Meet the Musicians of the 2026 Blairsville Chamber Music Festival
BCMS Co-Founder, Artistic Director & Violinist
Avital Mazor
Avital Mazor, Artistic Director and co-founder of the Blairsville Chamber Music Society, is an Israeli violinist based in Blairsville, PA and New York. Mazor is active as a performer and teacher with a focus on chamber music and historically informed performance. A graduate of the Israel Arts and Science Academy and the Jerusalem Music Center’s Outstanding Young Musicians Program, he holds degrees from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and an Artist’s Diploma from Mannes School of Music. He has studied with Michael Gaisler, Kevin Lawrence, Lucy Robert, and Shmuel Ashkenasi, and performed on major stages including Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall, as well as throughout Germany, Israel, Hungary, Italy, Russia, and Spain. A prize winner at the David Gritz and Rosen-Schaffel competitions and a longtime recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship, he has also appeared at festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, Green Mountain, Keshet Eilon, and Orford Musique. Avital plays a violin made by Paolo Antonio Testore c. 1750 and is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University. In 2022, he co-founded the Blairsville Chamber Music Festival with Blairsville native Sarah Marshall, inspired by the town’s beauty and spirit. As it grew, the festival evolved into the Blairsville Chamber Music Society, expanding into year-round concerts and cultural programs. Today, it remains a celebrated part of Blairsville’s cultural life, fostering connection, community, and artistry.
Violinist & Composer
Ariel Horowitz
Hailed by The Washington Post as “sweetly lyrical,” violinist, composer/songwriter, and community organizer Ariel Horowitz maintains an active touring career as a soloist and chamber musician, performing classical masterworks alongside original compositions and improvisations for violin, voice, and electronics, as well as works by living composers and composers from backgrounds historically underrepresented in classical music. In 2025, Ariel signed with Bright Shiny Things for worldwide management following the 2024 release of her debut album, Hearth, on the label. Ariel was previously represented by Concert Artists Guild as a winner of the 2020 Victor Elmaleh Competition. Recent appearances have included performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Joe’s Pub, and Merkin Hall, as well as collaborations with Mostly Music, the Kravis Center, Tertulia Chamber Music, Chamber Music Detroit, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Concerto appearances include performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe ProMusica, Neue Philharmonie Westphalia, Kammerphilharmonie Hamburg, and the Manhattan School of Music Camerata as part of Rob Kapilow’s What Makes It Great? series. Ariel tours regularly with Vision Duo, a genre-fluid ensemble formed with percussionist Britton-René Collins in 2021, and toured nationally with the string quintet Sybarite5 during the 2025–26 season. Additional collaborations include performances with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Frisson Ensemble, OrchestraQ, and Pegasus: The Orchestra. Ariel is a prizewinner of the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, the Grumiaux International Competition, the Klein Competition, and the Stulberg Competition. Additional honors include a 2017 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and the Yale University Jefferson Award for public service. Festival appearances include Newport Classical, Music@Menlo, the Grand Canyon Music Festival/Native American Composers Apprenticeship Program, Caroga Lake Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, among others. Ariel is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Heartbeat Music Project, a tuition-free program providing music and Navajo (Diné) cultural education alongside direct-aid resources for youth on the Navajo Nation. This work is guided by long-term relationship, accountability, and collaboration with Diné elders, educators, and cultural leaders, and Ariel participates as a guest on sovereign Diné land. In 2022, the project received the Lewis Prize for Music Accelerator Award, a $500,000 national prize for youth music organizations. Ariel has served on the faculty of the Chamber Music Center of New York since 2023 and previously taught at Mount Holyoke College. A graduate of the Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School, Ariel studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Ani Kavafian.
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Cellist
Gabriel Martins
Gabriel Martins (b. 1998) is an American concert cellist. He gained recognition after winning both the Sphinx Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2020. In 2022, he was invited to make his New York recital debut on short notice, stepping in for Steven Isserlis in a program of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites at the 92nd Street Y. The performance was praised by The Strad Magazine as “flawlessly played" and "a deeply moving experience”. Since then, his career has continued to grow, with debuts at Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco), Maison Symphonique (Montréal), Wigmore Hall (London), and with the Alabama, Allentown, Arkansas, Auburn, Augusta, Duluth-Superior, DuPage, Elgin, Houston, Indianapolis, Greensboro, Memphis, Mid-Atlantic, Omaha, Pacific, Phoenix, Santa Fe, São Paulo, Sedona, South Florida, Tallahassee, and Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestras. In 2025, he gave his first tour of Asia, with recitals in Bangkok, Chiayi, Manila, Taipei, and Tokyo. Martins’ musical approach has been described as “a rare combination of intellectual clarity, emotional depth, and genuine humility,” and as that of “an artist grounded not in performance bravado, but in an unwavering commitment to honoring the music itself” (Cultural Attaché). His focus on the music of Bach culminated in his 2024 debut recording of the complete Cello Suites, followed in 2025 by the Violin Sonatas and Partitas in his own arrangements for cello. His performances have been broadcast on NPR, WQXR, KUSC, and WFMT, and his festival appearances include Aspen, Bard, Blairsville, Brevard, ChamberFest Cleveland, Four Seasons, La Jolla, Mainly Mozart, Ravinia, Sitka, and Yellow Barn. Among his additional honors are prizes at the David Popper International Cello Competition, the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, the Prague Spring International Music Competition, the Schadt String Competition, the Orford Music Award, and the American Recital Debut Award. In 2022 he was named to Classic FM's "30 under 30" list. Born to Brazilian and American parents, Martins grew up in Bloomington, Indiana. He began studying the cello at age five with Susan Moses at the Indiana University String Academy. He earned his Bachelor of Music as a Presidential Scholar at the USC Thornton School of Music, studying with Ralph Kirshbaum, and won both the school’s concerto and Bach competitions in his freshman year. He completed his Master of Music at the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. Martins now resides in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to performing, he composes and teaches. He performs on a composite Francesco Ruggieri cello made in Cremona, c. 1690, and a François Nicolas Voirin bow made in Paris, c. 1880.
Violinist
Kevin Lawrence
Praised for his "vibrant intensity," (The Times, London) and playing "supremely convincing in its vitality," (Cleveland Plain Dealer) violinist Kevin Lawrence has consistently elicited superlative responses for his performances throughout the United States and Europe—at Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, in Houston, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Rome, Prague, Bucharest, Sofia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Amsterdam, where the Dutch press described him as "simply miraculous" (Het Vaderland). A lifelong advocate of American music, Lawrence has premiered sonatas by contemporary American compositional voices Laura Kaminsky, Judith Shatin and Lawrence Dillon, and chamber works by Michael Rothkopf and Evan Chambers. His release of the complete violin works of the American composer Arthur Foote on the New World label was "highly recommended" as "beautifully played" by the Washington Post, featured on NPR’s Performance Today, and broadcast by PBS on the Ken Burns series “Not for Ourselves Alone.” His second recording of American violin sonatas on New World was hailed as “vital playing” and “a labor of love” by ClassicsToday.com. With renowned flutist Carol Wincenc he recorded American flute quintets for the Bridge label; this recording was named as Critics Choice by American Record Guide, which praised its “consummate virtuosity.” Lawrence received his musical education at The Juilliard School as a student of Ivan Galamian and Margaret Pardee. While at Juilliard he also studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and continued his chamber music study with Josef Gingold at the Meadowmount School in Westport, New York. In 1980, Galamian appointed Lawrence to the Meadowmount faculty, where he taught for 14 summers. After serving as dean and then artistic director of the Killington Music Festival, he founded Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in 2004; since retiring as festival director at the conclusion of the 2021 season, he serves as artistic director emeritus. Lawrence is string chair at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1990. He has given master classes throughout the United States, and in Canada, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Israel, Costa Rica, Venezuela, China, Thailand and Korea. He has just completed a four-month residency in Romania as a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award.
Pianist
Sunmi Han
Marked by poetic lyricism in solo performance and vibrant imagination in chamber music collaborations, pianist Sunmi Han has appeared in major venues across Europe, the U.S., and Asia—including Munich’s Herkulessaal and Prague’s Smetana Hall—and has performed as soloist with the North Czech Philharmonic, Karlovy Vary Symphony, Kharkiv Philharmonic, Moravian Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic. A devoted chamber musician, she has collaborated with artists such as Arnaud Sussmann, Jörg Widmann, Colin Carr, Denis Várjon, Matthew Lipman, Nicholas Mann, Alan Kay, Pauline Sachse, Seth Knopp, and members of the Emerson Quartet. An alumna of The Juilliard School, she also holds degrees from Tel Aviv University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, and is currently completing her DMA at Stony Brook University. Upcoming projects include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Copland’s Piano Variations.
Pianist & Composer
Owen Dodds
American pianist and composer Owen Dodds leads a diverse and stimulating musical life, driven by his desire to share the music he enjoys. A native of North Carolina, Owen currently resides in New York, where he performs as classical soloist, chamber musician, song writer, and composer. He has recently appeared in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Lincoln Center’s Clark Studio Theatre, and Rockwood Music Hall. An active collaborator and chamber musician, Owen is a member of the Béla Trio with clarinetist Kelsi Doolittle and violinist Stephanie Bonk, which was recently awarded the Donald Spieth Prize for chamber music. Owen’s modern-folk duo, Early Gray, with guitarist Drake Duffer, has released two albums of original music. They have collaborated with artists including Gabriel Kahane and Tanner Porter and were featured on PBS North Carolina. In recent years, Owen has enjoyed devoting more time to composition. His chamber music works have recently been featured as a part of Stony Brook’s Contemporary Chamber Players, The New School’s Tech Forward concert series, Blairsville Chamber Music Festival, and the Weekend of Chamber Music festival in the Catskills of NY. Owen’s upcoming compositional projects include a piece to be performed by his mentor, pianist Gilbert Kalish. Owen has received awards in piano competitions including Music Teachers National Association, the Baltimore International Piano Festival Competition, the Malaysian International Music Competition, and the Stony Brook Concerto Competition. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the UNC School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra and the National Academic Orchestra of Ukraine. Owen began his official music studies in the high school program at UNC School of the Arts, first receiving instruction from Clifton Matthews and later continuing with Dr. Dmitri Shteinberg for his bachelor's degree. In 2020, Owen received his master of music degree from Boston University, where he studied piano performance with Gila Goldstein. From 2020-2022, Owen studied at Mannes School of Music with Vladimir Valjarević. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University under the guidance of Gilbert Kalish.
Violinist
Hudson Ye-Hyung Chung
Acclaimed for his unique interpretation and warm, beautiful tone, Hudson Ye-Hyung Chung was born in Jerusalem, Israel, and began playing the violin at age six. Making his debut with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at age eleven, he was commended by Israel’s fifth president, Yitzhak Navon, who became his patron for his music studies in Israel. Since then, Mr. Chung has demonstrated his talents in venues around the world and has won competitions from a young age. He received first-prize awards in the Israeli-American Foundation Sharett Scholarship Program, Tel Aviv (2006); the Kukmin Daily News Competition, Seoul (2007); the Youngsan Young Artist Competition, Seoul (2008); the New York International Music Competition (2012); and the Bach International Music Competition (2024). An active chamber musician, Mr. Chung is a member of the Mozze Trio alongside pianist Owen Dodds and cellist Gustavo Antoniacomi, with whom he will make a debut concert appearance at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall this coming November. He has also collaborated with renowned artists including Gil Shaham, Yura Lee, Paul Huang, Ani Kavafian, Jennifer Frautschi, and the Emerson Quartet. His festival appearances include the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Great Mountains Festival, and Keshet Eilon. An alumnus of The Juilliard School, the Yale School of Music, and the New England Conservatory, Mr. Chung has studied with distinguished pedagogues including Hyo Kang, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, and Peter Zazofsky. He currently studies with Jennifer Frautschi, Phil Setzer, and Haggai Shaham at Stony Brook University on a full-merit scholarship. Also a dedicated educator who believes that music should serve the community and children, Mr. Chung serves on the violin faculty at the Buckley Country Day School, a distinguished private school in Roslyn. Furthermore, he is a proud Co-Founder of The Great Melody, an active non-profit organization dedicated to healing communities through music and bringing light and encouragement to Long Island and New York City. Additionally, he has served as the praise team leader at The Life Presbyterian Church in Flushing, NY, since 2024.
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Violist
Jack Kessler
Jack Kessler, a violist from Miami, Florida has performed internationally and across the United States with a deep commitment to cultural memory and civic engagement. He recently toured Ernest Bloch’s Fourth String Quartet throughout Central Europe, was a fellow at the Colorado Music Festival and is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy. The Perlman Music Program regularly invites him to appear in its Neue Galerie concert series in New York, and he was a recent participant in the 2025 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in Newcastle, England. At the Fontainebleau Conservatory, his transcription of Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée was awarded by the Ravel Foundation and will be published. Jack has appeared on NPR’s From the Top with pianist Jeremy Denk and performed on the Curtis Presents series with Noah Bendix-Balgley of the Berlin Philharmonic. While serving as chamber music coordinator at the Curtis Institute, he organized a program honoring Eastern European composers such as Hans Krasa and Pal Hermann who perished in the Holocaust. Continuing this passion, he performed in Awake in the Dark (2023 and 2024, Brooklyn and Manhattan), a concert theater work by Shira Nayman exploring memory and survival during the Nazi reign. Jack is fascinated with the intricacies of conducting and was mentored by Jonathan Coopersmith. He worked at Yale’s Oral History of American Music, transcribing interviews with leading musical voices including Gabriela Lena Frank and David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet. Beyond music, he is an advocate for sustainable cities and is writing an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer urging New Jersey Transit to allow bicycles on peak trains. He studied with Michael Klotz in Miami, Ettore Causa at Yale University and with Roberto Diaz and Ed Gazouleas at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Cellist
Linda Jennings
Linda Jennings is Professor of Music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she leads the Cello and Bass studios, teaches chamber music, and directs the IUP String Project. She received her Bachelor of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Music from the University of Southern California, and a Doctorate of Music from the University of Texas at Austin. She has studied with cellists Geraldine Jennings, Janet Grieve, Parry Karp, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Uri Vardi, and Phyllis Young. Linda Jennings is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral performer. She has played in orchestras throughout Texas, the Midwest, and Alaska and served as principal cellist for the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Alleghenies, and the Philly Street Strings. In the summer of 2002, she was invited to serve as guest principal cellist of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra in Thailand for the 70th Birthday celebration of Thailand’s Queen Sirikit. She currently serves as principal cellist of the Philly Street Strings Chamber Orchestra. She also appeared as soloist and chamber musician in concerts and festivals in the U.S., Mexico, Europe, Thailand, Indonesia, and Haiti. Linda Jennings served as a member of the Litton String Quartet and Gorell Piano Trio, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s faculty chamber ensembles-in-residence. She was also the cellist in the Arcadi Piano Trio and Herbert Steet Trio. Dr. Jennings has also been invited to present master classes nationally in Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Oklahoma as well as internationally in Mexico, Croatia, Thailand, and Haiti. From 2020-2024 she provided monthly master classes for Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra Oversea Online Class Project in Thailand. In addition to her performing and teaching career, Linda Jennings is a strong proponent for string music education. From 1997-1999 she served as the Director of the prestigious UT String Project, an internationally acclaimed teacher-training program. Currently, she directs a similar program, the IUP String Project which she founded in 2004. Linda Jennings was invited to teach and provide pedagogy training for music teachers in Haiti and Thailand. She served as Artistic Director and Guest Artist for the 2025 Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra Festival, and for the 2014 Bangkok Symphony Cello Festival and Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra Cello Festivals, the first festivals of this kind in Thailand.
Violist
Aidan Garrison
As avid chamber musician, Aidan Garrison has collaborated with members of the St. Lawrence string quartet, and Rosemary Elliot, and performed for artists such as Ani Kavafian, Dimitri Murrath, and Christian Colberg, as well as members of the Emerson, Shanghai, and Pacifica string quartets. He has attended the Aspen, Bowdoin, Banff, and Heifetz international music festivals, and was a fellow at the Napa Valley Blackburn academy. Aidan is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree at Stony Brook University, studying with Lawrence Dutton and Matthew Lipman. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the New England Conservatory, studying with Mai Motobuchi and Nicholas Cords. During his studies at the New England Conservatory, his string quartet was chosen for the Community Performances and Partnerships Ensemble Fellowship, where they developed educational programs designed to bring chamber music to audiences beyond the scope of a formal concert setting. This has led to engagements across the US, including notably a teaching residency as part of the Virginia Arts Festival. Comfortable in more than just classical music, Aidan has collaborated with artists from a variety of disciplines. He has performed with the Scottish fiddle duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, took part in the premiere of luminary jazz musician Wayne Shorter’s opera Iphigenia (co-written by Esperanza Spaulding), and performed as part of the backup string quartet for Jazz/Pop artist Laufey. At Stony Brook, he is taking part in the Emerson String Quartet Institute as part of the Velaris String Quartet, a group that has already been a finalist for several competitions, as well as winning Stony Brook’s Ackerman Prize.
Violinist
Shiqi Yang
Violinist Shiqi Yang is a versatile and collaborative performer with a deep passion for chamber music, orchestral performance, and community-driven artistry. A native of Sichuan, China, she is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at Stony Brook University, where she is expanding her work in chamber music under the mentorship of renowned faculty. She has worked closely with the Emerson String Quartet through the ESQ Institute, participates in various programs such as the Encore Chamber Music Festival and Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival, performing a diverse array of chamber repertoire. Prior to Stony Brook, Shiqi earned her Master of Music at Carnegie Mellon University with William van der Sloot. While there, she served as concertmaster of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic (2022–2023), leading the orchestra under distinguished conductors and collaborating with acclaimed soloists. She has performed with regional orchestras and appeared in major venues such as Carnegie Hall and Seiji Ozawa Hall. Most recently, she appeared with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Charleston, SC, alongside celebrated soloists. Deeply committed to outreach, Shiqi co-founded the Lullaby Project PGH, a Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute affiliated initiative, pairing new parents with professional musicians to compose personalized lullabies, fostering stronger parent–child bonds and supporting parental well-being. She and her colleagues are currently developing a sister initiative at Stony Brook University to continue this meaningful outreach. Shiqi earned her Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with William van der Sloot and Jinjoo Cho and was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship for her academic and musical excellence.
Violinist
Kaleigh Acord
Kaleigh Acord, appointed professor of Violin and Viola at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in August 2024, aims to help her students cultivate trust in their own ability to tackle challenges, musical and otherwise. Her fifteen years of teaching experience have brought her opportunities to work with students of nearly age and levels: she held a teaching assistantship at Longy School of Music and Wellesley College under the tutelage of Prof. Laura Bossert’s(2012-15), as well as faculty positions at UW-Madison’s Community Music School (2017-20), Lyricafest Chamber Music Festival (2012-15), Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Music Makers (2021-24), and Madison Conservatory (2021-24), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which seeks to address access barriers in music education. A passionate chamber musician, Kaleigh has appeared as a guest with the LunArt Festival, Willy Street Chamber Players, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. She participated in the first-ever cohort of fully-funded fellows at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in 2023. To better share share her love of chamber music, she coordinated the first-ever Madison Conservatory and Friends Chamber Music Workshop in June 2024. The workshop brought together 20 local students for six days of rehearsals, and to Capitol Lakes Retirement (Madison, WI) for a final benefit concert in support of Madison Conservatory. Several participants gained their very first chamber music experience through the Madison Conservatory and Friends program. Dedicated to cultivating relationships with living composers, Acord’s debut album comprises six American works written from 2000 to 2019. Twenty-First Century American Storytellers is available to stream on Spotify. Two of the six works were written specifically for her. She is also featured on violinist and arts advocate Ava Shadmani’s 2024 release, I Will Greet the Sun Again, a compilation of modern classical chamber music inspired by Persian folk music. Acord completed her Doctoral studies in Violin Performance at the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music in 2020. At UW, she studied with Soh-Hyun Park Altino, participated in several of the most ambitious student chamber music programs in the school’s recent history, and held the highly esteemed Paul Collins Fellowship from 2017 to 2020. She earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, supported in part by the Valerie SIingluff Violin Scholarship, and holds both a Master’s of Music and an Undergraduate Diploma from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. Her other primary teachers include Violaine Melancon, Laura Bossert, and James Batts. In March 2014, Kaleigh made her radio debut on WQXR’s McGraw Hill Financial Young Artist Showcase, playing Schoenfield’s “Souvenirs for Violin and Piano.”
Violinist
Swana Chepaitis
Swana Chepaitis is an accomplished violinist and private studio teacher in Indiana, PA. She earned her degree in Violin Pedagogy and Performance in 1995 from the Conservatory for the Arts in Bremen, in her native Germany. She then studied historic performance praxis and played with the baroque orchestra L’Arco for many years. In 1997, Swana moved to Indiana PA. She has maintained an active violin studio in Indiana for over 25 years, passing on the art of playing the violin to students of all ages. Along with her violinist husband Stanley, Swana co-founded and plays with Philly Street Strings, a string orchestra based in Indiana PA. They also perform together with their professional string quartet, the Kalnas Ensemble. In the region, Swana regularly plays with the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the Altoona Symphony Orchestra.
Cellist
Sam Viguerie
Sam Viguerie, a native of Atlanta, joined the Indianapolis Symphony in 2022. As a chamber musician, he has shared the stage with former members of the Cleveland, Emerson, and Juilliard String Quartets, and collaborated with critically-acclaimed composers such as Joan Tower, David Roche, and Michael Gandolfi. Sam has served as principal cello under conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Larry Rachleff, Stefan Asbury, and Hugh Wolff, and spent summers at Tanglewood, the Music Academy of the West, Meadowmount, and the Heifetz Institute. He's spent the past three summers performing at the Missouri River Festival of the Arts with members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He won the grand prize at the 2016 MTNA Young Artist Competition and took first prize at the 2015 Schubert Club Competition, subsequently giving full recitals in San Antonio, St. Paul, and Minneapolis. He has had the privilege to play in masterclasses for some of the world's most celebrated cellists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, and Lynn Harrel. A proud alumnus of St. Olaf College, he took part in four domestic tours with the St. Olaf Orchestra under Steven Amundson, performing the Dvorak and Schuman concertos. In 2019, he performed Ernest Bloch's Schelomo with Carl Topilow and the National Repertory Orchestra in the season's opening concert. An active educator, Sam maintains a private studio of eleven students in the Indianapolis and Carmel area and has taught masterclasses at the International Cello Institute. He holds a B.A. from St. Olaf College, an M.M. from New England Conservatory, and pursued further studies at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. His primary teachers include Desmond Hoebig, Paul Katz, Christopher French, David Carter, Daniel Laufer, and Roy Harran.
Violinist & Composer
Stanley Chepaitis
Dr. Chepaitis holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree and a Master of Music, as well as a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. He is a versatile performing and recording artist who is at home in a classical string quartet, a jazz band, and anything in between. His career spans fifty years in which time he has performed nationally and internationally, composed and premiered his own works, and recorded seven CDs mostly of original music. Dr. Chepaitis has been at the forefront of the Alternative Styles Movement having had a leading role in the ASTA Alternative Styles Conferences in ’03,’05, 06, ’07, and ’08.
Violinist
Jorge Vera
Jorge Vera is a violinist, educator, and composer recognized for his dynamic performance career and deep commitment to music education. He currently serves as Musician-in-Residence with the Allentown Symphony Association and performs regularly with orchestras across the United States. He debuted as a soloist in his native country with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Paraguay and has collaborated with ensembles throughout Europe, South America, and the U.S. A prizewinner of the International Golden State Music Competition in Los Angeles and recipient of the Gindroz Prize in Pittsburgh, Jorge has participated in major international festivals, including the Salzburg Festival in Austria. In 2024, he was a member of the Honors String Quartet in residence at Carnegie Mellon University, where he completed his Master of Music Performance. He has also contributed to recordings highlighting South American Baroque repertoire. Passionate about music education, Jorge has taught for over a decade and currently works with the El Sistema Lehigh Valley String Program, focusing on artistic excellence and community engagement through the transformative impact of music.