Laura Hamilton was Principal Associate Concertmaster for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where she led hundreds of performances over 33 years. She was concertmaster for many of the MET's popular “Live in HD” videocasts, including Carmen, Parsifal, Turandot, Faust, Salome, and Madama Butterfly. Previously a member of the Chicago Symphony, she appeared there as concerto soloist with Maestro Georg Solti. Since 2020 Laura has been the Interim Artistic Director for the summer festival Classical Tahoe in Nevada, where she is also Concertmaster. She also teaches and performs at Festival Napa Valley, and previously played in the Marlboro, Manchester, and Bard Music Festivals, in summer festivals in Norway and Greece, and on the Met Chamber Ensemble series at Carnegie Hall. She appeared as guest concertmaster with the Seattle Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Welsh National Opera, and the Adelaide Symphony in Australia. In 2014, while on leave from the MET, Laura served for one season as concertmaster at the Sydney Opera House. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Laura is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where she held the Nathan Milstein Scholarship. She teaches violin and chamber music at New York University.

Laura first performed with CityMusic in May 2019 as guest concertmaster for Verdi's Requiem to commemorate Yom ha-Sho’ah.

Born and raised in Moscow, Russia, violinist Masha Andreini studied at Moscow Central Special Music School and the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990, she received a full scholarship to study with Almita and Roland Vamos at the University of Minnesota. During her studies, she won several concerto competitions and participated in the Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy and the Bach Competition in Germany.

Andreini has concertized across Russia, Europe, and the United States as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed with prominent orchestras as both a soloist and an orchestra member, including the Gorky Symphony in Russia, Orquesta de Julian Orbon in Spain, and the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra..

Andreini joined CityMusic Cleveland in 2006, and is the orchestra’s Assistant Concertmaster.

Chamber music being a first love, violinist Susan Britton is happy to have joined City Music in 2017. Currently, she also plays with the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, Akron Symphony and Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Formerly she has been a member of red ( an orchestra), Trinity Chamber Orchestra, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera and Ballet and the Canton Symphony.

Further afield she has performed at the Chiesa della Pieta in Venice Italy and the Basilica of Sant’Eufemia in Grado Italy with the Free Stamp Quartet as well as recording modern works for violin and piano in Udine Italy.

Chamber music has brought her to festivals including Taos, Norfolk, Adirondack, Grand Cayman Island and the Castle Festival in Heidelberg Germany.

Ms. Britton has performed as a soloist with the Wooster Symphony and the Trinity Chamber Orchestra, also offering recitals at Plymouth Church’s Herr Chapel. She has played numerous concerts featuring works for piano trio at Trinity Cathedral.

Her studies include degrees from the Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute under the guidance of teachers Zvi Zeitlin, Camilla Wickes, Donald Weilerstein and Peter Salaff.

Although Susan has found a home in the musical landscape of Cleveland, the forests and lakes of her native Upper Peninsula of Michigan are forever her source of inspiration.

Bruno Lunkes joined City Music Cleveland in 2022.

A native of Brazil, he holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, where he studied with Hella Frank and Fredi Gerling, and both a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Texas Tech University, where he was a teaching assistant to Annie Chalex Boyle.

While still an undergraduate student, Bruno won a full time position with the Caxias do Sul Symphony in Brazil, while also performing regularly with the Theatro São Pedro Chamber Orchestra and the Unisinos Anchieta Orchestra. In the US, he has performed with the symphonies of Akron, Firelands, Mansfield, Lubbock, Amarillo, West Texas, Big Spring, the ballets of Lubbock, Midland, and San Angelo, the Lubbock Chamber Orchestra, and with Chamber Music Amarillo.

As a soloist, he has performed the works of Mozart, Bach, and others in Texas, Colorado, Ohio, and Brazil. Festival appearances include the Oregon Bach Festival as student of the Berwick Academy, Sewanee Summer Music Festival as a teaching fellow, and Hot Springs Music Festival as concertmaster of the festival orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Dr. Lunkes has performed works ranging from the Renaissance to the present day in Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, and has been coached by members of the Vermeer, Axelrod, Arianna, and Marian Anderson string quartets.

In 2022, Bruno joins the prestigious Historical Performance Practice program at Case Western

Reserve University in Cleveland, where he will be studying baroque violin with Dr. Julie Andrijeski and harpsichord with Dr. Peter Bennett.

Bruno’s recordings have been released by the Sony Classical, OSESP Digital, and UCS labels.

Biography to be added soon.

Konrad Kowal is a Chicago born Polish-American violinist. He currently studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) with Dr. Olga Kaler and Professor Malcolm Lowe, working towards a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.

Konrad serves as the concertmaster of the Canton Symphony Orchestra and the Lexington Bach Festival Orchestra. He also performs with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and CityMusic Cleveland. He has previously served as concertmaster of the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Music Festival Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, and the CIM Orchestra, working with conductors such as Cliff Colnot, Timothy Muffitt, and Carlos Kalmar among others.

As a soloist, Konrad was a winner of the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra Scholarship Competition, received honorable mention in the DePaul Concerto Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the Kosciuszko Foundation Wieniawski Competition. He has had lessons and masterclasses with world-renowned artists such as Ilya Kaler, Robert Chen, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, and Yo-Yo Ma among others and regularly performs solo and chamber music recitals in Chicago and Cleveland.

2022-23 Season highlights include performing as concertmaster of the CIM Orchestra at Severance Hall, performing Scheherazade with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, and a Recital Tour of Texas.

In addition to performance, Konrad is a dedicated teacher, who has taught privately since 2014, and since 2019 has been the teaching assistant of Dr. Olga Kaler.

Konrad plays on a violin made by Joseph Curtin.

Born in Houston to a musical family, Cher Liu started her piano studies at age three with her mother, and violin studies at age six. Under the guidance of Fredell Lack, she decided to pursue music as a career at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her two Bachelors’ and Masters’ of Music degrees in violin and piano performance. Her past teachers and mentors have included violinists Ilya Kaler, Ivan Zenaty, Joan Kwuon, Fredell Lack, and Yongchun Li, and pianists Daniel Shapiro, Yigong Shen, Dr. Andrew Parr, Nancy Chin, and Rong Cindy Tan. She has also played for artists Paul Kantor, Michael Frischenschlager, Jinjoo Cho, Dami Kim, Kevork Mardirossian, Kikuei Ikeda and Joela Jones.

An avid chamber musician, Cher has participated in masterclasses with members of the Emerson String Quartet, Danish String Quartet, and Ehnes Quartet. Former chamber music mentors include Si-Yan Li, Annie Fullard, Mari Sato and Eric Wong of the Cavani String Quartet and Peter Salaff of the Cleveland Quartet. In 2019, she was invited to play for the Cleveland branch of Music for Food with her quartet. She also participated as a fellow at Musikiwest Chamber Music Festival and Centrum Chamber Music Festival. Sheis a performer at Opus 216, an ensemble in Cleveland, Ohio.

Recent awards include second prize at the MTNA Young Artist Strings Contest (2021), the JCCAA Scholarship (2017), and first prize at the TMTA Instrumental Competition (2016), and the Dorothy Kelley Competition Scholarship (2015). She made her orchestral debut with the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in 2011 and with the Houston Civic Symphony playing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2014.

Biography to be added soon.

Hadar Zaidel was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. She is pursuing her Master of Music degree in Violin Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Ilya Kaler. Zaidel has recently earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (BMSM), Tel Aviv University, under the tutelage of Prof. Hagai Shaham. Zaidel has completed her obligatory service at the Israel Defense Force as a Musician of Excellence (2018-2020). Previously, she has studied the violin with Ms. Nava Milo and Mr. Nitai Zori at the Israel Conservatory of Music, Tel Aviv, and is a graduate of the Music Department at the Thelma-Yellin High School of Arts, Giv’ataim.

Zaidel has extensive chamber music and orchestral experience. She has been a member of the Gertler Quartet - the representative quartet of the BMSM and is a graduate of various programs of the Jerusalem Music Centre (2013-2018). These include the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, serving as their concertmaster; the David Goldman Program for Outstanding Young Musicians, the Huberman Program and the Ilona Feher Violin Program. Hadar has been broadcasted on radio for the Kol Hamusika station (Israel’s national classical music broadcast station) on several occasions with the Gertler Quartet as well as with chamber music ensembles as part of the David Goldman Program.

Zaidel’s solo experience includes solo performances with the Tel Aviv Soloist Ensemble under the baton of Barak Tal (2018); the Thelma Yellin Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Guy Feder (2018); and the “Goppisberger Musikfestival und Akademie” festival’s orchestra in Zurich, Switzerland, under the baton of Jonas Alber (2013).

Zaidel is an active participant of the prestigious Perlman Music Program since 2016 and has participated at the Keshet Eilon Strings Mastercourse (2023, 2022), ISAmasterclass festival (2023, 2019) and the Morningside Music Bridge festival (2018). During aforementioned festivals and in additional collaborations, Zaidel has performed and collaborated with violinist Hagai Shaham and cellists Hillel Zori, Zvi Plesser and Michal Korman.

Zaidel has participated in masterclasses with world-known violinists, artists and pedagogues, including Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Miriam Fried, Shmuel Ashkenazy, Grigory Kalinovsky, Irina Svetlova, Dora Schwarzberg, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Vadim Gluzman, Daniel Heifetz, Catherine Cho and Li Lin.

Since 2021 Zaidel is an active member of Musethica, a program organizing performances for diverse audiences in the community, focusing on “audiences with special needs, who are excluded from society and from experiencing music directly” (Musethica’s website). Through the program Zaidel collaborates with Israel’s most prominent professional musicians.

Zaidel is a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (AICF) scholarships since 2013, and is playing on a violin generously loaned by the AICF. Zaidel’s additional awards include the 3rd prizes at both the Strings Competition and the Chamber Music Competition at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, May 2022; the Leah and Itzhak Lewin scholarship, June 2018; the 2nd prize at the annual competition of the Israel Conservatory of Music, June 2015; and the 3rd prize at the Israel National Competition, Raanana, March 2013.

Biography to be added soon.