Robert DiLutis, Artistic Director, is currently the Professor of Clarinet at the University of Maryland, School of Music. Mr. DiLutis previously served as Professor of Clarinet at the Louisiana State University School of Music from 2009-2012. He has also held positions with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman School of Music. Mr. DiLutis served on the faculties of St. Mary's University in Texas and Nazareth College in New York. His recent recitals and classes have included the University of Georgia, University of California at Northridge, University of South Carolina, Catholic University of America and the International Clarinet Conference in Assisi, Italy. Born in Baltimore, Maryland to a family of musicians, Mr. DiLutis studied first at the Peabody Conservatory with William Blayney and later at the Juilliard School with David Weber, principal clarinetist of the NYC Ballet. In 1989 he made his Carnegie Hall Recital debut as the winner of the Artist International Chamber Music Competition.Mr. DiLutis can be heard on numerous recordings including his new CD Robert DiLutis at LSU, available online at CDBaby.com.
Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu has won the hearts of audiences and critics alike with her exciting, elegant and heartfelt performances of the classic, romantic and modern repertoire. The Boston Globe has come to praise her as "not just a virtuoso, but an artist." Early on Ms. Muresanu achieved international acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician winning 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. Ms. Muresanu has performed in renowned concert halls throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Her recent solo engagements include concerts with the Boston Pops, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, the Williamsburg Symphonia, the Syracuse Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra (Montreal), the Romanian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Radio Flamande (Brussels), the Boston Philharmonic and the New England String Ensemble amongst others. In 2013, Ms. Muresanu introduced her “Four Strings Around the World” project, a solo violin recital featuring works of composers inspired by various musical cultures around the world. An active chamber musician and recitalist, Ms. Muresanu has been a member of the Boston Trio since 2002. She has appeared in such festivals and venues as 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, Festival van de Leie in Belgium, and the Renncontres des Musiciennes Festival in France. Irina Muresanu currently serves on the faculty of University of Maryland and has taught in the Music Departments of Boston Conservatory, Harvard and MIT. 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 a Charles Peccatte bow courtesy of Mr. Mark Ptashne.
The United States Army String Quartet and String Trio, premier ensembles of the U.S. Armed Forces and components of The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” provide musical support for many of the country’s most notable events. Their mission is to serve as musical ambassadors for high level military and government events at home and abroad, as well as in concerts for public audiences. The elite musicians that comprise this ensemble have been trained at the most prestigious music conservatories and universities in the country.
The United States Army Field Band Clarinet Trio was formed in 1989 as an official ensemble of the Musical Ambassadors of the Army. The trio has been featured at a variety of professional conferences, including the International Clarinet Society’s ClarinetFest, the Music Educators National Conference, and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. This ensemble is an active participant in the Army Field Band’s educational outreach programs, performing and presenting master classes for students ranging from pre-school to postgraduate.
Cellist Eric Kutz has captivated audiences across both North America and Europe. He comes to the University of Maryland School of Music from Luther College, where he served on the faculty from 2002-2015. He is active as a teacher, a chamber musician, an orchestral musician, and a soloist. His diverse collaborations cut across musical styles, and have ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to jazz great Ornette Coleman. Mr. Kutz is also a founding member of the Murasaki Duo, a cello and piano ensemble that will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2016. The Duo’s second CD, “Duo Virtuoso,” was recently released on the Delos label and features several show pieces as well as Brahms E minor Sonata. The Duo’s debut compact disc appeared on the Centaur Records label; this disc was reviewed by the Journal of the Atlanta Audio Society as “ebullient” and “brilliant throughout.” The Duo’s next recording project, entitled “The Commissions,” will include five works commissioned and premiered by the Murasaki Duo, all written during 2007-2012. As an orchestral musician, Kutz summers in Chicago as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra’s cello section. He has also appeared in the sections of the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 1997 Kutz traveled to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow as a visiting artist, performing new chamber works by American composers. He has given four tours of Europe as a chamber musician. Kutz has premiered over two-dozen works, and has been broadcast live on WQXR and WNYC, both of New York City, WFMT Chicago, as well as nationally on PBS television’s Live from Lincoln Center. He holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Rice University.
Violist Katherine Murdock has performed as soloist and chamber musician in the musical capitals of the U.S., Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and South America. A frequent guest at music festivals throughout the world, she has appeared at the Edinburgh, Salzburg, Spoleto, and Gulbenkian festivals, the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, and in the U.S. at Ravinia, Saratoga, Wolftrap, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Aspen, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. A past participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has toured with Music from Marlboro, and was invited to perform on the Marlboro Fortieth Anniversary Concerts in Philadelphia and New York’s Carnegie Hall. She has appeared on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center as a guest of the Beaux Arts Trio.
Born in Burlington Vermont to music loving parents, Ms. Murdock moved with her family to Toronto at the age of ten. A recipient of two Canada Council Arts Awards, she received her musical training at Oberlin and Boston University, and pursued graduate studies at Yale School of Music. She studied viola with Karen Tuttle and Joseph Silverstein, and for two summers she attended the Banff School of Fine Arts to study with the late William Primrose. She has studied chamber music with such teachers as Felix Galimir, Mischa Schneider, Sandor Vegh, and Eugene Lehner.
From 1988 to 1994 Ms. Murdock was a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. With this group she toured internationally and premiered many new works for string quartet, including works of Augusta Read Thomas, Bruce Adolphe, Tobias Picker, Bernard Rands, Tina Davidson, and Ned Rorem. She has also been a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, the Cambridge Chamber Players, the N.Y. Philomusica, and has toured New Zealand as a guest of the New Zealand String Quartet. In concert she has collaborated with the Vermeer, Emerson, and Guarneri string quartets, members of the Juilliard and Cleveland quartets, and has performed with such artists as pianists Peter Serkin, Leon Fleischer, Claude Frank, and Menahem Pressler, violinists Salvatore Accardo and Jaime Laredo, cellist Janos Starker, and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Active in the field of contemporary music, she was a member for ten years of the contemporary chamber ensemble Boston Musica Viva, with whom she recorded and performed internationally. She has recently premiered several pieces written for her, including a work for viola and piano by Nathaniel Tull Phillips; her trio Polaris with her husband oboist Mark Hill has trios for viola, oboe, and piano by Steven Burke and Dana Wilson.
As a member of the Mendelssohn Quartet, Ms. Murdock served as Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University and the University of Delaware. She has previously been on the faculties of Wellesley College, the Boston Conservatory, the Hartt School of Music, and for eight years at Stony Brook. In the summer she is a member of the artist faculty the Yellow Barn and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals, and is on the faculty and Co-Director of the Chamber Music Program at the National Orchestral Institute. She served on the juries of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, the Peabody “Concours”, and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
Ms. Murdock’s extensive orchestral experience includes performances, tours, and recordings with the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic; for ten years she toured and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Ms Murdock has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Columbia, Delos, CRI, Nonesuch, and John Marks Records; her discography includes a newly released Dorian DVD of Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht. She has been broadcast live and in recordings on NPR, West German Radio, the BBC Radio and TV, and the NBC "Today Show." Ms. Murdock currently performs and records as a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and is a member of the Left Bank Quartet and the Left Bank Concert Society of Washington D.C.
Born in Burlington Vermont to music loving parents, Ms. Murdock moved with her family to Toronto at the age of ten. A recipient of two Canada Council Arts Awards, she received her musical training at Oberlin and Boston University, and pursued graduate studies at Yale School of Music. She studied viola with Karen Tuttle and Joseph Silverstein, and for two summers she attended the Banff School of Fine Arts to study with the late William Primrose. She has studied chamber music with such teachers as Felix Galimir, Mischa Schneider, Sandor Vegh, and Eugene Lehner.
From 1988 to 1994 Ms. Murdock was a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. With this group she toured internationally and premiered many new works for string quartet, including works of Augusta Read Thomas, Bruce Adolphe, Tobias Picker, Bernard Rands, Tina Davidson, and Ned Rorem. She has also been a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, the Cambridge Chamber Players, the N.Y. Philomusica, and has toured New Zealand as a guest of the New Zealand String Quartet. In concert she has collaborated with the Vermeer, Emerson, and Guarneri string quartets, members of the Juilliard and Cleveland quartets, and has performed with such artists as pianists Peter Serkin, Leon Fleischer, Claude Frank, and Menahem Pressler, violinists Salvatore Accardo and Jaime Laredo, cellist Janos Starker, and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Active in the field of contemporary music, she was a member for ten years of the contemporary chamber ensemble Boston Musica Viva, with whom she recorded and performed internationally. She has recently premiered several pieces written for her, including a work for viola and piano by Nathaniel Tull Phillips; her trio Polaris with her husband oboist Mark Hill has trios for viola, oboe, and piano by Steven Burke and Dana Wilson.
As a member of the Mendelssohn Quartet, Ms. Murdock served as Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University and the University of Delaware. She has previously been on the faculties of Wellesley College, the Boston Conservatory, the Hartt School of Music, and for eight years at Stony Brook. In the summer she is a member of the artist faculty the Yellow Barn and Kneisel Hall chamber music festivals, and is on the faculty and Co-Director of the Chamber Music Program at the National Orchestral Institute. She served on the juries of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, the Peabody “Concours”, and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
Ms. Murdock’s extensive orchestral experience includes performances, tours, and recordings with the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic; for ten years she toured and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Ms Murdock has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Columbia, Delos, CRI, Nonesuch, and John Marks Records; her discography includes a newly released Dorian DVD of Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht. She has been broadcast live and in recordings on NPR, West German Radio, the BBC Radio and TV, and the NBC "Today Show." Ms. Murdock currently performs and records as a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and is a member of the Left Bank Quartet and the Left Bank Concert Society of Washington D.C.
After a performance of Johannes Brahms’ Second Serenade, Emily Tsai was quoted by DMV Classical as having “a consistently lovely tone and [taking] her melodic twists and turns with stylish assurance.” She began her musical studies at the age of four on the violin and started the oboe when she was ten. She won 2nd place in the Eastman Oboe and University of Maryland Concerto Competitions where she performed with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra with added dance choreography. In past summers, Emily has attended the Napa Valley Orchestral Institute, Mortizburg Music Festival in Germany, Alba Music Festival in Italy, Sarasota Music Festival, and many others where she studied under such prominent oboists as Neil Black, Allan Vogel, Richard Killmer, Werner Herbers, and Randall Ellis. Her main teachers include Mark Hill, Richard Killmer, and Malcolm Smith. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music with a Performer’s Certificate and the Chamber Music Award, and her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Rochester graduating Magna Cum Laude. Emily has just received her Master of Music from the University of Maryland where she was part of the first ever Graduate Fellowship Woodwind Quintet, SIREN. She is now Acting Principal Oboe and English Horn in the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and English Horn in the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. In the Washington, D.C. area, she is an active freelancer and private music instructor on both oboe and violin.
Bridging the gap between performer and audience, The Daraja Ensemble seeks to spread the love of music through outreach projects and adventurous, exciting programming. Currently Daraja acts as the fellowship woodwind quintet at the University of Maryland School of Music.