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Roster of players 2008

Milan Milisavljevic, viola

Formerly a member of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Milan Milisavljevic has been playing with the Sybarite Chamber Players since June 2001. Having placed highest of all North American violists in the 2004 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, The Strad magazine described him as "resourceful and full of fantasy", "very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone." Milan studied with James Dunham at Rice University, as well as with Atar Arad, Nobuko Imai, Paul Neubauer and Jutta Puchhammer. He won the Rice University String Concerto Competition in 2003, a Special Award at the 2003 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and First Prize at the 2003 Aspen Lower Strings Concerto Competition. Milan has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Sinfonia, the Rice Symphony Orchestra and others. As a chamber musician, he has performed with artists such as Robert McDuffie, Norman Fischer, members of the Guarneri String Quartet and others. Milan has performed in numerous music festivals, including Marlboro Music and the Aspen Music Festival. He is currently Assistant Principal Violist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Maxine Kuo-, violin

Maxine Kuo, 25, hails as "one of Texas’ finest talents" (Plano News). Grand Prize Winner of the 2004 Kingsville International Competition, she most recently appeared with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, presenting a “sweeping and poignant” (Corpus Caller Times) performance of Prokofiev’s Second Concerto. Ms. Kuo leads an active solo career, appearing in recitals and with ensembles such as the Plano Chamber Orchestra, Texas Music Festival Orchestra and the Southern Methodist University Meadows Symphony. She is also a passionate chamber musician, having participated in chamber groups coached by Timothy Eddy of the Orion String Quartet, Peter Wiley of the Guarneri String Quartet, Fred Sherry, Sylvia Rosenberg, Joseph Kalichstein, Wu Han, and the Borromeo String Quartet. Chamber performance venues include the 92nd Street Y and Alice Tully Hall in New York. As a four-time full scholarship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and School, she has held the concertmaster position of both their Sinfonia and Academy of Conducting Orchestras. Maxine received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. She currently serves as teaching assistant to Ms. Tanaka, at both the Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School. Previous teachers include Fredell Lack and Michele Auclair. Her strongest musical influences these days are the band Radiohead and country music star Waylon Jennings. In her spare time Maxine loves to watch football and cook.

Steve Miahky, violin

Steve Miahky has garnered acclaim for his performances as a recitalist and chamber musician. He was recently professor of violin at Cornell University. He has appeared at New York City's Steinway and Merkin Halls, Atlanta's ProMozart Society, the Princeton Chamber Music Society, the Southwest Virginia Festival of the Arts, and Albany's Young Musician's Forum among others. He has performed with such distinguished artists as Martin Beaver, Nick Eanet, Martin Katz, Norman Fischer, Anthony Elliott, Paul Cohen, and members of the Arianna, Chester, Concord, and Tokyo String Quartets. He is a member of Trio 56 and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra directed by Michael Stern. In addition to the Sybarite Chamber Players, Miahky is also a member of Brave New Works, a chamber music group dedicated to enrichment and education through contemporary music. He has worked closely with composers William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Leslie Bassett, Steven Stucky, Carter Pann, Sydney Hodkinson, John McDonald, and Michael Daugherty. Miahky has spent the last four summers as a fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival, most recently as the solo violinist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. He received his B.M. and M.M. from the University of Michigan and is currently a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University. His teachers include Alan Bodman, Stephen Shipps, Paul Kantor, Todd Phillips, and Arnold Steinhardt.

Laura Metcalf, cello

Cellist Laura Metcalf enjoys an active performing career in and around New York city, having been heard recently such venues as Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, the French Consulate of New York, the Tenri Cultural Institute, the J.P. Morgan Library, St. John the Divine Cathedral, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. As a member of the Stella Piano Trio, she gave her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall in 2006, and in 2007 participated in the ARD Competition in Munich, Germany, where the trio was the top-ranked North American ensemble. She gave her New York concerto debut in 2007 performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Ensemble 212 Orchestra, and was named a semi-finalist in the 2007 Hudson Valley Concerto Competition. Laura has performed at music festivals including Taos, IMS Prussia Cove, Sarasota, Aspen, and Fontainebleau (France). As an orchestral musician, she was recently appointed assistant principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and performs regularly as a member of Michael Tilson Thomas’s New World Symphony. She studied with Timothy Eddy and Michael Reynolds, and is a faculty member at the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

Sarah Whitney, violin

Sarah Whitney, an active solo, and chamber musician, has been heard worldwide across stages in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. As a chamber musician, Ms. Whitney has performed as guest artist on the Cleveland Institute of Music Faculty Concert Series, the Cleveland Composer’s Guild and the Memphis Chamber Music Society Solo Concert Series As a soloist she received second prize in the 2000 Philharmonic Society of Arlington, MA Young Artists Competition. Most recently, Ms. Whitney led the Cleveland Central Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra as concertmaster on tour to Carnegie Hall and again returned to the stage with the New World Symphony. She has participated in festivals in Italy, France, and China as well as the Aspen Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West and the Spoleto Music Festival. She has also collaborated with the Josh Ritter Band and can be heard of their latest album, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, produced by Sony Music BMG. Ms. Whitney received her M.M. from the Cleveland Institute of Music and her B.M with honors from the University of Michigan. Her teachers include Kathleen Winkler, Aaron Berfosky, Cyrus Forough, Stephen Shipps, Paul Kantor and William Preucil. Ms. Whitney plays on a Luigi Sofritti violin made in 1885.

Brian Fox, violin

Brian Fox, violin, hails from Tacoma, Washington. In addition to the Sybarite Chamber Players, Brian is a member of the Claremont Ensemble, Tactus Ensemble, and Elektra Chamber Players all based in New York City. Brian's passion for new music has led to collaborations with many composers including George Crumb, Steve Reich, John Adams, Tod Machover, Richard Danielpour, Bright Sheng, Pierre Boulez and David Noon. As a chamber musician, he has performed with such distinguished artists as Mark Hill, Carol Wincenc, Karen Dreyfus, Lawrence Dutton, Emanuel Hurwitz, and Kurt Nikkanen. As an orchestral player Brian has appeared as concertmaster of the Aspen Concert Orchestra, Assistant concertmaster of both the Aspen Chamber Symphony and Allentown Symphony, and principal second violin of the Norwalk Symphony, as well as with the Boston Symphony. During the summer, Brian has as been a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, and the Juilliard Quartet Seminar. His teachers include Naoko Tanaka, Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, and Sylvia Rosenberg. He plays on a Copy of the Lord Wilton Guarneri del Gesu violin made by Luiz Bellini in 2003, and on a modern bow by Charles Espey.

Louis Levitt, double bass

Louis Levitt has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New World Symphony, and was principal of the Springfield Symphony. An active chamber musician Mr Levitt has most recently performed along side the Grammy nominated Quartet San Francisco, and multiple Grammy winning composer Bob James. Other chamber music appearances include the Aspen Salon Concert Series, Aspen Music Festival Salida Chamber Series, Aspen Inside Music Series, LaSalle Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati Ohio, as well as a guest artist appearance at the Telluride Music Festival. He has appeared as a soloist performing Frank Proto's Carmen Fantasy with orchestra and Jean Francaix's Mozart New Look. Mr. Levitt received his Bachelor's Degree and Artist Diploma from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music where he studied with Albert Laszlo. He has also received multiple fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival where he studied with Paul Ellison, Albert Laszlo, Eugene Levinson and Stuart Sankey. Mr. Levitt is originally from Sarasota Florida, where he studied with John Miller.

 

Praised for her “heartfelt sensitivity,” (Bergen-Egmond-Schoorl Contact, Holland), and her “awesome skill,” (The Sentinel-Ledger, New Jersey) violinist and violist Joanna Marie Frankel consistently shares her unique imagination before many and diverse audiences. She has won top prizes in several young artist competitions spanning three states, and has garnered prizes which have resulted in numerous solo concerto appearances with orchestras in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. She has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician in Aspen, Charleston SC, Chattanooga, Fort Washington, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington DC, and The Netherlands, and most recently was presented by Artists International in her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in January 2007. During the 2007-2008 season Ms. Frankel will perform her European recital debut tour, which will comprise solo recital engagements at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Theater Diligentia in The Hague, and various additional prestigious venues across Eastern Europe. Ms. Frankel’s solo performances have been broadcast on WSMC of Collegedale, Tennessee and WRTI of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. She is a master’s degree candidate and scholarship student of Mr. Cho-Liang Lin at The Juilliard School, and has been performing with the Sybarite Chamber Players since 2005.

Angela Pickett, viola

Angela Pickett has performed as a violist, violinist, and fiddler throughout North America, Europe and Angela has also performed with Wet Ink Music, Ne(x)tworks, Continuum, and recently premiered a new version of Helmut Lachenmann’s Mouvement with the Argento Chamber Ensemble. In 2006, Angela performed Ann Southam’s Re-Tuning for viola and tape at the 34th International Viola Congress, and a subsequent performance of Re-Tuning at the 2006 International Sound Symposium was recorded for national radio broadcast. As a fiddler she has perfromed with Irish tenor John McDermott, the Chieftains, and appeared on numerous recordings of Irish/Newfoundland traditional music. A doctoral candidate in viola performance at the Manhattan School of Music, Angela completed a Masters degree from the Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music in her hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Angela has attended Tanglewood Music Centre, Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Centre d’Arts Orford, and has twice been a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Grant for Classical Musicians. Angela’s principal teachers include Michael Tree, Samuel Rhodes, Karen Tuttle and Karen Dreyfus.

Paye Srinarong, violin

Andrea Lee made her orchestral debut at age 16 as the winner of the Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Competition in her native Michigan. She has performed at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Spoleto Festival USA, and International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove. Her love for chamber music has led her to work closely with members of the Tokyo, Takacs, Guarneri, Borromeo, and Cleveland Quartets. As a graduate of Yale College and New England Conservatory, Ms. Lee has been the recipient of many prizes. including the Yale Friends of Music Award, Class of 1956 Fellowship, the T. Whitney Blake Memorial Prize, and the Bach Society Prize. Most recently, she was a member of the Luna String Quartet, as well as the winner of the 2006 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award. Ms. Lee’s teachers include Richard Aaron, Clive Greensmith, and Yeesun Kim. She is now pursuing a Professional Studies Diploma at Mannes College as a student of Timothy Eddy. Ms. Lee performs on a 1904 Vincenzo Postiglione cello. March 2007 marks her first performance with the Sybarite Quintet.