“The Sarasota Winter Residency couldn’t exist without the daily time and care provided by our world-class faculty.”

Rachel Calin began playing the bass at the early age of nine, and has since been called a bassist that “deserves a place in the sun,” and “a lyrical soloist in command of her instrument” by The New York Times. In 1994 she won the Juilliard Concerto Competition, making her concerto debut in Alice Tully hall at Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Orchestra, and subsequently has made solo appearances with Sejong, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, and has given numerous recitals throughout North America.

As a chamber musician, Miss Calin has appeared in concert throughout Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. She can be heard on NPR’s ‘Performance Today’, both in live and recorded broadcasts. Miss Calin has performed frequently with the New York Philharmonic, at Live from Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and has recorded numerous movie and commercial soundtracks. She has given the world premieres of works by composers such as Lera Auerbach and Mark O’Connor, and has performed with many new music ensembles including the New Juilliard Ensemble, Sequitur, the Composers Concordance, and Mosaic.

Miss Calin received a BM and MM from The Juilliard School, where she studied with both Homer Mensch and Eugene Levinson and was the recipient of an instrument loan from the Karr Foundation. Recent concert appearances include performances at Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot, Santa Fe Chamber Music Series, Kennedy Center, Taipei International Music Festival, Philadelphia Museum of Art Chamber Music Series, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Seoul Arts Center, Carnegie Hall, CNN’s American Morning with Paula Zahn, Live From Lincoln Center, and in a live broadcast from NPR’s Washington DC studios for Performance Today. Currently on faculty at the Perlman Music Program, Miss Calin performs on a Bolognese double bass crafted by Matteo Minozzi in 1767.

Heidi Castleman – Viola - Vice President, PMP Board of Directors  

Currently Professor of Viola at the Juilliard School of Music, Heidi Castleman has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, SUNY Purchase, Rice University and Philadelphia Musical Academy.

A member of the New York String Sextet (1972-1976), Ms. Castleman also has been guest artist with many ensembles, including the Cleveland, Audubon, Lydian and Cavani Quartets. Recent master class and lecture-demonstrations include those at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Shanghai Conservtory, Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea, as well as in Montreal, Chicago, Dallas, Interlochen and Boulder.

Heidi Castleman was co-founder and viola faculty of the Quartet Program from 1970 to 1990. During summer months Ms. Castleman has taught and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, Banff Centre and Blossom Music Festival. Since 2001 she has worked with students, ages 12 to 18, at The Perlman Music Program during their six-week Summer Music School on Shelter Island, and since 2005 at the two-week Sarasota Winter Residency @ PMP in Sarasota, Florida, co-sponsored by the Van Wezel Foundation. Ms. Castleman also teaches at a one week intensive viola workshop, the North American Viola Institute, held in June at the Orford Arts Centre.

A founding trustee of Chamber Music America, and its President from 1983 to 1987, Ms. Castleman has also served on the Board of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), Advisory Board of the Fischoff Competition, and currently is Vice President of the Board of the Perlman Music Program. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the ASTA Ohio “Teacher of the Year” award (1994), the Chamber Music America Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award (2001) and the national Artist-Teacher of the Year Award by ASTA with NSOA in 2002. In 2004 Ms. Castleman received the Maurice W. Riley Viola Award at the American Viola Society Congress for Distinguished Contributions to the Viola, and in 2006 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Montreal.

As a panelist and committee member, Ms. Castleman has served the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council of the Arts, The Music Educators National Conference (MENC), American String Teachers Association (ASTA), The National Association of Schools of Music, The Lila Wallace Readers-Digest Fund and The Andrew Mellon Foundation. As a member of the Musicians’ Committee, she also served as a trustee of the Aspen Music Festival.

Yi-Fang Huang, a native of Taiwan, began playing the piano at age seven, and made her public debut at age ten. She has won prizes in the Taipei City Piano Competition, Taipei Symphony Concerto competition, Kawai Piano Competition, and gave her concerto debut and a national tour as the result of winning the Fu-Shing Piano Concerto Competition. Ms. Huang moved to New York in 1995 to attend the Juilliard School where she received both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano performance as a pupil of Martin Canin. She continued her DMA studies with Susan Starr at Rutgers University, where she won the concerto competition and received the Gladwell Award and Edna Mason Award in Keyboard Excellence.

Ms. Huang has performed regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist throughout United States, Europe and Asia at venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Louvre Museum, Grenoble Museum and National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She has appeared with artists including Elmar Oliveira, Cynthia Phelps, Fred Sherry, Wu Han, Ransom Wilson, Tara Helen O’Connor, Sherry Sylar, and David Bilger. She performed at the OK Mozart festival, International Viola Congress, New York Philharmonic: Insights Series, Interlochen Viola Institute, Great Mountains Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Bowdoin Summer Music Festival and Music Academy of the West, and has premiered works by contemporary composers Somei Sato, Stuart Smith, and Alessandro Solbiati. In 2008, she will appear as guest lecturer and pianist in the 36th International Viola Congress. Her performances can be heard on Radio France; WWFM 89.1, The Classical Network; and Public Radio Tulsa.

Having also studied the viola for ten years, Ms. Huang developed a deep interest in instrumental performance as a collaborative pianist, most recently through extensive work in the viola department at the Juilliard School. She serves as the appointed pianist for the studios of Heidi Castleman, Paul Neubauer and Eugene Becker, and has worked with top prize winners in the William Primrose Viola Competition, Lionel Tertis Viola Competition, Munich Viola Competition and musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Huang has been the official pianist of the Juilliard School Entrance Exam and the 2006 Marlboro Music Festival auditions. Most recently, she recorded the Loeffler Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano with Cynthia Phelps and Sherry Sylar. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Huang joined The Perlman Music Program faculty. She will also join the North American Viola Institute faculty in 2008.

Paul Katz is known to concertgoers the world over as cellist of the Cleveland Quartet, which during an international career of 26 years made more than 2500 appearances on four continents, in all of the music capitals, great concert halls and music festivals of the world. As a member of this celebrated ensemble from 1969-1995, he performed at the White House and on many television shows including “CBS Sunday Morning,” NBC’s “Today Show,” “The Grammy Awards” (the first classical musicians to appear on that show,) and was seen in “In The Mainstream: The Cleveland Quartet,” a one hour documentary televised across the U.S. and Canada.

Mr. Katz has received many honors, the most recent including the American String Teacher’s Association “Artist-Teacher of the Year 2003;” Indiana University’s “Chevalier du Violoncelle,” awarded for distinguished achievements and contributions to the world of cello playing and teaching; Chamber Music America’s highest honor, The Richard M. Bogomolny National Service Award, awarded for a lifetime of distinguished service in the field of chamber music; and an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Arts from Albright College.

Mr. Katz is a passionate spokesperson for chamber music the world over, and served for six years as President of Chamber Music America, the national service organization in the United States that has in its membership virtually all of the country’s 600 professional chamber music ensembles, as well as hundreds of presenting organizations, music festivals and managers. As an author, he has appeared in numerous publications and wrote the liner notes for the Cleveland Quartet’s three-volume set of the complete Beethoven Quartets on RCA Red Seal.

Mr. Katz has appeared as soloist in New York, Cleveland, Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles, and other cities throughout North America. He was a student of Gregor Piatigorsky, Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Gabor Rejto and Leonard Rose. In 1962 he was selected nationally to play in the historic Pablo Casals Master Class in Berkeley, California. He was a prizewinner in the Munich and Geneva Competitions and for three summers a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Of special interest to cellists are his recordings of the Dohnanyi Cello Sonata for ProArte Records and the Cleveland Quartet’s recording on Sony Classical of the Schubert two-cello quintet with Yo-Yo Ma. The Cleveland Quartet has nearly 70 recordings to its credit on RCA Victor, Telarc International, Sony, Philips and ProArte. These recording have earned many distinctions including the all-time best selling chamber music release of Japan, 11 Grammy nominations, Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music Recording and Best Recorded Contemporary Composition in 1996, and “Best of the Year” awards from Time Magazine and Stereo Review.

In September of 2001, Mr. Katz joined the faculty of The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, following five years at Rice University in Houston and twenty years (1976-1996) of teaching at the Eastman School of Music. He has mentored many of the fine young string quartets on the world’s stages today including the Ariel, Biava, Cavani, Chester, Jupiter, Kuss, Lafayette, Maia, Meliora, Parker, T’ang and Ying Quartets. One of America’s most sought after cello teachers, his cello students, in addition to membership in many of the above quartets, have achieved international careers with solo CD’s on Decca, EMI, Channel Classics and Sony Classical. They occupy positions in many of the world’s major orchestras including principal chairs of orchestras such as St. Louis, Oslo, Norway and Osaka, Japan, and are members of many American symphony orchestras such as Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, National Symphony, Pittsburgh, Rochester and St. Louis.

Mr. Katz has taught at many of the major summer music programs including twenty years at the Aspen Festival, the Yale Summer School of Chamber Music, The Perlman Music Program, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, ProQuartet in France, Domaine Forget, Orford, and the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, the Steans Institute of The Ravinia Festival, and is a Director of the Shouse Artist Institute of the Great Lakes Chamber Festival. His hundreds of master classes worldwide include many of the major music schools of North and South America, Europe, Israel, Japan and China.

Mr. Katz frequently sits on the juries of international cello and chamber music competitions, the most recent ones being the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and the international string quartet competitions of Banff, London, Munich, Graz and Geneva.

Mr. Katz plays an Andrea Guarneri cello dated 1669.

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Violinist JULIE ARTZT BECKER began her studies at the age of three in New York.  She has performed throughout the United States and Europe as soloist with orchestra, recitalist and with chamber ensembles. At the age of eleven, she debuted with the Young Artists Philharmonic in Connecticut performing the Haydn Violin Concerto No. 2.  Since then she has won many competitions, including the Queens Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition, the Bergen Philharmonic Competition and the Five Towns Music and Art Competition.  Ms. Becker has performed in festivals in Aspen, Colorado, Italy and Israel, where she took master classes with Pinchas Zukerman.   She also participated in the Perlman Music Program on Long Island and as part of the program performed the Mendelssohn Octet with Itzhak Perlman at Weill Recital Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.  Ms. Becker also performed excerpts from “Schindler’s List” with the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. 

 

 Ms. Becker is currently the Artistic Advisor and first violinist of the MOTYL Chamber Ensemble, a group that presents music written by composers who were victims of the Nazi regime. As winners of the Artists International Competition, the MOTÝL Chamber Ensemble was awarded a New York debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The group has performed at many distinguished venues including the Tilles Center, the Center for Jewish History and the Museum of the City of New York as well as many universities.  The MOTÝL Chamber Ensemble was featured on the show “Artscene on Long Island” hosted by Shirley Romaine.  In 2009 the ensemble will be featured on Leonarda Productions cd release of Kyrie for String Quintet as well as Riders from the Sea, a chamber opera, both by Marga Richter. 

 

 Ms. Becker studied at the Juilliard Pre-College Division and then graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Music degree and the Manhattan School of Music with a Master of Music degree. Her former teachers include Nicole DiCecco, Sally Thomas, Paul Kantor, Patinka Kopec and Mitch Stern.  Presently, Ms. Becker is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division where she has been teaching for over 10 years.  Ms. Becker resides on Long Island with her husband and two young daughters.

Pei-Shan Lee, originally from Taiwan, in high demand as a duo and chamber music partner, has toured the world in recitals with artists from America’s leading artist managements: ICM Artists, Columbia Artists, Concert Artists Guild, Astral Artistic Services, and Young Concert Artists. Miss Lee has performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall. Her extensive travels also include tours of Germany, France and Belgium.

Among her many honors, Ms. Lee received the Rosa Lobe Memorial Award from The Cleveland Institute of Music, in recognition of the highest level of artistic achievement in collaborative piano. She has served on the faculty of the Chautauqua School of Music, and as collaborative pianist at The Cleveland Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and The Meadowmount School for Strings. She joined The Perlman Music Program in 2006 and currently teaches and performs as a collaborative pianist at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she also appears in concerts regularly with the Boston Ballet and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Lee earned degrees from The Cleveland Insittute, The Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. Former teachers include Irma Vallecillo, Anne Epperson, Samuel Sanders, and Jonathan Feldman.

Fellow since 2004
Development and Program Manager
Associate Dean of Students

Originally from Des Moines, Iowa, violist Adam Meyer is an equally devoted chamber musician, teacher, and arts administrator. As the founding violist of the New York City based Bryant Park Quartet, Adam has performed at venues throughout the country including Lincoln Center’s Paul Recital Hall and the Recital Hall at the Staller Center for the Arts, and has participated in the Chamber Music Workshop at The Perlman Music Program, The Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and The Mannes Beethoven Institute. The quartet’s strong convictions about the importance of community and school outreach has led them to share their music with thousands of school children in rural Kentucky and Ohio, as well as to develop residencies aimed at introducing chamber music concepts to the string students in multiple school districts on Long Island as well as in Des Moines. In addition to his work with the Bryant Park Quartet, Adam has performed chamber music with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, David Finckel, Ronald Leonard, Merry Peckham, and Rohan DeSilva.

A dedicated teacher, Adam is currently on faculty at the Stony Brook University Pre-College Program, the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, and is the co-founder of a summer chamber music camp for elementary students in Des Moines. As a teaching assistant at Stony Brook, he was the primary studio teacher for undergraduate viola for three years.

In addition to his work as a violist, Adam serves as the Development and Program Manager for The Perlman Music Program. In this role, Adam serves as grant writer, raising funds from both government institutions and private foundations. He also writes and publishes the Program’s Annual Report, serves as a Fellow in the summers, and provides overall program support year round.

Adam holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, and The Juilliard School, and is currently finishing his Doctorate of Music Arts degree at Stony Brook University. His teachers have included Heidi Castleman, Kathy Murdock, Peter Slowik, and Hsin-Yun Huang.

Associate Director, Chamber Music (SMS), Director and Coach of the Chamber Music Workshop

Merry Peckham, cellist, is a founding member of the Cavani String Quartet winner of numerous awards and prizes including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Ms. Peckham has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, including appearances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Corcoran Gallery and Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Ambassador Series in Los Angeles, Festival L’Epau in France, and the Ijsbreker Series in Amsterdam.

Ms. Peckham has had the honor of performing with distinguished artists including members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Miami, Ying, Emerson, Borodin, Amadeus, St. Lawrence and Colorado String Quartets, the Weilerstein and Peabody Trios, Itzhak Perlman, Robert Mann, Anton Nel, Earl Wild, Stephanie Blythe and Charles Neidich. Ms. Peckham won the overall string category as well as the cello division of the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition. Ms. Peckham and her colleagues in The Cavani Quartet were named Musical America’s Young Artists of the Year, received the ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, the Guarneri String Quartet Residency Award, the Ohio Governor’s Award and five Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Grants.

Deeply committed to arts education, Ms. Peckham has given master classes and lecture demonstrations at music festivals, universities and public and private schools in communities all over the world. As part of a cultural exchange between The Perlman Music Program, the Chinese Government and the Committee of 100, Ms. Peckham taught and gave special classes at the Shanghai Conservatory and was featured in the documentary “Perlman in Shanghai” by Oscar winning director Allan Miller which ran on PBS in the U.S. As a member of the faculty and Quartet-in-Residence at The Cleveland Institute of Music since 1988, Ms. Peckham in collaboration with her colleagues has developed the Apprentice Program, Intensive Quartet Seminar, New Quartet Project and M.A.P. (Music, Art & Poetry) PROJECT.

Ms. Peckham is Assistant Director of The Perlman Music Program, Director of the Chamber Music Workshop @ The Perlman Music Program and is on the cello and chamber music faculties at The Cleveland Institute of Music. She is former artist-in-residence at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas and is currently visiting-artist at the University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale. Ms. Peckham is the host for the radio program Offbeat which is aired weekly on WCLV, 104.9 FM.

She received her BM with honors from Indiana University and her MM degree from the Eastman School of Music and pursued additional studies at Yale University and Ohio State University. Her teachers and mentors include Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Paul Katz, Peter Salaff and Toby Perlman. Ms. Peckham resides in Cleveland, OH with her family, Robin, Jordan and Alex and in her free time enjoys making glass beads, arranging music and playing her guitar.

Undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman enjoys superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. He marks an important milestone during the 2008-2009 season: he will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his American debut. Beloved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, he is treasured by audiences throughout the world who respond not only to his remarkable artistry, but also to the irrepressible joy of making music, which he communicates. In December 2003 the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts granted Mr. Perlman a Kennedy Center Honor celebrating his distinguished achievements and contributions to the cultural and educational life of our nation. In May 2007, he performed at the State Dinner for Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, hosted by President George W. Bush and Mrs. Bush at the White House.

“For me one of the great things about teaching is not so much what to say but to know what not to say. If somebody is talented, they contain a certain kind of magic, and that magic is very precious, because it is on very precarious ground. It’s like a very fine leaf that if you shake it too much, it breaks. You have to let the branch grow until it becomes strong enough that if you shake it, it’s won’t break.”
-Itzhak Perlman

Born in Israel in 1945, Mr. Perlman completed his initial training at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He came to New York and soon was propelled into the international arena with an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Following his studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, Mr. Perlman won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964, which led to a burgeoning worldwide career. Since then, Itzhak Perlman has appeared with every major orchestra and in recitals and festivals around the world.

Mr. Perlman is a frequent presence on the conductor’s podium, and through this medium he is further delighting his audiences. This season marks his first as Artistic Director of the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as conductor with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Montreal and Toronto, as well as at the Ravinia and OK Mozart festivals. He was Music Advisor of the St. Louis Symphony from 2002 to 2004 where he made regular conducting appearances, and he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2001 to 2005. This season he conducts the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Tonhalle Orchestra, among others. Internationally, Mr. Perlman has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.

As soloist, Mr. Perlman continues to visit major centers throughout the world. In March 2009, the Festival of the Arts BOCA will devote its festival to a celebration of his anniversary with concerto, chamber music and klezmer performances, as well as a closing concert with Mr. Perlman as conductor of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Other highlights of his 2008-09 season include performances with Pinchas Zukerman at Washington’s National Symphony and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre; recitals across the United States including Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle; and a gala event at Carnegie Hall with Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax in March 2009. Mr. Perlman also appears with students from the Perlman Music Program in a three-concert series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and in recital at Symphony Hall in Chicago.

A major presence in the performing arts on television, Itzhak Perlman has been honored with four Emmy Awards, most recently for the PBS documentary Fiddling for the Future, a film about the Perlman Music Program and his work as a teacher and conductor there. In July of 2004, PBS aired a special entitled Perlman in Shanghai which chronicled a historic and unforgettable visit of the Perlman Music Program to China, featuring interaction between American and Chinese students and culminating in a concert at the Shanghai Grand Theater and a performance with one thousand young violinists, led by Mr. Perlman and broadcast throughout China. Mr. Perlman’s third Emmy Award recognized his dedication to Klezmer music, as profiled in the 1995 PBS television special In the Fiddler’s House, which was filmed in Poland and featured him performing with four of the world’s finest Klezmer bands.

Mr. Perlman has entertained and enlightened millions of TV viewers of all ages on popular shows as diverse as The Late Show with David Letterman, Sesame Street, the PBS series The Frugal Gourmet, the Tonight show, the Grammy awards telecasts, and numerous Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts, including The Juilliard School: Celebrating 100 Years in April 2006, and PBS specials, including A Musical Toast and Mozart by the Masters, in which he served both as host and featured performer. In April 2008, Mr. Perlman joined renowned chef Jacques Pépin on Artist’s Table to discuss the relationship between the culinary and musical arts. Mr. Perlman lent his voice as the narrator of Visions of Israel, the 20th program in WLIW New York’s acclaimed Visions series, which premiered on PBS in June 2008. In July 1994, Mr. Perlman hosted the U.S. broadcast of the Three Tenors, Encore! live from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. In March 2006, a worldwide audience in the hundreds of millions saw Mr. Perlman perform live on the 78th Annual Academy Awards telecast, as he performed a medley from the five film scores nominated in the category of Best Original Score. One of Mr. Perlman’s proudest achievements is his collaboration with film score composer John Williams in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award winning film Schindler’s List, in which he performed the violin solos. He can also be heard as the violin soloist on the soundtrack of Zhang Yimou’s film Hero (music by Tan Dun) and Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (music by John Williams).

In February 2008, Itzhak Perlman was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in the recording arts. His recordings regularly appear on the best-seller charts and have garnered fifteen Grammy Awards. His most recent releases include an all-Mozart recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (EMI) with Mr. Perlman performing as both soloist and conductor and a recording for Deutsche Grammophon with Mr. Perlman conducting the Israel Philharmonic. Other recordings reveal Mr. Perlman’s devotion to education, including Concertos from my Childhood with the Juilliard Orchestra under Lawrence Foster (EMI) and Marita and her Heart’s Desire, composed and conducted by Bruce Adolphe (Telarc). Other recordings over the past decade have included a Grammy-nominated live recording with pianist Martha Argerich performing Beethoven and Franck Sonatas (EMI); Cinema Serenade featuring popular hits from movies with John Williams conducting (Sony); A la Carte, a recording of short violin pieces with orchestra (EMI) and In the Fiddler’s House, a celebration of Klezmer Music (EMI) that formed the basis of the PBS television special. In 2004, EMI released The Perlman Edition, a limited-edition 15-CD box set featuring many of his finest EMI recordings as well as newly compiled material and RCA Red Seal released a CD titled Perlman reDISCOVERED which includes material recorded in 1965 by a young Itzhak Perlman.

Mr. Perlman has a long association with the Israel Philharmonic, and he has participated in many groundbreaking tours with this orchestra from his homeland. In November of 1987 he joined the IPO for history-making concerts in Warsaw and Budapest, representing the first performances by this orchestra and soloist in Eastern bloc countries. He again made history as he joined the orchestra for its first visit to the Soviet Union in April/May of 1990, and was cheered by audiences in Moscow and Leningrad who thronged to hear his recital and orchestral performances. This visit was captured on a PBS documentary entitled Perlman in Russia which won an Emmy. In December of 1994 Mr. Perlman joined the Israel Philharmonic for their first visits to China and India.

Over the past decade Mr. Perlman has become more actively involved in educational activities. He has taught full time at The Perlman Music Program each summer since it was founded and currently holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Chair at the Juilliard School.

Numerous publications and institutions have paid tribute to Itzhak Perlman for the unique place he occupies in the artistic and humanitarian fabric of our times. Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, Roosevelt, Yeshiva and Hebrew universities are among the institutions which have awarded him honorary degrees. He was awarded an honorary doctorate and a centennial medal on the occasion of Juilliard’s 100th commencement ceremony in May 2005. President Reagan honored Mr. Perlman with a “Medal of Liberty” in 1986, and in December 2000, President Clinton awarded Mr. Perlman the “National Medal of Arts.” His presence on stage, on camera and in personal appearances of all kinds speaks eloquently on behalf of the disabled, and his devotion to their cause is an integral part of Mr. Perlman’s life.

Toby Perlman has often said that she divides her adult life into two parts: chapter one, the years during which she was the prototype of the old fashioned housewife, identified by others as her children’s mother and her husband’s wife. It was a role she played for many years; complete with carpools and endless cooking – she could never go to the market enough to keep the house stocked for her five children and could never quite be on time to Carnegie Hall.

With her husband Itzhak by her side, Toby weathered their children’s illnesses and adolescent crisis and even battled cancer on multiple occasions. Through all this, she hadn’t had much time to think about what she might do when her children became independent. She had always been interested in child development and education and considered the idea of going back to school. Instead, she turned her focus to making her lifelong dream a reality.

“I was a young student at The Juilliard School, studying violin with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay, when I first dreamed about creating a haven for gifted pre-college age string players. I conceived of a camp for prodigy musicians that would not only give the children the training they needed to help their musical gifts blossom, but more importantly, that would allow kids to be kids.”

Out of this dream, The Perlman Music Program was founded and the second chapter in Toby’s life began.

In addition to her work with The Perlman Music Program, Toby has appeared as a guest on various panels in New York City, speaking not only on behalf of The Perlman Music Program but also as a passionate advocate for the arts and education. She has also appeared as a frequent guest speaker for other educational institutions such as Public Television, The University of Michigan, and musical institutions including The Juilliard School and Chamber Music America.

Toby is the wife of reigning virtuoso of the violin, Itzhak Perlman. They have five children and eight grandchildren.

Read about Toby’s  Dream…

Mr. Romano received his B.M. and M.M. in voice and conducting at West Chester University in West Chester, PA. Upon graduation Mr. Romano was hired to be tenor soloist in the internationally renowned early music ensemble, The Waverly Consort. While with the group he performed in concert series at Alice Tully Hall, The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. They also toured extensively throughout North and South America and made several appearances on PBS’s Shakespeare’s presentations as musical entertainment.

The East Hampton Star
Promise Fulfilled in Perlman Protégés
By Thomas Bohlert
July 26, 2007

“Patrick Romano, a faculty member of the program and conductor of the chorus, has a vigorous, dynamic conducting style, which elicited clear, crisp, well-blended singing. At times he stepped away from the podium, making strong, sharp gestures, or signaled a hush with fingers to his mouth, or put a hand on his cheeks to remind them how to shape a vowel. And it worked…”


After leaving the ensemble Mr. Romano performed with many organizations and chamber ensembles as tenor soloist. He was heart with the Rifkin Bach Ensemble, The American Bach Soloist’s, The Amor Artis Orchestra and Choir, The Dessoff Choirs, The Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Paul Hill Chorale in Washington D.C. Mr. Romano can be heard on recordings of Mozart’s “Requiem” with the Amor Artis Orchestra, Bach’s “B Minor Mass” with The American Bach Soloists and Bach’s “St. John Passion” with the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Mr. Romano began conducting in 1993 as choral and musical director at the Riverdale Country School in Riverdale, New York. He is also a faculty member of Sarah Lawrence University in Bronxville, New York and choral director at The Perlman Music Program’s Summer Music School, a program for gifted string players founded by Toby and Itzhak Perlman. In the summer of 2002 Mr. Romano and The Perlman Music Program taught and performed with students from China at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Mr. Romano was also a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division from 1998 – 2003 and is currently choral director in the Pre-College Division at The Juilliard School.

Mr. Romano was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Music at West Chester University in 2001.

As a performer, violist Laura Seay has been characterized as “a burst of unbound energy” (The East Hampton Star), and her enthusiasm for classical music continues to attract audiences across the globe. Ms. Seay first won national recognition in performance with Itzhak Perlman and members of The Perlman Music Program for a nationally televised broadcast of the 2003 “Live from Lincoln Center”. Since then, she has appeared in performance at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall in New York City, Nichols Concert Hall in Chicago, and yearly performances throughout North America and Europe. As a soloist with orchestra, Ms. Seay has performed with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, University of Northern Colorado Wind Ensemble, and the Denver Young Artists Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Seay has collaborated in performance with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Paul Katz, Donald Weilerstein, Jeremy Denk, and Jennifer Frautschi. Ms. Seay is a founding member of the New York-based LK String Quartet, which is revered by The New York Times as “fiery and propulsive, with striking unanimity” and by The New York Sun as “exceptional…the future of classical music, which looked hale and hearty.” The LK String Quartet continues to garner attention, and is beginning to be regarded as one of the foremost young string quartets in the country.

Ms. Seay has won multiple national awards including the William C. Byrd Young Artists Competition, National Foundation for the ARTS, and the Jeff Bradley Young Musicians Award and frequently is awarded merit scholarships to attend festivals in Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States. In 2007, Ms. Seay was one of three finalists in The Juilliard School’s concerto competition and performed Walton’s Viola Concerto in Juilliard’s Paul Hall.

Ms. Seay is a faculty member at The Juilliard School Pre-College, The Perlman Music Program, The Lucy Moses School, Chamber Music of the Rockies and also serves as a teaching assistant at The Juilliard School College Division. Ms. Seay holds a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School where she studied with renowned viola pedagogue Heidi Castleman, Steven Tenenbom, and Hsin-Yun Huang and chamber music with Robert Mann and David Soyer.

Raised in Denver, Colorado, Ms. Seay takes a lot of interest in making classical music accessible and enjoyable for diverse audiences, especially to her peer group, by talking with audiences about music in a way that is understandable and appreciated on a high and universal level.