Manchester Music Festival Staff
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Ariel Rudiakov Artistic Director Young Artists Program Director Faculty: Young Artists Program, Michael Rudiakov Music Academy Ariel Rudiakov has been Artistic Director of Manchester Music Festival since 2001. He is active as both violist and conductor. Among many professional affiliations, he is currently a member of the New York Piano Quartet along with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and piano staff, and is Music Director and conductor of the Danbury (CT) Symphony Orchestra. Rudiakov received degrees from SUNY Purchase and the University of Illinois, and was a scholarship student at Yale University. Among recent activities, he has performed chamber music with the Shanghai quartet, Williams Chamber Players, the Corinthian Trio and was guest conductor for the Antara Ensemble in NYC. Ariel resides in Manchester, VT and Yonkers, NY with his wife, violinist Joana Genova and their two children, Michael and Liliana. He plays a viola made by Geoffrey Ovington in 2000. |
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Joy Slusarek Business and Projects Manager A graduate of Syracuse University, Joy worked for 15 years in the music industry for Universal Music Distribution before joining the MMF team in 2011. Joy manages marketing and special projects efforts, along with supervising the administrative office. Outside the Festival, Joy serves on the Rupert Selectboard, the Bennington County Regional Technology Commission, and the Vermont Quality of Life Committee. She also is a Dorset Playhouse volunteer and has been a Vermont Reading Partner at Manchester Elementary School. |
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Heidi French Administrative Assistant Heidi joined Manchester Music Festival in 2011 and provides general office support. She is a graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle. She currently sits on Board of Directors for her local school district. Heidi resides in Sunderland with her husband Jon and their two children. |
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Joana Genova Education Director Faculty: Young Artists Program, Michael Rudiakov Music Academy Violinist Joana Genova, Artist Associate at Williams College has an active career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher and soloist. She began playing violin at the age of six in her native Bulgaria and made her solo debut at the age of twelve with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra. She is a prizewinner of the National Competition in Bulgaria and has appeared as soloist with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra and Shumen Philharmonic. Ms. Genova received her Bachelor of Music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and her Masters degree in chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Her teachers have included Peter Brunt, Ilya Grubert and Prof. Samuel Thaviu. In Holland, Ms. Genova was concertmaster of the Amsterdam Bach Consort and a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Since 2000, Ms. Genova has lived in the US where she is the principal second violin of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, concertmaster of the Manchester Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. She on the summer faculty at the Manchester Music Festival and teaches violin at the Michael Rudiakov Music Academy in Vermont. Ms. Genova is active as chamber musician for the Manchester Music Festival and the Williams Chamber Players. Her collaborations include performances with the Shanghai String Quartet, Andres Cardenes, Nathaniel Rosen, Michael Rudiakov,Yehuda Hanani, Ruth Laredo, Davide Cabassi, David Deveau, Adam Neiman and David Krakauer among others. Ms. Genova has performed as a soloist with Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan, Rockaway and Danbury Symphonies, Berkshire Symphony and Manchester Festival Orchestra. She resides with her husband, violist Ariel Rudiakov, and their two children in Manchester, VT. |
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Suzanne Diffine Young Artists Coordinator Summer 2012 is Suzanne Diffine's twelfth season as MMF's Young Artist Coordinator. Suzanne has always been active in the arts, serving on the boards of Just Literary Center, The American Academy of Ballet, Dance Special, and the Amherst Youth Ballet, as well as the Boca Ballet Guild. She was an administrator at the Chautauqua School of Dance and Special Events Coordinator at the Musicians' Institute of West Los Angeles. Suzanne holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo. A veteran teacher, she was chair of the English department at Frederick Law Olmsted School for Gifted and Talented for 22 years. After a 30 year career in the Buffalo Public Schools, she retired to Florida in 2004, accepting a teaching position at North Broward Preparatory School. Her outstanding accomplishments in the field of education have been recognized five times in Who's Who Among America's Educators, twice in Who's Who in America, and once in Who's Who of American Women. She will also appear for the second time in Who's Who in the World 2011. A fitness instructor for 28 years, Suzanne is a national Pilates master trainer for Bally Total Fitness and Sports Clubs of Canada. After teaching Pilates in South Florida for 16 years, she recently opened her own studio, Pilates Rx, in Boca Raton. |
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Manchester Music Festival Faculty | |
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David Deveau Young Artists Program Internationally acclaimed pianist David Deveau has appeared as soloist with the Boston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Minnesota, St. Louis, Miami and Portland Symphony Orchestras. He made his New York solo recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1982, and has since performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall. He has also appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and on Boston's Celebrity Series. He made a debut tour of China in 2005, and has performed in the U.K. and Europe. Director of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival (MA), he also serves on the MIT music faculty. |
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Julio Elizalde Young Artists Program Praised by the New York Times for his "catlike ease" at the keyboard, American pianist Julio Elizalde is gaining widespread recognition for his musical depth and creative insight. His awards include first prizes at the San Francisco Young Pianists, Mu Phi Epsilon Young Artist, Berkeley Piano Club and San Jose Music Study Club Competitions in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the fall of 2007, Mr. Elizalde won the Juilliard School concerto competition for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503. He gave his New York City Concerto debut with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Anne Manson in the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Lincoln Center. Mr. Elizalde has collaborated with violinists Pamela Frank, Donald Weilerstein, Robert Mann, Curtis Macomber, cellist Bonnie Hampton, baritone William Sharp, and soprano Susan Narucki among others. Dedicated to the music of our time, Mr. Elizalde has worked with composers Stephen Hough, Mario Davidovsky and Osvaldo Golijov. Mr. Elizalde has performed regularly at festivals including Taos, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, the Olympic Music Festival, Yellow Barn and Caramoor. In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Elizalde has twice served on the faculty for Yellow Barn's Young Artist Program and has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Elizalde earned his Bachelor of Music degree with honors at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of pianist/violist Paul Hersh. In May of 2007, Mr. Elizalde graduated as a Master of Music from the Juilliard School in New York City studying piano with Jerome Lowenthal and Joseph Kalichstein. He has studied chamber music with Emanuel Ax at Juilliard, Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Weilerstein Trio at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He is completing his studies at the Juilliard School as a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow studying with Robert McDonald. For his doctoral document, Mr. Elizalde closely examined Gabriel Fauré's Second Piano Quartet in G minor. In addition to his doctoral studies, he has served as an instructor in the college division of the Juilliard School. |
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Ronald Feldman Young Artists Program Twice winner of the American Symphony League's ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music, Ronald Feldman has achieved critical acclaim for his work as conductor and cellist. He has appeared as guest conductor with major orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Quebec Symphony, the National Orchestra of Costa Rica, as well as regional orchestras including the Pro Arte Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Albany Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, and the Amarillo Symphony. Mr. Feldman joined the Boston Symphony at the age of 19. He has appeared as cello soloist with many orchestras performing a wide range of concerto repertoire from Dvorak to Ligeti. His many chamber music affiliations have included performances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Collage New Music Ensemble, the Boston Conservatory Chamber Players, and the Williams Chamber Players, as well as with artists Emmanuel Ax, Yo Yo Ma, Garrick Ohlsson, Gil Shaham, Christian Tetzlaff, and Christian Zacharias. Mr. Feldman is on the faculty of Williams College where he is Artist in Residence, Lecturer in Music, Chamber Music coordinator, and Conductor of the award winning Berkshire Symphony Orchestra. |
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Yehuda Hanani Young Artist Program Yehuda Hanani's charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Taipei and Seoul symphonies, among others. He has been a guest at Aspen, Chautauqua, Marlboro, Yale at Norfolk, Round Top (TX), Bowdoin, Great Lakes, and Grand Canyon festivals, Finland Festival, Great Wall Festival (China), Leicester (England), Ottawa, Prades (France), Oslo, and Australia Chamber Music festivals, and has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Dawn Upshaw, Shlomo Mintz, Yefim Bronfman, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano, as well as members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Borromeo, and Emerson quartets. In New York City, Yehuda Hanani has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum's Grace Rainey Rodgers Auditorium. His recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata -the first ever-received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and his other discs have won wide recognition. On CD and in live performances, he has premiered works of Nicolai Miaskovsky, Lukas Foss, Leo Ornstein, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield, Osvaldo Golijov, William Perry, and Bernard Rands, among other composers. Mr. Hanani has been committed to extending the range of the cello repertoire and to collaborating with performers in many artistic realms, including choreographer David Parsons and actors Richard Chamberlain, Jane Alexander, and Sigourney Weaver. Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he presents master classes internationally at conservatories and for orchestras, including the Juilliard School, University of Indiana at Bloomington, New England Conservatory, McGill University, the Peabody Conservatory, Paris Conservatoire, Berlin Hochschule für Music, Royal Academy of Music in London, Tokyo National University, Jerusalem Academy of Music, Guildhall School in London, Central Conservatory of Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Beijing, and the New World Symphony in Miami. His engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Calgary, Arizona, and the Berkshires. A recipient of three Martha Baird Rockefeller awards, Mr. Hanani's studies were with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School and with Pablo Casals. |
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Danwen Jiang Young Artists Program Called by the Boston Globe, "an intelligent, agile and breathtaking violinist", Danwen Jiang was the First Prize winner in the Mid-America Violin Competition and the St. Louis International Artist Presentation Society Competition. Ms. Jiang has concertized widely as a soloist and recitalist across North America, Asia and Europe, and has appeared in major concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, La Salle Gaveau in Paris, Cultural Centre Concert Hall in Hong Kong and the Great Hall in Beijing. As a chamber musician, Ms. Jiang has collaborated in performances with the Soloists of The Pacific Rim, Boston Players, American Chamber Players, and members from the Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, Emerson, Shanghai String Quartets, among others. Currently an Associate Professor of Violin at Arizona State University's School of Music, Ms. Jiang was a recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award in 2005 and the Tenured Faculty Exemplar Award in 2008. She is frequently invited to give guest master classes and recitals by major music schools in the United States, Canada, China, Iceland and Germany. |
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Jessica Lee Young Artist Program A native of Virginia, Jessica Lee began playing the violin at age three and quickly captured national attention with a feature article in LIFE magazine. Following studies with Weigang Li of the Shanghai Quartet, she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree under the tutelage of Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. In May 2003, she completed her studies with Robert Mann for a Master of Music Degree at the Juilliard School and currently resides in New York. An active chamber musician, Jessica Lee became a member of the Johannes String Quartet in 2006, which toured with the legendary Guarneri String Quartet in its farewell season. She joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS 2 program in the 2009-10 season and makes numerous appearances at Alice Tully Hall and the Rose Studio. Jessica was also featured at the Seoul Spring Festival in Seoul, Korea and performed at venues such as the Seoul Arts Center, Sejong Arts Center, and at the home of former President Bosun Yun. She has toured frequently with 'Musicians from Marlboro,' including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Gardner Museum, and is a member of the conductor-less string ensemble ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), with which she has performed at Town Hall and the Kennedy Center. Ms. Lee has also appeared on the Concerti di Mezzogiorno Recital Series at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Festival de Musica de Camera in Lima, Peru and New York's FOCUS! Festival. She has performed as guest soloist with such orchestras as the American Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Hampton Youth Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has been a participant at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. |
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Stefan Milenkovich Young Artist Program Serbian-born violinist Stefan Milenkovich is recognized internationally for exceptional artistry, engaging and energetic performances, and a true commitment to humanitarianism. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and internationally with the Berlin Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Orchestra of Radio-France, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Mexico State Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras in Australia. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly in the Jupiter Chamber Music Series in New York City and is the founding member of Corinthian Piano Trio. He recently joined the Formosa Quartet. Milenkovich started his career at a very young age, first performing with orchestra at age 6 and giving his 1000th concert by the age of 16. By age 17, he was a prizewinner in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, Hanover Violin Competition in Germany, Tibor Varga Competition in Switzerland, Rodolfo Lipizer and Paganini Competition in Italy, Ludwig Spohr Competition in Germany and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Great Britain. Milenkovich's discography includes releases on the Dynamic and PGP labels. He taught in collaboration with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School before accepting his current position as an Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |