The Arts

Musicians

	Assistant Principal Bassist Richard Barber was born into a musical family, beginning piano studies at age seven and double bass at age nine. His decision to pursue music (and not science) as a career was made at age eighteen. That decision took him to Baltimore, where he studied with former National Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassist Harold Robinson, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in three years from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Winning his first audition two weeks after graduation, Mr. Barber moved to Arizona to join the Phoenix Symphony. After three seasons in Phoenix and two summers touring Europe with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, he joined the National Symphony Orchestra in 1995 as a section bassist, and was promoted to Assistant Principal in 1996. Since then he has been particularly active in the Orchestra's chamber music and education programs. He also appears regularly at the Smithsonian with the 21st Century Consort. He plays a double bass made ca. 1620 in Italy by the Brescian master Giovanni Paolo Maggini.
	Cellist Yvonne Caruthers joined the National Symphony Orchestra in 1978. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she played with the orchestras of Syracuse, Rochester, Denver, and Buffalo before joining the NSO. She has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, George Mason University Symphony, and American Youth Symphonic Orchestra. Ms. Caruthers teaches privately and is active as both recitalist and chamber musician throughout the Washington area.
	Cellist Mark Evans has been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra since 1998. Also a member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, he has additionally appeared on the Chamber Music Series at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and as soloist with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. He and two colleagues have formed the Potomac Trio, which was awarded a grant by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities/NEA, and has appeared on the Church of the Epiphany, Monday Night Musicales and NSO chamber concerts on the Millennium Stage. He holds degrees from YaleUniversity and the Indiana University School of Music, where he was awarded the prestigious Performer's Certificate. His teachers include Fritz Magg, Janos Starker and Aldo Parisot. Mr. Evans plays a cello made by Wolfgang Schnabl in 2006.
	After percussionist Paul Fadoul’s second appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra, The Washington Post declared, “He knows how to evoke mystery in the dying fall of a phrase and let tension gather in the silences between them.” Fadoul has given solo and chamber music performances across the United States and Spain, and has performed with artists such as Evan Ziporyn, Martin Bresnick, and Robert van Sice.As a member of Tales & Scales from 2003-2005, he performed in over two hundred educational shows annually, including performances with the Milwaukee, Buffalo, and Oregon Symphonies. From 2000-2002, Fadoul was the Peabody Institute’s youngest faculty member, teaching undergraduate and graduate percussion majors.He graduated from the Yale School of Music and his honors include the Yale Alumni Award, the Brewster Award for the Kennedy Center Education Program, and the first prize in the National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition college division. Based in Washington, DC, Fadoul is also in demand as a composer and coach of drumlines, and his ensembles have won numerous regional championships and made appearances in WGI's national championship.
	Ira Gold joined the National Symphony in 2005. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas, where he began violin studies at age 3, and started double bass lessons at age 12. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree at Boston University's College of Fine Arts, and his Master of Music degree at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he won the strings division of the 2005 Concerto Competition. His primary teachers include Edwin Barker and Paul Ellison, and additional studies with Albert Laszlo, Kenneth Harper, Dennis Whittaker, Mark Shapiro, and Harry Lantz. Mr. Gold has performed with several American orchestras: as section bass with the Minnesota Orchestra and as guest principal bassist with the San Francisco Symphony and Detroit Symphony. In addition to his position with the NSO, Mr. Gold is a member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and has performed with the Fessenden Ensemble, National Gallery of Art Orchestra, and the 21st Century Consort.
	Steven A. Honigberg, hired by Mstilav Rostropovich, joined the National Symphony Orchestra in 1984.Mr. Honigberg gave his New York debut recital in Weill Hall that same year, and has since performed to critical acclaim throughout the United States.He won rave reviews for the 1988 world premiere of David Ott’s Concerto for Two Cellos performed with the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Rostropovich, with repeat performances on the NSO’s 1989 and 1994 United States tours. Mr. Honigberg graduated with a master’s degree in music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins. He was the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s chamber music series from 1994 (when it was voted “Best New Chamber Music Series” by the Washington Post) to 2002.A member of the Washington D.C.-based Potomac String Quartet, Steven Honigberg performs on the “Stuart” Stradivarius cello made in 1732
	James Lee was born in the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 15. He received his bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and his master's degree from the Juilliard School. That same year he became a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. At Juilliard Lee served as principal of both the Juilliard Orchestra and the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra. As the winner of the prestigious Juilliard Cello Competition, he was a featured soloist at Alice Tully Hall. Lee's teachers have included Margaret Rowell, Bonnie Hampton, Leonard Rose, and Joel Krosnick. Lee appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra in the 1988 world premiere of Andreas Makris's Concertante under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich. In the 2010-2011 season, Lee was a featured soloist with the National Symphony at Wolf Trap under the baton of Tan Dun performing his Crouching Tiger Cello Concerto. A devoted chamber musician, Lee is the artistic director and founder of the National Chamber Players at Episcopal. Lee is also a member of 4inCorrespondence. Lee's cello is made by Claude Guillot, Bordeaux, 1842.
	A sought-after chamber musician, Anthony Manzo lives just outside Washington, DC, where he is a regular guest with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and is on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Music. In addition, he commutes westward for his position as Solo Bassist with San Francisco's New Century Chamber Orchestra, and occasionally heads east to play in Europe, where for many years he was Solo Bassist with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Manzo is also a frequent guest at chamber music festivals such as Spoleto USA, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, and the Garth Newel Music Center. Recent highlights include two tours as soloist with bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff performing Mozart's Per questa bella mano, with performances in Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, and Istanbul. Recent chamber music collaborations include performances with Menahem Pressler, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Auryn Quartet. Mr. Manzo is also an active performer on period instruments, with groups such as The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, Chicago's Baroque Band, and Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC.
	Charlie Nilles hails from Chicago. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Rice University. His past teachers include Paul Ellison, David Moore, Chris Hanulik, Rob Kassinger, Virginia Dixon, and Tanya Carey. In addition to performing with many of the nations top orchestras, Charlie has held titled positions at the Aspen Music Festival and the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. Outside of classical music, Charlie has recorded, toured, and/or performed with with Marc Colby, Terrell Stafford, Victor Goines, Larry Corryell, Ruben Alverez, Michael Bolton, Jerry Streinhilber, Trey Anastasio, Cynthia Clawson, and others.
	Brandon Straub is regularly in demand as a conductor, accompanist, singer, and continuo player. Mr. Straub completed M.M. degrees in Conducting and Harpsichord Performance at the University of Michigan and holds a bachelors degree in Voice and Music Education from Michigan State University. Prior to attending the University of Michigan, Mr. Straub served for four years as the Oaklawn-Tuttle Chair of Vocal Music and School Organist at The Hill School. He has served for five summers as a conductor, coach-accompanist, and instructor of advanced musicianship on the faculties of the New York State Summer School for the Arts (NYSSSA) and Interlochen Arts Camp and has attended summer programs at Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Westminster Choir College, and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Mr. Straub has also served as Director of Music at First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor and founding director and harpsichordist of The Brandenburg Soloists, a student ensemble with which he organized and performed a concert of the complete Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach in January 2011. In March 2011 he was harpsichord soloist for Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the South Bend Symphony. Mr. Straub is currently in his first year as Director of Choral Music at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA.
	David Teie began studying composition with Bruce Wise in Wisconsin when he was seventeen. Mr. Teie devoted the next twenty years to the study of the cello and only returned to composition in his thirties, working with John Corigliano in New York.In his career as a cellist he studied with Stephen Kates and Berl Senofsky at the Peabody Conservatory, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and the Wertheimer award for cellists; he also studied with William Pleeth in London on a Fulbright scholarship.He joined the National Symphony in 1984 and was invited by then-Music Director and legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to study with him.Mr. Teie played fifteen concerto performances with the National Symphony, twelve of them with Maestro Rostropovich conducting, including performances on three U.S. tours. He spent the 1999-2000 season as acting principal cellist of the San Francisco Symphony, before returning to the National Symphony. Mr. Teie recently returned to composing as a major focus of his creative activity.He wrote the string music for the debut CD by the group Echobrain founded by Jason Newsted, formerly the bassist in Metallica. He was commissioned by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony to write one of the Hechinger Encores, Fuga Eroica, which received its premiere with the NSO in February of 2004.In November of 2005 he premiered his Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra with the Anchorage Symphony.
	Rachel Young, a Washington native, joined the National Symphony Orchestra’s cello section in 1998. Before her appointment to the National Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Young was the Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.She now enjoys a varied career of orchestral, chamber and solo playing, as well as teaching.Her solo and chamber playing have taken her across the country and abroad to Europe and the Middle East.In Washington, Ms. Young has performed as a guest artist with the 21st Century Consort, the National Musical Arts Society, the Embassy Series, the Washington Music Ensemble, and the Contemporary Music Forum. Ms. Young began cello studies at the age of four and immediately wanted to become a cellist.She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England conservatory of Music, where she studied with Laurence Lesser, and her Master’s degree in cello performance with Stephen Kates at the Peabody Conservatory. She was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and attended the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in England, where she studied with William Pleeth.