CREDO MUSIC 2023-24
MASTER CLASS SERIES

A FREE Master Class Series for Talented Young String Players

All classes are Sunday nights at 8PM EST

ABOUT THE MASTER CLASS SERIES

Launched during Covid, but presenting continuing value, the Credo Music Master Class Series gathers some of our country’s best professors and performers. Master teachers will offer their valuable skills and insight in a series of LIVE, interactive Zoom master classes with accomplished young string players like YOU. This is a great way to expand your technical understanding, to receive inspiring insight on interpretation, and to get to know the teaching styles of major pedagogues.

TO VIEW THE CLASSES

These classes will be streamed for FREE. If you are not performing for a class, but would like to view the livestream, please register to receive the Zoom link here.

TO APPLY

• Spots are limited. There is no application or performance fee.

• Applicants who wish to be considered as a performer must submit a 5-minute video of what you consider your best solo playing (include a YouTube link with your application).

October 29, 2023 at 8pm EST
Jonathan Ong, violin
Verona String Quartet, Oberlin Conservatory

Singaporean violinist Jonathan Ong is a founding member of the acclaimed Verona Quartet. He has performed across the world in international venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, Beijing and Shanghai Concert Halls, Melbourne Recital Hall, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

Jonathan has been recognized with top prizes at international competitions across four continents, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition; London's Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition; the Osaka, Melbourne, and Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competitions; and the Fischoff and Coleman National Chamber Music Competitions.

Jonathan has served as concertmaster of orchestras at the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and Indiana University. He has collaborated with eminent artists such as Renee Fleming, Cho-Liang Lin, Orion Weiss, David Shifrin, Burt Hara, Jorja Fleezanis, Atar Arad, the Pacifica Quartet, as well as musicians of the MET Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and LA Philharmonic.

Jonathan is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Indiana University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Eastman School of Music. His principal mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Alexander Kerr, Paul Kantor, Fredell Lack, Lynn Blakeslee, and Lynette Lim.  Jonathan and the Verona Quartet are on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

November 5, 2023 at 8pm EST
David Chan, VIOLIN
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

David Chan, concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is one of today’s most sought after artists, both as a violinist and a conductor. In addition to serving as the MET’s concertmaster for 20 years, he is the inaugural Music Director of New Jersey’s Montclair Orchestra, and also Music Director of Camerata Notturna, one of New York City’s foremost chamber orchestras. His guest conducting engagements include Belgium’s l’Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the Malta Philharmonic, l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne in France, and the Grant Park and Classical Tahoe summer festivals. As a soloist, he has appeared under the baton of such conductors as James Levine and Fabio Luisi, with orchestras including the MET Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and Moscow State Symphony. He is also a dedicated chamber musician who performs regularly in the New York area and at all the leading summer festivals.

After winning prizes at the Tchaikovsky and Indianapolis international violin competitions, he made his New York debut in 1995 at Avery Fisher Hall, and his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the MET Orchestra. A student of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Michael Tseitlin, he received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his master’s from the Juilliard School. He is currently on the faculty of both Juilliard and the Mannes School of Music.

November 19, 2023 at 8pm EST
Peter Slowik, viola
Oberlin Conservatory

Peter Slowik, profiled by The Strad Magazine as “a man of limitless enthusiasm and purpose” is one of the world’s leading artist-teachers of viola. An active chamber musician, Mr. Slowik has performed with cellists Anner Bylsma and Leonard Rose, the Mirecourt Trio, the Saint Petersburg Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and members of the Cleveland, Chester, Orford, and Smithson Quartets. He has been a featured performer at six International Viola Congresses, and recent Master Class trips have taken him to Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and China. Orchestral experiences include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and service as Principal Viola of the American Sinfonietta and the Wichita Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Slowik has served on the faculty of Northwestern University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Eastman School of Music. Mr. Slowik has been named to the highest teaching award honors of Northwestern University and Oberlin Conservatory. He has served as President of the American Viola Society and currently is Professor of Viola and String Division Director at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. His students may be found in virtually every significant professional orchestra in the US (many serving in titled positions) and in university appointments throughout the country.

January 14, 2024 at 8pm EST
Sibbi Bernhardsson, violin
Oberlin Conservatory

Icelandic violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson joined the Oberlin Conservatory faculty in 2017 after performing for the previous 17 years with the Pacifica Quartet, with which he won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, Musical America Ensemble of the Year honors, and the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

As a member of the Pacifica Quartet, Bernhardsson appeared in more than 90 concerts worldwide each year, including engagements in Wigmore Hall (London), the Vienna Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall (New York), and other major venues. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, and the Reykjavík Arts Festival, and has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Yo-Yo Ma, Jörg Widmann, Lynn Harrell, Leon Fleisher, the Emerson String Quartet, Johannes Moser, and members of the Guarneri and Cleveland quartets. His television appearances include The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, and the MTV Europe Music Awards with Icelandic artist Björk. He appears on 16 recordings with the Pacifica Quartet and has recorded the violin music of Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson and the sonatas for violin and piano by Franz Schubert.

Bernhardsson serves as director of the Cooper International Violin Competition at Oberlin and as artistic director of Iceland’s Harpa International Music Academy. He gives regular concerts and master classes in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has appeared as a soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and other ensembles.

Bernhardsson is a 1995 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. His teachers include Guðný Guðmundsdóttir, Almita and Roland Vamos, Mathias Tacke, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. He previously served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

January 21, 2024 at 8pm EST
Amos Yang, Cello
SAn Francisco Symphony

Amos Yang has been assistant principal cellist with the San Francisco Symphony since 2007. He was previously a member of the Seattle Symphony. Yang has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, the Far East, and Europe, appearing at the Aspen Music Festival, the American Academy in Rome, Wigmore Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He has collaborated with the Ying Quartet, Turtle Island String Quartet, pianists Ann Schein and Melvin Chen, violinist Earl Carlyss, and composer Bright Sheng.

Born and raised in San Francisco, he was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and San Francisco Boys Choir. Yang holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. His primary teachers have included Irene Sharp, Channing Robbins, Paul Katz, and Steven Doane. From 1996 to 2002, he was the cellist in the Maia String Quartet. He also served on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Iowa, Grinnell College, and the Interlochen Advanced String Quartet Institute. Yang serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Academy Orchestra.

January 28, 2024 at 8PM EST
David Bowlin, Violin
Oberlin Conservatory

First-prize winner of the 2003 Washington International Competition, David Bowlin has performed with such leading artists as Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Robert McDonald, and members of the Juilliard, Emerson, and Brentano string quartets. His solo performances include premieres of violin concerti written for him at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and in recent seasons he has performed concerti at Miller Theatre in New York and the Aspen Music Festival.

Bowlin is a faculty member at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is also a founding member of the acclaimed International Contemporary Ensemble, Musical America’s 2014 Ensemble of the Year, and a former member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players. He has made several tours with Musicians from Marlboro and has been a guest artist with many organizations, including the Boston Chamber Music Society, ChamberFest Cleveland, Ojai, SongFest at the Colburn School, and the Four Seasons festival. He has also performed as concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the IRIS Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Marlboro Festival Orchestra. His recordings can be found on the Bridge, Naxos, Nonesuch, Tundra, Mode, Arsis, and Oberlin Music labels.

January 28, 2024 at 8pm EST
Molly Carr, Viola
mANHATTAN sCHOOL OF mUSIC

Molly Carr enjoys a diverse musical career as recitalist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. Praised for her “intoxicating” (New York Times) and “ravishing” (STRAD) performances, she has been the recipient of numerous international prizes and awards from the Primrose International Viola Competition, Chamber Music America, ProMusicis Foundation, Davidson Institute, Virtu Foundation, ASTA, and ARTS among many others.

Ms. Carr has appeared as both performer and guest faculty in festivals around the world, including the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Mozartfest, Huberman Course, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Music@Menlo. Ms. Carr has collaborated with such renowned artists as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Carter Brey, Peter Wiley, Ida Kavafian, Donald and Alisa Weilerstein, Pamela Frank, and the Miro, Orion and American Quartets, performing in such premier venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, Chicago’s Symphony Center, and the Jerusalem Music Center.

Ms. Carr serves on the Viola Faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and the Juilliard School's Precollege Program. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning non-profit Project Music Heals Us (PMHU) – an organization which brings free chamber music performances and interactive programming to marginalized populations with limited ability to access the Arts themselves.

Questions? Email Credo Artistic Director Peter Slowik
peter.slowik@oberlin.edu