Professor Naoumoff's concert tours have taken him throughout the United States, Japan, and South America, and he has participated in international chamber music festivals and numerous concerts.
Mark Kaplan ( Professor )
mkmk@indiana.edu
(812) 855-3139
Education
B.M., The Juilliard School, 1976
Biography
Violinist Mark Kaplan's career began in Europe in 1975, when he was asked to replace Pinchas Zukerman in a concert in Cologne, which led to engagements that launched an international career.
Before joining the IU faculty, he taught at UCLA in California.
Professor Kaplan has performed in all the principal cities of Europe, including London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan, as well as the Far East and Australia. In the United States he has played with nearly every major orchestra, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., and the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Dallas and Houston.
He has collaborated with many of the world's foremost conductors, among them Ormandy, Tennstedt, Maazel, Masur, Dutoit, Bychkov, Comissiona, Conlon, Foster, Rattle, Salonen, Skrowaczewski, Slatkin, Gatti and Zinman. He has appeared regularly at the major summer festivals, such as Aspen, Blossom, Chautauqua, Grant Park, Ravinia, Saratoga, Wolf Trap and Santa Fe.
With a repertoire that stretches from the baroque to the present day, Kaplan has recorded extensively. His performances appear on various commercial labels, including Koch, Arabesque, Claves and Copl Legno.
A dedicated chamber musician, he recently formed a new trio, Sequenza, with cellist Colin Carr and pianist Yael Weiss. Professor Kaplan plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1685, which is named "The Marquis" after the Marchese Spinola, whose family owned the violin for several generations.
Alexander Kerr (Professor )
alkerr@indiana.edu
(812) 855-4587
Education
B.M., Curtis Institute of Music, 1993
Biography
Raised in Alexandria, VA, violinist Alexander Kerr balances an orchestral career with solo and chamber engagements throughout Europe, North America, and the Far East.
In 1996, at the age of 26, he was appointed concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where he served before coming to IU. He has also served as concertmaster of the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra and Chamber Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
Kerr has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe and as a chamber musician at some of the world's premier music festivals. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with a number of the world's top musicians, including Grammy Award-winning IU music alums Joshua Bell and Edgar Meyer.
Kerr has numerous CD releases to his credit, including the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Sara Chang and renowned Norwegian classical pianist Leif Ove Andsnes; music by Dutch composer Julius R�ntgen; and Shostakovich's Romance on a series of discs including "Violin Adagios" and "Evening Adagios."
He also has contributed to a live DVD and CD recording of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Maestro Mariss Jansons.
A member of the faculties of the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado, Kerr regularly presents master classes at several of the nation's leading music schools and conservatories.
Kevork Mardirossian (Professor )
kmardiro@indiana.edu
(812) 855-5494
Education
B.M. in Violin, Sofia Conservatory, 1982
M.M. in Violin, 1982
Artist Diploma in Violin, Guildhall School, 1986
Biography
A former concertmaster of the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Mardirossian performed as concerto soloist and recitalist throughout Bulgaria, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before moving to Europe, where he developed an impressive solo career, with tours of England, Wales, Italy and the U.S., including debuts in London and New York's Carnegie Recital Hall in 1992. He has appeared as guest artist at international music festivals in Cheltenham, England; the European Cultural Months; the International Chamber Music Festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; the Czech Festival in Trento, Italy; and the Sofia Musical Weeks, Bulgaria.
His teachers include Anton Hadjiatanasov, Vladimir Avramov, Artur Grumiaux and Yfrah Neaman.
Between 1988 and 1990, Mardirossian was concertmaster of the Baton Rouge Symphony, after which he was appointed artist-in-residence in violin at the University of Central Arkansas. In 1995, he was appointed as violin professor at the College of Music and Drama at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
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Stanley Ritchie (Professor )
sritchie@indiana.edu
(812) 855-6735
Education
D.S.C.M. in Violin, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 1956
Biography
Stanley Ritchie has directed and appeared as soloist with many period instrument ensembles, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra. He is in demand for master classes and workshops throughout the world.
Professor Ritchie is a member of Duo Geminiani with harpsichordist Elisabeth Wright, and was a member of Three Parts Upon a Ground, specializing in 17th-century music for three violins.
For 20 years, he was a member of The Mozartean Players, with whom he recorded the complete Mozart and Schubert Piano Trios.
He has held various positions as a modern violinist, including concertmaster of the New York City Opera Orchestra, associate concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and first violinist of the Philadelphia String Quartet.
Mimi Zweig (Professor )
zweig@indiana.edu
(812) 855-8334
Education
B.M., State University of New York at Albany, 1971
Biography
Mimi Zweig is director of the Summer String Academy.
She is a former member of the American Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Orchestra, Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Symphony orchestra.
Professor Zweig participated in the development of string programs for children at the North Carolina School of the Arts, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and the String Academy of Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Sigurbjorn Bernhardsson
Professor of Practice (Violin, Pacifica Quartet)
bernhars@indiana.edu
East Studio Building, JS221
Biography
Sigurbjorn Bernhardsson is professor of practice (violin) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a member of the Pacifica Quartet, the school's quartet-in-residence.
He has performed at festivals including the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Iceland Art Festival. With the Pacifica Quartet, he has received several honors, including the Grammy Award, the Musical America Ensemble of the Year, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and the MTV Europe Music Awards, with award-winning rock artist Björk. Bernhardsson gives regular recitals and master classes in Iceland and the United States, and has appeared as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra. His teachers include Gudny Gudmundsdottir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Matias Tacke, and Shmuel Ashkenasi.
Simin Ganatra
Professor of Practice (Violin, Pacifica Quartet)
sganatra@indiana.edu
East Studio Building, JS430
Department
Strings
Biography
Simin Ganatra is professor of practice (violin) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a member of the Pacifica Quartet, the school's quartet-in-residence.
She is the recipient of several awards, including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and first prizes in the Union League of Chicago Competition, the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, the Minnesota Sinfonia Competition, and the Schubert Club Competition. Ganatra has studied with Idell Low, Robert Lipsett, and Roland and Almita Vamos. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she was concertmaster of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra and recipient of the Louis Kaufman Prize for outstanding performance in chamber music. She was previously on the faculties of the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana and the University of Chicago.
Grigory Kalinovsky
Professor of Music (Violin)
gkalinov@indiana.edu
East Studio Building, JS203
Biography
Grigory Kalinovsky is professor of violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He, along with violinist Joseph Swensen, holds one of two inaugural Starling Professorships, appointed in fall 2014.
Hailed by critics as a “superior poet” (Vancouver Sun) and praised for his “heart and indomitable will” (Gramophone), he has performed at some of the world’s major venues, from all three stages of Carnegie Hall in New York to Musikhalle Grosser Saal in Hamburg. As a recitalist and avid chamber musician, he has performed at numerous concert series and festivals, including the Asheville Chamber Music Series, Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, Lucas Foss’s Festival at the Hamptons, Newport Music Festival, and Pavel Vernikov's festival, “Il Violino Magico” in Italy, collaborating with such renowned musicians as Pinchas Zukerman, Shmuel Ashkeniasi, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miriam Fried, James Buswell, Dora Schwarzberg, and Paul Coletti, among others.
A devoted educator, Kalinovsky joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in the fall of 2013 and continues to teach at the Pinchas Zukerman Young Artists Program in Canada and the Heifetz International Music Institute. Previously a faculty member at Manhattan School of Music, he has taught at many summer music festivals, such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, Soesterberg International Music Festival in Holland, Summit Music Festival in New York, “Il Violino Magico” in Italy, and Manhattan in the Mountains, where he is also one of the founding artistic directors.
He has presented master classes at many major U.S. festivals and music schools, including New England Conservatory, Meadowmount, University of Maryland, San Francisco Conservatory, and Seattle Conservatory, and at numerous European and Asian institutions, such as the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Buchmann-Mehta Scool of Music and Tel Aviv Conservatory in Israel, Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany, Beijing Central Conservatory in China, Seoul National University and Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, among others. His students have won top prizes at national and international competitions, including the Menuhin Young Artists Competition in England, and have gone on to study at institutions such as Curtis, Juilliard, Yale, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Indiana University, among others.
His recording with pianist Tatiana Goncharova featuring Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata and Twenty-Four Preludes transcribed for Violin and Piano by Dmitri Tziganov—with several of the transcriptions commissioned by Kalinovsky from the celebrated composer Lera Auerbach—was released by Centaur Records to great critical acclaim and hailed by the composer's son, conductor Maxim Shostakovich, as “a must-have for any Shostakovich music connoisseur.”
Kalinovsky started his music education with Tatiana Liberova in his native St. Petersburg, Russia. After coming to New York, he continued his studies with Pinchas Zukerman and Patinka Kopec at Manhattan School of Music, where he served as a faculty member shortly after graduating and until his move to Indiana University.
Joseph Swensen
Professor of Music (Violin)
jswensen@indiana.edu
812-855-9846
Biography
Joseph Swensen joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in the fall of 2013. A winner of the Leventritt Foundation Sponsorship Award and the Avery Fisher Career Award, he has appeared as violin soloist with orchestras around the world, including those of Cleveland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Baltimore, London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Tokyo.
He has performed in recital and in chamber music concerts in major cultural centers, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, as well as in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. As an exclusive recording artist with BMG Classics and later with Linn Records, his recordings of the major violin concerto repertoire with conductors like André Previn and Jukka-Pekka Saraste have received consistently high acclaim.
Swensen was born in Hoboken, N.J., and raised in Harlem, N.Y., by a Japanese-American mother and a Norwegian-American father, both of whom are professional musicians. He attended Juilliard from the age of seven, first as a piano student of Thomas Schumacher and Christopher Sager and then, at the age of nine, as a violin student of Dorothy Delay. He studied chamber music with Robert Mann and other members of the Juilliard Quartet, Leonard Rose and Felix Galimir. He studied composition with David Diamond and Vincent Persechetti, and coached privately with Isaac Stern over a 10-year period. A passionate chamber musician, Swensen performs in recital with pianist Jeffrey Kahane, and with his trio, Kahane Swensen Brey, alongside Kahane and cellist Carter Brey.
As an active guest conductor, Swensen has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Toronto, St. Louis, Rochester, Colorado and New World symphonies, among others in North America. He has also worked with London’s Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Oslo and Stockholm philharmonics, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse (where he recently completed his first Mahler Symphony cycle) and the Finnish and Swedish Radio symphony orchestras.
In 2014, in addition to guest conducting the London Philharmonic and other orchestras worldwide, he will be violin soloist with orchestras in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom, in addition to performing a tour of recitals and trios. Also this year, his 25-minute work "Shizue" (written in 1995 in memory of his mother’s sister who was killed in the Hiroshima bombing) will receive its Portuguese premiere by the National Orchestra of Portugal. On Oct. 9, he will deliver a TED Talk, "Habitats for Music and the Sound of Math," about music education and the developing brain, at the New York Institute of Technology.
Swensen, along with his partner, Victoria Eisen, are the founders and directors of the non-profit organization Habitat4Music. Habitat4Music connects highly qualified, passionate, young American-trained classical musicians with children living in challenged areas across the world. It seeks to empower these children by way of long-term, committed, participatory music education while providing an invaluable and unforgettable experience for their young mentors.
Swensen recently received an Honorary Doctorate degree from St. Andrews University in Scotland.
