Friday, August 14, 2026
Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet
Eleni Katz, bassoon
Alexi Kenney, violin
Yura Lee, violin
Natalie Loughran, viola
Oliver Herbert, cello
Nina Bernat, bass
Pedja Mužijević, piano
The Olivier Music Barn, 5:30 PM
Program
DOBRINKA TABAKOVA: Moreni for clarinet, string quartet, and piano
Spiegelberg, Kenney, Lee, Loughran, Herbert, Mužijević
MARC MELLITS: Black for bassoon and double bass
Katz, Bernat
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959
Allegro
Andantino
Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio. Un poco più lento
Rondo. Allegretto
Mužijević
Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet
Hailed by New York Classical Review for her “enchanting” performances, the Swiss-French clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg is the laureate of several international and national competitions, including the Rotary International Competition Madrid Velazquez, the Frances Walton Seattle Competition, and the USC Concerto Competition. She is an alum of Ensemble Connect, the resident ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and has appeared at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Chelsea Music Festival, GatherNYC, Madison Square Garden, North Country Chamber Players, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rocket City New Music, Tanglewood, TIME:SPANS Festival, and Yellowbarn.
Spiegelberg has performed with A Far Cry, American Modern Opera Company, Argento New Music Project, Manhattan Chamber Players, On Site Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Vulfpeck, and yMusic, among other renowned ensembles. She has premiered works by such distinguished composers as Katherine Balch, Laura Kaminsky, Gabriella Smith, and Michi Wiancko. Spiegelberg is a core member and co-founder of Trio Phōs, a NYC-based clarinet trio and recipient of the 2024 New World Symphony BLUE Grant. She is the Principal Clarinetist of Pegasus: The Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. She was a substitute on the Broadway Show Camelot. She completed an Artist Diploma at the University of Southern California with Yehuda Gilad.
Eleni Katz, bassoon
Hailed for her virtuosity and vibrant musical spirit, Eleni Katz has established herself as a prominent soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Praised by The San Diego Union-Tribune for her “thoughtful and expressive” approach to music-making, Katz has gone from performing by the bright blue waters of Bermuda to the lights of Carnegie Hall. She is a winner of the 2022 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and has performed with several leading ensembles, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In the 2025–26 academic year, she began her role as a member of the bassoon teaching faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. Among Katz's 2025–26 season highlights are performances with Camerata Pacifica, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, and a return to Phoenix Chamber Music Society. Her approach to playing the bassoon has been described by The Royal Gazette as “uncannily human," and she has always believed that the bassoon should strive to emulate the organic resonance of the human voice.
Alexi Kenney, violin
Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs, commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
Kenney began the 2025–26 season with his return to the Pittsburgh Symphony, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Manfred Honeck. He also returns to the San Francisco Symphony in a program of his own curation as soloist and leader, as well as to the Dallas Symphony playing Barber's Violin Concerto with Daniele Rustioni. Kenney debuts with the Houston Symphony and Slovak Philharmonic, performing Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto “in tempus praesens” with Juraj Valčuha, as well as with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and Erie Philharmonic.
Recent and upcoming recital and chamber appearances include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in a program celebrating queer composers on National Coming Out Day, the Phillips Collection, 92nd Street Y, and Spoleto Festival. He is a founding member of the quartet Owls. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009 and a bow made in Port Townsend, Washington, by Charles Espey in 2024.
Yura Lee, violin
As a soloist and as a chamber musician, Yura Lee is one of the few performers in the world who is equally virtuosic on both violin and viola. For more than three decades, she has captivated international audiences with genre-spanning music, from Baroque to modern. She performs with the world's leading orchestras and gives recitals in Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna, Mozarteum Salzburg, Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, among others. At age 12 she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards (National Public Radio). She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2007.
The only first prize winner in four categories at the 2013 ARD Competition in Germany, Yura Lee has won top prizes in several major international competitions. Her CD Mozart in Paris received the Diapason d’Or Award. As a chamber musician, she performs in the festivals of Seattle, Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, La Jolla, and Caramoor, among others. She plays a Giovanni Grancino violin kindly loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society by generous sponsors. She plays a viola made in 2002 by Douglas Cox, of Vermont. A professor at the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, she holds the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair. She lives in Los Angeles and Copenhagen, with her dog, Nugget.
Natalie Loughran, viola
The American violist Natalie Loughran is quickly establishing herself as one of the most versatile young artists of her generation. She won first prize and the Audience Award at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition, as well as the BIPOC Composer Prize for her arrangement and performance of William Grant Still’s "Mother and Child." She previously received the William Schuman Prize for outstanding leadership from The Juilliard School.
As the former violist of the Castalian String Quartet, Loughran has performed in many major chamber music series, including Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 92NY, San Francisco Performances, and Dallas Chamber Music Society. She has also appeared at many leading festivals, such as Marlboro, Yellow Barn, and Kronberg’s Chamber Music Connects the World, collaborating with Mitsuko Uchida, Stephen Hough, Itzhak Perlman, Dénes Várjon, Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, and other prominent artists.
Alongside her solo and chamber work, Loughran has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Juilliard, studying with Roger Tapping and Misha Amory, and recently received a Professional Studies Diploma at the Kronberg Academy with Tabea Zimmermann. She performs on a 1976 viola by Sergio Peresson.
Oliver Herbert, cello
The recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Oliver Herbert is a concert cellist whose performances combine intensity, clarity, and a strong sense of musical direction. As a soloist, he performs with leading orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, working with Michael Tilson Thomas, Giancarlo Guerrero, Juanjo Mena, and other distinguished conductors.
Herbert approaches his projects with wide-ranging curiosity, exploring lesser-known repertoire, contemporary music, and connections that cast familiar works in a new light. His projects include concert curations for Deutschlandfunk and the TICA Festival in Hong Kong, as well as premieres of works by Andrew Moses, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, and Helena Winkelman.
As a chamber musician, he appears at the world's foremost festivals and venues. One recent highlight was a North American tour with Mitsuko Uchida and musicians from Marlboro Music. Recordings include Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and his 2020 debut album with pianist Xiaohui Yang, Frame of Mind: Fauré and Janáček.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Colburn School, Herbert also completed studies with Frans Helmerson in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg Academy, generously supported by the Nanno Lenz Patronage. He plays a Guadagnini cello that once belonged to Antonio Janigro, on generous loan from the Janigro family.
Nina Bernat, bass
Acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, the American double bassist Nina Bernat has redefined the role of her instrument on the world stage. The Star Tribune praised her recent "standout" concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, calling the performance “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical… technically precise and impressively emotive.”
In 2023 Bernat was awarded both the Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Other recent accolades include top prizes at the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She has given New York recital debuts at Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall and has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.
Bernat has served as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic. She also performs with New York-based chamber orchestra Sejong Soloists. She is a member of the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and regularly appears at the leading chamber music festivals.
Bernat has given masterclasses at several institutions and currently serves on the faculty of Stony Brook University. She performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.
Pedja Mužijević, piano
Pianist and curator Pedja Mužijević has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with artists and ensembles. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall, 92NY, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, and Casals Hall in Tokyo. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label.
Pedja’s interdisciplinary projects include touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise at Lincoln Center in New York, Barbican in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, and Opera National de Paris, as well as the Holland, Lucerne, and Melbourne festivals.
Highlights of the 2025–26 season include Homage to Mixtapes recital program at UNLTD Powered by Verbier Festival and 92NY, Chopin and Beethoven piano concertos with Fort Worth Symphony and String Orchestra of the Rockies in Missoula, Montana, as well as leading Concert in 21st Century workshops at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, The Juilliard School in New York, and Colburn School in Los Angeles.
Spiegelberg, Kenney, Lee, Loughran, Herbert, Mužijević
MARC MELLITS: Black for bassoon and double bass
Katz, Bernat
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959
Allegro
Andantino
Scherzo. Allegro vivace – Trio. Un poco più lento
Rondo. Allegretto
Mužijević
Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet
Hailed by New York Classical Review for her “enchanting” performances, the Swiss-French clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg is the laureate of several international and national competitions, including the Rotary International Competition Madrid Velazquez, the Frances Walton Seattle Competition, and the USC Concerto Competition. She is an alum of Ensemble Connect, the resident ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and has appeared at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Chelsea Music Festival, GatherNYC, Madison Square Garden, North Country Chamber Players, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rocket City New Music, Tanglewood, TIME:SPANS Festival, and Yellowbarn.
Spiegelberg has performed with A Far Cry, American Modern Opera Company, Argento New Music Project, Manhattan Chamber Players, On Site Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Vulfpeck, and yMusic, among other renowned ensembles. She has premiered works by such distinguished composers as Katherine Balch, Laura Kaminsky, Gabriella Smith, and Michi Wiancko. Spiegelberg is a core member and co-founder of Trio Phōs, a NYC-based clarinet trio and recipient of the 2024 New World Symphony BLUE Grant. She is the Principal Clarinetist of Pegasus: The Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. She was a substitute on the Broadway Show Camelot. She completed an Artist Diploma at the University of Southern California with Yehuda Gilad.
Eleni Katz, bassoon
Hailed for her virtuosity and vibrant musical spirit, Eleni Katz has established herself as a prominent soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Praised by The San Diego Union-Tribune for her “thoughtful and expressive” approach to music-making, Katz has gone from performing by the bright blue waters of Bermuda to the lights of Carnegie Hall. She is a winner of the 2022 Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and has performed with several leading ensembles, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In the 2025–26 academic year, she began her role as a member of the bassoon teaching faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. Among Katz's 2025–26 season highlights are performances with Camerata Pacifica, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, and a return to Phoenix Chamber Music Society. Her approach to playing the bassoon has been described by The Royal Gazette as “uncannily human," and she has always believed that the bassoon should strive to emulate the organic resonance of the human voice.
Alexi Kenney, violin
Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs, commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
Kenney began the 2025–26 season with his return to the Pittsburgh Symphony, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Manfred Honeck. He also returns to the San Francisco Symphony in a program of his own curation as soloist and leader, as well as to the Dallas Symphony playing Barber's Violin Concerto with Daniele Rustioni. Kenney debuts with the Houston Symphony and Slovak Philharmonic, performing Sofia Gubaidulina's Violin Concerto “in tempus praesens” with Juraj Valčuha, as well as with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Santa Barbara Symphony, Wichita Symphony, and Erie Philharmonic.
Recent and upcoming recital and chamber appearances include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in a program celebrating queer composers on National Coming Out Day, the Phillips Collection, 92nd Street Y, and Spoleto Festival. He is a founding member of the quartet Owls. He plays a violin made in London by Stefan-Peter Greiner in 2009 and a bow made in Port Townsend, Washington, by Charles Espey in 2024.
Yura Lee, violin
As a soloist and as a chamber musician, Yura Lee is one of the few performers in the world who is equally virtuosic on both violin and viola. For more than three decades, she has captivated international audiences with genre-spanning music, from Baroque to modern. She performs with the world's leading orchestras and gives recitals in Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna, Mozarteum Salzburg, Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, among others. At age 12 she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the Performance Today awards (National Public Radio). She received the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2007.
The only first prize winner in four categories at the 2013 ARD Competition in Germany, Yura Lee has won top prizes in several major international competitions. Her CD Mozart in Paris received the Diapason d’Or Award. As a chamber musician, she performs in the festivals of Seattle, Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, La Jolla, and Caramoor, among others. She plays a Giovanni Grancino violin kindly loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society by generous sponsors. She plays a viola made in 2002 by Douglas Cox, of Vermont. A professor at the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, she holds the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair. She lives in Los Angeles and Copenhagen, with her dog, Nugget.
Natalie Loughran, viola
The American violist Natalie Loughran is quickly establishing herself as one of the most versatile young artists of her generation. She won first prize and the Audience Award at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition, as well as the BIPOC Composer Prize for her arrangement and performance of William Grant Still’s "Mother and Child." She previously received the William Schuman Prize for outstanding leadership from The Juilliard School.
As the former violist of the Castalian String Quartet, Loughran has performed in many major chamber music series, including Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall, 92NY, San Francisco Performances, and Dallas Chamber Music Society. She has also appeared at many leading festivals, such as Marlboro, Yellow Barn, and Kronberg’s Chamber Music Connects the World, collaborating with Mitsuko Uchida, Stephen Hough, Itzhak Perlman, Dénes Várjon, Gidon Kremer, Tabea Zimmermann, and other prominent artists.
Alongside her solo and chamber work, Loughran has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Juilliard, studying with Roger Tapping and Misha Amory, and recently received a Professional Studies Diploma at the Kronberg Academy with Tabea Zimmermann. She performs on a 1976 viola by Sergio Peresson.
Oliver Herbert, cello
The recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Oliver Herbert is a concert cellist whose performances combine intensity, clarity, and a strong sense of musical direction. As a soloist, he performs with leading orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, working with Michael Tilson Thomas, Giancarlo Guerrero, Juanjo Mena, and other distinguished conductors.
Herbert approaches his projects with wide-ranging curiosity, exploring lesser-known repertoire, contemporary music, and connections that cast familiar works in a new light. His projects include concert curations for Deutschlandfunk and the TICA Festival in Hong Kong, as well as premieres of works by Andrew Moses, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, and Helena Winkelman.
As a chamber musician, he appears at the world's foremost festivals and venues. One recent highlight was a North American tour with Mitsuko Uchida and musicians from Marlboro Music. Recordings include Haydn’s D Major Cello Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and his 2020 debut album with pianist Xiaohui Yang, Frame of Mind: Fauré and Janáček.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Colburn School, Herbert also completed studies with Frans Helmerson in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg Academy, generously supported by the Nanno Lenz Patronage. He plays a Guadagnini cello that once belonged to Antonio Janigro, on generous loan from the Janigro family.
Nina Bernat, bass
Acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, the American double bassist Nina Bernat has redefined the role of her instrument on the world stage. The Star Tribune praised her recent "standout" concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, calling the performance “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical… technically precise and impressively emotive.”
In 2023 Bernat was awarded both the Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Other recent accolades include top prizes at the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She has given New York recital debuts at Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall and has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.
Bernat has served as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic. She also performs with New York-based chamber orchestra Sejong Soloists. She is a member of the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and regularly appears at the leading chamber music festivals.
Bernat has given masterclasses at several institutions and currently serves on the faculty of Stony Brook University. She performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.
Pedja Mužijević, piano
Pianist and curator Pedja Mužijević has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with artists and ensembles. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall, 92NY, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse, and Casals Hall in Tokyo. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label.
Pedja’s interdisciplinary projects include touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise at Lincoln Center in New York, Barbican in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, and Opera National de Paris, as well as the Holland, Lucerne, and Melbourne festivals.
Highlights of the 2025–26 season include Homage to Mixtapes recital program at UNLTD Powered by Verbier Festival and 92NY, Chopin and Beethoven piano concertos with Fort Worth Symphony and String Orchestra of the Rockies in Missoula, Montana, as well as leading Concert in 21st Century workshops at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, The Juilliard School in New York, and Colburn School in Los Angeles.