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 | Sanford Allen
Violinist Sanford Allen was appointed Director of the Clarion Concerts in Columbia County’s Leaf Peeper Series after the death of its founder Newell Jenkins. Mr. Allen started his study of the violin at the age of seven and entered the Juilliard School of Music at age ten, continuing at the Mannes College of Music under Mme. Vera Fonaroff. In 1962 he became the first black musician ever to become a regular member of the New York Philharmonic. Regarding his recording of Cordero’s violin concerto with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Strad magazine said: “Its virtuoso challenges are thrillingly met by Sanford Allen - a fabulous player who was, incidentally, the first African-American to gain a regular place with the New York Philharmonic in 1962. Despite the challenging nature of the writing, the listener’s attention is held effortlessly throughout due largely to the extraordinary commitment and finesse of Allen’s playing. Indeed the intensity generated by this impassioned performance is nothing short of overwhelming. Well worth seeking out”. His solo appearances with orchestra have included the Quebec, Baltimore, Detroit Symphonies and the New York Philharmonic. He served on the advisory panel of the New York State Arts Council and was also a member of the Executive Board of the Kennedy Center National Black Music Colloquium and Competition. In 1998, Mr. Allen gave a premiere performance of Sir Roland Hanna’s Sonata for Violin and Piano at the Kennedy Center in Washington, joined by the composer.
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 | Atar Arad
Atar Arad was born in Tel Aviv, where he began his early musical education and violin studies. In 1968 he was one of a few young artists to be selected to study in the renowned Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth under the patronage of the Queen of Belgium. In 1971, drawn by the deep, warm sound of the viola and its broad but unfamiliar repertoire, he decided to devote himself to this instrument and its music. The following year, in July, 1972 in his first appearance as a violist, he won the City of London Prize as a laureate of the Carl Flesch Competition for violin and viola. Two months later he was awarded the First Prize at the International Viola Competition in Geneva by a unanimous decision of the jury. In 1980 Arad moved from London to the U.S. in order to become a member of the Cleveland Quartet for the next seven years. With this great Quartet he toured throughout the U.S., South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Israel and Japan, collaborating with many leading musicians (such as pianists Istomin, Curzon, Ax, Dichter and Kovacevich, violists Schidloff and Laredo, Cellists Ma and Rostropovich, flutists Gallway and Rampal, and clarinetist Stolzmann to name but a few), recording for labels such as RCA, CBS and Telarc, and appearing in music festivals including Aspen, Berlin, Edinburgh, Flanders, Israel, New York Mostly Mozart and Carnegie Hall, Paris, Salzburg, and many more. During that time he held the position of a Professor of Viola at the Eastman School of Music. Arad was an artist/faculty member at the Aspen School and Festival. He also taught at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, TX, and served as an artist/lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He currently teaches at Indiana University, Bloomington, and at the Steans Institute (Ravinia Festival) in Chicago.
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 | Joseph Conyers
Joseph Conyers is the newest member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra double bass section. He won the position after a three and a half year tenure as principal bass of the Grand Rapids Symphony (MI) and four summers as a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra (NM). In 2008 Conyers performed as soloist with his own Grand Rapids Symphony in a concerto commissioned by the GRS and written for him entitled “Prayers of Rain and Wind” by John B Hedges. He has also soloed with the Alabama Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony, the Savannah Symphony and Civic Orchestras, and the Sphinx Symphony having won second prize in the Senior Division of the 2004 Sphinx Competition. Conyers has performed throughout the United States and Europe. He was principal (solo) bass of the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra with whom he traveled extensively and recorded on the Naxos label. He has also performed with the Sphinx Symphony and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra. Conyers has performed in a number of orchestras including the Boston and Detroit Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a number of prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Inaugural Stanford Allen Award presented to him by the Sphinx Competition in 2008, Conyers attended The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and graduated with his bachelors degree studying with both Hal Robinson, principal bass of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and double bass soloist Edgar Meyer. Conyers is the co-founder of a nonprofit organization in his hometown of Savannah, GA called MusicAlive! (music-a-live.org). This effort along with Conyers’ other achievements landed him a profile as one of “30 Leaders 30 and Younger” in Ebony Magazine in 2007.
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 | Paul Katz
As cellist from 1969-1995 of the internationally acclaimed Cleveland Quartet, Paul Katz played 2600 concerts in most of the great concert halls and music capitals of the world. The CQ were the first classical artists to appear on the Grammy Awards Telecast, performed at the White House, and were subjects of a major documentary on Arts and Entertainment, “In the Mainstream-The Cleveland Quartet.” Katz was The American String Teacher’s “Artist Teacher of the Year” for 2003, has received numerous awards from leading American cultural institutions, including Indiana University’s “Chevalier du Violoncelle,” an Honorary Doctorate, and Chamber Music America’s National Service Award, the highest honor given for a lifetime of distinguished service in the field of chamber music. The Cleveland Quartet made 70 recordings on RCA, Telarc International, Sony, Philips and ProArte. These recording have earned many distinctions including the all-time best selling chamber music release of Japan, 11 Grammy nominations, 2 Grammy Awards, and “Best of the Year” awards from Time Magazine and Stereo Review. Of special interest to cellists are his recordings of the Dohnanyi Cello Sonata and the Cleveland Quartet’s recording of the Schubert two-cello quintet with Yo-Yo Ma. One of the world’s most prominent cello teachers and mentor of many of the world’s leading young string quartets, he teaches at The New England Conservatory of Music.
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 | Nokuthula Ngwenyama
Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s performances as orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician garner great attention. Gramophone proclaimed Ms. Ngwenyama’s playing as providing “solidly shaped music of bold, mesmerising character,” and the described her as playing “with dazzling technique in the virtuoso fast movements and deep expressiveness in the slow movements.” Ms. Ngwenyama came to international attention when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions at age 17. Plaudits followed her debut recitals in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center and in New York at the 92nd Street ‘Y’, and in 1997 she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has appeared with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Indianapolis Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she “fascinated on viola and violin during recital” (Washington Post) at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. and with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. In addition to her performance activities Ms. Ngwenyama served as visiting assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame in 2007. She joined the faculty of Indiana University as visiting associate professor in 2008 and serves as director of the prestigious Primrose International Viola Competition. Born in California of Zimbabwean-Japanese parentage, Ms. Ngwenyama graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music. As a Fulbright scholar she attended the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris and received a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University.
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 | Jose Serebrier
GRAMMY-winner conductor and composer José Serebrier is one of most recorded classical artists in history. He has received thirty-seven GRAMMY nominations in recent years. All his recent recordings have received multiple GRAMMY nominations. When José Serebrier was 21 years old, Leopold Stokowski hailed him as “the greatest master of orchestral balance”. After five years as Stokowski’s Associate Conductor at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Serebrier accepted an invitation from George Szell to become the Composer in Residence of the Cleveland Orchestra for Szell’s last two seasons. Szell discovered Serebrier when he won the Ford Foundation American Conductors Competition (together with James Levine). Serebrier has made international tours most major orchestras. “Serebrier Conducts Prokofiev, Beethoven and Tchaikowsky” filmed at the Sydney Opera, has been shown over 50 times on PBS. Serebrier conducted at the 2004 GRAMMY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, telecast live to 175 countries. Serebrier presently records for Naxos, BIS, Warner Classics, RPO Records and Sony/BMG. The French music critic Michel Faure has written a new book about José Serebrier, published recently in France by L’Harmattan. Serebrier’s first recording with the New York Philharmonic was released recently on Warner Classics, and his new recording with the London Symphony Orchestra, for Sonny Classical was also recently released. In April 2010, Serebrier conducts the Rostropovich International Festival in Moscow, with the Russian National Orchestra. It will be recorded live by Warner Classics.
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 | Joel Smirnoff
Conductor, violinist and eminent pedagogue Joel Smirnoff joined the Juilliard String Quartet in 1986 and has performed on four continents with the group since that time. Mr. Smirnoff replaced Robert Mann as first violinist of the quartet in 1997. In addition to his Grammy-nominated SONY disks with the Juilliard Quartet, Mr. Smirnoff also has an extensive catalog of solo recordings, including the world premiere recordings of numerous 20th century works by diverse composers such as Louis Gruenberg and Joan Tower. Mr. Smirnoff has served on the chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School since 1986 and on the violin faculty since 1989. Mr. Smirnoff was Co-Chair of the Violin Faculty from 1992 until 1997, then Chair from 1997 until the present. Mr. Smirnoff’s involvement at The Juilliard School has been complete: he has spoken and performed at many fundraisers, served on the Faculty Council and Doctoral Committee and been involved in many key decision-making processes concerning policy and planning. Serving as Head of String Studies at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts, US, from 1995-2000, Mr. Smirnoff also participated in the String Quartet Seminar, and was part of the planning team at the Tanglewood Music Center during those years. He has served as chamber music coach from 1983 until the present. In recent years, Mr. Smirnoff has become a much sought-after conductor. Mr. Smirnoff studied conducting with Gustav Meier and with composer Ralph Shapey. In 2008 Mr. Smirnoff was appointed president of the Cleveland Institue of Music.
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