Peter Winograd joined the American String Quartet in 1990.  He gave his first solo public performance at the age of 11, and at age 17 he was accepted as a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School. Recognized early as an exceptionally promising young artist, Winograd was a top prize winner in the 1988 Naumburg International Violin Competition.  He then made his New York debut to critical acclaim and has since appeared as a guest soloist with numerous orchestras and in recital across the country and abroad. Born into a gifted musical family, Winograd began his studies with his parents. His mother was a professional pianist, and his father was the founding cellist of the Juilliard Quartet and a conductor of the Hartford Symphony in Hartford, Connecticut, where Winograd grew up.  He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard. His violin is by Giovanni Maria del Bussetto (Cremona, 1675).

 

A founding member of the American String Quartet, Laurie Carney holds the distinction of performing quartets longer than any other woman in this elite field.  The ASQ began concertizing while she was still an undergraduate at Juilliard. Apart from the Quartet, she has performed trios with her husband, cellist William Grubb, and pianist Anton Nel; duos with violist Michael Tree; and as an ensemble partner with such artists as Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Salvatore Accardo, Cho-Liang Lin, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, and Frederica von Stade.  A champion of new music, she gave the premiere of Gianpaolo Bracali’s Fantasia for violin and piano.  Robert Sirota composed his Violin Sonata No. 2 for her, and in season.  Carney has held teaching positions at the Mannes College of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan, and Shepherd School at Rice University.  Her violin is by Carlo Tononi (Venice, 1720).

 

The Strad magazine hailed violist Daniel Avshalomov as “one of the finest   occupants of that chair, both instrumentally and musically, of any quartet now active.”  Avshalomov performs in recitals and collaborations and as a featured performer and concerto soloist at festivals across the country.  He was a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and was a frequent guest artist with the Guarneri Quartet. He has shared the stage with Norbert Brainin (first violinist of the Amadeus Quartet), Misha Dichter, Bruno Giuranna (a founding member of I Musici), Maureen Forrester, the Juilliard and Tokyo quartets, and the Bolshoi  Ballet (as solo violist). Avshalomov’s articles appear in Notes and Strings; he has edited several viola works for  publication and contributed to ASTA’s Playing and Teaching the Viola.  

Avshalomov developed a lecture-demonstration, “Inside Passages,” first presented to the New York Viola Society in 2000.  He performed the world premiere of Giampaolo Bracali’s Concerto per Viola, which RAI has  broadcast in Europe, and the American premiere of Alessandro Rolla’s Esercizio 3. On his CD, Three Generations Avshalomov, Avshalomov performs works for viola and piano composed by his grandfather, father and brother. The CD was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.  His viola is by Andrea Amati (Cremona, 1568).

 

Since his Carnegie Hall debut in 1994, cellist Wolfram Koessel has performed as a chamber musician, recitalist and soloist throughout the world.  The Strad magazine praised his “exceptionally attractive cello playing.”  As a soloist he has performed concertos throughout the United States as well as with Japan’s Osaka Symphony Orchestra and orchestras in Germany and South America.  His collaborations include performances with legendary tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, distinguished dancer Mikhail Baryshnkov, and cellist Yo Yo Ma, among many others.  Koessel also appears with a wide range of ensembles, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Tro+ (a group he formed with violinist Yosuke Kawasaki and pianist Vadim Serebryani), which performs creative and collaborative concerts throughout Japan, the United States, and Canada. Koessel served as music director of the Mark Morris Dance Group from 2004 to 2008 and has toured extensively with the company, performing in several world premieres.  In 2009, he was the featured performer in a new dance work, performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in C.  His cello is by Giovanni Cavani (Modena, 1917).