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.

Stefan Kartman received degrees from Northwestern University, The Juilliard School of Music, and his doctorate from Rutgers University.

He has served on the faculties of Drake University, Illinois Wesleyan University, and is currently Associate Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee where he chairs the string area and is director of the Leonard Sorkin International Institute of Chamber Music. In addition to solo performance, Dr. Kartman’s experience as cellist of the Kneisel Trio and the Florestan Duo continues to be an enriching aspect of his personal and professional life.

Dr. Kartman has performed to critical acclaim in the US, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Performances this year will include chamber music and solo performances in Italy, Holland, China, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Houston with masterclasses at the Third Street Settlement Music School in New York City, Cleveland Institute of Music, Moores School of Music in Houston, and the D’Albaco Conservatory of Music in Verona, Italy. Recordings of his performances can be heard under the AnnSam Recordings label.

He has been teaching assistant to Harvey Shapiro and Zara Nelsova of the Juilliard School and proudly acknowledges the pedagogical heritage of his teachers Shapiro, Nelsova, Bernard Greenhouse, Alan Harris, and Antony Cooke.

Ho-Jung Kim is Associate Principal Cellist of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a member of both the Korea Festival Ensemble and the Koreana Chamber Music Society. She has appeared as soloist with the Seoul Philharmonic, the Busan Philharmonic, the Chunju Philharmonic, the Inchon Philharmonic and the Melomania Chamber Orchestra. A top prize winner in the Hohnen Competition in Cologne, Germany, and the Dong-A Music Competition in Seoul, Ms. Kim has played recitals throughout Korea, in Germany, and in Austria.

After graduation from Seoul National University, Ho-Jung Kim studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany. She currently serves on the faculty at the Seoul National University, Sookmyung Women's University and Seoul Arts High School.

Melissa Kraut has performed concerts in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Canada, France and throughout the United States, including recent recitals in Delaware, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. A highly recognized and sought-after pedagogue, Dr. Kraut was appointed to the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2006. She taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy nine summers, serving as the area coordinator for strings for two years, and she is also a faculty member at the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York. Prior to her appointment at CIM, Dr. Kraut served as associate professor of cello at the University of Central Florida (UCF). While in Orlando, she was the educational/artistic director for A Gift for Music, a string program that provides free instruments and instruction to 900 inner-city children.

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.

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.