Faculty
Yoram Youngerman, Artistic Director and Conductor, violin and viola
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 a member 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.
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. Mr. Youngerman founded the Mallarmé Youth Chamber Orchestra in 2005.
Mr. Youngerman is a regular participant at the Summit Music Festival in New York, where, in addition to teaching and performing, he conducts the Chamber Orchestra.
Maestro Tonu Kalam, Conductor
Tonu Kalam serves as Music Director and Conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra and has taught instrumental conducting at UNC since 1988. Educated at Harvard University (A.B., 1969), the University of California at Berkeley (M.A., 1971) and the Curtis Institute of Music (Certificate, 1973), he is also Music Director and Conductor of the Longview Symphony Orchestra in Texas, Founder and Music Director of the Chapel Hill Chamber Orchestra, and has guest conducted orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and in Europe. Tonu Kalam has conducted over 135 opera performances, for companies such as the Shreveport Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival and the Nevada Opera Company.
Prof. Richard Luby, violin
Richard Luby holds a D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music, an M.M. from the Juilliard School of Music, and a B.M. from the Curtis Institute of Music. Formerly on faculty at the Eastman School of Music and a 1991 Visiting Professor at the New England Conservatory of Music, he is currently on faculty at UNC. Mr. Luby has appeared as soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa of Mexico, National Radio Orchestra of Poland, the Rochester Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, the National Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony.
The Ciompi Quartet
Founded at Duke University in 1965 by the renowned Italian violinist Giorgio Ciompi. All its members are professors at Duke University, and they play a leading role in Duke's cultural life. Performance venues include New York's Merkin and Weill Halls, Boston's Jordan Hall, and the National and Phllips Galleries in Washington, DC. In the summer the Quartet performs at Monadnock Music in New Hampshire, with recent appearances at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, North Carolina's Eastern Music Festival and Highlands Chamber Music Festival. Recent musical collaborations have included the distinguished talents of pianists Bella Davidovich, Menahem Pressler and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, oboist Joseph Robinson, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, soprano Susan Narucki, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Members of the Ciompi Quartet who have served as MYCO coaches include Eric Pritchard, Hsaio-Mei Ku, Jonathan Bagg, and Fred Raimi. Prof. Eric Pritchard is First Violinist of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University, and has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Boston Pops and Indianapolis Philharmonic. He has degrees from Indiana University and the Juilliard School. Hsaio-Mei Ku received her Masters in Music from Indiana University, and serves on faculty at Duke University and Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory. Jonathan Bagg directs the chamber music program at Duke University. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (B.A.), and the New England Conservatory (M.M.), where he was a student of Walter Trampler. Fred Raimi graduated from the Juilliard School and received a Masters degree from State University of New York-Binghamton.
Emanuel Gruber, cello
B.M., M.M., Tel Aviv University. Formerly Principal Cellist of the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. Was awarded the Pablo Casals Prize by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970 and won the Concert Artists' Guild Auditions in 1975. Has participated in Heifetz-Piatigorsky masterclasses at the University of Southern California. Gruber has been on the faculty of the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and served as a visiting professor at Indiana University. He has participated in the "Musical Spring Festival" in St. Petersburg and the Rostropovich Cello Festival in Riga. Mr. Gruber was on the jury of the 2nd Davidoff International Cello Competition.
Leonid Zilper, cello
Cellist Leonid Zilper was born in Moscow, Russia and received the Master of Music degree in Performance from Moscow Conservatory, where he graduated with honors and won an all-Soviet String quartet competition. Under the sponsorship of members of the famous Borodin Quartet, his group was chosen to tour internationally with the Stars of the Russian Ballet. Since then, he has performed with a wide variety of chamber music groups, along with the Moscow Symphony and the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. He has played throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, and Asia. Mr. Zilper currently holds the Nell Hirschberg Endowed Chair of the North Carolina Symphony.
Nancy Green, cello
Nancy Green studied at the Juilliard School with Leonard Rose and Lynn Harrell and performed in the master classes of Mstislav Rostropovich. She made her concerto debut in New York playing Dvorak concerto at Lincoln Center, was spotlighted as a Young Artist of the Year by Musical America and won prizes and awards including the Concert Artists Guild Award which sponsored her first New York recital. After receiving a Rockefeller grant for study in London with Jacqueline du Pre, she worked with Johannes Goritzki in Dusseldorf, Germany where she was winner of the Schmolz-Bickenbach Award. She has appeared as soloist in venues such as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Munich's Herkulessaal, Windsor Castle, and London's Wigmore Hall as well as major concert halls in Shanghai, Taipei, and Seoul.
MYCO's Board of Directors (L to R): Richard Clark, Dorit Bar-On, Mingju Huang, Kathy Merritt, Leslie Kirkham-Lacin, Ed Szabo
