Born in London, Roger Chase studied at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk, also working for a short time with the legendary Lionel Tertis, whose Montagnana viola he now plays.

He made his debut with the English Chamber Orchestra in 1979, and in 1987 appeared as a soloist at a Promenade Concert at The Royal Albert Hall in London. He has since played as a soloist or chamber musician in major cities  throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Middle East, India, most of Eastern and all of Western Europe and Scandinavia.

Roger Chase has been a member of many ensembles including the Nash Ensemble for more 20 years, the London Sinfonietta, the Esterhazy Baryton Trio, the Quartet of London, Hausmusik of  London, and the London Chamber Orchestra.  His most recent recording of music by Benjamin Dale was named Recording of the Month by MusicWeb International: “outstandingly performed … undoubtedly one of my Records of the Year for 2008.”

Mr. Chase has been invited to play as principal viola with every major British orchestra and many others in North America and Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.  He has recorded for EMI, CRD, Hyperion, Cala, Virgin and Floating Earth Records, demonstrating his diverse interests by playing with a folk group on an amplified viola, as a soloist on an authentic instrument and as an exponent of the avant-garde.

Roger Chase has taught at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Northern College of Music.  He has been a professor at Oberlin College, and taught at Roosevelt University in Chicago.  His playing has inspired many composers to write for him, from solo pieces to concertos and chamber works. With pianist Michiko Otaki  he has played  works inspired by and dedicated to Lionel Tertis in many venues including at the National Gallery in Washington (featured on NPR’s Performance Today), Princeton University, and in Cleveland, Boston, Toronto, and elsewhere.

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Guillaume Combet, violin, was born in France and studied with world renowned artist Gerard Poulet for nine years.  He also studied with Sylvie Gazeau and Jean Moulliere at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he graduated with a First Prize in Violin as well as a First Prize in Chamber Music.  He subsequently moved to the United States where he received his Advanced Certificate from The Juilliard School, studying with the late William Lincer, and Joel Smirnoff and Robert Mann of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Mr. Combet has had extensive experience as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and pedagogue.  He presently performs with some of the most well-known orchestras in the Chicago area—Chicago Philharmonic, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Ars Viva, Chicago Opera Theater, and Music of the Baroque.  He is also performing this year for the full season with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  He has performed on chamber music concert series including the WFMT Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Mostly Music Concert Series, Sheridan Chamber Players, and the Craftsbury Chamber Players.  Mr. Combet teaches violin and chamber music at the Merit School of Music and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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David Cunliffe began studying at the age of nine in his native England.  Three years later he was chosen to receive a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London.  In 1894 Mr. Cunliffe went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music where he founded the Argyll String Quartet, and where he was also the recipient of the Terrace Weill and Leonard Hirsh Quartet prizes, and the Lady Barbirolli Chamber Music Award.  His teachers included Margaret Moncreiff, Moray Welsh, William Pleeth, Christopher Bunting and Ralph Kirshbaum. He completed his studies at the international Yehudi Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland where he studied with Radu Aldulescu, subsequently touring throughout Europe with Yehudi Menuhin and Camerata Lysy.  In 1995 he was asked to join the Balanescu Quartet which toured extensively in Australia, Europe and the United States, appearing frequently on radio and TV, including featured performances on NPR and the BBC.  He has served as Principal cellist with the RNCM Chamber and Symphony Orchestra, with performances with the BBC Philharmonic, and the BBC Scottish and Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Cunliffe can be heard on various recording labels including Enia and DMD.

He is currently on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago and is as founding member of the Lincoln Trio, an ensemble-in-residence at the Institute.

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Steven Honigberg is a graduate of the Julliard School of Music where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins.  He is currently a member of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and founder of the Potomac String Quartet.  As soloist he has appeared with many leading orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra and has appeared in concert at the Ravinia Festival.  He has recorded extensively, most notably the complete String Quartets of David Diamond which John von Rhein, music critic for the Chicago Tribune, chose as one of his top 20 CD choices for 2003.  Steven Honigberg has also recorded the complete works of Beethoven for cello and piano, and in a new release,  the complete works of Chopin for cello and piano with his mother, Carol Honigberg, pianist. He has been the Director of Chamber Music at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC since its inception and has participated in extensive recordings of concerts held at the museum, including the music of Erick Wolfgang Korngold and of Ernst Toch.  Recent performances in the Chicago area as soloist with orchestra include the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Ars Viva Orchestra, the Elgar Concerto with the New Philharmonic, and the Dvorak Concerto with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Idaho where he has performed as principal cellist since 1990.  Steven Honigberg performs on the “Stuart” Stradivarius cello made in 1732.

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Violist, educator and arts administrator Sel Kardan has performed as a chamber musician and in recital throughout North America and Europe and toured extensively as a member of The Classical Band.  Following studies at the Peabody Conservatory with violinists Daniel Heifetz and Sylvia Rosenberg and violists Paul Coletti and Victoria Chiang, Mr. Kardan served on the faculties of the Peabody Preparatory and Shenandoah University.  He was instrumental in the development of the Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire where he served as Executive Director.  Prior to moving to Chicago he was Executive Director of the Shriver Hall Concert Series in Baltimore, one of the nation’s top presenters of touring classical soloists and chamber ensembles.  Appointed President and CEO of the Music Institute of Chicago in 2005, Mr. Kardan continues to perform and teach.  He lives with his wife, pianist Micah Yui, and daughter in Evanston. 

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Desirée Ruhstrat made her professional debut at the age of twelve with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  She was the youngest prizewinner ever at Switzerland’s Tibor Varga International Competition and won first prize at the National Young Musicians Debut Competition in Los Angeles.  Numerous engagements have included appearances with the Denver Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Agauscalientes in Mexico.  She has also toured extensively with the Philharmonia De Camera Chamber Orchestra in Germany. 

As a recitalist, Ms. Ruhstrat has appeared in Europe and throughout the United States including at the White House by invitation of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. Her distinguished career as a chamber musician includes appearances with the Colorado Chamber Players, on the Chamber Music Series of the Philadelphia Orchestra, at the University of Wisconsin, and at summer festivals such as the Peninsula Music Festival, the Breckenridge Music Festival and the Utah Music Festival where she also served on its faculty.  Ms. Ruhstrat is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and her teachers have included Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Harold Wipplier and Aaron Rosand. 

She presently is on the music faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago in Winnetka where she is an active performer and teacher.

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Chicago-based composer Mischa Zupko has collaborated with a number of today’s most exciting performers and ensembles to create a body of work that is intensely virtuosic and speaks with clarity of vision. The New York Times declared Zupko’s Five Etudes for Piano as “…Liszt-like in their florid generosity”.  His orchestral music has also been praised by the L.A. times as “Engaging” and by the Orange County Register as “powerful, rhythmic and declamatory”.  His honors include, among others, first place in the Pacific Symphony Orchestra’s ‘AMERICAN COMPOSER’S COMPETITION’, the Lee Ettelson Composers Award from Composers Inc., three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards one of which was the first place Kaplan Award, the ‘First Music’ award from the New York Youth Symphony, the Jacob Druckman prize from the Aspen Music Festival, and finalist in the Rome Prize Competition.

He has been commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the St. Olaf Band, the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm Foundation, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the City of Chicago Green festival in conjunction with eighth blackbird, the Music Institute of Chicago and the New York Youth Symphony with performances at Carnegie Hall, Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall, Segerstrom Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Weill Hall and Merkin Hall.  Live radio broadcasts in Chicago, Los Angeles and Cleveland have featured Mr. Zupko’s music.  His works have been published by Lyon & Healy and Edition Peters and have been recorded on the Crytstal, Innova, ENF and American Modern Recording labels.

In addition to working as a free-lance composer, Mr. Zupko currently directs the music program at the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Northfiled, IL, teaches composition and piano at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL, and serves as composer-in-residence with the Music Institute of Chicago.  He resides in Chicago with his wife Minkyoo and son Leo.

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