Carnegie Hall Fellows - Rivendell String Quartet

Carnegie Hall Fellows - Rivendell String Quartet

Carnegie Hall Fellows

Fellows List > Rivendell String Quartet

Read a journal of the quartet's travels to Central Asia in 2003.

Peabody Conservatory undergraduate students Julie Cooper, Jason Fisher, Jesse Irons, and Megan Koch formed the Rivendell String Quartet in September 2002 and gave their first public performance in November. Since September, the quartet has been coached by Maria Lambros -- former violist of the Ridge, Meliora, and Mendelssohn string quartets. As participants in the Peabody Chamber Music Seminar, Rivendell has received additional coachings with Michael Kannen and members of the Peabody Trio and has performed in master classes for the Tokyo String Quartet and Mikhail Kopelman. Additionally, the ensemble made a special appearance at the Peabody Faculty Artist Chamber Music Concert Celebrating a Golden Age of Soviet Musicians on March 5th. In April, Rivendell performed on the Peabody First Thursday Chamber Music Concert and also made a guest appearance on the United States Navel Academy Chamber Music Series.

In addition to their participation in the Carnegie Hall Fellows Program, the Rivendell String Quartet has also received fellowships to attend the 2003 Norfolk Chamber Music Festival/Yale Summer School of Music six-week Chamber Music Session where they will have the opportunity to study with Donald Weilerstein, Jesse Levine, and the Tokyo String Quartet. The quartet then plans to spend the month of September in Singapore as part of an exchange program between the Peabody and Singapore Conservatories. While abroad, Rivendell will coach with the T'ang Quartet, hold recitals and outreach concerts, and perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Julie Cooper has been studying violin for eleven years and voice for six years. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in the violin studio of Shirley Givens and the voice studio of Carol Cavey-Miles. Julie's other influential teachers include Phyllis Freeman, Carol DeSantis, Linda Cerone, Christian Colberg and Tao Chang Yu. She has participated in festivals such as the Encore School for Strings, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Putney Chamber Music Intensive in Vermont, and the Masterworks Festival. Julie has performed in masterclasses with numerous violinists, including Pamela Frank, Herbert Greenberg, Stephen Clapp, and Zvi Zeitlin. She graduated in May of 2003, with plans to pursue graduate studies in chamber music and pedagogy.

Violist Jason Fisher, native to Seattle and former student of Helen Callus at the University of Washington, has just completed his sophomore year at Peabody Conservatory studying with Victoria Chiang. He is a past winner of the Cascade Concerto Competition, former principal violist of the Peabody Concert Orchestra, Washington All-State Orchestra, Cascade Youth Symphony and Seattle Youth Symphony, and a past member of Iris Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest and the 1999 All-Northwest Orchestra. Jason has spent his summers at the Marrowstone, Killington, and ARIA music festivals, as well as on a European tour with the Cascade Youth Symphony. He has performed in masterclasses with such renowned artists as Karen Ritscher, Peter Slowik, Atar Arad, Lawrence Dutton, Paul Coletti, and recently with Barbara Westphal at the 30th International Viola Congress. Jason began his viola studies at age eleven.

Jesse Irons has just completed his junior year at Peabody Conservatory where he studies violin with Shirley Givens. Born in Berlin, Vermont, Jesse?s first memory is of a violin lesson when he was three. His former teachers include Mary Gibson and Evelyn Read at the University of Vermont. Jesse was concertmaster of the Vermont All-State Orchestra his freshman year, and performed as concertmaster and soloist with the Vermont Youth Orchestra for six years. Over past summers, he has attended the Meadowmount School of Music, Greenwood Chamber Music Camp, and the Indiana University String Academy. Jesse has performed in masterclasses for Keng-Yuen Tseng and Sidney Harth and has studied privately with Shirley Givens, Christian Colberg, and Pamela Frank. In addition to playing the classical violin, Jesse is also an accomplished jazz trumpet and electric violin player.

Cellist Megan Koch has just completed her sophomore year at Peabody Conservatory, where she studies with Alan Stepansky. Megan began her cello studies when she was four years old at the David Hochstein Music School in Rochester, New York. Her previous cello teachers include Kathleen Kemp, Joan Kinsella, and Laura Evans. She was a member of the Hochstein Youth Orchestra, principal cellist of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Chamber Orchestra and worked under the baton of Leonard Slatkin in 1997 as a member of the National Guild Youth Symphony. Currently, she is principal cellist of the Peabody Concert Orchestra. In addition, Megan is a winner of the RPYO concerto competition, and has performed live recitals on WXXI, Rochester's classical music radio station. She has attended several summer music workshops, including the Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra and the Eastman Chamber Music Workshop, and has been involved in master classes led by Yo-Yo Ma, Stephen Geber, and the Ying String Quartet.