SHOSTAKOVICH: Two Pieces, Op. 11

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Two Pieces for Four Violins, Two Violas, Two Cellos, Op. 11 Prelude: Adagio–Più mosso–Adagio Scherzo: Allegro molto Violins: Yehonatan Berick, Diana Cohen, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Amy Schwartz Moretti Violas: Dimitri Murrath, Eliesha Nelson Cellos: Julie Albers, Jacob Braun Performed on June 27, 2012 ChamberFest Cleveland’s Inaugural Concert Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music

TANNER TANYERI

TANNER TANYERI joined the percussion section of The Cleveland Orchestra in August, 2023. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, he began his musical journey at a young age when he sat down at his older brother’s drum set. He holds a bachelor of music from the University of Michigan, a masters of music from The Juilliard School, and an artist diploma from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. His mentors have included Joseph Gramley, Tom Sherwood, Daniel Druckman, and Charles Settle.

Mr. Tanyeri has performed frequently with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony. In 2022, he was selected as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in a variety of orchestral and chamber music settings. He also performed as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy’s Contemporary Orchestra in 2022. Mr. Tanyeri spent time in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, National YoungArts Week, and toured as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States.

In addition to his performing career, he has worked as a fellow with The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and as assistant percussion coordinator with the National Youth Orchestra.

JEFF STERN

Known for performing “with precision and an impressive attention to timbral detail” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), percussionist JEFF STERN has developed a voice to listen for in today’s contemporary music scene. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has collaborated with and championed the work of a number of the world’s preeminent composers, including Jennifer Higdon, John Luther Adams, and Andy Akiho. Stern is the executive director, coartistic director, and founding percussionist of 2 piano/2 percussion group icarus Quartet, praised by the Wall Street Journal for their “virtuosity, precision, and unflagging energy.” With The Percussion Collective, Stern has performed on WXQR’s Midday Masterpieces, joined virtuoso violinist Paul Huang for a recital at the Kennedy Center, and appeared as concerto soloists with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, and the Phoenix Symphony. He has appeared at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, and can be heard on the Albany, Bright Shiny Things, Furious Artisans, and Cantaloupe record labels. Stern serves as Instructor of Percussion at the Peabody Conservatory and is a proud artist endorser of Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Zildjian cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Pearl/Adams drums and percussion. Learn more at www.sternpercussion.com

TOM SHERWOOD

TOM SHERWOOD joined the percussion section of The Cleveland Orchestra in September 2015.  He previously served as prinicpal percussion of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1999-2015.  A native of Fairfax, Virginia, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he was a student of Tom Siwe and the youngest recipient of the Edgard Varèse Memorial Scholarship. He subsequently earned a Master of Music degree from Temple University, studying with the legendary associate principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Alan Abel. Prior to joining the Atlanta Symphony, he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami for three seasons. Tom is currently the director of the Cleveland Institute of Music’s percussion ensemble program and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan since 2016.

JAMEY HADDAD

Born in Cleveland Ohio, percussionist/drummer JAMEY HADDAD holds a unique position in the world of Jazz and Contemporary Music. Haddad’s musical voice transcends styles and trends, and the universal quality of his playing has attracted many international collaborations. Regarded as one of the foremost world-music and jazz percussionists, Jamey has been the percussionist for Paul Simon for more than 20 years. Mr. Haddad also collaborates with Sting, with Michael League (Snarky Puppy) Bokante, Osvaldo Golijov, Yo Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Billy Drewes, Dave Liebman, Elliot Goldenthal, Brazil’s Assad Brothers, Simon Shaheen, and The Paul Winter Consort.  His own group “Under One Sun” had a 2017 release and was featured in Downbeat Magazine.
 
Haddad is a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize and was recognized as a Legend of Jazz by the Cleveland Jazz Society. Haddad is a Fulbright Scholar and has been awarded multiple NEA grants for performance. In 2012 Haddad was voted The Top World Percussionist in “DRUM Magazine” and one of the top 4 world-percussionists by the Percussion Periodical ”Modern Drummer” (July 2007). Drumhead Magazine featured an in-depth 16 page cover article about Jamey Haddad in 2019.
 
Haddad is currently a professor at The Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland institute of Music and previously taught for 18 years at Boston’s Berklee School of Music and New England Conservatory.

ADAM GOLKA

Polish-American pianist ADAM GOLKA has appeared as soloist with dozens of orchestras, including the BBC Scottish Symphony, NACO (Ottawa), Warsaw Philharmonic, Shanghai Philharmonic, as well as the San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, New Jersey, and San Diego symphonies. Adam performed cycles of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas in NYC, Orlando, and Houston in 2020, and he also performed recitals as part of the “Sir Andras Schiff Selects” project at Klavier-Festival Ruhr (Essen), Tonhalle Zürich, Maison de France (Berlin), and 92Y Subculture (NYC). Chamber music is an integral part of Adam Golka’s musical life. He performs frequently with the Manhattan Chamber Players, participated in Marlboro Music, and he is a regular of the Krzyżowa-Music “Music for Europe” festival. Adam has also created a series of 32 short films about preparing to perform the 32 Beethoven Sonatas, called “32@32” (available on YouTube). Adam is an Artist Teacher at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

GABRIEL GLOBUS-HOENICH

Percussionist GABRIEL GLOBUS-HOENICH blends a multitude of musical influences together in his work as a performer, composer, and educator. A Montreal native, Gabriel is now based in New York City, where his career reflects a deep love for the worlds of jazz, classical, and world music. Gabriel has performed and recorded on drumset and percussion with a wide variety of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jack Harlow, Morgan James, Jim James, Chris Thile, Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Yuja Wang, Omara Portuondo, Telmary Díaz, Roberto Fonseca, Tirso Duarte, Steve Hackman, the Philly Pops, Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Louisville Orchestra, among others. He performed on the 2024 Grammy-winning album The American Project by Yuja Wang and Teddy Abrams and toured with Chris Thile and the Louisville Orchestra performing Thile’s concerto ATTENTION.

In 2017, Gabriel founded People of Earth, a 13-piece Cuban Timba band filled with some of NYC’s best musicians representing a myriad of countries. People of Earth has performed at venues such as Disney Hall, Carnegie Hall, New World Center for the Arts, Mann Center, and Kennedy Center. For more information, visit www.peopleofearthmusic.com.

An active composer and arranger, Gabriel has written orchestral arrangements for Grammy winners Sam Bush, Cory Henry, and Sara Jarosz, as well as Achilles Liarmakopolous of the Canadian Brass, Grammy-nominated Tiempo Libre, and the Louisville Orchestra. Gabriel received a 2023 BRIO Award from the Bronx Council for the Arts for his work in composition.

In addition to his work in the orchestral and jazz music worlds, Gabriel has completed extensive world percussion studies, having studied Afro-Brazilian percussion in Salvador, Bahia, with Gabi Guedes and Mario Pam, as well as Cuban percussion with Giraldo Piloto, Rociel Riveron, and Adonis Panter Calderon. Gabriel continues to work as a teaching artist for the 92nd Street Y and Marquis Studios and was formerly a teaching artist with Play On Philly! and musician-in-residence at The Please Touch Museum. He is a 2008 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Don Liuzzi and Robert van Sice.

MARC DAMOULAKIS

MARC DAMOULAKIS Principal Percussionist, Margaret Allen Ireland Chair, has been a member of The Cleveland Orchestra since August 2006. Marc is currently co-chair of the percussion department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In his pursuit of developing the dynamic whole musician, he performs as a soloist, chamber musician and is a committed educator and clinician at institutions and festivals worldwide.

Throughout his career, he has performed and recorded as a guest artist with the orchestras of the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.  He is an active chamber musician playing regularly with the Strings Music Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, and the Sun Valley Music Festival “In Focus” Series, where he is also the principal percussionist. He has performed with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Gilmore Festival, the New Music Consort and the Pulse Percussion Ensemble. In addition Mr. Damoulakis is a founding member of the Time Table Percussion Quartet. In 2015, he performed and recorded with the National Brass Ensemble at Skywalker Ranch and Orchestra Hall in Chicago.

In addition to teaching at CIM, Mr. Damoulakis was on the faculty at DePaul University for 7 years. He has led masterclasses and clinics throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is committed to a bi-annual week long teaching residency at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is a regular clinician and teacher at the North Western Percussion Symposium, the New World Symphony, and the National Youth Orchestra. Additionally, Marc is the Director of the annual Modern Snare Drum Competition. He has students holding positions in major symphony orchestras throughout the world.

Prior to coming to Cleveland, Mr. Damoulakis resided in New York for 3 years where he performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel (2003-2006), served as principal timpanist of the Long Island Philharmonic (1998-2006) and held the position of Assistant Principal Percussionist of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra (2003-2006).  He performed as an active freelancer in New York playing on Broadway in Phantom Of The Opera.

As a collaborative three year project, he developed the K symphonic line of cymbals with the Zildjian Cymbal Company, instruments that are an important part of his sound collection with The Cleveland orchestra. 

A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Mr. Damoulakis was exposed to music at a young age by his parents who were both educators and musicians, in piano and tuba respectively.   He spent four summers at Tanglewood, in addition attending the festivals of Spoleto, and the Pacific Music Festival. Marc Damoulakis holds an undergraduate BA degree in percussion performance from the Manhattan School of Music, studying under Chris Lamb (The New York Philharmonic), Duncan Patton (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and the late James Preiss (The Steve Reich ensemble.) He continued his studies in the New World Symphony, under MTT, for four years(1999-2003.) Marc and his wife Samantha currently reside in Cleveland Heights with their son, George, daughter Helen.

ALEXANDER COHEN

ALEXANDER COHEN has been the Principal Timpanist of the Calgary Philharmonic since 2011. A student of Paul Yancich and Richard Weiner, he graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2006. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as Principal Timpanist of the West Virginia Symphony- a position he held for five years. He acted as Principal Timpanist of the San Diego Symphony during the 2007-2008 season and has been a guest Principal Timpanist with the Cleveland Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic. He has also performed as timpanist with the National Symphony, the Marlboro Festival Orchestra, the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, the New World Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York String Orchestra, and the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. Alex is a founding member of ChamberFest West and ChamberFest Cleveland. He is also a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, having completed a four year training program under the direction of Aliza Stewart in Boston.

BENJAMIN YUSUPOV

BENJAMIN YUSUPOV is music director and conductor of founded by him “Israeli Soloists” Chamber Orchestra that included the best Israeli musicians. Currently he is Composer-in-Residence of Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

His extensive catalogue, which is published by Boosey & Hawkes/Sikorski, has been performed extensively by a wide range of renowned artists and orchestra across the globe the likes of the London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France, Bogota Philharmonic, New World Symphony, NDR Radio-Philharmonie Hannover, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Brno Philharmonic to name a few.

Yusupov works closely with outstanding artists like Maxim Vengerov, Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin, Sergei Nakariakov, Reinhold Friedrich, Konstantin Lifschitz, Alexander Kniazev, Maxim Rysanov.

The short list of venues Yusupov appeared as conductor includes KKL Lucerne, Berlin Philharmonie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Prinzregententheater Munich, and Cologne Philharmonie. He conducted among others Lucerne Symphony, Slovenian Philharmonic, Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Bogota Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Novosibirsk Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, to name a few.

Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in 1962, Yusupov studied piano, composition and conducting at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow with Roman Ledeniov, Yuri Fortunatov and Dmitri Kitajenko. He received his PhD degree at Bar-Ilan University.

Yusupov was awarded the Clone Prize (1992), the Sherover Award (1993), the Israeli Prime Minister Prizes (1999, 2008), the ACUM Prizes (2002, 2004), the Landau Award for the Performing Arts (2007), and Engel Prize (2009), the ACUM Prize for lifetime achievements (2016).

Benjamin Yusupov’s residency is generously sponsored with support from the Jewish Federation’s Cleveland Israel Arts Connection.