Wednesday
Pre–event reception starts at 6:30
Angella Ahn enjoys her success as the violinist for the Ahn Trio. The trio, comprised of Angella and her two twin sisters, was born while all three studied at the Juilliard School of Music, and now tours the world, playing in such venues as New York’s Lincoln Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. The trio has five highly acclaimed recordings, one of which won Germany’s highest musical honor, the Echo Award. The latest, Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac their most innovative recording to date, is released under Sony.
Angella and her trio have taken it as their mission to expand the trio repertoire, and has commissioned over 30 new works by the likes of Paul Schoenfield, Michael Nyman, John Musto, Nikolai Kapustin, Kenji Bunch and many other visionaries. For their efforts, New York Newsday dubbed the Ahn Trio, Classical Revolutionaries.
A dedicated teacher, Ms. Ahn has been involved in residencies, workshops and master classes across the country for all ages. In the last four years, she has been teaching at the Mark O’Connor Strings Conference and sharing the much sought–after technique of her late world–renowned pedagogue, Dorothy DeLay.
As a soloist, Ms. Ahn has performed with the Honolulu Symphony, the Louisville Symphony, and the KBS Orchestra, among others. In one of her many collaborative projects, she has also performed improvisational solos with the David Parsons Dance Company.
Ms. Ahn plays a 2000 violin custom made for her in Brooklyn, NY by Sam Zygmuntowicz.
Ilse–Mari Lee serves as the Director of the University Honors Program at Montana State University in Bozeman. Born in South Africa, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Masters degrees in Cello Performance, and in Theory and Composition, from Northern Illinois University, and a Doctorate in Cello Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Arizona.
Ilse–Mari is active as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, and performs regularly at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She serves as principal cellist of the Intermountain Opera Company. In 1991, she was awarded the Montana Arts Council Individual Fellowship Award, and was selected to perform at the American Cello Congress in Phoenix. In 1992, she premiered the Cello Concerto, Opus 55, by Eric Funk. Collaborative performances include performances with the internationally renowned Moscow, Muir and Fry Street string quartets. CD releases include The Duet Album with classical guitarist Stuart Weber, Song of the Cello with pianist Michele Levin, and In Performance at St. Timothy’s with the Muir Quartet.
Dr. Lee founded the MSU Cello Ensemble in 1998. The ensemble was selected to perform at the 1999 All–Northwest MENC Conference in Portland Oregon. The ensemble has toured throughout the Northwest, as well as to Italy and Central Europe in May 2000 and to China in March 2006, performing in Beijing, Xian, and Tianjin.
Active as a composer, Ilse–Mari’s compositions have been performed in South Africa, Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia and in China. In 2002, Ilse–Mari premiered her Cello Concerto, Mandela, with the Billings Symphony. Most recently, her film scores for Certain Green, and Forced into Comfort, Fighting for Apology were awarded gold medals at the Park City Film Music Festival in 2008 and 2009.
A dedicated teacher, she was awarded the “Mortar Board Professor of the Month”, and the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce “Excellence in Teaching” Award. (2000, 2008, 2009). In 2008, Ilse–Mari was awarded the Wiley Award for Meritorious Research at Montana State University. She is a recipient of the prestigious President’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Julie Gosswiller is an adjunct instructor in aural and keyboard skills as well as a collaborative pianist at Montana State University. An active chamber musician, she frequently collaborates with colleagues Elizabeth Croy, Johan Jonsson and Ilse–Mari Lee. She and Croy were a featured duo on the Emmy–award winning series, 11th and Grant with Eric Funk, which aired on Montana PBS during the 2005 season. The duo also won numerous awards in the 2002 Cyber Sing Art Song Competition, including the Nancy Babcock award for best pianist. In addition, they have released their first CD which received rave reviews in the Journal of Singing. In 2002, Croy and Gosswiller were one of 10 teams chosen nationally to participate in the Cleveland Art Song Festival. Ms. Gosswiller has also collaborated with famed artists, Jonathan Cohler, clarinet, the Dallas Brass, soprano, Hyunah Yu and Mike Reynolds of the Muir String Quartet.
In June of 2006, Ms. Gosswiller was a featured guest with the newly formed Meritage String Quartet and will be heard in concert with them at the Pilgrim Concert Series in Bozeman and again in Helena this fall. Ms. Gosswiller has been a student coach–accompanist at the Aspen Music Festival and has served as accompanist for the Colorado Childrens' Chorale, Young Musicians’ Foundation, Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and Bozeman’s Intermountain Opera. She also maintains an active piano studio. Her students have won first place in the elementary, junior and senior high school Montana Music Teachers’ Association Competition as well as gold medals in the Spokane Allied Arts Festival.
She holds a BM degree from University of Idaho and a MM degree in piano performance from the University of Colorado. Influential teachers and coaches include Angela Cheng, Doris Lehnert, Robert Spillman, Warren Jones, Stephen Blier and Martin Isepp.