Nurit Bar-Josef made her well-received concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in February 2002, after joining the Orchestra at age 26 as Concertmaster in September 2001. Previously she served as assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops and one year as assistant principal second violin with the Saint Louis Symphony. Ms. Bar-Josef received her bachelor's degree from The Curtis Institute, studying with Aaron Rosand, and was the recipient of the Fritz Kreisler Award for Violin upon graduation. She continued her studies at The Juilliard School with Robert Mann. Ms. Bar-Josef has been featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, as well as in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Symphony magazine. Ms. Bar-Josef won first prize in several competitions, including the Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, Wellesley Symphony, Corpus Christi Young Artists Competition, and Juilliard's Concerto Competition. In 1997, she made her New York debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall. Other solo appearances include performances with the orchestras of Boston, Saint Louis, Boston Pops, Boston Classical Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony, Virginia Chamber Orchestra, International Symphony Orchestra (Israel), and Corpus Christi.
An active chamber musician, she has performed piano quartets with Andre Previn at his Rising Stars Festival in Caramoor, and diverse repertoire at Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Center, and the festivals of Taos, Garth Newel (Virginia), Portland and Rockport (both in Maine), Steamboat Springs (Colorado) and in Philadelphia, New York City, Israel, and Boston. Ms. Bar-Josef is a member of The Dryden Quartet, a group she formed together with NSO Principal violist Daniel Foster and his two cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall. She is also one of the founding members of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, an ensemble of leading National Symphony Orchestra musicians. With Lambert Orkis at the piano, Ms. Bar-Josef made her Washington, D.C. debut recital in 2003, in the Terrace Theater as part of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts series. Ms. Bar-Josef is currently playing on a 1781 J.B.Villaume, generously on loan from the Library of Congress.
Mahoko Eguchi has performed throughout the United States and Japan, as well as in France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. As a member of the Arianna String Quartet, she was a finalist at the first International String Quartet Competition of Bordeaux. She has appeared in performances at festivals such as Strings-in-the-Mountains, Tanglewood, Taos, Spoleto, Norfolk and Moonbeach (Japan), and in chamber music series such as Japan Airline Young Artists Series, MIT Chamber Music Series, Fermilab Chamber Music Series, Chicago's Mostly Music Series, Premiere Performance Series in St. Louis, the Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg, and Doheny Soiree Series in Los Angeles. Ms. Eguchi has been heard in live broadcast performances in Osaka, Japan, on Chicago's prestigious Dame Myra Hess Series, and on NPR's Performance Today program. Her recording of Suite for Viola and Piano by George Frederick McKay was released in 2002 and can be heard on the Naxos label. She received her DMA, MMA and MM degrees from Yale University and BM from Indiana University, studying with Henryk Kowalski, Josef Gingold, Syoko Aki and Richard Young. Prior to joining the National Symphony, she served on the faculty of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Eastern Michigan University and University of Michigan School of Music. She joined the National Symphony Orchestra in September 2001.
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 Yale University 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.
Violist Daniel Foster’s varied career encompasses orchestral, chamber and solo playing, as well as teaching. Since capturing the First Prize in both the William Primrose and Washington International Competitions, he has appeared in recital and as soloist with orchestra in Washington, DC and throughout the United States. After studying with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey at Oberlin Conservatory and with Karen Tuttle at The Curtis Institute, Mr. Foster became a member of the National Symphony’s viola section in 1993, and was appointed Principal by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 1995. Mr. Foster has appeared frequently as soloist with the National Symphony since his appointment.
Mr. Foster is a member of the critically acclaimed Dryden Quartet, which he founded along with his cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef. He was also a member of the Manchester Quartet, and is a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Mr. Foster has performed chamber music at the Marlboro, Bowdoin, Killington and Alpenglow Festivals, and at Strings in the Mountains.
Mr. Foster is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, where his former students have gone on to major orchestral and university positions, and he has been a faculty member at the Bowdoin and Killington festivals. Mr. Foster has given master classes at Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a regular faculty member for the National Orchestral Institute. In addition, Mr. Foster is a member of the “International Principals” faculty at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. The Journal of the American Viola Society published an article by Mr. Foster in 2002. In May 2005 Mr. Foster was a member of the jury for the William Primrose competition, where he also presented a recital.
Mr. Foster comes from a musical family. His father William is also a violist with the National Symphony, and his grandfather John Kendall is a renowned violin pedagogue.
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 in 1985 earned his masters degree from the Juilliard School. That same year, he became a member of the National Symphony Orchestra. At Juilliard, Mr. Lee served as principal cellist of both the Juilliard Orchestra and the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra. As winner of the prestigious Juilliard Cello Competition, he was featured as soloist in Alice Tully Hall. Mr. Lee's teachers have included Margaret Rowell, Bonnie Hampton, Leonard Rose, and Joel Krosnick. He was a featured soloist with the National Symphony in 1988, in the world premiere of Adreas Makris' Concertante under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich. A devoted chamber musician, he has appeared at the Phillips Gallery, Cosmos Club, Meridian House, and the Kennedy Center. Mr. Lee is married to National Symphony Orchestra violinist Teri Hopkins Lee.
Teri Hopkins Lee received her bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her master's degree from the Mannes School of Music. While pursuing her master's degree, she attended the Tanglewood festival where she won a scholarship to study at the Britten-Pears School in England. A native Californian, Ms. Lee moved to the D.C. area in 1985 with her husband, NSO cellist James Lee. At that time she served as Concermaster for the Handel Festival Orchestra, the Washington Bach Consort and performed her debut recital at the Corcoran Gallery. In 1989, Ms. Lee became a member of the NSO and one year later won an audition to join the first violin section. A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Lee is a member of the National Chamber Players, now celebrating their sixth year in residence at Episcopal High School. Recently, she performed with the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. In 1999, Ms. Lee appeared as a featured soloist with the NSO in the Vivaldi Festival.
Jane Bowyer Stewart is a first violinist with the National Symphony, which she joined in 1981. She earned both her Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Master of Music degrees from Yale University.
A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Stewart has performed frequently at the Terrace Theater, the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, the World Bank, and the Library of Congress. She has been a member of the Chamber Soloists of Washington, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Chamber Ensemble, and the Manchester String Quartet. A regular guest artist with the 21st Century Consort, she is currently a member of the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and the Kennedy String Quartet. In addition, she coaches chamber music, teaches classes on audition preparation, and gives pre-concert lectures.The Key Reporter published her 2001 article describing life as a professional musician with a liberal arts background. Outside of Washington, she participates in the Grand Teton Music Festival and has performed at the Honolulu Academy of Arts with Joseph Silverstein. Her several chamber music CDs include one Grammy nominee.
As a concerto soloist, Ms. Stewart has appeared with the National Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra. Her violin is made by the Venetian master Matteo Goffriller and dates from 1691.