For more than six decades, Jaime Laredo has excelled in the multiple roles of soloist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Since his stunning San Francisco Symphony debut at the age of 11, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics, and fellow musicians with his passionate and polished performances. At the age of 17, he won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, launching his rise to international prominence.

During the 2016-2017 season, Mr. Laredo tours the US and Europe as a conductor, soloist, and member of the award-winning Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, which began its 40th anniversary celebration this fall. Earlier this season, he reprised André Previn's Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson. Performances of the concerto-which was commissioned specifically for the duo-have received rave reviews during the past two seasons. They have also performed the work with the Cincinnati, Kansas City, Austin, Detroit, Pacific, and Toronto symphony orchestras, as well as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Swedish Chamber Orchestra. The duo will collaborate next on a double concerto by Chris Brubeck.

Mr. Laredo has recorded close to 100 discs, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Brahms piano quartets with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern, and Yo-Yo Ma. His recordings include the complete Bach sonatas with Glenn Gould (CBS/RCA); recent premiere recordings of double concertos with violinist Jennifer Koh (Two x Four on Cedille Records) and cellist Sharon Robinson (Triple Doubles on Bridge Records); and many award-winning recordings with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

Mr. Laredo's stewardships of the annual New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall (which he has conducted for 23 years) and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the musical community. This is also the fifth year of Mr. Laredo's tenure at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He concurrently holds director positions with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, and is the principal conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic. He was also artistic director of the Chamber Music at 92Y series in New York for 40 years. Born in Bolivia, Mr. Laredo resides in Guilford, Vermont, and Cleveland, Ohio.

New York String Orchestra

One of the country's most acclaimed professional training programs, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and its alumni have had a major impact on the music world in the United States and abroad. The program was created in 1969 by arts manager Frank Salomon for violinist and conductor Alexander "Sasha" Schneider, who chose Jaime Laredo to succeed him as director. In its 47-year history, the seminar has introduced more than 2,200 exceptional young musicians from across the nation to new musical ideas and offered them the challenge of performing two professional-level concerts presented by Carnegie Hall. All students receive full scholarships to participate. For more detailed information on the program and its commitment to offering a full scholarship to each participating student, visit newschool.edu/mannes/nysos. If you would like to know more about what the program means to our students and what the future brings them, send an email to nsc@newschool.edu to receive periodic updates.

Seminar alumnus Yo-Yo Ma (1977) shared, "[The seminar was] one of the defining moments for me as a teenager," as it was for so many of today's musical leaders: soloists such as violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Kyoko Takezawa, and Shlomo Mintz; conductors who include Peter Oundjian, Joseph Swensen, Douglas Boyd, and Marin Alsop; concertmasters of more than 40 orchestras (including the Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, and Philadelphia orchestras, and the Los Angeles and Czech philharmonics); members of such ensembles as the Emerson, Guarneri, Kronos, Orion, and Takács string quartets and Brooklyn Rider; and faculty at leading music schools and conservatories. They call the seminar a "life-changing musical experience" that opened new musical worlds for them. Each new generation of New York String Orchestra Seminar alumni continues to make a vital contribution to music and illuminate lives around the country.

This year, the 61 New York String Orchestra members (ages 16-23) are from conservatories, colleges, and high schools across the US and Canada. Selected through highly competitive national auditions, students give up their winter holidays to come to New York City for 10 days of intensive orchestra rehearsals with Mr. Laredo and chamber music sessions with master artists, including members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Orion, and Guarneri string quartets.

The New York String Orchestra Seminar is a program of The New School's Mannes School of Music-New School Concerts Department. New School Concerts thanks the conductor, coaches, soloists, audition panelists, and advisors for their invaluable contributions to the project, and the many others whose time, effort, and resources make the seminar possible. Our thanks to the Cleveland Institute of Music, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Colburn School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, and the Wellington Hotel. We also thank Michelle Baker, Bart Feller, Valerie Feuer, Laura Flax, Ida Kavafian, Dean Richard Kessler, Diane Lesser, Don Liuzzi, Mary Malin, Raymond Mase, Frank Morelli, Kurt Muroki, William Ochoa, Sharon Robinson, Susan Sawyer, Michael Seabrook, Stephen Shipps, Linda Strommen, and Hiroko Yajima for their extra efforts on behalf of the project. Additionally, we are grateful to Carnegie Hall's administration and staff, and the many others whose efforts go into making the New York String Orchestra Seminar a success.

Musical America's 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense and commanding performances that are delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. An adventurous musician, she collaborates with artists across disciplines and curates projects that find connections between music of all eras. To date, she has premiered more than 60 new works written especially for her.

Ms. Koh has appeared with orchestras around the world, including the Helsinki, New York, London, and Los Angeles philharmonics; and the Cleveland, Mariinsky, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, BBC, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, National, New World, NHK, RAI National, and Singapore symphony orchestras. She has worked with conductors who include John Adams, Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Carlos Kalmar, Lorin Maazel, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Juraj Valčuha, Osmo Vänskä, and Edo de Waart. She also appears in recital at major music centers and festivals.

Ms. Koh's projects have featured commissions from today's foremost composers, including Anthony Cheung, John Harbison, Vijay Iyer, Phil Kline, Missy Mazzoli, Andrew Norman, and Kaija Saariaho. In 2014, she collaborated with former teacher Jaime Laredo on Two x Four-a project that explores mentorship and collaboration between teacher and student-featuring double violin concertos by Bach, Anna Clyne, Philip Glass, and David Ludwig. Her discography includes 11 recordings for Cedille Records (including Two x Four) and the recent release Tchaikovsky: Complete Works for Violin and Orchestra, which she recordedwith the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov.

Born in Chicago to Korean parents, Ms. Koh made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 11 and has won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. She holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Oberlin College, and has also studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked extensively with Jaime Laredo and Felix Galimir. She is the artistic director of arco collaborative, an artist-driven nonprofit that aims to foster a better understanding of the world through a musical dialogue inspired by ideas and communities. For more information, visit jenniferkoh.com.