Chamber Music Seminar Instructors

2026 Guest Artists & Faculty

Violinist Alexi Kenney has forged a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras in the USA and abroad, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Alexi has performed as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Virginia Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, California Symphony, and Sarasota Orchestra, as well as in a play-conduct role as guest leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has played recitals at Wigmore Hall, on Carnegie Hall’s ‘Distinctive Debuts’ series, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, 92nd Street Y, Mecklenberg-Vorpommern Festival, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition and laureate of the 2012 Menuhin Competition, Alexi has been profiled by Musical America, Strings Magazine, and The New York Times, and has written for The Strad.

Chamber music continues to be a major part of Alexi’s life, regularly performing at festivals including Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Chamber Music Northwest, Kronberg, La Jolla, Ojai, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, Seattle, and Spoleto, as well as on tour with Musicians from Marlboro and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is a founding member of Owls, a new quartet collective with violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Gabe Cabezas, and cellist-composer Paul Wiancko.

DANIEL PHILLIPS, violin

Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. In 2020, he was named co-artistic director of Music from Angel Fire with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor.

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Mr. Phillips’s major teachers were his father, Eugene Phillips; Ivan Galamian; Sally Thomas; Nathan Milstein; Sandor Vegh; and George Neikrug. He’s a founding member of the Orion String Quartet, which was established in 1987. The quartet was in residence at the Mannes School of Music for 27 years, and it performs regularly with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The quartet’s discography includes the complete quartets of Beethoven and Kirchner.

OWEN DALBY, violin

Praised as “dazzling” (The New York Times), “expert and versatile” (The New Yorker), and “a fearless and inquisitive violinist” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Owen Dalby leads a rich musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, new and early music expert, orchestral concertmaster, and educator. He is Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University and lives in San Francisco, California.

As a member of the St Lawrence String Quartet from 2015 until the group’s retirement in 2024, Owen toured all of the major chamber series in North America and Europe, and made solo appearances with the LA Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Philharmonic (Tokyo). Acclaimed recordings include Haydn Opus 20 (EASonus), as well as his String Quartets Op. 76 and Korngold’s Piano Quintet Op. 15 with Stephen Prutsman (Phenotypic Recordings). SLSQ was a particularly beloved ensemble in the world of contemporary string quartets, performing many dozens of concerts each season, inspiring and nurturing communities of chamber music enthusiasts, and influencing generations of young artists.

Prior to joining the SLSQ, Owen lived in New York City where he co-founded Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and was also the concertmaster of Novus NY, the contemporary music orchestra of Trinity Wall Street. He was also a key member of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, performing the complete cantatas and passions of JS Bach alongside other great 16th and 17th century repertoire. He made his Lincoln Center debut in 2010 with Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and that same year gave the world premiere of Look Around You, a one-man double concerto by Timo Andres for solo violin and viola, with the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010 Owen completed a three-year tenure with Ensemble Connect (formerly known as Ensemble ACJW), a fellowship of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School that seeks to link a performer's life with advanced training in education and community engagement. In addition to co-directing the chamber music program and maintaining a violin studio at Stanford, Owen has taught music to students in masterclasses in Mexico, Iceland, at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program in Aldeburgh, UK, the Eastman School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, Princeton University, Skidmore College, and the University of South Carolina, among many other places.

Owen is regularly invited to perform chamber music at festivals from Hamburg to Honolulu, and from Iceland to Mumbai. His many chamber music collaborators have included Stephen Prutsman, Inon Barnatan, Anne-Marie McDermott, the Danish String Quartet, Daniel Hope, Christian Tetzlaff, Dawn Upshaw, the Persian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, and Simon Rattle.

Owen received early training with Anne Crowden at the Crowden School in Berkeley, CA and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University where he studied with Syoko Aki. With his wife, violist Meena Bhasin, Owen is co-Artistic and Executive Director of Noe Music, a chamber music series in San Francisco, where they make their home with their children Leila and Knight.

Owen performs on the “Fetzer” Stradivarius made in Cremona in 1694.

AYANE KOZASA, viola

Hailed for her "magnetic, wide-ranging tone" and her "rock solid technique" (Philadelphia Inquirer), violist Ayane Kozasa is a member of the San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet. Their current season tours include performance venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Vicenza Jazz Festival, and they will be making stops in Brazil, Japan, Sweden, and Latvia. Many of their concerts include dynamic collaborators such as Indonesian singer Peni Candra Rini, visual storytellerAriel Aberg-Riger, and composer Terry Riley. Ayane is also a member of the quartet collective Owls, whose debut album Rare Birds was just released on New Amsterdam Records this spring. As a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet, she toured with the group for 11 years, garnering a Grammy nomination and capturing grand prizes at the M Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Osaka International String Quartet Competition. Much of Ayane’s current work involves mentoring young musicians through programs like the Meadowmount School of Music, and she is currently on the viola faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Aside from music, she enjoys hiking, doodling, and creating animation.

DIMITRI MURRATH, viola

Born in Brussels, Belgian American viola player Dimitri Murrath made his mark on the international scene, performing as a recitalist and soloist in venues including Kennedy Center (Washington), Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall (London), and Théâtre de la Ville (Paris).A first prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition, Dimitri Murrath has won numerous awards, including top prizes at the Tokyo International Viola Competition and ARD Munich Competition. In 2012, he was named laureate of the Juventus Festival, an award recognizing young European soloists. He is a recipient of a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant through which he recorded and released his first solo album recording music by Vieuxtemps, Clarke and Hindemith in 2017.An avid chamber musician, Mr. Murrath is the violist of the Esmé Quartet since 2023. Prior to that, he was a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society from 2013 to 2023. He has collaborated with Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Cleveland, Mendelssohn and Guarneri Quartets. He has performed in festivals that include Verbier, Caramoor, Juventus, and Marlboro.Dimitri Murrath began his musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School studying with Natalia Boyarsky, his Bachelor of Music in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated with an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.After 9 years teaching viola at New England Conservatory, he is currently Professor of Viola and Chair of Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.Dimitri Murrath participates in the Music for Food project, which raises awareness of the hunger problem faced by a large percent of the population, and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change.

LESLEY ROBERTSON, viola

After celebrating 34 years with the internationally celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), Lesley Robertson (viola) continues to make her life at Stanford University where co-directs the chamber music program, teaches viola, spearheads the Emerging String Quartet Program and directs the annual St Lawrence Chamber Music Seminar. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, Ms. Robertson also holds a degree from the University of British Columbia where she studied with her mentor, Gerald Stanick. A founding member of the SLSQ, Ms. Robertson toured regularly with the ensemble for 1989-2024, performing 100+ concerts worldwide per season (in Berlin, Florence, London, Paris, New York, Toronto, Sydney, Beijing,,,) while also nurturing close ties to the Stanford community performing in various classes, dormitories, laboratories, hospitals, and in Stanford's glorious Bing Concert Hall. She participated in the Marlboro Festival and toured with Musicians from Marlboro before co-founding the SLSQ. She has served on the jury of several international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Concours de Genève. Summer music festivals include Spoleto Festival USA, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff Festival, Festival of the Sound, Santa Fe Chamber Music, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Bravo Vail, Music@Menlo and more. Robertson plays on a viola (1992) made by fellow Canadian John Newton and a bow (2016) by Francois Malo.

STEVEN TENENBOM, viola

Steven Tenenbom, born in Phoenix, is the violist with the Orion String Quartet and Opus One, and he has appeared as a guest artist with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson and Beaux Arts trios, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and on the 92nd Street Y Chamber Series. He has been a soloist with the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Brandenburg Ensemble on tour through the U.S. and Japan. He has toured and recorded with Tashi, the Galimir String Quartet, and Musicians from Marlboro, in addition to working with composer Lukas Foss and jazz artists Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis. He graduated from Curtis in 1979, having studied with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. Tenenbom, who has been a Juilliard faculty member since 2006, also serves on the faculties of Curtis, Mannes College of Music, and Bard College Conservatory of Music.

CHRISTOPHER COSTANZA, cello

For over three decades, cellist Christopher Costanza has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a recipient of a prestigious Solo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Costanza has performed to international critical acclaim. His summer festival appearances have included those at the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Santa Fe, Taos, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, Bay Chamber Concerts, Ottawa, and Bravo! Vail Valley festivals.

Costanza is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied cello with Laurence Lesser, David Wells, and Bernard Greenhouse and chamber music with Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, and Leonard Shure. Costanza joined the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) in 2003, and he tours and records extensively with that ensemble, performing over 100 concerts annually throughout the world. As a member of the SLSQ, he is an Artist in Residence at Stanford University, where he teaches cello and chamber music and performs a wide variety of formal and informal concerts each season. A strong proponent of contemporary music, Costanza works regularly with the world’s most notable composers, such as John Adams, Jonathan Berger, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Applebaum, Pierre Boulez, George Tsontakis, Roberto Sierra, R. Murray Schafer, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Bright Sheng. As a student, he had the honor of studying Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" under the guidance of the composer.

Costanza is frequently heard on radio broadcasts worldwide, and his discography includes numerous chamber music and solo recordings on the Nonesuch, EMI/Angel, Naxos, Innova, Albany, Summit, and ArtistShare labels. In 2006, he received a Grammy nomination for his recording of major chamber works for winds and strings by Mozart. Additionally, several St. Lawrence String Quartet recordings on EMI have also been nominated for Juno awards. He is privileged to perform on an early 18th century Venetian cello, part of the Harry R. Lange Collection of Instruments and Bows at Stanford.

In addition to his varied musical interests, Costanza is an avid long-distance runner and hiker. A self-described train enthusiast, he enjoys riding and exploring the passenger railways of the world. At home in California, he is passionate about cooking, focusing his attention on new and creative dishes that take advantage of the abundance of remarkable organic local produce.

HANNAH COLLINS, cello

Winner of De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, cellist Hannah Collins is a dynamic performer devoted to building community through musical expression. Resonance Lines, her solo debut album on Sono Luminus, is an “adventurous, impressive collection of contemporary solo cello music,” negotiated “with panache” (The Strad), pairing music by Britten and Saariaho with commissioned works by Caroline Shaw and Thomas Kotcheff.

Solo and chamber music performances have taken Hannah to festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival, Musique de Chambre à Giverny, Orford Centre d'arts, and Kneisel Hall. She is a member of A Far Cry and Bach Aria Soloists, and has recently performed with The Knights, Decoda, and Grossman Ensemble. Praised for her “incisive, vibrant continuo” playing (S. Florida Classical Review), Hannah also appears regularly as a Baroque cellist with the Sebastians, TENET, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

Hannah earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale and holds degrees in music from the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and City University of New York. She is an alumna of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute, and is currently Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Kansas School of Music.

PAUL WIANCKO, cello

Paul Wiancko is an acclaimed composer and cellist. The Washington Post describes Wiancko as “a restless and multifaceted talent who plays well with others”—a reference to his substantial collaborations with artists like Max Richter, Chick Corea, Norah Jones, Arcade Fire, and The National. “Even with this chronically collaborative spirit,” the Post continues, “Wiancko maintains a singular voice as a composer.” In 2023, Paul was named Director of Chamber Music at Spoleto Festival USA. As cellist of the internationally-celebrated Kronos Quartet, Wiancko regularly appears on the world's foremost stages—including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican, and the Sydney Opera House. Wiancko first collaborated with the Kronos Quartet in 2018 when he was invited to compose a piece for 50 For The Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, and soon after toured with the quartet as guest cellist. Upon officially joining the group in 2023, violinist and Kronos artistic director David Harrington stated, "We look forward to soaring into the future with the catalytic, super-charged vitality of Paul’s playing. It will be so much fun to explore the vast world of music together with Paul.”

A serial chamber musician, Wiancko is a founding member of the viola and cello duo Ayane & Paul, as well as Owls, a quartet-collective dubbed a “dream group” by The New York Times. He has shared the stage with many of today’s most prominent artists, including Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, Terry Riley, Caroline Shaw, and members of the Emerson, Guarneri, St. Lawrence, and JACK quartets. From 2009 to 2011, he was cellist of the Harlem Quartet, with whom he performed and taught extensively throughout the US, Europe, South America, and Africa.

ANTHONY MANZO, bass

Anthony Manzo’s vibrantly interactive and highly communicative music-making has made him a ubiquitous figure in the upper echelons of classical music, performing at noted venues including Lincoln Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. He appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society, both in New York and across the country. He serves as the solo bassist of San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra and as a guest with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and A Far Cry. He is a regular guest with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Society, and the Baltimore Symphony when he happens to be near his home in Washington, DC. Formerly the solo bassist of the Munich Chamber Orchestra in Germany, he has also been guest principal with Camerata Salzburg in Austria, where collaborations have included a summer residency at the Salzburg Festival and two tours as soloist alongside bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, performing Mozart’s “Per questa bella mano.” He is an active performer on period instruments, with groups including the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston (where his playing was lauded as “endowed with beautiful and unexpected plaintiveness” by the Boston Musical Intelligencer), Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, and Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC. He is on the double bass and chamber music faculty of the University of Maryland. Manzo performs on a double bass made around 1890 by Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy in Paris (which now has a removable neck for travel!).

PEDJA MUZIJEVIC, piano

Pianist Pedja Muzijevic has toured extensively as soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist throughout eastern and western Europe, Great Britain, Canada, the United States, South America, Australia, and Asia. A native of Sarajevo, his artistic curiosity has led him to explore both the music of the 18th and 19th centuries on period instruments and the music of contemporary composers such as Knussen, Carter, Cage, Henze, Nancarrow, Crumb, Adès, and many others. His many festival engagements include, among others, performances at Tanglewood, Spoleto USA, Mostly Mozart, Newport, OK Mozart, Bridgehampton, Bay Chamber Concerts, San Miguel de Allende, Aldeburgh, Lucerne, Holland, Melbourne, Aix-en-Provence, Dubrovnik, Merano, and Bratislava festivals. Mr. Muzijevic’s recording Sonatas and Other Interludesis available on Albany Records—it juxtaposes music for prepared piano by John Cage with composers ranging from W. F. Bach to Liszt.

JOHN NOVACEK, piano

Versatile, Grammy-nominated pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia as solo recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over thirty concerti with dozens of orchestras. John Novacek is a highly sought-after collaborative artist and has performed with Joshua Bell, Renaud Capuçon, Jeremy Denk, Matt Haimovitz, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Truls Mørk, Elmar Oliveira and Emmanuel Pahud, and, as well as the Afiara, Colorado, Harrington, Jupiter, New Hollywood, St. Lawrence, SuperNova and Ying string quartets. He also tours widely as a member of the multi-faceted Intersection, a piano trio that includes violinist Kaura Frautschi and cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper. As a tireless advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Novacek has also given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, Kenji Bunch, Gabriela Lena Frank, John Harbison, Jennifer Higdon, George Rochberg, Robert Sierra, John Williams and John Zorn. In 2022, John Novacek was appointment to the Piano and Collaborative Piano faculty of The Mannes School of Music at The New School’s College of Performing Arts in New York City.

STEPHEN PRUTSMAN, piano

Stephen Prutsman has been described as one of the most innovative musicians of his time. Moving easily from classical to jazz to world music styles as a pianist, composer and conductor, Prutsman continues to explore and seek common ground and relationships in the music of all cultures and languages. From 2004-2007 Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he conducted concertos from the keyboard, performed in chamber ensembles, conducted works of living composers, developed and arranged collaborations for their Engine 408 series of contemporary and world music, and wrote several new works for the orchestra. From 2009 – 2012 he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind, programming and curating concerts with themes ranging from Mozart celebrations, to eclectic evenings of folk and popular music of the Americas, to hybrid programs fusing art and dance music of multiple musical dimensions.

TODD PALMER, clarinet

Clarinetist Todd Palmer has appeared as soloist, recitalist, chamber music collaborator, educator, arranger, and presenter in a variety of musical endeavors around the world. A three time Grammy nominated artist, he has appeared as soloist with the Atlanta, Houston, BBC Scotland orchestras; St. Paul, New York, Cincinnati, Montréal, and Metamorphosen chamber orchestras, as well as many others. He’s collaborated with many of the worlds finest string ensembles such as the St. Lawrence, Brentano, Borromeo, Pacifica, Daedalus and Ying quartets; and has also shared the stage with sopranos Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Heidi Grant Murphy and Dawn Upshaw, and many other notable instrumentalists. He has championed Osvaldo Golijov’s Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind around the world and commissioned the theatre work Orpheus and Euridice by Ricky Ian Gordon which was presented by Great Performers at Lincoln Center in 2005 . He was a winner of the Young Concert Artist International Auditions, and has participated in numerous music festivals in the US and abroad including 18 years at Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC, 5 years at the Marlboro Festival and the Tanglewood Institute, where he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship. He has also held principle clarinet positions in the Minnesota Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Gotham Chamber Opera and the Grand Teton Festival. In 2008 he premiered David Bruce’s Gumboots, a Carnegie Hall commission that was written especially for him and the St. Lawrence Quartet, and for two years appeared in Lincoln Center’s revival of South Pacific.Recently he appeared as soloist in Robert Lepage’s staging of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Fables at BAM — dressed as a Cossack and performed the Mozart clarinet concerto as a part of Great Performers at Lincoln Center’s What Makes It Great series.