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Photo Gallery May '07

2007 Artist Bios

Ethan Sloane, clarinet
Artistic Director of the Music Festival
Mr. Sloane enjoys a prominent career as performer, teacher, and arts administrator. As soloist and recitalist he has appeared extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Much in demand in chamber music, Mr. Sloane is co-founder and artistic director of the Hampden-Sydney Music Festival, where he appears regularly and has produced recordings both on CD and for National Public Radio. His devotion to the extensive solo and chamber music literature for clarinet has earned critical acclaim, and his editions of masterworks by Brahms and Mozart have received wide acceptance. A prize-winner in numerous competitions, he has been an artist-participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, and is the founder of a seminar for clarinetists at Tanglewood that has attracted international attention. Following appointments in New York, Iowa, British Columbia ( Canada), West Virginia, and Maryland, in 1984 Mr. Sloane accepted a position on the clarinet and chamber music faculty of Boston University’s College of Fine Arts.

James Kidd, piano
Executive Director of the Music Festival
While a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, Mr. Kidd was pianist with Ralph Shapey’s Contemporary Chamber Players. Later he performed as a member of the Delaware Trio, the Wilmington Friends of Music, and the Diachronos Ensemble of Philadelphia. He performed for twenty-one years as a member of the Buffet Trio with clarinetist Stuart Best and French-system bassoonist Charles Holdeman. His research on Bartók and Hungarian folk music led him to Hungary where he also studied the magyar bagpipe and peasant flute. Mr. Kidd is Barger Professor of Music at Hampden-Sydney College.

Edward Auer, piano
After three and a half years at the Juilliard School and a Fulbright Grant in Paris, Mr. Auer was winning prizes in international competitions, including the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and beginning a successful concert career. He has since appeared nearly all over the world and has made numerous solo and chamber recordings. He is known as one of the leading Chopin interpreters of his generation, and he has served on the juries of numerous competitions, including the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He teaches on the piano faculty of Indiana University.

Paul Bedell, double bass
Mr. Bedell is Principal Double Bass of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and he teaches at the University of Richmond. For five years he performed in the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Festival Orchestras. Mr. Bedell has appeared with the Shanghai String Quartet, the Richmond Chamber Players, the Oberon String Quartet, and ChamberFest among many others. He is also an accomplished naturalist.

Paul Ostrovsky, piano
Mr. Ostrovsky, born in Moscow, earned his master’s degree as a student of Yakov Flier at the Moscow Conservatory where he was the founding member of the Moscow Conservatory Trio. He has since forged an international career as recitalist, as soloist with orchestra, and as a pianist with a special gift for chamber music. He has performed on the major stages of the U.S. and Europe, and at major international festivals including Salzburg , Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, and Aspen. His recording with Shlomo Mintz of the Mendelssohn Sonatas for Violin and Piano won the annual Gramophone award for chamber music. He teaches at Purchase College-State University of New York.

Michelle Perry, French horn
Ms. Perry is a member of the Empire Brass Quintet which has toured extensively in the U.S. and abroad. In 2000, she won the Houston Symphony’s Ima Hogg International Solo Competition. She has performed with major orchestras and at international festivals, conventions, and workshops, including Aspen, Tanglewood, and most recently, the Melbourne International Festival of Brass. Ms. Perry, a Yamaha artist, has recorded on RCA Victor, Telarc, and Summit Records.

Stephen Walt, bassoon
Stephen Walt is Artist-Teacher of Bassoon at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he became a member of the woodwind faculty in 1999. Additionally, he is Director of Woodwind Chamber Music at Williams College. Mr. Walt is principal bassoonist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra and the Berkshire Bach Ensemble and is a member of the Avanti Wind Quintet. As a free-lance musician he has performed with orchestras, opera companies and chamber music ensembles throughout the eastern United States and in the Caribbean, including performances with the Leontovych and Muir String Quartets. Mr. Walt has been guest artist at the Monadnock, Musicorda and Hampden-Sydney (VA) Festivals, the Music Williamstown Chamber Concerts series and has served as faculty bassoonist at the Chamber Music conference of the East. His primary teachers were Sherman Walt and Arthur Weisburg. He has recorded for CRI, Decca, Gasparo, Nonesuch and Albany Records. Mr. Walt plays on a Heckel bassoon made in 1958 for his father, Sherman Walt, the eminent former principal bassoonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The instrument is nicknamed “The Brussels” as it was exhibited at the 1958 World’s Fair in that city as an example of German artisanship.

The Amernet String Quartet
Misha Vitenson & Marcia Littley de Arias, violins,
Michael Klotz, viola, Javier Arias, cello
The Amernet, quartet-in-residence at Florida International University, gained international attention by winning the Gold Medal at the Tokyo International Music Competition in 1992, followed three years later by winning first prize at the 5th Banff International String Quartet Competition. With its intense performance schedule of concerts and residencies in the U.S. and abroad, the Amernet also enjoys collaborations with other quartets, including the Tokyo, the St. Lawrence, and the Ying, and with major artists, including Ida Kavafian, Anton Kuerti, and Nathaniel Rosen among others. The Amernet’s support of new music through commissioned pieces, performances, and recordings, and working closely with composers such as John Corigliano and Grammy-winner Mike Reid, is equally impressive.

Shanghai String Quartet
Weigang Li, violin, Yi-Wen Jiang, violin, Honggang Li, viola,
Nicholas Tzavaras, cello
Since an immensely successful New York debut in 1987, critics and public alike now place the Shanghai Quartet in the highest echelon of the international string quartet world. The quartet appears annually in major American cities and follows an extensive international itinerary. Its recordings consistently receive the highest praise from critics. Recently, it became quartet-in-residence at Montclair State University.