Elizabeth Chang, violinist, is Artistic Director and founding member of the Lighthouse Chamber Players. She has given solo recitals throughout the United States as well in Europe and South America, and she has appeared as soloist with orchestras both in the US and in Europe. She has been a guest artist and master teacher at the São Paulo International Chamber Music Festival in Brazil and has given master classes at the Beijing Central Conservatory and the Furren Music School in Beijing. Elizabeth studied at the Juilliard School in the Pre-College Division, at Harvard University, and in Bern, Switzerland. Her teachers were Louise Behrend, Joseph Fuchs, Max Rostal, Leon Kirchner and Luise Vosgerchian. Elizabeth was the recipient of the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Award and the Beebe Fellowship for Study Abroad awarded by New England Conservatory.
Elizabeth has performed, recorded, and toured with both the Orchestra of St. Luke's and with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in this country and abroad. She has appeared as a guest with the Perspectives Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, Sequitir, and many other groups in New York City as well as with the Walden Chamber Players and the Smith Chamber Players in Massachusetts. She has been an Artist Faculty member at New York University and co-founded an intensive chamber music workshop at NYU in the summer of 2002. She has been on the violin and viola faculties at the Mason Gross School of the Arts in Rutgers University and she is currently on the violin and viola faculties of the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School as well as on the violin faculty of The School for Strings in New York, where she launched an intensive chamber music workshop in the summer of 2003. Since 2005 she has been on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In the summers she performs and teaches at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont and the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Chamber Music Festival in Germany.
For more information on Ms. Chang's current activities, please visit www.elizabethchang.net
Pianist MARIKO KANEDA began her studies in Geneva, Switzerland and was later accepted to the Paris Conservatoire where she graduated with the Premier Prix. An award winner, Ms. Kaneda has won prizes at the Montreal International Piano Competition, the Maria Canals International Piano Competition, and the European Piano Competition in Luxembourg. Her orchestral appearances include engagements with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bordeaux-Aquitaine Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, the Adelaide Chamber Orchestra (Australia), and the Kingsport Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kaneda’s performances have been broadcast in New York (WQXR), France (France-Musique), Australia (ABC-FM), and Japan (NHK-FM). Ms. Kaneda has performed at Trinity Church, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and Merkin Hall
As an active chamber musician, she has collaborated with violinist Anastasia Tchebotaryova, a prize-winner of Tchaikovsky Competition, Aaron Rosand, and with cellists Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, violist Paul Neubauer and the Colorado String Quartet. Her participation in music festivals include the East End Chamber Series in Adelaide, Australia, and Bard Music Festival. In January 2002, she performed the U.S. premiere of the Krzysztof Penderecki’s Piano Sextet at Ohio State University. Since 1998, she performs regularly with the Lighthouse Chamber Players based in Cape Cod. Her upcoming performances include participation in chamber music soirees with members of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra on the Sunday at Central series. She received her doctor’s degree in piano performance at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and her master’s degree at Mannes College of Music. Her teachers include Dominique Merlet, Jacques Rouvier, Pascal Devoyon, Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter. She is an assistant professor at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Mariko enjoys reading, biking, playing tennis, and has been seen on the golf course.
Hailed by the press as "a musician of commitment and energy. with brilliance of technique and masterful interpretations", cellist Maureen McDermott sustains an active career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. A native of New York, she has performed in France, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico, St. Bartholemy and throughout the U.S. and Canada. Concerts in the U.S. have included performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall's "Great Performers Series", Barge Music, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Van Cliburn Foundation in Texas. An active chamber music performer, Ms. McDermott is a member of the McDermott Trio (with sisters Anne-Marie and Kerry) and a former founding member of the cello quartet "CELLO". Ms. McDermott is a founding member of the Lighthouse Chamber Players, a group that performs throughout Cape Cod every summer. The highlight of the summers has been an annual collaboration with Bernard Greenhouse.
She has participated in numerous music festivals including the Newport Music Festival, Bravo! Colorado, Mainly Mozart, Park City International Music Festival, Caramoor and Chautauqua. Media appearances include the movie "FAME", CBS Sunday Morning, the Fox Television Network, an AT&T commercial (broadcast internationally) and in TIME and W magazines. She has recorded on the SONY Classical, Angel, d'Note classics, BMG and Pro Arte labels. Ms. McDermott is on the cello faculty at the School for Strings in New York and an Artist Teacher at the Third Street Music School Settlement. She has given master classes in São Paulo, Brazil and across the U.S.
Violinist David Niwa's extensive performing career has included feature appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute, the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, and the Chicago Youth Symphony. He has been featured in recital at the Sunday at Central series, as well as the Corcoran Gallery, the Terrace Theatre of the Kennedy Center, the Cloitre des Jacobins, and Landgraf. Since 1990, he has been featured regularly as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble throughout Japan and Southeast Asia. He has appeared annually with the Chamber Orchestra of the Palisades and the Plainfield, NJ Symphony, where he has also served as concertmaster.
An active chamber musician and an active proponent of 20th and 21st century music, Mr. Niwa was honored to perform Gunther Schuller’s “Paradigm Exchanges” and present the United States premiere of Penderecki’s “Sextet” in collaboration with the Ohio State University. His other engagements include concerts with The Niwa Duo (formed with his sister Gail), The High St. Four (Mr. Niwa is a founding member), The Lighthouse Chamber Players, The Snake River Chamber Players, The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music at Great Gorge. Previously he has performed in Reno, Miami, New York City, and Nice. In 1987 and 1988, he was the invited guest artist-in-residence at the Festival de la Gesse in southwestern France.
A native Chicagoan, Mr. Niwa began his studies at the age of five. While under the tutelage of his father, Raymond Niwa, he was awarded top prizes in all five divisions of the prestigious Society of American Musicians Competition. He was a three-time winner of the ISMTA competition, a winner of the St. Paul Musical Arts Competition, and was awarded scholarships by the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation. In 1982, Mr. Niwa was a prizewinner in the NFAA Recognition and Talent Search, and a finalist in the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Concerto Competition. In 1985 he made his live national TV debut with Tchaikovsky Concerto on NBC. Mr. Niwa currently serves as assistant concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, a position he’s held since 1995.
Mr. Niwa holds degrees from the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, where his teachers were Aaron Rosand and Szymon Goldberg, respectively. His other mentors include Nathan Milstein, Lorand Fenyves, Samuel Rhodes and Felix Galimir.
He enjoys cooking and eating, golfing, and is an avid tennis player.
Nardo Poy, violist,has been a member of the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since 1978 and has been featured as soloist in the United States, Europe and Japan with Orpheus, the North Carolina Symphony, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia and the Kansas City Camerata. Other groups with which Mr. Poy performs are the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Perspectives Ensemble and the Lighthouse Chamber Players, among many others. Recordings include over 70 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as numerous chamber music recordings with the Perspectives Ensemble, the Harmonie Ensemble, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble and colleagues from the Bard Music Festival. Among his many chamber music performances have been collaborations with Isaac Stern, Elmar Oliveira, Bernard Greenhouse, Aaron Rosand and Dawn Upshaw. He has held the principal viola position with the Lake George Opera Company, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Santa Fe Opera, L'Opera Francais de New York, the Philharmonia Orchestra of Philadelphia and the Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra. Mr. Poy has also been an Artist-in-Residence at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music with the Carnegie String Quartet. He presently is the principal violist with the American Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2002.
Summer 2008 Concerts:
Wednesday, July 30, 7:30 PM
Orleans United Methodist Church
Artists: Elizabeth Chang, Mariko Kaneda, Maureen McDermott, David Niwa, Nardo Poy
Works by Kreisler, Piazzolla, Foss, Chopin, Debussy, and others
Friday, August 1, 8 PM
Wellfleet Congregational Church
Artists: Elizabeth Chang, Mariko Kaneda, Maureen McDermott, David Niwa,
Nardo Poy
Stravinsky, Verdi, Faure
Sunday, August 24, 5 PM
Provincetown Universalist Unitarian Church
Artists: Elizabeth Chang,
Judith Gordon,Volcy Pelletier
Faure, Schubert
Thursday, August 28, 8 PM
Wellfleet Congregational Church
Guest Artist: Anne-Marie McDermott
Artists: Janna Baty, Elizabeth Chang,
Maureen McDermott, Nardo Poy
Haydn, Shostakovich, Dvorak
"The Lighthouse Chamber Players"
Sketch by Richard Swanson