2009 Season of MSCM

2009 Concert Program (pdf)

2009 Musicians

Jacob Adams, viola

A native of Cincinnati, violist Jacob Adams made his solo debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 17. As a chamber musician, he has concertized extensively throughout the US and abroad, including performances with members of the Muir, St. Lawrence and St. Petersburg String Quartets and on the historical instruments at the Smithsonian. He has worked with members of the Cleveland, Concord, Juilliard, Pacifica, Takcas, and Tokyo Quartets. From 2007-2009, he was violist of the Vinca Quartet, with whom he won special mention at the 2008 Borciani International Quartet Competition in Italy and co-founded the New Haven-based non-profit organization Music Haven. Prior to that, as violist of the Erato Quartet, he won top prize at the 2001 Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Jacob has held teaching positions at Yale University, coached at numerous festivals and regularly leads pre-concert talks and contributes program notes to many concert series. A graduate of Oberlin and Yale, his principal teachers include the late Jesse Levine, Roger Chase, Roland Vamos, Masao Kawasaki and Catharine Carroll. In the fall of 2009, Jacob will begin DMA and musicology studies at UC-Santa Barbara. He is an avid bowler, hiker and traveler.

 

Estelle Choi, cello

A native of Calgary, Alberta, Estelle Choi began her musical studies under the tutelage of John Kadz at the Mount Royal College Conservatory. Even at an early age, Estelle began to show promise as a cellist with her numerous awards at the local, provincial and national level. Estelle has taken many first prizes in the Calgary Kiwanis Festival, the Alberta Provincial Music Festival, the Calgary Concerto Competition, and the Canadian Music Competition. As a chamber musician, she has been a member of numerous ensembles that have been awarded first prize at the Alberta Provincial Festival as well as the Canadian Music Competition. Estelle has participated in such programs as the Morningside Music Bridge in Calgary, Banff Centre for the Arts Chamber Music, Masterclass and Orchestra residencies, Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, Pacific Music Festival String Quartet Course held in Sapporo, Japan as well as Yellow Barn. Estelle has recently completed her Certificate in Performance at the Yale School of Music with Professor Aldo Parisot and now continues her studies with Professor Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.

 

Miki-Sophia Cloud, violin

Miki-Sophia Cloud has appeared at the Kennedy Center and Boston Symphony Hall, the Salzburg Mozarteum, and on National Public Radio. Recent performances include Barber’s Violin Concerto under Maestro Peter Oundjian, Berio duets with Ani and Ida Kavafian at Lincoln Center, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins with Curtis Macomber, and a debut at the 2009 Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City. A graduate of Harvard College, where she earned a double degree in English Literature and Music, Miki was awarded the George Peabody Gardner fellowship upon graduation, which granted her the opportunity to study at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Philharmonic Concertmaster Rainer Küchl. Miki recently completed her master’s studies with Ani Kavafian at the Yale School of Music, where she won first prize in the Concerto Competition and served as a concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia. She is currently a doctoral candidate under Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory of Music.

 

Sage Cole, violin

A native of Massachusetts, Sage Cole received her BA in music, summa cum laude, from Barnard College, and her MM in violin performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the first violinist of the Graduate Fellowship Quartet. She has studied at the Manhattan School of Music, and the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan; her major teachers include Curtis Macomber, and David Perry. Sage has been a member of the Madison Symphony, the Madison Ballet, the Madison Opera orchestras, and has performed with the Vinca Quartet. A founding member of the Hudson Quartet, Sage also performs with the Calhoun Chamber Players and is on the faculty at the Calhoun School, and the Diller-Quaile School of Music.

 

Momoko Matsumura, violin

Originally from Japan, Momoko Matsumura started playing the violin at age 7. She graduated from Kyoto City University of the Arts where she earned her B.A. and M.A. in Music Performance. Recently, Momoko finished her M.A. and Artist Diploma at Montclair State University in New Jersey with Prof. Yi-Wen Jiang from Shanghai String Quartet. Ms. Matsumura has been invited to many music festivals as a full scholarship student including National Orchestra Institute, Kent/Blossom Music festival and National youth Orchestra in Holland. Also she is the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, including The Shanghai String Quartet Scholarship. Ms. Matsumura is the winner of the MSU concert competition in 2005. She is currently a member of the New Haven Symphony and Hartford Symphony, among the other ensembles around Tri Sate area.

 

Verena Sennekamp, cello

Verena Sennekamp, a laureate of the New England Chamber Music Competition 2008 recently graduated from the Yale School of Music as a student of Aldo Parisot. She received a Bachelor’s degree at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam where she studied with Dmitri Ferschtman and holds a Diploma from Musikhochschule Karlsruhe. She has appeared at various international music festivals such as Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff, Accademia Chigiana Siena, Carl Flesch Akademie and London Masterclasses. Ms. Sennekamp’s recent engagements include solo and chamber music recitals in Stuttgart, Geneva, Cologne and Heidelberg. As a member of The Yale Cellos she has toured Korea and the United States and appeared several times at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Sennekamp regularly works with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

Caroline Shaw, violin and viola

Violinist Caroline Shaw lives in New York, where she appears regularly with classical ensembles and collaborates as both performer and composer with dance and theater. Currently she is on staff at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts as an accompanist for ballet and modern dance, following a term playing and teaching at Wesleyan University. Caroline received a BM cum laude from Rice, where she studied violin with Kathleen Winkler. She received an MM from Yale in 2007 and was a visiting fellow in the School of Music in 2009, in the Yale Baroque Ensemble under the direction of Robert Mealy. Other fellowships awarded include the Goliard and the infamous Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has spent summers playing chamber music at Kneisel Hall, Domaine Forget, and Kinhaven. Caroline is also a vocalist with Roomful of Teeth and the Trinity Wall Street Choir, and she currently studies with Jacqueline Horner of Anonymous 4.

 

Lorna Tsai, violin

Lorna Tsai began her studies at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston at the age of five. She was very involved in the large ensemble and chamber music programs while in high school, with her quartet being twice Semi-Finalists at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition Junior Division. Lorna went on to graduate with her Bachelor Degree in Violin Performance from Northwestern University and her Masters in Violin Performance from Yale University. Previous teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Roland and Almita Vamos and Ani Kavafian. In 2007, Lorna won a one-year position with the Louisville Orchestra for the 2007-2008 season. Lorna is currently a member of the New World Symphony, an orchestral academy located in Miami Beach, Florida. During the summers Lorna participates in music festivals that have included Spoleto Festival USA, Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival.