2012 Winter Concert Artists
7:30pm, Feb 24, at United Methodist Church
This concert is open to the public. Suggested donation: $15. UMC-Directions
Elisa Barston, violin | Brittany Boulding, violin | Timothy Christie, viola | Mara Gearman, viola |Kevin Krentz, cello
Elisa Barston, violin
Praised for her “glowing sound” and “technical aplomb” (The Strad), violinist Elisa Barston is the Seattle Symphony’s Principal Second Violin. Prior to the appointment, she served as the Associate Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons and was a first violin section member of the Cleveland Orchestra. As soloist and chamber musician, Barston has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, appearing with the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and St. Louis and Taipei symphony orchestras, among many others. In 1986, she made her European debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at the request of Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Barston studied at the University of Southern California and Indiana University. Back to Top
Brittany Boulding, violin
Violinist Brittany Boulding recently moved back to Seattle where she performs as Concertmaster and Soloist of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, Bellevue Philharmonic and 5th Avenue Theater. Ms. Boulding will also be performing as Concertmaster of the Northwest Sinfonietta this year.Other recent solo appearances have been with the New Haven Symphony, Spoleto Festival and National Reperatory Orchestra. She also performs regularly with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Boulding has most recently performed in the Simple Measures, Second City and Guemes Island Chamber music series. During the summer season Ms. Boulding attends the Bellingham Festival of Music and in the past has appeared as Concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center, Banff Center and Spoleto USA orchestras. Ms. Boulding received her BM from Rice University as a student of Kenneth Goldsmith and her Professional Studies Certificate from the Colburn Conservatory under the tutelage of Robert Lipsett. Ms. Boulding’s violin career also extends past her experience as a classical musician. Since the age of 6 she has been performing with her family the internationally acclaimed MAGICAL STRINGS touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and Ireland. She has recorded on five of their sixteen albums and been a featured soloist at their annual Celtic Yuletide Concerts, a celebrated Northwest tradition. Back to Top
Timothy Christie, viola
Violinist and violist Timothy Christie, is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival. He serves on the music faculties of the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, and the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
The solo violist of Brave New Works since the group's inception in 1997, Timothy has performed and premiered numerous solo and chamber works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Timothy currently performs with the Pacific Northwest Ballet orchestra, IRIS Orchestra (Germantown, TN), the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Opera, and on numerous chamber music series throughout the Northwest.
Mara Gearman, viola
“A busy violist about town” Mara Gearman is already accomplished in chamber music, orchestral, and solo settings. She regularly performs with the Seattle based mavericks the American String Project and Simple Measures. Upcoming concerts will include the Olympic Music Festival, Methow Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and a debut with the Barston String Quartet and pianist Simon Trcepski at Benaroya
Gearman won Principal Viola (at age twenty) with the former Haddonfield Symphony, and recently with the Kansas City Symphony. Previously a tenured member of the Oregon Symphony, Mara has been appointed Third Chair Viola with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra beginning 2009-2010.
As a solo performer Gearman has won awards at the Primrose and Tertis International Viola Competitions and performed solo compositions ranging from American Alan Shulman to Hungarian Miklos Rozca. Mara recently perfomed Bartok Concerto with the New Symphony, BULGARIA, and is featured in Harold in Italy this fall with the Cascade Symphony.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, her primary teachers included Roberto Diaz, Pinchas Zukerman, and Karen Tuttle. Gearman is a recent addition to the faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. Back to Top
Kevin Krentz, Cello
Artistic Director
Cellist Kevin Krentz is an award-winning performer in a wide variety of styles of music including classical, crossover, many popular styles, and amplified on his electric cello.
A native of Atlanta, Georgia, he began his musical life as a cellist at 12, but soon dropped the cello to sing for the rest of his youth. Picking up the cello in college, he has gone on to perform solo, chamber and contemporary music with various groups, bands, and orchestral ensembles across North America and Europe.
A devoted chamber musician, Kevin is Artistic Director of the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival in Washington state. He has been a winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with his trio In Flight 3 and winner in the Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Verona, Italy and the Greenlake National Chamber Music Competition with Finisterra Trio. He has played at the Ann Arbor, Seattle, San Juan and Seasons Fall Festivals as well as the Icebreaker IV Festival at On the Boards with the Seattle Chamber Players.
With Finisterra Trio, Kevin is devoted to performing contemporary works as well as the standard repertoire. The trio has commissioned new works by Daron Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Roger Zahab, Beth Wieman, David Rakovski, Daniel Gilliam and others including the chamber opera, “Cradle Song” and Trios 3 and 4 by Daron Hagen which were subsequently recorded for the Naxos label along with Hagen’s Trios 1 and 2. Finisterra Trio are Artists In Residence at the Phoenix Series in New York as well the Seasons Fall Festival in Yakima, Washington where Kevin is also Director of Chamber Music Studies. Finisterra has also collaborated with jazz artists like Chris Brubeck and the Bill Mays Trio including free improvisation with famed jazz drummer Matt Wilson in a performance that was later broadcast nationally on many NPR affiliates. Finisterra Trio has also collaborated with the Florestan Trio in London where they were presented in several concerts.
His teachers have included Florian Kitt and Jontscho Bayrov in Vienna, and Gary Hardie, Owen Carman, and Toby Saks in the US. Masterclass performances include Janos Starker, Matt Haimovitz, Paul Katz, and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. Chamber music studies include the Florestan Trio, Elsa Verdehr, Stephen Shipps, Ron Patterson and Ralph Votapek; masterclasses with Josef Gingold, the Cleveland, Vermeer, and Lark Quartets and the Eroica Trio. Kevin is also inventor of the only technology to actually play the strings of violin family instruments for weeks at a time in order to ‘play them in,’ or bring them to their potential far faster than the normal period of many years. www.Violinplay-in.com
Kevin plays cellos by Robert Brewer Young on models originated by Stradivari and Testore. His bows were made by Robert Morrow and Robert Shallock. Back to Top
