Faculty

The Faculty of PhoenixPhest! 2008

violin
Gabriel Bolkosky is executive director and a founding member of The Phoenix Ensemble. He is a former member of the
new-music sextet Non Sequitur and a member of the avant-klezmer group Into the Freylakh. Bolkosky has collaborated
with composer Margaret Brouwer and has made guest appearances as a soloist with the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra and
the Miami Ballet. He has been a guest artist at Harvard, Dartmouth, Brandeis, and Bowdoin colleges and has given
workshops at Franklin Pierce College, Keene State College, and The Peabody Conservatory. He has also taught
workshops on improvisation and composition for nearly 5000 students in Aspen, Colorado, and at the Walden School in
Dublin, New Hampshire. He also previously served as assistant director for Strings Attached, an intensive string program
for children in Cleveland, Ohio, and as assistant to Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In Ann Arbor,
he teaches private students in an intensive program focusing on musicianship, theory, and instrumental skills.

Leslie Capozzoli is the Director of the Sterling String Youth Orchestra and the Junior String Orchestra of the Ann Arbor
School for the Performing Arts. Ms. Capozzoli is also the Orchestra Director at Emerson School, where she works with
students in grades 2-8, including an advanced Chamber Orchestra. She received her B. Mus-Music Education from The
University of Michigan, where she studied with Hamao Fujiwara and Steven Shipps. She was previously the director of
the Birmingham Groves High School Orchestra and led the orchestra to receive top honors at festivals in Michigan and out
of state. Ms. Capozzoli enjoys her work as a clinician at string festivals and as an adjudicator for scholarship programs.
A violinist, Leslie coaches chamber ensembles and performs in recitals and at private functions.

Alicia Doudna is a native of Charleston, Illinois. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New
England Conservatory. Her teachers have included John Kendall, Mimi Zweig, David Updegraff, and Lucy Stoltzman,
and she has played in master classes for various artists, including Dorothy Delay and Ida Kavafian. She has studied
chamber music with the Cavani Quartet, the Takacs Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, and members of the Juilliard and Cleveland
Quartets. An avid chamber musician, she has performed throughout the country at Kneisel Hall, the Yellow Barn Music
School and Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, and in France at the Festival
de Musique de Chambre du Larzac. She has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Paul Katz, Ronald Leonard,
and Ronald Copes. She has also performed with the Radius Ensemble of Boston, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra
(ECCO), and Ann Arbor's Phoenix Ensemble. Ms. Doudna was the music director and violin instructor of the Peninsula
Strings Program in Blue Hill, Maine, and she is the assistant to Merry Peckham, Cavani Quartet cellist and director of
chamber music at the Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, New York.   She currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
where she teaches privately and performs with The Phoenix Ensemble.

Scott Esty is currently Director of Orchestras at Sprague High School in Salem, Oregon. Prior to accepting this post, he
was a violinist in the Oregon Symphony and directed a Suzuki studio of 30 young violinists. Scott has performed across
the country with some of today's finest musicians, including the Shanghai String Quartet, members of the Cavani Quartet,
and pianists Brian Ganz, Adam Neiman, and Audrey Andrist. As violinist with the Portland-based modern ensemble Fear
No Music, Scott premiered and recorded music by a wide range of contemporary composers, and gained the distinction
of being one of the few violinists to perform upside down. Prior to moving to Oregon, Scott was Associate Concertmaster
of the Kalamazoo Symphony. As a member of the KSO's resident String Quartet, he appeared in regular concerts on
the KSO concert series as well as touring area schools, community centers, and prisons with educational lecture/concert
presentations of his own design.

Scott has taught at Suzuki Institutes across the country, but PhoenixPhest is his favorite.

Annie Fullard is a founding member of the Cavani String Quartet which is a winner of numerous awards and prizes
including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, Cleveland Quartet Competition and the Banff, Fischoff and Carmel
Competions. Ms. Fullard and her colleagues in The Cavani Quartet were named Musical America's Young Artists of the
Year 1989 and received the 1998 ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of
Contemporary Music, the 2005 Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award and four Chamber Music America Residency
Partnership Grants. Ms. Fullard has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including a Mozart
2006 tour of Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague. Other appearances include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Corcoran
Gallery and Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Ambassador Series in Los Angeles, Festival L'Epau in France, and the
Ijsbreker Series in Amsterdam. Ms. Fullard has had the honor of performing with distinguished artists including members of
the Cleveland, Juilliard, Miami, Ying, Emerson, Borodin, Amadeus, St. Lawrence and Colorado String Quartets, Itzhak
Perlman, Robert Mann, Alisa Weilerstein, Anton Nel, Stephanie Blythe and Charles Neidich.

Deeply committed to arts-education, Ms. Fullard has given master classes and lecture demonstrations at music festivals,
universities and public and private schools in communities across the country. As member of the faculty and Quartet-in-
Residence at The Cleveland Institute of Music since 1988, Ms. Fullard in collaboration with her colleagues has developed
the Apprentice Program, Intensive Quartet Seminar, New Quartet Project and M.A.P. (Music, Art & Poetry) PROJECT. Ms.
Fullard is former artist-in-residence at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas and is currently
visiting-artist at the University of Sourthern Illinois, Carbondale. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Fullard
pursued additional studies at the Indiana University and Yale University. Her teachers and mentors include Donald
Weilerstein, Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Earl Carlyss and Peter Salaff. A resident of Cleveland, Ms. Fullard has a son
named Sam, a cat named Music and four fish.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Mari Sato joined the Cavani String Quartet in 1995. Ms. Sato received her Bachelor of
Music degree with distinction from the Cleveland Institute of Music and pursued graduate studies at the University of
Michigan. Her major teachers and mentors include Richard Lawrence, Ralph Aldrich, Julia Bushkova, David Cerone,
David Updegraff, Paul Kantor, and Peter Salaff. She is currently on the chamber music faculty at the Cleveland Institute
of Music. In her spare time, Ms. Sato enjoys cooking, jogging, and spending time with her husband and two children in
Shaker Heights.

Peter Salaff was a founding member and second violinist of the Cleveland Quartet, which received seven Grammy
nominations and “Best of the Year” awards from Time and Stereo Review for recordings of more than 50 chamber
works. They also performed and toured the former Soviet Union, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, and
Israel, in addition to U.S. and Canadian tours. Mr. Salaff served on the faculty at the University of Concepcion (Chile),
Cleveland Institute of Music, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Eastman School of Music. He has also taught at
Interlochen, Chamber Music in the Mountain at Echo Glen, Aspen Music Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival
in Germany, among others. Ensembles coached by Mr. Salaff have garnered prestigious international awards, including
Naumburg, Banff International String Quartet Competition, Coleman Chamber Ensemble, and Fischoff National
Chamber Music Awards, among others. These ensembles include the Anderson, Cavani, Chester, Colorado, Dakota,
Franciscan, Lafayette, Lark, Lydian, Meliora, Rackham, and Ying Quartets. Mr. Salaff rejoined the Cleveland Institute of
Music faculty in September 1995 to become director of string chamber music. He has been a faculty member of the
Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, since 1996.

viola
Rebecca Albers has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia and has appeared on national television in the
United States and China. Rebecca currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as the violist of the Phoenix Quartet. She is
also a member of the Albers Trio, a string trio formed with her sisters Laura and Julie Albers, and of fiddler Mark
O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz Trio. Rebecca received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard
School where she studied with and worked as a teaching assistant to Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang. She currently
continues to teach with Ms.Castleman in the Juilliard Pre-College. As winner of Juilliard's 2002/03 viola competition, she
made her solo debut performing the New York premiere of Samuel Adler's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with the
Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Rebecca has been a participant at such festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, the
International Musicians Seminar and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove (UK), Music Academy of the West, and the
Perlman Music Program. As a chamber musician she has performed across the United States and Europe and has
performed with such artists as Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and
St. Lawrence string quartets. Upcoming engagements include a West Coast tour with Musicians from Marlboro,
performances with the Albers Trio, the Appalachia Waltz Trio, and the Phoenix Quartet, and solo recitals in the United
States and France, including a recital at the Auditorium du Louvre in Pari

Martha Strongin Katz was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Cleveland Quartet, playing in it from its
inception in 1969 until 1980. During those years she performed over 1,000 concerts, including appearances at the
White House, the Grammy Awards, on NBC’s “Today” show, and in the major concert halls of Europe, North and South
America, Israel, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Strongin Katz’s solo appearances include a Carnegie Hall
performance of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, the Bartók Concerto with L’Orchestre de la
Suisse Romande, recital and concerto performances at the 1989 International Viola Congress, and countless recital and
concerto appearances in cities such as Boston, Buffalo, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Rochester, San
Francisco, and St. Louis. She has served on numerous international juries, including the Banff International String Quartet
Competition and the Naumberg Viola Competition. Strongin Katz plays a viola made by Lorenzo Storioni of Cremona in
1800.

Studies at the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, University of Southern California.
Recordings on RCA Red Seal, Philips. Viola with Lillian Fuchs, William Primrose. Violin with Raphael Bronstein, Ivan
Galamian. Winner of the 1969 Geneva International Viola Competition and the Max Reger Award. Former faculty of
Rice University, Eastman School of Music, Interlochen Arts Academy.

cello
A native of Detroit, Miriam Bolkosky began her cello studies at the age of four and made her solo debut with the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra at fifteen. Ms. Bolkosky has performed extensively with the Boston Pops, National Lyric
Opera, Berkshire Opera, New York City Opera National Company, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Lyric Opera, and
Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival
Orchestra, and Chicago’s Symphony II. The Washington Post applauded her performance as soloist at the John F.
Kennedy Center as one filled with a “poignant beauty born of pathos.” Her recording of Donald McCullough’s
“Holocaust Cantata” can be heard on Albany Records.
An active chamber musician, she has given numerous recitals including performances at Paul Hall, Harris Hall, the Cape
May Festival, the Cayman International Chamber Music Festival, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Carnegie Hall.
She is a member of the Ann Arbor based Phoenix and Cassini Ensembles, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus,
Ohio, as well as Boston’s Radius Ensemble. She holds degrees from The University of Michigan and The Cleveland Institute
of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Solow, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, and Alan Harris.

Ms. Bolkosky has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, the Music Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Institute
of Music, the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Montclair University, and the Suzuki School of Newton. She currently
freelances and teaches in Boston.

Cellist Mary Ann Ramos has appeared as soloist with several orchestras, including the Gateway Festival Orchestra, the
University City Symphony, the Alton Symphony, and the Kirkwood Symphony. She holds prizes in various competitions,
among them the Mexican National Cello Competition and the Music Teachers National Association competition. She has
also performed in a number of master classes given by such artists as Truls Mork and Janos Starker.

Ms. Ramos is the cellist of the Phoenix Quartet, which resides, teaches, and performs in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as core
members of the nonprofit arts organization The Phoenix Ensemble. She has performed at festivals nationally and
internationally, including SummerMusic Chamber Music Festival (Iowa), Kneisel Hall (Maine), Festival de Musique de
Chambre du Larzac (France), and Festival Artistico Coahuila (Mexico). As a chamber music coach, she has taught at
festivals such as PhoenixPhest!, Innsbrook Institute, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, and the Kneisel Hall Young
Musicians Program.

Ms. Ramos has also been involved in the Sphinx Organization for a number of years, as a semi-finalist, as a member of
the Sphinx Symphony, and most recently in the Sphinx Laureates Concert at Carnegie Hall.

She completed her Bachelor's degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Laurence Lesser, and her
Master's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Richard Aaron. Ms. Ramos is currently working on a
Doctorate at the University of Michigan as a student of Anthony Elliott.

Derek Snyder has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in the United States and Europe, and has collaborated as a
chamber musician with members of some of the country's most exciting ensembles, including the Cavani and Cleveland
string quartets, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Detroit, Montreal and Baltimore Symphonies. He is a founding member of
The Phoenix Ensemble and cellist in the tango band Oblivion Project, which explores the music of Astor Piazzolla.

In 2003, his arrangements of the music of Graham Nash were performed by the Contemporary Youth Orchestra with the
composer. He has created numerous transcriptions and arrangements for cello ensembles, focusing primarily on the music
of jazz great Dave Brubeck and nuevo tango master Astor Piazzolla. His arrangements of music by Brubeck (as
preformed by the Yale Cellos) can be heard on the Naxos label.

Derek's principal teachers have been Tanya Carey, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, Laurence Lesser, and Colin Carr. He is the
founder and education director of The Cleveland Cello School.