. Having begun his performing career at age 15 with a concert tour of Europe, Mr. Parker has since performed throughout the United States and around the world. A noted chamber musician, he is the Artistic Director of the Davidsbund Chamber Players, and performs frequently with the New York Chamber Soloists. A member of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, he also teaches violin and chamber music at Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College. Mr. Parker's teachers have included Ivan Galamian, Helen Kwalwasser, and Paul Zukofsky

Choong-Jin Chang
Principal Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Mr. Chang previously served as Principal Violist of the 1993 Grand Teton Festival Orchestra and of The Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music. His solo appearances have included the KBS Symphony Orchestra at the Seoul (Korea) Arts Center, the Curtis Symphony and others. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Chang also studied at the Juilliard School and the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University. His teachers have included Joseph de Pasquale, Jascha Brodsky and Margaret Pardee. Mr. Chang has participated in the festivals of Caramoor, Evian, Las Vegas, Marlboro, Moritzburg (Germany), Mostly Mozart, and the Alexander Schneider String Seminar and has toured the United States with a chamber ensemble from The Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Chang currently serves on the faculty of Temple Prep and Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music, teaching viola, violin and chamber music.
Kirsten Johnson
Associate Principal Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Kirsten Johnson joined 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.
Kerri Ryan
Assistant Principal Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Assistant Principal Viola Kerri Ryan joined The Philadelphia Orchestra at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. She comes to Philadelphia from the Minnesota Orchestra, where she was assistant principal viola for seven seasons. Following her graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1998, she served as associate concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony. Ms. Ryan and her husband, violinist William Polk, are founding members of the award-winning Minneapolis Quartet. In Philadelphia, while pursuing a violin performance degree at Curtis, Ms. Ryan began studying viola with Karen Tuttle. Ms. Ryan also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a member of its Young Artist Program. Her violin teachers include Lee Snyder, Jascha Brodsky, Rafael Druian, and Arnold Steinhardt.
Sidney Curtiss
Former Assistant Principal Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Sidney Curtiss attended the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, where he studied with the famed pedagogue Leonard Mogill. Mr. Curtiss is a former member of the New Orleans Symphony and the Washington, D.C. National Symphony. He has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and performed on recordings made at the Festival with Pablo Casals. He was appointed to the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1960 by Eugene Ormandy. Mr. Curtiss has been a member of the Philarte Quartet (made up of Philadelphia Orchestra members who have done extensive world touring and recording for over fifteen years) as well as the New Philadelphia Quartet. He is currently a member of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, and is a frequent performer on the Philadelphia Orchestra's chamber music series. Mr. Curtiss currently serves on the faculty of both the Settlement Music School and Temple University.
Burchard Tang
Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra

A native of Maryland, Burchard Tang joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in September 1999. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in May 1999 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale and Choong-Jin Chang. Mr. Tang has served as Principal Viola with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and the New York String Seminar, and has performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble. A winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition, Mr. Tang performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra as a soloist in a Student Concert in November 1993. Other honors have included the Temple University Preparatory Division Concerto Competition and second prize in the Senior Division of the Fischoff Competition in 1996.

David Nicastro
Violist
Philadelphia Orchestra


A member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1995, David Nicastro is an active recitalist and member of numerous chamber music ensembles. Prior to 1995, Mr. Nicastro served as Associate Principal Violist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Born in New York, Mr. Nicastro grew up in The Hague, Netherlands, where he began violin studies at the age of six. Returning to the U.S. he received a BA in English literature and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston Univer-sity while studying with Yuri Mazurkevich. Continuing his musical studies, Mr. Nicastro received a University Fellowship and an Artist Diploma from Indiana University where he studied viola with Abraham Skernick, Atar Arad, and Joseph de Pasquale.
Che-Hung Chen
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. He entered 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 has toured 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


Twenty one-year-old violist Wei-chun Rachel Ku joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as its youngest member in September, 2004. She has made solo appearances with the Witherspoon Chamber Orchestra, the Dwun-Hwa Orchestra, and the Curtis Chamber Ensemble. In January, 2005 Rachel performed Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher” as soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Ku has received numerous awards and honors, including first prize in the 2004 Delaware Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition, second prize in the 2002 Riverside Symphonia Caprio Young Artists Competition and Honorable Mention in the 2001 Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Competition. She was a semi-finalist in the 2001Young Concert Artists International Auditions, received first prize at the 1997 Taiwan National Viola Competition, and took second and fifth prize,respectively, in the 1996 Taiwan National Viola and Piano competitions. Ms. Ku graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied viola with Joseph dePasquale, former principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Hai-Ye Ni
Principal Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Hai-Ye Ni joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal cello at the beginning of the 2006-07 season after having served as associate principal cello of the New York Philharmonic since 1999. Ms. Ni first came into prominence after her critically praised New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1991. This performance came as a result of her winning first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition. She has since won first prize in the 1996 International Paulo Cello Competition in Finland, and became a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2001. Hai-Ye Ni made her debut with the Chicago Symphony in 1997 under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach at the Ravinia Festival. At Yo-Yo Ma’s recommendation, she made a 14-city United States tour to introduce Bright Sheng’s cello concerto Two Poems. During her tenure at the New York Philharmonic, Ms. Ni collaborated with Bobby McFerrin in the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos, and made her solo debut in 2003. In 2004 Ms. Ni performed a solo recital of works by contemporary female composers Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Chen Yi in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1972, Hai-Ye Ni began her cello studies with her mother and later studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Ms. Ni continued her musical education with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School of Music, and William Pleeth in London.
John Koen
Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra


John Koen has been a member of The Philadel-phia Orchestra since 1990. He appears regularly on the Chamber Music series of The Philadelphia Orchestra, including performances in May, 2004, with Maestro Christoph Eschenbach in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time and during the Open-ing Week Festival of 1993 and subsequent NPR broadcasts of Schumann’s Piano Quintet with Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch. He has appeared with the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble since 1993 and is a member of the Mondrian Ensemble and Network for New Music. Mr. Koen also appears frequently with the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria, with Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Conductor Rossen Milanov, and performs regularly as a soloist with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra (Pennsylvania), of which he has been Principal Cellist since 1992. Mr. Koen studied at The Curtis Institute of Music with David Soyer and Peter Wiley, graduating from Curtis with a Bachelor of Music Performance. He also studied at the New School of Music with Orlando Cole. Mr. Koen performed in the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra as Solo Cellist on European Tours with Maestros Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Bernstein, and Sergiu Celibidache.
Derek S. Barnes
Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Derek S. Barnes is a cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Formerly, Mr. Barnes has appeared as soloist with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Symphony and the Indianapolis, Anderson and Muncie Symphony Orchestras. He was previously a member of the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, the New York String Orchestra and the South Jersey Symphony. Mr. Barnes has participated in the Tanglewood Fellowship program and the summer music festivals of the Taos School of Music, Encore School for Strings, and Congress of Strings. A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, his teachers have included Orlando Cole, David Soyer, and William Stokking.
Alex Veltman
Cellist
Philadelphia Orchestra


Prior to joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in June 1996, cellist Alex Veltman worked with several orchestras in the northeastern United States. He was a regular substitute cellist for the New York Philharmonic, assistant principal cello of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic in Poughkeepsie, New York, and a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, the New Jersey Symphony, and the New Haven Symphony. Born in Moscow, Mr. Veltman earned his bachelor's degree studying with Harvey Shapiro at the Juilliard School, and his master’s degree from the Yale University School of Music, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. Mr. Veltman has participated in the Bedford Springs Festival in Bedford, Pennsylvania - where he performed as soloist with the festival orchestra - and the Saratoga Springs Summer Festival in upstate New York, and has attended the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill, Maine. He has collaborated with such artists are Chantal Juillet, Roberto Díaz, Nikolaj Znaider, and Elmar Oliveira, and has given recitals at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and C. Michael Paul Hall, as well as at St. John’s, Princeton, and Yale universities, among others. Mr. Veltman has also made several radio and television appearances, including WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase in New York.

Ulrich Boeckheler
Cello Soloist


Uli Boeckheler, a prizewinner in the 1982 Gaspar Cassado International Cello Competition, performs regularly as a soloist in the United States and Europe. Former principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, Belgium and Helmuth Rillings Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Mr. Boeckheler was invited to be a part of the distinguished jury for the XXIII International Cello Competition "Dr. Luis Sigall," in Chile. He recently premiered and recorded cello concertos by David Crumb and Jay Reise with Orchestra 2001. As a chamber musician, Mr. Boeckheler has participated in the Marlboro, Saratoga, and Grand Teton Music Festivals. His collaboration with pianist Susan Starr has been successful both in concert and in the recording studio. Mr. Boeckheler, Principal Cellist with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, performs frequently with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Harold Robinson
Principal Bassist
Philadelphia Orchestra


An internationally acclaimed artist, Harold Robinson is currently the Principal Bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Robinson previously served as Principal Bass with the National Symphony and New Mexico Symphony Orchestras and as Assistant Principal Bass of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. A prize winner at the 1982 Isle of Man Solo Competition, Mr. Robinson has performed concertos with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony, Houston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Houston Pops, American Chamber Orchestra, and the Greenville, South Carolina Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Robinson is known for his outstanding recitals and master classes throughout the United States. Mr. Robinson is currently on the faculties of Curtis Institute and Peabody Conservatory. He has made substantial contributions to double bass education through his previous ownership of the "Bass Project" and continues to promote new compositions and publications through his new company, "Bass-Is."

Robert Kesselman
Bass
Philadelphia Orchestra

Robert Kesselman, a native Philadelphian, attended Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1980 he won a section bass position with the Pittsburgh Symphony, where he remained until 1987. Mr. Kesselman had always dreamed of playing in The Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 1987 he was accepted into the bass section. When he is not playing in the Orchestra, he enjoys teaching, solo playing, and performing chamber music. He was formerly on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and currently teaches at Temple University.

Ranaran Meyer
Double Bassist and Composer

Ranaan Meyer, double bassist and composer, attended the Manhattan School of Music and The Curtis Institute of Music, from which he graduated in 2003. In addition to performing regularly with such orchestras as the Minnesota Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Meyer has composed new works for his trio Time for Three - which recently completed a 12-day residency at the University of Michigan - as well as for solo bass and other ensembles. Most recently, Mr. Meyer completed a commission for the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island. Other recently completed commissions include a work for the Network for New Music, a set of Time for Three pieces for Astral Artistic Services, and a Time for Three composition "Of Time and Three Rivers," for the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Symphony. All commissions have been expedited through the American Composer’s forum.

Mr. Meyer, also an accomplished jazz musician, has performed with Jane Monheight, Victor Lewis, Jason Moran, Mark O’Connor, Ari Hoenig, Duane Eubanks, Mickey Roker and many more. Mr. Meyer, an avid teacher, has held adjunct Double Bass Professorships at both Princeton University and the University of Delaware.

Mary Wheelock Javian
Double Bassist
Philadelphia Orchestra

Mary Wheelock Javian (double bass) is an active performing and teaching artist. She performs frequently with the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as the Iris Chamber Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Philly Pops, the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, Ms. Javian has performed and recorded with Network for New Music, is Co-Director and resident bass player with the 9th Street Chamber Project and is a regular guest performer with the Apple Hill Chamber Players. A Maryland Distinguished Scholar, Ms. Javian has won fellowships with the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Verbier Festival and the National Symphony. A passionate advocate for music education, Ms. Javian has worked as an education consultant for musical groups throughout the country and is currently the Program Coordinator for the School Partnership Program at the Philadelphia Orchestra. A graduate of the Curtis Institute, Ms. Javian studied with Harold Robinson, principal bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Ellen Hannigan - Youssefian
Piano Lessons

Ellen Hannigan-Youssefian received her Bachelor of Music in performance and Bachelor of Music Education from Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music. Ms. Youssefian received an International Rotary Foundation Scholarship for advanced studies in Würzburg, West Germany, completing her diploma at the Hochschule für Musik, Würzburg. After three additional years of study in Vienna, Austria at the Hochschule für Musik and the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien, Ms. Youssefian made her way to Philadelphia. Ellen completed her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy at Temple University. Ms. Youssefian has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist throughout the region. Performances include the premier of a Piano Suite dedicated to her by composer Paul Miller.  Ellen has performed at the Academy of Music Ballroom, Laurel Hill Mansion, Settlement Music School, and Rutger’s University. Ms. Youssefian is currently Adjunct Faculty at Temple University and teaches privately.

 
 

 

   
 
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