Artist Biographies Cellist OLE AKAHOSHI (Norfolk ’92) performs in North and South America, Asia and Europe in recitals, chamber concerts and as a soloist with orchestras such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Symphonisches Orchester Berlin and Czech Radio Orchestra. His performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, BBC, major German radio stations, Korean Broadcasting Station and WQXR. He has made numerous recordings for labels such as Naxos. Akahoshi has collaborated with the Tokyo, Michelangelo, and Keller string quartets, Syoko Aki, Sarah Chang, Elmar Oliveira, Gil Shaham, Lawrence Dutton, Edgar Meyer, Leon Fleisher, Garrick Ohlsson and André-Michel Schub among many others. He has performed and taught at festivals in Banff, Norfolk, Aspen and Korea, and has given master classes most recently at Central Conservatory Beijing, Sichuan Conservatory and Korean National University of Arts. At age eleven, Akahoshi was the youngest student to be accepted by Pierre Fournier. He studied with Aldo Parisot and Janos Starker. Akahoshi is the principal cellist of the Sejong Soloists and a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. He joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 1997 where he is Assistant Professor of Cello. | 16th Season at Norfolk Praised by The Boston Globe for “a rich, viola-like tone and a rapturous, luminous lyricism,” mezzo-soprano JANNA BATY enjoys an versatile career as a mezzo-soprano and as an educator. She has sung with the Los Angeles and Daejeon Philharmonics; Hamburgische Staatsoper, l’Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the Boston, Tallahassee, and Hartford Symphonies; the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá; Opera Theatre of St. Louis; Opera North; and the Boston Lyric and Eugene Operas. She has sung under the batons of James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Carl Davis, and Gil Rose among numerous others. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has performed at festivals worldwide, including the Aldeburgh and Britten Festivals in England, the Varna Festival in Bulgaria, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Tanglewood, Norfolk, Monadnock, and Coastal Carolina festivals in the United States. Baty is very proud to have enjoyed a long collaboration with conductor Gil Rose and Boston Modern
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Orchestra Project (BMOP), and with them has recorded the critically lauded Vali: Folk Songs (sung in Persian); Lukas Foss’ opera Griffelkin; the world-premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Civil War-era opera Our American Cousin; and John Harbison’s Mirabai Songs. A BMOP recording, Reza Vali: Towards That Endless Plain, on which Baty is featured, was one of NPR Classical’s 10 Favorite Albums of 2013. An alumna of Oberlin College and the Yale School of Music, she began her career as a teacher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and joined the faculty of the Yale School of Music in 2008. | Sixth Season at Norfolk | jannabaty.com Canadian violinist MARTIN BEAVER was first violin of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet from June 2002 until its final concert in July 2013. As such, he appeared to critical and public acclaim on the major stages of the world. As a member of the Quartet, Beaver was privileged to perform on the 1727 Stradivarius violin from the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments. Beaver’s concerto and recital appearances span four continents with orchestras such as the San Francisco and Toronto Symphonies, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra ( Japan). Beaver is also a frequent guest at prominent festivals throughout North America and abroad including Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals, Edinburgh Festival (U.K.) and Pacific Music Festival ( Japan). Beaver’s discography includes concerti, sonatas, and chamber music on the Harmonia Mundi, Biddulph, Naim Audio, René Gailly, Musica Viva, SM 5000, Toccata Classics, and Naxos labels. Beaver has been the grateful recipient of generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, including grants for his studies. In 1998, through the kindness of an anonymous donor, the Canada Council awarded him the use of the 1729 “ex-Heath” Guarnerius del Gesù violin for four years. A devoted educator, Beaver has conducted masterclasses across the globe. He has held teaching positions at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of British Columbia, the Peabody Conservatory, New York University and as Artist-inResidence at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded its highest honor — the Sanford Medal. In 2013, he joined the faculty of the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. Martin Beaver is a founding member of the Montrose Trio with pianist Jon Kimura Parker and cellist Clive Greensmith. Beaver plays a 1789 Nicolo Bergonzi violin. | 18th Season at Norfolk | montrosetrio.com
