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CURTIS INSTITUTE OF MUSIC

 

Roberto DíazA violist of international reputation, Roberto Díaz holds the position of President and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music. As a professor of viola at Curtis and former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Díaz has already had a significant impact on American musical life and will continue to do so in his dual roles as performer and educator. Mr. Díaz has appeared as an orchestral soloist and recitalist in major cities around the globe and has worked with many of the leading conductors of our time. He has collaborated with important composers including Krzysztof Penderecki and Edison Denisov. Roberto Díaz was principal violist of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, a member of the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a member of the Minnesota Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner. Mr. Díaz is a member of the Díaz Trio with violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist Andrés Díaz. His recording of transcriptions by William Primrose with pianist Robert Koenig (Naxos) was nominated for a 2006 Grammy. Mr. Diaz played in Spain with the Symphony Orchestra of Asturien with Krzysztof Penderecki, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra with James Judd, and the Bilbao Symphony with maestro Juanjo Mena.

 

Dover QuartetConsidered one of the most remarkably talented young string quartets ever to emerge at such a young age, the Dover Quartet (formerly known as the Old City String Quartet) was the Grand Prize-winner of the 2010 Fischoff Competition. Formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008, when its members were just 19 years old, the Quartet draws from the musical lineage of both the Vermeer and Guarneri Quartets, but brings a youthful enthusiasm and musical conviction to the repertoire that is truly its own. The Strad recently raved that the Quartet is "already pulling away from their peers with their exceptional interpretative maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble." The Dover Quartet has won prizes at the London International String Quartet Competition, and has taken part in festivals such as Artosphere, La Jolla SummerFest, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. Recent performances include those for such influential series as the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Peoples' Symphony, Schneider Concerts, Kneisel Hall, and the Houston Friends of Chamber Music. The Dover Quartet will be continuing their close collaboration with violist Roberto Díaz on an extensive European tour in spring 2013 including performances throughout Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Members of the Quartet have appeared as soloists with some of the world's finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony and BBC Concert Orchestra. The group's recording of the Mendelssohn and Debussy quartets (Unipheye Music) was awarded the Blue Moon Award by the highly respected audiophile website 6moons.com The album's review by David Kan proclaimed that "...the maturity in these interpretations is phenomenal and disproportionate to the age [of the group]." The ensemble worked intensively at the Curtis Institute with such renowned chamber musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Arnold Steinhardt, Joseph Silverstein, and Peter Wiley, and is currently the Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, Texas.
Dover Quartet nr.1 international String Quartet prize winners! See CBC Music website

 

Alexander UllmanBritish pianist Alexander Ullman, studied at the Purcell School of Music under the guidance of the Head of Keyboard, William Fong. He is a 2013 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Leon Fleisher, Robert McDonald, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Mr. Ullman has won numerous prizes and international competitions including the International Piano Competition in Memoriam Ferenc Liszt, the Fontainebleau Music Festival Piano Prize, the Evangelia Tjiarri International Piano Competition, the International Marlow Concerto Competition, and the One Thousand Islands International Piano Competition. He has performed in most of the major concert halls in the UK including Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St. Martin in the Fields, the Sage Theatre in Gateshead, Purcell Room and at Clarence House in the presence of the Prince of Wales. Since moving to the United States he has played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on several occasions. Mr. Ullman has participated in master classes with eminent pianists such as Dmitri Alexeev, Pascal Devoyon, Edith Fischer, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Gary Graffman, Leslie Howard, Peter Nagy, Cristina Ortiz, Marios Papadopoulos, Artur Pizarro, Menahem Pressler, Michael Roll, Andras Schiff, Yonty Solomon, Fou Ts'ong, Vladimir Viardo and Elisso Virsaladze. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Ullman was the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Fellow.