Guest Masterclasses
Herbert Greenberg
Herbert Greenberg, a native of Philadelphia, studied with Jascha Brodsky and Ivan Galamian, and his further studies at Indiana University with the great pedagogue Josef Gingold led to a Performer’s Certificate. Greenberg has been a member of the Minnesota Orchestra; associate concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony; and, from 1981 to 2001, served as concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has performed over 50 concerti from the baroque to present day American composers such as Adams and Rouse. Greenberg has collaborated as a soloist with many of the world’s leading conductors including William Steinberg, Andre Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Sergiu Comissiona, Gunther Herbig, Hans Vonk, Pinchas Zukerman, Nicholas McGegan, Kazimerz Kord, Emmanuel Krivine, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Alan Gilbert, and David Zinman. He has performed as soloist in Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim. Many of his performances have been broadcast on NPR, and he was featured in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben on national television celebrating the inaugural concert at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.
Greenberg has concertized throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He has toured as soloist with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra of Denmark and has led the New Arts Ensemble of Taipei as violinist/conductor on a tour throughout Taiwan. Greenberg was the first American invited to serve as the concertmaster for the Japan Virtuoso Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble consisting of concertmasters and first chair players from all over Japan as well as the Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Orchestras. Recently, Greenberg has performed in Budapest, the Czech Republic, and served as violinist/conductor of the Singapore Symphony. He has also served on international juries for the most recent Szymanowski and Wieniawski Competitions. Greenberg has been invited to serve as guest concertmaster for the Houston, St. Louis, San Diego, Atlanta, and Oregon symphonies, as well as the National Arts Orchestra of Canada, Prague Symphony, Mav Orchestra of Budapest, and the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester of Norway.
With pride, Greenberg has been associated with and serves as concertmaster for the Defiant Requiem Foundation. Greenberg performed at the first performance in Theresienstadt and is devoted to getting the story of life in the Terezin Ghetto told. He has performed works of Klein, Kraza, Haas, and Ullman at Terezin and served as concertmaster for the award winning film, Remember the Holocaust: Defiant Requiem.
In Minneapolis he was a member of the Minnesota Chamber Soloists. In Pittsburgh he was a founding member of the Previn-Greenberg-Williams Trio and, in Baltimore, a founding member of the Baltimore String Quartet. He has collaborated in chamber music with a wide variety of artists such as William Primrose, Michael Tree, Isaac Stern, Josef Gingold, Jaime Laredo, Pinchas Zukerman, Malcolm Frager, Josef Kalichstein, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Barry Tuckwell. Mr. Greenberg has participated in many festivals and seminars such as New York String Seminar, NOI, Sarasota, and Blossom Festivals. For the past 16 seasons he has been a member of the faculty and concertmaster of the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Greenberg has been a member of the violin faculty at the Peabody Conservatory since 1987 and is currently serving as faculty chair. He is also very active in leading master classes, most recently at LSU, CCM, YST, and Juilliard. Many of his former students are faculty members, have chamber music careers, and occupy concertmaster and principal positions in major symphony orchestras throughout the world. Greenberg’s students are members of orchestras such as Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, National, Seattle, Oregon, Houston, St. Louis, Montreal, KBS, Danish Radio, and Israel Philharmonic. Greenberg has recorded for Sony, Telarc, Argo, and Delos. He plays on the Jean Becker Stradivarius, dated 1685.
Christian Howes
Violinist, educator and composer, Christian Howes was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll (“Rising Stars/Violin”), named among the top three jazz violinists in the JazzTimes critics poll, and nominated for Violinist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He received the Residency Partner Award through Chamber Music America, earned a USArtists grant through the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and was invited by the U.S. State department to teach and perform as a cultural ambassador twice, in Ukraine and Montenegro. His release on Resonance Records, “Southern Exposure” earned recognition in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Downbeat, Jazz Times, as well as a six-night run at Lincoln Center. His release, “American Spirit” was named among the Best Jazz Albums of 2015″ by the Huffington Post. Howes is the founder of “Creative Strings“, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to expand music education through the creation of online curriculum, an annual summer conference, and dozens of visits to schools annually teaching improvisation, contemporary styles, and related subjects. He endorses Yamaha violins and D’Addario strings.
Wayne Foster-Smith
Cellist Wayne Foster-Smith teaches cello and chamber music in Berlin, Germany. For 24 years he was the chamber music coordinator at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. Prior to assuming this position, he taught cello, chamber music and theory in the Starling Project at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and theory and ear training at the Juilliard school. As director of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, he founded a master class series and presented yearly concerts in Merkin and Weil Halls. Mr. Smith taught cello and chamber music for many summers at the Aspen Music School in Aspen, Colorado and at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont. He has presented masterclasses in Paris, Berlin, Italy, Denmark, Iceland and Australia. Mr. Foster-Smith was the cellist of the Newberry Quartet and founder and director of the Edgehill Ensemble in New York City. He was principal cellist of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and performed with the New Haven, Stamford and Aspen Chamber Orchestras. Teachers have included Daniel Pollack (piano), Henri Lazarof and Joel Hoffman (composition), and Gabor Rejto, Yehuda Hanani, Harvey Shapiro and Leonard Rose (cello).
An advocate of new music, Mr. Foster-Smith has premiered works by such composers as Gudmundur Hafsteinsson and Ron Minor and has a special interest in the works of Halsey Stevens and Ursula Mamlok. Recently he co-organized a festival of four concerts at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler dedicated exclusively to the music of György Kurtág. Amongst his former students are members of the Calder and Daedalus String Quartets.
Aaron Au
Born in Lethbridge, Aaron Au was a first violinist for many years with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a sessional lecturer of viola at the University of Alberta. He appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in concerts across North America and Europe. Aaron is also privileged to be a pastor at Avenue Church in the Alberta Avenue neighbourhood in Edmonton. He and his wife April are greeted with the daily adventures and discoveries that come with having two young, energetic and curious boys, Ethan and Elijah. Aaron is thrilled for the opportunity to engage with CKUA’s classical music audience.
Aaron wants classical music to be accessible to a broad audience, supporting connections and a sense of place. In Classical Connections, he loves to amplify the local performing arts community, and he often shares the music people will hear if they go to concerts and recitals around the province. Says Aaron, "Music provides us with the beauty and hope that we crave, but it also gives us space for lament and reflection, which we need from time to time."