Kim Kashkashian
Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo Album for her recording “Kurtág/Ligeti Music for Viola,” KIM KASHKASHIAN is recognized internationally as a unique voice on the viola. A staunch proponent of contemporary music, she has developed creative relationships with György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli and Arvo Pärt and premiered commissioned works by Peter Eötvös, Betty Olivero,Ken Ueno, Thomas Larcher, Lera Auerbach and Tigran Mansurian.

Kashkashian has ongoing duo partnerships with pianist Robert Levin and with percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and played in a unique string quartet with Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips and Yo-Yo Ma.

As soloist Kashkashian has appeared with the orchestras of Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan, New York and Cleveland in collaboration with Eschenbach, Mehta, Welser-Moest, Kocsis , Dennis Russel Davies Blomstedt Robertson and Holliger.

Recital appearances include the great halls of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, Athens and Tokyo.

Her association with the prestigious ECM label since 1985 has resulted in a rich discography which includes the complete sonatas of Hindemith and Brahms, an album of Argentinian songs, the concertos of Schnittke, Bartók, Penderecki and Kurtág, as well as the Bach viola da gamba sonatas, recorded with Keith Jarrett.

Kim Kashkashian lives in Boston,where she coaches chamber music and viola at New England Conservatory.

Marina Piccinini
Hailed as “the Heifetz of the flute”(Gramophone), Marina Piccinini enjoys an international career as soloist with major orchestras including the Boston Symphony, the London Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Vienna Symphony. Since making acclaimed debuts in New York, London and Tokyo, she continues to perform as a recitalist and chamber musician around the globe, frequently collaborating with such artists as Andreas Haefliger, Mitsuko Uchida, the Tokyo, Brentano, Mendelssohn, and Takács quartets, as well as with her trio Tre Voci.

A Resident Artist at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Mostly Mozart, Kuhmo, Alderborough, Hong Kong and Saito Kinen Festivals. She has been Principal Guest Flute with the Boston Symphony and the New York Philharmonic, and has recorded for Claves, ECM and Avie.

The first flutist to win Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, she also won first prize in Canada’s CBC Young Performers Competition, New York’s Concert Artists Guild International Competition, New York Flute Club, National Arts Club, NEA‘s Solo Recitalist Grant, the BP Artist Career Award, the McMeen-Smith Award, and various grants from the Canada Council.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, her mentors include Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser and Aurèle Nicolet. She is Professor of Flute at the Peabody Institute in the USA and the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany. Piccinini is a 36th generation Shaolin Fighting Monk.

Sivan Magen
Praised by the press as “a magician” (New York’s WQXR), whose “virtuoso playing conjures an astonishing range of colour and dynamic” (The Daily Telegraph), harpist Sivan Magen appeared as a soloist across the US, South America, Europe and Israel, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Musiekgebouw aan’t IJ and the Vienna Konzerthaus, and with orchestras such as the Israel Philharmonic, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.

The only Israeli to have ever won the International Harp Contest in Israel and the 2012 Award Winner of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, Sivan is also an avid chamber musician, has performed at the Marlboro, Kuhmo, Giverny, and Jerusalem International Chamber Music festivals, with Musicians from Marlboro, and is a founding member of the award winning Israeli Chamber Project and of Trio Tre Voci with flautist Marina Piccinini and violist Kim Kashkashian.

Having been invited by Carnegie Hall to return for a recital in fall 2014 to celebrate the American release of his solo CD for Linn records, Fantasien, next season will be released his second solo CD for Linn Records as well as a recording with Trio Tre Voci for ECM. In previous seasons were released to great critical acclaim his CD with the Israeli Chamber Project for Azica Records as well as an all-Britten CD with tenor Nicholas Phan for Avie (listed in the NY Times’ “Best recordings of 2012”).