DOORI NA, violin

Praised for his captivating performances and expressive artistry, Doori Na has played on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and beyond. In 2018, he made a notable debut with the San Francisco Symphony, performing Bach's Double Violin Concerto alongside the legendary Itzhak Perlman under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas.

A dynamic and versatile musician, Doori is known for his deep commitment to chamber music, his leadership as concertmaster for orchestras, and his innovative work in contemporary music. He has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, the New York Philharmonic, and many more.

As a longtime member of both the Argento New Music Project and New Chamber Ballet, Doori has performed internationally, premiering numerous new works and showcasing his dedication to bringing contemporary music to life. His passion extends to reviving neglected works and composers, particularly those overlooked due to class and race.

MORAN KATZ, clarinet

First Prize winner of the 2013 Ima Hogg Competition, Clarinetist Moran Katz also received the Audience Choice Prize as well as the Artistic Encouragement Prize voted on by the Houston Symphony musicians. In the year of 2009 alone, Ms. Katz won the First Prize at the Freiburg International Clarinet Competition in Germany, the Second Prize at the Beijing International Music Competition for Clarinet in China and the First Prize and Overall Prize at the Midland/Odessa "National Young Artist Competition" in Texas.

Her performance credits include recitals for the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series in Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society and the Fine Arts Recital Series in Sarasota, FL; a NY debut recital at Merkin Concert Hall as part of the Tuesday Matinee Recital Series and a Debut at the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Chamber Music appearances at the United Nations Hall (Switzerland), France's "Les Musicales" Festival in Colmar, Les Invalides in Paris and Palais des Fetes in Strasburg, Marlboro Music Festival, Canandaigua's Lake Music Festival, Cooperstown Music Festival, Mt. Desert Music Festival, Roaring Hooves Festival in Mongolia, the Two Days and Two Nights Festival in the Ukraine, Music in Drumcliffe (Ireland), Homburg Musiktage (Germany), New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, MoMa, Symphony Space, Miller Theater and Bargemusic, among others.

She received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where she was admitted with presidential distinction and a full scholarship. Ms. Katz was a member of Ensemble ACJW--The Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the NYC department of Education, performing chamber music at Carnegie Hall and bringing classical music to students in the NYC public schools.

ISABELLE AI DURRENBERGER, violin

American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is praised for her imaginative performances and her ability to communicate with sincere artistry. Based in New York City, she is first violinist of the

Aeolus Quartet and a recent graduate of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program. An avid chamber musician, Durrenberger is recognized for her unique collaborative instincts. Recent engagements include concerts with Boston Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, Jupiter Chamber Players, The Knights, A Far Cry, and Marlboro Music Festival.

Durrenberger grew up in a musical home in Columbus, Ohio, and began playing piano at age four, beginning violin lessons three years later. At age 13, she began her studies with Jaime Laredo at the Cleveland Ins9tute of Music. She attended Meadowmount School of Music for four years, graduated from high school a year early, and at age 16 began her undergraduate program in Cleveland where she continued receiving mentorship from Laredo. Other influences include Jennifer Koh, Sharon Robinson, Joan Kwuon, Jinjoo Cho, Jan Mark Sloman, and Jun Kim. In 2022, she completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Soovin Kim and Don Weilerstein. Durrenberger has a private violin studio in New York City and serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston, where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music. Durrenberger performs on a 2020 Zygmuntowicz violin on private loan from a patron in New York City.

VASSILY PRIMAKOV, piano

In recent years, Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class importance. Gramophone wrote that “Primakov’s empathy with Chopin’s spirit could hardly be more complete,” and the American Record Guide stated: “Since Gilels, how many pianists have the right touch? In Chopin, no one currently playing sounds as good as this! This is a great Chopin pianist.”

Vassily entered Moscow’s Central Special Music School at the age of 11, and at 17 came to New York to pursue studies at the Juilliard School. At Juilliard he won the William Petschek Piano Recital Award, which led to his debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. He also won both the Silver Medal and the Audience Prize in the 2002 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, and later that year he won First Prize in the 2002 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions. In 2007 he was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s “Young Artist of the Year.” In 2009, his Chopin Mazurkas recording was named “Best of the Year” by National Public Radio.

Vassily has released numerous recordings for Bridge Records that include works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Chopin, Dvorak, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, among others. In 2011, he and his duo-piano partner, Natalia Lavrova, established a new record company, L.P. Classics, Inc. which has released a number of additional recordings.

In addition to Vassily’s full teaching schedule and his performance career, he is, in partnership with Oxana Mikhailoff, co-director of the Sparkill Concert Series in Sparkill, NY. Vassily is also is a Yamaha Artist.

WILLIAM FRAMPTON, viola

Acclaimed by The Strad for his "eloquent” and "vibrant" playing, violist Paul Laraia is an active soloist, chamber musician, and new music proponent. In competition, he was awarded First Prize in the 13th Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, First Prize in the 14th National Sphinx Competition, and Gold Medal with High Distinction at the fifth Manhattan International Music Competition.  As an internationally acclaimed soloist, Laraia has performed with major orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Filharmonica de Bogotá, New Jersey Symphony, Nashville Symphony, New Haven Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has been a featured soloist at London's Wigmore Hall, the Shalin Liu Performance Center, the 40th International Viola Congress, and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Since 2013, Laraia has been a member of the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet, which has held residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and SF Performances in San Francisco. Laraia has worked directly with many of the leading voices in composition such as Jessie Montgomery, David Ludwig Serkin, Gabriella Lena Frank, Richard Danielpour, Jimmy Lopez, and Todd Machover. He also maintains a close artistic partnership with Taiwanese composer Shiuan Chang, with whom he is crafting new work calling for peace in our troubled times. Laraia completed his studies at New England Conservatory under Kim Kashkashian and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto under Steven Dann has been Professor of Viola at the Boston Conservatory of Music since 2023. 

JIA KIM, cello

Winners of the First Prize and Amadeus Prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the FORMOSA QUARTET has been hailed as “spellbinding” (The Strad) and “remarkably fine” (Gramophone), and has given critically acclaimed performances at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Wigmore Hall in London, die Glocke Bremen, and the Kammermusiksaal at the Berliner Philharmonie. For two decades and counting, the Formosa Quartet has forged uncharted musical terrain in performances that go “beyond the beautiful and into the territory of unexpectedly thrilling… like shots of pure espresso” (MUSO Magazine). The founding members’ interest in championing Taiwanese music and Indigenous cultures has since expanded to include the exploration of the rich folk traditions and heritages found in America today. Whether in its uncompromisingly exploratory approach to the standard quartet literature; its socio-culturally probing American Mirror program concept; or its unique Sets curated from its collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements, the Formosa Quartet is committed to an insatiable search for the fresh and new in string quartet expression. The Formosa Quartet undertakes a variety of residencies at organizations and institutions across North America and Asia. The ensemble serves as the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYOC) and has enjoyed residencies at Art of Élan; Rice University, University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, San Diego; San Diego State University, and Heidelberg University. During the 2023-2024 season, they held the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities by Eastern Michigan University where they launched their American Mirror Project, a collaborative initiative that holds up mirrors to America and highlights personal reflections of what America means through a thought-provoking exploration of American music. The Formosa Quartet has played a leading role in actively commissioning new works, contributing significantly to the modern string quartet repertory. The Quartet’s 2019 milestone album From Hungary to Taiwan includes premiere recordings of three Formosa commissions: Lei Liang’s Song Recollections, Dana Wilson’s Hungarian Folk Songs, and Wei-Chieh Lin’s Five Taiwanese Folk Songs. Other works composed for the quartet include pieces by Dana Wilson, Wei-Chieh Lin, Shih-Hui Chen, and Clancy Newman. The members of the Formosa Quartet – Jasmine Lin, David Bernat, Matthew Cohen, and Deborah Pae – have established themselves as leading solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians. With degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Colburn Conservatory, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, they have performed in major venues throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe and have been top prizewinners in prestigious competitions such as the Paganini, Primrose, Fischoff, and Naumburg competitions. As chamber musicians, they have appeared regularly at the Marlboro, Kingston, Santa Fe, and Ravinia festivals, as well as at Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, Caramoor, and Chamber Music Northwest. The members of the Formosa Quartet currently serve on faculty at Eastern Michigan University, Roosevelt University, and Heifetz International Music Institute. They have previously taught at the Taos School of Music and the Juilliard School. Formed in 2002 when the four Taiwanese-descended founders came together for a concert tour of Taiwan, the Formosa Quartet’s cultural identity has since expanded to include broader American, pan-Asian, and Eastern European roots. Their name “Formosa” is taken in its most basic sense: Portuguese for “beautiful.” The Formosa Quartet forms an octet with violins Andrea Guarneri (1662) and G.B. Guadagnini (1753), a Peter Westerlund viola (2014), and a Vincenzo Postiglione cello (1885).

DAVID KAPLAN, piano

Heralded by Parterre Box for her “fresh-brook lyric soprano”,  Ashley Marie Robillard  is making waves as a  passionate interpreter  and  committed storyteller in the world of opera, concert, chamber music, and cabaret. She has performed in prestigious halls across the USA, including the War Memorial Opera House, Verizon Hall, the Academy of Music, Jordan Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, and with esteemed organizations including Opera Philadelphia, Washington Concert Opera, Opera Lafayette, Wolf Trap Opera, the Merola Opera Program, Opera Grand Rapids, the Amarillo Symphony, and the Dolce Suono Ensemble. She’s performed under the baton of Corrado Rovaris, Karina Canellakis, Daniela Candillari, George Manahan, Patric Furrer, Kelly Kuo, David Hayes, and in collaboration with directors R.B. Schlather, Stephanie Havey, Tara Faircloth, Emma Griffin, Gina Lapinski, kt shorb, and Alessandra Premoli. Her operatic repertoire captivates audiences with a diverse range that spans from the Seikilos Epitaph to Puccini to the compositions of George Benjamin. She has earned particular acclaim for her interpretations of French repertoire, English-language opera, and Mozart, heralded as a “tour de force” (Bachtrack) during her first appearance as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. An artist who holds recital and chamber music close to her heart, Ashley has collaborated with respected instrumentalists and chamber ensembles including the Dolce Suono Ensemble and Seraph Brass. She has performed in recital tours and recital series since 2013.

ANI KALAYJIAN, cello and Co-Artistic Director

atthew Zabiegala is an active performer, educator, and leader in NJ/NYC area. Matthew's recent solo engagements have included featured performances with West Village Chorale, Summit Chorale, Rutgers University, and an international tour to Italy with Wagner College. Matthew is also a performing artist with Atlanta-based, Kinnara Ensemble, and NJ-based, Terpsichore Ensemble. Matthew currently serves as the Director of Music/Organist at the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, an Adjunct Professor at Wagner College on Staten Island, NY, and the Artistic Director for the New Jersey Chamber Singers (Bay Head, NJ) and the Concord Singers (Summit, NJ). Matthew was recently featured as a guest panelist for New Jersey Choral Consortium's, "Exploring Classical Choral Music by Black Composers" by Vinroy D. Brown Jr. Matthew earned his B.M.E. at The Ohio State University and a M.M. in Choral Conducting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.