Mikhail Kopelman
Professor of Violin (Academic Leave (Fall 2010)
mkopelman@esm.rochester.edu
(585) 274-1153
Mikhail Kopelman was born in 1947 in the city of Uzhgorod (former USSR), and began his violin studies at the age of six. He studied with Maya Glezarova and Yuri Yankelevich at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1973 he won second prize in the Jacques Thibaud International Competition in Paris.
A former member of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kopelman was appointed first violin of the Borodin String Quartet in 1976, and played with the ensemble for two decades.
From 1980-1993 Kopelman was on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory teaching both solo violin and string quartet. He has given master classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, UK, in Tour (France), Rome, Florence, Turku (Finland), Stockholm, the Hochschule in Hamburg, and the Hochschule in Vienna.
Kopelman emigrated with his family to the United States in 1993. In 1995, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award and the Concertgebouw Silver Medal of Honour. He joined the Tokyo String Quartet as first violinist in 1996. From 1996-2002, he was professor at the Yale School of Music, coaching chamber music.
Kopelman has performed in many international festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival (UK), Hong Kong, Schleswig-Holstein, Florence, Salzburg, Tour, Moscow, the Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Norfolk, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City.
For over 15 years he was closely associated with Sviatoslav Richter in numerous performances and recordings. He has also collaborated with Mstislav Rostropovich, Gideon Kremer, Natalia Gutman, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alicia de Larrocha, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Bashmet, Victor Tretyakov, Eliso Virsaladze, Peter Donohoe, Boris Berman, and Emanuel Ax. Kopelman has made about thirty recordings for the Melodia, EMI, Virgin Classics, Teldec, and Philips labels.
Oleh Krysa
Professor of Violin
okrysa@aol.com
(585) 274-1590
Studied at Lviv Music School, Ukraine, with Konstantin Mikhailov, and Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. Solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center. Solo recital tours in Europe, Russia, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, North and South America. Soloist with Moscow, St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Dresden, Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras; Berlin, Malmo, New York, National, and New Mexico Symphonies; Ukrainian State Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Royal Orchestra (London), and Musici di Montreal. Music festivals include Aspen Music Festival, Lake Winnipessaukee Music Festival, Park City International Music Festival, Australian Chamber Music Festival, Bach-Akademie (Stuttgart), Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), Louvre Music Festival (Paris), Lockenhaus Music Festival (Austria), Moscow Stars Music Festival, "Prague Spring," and "Warsaw Autumn." Recordings on Melodiya, Triton (DML Classics), Olympia, Cambria, Lydian, BIS, and Russian Disc labels. Outstanding Artist of Ukrainian Republic (1970); Second Prize (shared with Gidon Kremer), Montreal International Violin Competition (1969); Third Prize, Tchaikovsky Competition (1966); First Prize, Paganini Competition (1963); Second Prize, Wieniawski Competition (1962). Adjudicator: Bach, Kreisler, Paganini, Rodolfo Lipizer, Spohr, and Wieniawski competitions. Premieres: Alfred Schnittke, A Paganini (written for Krysa), Concerto Grosso No. 3 (dedicated to Krysa), Sketches After Mahler's Piano Quartet (dedicated to Krysa); Skoryk, Violin Concerti Nos. 1 & 2; Hodkinson, Sonata for Solo Violin (dedicated to Krysa), Scherzo Frenetique for violin and piano (dedicated to Krysa and Tatiana Tchekina), Shredded Postcards for violin, clarinet, and marimba (dedicated to Krysa). Master classes in North America, Europe, Taiwan, Australia, Korea. Faculty member, Kiev Conservatory (1967-73); Moscow Gnesin Musical Institute (1973-75); Moscow Conservatory (1975-89); Manhattan School of Music (1990-93); Eastman (1993-).
FEDERICO AGOSTINI
Professor of Violin
fagostini@esm.rochester.edu
274-1603
Biography
Federico Agostini is a violinist renowned as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.
After early training with his grandfather, he studied violin at his hometown’s conservatory of music in Trieste, Italy, then in Venice, and later at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, where he earned the Artist Diploma in Violin. Salvatore Accardo and Franco Gulli were among his teachers.
Agostini made his debut as a soloist at the age of 16, playing Mozart under the baton of the late Carlo Zecchi. Ever since, he has performed throughout the world as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and as concertmaster of the legendary Italian ensemble I Musici.
He has appeared in various international music festivals in Europe, the United States, and Japan and has performed chamber music with many distinguished artists, including Bruno Giuranna, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Silverstein, and Janos Starker as well as with members of the American, Emerson, Fine Arts, Tokyo, and Guarneri quartets.
Together with violinist Yosuke Kawasaki (currently concertmaster of the National Arts Center Orchestra, Ottawa), James Creitz (former violist of the Academica Quartet), and Sadao Harada (former cellist and founder of the Tokyo String Quartet), Agostini founded the D’Amici String Quartet, which began its activities in 2004.
Agostini’s Philips recordings comprise Bach and Vivaldi’s violin concertos, including The Four Seasons, which was filmed on location in Venice and is available on DVD. Other recordings include Faure’s Piano Quartets produced by Claves and, more recently, a selection of favorite virtuoso violin pieces published by Live Notes in Japan. Agostini performs sonata repertoire with French pianist Claude Cymerman.
Agostini maintains a very busy schedule as a teacher. He has given classes at music schools in the United States and Mexico as well as in Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Japan, and Australia. He has served as a faculty member at the Orford Art Center, Canada, and at Round Top Festival Hill Institute, Texas.
Federico Agostini joined the Eastman School faculty in 2012.
JULIANA ATHAYDE
Associate Professor of Violin and Orchestral Repertory (Violin), part-time
jathayde@esm.rochester.edu
(585) 274-1570
Biography
Appointed concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra 2005 at age twenty-four, Juliana Athayde became the youngest person to hold the position since the orchestra’s inception in 1922. She has appeared as guest concertmaster for the Houston and Kansas City Symphonies as well as the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario. Prior to joining the RPO, Ms. Athayde was concertmaster of the Canton (OH) and Plymouth (MI) Symphonies. In 2002, she served as concertmaster of the New York String Seminar under the direction of Jaime Laredo for concerts at Carnegie Hall. For five years, she was a member of the Iris Chamber Orchestra in Memphis and she has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra in the United States and Europe. A fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and School for six years, Ms. Athayde was awarded the prestigious Dorothy DeLay fellowship in 2005 and was subsequently invited to return in 2010 to deliver the festival’s convocation speech.
Ms. Athayde’s numerous solo appearances with the RPO have covered a wide range of composers from Mozart and Brahms to Prokofiev and Piazzolla as well as the 2010 premiere of Allen Shawn’s violin concerto, commissioned by the RPO and specifically written for Ms. Athayde. She has also performed as a soloist with the Asheville, Canton, Diablo, Fayetteville, Flint, Mid-Texas, New Bedford, Palo Alto, Plymouth and Wyoming Symphony Orchestras. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Athayde made her solo debut at the age of 16 performing with the San Francisco Symphony. In demand as a chamber musician in Rochester and around the country, Ms. Athayde has collaborated with many great artists, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Joseph Silverstein, Jon Nakamatsu, William Preucil, Jon Kimura Parker, Anton Nel, Orion Weiss, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. She has been praised by critics for her “power and precision”, “melting lyricism”, and “larger than life” performances. Together with her husband, RPO principal oboist Erik Behr, Ms. Athayde is Artistic Director of the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester. www.societyforchambermusicrochester.com
A passionate educator, Ms. Athayde is an Associate Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music, and has served as a Visiting Teacher at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Visiting Professor at Cornell University. She began her studies at the age of two in the Suzuki method and continues that tradition by teaching annually for the Hawaii Suzuki Association and frequently at the Advanced Suzuki Workshop at Stanford University. Her principal teachers are Dorothy Lee, Zoya Leybin, Paul Kantor and William Preucil.
Named a Distinguished Member of Sigma Alpha Iota and chosen to receive the 2012 University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance Emerging Artist Alumni Award, Ms. Athayde was also presented with the Albert A. Stanley Award, the school’s highest honor awarded to just one graduating senior, upon her graduation from the University of Michigan with Paul Kantor (B.M. ‘02). Completing her graduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Cleveland Orchestra Concertmaster William Preucil (M.M. ’04 and A.D. ‘05), she is the first graduate of CIM’s Concertmaster Academy. She spends her summers performing alongside her husband at San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho. Ms. Athayde performs on a 1948 Celeste Farotte violin and a Hill bow.
BIN HUANG
Associate Professor of Violin
bhuang@esm.rochester.edu
Biography
Internationally lauded violinist Bin Huang has built a concert career appearing with leading orchestras and in leading venues around the world. As a chamber musician, she has played in the Marlboro Music Festival with members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Juilliard and Guarneri String Quartets. Her live performances as well as her recordings have earned praise for her technical abilities and interpretation.
Huang first came to international attention at the age of 14, when she shared first prize with Maxim Vengerov in the Junior Wieniawski International Violin Competition, in Lublin, Poland. She went on to win both the Paganini International Violin and the Munich International Music Competitions and take top prizes in other prestigious world competitions, including the Tchaikovsky, Queen Elisabeth, Jacques Thibaud, Hanover, Dong-A, and Indianapolis international violin competitions, and the Prague Spring International Music Competition.
At the age of four, Huang received a violin from her father and began her studies in her hometown of Changsha, China. She entered the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing at age nine. After graduation, she came to the United States and studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree and the Artist Diploma. Huang received her Master of Music and Performer’s Certificate and Doctor of Musical Arts at Eastman.
Since embarking on her professional career at 23, Huang has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Baltimore Symphony, Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Cape Town Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and other orchestras. She has been hailed as “a talent that leaves a listener flabbergasted” by the Baltimore Sun and “a winner in what matters the most” by the Washington Post.
Huang has appeared at such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Kennedy Center, Opera City in Tokyo, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, and the People’s Great Hall in China. She was invited to play in the Inauguration Concert at the China National Performing Arts Center in Beijing and was one of the “Ten Most Celebrated Violinists” featured on China Central TV.
Huang’s performance on her recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Bach’s Chaconne received praised for “perfect intonation, formal clarity, (and) exquisite phrasing” from Diapason, which described it as “an interpretation of the highest class.” This recording of the Beethoven work on Paganini’s own violin, the “Cannon,” is the only existing live recording capturing the legendary instrument.
Her recordings also include Baroque Violin Favorites, which was named an Editor’s Choice in American Record Guide, and The Christmas Story.
Huange holds a professorship at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and has given master classes in the United States, Asia, Germany, and Italy. She was an artist jury member in the 12th Stradivari Violin Making Competition in Cremona and the second China Violin Making Competition in Beijing, and a jury member in the 53rd Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy.
RENÉE JOLLES
Associate Professor of Violin
rjolles@esm.rochester.edu
Biography
Renée Jolles, violinist, enjoys an eclectic career as soloist and chamber artist specializing in a wide variety of styles from the Baroque to the contemporary. Hailed as a “real star” by The New York Times for her New York Concerto debut in Alice Tully Hall, she has premiered hundreds of works, including the American premiere of Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Her concerto engagements have included orchestras such as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, The Cape May Festival Orchestra, and The Salisbury Symphony. Ms. Jolles is a member of the Jolles Duo (harp and violin), Continuum, Intimate Voices, The New York Chamber Ensemble, and is a concertmaster of the world-renowned, Grammy Award winning, conductorless Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Honored to be a featured soloist in three world premieres as part of the Orpheus “New Brandenburg” commissions, she can be heard as soloist on the WQXR website in live performances from Carnegie Hall performing the music of Paul Moravec, Melinda Wagner, and Peter Maxwell Davies. She has performed at festivals such as Marlboro, Cape May, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Rockport (Mass.), Norfolk, Taos, Riverrun, and The Chamber Music and Composers’ Forum of the East. Committed to recording new music, she can be heard as soloist and chamber artist on the Cambria, CRI, North/South Recordings, Albany, and New World record labels. She can also be heard on three recently released albums appearing this season which showcase the music of composers Oleg Felzer, Victoria Bond, and Ushio Torikai. Before accepting the position of Associate Professor of Violin at Eastman, Ms. Jolles was on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Pre-College Division, The Mannes School of Music, Preparatory Division, Hoff-Barthelson Music School, and The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. During the summer, she is on the faculty at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.
Ms. Jolles received her BM and MM degrees from Juilliard, where, upon graduation, she was presented with the school’s highest award, the William Schuman Prize. While at Juilliard, she held teaching fellowships in Chamber Music as an assistant to the Juilliard Quartet, and in Ear-Training. Her teachers have included Lewis Kaplan, Felix Galimir, Jacob Lateiner, and members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, and American String Quartets.
ROBIN SCOTT
Associate Professor of String Chamber Music
Associate Professor of Violin
rscott@esm.rochester.edu
Biography
Robin Scott, an award-winning musician described as one of America’s rising stars on the classical music stage, has built a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. He has competed internationally, winning first prizes in the California International Young Artists Competition and the WAMSO Young Artist Competition in Minnesota, and second prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and the Stulberg International String Competition.
Scott has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Montgomery Symphony, Orchestre National de Lille in France, and many others. He has given numerous recitals and performances throughout the United States and abroad, in such venues as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Scott is also the newest member of Eastman’s string quartet-in-residence, the Ying Quartet, as the Grammy-winning ensemble’s first violinist. As an avid and passionate chamber musician, Scott has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Morgan Library, Town Hall in New York City, and other venues. His festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, and the Saratoga and Chesapeake Chamber Music Festivals, MusicIC in Iowa City, and others. He has participated in the acclaimed Music From Marlboro tours, as well as tours under the auspices of the Ravinia Festival, and was a member of the Gesualdo String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame.
Scott is also an accomplished and in-demand orchestral leader and has served as concertmaster of the New York Classical Players. He was guest concertmaster with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as guest principal second violin.
From 2011 to 2013, Scott was the Montgomery Symphony’s artist-in-residence. In that position, he was the concertmaster of the symphony, and also performed with the orchestra and throughout the community as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.
A native of Indiana, Scott began studying the violin at age five and also took piano lessons. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree at the New England Conservatory and his Artist Diploma at Indiana University, where he was a student of Miriam Fried. He pursued additional studies at NEC with Donald Weilerstein, the founding first violinist of the Cleveland Quartet, and violist Kim Kashkashian. Previously, he was a student of Mimi Zweig at Indiana University’s preparatory program.
