Violin

Violin | Viola | Cello | Piano | Director

Hailed as one of the great Concertmasters of his generation, Jonathan Carney comes from a unique musical background; all six members of his family graduated from The Juilliard School in New York. After completing his studies with Ivan Galamian and Christine Dethier, he was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship and moved to London to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music.

After making successful tours of the Americas, Europe and the Far East as both leader and soloist with numerous international ensembles, Jonathan was invited by Vladimar Ashkenazy to become leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his debut with the orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991 and has since appeared as a soloist in many of the concert halls in Britain and the continent working with conductors such as Gatti, Kreizberg and Yuri Temirkonov as well as an extensive tour of South America with Yehudi Menuhin. In 2002 Jonathan started his post as Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his recordings for CBS Masterworks , Decca, ASV and Naxos, he is regularly featured on the BBC and has most recently recorded solo works by John Cage and Bruno Moderna. He was also Director of the Royal Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble and has recorded over twenty discs for Tring International including The Four Seasons, The Lark Ascending and Mozart’s Third and Fifth Concertos, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante. New releases include a disc of virtuoso works of Sarasate and Kreisler, an award winning recording of the Nielson concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the Naxos label and Michael Nyman’s The Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carney.

An avid exponent of twentieth-century music, his solo repertoire also includes works by Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Janacek, Hindemith, Glass, Cage, Takemitsu, Maxwell Davis, Britten, William Bolcom and John Corigliano

Chin Kim* is one of the most versatile, and sought-after young violinists today, has been concertizing extensively throughout North America, Asia and Europe as guest artist with orchestras as those of Philadelphia, St. Louis, Montréal, and Atlanta with conductors like Leonard Slatkin, John Nelson, Myung Whun Chung, and Sixten Ehrling. As recitalist, Mr. Kim appeared in major halls of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Montréal, Toronto, Brussels, and Seoul. Top prizewinner in several of the most prestigious international violin competitions including the Concours International de Musique de Montréal, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Paganini Competition, and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Mr. Kim's recent concerts include the performance of Bernstein's Serenade with the Atlanta Symphony, Barber Concerto with Wayne Chamber Orchestra, and the Glazunov Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic. Mr. Kim's debut recording of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in g minor with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic (Russia), under the baton of Paul Freeman, and the Prokofiev Sonata No. 2 in D Major with pianist David Oei, was released on the ProArte/Fanfare label. His second CD consisting of the Mendelssohn c minor, and the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio with the "Starr-Kim-Boeckheler Piano Trio" was released on the Mastersound label, and his most recent CD, the Glazunov and Tchaikovsky Concertos was recorded and released by Intersound/Fanfare label in the fall of 1995

Prof. Kim is the recipient of the Nan-Pa Prize awarded by the Nan-Pa Foundation in Korea, which is one of the highest honors given to a Korean-born musician. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and, subsequently from the Juilliard School where he received the Petschek Award, and won the Concerto Competition which led to the performance of the Glazunov Concerto with the Juilliard Philharmonia in Lincoln Center. With his busy performing schedule, he also teaches at the Mannes College of Music in New York. His major teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Ivan Galamian, and Josef Gingold.

Emmanuel Borowsky's musical talent has been nurtured since early childhood: his mother is a cellist and his father is a noted social scientist who has used music as a tool to bridge people and nations. He began his violin studies at the age of four and soon was performing concerts in the USA and abroad. At age 10, Emmanuel performed Vivaldi’s A-minor concerto before a sold-out audience of over 9,000 people in Washington D.C.'s National Shrine. For his superb performance he was rewarded with a massive standing ovation and the Antonio Vivaldi Medal. At age 13, Emmanuel represented North America at the UNESCO World Child Prodigies Concert in Amman (Jordan) and was honored with the distinguished Cultural Achievement Award. At 15, he was selected to perform on the prestigious International Public Radio Show “From the Top.” His performance was aired by over 250 stations in the USA and abroad. At 18, he performed for an audience of over 100,000 people at the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany.

Emmanuel has been featured as a soloist with orchestras in the USA, Germany, Poland, Israel, and Jordan; including the Eisenach Festival Orchestra, Poznan Symphony, National Conservatory of Jordan Orchestra, Israeli Soloists Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic, Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, Loudon Symphony, Katowice Philharmonic, and Rzezow Chamber Orchestra. His concert at the Paderewski Ad Memoriam Festival with the Polish Camerata (June 1999) was broadcast internationally by Pol-Sat TV. He has received an impressive array of awards and prizes, notably First Place in the Maryland Young Talent Competition (1998), Best Classical CD (ICRecords, 1999, for Pearls of Music), the Pro Musica Award for Promoting Classical Music among Youth (2000), the Erick Friedman Prize for Outstanding Young Musicians (2004), and the Merit Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (2005).

Since 2003, Emmanuel has been a Junior Faculty member at the International Music Institute and Festival USA. He has performed together with his sisters Elizabeth (piano) and Frances (cello) as the “Young American Virtuosi.” Most recently, they toured Europe for six weeks and were invited by the Heidelberg Arts Council to be Artists-In-Residence at the Dilsberg Castle. In 2008, they will perform Pre-Olympic concerts in China under the theme “One World-One Dream-One Family.”

Among his teachers have been: Victor Danchenko, Dorothy DeLay, Erick Friedman, Herbert Greenberg, Konstanty Kulka, Zoltan Szabo, and Roman Totenberg. From 2004-2006, Emmanuel studied at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts (Reykjavik) with the acclaimed violinist Gudny Gudmundsdotir Since August 2006, he has been studying at Indiana University Bloomington under the guidance of famed violinists Jaime Laredo and Mark Kaplan. Emmanuel's violin was made in 1894 by the French luthier Gustave Bernadel. (Click here to go to Emmanuel Borowsky's Official Website)

Klara Berkovich has been among successful violin teachers both in the former Soviet Union and in the USA. She studied at Kiev and St. Petersburg conservatories earning her degrees (B.M. and M.M.) with distinction. Prof. Berkovich taught in St. Petersburg, Russia for nearly 30 years before coming to Baltimore, Maryland, where she has taught privately as well as at the Peabody Preparatory Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Her students include successful teachers, orchestra members, and soloists around the world, particularly in Germany, Russia, Israel, Canada and the USA. Prof. Berkovich has been a senior faculty member at IMIF-USA since 2003. Among her most renowned former students is the acclaimed young American violinist Hilary Hahn. The Maryland Chapter of the American String Teacher Association recognized Berkovich for her teaching achievements by awarding her the title “String Teacher of the Year.”

Violin

*Denotes Visiting Artists