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Stephanie Barrett started studying cello privately in high school in Leesburg, Virginia. In 2009, she started her college studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Throughout her academic years, she performed in various cello master classes with world-renowned cellists including Bonnie Hampton, Hannah Holman, Zuill Bailey, Timothy Eddy, and Clive Greensmith. She has also participated in various chamber music masterclasses and workshops with the Maia Quartet, Roger Tapping of the Takacs Quartet, the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, the Aviv Quartet, the Penderecki Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet. Stephanie has spent her summers at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Wintergreen Summer Music Academy, Meadowmount School of Music, Zephyr Chamber Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival. Through her summer travels she has had the privilege of working with artists such as Steven Pologe, Alan Rafferty, Jennifer Culp, Neal Cary, and Clive Greensmith. Stephanie received a Bachelors of Science in Psychology and a Bachelors of Music in Performance from Virginia Commonwealth University in May of 2014 under the tutelage of Dana McComb. In 2018, she received a master’s degree from the conservatory at Lynn University where she studied with David Cole. Stephanie now resides in Richmond, VA where she is the founding cellist of string quartet, Rosette.
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Catherine Beeson (President and Artistic Director, Viola) has served as a Teaching Artist and as a performer with the Colorado Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Friends of Chamber Music - Denver, Lenape Chamber Ensemble (PA), Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Music Chamber Orchestra, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra (San Diego) and Loon Lake Live. In addition to her artistic administrator role with Loon Lake Live, Catherine has served in administrative roles as Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Colorado Symphony, Artistic Director of Ensemble Faucheux, Executive Director of the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, and as a speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant to education, chamber music, and symphonic organizations.
Catherine is a proud advocate for inclusion practices in the musical arts, lately focusing on concert and performance opportunities for the neurodiverse community. She enjoys connecting diverse groups of people through community and school residency programs that encourage music composition and performance. In service to this, Catherine has designed and published teachers' guides and lesson plans to support the education and outreach endeavors of the New York Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Up Close and Musical orchestra (Denver) and Friends of Chamber Music (Denver). Catherine has also been a facilitator for adult lectures through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, led workshops at the Colorado Music Educators' Association conference, and presented as a panelist at the League of American Orchestras conferences and at Denver Comic Con. Catherine serves on the board of The Primavera Fund, a Philadelphia based organization offering support to develop young musicians into agents of change in communities as future performers, teachers, leaders, and role models. Catherine has just completed a year of study and growth in the inaugural cohort of the Anne Parsons Leadership Program, a mentorship and training program led by the League of American Orchestras. Believe it or not, Catherine has spare time during which she enjoys being outside, playing board games, reading, and having random adventures. This summer, just like all the rest of the summers previous and hence, you can find Catherine on Saturday mornings at the Saranac Lake Farmers Market very likely salivating over a Triple Green Jade Farm cardamom raisin bun. |
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Ari Fierer is a violinist specializing in classical and American roots music. He is a graduate of Denison University where he studied psychology, music, and was a member of the baseball team. He has spent the past year living in Boston, where he taught 5th grade and jammed at Lily P's on Tuesday nights. Ari is also preparing to enter a Sports Psychology Master's program at Boston University in the fall. Ari has been coming to Loon Lake Live concerts since the early 2000s, listening to his parents and their musician friends rehearse, and playing chamber music with Loon Lake Live musicians for fun. He's super excited to officially be part of Loon Lake Live and to reprise the Schickele duet he recorded for the 2020 Distanced Dining Menu. When Ari isn't fiddling around (😎) he can be found fly-fishing or tying flies in preparation to go fly-fishing.
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Jordan Gunn is a cellist from Champaign, Illinois. She regularly performs in the New York area, often joining the Buffalo Philharmonic, Glimmerglass Opera Festival, and Syracuse Orchestra, among others. She has held the position of principal cello in The Orchestra Now, The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra. Ms. Gunn has a passion for new works, and has performed workshops with the New York City based SEM Ensemble and Beth Morrison Projects, and in the spring of 2025 she will be performing alongside Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn in the Mandy and Nathan Show. Some of her recent projects include a performance with the Musicians of Ma'alwyck featuring Henry Peyrebrune of the Cleveland Orchestra, and Andrea Cone of the Buffalo Philharmonic. She also performed principal cello in the premiere of Birds of America by Scott Wheeler featuring Gil Shaham at Carnegie Hall, and she appeared in the 2023 film MAESTRO by Bradley Cooper on Netflix, conducted by Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Ms. Gunn was a founding member of the Lilac String Quartet which in 2019 won 2nd prize in the MTNA competition, served a residency in Lake Placid, and performed in Eastman Honor's concerts as well as faculty Sunday Morning Chamber series. During her studies at Eastman, with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott, Jordan won the prestigious Performer's Certificate along with her Bachelor's degree, as well as the John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music and the Glenn and Francis Harris Cello Prize. Ms. Gunn loves to promote informed listening of classical music, which prompted her to co-create the podcast Class Half Full.
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Susanna Klein, Associate Prof. of Violin at Virginia Commonwealth University, is a violinist, educator, and arts innovator. Author of the Practizma Practice Journal and creator of the IOS app Clipza, her research focuses on technology-assisted practice and the psychology of practice. A regular workshop presenter, she has written for Strings Magazine, ASTA, the Strad, The Instrumentalist, Classical Singer Magazine, and Violinist.com. Prof. Klein performs regularly with the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble, Trio 826, and the Richmond Symphony. Before moving to higher education, she was a full-time member of the Richmond, Colorado, and Memphis Symphony Orchestras. She is currently writing a book focused on the psychology of musical practice. Website: practizma.com, IG: @practizma.
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Adam Larrabee is a guitarist, banjoist, and composer. He has appeared as a sideman on Bruce Hornsby's album "Spirit Trail" and has involved himself in a wide variety of projects in the past few years from playing banjo in the bluegrass group "Joy Kills Sorrow", guitar in the chamber-jazz group "Andromeda", classical mandolin with "The Richmond Classical Guitar Quartet" and mandocello with "Enigmatica", recording and performing with rising jazz prodigy Grace Kelly, and his exploration of the music of Central France with "Le Bon Vent". In 2006, he won an Independent Music Award for his composition "Norwegian Slip" in the world/fusion category. Most recently, Adam has released a duo CD with pianist Bob Hallahan entitled "The Street Where You Live" in addition to a recreation of Duke Ellington's classic recording "Money Jungle" recording with his current trio with drummer Brian Jones and bassist Randall Pharr. In October 2009, Adam played banjo with "Love Canon", backing up rising pop/folk star Josh Ritter on a sold out two week tour of Ireland. In Oct 2010 Adam traveled to Ankara, Turkey for the Haceteppe Konservatory Jazz Festival and played in the premiere of "Ben Seni Variations" a work for Orchestra and Jazz Octet by Doug Richards. Adam taught jazz theory, composition and arranging at The New England Conservatory in Boston for nine years and currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and teaches classical and jazz guitar at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, banjo and mandolin at the University of Virginia and improv and small jazz ensemble at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.
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Aaron Packard maintains a varied career as a violinist, performing music of many genres and periods. He is an avid improviser and proponent of new music, having worked closely with composers such as Ellen Lindquist, Elizabeth Adams, Ted Hearne, Henryk Strindberg, and John Luther Adams to find and experiment with new sound ideas. He currently teaches at the Joy of Music Program in Worcester, MA, and at the Groton School in Groton, MA. Performance collaborators include Orfeo Duo, Avery Ensemble, Mantra Percussion, rapper Self Suffice, harpsichordist Gabe Shuford, violinist Vita Wallace, violist David Yang, and bassist Nick Walker. He is a founding member of the Hartford-based Cuatro Puntos Ensemble (cuatropuntos.org), with whom he can be heard on many recordings on the Arkadash and Métier labels. He is also a member of the New England Repertory Orchestra, the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, and the Worcester Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007 Aaron has been honored to perform in and around Saranac Lake, NY as a part of the Loon Lake Live concert series. Major violin teachers include Greg Fulkerson, Mark Steinberg, and the late Mitchell Stern, but he is proud to say he was really started on the path toward becoming a listener by the incomparable pianist Gil Kalish, and cellist Tim Eddy of the Orion String Quartet. When he’s not teaching or performing, you can probably find Aaron chopping wood, reading a book (mostly sci-fi, etymology, and history!) or doing a crossword puzzle.
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Sonya Stith Williams has been playing the violin since the age of five. Many practice years later she earned a BM in performance and an MM in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music where her primary teachers were Zvi Zeitlin and Ilya Kaler. Sonya is the Associate Concertmaster of The Syracuse Orchestra where she has also served as Acting Concertmaster and as a soloist. While at the Eastman School of Music, Sonya participated in two string quartet rural residencies in Kentucky. This experience of connecting with a small community was a memorable one and something that has proven to always be relevant, no matter the size of the town. Sonya enjoys playing chamber music with her Syracuse Orchestra colleagues in concerts and educational settings, with the Skaneateles Festival, the Society for New Music, and Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, among others. She is also a member of the Finger Lakes Piano Trio. Sonya teaches at LeMoyne College and SUNY Oswego. When Sonya is not playing her violin, and possibly sometimes when she is, she is raising her three young children Makenna, Caden, and Rowen with her husband Matt. They have revived an old farmhouse together, which is a process that is always “nearly” completed, in a location where they have ample space for their dogs, cats, chickens, and a large vegetable garden.
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John Winn is a musician and composer hailing from Richmond, VA. He can be heard performing regularly at jazz clubs, concert venues, in musical theater pits and at occasional wedding receptions around the Mid-Atlantic. John was featured as a singer with his jazz quartet, Neighborliness, when they were selected to tour parts of Asia, Russia and Mexico under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State’s Jazz Ambassadors program in the early 2000s. As a clarinetist/saxophonist he performed more than two dozen times at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC while a member of The Great American Music Ensemble, the resident jazz orchestra there for seven years. John has also appeared onstage with music luminaries such as Lou Rawls, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Bernadette Peters, Natalie Cole, Doc Severinsen, Idina Menzel, Johnny Mathis, Chita Rivera, Marie Osmond and many others. As a composer, John’s music is no stranger to Loon Lake concertgoers. His Adirondack Suite for strings, harp and clarinet as well as his song cycle, Songs For Modern Times for string quartet and voice were recorded and released by Loon Lake Live! on their 2005 CD Around the Campfire. Those pieces, as well as his string quartet, The More Things Change… have been performed here several times over the years. John is super happy to be back with a brand new piece for string trio this year!
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Killian Winn is a 20 year old Richmond, Virginia born bassist who can’t wait to make his first appearance playing at Loon Lake Live. Killian’s parents have played the festival almost every single summer since he was 9 months old. Loon Lake has been like a second home to him for his whole life, and he couldn’t be more honored or excited to make music there. Killian started playing electric bass at age 13, and took up the double bass when he was 18. He currently attends William Paterson University for Jazz Performance on upright bass. He has played at locations such as Drom (NYC), Chris’s Jazz Cafe (Philadelphia), Hard Rock Cafe Times Square (NYC), The Jefferson Hotel (Richmond, Va), and is excited to play in the Adirondacks for the first time!
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Ian Wisekal, a native of Dallas, TX and Stony Brook, NY, serves as Principal Oboe of the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra and Crested Butte Music Festival, and previously held the position of Associate Principal Oboe with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He can be heard playing principal oboe on that orchestra's recording of Cofresí, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy.Prof. Wisekal is an active performer throughout Colorado, playing frequently with the Colorado Symphony and professional ensembles across the Front Range. He has performed at the Sarasota Music Festival, the festival at the Banff Arts Centre in Canada, the Music Masters Festival of Japan, the Casals Festival of Puerto Rico and the AIMS festival in Austria. His major teachers include Richard Killmer, Erin Hannigan, Terry Keevil and Ceci Lagarenné. Wisekal's students have earned scholarships to top music schools, including Eastman, and have performed as soloists and regular members of professional orchestras. You can hear Ian on his YouTube Channel.
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Asher Wulfman is a performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral works for violin currently based in Ithaca NY. He is a first violinist in Symphoria and performs regularly with Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and as concertmaster of Opera Ithaca. As a soloist, Asher has performed with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra and the Oberlin Sinfonietta. He has performed in summer music festivals including Spoleto Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival YAP, Round Top Festival Institute, and Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival. Asher is a frequent interpreter of new music, and has enjoyed collaborating with and premiering works by young composers such as Seare Farhat, Ashlin Hunter, Uri Kochavi, Aliya Ultan, and Tara Valkonen. He is regularly featured in Cornell University’s contemporary music concert series, Ensemble X, and has also enjoyed collaborations with DMA composers in the Cornell music department. In 2022, Asher was invited to participate in Creative Dialogues, an international composer-performer workshop sponsored by the Sibelius Academy. In 2018, Asher was a featured artist with the Oberlin Sinfonietta, playing Four Portraits for Solo Violin by Grammy-winning composer Billy Childs. Asher also enjoys studying and performing early music. As a member of the Thornton Early Music Ensemble, he performed many chamber and solo works on the baroque violin. He now performs regularly as a bass with his early music vocal chamber ensemble. Asher holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and Bachelor’s Degrees in Violin Performance and English from Oberlin College and Conservatory. His former teachers include Lina Bahn, Marilyn McDonald, and Richard Amoroso.
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Email
[email protected] |
June – August
3 Norma Drive Loon Lake, New York 12989 (518) 891-2659 |
September – May
595 South Grant Street Denver, Colorado 80209 (303) 319-9588 |