Winner of the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, violinist Keiko Tokunaga spends most of her days touring and performing globally as a soloist and chamber musician. Keiko has been praised by the Strings Magazine for possessing a sound “with probing quality that is supple and airborne” and for her “pure, pellucid bow strokes”. She has soloed with various major orchestras such as the Spanish National Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya and Virginia Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In 2021, Keiko founded an online concert series, Jukebox Concerts, in order to provide artistic outlets for musicians who lost their engagements due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later in the year, she created INTERWOVEN, an intercultural ensemble whose mission is to elevate the visibility of the AAAPI (Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) community by integrating the musical traditions of the East and West.

While Keiko played with the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet between 2005 and 2019, the ensemble won numerous prestigious awards including the GRAMMY Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance; First Prize of the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2011; the Third Prize and the Australian Broadcast Corporation Classic FM Listener’s Choice Award of the 6th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2011.

Keiko plays on a J. B. Vuillaume violin from 1845, generously loaned by an anonymous donor. She also enjoys playing on a Baroque-style violin made by Antonio Mariani, circa 1669, formerly in the collection of Gabriel Schaff. Her bow was made by Nicolas Maire circa 1850.

Described by The Washington Post as a “dazzling virtuoso,” Daniel Lelchuk was appointed Assistant Principal cellist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra by music director Carlos Miguel Prieto; he holds the same position with the New Orleans Opera Association. He has performed at numerous international festivals including those of Aspen, Baden-­Baden, Hawaii, Colorado, Lakes Area, Silicon Valley, and Salzburg. At the invitation of Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, he presented a series of solo cello recitals at the famed Villa Aurora, Rome.

A founding member of the Castleton Chamber Players with violinist Eric Silberger, Daniel Lelchuk served from 2010-­2014 as principal cellist of the Castleton Festival under Maestro Lorin Maazel. Since 2016 he has served as first cellist of the New York based Salomé Chamber Ensemble and tours regularly internationally with David Aaron Carpenter and the Ensemble.

In addition to his busy concert schedule, Daniel Lelchuk leads a rich speaking life behind the microphone. He was the popular and frequent guest host of The Food Show on WWL radio where he interviewed celebrity chefs and welcomed callers from all over the country live on-air. He is the creator and host of the popular podcast regularly heard in more than seventy countries Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk, where he engages the world's leading cultural figures and thinkers in spirited, in-depth conversation. Guests include Walter Isaacson, Linda Ronstadt, Ambassador Michael McFaul, Mike Espy, Nicholas Christakis, John McWhorter, David Frum, Jacques Pépin, Moshe Safdie, Amy Tan, Richard Haass, and Wynonna Judd.

On public radio WWNO New Orleans, Mr. Lelchuk created the LPO Radio Hour, where he takes listeners on a highly curated weekly tour of great orchestral, chamber, and operatic music, for which he provides frank commentary, behind the scenes look at concert life, and context so the brand new listener instantly feels at home.

Praised by The New Yorker as an “exceptional young artist” and as a “major talent” by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, American pianist Matthew Graybil has performed throughout the United States, Canada, France and Holland and Mexico in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center and Lincoln Center. He has appeared on radio and television, including WNYC, WQXR, WWFM, CBS Chicago, the Discovery Channel and PBS.

Since making his orchestral debut at age 14, he has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony and the National Chamber Players among many others. An avid chamber musician, he has been invited to festivals including the American Academy in Fontainebleau, the Ravinia Steans Institute, the Sarasota Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program. Artists with whom he has collaborated include Itzhak Perlman and the Ulysses and Enso String Quartets.

He has been a prize-winner in the MTNA/Yamaha National Piano Competition, the New York Piano Competition, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Competition, the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition and the Wideman International Piano Competition.

Graybil was a pupil of Harvey Wedeen for six years and completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, where he worked with Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio.

Georgiy Borisov is an Artist in Residence and Principal Clarinetist with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in Michigan. He has performed in the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, IRIS Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Music Masters Festival in Japan, Beethoven Festival Orchestra in Chicago, Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, New York String Orchestra Seminar and MostArts Festival in New York among other orchestras. He was invited to play the famous clarinet solo from the Rhapsody in Blue in 'S Wonderful: The Music of George Gershwin with Teddy Abrams and Morgan James. As a soloist, he appeared with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Southwest Michigan Symphony, West Point Band, Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia, Chorpus Christi Wind Ensemble and Interlochen Arts Academy Symphony. As a chamber musician, he was a member of the NEOlit Music Ensemble in New York performing in the Barge Music Concert Series. Being an Artist in Residence with the Kalamazoo Symphony, Georgiy regularly performs in the chamber music series such as Classics Uncorked and Craft Music. He is a 1st Prize winner of the International Clarinet Association Competition, Kingsville International Competition, Andreas Makris International Competition, West Point Band International Competition, Republic Competition of Uzbekistan and concerto competitions of Manhattan School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy. Being an active educator, Georgiy has taught as an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University and Crescendo Academy as well as at Interlochen Arts Camp in the summer. Georgiy was born into a musical family in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan where he started his music studies at the Uspensky Music School.

Daniel Orsen is a violist with a keen interest in culture and intellectual history, which is currently manifesting itself in Wagner’s Nightmare: a year-long exploration of Richard Wagner which will culminate in an album of music Wagner would not like. Wagner’s Nightmare is Daniel’s second collaboration with pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat, after their debut recording of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.

Daniel has performed at international chamber festivals such as Krzyzowa Music, Ravinia, and Verbier, and with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Eckart Runge, and the Jasper String Quartet. In 2018 Daniel founded Jamaica Plain Chamber Music and lead the concert series as Artistic Director through spring 2021. He is also a member of Fermata, a chamber music roster in Boston committed to presenting chamber music in non-traditional ways and venues.

As soloist, he has performed with the Fermata Chamber Soloists, Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. As an orchestral leader, he has served as guest solo violist with the Arctic Philharmonic and appears frequently with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Daniel practices a traditional viola hobby - making (often silly) transcriptions and arrangements for the viola.

Daniel is a native of Pittsburgh, PA. He was taught and mentored by members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Credo, and the Perlman Music Program before his studies at the Oberlin Conservatory with Peter Slowik and the New England Conservatory with Kim Kashkashian. He plays on a 2013 Philip Injeian viola and a 2014 Benoit Rolland bow, both specially made for him.

When the case is closed, Daniel enjoys biking, cross-country skiing, and most anything that gets him outside.

Cody Halquist has served as the Lecturer in Horn at the University of Virginia and Principal Horn of the Charlottesville Symphony since fall 2021. Originally from Rochester, NY, Cody has worked for several years as an active freelancer both in the New York City area and Virginia, where he has frequently performed with the Richmond Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and is 3rd Horn of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. He has also performed internationally as an orchestral musician in Germany and South Korea. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Norfolk Chamber music festival, as well as in NYC with Ensemble Echappé and the Frisson ensemble.

Cody served as the Adjunct Instructor of Horn at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut from 2019-2021. A dedicated teacher for students of all levels, he was a teaching artist through the Yale Music in Schools Initiative and Morse Summer Academy for three years, which provides tuition free music lessons and mentorship for students in the New Haven public school system.

Cody received his Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance where he was a student of Adam Unsworth. While at Michigan he was also a Stamps Scholar which funded a summer of study in London in 2013. He earned both a Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts in Performance at the Yale School of Music studying under William Purvis. He has spent summers at the Lake George and Crested Butte Music Festivals, as well as the Collegium Musicum Summer Academy.

View Niv Ashkenazi’s bio on our Founders Page.

Amanda Hardy joined the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra as principal oboe in November 2013 where she occupies the Clinton Graffam Chair. As a recipient of the Gillet Scholarship and Tourjée Alumni Scholarship Award, Amanda studied with BSO principal oboist John Ferrillo at the New England Conservatory (NEC).

Amanda was winner of the 2010 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award Competition and also has appeared as soloist with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall (2009), the Portland Symphony, the Chelsea Music Festival, the Bach Virtuosi Festival, the NEC Bach Ensemble, the Drake Symphony Orchestra, and the Des Moines Youth Symphony at age sixteen. In 2006, she won the grand prize for Iowa’s Bill Riley Talent Search, giving her state-wide televised recognition.

Amanda is a frequent performer with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops, with whom she has both toured and recorded. She has been guest principal oboe with the Boston Pops, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, and the Des Moines Symphony, and the Boston Philharmonic.

Amanda is Assistant Professor of Oboe at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, is on the faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and teaches at Northeastern University. She holds a Bachelor of Music in oboe with a piano minor from Drake University and a Master of Music and Graduate Diploma from NEC.

Previous festivals include the Masterworks Festival, the Chelsea Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Tanglewood Music Center in 2010 and 2011 where she was awarded the Mickey L. Hooten Memorial Award both summers. Her solo work can be heard in a recently released CD, Dancing with J.S. Bach (2019), on the Chelsea Music Festival Live label. Her teachers include John Ferrillo, Marilyn Zupnik, Anne Gabriele, and Jay Light; summer studies with Elaine Douvas and Richard Woodhams.

View Leah Kohn’s bio on our Founders Page.