The Musicians of 1807 & Friends

 

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NancyBean 2015 08 23 23 18 19 UTC

Nancy Bean, violin, became a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983 and was its Assistant Concertmaster from 1986 until 2009, when she retired to devote herself to chamber music. She is Artistic Director of 1807 & Friends and the Amerita Chamber Players, first violinist of the Wister Quartet and the Amerita Chamber Players, and violinist with the Casimir Trio, the Florian Trio, Trio Montage, Duo Paganini, and Duo Parisienne. 

A Seattle native, she is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jascha Brodsky and Felix Galimir. She has appeared as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Philharmonic, the Wheeling Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony and Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. 

She has performed in chamber concerts with Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Alicia de Larrocha, Radu Lupu, Yo-Yo Ma and Garrick Ohlsson. She has recorded with Koch International and Direct-to-Tape Records. Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra she was Assistant Concertmaster of the Santa Fe Opera Company. 

LloydSmithLloyd Smith, cello, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1967. He was named its assistant principal cello in 1988 and its acting associate principal cello in 2002. He retired in 2003 to devote himself to chamber music, composing, and lecturing. He is cellist with 1807 & Friends, the Wister Quartet, Casimir Trio, Trio Montage, the Florian Trio, and the Amerita Chamber Players. He is project leader of the Young Composers Project in the Philadelphia School District’s Office of Strategic Partnerships.” His lectures include “The Art of Fine Violinmaking,” “Niccolo Paganini — the First Superstar,” “So You Think You Can Dance the Chaconne,” and he is currently developing “Strange and Forgotten Musical Instruments.” A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, his teachers were Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole. He participated in the Marlboro Music Festivals, where he was coached by Pablo Casals and members of the Budapest String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio.


MeichenLiao BarnesMeichen Liao-Barnes is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School; her teachers were Yumi Ninomiya, Arnold Steinhardt, Ivan Galamian, and Dorothy Delay. 
 
She has performed with the Lincoln Chamber Players, the Brandenburg Festival, and has toured with Music from Marlboro. She has appeared in concert with Isadore Cohen, David Soyer, Felix Galimir, and Alexander Schneider. She teaches both privately and at Temple University.

 

PamelaFayPamela Fay, viola, is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she studied with Lorand Fenyves. She has studied with William Primrose and has been coached by members of the Hungarian String Quartet. She is a regular substitute with The Philadelphia Orchestra and is violist of 1807 & Friends, the Wister Quartet, the Amerita Chamber Players, and performs with the Philly Pops and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

MarcantonioBaroneMarcantonio Barone, piano, has given solo recitals in major concert halls in the United States and Europe. He has given the world premieres of works for piano by Ingrid Arauco, Richard Brodhead, David Finko, Ulysses Kay, Gerald Levinson, Philip Maneval, George Rochberg, Andrew Rudin, and Melinda Wagner. As a member of Orchestra 2001, he was the pianist for the first performances and recordings of the seven volumes of George Crumb’s American Songbook. He performs annually at the Delaware Chamber Music Festival and with the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, 1807 and Friends, and the Craftsbury Chamber Players. He is head of the piano department and assistant director at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and an Associate in Performance at Swarthmore College. He studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. His other teachers included Susan Starr and Leonard Shure.

Samuel CaviezelSamuel Caviezel, associate principal and E-flat clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, was born in Seattle and grew up in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. He began his clarinet studies with Laurie DeLuca of the Seattle Symphony, progressed through the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association, and spent his senior year of high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, studying with Deborah Chodacki. 

In 1992 he entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where he trained with then-Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Principal Clarinet Donald Montanaro. Upon graduation, he joined the Grand Rapids Symphony as principal clarinet, returning to Philadelphia two years later under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch. 

Mr. Caviezel has performed extensively both in and outside of the orchestra, most recently as a member of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble. When not performing or spending time with family and friends, he enjoys reading, camping, and unwinding with the occasional cigar. He is also currently an adjunct faculty member at Temple University.

Woodhams photoRichard Woodhams served as Principal Oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 1977 until his retirement in 2018. He appeared frequently as soloist with the Orchestra in a varied repertoire both in major cities in the US as well as in Asia in collaboration with  five different Music Directors, and additionally served as Principal Oboe with the World Orchestra for Peace, founded by Sir George Solti to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. 

He has also been a Guest Principal with the Chicago Symphony under Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Muti and, more recently, The Los Angeles Philharmonic with Michael Tilson Thomas. He has participated in the Festivals of Marlboro, The Pacific Music Festival in Japan, the Sommerfest of La Jolla, California, and played and taught at the Aspen Music Festival from 2000 to 2018.

He attended the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with John deLancie, and he taught oboe there from 1985 until 2021. As head of the Woodwind class there for much of his tenure, he also participated in assisting flutists, clarinetists, bassoonists and French Horn players to become contributing members of the Profession at its highest levels.

Currently, Mr. Woodhams’ former oboe students from both Curtis and Temple University occupy prominent positions in the Orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, The Metropolitan Opera, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Winnipeg, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among others. 

Throughout his career, he has been active in chamber music and has given premieres by the Composers Ellen Taafe Zwillich, Adam Wernick, Bernard Rands, Ned Rorem, Karl Kohn, Chuck Holdeman and William Bolcom. He has performed in a chamber capacity with numerous distinguished musicians including Barry Tuckwell, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Pahud, Benita Valente, Andre Watts, Christoph Eschenbach and Jean-Yves Thibaudet as well as with his many superlative Orchestral colleagues. 

Mr. Woodhams began his Orchestral career in 1969 when he was appointed Principal Oboe of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra by Walter Susskind. In August 2021 he served as Principal Oboe of the Taiwan Music Festival Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin.

Hai Ye Ni

Hai-Ye Ni joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as principal cello at the beginning of the 2006–07 season after having served as associate principal cello of the New York Philharmonic since 1999. During the 2010–11 season she was featured on a Philadelphia Orchestra concert as soloist in Tan Dun’s The Map, Concerto for Cello, Video, and Orchestra. She made her solo debut with the Orchestra in January 2010 in Saint-Saens’s Cello Concerto No. 1. She first came into prominence after her critically praised New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1991, a result of her winning first prize at the Naumburg International Cello Competition.

Born in Shanghai, China, Ms. Ni began cello studies with her mother and later studied at the Shanghai Conservatory. She continued her musical education with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory, Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School, and William Pleeth in London.Ms. Ni is a recording artist with Delos Music, Ondine, and Naxos.Her 1998 debut solo CD on the Naxos label was named CD of the week by Classic FM London.

Recent performance highlights include the Brahms “Double” Concerto, Beethoven’s “Triple” Concerto, and selections from John Williams’s Memoirs of a Geisha with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Additional performances include a Baroque concertos program with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra as soloist and conductor, and Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture with Lang Lang at Carnegie Hall. 

Among the ensembles with which she has appeared as soloist are the Chicago, San Francisco, Vancouver, Shanghai, Singapore, and Finnish Radio symphonies; the Orchestre National de Paris; the Vienna Chamber Orchestra; and the Hong Kong and China philharmonics. Her recital credits include the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Wallace Collection in London.

Ms. Ni is a recording artist with Delos Music, Ondine, and Naxos. Her CD Spirit of Chimes (Delos) is a collaboration with violinist Cho-Liang Lin and pianist Helen Huang of chamber music by Zhou Long. Ms. Ni is featured on an Ondine recording with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok. Her 1998 debut solo CD on the Naxos label was named CD of the week by Classic FM London.

A respected musician, Ms. Ni served on the jury of Finland’s V International Paulo Cello Competition in April 2013 and has given master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Mannes College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Central Conservatory in Beijing. She is currently on the faculty of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. Among her honors and awards are first prize in the 1996 International Paulo Cello Competition, second prize of the Rostropovich competition in 1997, and a 2001 Avery Fisher Career Grant.  



Allen KrantzComposer/guitarist Allen Krantz, a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory and Stanford University, has received critical acclaim as a composer, solo guitarist and chamber musician. He has performed in concert throughout the United States with appearances at Carnegie Hall, Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., with his diverse programs often featuring original compositions.

Recent pieces are “Sacred Places” for solo guitar; “A Musical Walk,” a children’s piece commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra; a symphony entitled “In the Air,” “Under One Roof” for trumpet, violin and piano in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “An American Town” for string orchestra, and a guitar concerto, “Innocence and Experience."

Mr. Krantz heads the guitar program of The New School Institute at Temple University and is a lecturer for The Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a member of the Dolce Suono Ensemble, Duo Paganini and the Florian Trio. His compositions are published by the Theodore Presser Co. and Falls House Press. His solo and chamber music arrangements are published by International Music. Allen Krantz has a number of recordings on the DTR label and has also recorded on the Albany and Crystal Records labels.

 

CynthiaRaim2Cynthia Raim, piano, who was unanimously chosen as the First Prize winner of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, has been acclaimed for her concerto and recital appearances throughout the United States and abroad. In summing up the performance that won Ms. Raim the coveted Clara Haskil prize, La Suisse (Geneva) noted that “Miss Raim showed a musical nature that has gone far beyond technical mastery: Without affectation, without useless bravado, Cynthia Raim has imprinted herself on us and cannot escape our admiration. Le Monde (Paris) called her “a new Clara Haskil.”Ms. Raim was the first recipient of the “Distinguished Artist Award” of The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, given for “outstanding achievement and artistic merit.” She has participated in many leading international music festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Meadow Brook, Grand Teton, Bard, Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Luzern and Montreux. Active in chamber music as well, Ms. Raim has appeared with the Guarneri String quartet, Vermeer String Quartet, and Johannes String Quartet among others. She has recorded for Gallo, Pantheon, and Connoisseur Society.A native of Detroit, Ms. Raim was the youngest soloist ever to perform a complete concerto with the Detroit Symphony. Before graduating in 1977 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Ms. Raim had won the Festorazzi Award for Most Promising Pianist at Curtis.

 
 

 

Anne Sullivan2014 Small

Anne Sullivan, harp, began her career as a concert harpist at age twelve when she appeared twice as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. A native of the Philadelphia area, she studied with Marilyn Costello, former Principal Harpist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and was awarded a Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music. She was principal harp of the Orchestra of the Pennsylvania Ballet and has been a member of the music theory faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music since 1982. She is a member of Duo Parisienne, The Liberty Strings, and Quartet Montage, which performs 1807 & Friends’ “Sounds of the Strings” interactive educational presentations and its “Young Composers Project” presentations in the Philadelphia School District.

JonathanBlumenfeldBefore joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1986, Jonathan Blumenfeld was principal oboe with the Savannah Symphony from 1981 to 1984 and played with the Concerto Soloists (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) from 1984 to 1986. He also participated in the Tanglewood, Blossom, and Spoleto festivals.

A native of New York City, Mr. Blumenfeld is a graduate of Haverford College and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of former Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe John de Lancie. He also attended Temple University where he studied with former Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Oboe Richard Woodhams.

Mr. Blumenfeld is currently on the faculty of Temple University.