Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival

2008 WWCMF Performing Artists

	Jennifer Caine Jennifer Caine, violinist, was the first prize winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Competition in 2004 and recipient of several awards including the Isolde Menges Prize, Polonsky Foundation Grant and Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for Musicians. She has performed in concerts throughout the U.S. and Europe, and at music festivals including the Olympic Music Festival, Soesterberg International Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and Norfolk, Yellow Barn and Sarasota Music Festivals. In the U.K., she performed extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician, and co-founded the Knox Piano Trio, which toured England and Northern Ireland. As an orchestral musician, she has appeared in concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Philomusica, and Seattle Symphony. Ms. Caine is Resident Violinist at Icicle Creek Music Center and violinist of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio. Her recent collaborations in the Seattle area have included the odeonquartet, Seattle Chamber Players, and Sanssouci Chamber Ensemble, and she regularly performs on the Simple Measures and Second City Chamber Series. Jennifer is a graduate of Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and Slavic Languages and Literatures, and holds Master of Music Degrees from the Royal College of Music and Oxford University. Her teachers and coaches have included Grigori Zhislin, Zinaida Gilels, Olga Yanovich, Robert Lipsett, Elisabeth Adkins, Robert Levin and Daniel Stepner.
	Timothy Christie Violinist/Violist Timothy Christie serves on the music faculty of the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Washington. The solo violist of Brave New Works since the group’s inception in 1997, he has performed and premiered numerous solo and chamber works of the 20th and 21st centuries, working closely with composers such as Michael Dougherty, George Crumb, Bright Sheng, William Bolcom, Bernard Rands, David Schiff, and Forrest Pierce. Timothy currently performs with the Pacific Northwest Ballet orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Opera, and numerous chamber music series throughout the Northwest. In 2007, Timothy founded the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival and serves as Artistic Director.
	Oksana Ezhokina Oksana Ezhokina, is a native of Ryazan, Russia. The winner of piano competitions in Russia and the United States, Ms. Ezhokina has given numerous solo and chamber performances in both countries. Her collaborations have included concerts with such ensembles as the Seattle Chamber Players, Klimt Piano Trio and the Contemporary Chamber Players. A dedicated performer of works by contemporary composers, she has premiered music by Laura Kaminsky and Paul Drescher, among others. Ms. Ezhokina was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2004. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Ryazan School of Music in Russia, a Master of Music degree in piano from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Walla Walla College. Her principal teachers were Christina Dahl, Donald Walker, Leonard Richter and Eleanor Oragyoff, and she has coached chamber music with pianists Gilbert Kalish and Seymour Lipkin as well as members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Orion and Vermeer String Quartets. Ms. Ezhokina is Resident Pianist at Icicle Creek Music Center, is Co-Artistic Director and teaches a full piano studio at the Music Center.
	Icicle Creek Piano Trio The Icicle Creek Piano Trio is the ensemble in residence at the Icicle Creek Music Center, a non-profit performance, education and retreat organization in Leavenworth, Washington. As well as offering year-round concerts in Icicle Creek's beautiful Canyon Wren Concert Hall and an intensive international chamber music festival each July, the artists maintain busy private studios and offer regular coaching sessions to young ensembles, both local and visiting. The members of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio originate in the US, Russia and the UK. Together and as individuals, Jennifer, Sally and Oksana have performed in venues such as the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, the Philips Collection and the Albert Hall, and have toured in Austria, Germany, France and Italy. On the West Coast, they have performed at Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Puget Sound, the Sherman Clay recital hall, the Governor's Mansion, Olympia, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, the University of Santa Barbara, Cornish College of the Arts and Davies Hall, San Francisco. Collectively, they have earned Performance Degrees from Ryazan, Russia, Northern Illinois University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Harvard, Oxford, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal College of Music, England.
	Norbert Lewandowski Norbert Lewandowski was born in Milwaukee, WI and began cello studies at the age of 13. He holds a Master’s degree in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and is currently in his fifth season as Assistant Principal cellist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his appointment in Charleston Norbert performed as a member of the Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras, the Minnesota Opera, and the chamber music festival in Taos, New Mexico. He has also been featured as a soloist on numerous occasions including recent performances with the New World Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra. Norbert is a frequent guest performer on the faculty chamber music series at the University of South Carolina and has recently been appointed cellist of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. Norbert's cello was made by Emil Hjorth in Copenhagen, 1890, and is on a generous loan from the Virtu Foundation of Charlottesville, VA.
	Stephen Miahky Stephen Miahky has garnered acclaim for his performances as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout North America and Europe. His most recent engagements include performances at New York City's Steinway Hall and Paul Hall, Atlanta's ProMozart Society, the Boston Conservatory, Vancouver's Sonic Boom Festival, the Southwest Virginia Festival of the Arts, and on NPR's Performance Today. He is a member and frequent concertmaster of the IRIS Orchestra, Brave New Works, and Trio Volans, and has performed with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Trio 56, and the Bryant Park Quartet. Miahky received his B.M. and M.M. from the University of Michigan and resides in New York City as a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University. He will be heard on upcoming releases from Naxos, AMP, and New Dynamic Records featuring world-premiere recordings of works by Leshnoff, Jalbert, Puts, Albright, and Bolcom. He has served on the faculties of the Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp and Cornell University, as well as a visiting artist to the American Academies in Rome and Berlin.
	Philip Payton Violinist Philip Payton enjoys an active and diverse performance career in New York city and around the country. Mr. Payton attended the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, receiving both undergraduate and graduate degrees, studying with Stephen Shipps and David Russell respectively. After graduating, Mr. Payton won a position with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida where he was a co-concertmaster and principal second violinist collaborating with several eminent conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Marin Alsop, Nicholas McGegan, Yan Pascal-Tortilier, Maximillan Valdes, Andreas Delfs, Hugh Wolf, Zdneck Macal and others. He also attended the Pacific Music Festival in Japan and was one of the first Americans to attend the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest in The Netherlands. While at New World Symphony, Mr. Payton was deeply involved in the Community Outreach Program presenting many educational programs in inner-city schools and community centers, mentored underprivileged violin students, performed in senior centers and local schools and went on a string quartet tour to rural Tennessee and Kentucky to present educational programs to schools that had not been exposed to classical music. Now, Mr. Payton performs in a wide variety of groups and genres in New York and abroad. He regularly performs at all the major venues in New York City including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Riverside church among others. Also, Mr Payton can be heard often in the Broadway shows Wicked, Phantom of the Opera and Spring Awakening on violin, viola, and electric guitar. Mr. Payton has performed, recorded and/or collaborated with a diverse group of major performing artists including Smokey Robinson, Wayne Newton, Duncan Sheik, Clay Aiken, LeAnn Rimes, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Anat Cohen, R&B artist Joe, Corrine Bailey Rae, Barbara Striesand, Met Opera tenor Rolando Villazon, R&B artist Lyfe Williams, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, rock band Hem, Jose Carerras and with Luciano Pavarotti during his farewell tour. He has performed on Saturday Night Live, Sex in the City and was a musician-extra in the upcoming motion picture Margaret, the new Lenny Kravitz video I'll Be Waiting, and can be heard on the soundtrack of the upcoming film See You In September. Dedicated to music education, Mr. Payton has taught violin through most of his adult life. He currently teaches violin in Newark , New Jersey at the Gray Charter School and formerly taught at the Bloomingdale House of Music, the Multicultural Program, Opus 118/Harlem Center for Strings (on which the movie Music of the Heart was based) and has adjudicated mock violin auditions at the Orchestral Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music.
	Maria Sampen Violinist, Maria Sampen is in demand as a performer of new and experimental works and has premiered dozens of compositions both as a soloist and with Brave New Works. Ms. Sampen has appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras throughout the United States and is particularly known for her performances of William Bolcom’s virtuosic violin concerto. She is an active chamber musician and has performed on music festivals and recitals in Europe, Asia and North America. Her major teachers include Paul Kantor, Kenneth Goldsmith and Paul Makara. In addition to a busy performing schedule, Ms. Sampen is a dedicated teacher. She is associate professor of violin and chair of the string department at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.
	Sally Singer Sally Singer, cellist from the United Kingdom, has an extensive background in solo and chamber music performance. She has toured in Britain, France, Italy, Austria and Germany with ensembles and has played in the major concert halls of London, New York and Vienna. As a soloist, Sally has appeared recently with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, CT, the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra and the Pleven Philharmonic, Bulgaria, where the Polemics of Art Journal review referred to her interpretation of Elgar's cello concerto as "a performance of the highest caliber, which will leave life-long memories for every person in the audience." Ms. Singer was a top prizewinner in the Corpus Christi International Young Artists competition, won the John Ireland Chamber Music Competition and received two fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA, as well as many awards and scholarships from her institutions of study. She has appeared on British National Television several times and has performed and interviewed live for National Public Radio, Seattle, King FM, Koho Radio and KUT. Ms. Singer was awarded First Class honors at the Royal Northern College of Music, has a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where she studied cello performance with Timothy Eddy. She has given master classes in New York, Texas, Washington and Australia, and has a flourishing private studio. Formerly a member of the Vovka Ashkenazy and Klimt Piano Trios, Sally is now a member of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio. In addition to maintaining a busy performing schedule, Ms. Singer is Co-Artistic Director of the Icicle Creek Music Center and Co-Director of the Center's summer Chamber Music Institute.
	Jonathan Yates Highly regarded as a pianist and conductor, Jonathan Yates made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert. The following year he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. He has been heard as a pianist at many major New York City venues, including Weill Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Bargemusic and Merkin Hall, as well as at the Caramoor Festival and on the Ravinia Festival Rising Stars Series. He serves as founding music director of Camerata Notturna, one of the New York City’s most exciting young chamber orchestras, and as conductor of the Sarah Lawrence College Orchestra. His work as an opera conductor includes the world premiere of Michael Webster’s Hell at Performance Space 122 and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Paride ed Elena at the California Music Festival. He is also Sarah Lawrence College’s diction coach, and worked for two years as an accompanist at the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. As an ardent devotee of new music, he has been involved in the premieres of such composers as Chen Yi, Augusta Read Thomas and Joan Tower, was the recipient of an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, and participated as a pianist and conductor in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble Tanglewood Workshops. He can be heard in chamber music of Hindemith on Cedille Records. He holds degrees from Harvard University, SUNY Stony Brook and The Juilliard School.