Steven Beck ~ Piano

"..one of the city's most admired young pianists..." -the New Yorker, Nov. 28th, 2005

American pianist Steven Beck was born in 1978. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin and Bruce Brubaker.

Mr. Beck made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson), Sequitur, the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and the Virginia Symphony.

Mr. Beck has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Miller Theater, Steinway Hall, and Tonic, as well as on WNYC; summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the Woodstock Mozart Festival. He is an Artist Presenter and regular performer at Bargemusic, and performs frequently as a musician with the Mark Morris Dance Group. He has worked with Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, and George Perle, and has appeared with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, New York Philomusica, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Omega Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, Counterinduction, the Fountain Ensemble, Friends and Enemies of New Music, and Antisocial Music. He is also a member of the notorious Knights. His recordings are on the Albany, Monument, and Annemarie Classics labels.

Diana Cohen ~ Violin

Praised for her "incredible flair, maturity and insight," Diana Cohen was appointed concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra at the age of 23, a position she held for three seasons. In that time, she performed as soloist with the symphony on ten separate occasions with works from Mozart to Corigliano. She has also appeared as soloist and served as concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, The National Repertory Orchestra, and Red {an orchestra}. The 2007-2008 sesaon includes solo appearances with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, The Valdosta Symphony and with orchestras in Bulgaria. Diana performs regularly with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the International Sejong Soloists and is a frequent substitute with the New York Philharmonic. She was concertmaster of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, principal second of the New York String Orchestra, and has been rotating principal and member of the Iris Chamber Orchestra since its inaugural season.

As a chamber musician, Diana has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, The Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, The Chamber Music Festival of Giverny, France, The Perlman Chamber Music Festival, Taos, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, Aspen and Piccolo Spoleto. She has appeared in chamber concerts with members of the Cleveland Orchestra at Cleveland's Severance Hall and has performed as a guest artist on faculty concerts at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Ms. Cohen is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was the recipient of the 2000 Jerome Gross Prize in violin and a winner of the Darius Milhaud competition. Her principal teachers were Donald Weilerstein, William Preucil and Paul Kantor.

Kyle Armbrust ~ Viola

A native of Chicago, Illinois, violist Kyle Armbrust began his musical studies on the viola at age three. Mr. Armbrust made his New York debut in Avery Fisher Hall in 2002, performing the Bartok Viola Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra under Kurt Masur. He has won first prizes in the Chicago Viola Society, Midwest Young Artists, and Rembrandt Chamber Players competitions, and was awarded the Faber Music Prize at the 2003 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.

As a founding member of the Phaedrus String Quartet, Mr. Armbrust was invited to perform in the 2005 Verbier Fesitval in Switzerland where his quartet performed the Chausson Concerto with Joshua Bell and Nicholas Angelich. The Quartet will perform in the Bach Festival in Bern, Switzerland this December and will return for the 2006 Verbier Festival where they will give full recitals that will include a performance of the Mozart D Major Viola Quintet with Yuri Bashmet. In May, 2005 Mr. Armbrust was invited to perform with Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma at the Neue Gallery in New York City. His diverse musical interests have granted him the opportunity to work with artists such as Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Lauryn Hill, and Mya, and he continues to explore new and experimental music with the Xtreme Trio. He has been a member of the NY based group, The Knights, for many years and often plays at BargeMusic in Brooklyn.

Mr. Armbrust's upcoming concert schedule includes a solo appearance with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and a tour of the US with Musicians from Ravinia.

Mr. Armbrust received a Bachelor's Degree from the Juilliard School in 2003, where he studied with Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory, and recently completed a Master's Degree at Juilliard with Michael Tree.

Eric Jacobsen ~ Cello

In the fall of 2003, cellist, Eric Jacobsen appeared with Renee Fleming at the opening of Zankel Hall, at Carnegie Hall and on the Late Show with David Letterman. Mr. Jacobsen is a regular presenter and performer at Bargemusic, often working with Mark Peskanov and Steven Beck. He has appeared as soloist with the Chamber Soloists of Austin in Texas, the Riverside Orchestra, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra and the Lake George Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Jacobsen was heard on "Sound Check", a NPR program in preparation for a concert at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Before his graduation, Mr. Jacobsen performed a tour of the northeast with Dutch violinist Vera Beths.

In a wonderful collision of cultures, Mr. Jacobsen was the cellist in residence with The Silk Road Project in Virginia, where he premiered a piece by a Vietnamese composer incorporating instruments from Vietnam, Korea, Morocco and Italy. In coordination with the same project, Mr. Jacobsen performed with Yo-Yo Ma in a concert involving Music of the Roma {Gypsy music}. Mr. Jacobsen has also collaborated at The Tenri Cultural Institute and The Angel Orensanz Foundation in performances with musicians from Armenia and Iran; Gevorg Dabaghyan on the Duduk, and kemancheh player, Kayhan Kalhor.

Mr. Jacobsen organizes the chamber ensemble, The Knights, which performs as a chamber orchestra and smaller ensembles. He conducted his first concert last spring, which included Debussy's Two Dances for Harp and String Orchestra. The Knights recently presented a series of concerts at New York's Bargemusic, in collaboration with flutist Paula Robison.

Mr. Jacobsen has studied at The School for Strings, and The Juilliard School, where he received his Bachelor of Music, under the guidance of David Soyer, and Harvey Shapiro. He has spent summers, in Salzburg, Austria with Julius Berger, Villars, Switzerland with Ardyth Alton and with Harvey Shapiro in Engelberg, Switzerland and Florence, Italy. Mr. Jacobsen plays a Bernardus Calcanius cello crafted in 1744.

Roland Clark ~ Violin

Amos Byrne ~ Violin