ARTISTS

Gared Crawford [violinist] has served as Associate Concertmaster for the South Bend Symphony as well as a core member of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic in Indiana. He also had the honor of serving as Concertmaster of the Evansville Philharmonic where he also performed as first violinist of the Eykamp String Quartet for 5 years.  During that time Gared also served as the Principal Second Violinist of the Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky.  He currently enjoys performing in the Philadelphia area as a frequent guest of Opera Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Ballet, The Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra and the Reading Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he has performed repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary and has engaged in many educational and community outreach programs.  Gared is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University.  His teachers include Henry and Cindy Rubin, Almita Vamos and Gregory Fulkerson.  In his spare time, Gared enjoys photography, graphic design and watching movies with his wife and dog.  He is also an accomplished sleight-of-hand artist and card magician.

Proclaimed “a virtuoso of a high order” by the Baltimore Sun, Kyle Engler [mezzo-soprano] has been praised for her extreme versatility in opera, oratorio, and chamber music.  As a performer on the opera stage, she has sung the roles of the Secretary in Menotti’s The Consul, Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, Mercedes in Carmen, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro to name a few.  In January, 2005, Ms. Engler was cast by Placido Domingo to premier the role of Lydia Dudley in Washington National Opera’s production of Democracy, An American Comedy by Scott Wheeler, garnering rave reviews in major publications around the country.  She also premiered the role of Retinue in Augusta Read-Thomas’ opera Ligeia, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, in Evian, France.   Ms. Engler has been a featured soloist with many orchestras most recently performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Lancaster Symphony.  An advocate of contemporary chamber music, Ms. Engler has collaborated with the Ravel Trio, the Morpheus Trio, the New Horizons Chamber Ensemble, and celebrated pianist Andre Watts.  Ms. Engler, who earned a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and is the Director of Vocal Studies at McDaniel College.

Daniel Lau [pianist] has received enthusiastic press notices for both his solo and chamber performances. The Washington Post praised his "exemplary artistry;" the Baltimore Sun noted "Lau's beautifully shaded playing;" the Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) lauded his "flair, great technical proficiency and expressiveness;" and La Liberté (Fribourg, Switzerland) cited "playful nuances, translucent phrasing, and miraculous sonorities."   He has appeared in recitals and with orchestras throughout North America and Europe. He collaborates frequently with singers internationally and is a sought-after chamber musician. With soprano Sabrina Coleman Clark, he has performed a multimedia show, "Marian Anderson - A Legacy of Hope," to thousands of school children. He is a founding member of the Ravel Trio praised recently by the Swiss Journal du Jura, "Splendid interpretation, vigorous and nuanced playing."   Since 2006, he has released half a dozen recordings with a variety of artists, including a CD with award winning engineer Marc Arbort and a self-produced solo CD "Transcendent Colors." With a special interest in Asian American and African American composers, Lau is committed to the performance of living composers. He has premiered many solo and chamber music works and can be heard on a number of recordings of works by contemporary living composers.   A versatile pianist, violinist and conductor, Daniel has served as Music Director for performances of Manon, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Merry Widow, and The Magic Flute, among others. Lau attended Loma Linda University, where he served as concertmaster of the orchestra and 1st violinist of the LLU String Quartet. Graduating with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance - high honors, he won the coveted Dean's Award. He then attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, becoming a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda honorary society while earning masters and doctoral degrees. His major teachers include Lillian Freundlich, Anita Norskov Olsen, Samuel Sanders, and Jerome Lowenthal.   Dr. Lau is a dedicated educator of music and has given masterclasses and clinics throughout the United States.  He has taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Notre Dame of Maryland University and is entering his fifth year as Chair of the Department of Music at Washington Adventist University.

Luigi Mazzocchi [violinist] studied in the Venezuelan "El Sistema” and the Latin American Violin Academy with José F. del Castillo. He was a first violinist of the “Simón Bolívar” Symphony Orchestra and performed as soloist with the leading Venezuelan symphony orchestras. He attended international music festivals in Latin America, the US, Spain, France and Australia and is a prizewinner such competitions as the Venezuelan “Del Castillo” Latin American Competition and the 1999 FOSJA, performing in the Casals Festival. Mr. Mazzocchi studied with Liliana Ciulei and Helen Kwalwasser and has coached with M. Pardee, Z. Bron, O. Charlier, T. Tanaka, W. de Pasquale, L. Biava, and D. Arben.  Currently, he is the Concertmaster of the Pennsylvania Ballet Orchestra, Co-Concertmaster of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Delaware Symphony and a member of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the West Jersey Chamber Orchestra, the Ocean City Pops, the Philly Pops and the Gaudeamus and Cachasa ensembles.

Kathy Meyer [cellist] is a native of Atlanta, where she studied cello with Donovan Schumacher and Jere Flint of the Atlanta Symphony, Martha Bishop, and Martha Gerchevski of the Luigi Silva School. Ms. Meyer earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Furman University, where she studied cello with Dr. Richard Maag. She continued her musical training at Drake University with John Ehrlich and fostered her love of chamber music in Maine with Joseph Fuchs and Lorne Munroe from New York. Kathy has been a member of the Greenville, South Carolina, and Des Moines, Iowa Symphonies, as well as the Atlanta Chamber Orchestra, the Tallis Chamber Orchestra, Cape Fear Chamber Players, and Coastal Strings. She is currently principal cellist of the Wilmington Symphony and enjoys performing with her musical children. Kathy will be performing on an 1863 Silvestre cello made in Lyon, France.

Sarah Sutton [violist] has an international profile as both a performer and teacher.  As a performer she has brought music to some of the most eminent figures in the history of our time.  She has played a command performance for the late Pope John Paul II;  was invited to perform at the State Banquet and Celebrations in honor of Nelson Mandella and Queen Elizabeth II, not to mention performances for Diana, Princess of Wales, The Duchess of York and the Duchess of Kent.  Her playing has been described by the Saanen Post (Switzerland) as "enthralling", captivating audiences with her "range of emotion and the darkly melancholic timbre of the instrument". Ms Sutton has performed throughout Europe, North and South America.  She has appeared as both soloist and principal violist with the Camerata Lysy Gstaad (Switzerland), and played at many prestigious venues, including the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), Teatro Colon (Buenes Aires), the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall and St John's Smith Square (London).  Festivals include solo and chamber performaces at the Summer Music Festival at Blackthorpe Barn (UK), the Menuhin Festival, Alpen Gala, and Verbier Summer Academy (Switzerland), and Tanglewood (USA).  An avid chamber musician, Ms Sutton has collaborated with the Carmina Quartet as Guest Violist in performances as part of the Rencontres Musicales (Switzerland), and has appeared as a soloist in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, with members of the New World Symphony and Nicholas McGeegan. As an orchestral player, Ms Sutton has held the Principal Viola position with the New World Symphony (directed by Michael Tilson-Thomas) and was a member of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.  She has been a guest Sub-Principal with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (UK), participating in the historic EMI recording of Tristan and Isolde with Antonio Pappano and Placido Domingo, and the new production of Das Rheingold, which has been broadcast live on BBC TV and BBC Radio 3. Sarah has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia(formerly the Concerto Soloists) and also appears as Guest Principal Violist with the Princeton Symphony and guest artist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Born in England, Ms Sutton is a graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music (UK), where she studied with Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Simon Rowland-Jones, Yuko Inoue and Mauricio Fuks.  She went on to accept a full scholarship at the International Menuhin Music Academy (Switzerland) where her teachers were Johannes Eskaer and Maestro Alberto Lysy.  Ms Sutton went on to study with Alan DeVeritch at  Indiana University, where she was his Assistant. Ms. Sutton resides in the Philadelphia area with her husband, William Wozniak, and son Edward.  She plays a beautiful viola by Sergio Peresson (anno 1970) named "The Geist".