STRINGS

The strings chamber music course offers a variety of instrumental combinations and repertoire, primarily string quartets. Ensembles may also include piano trios, quartets and quintets, as well as combinations with wind instruments. Groups are coached one hour week in addition to a weekly studio class. Group rehearsals should average three hours/week preparation. Group members are encouraged to develop responsible practice habits through individual preparation and effective rehearsal techniques. Performance opportunities include the studio classes, Tuesday one o'clock concerts, student recitals, and the chamber music recital/jury at the end of each semester. Grading is primarily based on the group performance level achieved, with individual factors such as responsibility to rehearsal/lesson times, preparation, and positive contributions being included.

The TOMATZ STRING QUARTET is a graduate quartet consisting of string players, who through competitive audition, have been appointed as members of this quartet. They perform frequently and serve as ambassadors to the local community as well. Violinists Yuri Kang and Seyoon Eom join Violist Travis Galbraith and Cellist Shino Hayashi to form our oustanding ensemble.

Violist Lawrence Wheeler, Coordinator of String Chamber Music Studies, is the former Principal Violist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has performed as soloist with the Minnesota, Icelandic, UNAM, Mexico City, Texas Chamber Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has performed as recitalist in London. New York, Stuttgart as well as performing at two International Viola Congresses. He has appeared on radio broadcasts by NPR and the BBC. He has served as guest principal with Dallas and Houston Syphonies and has taught at Meadowmount, Encore and the Texas Music Festival. In Houston, he performs frequent recitals and chamber music performances and is currently the Conductor of the Greater Houston Youth Orchestra.

CHAMBER MUSIC FACULTY INCLUDES:

Andrzej Grabiec, violin
Former concertmaster, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Polish National Radio and Television Symphony, Wichita Symphony Orchestra; concertmaster, American Sinfonietta, Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra; prize winner, Wieniawski and Thibaud International Competitions; Carnegie Hall debut in 1984; member, Polish radio trio, Mozart Festival Chamber Orchestra, Fairmount String Quartet, and the Trio NOVA; faculty, Sarasota Music Festival; recordings, Summit and Vifon.

Kyung Sun Lee, violin
Kyung Sun Lee, Artistic Ambassador for Korea in 2002, has performed as soloist with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin, the Belgian and Moscow national orchestras, the Jupiter Symphony, the Missouri Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony, and the Taipei City Symphony, among others. She has been a laureate in numerous international competitions, capturing bronze medals in the 1993 Queen Elisabeth Competition and the 1994 Tchaikovsky Competition, first prizes in the Washington and D'Angelo International Competitions, and third prize in the Montreal International Competition, where she also won the Audience Favorite and the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prizes. She has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center, among other venues, and she has participated in the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Aspen Festivals. Her recordings are available on the Audite and Sung-Eum labels. She studied with Dorothy Delay and Robert Mann at the Juilliard School and with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Peabody Conservatory, where she earned both a master of music degree and an artist diploma. She earned a bachelor of music degree from Seoul National University. Lee performs on a Joseph Guarnerius violin made in 1723. She was assistant professor of violin at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 2001 to 2006.

Rita Porfiris, viola
Member, Houston Symphony since 1995; principal, Indianapolis, New World Symphony and Schleswig-Holstein Orchester; section, Radio-Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Baroque Orchester Berlin; Plymouth String Quartet; recipient, Prix Mercure; prize winner, Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, William Primrose Viola Competition; recital and solo appearances, Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center and the Salzburg Mozarteum; recordings, Opus One and Modern Masters.

Vagram Saradjian, cello
Since his triumphs in the 1975 International Cello Competition in Geneva and the International Tchaikowsky Competition, Vagram Saradjian has performed around the world in major concert halls with leading orchestras and conductors, such as Rostropovich, Kondrashin, Khachaturian, Temirkanov and Shostakovich; and has participated in many prestigious music festivals. Mr. Saradjian also celebrated as a champion of contemporary music and has earned the admiration of many modern composers who have dedicated works to him. As a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage Mstislav Rostropovich for eight years. Mr. Saradjian's extensive discography includes the Schumann, Saint-Saens, Dvorak, Honegger & Karen Khachaturian Cello Concertos and the Tchaikoxsky Rococo Variations.

Dennis Whittaker, double bass
Winner, 1987 Gary Karr Solo Competition; principal, Houston Grand Opera, active as substitute bassist with Houston Symphony and as freelance performer; active as upright and electric bassist in jazz and pop ensembles; public school students have been accepted into programs at Tanglewood, the Disney Young Musician's Orchestra and the Texas All-State Orchestra; faculty, Texas Music Festival.

THE MOORES PIANO TRIO:

One of our successful chamber groups, made up of students (now graduated) Mikylah Myers, violin, Erika Johnson, cello, and Tomoko Isshiki, piano, was formed in August of 1999 at the Moores School of Music. The Trio was a prize winner at the Carmel Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in May 2000. The Moores Piano Trio was one of five groups selected nationally to perform at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan in June. At the Festival the Trio was coached by William Bolcom for a performance of his "Spring Trio: A Bouquet of Traditional Flower Rags" at the Detroit Institute of Art. Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press wrote that "the Moores Piano Trio found the poetry in Mozart's B-flat Trio, K. 502..."

The members of the Trio performed internationally as both soloists and chamber musicians, including appearances in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and France, and often perform with the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony. They have been coached by Gilbert Kalish, Ruth Laredo, James Tocco, Nathaniel Rosen, Paul Katz, Scott St. John and Charles Castleman.