Christopher Oldfather has devoted himself to the performance of twentieth-century music for more than twenty years. He has participated in innumerable world-premiere performances, in every possible combination of instruments, in cities all over America. He has been a member of Boston’s Collage New Music since 1979, New York City’s Parnassus since 1997, appears regularly in Chicago, and as a collaborator has joined singers and instrumentalists of all kinds in recitals throughout the United States. In 1986 he presented his recital debut in Carnegie Recital Hall, which immediately was closed for renovations. Since then he has pursued a career as a free-lance musician. This work has taken him as far a field as Moscow and Tokyo, and he has worked on every sort of keyboard ever made, including, of all things, the chromelodeon. He is widely known for his expertise on the harpsichord, and is one of the leading interpreters of 20th century works for that instrument.
 

He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany. His recording of Elliott Carter’s Violin-Piano Duo with Robert Mann was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1990. In more recent years he has collaborated with the conductor Robert Craft, and can be heard on several of his recordings. Mr. Oldfather is also known for his work in the chamber music field, with performances in Washington with the Julliard String Quartet.

Prizewinner of the Wieniawski and Paganini International Violin Competitions, violinist Bracha Malkin was featured in Musical America 2008 as an up-and-coming talent and was named by Henry Roth, in his book Violin Virtuosos from Paganini to the 21st Century, as one of the “gifted young violinists who are among the vanguard leading the march of violin art into the 21st century.” Ms. Malkin has been heard in numerous performances worldwide, both with orchestra and in recital including with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Bogota Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfonica of Teatro Municipal de Sao Paulo, Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Rishon Lizion Symphony Orchestra, Bologna Symphony, Nederlands Promenade Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, she collaborated with Yuri Bashmet, Irena Grafenauer, Gary Hoffman and Lynn Harrell at Kronberg Academy´s Chamber Music Connects the World 2008 (Germany). She spent two summers at the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed at the Menton Music Festival (France), Delft and Storioni Festivals in the Netherlands and appears regularly at the Academy of Music Summer Festival in Nyack, New York. Ms. Malkin is a member of the “Malkin Duo” with her sister, Anat Malkin Almani. Bracha Malkin studied with her father, Isaac Malkin, as well as Aaron Rosand, Miriam Fried and Boris Belkin.

Julia Lichten enjoys a varied career as soloist, chamber musician and teacher in the New York area. She received degrees from Harvard-Radcliffe and the New England Conservatory, where her principal teachers were Mischa Nieland and Paul Tobias. A member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra from 1995-2014, Ms. Lichten has toured as soloist with Orpheus, as well as with Musicians from Marlboro and the American Chamber Players. Festival engagements have included Marlboro, Tanglewood, Taos, Library of Congress, Caramoor, Rockport, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and Evian. Ms. Lichten is a frequent guest with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and has served as artist/faculty at Kneisel Hall, Mannes Beethoven Institute, and Perlman Music Program. She has recorded for Marlboro Recording Society, Arabesque, Koch International Classics, Music Masters, Sony Classical, and Deutsche Gramaphon. She is a faculty member at Manhattan School of Music and the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College.

The Financial Times (London) acclaimed that “Korliss Uecker, a bright and pretty American soprano, was charming, crystalline of voice and sparkling as an actress.” Uecker has sung over 150 performances at the Metropolitan Opera including Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro (international radio broadcast), Marzelline in Fidelio, Oscar in A Masked Ball, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. She sang Giannetta in a telecast of The Elixir of Love with Lucianno Pavarotti and Frasquita in Carmen with Placido Domingo. Other opera credits include Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire in Strasbourg, France; Sybil in the Picture of Dorian Gray with Opera de Monte Carlo; the Wexford Festival, Santa Fe Opera, the Spoleto Festival and the Ravinia Festival, and the Library of Congress. In 2012 she sang at the International Women and Lied Conference in Ireland. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophone, London Decca, Arabesque Records and has appeared on CBS Sunday Morningand Live from Lincoln Center. Ms Uecker’s recording with New World Records features the songs of Victor Herbert and was released May 1, 2012. Korliss has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard school, a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Dakota and was a Registered Nurse before she began her singing career. Her husband is Jerry Grossman, principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and their daughter, Katya, is a Junior at Nyack High School.

Stewart Rose, principal horn, is a native of New York City. He first joined the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble in 1983. He has performed as soloist with both groups on numerous occasions and recently released to great critical acclaim, his first solo CD From the Forest. This collection of early Classical works for Horn and Orchestra by Haydn, Telemann, Leopold Mozart and Christoph Förster with the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, is now available on iTunes, Rhapsody and eMusic. (search: stewart rose from the forest.) Mr. Rose is also Principal Horn with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New York City Opera Orchestra. In recent seasons he has performed as Guest Principal Horn with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Ensemble Wein-Berlin and the Met Chamber Ensemble with James Levine. Other recent performances include appearances at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Spoleto, Edinburgh, Eastern Shore and Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festivals. Stewart Rose has made over 100 recordings of the chamber music and orchestral literature for BMG, Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Music Masters. Recent releases include his appearance as first horn on the New York Philharmonic’s DG release of “Harold in Italy” with Lorin Maazel; Renee Fleming sings “Bel Canto” with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and in works for wind ensemble by Beethoven, Mozart, Pleyel, and Rossini with Mozzafiato on Sony Classical. In the studio Rose has recorded with Paul Simon, Pat Metheny, Lenny Kravitz, David Byrne, Grover Washington, John Faddis, Tony Bennett, Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis, Aerosmith, Metallica, Philip Glass and Ennio Morricone. He has also appeared on numerous “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the New York City Opera, and is a frequent guest with the “CBS Late Show” Orchestra. The New York Times critic John Rockwell has noted Stewart Rose for his “remarkable virtuosity, agility and fluency, and his ability to retain the horn’s cheery rusticity.” Buffalo Globe critic Herman Trotter said of From the Forest: “This is a recording to be treasured, not only by horn players but by average music lovers searching for new frontiers of musical excellence.”

Eduard Laurel official site | Eduard Laurel on Twitter

Pianist Eduard Laurel has been a collaborative partner to countless instrumentalists and vocalists in New York City and worldwide. He has performed and recorded extensively with violinist James Ehnes and also with trumpeter Rolf Hedwig and violinist, Lara St. John & Christopher Coritsidis. He has performed in every prominent New York concert hall, as well as in London, Belfast, Milan, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Tokyo, Shangai, Seoul, and Sydney, among many others. He has been the staff accompanist at the Juilliard, Mannes, and Manhattan schools and presently lectures on supportive pianism at NYU and Queens College.

He has accompanied classes for Galimir, Stern, Perlman, Gingold, Preucil, Rosand, Bashmet, Kashkashian, Yo Yo Ma, Starker, Brey, Kossak, Bylsma and Julius Levine, as well as for members of the Guameri, Amadeus, Emerson, Juilliard, Borodin, Orion, Tokyo, St. Lawrence and American String Quartets. In addition, he has played for Rampal, Julius Baker, Stolzman, Krakauer, John Mack, Richard Woodhams, Frank Morelli, Phil Smith, David Jolley, Phil Myers, Per Brevig and Alan Baer, to name a few.

He is heavily sought after for his “phenomenal articulation” (Gramophone), his “first rate chamber music making” (The New York Times) and his “superb pianism” (The Strad). Despite the paranoia after a hit increasing his sensitivity to sound, Eduard managed to continue his remarkable and unique career of playing, listening, and learning.

Mr. Laurel currently (and proudly) resides in New York City.

Israeli-born Anat Malkin Almani began her violin studies with her father, Isaac Malkin. At the age of ten, she toured as a soloist in California, Mexico and Norway. She made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 16 under the baton of Alexander Schneider. Other performances have taken her throughout Holland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, the United Kingdom and the United States. She is the recipient of numerous awards and was the winner of many competitions. She has been heard on WQXR in New York as part of the Young Artists Series hosted by Robert Sherman. An active chamber musician, Ms. Almani performs regularly with her sister, violinist Bracha Malkin, as part of the The Malkin Duo. Among a few of the Duo’s highlights have been recitalsin Israel, in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the premier performance of David Ward-Steinman’s Concerto for Two Violins in La Jolla, California. Ms. Almani holds a Bachelor’sDegree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Cho-Liang Lin, and has a Master’s Degree, cum laude, from the Maastricht Conservatorium in Holland, where she studied with Boris Belkin. In his book entitled Violin Virtuosos from Paganini to the 21st Century, Henry Roth named her as one of the “gifted young violinists who are among the vanguard leading the march of violin art into the 21st century”. Ms. Almani is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division.