Strings Faculty
Benjamin Altman is a dynamic young guitarist with a fresh take on the classical guitar. He has been an active performer across the country from his native Georgia to San Francisco. Most recently he has given concerts at Georgia State College and University, Mercer University, and with the Arvada Center Chorale.
Mr. Altman is a proponent of new music, and took part in the premieres of the Guitar Quartet by his colleague David Plylar and Open Strings by Jorge Liderman, as well as the United States and New York premieres of Y Bolanzero by Terry Riley. He also pursues performances of new music on the mandolin, and last season performed works by Henze, Webern, and Donatoni with this instrument.
Committed to community outreach, Mr. Altman was active as an assistant to the Eastman School’s Music For All program, The Creative Access in Baltimore, and the Community Service Project at the San Francisco Conservatory. He continues to seek new ways and venues to promote his music to wider and underserved audiences.
In addition to his activities as a performer, Mr. Altman is a dedicated teacher. He has served on the faculty at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY, and the Eastman Community Music School. He now maintains a private studio in Denver, where he teaches a variety of guitar styles.
Mr. Altman is a doctoral candidate at the Eastman School of Music where he is an assistant to Dr. Nicholas Goluses. He has previously studied at the Peabody Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where his major teachers were Julian Gray and David Tanenbaum, respectively. In addition to the classical guitar, Mr. Altman plays in the Denver Mandolin Orchestra, and plays traditional American and Balkan folk music on a variety of stringed instruments.
Pam Arnstein has been a violinist in the Minnesota Orchestra since 1983, earning three promotions by audition. In her first year, Pam won first prize in the WAMSO Young Artist Competition and performed the Tchaikovsky concerto with her colleagues. With the Minnesota Orchestra she has toured America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, performing in Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. The Minnesota Orchestra’s recordings include the complete Beethoven Symphonies on the Bis label, completed in 2008.
In addition to performing, Pam is very active in music education. She teaches privately, does audition coaching, and leads sectionals for university orchestras and youth symphonies. Through the Minnesota Orchestra’s Adopt-a-School program, she goes into the public schools monthly to give presentations about classical music and the instruments of the orchestra.
Motivated by her teaching, Pam has composed and recorded a set of six intermediate-level violin solos called Sketches which she also publishes. She has written some arrangements for string quartet as well.
A native of Fargo, Pam’s violin training began with Isabelle Thompson (a student of Ivan Galamian.) Pam played in the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony during high school and had piano lessons for many years. Earning her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Illinois, Pam was a pupil of the great pedagogue, Paul Rolland. At UW-Madison for her Master’s degree she was a student of Norman Paulu, first violinist of the Pro Arte Quartet. He helped her prepare for her Minnesota Orchestra audition.
Described by the world’s press as "a sensational force” (La République, France), and "technical virtuoso" (Berliner Morgenpost, Germany), violinist Eugenia Choi has been attracting international recognition since her solo concerto debut with orchestra at age ten. Miss Choi regularly performs at major performing arts centers such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, Symphony Hall in Boston, Kravis Center in Palm Beach, Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Vienna Saal-Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, Teatro Municipale in Santiago, Chile, Tokyo International Forum in Japan, Palais de Fontainebleau in France, and numerous others worldwide.
In recent seasons, Miss Choi has performed as soloist with orchestras in Europe, Asia, North and South Americas, and has been featured on national television and radio broadcasts on five continents for CBC, BBC, Sender Freies Berlin, Bravo!, Kenyan National Radio, and more. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Miss Choi has given the world première performances and recordings of several new compositions to critical acclaim, including a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynold, commissioned Canadian work by Alan Gordon Bell, and rediscovered Viennese serialist composer Adolph Loos. A particular highlight has been performances at Juilliard for Elliott Carter of his own solo violin work. Constantly expanding her musical milieu, she collaborates with a wide range of artists, including American soprano Dawn Upshaw, tap artist Savion Glover, Lincoln Center’s “Great Performances” series, Ondine Musique in France, major motion picture recordings for 20th Century Fox, and on tour as guest first violinist of the Borealis String Quartet. She has also recorded in collaboration with several groups including with the American String Project on MSR Classics and Turning Point Ensemble on ATMA Classique.
Dedicated to community outreach, Eugenia has represented New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the Juilliard School in six seasons of interactive concerts at impoverished urban community and health-care facilities. Of the many venues she has experienced, the most adventurous was playing solo Bach on the magnificent glaciers of the Norwegian Arctic above 79 ºN latitude, as captured by National Geographic: last year, Eugenia was invited by the Aspen Institute, National Geographic, and Lindblad Expeditions to perform concerts and to represent the performing arts and younger generation of conservationists at a 10 day climate change summit in Norway alongside some of the most influential leaders in politics, business, science, and philanthropy including President Jimmy Carter, Hon. Madeleine Albright, Ted Turner, CEOs and founders of Google, DuPont, Monsanto, eBay, and many others. Highlights included performing for the Norwegian government in Olso at the Nobel Peace Prize Hall and several other concerts on the 1714 General Kydd – ex-Itzhak Perlman Stradivarius violin that was given to Eugenia for the occasion. President Carter describes hearing Eugenia on his trip report here.
Born in Canada from Korean heritage, Miss Choi began violin studies at the age of three with Yoko Wong and James Keene. Her performing career was nurtured at an early age under the guidance of renowned concert violinist Ruggiero Ricci, and pianist-conductor Philippe Entremont, with whom she continues to collaborate. She received her Pre-college, Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School in New York under Joel Smirnoff and Sally Thomas. In 2007, she also received her Doctorate degree in music from The Juilliard School as a recipient of the C.V. Starr Foundation Fellowship, from which her dissertation entitled Pricing Patterns of Stradivarius Violins since the Eighteenth Century: From Musician’s Instrument to Institutional Investment has received much acclaim from the fine violin industry and music press. She currently serves as a strategic adviser to high-end violin collectors and foundations. Eugenia is also an alumna of Dartmouth College, where she studied Government. Dedicated to academics in addition to her performing career, in 2004, Dr. Choi was appointed Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of British Columbia, as one of the youngest members to join in the faculty’s history. She also joined the artist faculty at New York University since the summer of 2009.
James Fittz began his formal music studies at the age of five. As a student in high school he won first prize in the International Music Competition in Tokyo, Japan. His principal teachers were internationally renowned artists Gordon Epperson and Yoshio Sato. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and philosophy from Wheaton College (Illinois) and the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in cello performance and music literature from the University of Arizona.
Fittz has taught cello at Wheaton College, the University of Arizona, Central Washington University, Shenandoah Conservatory, and New Mexico State University before joining the string faculty of the School of Music, University of Northern Colorado, where he is now Professor Emeritus.
Fittz has performed throughout the United States, in Asia and in South America as recitalist, as concerto solo artist, and as guest chamber music artist. He has appeared in festival orchestras, on public radio and television, and as a member of touring chamber music ensembles.
Long a champion of contemporary music, Fittz has presented premiere performances for several composers who have written expressly for him. In 1995 the famed Colombian composor, Blás Emilio Atehortúa, on hearing Fittz' performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto, asked to dedicate his new Sonata for Cello and Piano to the artist. Fittz' recording of composer John Rinehart's Paths for Amplified Cello and Synthesized Sound is available on the SCI label, Volume 9 of the recording series of the American Society of Composers. Rinehart writes concerning his choice of cellist, "James Fittz is among the country's finest artists; his playing commands a broad range of expression and technique and a communicative warmth that makes him a favorite of audiences everywhere."
Michael Fitzmaurice - double bass (YAS, JSS)
For the past 23 years, Bassist/Composer Mike Fitzmaurice, has been a member of the Irish folk Group Colcannon who will be celebrating the release of their 8th CD in 2010. As well as contributing tunes to the band's CDs, Mike has composed two large works for Colcannon and orchestra, the first of which "The Red Kite" had it's premier in April of 1998 and has been performed several times since. Mikes most recent work "Short Stories" for Solo Bass and String Orchestra had it's premier in April of 2007 with "The Mercury Ensemble" and Mike will be performing it with them again on February 27th of 2010.
As an active freelance musician, Mike performs many different styles of music, and as an orchestral musician, Mike has performed, at one time or another, with all of the professional orchestras along the front range. Mike is currently Associate Principal Bass with the Greeley Philharmonic and has been working them for almost 20 years.
Mike also released his first CD of all original music, "The Continuing Adventures of Hajji Baba" in 2007. With such an active performing schedule, Mike doesn't keep a regular teaching schedule, but still manages to squeeze in students because he also loves sharing his clues. Mike looks forward spending time teaching and performing at Rocky Ridge this coming summer.
Beth Root Sandvoss - cello (YAS)
Cellist Beth Root Sandvoss has a notably varied career as a recitalist, chamber musician and pedagogue. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she began studying
the cello at the age of eleven with Margaret Christy. Further tutelage
occurred with Parry Karp, Alan Harris and Irene Sharp. When finished
with her Bachelors degree in performance from the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Beth’s early professional activities took her to Hong
Kong, where she became a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
as well as the Victoria String Quartet, performing throughout Asia. After
completing graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music as well
as further studies in San Francisco, Beth settled in Calgary, Alberta
where she enjoys an active performance career in Canada and abroad. She
has recorded for WERN Madison public radio, RTHK Radio Hong Kong, and
CBC Radio. Recent appearances include concert tours in China and Portugal.
December 2007 marked the much anticipated release of Beth’s CD, Blue
Autumn with pianist Marcel Bergmann.
Beth has an intense interest in new music and is a founding member of the acclaimed Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, winners of both the 2005 and 2006 Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording. In addition to her Land’s End Chamber Ensemble activities, Beth is a member of the UCalgary String Quartet in residence at the University of Calgary.
Along with her performance career, Beth is a very dedicated pedagogue. As a sought after clinician she has worked with both teachers and students on her methods. Her pupils have won numerous competitions in Canada and are regularly invited to summer festivals around the world. She is a faculty member at the University of Calgary as well as the Mount Royal College Conservatory and spends her summers teaching and performing at music festivals throughout Canada and the United States. Beth has the great pleasure and privilege to perform on an award - winning cello made by her husband, Luthier, Christopher Sandvoss.
Chris Sandvoss - Luthier (YAS)
Christopher Sandvoss has enjoyed an interesting artistic career as a
performer, educator, conductor and luthier. He began his studies
in Vancouver, B.C. with the renowned pedagogue Harold Gomez. He
went on to complete a Bachelor of Music at the University of British
Columbia under the tutelage of the eminent Canadian violist Gerald Stanick. Further
studies included one year at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater
in Hannover with the great Austrian violist Hatto Beyerle. Mr.
Sandvoss has performed as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and
orchestral musician in Canada, the USA, and Europe.
Mr. Sandvoss was a founding member of the University of Calgary String
Quartet, the 13th Street Trio, and the acclaimed Land’s End Chamber
Ensemble. He has premiered numerous works, including the Canadian Premiere
of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Three under the baton of Maestro
Hans Graf, Music Director of the Houston Symphony. Mr. 
Sandvoss
has additionally performed with such luminaries as Gilbert Kalish, Edgar
Meyer, James Campbell, to name a few. Mr. Sandvoss has recorded for Unical,
CBC Radio, and Hungarian National Radio. In addition to his performances,
Mr. Sandvoss has taught at The University of Calgary, Mt. Royal College,
and a number of summer festivals across North America. As a conductor
he has worked with youth and professionals alike, conducting The Calgary
Chamber Players, the Canmore Chamber Orchestra, and the Calgary Civic
Symphony, among others.
Christopher Sandvoss is also an award-winning violin maker. He received the highest possible score for Cello Tone at the 2004 VSA International Violin Making Competition. His instruments have been heard on CD, in radio broadcast, and in solo and chamber recitals in the hands of some of today’s finest musicians. Visit his website for more details. www.christophersandvoss.com.
Daniel Sweaney made his New York debut in Avery Fisher Hall at the 1999 Mostly Mozart Festival performing with world renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman. “..extremely talented and highly trained...poised and accomplished...” said Strings Magazine. Mr. Sweaney began his musical studies at age eleven and has since had a diverse education in the United States and Europe. He has won many prizes and performed across the globe.
Daniel Sweaney has won prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Down Beat Magazine Chamber Music Competition, was a two time recipient of the Interlochen Arts Academy Fine Arts Award for Outstanding Performance in Viola, he was the recipient a Frank Huntington Beebe Grant, and winner of the Fifth Annual Sister Mary Faustina Memorial Concert in Marylhurst, Oregon. He has been teaching assistant to Heidi Castleman and a chamber music coach at The Perlman Music Program. He participated in exchange programs through The Perlman Music Program on trips to Tel-Aviv and Shanghai. Mr. Sweaney has held faculty positions at the Cleveland School for the Arts, Rice University Preparatory Department, The Boulder Arts Academy, teaching assistant at the University of Colorado, and is currently on the faculty of the North American Viola Institute, Rocky Ridge Music Center, and The University of Alabama. He has given master classes at the University of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Southern Illionois, Bowling Green State University, and the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana Cuba.
Mr. Sweaney has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Ani Aznavoorian, Ron Leonard, Stefan Milenkovich, Merry Peckham, and Peter Sellers. While living in Austria, he performed regularly with the Camerata Salzburg under Sir Roger Norrington, anne Sophie Mutter, Leonidas Kavakos, Walter Weller, and Heinrich Schiff. Recent venues and festivals include, Salzburg Mozarteum Grossersaal, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, KKL Lucerne, Bilbao and Madrid, Spain, Athens Megaron, Camerata Salzburg’s Beethoven and Haydn Begegnung, Vienna Festwochen, Salzburg Mozart Woche, Bergen Norway Festspiel, Schubertiad Bezau, Austria, Würzburg Mozart Festival, Singapore Arts Festival, The Best of the Nordrhein-Westfalen series, The Beethoven House in Bonn, SUNY Purchase, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and an open workshop with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He has recorded with the Camerata Salzburg for Universal the complete works for flute and orchestra with soloist Andrea Griminelli and works by Mozart with pianist Sebastian Knauer and violinist Daniel Hope. In 2007 Daniel Sweaney was heard in a live broadcast with the Signum String Quartet on West German Radio.
Daniel Sweaney studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, The Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, the Universität Mozarteum, Salzburg, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has participated in many summer festivals such as The Sewanne Summer Music Center, The Quartet Program, The Aspen Music Festival and School, and The International Musician’s Seminar, Prussia Cove. His major teachers include Heidi Castleman, David Holland, Thomas Riebl, Martha Strongin-Katz, Roger Tapping, Erika Eckert, and Geraldine Walther. In his spare time he enjoys competitive swimming.
William Terwilliger - violin (YAS)
Violinist William Terwilliger has established an exceptionally active and diverse
career as a performer and teacher on five continents. With pianist Andrew
Cooperstock as the duo called Opus Two, he performed throughout seven Latin American
countries on a 1993 Artistic Ambassador tour. The duo has also performed throughout
the United States and in Europe on repeated tours, including concerts throughout
France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, England, Scotland, Sweden and Latvia and the
Ukraine. Recent appearances include recital debuts in New York at Merkin Hall, in
London at St. John's, Smith Square, as well as performances at the Piccolo Spoleto
Festival (SC), the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (Queensland), Round Top
(Texas), Brevard (NC), and Rocky Ridge (CO).
In 2006, the Opus Two made its Asian debut with two months of recitals, master classes and concerto appearances in China, Korea, Japan and Russia. Their performances have been heard over NPR, the BBC, Radio France, as well as Latvian and Australian National Radio. Their discography includes the Complete Works of Aaron Copland for Violin and Piano (Azica), Chamber Music of Lowell Lieberman (Albany), and from 2006, Souvenirs: Music of Paul Schoenfield (Azica), a project which won a Copland Foundation Recording Grant and "showed a sheer joy of music-making" from a review in the American Record Guide. Coming out in November of 2010 is a recording of the music of Leonard Bernstein on the Naxos label, which includes a brand new suite from Candide and other Broadway arrangements with singer Marin Mazzie.
Philip Wharton - violin, viola (JSS1)
Few artists enjoy such high praise for both of their disciplines as composer /violinist Philip Wharton. Of his playing, The New York Times proclaimed, “a rousing performance!” and The Waterloo Courier wrote, “a golden tone with breathtaking execution.” His compositions, heralded from coast to coast, are described by the New York Concert Review as, “…decidedly contemporary…both engaging and accessible.”
Philip’s recent composition, The Prairie Sings, was a prizewinner in the 2008 NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) artsong competition. Lori Laitman, the final judge, described it as “interesting throughout and very sensitive to the text.” Carol Mikkelson, NATS coordinator thanked him, “Your contribution to the world of song is greatly appreciated.” The Prairie Sings was commissioned for an art show opening of prairie images by Iowa artist, Kristi Carlson. So well received was this cycle of songs on poems by Carl Sandburg, Wharton expanded it into a full symphonic work.
Combining art, music, poetry and dance is quickly becoming Philip’s specialty. His 2007 chamber symphony, Passing Season, used titles from his grandfather Orville M. Running’s woodcut prints. His narrated symphonic poem on the book, The Giant Jam Sandwich, captured the author’s verse and illustrator’s design so well that author Janet Burroway sent Philip another poem. The resulting work for voice and piano trio on her story, The Perfect Pig, was premiered in September 2008 to an audience further delighted by seeing a dancer using costumes—tickling both eyes and ears. In the summer of 2005, the Santa Fe Opera mounted Two Saintes Caught in the Same Act as part of their apprentice scenes program. In 2005, the Grammy-nominated Borealis Wind Quintet premiered his Quintet and continue to perform it on their concert tours.
Remaining active as a violinist, in Spring 2007 Philip premiered his composition, Oh, But Everyone Was a Bird, a fantasy for violin and string orchestra, with the Iowa City String Orchestra. In the same concert he performed a Vivaldi concerto for violin and two orchestras with great élan. The following summer, the Moscow Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra premiered Verdant Twilight and then accompanied Philip as soloist in Bernstein’s Serenade. Last season saw repeat performances of Mozart's First Violin Concerto with cadenzas of his own devising.