RHONDA RIDER (Artistic Co-Director, Coach) For over two decades, cellist Rhonda Rider was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian Quartet and Triple Helix Piano Trio. An advocate of contemporary music, Rider has premiered and recorded works by composers including John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Yu-Hui Chang and Raven Chacon. Her interest in bringing classical music to unusual places has led her to artist residencies at Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and adjudicated at the Fischoff, Stulberg and Concert Artists Guild Competitions. Recently, she has performed with Shelter Music Boston, Castle of Our Skins, the New Gallery Series and the Radius Ensemble. During the summer, she performs and teaches at festivals including Green Mountain, Music from Salem, Tanglewood, Harvard Music Festival and the Asian Youth Orchestra (Hong Kong). Rider holds degrees from Oberlin and Yale and is Professor of Cello at Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she was twice awarded Outstanding Teacher of the Year. www.rhondarider.com
DAVID RUSSELL (Guest Coach) Hailed as “superb”, “incisive” and “sonorous and panoramic” in The Boston Globe, David Russell maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Chamber Music. A strong advocate of new music, Russell has performed with such ensembles as BMOP, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Music on the Edge, Dinosaur Annex, Collage, the Fromm Players at Harvard and entelechron. Recent projects include recordings of works by Eric Moe, Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Donald Crockett, Chen Yi and Roger Zahab, premieres of chamber works by Barbara White, Daron Hagen, José-Luis Hurtado, Robert Carl and Gilda Lyons, premieres of works for cello and orchestra by Sam Nichols and Laurie San Martin, recordings of cello concertos by Chen Yi and Lukas Foss, and new works for solo cello by Andrew Rindfleisch, Nicholas Vines, Martha Horst and John Mallia. He is a busy performer in the Boston area, making regular appearances with such ensembles as Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society and Emmanuel Music. He serves as Principal cello of Odyssey Opera and has served as cello faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Russell has recorded for the Tzaddik, Albany, BMOPSound, New Focus, CRI, Centaur and New World Records labels.