Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival Musician Bios (for the 2008 Season, five veteran musicians confirmed their participation.)

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Artistic Director, Edward Arron, Cellist

Cellist Edward Arron is rapidly gaining recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Earlier that year, he performed Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Opening Night Gala of the Caramoor International Festival. Since that time, Mr. Arron has appeared in recital, as a soloist with orchestra, and as a chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

The 2008-2009 season marks Mr. Arron's sixth season as the artistic coordinator of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber ensemble created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum's prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Mr. Arron is also the artistic director of the Caramoor Virtuosi and of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Summit County, Colorado. For four seasons, he was the artistic administrator and resident performer for WQXR's "On A-I-R" series, a weekly radio program in New York dedicated to chamber music.

Mr. Arron has performed numerous times at Carnegie's Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, New York's Town Hall, and the 92nd Street Y, and is a frequent performer at Bargemusic. Past summer festival appearances include Ravinia, Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, BRAVO! Colorado, Tanglewood, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, the North Country Chamber Players, the Chamber Music Conference of the East, and Isaac Stern's Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron has participated in the Silk Road Project and is currently a member of MOSAIC, an ensemble dedicated to contemporary music.

Edward Arron began his studies on the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and, at age ten, moved to New York, where he continued his studies with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro.

Rieko Aizawa, Pianist

In 1988, Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa was brought to the attention of Alexander Schneider by the recommendation of pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged her as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo's Casals Hall; later that year, Schneider presented 14-year-old Ms. Aizawa in her U.S. debut concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, performing Mozart's Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414, with his New York String Orchestra. The Washington Post celebrated her performance: "She played with a beautiful, limpid tone and a sense of characterization and cohesiveness that is unusual." To complete her triumphant season of U.S. debuts, during January of 1989 Ms. Aizawa stepped in as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, guest conducted by Schneider.

Since then Ms. Aizawa has performed in solo and orchestral engagements throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall and Chicago's Orchestra Hall. Highlights of recent seasons have included acclaimed performances with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the Festival Strings Lucerne in Switzerland under Rudolf Baumgartner, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, the Curtis Institute Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, the St. Louis Symphony under David Loebel and, most recently, a wonderfully received performance with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Aizawa also has a great interest in exploring unusual repertoire. In October 2007, the St. Paul Pioneer Press described her performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf "the Salieri Piano Concerto in C was played so splendidly by Rieko Aizawa. Hers was a graceful reading. .... Aizawa's performance lent the work a respect it rarely receives."

As a recitalist, Ms. Aizawa has been heard in many North American cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, St. Louis, Seattle, Boulder, Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto; at the Caramoor International Festival; at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival; Ravinia Festival, Gilmore Keyboard Festival. Following a recent all-Beethoven recital in Dresden, Germany, a reviewer wrote: "Her listeners followed her playing -full of details and delicate contrasts- breathlessly." Ms. Aizawa recently has started her "Prism" series in Japan, with tributes to Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, and specially commissioned works for each program. She also will continue her exploration of Beethoven's music with a Beethoven cycle at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 2006, Ms. Aizawa performed a series of all-Mozart recitals, a project jointly presented by WFMT-Chicago and Fazioli.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Aizawa has performed as a guest with string quartets including the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet, and she has participated in numerous festivals, such as the Marlboro Music Festival, U.S.A.; the Kammermusik Festival Moritzburg, Germany; and the Evian Festival, France. She has been a guest artist of Boston's, Philadelphia's and Seattle's Chamber Music Society. Ms. Aizawa is also a founding member of Duo Prism with a violinist Jesse Mills, which earned the 1st Prize at the Zinetti International Competition in Italy in 2006.

Ms. Aizawa received her Masters Degree from the Juilliard School, where she worked with Peter Serkin. She is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was awarded the prestigious Rachmaninoff Prize and studied with Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Mieczyslaw Horszowski as his last pupil. March 2005 marked the release of Ms. Aizawa's first solo recording on the Japanese label Altus Music - a tour-de-force CD of Shostakovich's and Scriabin's "24 Preludes." She will be recording Faure's and Messiaens' preludes in 2008.

Ms. Aizawa is a Steinway Artist.

This summer marks Rieko's tenth appearance at Alpenglow.


Jesse Mills, Violinist

Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills enjoys performing music of many genres, from classical to contemporary, as well as composed and improvised music of his own invention. In 2004, Mills made his professional concerto debut with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra conducted by Nicholas McGegan in a unique partnership with Salsa trombonist, Jimmy Bosch. This project combined a classical performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with Mills as violin soloist, and a Salsa band arrangement of the same piece, fronted by Bosch and Mills as improvising soloists. A successful performance at Ravinia led to bookings with the Phoenix, Colorado and Green Bay Symphonies for the 2005-2006 season. In past years Mills has performed as soloist with the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra, the Teatro Argentino Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the New Jersey Symphony, the Sarah Lawrence College Symphony, the Plainfield Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival's Sinfonia Orchestra as winner of the Festival's E. Nakamichi Violin Concerto Competition.

As a chamber musician Jesse Mills has performed at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, New York City's Merkin Concert Hall and Bargemusic, Carnegie's Weill Hall, Columbia University's Miller Theater, Boston's Gardener Museum, the Cooper Arts Series at Cooper Union, the Rising Stars series at Caramoor, the Ravinia Festival's Bennett-Gordon Hall, and at the Marlboro Music Festival. He performed on the opening night of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "A Great Day in New York" series with pianist/composer Peter Schickele, and this concert was broadcast live on WNYC 93.9 FM in New York.

Mr. Mills is an avid performer of contemporary works. As a member of the FLUX Quartet from 2001-2003, he played in many concert halls around the world, performing music composed during the last 50 years. Among these concerts were 3 performances of Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. 3, a six-hour-long work of immense beauty. Mills has played extensively with renowned cellist, Fred Sherry, in works by Reich, Wuorinen, Schoenberg, and avant-garde composer and saxophonist, John Zorn. In 2004-2005, they recorded Schoenberg's String Quartet Concerto and various chamber works of Anton Webern for NAXOS, as well as Zorn's String Quartet, Necronomicon, on Tzadik.

Mills is co-founder of Duo Prism, a violin-piano duo with Rieko Aizawa. He is also a member of Nurse Kaya, an ensemble comprised of string quartet plus bass and drums which exclusively plays compositions written by its members; much of this music involves improvisation. The group plays in traditional venues such as concert halls and clubs, as well as in schools, hospitals, and jails. In 2005, Nurse Kaya was awarded a Residency Partnership Grant from Chamber Music America, which resulted in a successful week-long residency in the public schools as well as at the Rialto Theater of Loveland, Colorado. Mills was an integral part of New Spirit - a new recording on the Verve label by jazz pianist, Makoto Ozone. Several performances of this project will be presented next year.

Jesse Mills began violin studies at the age of four. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Robert Mann in 2001. He has previously studied with Christiane Pors, Naoko Tanaka and Itzhak Perlman.

This summer markes Jesse's fourth appearance at Alpenglow.

Danielle Farina, Violist

Violist Danielle Farina is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Karen Tuttle. She was the recipient of several awards while a student, most notably Grand Prize, First Prize, and prize for "most beautiful sound" at the 1996 American String Teacher's Association (ASTA) Competition.

Currently the violist of the Elements Quartet, Ms. Farina has participated in the Tibor Varga Festival in Budapest, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, been in residence at Utah Valley State College, and premiered a project called "Snapshots", commissioning dozens of composers from Regina Carter to Angelo Badalamenti to John Corigliano.

Touring extensively in North America, Europe, and Scandinavia, with the Lark Quartet, Ms. Farina has performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, Schleswig Holstein Festival, and the International Istanbul Music Festival. She can be heard on the Agora, Arabesque and Koch labels.

Ms. Farina has collaborated with numerous artists, namely Gary Graffman, Ruth Laredo, Jerome Lowenthal, Scott St. John, Ida Kavafian, Joseph dePasquale, Paul Katz, members of the Brentano, Borromeo, and Flux Quartets, baritone Jubilant Sykes, bassoonist Pascal Gallois, composers Aaron J. Kernis, Jennifer Higdon, Peter Schickele, and cellist/composer Giovanni Sollima.

Other artistic pursuits include performances with The Brooklyn Philharmonic as principal violist for the 2007 season, The Mark Morris Dance Group, The Silk Road Project, Mosaic, Locrian Chamber Players, Perspectives Ensemble, Concertante, Music from Copland House, Columbia University's Miller Theater, and Carnegie Hall's Making Music Series and Perspectives Series. Ms. Farina recently premiered Peter Schickele's Viola Concerto with the Pasadena Symphony as well as his "Mountain Music II" for viola and piano. She is on the faculty of The Juilliard School's Pre-College Division.

This summer marks Danielle's second appearance at Alpenglow.

Aaron Janse, Violinist and Violist

Aaron Janse has performed across the globe as both a violinist and violist. Washington Post critic Daniel Gawthrop wrote of him, "Rarely have I heard Ravel's Tzigane played with such intensity and authority." After a performance of Paganini's First Violin Concerto, the El Paso Times called him "a tour-de-force at any age". He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at venues such as Lincoln Center's Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls, Kennedy Center's Concert Hall, and Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall.

As a violist, Mr. Janse has performed, toured and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Bernard Haitink, Daniel Barenboim, and Simon Rattle. He has also performed numerous times as a violist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. Additionally, Mr. Janse has collaborated in chamber music performances with such esteemed artists as Gil Shaham, Alicia DeLarrocha, Joseph Silverstein, Charles Castleman, and Stephen Hough in such venues as the Aspen Music Festival, the Linton Series in Cincinnati, Sommerfest in Minneapolis, and the Las Vegas Music Festival. As a violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Mr. Janse has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.

A recipient of the Fritz Kreisler Scholarship, Mr. Janse received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Juilliard School where he studied with Dorothy DeLay, and Joel Smirnoff. His chamber Music studies included extensive work with Felix Galimir, Joseph Fuchs and Zoltan Szekely as well as the members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets. While at Juilliard, Mr. Janse served as a teaching fellow for Dorothy DeLay as well as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra.

This summer marks Aaron's fourth appearance at Alpenglow.