Since joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra's cello section at the age of 19, Ronald Feldman has received critical acclaim for a wide variety of musical achievements. Increasingly in demand as a conductor, Mr. Feldman was appointed assistant to Boston Pops conductor John Williams in 1989, a position he held until 1993. As conductor Mr. Feldman has appeared with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Quebec Symphony, the Springfield Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the George Enescu Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony of Costa Rica, the Landmarks Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Feldman has appeared as cello soloist with many orchestras performing a wide range of concerto repertoire from Dvorak to Ligeti. His many chamber music affiliations have included performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Collage New Music Ensemble, the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, and the Williams College Chamber Players. His performances include chamber music collaborations with artists Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, Christian Tetzlaff, and Yo Yo Ma. He is on the faculties of Williams College, Berklee College of Music, and the New England Conservatory. Born in Brooklyn, NY and a graduate of Boston University, Mr. Feldman's teachers have included Joseph Emonts, Claus Adam, Lorne Monroe, John Sant’Ambrogio, and Harvey Shapiro. In September 2001, Mr. Feldman joined the faculty of Williams College as Artist in Residence and Director of the Berkshire Symphony, ending a distinguished career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Joana Genova began playing violin at the age of six in her native Bulgaria and made her solo debut at the age of twelve with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra. She is a prizewinner of the National Competition in Bulgaria and has appeared as soloist with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and Shumen Philharmonic. Ms. Genova received her Bachelor of Music from Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and her Master’s degree in chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Her former teachers include Peter Brunt, Ilya Grubert, members of the Daniel String Quartet and Prof. Samuel Thaviu. In Holland, Ms. Genova was concertmaster of the Amsterdam Bach Consort and a member for Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Since 2000, she has lived in the US where she is a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, principal second violin of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra and concertmaster of the Manchester Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Genova is active as chamber musician for the Manchester Music Festival and the Williams Chamber Players. Her collaborations include performances with the Shanghai String Quartet, Nathaniel Rosen, Michael Rudiakov, Ruth Laredo, Adam Neiman, David Krakauer and others. Ms. Genova has performed as soloist with Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan, Rockaway and Danbury Symphonies and Manchester Festival Orchestra. She is on the faculty of Williams College, the Manchester Music Festival and the Michael Rudiakov Music Academy in Vermont.
Keith Kibler has sung leading roles internationally with some of the opera world's best directors: Russian opera with Galina Vishnevskaya, Mozart with Peter Sellars, Britten with David Alden and Lou Galterio, and Handel with Tito Copobianco, to name a few. He has sung the concert repertoire with the finest soloists, including Seth McCoy, Jon Humphrey, Elly Ameling, and Thomas Paul among others. Mr. Kibler studied the song literature with the late Geoffrey Parsons as the recipient of a fellowship from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund. Shortly thereafter he won first prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition. He has sung a wide range of early music with period instrument ensembles and was a visiting artist with the Boston Camerata. Summer engagements include appearances at the Monadnock, Wolftrap, Norfolk, and Tanglewood festivals, with pops concerts at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center and with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall, Boston, Harry Ellis Dickson conducting. Mr. Kibler has premiered new compositions by Malcolm Peyton, Rodney Lister, Peter Homans, and he sang major roles in the Boston premiers of Alban Berg's Wozzeck and Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, both conducted by Gunther Schuller.
Edwin Lawrence is an adjunct instructor of piano, organ and harpsichord and teaching assistant in music theory. He holds a B. Mus. Degree from the SUNY College at Fredonia, 1969. He has studied piano with Gabriel Chodos, harpsichord with Preethi da Silva, and organ with William Porter. He is Minister of Music for the First Congregational Church, UCC of Williamstown and Music Director for the Bennington County Choral Society. He has been a faculty member at Bennington College and music director for the Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington. As a producer for Dorian Recordings, he was directly involved with more than 20 recording projects. Lawrence is a founding member of the Consortium of Vermont Composers and has served as a guest conductor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. In 1990, he received a Citation of Merit from the Vermont Council of the Arts for his contributions to the vitality of the arts in the Green Mountain State.
Nathaniel Parke is a member of the Bennington String Quartet and is principal cello of the Berkshire Symphony. He has also been a member of the Boston Composers String Quartet with whom he can be heard performing new works by Boston composers on the MMC label. He is currently artist associate in cello at Williams College and instructor of cello at Bennington College in addition to maintaining a studio of private students. He has served as a faculty member and chamber music coach at the Longy School of Music, Skidmore College, SUNY Albany and is currently on the faculty of the Chamber Music Conference and Composer's Forum of the East. Mr. Parke performs on an instrument made in 1721 by C.G. Testore.
Joel Pitchon, violinist, is an Associate Professor of violin and chamber music at Smith College. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Pitchon studied with Oscar Shumsky and Joseph Fuchs. Mr. Pitchon is currently a member of the Boston based Walden Chamber Players, the Smith Chamber Ensemble, and the New Baroque Soloists. He has been the concertmaster of numerous orchestras, including the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona (Spain), the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and the EOS Chamber Orchestra (NY). For his performance of Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat with the EOS Orchestra, the New York Times wrote “…superb playing by Joel Pitchon…” Mr. Pitchon has been a featured artist for the arts program “Cadencia” on TV3 Catalunya and profiled in STRAD magazine. He has performed in many concerts in the U.S. and abroad with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared in numerous radio and television broadcasts including WGBH, WYNC, and PBS television. Mr. Pitchon has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Vox Cum Laude, CBS Masterworks, and the Musical Heritage Society. He has recently made two recordings of sonatas and solo works by Porter, Piston, Amy Beach and Clifton J. Noble for Gasparo Records. His most recent recording is of the chamber works of Augusta Read Thomas with the Walden Chamber Players.
Kerry Ryer-Parke is known as a skilled and intuitive performer of many musical styles, from oratorio, opera, early music and new works to jazz and beyond. She has been the Director of the Bennington Children's Chorus since 1994, and the Director of the Bennington Voice Workshops since 2002. An Adjunct Instructor of Voice at Williams College, she has been on the faculty of the Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts, the New School of Music, and the Sonatina School of Music. A frequent soprano soloist, she has appeared with the Foundation for Baroque Music, Adirondack Baroque Players, Boston's Cantata Singers, Williams Chamber Players, Sage City Symphony, Skidmore College Choirs, Williams College Choirs, Williamstown Early Music, Aoede Consort, Battenkill Chorale, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society, and the Bennington County Choral Society.
Doris Stevenson has won lavish praise from critics and public alike in performances around the world. She has soloed with the Boston Pops, played at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Salle Pleyel in Paris and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Her acute sensitivity and profound musicality have made her a sought-after partner with some of the leading lights in string playing. She has performed with Gregor Piatigorsky, Ruggiero Ricci and Paul Tortelier, great players of the past. Early in her career she was invited to play with Heifetz and Piatigorsky together. She was pianist for the cello master classes of Gregor Piatigorsky, who described her as "an artist of the highest order." She is a founding member of the Sitka Summer Music Festival in Alaska and has participated in many other chamber music festivals, including the Grand Canyon Festival, Steamboat Springs in the Mountains, Park City International Festival and Chamber Music/L.A. Her recordings include the Saint-Saëns violin sonatas with Andres Cardenes, the complete Mendelssohn cello works with Jeffrey Solow, the Brahms Sonatas with cellist Nathaniel Rosen and works of David Kechley and Ileana Velazquez-Perez. A recent Stravinsky CD with violinist Mark Peskanov received a Grammy nomination. Miss Stevenson taught for ten years at the University of Southern California and has held the stimulating position of Lyell B. Clay Artist in Residence in Piano at Williams College for many years.
Scott Woolweaver, violist, graduated with Distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music where he won the Earl V. Moore and Joseph Knitzer awards for outstanding participation in chamber music, before moving to Boston for graduate studies with Walter Trampler. While at U of M, he founded the Vaener String Trio, which won the Grand Prize at the Joseph Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and later founded the Boston Composers String Quartet, which won the Silver Medal at the String Quartet Competition and Chamber Music Festa in Osaka, Japan. Currently he is a member of the Grammy-nominated Baroque ensemble Boston Baroque, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and Alea III, a contemporary ensemble in residence at Boston University. Scott is a regular guest of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society and is Director of the Adult Chamber Music Institute at Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill, ME. He is also Lecturer in Viola and Chamber Music at Tufts University. In 2005 he was named Artist Associate at Williams College. He plays a Johan Georg Thir viola made in Vienne in 1737.