TREETOPS CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
Greenwich-Stamford, Connecticut
 

Tel. 203-979-6052

Great performances in an intimate setting
 
J. C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition Winners
 
2010:   1st Prize:
GRNETA DUO+
Ismail Lumanovski, clarinet, Vasco Dukovski, clarinet/basset horn, Alexandra Joan, piano
Joined 2nd Prize:
IKTUS PERCUSSION QUARTET
Danielle Weinberg, Chris Graham, Justin Wolf, Roy Campbell, percussion
SIMA PIANO TRIO
Sami Merdinian, violin, Ani Kalayjian, cello, Sofya Melikyan, piano
 
 
 
 
2009 J. C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition Winners
 
 
 
 
  Puff Quintet

Emi Ferguson, flute
Jennifer Christen, oboe
Xiang-yu Zhou, clarinet
Benjamin Moermond, bassoon
Sydney Braunfeld, horn
 
Puff Quintet
 
The Puff Quintet’s diverse programming and exciting performances have introduced audiences to the woodwind quintet repertoire through innovative entry points, stimulating increased enthusiasm for the genre. The Puff Quintet has been a featured group at The Juilliard School’s annual Focus! Festival where they premiered their namesake, Henrik Strindberg’s Puff, an extended technique piece for Woodwind Quintet.

Formed during the members’ first week at The Juilliard School, the Puff Quintet is now in it’s fourth year as one of Juilliard’s resident student wind quintets. Throughout their four years together, they have been a part of the New York Woodwind Quintet Seminar where they receive coaching, advice, and mentorship from the members of the New York Woodwind Quintet. Having studied concurrently at Juilliard, the members of the Puff Quintet have performed extensively together in a variety of venues including chamber groups, small ensembles, and orchestras.

The Puff Quintet is devoted to sharing its talent and passion for music with the community and to better represent the woodwind family by presenting the virtuosic and dynamic capabilities of the woodwind quintet. In addition to their formal concert programs, the Puff Quintet is extremely passionate about educational outreach and has presented numerous educational and interactive programs in the New York City area.

March 2009
 
Emi Ferguson, flute
 
Flutist Emi Ferguson has been featured as a soloist with the Art Symphony Orchestra, AXIOM, New Juilliard, and New England String Ensembles. An active member in the new music community, Ms. Ferguson was invited to join Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy in the 2008 summer season, performing works of Stravinsky, Berio, Boulez, Carter, and Messiaen in Lucerne, Switzerland. Earlier that season, Ms. Ferguson was selected to participate in the 2008 Juilliard Orchestra tour of China where she was featured as a soloist and chamber musician playing works by American composer Elliott Carter in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou. An avid composer herself, Ms. Ferguson has given numerous premieres of her own works in addition to those of prominent contemporary composers in recitals in Boston and New York City.

Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, Emi now resides in New York City where she is currently pursuing both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School in the accelerated degree program, studying with Carol Wincenc and Robert Langevin.
 
Jennifer Christen, oboe
 
Oboist Jennifer Christen is on the brink of her professional career. She is currently finishing her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Elaine Douvas, Nathan Hughes, Pedro Diaz, and formerly with John Mack. Ms. Christen made her solo debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005 with the Bach F Major Concerto. Outstanding as an orchestral oboist, she was chosen for the 2008 Juilliard Orchestra tour of China and was a semi-finalist for principal oboe of both the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Christen spent two summers at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, where she studied intensely with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, and she has toured Europe and South America with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, where she performed with talented musicians from all over North and South America.

Ms. Christen began her musical studies with the piano, at the age of five, taking up the oboe when she was ten. She was born and raised in Hamburg, New York, in a family of four children. Jennifer enjoys playing duets with her identical twin sister, flautist Jacqueline Christen.
 
Xiang-yu Zhou, clarinet
 
Xiang-yu Zhou, a Chinese clarinetist, has presented solo and chamber recitals both in the U.S. and his homeland. In June 2008, he was invited back to perform his third solo recital in Xi’an Music Conservatory, Shaanxi, China. Later this season, he will present a chamber concert with Puff Quintet as well as his graduation recital in The Juilliard School.

Mr. Zhou took part in the New York Woodwind Quintet Seminar for two years. With his quintet, he was invited twice to participate in the Focus Festival by the music director Dr. Joel Sachs in 2006 and 2007.

Mr. Zhou has also served as principal clarinet, second clarinet and bass clarinet player in The Juilliard Orchestra. In May 2008, he is selected to participate in the Orchestra’s tour of China.

Mr. Zhou is currently studying for his bachelor degree of music with Charles Neidich at The Juilliard School.
 
Benjamin Moermond, bassoon
 
Benjamin Moermond is a senior at The Juilliard School in New York City majoring in Bassoon Performance. While at Juilliard, Ben has been a very active participant in the conservatory’s various ensembles and has been fortunate to work under several of the world’s leading conductors.

His performance experience includes many performances with The Julliard Orchestra, Dicapo Opera Theatre Company of New York, the Lebanon Community Symphony in Lebanon, Ohio and as an occasional substitute with the New York Philharmonic.

This past summer Benjamin performed with the Juilliard Orchestra as they toured China in 2008, attended the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan and participated in a three week residency in Lucerne Switzerland as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Other summer music festival experience includes the Kent/Blossom Music Festival in Kent, Ohio, Youth Orchestras of the Americas European Tour, and the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. While at Juilliard he has been under the tutelage of Judith LeClair, principal of the New York Philharmonic.
 
Sydney Braunfeld, horn
 
New York State native, Sydney Braunfeld has played the horn for fourteen years. She currently studies with Ms. Jennifer Montone and is enrolled in the masters program at The Juilliard School. She has performed with professional orchestras such as Jacksonville Symphony, Albany Symphony Orchestra and New World Symphony. Sydney’s summer festival experience includes Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (2008), Aspen Music Festival (2007), Sarasota Music Festival (2005), and Bar Harbor Brass Week in 2006. Sydney also became the winner of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic’s annual “Virtuoso-in-Progress” competition and made her solo debut with this orchestra in 2003. Recently, Sydney hosted her third solo recital. Although she enjoys performing in many groups of various instrumentation, she is particularly interested in the exploration of contemporary chamber music. Having worked closely with several composers at Juilliard and elsewhere, Sydney is looking forward to more opportunities of the like in the future.
 
 
 
  Tesla Quartet

Ross Snyder, Violin
Xian Meng, Violin
Megan Mason, Viola
Kimberly Patterson, Cello
 
Tesla Quartet
 
The Tesla Quartet was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008. Founding members include Ross Snyder and Xian Meng, violin, Megan Mason, viola, and Kimberly Patterson, cello. Tesla participated this year in special masterclasses by David Dolan of the Guildhall School and is coached by Robert Mann of the Juilliard Quartet, Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quartet and Curtis Macomber. In January 2009 the Tesla Quartet performed in the final evening of Juilliard’s weeklong ChamberFest and collaborated with pianist Liza Stepanova in the New York premier of Gabriela Lena Frank’s quintet, Tres Homenajes for Juilliard’s annual FOCUS! Festival. The quartet has also been invited to Mountain Lake, Florida, for a weeklong community residency in March 2009, which will include two public performances. On April 8, 2009 the Teslas will perform a recital at the newly re-opened Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

March 2009
 
Ross Snyder, Violin
 
An avid chamber musician, Ross Snyder is a founding member of the Tesla Quartet, which formed at the Juilliard School in 2008. Upcoming engagements with the Tesla Quartet include performances in Juilliard’s ChamberFest and FOCUS! Festival. He was selected as a fellow to the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2007. He began studying chamber music with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age twelve, and at age sixteen he and three of his colleagues formed the Callisto String Quartet. For three years the CSQ performed outreach concerts at various venues in Pittsburgh, including Duquesne University, Heinz Hall, the Carnegie Music Hall, and the Carnegie Science Center. Ross has also studied with members of such world-renowned ensembles as the Borromeo, Guarneri, Juilliard, Miró, St. Lawrence, Tokyo and Vermeer string quartets.

In March, 2008, Ross won Second Prize in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition. He is also a first prize winner of the Dorothy J. Bales ’41 Violin Competition at the New England Conservatory and was awarded the use of a violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume. In 2007 Ross was a finalist in the NEC String Concerto Competition. Other competitions include participation in the Concours International de Violon Jacques Thibaud in Paris, France.

Ross has extensive orchestral experience, dating from age 10, including performances at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He spent the summer of 2008 as a member of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, where he served as assistant concertmaster. He also participated in the VFO’s 2008 European tour to Milan, Luzern, Berlin, and Madrid. He is currently a member of the Juilliard Orchestra and has served as one of the leaders of the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra. Ross has performed as concertmaster at Jordan Hall with the New England Conservatory Symphony and Sinfonietta Orchestras, and as a member of the NEC Philharmonia Orchestra. In the summer of 2008 he toured China with the Juilliard Orchestra.
 
Xian Meng, Violin
 
Violinist Xian Meng began studying the violin at the age of five and by thirteen was chosen to study at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he won the National Young Artist Violin Competition in his first year. While in China, he was a pupil of renowned teacher, Xing Da Jiang. Meng continued his studies in America on a full scholarship as a student of Danwen Jiang at Arizona Sate University. While in Arizona, he was concertmaster for both the ASU Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. He was the first student in the history of the school to win the ASU Concerto Competition as a freshman and went on to graduate with distinction, receiving Outstanding Undergraduate Student Achievement Award. Upon earning his bachelors degree, Meng was accepted into the Master of Music program at The Juilliard School on full scholarship, where he is presently studying as a student of Robert Mann and Nicholas Mann. Meng is generously supported in his studies by the Anderson and Ellison Foundation Scholarship.

Meng has performed with the Renmin University Symphony Orchestra, UIUC Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Sate Univesity Symphony Orchestra, Manchester Chamber Orchestra, and the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with the Juilliard String Quarrtet, Guarneri String Quartet, Orion String Quartet, St. Lawerence String Quartet, and the Shanghai String Quartet. Meng has collaborated with musicians such as Andre Watts, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, and Gil Shaham.

He has also played in prestigious Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Kronert Music Center, Gammage Memorial Auditorium, Zankel Recital Hall, Katzin Recital Hall, Zhong Shan Palace Music Hall, China National Grand Music Hall, and Shanghai Grand Music Hall.

Meng has participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci, Arnold Steinhardt, Todd Phillips, Joel Smirnoff, Ronald Copes, Nicolas Mann, Yiwen Jiang, Teras Gaborn, and Joseph Kalichstein.

In addition to his extensive orchestral work, Meng is an active chamber musican. He is a founding member of the Grants String Quartet, Onyx Piano Trio, and most recently the Tesla Quartet, which was formed at The Juilliard School. During his studies in America, he has won the Sorantine International Competitiion, UIUC, and ASU concerto competitions.

In addition to his passion for the violin, Meng also enjoys studying composition, mathematics, and economics. Meng plays a 1687 Francesco Ruggeri violin on loan from the Twiford Foundation.
 
Megan Mason, Viola
 
An active chamber and orchestral musician, Megan Mason is the founding violist of the Tesla Quartet and has served as a tenured member (and substitute principal) of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.

Megan is currently Co-Principal of the Juilliard Orchestra. She has also been Resident Violist at the Medomak Conductor’s Retreat in Maine, Principal of University Symphony Orchestra at the University of Michigan, and Principal of the Young Artist Chamber Players in Salt Lake City, Utah.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Mason has enjoyed a rich collaboration with faculty members of the University of Michigan, appearing as a guest artist in their concert series, Michigan Chamber Players. She also appeared as a guest soloist in the Chamber Music Ann Arbor concert series.

During the summers, Ms. Mason has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and has studied at Le Domaine Forget and the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Her teachers include Michael Tree, Yizhak Schotten, and David Dalton.
 
Kimberly Patterson, Cello
 
Kimberly Patterson, cello, has earned recognition for her artistry as a chamber and orchestral musician. She has been principal cellist UBS Verbier Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Charles Dutoit and has also performed with the Miyazaki Orchestra in Japan, Aspen Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra.

Kimberly is the founding cellist of the Tesla Quartet, coached by Robert Mann, Curtis Macomber and Michael Tree. Future engagements for the quartet include Juilliard’s ChamberFest and 2009 FOCUS! Festival. She has given chamber music recitals in Weill Recital Hall, New York’s German Embassy, Cleveland’s Kulas Hall, and in Verbier, Switzerland.

Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Holland Music Sessions, Encore, and Apeldoorn Masterclass Sessions. Ms. Patterson has performed in over fifteen countries on four continents, including solo performances at the Holland Music Sessions in Bergen, Holland.

Kimberly is a recipient of the Gluck Community Service fellowship, a program designed to bring music to the inner city. She is also a recipient of the Instrumental Music Fellowship, where she teaches music to underprivileged children.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music with academic honors, Kimberly is currently pursuing Master of Music Degree at the Juilliard School. Principal teachers include Richard Aaron, Stephen Geber, and William Stokking.
 
 
 
2008 J. C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition Winners
 
 
 
 
  Calla Quartet

Ilana Setapen, violin
Arthur Moeller, violin
Clio Tilton, viola
Elizabeth Lara, cello
 
Calla Quartet
 
The Calla Quartet was formed at the Juilliard School in the fall of 2007. Members Elizabeth Lara and Clio Tilton had began playing together in 2004 at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, where the idea for a future quartet was born. Continuing to collaborate since, Elizabeth Lara and Clio Tilton joined forces with violinists Ilana Setapen and Arthur Moeller to form the Calla Quartet. The quartet is currently enrolled in the master of music degree and doctorate of musical arts programs at Juilliard, where the quartet members have made chamber music the focus of their graduate work. Under the guidance and support of Sylvia Rosenberg, the Calla Quartet has built a substantial repertoire and is being presented in concerts at New York City venues, including the Society for Ethical Culture and the Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

This season the Calla Quartet has participated at the "Transatlantic Strings" at Wigmore Hall in London and will be making their Alice Tully Hall debut in April at one of the numerous exciting concerts that have been programmed to celebrate the reopening of the famed chamber music hall at Lincoln Center.

May 2009
 
Ilana Setapen, Violin
 
Ilana Setapen, currently a graduate student at the Juilliard School, is an experienced performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral music. She has performed as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the USC Thornton Symphony. She won the first professional audition she took at the age of 21 for concertmaster of the Riverside Philharmonic, of which she has now been the concertmaster for 4 years. She has toured Brazil and France with the Armstrong String Quartet, formed at USC, and has been a finalist in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. As a soloist, Ms. Setapen has performed with the National Repertory Orchestra, the Idaho Falls Symphony, the Pasadena Pops, and the Amarilo Symphony, among others. She is currently a student of Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes, and she has also studied with Robert Lipsett at both the University of Southern California and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
 
Arthur Moeller, Violin
 
Violinist Arthur Moeller from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania recently completed an undergraduate degree at the Juilliard School as a student of Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. He studied previously with Sergei Galperin, Cyrus Forough, and Stephen Shipps. Mr. Moeller has made solo appearances with the Westmoreland and Johnstown Symphonies, and also with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony. In chamber groups, he has performed in Alice Tully Hall and various other venues throughout New York. Mr. Moeller currently studies with Naoko Tanaka and Ronald Copes at the Juilliard School in the master’s degree program.
 
Clio Tilton, Viola
 
Clio Tilton, viola, is the first prize-winner in the Ohio Viola Society Competition, the Indianapolis Symphony Concerto Competition, the Lafayette Symphony Keller Competition. She has attended the Kneisel Hall Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and performed this past summer as a scholarship recipient in the Aspen Chamber Symphony. Ms. Tilton completed degrees in comparative literature and viola performance at Oberlin College and Conservatory, studying with Peter Slowik. At Oberlin, she performed in the prestigious Contemporary Music Ensemble under the direction of Timothy Weiss. She currently performs with the New Juilliard Ensemble and the Calla Quartet. Ms. Tilton attends the Juilliard School as a student of Masao Kawasaki.
 
Elizabeth Lara, Cello
 
Cellist Elizabeth Lara completed her master of music degree and bachelor of arts degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale, where she studied with Aldo Parisot and Ole Akahoshi. She was a student of Stephen Kates at the Peabody Conservatory, where she was also a member of the Capriccio String Quartet. The ensemble won first prize in the 2000 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and performed on NPR’s “From the Top.” She has served as principal cellist in several orchestras and performed as soloist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Ms. Lara has performed in such venues as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York MoMA, Alice Tully Hall, and Weill Recital Hall. She has attended numerous festivals including Kneisel Hall, Sarasota, Banff, Tanglewood, and Music Academy of the West. Ms. Lara is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow and student of Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School.
 
 
 
  Duo Stromeaux

Ryu Cipris, flute
Max Zuckerman, guitar
 
Duo Stromeaux
 
As Duo Stromeaux, flutist Ryu Cipris and guitarist Max Zuckerman have won prizes in the first annual J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition in Stamford, Connecticut as well as the Chamber Music Foundation of New England’s International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston. Both nationally recognized soloists on their own instruments, together they enjoy performing a wide range of internationally inspired contemporary repertoire. Now pursuing post-graduate studies—at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and at the Peabody Institute, respectively—Ryu and Max have been performing together since they met as first year undergraduates at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. The duo has worked intensively under the guidance of Julian Gray, and have had additional coachings with international soloists Manuel Barrueco and Marina Piccinini.

April 2009
 
Ryu Cipris, flute
 
Flutist Ryu Cipris has been presented in concert by the Yamaha corporation as a winner of their Young Performing Artists national auditions. He has also won first prizes in the Flute Society of Washington and Baltimore Music Club competitions, and has performed several seasons as principal with the Washington Summer Opera Theatre. Ryu has performed as principal flute of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, and has performed throughout the United States, Holland, France, and Switzerland. He received degrees from the Peabody Institute, where he was awarded the Britton Johnson Memorial Prize in flute performance. Ryu has studied with Marina Piccinini and is currently furthering his studies in the Netherlands with Marieke Schneemann at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
 
Max Zuckerman, guitar
 
Guitarist Max Zuckerman has been featured on the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society’s Young Talent series and was an invited performer and master class instructor at the VI Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra de Panamá in Panama City. He has won first prizes in the Portland Guitar Festival Solo Competition and the American String Teachers’ Association national competition, where he was the first classical guitarist to win the Grand Prize for all string instruments in the junior division. Max studied with Scott Cmiel at the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory, and graduated from the Peabody Institute where he studied under Manuel Barrueco. He is currently continuing studies with Barrueco in the Graduate Performance Diploma program at Peabody. This fall he will continue his studies with Benjamin Verdery at Yale.
 
 
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