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The Artaria String Quartet brings to Stringwood their chamber music expertise and success on stage and in the studio. They have been presented at celebrated venues in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Cleveland, Boston, and St. Paul, and have performed to critical acclaim on national television and radio, in Europe, and throughout the United States. Originally from Boston where they were mentored by Eugene Lehner of the legendary Kolisch Quartet, and by members of the Budapest, La Salle, Juilliard, Emerson and Cleveland Quartets, the ASQ were finalists in the fourth Banff International String Quartet Competition and are winners of the prestigious 2004 McKnight Performing Artists Award. The Artaria String Quartet is now based in St.Paul, MN where they present an annual four-concert series in Hamline University's Sundin Music Hall, highly regarded for its intimate, warm ambience and recording-quality acoustics. They are frequent guests of the Schubert Club and other significant Twin Cities societies, at colleges and universities throughout the state of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, as well as rural settings, the Mayo Clinic's "Harmony" series, and their own newly created series at St. Paul's Episcopal Homes Long Term Care. With the mission of fostering other quartets in the great tradition of string quartet playing, the ASQ established the Artaria Chamber Music School: a weekly coaching program in St. Paul, Stringwood Summer Chamber Music, and Winterstrings: an adult amateur retreat. Artaria's Ray Shows has also created the St Paul String Quartet Competition, a national event open to high school age quartets. The Artaria String Quartet is repeatedly awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and the Southeast Minnesota arts Council for their continuing commitment to music education.
Renee Moore Skerik, guest violist Renée Moore-Skerik, professor of viola at Texas Tech University and violist of the Botticelli String Quartet since 2004, has led an active and varied career. As violist with the Botticelli String Quartet she has toured throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil, as featured performers at the 33rd International Viola Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland and most recently presented a concert of Teresa LaVelle’s compositions in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In May 2006 Renee taught and performed at the “Cuerdes de Enlace” festival in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Renee performed for ten years as violist of the Artaria String Quartet, winners of the 2004-2005 McKnight Foundation Award for Performing Artists. She has served on the faculty of the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, MacPhail Center for the Arts, Carleton College, The Quartet Program at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia, and was Artist/Teacher for two summers at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She is a four-time recipient of the prestigious Orchestral Fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival, and has performed in the Spoleto, New Mexico, and National Repertory Orchestras. Her chamber music collaborations include performances with Janos Starker, Raphael Hillyer, Arnold Steinhardt and Charles Castleman. Renee holds degrees from the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music. Laura Thielke, guest cellist Cellist Dr. Laura J. Thielke is the Director of Chamber Music at Walnut Hill. Her cello teachers have included Leslie Parnas, Robert Sylvester, Steven Doane, Paul Katz, Gabor Reijto, and Laurence Lesser, and she has worked closely with the Cleveland, Muir, and American Quartets as well as such eminent musicians as Gyorgy Sebok, Gilbert Kalish, Walter Levin and Thomas Brandis. Since 1998 she has served as Assistant Director of the Music Department and Head of Chamber Music at the Walnut Hill School. As a former member of the Artaria Quartet of Boston, she performed numerous concerts in Europe, Minneapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, and served as a faculty member at Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Prior to joining the Artaria Quartet, Dr. Thielke was a guest artist at several international music festivals, including the Robert Shaw Choral Institute and the Making Music Together Project under the direction of Sarah Caldwell, including three weeks of concerts at the Moscow State Conservatory. Along with her involvement in chamber music, Dr. Thielke has also had extensive orchestral performing experience, having served as Principal Cello of the New American Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fairfax and Maryland Symphony Orchestras. Dr. Thielke performs as a recitalist in the Boston area and also served for eight summers as Director of String Chamber Music and Cello Faculty at Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In recognition of her work with young artists, in 2002 Chamber Music America awarded her the nation’s highest award for chamber music teaching, the Kay Logan Award for Excellence in Chamber Music Education.
Andrea Een, guest violinist Een earned a D.M.A. in violin performance and literature from the University of Illinois. She has studied violin with Theodore Brunson, Marilyn Box, Dorothy DeLay, Paul Rolland, Eduard Melkus, and Paul Kantor, and viola with Louis Kievman. Een has also studied chamber music with members of the Hungarian and Walden String quartets. She has a special research interest in the Norwegian folk Hardanger fiddle and has been featured on National Public Radio and on Norwegian National Television performing and talking about emigrant fiddle traditions. She is a member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, the Plymouth Festival Orchestra, and a frequent chamber music performer on violin and viola. Een has performed as a solo and chamber musician in Norway, France, Germany, Austria, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. Jonathan Sturm, guest violinist Jonathan Sturm is one of a rare few musicians who can bring excellence to the complete spectrum of music: performance as a violin soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony, as a violist in the internationally acclaimed Ames Piano Quartet, and as professor of Music History at Iowa State University. He has recital and concerto appearances across the United States, and in Russia, South Africa, Cuba, and Albania to his credit, maintaining a typical annual schedule of 30-40 concerts. With the Ames Piano Quartet he has been represented by Joanne Rile Artist Management since 1998, has recorded eight internationally released compact discs on the Dorian/Sono Luminus, and Albany labels, has been heard on the St. Paul Sunday, and Performance Today radio programs, and performs annually on national concert series. In 2010, he began his twentieth season as concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony, with which he has been invited to solo more often than any guest artist over his tenure. At Iowa State University, Sturm was awarded the 2009 Excellence in Teaching Award in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. As a private violin teacher, his students consistently win competitions, providing them opportunities to perform with orchestras in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Many of his younger students have graduated to attend major conservatories, including Indiana University, New England Conservatory, The Eastman School of Music and Oberlin. He has been on the summer faculty of Madeline Island and Stringwood music festivals. When not performing, Dr. Sturm has been in demand as a presenter at national conferences, has published numerous articles and book reviews for encyclopedias and journals, and has a forthcoming chapter in a book on Faust in music to be published by Oxford University Press.
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Ray Shows, violin
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Founded in 2000
980 Bellows Street, St. Paul, MN 55118 • (651) 238-4945