Anthony di Bonaventura

Pianist - In residence beginning June 13, 2008

Anthony di Bonaventura made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at age thirteen.

A Professor of Piano at the School of Fine Arts of Boston University, di Bonaventura is one of the most eminent pianists of his generation. Mr. di Bonaventura has performed in 25 countries to superlative critical acclaim. He has performed in all the major festivals and also in the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center.

Among hundreds of laudatory reviews, random samplings state "an exciting performance and a shiny virtuoso one ... poised, full of insight and technically brilliant" (The New York Times)..... "tone sensitively modulated ... his touch an example of graduated control in the finest degree ... a musician and pianist to be remembered and anticipated" (The Washington Post)..... "a bravura approach when the music demands it, but founded throughout on a noble musicality, delicate and full of poetry." (Neues Oesterreich, Vienna).

Erich A. Eichhorn

Violinist - In residence beginning July 14, 2008

Erich A. Eichhorn, adjunct professor of violin, a native of Germany, has been a first violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra since in 1968. He holds the Paul and Lucille Jones Chair. Before joining the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Eichhorn was principal second violin with the Buffalo and St. Louis symphonic orchestras. In 1961, he graduated from the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, Germany, with a Concert Artist Diploma for Violin and Piano Duo. The recipient in 1965 of the German Industry Prize of the Arts for violin-piano duo, Mr. Eichhorn served as the Assistant Concertmaster for the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart from 1960 through 1966. That same year he began his musical career in the United States. Mr. Eichhorn serves on the music faculty of Cleveland State University where he teaches violin studies, and coaches chamber music and orchestral repertoire. Mr. Eichhorn founded The Cleveland Octet in 1978, a chamber music ensemble consisting of all Cleveland Orchestra musicians. The group has given concerts throughout the United States and abroad. Its recording of the Schubert Octet is available on Sony Classic CD.

David Cerone

Violinist

Prior to his appointment as President of The Cleveland Institute of Music in 1985, David Cerone served on the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music for nine years and for ten years was Chairman of the CIM String Department. He was Director of the Meadowmount School of Music and member of its faculty for nineteen summers. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and was appointed Chairman of the Violin Department.

He and his wife, violinist Linda Sharon Cerone, founded the nationally acclaimed ENCORE School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio, in 1985. Mr. Cerone made his Cleveland Orchestra solo debut in 1987. He is associated with many prominent national and international music competitions, such as the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, the Paganini Competition, and the Henryk Szeryng Foundation Career Award. Mr. Cerone's extremely popular recordings of the Suzuki Violin Method Books I through IV have recently been reissued by Warner/Chapell. He is a board member of University Circle, Inc. and the Avery Fisher Artist Program and a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 1989.

Linda Cerone

Violinist

Linda Cerone, Violin, Artistic Director of Preparatory Violin Department, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she was a student of Ivan Galamian. She has also studied with violinist and conductor Paul Katz, and with Walter Levin of the La Salle Quartet. She has appeared both in recital and as soloist with orchestras throughout the U.S., including performances with Max Rudolf and Eugene Ormandy. Mrs. Cerone served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory, was professor of violin at the New School in Philadelphia and, for 19 years, was a member of the faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music. She was a co-founder of the ENCORE School for Strings, where she has co-directed and served as faculty member since 1985. Mrs. Cerone has served as adjudicator and on the advisory boards of national competitions. Her former students hold important positions in orchestras throughout the world and enjoy successful careers in chamber ensembles and as touring soloists.

Dominique Labelle

Operatic Soprano - In residence beginning July 21, 2008

Master-classes will be at 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights, July 22 and 24, in the Valor Dining Room. Recital will be at 8pm on Friday night, July 25 in the Valor Dining Room.

Dominique Labelle first came to international prominence as Donna Anna in Peter Sellar’s stunning PepsiCo Summerfare Festival production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, set in Spanish Harlem, which she performed in New York, Paris and Vienna. Since then she has been acclaimed in a repertoire that ranges from Bach to 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner Yehudi Wyner. She has worked with conductors from Boulez to Zinman, and orchestras from Atlanta to San Francisco. She is a regular guest soloist in Europe.

Her many recordings, with repertoire from the 17th to the 21st centuries, appear on Virgin Veritas, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, RCA Victor Red Seal, Koss, Denon, New World, and Muisica Omnia labels. Her recording of Handel’s Arminio won the 2002 Handel Prize. She is a National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera competition, and the recipient of a George London Foundation Award and Boston University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Uri Vardi

Cellist and Feldenkrais practitioner - In residence beginning June 16, 2008

Uri Vardi has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber player across the United States, Europe, South America, and his native Israel. He studied at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, was an Artist Diploma student at Indiana University, and earned his Master's degree from Yale University. Vardi was a founding member of the Sol-La-Re String Quartet. He has served as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Principal Cellist of the Israel Sinfonietta.

A professor of Cello at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1990, he has taught and conducted master classes at numerous music schools, including the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, Eastman School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Geneva Conservatory (Switzerland), Paris Conservatory (France), and the Jerusalem Music Center (Israel). His students have been successful as soloists, chamber players, faculty members of major music schools, and members of major orchestras.

He has also participated in several Summer Music Festivals across the U.S. and Israel. Vardi has specialized in the Feldenkrais Method and was certified by the Feldenkrais Guild of North America and by the International Feldenkrais Federation as a Feldenkrais practitioner in 2003.

Brad Williams

Operatic Tenor - In residence beginning July 7, 2008

Bradley Williams is one of opera's most sought after tenors in the bel canto repertoire. He was an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera prior to making his professional debut with the Metropolitan Opera Guild as Ernesto. A regular guest of theaters around the world, he has appeared in opera houses throughout Europe. In North America, his extensive credits include appearances with the Anchorage Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Baltimore Opera, Connecticut Opera, Dayton Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, and many others. This season, he will sing Ramiro for the Arizona Opera and Florentine Opera and Almaviva in Bordeaux. He will also sing Ramiro for Opera Carolina and Piedmont Opera next season.

Williams obtained his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the University of Texas at Austin, and pursued graduate studies at the College/Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of a major grant from the Sullivan Foundation. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music in Voice at the University of Oklahoma, and a recording artist for MusAcom, an internet company providing teaching materials for singers and instructors.

Rebecca Harding Mayer

Pianist - In residence beginning July 28, 2008

Rebecca Mayer recently has been appointed to the faculty of Oakland University. She graduated with high academic honor from the Cleveland Institute of Music, receiving her Bachelor of Music and her Master of Music, in piano performance. The Cleveland Institute of Music faculty awarded her The Sadie Zellen Prize and the William Kurzman prize in piano.

Rebecca has performed nationally and internationally in master classes and solo concerts, including performances in Prague and Italy. In July of 2003, she made her solo debut at the Carmel Bach Festival in Monterrey, California. In 2000, Rebecca and her two sisters formed a piano trio. They were top prize winners in the senior division of the National Fischoff Chamber Competition , and were winners in several other competitions. As an established trio, they have performed in master classes with Beaux-Arts Trio, Juilliard Quartet, Itzhak Perlman, Paul Katz, John Perry, Norman Fisher, Sergei Babayan, Donald and Vivian Weilerstein, the New Arts Trio, and others.

Rachel Harding Klaus

Violinist - In residence beginning August 4, 2008

Born in Chicago, Rachel studied violin with David and Linda Cerone at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where the faculty awarded her the coveted Joseph and Elsie Scharff Prize in Violin and the Dr. Jerome Gross Prize. Previous teachers have included Michael Avesharian, Steven Shipps, and Sonja Foster. In the fall of 2004, she won the concerto competition at the Cleveland Institute and performed the Bartok Concerto with the CIM Orchestra. In June of 2005, Rachel was a prizewinner in the International Irving M. Klein String Competition.

Rachel has performed as soloist with the Rochester, Birmingham and Kalamazoo Symphonies in Michigan, and the Asheville Symphony in North Carolina. She has won first place in numerous string and young artist competitions, including the American String Competition of, Birmingham-Bloomfield, Rochester, Zerounian, and Jean Hoffman String Competition as well as the Schoolcraft College Music Competition and the Birmingham Musical. She was also chosen from a small handful of young artists to play for the first Starling-Delay Symposium at Julliard, where she performed for Midori and Dorothy Delay in a special master class.