Soloists

Wendy Warner, cello

Wendy Warner is one of the world's leading cellists. The New York Times reported "Warner's expressive playing a pleasure," while Strings hailed her "almost frightening technique."

2010-2011 season highlights include the release with pianist Irina Nuzova, Russian Music for Cello & Piano, and The Beethoven Project - piano trios with pianist George Lepauw and violinist Sang Mee Lee - both from Cedille Records.

Warner is the featured soloist with the Fox Valley, Lake Forest, University of South Carolina, Millikin-Decatur, and Hartford Symphony Orchestras. She performs in the Norton Concert Series in Chicago, The Boston Artists Ensemble, The Schwob Chamber Music faculty concert, and with the Jupiter Players in New York City.
Warner has collaborated with such leading conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andre Previn, Jesús López-Cobos, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Marin Alsop, Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue, Neeme Järvi, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Her discography includes Wendy Warner Plays Popper and Piatigorsky; Double Play: Twentieth Century Duos for Violin and Cello with Rachel Barton Pine, (both on Cedille); Hindemith's Music for Cello & Piano for Bridge Records and Samuel Barber: Orchestral Works, Volume 2 , featuring Barber's Cello Concerto, with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, from Naxos.
Warner's musical studies began at age six with Nell Novak and she later studied with Rostropovich at the Curtis Institute. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age 14 and her Carnegie Hall in 1991 with Rostropovich conducting.

Warner performs on a Joseph Gagliano cello and a Carl Becker cello with a Francoix Xavier Tourte bow c. 1815 known as the "De Lamare," on loan from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Warner is on the faculty at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia.

Irina Muresanu, violin

Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu has won the hearts of audiences and critics alike with her exciting, elegant and heartfelt performances of the classic, romantic and modern repertoire. The Boston Globe has come to praise her as “not just a virtuoso, but an artist” and the Los Angeles Times has written that her “musical luster, melting lyricism and colorful conception made Irina Muresanu’s performance especially admirable” while Strad Magazine called her Carnegie/Weill Hall performance“a first-rate recital”. Irina Muresanu’s performances have been frequently cited as among the Best of Classical Music Performances by the Boston Globe, and her recital in the Emerging Artist Celebrity Series was named one of the Top 10 musical events by the TAB Magazine.

Early on Muresanu achieved international acclaim as an outstanding young soloist, recitalist and chamber musician winning top prizes in several prestigious international violin competitions including the Montreal International, Queen Elizabeth International, UNISA International String, Washington International, and the Schadt String Competition. She is the winner of the Pro Musicis International Award, the Presser Music Award, the Kate Kinley Fellowship Award from the University of Illinois and the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association.

Muresanu has performed in renowned concert halls throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Her recent solo engagements include concerts with the Boston Pops, the Miami Symphony Orchestra, theWilliamsburg Symphonia, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva), the Syracuse Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra (Montreal), the Transvaal Philharmonic (Pretoria, S. Africa), the Romanian National Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Radio Flamande (Brussels), the Boston Philharmonic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the New England String Ensemble amongst others.

In 2013, Muresanu introduced her “Four Strings Around the World” project, a solo violin recital featuring works of composers inspired by various musical cultures around the world. An early reviewer of the project wrote that“[W]hen the D Major section moves into D minor [in Bach’s Chaccone], it seemed as if the violin had had its heart broken and was crying. Muresanu’s performance was simply spectacular.”

Her recent recording releases include the Thomas Oboe Lee Violin Concerto (dedicated to Muresanu) on the BMOP label, works of Elena Ruehr (also dedicated to Irina Muresanu) on Avie Records label and the complete William Bolcom’s Violin and Piano Sonatas on Centaur label with pianist Michael Lewin (a recording that was funded by a Copland Recording Grant). In Europe, her recording of the Guillaume Lekeu and Alberic Magnard late Romantic Violin and Piano Sonatas with pianist Dana Ciocarlie for the AR RE-SE French label has sparked enthusiasm. Fanfare noted the recording with“singing and soaring…[a] sizzling performance.” Ms. Muresanu has also recorded chamber music works of Gerhard Schedl with the Walden Chamber Players, the world premiere recording of Marion Bauer’s Sonata for Violin and Piano with pianist Virginia Eskin on Albany Records, and a CD featuring chamber works of Erich Korngold released by the VPRO Radio Amsterdam. Adding to her other competition laurels, Ms. Muresanu was granted a Special Commendation award for her recording of Schoenberg’s Fantasy for Violin and Piano at the 3rd International Vienna Modern Masters Performers Recording Competition.

An active chamber musician and recitalist, Ms. Muresanu has appeared in such festivals and venues as Bargemusic in New York, the Rockport Festival in Massachusetts, Bay Chambers concert series and Bowdoin Festival in Maine, the Strings in the Mountains and San Juan Music Festival in Colorado, Maui Chamber Music Festival in Hawaii, Reizend Music Festival in Netherlands, Festival van de Leie in Belgium, and the Renncontres des Musiciennes Festival in France. Ms. Muresanu has been a member of theBoston Trio since 2002 and she regularly performs with Mistral and the Walden Chamber Players.

Irina Muresanu currently serves on the faculty the of Boston Conservatory, and has taught at Harvard and MIT. Irina will begin teaching at the University of Maryland in September 2015. Her ensemble, the Boston Trio, is Ensemble-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory, the institution at which she received the prestigious Artist Diploma degree and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree. A native of Bucharest, Romania, Ms. Muresanu resides in Boston, MA with her husband, son and dog. She plays an 1856 Giuseppe Rocca violin and a Charles Peccatte bow courtesy of Mr. Mark Ptashne.