Cellist, Laura
Laura, lauded for her “sensitive, melodic touch” (BlogCritics Magazine) enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. She is the cellist of acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5, who won the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, and has performed sold-out concerts at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center and many other venues worldwide. Sybarite5 made its Carnegie Hall debut at Zankel Hall in 2012, and their album “Disturb the Silence” recently reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Charts. Laura also performs regularly as a solo recitalist, most recently as a guest artist of the inaugural season of the New England Chamber Music Festival. She was featured as a soloist with the One World Symphony playing an arrangement of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time for cello and orchestra and has also been a soloist with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Ensemble 212 Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa. Laura received her Master of Music degree in May 2006 from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy and was awarded the James E. Hughes award for excellence in performance. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Boston University's College of Fine Arts, where, as recipient of the prestigious Trustee Scholarship, she won the 2003 Solo Bach Competition. In 2011 Laura was appointed to the cello-percussion quartet Break of Reality, with whom she has toured extensively nationwide, most recently being presented by the Eastman School of Music at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, NY. Their albums routinely sell in the tens of thousands worldwide, and they premiered an original concerto featuring the group as soloists with the Laredo Philharmonic in 2013. Laura was appointed to the conductorless string ensemble Salome Chamber Orchestra, with whom she appears in Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A devoted educator, Laura has given career-guidance presentations at the Eastman School of Music, the Hartt School of Music and Oklahoma State University. She served on the faculty of Opus 118 Harlem School of Music from 2006-2011, through which she also founded the first-ever cello program in New York’s Public School 129, and is currently a private cello teacher and chamber music coach for students of all ages as well as a faculty member of the New York Summer Music Festival. Laura is frequently engaged by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for outreach performance work in public schools in the New York area.
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Violinist, Sarah
Sarah has been heard worldwide across stages in Europe, Asia, South America and the United States, active as a solo, orchestral and chamber musician. She is a violinist with the acclaimed string quintet SYBARITE5, one of the fastest rising chamber music ensembles in the United States and praised by The Washington Post as "excelling at the exquisite...playing with relish, a sense of comfort, and a frisson of missionary zeal." Based in New York City, SYBARITE5 is the first string quintet to win the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and recently gave their Carnegie Hall debut. SYBARITE5, who's album Disturb the Silence reached the top ten on the Billboard Charts, has also performed at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, the Caramoor Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Galapagos Artspace, the Library of Congress and on the CBS Early Show. Sarah is also recognized as a soloist, having recently premiered her solo violin recital to a sold out audience, Violin for One: from Bach to Beatles, highlighting solo repertoire. Sarah also performs regularly as a duo with violinist Julia Salerno, having been featured on the NYC House Concert and First Parish Concert Series. She is co-founder of the Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra who have been featured on Mashable, Perez Hilton, Revolt TV as well as recently performing with NAS in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, Sarah has been featured live on-stage with the Transiberian Orchestra, Jeff Beck, Anne Murray, Andrew Wyatt, Rockstar Supernova with Tommy Lee and most recently performed with Fath4er John Misty on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Violinist/Violist, Christiana
Born in Italy of Italian, Greek, and Polish heritage, Christiana is a performer of international reach. Recognized for her captivating tone and deeply enthralling musical interpretations, she has performed to acclaim, transporting audiences with her performances of traditional forms of classical music as well as more post modern and popular idioms. Versatile in diverse musical genres, Christiana has collaborated in concert engagements across the globe and has mastered the art of playing in many different capabilities; not limited to the more well known classical forms of solo, chamber, symphonic, opera, and ballet, but also in tango, jazz, Broadway, and other eclectic styles. Having performed on a worldwide level in major concert venues, TV, and radio broadcasts as well as on motion picture and independent film soundtracks, she can also be frequently seen performing regularly with different ensembles all over NYC (where she is currently based) at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the Beacon Theater and Madison Square Garden, to Le Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub, Radio City Music Hall, Webster Hall, and Hammerstein Ballroom, among many others. Adept at playing in an array of different capacities, she is equally comfortable performing in a classical vein as guest concertmaster or section leader for orchestras, playing chamber music, or collaborating with dance ensembles. Christiana has studied with numerous internationally acclaimed teachers and has had masterclasses with and been coached by multiple luminaries of the classical music world. After attending Aspen Music Festival in 2007, she was inspired to make playing chamber music a priority in her career. Recent classical chamber music festival appearances include performances at Nantucket Chamber Music Society (MA) playing with her trio, Tanguedia, and Madison Chamber Music Festival (GA) where she collaborated in a number of concerts with David Coucheron and Christopher Rex (concertmaster and principal cellist, respectively, of Atlanta Symphony), as well as with Rachel Barton Pine, Natasha Paremski, and Julie Coucheron, a frequent collaborator on the piano for solo classical recitals on tour.
