FREE Open Rehearsal: Erwin Schulhoff “Five Pieces for String Quartet”

Artists

Jennifer Frautschi Violin

Two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra. She is an artist-member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared as chamber musician at Chamber Music Northwest, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Cape Cod, Charlottesville, Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Salt Bay, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Festivals. Her extensive discography for the Albany, Artek, and Naxos labels includes the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerti with the Seattle Symphony. Born in Pasadena, California, Jennifer attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins in Consortium. She teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.

Artist's Website

Alexander Hersh Cello

A top laureate of the 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition, Alexander Hersh is widely recognized as one of the most creative and versatile cellists of his generation. Praised for his 2022 Carnegie Hall debut recital, he has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Boston POPS, and received top prizes from the Pro Musicis International Award, Astral Artists National Auditions, and Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant.

An avid chamber musician, Hersh has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and performed at leading festivals, including Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Lucerne, and IMS Prussia Cove. He is Co-Artistic Director of NEXUS Chamber Music, an artist-led collective dedicated to breaking down the barriers for how classical music is experienced through intimate performances, multimedia projects, and new commissions.

His debut album, ABSINTHE (2023) received critical acclaim, and he was recently featured on PBS’s Now Hear This series in an episode exploring the music of Boccherini.

A fourth-generation string player, Hersh’s parents are both active professional violinists; his grandfather, Paul Hersh, taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 49 years and his great-grandfather, Ralph Hersh, was a member of the WQXR and Stuyvesant String Quartets and Principal Violist of the Dallas and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Raised in Chicago, Hersh began playing the cello at the age of five. He received his B.M. and M.M. from New England Conservatory and continued his studies in Berlin at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik. His teachers have included Laurence Lesser, Hans Jørgen Jensen, Kim Kashkashian, Nicolas Altstaedt, and Paul Katz. He plays a G.B. Rogeri cello, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins. In his spare time he composes original music and creates short films that marry classical music with narrative, viewable on his YouTube channel: @AlexanderHersh.

Artist's Website

Lesley Robertson Viola

After celebrating a final 34th year with the internationally celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ), Lesley Robertson (viola) continues at Stanford University (1998–present), where she and her St. Lawrence colleagues direct Chamber Music in the Department of Music. Ms. Robertson teaches viola, coaches chamber music, and spearheads both the Emerging String Quartet Program and the annual St. Lawrence Chamber Music Seminar at Stanford. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School, she also holds a degree from the University of British Columbia, where she studied with her mentor Gerald Stanick. A founding member of the SLSQ, Ms. Robertson toured regularly with the ensemble, performing 100+ concerts worldwide per season (in Berlin, Florence, London, Paris, New York, and Toronto), while nurturing close ties to the Stanford community through performances in classes, dormitories, laboratories, hospitals, and Stanford’s glorious Bing Concert Hall. She participated in the Marlboro Festival for several years and toured with Musicians from Marlboro before co-founding the SLSQ. She has served on the jury of international competitions including the Banff, Melbourne, Geneva, and Wigmore Hall string quartet competitions. Summer festivals include Spoleto Festival USA, Norfolk, Banff, Santa Fe, Rockport, Bravo Vail, Music@Menlo, and more. Robertson plays a viola (1992) by fellow Canadian John Newton and a bow (2016) by François Malo.

Claire Wells Violin, Past Protégé

Born in 2001, Claire Wells is an American violinist who is fast emerging as an original, distinctive musical voice on the international scene. As an artist, Claire’s work is shaped by an instinctive curiosity that guides her across periods and styles, drawing her toward music she finds genuinely compelling, from early repertoire to contemporary works.

Highlights in the upcoming 2026 season include Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1 with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and past highlights include performing Kaija Saariaho’s Graal théâtre with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dima Slobodeniouk in May 2025, as well as working on and performing Jörg Widmann’s Etude No. 3 alongside the composer as part of CMNW’s 2024 Summer Festival.

As a soloist, Claire has performed with orchestras including the Dallas Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmoniker, Czech Orchestra Prague, Auckland Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Webern Kammerphilharmonie, and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, working with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Dima Slobodeniouk, Pietari Inkinen, Robert Kružík, and Andrew Litton, among others.

Having won major prizes at many internationally renowned competitions including the Michael Hill, Sibelius, Mirecourt, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Indianapolis violin competitions, Claire was the 2023 scholarship winner of the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund, and was most recently the winner of the 2025 Susan Wadsworth Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

Having always held a love and passion for chamber music, Claire appears at leading festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World in collaboration with Christian Tetzlaff and Steven Isserlis, the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Festival in Cornwall, the Verbier Festival Academy, Tippet Rise Chamber Festival in Montana, and the Kryzyowa Festival in Kreisau, Poland. As well as performing regularly with top young artists of today, Claire has collaborated with many distinguished musicians, including Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Steven Isserlis, Gary Hoffman, Enrico Pace, and Nobuko Imai, among others.

Claire is represented worldwide by Young Concert Artists. She currently resides in Berlin, and is studying at the Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Mihaela Martin, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire Wells plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Protégé Recital Series: Claire Wells