Manchester Music Festival 2011 Young Artists


	Candice Amato Commended for her sensitive artistry and sweet tone, Candice Amato is establishing a bright career as a versatile violist. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and Ossia New Music, among others. Candice has appeared under the batons of Lukas Foss, Benjamin Zander, and Leonard Slatkin, at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Chicago's Orchestra Hall. She has also led outreach initiatives, including the chamber series "Music For All." Candice received the Howard Hanson Scholarship and her B.M. from the Eastman School of Music under Carol Rodland and John Graham. Currently, Candice is pursuing graduate studies at Roosevelt University with Li-Kuo Chang. top of page

	Rose Marie Bart Rose Marie Bart is a junior at Oberlin Conservatory studying under Amir Eldan. She is originally from Minnesota where she started playing the cello at the age of eight. She has won first place in the Schubert Club Competition, the Thursday Musical Competition, the Minnesota Sinfonia Orchestra Competition, the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra Concerto Competition and the Music Association of Minnetonka Young Artist Competition, among others. Rose Marie has soloed with the Minnesota Sinfonia Orchestra, the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra, The Mounds View High School Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnetonka Symphony Orchestra. She has attended many music Camps including Madeline Island Music Camp, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Minnesota All-State Orchestra Music Camp. top of page

	Madison Johnson Madison Johnson is a native of Fort Collins, CO. She began studying viola at the age of twelve, a time when her life was dominated by volleyball and sleepovers. She made the difficult decision to drop volleyball in order to study viola seriously at the University of Northern Colorado under Dr. Juliet White-Smith. She has attended Bravo!, Summer String Festival, Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival, and Meadowmount. This will be her third year attending the Manchester Music Festival. The viola has taken her to Austria, Germany, and Spain. She is a recent graduate of the Master's program as a student of Patricia McCarty at The Boston Conservatory. top of page

	Marina Kifferstein Marina Kifferstein is a fourth year student at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where her primary teacher is Milan Vitek. She will graduate in December with a BM in violin performance and a BA in English. A strong supporter of new music, Marina makes a point of performing works by contemporary composers. In this capacity, she has appeared as concerto soloist with the Oberlin Wind Ensemble, concertmaster of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and in numerous premieres of solo and chamber music works in concerts across the country. As an orchestral musician, she has held principle positions in the Oberlin Orchestra and Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. She has performed across America in venues such as Carnegie Hall's Weill and Zankel Halls, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Mass MoCA, and the Southern Vermont Arts Center, as well as in chamber music, orchestral, and opera tours across Italy, China, and Singapore. In recent summers, she has been a Young Artist at the Manchester Music Festival, a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and a performer at the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance at Mannes. In September of 2011, she will join Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporarian at the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland. top of page

	Yuanmiao Li At age five, Yuanmiao Li followed her violin teacher Wang Lu of the Central Conservatory of Music to study the basic knowledge of music. One year later at age six, she began violin studies with Professor Jiang Xiongda. At age ten, Yuanmiao won first prize, the Yuanmeng Cup, at the Beijing Violin Competition. At age eleven, she won second prize in the Elementary level and at age fourteen won the Silver prize in the Intermediate level of the Beijing Violin Competition. At age sixteen she won the Bronze Medal at China's National Violin Competition. In 2007 she won the Gold Medal in the Beijing region and the Silver Medal in the national region of China's Excellent Violin Player competition. In the fall of 2010, Yuanmiao traveled to the United States to study with Danwen Jiang at Arizona State University. top of page

	Jamie McCrary Violist, Jamie McCrary is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music at the University of North Texas with Susan Dubois. An active performer in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Ms. McCrary has played with the San Angelo Symphony, the Irving Symphony, and the Monroe Symphony. Also an active teacher, Ms. McCrary holds a private studio at the Southlake Music Academy, and has taught privately at the Denton Music Academy and the Hilltop Montessori School. She has attended various summer programs including, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and the Eastman Viola Technique Workshop. Upon graduation, Ms. McCrary plans to continue her studies in music at graduate school. top of page

	Kurt Munstedt Kurt Munstedt started playing the violin at age five and will be a junior at the Cleveland Institute of Music, pursuing degrees in both violin performance and audio recording. His violin teacher is Joel Smirnoff. A first-place winner in the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association senior division contest in 2007, Kurt also won places in the 2007-08 District and Massachusetts All-State orchestras. He has performed concerti with the Parkway Chamber Orchestra and the Reading Symphony. He previously attended The Castleman Quartet Programs in NY and CO, and the BUTI Quartet Program. top of page

	Nicholas Reynolds Nicholas Reynolds received his MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Mack McCray, where he was awarded the Piano Department Award, and received his BM from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln's Honors Program with Dr. Paul Barnes. Nicholas will enroll at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2011, where he plans to obtain his DMA with Anton Nel. He has played for musicians including Emmanuel Ax, Angela Hewitt, Alexander Kobrin, Jon Nakamatsu, Jon Kimura Parker, Jeffrey Siegel, the Chiara String Quartet, violinist Pamela Frank, and composer Joan Tower. Nicholas was recently a prize winner in the 2010 Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. In addition to solo recitals, chamber recitals, and orchestral appearances, Nicholas co-founded and directed "Pianists of the Americas", a new piano festival in his hometown, Portland, Oregon. Nicholas enjoys teaching, and maintains a piano studio of over a dozen students in San Francisco, California. top of page

	María Romero Venezuelan violinist María José Romero Ramos received a Graduate Artist Certificate and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas, Summa Cum Laude. Ms. Romero was in the studio of Julia Bushkova and also studied Baroque violin with Cynthia Roberts. While at UNT, she was the recipient of the Presser Scholarship and the Outstanding Undergraduate and Graduate Student in the Strings Award; she was also a member of the prestigious Center for Chamber Music Studies. Ms. Romero participated in the Aspen Music Festival and School, the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Institute, the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, the Brevard Music Center, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and the American Bach Soloists Academy. She has performed at the Isaac Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall with the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra, and was recently chosen for the EMA Festival Ensemble at the Boston Early Music Festival. This coming fall, Ms. Romero will begin a Master of Music at Indiana University with Kevork Mardirossian. top of page

	Matthew Smith Matthew was born and raised in Arizona and began studying the cello at age ten. While in high school, he participated in several youth and honor orchestras. Matthew's primary teacher was Debra Pearson who currently serves as the Principal Cellist of the Arizona Opera. Recently he has been blessed to play for some of the most prestigious cellists in the United States including, Timothy Eddy, Andrew Mark, Allison Eldridge, Brinton Smith and Bernard Greenhouse. Matthew currently studies with Arizona State University Professor Thomas Landschoot and is pursuing a Bachelors Degree in Cello Performance. top of page

	Arnie Tanimoto Arnie Tanimoto, from Okemos, MI, began studying cello at the age of ten. He has participated in solo and chamber music master classes with Steven Isserlis, Anner Bylsma, the Pacifica Quartet, and the Takács Quartet. A member of the Darwin String Quartet, Arnie has performed with the quartet at such venues as the Kennedy Center, The Phillips Collection and the Smithsonian Hall of Musical Instruments. His former teachers include Anthony Elliott, Amir Eldan and Catharina Meints. Arnie received a B.M. degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and will be pursuing graduate studies at the Eastman School of Music this fall. top of page

	Bryan Tyler A native of Houston, Texas, Bryan began playing the viola when he was ten years old. His teachers include Lawrence Wheeler, Roger Tapping, and Rictor Noren. He has performed in master classes for Karen Tuttle and Carol Rodland. As an orchestral musician, he has performed in Carnegie Hall and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Bryan is a recent finalist for the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra and has attended the Texas, Idyllwild, and Green Mountain summer music festivals. Bryan earned a Masters degree from Boston Conservatory and is currently pursuing a Graduate Performance Diploma there. Bryan is a member of the Neponset Valley Philharmonic and the Camerata Latinoamericana. top of page

	Liam Veuve Born and raised in Brooklyn, Liam Veuve starting playing the cello at the age of six. Chamber music is one of his passions, and he has participated in many festivals including the Manchester Music Festival in 2009 and the "Oberlin in Italy" summer festival through Oberlin Conservatory in 2008. Liam graduated with honors from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2010. There, he played with the NYU Symphony Orchestra and various chamber ensembles, and studied music, language, and philosophy. In May 2010, Liam was invited to perform solo at Avery Fisher Hall as part of the NYU Gallatin graduation ceremony. Looking forward, Liam will be starting his Master of Music degree this fall at the Cleveland Institute of Music. top of page

	Boyang Wang Boyang Wang, from Beijing, China studies with professor Danwen Jiang at Arizona State University on a full scholarship. He began studying violin when he was five. He practiced scales (Hrimaly, Carl Flesch), etudes (kaisai, Wohlfahrt, Kreutzer) the caprice (Rode), and concertos (Bach, Mozart, Bruch, Wieniawski, Paganini). Boyang was solo violinist for the Concerto in E Major (Bach) at in China, when he was ten years old. He also gave a performance before former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he visited China. As a soloist in the Beijing Sun-Youth Symphony Orchestra he played Laro: Symphony Espanola op.21, d minor (Sarasate), at the Zhongshan Music Hall at the Beijing National Library Music Hall. At age thirteen Boyang won the second prize in China's National Violin Competition. In 2006, at age sixteen, he won a full scholarship of PAI, and spent wonderful three weeks in the United States as the first violinist, performing the Bach double Concerto in d minor. top of page

	Sarah Off Williamson Sarah Off Williamson currently studies with Danwen Jiang at Arizona State University where she is pursuing a Masters degree in violin performance. She received her Bachelor of violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder studying under concert violinists Lina Bahn and Judith Ingolfsson. Sarah has appeared in performance throughout Colorado and the western states as well as two appearances at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City and appearances throughout Latvia. She performed as soloist with the Dallas Conservatory Chamber Orchestra and with "Up Close and Musical" an offshoot of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Sarah has collaborated in concert with the Orion Quartet, violist Valery Avramenko and pianists David Korevaar and Annie Lin and has been aired on Dallas Radio and SLV Radio. She is an avid violin teacher and is currently the primary violin instructor at Prestige Music Academy in Phoenix, AZ. Sarah grew up in the small Colorado town of Del Norte and has a passion for finding opportunities for rural areas to experience the arts. top of page

	Chi Zhang Chi Zhang, was born in China in 1989. She began studying piano at age five, first performed on stage at age seven, and gave her first piano recital at age fourteen. In 2001, Chi was accepted by the Xiamen Music School with a "Top Award" scholarship. In the same year, she performed Mozart Concerto K488 with the local orchestra in Gulangyu, Xiamen. In 2005, Chi received the Second prize from the Hong Kong-Asia Piano Competition. In 2007, Chi was accepted at seven music schools including the Manhattan School of Music and Royal Academy of Music in London. Chi decided to go to Arizona State University and received a full scholarship. Chi is currently a senior studying with Robert Hamilton. A piano performance major, Chi loves to play chamber music and collaborative with others. She has taken four semesters of collaborative piano classes and two semesters of chamber music. This is her fourth year in the United States, and she enjoys her life in Arizona very much. top of page