ANDRÉS CÁRDENES
Violin
Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes parlays his talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. A passionate and charismatic artist, Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling solo violin, conducting, viola, chamber music, concertmaster and recorded performances.
Since winning second prize at the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Mr. Cárdenes has appeared as soloist with over one hundred orchestras on five continents, including those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Detroit, Moscow, Bavarian Radio, Dallas, Helsinki, Shanghai, Caracas and Barcelona. He has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.
Cárdenes’ discography includes over three dozen recordings of concerti, sonatas, short works, orchestral and chamber music on the Ocean, Naxos, Sony, Arabesque, Albany, Delos, RCA, ProArte, Telarc, Artek, Melodya and Enharmonic labels. This year and next Mr. Cárdenes continues his project to record many standard and contemporary concerti.
Mr. Cardenes is Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Lynn Conservatory and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University.
JULIA JONES
Violin
Julia Jones, 22, is a violinist from New York City. She recently graduated from The Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Music degree, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Laurie Smukler. Her mentors include Viktor Tretiakov and Natalia Likhopoi.
Julia has participated in numerous prestigious programs and festivals such as the Crans-Montana Classics Masterclasses, Dorothy DeLay Masterclass Series, Shlomo Mintz Academy, Taipei Music Academy and Festival, the Perlman Music Program Summer Music School and Chamber Music Workshop, and Kronberg Academy’s Violin Masterclasses and Chamber Music Connects the World. She also took part in the Pacific Music Festival, where she served as concertmaster for the Program A concerts.
Recently, she won Fourth Prize at the 2026 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition. She is also First Prize winner of the 2024 Victoria “BCN” Violin Competition and a laureate of the Second International Viktor Tretiakov Competition.
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JACK KESSLER
Violin
Jack Kessler, a violist from Miami, Florida, performs internationally, focusing on cultural memory and civic engagement. He toured Ernest Bloch’s Fourth String Quartet in Central Europe last summer and is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy. He appears with The Perlman Music Program in New York and competed in the 2025 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. At the Fontainebleau Conservatory, his Don Quichotte à Dulcinée transcription won recognition from the Ravel Foundation.
Jack recorded on NPR’s From the Top with Jeremy Denk and performed with Noah Bendix-Balgley of the Berlin Philharmonic. At the Curtis Institute of Music, he honored Holocaust-era composers in a rich concert experience. He worked at Yale University’s Oral History of American Music, transcribing interviews with leading artists such as Gabriela Lena Frank. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale University, he studied with Roberto Díaz, Ed Gazouleas, and Ettore Causa.
MICHAEL KLOTZ
Viola
Michael Klotz has established an international reputation as a performer and pedagogue of the viola. He made his solo debut with the Rochester Philharmonic at the age of 17 and has since then appeared as soloist with orchestra, recitalist, and chamber musician worldwide.
Michael Klotz joined the Amernet String Quartet in 2002 and has toured and recorded commercially worldwide. His festival appearances have included Seattle, Newport, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Festival Mozaic, Great Lakes, Cervantino, Festival Baltimore, Festival Mozaic,Piccolo Spoleto, Sunflower, Martha’s Vineyard, Skaneateles, Virginia Tech Vocal Arts and Music Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Beverly Hills, Music Mountain, Bowdoin, Madeline Island, and Miami Mainly Mozart.
Michael Klotz is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was awarded the Performer’s Certificate. In 2002 he became one of the few individuals to be awarded a double master’s degree in violin and viola from the Juilliard School.
Michael Klotz serves as Teaching Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Florida International University. He is currently a member of the artist faculty of the Heifetz Institute and a viola coach at New World Symphony.
ROBERT KOENIG
Piano
Robert Koenig is widely considered one of today’s foremost collaborative pianists and brings a wealth of knowledge and esteemed cache to prestigious concert venues throughout the world. With a noted career that spans more than three decades,
Robert regularly performs at such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw. He has collaborated with many of this generation’s most renowned musicians, including Joshua Bell, Augustin Hadelich, Sarah Chang, Hilary Hahn, Roberto Diaz, Zuill Bailey, and Sara Sant’Ambrogio. Of significance is Robert’s frequent partnership with legendary late violinist Aaron Rosand, as well as his 30-year collaboration with renowned violinist Elmar Oliveira.
Robert currently serves as Professor and Head of Collaborative Piano at the University of California Santa Barbara. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Bellosguardo International Piano Competition, with the inaugural competition to take place in Santa Barbara, CA in 2028.
Robert Koenig is an official Yamaha Artist.
SHENG-YUAN KUAN
Piano
Praised for her “admirable technical finesse and expressive flair” (Baltimore Sun), pianist Sheng-Yuan Kuan has garnered enthusiastic receptions for her solo and chamber music performances. Her collaborations with renowned musicians such as Chad Hoopes, Nobuko Imai, Stefan Jackiw, Espen Lilleslatten, Elmar Oliveira, Sir Angel Romero, Richard Stolzman, Stephen Taylor, Keng-Yuen Tseng, and Latin Grammy Award winner Nestor Torres, reflect her passion in making chamber music of eclectic styles.
Originally from Taiwan, Sheng-Yuan relocated to America to further her music education. She holds degrees from The Peabody Conservatory (DMA), Yale School of Music (MM), and the Manhattan School of Music (BM), studying with Boris Slutsky, Peter Frankl, Scott McCarrey and Constance Keene. She received accolades from the 13th Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, the 12th Taipei Chopin International Piano Competition, Corpus Christi International Competition in Texas, and New York Kosciuszko Chopin Piano Competition. Currently holding the positions of staff pianist and adjunct keyboard instructor at Lynn University Conservatory of Music in south Florida, Sheng-Yuan performs at the Heifetz International Music Institute in the summer.
GARY LEVINSON
Violin
Gary Levinson enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and a pedagogue. Praised for his intense musicality and adroit technique by American and European critics, he has served as the Senior Principal Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony since 2001. In 2013, he accepted the prestigious post of Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth. Mr. Levinson then made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in 1991, under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf. In the same year, Mr. Levinson completed his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where his teachers included Dorothy DeLay, Glenn Dicterow, and Felix Galimir.
As a soloist, Mr. Levinson has collaborated with top conductors including Erich Leinsdorf, Jaap van Zweden, Zubin Mehta and others. A champion of contemporary music, Mr. Levinson commissioned the Third Violin Concerto from Charles Ives Living Award winning composer George Tsontakis in 2019.
Mr. Levinson performs on a Lorenzo Storioni violin, the “ex-Ricci”, crafted in 1787.
ERICA LYNN RICHARDSON
Violin
Violinist Erica Lynn made her concerto debut at 11 in Los Angeles with the New West Symphony and at 16 in Walt Disney Concert Hall. She has since appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Kiev Fantastic Orchestra, Kiev Lyatoshynsky Ensemble, Asunción Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Long Island Concert Orchestra, Bacchanalia Chamber Orchestra, and Peninsula Symphony.
She has performed in chamber and recital settings across the U.S. and in France, Spain, Italy, and Qatar. Highlights include an interview performance with composer Philip Glass, collaborations with cellist Joshua Roman, and an artist residency at the Banff Centre in Canada.
Erica has performed with orchestras nationwide, frequently serving as Concertmaster under conductors including Leon Fleisher, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Joseph Silverstein, Ian Hobson, Eckart Preu, Ken Lam, and Morihiko Nakahara.
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SARA SANT’AMBROGIO
Cello
Grammy Award–winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio has performed worldwide with artists ranging from Sting to Rudolf Serkin, appearing in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. Her passionate playing has captivated audiences from Austin to Amsterdam and Beijing to Boston, in settings from intimate clubs to halls of 15,000.
As cellist of the Eroica Trio, she recorded six EMI albums, earning multiple Grammy nominations, and has released six solo albums on Sebastian Records. As a soloist, her recording of the Elgar Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Grzegorz Nowak debuted in the Billboard Top Ten, where it remained for several weeks. Her recordings have been featured on numerous soundtracks, including the opening track of the HBO film A Matter of Taste, and her collaboration with pianist Robert Koenig, The Chopin Collection, was named a Notable Recording by The Washington Post.
She has appeared on CBS, ABC, PBS, and CNN, and in Vanity Fair, The Strad, Glamour, Fanfare, Elle, Strings, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Bon Appétit, and Travel + Leisure.
ANNE MARTINDALE WILLIAMS
Cello
Anne Martindale Williams has enjoyed a successful career as principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1979. She has been featured as soloist both in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.
She has also collaborated with guest artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, the Emerson Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham and Pinchas Zukerman.
Mrs. Williams enjoys teaching at Carnegie Mellon University. She has given master classes at universities and festivals including the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the New World Symphony and Aspen. She also has performed at many of America’s prestigious summer festivals including the Aspen, Maui, Rockport, Gingold, Orcas Island, and Mainly Mozart Festivals.
Williams is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Orlando Cole. Her Tecchler cello was made in Rome in 1701.
