2006 ARTISTS

   Artistic Director JEFFREY COHAN has received international acclaim both as a modern flutist, and as one of the foremost early flute specialists.  The only person to win both the Erwin Bodky Award (Boston), and the top prize in the Flanders Festival International Concours Musica Antiqua (Brugge, Belgium), he won First Prize in the Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Competition, and has performed in 24 countries, having earned the highest rating from the National Endowment for the Arts. Many works have been written for and premiered by him, including four new flute concerti since 2000. Many works have been written for and premiered by him, including three new flute concerti in the new millennium. He can "play many superstar flutists one might name under the table" according to the New York Times.
   Born in Davenport, Jeffrey graduated from Rock Island High School, and performed solo concerti with the Tri-City Youth Symphony under the direction of James Dixon, with the Clinton Symphony under William Henigbaum. He was Artist-in-Residence at Augustana College, taught flute at Indiana University in Bloomington andat the University of Northern Iowa and Grinnell College.

  GEORGE SHANGROW (harpsichord) is Music Director and founder of Orchestra Seattle and the Seattle Chamber Singers, and Director of the Seattle Conservatory of Music. He has been featured guest conductor with the Sapporo (Japan) Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and other ensembles.  He has conducted world premieres of six operas and numerous orchestral works, and was Music Director and Conductor of Pacific Chamber Opera from 1976 to 1978.  Mr. Shangrow has taught at Seattle University, Seattle Community College and the Seattle Conservatory of Music, and is a frequent lecturer throughout the Northwest.  Having toured Europe several times as keyboardist and conductor, he is a sought after accompanist and has appeared in recital on piano and harpsichord with many noted soloists. Mr. Shangrow has recorded with Voyager Records, Edel Records and Lyman Digital Recording. Concerts and literally thousands of interviews with local and world famous musicians on Classic KING-FM's "Live By George" have made him one of the most prominent and highly respected classical musicians in the Pacific Northwest.

   OLEG TIMOFEYEV plays the renaissance, 10-course, and baroque lutes, 19th-century guitar, viola da gamba and recorder, and is the world's primary exponent of the Russian seven-string guitar. He teaches at Grinnell College, was awarded a Fulbright for study in Moscow during 2001-2002, and was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Russian at the University of Iowa from 1999 and Artist in Residence from 1989 to 1992. He founded and directed Pratum Musicum, a state-sponsored early music group in Moscow. He received many fellowships, grants and awards, a Ph. D. in Performance Practice from Duke University, a certificate from the Académie Musicale de Villecroze, France, and the academic certificate in composition from the Moscow School of Advanced Studies. He has given many lecture-recitals and conference presentations, and has been guest lecturer/ performer with the annual Vanamuusika Päevad, an Estonian early music festival. He has contributed articles for the Lute Society Quarterly and other periodicals and for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. His recordings include "The Wandering Lutenist" Centaur Records, and "The Golden Age of the Russian Guitar"  on Dorian Recordings.

   Violist CHRISTINE RUTLEDGE is Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Iowa and Head of the string area. A highly sought-after soloist and chamber musician, she has recently performed in Iceland, Germany, Sweden, the Midwest and the Southwest United States. She has presented masterclasses throughout Iowa and the United States, she serves on the executive board of the American Viola Society, and is president of the Iowa Viola Society. For six years she was Assistant Principal Viola of the Louisville Orchestra and violist of the Ceruti Chamber Players and the Kentucky Center Chamber Players. She has taught at the University of Notre Dame. Festival appearances include the Sewanee Summer Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, the Manitou Music Festival, the Hot Springs Music Festival, and the Interlochen Arts Camp. She is currently a member of the Fontana Festival of Music and Art ensemble, the Roycroft Chamber Players, and has served as faculty member at the Interlochen Arts Camp. In 2002 Rutledge established the "Chamber Music Coalition," which brings together musicians from all over the region for chamber music. Rutledge is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Karen Tuttle and Michael Tree, and the University of Iowa with William Preucil, Sr. A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, she was honored as Valedictorian and recipient of a Young Artist Award. Among her many honors are Prizewinner in the Aspen Festival Viola Competition, an Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist's Fellowship, an Eli Lilly Foundation grant for undergraduate teaching development and a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Initiative at the University of Iowa. Also a gifted Baroque violist, Rutledge's diverse repertoire spans major works from the standard repertory to lesser-known and obscure works for the viola. She is an avid commissioner of new works. Her performances and recordings have been praised in such publications as "The Strad," "Fanfare," the "New York Times," and "The New York Concert Review."