Soloists and Student Concerto Competition Winners

Where are they now?
ROSS BEAUCHAMP
A native of Newark, Delaware, Ross Beauchamp studied with Louisa Marks and Douglas McNames while at the University of Delaware where he received a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree in 1984. He also studied with Michael Reynolds of the Muir String Quartet at Boston University where he received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in 1990 and 1992 respectively. While at Boston University, he was a founding member of the Kythia String Quartet, which studied chamber music under Eugene Lehner and the Muir Quartet. Ross is an active free-lance musician in the area and is associate principal cello of the Bridgeton Symphony and has performed with the Kennett Square, Lancaster and Delaware symphonies. He has also served as principal cello of the Newark Symphony as well as the Delaware Symphony Repertory Orchestra. The Congress of Strings and Music at Gretna are among the festivals at which he has performed. In 1987 he performed Haydn's C major Cello Concerto with the Newark Symphony Chamber Orchestra and this past fall returned to play Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. Currently he lives in Drexel Hill, PA with his wife Lisa Chippendale, and is on the faculty of the Community Music School at the University of Delaware and the Darlington Fine Arts Center, where he is a founding member of Trio Jeudi. In the summer, Ross serves as director of the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in East Sullivan, New Hampshire.

LOTUS CHENG
Lotus Cheng holds music degrees from the University of Delaware and Temple University. She has performed in the master classes of Augustin Anievas, Leon Fleisher, Natalie Honduras and Russell Sherman. She has given numerous solo recitals and has also performed duets and two-piano works with her husband, David Brown, on recital programs in Salt Lake City, Paris, and Straubing (Germany). Ms. Cheng has been a prize winner in the 1980 JCC Young Musicians Competition, the 1983 Temple University Concerto Competition, and first prize winner in the 1987 National Bartok-Kabalevsky Piano Competition. She also performs frequently as chamber musician with members of the Delaware Symphony. A former faculty member of the University of Delaware, she is currently Assistant Director and Piano Faculty member of the Wilmington Music School.

THE CIESINSKI SISTERS: KATHERINE AND KRISTINE
Katherine and Kristine grew up in Newark; their parents, Roman and Kay, were schoolteachers. Katherine took piano lessons and in turn helped teach her sister. There was no history of musicians in the family, however. "My parents were smart enough, and willing enough, on teachers' salaries, to let us do these things," says Katherine, referring to ballet, voice and all the instruments the sisters wanted to handle. The sisters have remained close. "We've been the most trusted confidantes and ears for each other."

KATHERINE CIESINSKI
In high school, Katherine was attracted to choral music. She went on to Temple University, where the well-known choral conductor Robert Page was then teaching. After her bachelor's degree, she got an opera diploma from Philadelphia's Curtis School of Music. She sang in Donizetti's "La favorita" at the Philadelphia Opera in the Spring of 1976. She won a major voice competition in Geneva that fall and a second in Paris in the spring of 1977. Her career was assured. Katherine joined the University of Houston faculty in 1995. Her list of international credits includes major roles with many of the world's leading opera companies--The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric, Paris Opera, Canadian Opera Toronto, and the Zurich Opera, among many others; and with orchestras that include the Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Symphonies, as well as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics.

KRISTINE CIESINSKI
"I was always interested in music," recalls Kristine, "and the biggest influence on me was probably my sister. Everything she did I wanted to do and since she was playing piano, I had to play." Kristine followed her college voice teacher to three universities, ending up in Boston. By the time she finished at Boston, Kristine had decided on a career in opera. Her first role was that of Pamina in "The Magic Flute." She won a scholarship to the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1977, and that same summer won the Geneva International Competition. She is married to baritone Norman Baily, and lives in London. Her roles in the past year have taken her from Buenos Aires to Frankfurt. She is reaching for the top, both in range and career.

LIANNE DeMARSKI CAMPBELL
Lianne attended Wichita State University as Music Education degree candidate. Her experiences include Violin and Viola studies with Estella Frankel, Sylvia Ahramjian, Barbara Westphal and Dr. Benson Headley. She has attended the Eastern Music Festival and was awarded a full scholarship to Luzerne Music Festival. A former member of the Wichita Symphony and the Delaware Repertory Orchestra, Mrs. Campbell currently performs in the Brandywiners and Candlelight Music Theatre Orchestras. Mrs. Campbell is also part of the faculty of the Wilmington Music School where she teaches Suzuki violin. She received her Suzuki training at Hartt Conservatory in 1992. Currently, Mrs. Campbell works with Lee C. Goldstein, Esquire as a secretary/paralegal. Mrs. Campbell is also attending Goldey-Beacom College and will graduate in May, 1996 with a BA in accounting.

MILES GOLDBERG
Miles Goldberg began playing the piano at the age of five. An avid chamber music enthusiast, Miles has regularly participated in summer chamber music workshops and festivals for many years, including the Delaware Trio Workshop, the Yellow Barn Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival. While studying in Freiburg, Germany, Miles performed in a series of duo concerts in France and Germany with cellist Therese Meyer under the sponsorship of the Amis de Jeune Artistes et Musiciens, an arts organization based in Strasbourg. Miles has performed in recital twice at Weill Recital hall in Carnegie Hall and has been featured on WQXR's Young Artist Showcase with Robert Sherman. He has appeared as soloist with various orchestras such as the Monmouth Symphony Orchestra, the Westminster Conservatory Orchestra and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra.

Miles Goldberg received his musical and artistic training in a wide variety of locales, studying with many different artists and musicians. He grew up in Newark, Delaware, where he studied piano and music theory with Mildred Gaddis. During his teens, he was a student of the (late) noted pianist and composer Harold Zabrack in Princeton, New Jersey. As the recipient of a DAAD scholarship, Miles continued his studies in Freiburg, Germany with world-renowned pianist, fortepianist and Mozart scholar, Robert Levin. Miles is also a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where he worked with Anton Net, Jean Barr, and noted fortepianist Malcolm Bilson. Miles currently resides in Boston where he has served as a staff pianist at the New England Conservatory in the studios of James Buswell, David Wells, and Eric Rosenblith. Miles is a founding member of the Huntington Piano Trio which has performed in Boston, Princeton, and Savannah, Georgia.

JENNIFER HAAS
Jennifer began studying the violin at the age of three with Estella Frankel of Arden, Delaware. She continued her studies with Sylvia Ahramjian and entered The Curtis Institute of Music at age sixteen under the tutelage of Jascha Brodsky. She has soloed with The Delaware, Lansdowne, and Kennett Symphonies; Temple University and Delaware Repertory Orchestras; also as winner of The Robin Hood Dell Guild auditions she soloed with The Philadelphia Orchestra at Mann Music Center. She was a full fellowship student attending Aspen Music Festival, and was chosen as concertmaster of a youth orchestra under the baton of Joseph Silverstein in Carnegie Hall. This past year she was the winner of the Austrian-American Competition in which she received a trip to Salzburg, Austria to study at The Mozarteum. She graduated from Curtis in May, 1995 and is now a member of The Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

MARK HAMILTON
Mark Hamilton played in the Newark Symphony while in high school in 1976-1979. He graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor's degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1984. Since 1984 Mark has spent part of each summer on the faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan. Starting in 1986, Mark continues as Instrumental Music Director at Applewilde School in Fitchburg, Ma. Recently, his jazz band won a gold medal in district competition. Mark joined the Klezmer Conservatory Band as a trombonist in 1985. The Band has toured North America, Europe, Poland and Australia, recorded nine CD's, performed on National Public Radio as well as on PBS. Most recently, the band was featured with Itzhak Perlman on PBS and on his latest CD Titled "In the Fiddler's House." Mark was thrilled to have performed with Mr. Perlman on the Late Show with David Letterman in January 1996.

JUDITH LECLAIR
Judith LeClair joined the New York Philharmonic in 1981 at the age of twenty-three. Since then, she has made over thirty-five solo appearances with the orchestra, performing under such conductors as Andrew Davis, Christopher Hogwood, Rafael Kubelik, Erich Leinsdorf, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta. Ms. LeClair made her professional debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age fifteen, playing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with colleagues from the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, where she studied with Shirley Curtiss. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she studied there with K. David Van Hoesen. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she was Principal Bassoonist of the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera Orchestras. Active as a recitalist and chamber music player, she has performed with the Guarneri Quartet on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and has given solo recitals at the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin College, and Michigan State Universities. Her last Philharmonic solo appearance, in April, 1995, was the premiere of "The Five Sacred Trees" for bassoon and orchestra, a concerto written for her by John Williams and commissioned by the Philharmonic as part of its 150th Anniversary celebration. She performed the work in November, 1995, with the San Francisco Symphony, Mr. Williams conducting. She is scheduled to perform it with the Royal Academy Orchestra in June and will record it for Sony with the London Symphony Orchestra. Ms. LeClair is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and has given master classes throughout the country. She is currently working on a solo CD for Cala Records. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, pianist Jonathan Feldman.

ROBIN MAYFORTH
Robin Mayforth, violinist and a native of Wilmington, Delaware, studied at The Juilliard School of Music in New York with Dorothy DeLay and Paul Kantor. She became the original second violinist of The Lark Quartet, performing on tours which included Russia and the Far East, and on NPR programs such as St. Paul Sunday Morning and A Prairie Home Companion. Ms. Mayforth has served as concertmaster of the Utah Festival Opera Company, The Performance Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Queens Philharmonia and the Delaware Repertory Orchestra, and as assistant concertmaster of the Aspen Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with the Lancaster Symphony, the Newark Symphony and the Kennett Square Symphony, as well as the Delaware Repertory and the Delaware Chamber orchestras. Robin currently resides in Wilmington where she performs as a recitalist and is active with chamber and orchestral ensembles.

LISA PAPILI
Since playing with the Newark Symphony, pianist Lisa Papili has enjoyed professional success in the United States and Europe. She has performed with the orchestras of Dallas, Knoxville, Delaware, Rockford, Pueblo, Manhattan, and Hastings and has given solo recitals in many cities throughout the world. Her competition prizes include those of the United States National Chopin Competition, Austrian American Competition, New York Young Musicians Competition, National Arts Club Competition, G. B. Dealey Award and an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Delaware State Arts Council. Miss Papili earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Delaware, went on to receive Masters and Doctoral Degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where she now teaches, and studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In addition to performing, she enjoys teaching piano and now resides in Newark with her husband, Allan and two daughters, 0livia and Andrea.

DIANE PASCAL
Diane Pascal is a native of Wilmington, Delaware where she studied violin with Jean M. Henry and Levon Ahramjian and piano with David Brown. At the Juilliard Pre-College Division and at the Curtis Institute she studied with Ivan Galamian, Margaret Pardee, Jascha Brodsky and Aaron Rosand. Further study was with Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, from which school she completed a "Grosses Diplom" with honors in 1991.

First-prize winner of the Wilmington Austrian-American Society's 1986 "Mozarteum" Competition, she received a Diplom d'Honor in the 1989 Maria Canals International Violin Competition in Barcelona, Spain.

Diane has performed as soloist with the Delaware Repertory Orchestra, the Curtis Institute Symphony and the Camerata Academica Salzburg, among others, and has performed at various music festivals in Europe and America, including the International Musicians' Seminar's "Open Chamber Music" in Prussia Cove, England, the Pensacola (Florida) Summer Music Festival, and the Nordland Musik Festuk in Norway. Other chamber music concerts have been with the Carnegie Chamber Players, the Aralia Chamber Players, the Pascal-Stumpf-Ishay Trio and the Mirabell String Quartet.

Until 1996 Diane was a member of the Camerata Academica Salzburg, a chamber ensemble under the direction of Sandor Vegh. Beginning in 1996, Diane has joined the LARK String Quartet as first violinist. Based in Ohio and in New York City, the LARK is an all-female group performing in the USA and Europe.

PETULA PERDIKIS
Petula Perdikis, a Canadian citizen and a Delaware resident, has been substituting with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra since 1988 while a music student at West Chester University. Upon completion of her Masters in Music Performance at the Eastman School of Music in 1991, Ms. Perdikis accepted a position with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. They toured England and Scotland plus various parts of Florida. Ms. Perdikis moved back in the Delaware area in 1992. Since then she has played with various organizations including the Northeastern Philharmonic, the American Symphony in New York, the Princeton Chamber Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Singers/Concerto Soloists. From 1990-1993 during the summer months, Ms. Perdikis participated in the Aspen Music Festival under a full fellowship. The summer of 1994, she spent in Germany at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival where they toured Germany and Denmark under Mistlav Rostropovich. Ms. Perdikis began playing the violin in 1977 at the age of 10 under the instruction of Estelle Frankel. At age 17, she switched to viola while studying with Sylvia Ahramjian. Ms. Perdikis is also teaching at the Wilmington Music School and the University of Delaware Community School on violin and viola. This past summer, Petula toured with two different orchestras to France and Spain.

PAUL PESTHY
Paul attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia front 1984 - 1988 where he studied with Jascha Brodsky and Yumi Ninomiya. Upon receiving his Bachelor of music degree he was immediately engaged as a violinist and violist with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia where he also appeared as soloist. In the fall of 1990 he moved to Germany to study viola with the renowned soloist Nobuko Imai, and soon after received his first principal viola position with the German Opera Company of the Rhein in Dusseldorf. Paul, his wife Anja, and their baby daughter Valeria moved to Stuttgart in September of 1995 so that Paul could begin his recent appointment as principal violist of the South German Radio Orchestra. He also pursues an intense interest in chamber music appearing most recently at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, where he performed with David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet and Donald Weilerstein, previously with the Cleveland Quartet as well as the Kammermusik Festival Schloss Moritzburg in Dresden.

JEFFREY SHARKEY
Jeffrey Sharkey, pianist for the Pirasti Trio, is native of Newark. His earliest teachers were Jeannette Woodhouse and University of Delaware faculty instructors Mildred Gaddis and Leon Bates. His first year of college was at the University of Delaware before he moved to the Boston School of Music and Cambridge to complete his education.

Jeffrey was awarded a full scholarship to study piano and composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers were John Browning and Constance Keene. he continued his studies at Yale Unviersity with Peter Frankl and Boris Berman and received his Master's in Music. His piano trio was awarded the top chamber music prize at Yale. Jeffrey received his Master's in Philosophy degree at Cambridge University, where he studied with Robin Holloway. He has participated in Master classes in several of the major festivals in the United States, including those at Tanglewood and Aspen.

In 1986, Jeffrey won the American Symphony Orchestra league Competition and is the recipient of several other competition awards. his most recent compositions include a string overture for Cambridge University and a commission from the Berkshire County Wind Ensemble. Jeffrey has given solo piano recitals in America and won several piano competitions including the 1986 J.C.C. Competition and the Delaware Artists in Recital prize. In 1985, he was a prizewinner in the Music Teachers' National Association Competition. He has recently devoted his time to chamber music, which has included a recital in the Purcell Room in London. He currently is head of Composition and Academic Music at Wells Cathedral School of England.


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