Clarinetist Russell Harlow
Bassoonist Lori Wike
Violinists
Airi Yoshioka
Monte Belknap
Yuki MacQueen
Aaron Ashton
Violist Leslie Harlow
Cellists Jesus Morales and Thomas Landschoot
Pianists John Novacek and Doris Stevenson

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS

Clarinetist Russell Harlow is one of the nation’s premiere solo and chamber clarinetists. In 1996 Mr. Harlow performed the New York Premiere of the Ramiro Cortes Trio (written for him), along with the Brahms Quintet, at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in New York City. In addition to performances in Utah with the Park City and Autumn Classics Festivals, Contemporary Music Consortium and Sonolumina Orchestra, Mr. Harlow has performed with the Sitka and Anchorage Fall Classics Festivals (Alaska), the Amsterdam Chamber Players, the Puerto Rico Clarinet Festival, the Ars Nova, Lyrica and Piatigorsky Foundation concerts in New Jersey and with the Leonore Trio and Bargemusic in NYC. He attended both UCLA and USC before joining the Utah Symphony at the age of 21. He studied with clarinetists Gary Foster, Mitchell Lurie, Harold Wright and violinist Charles Libove, and was coached in chamber music and attended the master classes by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Mr. Harlow is featured on recordings with flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, the Mirecourt Trio, the Park City Music Festival and the Utah Symphony. Russell Harlow has performed for International Clarinet Association events worldwide, also giving lectures on clarinetists of the past century. Mr. Harlow serves as Associate Principal Clarinet for the Utah Symphony and has recorded solos for major filmscores. He founded and directed Utah’s Nova Series until he joined the Park City International Music Festival as Co-Director in 1986.

Lori Wike joined the Utah Symphony as Principal Bassoon in 2005. Originally from North Carolina, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine. Her principal teachers were John Hunt, Nancy Goeres, Mark Popkin, and Michele Grego.
A former member of the Louisville Orchestra, Ms. Wike has also performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Festival Opera, the San Bernardino Symphony, the Redlands Symphony, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Prior to joining the Utah Symphony, she performed for three seasons with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Her solo appearances include performances with the Utah Symphony, the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the University of California-Irvine Symphony and the Utah Arts Festival. She is a frequent performer on both the Nova and Intermezzo Chamber Music series in Salt Lake and is also a member of the Three Fish and a Scorpion woodwind quartet. Ms. Wike is currently Adjunct Associate Professor of Bassoon at the University of Utah and Lecturer at Westminster College.

Violinist Airi Yoshioka has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. Deeply committed to chamber music, she is the founding member of the Damocles Trio and Modigliani Quartet and has performed and recorded with the members of the Emerson, Brentano and Arditti Quartets. Damocles Trio’s debut disc of complete Piano Trios and Piano Quartet of Joquín Turina has won a four-star rating from the BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde de la Musique and Diapason. Her orchestral credits include performances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Sinfonietta and engagements as concertmaster and soloist with the Manhattan Virtuosi and concertmaster of one of the festival orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival. An enthusiastic performer of new music, she was one of the original members and concertmasters of the New Juilliard Ensemble and had performed annually in Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival and is currently a member of Continuum, ModernWorks!, RUCKUS and Son Sonora, and Azure Ensemble. Of a performance with the New Juilliard Ensemble, the New York Times wrote, “Airi Yoshioka played the violin solo touchingly.” She has premiered dozens of works and her latest recording project of works for violin and electronics includes commissions from such prominent women composers as Tania León, Linda Dusman, Alice Shields and Milica Paranosic. Educational outreach has been a vital aspect of Ms. Yoshioka’s professional life through her work as a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center Institute. In addition, she has taught music at New York City public schools through the Morse Fellowship program and has performed in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes as a recipient of the Community Service Fellowship. In October, 2004, she organized Art Reach!, a three-day symposium on effectiveness of arts outreach. The highly successful occasion brought together teachers, teaching artists, administrators, and community leaders from Maryland. A native of Japan, Ms. Yoshioka came to the United States at the age of 12 and received her early training as a student of Honorary Distinction at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, where she received the Branford College Arts Award for outstanding contribution to the arts, M.M. and DMA from The Juilliard School. Summer festivals attended include Meadowmount, Encore, Sarasota, Banff, and Aspen. While at The Juilliard School, she won the concerto competition. Among her teachers and coaches have been Jorja Fleezanis, Glenn Dicterow, Joey Corpus, Stephen Clapp, Syoko Aki, Felix Galimir, Paul Kantor, Jerome Lowenthal, and Seymour Lipkin, as well as members of the Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets.

Monte Belknap's performing career spans 30 years with notable solo performances and accomplished mentors. He won the International Starling Violin Competition in Aspen, Colorado in 1989. This honor awarded full scholarship to the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, where he earned his BM and MM degrees in violin performance as a student of Kurt Sassmannshaus and Dorothy Delay. Mr. Belknap served as concertmaster of the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony, and other respected ensembles. He studied Chamber music with some of the world's leading performing ensembles including the Julliard, Tokyo and LaSalle String Quartets and the Beaux Arts Piano Trio. He soloed with the Illinois Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Jacksonville Symphony and recorded on the Lagossa and Encore labels.
His reputation and distinguished skills as an instructor of violin led many of his students to win competitions and perform as soloists with noted symphonies including the Cincinnati Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Jacksonville Symphony. Mr. Belknap teaches a blend of technical master, memory, the use of modern technology and motion training. He recently joined the music faculty of BYU, having previously taught at BYU-Idaho and Western Illinois University.
He champions music education with a bright vision for promoting the arts. He founded the Chamber Music Series for the Dayton Philharmonic, the "Meet the Artist Series" with the Dayton Philharmonic, the Monument Symphony Orchestra, the Prelude Strings Chamber Music Festival in Dayton, Ohio, and Western Illinois University's Summer String Camps in 1998.
Mr. Belknap receives frequent invitations to serve as guest clinician in both public schools and private studios across the nation. He has conducted all-state orchestras and taught at many of today's finest music festivals. Professor Belknap also serves as a member of the Utah ASTA Executive Board.

Aaron Ashton (Violin, Electric Violin) is the sort of musician who lives in classical, fiddle and ethnic genres with equal ease. Aaron’s solo violin work can be heard on the soundtracks of St. Ange, The Messengers, and Boogeyman. He has won numerous awards including “2007 Studio Musician of the Year” Pearl Award; “Outstanding Violinist” from The Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival; and “College Division Winner” of The Federation of Music Competition. Aaron has performed in the Country Music Awards, Summer Bash; The Naval Observatory (U.S. Vice Presidential Residence); and the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Aaron currently leads the Aaron Ashton Band and performs with William Joseph and Carmen Rasmusen.

Violinist Yuki MacQueen joined the Utah Symphony in June 2000. Previously a member of the Nashville Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, and the AssociateConcertmaster of the Knoxville Symphony, she has also participated in concert tours to Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, Europe, Japan, Canada, and South America as a frequent substitute member with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Ms. MacQueen holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri Quartet and Jascha Brodsky. She received her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York, studying with Robert Mann of the Juilliard Quartet, and chamber music with Jerome Lowenthal and Seymour Lipkin. She has been a regular participant with the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1994. Locally, she has been a featured performer in the Nova Chamber Series, the Intermezzo Chamber Series, the Contemporary Music Consortium, and the Westminster College Faculty Recital Series, among others. When she is not performing with the Utah Symphony, she enjoys playing chamber music, baking sweets, and traveling the world.

As a young artist, Violist Leslie Harlow participated in master classes with William Primrose, Paul Doktor, Donald McGinnis, Heidi Castleman and Nabuko Imai. Her primary teachers were Marna Street, Susan Schoenfeld, Paul Doktor, and violinist Harry Shub with additional lessons with Heidi Castleman, Donald Wright and Francis Tursi. Chamber coaches included Felix Galimer, Samuel Rhodes, David Soyer, Paul Doktor, Charles Castleman, Robert Sylvester and Julius Baker. Following graduation from Juilliard, Ms Harlow founded the Deer Valley Chamber Music Festival in 1984. Renamed the Park City International Music Festival, the festival continues as Utah’s oldest classical music festival, having presented over 520 concerts. Co-Director of the Autumn Classics
Festival, the Sonolumina Chamber Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Consortium of Utah, Leslie Harlow also founded and directs the Park City Film Music Festival. Ms. Harlow has recorded as principal violist and soloist for film scores including the movies “Murder in the First” and “Surviving Picasso.” Prior to Juilliard, Ms. Harlow was Assistant Principal Viola with the Oklahoma Symphony, performing at festivals in Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and New York. While studying in New York, she performed chamber music and recitals in New York City and at the Skaneateles Festival. In Utah she has taught chamber music at Brigham Young University, served as director for the Virtuoso Series and Principal Violist with Ballet West before resigning to perform with the Utah Symphony. Ms. Harlow has also appeared as guest artist with the Sitka Festival (Alaska), Lyrica Series (New Jersey), Piatigorsky Foundation (New York), and Bargemusic (New York) as well as performing chamber music for the International Clarfests in Baltimore, Texas, Utah and Vancouver (Canada). She has performed on tour in Europe with the Juilliard Orchestra and the Utah Symphony.

Cellist Jesús Morales previously held the positions of Principal Cellist of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico and the Children’s String Program. An active chamber musician, Mr. Morales is cellist of the San Juan Piano trio and the chamber group Concerto. As soloist he has been hailed “in a category above many cellists of today...inspired and captivating.” New York Concert Review; and Caribbean Business declares, “he is already talked about as a potential soloist of international stature. Jesús comes from a prominent musical family which includes Jose Mariano and Sonia Ivette, composers; Jaime, trombonist and conductor of the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra; Rolando, percussionist and faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music; and Ricardo, Principal Clarinetist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Morales won prizes in the Camerata Solo Cello, the Eastern Connecticut Young Artist and the Grace Vamos Cello Competitions and has soloed with the New Mexico Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, the Camerata Symphony, the Salt Lake Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, and the Festival de orquestas Sinfonica Juvenil de las Americas. He has participated in the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the Park City International, Banff Center for the Arts, Grand Teton Music, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music, Bowdoin, Eastern and Musica Rondena (Albuquerque) Festivals. Jesús has participated in recitals and chamber concerts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico. He holds a bachelors degree from the Cleveland Institute and has done postgraduate work at Cincinnati Conservatory. His major teachers include Ronald Crutcher, Alan Harris, Helga Winold, Yehuda Hanani and Peter Oundjian.

Cellist Thomas Landschoot joined the Herberger College School of Music faculty of Arizona State University after having taught at the University of Michigan. Born in Belgium, Landschoot began studying the cello at the age of six with his father, leading to a successful career as soloist and teacher.
He performs virtually the entire standard cello repertoire, as well as works by contemporary composers such as Witold Lutoslawski, Kristof Penderecki and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Several composers have dedicated their works to him. Mr. Landschoot has played numerous recitals in Europe, the United States and Asia, both as a soloist and in chamber music settings. He is a founding member of the Chamber Ensemble Bloomington in Japan, the Taman Trio in Europe and the Trio du Soleil in the US.
Mr. Landschoot has been involved in an interdisciplinary public service project resulting in the building of an orphanage and hospital in Tamil Nadu, India. A documentary film of the cellist performing in India has been combined with photography, culinary, journalism and new compositions.
He recently performed with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Prima la Musica, Tempe Symphony and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band. His Interviews and performances have been broadcast on radio and television in Europe, Japan and the United States and recordings are available on Summit, Organic and Centaur Records. Mr. Landschoot has been awarded the Katherine K. Herberger College of Fine Arts Distinguished Tenure Track/Tenure Faculty Teaching Award in 2005. Landschoot has given masterclasses at conservatories and universities throughout Asia, the U.S., Europe. He spends his summers performing and teaching at places like the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Killington Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music and the Texas Music Festival.

Pianist JOHN NOVACEK regularly tours the Americas, Europe and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over thirty concerti with dozens of orchestras.
John Novacek’s major American performances have been heard in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, 92nd Street Y, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Merkin Concert Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Symphony Space, Washington’s The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center and Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Hollywood Bowl and Royce Hall, while international venues include Paris’ Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Salle Gaveau and Musée du Louvre, London’s Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre, as well as most of the major concert halls of Japan. He is also a frequent guest artist at festivals, here and abroad, including New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival and those of Aspen, Cape Cod, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Colorado College, Ravinia, Seattle, SummerFest La Jolla, Wolf Trap, BBC Proms (England), Braunschweig (Germany), Lucerne, Menuhin and Berbier (Switzerland), Majorca (Spain), Sorrento (Italy), Stavanger (Norway), Toulouse (France) and Sapporo (Japan).
Often heard on radio broadcasts worldwide, John Novacek has appeared on NPR’s Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday and, as both featured guest composer/performer, on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. He is also frequently seen and heard on television, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Entertainment Tonight and CNN International.
John Novacek is a much sought-after collaborative artist and has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Emmanuel Pahud, Truls Mork and Leila Josefowicz, as well as the Colorado, Harrington, New Hollywood and Ying string quartets. He has also given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, John Williams and John Zorn.
John Novacek took top prizes at both the Leschetizky and Joanna Hodges international piano competitions, among many others. He studied piano with Peter Serkin, Bruce Sutherland and Jakob Gimpel and chamber music with Jamie Laredo and Felix Galimir, and occasionally coached with Gary Graffman and Isaac Stern.
John Novacek’s own compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Pacific Symphony, The 5 Browns, Concertante, Harrington String Quartet, Ying Quartet, Millennium, Quattro Mani and The Three Tenors. He has recorded over 30 CDs, encompassing solo and chamber music by most major composers from Bach to Bartók, as well as many contemporary and original scores. Mr. Novacek records for Philips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Warner Classics, Sony/BMG, Koch International, Universal Classics, Ambassador, Pony Canyon, Four Winds, Arkay, Virtuoso and EMI Classics. CD titles include Road Movies (2004 GRAMMY nomination as “Best Chamber Music Performance”), Great Mozart Piano Works, Spanish Rhapsody, Novarags (original ragtime compositions), Classic Romance, Hungarian Sketches, Intersection, Romances et Meditations and, with Leila Josefowicz, Americana (GRAMOPHONE: “Editor’s Choice”), For the End of Time, Shostakovich and Recital (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE: 5 stars/June 2005's chamber choice).

Pianist Doris Stevenson, Artist in Residence at Williams College , divides her time between Williamstown , Massachusetts and New York City where she is a busy recitalist, chamber musician and teacher. Her acute sensitivity and profound musicality have made her a sought-after partner with some of the leading lights in string playing. She has appeared as collaborative partner with Gregor Piatigorsky, Ruggiero Ricci and Paul Tortelier, great string players of the past. She has soloed with the Boston Pops, played at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Wahington D.C., Salle Pleyel in Paris and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
She is a founding member of the Sitka Summer Music Festival and has participated in many other chamber music festivals, including the Grand Canyon Festival, Steamboat Springs in the Mountains, Park City International Festival and Chamber Music/L.A. She served for ten years on the piano faculty of the University of Southern California where she was also pianist for the master classes of Gregor Piatigorsky.
Her recordings include the Saint Saens violin sonatas with Andres Cardenes on the Arabesque label and the complete Mendelssohn cello works with Jeffrey Solow for Centaur, as well as three CDs with cellist Nathaniel Rosen: the Brahms Sonatas for JMR records plus two albums of romantic pieces entitled "Reverie" and "Orientale" for Northstar. A recent Stravinsky CD with violinist Mark Peskanov received a Grammy nomination.