Summer Music Festival Artists

Violin & Artistic Director

Angella Ahn

Korean American violinist Angella Ahn is a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. As the violinist of the Ahn Trio, Angella has performed in over 35 countries and every state in the U.S., at venues as diverse as Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Vienna’s Musikverein, New York’s Lincoln Center, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, Beijing’s Concert Hall, Istanbul’s Aya Irini in Topkapi Palace, and the White House. She has collaborated and been featured with such musical luminaries as Phil Aaberg, Darol Anger, Rachel Barton Pine, Emmylou Harris, and the late John Prine.

In addition to live performances, Angella has an impressive discography with her trio. The nine enthusiastically received albums include Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, released by Sony (No. 8 in the Billboard Charts for 26 weeks) and Dvorak, Suk and Shostakovich, released by EMI (winner of Germany’s prestigious ECHO Award).

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Angella leverages her tutelage under foremost violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay with her decades-long performance career, helping to shape the next generation of young musicians. She is Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at Montana State University and has given masterclasses throughout North America, Asia, and Europe.

Angella is active in the Montana community where she lives, serving her second term on the Montana Arts Council. She is the Artistic Director of Montana Chamber Music, bringing world class chamber music to Montana, and she also serves on the Advisory Board of Opera Montana. She can be seen in “Angella Ahn & Friends” on Montana PBS’ Emmy award- winning 11th & Grant with Eric Funk, as well as in The Hive, a film produced by Tippet Rise Art Center in collaboration with the acclaimed sculptor Stephen Talasnik and director Matthew McKee.

Angella plays on a Pietro Antonio Dalla Costa, circa 1760.

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Violin

Peter Zazofsky

Viola

David Harding

David Harding has an extensive solo and chamber music career, having performed throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Central America and Australia, in such renowned venues as Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and New York’s 92nd Street Y and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Noted for his “eloquent viola playing” (The Scotsman), David has performed at music festivals around the world, including the Edinburgh International Festival, Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Sitka Chamber Music Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and Philip Glass’ “Days and Nights Festival” in Big Sur, California. David’s career has involved collaborations with leading instrumentalists and ensembles such as the Pacifica, Shanghai, Cypress, Dover, Fine Arts and Miro Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio. David was formerly a member of the Toronto String Quartet and the Chester String Quartet  (“one of the country’s best and brightest young string quartets,” — Boston Globe) as well as the Canadian string trio “Triskelion.” With his wife, flutist Lorna McGhee and harpist, Heidi Krutzen, David is a member of Trio Verlaine.

Cello

Sara Stalnaker

Cellist Sara Stalnaker is a native of Portland, OR. After receiving a B.M. at Oberlin Conservatory and an M.M. at Rice University, she spent over a decade teaching for the award winning organization Community MusicWorks and performing in the Providence String Quartet. Throughout her chamber music career, she’s collaborated with groups ranging from the Turtle Island to the Orion, Borromeo and Muir String Quartets. In addition to her active involvement in chamber music, she performs solo concerts with cello and looper and heads the music program at Woodside Montessori Academy.

Zachary Cohen

Piano and Composer

Michele Levin

Pianist and composer Michele Levin has been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a multi-faceted musician of extraordinary sensitivity, virtuosity, and dedication to the art of making music. Michele is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music with a double major in piano and composition. She began her studies there at the age of eleven and is the first woman to receive a Master’s degree in Composition.

The Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Washington DC awarded her First Prize in competition with pianists from fourteen countries. Michele has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops, Florida Philharmonic, Miami Chamber Symphony, Sinfonia Virtuosi, New World Symphony, Albany Symphony, and Virginia Symphony. She has also given solo and chamber music recitals in major cities throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Central and South America.

Michele is very much in demand as a chamber musician, touring the world with violinists Peter Zazofsky, Joseph Silverstein, Ruggerio Ricci, Nina Beilina, Daniel Phillips, Mark Kaplan, Donald Weilerstein, Sydney Harth, Ik-Hwan Bae, Ida Levin, Maria Bachman, Arve Tellefson, Andrew Dawes, Lin Chang, and Yehonaton Berick; with violists Rivka Golani, Paul Neubauer, Atar Arad, Kirsten Johnson, Rainer Moog, and Jessie Levine; and with cellists Yehuda Hanani, Simca Heled, Ronald Thomas, and Wolfgang Boettcher. She has performed with clarinetists Mitchell Lurie, Alexander Fiterstein, Eli Eban, and Charles Neidich; with harpist Heidi Lehwalder; and with flutists Thomas Wolf, Carol Wincenc, and Eugenia Zuckerman.                   

Michele tours regularly with the Muir String Quartet and as a guest artist with the Miami String Quartet. In 2007, the Muir Quartet premiered her String Quartet No. 1. Her vast repertoire extends into the realm of vocal music, having given recitals with Metropolitan Opera vocalists Gwendolyn Bradley, Marvis Martin, Martina Arroyo, D’Anna Fortunato, Carol Farley, Lucy Shelton, and William Sharp. Ms. Levin records for Koch International, EcoClassics, Altarus, and the Canadian Broadcasting Companies. NPR regularly broadcasts her performances nationwide.