Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute Faculty

Avalon String Quartet

Just appointed Artist Faculty String Quartet-In-Residence at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, the Avalon String Quartet will succeed the famed Vermeer Quartet beginning in August, 2007. The Avalon String Quartet was founded in 1995, has held residencies at Northern Illinois University and the Hartt School, and was faculty quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University-South Bend. Prior to this, the quartet garnered international attention as prize winners in major competitions including the Grand Prize at the 1998 Fischoff Competition, First Prize in the 1999 Concert Artist Guild competition, and the highest prize awarded at the 2000 ARD Munich Competition. The quartet also received awards at the 1998 Banff and 1999 Melbourne competitions. Their debut CD, "Dawn to Dusk," was awarded the 2002 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award.

The members of the Avalon Quartet are Blaise Magniere - 1st violin, Marie Wang - 2nd violin, Anthony Devroye - viola, and Cheng-Hou Lee - ‘cello.

Christina Dahl

Pianist Christina Dahl is active as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Currently on the faculty at SUNY Stony Brook, she has taught at the Eastern Music Festival, where she now is Chairman of the piano faculty. At the Aspen Music Festival, Christina Dahl was a frequent participant on Young Artist Concerts. She has been a collaborating artist at the Ravinia Festival, and held fellowships for two summers at Tanglewood Music Center where she participated in premieres of new American works. She has twice won the USIA Cultural Ambassadors Competition, sponsored by the US State Department, once as a solo recitalist and as a piano/violin duo, touring the capital cities of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Colombia and eight countries in Africa.

Karen Dreyfus

Violist Karen Dreyfus has distinguished herself as a recipient of many prizes, both in this country and abroad, including the Naumburg Viola Competition (1982), the Lionel Tertis Competition (1980), the Washington International Competition (1979), and the Hudson Valley Competition (1978). Ms. Dreyfus has concertized extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America including collaborations with Musicians From Marlboro, Philomusica, Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in recital with Yehudi Menuhin at Carnegie Hall and with such artists as Rudolf Serkin; Alexander Schneider; Leon Fleisher; Chick Corea; and her husband, Glenn Dicterow.

Oksana Ezhokina
Co-Artistic Director, Resident Pianist

Icicle Creek Piano Trio - piano

Oksana Ezhokina, is a native of Ryazan, Russia. The winner of piano competitions in Russia and the United States, Ms. Ezhokina has given numerous solo and chamber performances in both countries. Her collaborations have included concerts with such ensembles as the Seattle Chamber Players, Klimt Piano Trio and the Contemporary Chamber Players. A dedicated performer of works by contemporary composers, she has premiered music by Laura Kaminsky and Paul Drescher, among others.

Ms. Ezhokina was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2004. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Ryazan School of Music in Russia, a Master of Music degree in piano from Northern Illinois University and a Bachelor of Music degree from Walla Walla College. Her principal teachers were Christina Dahl, Donald Walker, Leonard Richter and Eleanor Oragyoff, and she has coached chamber music with pianists Gilbert Kalish and Seymour Lipkin as well as members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Orion and Vermeer String Quartets. Ms. Ezhokina is Resident Pianist at Icicle Creek Music Center, is Co-Artistic Director and teaches a full piano studio at the Music Center.

Wei He

Born in China, violinist Wei He was chosen at age sixteen as one of ten gifted young musicians to perform in Japan and its various music festivals. He came to the United States for undergraduate study at the University of Texas at Austin, where he formed the prize-winning New China Trio. Mr. He earned an Artist Certificate in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has been a Chamber Music Coach at San Francisco State University and San Domenico Music Conservatory, and a member of the San Francisco Symphony and San Jose Symphony. Mr. He had served as Artistic Director of the Crowden School in Berkeley, and has been on the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1998.

Icicle Creek Piano Trio

The Icicle Creek Piano Trio is the ensemble in residence at the Icicle Creek Music Center, a non-profit organization in Leavenworth, Washington. As well as offering year-round concerts in Icicle Creek's beautiful Canyon Wren Concert Hall and an intensive international chamber music festival and institute each July, the artists maintain busy private studios and offer regular coaching sessions to young ensembles, both local and visiting.

The members of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio originate in the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia. Together and as individuals, Jennifer, Sally and Oksana have performed in venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection, the Royal Albert Hall, and toured in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. In the area and along the West coast, they have performed at Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Puget Sound, the Sherman Clay recital hall, the Governor's Mansion in Olympia, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the University of Santa Barbara, Cornish College of the Arts and Davies Hall in San Francisco. Collectively, they have earned advanced degrees from Northern Illinois University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Harvard University, Oxford University, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal College of Music.

Francine Kay

Pianist Francine Kay has performed to public and critical acclaim both in her native Canada and internationally. Her solo piano recordings of Debussy and Ravel have been described in the press as "Magical, something to celebrate" "An ideal performance played from the heart". Her recording of the Debussy Preludes was chosen as CD "star of the month" by Fono Forum in Germany, nominated for a Juno award in Canada, and given the highest rating by Repertoire in France. Ms. Kay was the winner of the Pro Piano International Competition and was named, "Recitalist of the Year". Ms. Kay has performed at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, and Trinity Church. She has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada and the U.S.

Catherine Lynn

Catherine Lynn, violist, is in her second season with the Atlanta Symphony and a member of the Atlanta Chamber Players, in residence at Georgia State University. Prior to coming to Atlanta, Ms. Lynn performed with the Rosseels String Quartet and was a frequent guest artist with the Michigan Chamber Players. She was Principal Viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra and a faculty member of the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. Ms. Lynn has collaborated with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alabama and continued her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She was a finalist in the 1999 William Primrose International Viola Competition.

Heasook Rhee

Heasook Rhee, Korean-American collaborative pianist, has worked with many distinguished artists, including Nikolai Gedda, Simon Estes, violinists Kyung Wha Chung, Ivry Gitlis, Ilya Grubert, Peter Zazofsky, cellists Marcio Carneiro, Charles Curtis, Jian Wang, Tilmann Wick, and flutist Julius Baker.

She has toured extensively performing at major venues such as the Stern Auditorium at the Carnegie, the Berliner Festwochen, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Beethovenhaus in Bonn, St. John's Smith Square in London, Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand, Australia, Central America, Canada, Mexico, North African countries, and the Far East.

Ms. Rhee was Congress Pianist at the 1984, 1990 American Cello Congress and accompanist for Piatigorsky Seminars in Los Angeles.

David Russell

Appointed to the Wellesley College music faculty in 2005, cellist David Russell has toured extensively in France, Germany, Italy and England. He has been Assistant Principal Cello with the Tulsa Philharmonic, a member of the Grammy-nominated Eaken Trio and Principal Cello of Opera Boston and the Hingham Symphony. A strong advocate of new music, he has performed with Phantom Arts Ensemble for American Music, Dinosaur Annex, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the Fromm Foundation Players at Harvard. He was a founding member of Furious Band, an ensemble devoted to the exploration and performance of works by young composers. Recent projects have included U.S. premieres of works for solo cello by Harold Meltzer and Judith Weir.

Sally Singer
Co-Artistic Director, Resident Cellist

Icicle Creek Piano Trio - cello

Sally Singer, cellist from the United Kingdom, has an extensive background in solo and chamber music performance. She has toured in Britain, France, Italy, Austria and Germany with ensembles and has played in the major concert halls of London, New York and Vienna.

As a soloist, Sally has appeared recently with the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, CT, the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra and the Pleven Philharmonic, Bulgaria, where the Polemics of Art Journal review referred to her interpretation of Elgar’s cello concerto as “a performance of the highest caliber, which will leave life-long memories for every person in the audience." Ms. Singer was a top prizewinner in the Corpus Christi International Young Artists competition, won the John Ireland Chamber Music Competition and received two fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA, as well as many awards and scholarships from her institutions of study. She has appeared on British National Television several times and has performed and interviewed live for National Public Radio, Seattle, King FM, Koho Radio and KUT.

Ms. Singer was awarded First Class honors at the Royal Northern College of Music, has a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where she studied cello performance with Timothy Eddy. She has given master classes in New York, Texas, Washington and Australia, and has a flourishing private studio. Formerly a member of the Vovka Ashkenazy and Klimt Piano Trios, Sally is now a member of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio. In addition to maintaining a busy performing schedule, Ms. Singer is Co-Artistic Director of the Icicle Creek Music Center and Co-Director of the Center's summer Chamber Music Institute.

Ian Swensen

Ian Swensen, awarded the Walter Naumberg Competition's top prize for both chamber music and violin, studied at Juilliard with Dorothy DeLay and at Eastman with Donald Weilerstein. He has performed in many festivals, including Music@Menlo, Spoleto, Santa Fe, and Marlboro and has collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, Concord and Tokyo String Quartets; the Beaux Arts Trio and the Peabody Trio; Gilbert Kalish, Mark O'Connor, Yo-Yo Ma and Martha Strongin Katz. Recent performances include recitals with Menahem Pressler and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, soloist in the Barber Violin Concerto with the Rogue Valley Orchestra, and performances in New York, Canada, Switzerland, Los Angeles, Australia and Korea. He has recorded for TelArc and Deutsche Grammophon and lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Judy, and their three children, Julia, Talya and Cole.

Laurent Weibel

Currently with the National Symphony Orchestra, violinist Laurent Weibel has played in orchestras in the United States and in Europe, including Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist he has performed the Brahms concerto at the Cite de la Musique in Paris and the Sibelius concerto at the Staller Center for the Arts, NY. A graduate of the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris, he completed his doctoral degree at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as a student of Mitchell Stern. An active chamber musician, Laurent is a member of the National Chamber Players and performs regularly at the Garth Newel Music Center. He has been featured with the Kennedy Center Chamber Players and the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society.

Hekun Wu

Hekun Wu is currently the Music Director of the Salem Chamber Orchestra in Oregon. As a concert cellist, he has performed in such capitols as Shanghai, Paris, New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, and Taipei. On faculty at Willamette University, Dr. Wu has held workshops and masterclasses at numerous conservatories and universities including the New England Conservatory, the Longy School, the Shanghai Conservatory, and the Taipei National University of the Arts. Born and educated in Shanghai and later at the Conservatoire de Paris, he completed his graduate studies in the U.S where he received cello and conducting fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival. His teachers include cellists Maurice Gendron, Paul Tortelier, Zara Nelsova, Tanya Remenikova, and Leslie Parnas. As a conductor, he has worked with David Zinman, Edo de Waart, and Murry Sidlin at the American Academy of Conducting.