Preliminary Judges

MARCY ROSEN, CELLO

Marcy Rosen has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine calls her “a New York legend of the cello.” She has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland, and all fifty of the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative Master Classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.

2018 saw the release of two new recordings from Bridge Records: The Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Felix Mendelssohn with the pianist Lydia Artymiw, and the Sonatas of Richard Strauss and Edvard Grieg with pianist Susan Walters.

Ms. Rosen has collaborated with the world’s finest musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, Peter Serkin, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Isaac Stern, among others, and with the Juilliard, Johannes, Emerson, Daedelus and Orion Quartets. She is a founding member of La Fenice as well as the Mendelssohn String Quartet. With the Mendelssohn she was Artist-in-Residence at the North Carolina School of the Arts and for nine years served as Blodgett-Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. Since first attending the Marlboro Festival in 1975, she has taken part in 25 “Musicians from Marlboro” tours and has performed in concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival.

Since 1986, Ms. Rosen has been Co-Artistic Director of Chesapeake Chamber Music in Maryland and she is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Rosen is currently Professor of Cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. She also serves on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

IEVA JOKUBAVICIUTE, PIANO

Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s powerfully and intricately crafted performances have earned her critical acclaim throughout the United States and Europe. Her ability to communicate the essential substance of a work has led critics to describe her as possessing “razor-sharp intelligence and wit” (Washington Post) and as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” (New York Times). In 2006, she was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Ieva’s Alban Berg Tribute CD was released to critical acclaim in 2010. The New York Times described her as “an authoritative and compelling guide throughout this fascinating disc.” Her 2014 album Returning Paths: Solo Piano Works by Janáček and Suk was equally well received. She regularly gives solo recitals in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. She made her orchestral debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival and has since performed with orchestras in Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, and Washington, DC. Her piano trio, Trio Cavatina, won the 2009 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition and made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2010.

A much sought-after chamber musician and collaborator, notably with violinist Midori, Ieva has appeared on major stages around the world, such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, the Kennedy Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall. She regularly appears at music festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Bard, Caramoor, Chesapeake Music, and Prussia Cove (England). She has also appeared in festivals in Finland, Germany, and Spain. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music, Ieva is currently Associate Professor of the Practice of Piano at Duke University in Durham, NC.

TARA HELEN O’CONNOR, FLUTE

Tara Helen O’Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a two-time Grammy nominee and the first wind player chosen to participate in the Bowers Program, she is now a Season Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, Tara is a regular participant at music festivals, including Santa Fe Chamber Music, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart, Rockport Music, Manchester Music, Great Mountains (Korea), Bravo Vail Valley! and Chesapeake Music. Along with her husband Daniel Phillips, she is the newly appointed Co-Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.

Tara is a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group, and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet and Emerson Quartet. She has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast for the Arts, Live from Lincoln Center and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Bridge Records.

Tara is Associate Professor of Flute, Head of the Wind Department and Coordinator of Classical Music Studies at Purchase College. She is also on the faculty of Bard College, the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music and is a visiting artist, teacher and coach at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, violinist Daniel Phillips, and their two miniature dachshunds, Chloe and Ava.

DANIEL PHILLIPS, VIOLIN

Violinist DANIEL PHILLIPS enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father, Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sándor Végh, and George Neikrug. He is a founding member of the 34-year-old Orion String Quartet, which is in residence at New York’s Mannes College of Music and performs regularly at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Available on recording are the complete quartets of Beethoven and Leon Kirchner.

Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Yakima Orchestras.

He appears regularly at the Spoleto USA Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, and has participated in the International Musicians Seminar in Cornwall, England since its inception and recently returned to the Marlboro Music Festival.  Along with his wife Tara Helen O’Connor, he is the newly appointed Co-Artistic Director of the Music from Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico.  He also serves on the summer faculty of the Heifetz Institute and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for SONY with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. 

A judge in the 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, he is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and The Juilliard School. Daniel will be a judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, on Manhattan’s upper west side.

Mr. Phillips will play a violin made by Samuel Zygmuntowicz in 2017.

Finalist Judges

CATHERINE CHO, VIOLIN

Praised by the New York Times for her “sublime tone,” Catherine Cho has appeared worldwide as a soloist with many orchestras, including the National, Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Aspen Chamber Orchestras.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed at New York’s Lincoln Center, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Casals Hall in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York 92nd Street Y, the Gardner Museum in Boston and at Ravinia in Chicago. With pianist Mia Chung, she has performed the complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in the United States and Asia.

Ms. Cho has appeared at the Aspen, Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, and Santa Fe Festivals, among others. Ms. Cho is the Co-Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival in Maryland and has appeared there regularly since 1998.

She is a founding member of the ensemble La Fenice and a former member of the Johannes String Quartet. 

A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ms. Cho won top prizes at the Montreal, Hannover, and Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competitions. She has judged international competitions and taught master classes worldwide. She holds a Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School, and she is a member of their violin and chamber music faculty as well as their Community Engagement Seminar. She has taught at numerous workshops and symposia, and she is also on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program. Devoted to the cause of promoting peace through music, Ms. Cho was V.P. of the Board of Musicians for Harmony for several years. 

She is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities. Ms. Cho resides in Brooklyn with her husband, Todd Phillips, their son, Brandon, and their three cats, Orso, Livie, and Ella. She is the stepmom of Lia, Eliza, and Jason, and “Halmoni” (Korean grandma) to Baby Theo. 

When she is not performing or teaching, she enjoys baking, practicing yoga, catching up with her booklist, gardening, and knitting.

DIANE WALSH, PIANO

The award-winning Steinway Artist Diane Walsh has given solo and chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Russia, China and New Zealand. Highlights include recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufmann Auditorium and Miller Theater in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Great Hall in St. Petersburg, and Dvorak Hall in Prague.

Diane has appeared with the San Francisco, Indianapolis, Austin, Rochester, Delaware, Syracuse, Springfield, New Bedford, American, and Portland symphonies, toured with Orpheus and St. Luke’s ensembles, and soloed with orchestras in Germany, Russia, China, the Netherlands, Czechia, and Brazil.

In 2009 she was the onstage pianist in the Broadway production of Moises Kaufman’s award-winning play 33 Variations (starring Jane Fonda), during which she performed Beethoven’s Variations on a Waltz of Diabelli. She was also featured in three other productions of the play at Washington’s Arena Stage, the La Jolla Playhouse and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, for a total of over 200 performances. 

 Diane has been happily coming to Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival since the Festival’s second season. Other summer chamber music festivals where she has performed include Marlboro, Bard, Portland, Santa Fe and Skaneateles; she also led the Skaneateles Festival as artistic director. To date she has released eighteen recordings of repertoire spanning four centuries. Her next CD, containing works by Debussy, Boulanger, Ravel and Fauré, will be available on the PARMA label in late 2022. She taught at Mannes College of Music in New York City for 32 years, and now lives in Maine with her husband, the writer Richard Pollak. 

PEGGY PEARSON, OBOE

Oboist Peggy Pearson is a winner of the Pope Foundation Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Music. Lloyd Schwartz, who received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, called her “my favorite living oboist.” Peggy has performed solo, chamber and orchestral music throughout the United States and abroad. She is principal oboist with the Boston Philharmonic and solo oboist with the Boston-based Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra, an organization that has performed all of the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. She is also a member of the Bach Aria Group. According to Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, “Peggy Pearson has probably played more Bach than any other oboist of her generation; this is music she plays in a state of eloquent grace.”

Ms. Pearson was the Founding Director of, and is oboist with, Winsor Music, Inc., and a founding member of the ensemble La Fenice.She has toured internationally and recorded extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s as principal oboist, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Music from Marlboro. She has appeared regularly with the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival in Maryland. In addition to her freelance and chamber music activities, Peggy Pearson has been an active exponent of contemporary music. She was a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute in contemporary music, and has premiered numerous works, many of which were written specifically for her. 

Peggy Pearson has been on the faculties at the Bach Institute (a collaboration between Winsor Music, Emmanuel Music and Oberlin College), Songfest, the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston Conservatory, MIT, University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Wellesley College, the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College.