 Photo by Jill Foley |
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A native of Japan, violinist Yumi Okada serves as a concertmaster to the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra. Her first rise to fame came when she won the highly acclaimed Soloist Competition of Japan in Tokyo and the All-Japan Performance Association Competition in Nagoya in 1998. Since then she won numerous other competitions around the world, including the second prize in the International Chamber Ensemble Competition of New England in 2005 and the first prize in the Aichi Arts Foundation Competition in 2006. Most recently, she appeared as a soloist with the Washington Sinfonietta and performed Paganini Concerto in B minor.
She earned the Performance Diploma at the Indiana University, where she studied with Ilya Kaler, and received her Artist Diploma and Masters Degree at the Longy School of Music with Malcolm Lowe. She also studied chamber music with Jonathan Cohler and Victor Rosenbaum.
Ms. Okada is also a member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite her active concert career, she also finds time to share her musical knowledge with aspiring musicians as a faculty member at the Concord Conservatory of Music.
Internationally, Yumi Okada is well-known in her native country where for the tenth consecutive year she is the exclusive solo violinist for the Osaka Arte Philharmonic Orchestra.
She earned the Performance Diploma at the Indiana University, where she studied with Ilya Kaler, and received her Artist Diploma and Masters Degree at the Longy School of Music with Malcolm Lowe. She also studied chamber music with Jonathan Cohler and Victor Rosenbaum.
Ms. Okada is also a member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite her active concert career, she also finds time to share her musical knowledge with aspiring musicians as a faculty member at the Concord Conservatory of Music.
Internationally, Yumi Okada is well-known in her native country where for the tenth consecutive year she is the exclusive solo violinist for the Osaka Arte Philharmonic Orchestra.
Cellist Ignacy Grzelązka is a winner of the Grand Prize, Best Solo Performance Prize and Best Chamber Music Performance Prize at the Allegro-Vivo Music Festival in Horn, Austria. His other awards include prizes at the International Kiejstut Bacewicz Chamber music competition in Łódź, Poland, the Robertson Violins Young Artist award in Durango, CO, and Faculty and Friends Chamber Music Series award at TCU, Fort Worth, TX. He is a scholarship recipient from the Ministry of Culture in Poland, Austrian Culture Forum in Warsaw, Poland and the Ministry of Culture in Vienna, Austria.
He appeared at several concert halls such as the National Philharmonic and the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, and the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall in Germany. He performed with orchestras in El Paso, TX and Durango, CO, as well as recorded three chamber music CDs. Mr. Grzelazka regularly teaches at the Conservatory Music in The Mountains.
Ignacy received his Master of Musical Arts degree at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw where he studied with Kazimierz Michalik and Andzej Bauer. He completed his Masters degree at the Texas Christian University where his was also a teaching assistant to Dr. Jesús Castro-Balbi. Currently Mr. Grzelązka is studying with Ms. Rhonda Rider at the Boston Conservatory where he is on the Davi-Ellen and Bruce Chabner’s Scholarship.
He appeared at several concert halls such as the National Philharmonic and the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, and the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall in Germany. He performed with orchestras in El Paso, TX and Durango, CO, as well as recorded three chamber music CDs. Mr. Grzelazka regularly teaches at the Conservatory Music in The Mountains.
Ignacy received his Master of Musical Arts degree at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw where he studied with Kazimierz Michalik and Andzej Bauer. He completed his Masters degree at the Texas Christian University where his was also a teaching assistant to Dr. Jesús Castro-Balbi. Currently Mr. Grzelązka is studying with Ms. Rhonda Rider at the Boston Conservatory where he is on the Davi-Ellen and Bruce Chabner’s Scholarship.
Pianist Rasa Vitkauskaite has won top prizes at numerous prestigious international piano competitions including First Prizes at the Rubinstein Piano Competition (Paris), Les Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes Pianistes (Belgium), the competition in Taurisano (Italy), and the Mendelssohn Cup (Italy). In 2007, Rasa won a Kathryn Wasserman Davis grant that supported her tour promoting peace in Israel. In her native country of Lithuania, Ms. Vitkauskaite has garnered the top prize at six national competitions.
Ms. Vitkauskaite studied at the National M. K. Ciurlionis School of Arts in Vilnius, Lithuania, from which she graduated with honors. She then won a scholarship to study at the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy. Subsequently, she has studied at The Boston Conservatory, where she won the H. Wilfred Churchill piano scholarship competition both in 2007 and 2008, and completed her Bachelor and Masters Degrees. Her teachers include Jūratė Karosaitė, Mūza Rubackytė, Alberto Miodini, Michael Lewin and Randall Hodgkinson.
Ms. Vitkauskaite has performed as soloist with the Kaunas, Latvian, Kaliningrad Philharmonic Orchestras, I Solisti di Perugia and the Boston Conservatory Orchestra. She has played in many festivals around the world including ones in Kaunas (Lithuania), Moscow (Russia), Pyrénées (France), and the Music Fest Perugia (Italy). She has given concerts all over Europe, Israel, China, South Korea, Japan, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States.
Ms. Vitkauskaite studied at the National M. K. Ciurlionis School of Arts in Vilnius, Lithuania, from which she graduated with honors. She then won a scholarship to study at the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy. Subsequently, she has studied at The Boston Conservatory, where she won the H. Wilfred Churchill piano scholarship competition both in 2007 and 2008, and completed her Bachelor and Masters Degrees. Her teachers include Jūratė Karosaitė, Mūza Rubackytė, Alberto Miodini, Michael Lewin and Randall Hodgkinson.
Ms. Vitkauskaite has performed as soloist with the Kaunas, Latvian, Kaliningrad Philharmonic Orchestras, I Solisti di Perugia and the Boston Conservatory Orchestra. She has played in many festivals around the world including ones in Kaunas (Lithuania), Moscow (Russia), Pyrénées (France), and the Music Fest Perugia (Italy). She has given concerts all over Europe, Israel, China, South Korea, Japan, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States.
