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Sherman Chamber Ensemble
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| Sarah Adams, viola | Josephine Mongiardo, soprano |
| Jorge Ávila, violin | Ah Ling Neu, viola |
| Eliot T. Bailen, cello & co-founder | Susan Rotholz, flute & co-founder |
| Kenneth Cooper, fortepiano | Nathaniel Watson, baritone |
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Oren Fader, guitar |
Peter Weitzner, double bass |
| Jon Klibonoff, piano | Paul Woodiel, violin |
| Jill Levy, violin | |
Sarah Adams, viola, is well known to SCE audiences. She began her musical training in Cleveland, Ohio, where her first teachers were members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Quartet. She is a member of the New York Chamber Ensemble and the resident ensemble at the Cape May Chamber Music Festival, as well as the violist of Parnassus, a contemporary chamber music group that performs and records in NYC. She performs frequently with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has performed and recorded with the Smithsonian Chamber Ensemble.
Ms. Adams is presently principal violist of the Riverside Symphony, as well as assistant principal violist of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. She performs frequently with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, American Ballet Theatre, and the New York Chamber Symphony, and appears with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Symphony and American Composers Orchestra.
Sarah has been on the faculty of Long Island University and Queens College and teaches viola and chamber music at Columbia University. She appears on the first and third programs of the summer.
Jorge Ávila, violin, has won attention as an outstanding young violinist through numerous appearances as a soloist, recitalist, concertmaster, and chamber musician. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Jorge received his resident status in the United States under the “extraordinary talent” category. He was also awarded first prize at the 2001 Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Competition.
Considered “ a strong violinist” by the NY Times, Jorge has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Europe, Asia and both Central and South America. In the New York City area, he has appeared as a soloist with the Riverside Orchestra, Hofstra Symphony, New Amsterdam Symphony, City Island Chamber Orchestra, and The Bronx Arts Ensemble. Outside of New York City, Jorge has appeared with The Warren Symphony, The Salem Chamber Orchestra, The Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, and The Carson Dominguez Hills Orchestra.
Jorge has appeared as concertmaster with numerous groups, including The Stamford Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, Westfield Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Long Island Masterworks, St. Patrick’s Cathedral Orchestra, Grace Church Orchestra, Gotham Opera, Verismo Opera, José Limón Dance Company, Sonos Chamber Orchestra, Bachanalia, The New Amsterdam Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Mannes College of Music Orchestra. He has recently been named the Concertmaster of the Colonial Symphony Orchestra.
Jorge is a founding member of the Chalfonte Quartet. In addition, he performs as a chamber musician with the Bronx Arts Ensemble, Simon String Quartet, Abaca String Band, Positive Music, Prism Ensemble and Musicians’ Accord. Jorge also frequently appears with the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra and Eos. He has performed with numerous Broadway orchestras, such as Aida, Annie Get Your Gun, Flower Drum Song, Into the Woods, The Producers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Music Man and Wicked.
Born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Jorge began his violin studies at age 14. During his studies in Honduras, he received first prize in the “La Botonia” competition. In 1987, Jorge moved to the U.S. to study at the University of Georgia as a full scholarship student. There he served as concertmaster of the orchestra and member of the Pre-College faculty; while there, he won the Atlanta Music Club Concerto Competition. The following year, Jorge moved to New York City where he began his studies as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music; from there he received both his Bachelor of Music and Professional Studies diplomas. Jorge’s major teachers include Jorge Corpus, David Nadien, Charles Castleman, and Jose Chaín-Barbot. He studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard Quartet and the Galimir Quartet, as well as with Leon Fleisher, Gilbert Kalish and Timothy Eddy.
Jorge has recorded for the Arabesque, TBM, and Delos International labels; he has also performed live on both television and radio. Last season’s highlights include a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with David Finckel, Wu Han and the Salem Chamber Orchestra. This upcoming season’s performances include numerous recitals in the NYC area, Minneapolis, Costa Rica and the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. Jorge appears on SCE’s opening program this season.
Eliot Bailen, cello. Strings Magazine writes, "At Merkin Hall (NYC) ‘cellist Eliot Bailen displayed a warm focused tone, concentrated expressiveness and admirable technical command always at the service of the music” (July, ’99). Eliot Bailen is principal cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble, Westfield Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra New England, Teatro Grattacielo, the Garret Lakes Arts Festival Orchestra and the New Choral Society. Founder and Artistic Director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble whose performances the New York Times has described as “the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert.” (July, 2005), Mr. Bailen also performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, 'Modern Works' and the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival and is founder of the Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series in New York. He is assistant-principal cello of the Stamford Symphony and appears frequently with leading New York area orchestras such as New Jersey Symphony, New York City Opera, American Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He has recorded for Nonesuch, Koch International, Deutsche Grammophon, Delos, New World, Beanstalk, BMG and Flying Dutchman Records and has been heard as solo cello in numerous Broadway shows. Mr. Bailen received his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University and is on the cello and chamber music faculty at Columbia University. Graduating in 1977 with High Honors in Music and French Literature from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Mr. Bailen also holds an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University where he was awarded the coveted Slater Prize for Entrepreneurship. In 2002, he was awarded the Norman Vincent Peale Arts Award for Positive Thinking. Mr. Bailen has also gained national attention as a writer and producer of children's music. Winner of the 1990 Parent's Choice Gold Medal and winner of numerous ASCAP Popular Awards, Mr. Bailen was a featured guest artist on Nickelodeon's "Eureeka's Castle" airing from 1993 through 1997. Mr. Bailen’s "Song to Symphony" project, an extended school residency program that presents children's original work in an orchestral setting, was the subject of a NY Times feature article (Sept. 2006).
Mr. Bailen and his wife, the flutist, Susan Rotholz, live in New York City with their twin sons David and Daniel and their daughter Julia. Mr. Bailen performs on all three programs this summer.
Kenneth Cooper, fortepiano, returns for the second concert of the 2008 season. Harpsichordist, pianist, musicologist and conductor, Kenneth Cooper is one of the world’s leading specialists in the music of the 18th century and one of America’s most exciting and versatile performers. Renowned for his improvisations and his expertise in ornamentation, long-lost 18th century arts, he has revived countless works, lending them extraordinary authenticity as well as great vitality. The possessor of a PhD in musicology from Columbia University, Kenneth Cooper is on the faculty there as well as at the Manhattan School of Music, where he is Chair of the Harpsichord Department and Director of the Baroque Aria Ensemble.
As Music Director of the Berkshire Bach Ensemble since its inception, Kenneth Cooper has made a tradition of the New Years performances of the Bach Six Brandenburg Concerti and has instituted a series of Concertofests in the style of Bach’s Collegium Concerts. He is heard regularly at the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Music @ Menlo and with the Sherman Chamber Ensemble, The Yale-Norfolk Summer Chamber Music Festival and the Little Orchestra Society’s Vivaldi Festivals at Alice Tully Hall. Most recently he has appeared at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival, at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR, and in the “Baroque Collection” concerts with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Over the past four decades, Kenneth Cooper has made dozens of recordings and soundtracks, among them Bach’s Gamba-Harpsichord Sonatas (CBS, with Yo Yo Ma), the complete Bach Sonatas for Flute and Fortepiano (Bridge Records, with Susan Rotholz) and the Bach Brandenburg Concerti and Goldberg Variations (Berkshire Bach Society); his spectacular versions of ragtime and other American delights may be heard on Silks and Rags (EMI) [in which he will be heard “live” on April 28, 2007 at Simon’s Rock College] and Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot (Musical Heritage Society). He is heard also on Mother Goose and More (UNIFEM/Classic Raps), on the video game Louis Cat Orze, and on the documentary Van Gogh Revisited. His most recent release is Bach's Six Sonatas for Violin and Fortepiano with Ani Kavafian (Helicon Records). In 2004 and 2005 The International Music Company issued Kenneth Cooper's award-winning editions of Bach's Two and Three Part Inventions.
Oren Fader, guitar, is highly regarded as a performer of classical guitar repertoire, both solo and chamber, traditional and contemporary. Reviewing his solo New York City recital, Guitar Review magazine stated: "His scholarship, technique, and intelligent musicianship are plainly evident and the beauty of his tone is consistently compelling". Reviewing his latest CD, "First Flight", Guitar Review noted "Oren Fader serves up a nourishing feast of new music...Fader's skill, particularly his conductor-like understanding is palpable on every track.”He has performed in London, Tokyo, Munich, Amsterdam, Montreal, Maui, Russia, Mexico, and throughout the United States. Concerto performances include the Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Concierto de Aranjuez, with the Brooklyn Conservatory Orchestra and the Vivaldi D major with the Manchester Music Festival Chamber Players in Vermont.
Mr. Fader is much in demand as a chamber musician. He has performed hundreds of concerts with a wide range of classical and new music groups, including the Met Chamber Ensemble (directed by James Levine), New York City Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, New World Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Composers' Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Music from Japan, New Amsterdam Singers, New York Festival of Song, Da Capo Chamber Players, North Country Chamber Players, Poetica Musica, and Speculum Musicae. Festival performances include Aspen, Tanglewood, Bach Oregon Festival, Deer Valley Festival (Utah), and Morelia, Mexico.
Mr. Fader recently finished a year long engagement with the Mark Morris Dance Group, performing Lou Harrison's Serenade for Guitar as onstage accompaniment for a new solo dance work choreographed and danced by Mark Morris. Regarding this tour and other projects, The New York City Classical Guitar Society recently interviewed Oren Fader for their online magazine, Nylon Review.
Mr. Fader is well known for his performance of contemporary music. As a member of the Award- winning new music ensembles Cygnus, Fireworks, and Glass Farm, he has premiered over 100 solo and chamber works with guitar, including compositions by Babbitt, Wuorinen, Machover, Biscardi, Currier, Naito, Pollock, and others. This season Mr. Fader will premiere three duos (written for him and guitarist William Anderson) by Wuorinen, David Lang, and Scott Johnson, and a new opera, commissioned by the Cygnus Ensemble, by Jonathan Dawe. In a performance of Mario Davidovsk's Synchronisms #10 for guitar and electronic tape, The New York Times wrote: "Oren Fader gave the guitar part a polished, energetic performance that was precisely matched to the tape sounds." And at a recent performance The New York Times called Mr. Fader's playing "Electrifying".
Mr. Fader can be heard on over 20 commercial recordings, in repertoire
ranging from the 16th Century (Dowland) to late 20th (Carter). Recent
releases include "First Flight": Ten premiere solo guitar pieces written
for Mr. Fader, and "Another's Fandango", featuring solo works from Bach
to Bogdanovic, produced by Grammy Award winner Adam Abeshouse.
Other recent recording projects include a new recording of an
arrangement of "The Rite of Spring" performed by the Fireworks ensemble,
and new releases from Milton Babbitt, Chien-Yin Chen, Tim Janis,
Elizabeth Hoffman, Sean Hickey, and Meyer Kupferman. The Cygnus
Ensemble's 2nd CD, featuring works by Naito, Babbitt, Claman, and
Yttrehus,has just been released by Bridge Records. Mr. Fader is active
in commercial film as well, just having recorded the guitar parts for
the film, Everything Is Illuminated", directed by Liev Schriber.
Mr. Fader received his undergraduate degree from SUNY Purchase and his Master of Music (Performance) degree from Florida State University. His major teachers include David Starobin and Bruce Holzman. Since 1994 Mr. Fader has been on the guitar and chamber music faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Fader returns to SCE for the season opening concerts in July.
Jon Klibonoff, piano, has appeared as orchestra soloist, solo recitalist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and abroad. His numerous awards include the Silver Medal of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, the Affiliate Artists Xerox Pianists Award, the Pro Musicis Foundation Award, First Prize at the Kosciuszko Chopin Competition, The Concert Artists from the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Klibonoff has performed as guest artist with numerous chamber groups, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Shanghai, Miami and Lark String Quartets. For three seasons he was artist-in-residence for the “On Air” radio series produced by WQXR classical radio in New York City. Mr. Klibonoff has been heard in recital at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and the National Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has collaborated with many instrumentalists including flutist Carol Wincenc, clarinetist David Shifrin and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. His many orchestral engagements include the Baltimore, Utah, Buffalo, Denver and North Carolina Symphonies. Mr. Klibonoff has several CD recordings to his credit including two discs of twentieth century violin and piano music with violinist Maria Bachmann on the BMG/Catalyst label. The first of these, “Fratres,” was reissued on RCA Red Seal in 2005. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Klibonoff has been on the faculty of Hunter College and Concordia College and is currently on the faculty of SUNY Purchase College. He returns for his second year with SCE on Labor Day weekend.
Jill Levy, violin, is concertmaster of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. She has made numerous solo appearances with them including the premiere performance of the Concerto for Irish Fiddle and Violin by Evan Chambers, which she has recorded on the Albany Records label. Ms. Levy is also the music director of the Saratoga Chamber Players, bringing together musicians from the United States, Canada and Europe to perform in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In addition to being heard regularly with the Sherman Chamber Ensemble she has been a participant in the Blossom Music Festival and the Sebago-Long Lake Region Festival. Ms. Levy is a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony under the direction of Andre Previn; the Pittsburgh Chamber Players; the Orchestre del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, directed by Zubin Mehta; and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, directed by Lukas Foss. Ms. Levy is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied violin with Arnold Steinhardt and Jascha Brodsky and chamber music with Felix Galimir and the Guarneri Quartet. She also worked with Franco Gulli at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. As a winner of student competitions she was soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the ages of 11 and 16. Currently Ms. Levy lives in the Adirondack Mountains of New York with her husband and daughter where she is an active and sought-after teacher. She performs on all three programs this summer.
Josephine Mongiardo, soprano, widely acclaimed for her "extraordinary voice" and "brilliant ornamentation", has been featured in New York stage premieres of several eighteenth-century operas, including Handel's Acis and Galatea, Esther and Susanna, as well as Lully's Acis et Galateé. An accomplished actress, Ms. Mongiardo has commanded attention in such roles as Lucia, Violetta and Rosina, and as she speaks four languages, she has become a renowned recitalist and chamber music artist. Her chamber music and orchestral appearances have taken her throughout the United States, Europe and South America. She has collaborated with such renowned artists as YoYo Ma, Ani Kavafian, Gerard Schwarz and Kenneth Cooper. Her festival appearances include Santa Fe, Waterloo, Chamber Music Northwest, Arcady, Music at Menlo, Grand Canyon and Mohawk Trail Concerts. Ms. Mongiardo's diverse repertoire includes orchestral works such as Mahler's Symphony No.4, Berlioz' Les Nuits d'Eté and Strauss' Brentano Lieder as well as premieres of pieces by Seymour Barab and Wendy Chambers; she has also been featured as the narrator in Walton's Façade and as the Devil in Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat as well as works by André Caplet and Douglas Moore. She has performed leading roles in the Berkshire Bach Society's staged production of Bach's Hercules at the Crossroads and Over Coffee, with the Columbia Festival Orchestra in Bruce Adolphe's new work Marita and her Heart's Desire, and at Lincoln Center's Tully Hall with The Little Orchestra Society under Dino Anagnost in works of Antonio Vivaldi; Ms. Mongiardo can be heard on the CD Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot (Musical Heritage Society) and on Music@Menlo Live. Ms Mongiardo has a thriving teaching practice in New York City. Her students have been featured at Chautauqua Opera, Seattle Opera, Lake George Opera and in chamber and orchestral appearances throughout the United States. She currently serves as President of The New York Singing Teachers’ Association. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College and an M.A. in musicology from Columbia University. She returns to Sherman for our second concert of the season.
Ah Ling Neu, violist, born in Japan of Chinese parents, studied at the San Francisco Conservatory with Gennady Kleyman and in Holland with Nobuko Imai. Ms. Neu’s performances throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia include the Marlboro Festival, Chamber Music/West, Tanglewood, the International Musicians’ Seminar in England, the Spoleto Festival (Italy and the USA), the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, and “Chamber Music at the Y” in New York City. A former member of the San Francisco Symphony and the Ridge String Quartet, she is presently the Principal Violist of the Brandenburg Ensemble and the Assistant Principle of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. She also performs frequently with various orchestras in New York City, including St. Lukes Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and American Composers Orchestra. Her recent chamber music appearances include the Barge Music, the Manchester Music Festival, the North Country Chamber Players and the Bridgehampton Music Festival. In addition to teaching viola and chamber music at Columbia University, Ms. Neu, an avid chamber musician, has participated in six Musicians from Marlboro tours and was a member of the New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble for nearly twenty years. Ms. Neu can be heard on the season’s second program.
Susan Rotholz, flute, made her New York debut to critical acclaim in 1981 as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award. Since then she has performed throughout the world as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral flutist. Ms. Rotholz is principal flutist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Ensemble the New England Bach Festival. She has played principal with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony, American Ballet Theater, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Stamford Symphony and has been a member of the New York Pops Orchestra since 1981. She also performs regularly with The New York City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society and others. She was the principal flute for the 2005 PBS broadcast performance of Steven Sondheim’s ‘Passions’ for Live from Lincoln Center, and is the flutist for the 2006-7 Encore! performances at City Center. This spring Susan became the principal flutist for Roundabout Theater’s revival of 100 Degrees in the Shade. In 1988, Ms. Rotholz won the Young Concerts Artists International Competition as a founding member of Hexagon, a chamber ensemble for piano and winds, which made its New York debut in 1989 and was featured on the nationally aired PBS documentary, "Debut," in 1990. Hexagon's CD, Les Petites Nerveux, was released in 1996 by Bridge Records. Ms. Rotholz has commissioned and premiered many new works by such composers as Robert Beaser, Elizabeth Brown and Edie Hill and has recorded George Crumb's Night of Four Moons with the acclaimed soprano, Dawn Upshaw, for Nonesuch Records. Her recording of the J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas and Solo Partita with Kenneth Cooper, forte-piano, released in March 2002 by Bridge Records was described by the New York Times as “irresistible in both music and performance.” Familiar to audiences at music festivals around the country, Ms. Rotholz has performed at Marlboro, Caramoor, Salt Bay Chamber Fest, Portland Chamber Music and Cape May festivals. She is co-founder with her husband, Eliot Bailen, of the acclaimed Sherman Chamber Ensemble in Sherman, CT and the Rodeph Sholom Chamber Music Series in New York and performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players and the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Rotholz holds degrees from Queens College (BMus) and Yale University (MM) and is on the faculties of Columbia University, Queens College and Manhattan School of Music pre-college division. Her principal teachers were Marcel Moyse, Thomas Nyfenger and Gerald Beal. In 2002, Ms. Rotholz was awarded the Norman Vincent Peale Arts Award for Positive Thinking. Susan and Eliot live in New York City with their twin sons David and Daniel and their daughter Julia. Susan can be heard on all three programs of the 2008 season.
Nathaniel Watson, baritone, is a graduate of the Eastman School, and the Yale School of Music.
Watson has earned critical acclaim as a versatile artist who performs in operatic roles, with symphony orchestras and with period instruments. He has made symphony appearances with the New York Philharmonic, under Sir Colin Davis and under Kurt Masur, and with the symphony orchestras of Houston, Minnesota, Montreal, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Boston. Operatic roles include Agamemnon in Gluck's Iphigenie en Aulide (L'Opera Francais de New York), Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Atelier, Toronto) and Sid in Britten's Albert Herring at the composer's own Aldeburg Festival.
A devoted Bach singer, Nataniel Watson has recently been involved in recordings of the two Bach Passions: the St. John Passion (BWV 245) under Eric Milnes on PGM recordings, and the St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) under Jeffrey Thomas for Koch International, both with period instruments. He has sung all the major Bach works at St. Thomas Church in New York City, with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem at the Bethlehem Bach Festival (Pennsylvania), and in several other cites and Bach festivals throughout North America with such conductors as Nicholas McGegan, Jeffrey Thomas, Bernard Labadie, James Richman, Ton Koopman, and Peter Schreier. He performs regularly with the Concert Royal, Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and other ensembles and for three years was a member of the Waverly Consort.
Watson is also an accomplished recitalist and interpreter of contemporary idioms. He has performed often in collaboration with pianists Barbara Lister-Sink and Herbert Burtis since 1990, and has appeared with the New York Festival of Song and the Schubertiade at the 92nd St. Y in New York with the late Hermann Prey. He has recorded works by the American composers Samuel Barber, Philip Glass, Andrew Imbrie, and Claudio Spies, as well as premiering works by Spies, Miriam Gideon, Scott Lindroth, Ronald Perera, Lewis Spratlan, and Earl Kim.
He has fifteen CDs to his credit in repertoire spanning five centuries. He can be heard on recordings of Barber's Dover Beach (Amplitude) and Händel's operas Sosarme (Newport Classics) and Ezio (Vox).
Nathaniel Watson lives in Montreal and in New York City. He makes his SCE debut with our Labor Day concerts.
Peter Weitzner, double bass, a graduate of the Juilliard School, has performed with Solisti New York, the Jupiter Symphony, EOS Ensemble, SONYC, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Stamford Symphony, Musicians Accord and the New Jersey Symphony. As soloist, he has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony and performed the New York premiere of Sheila Silver's Chant for bass and piano. He has been a frequent participant at international music festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Festival of the Hamptons, Bratislava Music Festival, and the Bruckner Festival in Linz, Austria. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with many ensembles, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orion Quartet, Yale at Norfolk, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival and the Berkshire Bach Society. He has also performed with the Lar Lubovitch Dance company, the Parsons Dance Company and Merce Cunningham's 80th birthday celebration at the Lincoln Center Festival in the New York premiere of Biped. For ten years Mr. Weitzner toured the world as a member of the Giora Feidman Trio. His work can be heard on Nonesuch, Pro Gloria Musicae, New World Records, Musical Heritage Society, Delos, Grenadilla and Berkshire Bach Society record labels. A frequent performer with SCE, Mr. Weitzner will be on hand for our Label Day concerts.
Paul Woodiel, violin, returns to Sherman for our Labor Day chamber music and bluegrass concerts. Leonard Bernstein described Paul Woodiel as "a first-class performer - one who combines spirituality with intellect". A busy purveyor of a broad range of violin/fiddle music, he has been a featured recitalist at the 92nd St. Y, the Miller Theater at Columbia University, and the New York Festival of Song at Carnegie Hall, and has appeared as soloist at music festivals from Bard College in New York to the red rocks of Moab, Utah. A three-time New England Fiddle Contest champion, he is a noted exponent of traditional fiddle styles, and teaches traditional fiddle at Wesleyan University. In this vein, he performs across the US and abroad with the Scottish dance band Local Hero. An unabashed theater musician and veteran of Broadway orchestra pits, he currently performs in The Look of Love, a revue of the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. In that production, he utilizes the Viper, a seven string electronic instrument created by rock violin innovator Mark Wood. Other artists and organizations with whom he has worked include Steve Reich and Musicians, piano wizard Dick Hyman, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Grammy Awards Orchestra. As a studio player, his fiddling appears in myriad contexts including controversial Woody Allen films, controversial Dixie Chicks releases, and advertisements for controversial weight-loss medications. Current projects include a solo recording of Scottish violin music with pianist Susie Petrov, and a collaboration with composer/pianist Neely Bruce on a new outdoor staged historical event based on the story of Benedict Arnold.