Ayano Ninomiya is a Japanese-American violinist and a winner of both the Naumburg International Violin Competition and Tibor Varga International Competitions.
Ninomiya was born in Takamatsu, Japan, [1] and moved to the United States when she was one. She is a graduate of Harvard College, from which she obtained music and French degrees while studying with Michele Auclair and Miriam Fried. She then was awarded the David McCord Prize there as well winning the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. Later, she obtained a master's degree from the Juilliard School, where she was under the guidance of Robert Mann. She also was mentored by coaches Michele Auclair, Miriam Fried, Hyo Kang, András Keller, Robert Levin, and Marylou Speaker Churchill.
She has performed with such quartets as Daedalus, Formosa, and the Momenta in both Singapore and China, across Europe, and throughout the United States, and was a member of the TinAlley String Quartet of Australia. She also was a frequent music festival participant and appeared in such events as the Bridgehampton, the Caramoor, the Olympic, and many others. [2] She also played violin at the National Gallery of Art and Lincoln Center and performed at places as diverse as Bethlehem, Boston, Columbia, Denton, Philadelphia, the US Capitol, and Tokyo's university, where she talked on TEDx in 2012. In 2010, she became first violinist of the Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. She has recorded three CDs with the Ying Quartet. When not performing, Ayano Ninomiya is a Kokikai practitioner and plays a 2010 violin by living maker Mario Miralles. [3]
She placed second in the Violin Competition of 2003 sponsored by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. [4]
Robert Nathaniel Mann was a violinist, composer, conductor, and founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, as well as a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Mann, the first violinist at Juilliard, served on the school's string quartet for over fifty years until his retirement in 1997.
Anahid Marguerite Ajemian was an American violinist of Armenian descent. Her career in contemporary music began from her desire to help young composers of her generation get their compositions performed. Additionally, she enjoyed performing the music of established contemporary composers. She included these composers with the traditional repertoire in her performances.
Leonidas Kavakos is a Greek violinist and conductor. He has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation scholar. He has also recorded for record labels such as Sony/BMG and BIS. As a conductor, he was an artistic director of the Camerata Salzburg and has been a guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Wilma Smith is a Fijian-born violinist. She was born in Suva, Fiji and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. She has been concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and co-concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia from 2003-2014. She plays a 1761 Guadagnini violin.
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. Founded in 1925, it operates the prestigious Naumburg Competition.
The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet. The Ying siblings, from Winnetka, Illinois, formed the quartet in 1988 while studying at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The quartet began performing in the small town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts Chamber Music Rural Residencies Program. The original members of the quartet were Timothy and Janet Ying (violins), Phillip Ying (viola), and David Ying (cello). In April 2009, Timothy Ying announced his departure from the ensemble. In 2009, Frank Huang became the first violinist of the Ying Quartet. When Huang left the quartet in 2010 to assume the position of concertmaster of the Houston Symphony, Ayano Ninomiya was appointed first violinist of the Ying Quartet. Ayano Ninomiya was, in turn, replaced by violinist Robin Scott in 2015.
Frank Xin Huang is a Chinese-born American violinist and teacher. Since 2015 he has been the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Previous to his position in New York, Huang was the first violinist of the Ying Quartet and a professor of violin and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music, then served as the concertmaster of the Houston Symphony from 2010 to 2015. He has won several international music competitions, most notably the 2003 Naumburg Competition. Huang has concertized widely as a soloist, and his debut recording on Naxos was critically acclaimed.
Martha Strongin Katz is a violist and member of the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she teaches viola and chamber music. She was a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet, along with her former husband, Paul Katz (cellist), and Peter Salaff and Donald Weilerstein (violinists). From 1969 until her departure from the group in 1980, she performed more than 1,000 concerts, including appearances at the White House, the Grammy Awards, on the NBC Today Show, and in the major concert halls of five continents.
The Carmel Quartet is a string quartet based in Israel. The quartet curates and self-produces its flagship lecture-presentation series "Strings and More" which features great chamber works given within a historic and literary context. Members of the quartet are Rachel Ringelstein and Tali Goldberg, violins, Yoel Greenberg viola, and Tami Waterman, cello.
Andor John Toth was an American classical violinist, conductor and educator with a musical career spanning over six decades. Toth played his violin on the World War II battlefields of Aachen, Germany; performed with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini in 1943 at age 18; and formed several chamber music ensembles, including the Oberlin String Quartet, the New Hungarian Quartet, and the Stanford String Quartet. For 15 years he was the violinist in the Alma Trio. Toth conducted orchestras in Cleveland, Denver and Houston. In 1969, he was the founding concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Neville Marriner. Toth taught at five important colleges and universities, and recorded for Vox, Decca Records and Eclectra Records.
Jennifer Frautschi is an American violinist. A recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, she is currently Artist-in-Residence at Stony Brook University. She plays a 1722 Antonio Stradivari violin known as the "ex-Cadiz," on loan from a private American foundation.
Joseph Genualdi is an American violinist.
Nancy Zhou is a Chinese-American classical violinist. She has performed as a soloist in recital and with orchestras throughout the world. Zhou has been a prizewinner in several major competitions, including first prizes in the 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and the 2018 International Music Competition Harbin.
Miriam Fried is a Romanian-born Israeli classical violinist and pedagogue.
Carol Wincenc born June 29, 1949, is an American flutist based in New York City. She is known for her solo and chamber music performances and her support of new music for the flute. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University.
The New World String Quartet was a classical music string quartet formed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, in 1975 and active through the early 1990s. Founding members were: Yosef Yankelev and William Patterson, violins; Yuri Vasilaki, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello. These were also the members in a 1981 Minnesota Public Radio interview and performance. As of 1983, members were: Curtis J. Macomber and William Patterson, violins; Robert Dan, viola; and Ross T. Harbaugh, cello. These are also the members listed on the quartet's recording of Ben Johnston's String Quartet No. 6. As of 1985, members were: Curtis Macomber and Vahn Armstrong, violins; Robert Dan, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello. Members on recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s included Curtis Macomber and Vahn Armstrong, violins; Benjamin Simon, viola; and Ross Harbaugh, cello. The quartet also recorded a Brahms piano quintet with Derek Han, piano.
Mary Ruth Ray (1956–2013) was an internationally known classical musician who received critical acclaim throughout the United States, Europe and Russia.
Virgil Boutellis-Taft is a French violinist.
Tessa Lark is an American concert violinist.
Anna Ji-eun Lee, known professionally as Anna Lee, is an American concert violinist of Korean descent. She made her professional orchestral debut at the age of 6 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.