Berkshire Chamber Players Concert

Join us for an afternoon concert featuring Ariana Kim and Robyn Quinnett, violins; Marka Gustavsson, viola; Ronald Feldman, cello; Edwin Barker, bass; Bob Logan, piano. The music selection for this concert will be by composers Koussevitzky, Haydn, and Schubert.

To reserve a seat, email info@stockbridgelibrary.org or call 413-298-5501.

Gratitude to Jim & Cathy Daily, Evelyn Pascal and Patricia Edwina Flinn for generously sponsoring this concert series.

Ariana Kim – Noted by The New York Times for giving “the proceedings an invaluable central thread of integrity and stylishness,” violinist Ariana Kim made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Hall during her doctoral studies at Juilliard and is now a tenured a professor at Cornell University. At 16, Ariana made her debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and at 24 was appointed acting concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans; she has since become one of the most respected artists of her generation.

As a violinist of the Aizuri Quartet she was awarded the 2017 Osaka International Competition Grand Prize, the 2018 M-Prize, and a 2019 GRAMMY® nomination for the album Blueprinting. During her tenure, the ensemble served as a Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and presented recitals at Suntory Hall Tokyo, the University of Toronto, the Caramoor Center, National Sawdust, Princeton University, and the Kennedy Center. Equally devoted to contemporary and long-established literature, Ariana held a 10-year position with the New York new music ensemble Ne(x)tworks and is currently in her 17th season with The Knights; their 2016 recording …the ground beneath our feet… on which Ariana is a featured soloist alongside Guillaume Pirard in Steve Reich’s Duet, was chosen as NPR’s “Songs We Love” for the year.

Recently having returned from a sabbatical year in South Korea, Ariana spent seven months studying the gayageum (an ancient zither-style instrument), performing throughout the country, and presenting master classes at Seoul National University. Current season highlights include the premiere of a new double violin concerto by Laura Schwendinger with the Dubuque and Madison Symphonies, serving as the host for the live PBS broadcast of This Is Minnesota Orchestra, and a solo recital at The Clark Art Institute. Her upcoming solo album – exploring improvisation through the lens of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas alongside world folk music – is set for release in the fall of 2023.

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.

Marka Gustavsson – A dedicated chamber musician, violist Marka Gustavsson spent 3 summers as a Tanglewood Fellow, 1991-1993. Since that time, Marka has pursued a rich and varied performance life both internationally and in the US. She has been a guest artist at the Bard Music Festival, Mostly Mozart, Vancouver’s Music in the Morning, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, WQXR’s Showcase Concerts, Yale Faculty Artists’ Series, Eastman, and Banff. Marka has premiered and recorded solo and chamber music of composers John Halle, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, George Tsontakis, Martin Bresnick, Chard Wernick,
Laura Kaminsky, Tania Leon, and Tan Dun. From 1999 through 2014, Marka served as violist of the Colorado Quartet, a group that toured extensively and founded the Soundfest Quartet Festival on Cape Cod. Their Complete Beethoven Quartets are available on Parnassus Records.
As a teacher, Marka Gustavsson has given master classes at Yale, Eastman, Indiana University, Hartt, and Oberlin, and adjudicated competitions at Juilliard, Hartt, Yale, Astral Artists, and Banff. She has taught for several summers at the Yellow Barn YAP in Putney, VT. A graduate of Indiana University, Mannes College, and CUNY, her formative teachers include Joseph Gingold, Mimi Zweig, Felix Galimir, Michele Auclair, Viktor Liberman, Julius Levine, and Daniel Phillips.

Ms. Gustavsson is on the faculty at Bard College and Conservatory, where she performs with the Blithewood
Ensemble and also serves as Associate Director and Coordinator of Chamber Music.

Ronald Feldman – Two-time winner of the League of American Orchestras’ ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, Ronald
Feldman has achieved critical acclaim for his work as a conductor and cellist. He has appeared as guest conductor with major orchestras, including the
London Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, and the Quebec Symphony. He served as assistant to
Boston Pops Principal Conductor and composer John Williams from 1989 to 1993. Seiji Ozawa, Conductor Laureate of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
called Feldman “an outstanding conductor…with a deep musical mind, which is clearly conveyed through his performances.” John Williams regarded
Feldman as “a brilliant conductor who displays the best leadership qualities…and an outstandingly high level of musicianship that imbues his conducting
style with strength, taste, and imagination.” Feldman joined the Boston Symphony at the age of 19. He has appeared as a soloist in concerto repertoire from Dvořák to Ligeti. Chamber music affiliations have included performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Collage New Music, and the Williams Chamber Players. Other performances have included collaborations with violinist Gil Shaham, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianists Emanuel Ax and Garrick Ohlsson.
In 2001, Feldman left the Boston Symphony Orchestra to pursue other musical interests. He was appointed Music Director of Longwood Symphony
Orchestra in July 2012. He also serves as Music Director of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, a regional orchestra in residence at Williams College. He
is Artist in Residence and Lecturer in Music at Williams College.

BSO principal bass Edwin Barker has concertized in North America, Europe, and the Far East. He has performed and recorded with the BSO, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the contemporary music ensemble Collage, and is a frequent guest performer with the Boston Chamber Music Society. Barker gave the world premieres of James Yannatos’ Concerto for Contrabass and Chamber Orchestra — which was written especially for him — and of Theodore Antoniou’s Concertino for Contrabass and Chamber Orchestra. He was similarly the featured soloist in the New England premiere of Gunther Schuller’s Concerto for Double Bass and Chamber Orchestra. Barker graduated with honors in 1976 from New England Conservatory, where he studied double bass with Henry Portnoi. That same year, at age 22, while a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed principal double bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His other double bass teachers included Peter Mercurio, Richard Stephan, Angelo LaMariana, and David Perleman. Barker inaugurated the BSO’s 100th anniversary season with performances of Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Contrabass. Other solo engagements have included appearances at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and major universities and conferences throughout the world, as well as concerto performances with the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston and Europe. In July 1995 he was chosen by the late Sir Georg Solti to lead the bass section of the United Nations’ Musicians of the World, an ensemble made up of prominent musicians from the world’s finest orchestras. Barker is an associate professor at Boston University College of Fine Arts, where he teaches double bass, orchestral techniques, and chamber music. His other major teaching affiliations include the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center where he is chairman of instrumental and orchestral studies, and at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. His solo CDs include “Three Sonatas for Double Bass”; James Yannatos’ “Variations for Solo Contrabass,” and “Concerti for Double Bass,” which includes concertos by Gunther Schuller and Theodore Antoniou.

Bob Logan – Pianist and composer, Bob Logan, holds a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, studying under Meng-Chieh Liu. Originally from Wisconsin, he completed a bachelor’s degree in music and computer science and spent two years working full-time as a software engineer before deciding to pursue his lifelong calling and passion as a musician. A sensitive collaborator and in-demand accompanist, Logan is an Artist Associate in Collaborative Piano at Williams College. In early 2020 he joined the Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble on their European tour with performances in England, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. He was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow in 2015 and has won prizes in the NEC Piano Honors Competition, the Chicago College of Performing Arts Concerto Competition, and the UW-Madison Beethoven Competition. He currently runs a piano teaching studio in Canaan, NY.

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