Lark Chamber Artists
Guest Artists/Collaborators:

Lisa Lee, Violin
"Brilliant young violinist” [The Boston Phoenix] Lisa Lee has won numerous honors and awards including 1st prize in the 1998 International Sheffield Violin Competition, 2nd prize in the 1997 International Tadeusz Wronski Solo Violin Competition in Poland, 1st prize in the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto Competition, and 3rd prize in the 1992 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. Lisa made her solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 16, and also soloed with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the California Youth Symphony, the Fremont Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra da Camera at the San Domenico School. She has toured throughout the People’s Republic of China, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, and the United States, and has participated at numerous international festivals including Banff, Ravinia, Evian, International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Caramoor Rising Stars, and Marlboro, collaborating with Gary Graffman, Nobuko Imai, Andras Schiff, David Soyer, Donald Weilerstein, and Andres Diaz. As a member of Camerata Nordica, a chamber orchestra based in Sweden led by Terje Tønneson and Levon Chilingirian, Lisa tours throughout Scandinavia and the United States, with future engagements in Croatia and South America. She is also a founding member of The Lee Trio, with Angela Lee, cellist, and Melinda Lee Masur, pianist, performing throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. During the 2001 season,, Lisa toured throughout England and the US with the Mark Morris Dance Group as first violinist, premiering Morris’ newly choreographed work, the “V”, set to Schumann’s Piano Quintet. Born in San Francisco, Lisa began violin lessons at age five. She studied with Zaven Melikian in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory, and Arnold Steinhardt at the Curtis Institute of Music, her alma mater. Her other mentors have included David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music under the auspices of the Fulbright Commission, Donald Weilerstein, and Denes Zsigmondy. She plays on a Hungarian violin from 1878 by Samuel Nemessanyi and resides in New York City.

Marjorie Bagley, Violin
Marjorie Bagley, currently on the faculty of Ohio University, has served on the faculties of the Violinist Marjorie Bagley made her Lincoln Center concerto debut in 1997 with the Little Orchestra Society after beginning her performing career at the age of nine in her home state of North Carolina with the Asheville, Winston-Salem, and North Carolina Symphonies. Having graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in the first class of Pinchas Zukerman, she is active as a recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. Marjorie has also performed as soloist with the Utah Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphony, and the Washington Square Music Series. This summer she will make her concerto debut with the Brevard Music Festival Orchestra in Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Andres Diaz. She is also an active proponent for new music and has premiered works by Paul Chihara, David Noon, Nils Vigeland, and Judith Shatin. As first violinist and founding member of the Arcata String Quartet, Marjorie performed in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, London's Wigmore Hall, and across Western Europe and the United States. A touring member of the Community Concerts Series for two years, the Arcata Quartet played concerts across the United States, bringing chamber music to rural communities. Through her travels, Marjorie has had the opportunity to play with some of the great artists of our time including Pinchas Zukerman, Itzahk Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, members of the Guarneri, Emerson, American, Tokyo, and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as Charles Castleman, Andreas Cardenas, Roberto Diaz, Andres Diaz, Gail Niwa, Ani Kavafian, and Kenneth Cooper. Ms. Bagley can be heard on recordings for the VOX, New World and Summit labels.  Marjorie is the Co-Director of the Juniper Chamber Music Festival in Logan, Utah, which is becoming one of the most elite chamber music festivals in the nation. Artists have included Ms. Bagley and her husband (Michael Carrera), as well as Pinchas Zukerman, Joseph Kalichstein, Orli Shaham, Paul Rosenthal, Misha Amory, Paul Katz, Wu Han, Linda Chesis, Judith Ingolfsson, Andres Diaz, David Geber, and many other illustrious musicians. The festival has an active outreach component, taking music into the schools for all ages. Marjorie's teachers included Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, Stephen Shipps, and Joseph Gingold. She performs on a 1708 Grancino violin. Currently Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Ohio University and on faculty at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival (summer), Ms. Bagley has also taught at the Brevard Music Center, the Perlman Music Program, the Kinhaven Music School, the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Program, and has given masterclasses at many universities, including Carnegie-Mellon, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Indian University in Bloomington, the University of Michigan, Williams College, and the State University of New York Buffalo.  Marjorie Bagley performs on a Giovanni Grancino violin made in 1708.top

Eva Burmeister, Violin
Eva Burmeister, violinist, grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia where she began violin lessons at age 7. At 14, Ms. Burmeister moved to Boston, Massachussettes to obtain musical training at the New England Conservatory of Music. Ms. Burmeister was one of the first students to complete the prestigious Juilliard/Columbia joint program where she received a BM from The Juilliard School as a student of Joel Smirnoff while simultaneously completing a BA from Columbia University in Art History. While in the joint program, Ms. Burmeister was a rotating concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble for contemporary music. She continued on at Juilliard in the Masters program while teaching classical music in New York City public schools as a Morse Fellow. From 1995-1999, Ms. Burmeister received a full scholarship to study at the Apsen Music Festival where she was the first recipient of the Time Warner Prize. In the winter of 1999, Aspen selected Ms. Burmeister to travel to Japan to represent the festival in recital and masterclass. In 2000, Ms. Burmeister was the first American woman to win a position in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Germany where she was a member for six years. While in Leipzig, Ms. Burmeister was a frequent guest with Ensemble Modern with whom she toured Europe and the Neuisches Bachisches Collegium, a conducterless group specializing in Baroque music. Ms. Burmeister was also a member of the Leipziger Sinfonietta, a 13-member contemporary ensemble. As a chamber musician, Ms. Burmeister performed regularly in the Gewandhaus chamber series. Since returning to the United States in 2006, Ms. Burmeister joined the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and plays frequently with The Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the New England Baroque Soloists. As a chamber musician, Ms. Burmeister can be heard on the Berlin Classics and MDR Figaro (Mitte Deutschland Radio) labels. top

Gary Hammond, Piano
Pianist Gary Hammond has been praised in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America as a recitalist and chamber musician of the first rank. The New York Times has described his playing as “eloquent-a strong feeling of musical expression and intelligent thought”. Mr. Hammond’s performances have taken him to Glazunov Hall in the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Russia; the Musikdagar Festival in Sweden; the Auditorio Nacional in Costa Rica. He has appeared at Weill Hall and Merkin Hall in New York; Ordway Hall, St. Paul; Boston’s Gardner Museum; Glenn Memorial Hall, Atlanta; Meany Hall, Seattle; the Hochschule in Munich, and Hong Kong’s City Hall. He has been heard on New York’s WQXR, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and on live broadcasts from WNYC and Radio 4 Hong Kong. Mr. Hammond performs regularly with the acclaimed cellist Astrid Schween as part of the Schween-Hammond Duo, and is a member of the New York based Lark Chamber Artists. Other recent collaborations include the opening the Young Concert Artists series at the Morgan Library in Manhattan with soprano Marvis Martin and baritone Randall Scarlata, and the complete piano and violin sonatas of Beethoven with violinist Frank Almond for the New York chapter of the American Beethoven Society. A recording at WQXR of a Paquito d’ Rivera piece with flutist Marina Piccinini resulted in an invitation to perform on d’ Rivera’s set at the Blue Note. A native of Seattle, Mr. Hammond is a graduate of the University of Washington and the Juilliard School. His teachers include Randolph Hokanson, Bela Siki, Josef Raieff and Herbert Stessin. He is on the faculties of Hunter College, City University of New York; the Graduate Center, CUNY; and the Sewanee Music Festival, University of the South. He has served as Artist-in-Residence at Emory University, and has appeared at other festivals including the Academies Internacionales du Grand Nancy, France; Musiques en Mer, Italy; Musikdagar, Sweden; the Colorado College Music Festival, the Hot Springs Music Festival, Arkansas; and the Oregon Coast Music Festival. Mr. Hammond has recorded for the Altarus and Partita labels; the American Record Guide commented on his all-Brahms disc with cellist Astrid Schween and clarinetist John Marco, “…this is a fantastic release, with performances at or near the top of the list. Do search out this recording-it is outstanding.” His release on the Naxos label of the Celebre Tarantelle by Gottschalk and other Creole Romantic pieces has also received critical acclaim. Mr. Hammond has been a frequent participant in the Friends and Enemies of New Music series in Manhattan, has collaborated with the American Composer’s Orchestra, with singer Marni Nixon and actresses Claire Bloom and Luise Rainer.
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Core Artists
Deborah Buck, Violin
Harumi Rhodes, Violin
Kathryn Lockwood, Viola
Astrid Schween, Cello
Todd Palmer, Clarinet
Yousif Sheronick, Percussion

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

Guest Artists/Collaborators
Lisa Lee, Violin
Marjorie Bagley, Violin *
Eva Burmeister, Violin
Gary Hammond, Piano

* Baroque Program