LYDIA CHERNICOFF
Violinist Lydia Chernicoff is the Founder and Artistic Director of New Muse Concerts, a chamber music series defined by its daring programming and lively, casual atmosphere.
As an advocate for reframing classical music as an inclusive art form, and for promoting creative collaboration across the arts, Lydia has been featured in Charleston Magazine’s Arts Profile, The Post & Courier, Charleston City Paper, and as a presenter at PechaKucha 39 — a speaker series spotlighting members of Charleston’s creative community.
Lydia has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the US, and in Europe, China, and South America. In 2007, she founded Trio Appassionata alongside cellist, Andrea Casarrubios, and pianist, Ronaldo Rolim.
Lydia has collaborated with the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, PostClassical Ensemble, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, INSCAPE Chamber Orchestra, and Alarm Will Sound, and has served on the chamber music faculty of Peabody Conservatory’s Preparatory Division, and as the director of the Homewood Chamber Music Program at Johns Hopkins University. She performs regularly with the Charleston Symphony and Chamber Music Charleston.
She received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Violaine Melançon, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland as a student of James Stern.
ALVA ANDERSON
Alva Anderson, voice/viola, was born in the Bronx to parents who fostered a great appreciation for the Arts, and began piano lessons at the age of 10. Her desire to be a part of the music program in high school led her to the viola. At the time, she didn’t know what a viola was but it soon became her ‘voice’.
Her other voice revealed itself while Alva was on tour in Europe with a chamber music ensemble. Late one night at a jam session in a jazz club in Switzerland, a good buddy invited her to the microphone. The song was “My Funny Valentine.” The feeling and audience responses were intoxicating. The message was clear; she was twice blessed.
With the acknowledgment of those gifts came the great joy, the responsibility to support, develop and share them with others.
Back in the ‘States’ Alva began to frequent jam sessions throughout New York City. She attended vocal and instrumental workshops with Barry Harris, Billy Taylor, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Jimmy Heath and Billy Mitchell, Frank Owens, John Blake, Turtle Island String Quartet and Jimmy Seigler. For more than 20 years Alva has shared her love for music with her students in the New York City public schools. Many of her students have gone on to become professional musicians and music teachers.
Alva has created two one women shows; The Elegant One, the Life in Music of Ella Fitzgerald and Fine “Brown” Frame, the Music of Ruth Brown.
Her band members Tom DiPietra, guitar, Jesse Crawford, bass and Charlie Taylor, percussion have performed these concerts in libraries, churches and schools in New York City. With this band Alva Anderson creates original music and puts her own spin on the music of these singers and the other singers who have fed her desire to sing.
LEE BARBOUR
Lee Barbour is a musician from Charleston, SC. As a guitarist, he has performed/recorded with several international artists, including guitar legend Joe Beck, Fred Wesley, Earl Klugh, Chris Bullock and Justin Stanton, Cody Wright, John Blackwell, Quentin Baxter, Jeff Sipe, Kebbi Williams, Elise Testone, Ellis Hall, and Cary Ann Hearst. He has been reviewed in Jazz Times and had appearances in Spin Magazine and the New York Times.
As a composer, he has written music for trailers, documentaries, animation, commercials and feature film. Lee taught guitar at The New York City Guitar School and The College of Charleston and continues to teach privately. He performs regularly with several different projects and tours with Jazz is Phish. He currently lives in paradise, Charleston, SC.
DANIELLE CHO
Danielle Cho, cello, joined as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in 2021.
She is a co-founder of Sound Impact, a collective of musicians dedicated to empowering youth through innovative music programs in schools, juvenile detention centers and international communities. Danielle has led Sound Impact’s international programs in Costa Rica and Panama. This passion was instilled in her after studying in Barcelona as a Fulbright Scholar, after which she was invited to play with the Orquesta de la Comunitat Valencia where she toured internationally under Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. She was also a featured soloist at the 2014 TedxFulbright Conference and the first Fulbright alumni to be selected to serve on two missions with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) Global Leaders Program in Argentina and Haiti.
Highlights of Danielle’s career have been solo appearances with the Erie Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Filharmonica Juvenil (Argentina) and festival appearances in Europe and the US including IMS Prussia Cove, Spoleto, Music in May, the Holland Music Sessions, Taos, Sarasota, and Schleswig-Holstein. Additionally, Danielle performs regularly with the American Pops Orchestra, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
She holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the New England Conservatory. In her spare time, Danielle enjoys photography, hiking and boxing.
FRANK A DUVALL
Born and raised in Rome, Georgia, Mr. Duvall began his musical training in the fifth grade playing trumpet in the middle school band. After high school, Mr. Duvall auditioned and was accepted as a trumpeter in the US Army where he attended the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia. Upon leaving the Army, he completed his undergraduate (jazz performance) and Masters degrees (composition and arranging) at the University of South Carolina.
Mr. Duvall toured the US with pianist/singer/entertainer Buddy Greco (who began his career in Benny Goodman's band) and lived in New York City for two years where he performed in jazz clubs (with Marian McPartland, Chris Potter and others), off-Broadway shows and worked in music studios.
Currently, Mr. Duvall performs professionally on both bass and piano and is the music director for the big band at Forte Jazz Lounge in Charleston.He’s also the bassist and one of the arrangers for the Charleston Jazz Orchestra, teaches at the College of Charleston (where he is the jazz bass instructor) plus teaches online classes covering the history of Pop Music in America and Women In American Popular Music.
DR. DAVID PATTERSON
Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Dr. David Patterson has been playing music since the age of five. After getting an early start playing drums in church, Dr. Patterson quickly refined his drumming skills and began performing with many notable musicians. Some of these artists include Russell Malone, Eric Darius, Dianne Reeves, Robert Lewis, Frank Duvall, Cyrus Chestnut, Charlton Singleton, The Charleston Jazz Orchestra, Michael Mossman, Tommy Gill, Ray Parker Jr., and many more.
After working as a professional musician for over a decade, Dr. Patterson pursued his passion for public education. His postsecondary education started at the College of Charleston, where he was a member of the Call me MISTER program, an initiative to recruit and retain men of color in the classroom. It was during his time at College of Charleston that he developed a passion for mentoring students. After serving in the public education system for several years, Dr. Patterson earned his doctoral degree in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Administration and Supervision from Liberty University. The focus of his research project was improving discipline practices in Title I schools.
Dr. Patterson is currently working on several initiatives to mentor students, facilitate professional learning communities, bridge gaps between families and schools, and offer school-career pathways for students starting as early as elementary school. When he is not working hard in the field of education or performing music, he enjoys spending time with his family. He is married to LaLeeta Patterson, and they have three children (Triston, Trayvon, and Du’san). In his spare time, Dr. Patterson enjoys physical exercise, reading, and enjoying quality time with loved ones.
MARY REED
Bassist Mary Reed, a native of Charleston, was brought up in a musical family, attended Charleston County School of the Arts, and participated in the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra. She studied bass performance at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Southern California, with additional studies at Brevard Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival.
Since completing her education, Reed has performed with some of the finest orchestras in the country including the National, Colorado, St. Louis, and Kansas City Symphonies and was a fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida from 2015 to 2017. Mary returned to South Carolina in the fall of 2020 to serve as Acting Principal Bass with the Charleston Symphony.
RONALDO ROLIM
Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim is acclaimed for his “special ability to present touching interpretations” (El Norte), “consummate elegance” (New York Concert Review) and “mastery of phrasing, agogic accents, and dynamics” (Oberbaselbieter Zeitung).
A winner of the 2017 Astral Artists National Auditions, he has performed extensively over four continents as a guest soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Ronaldo has captured top prizes at numerous international competitions, including Géza Anda, James Mottram, Bösendorfer, San Marino, Lyon, and Teresa Carreño, and performed with groups such as the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Concerto Budapest, St. Petersburg State Capella Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as many of Brazil’s foremost ensembles.
A passionate advocate of chamber music, he is the founding member of Trio Appassionata, and greatly enjoys working with diverse chamber musicians, having performed with the Jasper, Aizuri and São Paulo quartets, and members of Ensemble Connect, the Baltimore Symphony, the Brazilian Symphony, and Bronx Arts Ensemble.
In 2019, Ronaldo released his latest album on Odradek Records, "Szymanowski - The Wartime Triptychs", devoted to the programmatic works the Polish composer wrote during World War I. The topic was extensively discussed in Mr. Rolim's doctoral thesis, completed in 2016 at Yale University.
Born in 1986, Ronaldo began his musical training at the age of four and was a student of the Magda Tagliaferro School in São Paulo. In 2005, he moved to the United States, where he studied with Flavio Varani, Benjamin Pasternack and Boris Berman.
CLAIRE MARIE SOLOMON
Claire Marie Solomon is a dynamic chamber, solo, and orchestral musician based in Charleston, SC. She performs regularly with the Charleston Symphony and Sarasota Orchestra. She toured the United States with the Weimar Staatskapelle, and has spent many summers performing in the Aspen Music Festival. She frequently collaborates with preeminent musicians, including as part of the Gossamer Trio with harpist Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc. Solomon is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she won the 2017 Cello Competition to perform the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1. She earned a Bachelor's degree in psychology from Yale University, where she was co-Principal Cello of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and played with the all-cello rock group Low Strung.
Ms. Solomon's cello mentors have included Eric Kim (Jacobs School), Richard Aaron (Juilliard), Alan Harris (Eastman), Maria Kisoupolos (NY Philharmonic), Eric Bartlett (NY Philharmonic), and Wolfram Koessel (American String Quartet).
Ms. Solomon has taught for over 10 years, beginning with local community service and growing to maintain a full private studio online. While specializing in classical, she is passionate about all genres of music, and has an established online presence with both covers and original music under the handle Clairemarie cello. She plays a 2011 William Whedbee cello and an 1840s Knopf-Bausch bow.
JESSICA TONG
Canadian violinist Jessica Tong has garnered international acclaim as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, having been described as an "outstanding talent" (Performing Arts in Canada) with "keen sensitivity and receptivity" (Bloomington Herald Times), who "allow[s] us to savour her sense of ardour and intensity, but never at the detriment of her tonal beauty." (ClassiqueInfo France) A recipient of a Canada Council Grant for Musicians and a DAAD scholar, she has been a top prizewinner at the Eckhardt-Gramatte, Toronto Symphony, Canadian Music, and Yellow Springs International Competitions, as well as the recipient of the David Ouchterlony Award for Outstanding Artist.
A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Tong's performances have taken her to Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, les Invalides in Paris and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and led to collaborations with artists such as Leon Fleisher, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin and members of the Cleveland, Vogler, Brentano and Borromeo Quartets. She has served as the first violinist of the Vinca and Larchmere String Quartets, holding the post of Artist-in-Residence at the University of Evansville and concertmaster of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra in Indiana. She is currently Artistic Director of the chamber music residency organization Music Beyond the Chamber, Chamber Music Director for the Composers Conference at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, and Assistant Professor of Violin at the State University of New York at Fredonia.
A pupil of Pamela Frank, Jessica has also studied with Kathleen Winkler, Donald Weilerstein, and Zhang yun Zhang, and has been mentored as a chamber musician by members of the Alban Berg, Vogler, Artemis and Brentano and Cleveland Quartets.
DANIEL URBANOWICZ
Dan Urbanowicz, is currently a violist in the Sarasota Orchestra. He performs regularly with the Jacksonville Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. Dan has played with the New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlantic Symphony, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Firelands Orchestra, and the Plymouth Philharmonic. He has served as principal violist of the Augusta Symphony, Charlottesville Opera, Gulfshore Opera, Venice Symphony, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany, the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, and the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra.
Dan also enjoys playing the viola d’amore. As a viola d’amore player he has been featured with the Colorado Chamber Players, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, College of Charleston’s Second Monday Series, and Augusta University as a guest lecturer and recitalist.
His principal teachers include Martha Katz and Jeffrey Irvine. Dan holds a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.
He plays on a 2017 Robert Clemens viola and his viola d’amore is from the 19th century and is of unknown origin.