2018 Musicians – Jackson Hole Chamber Music

GET TO KNOW 2018 Musicians

Violinist Madeline Adkins joined the Utah Symphony as Concertmaster in September 2016. Prior to this appointment, she was a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO), performing as Associate Concertmaster from 2005-2016. She was also Concertmaster of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra from 2008-2016.

Adkins performs on the "ex-Chardon" Guadagnini of 1782, graciously loaned by Gabrielle Israelievitch to perpetuate the legacy of her late husband, former Toronto Symphony concertmaster, Jacques Israelievitch (1948 - 2015).

Madeline is a Concertmaster of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and has served as Guest Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago. Adkins has also been a guest artist at numerous festivals including the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, the Sarasota Music Festival, Jackson Hole Chamber Music, Music in the Mountains, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, as well as a clinician at the National Orchestral Institute, the National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and the Haitian Orchestra Institute. In addition, she has served as the Music Director of the NOVA Chamber Music Series in Salt Lake City.

A sought-after soloist, Adkins has appeared with orchestras in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 24 US states, including over 25 works as soloist with the BSO, and 9 concertos as soloist with the Utah Symphony. Her recording of the complete works for violin and piano by Felix Mendelssohn with pianist Luis Magalhães on the TwoPianists label was released to critical acclaim in late 2016. American Record Guide notes that Adkins and Magalhães are "ardent and spontaneous" and "their fierce coordination is breathtaking." Additional discography includes 13 albums with the Baltimore Symphony, where she was featured soloist on Brandenburg Concertos No. 2 + 4, and 6 albums thus far with the Utah Symphony, including Danse Macabre.

In June 2021, Adkins premiered a new concerto for violin and orchestra that she commissioned from composer Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis entitled “The Maze” about the dramatic scenery and pictographs of the Maze section of Canyonlands National Park.

A champion of early music, Adkins has been active in baroque performance on period instruments since the age of 11. She has been a member of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Pro Musica Rara of Baltimore. With the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Adkins appeared as conductor and soloist in several baroque programs of her own design, as well as hosting concerts on the Casual Series. Since her arrival in Utah, she continues to lead conductor-less concerts with the Utah Symphony.

The daughter of noted musicologists, Adkins is the youngest of eight children, six of whom are professional musicians. The siblings, who included titled players in the National, Dallas, and Houston symphonies, joined together to form the Adkins String Ensemble. She performed on viola and violin with this unique chamber ensemble for over 15 years, and the group has made numerous recordings, including Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht.

Adkins received her Bachelor’s summa cum laude from the University of North Texas and her Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory where she studied with James Buswell. While a student, she won first prize in a number of competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, the ASTA National Solo Competition, and the New England Conservatory Concerto Competition and was a second prize winner in the Irving Klein International String Competition.

Madeline serves as a Musician Director on the Board of the Grand Teton Music Festival. When not on stage, Madeline enjoys travel photography, reading, tap dancing, and exploring the West. She is also passionate about animal rescue, and has fostered over 100 kittens! Madeline volunteers regularly for Best Friends Animal Society, the Utah Food Bank, and the International Rescue Committee.

A sought-after soloist, Adkins has appeared with orchestras in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 20 US states, including over 25 works as soloist with the BSO. Her CD of the complete works for violin and piano by Felix Mendelssohn with pianist Luis Magalhães on the TwoPianists label was released to critical acclaim in late 2016. American Record Guide notes that Adkins and Magalhães are "ardent and spontaneous" and "their fierce coordination is breathtaking." Additional discography includes 13 recordings with the Baltimore Symphony, where she was a featured soloist on the Brandenburg Concertos No. 2 + 4, six discs with the Utah Symphony, including Mahler 8 and the complete symphonies of Saint-Saens, and recordings with Boston Baroque, Armonia Celeste, and the Adkins String Ensemble.

Adkins has performed as guest concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, where she was featured in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. She has been a guest artist at numerous summer festivals including the Sarasota Music Festival, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, Music in the Mountains, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, as well as a clinician and coach at the National Orchestral Institute and the National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

She performs on the "ex-Chardon" Guadagnini of 1782, graciously loaned by Gabrielle Israelievitch to perpetuate the legacy of her late husband, former Toronto Symphony concertmaster, Jacques Israelievitch (1948-2015).
A champion of early music, Adkins has been active in baroque performance on period instruments since the age of 11. She has been a member of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, the Dallas Bach Society, and Pro Musica Rara of Baltimore. Additionally, she was featured on the BSO's subscription series as the leader of five different progams of baroque music, and as a host on the Casual Series.
The daughter of noted musicologists, Adkins is the youngest of eight children, six of whom are professional musicians. She received her Bachelor’s summa cum laude from the University of North Texas and her Master’s degree from New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. While a student, she served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa and won first prize in a number of competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, the ASTA National Solo Competition, and the New England Conservatory Concerto Competition. She was also a second prize winner in the Irving Klein International String Competition.

When not on stage, Madeline is passionate about animal rescue and has fostered over 100 kittens.

Kirsten Docter

viola

Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis

Composer

Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis

Composer

Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis is a jazz and classical composer based in New York City. His music encompasses a wide variety of media and styles including his jazz piano trio MOB RULE, the 10-piece improvising ensemble Micro-Orchestra, and classical pieces for orchestra, sinfonietta and chamber ensembles with a special emphasis on music evoking natural landscapes and wilderness spaces. His music has been described in Gramophone as “a dazzling, often momentous slice of life…” All About Jazz calls him “a musician that has absorbed the stylistic vocabularies of the greats and distilled them into his own personal approach both muscular and lyrical.”

His music has been performed by The Utah Symphony, The National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, The Chesapeake Orchestra, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, The Atlantic Reed Consort, Corvus, and by members of the St. Louis, and National Symphony Orchestras. In June, 2021 his violin concerto The Maze was premiered by violinist Madeline Adkins under the baton of Marin Alsop as part of the NOI festival at the Filene Center at Wolftrap, VA and then in January, 2022 under the baton of Theirry Fischer with the Utah Symphony. Since 2015 he has served as composer-in-residence for the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival in Vermont, and in 2018 he was the inaugural composer-in-residence for the Jackson Hole Chamber Music Festival in Wyoming. Awards and accolades include an American Music Center CAP award, the Walsum Prize, an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency under composer/musician Henry Threadgill, and the Ithaca College Smadbeck Prize.

His music was released on the Inscape Chamber Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated release Sprung Rhythm on the Sono Luminus label, and his chamber symphony was released on Inscape’s 2014 record American Aggregate. As a jazz pianist he has performed at several venues in New York City including ShapeShifter Lab and Club Bonafide, and he has released two jazz LPs: Micro-Orchestra a chamber jazz collaboration with saxophonist Kurtis Adams, in 2015; and MOB RULE, his piano trio album, in 2018. Nathan currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Fordham University where he teaches classes in music theory, jazz, and music production.

Edward Gazouleas

Viola

Erik Van Heyningen

Baritone

Erik Van Heyningen

Baritone

Bass-baritone Erik Van Heyningen is a member of the 2017-2018 Michigan Opera Theatre Studio Artist program. There, he will perform Angelotti and the Jailer in Tosca, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, Ernest Hemingway et. al in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27, and will cover Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro. In early 2018, he made his Austin Opera debut as Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos. In the summer of 2018, Erik will return to Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist to perform The Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly, Ragotzki/Archbishop in Candide, and to cover Haly in L’italiana in Algeri, Voltaire/Pangloss/Cacambo in Candide, and Robert J. Oppenheimer in Dr. Atomic. In the Fall of 2018 he will begin the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at the Juilliard School. In the Summer of 2017, he joined the Santa Fe Opera for his first season as an Apprentice Artist. In the Spring of 2016, Mr. Van Heyningen was a Richard Gaddes Festival Artist with Opera Theater of St. Louis, where he appeared as Truffaldino while covering Colline in La Bohème and the Doctor in Macbeth. In May 2016, he covered the role of Ernesto in Donizetti’s Parisina d’Este with the Opera Orchestra of New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center under Eve Queler. In addition to his operatic work, Mr. Van Heyningen has been heard as a soloist in Haydn’s “Great Organ Mass,” J.S. Bach’s Cantatas 78 and 140, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass, Mozart’s Vesperae solenne de confessore, K339, and Regina Coeli in C, K276, Clérambault’s L’Amour et Bacchus, Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Fauré’s Requiem, Brahms’s Neue Liebeslieder, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit pour Noël, and Schubert’s Mass in G. An advocate of song repertoire, he has presented song repertoire in San Diego, Boston, Toronto, and St. Louis. Erik Van Heyningen was the recipient of First Prize in the 2016 Gerda Lissner Song and Lieder Competition. Also in 2016, he received an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council at the New England regional division.

Alexandra Osborne

Violin

Alexandra Osborne

Violin

Australian violinist Alexandra Osborne enjoys a versatile career as an orchestral and chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. She was appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra by Christoph Eschenbach as the youngest member of the violin section in 2009 and most recently was the Acting Assistant Concertmaster. Ms. Osborne made her U.S. solo debut with The South Bend Symphony, and has appeared as soloist with all of the major Australian orchestras, the National Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

A chamber music lover, she has performed at the Taos, Pan Pacific, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota and Colorado Music Festivals, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Fortas Chamber Music Series and was a featured artist in Symphony Magazine. Ms. Osborne is a laureate of the 2001 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and a gold medalist of the Symphony Australia Young Performers Award. She has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Alice Tully Hall's highly acclaimed opening night concert and performed the Mendelssohn Octet at Lincoln Center with members of the New York Philharmonic.

Recent highlights include tours with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a concert on the “King Louis XIV” Amati at the Smithsonian American History Museum, Guest Concertmaster with the Auckland Philharmonia, the Dvorak Piano Quintet with Maestro Eschenbach, and appearances at the Lucerne, Bonn, Grafenegg and Rostropovich Festivals, and the BBC Proms.

A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, she currently plays with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, the 21st Century Consort with a strong interest in new music, frequently performs with The Last Stand Quartet, and is a teaching artist for the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the NSO's Youth Fellowship program.

Rebecca Racusin

Executive Director / violin

Bjorn Ranheim

Cello

Bjorn Ranheim

Cello

Cellist Bjorn Ranheim was appointed to the Saint Louis Symphony in 2005 and is a member of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Idaho. He served as principal cellist with the Colorado Music Festival from 2006 – 2015 and has performed and toured with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland and Detroit.

Bjorn Ranheim has been featured as soloist on multiple occasions with the Saint Louis Symphony and Colorado Music Festival, as well as with the New World Symphony, Columbia Civic Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra and the Washington University Symphony Orchestra.

Actively performing in chamber music, Bjorn Ranheim has toured extensively in the United States, Europe and Central America, with performances at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. He has participated in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Seminar, Costa Rica International Chamber Music Festival and Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Ranheim is highly visible throughout the St. Louis region, presenting recitals, educational programs and chamber music performances. He is a core member of the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis and was the cellist with Washington University’s Eliot Piano Trio with St. Louis Symphony concertmaster, David Halen, and the late pianist, Seth Carlin. Mr. Ranheim’s recording of J.S. Bach Suite No. 3 for Unaccompanied Cello was released on AAM Recordings in 2013.

Seeking out new directions and partners in music making, Bjorn Ranheim has collaborated with internationally known jazz musicians, sharing the stage and recording studio with Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, Peter Martin, Jeremy Davenport & Brian Owens. In the spring of 2011, Mr. Ranheim appeared on the nationally renowned radio program, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, performing alongside jazz vocalist, Erin Bode. Mr. Ranheim is a founding member of The 442s, an acoustic string ensemble that pursues innovative, genre-defying music making and collaborations.

A committed advocate of contemporary solo and chamber music, Bjorn Ranheim has given world-premier performances of works by the late Stephen Paulus, Paul Schoenfield, Steven Heitzig, Peter Martin, Stefan Freund and William Beckstrand.
Bjorn Ranheim serves as Music Director for the World Chess Hall of Fame, curating the Monthly Music Series, which features all genres of music, as well as the Composers Spotlight Series, featuring members of the St. Louis Symphony in chamber music by foremost composers throughout history.
As a mentor and coach, Bjorn Ranheim has been invited to work with the New World Symphony, Indiana University Summer Music Festival and the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Mr. Ranheim has been a featured contributor to MUSAIC – the online video lesson library curated by the New World Symphony as well as the Online Music Academy produced by the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis.
Bjorn Ranheim studied at The Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Stephen Geber, former principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Mr. Ranheim lives in the heart of St. Louis with his wife, Dorie, their two beautiful daughters, Inga & Freya and Hungarian Vizsla, Ruby.

Jennifer Ross

violin

Jennifer Ross

violin

Jennifer Ross enjoys a well-earned reputation as a respected violinist and educator. Her orchestral career began at the age of 19 as Associate Concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony. She then became a member of the Cincinnati Symphony before being named Principal Second Violin of the Pittsburgh Symphony—a post she held for 20 years.

Reflecting her deep commitment to teaching, Jennifer presents innovative workshops at festivals, universities and conservatories nationwide. She serves as Artist in Residence for Orchestra Studies at the National Orchestral Institute and is active in the Sphinx Organization, supporting diversity and inclusion in classical music. Ms. Ross appears regularly on the chamber music stage in series and festivals across the country, collaborating with celebrated artists including Yefim Bronfman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jaime Laredo, and Lynn Harrell. She has been heard on NPR’s Performance today from the Grand Teton Music Festival, where she performs each summer. Jennifer holds the Principal Second Violin chair of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and is a proud founder and Co-Artistic Director of Jackson Hole Chamber Music. Ms. Ross is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.

Richard Scerbo

Artistic Director / conductor

Elizabeth Koch Tiscione

Oboe

Rachel Young

Cello

Rachel Young

Cello

A National Symphony cellist since 1998, Rachel Young brings a deep and diverse musical background to her work, ranging from an avid engagement in chamber music to a strong interest in new music. Praised by the Washington Post for her “open musicality and finely wrought tone”, she is a member of the Last Stand Quartet and the 21st Century Consort. Prior to joining the Symphony, Ms. Young was principal cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. An enthusiastic chamber musician, performances include appearances with the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, Garth Newel Music Center, the Odeon Chamber Series, the Strathmore Mansion, the John F. Kennedy Center, the White House, and the American Embassy in Madrid, as well as on radio stations WGMS and WGBH. Young has also enjoyed occasional forays into new arenas, collaborating with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, movie producer Bill McKenna, songwriter Randy Barrett, and saxophonist Al Regni.

Ms. Young was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She began studying music at the age of 4, and quickly knew she wanted to become a cellist. In high school, she was exposed to the contemporary cello repertoire and loved it. She went on to play with the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Peabody Institute and found the challenge and discovery of performing contemporary music incredibly rewarding. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Laurence Lesser, and her Master’s degree in cello performance with Stephen Kates at the Peabody Conservatory. She was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and attended the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in England where she studied with William Pleeth. Young is a teaching artist with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship and SMI programs. She serves on the board of the Kindler Cello Society and the 21st Century Consort. Residing just outside of Washington with her husband, bassist Anthony Manzo, their 2 children, 3 basses, 3 cellos and three cats, Young often commutes to work on her bike.