Strings Faculty

** The faculty are still being finalized for 2012, so please look for updates soon.

Alan Black

Alan is in his 19th season as Principal Cellist with the Charlotte Symphony and 9th season as founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at St. Peter's.

His performance experience covers the complete spectrum of music; from classical music including chamber music, solo recitals, and concertos with the Charlotte Symphony, to appearing on stage as a soloist with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Van Cliburn Gold Medallist Jon Nakamatsu, and fiddler Mark O'Connor.

A graduate of UCLA, Alan earned a Masters Degree from Indiana University. Notable teachers have included principal cellists of major orchestras such as Ronald Leonard and David Hardy as well as Gary Hoffman and Jeffrey Solow. He has appeared in master classes with such outstanding musicians as Leonard Bernstein, James Buswell, Bernard Greenhouse and Janos Starker.

Awards include the $5,000 Arts and Science Council Fellowship in 1997 and the 2001 Spirit Award given annually by the Mint Museum and Royal and Sun Alliance. The Charlotte Observer honored Alan in its 2001 year-end review for his contribution to the arts community.

Alan has served as a panelist for several Arts and Science Council grant programs and was Chairman of the Regional Artist Projects Grants in 2000 and 2001.

Gretchen Gettes

Katherine Geeseman

Katherine Geeseman made her solo debut with the Valparaiso University Symphony Orchestra in 2001. Since then, Ms. Geeseman has performed extensively as a solo and chamber musician. As a member of the Eppes String Quartet, she performed throughout the United States and as a part of the Promising Artists of the 21st Century series in Costa Rica. Ms. Geeseman has also participated as an avid chamber and orchestral musician at the Texas Music Festival, the International Festival and Institute at Round Top, Meadowmount School of Music and the Miami Quartet's Advanced String Quartet Seminar. Additionally she has performed with numerous orchestras including the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony, the Elgin Symphony and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in master classes with Zuill Bailey, Thomas Landschoot, the Miami String Quartet, and Wesley Baldwin. Ms. Geeseman has studied under Daniel Morganstern and is now completing her Doctoral degree at Florida State University where she studies with Gregory Sauer.

Matthew Kiefer

Matthew grew up in Chapel Hill and studied violin performance at the University of North Carolina with Richard Luby. There he regularly performed chamber music under the tutelage of Donald Oehler. He has since received graduate degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Memphis, performed with orchestras in the South, and traveled internationally as a chamber musician. Matthew now resides in Memphis, Tennessee and teaches violin at Harding University in Arkansas.

Fred Raimi

Mr. Raimi began his studies as a youth in Detroit at Cass Technical High School. This season he and Jane Hawkins will join forces with an old Detroit friend, Richard Luby, for a concert of Beethoven and Brahms trios for the Mallarmé Chamber Players.

Mr. Raimi joined the Duke faculty and the Ciompi Quartet in 1974, after graduating from the Juilliard School and receiving a Masters degree from State University of New York-Binghamton, where he performed as a member of the Amici Quartet.

Among his marks of distinction, Mr. Raimi has won the International Cello Competition in Portugal and was a participant in Pablo Casals' final master class. His instrument was made by Vincenzo Ruggieri in Cremona, Italy, in 1691.

In addition to his work with the Ciompi Quartet, Fred Raimi especially enjoys the opportunity to perform with his wife, Jane Hawkins. Jane has performed often with the Ciompi Quartet and its members, going back to recitals with Giorgio Ciompi in the 1970s.

Leah Peroutka

Leah Peroutka holds degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill (BM 2007) and the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM 2009). She performs regularly on modern violin with the North Carolina Symphony as a substitute violinist, and is also an active chamber musician. Ms. Peroutka currently serves as the Coordinator and Assistant Artistic Director of the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop, now in its 21th year. She has participated in Eastern Music Festival, Cours International de Musique (Morges, Switzerland), and International Music Academy Pilsen (Czech Republic). Ms. Peroutka's principal teachers have included Joanne Bath, Richard Luby, and David Updegraff. She lectures in violin performance at UNC-Chapel Hill in addition to maintaining a private studio at her home in Chapel Hill.

As a Baroque violinist, Ms. Peroutka has performed throughout North Carolina and northeast Ohio. She was a member of the UNC Baroque Ensemble under the direction of Brent Wissick and the Case/CIM Baroque ensemble under the direction of Julie Andrijeski. She has participated in masterclasses with the Academy of Ancient Music, Jordi Savall, Quicksilver, and members of Apollo's Fire, among others. She is a founding member of GEM Baroque, based in Greensboro, NC. She has recently performed with the Music at St. Alban's series in Davidson, NC, as well as the new North Carolina Baroque Orchestra.

Scott Rawls

Scott Rawls has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Chamber music endeavors include performances with the Diaz Trio, Kandinsky Trio and Ciompi Quartet as well as with members of the Cleveland, Audubon and Cassatt String Quartets.

His most recent CD recording, released on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and was released summer 2004. His recording of chamber works for viola and clarinet was released spring 2003 on the same label.

The ensemble Middle Voices will record another disc for Centaur featuring the chamber music of American composer, Eddie Bass. Additional chamber music recordings can be heard on the CRI, Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels.

A champion of new music, Rawls has toured extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians since 1991. As the violist in this ensemble, he has performed the numerous premieres of The Cave and Three Tales, multimedia operas by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Holland Festival, Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. He is a founding member of the Locrian Chamber Players, a New York City-based group dedicated to performing new music.

Dr. Rawls currently serves as Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of the Instrumental Division in the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Under the baton of maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. He is very active as guest clinician, adjudicator, and master class teacher at universities and festivals in America and Europe.

During the summers, Rawls plays principal viola in the festival orchestra at Brevard Music Center, where he also coordinates the viola program. He holds a BM degree from Indiana University and a MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, and John Graham.

Ervin Schiffer

Hungarian born Ervin Schiffer is one of Europe's most sought-after violists and pedagogues. He is Professor of Viola at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. Professor Schiffer is a member of the Haydn String Quartet.

Kati Sebestyén

Kati Sebestyén, a native of Hungary, is the Professor of Violin at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and at the prestigious Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth. Founder and director of the Sebestyén Strings, Ms. Sebestyén is an active concert artist and performs as a member of the Haydn String Quartet.

M. Brent Williams

M. Brent Williams, has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist and chamber musician in twelve different countries and as a member of over fifteen symphony orchestras. He is currently the Concertmaster of the Albany Symphony Orchestra (GA), Assistant Concertmaster of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra (FL) and Principal Second Violin of the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra (GA). Williams has performed concerti with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Gulf Coast (FL), the Opera Teatro di Lucca Chamber Orchestra (Lucca, Italy), Albany Symphony Orchestra and Valdosta State University Percussion Ensemble. He has been a lecturer of Violin and World Music at Valdosta State University since 2008 where he performs with the Azalea String Quartet and is the director/founder of VSU's Pan-American Ensemble (the university's first, full-fledged world music ensemble). Williams' live performances have appeared on many NPR stations including WBLV (MI) and KRTS (TX) and he has recorded for the Naxos, Koch and Emeritus labels. He holds a BMA from the University of Oklahoma as well as his MM and DM from the Florida State University.

An avid chamber musician, Williams is the violinist/violist of the mixed quartet enhakē (clarinet-violin-cello-piano). enhakē was the Grand Prize Winner of the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition (2009), First Prize Winner of the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition (2008), received the Judges' Special Recognition Prize at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition (2008), was awarded the James and Lola Faust Chamber Music Scholarship (2009), was a finalist of the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition (2011), was a semi-finalist at the Concert Artists Guild Competition (2009) and also received the American Composers Forum's Encore grant in addition to multiple Musical Associate Grants from FSU. With enhakē, they have held residencies at the OK Mozart festival (2008-present), universities in Brasil, Costa Rica and across the US in addition to performances at the Pan-Music Festival at the Seoul Arts Center (South Korea) and on the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Newman Series, Appleton Museum Chamber Series (Ocala, FL) and Friday Musicale concert series (Jacksonville, FL) to name a few. enhakē performed the ICMEC Winners' concert at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (2008) and returned 3 May 2010 to perform a recital entitled "American Portrait" which included the premiere of Libby Larsen's Rodeo Reina del Cielo- a piece written for the group.

Yoram Youngerman

Visiting Professor of violin for 2011-12 at Duke University and Faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Mr. Yoram Youngerman performed in major venues worldwide including the Lincoln Center, New York; Barbican Center, London; and other venues in Washington, Toronto, Amsterdam, Zurich, San Francisco, and Berlin. He performed extensively around the country as the violist of the internationally award winning Amernet String quartet and was invited to collaborate with prominent ensembles, including the Tokyo String Quartet, Ying String Quartet, members of the Cleveland String Quartet, Ciompi String Quartet, and as a guest solo artist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert.

Mr. Youngerman served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Northern Kentucky University, and East Carolina University. In the latter, he was also director of the Chamber Music Program. More recently he spent a year teaching at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music in Israel, before returning to Chapel Hill.

In 2005, Mr. Youngerman founded MYCO @ UNC Youth Chamber Orchestra, a project for advanced studies in Chamber music for talented pre-college musicians. Recognized for excellence, groups from MYCO competed in the Fischoff chamber music competition, and the chamber orchestra was recently invited to tour China in the summer of 2012, Yoram continues to serve as the conductor and Artistic Director of the organization, and its summer chamber music workshop at UNC.

Mr. Youngerman is a regular participant at the Summit Music Festival in New York, where he also conducts the Festival Orchestra.