The quartet has presented cycles of the complete quartets of Beethoven and Bartok. The group has appeared with many renowned artists including pianists Lee Luvisi, Rolf Gothoni (1993 Gilmore Artist), David Owen Norris (1991 Gilmore Artist ), Christopher Taylor, Frederic Chiu, Enid Katahn, Craig Nies, Amy Dorfman; clarinetists James Campbell and David Krakauer; violinist Joseph Silverstein; violists Walter Trampler and Samuel Rhodes; cellist Norman Fischer; bassist Edgar Meyer; and virtuoso of the banjo, Bela Fleck.

Christian Teal, violin
Christian Teal earned his Bachelor of Music degree in performance from Indiana University where he studied with Josef Gingold. His graduate studies were with Dorothy DeLay. Chamber music studies were with members of the Julliard, Hungarian, and Berkshire Quartets, as well as William Primrose, Janos Starker, and Gyorgy Sebok. His appearances with the Blair String Quartet have included New York’s 92^nd St. Y., Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Washington’s Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery of Art. Numerous festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, the Sedona Chamber Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Sewanee Music Festival, the Killington Music Festival, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, the Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, New York, and the Music Mountain Summer Music Festival in Connecticut. Recitals and appearances with the orchestra are a regular part of Teal’s performing career, including solo engagements with the International Madeira Bach Festival Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, the Colorado Philharmonic, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. </SPAN>

chris.teal@vanderbilt.edu

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Felix Wang, cello

Felix Wang earned a Doctorate of Music from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Conservatory. He has won several competitions, including the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition. Among the judges were Mstislav Rostropovich, Raya Garbousouva, and Lazlo Varga. He has appeared at many chamber music festivals, including the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains Festival at Steamboat Springs, the Garth Newel Chamber Music Festival, and the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival. He has taught at several summer festivals, including the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, the Killington Music Festival, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Mr. Wang is also the co-principal cellist of the Iris Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Michael Stern.

felix.wang@vanderbilt.edu

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Cornelia Heard, violin
Cornelia Heard earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Julliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann of the Julliard String Quartet. Other coaches have included Felix Galimir, Earl Carlyss, Samuel Rhodes, Ruth Laredo, Michael Rudiakov, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. Ms. Heard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College. As a member of the Blair String Quartet, she has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and recorded for the Warner Brothers, New World, and Pantheon labels. She has performed as a chamber musician on concert series at the Library of Congress and New York’s 92^nd Street Y, as well as at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Recital Hall, and has performed extensively on public radio and television. She has served as artist-in-residence at both the Aspen Music Festival and the Sedona Music Festival and also on the faculty of the Sewanee Music Festival from 1985-1999. Other summer festival appearances include those at Skaneateles, Colorado, Kapalua, Roycroft, Music Mountain, Meadowmount, and Maverick Concerts. Ms. Heard has appeared as soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, the Nashville Symphony (as a member of the Blair Quartet), the Municipal Chamber Orchestra in New York, The Vanderbilt Orchestra, and the Aspen Brandenberg Ensemble. In the summer of 2002, Ms. Heard joined the faculty of the Killington Music Festival in Vermont.

connie.heard@vanderbilt.edu

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John Kochanowski, viola

John Kochanowski, violist, studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Julliard School where his principal teachers were Robert Mann and Walter Trampler. He also studied at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, with Bruno Giuranna. From 1971 to 1987, he was the violist and a founding member of the Concord String Quartet. The Concord String Quartet performed more than 1,000 concerts on major chamber music series in the U.S. and Europe. They presented the complete quartets of Beethoven 32 times and the complete quartets of Bartok 14 times. The ensemble premiered more than 50 works, many on commission from such composers as Bolcom, Diamond, Druckman, Foss, Henze, Johnston, Penderecki, Rochberg, and others. They recorded more than 40 works on RCA-Red Seal, Nonesuch, Vox, Turnabout, and the CRI labels. Kochanowski joined the Blair String Quartet in 1997. In addition to his many appearances with the Quartet, he has been an active performer. As soloist he has performed John Harbison’s Viola Concerto and Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy. He recorded the Sonata for Viola and Harp by Michael Kurek on New World Records (80497-2), as well as giving the world premiere of Kurek’s Sonata for Viola and Piano (2002), which was composed for him. He has also appeared in the Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colo., and has appeared as guest artist with the Brentano and Cassatt String Quartets.

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