Violinist David Russell is one of the most celebrated violin pedagogues of his generation. Mr. Russell served on the Violin Faculty at The Cleveland Institute of Music for 24 years, and was also Visiting Violin Faculty at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

He has been a member of the faculty of some of the world's most prestigious violin schools, including Ivan Galamian's Meadowmount School of Music, the ENCORE School for Strings, Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse (Israel), ARIA International Summer Music Academy, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and Language and Music for Life courses in Llandovery, Wales, Bristol, England, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and Valbonne, Cote d'Azure, France. He also directs the annual Mountaintop Mastercourse for Violin in Keene, NY, a program that attracts students from around the globe.

He has been a Distinguished Member of the Jury at international competitions such as the Sion-Valais International Violin Competition (Switzerland), and the International Violin Competition of Buenos Aires (Argentina), as well as at several important U.S. national competitions.

Mr. Russell's former students include IMG Artist Chad Hoopes, members of orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, and others. Several are members of noted string quartets and still others are noted University and Conservatory teachers.

He has presented recitals and masterclasses across North and South America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, and was the featured guest artist in the "World String Masters" performance and masterclass series in Lisbon, Portugal, as well as the featured teacher for the Guest Masterclass series at the Conservatorio Superior di Musica of Córdoba, Spain and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China.

Mr. Russell served as Artistic Director for the North American Premier of "Violins of Hope", a two-week series of concerts, lectures, films and museum exhibitions featuring 18 violins restored from the Jewish Holocaust by Israeli violin maker Amnon Weinstein.

Currently, Mr. Russell is the Anne R. Belk Distinguished Professor of Violin at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu has won the hearts of audiences and critics alike with her “irresistible,” (Boston Globe) exciting, elegant and heartfelt performances of the classic, romantic and modern repertoire. The Globe has also praised her as “not just a virtuoso, but an artist” and the Los Angeles Times has written that her “musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanu’s performance especially admirable”. Her performances have been frequently cited as among the Best of Classical Music Performances by the Boston Globe, most recently for a recital program with pianist Roberto Plano titled “Rorem, Ravel, and Rags.”

Muresanu has performed in renowned concert halls throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Her solo engagements include concerts with the Boston Pops, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, the Williamsburg Symphonia, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), the Metropolitan Orchestra (Montreal), the Transvaal Philharmonic (Pretoria, S. Africa), the Romanian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Radio Flamande (Brussels), the Boston Philharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and Symphony New Hampshire, amongst others.

An active chamber musician and recitalist, Ms. Muresanu is a member of the Boston Trio. She has also appeared as guest artist in such festivals and venues as Newport Festival in Rhode Island, Bargemusic in New York, the Rockport Festival in Massachusetts, Bay Chambers concert series and Bowdoin Festival in Maine, the Strings in the Mountains and San Juan Music Festival in Colorado, Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, Reizend Music Festival in Netherlands, Festival van de Leie in Belgium, and the Rencontres des Musiciennes Festival in France and Guadeloupe islands.

A few seasons ago, Muresanu introduced her “Four Strings Around the World” project, a solo violin program of global resonance, featuring works of composers inspired by various musical cultures around the world. Winning the Creative and Performing Arts Award at the University of Maryland allowed her to commission new works for this project from Indian composer Shirish Korde and Native American composer Jerod ‘Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. Critic Keith Powers noticed the formidable virtuosic stamina and originality of this program in the Cape Cod Times: “Four Strings Around the World” not only extends the superbly talented Muresanu in new directions, but offers a glimpse into variations of violin technique and approach that would only be gleaned by attending different concerts in various country fairs, Irish pubs,campfire gatherings and parlors.

In 2018, the album “Four Strings Around the World” was released on the Grammy-nominated Sono Luminus label to immediate acclaim and also won a prestigious NewMusicUSA grant. Terry Robins of Canada’s “The Whole Note” called it “…one of the best solo CDs I’ve ever heard,” while other reviews note Muresanu’s “extraordinary sonic palette and “beautifully engineered CD” by an “extraordinary artist.”

“Four Strings Around the World” sparked an orchestral project called “Strings Across Europe,” a program in which Muresanu performs the double role of soloist and conductor. She premiered this program with longtime collaborators at Symphony New Hampshire.

Irina Muresanu is an avid performer of new music, especially by American composers. Her recent recording releases include the Thomas Oboe Lee’s Violin Concerto (dedicated to Ms. Muresanu) on the BMOP label, and works of Elena Ruehr on Avie Records. Ruehr’s aforementioned album “Lift” was included on Keith Powers’ 13 Best Classical Music Recordings of 2016. She has also recorded the complete William Bolcom sonatas on the Centaur label with pianist Michael Lewin, funded by the Copland Recording Grant. In Europe, her recording of the Guillaume Lekeu and Alberic Magnard late Romantic Violin and Piano Sonatas with pianist Dana Ciocarlie for the AR RE-SE French label has sparked enthusiasm. Fanfare noted the recording with“singing and soaring…[a] sizzling performance.” Among numerous additional recordings, Ms. Muresanu has also recorded the world premiere recording of Marion Bauer’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with pianist Virginia Eskin on Albany Records.

Early on Muresanu achieved international acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She is a laureate and winner of top prizes in several prestigious international violin competitions including the Montreal International, Queen Elizabeth International, UNISA International String, Washington International, and the Schadt String Competition. Muresanu is the winner of the Pro Musicis International Award, the Presser Music Award, the Kate Kinley Fellowship Award from the University of Illinois and the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association.

Irina Muresanu currently serves on the faculty the University of Maryland and has taught at Boston Conservatory and in the Harvard and MIT Music Departments. She received the prestigious Artist Diploma degree and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory. She plays an 1849 Giuseppe Rocca violin and an Etienne Pajeot bow.

Emilia Ferriz Lozano began her musical studies of violin and piano with Davud Rajazi and Tamara Romadina in Juventudes Musicales of Motril (Granada). She entered in the Higher Degree of Music with fifteen years, having obtained the number one in the entrance examinations held in Córdoba, and she got the final grade with honours from her teacher Janos Nagy, as well as the distinction of Cum Laude in her dissertation.

In her career as a violinist, she has been awarded prizes in numerous competitions of national and international scope: three first prizes, a special award, a jury's grand prize, two second prizes, one third prize and a special prize for the best interpretation of the work of a Spanish composer.

She has performed as a piano and violin soloist in different international festivals in Spain and abroad. Emilia is a founding member of the Cuarteto Granada, with which she maintains an intense artistic activity performing throughout Spain and receiving masterclasses from performers and quartets of recognized prestige. As a member of this quartet, she has completed a Master’s Degree in Musical Performance in Chamber Music at the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía and she has performed the complete fifteen strings quartets by D. Shostakovich at the Sala Unicaja de Conciertos María Cristina of Málaga.

She has three recordings, two of them with IBS Classical and as a member of the Hispanian Symphony Orchestra and the third one titled The Beatles Songbook with Romero Music Spain and as a member of the Cuarteto Granada.

In July 2008 she obtained the highest mark from her examination board for the Corps of Teachers of Music and Performing Arts. Currently, after obtaining a place in the competitive examinations for admission to the Corps of Professors of Music and Performing Arts in 2021, she is a civil servant violin teacher at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música “Victoria Eugenia” de Granada.

Pianist born in Córdoba, with a higher degree in piano and chamber music specialties from the "Rafael Orozco" Superior Conservatory of Music in his hometown.

He began his musical studies at the age of seven at the Córdoba Superior Conservatory of Music. Later, he obtained a higher degree in piano with Rafael Quero, with top marks and an end-of-career award.

During his training he received important advice from teachers Ana Guijarro, Almudena Cano, Julián López Gimeno, Miquel Farré, Hans Graf, Jorge Luis Prats, Kioko Ogawa, José Francisco Alonso and Joaquín Achúcarro.

For two years he has been accompanying pianist at the Royal Philharmonic Center "Eduardo Lucena" in Córdoba.

In 2003 he was selected as an active student in the Piano courses at the Chiggiana Academy in Siena (Italy), taught by Joaquín Achúcarro.

Likewise, he has been an accompanist pianist in numerous courses such as those taught by prominent clarinetists such as Justo Sanz, José Luís Estellés, Charles Neidich, Andreas Sunden, Ralph Manno or Antonio Salguero, among others.

He regularly collaborates with the orchestras of Córdoba, Almería, Granada and Arsian where he has been conducted by Michael Thomas, Luís Remartínez, Pablo González, Ignacio Yepes, Manuel Hernández Silva, Vladimir Ashkenazy, among others, and has performed with soloists of the stature of Placido Domingo, Estrella Morente, Dimitry Ashkenazy, etc.

He has given concerts in Spain, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, Romania and Belgium, both as a soloist and as a member of Chamber Music groups.

His great interest in the chamber music repertoire has led him to the formation of different duo, trio and quartet groups that have allowed him to work in depth on an important part of the repertoire.

During the 2004-2005 academic year, he held a position as Piano Professor at the "Rafael Orozco" Superior Conservatory in his hometown and from 2009 to 2012 at the "Victoria Eugenia" Royal Conservatory of Granada.

He performed at the 2005 and 2009 Cádiz Spanish Music Festival, and at the 2009 Santander and Segovia Music Festivals.

In January 2010 in Bratislava and Vienna within the framework of the celebration of the Capital of Spain in the European Union, he performed invited by the Spanish embassies in the Czech Republic and Austria.

He is currently Professor of Repertoire at the Royal Conservatory of Music "Victoria Eugenia" of Granada.

‘Moonlit lyricism from the keyboard’, ‘una sublime levigatezza sonore’. Press and audiences across the globe praise Sander Sittig for his poetic and individual performances that made him a favorite guest on many stages and for many colleagues. He performs regularly with great violinists like Shlomo Mintz, Pavel Berman and Liza Ferschtman. These concerts have taken him to major concert halls in almost all European countries as well as to Japan, China, Israel and North and South America. 

Also as a soloist he gets rave reviews, for instance for his CD with works by Mozart, his performances with orchestras in the Netherlands, Spain and the Czech Republic and his recitals, often with spoken introductions and audio-visual support. 

Sander Sittig studied with master pedagogue Jan Wijn at the Amsterdam Conservatory. During these studies he made his debut in the main concert halls of the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and De Doelen in Rotterdam, being praised by the national press for his renditions of concertos by Beethoven and Chopin. He was a prizewinner at international piano competitions in the USA, Italy, France and the Netherlands. 

Sander Sittig is a regular guest at festivals in Italy, Israel, Austria and the Netherlands. He performs frequently for radio and television. As a pedagogue he teaches at the Codarts Conservatory of music in his native city Rotterdam and at the online courses of iClassical Academy.