Lark Chamber Artists
Core Artists:

Astrid Schween, Cello
Astrid Schween has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In recent seasons, she has appeared as concerto soloist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and with the orchestras of the University of the South, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Ohio University.

In addition to her work with the Lark Quartet, Miss Schween performs regularly with pianist Gary Hammond as the Schween-Hammond Duo, and with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in New York and on tour throughout the world. She serves as frequent juror/panelist in competitions at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music, Concert Artists Guild, Chamber Music America and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference, and has conducted master classes in cello and chamber music at conservatories and universities across the country. Miss Schween is a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, the School for Strings, the New York Youth Symphony, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival and was recently appointed Visiting Professor of Cello at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she succeeds cellist, Matt Haimovitz.

As a member of the world-renowned Lark Quartet since 1989, Miss Schween has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series, the Kennedy Center, London's Wigmore Hall, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Lockenhaus,, the Beethoven Festival in Moscow and many other prestigious venues. Among the numerous awards garnered by the Lark Quartet in international competition are the 1991 Shostakovich Gold Medal in Russia and the 1990 Naumburg Chamber Music Award in New York. Miss Schween's discography includes more than one dozen CDs with the Lark Quartet for Arabesque, Decca/Argo, Point, CRI and New World labels. She has also participated in numerous recordings of chamber music, works for cello and piano and will be releasing a solo album in 2005. Astrid Schween began her cello studies at age seven with Dr, H.T. Ma and shortly thereafter entered the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. She was invited to study at the Paris Conservatory as well as the Curtis Institute, but remained at Juilliard until the completion of her Bachelors and Masters degrees as a student of Harvey Shapiro, Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. From ages sixteen to twenty-two, she enjoyed an intensive series of lessons in London with cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, arranged for her by Zubin Mehta, after he presented Miss Schween as soloist with the New York Philharmonic as winner of the Young Peoples Concerts Competition. Other major teachers included Bernard Greenhouse, Ardyth Alton, Eugene Moye, and Scott Ballantyne. Miss Schween also spent many summers at the Meadowmount School of Music and the Marlboro Music Festival, and was twice a winner of the Juilliard Cello Prize.

Core Artists
Deborah Buck, Violin
Harumi Rhodes, Violin
Kathryn Lockwood, Viola
Astrid Schween, Cello
Todd Palmer, Clarinet
Yousif Sheronick, Percussion
Stephen Salters, Baritone

Special Guest Artists
Kenneth Cooper, Harpshichord / Fortepiano
Gary Graffman, Piano
Jeremy Denk, Piano
Ethos Percussion Group