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Welcome!

Dr. Luba Sindler - ​Artistic Director
Piano

Dr. Luba Sindler is a pianist of brilliant virtuosity, graceful elegance, and powerful presentation. Her performances have found enthusiastic audiences in many countries on three continents. A musician of great versatility, she has amassed an enormous repertoire and expertise, having appeared in Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Wigmore Hall in London, among other places.
Luba Sindler was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she studied at St. Petersburg Conservatory, graduating with a doctoral degree in piano and chamber music. She later taught at the same institution while maintaining an active performance schedule. Having moved to the United States in 1987, she continued concertizing extensively both as a soloist and as a chamber artist. Ms. Sindler participated in major music festivals and was twice a guest artist at the Holland Music Sessions in the Netherlands. In 1993, she returned to Russia for sold-out performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Luba Sindler received her second doctoral degree in piano performance from Rutgers University in 1995 and served on the faculty of San Jose State and Rutgers Universities. She has presented her pedagogical research findings at major national conventions and continues her active consulting in this area. Dr.Sindler is an internationally recognized lecturer and clinician in the areas of chamber music and piano technique.
Luba Sindler founded and for seven years coordinated the Music Heritage Series in Princeton, New Jersey notable for a unique concept and creative programming. She also co-founded and coordinated Sundays of Note Series in San Jose, CA as well as set up the chamber music program at Westminster Conservatory. Her chamber music CD was released in 1995 on the Chatsworth label in England. and first solo CD, containing works by Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, and Prokofiev, was released in January 1999. Her next CD will feature the nineteenth century lesser-known virtuosic piano transcriptions.
Testimonials:
"Of the two [performers] Sindler shone much the brighter-each song she played was endowed with its own specific character, and here was a pianist who did not shrink from exerting musical pressure on the singer where such was musically necessarily. On these occasions, Sindler was invariable right."
Michael Redmond, The Star Ledger, New Jersey
"...this dark night of the Russian soul, a harrowing hint of menace present in asperous colorings of the uncompromising phrasing and the unflinching pianism of Luba Sindler."
Christopher Morley, The Birmingham Post, England
"At every point she had a marvelous partner in Luba Sindler. The way they handled their De Falla encore showed that they are not just virtuosos, but superb musicians."
Peter Paul Fuchs, The Washington Post
"a stunning performance of Schnittke's piano quintet by Luba Sindler."
The Star Ledger, New Jersey
"The greatest surprise of the evening was the performance of pianist Luba Sindler. She is a great musician and a sensitive chamber player. Her piano sound is magnificently voluminous, but never overwhelming. Her many and varied colors create tremendously picturesque images."
Musical Life, St. Petersburg
Links:
Dr. Luba Sindler's Website ​

Sherri Anderson - Executive Director
Violin

Sherri Anderson, Director of Blue Mountain Festival, is well known for her dedication to the art of music pedagogy. Ms. Anderson received her Bachelor of Music degree from Wheaton College, her Master of Sacred Music degree from Westminster Choir College and completed additional graduate study in String Pedagogy and Choral Conducting at Temple University where she studied with Helen Kwalwasser and Alan Harler. Ms. Anderson has also completed a Master in Theology degree and a Master in Liberal Studies degree at Villanova University.
Ms. Anderson maintains large private teaching studios in the Princeton and Philadelphia areas, is the Director of Trinity Strings in Trenton and is the Founding Director of Stretto Youth Chamber Orchestra.
Links:
Stretto Youth Chamber Orchestra

​Michael Emery
​Violin

As Senior Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College, Michael Emery directs the vibrant string program, working with talented students on solo, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire. Through the annual Skidmore String Festival, which he initiated in 2005, the Skidmore community has enjoyed residencies by several highly acclaimed quartets, including the Brentano, Manhattan, American, Ying, Talich, Meccore, and Dover.
Mr. Emery blends performance with teaching to create an active musical career. He has collaborated in chamber music with many international artists, including Ruggiero Ricci, Elizabeth Pitcairn, André-Michel Schub, and Emanuel Ax, and has performed in the Sibelius, Ludwig Spohr and Paganini International Violin Competitions. He is pleased to join his colleagues Jameson Platte, cellist, and Matthew Quayle, pianist, to form the Omega Trio, which will be touring internationally with piano trio repertoire as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
Mr. Emery has coached and performed in several international summer music festivals including the Spoleto Festival dei 2Mondi and InterHarmony Music Festivals in Italy, Luzerne Music Center and KentMusic in New York, and Mahler Conservatory in Vienna. He is concertmaster and frequent soloist with orchestras in New York and California, and has performed as soloist and concertmaster in Asia, as well as several major European cities. Mr. Emery has performed in collaboration with many contemporary composers, including Gunther Schuller, Jennifer Higdon, Joan Tower, Ezra Laderman, Lowell Liebermann, Tommie Haglund, Richard Danielpour, and John Corigliano.
Mr. Emery earned his MM in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music as a scholarship student with Erick Friedman and Raphael Bronstein, and served as concertmaster of the Manhattan Symphony. At MSM he was selected to perform in masterclasses with Ruggiero Ricci and Henryk Szeryng, and as the violinist for the sonata class with Misha Elman’s longtime collaborative pianist, Joseph Seiger.

Susan Gaylord
Voice

Mezzo soprano Susan Gaylord is a versatile performer and a dedicated teacher who is equally at home on the operatic, oratorio and symphonic stages as well as in more intimate venues where a pianist or a small ensemble are her musical partners.
Ms. Gaylord also has a passionate commitment to teaching and has 20 years of experience in private voice instruction. Currently residing in Central NJ, she is also a vocal instructor at both The Lawrenceville School and The Pennington School, and is a Voice and Early Education faculty member of the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton. 
Ms. Gaylord began her formal vocal training with the master teacher Jane Rolandi Gray at the School of Music of Converse College, where she was graduated with highest honors in vocal performance. She continued her formal education with two years of study in the prestigious graduate school program for Opera Studies at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she was in the voice studio of Ellen Faull, and where she was selected to coach operatic roles with former MSM president and Metropolitan Opera conductor Maestro George Schick.  

​Ms. Gaylord then continued her vocal studies with the world renowned mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff, who served as her voice teacher and mentor until Ms. Wolff's death. Following an apprenticeship with the Santa Fe Opera, the versatile Ms. Gaylord sang, and was a featured dancer, with Opera Saratoga's world premiere of The Adventures of Friar Tuck by Glenn Paxton. The following year, she was selected by Metropolitan Opera stars Mignon Dunn and Eleanor Steber to be presented in a showcase concert for the inaugural season of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, FL. Ms. Gaylord performed selections from the operas that would prove to be mainstays in her future career: Carmen, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Fledermaus, Werther and The Marriage of Figaro. These are among the numerous operas in which she has performed both in America’s regional opera houses and in concert. Recently, she recorded songs that were written for her by pianist/composer Philip Orr. They can be heard on his website: orrganizedsound.com

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Olivia Hajioff
​Violin and Viola

Olivia Hajioff

Ms. Olivia Hajioff, a Fulbright scholar, was born in London. From the age of seven to seventeen she studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She was a finalist in the European Violin Competition at the age of twelve and was a regional winner in the BBC Young Musician of the Year at seventeen. She performed regularly on British television and on Radio London.
Ms. Hajioff's other interests include fiction writing and at age nine, she wrote a short story that was broadcast as a children's ballet on British television. Ms. Hajioff has been a finalist in the Cadbury's Writing Contest (UK) and has had poetry published in a Library of Congress anthology.
Ms. Hajioff has toured regularly with Daniel Heifetz throughout the United States performing Bach's Double Violin Concerto amongst other works. She has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout Britain, Europe, Japan, Canada and the US. Venues include Wigmore Hall and the South Bank Centre (London); Cheltenham Festival; Paderewski Hall (Lausanne); Nagasaki National Shrine; Tokyo College of Music; Banff Centre (Canada); Merkin Hall and Symphony Space (NYC); Corcoran Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Phillips Collection and Kennedy Center (DC). Chamber music collaborators include Edgar Meyer; James Sommerville (Principal horn, Boston Symphony); David Owen Norris, Stephen Kovacevich and Awadagin Pratt.
Olivia Hajioff and Marc Ramirez perform as the Marcolivia Duo - a violin and violin/viola duo giving over 30 concerts annually in recital and as double concerto soloists. They are founding members of the Phillips Camerata – regularly performing chamber music at the Phillips Collection and National Gallery of Art. The Marcolivia Duo has been featured several times on NPR's "Performance Today" and “Front Row Washington.” They are regular guest artists at the Tokyo College of Music, Japan, and have performed for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, for the Hungarian American Coalition at the Cosmos Club, and annually at the Phillips Collection (where they are included on several CDs of Series Highlights and Distinguished Performers), also the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, Merkin Hall and Symphony Space, NYC. Marcolivia were the only chamber music finalists in the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2000. Marcolivia has adjudicated and given master classes for events organized by the Washington Performing Arts Society.
Marcolivia performed at Chamber Music America's 25th Anniversary Concert.
Links:
www.marcolivia.com

​Harold Levin
​Viola

Harold Levin

​Harold Levin has led a varied career as violist, conductor, composer, and teacher.  He has performed and conducted in both North and South America, and has held viola and conducting appointments at West Virginia, Bucknell, and Western Illinois Universities. An active performer, Dr. Levin has played viola with the orchestras of Louisville, Cincinnati, Omaha, Memphis, Long Island, Orlando, and Jacksonville, and has taught and performed in summer festivals including Cabrillo, Blue Mountain, Interlochen, Rutgers Summerfest, Bedford Springs, Bay View, Breckenridge, Lake Placid, and the Colorado Philharmonic.  He holds degrees from Ball State University, the University of Cincinnati, and Rutgers University, where his teachers included Michael Tree, Donald McInnes, Raymond Stilwell, and Robert Slaughter. In addition to his college work, Dr. Levin has led youth orchestras in Indiana, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Florida. A commissioned, recorded, and published composer; his works have been performed across the country. In 2016 he was appointed Professor of Viola at Skidmore.

​Emanouil Manolov
​Violin

V​iolinist Emanouil Manolov made his debut performing on Bulgarian National Television at the age of 10. Since then he has gone on to concertize throughout his native Bulgaria, Germany, the United States and Japan. He has appeared in recitals at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the National Museum of American History as well as in the Embassy Series in Washington, DC. As a chamber musician Mr. Manolov has performed at Barge Music in New York, and on the stages of the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie and Symphony Space as concertmaster and soloist for the Young Soloists of New York Chamber Ensemble. He has been featured soloist with the Virginia Commonwealth Symphony and a guest artist at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick, Me. Mr. Manolov makes frequent concerto appearances with One World Symphony in New York, where he also serves as guest concertmaster, and is a member of the North Shore ProMusica chamber music series on Long Island, NY.

Festival appearances include two summers at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Taos School of Music. At the Pacific Music Festival Mr. Manolov was featured in a chamber music collaboration with members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

In other chamber music collaborations, Mr. Manolov has performed with members of the Emerson String Quartet, as well as with Ani Kavafian and Colin Carr.

An active teacher, Mr Manolov maintains a studio in New York City. He also leads string sectional rehearsals for the Long Island Youth Orchestra and adjudicates young artists’ competitions in the New York area. He served on the faculty of the PointCounterpoint festival in Vermont for two summers.

Mr. Manolov began his musical studies at the Central Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria, and later attended the Eastman School of Music where he received his Bachelor’s of Music Degree under the tutelage of Ilya Kaler. He earned his DMA at SUNY Stony Brook, working under the supervision of Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian and Philip Setzer.

Marc Ramirez
Violin and Viola

Marc Ramirez

​Marc Ramirez began his violin studies at the age of 7 and began performing publicly at age 12. He has concertized throughout North America, Europe and Japan, and has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in such halls as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection (Washington DC); Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall and Symphony Space (NYC); Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (Baltimore); Cleveland Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum; Chicago Convention Center; Tretyakov Museum (Moscow); Dartington Hall (UK); Mozarteum (Austria); and the Nagasaki National Shrine (Japan). He studied with Aaron Rosand and Daniel Heifetz at the Peabody Institute, Erick Friedman at Yale University, and Henryk Szeryng by invitation. In 1984 he was chosen by Henryk Szeryng and sponsored by Peabody to tour with him in Europe for four sequential summers visiting Geneva, Monte Carlo, Nice and Siena.

Mr. Ramirez has performed on many television and radio programs including recitals broadcast in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. His solo and chamber music appearances have included collaboration with artists such as Leon Fleischer, Awadagin Pratt, Daniel Heifetz, and Stephen Bishop Kovacevich.

For Mr. Ramirez's performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, the Washington Post wrote:

"Ramirez was totally in control of the technical and musical difficulties of this mature and subtle work. His intonation was close to perfect, his vibrato and tone on Brahms's high melodies were sweet and intensely beautiful, and his grasp of the subtleties of the score was impressive."

Mr. Ramirez has been a member of Daniel Heifetz’s Classical Band. In this ensemble he performed Bach’s double concerto in numerous performances throughout the country with member Olivia Hajioff and with Daniel Heifetz. He is currently a member of marcolivia, an internationally acclaimed violin and violin/viola duo. In a performance as part of the marcolivia duo the Baltimore Sun wrote:

"[Ramirez] flew all over the fiddle, negotiating Paganini’s fiendish fifth caprice in fine style."

Among his awards are first prize in the Henryk Szeryng Competition, shared first prize in the Parisot-Friedman International Competition, first place in the Cavallaro International Competition, and who’s who among college students.

Mr. Ramirez was on the faculty of Shenandoah University from 1995-2008, where he taught violin and viola. During the summers he teaches and performs at Blue Mountain Festival as well as other festivals, including Las Vegas Music Festival, Dartington International Festival (UK), Garth Newel Music Center, and the Tokyo College of Music. He currently concertizes extensively with his duo marcolivia, and teaches privately in his home in Vienna, Virginia.

Olivia Hajioff and Marc Ramirez perform as the Marcolivia Duo - a violin and violin/viola duo giving over 30 concerts annually in recital and as double concerto soloists. They are founding members of the Phillips Camerata – regularly performing chamber music at the Phillips Collection and National Gallery of Art. The Marcolivia Duo has been featured several times on NPR's "Performance Today" and “Front Row Washington.” They are regular guest artists at the Tokyo College of Music, Japan, and have performed for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, for the Hungarian American Coalition at the Cosmos Club, and annually at the Phillips Collection (where they are included on several CDs of Series Highlights and Distinguished Performers), also the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, Merkin Hall and Symphony Space, NYC. Marcolivia were the only chamber music finalists in the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 2000. Marcolivia has adjudicated and given master classes for events organized by the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Marcolivia performed at Chamber Music America's 25th Anniversary Concert in NYC, alongside groups such as the Juilliard Quartet. During the summers, Marcolivia perform in Japan, Italy, Spain, Costa Rica and England at various music festivals. They have also taken part in US festivals such as Garth Newel, Blue Mountain, Las Vegas, and Shenandoah Performs.

Links:
www.marcolivia.com

Marjory Serano-Coyer
Violin​

Dr. Marjory Serrano-Coyer

Dr. Marjory Serrano-Coyer is a Venezuelan violinist who spent her childhood in Venezuela’s “El Sistema” program. She began her violin studies in Venezuela at age 7 studying with Ismenia Molina at the Aragua Symphony Foundation. As a teen she studied at the Academia Latinoamericana de Violin with Jose Francisco del Castillo and Sergio Celis. While in Venezuela she also studied with a number of additional noted teachers including Maestro William Naranjo and Pablo Vazquez.

In 2001 she moved to the United States to study at Shenandoah Conservatory, where she completed an MA in Violin Performance, as well as Artist's Diplomas in Violin and String Quartet Studies. She finished her studies at Catholic University of America (Washington, D.C.), where she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree under Jody Gatwood (longtime concertmaster of the National Philharmonic and a student of Ivan Galamian) in Violin Performance with a specialization in Latin American music, writing her thesis on Latin American violinists and composers and the European influences on those violinists/composers.

Dr. Serrano-Coyer has performed under the baton of such noted conductors as Larry Livingston and Lorin Maazel, and has taken master classes with leading figures such as Midori, Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist John O'Conor. 

Dr. Serrano-Coyer has lectured and performed in Latin America, Europe and the United States, lecturing and/or performing in the United States in multiple venues including Princeton University, Carnegie Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, throughout Europe in locations including Budapest and Salzburg, and in Latin America in multiple venues and classical music festivals, particularly in Venezuela and Argentina. She also leads Latin American orchestral and string music festivals and coaches violin sectionals for numerous orchestras. 

Her new album, Sonatas Venezolanas, recorded with longtime collaborator Hsin Yi Chen at the studios of Sono Luminos, was released 29 September 2023 and features world premier recordings of two sonatas for violin and piano composed by historically and culturally significant mid 20th century Venezuelan composers, Angel Sauce and Nelly Mele Lara.

Henry Stubbs
Cello

Henry Stubbs

​Henry Stubbs serves as Lead Cello Faculty at Levine Music. He received his MM in Cello Performance/Suzuki Pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Preceding his CIM studies, Henry graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a BM in Cello Performance. Henry began his cello studies at the age of five with Bonnie Cohan. He went on to study with Alan Rafferty, Richard Weiss, Avi Friedlander, and Stephen Geber. Henry has performed in masterclasses for Hans Jorgen Jensen, Richard Aaron, Alisa Weilerstein, Johannes Moser, Merry Peckham, and Melissa Kraut.

Henry has received fellowships and full tuition scholarships to participate with the National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, and Kent/Blossom Music Festival - a summer partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra. Fully committed to the continuous process of pedagogical development, Henry has completed two rounds of long-term teacher-training in Suzuki units 1-10 and continues to seek out opportunities to further enrich his teaching. 

Elisa Kohanski
​Cello

Cellist Elisa Kohanski enjoys a diverse performing career, appearing regularly as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player, and championing unique collaborations with artists of other disciplines. A highly-regarded solo performer, Elisa was featured in the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Come Up From the Fields Father with the Wheeling Symphony. She has performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with several orchestras including the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. Most recently with her piano trio, Trio Nova Mundi, she commissioned and premiered Spanish-American composer Elisenda Fabregas’ Triple Concerto with the Atlanta Virtuosi, under the baton of Juan Ramirez.

A native Rhode Islander, Ms. Kohanski has a love of travel which, combined with her passion for music, has brought her to over 60 countries around the world. She recently visited her 7th continent, Antarctica, and performed there to an audience of people and penguins, who seemed to enjoy it! In Africa she has explored Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Botswana. A love for Africa was the inspiration for a three-country tour of the Continent with Trio Nova Mundi, Ensemble-in-Residence at Grove City College until 2018. Ms. Kohanski, along with pianist Becky Billock and violinist Maureen Conlon Gutierrez, presented nine concerts over the course of two weeks, in addition to numerous workshops and performances for children. The African tour inspired future tours to Mexico and Chile.

Ms. Kohanski has performed with dozens of top-billed artists, including the Miami String Quartet, Olivia Newton John, Robert Shaw, Garrison Keillor, Phil Keaggy, John Tesh and Harry Connick Jr., and has played in some of the most prestigious concert halls around the world. In addition to touring China and the US with the Mantovani Orchestra, she has performed in Carnegie Hall in New York City; Royal Albert Hall in London, England; Schlossfestspiele in Heidelberg, Germany; and the Stefaniensaal Concert Hall in Graz, Austria. She has performed at all of the major venues in Pittsburgh, including Heinz Hall, the Benedum Center and City Theater.

Described after a Pittsburgh Ballet performance by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review as “most superb,” Ms. Kohanski was appointed the position of Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre in 2009. She holds the same position with the Wheeling Symphony and is a member of the cello section in the Pittsburgh Opera. Elisa has performed regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has also played with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, TX and the Columbus Symphony.

Ms. Kohanski is a founding member of IonSound Project, the Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Pittsburgh from 2009-2019.  IonSound has received critical acclaim for original programming, a fresh approach to contemporary music, and a commitment to the city of Pittsburgh. Elisa has been praised in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for her “ardent” playing in performance with IonSound Project. She was also featured on IonSound’s CD by Jeremy Beck, touted as “thoroughly engaging from top to bottom” by NewMusicBox. In addition to the IonSound CD, Elisa can be heard on several recordings ranging from orchestral to popular music including Giacinto Scelsi- The Orchestral Works 1, Daphne Alderson’s albums, Joan of Arc and 16 and Trio Nova Mundi's debut CD, Canticum.

Each summer, Ms. Kohanski can be heard in performances with Music on the Hill, in which Rhode Island natives return to perform chamber concerts throughout the state.  The festival repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to Osvaldo Golijov, and regularly features world class artists such as William Preucil, James Dunham, Ronald Leonard and Daniel Gilbert. Elisa has performed in several summer festivals including the Interharmony International Music Festival in Archidosso, Italy; the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria; Music&More SummerFest in Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival.

A passionate educator, Ms. Kohanski currently serves as adjunct faculty at Grove City College and Washington and Jefferson College. She also maintains a private studio (ranging in age from five to seventy five). She has served on the faculties of Westminster College, Seton Hill University, Westmoreland Suzuki School, the Carlow College Campus String Program and the Carnegie Mellon Summer Strings Program.

Ms. Kohanski earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Pamela Frame. She received her Master of Music Degree from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Pittsburgh Symphony cellists Anne Martindale Williams and David Premo. Other notable teachers include Timothy Terranella, Carol Pellegrino, and Elizabeth Reardon.

​https://www.elisakohanski.com/bio.html

Amy Wulfman
Violin

​Amy Goodman Wulfman has had an international career as a concert violinist, performing with orchestras in Europe and in the U.S. She studied at the Vienna Academy with Günter Pichler and Michael Frischenschlager, performing and recording with the baroque ensemble Capella Academica under Eduard Melkus. In the U.S., Ms Wulfman received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.M. from the University of Wisconsin.

​Ms Wulfman has been an active performer, playing numerous chamber music concerts including performances at the Bach Aria Festival in Stonybrook, New York and the Blue Mountain Chamber Music Festival at Franklin & Marshall College.

Ms. Wulfman was co-founder and co-director of the New Haven Summer Quartet Camp in New Haven, CT. Ms. Wulfman maintains a private violin and viola studio, Princeton Violin Studio in Princeton, New Jersey, and is on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory Division in Boston, MA and  Princeton Day School.

Links:
Stretto Youth Chamber Orchestra

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