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Featuring Guest Artists:

Chloe Kiffer, Violin

Violinist Chloé Kiffer, native of France, has received enthusiastic praise by The New York Times for her “pure and beautiful tone”  and The Greenwich Sentinel for being “…a star in every sense: performance, exquisite technique and beauty”. Kiffer feels as comfortable performing solo on the international stage as she does in intimate chamber settings. 

Performing solo and orchestra engagements across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, and Asia, Kiffer has appeared at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Beethoven Hall in Bonn, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Hall, Tel Aviv Opera, and Beijing National Center. In October 2015, Kiffer made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in Stern Auditorium. Kiffer has collaborated alongside Philippe Muller, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Timothy Eddy, the Emerson String Quartet, and pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine.

Ms. Kiffer is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, the University of North Texas,  and the FaceArts Institute of Music in Shanghai. Her students have received high praise for their performances and won prizes at national and international competitions.

 Kiffer is a sought-after guest teacher and faculty member for conservatories and festivals around the world—Heifetz International Music Institute, Miami Music Festival, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, Chamber Music International in Texas, MusicFest Perugia and MusicAlps (France). 

Kiffer is a laureate of the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation. She graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and earned postgraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music under Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman. Kiffer received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University.

Her teachers include Hagai Shaham, Joshua Epstein and Rodion Zamuruev.

In 2019, she released an album of the Ravel Violin Sonatas on the Steinway & Sons label with pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine. 

Chloé Kiffer performs on a Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin (Brooklyn, N.Y., 2015)

Check out Chloe Kiffer on her website and socials.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

Horacio Contreras, cello

Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras has gained esteem through a multifaceted career as a concert cellist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and scholar. He has collaborated with prestigious institutions across the Americas and Europe as a concerto soloist, a recitalist, a chamber musician, and a master class clinician.

Highlights of his career include solo performances with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Municipal Orchestra of Caracas (Venezuela), the EAFIT University
Orchestra (Colombia), the Camerata de France (France), and the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and the Music Institute of Chicago’s Chamber Orchestra in the US; participations in series and festivals including Salzburg, Casals, Schubert
Club, New York’s Chopin & Friends, Indiana University’s Salon Latino, and Chicago’s Celebración de la Música Latinoamericana; and master classes at Bloomington, Juilliard, Michigan, Oberlin and the ASTA National Convention, as well as at many renowned programs throughout the Americas. Recent projects include world premieres of works by Ricardo Lorenz, Miguel del Águila and Reinaldo Moya, the recording of the works for cello and piano by Ricardo Lorenz with the Blue Griffin record label, the recording of an album with the Reverón Piano Trio featuring piano trios by Villa-Lobos, Ponce, and Turina with the IBS Classical record label, and a full edition of Ricardo Castro’s cello concerto.

Horacio serves on the faculty of the University of North Texas, the Music Institute of Chicago and the University of Michigan’s MPulse summer institute Center Stage Strings. His students have made solo recordings, soloed nationally and internationally, attended festivals such as Kronberg, Aspen, Orford and Nice, and won awards at international and national competitions. They have continued their education at institutions including Michigan, San Francisco Conservatory, Lausanne (Switzerland), and Mannheim and Weimar (Germany).  Some of his former students have pursued successful careers as orchestral musicians, chamber musicians, teachers, and freelancers. Others have devoted their energies to grow in other professional areas and enjoy a meaningful connection with music through the cello.

He is the artistic director of Strings of Latin America, an official partner to the Sphinx Organization with the purpose of social engagement through the promotion of diversity in the classical music world. He co-authored of The Sphinx Catalog of Latin-American Cello Works. His pedagogic book Exercises for the Cello in Various Combinations of Double-Stops has received recognition as a significant contribution to the instrument’s literature.

He is a member of the Four Corners Ensemble and the Reverón Piano Trio. He started his musical studies in Venezuela through El Sistema, and holds degrees from the Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan, France, the Escola de Musica de Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Michigan. He is represented by Meluk Kultur Management and Halac Artists together with his colleagues of the Reverón Piano Trio.

Check out Horacio Contreras on his website and socials.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud

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