2011 Chamber Music Workshop Faculty
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Robert Bassill, Chamber Music Program Coordinator, Camp Director and Orchestra Director, violin, received his Bachelors of Music from DePaul University and his Masters of Music Education from Case Western University. Mr. Bassill is the Director of Orchestras and Music Theory at Lake Forest High School and is on the chamber music faculty at Midwest Young Artists. As a performer, Mr. Bassill freelances around the Chicago area playing in local orchestras. In addition to performing, Mr. Bassill conducts the Summer Concert Orchestra at MYA and has served as conductor for the Centerstage musical in Lake Forest, IL, and as Assistant Conductor for the Case Western University Orchestra.
Amanda Dennis, cello, is a faculty member at Midwest Young Artists. In addition to teaching and coaching students, Mandy has performed with Indiana Unversity Chamber and Philharmonic Orchestras, DePaul University Orchestra, Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Danville Symphony, and she was principal cellist at Chatauqua Music Festival. Amanda is also a Midwest Young Artists alumna, where she was principal cellist of the Midwest Young Artists' Symphony Orchestra, and two time medalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Her teachers have included Janos Starker and Hans Jensen.
Annie Fullard , violin, is a founding member of the Cavani String Quartet. Ms. Fullard and her colleagues in The Cavani Quartet were named Musical America's Young Artists of the Year 1989 and received the 1998 ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, the 2005 Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award and eight Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Grants. Ms. Fullard has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Ms. Fullard has had the honor of collaborating with Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Anton Nel, Stephanie Blythe and Joel Smirnoff, as well as members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Emerson, St. Lawrence String Quartets, among others. A recent solo appearance received this review "Fullard's gleaming artistry added dramatic flair and chamber-music intimacy; she managed her role with bravura and sensitivity."
Deeply committed to arts-education, Ms. Fullard has given master classes and lecture demonstrations at music festivals, universities and public and private schools in communities across the country. As a member of the faculty and Quartet-in-Residence at The Cleveland Institute of Music since 1988, Ms. Fullard also serves as Artistic Advisor for Community Engagement at CIM and Director of Chamber Music at Case Western Reserve University. In collaboration with her colleagues she has developed the Apprentice Quartet Program, Intensive Quartet Seminar, New Quartet Project and M.A.P. PROJECT. Ms. Fullard is former artist-in-residence at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas and is currently visiting-artist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Fullard pursued additional studies at the Indiana University and Yale University. Her teachers and mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Earl Carlyss and Peter Salaff.
Charles Pikler , viola, joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a violinist in 1978. In 1986 he was appointed principal violist. Charlie is presently a member of the North Park University and Northwestern University faculties. Charlie also served on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was the featured soloist on the Sewanee Symphony's recording of Berlioz's Harold in Italy for Solo Viola and Orchestra under Victor Yampolsky. Charlie has appeared as soloist with many other orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. Charlie has given master classes throughout the world and is an active chamber music performer. He also enjoys coaching viola sectionals of the Midwest Young Artist or chestras, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, as well as those of other orchestra and chamber ensembles.
Deborah Barrett Price, violist, chamber musician and conductor, is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Connection, Inc. (CMC). She serves on the faculty of Denison University teaching viola, violin and chamber music and was recently named a Yamaha Certified String Educator Clinician. In recognition of her work as the Founder and Artistic Director of the CMC, Debbie was named the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Community Educator of the Year (2004) and has received accommodations from the Ohio State Senate and House of Representatives. In addition to performing as the principal violist of the Columbus Bach Ensemble, Debbie performs frequently with faculty members from universities on collaborative recitals, appearing several times as a guest violist with members of the renowned Cavani String Quartet and the Claremont Trio.
Debbie is an advocate for chamber music education and is a frequent guest artist for chamber music clinics and orchestra festivals presenting sessions in several state and national music conferences. She has presented chamber music lectures and master classes at Oberlin Conservatory, Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and Ohio University. Debbie served as co-conductor of the Cleveland Institute of Music Youth Camerata Strings for over ten years and conducted the Women-In-Music String Sinfonia for a decade as well.
Gene Purdue, violin, achieved national recognition as a founding member of the Thouvenel String Quartet. As first violinist, he won first prize at the Weiner String Quartet Competition, performed on NBC’s Today Show, and was a finalist in the Naumberg Competition. Currently, he is a member of the chamber music faculty of Midwest Young Artists. His teachers include Josef Gingold, Tadeusz Wronski, Franco Gulli, Daniel Guilet and Dorothy Delay. Gene is the Summer Program Artistic Director at Midwest Young Artists.
Thomas Rosenberg, cello, is nationally known as a dynamic performer, chamber music coach, and teacher. He is a prize winner at the Munich (Germany), Portsmouth (England) and Chicago Discovery Competitions, and is a three-time Naumburg Chamber Music Award finalist. Mr. Rosenberg was a founding member of the highly acclaimed Chester String Quartet and was solo cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble. He currently plays in 4 piano trios and frequently performs with both the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Since 1981 he has been Artistic Director of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He is on the faculties of the University of Minnesota , Macalester and Carleton Colleges and has been named String Teacher of the Year by ASTA Minnesota.
Rami Solomonow, viola, is a graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, Israel, where he studied with Oedoen Partos. He was a member of the Israel Chamber ORchestra until 1972 and received prizes in chamber music from the American-Israel Foundation. Mr. Solomonow moved to the U.S. in 1973 where he studied with Shmuel Ashkenasi and served as principal violist for the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1974 to 1995. In 1995, Mr. Solomonow became a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and from 1995-2004 he was the violist of the Chicago String Quartet, the resident quartet of The Chicago Chamber Musicians and the Tao Music Festival. Mr. Solomonow has been a faculty member at DePaul University since 1981. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in numerous festivals in the U.S. and abroad in Israel, Japan, and South America. Mr. Solomonow has performed on live broadcasts on WFMT, WQXR and NPR, and he has been a guest violist with many string quartets. He has recorded with the Vermeer Quartet, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chicago String Quartet and with the DePaul University Wind Ensemble as a soloist.
Tatyana Stepanova, piano, is originally from Kiev, Ukraine. She graduated from Tchaikovsky Kiev State Conservatory and Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg (Russia) Conservatory of Music, where she worked as an assistant professor while pursuing her doctoral program in piano performance. Her concert appearances include chamber concerts with faculty Northwestern University School of Music, DePaul University School of Music, performances with the Storioni Ensemble, live WFMT performances with the Heritage Trio, the Piano Duo concerts, and many others.
Gary Stucka has been a cellist with the Chicago Symphony since 1986. Before joining the CSO, he was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra (1981-1986), Principal Cellist of the Winnipeg Symphony (1977-1981), and Assistant Principal Cellist of the Grant Park Symphony for the final six of his nine seasons with that organization (1973-1981). He received his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Cello Performance from the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University where he was a scholarship student of Karl Fruh. Other teachers include Leonard Chausow, Harry Sturm, and William Stokking.In addition to his duties with the Chicago Symphony, Gary has been very active as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He is a founding member of the critically acclaimed Pressenda Trio and has also performed as a member of the Chicago Symphony String Quartet. He has performed often on WFMT and has appeared at the Sebago-Long Lake Chamber Music Festival in Maine. Formerly on the faculty at Northwestern University and at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Gary has also been invited on several occasions to teach and perform at the Affinis Seminar in Japan.
