Joseph Puglia Chaim Steller Örs Kőszeghy

Since giving his first solo performance with orchestra at age 12, American violinist Joseph Puglia has been increasingly in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. His virtuoso playing and musical sincerity have led him to performances in major concert halls in the US and Europe, and moved cellist Anner Bylsma to say of his playing "Joey Puglia is the best." He was a prizewinner in the 58th Vriendenkrans Concours in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the 14th Concorso Internazionale "Andrea Postacchini" in Italy, where he was also given a special prize for his performance of Berio's Sequenza VIII for violin. Further concerts include appearances as the concertmaster of the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble tours of Australia, Poland, and the UK, and in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.

Deeply committed to new music, Mr. Puglia participated in both the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and the Klangspuren Festival in Austria, where he worked with Pierre Boulez and members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. In Juilliard's centennial year of 2005 he was selected to perform with Naumburg Award winner Carol Wincenc in a tribute to composer Peter Mennin in Lincoln Center. He has performed on Juilliard's Focus! Festival, and was also a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble.

Mr. Puglia is also a founding member of the Acadia Chamber Ensemble, which has helped to set up an annual chamber music festival in New England including outreach concerts, coachings, and school workshops along with its concert series. He has performed in Juilliard's prestigious "Chamberfest" series, which was nationally televised, and in 2004 was invited to give a series of chamber music concerts at the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. As a member of the Knights Ensemble he has also performed and given a masterclass as part of the "Artist in Residence" program at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus.

A native of New York City, Mr. Puglia began the violin at age 4 and was accepted to Juilliard's Pre-College division in 1994 where he studied with Louise Behrend. He has played in coachings and masterclasses led by Anner Bylsma, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Greenhouse, Joseph Kalichstein, Joel Krosnick, Seymour Lipkin, and Arnold Steinhardt, among others. In 2002, he was accepted to The Juilliard School's college division with a full scholarship where he earned his Bachelor's degree studying under Robert and Nicholas Mann, and received his Master of Music degree summa cum laude at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, working with Vera Beths.

Mr. Puglia plays on a 2007 "Snow Model" violin, made in China.

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Dutch violist Chaim Steller has won numerous prizes and awards, including prizes at the 42nd international competition in Markneukirchen and the Gustav Scheck Prize from the Commerzbank foundation for extraordinary achievement as a classical musician. Solo performances with orchestra have taken him to Germany, Italy, and France, playing with the Orchestra Sinfonica del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Chursaechsische Philharmonie and the Vogtlaendische Philharmonie, among others.

As a performer of 20th and 21st century music, Mr. Steller has premiered works by Péter Eötvös, Helmut Lachenmann, Thomas Hummel, and Matthias Pintscher. He has also worked with Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin, and Márton Illés on their works, and has performed in the Luzern Festival Academy and at the Klangspuren festival in Innsbruck.

Mr Steller is a member of the Orchestra Mozart, founded by Claudio Abbado, which recently recorded Mozart's violin concertos for Deutsche Grammophon on gut strings with Giuliano Carmignola. He also worked under many notable conductors including Trevor Pinnock, Oliver Knussen, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and this summer he will play with the Luzern Festival Orchestra under the personal invitation of Claudio Abbado.

In addition to his work with Trio Dumas, Mr. Steller has performed chamber music works throughout Europe, working with clarinetist Pascal Moragues, members of the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, SWR Orchestra Freiburg, and has worked on the Schönberg serenade op. 24 under the direction of Pierre Boulez. He has played in coachings and masterclasses given by members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Thomas Riebl, Rainer Kussmaul, Jörg Widmann, Antoine Tamestit, Jos van Veldhoven, Alfredo Bernardini, Ervin Schiffer and Candida Thompson.

Mr. Steller was born in 1983 in Amsterdam, started violin lessons at the age of 4. In 1999, after 3 years of violin lessons with Jan Repko, he switched to the viola and went to study with Marjolein Dispa at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. There he graduated Cum Laude in 2004 (Bachelor of Arts). From 2005 he has been studying in Freiburg (Germany) with Prof. Wolfram Christ, where he earned his Soloist degree in 2009.

Chaim Steller plays on a 1959 Max Möller viola.

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Hungarian Cellist Örs Kőszeghy was the second prize winner of the 7th Hungarian National János Starker Competition and also a finalist of the David Popper International Cello Competition in 2001. He has recorded with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble for the Attacca label, and as a chamber musician has been featured in a documentary titled "The Secret of Boccherini" with cellist Anner Bylsma, whom he has worked with extensively.

An avid performer of 20th century music, Mr. Kőszeghy is a regular player in the world-renowned Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, and has performed with them in tours throughout The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. He has premiered works by Peter Eötvös, Louis Andriessen, and Martijn Padding. In 2007 he was princpal cellist in the Luzern Festival Academy Orchestra, where he worked under Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös. Further orchestral performances have taken him to Abu Dhabi, Iceland, Germany, and Austria.

Mr. Kőszeghy also performs chamber music as cellist of Ensemble Lumaka, which was selected to perform in Holland's acclaimed "Het Debuut" series in 2008. Chamber music and solo performances have taken him to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bartók House (Budapest), Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), Munstersommer Freiburg, and Franz Liszt Museum (Budapest). In 2007 and 2008, Mr. Kőszeghy was invited to Norway to give coachings and lessons to cellists of the Arctic Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Kőszeghy was born in 1980 in Budapest. He earned his first diploma in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music as a student of Csaba Onczay. He continued his studies with Dmitri Ferschtman in the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he obtained his his Masters degree summa cum laude in 2006.

Örs Kőszeghy plays on a 2001 Daniël Royé cello.

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