One of New England's most prominent and versatile musicians, John Dunlop has performed in the region for over twenty years as principal cellist with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Opera North, and the Green Mountain Opera Festival. He has appeared as soloist with both the Vermont Symphony and the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and has concertized extensively as chamber musician. He has composed and recorded several award-winning film soundtracks, including a documentary on childhood hunger in Vermont where he called on his skills as guitarist and bouzouki player in addition to playing the cello. His playing can also be heard on several of the solo albums by Trey Anastasio of Phish.

Alexander Ezerman comes from a family where the cello runs four generations deep, including two former associate principals of the Philadelphia Orchestra. A prize winner in national and international competitions, he has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States, Canada, Europe and South America. He regularly performs with his wife, violinist Stephanie Ezerman, as the Ezerman Duo. An active advocate and performer of new music, he has been involved in numerous premiers, and has performed all twelve of the "Sacher" pieces for solo cello in a single recital. His most recent premiere, "Ignis Fatuus" for solo cello, by composer Teresa LeVelle, has been recorded on the Innova Label.

Robert Jesselson is professor at the University of South Carolina where he teaches cello and plays in the American Arts Trio. His performance degrees are from the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik in Freiburg, West Germany, from the Eastman School of Music and from Rutgers where he studied with cellist Bernard Greenhouse. Dr. Jesselson has performed in recital and with orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, and has participated in the Music Festivals at Nice, Granada, Santiago, Aspen, Spoleto and the Grand Tetons. He has been principal cello of the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orquesta-Sinfonica de Las Palmas, Spain. In 1983 Prof. Jesselson was one of the first Western cellists to teach and perform in China. He was there for a six-month tour, during which he performed as soloist, gave master classes, and taught at several conservatories (including Beijing, Shanghai, and Canton). For 15 years he was the director of the USC String Project, building the program into one of the largest and most prominent string education programs in the country. His pioneering work on the National String Project Consortium, based on the USC String Project, was recognized in an article in the New York Times in 2003. He is the recipient of the 1989 SC Arts Commission Artist Fellowship, the 1992 Verner Award, the 1995 Mungo Teaching Award, and the 2002 Cantey Award for Teaching. He recently returned from a European tour in which he performed in Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig and Prague. Dr. Jesselson was the national President of ASTA, the American String Teacher Association, from 2000-2002. In December of 2001, he led a delegation of string players and teachers to Cuba to begin professional contact with Cuban musicians, and in 2004 he taught for several months at Sookmyung University in Korea.

Since making his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, Scott Kluksdahl has been heard in concert as chamber musician, recitalist and soloist in the United States, Europe, Israel and Latin America. Known for his particular interest in modern music, his significant affiliations have been with Richard Wernick, Richard Brodhead, David Del Tredici, Augusta Read Thomas and Robert Helps. He is founder of the Robert Helps Festival of Contemporary Music, of which he has served as artistic director since its inception in 2005. He performed the 2010 premiere of Philip Lasser's Vocalise for Cello and Orchestra with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall.

A founding member of the Lions Gate Trio, Scott Kluksdahl has performed and recorded for twenty years as its cellist. He also has well-established musical partnerships with pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera and soprano Mela Dailey. His recordings have been released on the CRI, Albany, Triton and Centaur labels.

Scott Kluksdahl received Tanglewood's Leonard Bernstein Fellowship, prizes in the Naumburg and Washington International competitions, and degrees from Harvard and Juilliard. He teaches cello at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he also volunteers as a tutor for at-risk elementary students in the Hillsborough County Public School System. Inspired by the Rochester-based initiative, he serves as Tampa's artistic director for the recently established food-for-music outreach concert series "If Music Be The Food..." at the Carrollwood Cultural Center. His balance of commitment to both teaching and performing prompted the renowned cellist Zara Nelsova to remark, "It is rare to find a cellist who is equally at home as a concert artist as well as a great pedagogue. In my opinion Scott Kluksdahl has one of the great talents of his generation."
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Belgium cellist Thomas Landschoot has played numerous recitals in Europe, the United States and Asia, both as a soloist and in chamber music settings. His recent concerts include performances with the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, Prima la Musica, Tempe Symphony and the Orchestra of the United States Army Band. 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. His interviews and performances have been broadcast on radio and television in Europe, Japan and the United States, and his recordings are available on Summit, Organic and Centaur Records. 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.

Thomas Landschoot joined the Herberger College School of Music faculty of Arizona State University in 2001, after having taught at the University of Michigan. He has also been on the visiting faculty at Shih Chien University since 2008. He studied with France Springuel at the conservatory of Ghent, Belgium, Ttsuyoshi Tsutsumi at Indiana University and Erling Blondahl Bengtsson at the University of Michigan.
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Kangho Lee has been a sought-after soloist and chamber musician worldwide since his orchestral debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at the age of twelve. He has performed in Korea, the United States and Europe with leading orchestras such as the Korean Broadcast System (KBS) Symphony, the Korean Symphony, the Euro-Asia Symphony, the Sofia National Academy Orchestra and the Halle Philharmonic. In 2001, he was a featured soloist for the New Year’s Eve Gala Concert with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given solo recitals in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, New Haven and Seoul. In 2004, Lee was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea to be its cultural representative and gave recitals in Paris, Milan, Rome, Lyon and for the United Nations in Geneva. In 2007, at the invitation of the Moscow Conservatory, he performed in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in Poland.

An active chamber musician, Lee has collaborated with world-renowned musicians including Lorand Fenyves, Ida Kavifian, Joan Panetti, Steven Dann, Eric Rosenblith and members of the Cleveland, Vermeer and Orion string quartets. Lee is a member of the Kumho Chamber Music Society, the Tonus Piano Trio and the New England Piano Trio.

Lee’s artistry and career as a performer have generated much attention. He has appeared on television networks in Korea, the United States and South Africa, as well as radio stations WGBH in Boston and Vermont Public Radio. His performances with the KBS Symphony and Suwon Philharmonic and his recent solo recital at Kumho Arts Hall in Seoul were broadcast live on Korean national radio. His interviews have been featured in magazines and journals such as Vogue–Korea, Asiana Airline’s in-flight magazine, Music Journal and Strad–Korea.

As a highly respected pedagogue, Lee has presented master classes at the universities of Texas–Austin, Iowa, Delaware, New Mexico, Missouri–Kansas City and the University of Illinois–Urbana. He received his bachelor of arts degree in economics from Swarthmore College, master of music degree from the Yale School of Music, and doctor of musical arts degree from New England Conservatory.

Kangho Lee has taught on the faculty at Southern Illinois University and the University of Connecticut. Currently he is Professor of Cello at Korea National University of the Arts.

 “The mesmerizing performance not only showed Lee’s technical perfection but also his musical elegance and lyrical depth.” —The Korea Herald, Korea

“A rhapsodic and richly colored performance. He commanded attention with the fervor and polish of his playing. ” —Courier-Post, USA

Steven Pologe has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Sweden, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and New Zealand. He is associate professor of cello at the School of Music of the University of Oregon, and cellist with both the Oregon String Quartet and Trio Pacifica. Recently released CDs include string quartets by William Grant Still, recorded with the Oregon String Quartet, and works by Jon Deak for solo cello and piano trio. Mr. Pologe has appeared frequently as concerto soloist with a number of Northwest orchestras, and performs annually as principal cellist of the Oregon Bach Festival. Prior to moving to Oregon, Pologe was principal cellist with the Honolulu Symphony for thirteen seasons, appearing frequently as a featured soloist, and was on the University of Hawaii music faculty. While in Hawaii, he co-founded and directed the Academy Camerata chamber music series in Honolulu.

Steven Pologe received the bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School of Music and master's degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a three-year scholarship student of Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins.

Cellist Rhonda Rider is a member of the acclaimed piano trio Triple Helix, and for the past twenty-two years was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian Quartet. An active touring artist, she has been heard with the Lydians at international festivals including Concerts Spirituel de Geneve, Septembre Musique de Lorne, the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood and the American Academy in Rome. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Weill Hall, the Library of Congress, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Winners of prizes at international string quartet competitions in Evian, France; Banff, Canada and Portsmouth, England, the Lydians were also recipients of two Awards for Adventurous Programming (ASCAP/CMA). With Triple Helix Rider was awarded Best Chamber Music Performance of 2000 in the Boston Globe. With the Lydians she was awarded Best Chamber Music Recording of 2001 (Boston Globe) and Critics Choice (New York Times) for John Harbison's The Rewaking.

As a soloist, Rhonda Rider won New York's Concert Artists Guild Award and most recently was awarded an Aaron Copland Fund Grant. Her two solo discs of contemporary cello music have been cited as Best of the Year in the Boston Globe. Dedicated to the performance of new music, Rider has premiered and recorded works by such composers as John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Steve Mackey and Elliott Carter. Rider has given numerous cello master classes as well as classes on contemporary techniques and chamber music at such schools as the Yale School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, the University of Oregon, Northwestern University and Princeton. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America.

Rhonda Rider studied with Richard Kapuscinski at Oberlin, where she received the Hurlburt Award for Outstanding Instrumentalist, and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music which recognized her with the Haupt Award. She is Coordinator of Chamber Music at The Boston Conservatory, teaching on the cello faculty both there and at Boston University. She spends the summer months at festivals including Tanglewood, Music From Salem and Token Creek, and also serves as the cello coach for the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. (first half)

Alison Wells is a member of the cello faculty at the Peabody Institute. She was a founding member of the British-based Pirasti Trio, whose performances have been described as "absolutely incandescent" (The Strad) and "eloquent, unfailingly stylish" (Gramaphone), and whose recordings on ASV were recommended by BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, International Record Review, and Fanfare and were selected recordings by BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library". She has toured throughout Europe, and in North America and Hong Kong, performing at venues such as London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, New York's 92nd Street Y and Merkin Hall; the Bath, Warwick and Schleswig-Holstein International Festivals; and the Orlando Festival in Holland. She has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, London's Classic FM, Dutch National Radio, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, North German Radio, and WQXR in New York. She was featured in a British Channel 4 TV documentary on the Chamber Music of Penderecki.

Wells is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music in England, studying with Ralph Kirshbaum and David Strange. She holds a doctorate from Yale Universtity, where she studied with Aldo Parisot as a Harkness Fellow. In 1988 she joined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, under Simon Rattle, and was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. The following year she gave her London solo recital debut at the South Bank, sponsored by the Maisie Lewis Young Artists' Trust. Wells is a former faculty member at Trinity College of Music, London; and the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has served on the faculties of ENCORE School for Strings, ARIA, the Heifetz Institute in New Hampshire, the Dartington and Aberystwyth summer festivals in Britain, and the Paxos Festival in Greece. Her performances this season include concert appearances in Singapore.

Brooks Whitehouse has performed and taught chamber music throughout the US and abroad, holding Artists-in-Residence positions at SUNY Stony Brook, the Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY, the University of Virginia, as a member of The Guild Trio, and The Tanglewood Music Center. The Guild Trio was a winner of both the "USIA Artistic Ambassador" and "Chamber Music Yellow Springs" competitions, and with them he has performed and held master classes throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Norway, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France and Australia. In 1991 The Guild Trio received a three-year grant from Chamber Music America for their unique music/medicine residency at SUNY Stony Brook's Medical School. The trio has been a frequent feature on National Public Radio's "Performance Today", and has also appeared on the University of Missouri's public television series "Premiere Performances", and "Front Row Center" on KETC-TV9 in St. Louis. As a soloist Whitehouse has appeared with the New England Chamber Orchestra, the Nashua Symphony, the New Brunswick Symphony, the Billings Symphony, and the Owensboro Symphony, and has appeared in recital throughout the northeastern United States. His performances have been broadcast on WQXR's "McGraw-Hill Young Artist Showcase", WNYC's "Around New York," and the Australian and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation networks. He has held fellowships at the Blossom and Bach Aria festivals, and was winner of the Cabot prize as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. As guest artist he has appeared with the Seacliffe Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, the JU Piano Trio, The Apple Hill Chamber Players, the Atelier Ensemble and the New Zealand String Quartet.

After his graduation from Harvard College, Brooks Whitehouse studied with Timothy Eddy and Norman Fischer, earning Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 2006 he was appointed to the faculty of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.