×

Joe Brent

Called, “one of the truly exceptional musicians of his generation,” a mandolinist about whom it has been said, “there has never been a mandolinist with greater technical skills,” and a composer whose music, “touches and communicates the essence of what it means to be an alive, feeling human being,” Joe Brent has forged a career as both instrumentalist and composer with unparalleled fluency across multiple genres.

As a classical mandolinist, Mr. Brent has worked closely with many of the great modern composers, premiering works by Elliot Carter, Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Olga Neuwirth, David Loeb, Nathan Davis, and Joe Hisaishi among many others. He has performed with many well-known chamber ensembles, including The International Contemporary Ensemble, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Argento New Music Project, Speculum Musicae, A Far Cry, Fireworks Music, Art of Élan, Tres Americas, NOVUS, and nunc. Concurrently, he is thoroughly versed in the traditional orchestral repertoire, having performed with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, New World Symphony, The American Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet and City Opera. As a solo artist, he has given recitals and clinics in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2001, has lectured on contemporary music at New York's Museum of Modern Art, and was the 2017 artist in residence at Marble House Project.

Mr. Brent has performed as featured soloist with the Orchestra a Pizzico Ligure in several performances throughout northern Italy, in the Miller Theatre portrait of Elliot Carter conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky in celebration of the composer's 99th birthday, and in an all-Carter program at Tanglewood Music Festival under the direction of James Levine. In 2013 he performed as soloist in an all-Beethoven program with Michael Tilson Thomas and The San Francisco Symphony as well as with Dawn Upshaw and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has presented as a soloist at the DUMBO Arts Festival, BRIC Arts Festival, Hildener Meisterkurs für Mandoline und Guitarre in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Festival Internacional de Música Clásica Contemporánea in Lima, Peru, the 2008 and 2011 Classical Mandolin Society of America annual conventions, and the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, UAE. He and harpist Bridget Kibbey were named amongst the first artists to participate in the Weill Music Institute's Carnegie Hall Musical Connections program. In 2011, he joined the faculty of the Mannes School of Music, and has been a visiting artist at Juilliard. He maintains an active international concert schedule.

Simultaneously, Mr. Brent has maintained an active career in popular and improvising music. He has performed and/or recorded with Regina Spektor, Woody Allen, Jewel, Stephane Grappelli, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Tommy Tune, Sam Moore (from Sam and Dave), the Alan Ferber Nonet + Strings, Jillette Johnson, and Kishi Bashi. He has been featured in dozens of Broadway and off-Broadway pit orchestras, including Tony Award winners and nominees Spring Awakening, Everyday Rapture, Big River, Urban Cowboy, the 2014 Shakespeare In The Park production of Much Ado About Nothing, and the 2019 revival of Oklahoma!.

In 2012 he founded the improvising chamber ensemble 9 Horses, which features his own compositions for an ever-changing improvising new music ensemble, with a core of himself (on several instruments), Sara Caswell on violin and Hardanger fiddle, and Andrew Ryan on bass. 9 Horses was a finalist in the 2014 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, the only improvising ensemble to do so. 9 Horses released its debut album, Perfectest Herald, in 2015, and was the 2016 winner of the 21CM LAUNCH: Emerging Artists competition. Brent has received commissions for new works for 9 Horses to perform in 2017 with ensembles from University of Arkansas Little Rock/ACANSA Festival, DePauw University/21CM, Colorado Mesa University, Southern Illinois University, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory,  University of Texas at El Paso, and South Dakota State University. 9 Horses released Blood From A Stone, a 4-song EP in 2019, the critically-acclaimed double album Omegah in 2021, and the epic double album Strum in 2024 which was named one of the year's 100 best albums by Ted Gioia.

In 2007, Mr. Brent published two books of mandolin pedagogy, Scales and Arpeggios for the Mandolin and Orchestral and Chamber Excerpts for Mandolin. That same year, he released his debut album, Point of Departure, featuring duets with Ms. Kibbey. In 2010, he recorded the complete mandolin works of David Loeb for Vienna Modern Masters, and in 2014 he released a recording of John Dowland’s lute music arranged for himself and Israeli mandolinist Alon Sariel for paladino media. He is a prolific recording  artist as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and producer,  won an ASCAP Plus Award, and has received grants from New Music USA and Chamber Music America.

Mr. Brent plays custom-made 8-string and 10-string acoustic mandolins by Brian Dean of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and a 5-string electric mandolin by Adam Buchwald of Burlington, VT.

×

Wendy Case

Known for her burnished, resonant sound and wide-ranging color palette, violinist Wendy Case offers audiences shared experiences of another realm—a more vivid and layered way of being in the world. Her performance credits include Carnegie Hall, the Goethe Institute of Calcutta, the Vietnam National Academy of Music, and the Kimmel Center of Philadelphia. Case’s programs often showcase the work of new and underrepresented composers such as Chiquinha Gonzaga, Dominique Le Gendre, or Sungji Hong, paired with more traditional works such as those by Ysaÿe or Clara Schumann.

Recent projects have included solo and chamber tours and masterclasses in Brazil, Ecuador, and Vietnam. Last season, she performed as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Urban Troubadour orchestra of Akron in Abel’s Delights and Dances, a jazz-influenced work originally written for the Sphinx Competition. 

Case’s first CD, (2022) “The Tiger and the Clover,” showcased seven commissioned works for solo violin and electronics by diverse composers. A sought-after chamber musician, Wendy has performed with members of the Emerson and Cavani quartets, the Lysander Piano Trio, and members of the Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Her most recent recording release (2024) showcases the unpublished piano trio works of 19th century female composer, Emilie Mayer. 

As an orchestral player, Wendy performs regularly with the Pittsburgh symphony, as concertmaster for the conductorless Dana Ensemble, and in the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, Ohio. As a studio artist, she has recorded for SONY and Ocean Way studios on soundtracks such as Lost in Space, Harriet, and the Jurassic World Tour.

Dr. Case holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Stony Brook University. A committed music educator, she currently serves as violin faculty and director of Bard College’s Conservatory Preparatory Division. She also offers online technique courses, in-person workshops, and masterclasses on the interplay of acoustical physics and kinesiology in performance. 

×

Phyllis Clark

Phyllis Clark lives in Saugerties where she moved after a 40 year career as a freelance singer in concert, choral and a Capella groups. She taught voice, music and chorus at Saint David’s School in NYC and toured with and arranged music for The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble. She completed degrees at Boston University in Vocal Performance and at The Royal Conservatory of The Hague in Opera. She studied Dalcroze with Joy Kane and Kodaly with faculty at NYU and in Hungary.



She presently leads a community chorus, Saugerties Sings, and plays organ and leads the choir at Saugerties United Methodist Church. She has been teaching at Bard Prep since 2021. Phyllis plays piano, viola, and recorders in amateur chamber ensembles and enjoys baking, gardening and walking with husband Michael and Havanese companion, Corbie.

×

Gregory Dinger

Greg  is the child of musical parents (his mom was a pianist and his father a  cellist with the New York Philharmonic).  In addition to  Dalcroze/Eurythmy training as a child he studied the piano until his  early teens (with Katerina Rado, Edgar Roberts and Jacqueline Marcault),  and credits those early experiences for much of his strong  musicianship.  Greg  began to play guitar as a youngster, like so many others of his  generation, inspired by The Beatles and others rock performers (though he began with a Joan Baez folk music songbook). He formed his first  band in 7th grade and played in it throughout much of high  school.



In  9th grade Greg became interested in the classical guitar, and began his study of it with the area’s leading teacher, Luis Garcia-Renart (also a prize-winning cellist & conductor). Greg studied with Garcia-Renart for 4 years and then went to Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received his Bachelors of Music degree with honors in 1980.  At  NEC he studied with Robert Paul Sullivan and Frank Wallace, formed the Parnassus Guitar Duo, and gave the school’s first all-solo  graduating guitar recital.  At the start of his career in the 1980s Greg played in  masterclasses of several of the world’s leading classical guitarists: Manuel Barrueco,  Eliot Fisk, Frederic Hand, Sharon Isbin and  Christopher Parkening.



After returning to Woodstock, N.Y., where he grew up, Greg began teaching the  guitar, and soon was teaching various guitar styles several days a week  at Allegro Music in Kingston.  In the 1980s he also became the  classical guitar instructor at SUNY New Paltz and Bard College and began  teaching guitar & other music subjects (music theory & history) at Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge (now called SUNY  Ulster).  In the 1990s he began teaching the Classical Guitar Seminar at  Bard and Greg is still the classical guitar instructor for their Music Dept.  Greg also plays each year in the Faculty Showcase concerts and often presents recitals at these schools.  At present Greg teaches private lessons primarily at his home music studio in  Woodstock, N.Y.,  and is also affiliated with Barcone’s Music, in Kingston, NY.



Greg  has been involved with a large variety of music groups throughout his career, from chamber music ensembles to rock bands to orchestras.  In the 1980s he played in a heavy-metal  group called “Uncle Sam” as well as in the blues &  originals “Ben Prevo Band.” In the 1990s he played Beatles & Eagles songs in “The Beagles” and a variety of guitars in a  folk-pop-oldies group called “TimePieces.”



Lately Greg has played guitar & sung in “Decoy” (2015), the “West Saugerties Boys” (2016-18), and currently with “Fishbowl” and “Rare Bird.”

In  the course of his performing career Greg has played electric guitar,  steel-string & nylon-string guitars, banjo and mandolin in a number of musical theater productions including “The  Three-Penny Opera,” “Tommy,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Footloose,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” “Evita,” “8-Track:  The Sounds of the 70s,” and “Honky Tonk Laundry.”

As  a classical guitarist Greg has been a member of several chamber music ensembles, including the Arabesque Trio (flute, guitar & bassoon; formerly: Trio Con Brio), the Catskill Mountain Renaissance  Consort (recorders, viola da gamba, guitar & hand percussion), Cantilena (flute & guitar; formerly: Interlude), and the SAGAD Trio (viola, guitar & cello).  Greg’s talents as an arranger — taking music  originally intended for one instrument or ensemble and creatively recasting it in a new setting — have produced most of the repertoire of  these groups. Years ago he published through Music Arts Graphics; now his GDG Editions — music for solo guitar & guitar in ensemble — are available through this website.



With the Arabesque Trio he has recorded a CD of music by Debussy, Bach, Faure, Mozart, Granados, Handel, Joplin, Ligeti, de Falla, Bartok & Lennon/McCartney titled “Reverie.” Available from his website.



Many people in the Hudson Valley fondly remember his 15+ years providing live classical guitar music on weekends at Joshua’s Cafe in Woodstock.  Greg  has played over the years with many of the best instrumentalists and singers in the Hudson Valley:  violinists Carole Cowan and Akiko Kamigawara, cellists Susan Seligman, Ling  Kwan & Jean Vilkelis, violist Anastasia Solberg, flutists Marcia Gates, Pauline Mancuso, Lynn Peck, Sarah Plant, Melissa Sweet and Marisa Trees, oboist Joel Evans, clarinetists Tony Penz and Kay Sutka, classical guitarists Terry Champlin & Helen Avakian, David Temple and Richard Udell, fiddle & guitar duo Jay Ungar & Molly Mason,

and singers Harvey Boyer, Kimberly  Kahan, Cecelia Keehn, Jonell Mosser, Anita Shamansky, and Danielle  Woerner, among others.  In the 1990s Greg was a member of the early music acapella group Woodstock Renaissance, and he has sung (bass) with Ars Choralis since the 1990s; he is currently that organization’s president too.  He frequently accompanies them in music that involves various types of guitars, and has arranged a number of  songs for them: several Beatles songs, The Beach Boys’ “Good  Vibrations,” Springsteen’s “American Land,” and an ambitious setting of “Where Have All The Flowers  Gone” (premiered in 2014).  The chorus has gone on tour to Europe several times in the 21st century, always with Greg & his guitar! Greg also did the instrumental music arrangements for Ars Choralis’ “Music in Desperate Times” program which they performed in NYC’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine as well as  their  2009 tour to Germany.  Greg’s also been the curator of Ars Choralis’ “Artist Within” series of concerts at the Sheeley House in High Falls, NY, including  Valentine’s Day-themed shows, a folk “jamboree,” the “Just For The Fun Of It!” show, several classical recitals, a Kung Fu martial arts (Greg’s hobby for 35+ years) demonstration, and 2017’s “A Night In Argentina."



Greg also programmed & hosted WDST radio’s innovative classical music  show “Sunrise Concert” for over 25 years starting in the mid-1980s (and winning Hudson Valley Magazine’s Best Classical Music show award for 1996); and  for a number of years he reviewed classical CD releases for the Kingston  Daily Freeman’s “Preview” magazine.



More recently Greg helped form the Mid-Hudson Classical Guitar Society, presenting their first concert at  the Morton Library in Rhinecliff in 2010, and closing their 8th season  in May 2017.



Greg  directs & arranges music for SUNY Ulster’s Guitar & Mixed  Instrument Ensembles, producing new arrangements of music ranging from Renaissance pavanes to Haydn piano sonatas, solo guitar pieces expanded, and a variety of famous songs including:

“Tico Tico,”  “Miserlou,” “Fever,” “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Shenandoah,” “Down  On The Corner,” “Billie Jean,” “Everybody  Wants To Rule The World,” “Fragile” & several Beatles medleys, and an original minimalist piece: “Blip, Blop, Plink, Plunk, Ting & Bong.”  Greg  became involved with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra soon after  graduating from NEC and returning to Woodstock (when that orchestra was forming); he played the popular Vivaldi Concerto in D major with them in 1980.  Since then he has performed works for  guitar & orchestra with them several times: Herbert Haufrecht’s  “Divertimento” in 1985, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Guitar Concerto in 1993,

the  “Fantasia para  un Gentilhombre” by Joaquin Rodrigo in 1999, and his famed “Concierto de Aranjuez” in 2004 and again in January of 2018.  In the fall of 2018 the orchestra became the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra. Greg has served as president of the WCO since 1995, seeing the orchestra through several Conductor Searches, and he’s organized & played in  numerous fundraising concerts for the WCO over the years.



Greg also played with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic in their “New Wave”  concerts in the 1990s, backing Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground, and  providing support for singer Natalie Merchant.  One of his toughest  musical challenges was negotiating the guitar part for Frank Zappa’s  “Alien Orifice” with the HVP when no other guitarist around could do  it!  Greg also played solo guitar as the “opening act” for that  concert.  He’s also opened for Leon Redbone and “3” (Emerson, Palmer & Berry) at The Chance in Poughkeepsie. Greg has also played with other top Hudson Valley music organizations including Cappella Festival, the Mendelssohn Club, the  Gilbert & Sullivan Musical Theater Company, the Pone Ensemble and the Hudson Valley Recital Project.

×

Sean Gallagher

Sean Gallagher is a pianist and multi-instrumentalist with a broad musical range. An industrious musician, Sean performs regularly with his jazz quartet Sean G and the Downbeat and is the founding organist of the soul jazz ensemble The Forefathers.

Sean is an energetic teacher and band leader who also teaches music theory and jazz harmony for all instruments. He has instructed kids and adults of all ages for over 15 years and currently works as a teacher at the Community Music Space in Red Hook NY.

Sean plays and teaches Piano, Accordion, Trombone, Trumpet, and even Bansuri Flute! Sean holds a BA in Jazz Performance and Composition from SUNY New Paltz.

×

David Ji

David Ji is a widely recognized pianist, who combines insightful understanding, fearless imagination, and sensitivity in mature performances. He made his concerto debut with the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Emperor concerto. As a versatile musician, he has performed in numerous countries and prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, National Opera Center, DiMenna Center, Merkin Hall, Seoul Arts Center, and Kumho Arts Hall in Korea. He is a winner of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra Competition and the Arthur Balsam Duo Competition in New York.



Dr. Ji has collaborated with highly renowned soloists and members of esteemed orchestras such as the Chicago, Metropolitan, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Vienna Philharmonic. He has worked with internationally acclaimed musicians such as Augustine Hadelich, Ani Kavafian, Tai Murray, Sylvia Rosenberg, David Shifrin, Pinkas Zukerman, as well as members of the Emerson and Brentano String Quartets. Mr. Ji participated in masterclasses conducted by Anton Kuerti, Robert McDonald, Julian Martin, Kum-Sing Lee, and his masterclass accompaniment credits include Hilary Hahn, Leonidas Kavakos, and Jans Jensen, among others. Additionally, he has participated in prestigious summer festivals, including the Gijon International Piano Festival, Orford Music Festival, and Arizona State University as a guest lecturer. He has also served as a collaborative piano fellow at the Yale School of Music and a faculty at the Heifetz International Institute of Music.



Beyond performing, Mr. Ji serves as the artistic director of Muse Avenue, a collective group of musicians aiming to share music and support communities through concerts. The musicians of Muse Avenue hail from major US orchestras and prominent opera theaters. Born in South Korea, David Ji began playing the piano at the age of 6; moved to Canada to study at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Marc Durand and Andre Laplante. As a former recipient of the Lado Scholarship Foundation in New York, he earned both his Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.



www.davidjipianist.com

×

Sachiko Kato

Sachiko Kato is a Japanese-born, Los Angeles-raised, and Juilliard-trained pianist. Ms. Kato has performed extensively as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician throughout North and South America and Japan since her debut recital at Carnegie Weill Hall in 1994.

Her pianism has been feature-broadcasted by WNYC, “New Sounds” program, WQXR, KMZT, and SKCR FM, and as received critical acclaim: : “the velvet smoothness and silken beauty… an extremely imaginative player… she plays with such a sense of effortlessness and ease” (Fanfare Jan.-Feb. 2013); “a lovely, delicate touch… interpretive clarity… impressively crisp fingerwork and consistent energy.” (New York Concert Review).

Featured in the Juilliard centenary publication, “Dance Drama Music: 100 Years of the Juilliard School,” as one of the 100 outstanding alumni, Ms. Kato is known for her beautiful sonorous sound and a wide-ranging repertoire.

In addition, she has been active in the new music scene as the founder and artistic director of Weaving Japanese Sounds contemporary music concert project founded in 2004 to promote cultural exchanges through music. Ms. Kato has recorded the Goldberg Variations on the Centaur Records label in 2012. Jerry Dubins of Fanfare claims: “Sachiko Kato’s performance is truly special” and “… everyone who embraces Bach’s Goldberg Variations on piano, this deserves to be heard and is urgently recommended.”  In 2019, she released a CD of music by Debussy and Ravel, and also published a book, "The Sachiko Piano Method: How to Find the Music Within You".

She has recently been chosen to be a part of New York’s premier classical music radio station WQXR’s Chopin Marathon event and her live performance was broadcasted live globally through streamlining.

Ms. Kato currently resides in NYC.

For more information, please visit www.sachikokato.com.

×

Janara Khassenova

Originally from Kazakhstan, pianist Janara Khassenova is a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory where she completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies. While in United States, she completed an Artist Diploma Program in Chamber Music from the Longy School of Music. She has performed as a soloist and with chamber ensembles and orchestras in countries of the former Soviet Union, Italy, Greece as well as United States. Janara collaborates frequently with various musicians in a variety of projects and regularly performs in a piano 4-hand duo with pianist Ellina Blinder. In addition to the Bard Preparatory Division, Janara currently teaches piano at her studio in New York City, where she resides.

×

Maya Lorenzen

A member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (WEDO) since 2016, Israeli/German violinist Maya Lorenzen has performed around the world as a soloist and ensemble player. She is a prizewinner of the 2016 Karl-Adler Competition (Germany) and 2013 Mehta Chamber Music Competition (Israel). Since 2004, she has received annual awards and scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. 

With WEDO, Maya has performed under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, Philharmonie de Paris, Pierre Boulez Hall, Waldbühne Berlin, Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center, Chicago Symphony Center, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. 

Maya has been an invited soloist with the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, NK Chamber Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Israeli Conservatory Orchestra. She has also served as concertmaster with various orchestras including the Young Israeli Philharmonic.

Maya received her undergraduate degree in music performance from Tel Aviv University and continued her master’s studies at HfMT Hamburg. She has pursued studies with Haim Taub, Hagai Shaham, Tanja Becker- Bender, Philip Setzer, Jennifer Frautschi and Arnaud Sussmann, and has received coachings from members of the Emerson String Quartet, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Berliner Philharmonic. Now a doctoral student of musical arts at Stony Brook University as a student of Philip Setzer, Maya performs with various chamber and orchestral groups both in the US and Europe. 

A former teaching assistant at Stony Brook University, she is dedicated to teaching her growing violin studio in New York City.  Maya is a founding member of Ensemble Volans, which commissioned and performed works by various composers from HfMT Hamburg and HM Freiburg. 

Maya’s festival experience includes Musica Mundi (Belgium, 2005), IMAYO (USA, 2006), JMC Young-Excellence program (Jerusalem, 2005-2008), Keshet Elion (Israel, 2006-2013), ISA (Vienna, 2011-2012) and IMSS (Hamburg, 2012-2015) and ClasClas (Vilagarcia, Spain, 2018).

×

Katherine Rossiter Mancus

Originally from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, soprano Katherine Rossiter Mancus, is a performer with diverse experience spanning from opera to musical theatre and oratorio to art song. In recent seasons she has been heard as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Coffee Cantata with the Broad Street Orchestra, the Grammy-award winning Albany Symphony Orchestra in Bach’s Jesu, der du meine Seele, in Handel’s Messiah with Classics on Hudson, in Requiem for Anna Poitkovskaya at Bard’s Fisher Center, and in recital with Concerts at Camphill Ghent and Saugerties Pro Musica. 

Her operatic roles include Morgana in Alcina and Le Feu/Le Rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges with CCM Opera d’arte, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, and Die Zweite Dame/Erste Knabe in Die Zauberflöte with the Bard Vocal Arts Program. 

Katherine has been a Young Artist with Songfest, Opera on the Avalon, and the Berlin Opera Academy. She is also an alumna of the Academie Nationale d’été de Nice in France and the Accademia Vocale di Lorenzo Malfatti in Lucca, Italy. She holds degrees from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music, as well as the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. 

She currently lives in Tivoli, New York and is the director of admission for the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

×

Anneke Schaul-Yoder

Anneke Schaul-Yoder studied with Julia Lichten and Marcy Rosen at Yale, Purchase Conservatory, and Mannes College of Music. She performs in both period and modern styles at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, the 92StY, and other venues in New York and beyond.



With Eudemonia, Anneke presents eclectic chamber music for piano, flute, and cello. She is solo continuo cellist and artistic director for SIREN Baroque, the acclaimed all-female early music ensemble. She is also a member of the Piano Music & Song Trio, a trumpet/cello/piano trio that improvises over art songs; Skid Rococo, a group with soprano and lute that performs derelict and touching songs of the 18th century; and the Queens Consort, the borough of Queens’s first early music ensemble. She is principal cellist with the Northern Dutchess Symphony, and also performs with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Morningside Opera Company, BalletNext, La Fiocco, and Argento, among others. 



In addition to the Bard Preparatory Division, Anneke is on faculty at the Hudson River School of Music and the Bruderhof Schools. She has recordings on the System Dialing, Island, Naxos, Bridge, and 3rd Generation labels; she has recorded with the Lumineers, Sway Machinery, Jade Bird, Shawn Mendes, and members of Antibalas and Arcade Fire. She plays on a French cello from 1713 by Jacques Boquay.

×

Victoria Schwartzman

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Victoria Schwartzman (formerly Mazin) performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. Victoria has appeared at the Music Mountain Festival with the St. Petersburg String Quartet, in the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Hall, at Summit Music Festival with Dmitri Berlinsky, at Bargemusic, in the Gessner-Schocken concert series in Cambridge, WMP Concert Hall, and the Nicolas Roerich Museum concert series in New York City. As a member of the Yanvar Trio, she was a prizewinner in the Val-Tidone Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Zinotti International Chamber Music competition, both in Italy.

After graduating from Jerusalem Conservatory, Victoria continued her education at the Longy School of Music and New England Conservatory. While pursuing various degrees in solo and chamber music performance, she was selected to perform in masterclasses given by Dmitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, and Richard Goode, among others. Her principal teachers include Irina Kivaiko, Issak Kossov, Victor Rosenbaum, Sally Pinkas, Eda Shlyam, and Eteri Andjaparidze.
As soloist with orchestra, Victoria has performed with the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, the Longy School of Music Chamber Orchestra, and the Riverside Orchestra. She has performed at the Quartet Program in Pennsylvania, and participated in the Tel-Hai International Piano Festival in Israel and the Lyrica Chamber Music Festival in New Jersey. Also active in the field of opera and art song, Victoria was vocal coach and accompanist at Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Bard Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center, the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, and the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival in Graz, Austria.
Victoria is as committed to performance as she is to education. She recently gave a master class in Russian vocal repertoire at Queens College, NY. She is on the coaching faculty in the Vocal Department at Montclair State University and Long Island University Post. Victoria is also the co-founder of the Newburgh Music Festival, a week long immersive classical music program devoted to both solo performance and chamber music, located on the shore of the Hudson river, in Newburgh, NY.

×

Martha Sullivan

Composer Martha Sullivan creates music in various genres but is best known for her works for the human voice. She has earned accolades for her choral music and has won competitions sponsored by such organizations as the Dale Warland Singers and the Sorel Organization. Her music has been commissioned and performed by groups as far away as Glasgow, Tokyo, and Zurich, as well as by numerous choral groups in the United States.

Martha is also a professional singer, specializing in new music; she has recorded and premiered works by such avant-grade composers as Toby Twining and John Zorn. She currently sings with, conducts in, and composes music for C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in New York City.

Martha has also sung in every opera staged at Bard Summerscape since 2009.

Her education includes a B.A. in Music from Yale and studies at Boston University's Opera Institute; she is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Rutgers. Her dissertation focuses on the semiotic implications of one particular musical gesture—the Siren topos—in music ranging from early 19th-century Lorelei songs to 20th-century operas to 1960s television theme songs. She has presented parts of this work at various international conferences on music theory.

Martha has taught for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (as voice faculty and as coordinator of the Music Theory program for high-school singers); New York University/CAP21 (teaching music theory to music-theater students at NYU's Tisch School); the Gregg Smith Singers (teaching voice and composition to students in Gregg's summer workshops); Rutgers (Aural Skills, Intro to Music Technology, and Intro to Music); and Westminster Choir College (Musicianship I and Musicianship III, both of which combine music theory with hands-on aural skills work).

×

Viktor Toth

Hungarian clarinetist Viktor Toth graduated from the Bard College Conservatory of Music in May 2016 and pursued his Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance Studies under the direction of clarinetists including Laura Flax, David Krakauer, Pascual Martínez-Forteza and Anthony McGill. He also studied Italian language and literature as his second major at Bard College.

As a member of the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, Mr. Toth appeared in Alice Tully Hall, New York in 2013, at Brown University in 2015 and has collaborated with conductors such as Leon Botstein, Jeffrey Milarsky, Cristian Măcelaru, Adam Fischer, Carl Bettendorf, Jeffrey Kahane,

José-Luis Novo, Marcelo Lehninger and JoAnn Falletta. In 2014, he performed with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra in Europe’s major cities including Warsaw, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Budapest, Bratislava, Wien, Prague and Berlin. In 2016, he went on a tour in Cuba with the same orchestra and performed in Cienfuegos, Santa Clara and Havana.

As a full László Z. Bitó–Scholarship holder at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Mr. Toth has worked with professors and coaches such as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Edward Carroll, Laura Flax, Marc Goldberg, David Krakauer, Pascual Martínez-Forteza, Anthony McGill, Tara Helen O’Connor, Daniel Phillips, Peter Serkin, Joan Tower, Alan Kay, Bart Feller, Nadine Asin and Patricia Rogers. During his studies at Bard, he participated in master classes given by Yehuda Gilad, Peter Kolkay (The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center), Janis Vakarelis and David Gould. He also appeared on the “Side-by-Side Concerts” with the members of American Symphony Orchestra and the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, participated in the world premier of the opera “Payne Hollow” by Shawn Jaeger in 2014 and performed with Natalie Merchant in 2015. He was one of the winners of the Bard Conservatory 2016 Concerto Competition and performed Copland’s Clarinet Concerto as a soloist with The Orchestra Now at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. After finishing the Advanced Performance Studies Program in the Bard Conservatory, he got accepted to The Orchestra Now where he received his Master’s Degree in Curatorial, Critical and Performance Studies in 2021. During his time at The Orchestra Now, he had the opportunity to perform Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie as soloist with Academy Award-winning composer and conductor, Tan Dun and The Orchestra Now at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Currently, Mr. Toth serves as the Central/Eastern European Music Curator at The Orchestra Now.

×

Sindy Yang

Sindy Yang is an actively performing pianist. Recent performances have included recitals at Bard Conservatory as well as performances at summer music festivals including Manhattan in the Mountains. Ms. Yang is also an enthusiastic collaborator of chamber music. She has been a participant of several chamber music festivals with scholarship awards including Manhattan in the Mountains in Hunter, New York; the Summit Music Festival in Pleasantville, New York; the EuroArts Music Festival in Halle, Germany; and the International Academy of Music in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana in Tuscany, Italy. In chamber music, she has collaborated with players such as Peter Wiley. Outside of solo and chamber performances, Ms. Yang has also performed as an orchestral pianist with The Orchestra Now at Bard College. As an orchestral pianist, she has worked with conductors such as Leon Botstein and Tan Dun and performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.



Ms. Yang began her musical studies at the age of six. As a young student, she was the recipient of numerous music awards and was a prizewinner of several competitions including the Renée B. Fisher Piano Competition and the Chaminade Music Club Scholarship Award. She continued her musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, studying piano under the tutelage of Miyoko Nakaya Lotto.



Ms. Yang earned a BM in classical piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music and an Advanced Performance Certificate in solo piano performance from Bard Conservatory as a full scholarship recipient. Her instructors include Peter Serkin, Richard Goode, and Shai Wosner.