Robert McDuffie has appeared as soloist with many of the major orchestras of the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia and the Far East. His most recent appearances abroad have been at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bochum Symphoniker and the Noord Nederlands Orkest, the KBS Symphony in Seoul, and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. During the fall of 2002, Mr. McDuffie was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome and performed several concerts at the Villa Aurelia. He returns to Rome each June as the co-founder and artistic director of The Rome Chamber Music Festival at Villa Aurelia. Robert McDuffie is a Grammy-nominated artist whose recordings for Telarc include the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber, and Rozsa, as well as a CD of Viennese favorites. Mr. McDuffie has been profiled on NBC’s Today, CBS Sunday Morning, PBS’s Charlie Rose, A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has also served as a commentator for National Public Radio. Mr. McDuffie studied with Henrik and Robert Schwarzenberger, Margaret Pardee, Jens Ellerman, Robert Mann, and Dorothy DeLay. He has been appointed Distinguished University Professor of Music at Mercer University in his home town of Macon, Georgia. He lives in New York with his wife and two children. Mr. McDuffie plays a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu violin, know as the “Ladenburg.”

Lawrence Dutton is a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher of viola and chamber music. He is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music and professor of chamber music at SUNY-Stony Brook. As violist of the Emerson String Quartet, Mr. Dutton performs over 100 concerts each season and has won six Grammy Awards. Mr. Dutton has collaborated with artists including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yefim Bronfman. He has also performed as guest artist with numerous chamber ensembles, including the Juilliard and Guarneri string quartets and the Beaux Arts and Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson trios. As a soloist, he has appeared with many American and European orchestras. He has also appeared as guest artist at the music festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, and Ravinia, and collaborated with the late Isaac Stern in the International Chamber Music Encounters at both Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem. Lawrence Dutton studied violin and viola with Margaret Pardee and later with Francis Tursi at Eastman. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School. In 1995, he and other members of the Emerson String Quartet were awarded honorary doctorates from Middlebury College in Vermont. He resides in Bronxville, New York with his wife and two sons. Mr. Dutton plays a Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza viola, dated Milan 1796.

Ralph Kirshbaum performs with the world’s leading symphonies, in solo recitals and chamber music collaborations, in addition to his teaching and recording activities. Top prize winner in the First International Cassado Competition in Florence, as well as prize winner in the Tchaikovsky Competition, Mr. Kirshbaum made his American recital debut at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Kirshbaum opened the 2004-2005 season with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur. His music festival appearances include Santa Fe, Aspen and others throughout the United States, as well as festivals in Switzerland, Scotland, England and Australia. His chamber music collaborators include Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Yefim Bronfman and the Juilliard and Tokyo string quartets. Mr. Kirshbaum had a 30-year performing and recording association with violinist György Pauk and pianist Peter Frankl. His vast discography includes concertos of Elgar, Haydn and the Brahms Double and Beethoven Triple Concertos for BMG Classics. Ralph Kirshbaum is founder and artistic director of the RNCM Manchester International Cello Festival in Manchester, England. He also continues to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. A native of Texas, Mr. Kirshbaum studied with Aldo Parisot and graduated with honors from Yale University. Ralph Kirshbaum is on the faculty of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He makes his home in London with his wife Antoinette and son Alexander. Mr. Kirshbaum plays a Montagnana cello which once belonged to the 19th century virtuoso Piatti.