Berkshire Chamber Players Concert

Join us for an afternoon of lovely music by composers Bloch, Boccherini, Smit, and Dvorak.

Please call the Library at 413-298-5501 to reserve a seat.

Robyn Quinnett and Miguel Perez, violins

Ed Gazouleas, viola; Robbie Hausmann, cello

Jeffrey Miller, guitar

Robyn Quinnett was born on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean and began playing violin at eight years old. She has won several competitions including the National Mariam Hayes and Ruth Kern Competitions.
Robyn earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School studying with Naoko Tanaka and the late Stephen Clapp. In 2019, Robyn completed her DMA from Stony Brook University studying with Hagai Shaham. She has attended the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado College Music Festival, and Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. She has performed with ensembles such as the American Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, and has recently joined Opera Philadelphia. Robyn is now the violin professor at Smith College.

Miguel Pérez-Espejo Cárdenas is recognized as “an extraordinary violinist with an outstanding ability to interpret from the heart” (Aaron Rosand), “a very strong leader, a magnificent soloist, with a beautiful tone, impeccable intonation and rhythm, wonderful musicianship and artistic sensibility” (Stanislaw Skrowaczewski), whose performances have
been praised as “extremely impressive, […] of exceptional expressive depth” (Geoffrey Norris, Chief Music Critic, The Daily Telegraph, UK.)
Dr. Pérez-Espejo concertizes throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, and has released solo CDs for RTVE MÚSICA, including the first Spanish recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto. He has performed with distinguished artists such as Lluís Claret, Roberto Díaz, James Dunham, James Buswell, Laurence Lesser, Colin Carr, and principal players and members of the Boston Symphony and Cleveland orchestras. Together with his wife, violinist Hsin-Lin Tsai, he is a member of the acclaimed L’Étoile Violin Duo and Co-Artistic Director of the multi-disciplinary The Renewal Series. Recent and upcoming engagements include residencies, master classes, and collaborations with composers Augusta Read Thomas, Chihchun Chi-Sun Lee, John MacDonald and Kareem Roustom, whose work “Reflections & Refractions” was written for and premiered by L’Étoile Violin Duo. In addition to his solo and chamber music activity, he performs with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, working with the great conductors of our time, including Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Gustavo Dudamel and Andris Nelsons.
A Fulbright Scholar, member of the Honor Music Society of the United States and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Spain, winner at The OlgaKoussevitzky International Competition, Dr. Pérez-Espejo is also the recipient of the Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Award, the Theodore Presser Award, and the New England Conservatory’s Chadwick Medal, among other honors. A pupil of the legendary Aaron Rosand, his teachers include Michèle Auclair, Eric Rosenblith, and Pina Carmirelli, founding leader of I Musici.

Dr. Pérez-Espejo’s doctoral dissertation, Pablo Sarasate: The Violinist, is the first in-depth violinistic study of the Spanish virtuoso’s playing and his dimension in the history of violin playing. As a pedagogue, he is on faculty at the New England Conservatory Expanded Education, and is affiliated faculty at Tufts and Harvard universities. He has been guest artist in residencies and master classes in the US and abroad, most recently Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan. His students have won numerous competitions, perform as soloists in the U.S. and abroad, and have gone on to study at institutions such as the Cleveland Institute of Music and Princeton University. For more information, click here

Violist Ed Gazouleas has emerged as one of the finest teachers of his generation and his students now populate the viola sections of many orchestras globally. Mr. Gazouleas was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 24 years, where he held the Lois and Harlan Anderson Viola Chair and often led the viola section. While in Boston, he was active in orchestra governance, chairing the orchestra’s artistic advisory committee. As a chamber music performer, Mr.Gazouleas has appeared with members of the Fine Arts, Pacifica, Muir, Lydian, and Johannes string quartets, among others. A prize-winner at the Eighth International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France, he has also collaborated with such artists as Christian Tetzlaff, Stephanie Blythe, Roberto Díaz, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and the principal string players of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Mr. Gazouleas works to expand and promote new works for the viola. In 2019 he performed the North American premiere of Letters from Warsaw by English composer Joseph Phibbs. He has also served on the faculties of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music as a tenured professor, Boston University College of Fine Arts, Boston Conservatory, Wellesley College, and New England Conservatory. Mr. Gazouleas is a 1984 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied viola with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. He joined the Curtis faculty in 2017and was named the Gie and Lisa Liem Artistic Director in 2021 and Provost in 2022. Mr. Gazouleas was recently named the Director of The Tanglewood Music Center.

Robbie Hausmann enjoyed a 43-year tenure with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied at the Juilliard School with Harvey Shapiro and at the Eastman School of Music with Paul Katz of the Cleveland Quartet. Over the years, he has developed an extensive repertoire of music by Jewish composers. He plays a Carlo Antonio Testore cello, made in 1710.

A founding member of the Great Lakes Guitar Quartet, the Kithara Guitar Trio, and Modina Duo, Jeffrey Miller has performed and given master classes throughout the United States and Canada including the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society, Wilkes University, and the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society. Miller has appeared as a featured soloist with the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Pops, Orchestra Toronto, and the Nazareth College Symphony Orchestra.
After receiving a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the Hartt School, Miller taught at a number of private secondary schools in New England. As Chair of the Performing Arts at Avon Old Farms School, Miller established the instrumental music program teaching Music Theory, Jazz Band, Chamber Ensemble, and Guitar classes.
Miller joined the music faculty of Nazareth College and Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY, and later taught guitar and guitar ensemble at Stonehill College in Easton, MA after completing his doctoral degree residency at the Eastman School of Music in classical guitar performance and literature. Miller is currently a member of the music department at Williams College and manages the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra. He continues to perform when not
dog sledding or making maple syrup.

Share & Save This Event