Amy Kang
Cellist Amy Kang actively explores a broad spectrum of musical genres. Equally at home in both the concert hall and downtown venues, Amy performs as a classical chamber musician as well as with New Music, contemporary jazz, and Latin American ensembles. Recent performances have brought her to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and 92nd St Y, as well as other notable venues in Argentina, Japan, Panama, Poland, and South Korea. She studied with the great cellist and teacher Fred Sherry, and plays on her recently acquired cello labeled Johannes Gagliano, made in Naples in 1803.
Amy graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English Literature. She also studied visual arts at L’Ecole Marchutz in Aix-en-Provence, and has recently exhibited at the LongHouse Reserve (East Hampton), the Durst Foundation (New York), and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Her current project involves transcribing the Bach Cello Suites into a series of paintings through a system of color-pitch correlation.
Carol Gimbel
Carol Gimbel is a visionary violist, educator, and international radio host. Her acclaimed projects include Music in the Barns and the award-winning #1000Strings, reimagining how classical music is performed, presented and taught. Ms. Gimbel is the co-host for Why Do We Only Listen to Dead People? on WFMU 91.9FM in NYC and NJ, the oldest freeform radio station in the U.S., where she explores the future of classical music with artists and thinkers. A passionate educator, she is Artist-in-Residence and Program Facilitator of the Viola Intensive Program (VIP) at the Philadelphia International Music Festival and creator of Violin Quest, a game-based learning tool that fuses classical technique with immersive play. Ms. Gimbel performs on the Ex-Emmanuel Vardi viola c.1725 and is pursuing interdisciplinary research in speculative design and classical music at New York University.
Nick Danielson
Violinist Nick Danielson enjoys a distinguished career in both the classical and tango worlds. His mother is from Córdoba, Argentina, and although he grew up in the United States, tango was very much a part of his musical influences since childhood. Since 1992, he has served as Assistant Concertmaster of the NYC Ballet Orchestra, with which he performs frequently as a solo violinist. He was a longtime member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He can be heard on many of Orpheus’ recordings, including Stravinsky’s “Concertino” on the GRAMMY winning CD, “Shadow Dances.” Nick has toured and recorded extensively as a soloist and chamber musician, and with numerous tango ensembles, including tango legend Pablo Ziegler. Among his most recent collaborations, he has performed with Paquito D’Rivera, Fernando Otero, Wynton Marsalis, and other notables. Among his many recordings, Nick also has released two solo albums, “Tango and Obsession” and “Sur: Violin Music of Argentina.” Nick is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with the legendary Ivan Galamian. Tango is Nick’s true love, combining so beautifully with more traditional, classical music while creating a freedom of expression.
Mitchell Newman
Violinist Mitchell Newman was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1987-2020. He worked with most of the major conductors of that era, including music directors Andre Previn, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Gustavo Dudamel. A passionate advocate for bringing music to underserved communities, Mr. Newman founded “Harmony: Music for Mental Health”, a chamber music/fundraising concert for Mental Health America Long Beach. In 2010 he was named a mental health hero by the California State Senate. In 2015 he started “Coming Home to Music” which brings concerts of classical chamber music and jazz concerts to people who were experiencing homelessness, who are now living in apartment complexes built by People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Newman has been a regular participant in the LA Phil’s Chamber Music Society and Green Umbrella series and has had the opportunity to play the Mendelssohn Octet with Joshua Bell, and Thomas Ades’ Piano Quintet with the composer playing piano. Newman can be heard on Grammy-winning Southwest Chamber Music’s recording of the First and Third String Quartets of Carlos Chávez. He has also recorded the music of Eric Zeisl for Harmonia Mundi, and Stories from My Favorite Planet by Los Angeles composer Russell Steinberg. Mr. Newman also teaches chamber music ensembles for the Settlement School, and The University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Newman studied violin at The Curtis Institute of Music with Aaron Rosand, David Cerone, and Yumi Ninomiya Scott and chamber music with Mischa Schneider, Felix Galamir, and Karen Tuttle.