Meet the 2025 Faculty
Tanya Bannister
Founder & Co-Artistic Director
Piano
Lauded by The Washington Post for playing “. . .with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister has made a versatile career that is steeped in old-world pianism and traditions, balanced with an entrepreneurial spirit that seeks to create projects that inspire genuine connections between music and the world we live in.
Claudia Ajmone-Marsan
Founder & Co-Artistic Director
Violin
Born of Italian and Danish parentage, the violinist Claudia Ajmone-Marsan is a member of Ensemble 360. She is a regular guest with Camerata Bern, Camerata Nordica and Ensemble Modern. She served as co-principal second violin of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London under C. von Dohnanyi, principal second of the European Union Chamber Orchestra and the Kammerphilharmonie Amade, Germany.
Chad Burrow
Clarinet
Chad Burrow is recognized as one of the premiere clarinetists of his generation. He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in concert halls across the globe. The European press has said that Chad performs with “brilliant technique and tonal beauty mixed with an expressive ferocity.” Danish critic, Henrik Svane, went on to describe a performance as filled with "virtuosity, energy, and power without compromise." The New York Times recently called a Carnegie Hall appearance in Poulenc’s, Sonata, as giving a “strong impression” and being a “bright and genial account.”
Joachim Müller-Crépon
Cello
Joachim Müller-Crépon born 1988, serves as principal cello for the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and hails from Zurich. He studied with Prof. Thomas Grossenbacher, Cobus Swanepoel and finished at the Zurich University oft he Arts with a Bachelor degree under Prof. Roel Dieltiens. After having completed his studies from 2009-2012 at the Stellenbosch University (South Africa), he was accepted into the class of Thomas Demenga at the Basel Academy of Music and finished his studies with a Masters degree in solo performance with distinction.
Gijs Kramers
Viola
As a soloist, Gijs Kramers has performed Béla Bartók's and Hans Henkemans's viola concertos and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. He has been the viola player of the Ruysdael Quartet for over 25 years and he is also a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Apart from that he is regularly invited as guest principal in many orchestras across Europe. Gijs Kramers studied viola with Cees Dekkers, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Hatto Beyerle. He is currently chamber music professor at Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam.
He is also a keen arranger, composer and conductor. He was artistic Director of the Ricciotti Ensemble and has founded Street Orchestra Live in London. His works have been included in programs by the Residentie Orchestra The Hague, National Youth Orchestra and members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and his arrangements have been performed in festivals all over the world.
YooJin Jang
Violin
Applauded by The Strad for her “fiery virtuosity” and “consummate performances,” violinist YooJin Jang is a winner of the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Competition and is also First Prize winner of the 2016 Sendai International Music Competition in Japan. These two victories have resulted in a busy itinerary of international recital and concerto engagements and the release of two new recordings, including a CD of her prize-winning Sendai concerto performances.
Sam Armstrong
Piano
Hailed as 'a major new talent' International Piano and a ‘pianist of splendid individuality’ Arts Desk English pianist Sam Armstrong made solo debut recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York as well as at the Wigmore Hall in London, and as concerto soloist with the National Symphony of Ecuador. In 2023 Sam joined the faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as Senior Tutor in Keyboard Chamber Music.
A native of New York City, Emi Ohi Resnick made her debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of fifteen and has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Japan since then. Emi is a founding member of the unique collective Splendor and co-initiator of the strikingly successful String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam .
Emi currently divides her time between the United States and Europe, where she was concertmaster of the North Netherlands Orchestra and of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and is Professor of Violin at the Conservatoire Royal of Brussels.
Emi Ohi Resnick
Violin | Viola
Jesús Morales
Cello
Jesús A. Morales Matos was born into a prominent musical family and is an active soloist, recording artist, and chamber musician. As a member of the Dalí Quartet, Jesus is on faculty at West Chester University as part of the quartet's residency. His students have been accepted into esteemed music schools such as the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University, and Temple University.
As a concert artist, Fanfare Magazine wrote, “not since DuPre’s or Starker’s performances of the Saint-Saëns Concerto have I heard such miraculous playing: clean as a whistle, impassioned, technically adept, and exhibiting extraordinary control.” The Salt Lake Tribune added, “his sound has an assertive, gorgeous quality, from the cello’s brusque low notes to its sweet upper range.” The New York Concert Review hailed him as a soloist “in a category above many cellists of today … inspired and captivating.” The Caribbean Business declared, “…he is already talked about as a soloist of potential international stature.”
ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM
Stephen Buck
Executive Director
As a composer, performer, arranger and program designer, Stephen Buck has played an important role in some of the most innovative, entertaining, and stimulating concert experiences today. He has worked with actors Bill Murray and Gael Garcia Bernal; baritone Thomas Hampson; pianists Helene Grimaud, Gabriela Montero, Vanessa Perez, Kristhyan Benitez, and Lara Downes; cellist Jan Vogler; violinists Daniel Röhn and Mira Wang; the Miró and Dalí Quartets and the Harlem Chamber Players; and many others. His works have been performed on most important stages in the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on CBS’ Sunday Morning and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Stephen serves as Coordinator of Academic Studies at the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, and as Executive Director and co-founder of AlpenKammerMusik, an intergenerational chamber music festival in the Austrian Alps, that brings young artists and adult amateur musicians together for an intensive artistic experience.
He has appeared as pianist on a recording of solo works by composer Huang Ruo on the Innova and Naxos labels, and with Vanessa Perez on her album Spain on the Steinway label. Stephen received his DMA in Piano Performance from Yale University School of Music in 2007 as a student of Peter Frankl, with previous studies at the University of Michigan and at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory.
Matthew Chan
Administrative Manager
Matthew Chan is a passionate violinist, conductor, and teacher. He obtained his bachelor's degrees in biology and music education at the University of Texas at Austin studying violin with Sandy Yamamoto, where he served as both a teacher and the Assistant Director of the University of Texas String Project under the guidance of string pedagogue Dr. Laurie Scott. He obtained his master's degree in violin performance at University of Wisconsin-Madison studying violin with Dr. Soh-Hyun Altino, where he served as the instructor for String Fundamentals classes and the head conductor of the All-University Strings. He regularly teaches in summer music camps such as the Longhorn Music Camp, the Summer Music Clinic in Madison, and the Sam Houston State University Orchestra Camp.
Mr. Chan is the Head Orchestra Director at Memorial High School, where he also serves as the Region 27 Orchestra Division Chair. Outside of teaching, Mr. Chan keeps active in performing as well. He has subbed for regional orchestras such as the Lacrosse Symphony Orchestra, the Dubuque Symphony Orchestras, the Galveston Symphony, and the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he leads the Houston Civic Symphony as the concertmaster, and he regularly performs chamber music recitals as a founding member of the Calba Quartet.
Ferdinand Stadlober
Operations Manager