CORE MUSICIANS
Pilar Bradshaw
Pilar Bradshaw joined the orchestra of the Oregon Bach Festival twenty-one years ago as the youngest instrumentalist in its history. Later she served on its Board of Directors and acted as physician in residence. She also served on the Peabody Conservatory Board of Directors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her violin performance studies at the University of Oregon began at age eleven with concertmaster of the Eugene Symphony, Lawrence Maves. She attended the University of Oregon as a National Merit Scholar, where she was a Ruth Lorraine Close music scholarship recipient and concerto soloist. She graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa (Oregon Six), Senior Woman of the Year, and female valedictorian. Afterwards she studied violin performance with Sir Trevor Williams at the Royal College of Music in London and attended the Aspen Summer Music School on scholarship to work in the studio of Dorothy DeLay. Her recordings include the Grammy winning Penderecki Credo and Schubert Mass in A-Flat Major with the Oregon Bach Festival. She plays the violin made by her great grandfather, Carl C. Holzapfel, which won the gold medal at the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Competition in Philadelphia. Pilar attended the Oregon Health and Sciences University School of Medicine, graduating as valedictorian of her class, and now works as a pediatrician.
Amy Goeser Kolb
Amy Goeser Kolb, an advocate of new music, has commissioned, premiered, and recorded more than 150 new works, collaborating with composers from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Central and South America, and the United States. In Europe she was a member of the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest Philharmonic, Ensemble Cologne, and Ensemble Avance in Germany. In 1993 she traveled throughout Japan and Canada with the Takagaki Koto Ensemble of Sapporo. In Eugene, Amy is Assistant Professor for Oboe and General Music at the University of Oregon. She plays with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Mozart Players, the Oregon Symphony, and Portland Opera and Ballet and is a member of the Eugene Opera Orchestra. During the summers she performs with the Oregon Bach Festival and Chamber Music at The Barn in Kansas. Recently the International Double Reed Society invited her, in collaboration with English organist, Martin Neary, to give a Solo Recital at the St. Phillips Cathedral in Birmingham, England in July, 2009. She has recorded for Deutsche Gramophone, West German Radio, Koch/Schwann/Aulos, Antes, and Equilibrium.
Steven Pologe
Steven Pologe earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman School of Music and his Master’s degree from the Julliard School, where he was a three-year scholarship student. He is cellist with the Oregon String Quartet and Trio Pacifica. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and New Zealand. Prior to moving to Oregon where he is now Professor of Cello at the UO School of Music, he served as principal cellist with the Honolulu Symphony, New York String Ensemble, Rome Festival Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester. While in Hawaii he co-founded and directed the Academy Camerata Chamber Music Series in Honolulu. Since joining the UO music faculty, he has appeared frequently as a concerto soloist throughout the northwest and has performed as principal cellist of the Oregon Bach Festival. With the Oregon String Quartet he has released two CDs: String Quartets by William Grant Still, and Oregon String Quartet and All That Jazz. Other recordings include music by John Deak for Solo Cello and Piano Trio, and the Piano Trio by Lev Abeliovich.
Sharon Schuman
Sharon Schuman grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she studied violin with Carol Weston, a student of Leopold Auer. After a summer grant to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music she won a full scholarship in music to Stanford University, where she played on a Stradavarius violin for four years and graduated in English. She later completed a Ph. D. in English at the University of Chicago. She has been a concerto soloist with Oregon Mozart Players and the Salem Chamber Orchestra and played Concertmaster for the Eugene Opera, the Eugene Ballet, the Eugene Concert Choir, and the Oregon Mozart Players. In 1989 she performed Mozart’s G major violin concerto in a master class with Vladimir Spivakov. She performs annual chamber music concerts to raise funds for Fanconi anemia research. In addition to being a Core Musician and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Amici, she serves as Assistant Concertmaster of the Eugene Opera Orchestra. She has published articles and commentary in the Portland Oregonian, the Eugene Register-Guard, the Salem Statesman-Journal, and Eugene Magazine.
Victor Steinhardt
Victor Steinhardt was born and educated in Los Angeles, California, where his principal piano teacher was Aube Tzerko. He made his debut as piano soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 15. He studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Henri Lazarof and earned an M. A. in Composition at UCLA, which led to the creation of many works for chamber ensembles and for piano. From 1968 to 2007 he was a professor of piano at the University of Oregon in Eugene. During this period he performed often as a soloist with the Oregon Mozart Players and the Eugene Symphony. He has also been a featured artist at the Oregon Bach Festival, the Oregon Coast Music Festival, the Ernst Bloch Music Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, the Mohawk Trails Concerts in Massachusetts, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival in California, Chamber Music Northwest in Oregon, and Bargemusic in New York. He has performed chamber music throughout Oregon, and in Washington, Wyoming, Hawaii and Taiwan. His recordings include Recordings of Chamber Works by Jon Deak (CRI); David Schiff’s Scenes from Adolescence (Delos); An American Sampler (Olympic), Songs of Bartok and Kodaly (Vox-Turnabout); and a recording of his compositions, “Sonata Boogie,” available from TownHall Records.
GUEST MUSICIANS
Tyler Abbott (Concert 2, November 23, 2009)
Tyler Abbott maintains an active performance schedule as an orchestral bassist, chamber musician, jazz bassist, clinician, and soloist, performing throughout the region and the nation. He has recently performed with, or is a member of , the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Spokane Symphony, OFAM's "American Symphonia," Eugene Opera Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, ORegon Mozart Players, and Salem Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Oregon String Quartet, Pacifica Trio, Beta Collide, and the Aspen Contemporary, Ensemble. He also performs regularly in jazz festivals and on radio broadcasts. As a jazz bassist, he has performed with Tom Grant, Ben Monder, Randy Porter, Roswell Rudd, Danilo Perez, Dave Pietro, Scott Wenholdt, Nancy King, George Mitchell, Arnie Caruthers, Ryan Keberle, Randy Halberstadt, Dick Hyman, Howard Levy, Warren Rand, and John Stowell. At the University School of Music Abbott is an instructor of double bass, jazz bass, and music theory.
Michael Anderson (Concert 1, October 12, 2009)
Michael Anderson is Principal Clarinetist of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra. He performed for twenty years as Principal Clarinet of the Oregon Bach Festival where he is now Director of Artistic Administration. He has performed with Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theater, Chamber Music Northwest, and the festival Le Domaine Forget (Quebec, Canada). His CD credits include Penderecki’s Credo (Hänssler/Oregon Bach Festival/Grammy winner) and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Dorian/Smithsonian Chamber Players/Santa Fe Pro Musica/Grammy nominee). Anderson has performed chamber music with pianists Jeffrey Kahane and Robert Levin; fortepianist Richard Egarr; classical and baroque violinist Jaap Schroeder; jazz musician Dick Hyman; composers Tomas Svoboda, John Cage and Steve Reich; new music group Third Angle; and the Oregon String Quartet. He has appeared three times as a recitalist at the Shedd Institute in Eugene, and has performed as concerto soloist with the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the Oregon Coast Music Festival, the Eugene Symphony and the Oregon Mozart Players. His clarinet studies were with David Shifrin at USC and with John McManus and Wayne Bennett at the University of Oregon.
Fritz Gearhart (Inaugural Concert, June 1, 2009; Concert 1, October 12, 2009)
Fritz Gearhart earned his Master’s Degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Donald Weilerstein. Earlier teachers at the Hartt School included Charles Treger and members of the Emerson Quartet. He has appeared in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie and been heard on National Public Radio, including live broadcasts on Performance Today. First violinist of the Chester String Quartet in the early 90’s, he now performs with the Oregon String Quartet, which has released two discs on Koch Entertainment: The OSQ and All That Jazz, featuring jazz violinist Diane Monroe, and a disc containing music by African-American composer William Grant Still. In 2001 Gearhart appeared as soloist with the Oregon Festival of American Music, performing Bernstein’s Serenade, and in 2004 he performed Corigliano’s Red Violin. Equally at home on the viola, he is currently Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Oregon School of Music.
Andrew Kolb (Concert 1, October 12, 2009; Concert 3, February 22, 2010)
Cellist Andrew Kolb has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States as well as in Canada, England, Switzerland and Sweden. For six years he was a member of the Fairmount String Quartet and principal cellist of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Committed to new music, Andrew has premiered several works as a member of Acidophilus (live culture), a new music sextet made up of young American and Scandinavian musicians. They have toured Sweden and gave their U.S. debut at the Scandinavian House in New York City. He has also premiered works in New York City as a member of the Stony Brook Chamber Players. Andrew studied with Timothy Eddy at SUNY Stony Brook, Ross Harbaugh at University of Miami and Steven Doane at the Eastman School of Music. He has taught on university faculties in Newfoundland (Canada) and Kansas. Summer festival appearances include Taos, Norfolk, Spoleto, Sarasota, Bach Aria, Fontana, Coos Bay, Casade, Oregon Bach Festival, Ernen and Prussia Cove. He is currently principal cellist of the Eugene Symphony Orchestra and the cellist of The Columbia Trio.
Kathryn Luchtenberg (Concert 2, November 23, 2009)
Kathryn Lucktenberg is a fouth-generation violinist. She entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age 15, where she earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 1980, studying with Jascha Brodsky, Jaime Laredo, and Ivan Galamian. She made her professional debut playing the Barber Violin Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a member of the Kasimir Striing Quartet, she toured England, France, and Italy. She has also performed throughout the western United States and Asia with concerts in Tiawan, Thiland, Korea, New Zealand, and Hawaii. She has given recitals at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and performed on the popular Bargemusic series in Brooklyn. Concertmaster of teh Honolulu Symphony for 11 seasons, she co-founded and co-directed the Honolulu Academy of Arts' Academy Camerata series. A regular participant in the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the Killington Music Festival, Lucktenberg joined the faculty of the University of Oregon School of Music in 1993, where she is a Professor. Concertmaster of teh Eugene Symphony since 2005, she tours the Pacific Northwest with the Oregon String Quartet and Trio Pacifica. She has recorded for CRI, Koch, and Altarus labels.
Elizabeth Racheva (Concert 3, February 22, 2010)
Soprano Elizabeth Racheva is consistently praised for her vivid portrayals and artistic versatility. Recent role debuts include Klärchen. (Dallas Symphony Orchestra), Gretel (North Carolina Symphony Orchestra), Musetta (Lubbock Symphony), and Barbarina (Greensboro Opera). She has also appeared with Baltimore Opera, Berkshire Opera, and Opera Vivente in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles and with the symphonies of Fort Worth, Charleston, and the Mid-Atlantic as a featured artist. Last summer she made her debut with Eugene Symphony’s Symphony in the Park at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, under the baton of her husband, Danail Rachev. A popular recitalist and chamber musician, her many concert engagements include Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, Fort Worth’s Cliburn at the Modern with composer Jake Heggie, New York’s Trinity Concerts at One and Columbia Bach Society, Baltimore’s Music at Second Series, and The Vienna Project:Vienna in Song for the Clark Art Institute in Massachussetts. Ms. Racheva is artistic director of Voces Intimae, a Dallas-based art song series. She was educated at Emory University, Peabody Conservatory, and Austria’s Franz Schubert Institute.
Catherine Consiglio (Concert 3, February 22, 2010)
Catherine Consiglio is Associate Professor of Viola at Wichita State University and Principal Viola with the Wichita Symphony. Her degrees include a Master of Music Degree from the New England Conservatory, as assistant to Heidi Castleman. Teachers include Jeffrey Irvine and Eugene Lehner. She has taught and performed at festivals across the United States, Mexico and Europe and has played hundreds of concerts throughout the Midwest with the Fairmount String Quartet. Former orchestral playing positions include: Principal Violist of the Oklahoma Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, New England Chamber Orchestra, Orchesta Sinfonia de Jalapa and Assistant Principal of the Houston Chamber Orchestra. In 2007 and 2008 her technique book for violists was requested for use at the Julliard School. Her students have performed at the International Viola Congress, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto, Hot Springs Music Festival, and the National Orchestral Institute. Ms. Consiglio is co-founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at The Barn in Wichita.