PIPPA BORISY, PIANO | CO-DIRECTOR
Active as both a soloist and chamber musician, pianist Pippa Borisy has been featured on television and radio including WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago and National Public Radio. Ms. Borisy’s numerous chamber concerts include performances at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Trinity Chapel, Goethe House and the Ukrainian Institute; the Israel Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Series at
the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel; the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago; the Music Festival of the Hamptons directed by Lucas Foss in Long Island; and the America/Israel Cultural Foundation in Washington, D.C.. As part of a duo with her husband, clarinetist Vadim Lando, Ms. Borisy has performed numerous recitals in major cities of the United States, Israel, Denmark, Czechoslovakia and Canada. Recently she has performed and taught as Guest Artist or Guest Faculty at universities around the country, at Forte Music Fest in Kazakhstan, and at Music Fest Perugia in Italy. Ms. Borisy has also performed three solo concert tours of Italy, and is described by the legendary pianist Byron Janis as “among the most musical people I have known”.
Ms. Borisy received her Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and her Master of Music from Yale University. She continued with doctoral studies at SUNY at Stony Brook with Gilbert Kalish. Her principal teachers have been Peter Frankl, Joseph Schwartz, and Byron Janis. Ms. Borisy has been Director of the Great Neck Music Conservatory on Long Island for the past fifteen years.
Lauren Ausubel, Flute | CO-DIRECTOR
Lauren Ausubel, a coveted New York chamber and orchestral musician, has performed with numerous ensembles including Ensemble Alma, Ridotto Chamber Players, Serenata Winds, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Manhattan Sinfonia. This past November she performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall as principle flute with the New York Women’s Ensemble.
According to a review in the New York Times, “The ensemble’s unanimity attested to a chemistry fueled by talent and mutural regard.” She is also a founding member of the Femmes Four Flute Quartet which gave their debut Carnegie Hall recital at Weill Hall as winners of the Artists International Competition. They were also recipients of a Residency Partnership Program Grant through Chamber Music America. Funded by J.P. Morgan Chase, Femmes Four brought classical music to an undeserved primary school in Bedford Stuyvesant.
Recently Ms. Ausubel performed with famed guitarist Viginia Luque on the Artosphere Music Festival Series in Fayetville, Arkansas. Her many performances include concerts at Weill Recital Hall, Merkin, Christ and St. Stephens Church, St. Peters Church and Queens College Contemporary Music Series. Ms. Ausubel was also a finalist in the Myrna Brown Flute Competition in Dallas, TX, and has performed throughout the country at National Flute Association Conventions. She holds a B.M. and M.M. from Northwestern University, and is a candidate for a DMA at SUNY Stony Brook. She also attended Juilliard Pre-College. She maintains an active flute studio of award winning flutists.
TAMMY HENSRUD, SOPRANO | EXECUTIVE VOCAL DIRECTOR
TAMMY HENSRUD, has appeared in opera houses throughout Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, South Africa and the US including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Theatre de Chatelet in Paris, Klagenfurt Stadttheater, Salzburg Festival, Cleveland Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York City Opera, and the Spoleto Arts Festival under notable conductors such as James Levine, Herbert von Karajan, Emmanuelle Villaume and others. Her core repertoire includes the great operatic roles of Strauss, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Puccini and orchestral works of Mahler, Berlioz and Wagner.
A most versatile artist, Ms. Hensrud has performed contemporary, Musical Theater, Jazz, and Classical and Operatic genres to great acclaim. In demand as an interpreter of Kurt Weill and Cabaret, she has performed one-woman shows at the Lucille Lortel Theater and the Players Club in NYC, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland and upcoming at Café Sabarsky at the Neue Gallerie in NYC. As a proponent of contemporary music, Ms. Hensrud has sung world premieres both in the US and in Europe to include Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space and the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC.
Ms. Hensrud earned her BMus in Cello performance and MMus degree in Vocal Performance from the University of North Dakota. She continued her post-graduate studies on Voice as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in Stuttgart, Germany, where she received the Artist Diploma in Opera. Additional studies were at Salzburg's Mozarteum, Weimar’s Franz Liszt Musik Akademie, and the L'ecole Hindemith in Vevey, Switzerland. Ms. Hensrud has served on the Voice Faculty of Hofstra University since 2005 and is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Voice at St. Olaf College in MN. Additionally, she is the Vocal Director of the Oyster Bay Summer Music Festival and on the Guest Voice Faculty of the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute in NY and Music in the Alps in Bad Gastein, Austria. please visit www.tammyhensrud.com
vadim lando, clarinet
Praised by the New York Times for his “consistently distinguished, vibrant and virtuosic playing”, clarinetist Vadim Lando has won top prizes in many international competitions including the Gold Medal at the National Festival of Music Competition in Canada. As soloist, he has performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Lando’s recitals and chamber music concerts include performances at virtually every major performing landmark in New York City, the Israel Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Series at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel; the Summer Concert Festival in Martha’s Vineyard; and on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. His concerts are often broadcast on radio stations such as WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago and National Public Radio. Mr. Lando performs and records regularly as the principal clarinetist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
Former faculty of the Rutgers University, Mr. Lando holds a Master of Music from Yale University and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from SUNY at Stony Brook, where he studied with the virtuoso clarinetist Charles Neidich. Mr. Lando is the Co-Director of the Great Neck Music Conservatory in Great Neck, New York.
VIOLETTA ZABBI, PIANO
A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Violetta Zabbi is an accomplished pianist, conductor and coach. She received her B.M. and M.M. in Piano Performance and Ph.D. in Musicology from Odessa State Academy of Music.
Dr. Zabbi has been involved in over 100 different opera projects while living in New York for the past 20 years. She is currently on the faculties of Adelphi University and Brooklyn College in NY. She is the music director and conductor with Vocal Productions NYC, Opera Slope, New York Opera Studio and the Delaware Valley Opera. She appears as a pianist and coach with Regina Opera, Hofstra University and Opera Manhattan Repertoire. For the past 6 seasons she has performed with DCINY International at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Dr. Zabbi is also a member of AMAO (American Masters Academy of Music), a special, intense vocal program in Moscow, Russia and in NY.
In addition to her carrier as vocal coach, Dr. Zabbi served as a Piano Professor and later Vice President of Long Island Conservatory from 1998 to 2011 where she had great success for teaching Piano Performance in all levels. Her students were passing all NYSSMA levels, participating and winning local and international competitions.
dale stuckenbruck, violin
Dale Stuckenbruck is a violin soloist, concertmaster, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. Studies with Erick Friedman, appearing with him as soloist, in recording and in chamber music. Soloist/ Concertmaster/Guest artist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Philharmonia Virtuosi, New York Virtuosi, New York String Ensemble, Tchaikovsky Chamber Orchestra, Taipei City Symphony Orchestra, Music at St. Ignatius, Dance Theater of Harlem, Queens Symphony, Masterworks, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, and the Long Island Philharmonic. Recorded the violin concerto by Lou Pelosi on CRI. Recordings for countless commercial labels, and for over one hundred films. Received international acclaim with Steve Margoshes for “Sawing to New Heights,” and for his performances of the “Divination by Mirrors” by Michael Levine with the New Century Chamber Orchestra and the New York Virtuosi. Received Grammy nomination for “Ancient Voices of Children” by George Crumb for Bridge Records.
As a mandolinist he has appeared at the MET, NYC Opera, ABT, with Paula Robison at the Metropolitan Museum and in a recording with the Charleston Symphony. He has been featured in Strings Magazine, Korean Monthly Music Magazine, Newsday, Sarasate and the New York Times. Guest lecturer for the Juilliard School of Music and the Long Island Guitar Festival. Founder of Long Island’s conductorless-string ensemble, Kammermusik, the Long Island Vegetable Orchestra, and ECO orchestra of the Waldorf School of Garden City. He wrote and recorded the soundtrack for “Shadows” by Ed Lachman and Slater Bradley, shown at the Whitney Museum for five months, and “Vegetable Man”, by Ben Hagari. Since 1975 he has performed with Heawon Kim, his wife, in recitals in Asia, Europe and South America amassing a large repertoire. Guest for “Melody for Dailogue,” sponsored by UNESCO. He has a member of the music faculty at LIU Post since 1986. Music Director at the Waldorf School of Garden City. D.M.A. from Manhattan School of Music, 1984. Visit Violin-Saw.com for more info.
Alla bell, accompanist
An active chamber musician and accompanist, Alla Bell has appeared on David Letterman and Good Morning America. She performs throughout the New York area and has been a highly regarded accompanist for some of the most talented young artists in the country. Ms. Bell’s students have consistently taken top, coveted prizes in numerous prestigious competitions around New York and the Tri-State area. A devoted educator, Ms. Bell is also certified in Suzuki and works with students in all levels of their development.
Before coming the United States, Ms. Bell was a Faculty Member at the Stasov Music School in Moscow. She received her Bachelor Degree from Gnesin Music Academy in Moscow, as well as her Masters Degree from Glinsky Niszniy Novgorod Conversatory, also in Russia. She has been a principal Faculty Member of the Great Neck Music Conservatory for almost 20 years.