Pianist Shai Wosner has attracted international recognition for his exceptional artistry, musical integrity, and creative insight. His performances of a broad range of repertoire—from Beethoven and Schubert to Ligeti and the music of today—reflect a degree of virtuosity and intellectual curiosity that has made him a favorite among audiences and critics, who note his “keen musical mind and deep musical soul” (NPR’s All Things Considered).

Mr. Wosner has worked with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Jiří Bělohlávek, James Conlon, Alan Gilbert, Gunther Herbig, James Judd, Zubin Mehta, Peter Oundjian, Donald Runnicles, Leonard Slatkin, Jeffrey Tate, and Yan Pascal Tortelier, and has performed at summer festivals including the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, Bravo! Vail festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, and Ravinia Festival. For several consecutive summers, he was involved in the West-Eastern Divan Workshop led by Mr. Barenboim and toured as soloist with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Widely sought after by colleagues for his versatility and spirit of partnership, Mr. Wosner has collaborated as a chamber musician with numerous artists, including Martha Argerich, Martin Fröst, Lynn Harrell, Dietrich Henschel, Ralph Kirshbaum, Jennifer Koh, Cho-Liang Lin, Christian Tetzlaff, Orion Weiss, and Pinchas Zukerman. He has also collaborated with leading chamber ensembles, including the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet in The Schubert Effect recital series.

Born in Israel, Mr. Wosner enjoyed a broad musical education from a very early age, studying piano with Opher Brayer and Emanuel Krasovsky, as well as composition, theory, and improvisation with André Hajdu. He later studied at The Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax. He resides in New York with his wife and two children.

Sponsored by Franziska Schoenfeld

Daring, versatile, and charismatic, American violinist Robyn Bollinger was appointed Concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Jader Bignamini at the end of the 2021-22 season. Currently the youngest female Concertmaster in the country, she is a frequent Guest Concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony and has made Guest Concertmaster appearances with the Indianapolis Symphony and St. Bart’s Music Festival Orchestra. She is a former member of the Boston-based, democratically run chamber orchestra, A Far Cry, and she has appeared on commercial recordings with both the Pittsburgh Symphony and A Far Cry, all of which were nominated for GRAMMY® awards.

Having made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age twelve, Ms. Bollinger regularly performs as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across the United States. Recent highlights include solo engagements with the Boston Pops and the symphony orchestras of California, Charleston, Knoxville, and Symphony in C. She is a returning participant at the storied Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, VT and has been featured in numerous national tours with the acclaimed Musicians from Marlboro. She has also appeared at the chamber music festivals of Lake Champlain, Orcas Island, Highlands-Cashiers, Monadnock, and others, and she has performed in recital at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, National Sawdust, Osaka’s Phoenix Hall, Tokyo National Arts Center, and other venues. She regularly appears with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in Boston, the Boston Chamber Music Society, Mistral Music, Spruce Peak Chamber Music Society, and Glissando Music, among others.

Ms. Bollinger is a devoted educator, having presented masterclasses at Cincinnati Conservatory, the Longy School of music, University of California Bakersfield, and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. She is a former faculty member at New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston. She plays a 1697 G. B. Rogeri on generous loan from a private collector.

Sponsored by Kathleen Block

The AYA Trio was formed in 2013 at the Curtis Institute of Music where they have since studied with Peter Wiley as their main coach, Jonathan Biss, Arnold Steinhardt and Meng-Shieh Lieu.

The Trio has participated in masterclasses with Peter Wiley, Robert Levine, Noah Bendix-Bagely, Peter Stumpf  and Jessica Lee, and have performed numerous times in the Philadelphia Area including performances in the Philadelphia Club and the Curtis Institute of Music.

The AYA Trio was awarded 1st prize in the 2018 WDAV Chamber Music Competition as well as advancing to the semi-finals of the 2018 MPrize and Fischoff Chamber music competitions.

Beverly Franzblau Baker Young Artist Chair

The Abeo Quartet, formed at Juilliard in 2018, is the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware under the mentorship of the Calidore String Quartet. Abeo’s accomplishments include being among ten quartets invited to participate in the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022. The quartet was also a First Prize and Audience Favorite Prize winner in the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition for Emerging Professional Ensembles and Silver Medal winner of the Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition, both in 2022. The quartet was a finalist in the 2021 Young Concert Artists International Competition and the silver medal winner of the 2019 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Abeo has also appeared in Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center’s Reach Festival with pianist Joseph Kalichstein, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s masterclass series with the Danish String Quartet, and on WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces. Abeo participated in Norway’s 2019 Vertavo Festival, performing seven Haydn string quartets and was in residence at the Glenstone Museum, debuting “Moonshot” by Alistair Coleman. Abeo has participated in the Montreal International String Quartet Academy, studying with members of Quatuor Ebene, Alban Berg, Takács, Artemis, Cecilia and Meta4 String Quartets. In 2022, they also performed in the Music@Menlo Chamber Institute and Workshop and the Juilliard String Quartet Workshop. In 2021, the Abeo Quartet attended the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, coached by the Brentano, Emerson and Miró quartets.

During their time at Juilliard, Abeo studied regularly in the Honors Chamber Music Program under the tutelage of The Juilliard String Quartet with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween and Roger Tapping. The quartet chose the name Abeo / ah – bey – oh / — an expression of joy in a Nigerian dialect — to reflect their love for playing chamber music and sharing it with others.

Sponsored by Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP