Artist Profile

Mr. Baltacigil won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He was also awarded the Peter Jay Sharp Prize (which presented his New York recital debut in December 2005) and the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize (which presented his Washington, D.C., recital debut in April 2006). His other awards include first prize in concerto competitions in Istanbul and New York and the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Schadt String Competition

American violinist Adam Barnett-Hart has attracted worldwide attention for his sensitive musicianship and inspired artistic decisions. As the founding first violinist of the Escher String Quartet, he has performed in many of the most prestigious venues and festivals around the world including Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Kennedy Center, the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals, the Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, and the Concertgebouw.

Award-winning violinist Aaron Boyd, a member of the acclaimed Escher String Quartet,  enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer, and teacher. Since making his New York recital debut in 1998, he has concertized throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Formerly a member of the Escher String Quartet, he was a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Center, and was also awarded a Proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments. 

Associate principal viola of the Dallas Symphony since 1999, Ann Marie Brink is adjunct associate professor of viola at Southern Methodist University, adjunct professor of instrumental studies at the University of North Texas, and teaches at Wintergreen Summer Music Academy, Nellysford, Va.

Hailed by The New Yorker as a “superb young soloist,” Nicholas Canellakis has become one of the most sought-after and innovative cellists of his generation, captivating audiences throughout the United States and abroad. In The New York Times his playing was praised as "impassioned ... the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis's rich, alluring tone."

Legend is an understatement. Sit with master-of-all-trades Mino Cinélu in any café and more likely than not, a record will come on that he’s played on. Sting, Miles Davis, Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Marcus Miller, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Pat Metheny, Taylor Dane, Branford Marsalis, and Cassandra Wilson are just a tiny selection of the international pop and jazz stars that Mino has worked with since the 80’s.

With reviews such as “breathtaking…” (The Clarinet), “virtuosic tone and technique” (Tampa Bay Times), “exceptionally sensitive and introspective rendition” (The Clarinet), and “a most skillful artist” (Fanfare Magazine), Kimberly Cole Luevano continually establishes herself as a formidable soloist and chamber musician. Luevano joined the University of North Texas faculty in 2011 and served as a member of the clarinet faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp from 2003 to 2012.

Mr. Curtis has been performing worldwide with Eddie Palmieri, Brian Lynch, Ralph Peterson, Christian Scott, Sean Jones, Orrin Evans, Albert Rivera, and others. He is the recent recipient of the 2016 Down Beat Rising Star Bassist on the Critics Poll.

Zakarias Grafilo joined the Alexander String Quartet in July 2002. Just prior to joining the ASQ, he served as Principal Second Violinist of the Pacific Symphony, and Concertmaster of the Stockton Symphony.

Tong-Il Han has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, London Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Amsterdam Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Orchestra, Polish Radio National Orchestra, Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Russian National Symphony among others.

Yurie Iwasaki has been acclaimed throughout the United States as a chamber musician and collaborative artist. She has performed with well-known artists including Julius Baker, Carol Wincenc, Yfrah Neaman, Emanuel Borok, Bion Tsang, Martin Beaver, and of course her husband Ko Iwasaki. Her performance with Yfrah Neaman was claimed in the Journal Star as “…accompanist, in fact, seems the wrong word, for she was, indeed, a fellow artist throughout, with a full ranging technique and an expressive power to match his own…”

She has been serving as staff accompanist at many national young artist competitions, masterclasses, and summer music festivals.

Ms. Iwasaki is a general manager and librarian for the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and supporting for the program for many years.

Nick Kendall’s genre-bending trio, Time for Three, or TF3, creates new communities of audiences who otherwise might not participate in the performing arts. He has become a force for bringing people together through music, on stage and off. His work is based on the simple idea that the energy you exude greatly impacts the relationships that you build.

Violinist Chloé Kiffer, native of France, has received enthusiastic praise by The New York Times for her “pure and beautiful tone” and The Greenwich Sentinel for being “...a star in every sense: performance, exquisite technique and beauty” (April 2019). Kiffer feels as comfortable performing solo on the international stage as she does in intimate chamber settings. 

Frederick Lifsitz studied violin in his native Boston with Marylou Churchill and at Indiana University with Paul Biss. As a member of the Alexander String Quartet he has performed throughout Europe and North America, appearing regularly at halls such as Amsterdam's Concertebouw and New York City's Lincoln Center.

Taiwanese-American violinist Richard Lin is the newly crowned Gold Medalist of the 10th Quadrennial International Violin Competition of Indianapolis which took place in September of 2018. In addition to the Gold Medal, Richard captured three Special Prizes for his performances of Milstein’s Paganiniana in the Preliminaries, Kreisler’s Tambourin chinois in the Classical Finals and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy in the Finals.

Mr. Menard has performed around the globe with ensembles led by Jeremy Pelt, Ben Allison, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Aaron Parks, Alix Ambroise, Le Boeuf Brothers, and many more.

Cellist Taeguk Mun, a prize winner of 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition was born in 1994 in South Korea, started studying the cello at the age of four with Young Rim Yang. He has been the first prize winner of various competitions, such as the Third Andre Navarra International Cello Competition and the International Competition for Young People in Oldenburg, Germany. He also won prizes at the Irving M. Klein International String Competition.

A leading soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Mutuzkin has performed with major orchestras in Italy, Spain, Norway, and England as well as throughout his native Russia. In 2012, he made his debut appearance in the United States when he performed in NYC’s Lincoln Center in a flute quartet with members of the Metropolitan Opera. Maintaining an active performing and teaching career, Ivan is also the author of a book entitled "Experimental Flute in Twentieth Century Music" (based on examples of compositions for solo flute by foreign composers).  

Praised by Strad magazine as having "lyricism that stood out...a silky tone and beautiful, supple lines," violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt has established herself as one of the most sought-after violists of her generation. In addition to appearances as soloist with the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Jacksonville Symphony, and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, she has performed in recitals and chamber-music concerts throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including an acclaimed 2011 debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, which was described in Strad as being "fleet and energetic...powerful and focused".   

James Ryon has appeared as recitalist and soloist in the United States, South & Central America and the Middle East. He currently is Professor of Oboe at the University of North Texas College of Music and he serves as the Principal Oboist of the Baton Rouge Symphony. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music from the Juilliard School and has received performance fellowships at the Aspen, Berkshire, Blossom, Kneisel Hall and New College Music Festivals. His principal teachers are Robert Bloom and John Mack.

Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, is a versatile and passionate artist whose performances the New York Times has noted as “eloquent, powerful” and the Washington Post called “deeply satisfying.”

One of his generation’s extraordinary talents, Scott Tixier has made a name for himself as a violinist-composer of wide ranging ambition, individuality and drive — “the future of jazz violin” in the words of Downbeat Magazine and “A remarkable improviser and a cunning jazz composer” in those of NPR.

A native of Northumberland, England, Sandy Wilson completed his graduate studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen as a recipient of two Danish Government Scholarships and the Sophus Berendsen Award.

Katie is currently Principal Horn of both The Dallas Opera and the Dallas Chamber Symphony, and she also frequently plays as a substitute or extra horn with the Dallas Symphony and Fort Worth Symphony. Prior to becoming Principal Horn for the opera, she was Third Horn from 2014-2017.

Few artists have done more to both honor and reinvent the 2000-year history of the pipa than renowned soloist, vocalist and composer Min Xiao-Fen. An in-demand interpreter of traditional music before relocating to the United States, Min has forged a new path for her instrument in modern jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary classical music. The Village Voice lauded her as an artist who “has taken her ancient Chinese string instrument into the future.”

Paul Yarbrough, violist, is a native of Clearwater, Florida, and a founding member of the Alexander String Quartet. Mr. Yarbrough's teachers have included Elaine Lee Richey, Lillian Fuchs, Raymond Page, and Sally Peck.

Glenn Zaleski is one of the most in-demand pianists on the New York City jazz scene. Originally from Boylston, MA, he has made a name for himself playing with the likes of Ravi Coltrane, Lage Lund, and Ari Hoenig. Glenn Zaleski has quickly become one of the most important pianists of his generation.