Stephanie Arado, violin

Violinist Stephanie Arado joined the Minnesota Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster in 1991.  A Chicago native, Ms. Arado attended Western Illinois University where she studied with Roland and Almita Vamos.  She went on to receive a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Dorothy Delay.  She has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit and Minnesota Orchestras.  Ms. Arado is a member of the Bakken Trio, which regularly performs chamber music in the Twin Cities.  In 2004, Ms. Arado was awarded the prestigious McKnight Performing Artists Fellowship.

Richard Bock, cello

Richard Bock, principal cellist with The Phoenix Symphony for 24 seasons, began his cello studies at the age of 12 with Harvey Shapiro at The Juilliard School. Leopold Stokowski chose Bock, at age 18, to be principal cellist of the American Symphony Orchestra, making him the youngest principal player in the orchestra's history.  Following his tenure with the ASO, Riccardo Muti, conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra in Florence, Italy, chose Bock as his principal cellist. Bock remained in that position for eight years. It was during that time that he was asked to join the prestigious Musicus Concentus Chamber players as solo cellist, touring throughout Italy and Germany.

Upon returning to the United States, Bock joined the Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra, the first string orchestra to tour the Soviet Union under the auspices of the State Department. Bock was the featured soloist, playing the C major Concerto of Haydn to critical acclaim in Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev, Riga and Vilna. Following this tour, Bock joined the Soviet Emigre Orchestra and toured North and South America.

In 1981, Julius Rudel chose Bock to be the principal cellist of the Buffalo Philharmonic. It was during his stay in Buffalo that Bock founded the Westminster Chamber Orchestra. His orchestra was described by the Buffalo News as a group whose “dynamics, balance, intonation and the like displayed an almost magical perfection and focus.”  While with The Phoenix Symphony, Bock performed Don Quixote by Strauss in November 1995 and Shostakovich's Concerto No. 1 in April 1996, both under conductor James Sedares. He also appeared as soloist with the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra directed by Jeffrey Siegel.  In 1994-95, Bock was the artist in residence at the School of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona and held a similar position at Arizona State University's School of Music in 1995-96.  Recent recordings of Bock include Mosaic, a collection of Yiddish songs and music of the royal courts of Europe. Additional recordings include the Rozsa Simphonia Concertante with the New Zealand Symphony, The Paul Winter Consort on A&M Records and Three Intermezzi for Cello on CRI Records. 

In June 2009, Mr. Bock’s Phoenix restaurant, Giuseppe's on 28th, was featured on the Food Network’s popular series Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Chris Brown, bass

Principal Bass, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Christopher Brown, in his 31st season with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as principal bass, has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on several occasions.  Prior to joining the SPCO, Brown was a bass player with Pittsburgh and Detroit symphonies.  Beyond his performance activities, Brown has published a resource book, Discovering Bows for the Double Bass, and owns The Bow Broker, a business that buys and sells bows throughout the world.  In addition to his work in classical music, Brown is a jazz enthusiast, songwriter, and composer, an interest that dates from his high school days at the Interlochen Arts Academy.  He once appeared on the cover of Life magazine in his role of Jesus in the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar."  Summertime takes Brown to the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming and the Festival of the Lakes in Alexandria, Minnesota.  He also performs in recitals throughout the United States.  Brown received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.  He is married to Linda Zwicky and has three children.

William Eddins, piano

William Eddins is the Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and a frequent guest conductor of major orchestras throughout the world.  He has served consecutively as Assistant, Associate and Resident Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra over the last ten seasons.

Recent engagements include the New York Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Atlanta, New Jersey, Detroit, Dallas, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Houston, San Antonio, Colorado, as well as the Los Angeles, Jacksonville and Tulsa Philharmonics.

Performances in the 04-05 season include concerts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, the RAI Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony. Internationally, Mr. Eddins has conducted the Berlin Staatskapelle, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Welsh National Opera,Nazionale (Italy), and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (Portugal).

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Australia), Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (Spain), the RAI Orchestra Sinfonica.

Although focusing on his career as a conductor, Mr. Eddins continues his work as a pianist and chamber musician.  He regularly conducts from the piano in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Gershwin and Ravel.  He is founder and artistic director of the Prospect Park Players, a chamber music series based at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.  He has performed on the prestigious Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “Symphony Center Presents” piano recital series.  Mr. Eddins released a compact disc recording on his own label (Ahkenaton Production, Inc) which includes Beethoven’s Hammer-Klavier Sonata, Five Preludes from Book I by Debussy and William Albright’s The Nightmare Fantasy Rag.

Mr. Eddins has performed at the Ravinia Festival with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra.  He has also conducted the orchestras of the Chautauqua Festival, Aspen Music Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

In 2000 Mr. Eddins received the Seaver/NEA Conducting Award, a triennial grant of $50,000 awarded to exceptionally gifted young American conductors.  He is conductor and host of a video entitled “On the Day You Were Born” with the Minnesota Orchestra.  Based on the children’s book of the same name by author/illustrator Debra Frasier, the work is for narrator and orchestra and was composed by Steve Heitzeg.  Since its release it has sold over 30,000 copies worldwide.

Jennifer Gerth, clarinet

Principal clarinet of the Duluth-Superior Symphony and an active member of the Twin Cities musical community, Jennifer Gerth frequently performs with the Minnesota Orchestra, VocalEssence and the Minnesota Dance Theatre.  Jennifer is on the faculty at Augsburg College, the University of St. Thomas, and teaches and performs at Birch Creek Performance Center in Door County, WI.

Adam Kuenzel, flute

Since joining the Minnesota Orchestra in 1990, Principal Flutist Adam Kuenzel has regularly appeared as soloist at Orchestra Hall.  In October 2007 Kuenzel gave the world premiere of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski’s Il Piffero della Notte, Fantasies for Flute and Orchestra, with the composer conducting.  In January 2009 he performed Leonard Bernstein’s Halil, earning acclaim from The New York Times and MusicalAmerica.com.  Kuenzel premiered Manuel Sosa’s Eloquentia for Flute and Orchestra in April 2010.

A native of Cincinnati, Kuenzel attended the Oberlin Conservatory, studying with Robert Willoughby.  After graduation, he studied in New Haven with Thomas Nyfenger, and played in jazz groups for two years in Cincinnati.  Kuenzel has been a guest artist with the Aspen Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, St. Bart’s Music Festival in the French West Indies, and the Oregon Bach Festival. 

Sarah Lewis , cello

Cellist Sarah Lewis is in her 13th season with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.  A St. Paul native, she started piano lessons at the MacPhail Center for the Arts at the age of three.  When she was six, her family relocated to Delaware, where she continued music lessons and eventually focused on the cello.  She holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Lev Aronson and Channing Robbins, respectively.  Prior to joining the SPCO, Lewis was a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (1994-1996), and performed as a substitute musician with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  She recently appeared as soloist with the SPCO in C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A, and gave the U.S. premiere of Malcolm Forsyth’s Eclectic Suite for Cello and Piano with Lydia Artymiw on the SPCO’s Ensemble Series.  An avid chamber musician, she has performed solo and chamber recitals in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Twin Cities.  In addition to her career as a classical musician, Lewis performs and has recorded popular music.  Before joining the SPCO, she toured and recorded as featured cellist with pop pianist Lorie Line.  She toured Japan with the Percy Faith Orchestra in 1998, and performed on Peter Ostroushko’s recording, “Heart of the Heartland.”  Sarah performed in the Napa Valley Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2008, and is back playing her favorite pieces in Alexandria this summer.  Lewis makes her home in Edina with her husband and two children.

Katja Linfield, cello

Katja Linfield, who joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1990, is an active chamber musician and recitalist who won a McKnight Artist Fellowship in spring 2006.  At Sommerfest 2007 she was featured in Tan Dun’s Elegy: Snow in June for cello and four percussion.

From 1992 until 2002 she played with the Bakken Trio, during which time the ensemble recorded works of Ives, Pärt and Beethoven.  With the Trio, Linfield received a McKnight Artist Fellowship and a Meet the Composer grant.

Linfield has performed chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tanglewood Festival, Portland Chamber Music Festival and Music in the Vineyards.  She has toured the United States with Music from Marlboro, and Europe with the Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern.  Linfield earned a bachelor of music degree from Oberlin College and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and Rutgers University.  Her teachers included Bernard Greenhouse, Colin Carr, Steven Doane and Richard Kapuscinski.

In 2002 Linfield and her husband welcomed their own trio into the world—triplet girls.

Timothy Lovelace, pianist

Timothy Lovelace is highly active as an ensemble pianist, soloist, and conductor.  Most often concertizing as a collaborative pianist, he has appeared with such distinguished artists as Miriam Fried, Emma Johnson, Pekka Kuusisto, Joe Lovano, Robert Mann, Charles Neidich, the Pacifica String Quartet, and Paquito D’Rivera.  For thirteen years, he was a staff pianist at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, where he played in the classes of Barbara Bonney, Christoph Eschenbach, Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig and Yo-Yo Ma, among others.  A proponent of new music, Lovelace has performed under the supervision of composers Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Leon Kirchner, Lowell Liebermann, and Thea Musgrave, and he presented the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Third World.  He has recorded for the Albany, Blue Griffin, Boston Records, and MSR labels. 

Lovelace currently heads the Collaborative Piano program at the University of Minnesota.  His own studies were principally with Harold Evans, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy, and Frank Weinstock.

Jill Olson, violin

Violinist Jill Olson performs extensively as an orchestral and chamber musician in the Twin Cities. She is a regular substitute with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. Jill is a founding member of the Bel Canto Quartet.

Prior to performing in the Twin Cities, Jill was the Concertmaster of the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony and the Fargo-Moorhead Opera Orchestra. She was also a member of the Britt Festival and Wintergreen Performing Arts Orchestras in Oregon and Virginia, respectively, as well as the Heidelberg Schlossfestspiele in Germany.

Jill is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Her primary teachers include Dr. Robert Emile, Catherine Tait and Jorja Fleezanis. She studied chamber music with members of the American String Quartet and the Cleveland Quartet.

A devoted educator, Jill has an active Suzuki violin studio and is the founder of Jill Olson Music of the Imagination, a studio for early childhood music education.

Gail Olszewski, harpsichord & harmonium

Gail Olszewski has been heard in solo and chamber recitals on piano, fortepiano, harpsichord, organ, harmonium, celesta and synthesizer in the United States, Canada, Europe, Central America and Australia.  She is often sought out as a vocal coach and has performed in concert with many singers in the US and Canada.  Gail lives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area where she has a varied free-lance career as a collaborative keyboardist, concertizing with members of the Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Music St. Croix among others.  Locally she has played harpsichord and organ continuo for such groups as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Phipps Oratorio Society, Minnesota Sinfonia and Minnetonka Chorale and has played synthesizer with the Plymouth Music Series, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Buffalo Gal Productions.  She has served as music director, rehearsal and show pianist for Ordway Productions, Nautilus Music Theater, Illusion Theater, Minnesota Opera and Duluth Festival Opera.  

Dr. Olszewski is a founding member of The WolfGang (www.thewolfgang.org), dedicated to authentic instrument performance of music of the Classic period and Duo Tastiera with harpsichordist and composer Asako Hirabayashi.  She has recorded with Borealis Brass (www.borealisbrass.com), The WolfGang and Duo Tastiera.  Dr. Olszewski has presented master classes and lecture/recitals on women musicians and their music, chamber music, ornamentation, Classical performance practices and the history of keyboard instruments to many schools, symposia and professional organizations and has had review articles published in the journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music.  She holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts in Accompanying and Coaching from the University of Minnesota, Master of Music in Piano Performance from Boston University and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Music History/Harpsichord Performance from the University of New Hampshire.  Dr. Olszewski is a member of the keyboard faculties of the University of Wisconsin/River Falls and MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  For more information on Gail Olszewski, please go to www.gailopiano.com.

Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in Tongues is four astonishing musicians from four different cultures with four native tongues.  The group features master drummer and multi-instrumentalist Sowah Mensah from Ghana; Gao Hong, Chinese pipa master; Enrique Toussaint, the virtuoso bassist from Mexico City, and Minnesota-born master percussionist Marc Anderson.  Their performances worldwide are as diverse as the group itself.  They opened a new Chinese music series at the prestigious Muziekgebouw aan het IJ in Amsterdam, performed at a Nobel Peace Prize Conference in America’s heartland, and have performed for enthusiastic audiences on university campuses and in concert halls throughout the U.S.  Their collaboration with the Indian dance troupe Ragamala was performed at Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as well as the Southern Theater.  A recording of their version of Gao Hong’s composition “Quiet Forest, Flowing Stream” is included in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s “Wild Sounds” exhibit that is currently touring the U.S including Washington D. C. Chicago.

With superb musicianship and an infectious camaraderie, Speaking in Tongues creates an environment that is engaging and exhilarating.  The collective sound of the group draws on so many sources that listeners from all walks of life can connect easily. Four outstanding musicians blend music from four different cultures on a stage full of instruments from all over the world.  The result - a concert experience that is spellbinding, entertaining, and unprecedented.  When considering the individual voices, one is struck by the truly distinctive quality of this music and the level of skill and musical maturity required to shape it into the spirited and the coherent musical expression that it is.  Their music has been described as a West African drum ensemble driving along under the butterfly wings of an Asian melody, the romance of Brazilian jazz orchestrated with Middle Eastern drums, and folk music from a new world.  Rich compositions set up by free roaming improvisations lead the listener through open landscapes of gentle rustlings and sparse instrumentation and then, with a subtle turn, plunge them into thick forests populated by percussion and bass.

Tamás Strasser, viola

Avid chamber musician Tamás Strasser has been violist with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 1975.  He was previously a member of the Kansas City Philharmonic, United States Army Strings, New Art String Quartet and Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia.  Strasser has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, the Vienna Trio and the Muir, Moscow and Bakken string quartets, and has been a soloist with the SPCO and the Kansas City Symphony, among other orchestras.  He served as artist-in-residence for the North Carolina School of the Arts summer program and on the faculties of Madeline Island Music Camp and Macalester College.  He has taught master classes at the University of Minnesota and Kansas City Conservatory, among others.  Strasser received his bachelor’s degree from the Kansas City Conservatory and master’s degree from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.  His principal teachers were Andor Toth, Tiberius Klausner, Michael Rabin and Dorothy Delay.  He serves on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas teaching violin and viola and leading the String Orchestra.  Strasser has performed as principal violist with the Wintergreen (VA) Festival, Colorado Music Festival in Boulder and the Aspen Chamber Symphony.  Summer of 2011 finds Strasser playing principal viola for the Music in the Mountains Festival in the California wine country.  Strasser returns to perform chamber music in Alexandria’s Festival of the Lakes this August.  Tam’s hobbies include chess, motorcycling, and traveling.