Soloist Bios

Winston Choi, piano [for March 14, 2002 concert]
Press Quotes:
"Many attendees rose to pay their respects for what this most promising
pianist had accomplished. He was deserving of the reception. One could
easily be impressed not only by the skill level of his technique but by a
poetry in the hands and heart"
Herald Times

"Winston Choi performed in place of the scheduled soloist, and conquered the
course in a musical, athletic manner. He has proved on previous occasion, as
he certainly did here, a commanding technique"
Hoosier Times

"He performed very nicely, observing the formal as well as the fanciful
aspects with amusement and skill and managing the abrupt fits and starts
adroitly.  Delightful."
Door County Advocate

Pianist, Winston Choi is currently a student of Ursula Oppens in the Certificate of Performance Program at Northwestern University. He obtained both his Master's and Bachelor Degrees at Indiana University, receiving the Performer’s Certificate, studying with Menahem Pressler.  Early piano studies began in Toronto, Canada, where he was in the Young Performer's Program at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (R.C.M.) taking lessons with Marc Durand and Leon Fleisher.

Winston is winner of numerous international and national competitions. Most recently, he won 1st place in the Orleans Concours International, held in France.  His prize engagements include recital and concerto appearances in France and Spain, as well as recording contracts with Harmonia Mundi and Quadro Frame.  He also won 1st place in the Soloist Division of the 2000 International Krystof Penderecki Competition.  He is one of the few two-time winners of Indiana University's Piano Concerto Competition, and has also won the grand-prize of the 2000 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale, the 2000 Kingsville Piano Concerto Competition, and the 1999 Crane Festival of NewMusic Solo Performer Competition.

Winston performs frequently in solo recitals, as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician and concerto soloist.  He has also been featured on radio for WFIU (Indiana) and WFMT (Chicago) in live and recorded broadcasts.  New York audiences first heard him when he played with flutist Ken Chia in their New York debut at Carnegie-Weill Recital Hall.  His concerts have brought him to venues in Poland, the Netherlands, China, Malaysia and Brunei. Orchestras he has been featured soloist with include the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the North Toronto Collegiate Institute Symphony Orchestra, the Indiana University Concert Orchestra, and the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra.

He is also actively involved in the performances of contemporary music, playing in numerous new music festivals and conferences.  In April of 1999, he performed Post-Partitions by Milton Babbitt for the composer's induction into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He has premiered dozens of new works and has had numerous works dedicated to him.  Composers he has worked with include Leslie Bassett, P.Q. Phan, Sven-David Sandstrom, and Elliott Carter.

Mark Emery, trumpet [ for March 14, 2002 concert]

is an active freelance musician and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA.  He has performed with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Chorus Pro Musica, the Boston Philarmonic, the Oregon Symphony and the New World Symphony.  Mark was a 2002 Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and is a former member of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO.  Performing with the Huntington Brass Quintet has occupied much of Mark's schedule since 1998 when the group won a federal grant and moved for one year to Stephenville , TX to teach and perform.  The ensemble has since given recitals throughour the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the American Composers Forum.  As a result of his chamber music pursuits, Mark has been regularly featured as a speaker at chamber music symposia in New York, the University of Texas, the University of Maryland, and the University of St. Thomas in Houston.  Mark also enjoys working with his students at the South Shore Conservatory, in Hingham, MA, where he is on the faculty.

Mihail Jojatu, cello [soloist for May 9, 2002 concert]
Mihail Jojatu was born in Romania and studied at the Bucharest Academy of Music before coming to the U.S. in 1996. He attended the Boston Conservatory of Music where he studied with former BSO cellist Ronald Feldman and worked privately with Bernard Greenhouse. Presently, Mr. Jojatu is working toward his Performance Diploma at Boston University under BSO principal cellist Jules Eskin.

Mr. Jojatu's numerous awards include winning the Aria Concerto Competition at the Boston Conservatory and the Carl Zeise Memorial Cello Prize while attending the Tanglewood Music Center. He has performed as guest soloist with the Radio Television Orchestra of Bucharest, and he also has won many prizes in Romania for solo and chamber music performance. He is currently a member of the Triptych String Trio based in Boston. Mihail Jojatu joined the BSO cello section in December 2001.

Georgy Valtchev, violin [Soloist for September 27, 2002 concert]
 
  Georgy Valtchev is among the most prominent Bulgarian musicians of his generation.  He has been honored with a number of awards, most recently the First Prize of the 1999 Ducrest Young Artists International Competition in Lafayette, Louisiana and the Special Prize of the 1998 Tibor Varge Competition in Switzerland.

Mr. Valtchev has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and europe.  From 1992 to 1997 Mr. Valtchev was a participant at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.  He has also toured Holland and has appeared live on Bulgarian Television and National Radio "Sofia".

Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Georgy Valtchev began his violin studies at the age of six and gave his first performance with Orchestra six years later.  At age sixteen, he became the winner of the Grand Prize and the Prize for best performance of Wieniawski at the 1989 "Kocian" International Competition in the Czech Republic.  In 1992, Mr. Valtchev came to the United States as a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at the Juilliard School in New York.  He holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from hat school and currently serves as the concertmaster of the Lyric Theater Orchestra in Hoboken, New Jersey.  He is also a faculty member at the Concordia College in Bronxville, New York.

Mr. Valtchev has recorded a CD with solo and chamber works by the American composer Victoria Bond for the GEGA label and has made a number of recordings for the Bulgarian Radio.

Eric Ruske, horn [soloist for November 1, 2002 concert]
Horn Soloist Eric Ruske has established himself as an artist of international acclaim.  

Named Associate Principal horn to the Cleveland Orchestra at the age of 20, is impressive solo career began when he won the 1986 Young Convert Artists International Auditions at 22 years of age.  In 1987, he won First Prize in the Amerian Horn Competition, and in 1988, the highest prize in the Concours International d’Interpretation Musicale in Reims, France.

Of his recording of the complete Mozart concerti and Fragments with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the New York Times stated, 2Mr Ruske’s approach, firmly positioned with the boundaries of balance, coherence and good taste that govern the classical Style, enchants by virtue of its confidence, imagination and ebullient virtuosity”.

Eric gave the 1990 World Premiere of Gunther Schuller’s Concerto for Horn and Orchestra with the San Antonio Symphony with Mr. Shuller conducting.  He has performed as soloist with orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra, the Baltimor Symphony, the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra and toured as soloist with the Israel Chamber Orchestra in Tel Aviv and throughout Israel.  His recitals have been presented in venues such as the Louvre in Paris, the 92nd Street in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C and the Dukes Hall in London.

An Active chamber musician he has appeared at the Newport Music festival, Les Flaneries Musicales d’Ete de Reims Festival in France, the Bargemusic series in New York City, the OL Mozart International Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Festival de Musique de St. Barthelemy.  Mr. Ruske, is in great demand as a teacher and clinician, and in addition to having worked at many universities in the United States, he has taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, and the College of Music at Seoul National University.

In addition to his Mozart recording, his discography includes a recital repertoire disc entitled "Night Poems" for the Musical Heritage Society and two world premiere recordings, "simultaneous Contrasts" (1987) a tour de force for solo horn by James Yannatos on Albany Records and  "Concierto Evocativo" (1990) a concerto for horn and string orchestra by Roberto Sierra on the Fleur de Son label.  His most recent recording of virtuoso horn and iano repertoire will be released in the spring of 2001.

A native of LaGrange, Illinois and a graduate of Northwestern University, Eric Ruske has been the recipient of grants from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and the International Institute of Education.  Having served on the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, he is currently on the faculty of the Boston University and heads the Horn seminar a the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

David Gordon, tenor [soloist for November 1, 2002 concert]
 
Tenor David Gordon is originally from Kalamazoo, MI, and earned his Master Degree in Classical Performance and Opera at the Manhattan School of Music.  David is currently studying with Ted Puffer.  Performances at MSM included the roles of Alfredo in La Traviata and Don Jose in Carmen as part of the Tom Muraco and Dona D. Vaughn workshop, and the Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Julius Rudel, for the MSM Opera Department.  David also performed scenes from Eugene Onegin, Vanessa, Carmen, and La Rondine.  Previous roles include the Governor in Candide (Central City), Ferrando in Cosí fan Tutte (Michigan Opera Works), Rodolfo in La Bohême (FOTO of Michigan), and Borsa in Rigoletto (Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra).

Prior to his move to New York, David spent 1997 to 2000 earning a Bachelor Degree in Voice from the University of Michigan.  During this period of time in Ann Arbor, David studied voice with the distinguished teacher and performer George Shirley and had the opportunity to coach on numerous occasions with Martin Katz.  While at the U of M, David performed the roles of Monostatos in The Magic Flute and Elder Gleaton in Floyd’s Susannah, both conducted by Kenneth Kiesler and directed by Joshua Major.   David’s credits as a stage director include full productions of The Rape of Lucretia and Dido and Aeneas, and scenes programs for the Brevard Music Center, the Chautauqua Institute, and the University of Michigan Opera Studio.