Members

Sarita Kwok

Australian violinist Sarita Kwok has performed as soloist with the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, in the country’s major concert halls and on national television and radio. Awards she has won in Australia include the country’s most prestigious musical award: The Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year 1998 (strings), as well as the James Fairfax Sydney Symphony Orchestra Young Artist 1996 and the Big Brother and Nelly Apt scholarships, which allowed her to further her violin studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Rubin Academy, Tel Aviv. Internationally, she has been a prizewinner of the Kloster Schontal International Violin Competition, Germany 1997, Gisborne International Music Competition, New Zealand 1998, and the 7th Wieniawski and Lipinski International Competition for Young Violinist, Poland 2000.

Ms. Kwok has performed in master-classes and privately for artists such as Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Pinchas Zukerman, Lydia Mordkovitch, Donald Weilerstein and Midori. As a chamber musician she has worked with the Tokyo, Juilliard, and Guarneri string quartets.

In the 2006-2007 season Ms. Kwok gave numerous performances of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in the Boston area on the Hammond Performing Arts Series, Thayer Academy Concert Series, and Rockport Chamber Music Festival. She was also a featured lecturer, presenting pre-concert talks on the same work.

Ms. Kwok graduated with a BA (Literature) from the University of Sydney 2001, MM from Michigan State University 2002, Masters of Musical Arts 2005 and Artist Diploma 2006 from Yale School of Music where she studied with Syoko Aki.

Ms. Kwok was recently appointed full-time lecturer and faculty at Yale University Department of Music, where she directs the musicianship program.

Lauren Basney

Violinist Lauren Basney made her New York debut at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in January 2001. Since then, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Western Europe, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, returning to Carnegie in February 2004 to give a joint concert as a member of the Latett Duo. Also in New York, Ms. Basney has performed at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Columbia University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Art, the American Irish Society, Grace Church, and at the Juilliard Theatre, as a part of the Juilliard FOCUS Festival.

Ms. Basney is the winner of the Zerounian Competition and the Madura String Award and the recipient of the Oundjian Scholarship (Juilliard), as well as having been selected as a Yamaha Young Performing Artist. She attended the Juilliard School as a full-scholarship student, receiving her BM in 2001, and continued her musical education at Yale University, studying with Syoko Aki, where she received her MM (2005) and Artist Diploma (2006).

As a chamber musician, Ms. Basney was twice the winner of the Special Presentation Award from Artists International Inc. (NYC). She has had the opportunity to work with such artists as Glenn Dicterow, Boris Berman, Earl Carlyss, Jerome Lowenthal, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, and the Shanghai, Juilliard, Tokyo, Dædalus, and Ying Quartets, and she has performed in master classes given by such artists as the Emerson, Guarneri, and Takacs Quartets, and Donald Weilerstein and Odin Rathnam. Ms. Basney is also a member of the New York Piano Trio, whose upcoming performances include appearances in Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel, in the 2008-2009 season.

She holds the position of Chamber Music Assistant at the Yale School of Music for the coming year.

Ahyoung Sung

Violist Ahyoung Sung, made her professional debut in England in 1996, performing solo recitals throughout the Birmingham area. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Royal Academy of Music in London with the Rose Roitman Award and Josephine Fuller Award in 2002, which were awarded to the most talented violist. She attained her Master’s from Yale University in 2004 and her Artist’s Diploma in the following year along with Georgina Lucy Grosvenor Memorial Prize, which was given to the violist whose performances exhibited the highest potential for success as a soloist or chamber musician in the field.

Born in South Korea, she began her musical studies at the age of 12. Her principal teachers have been Jesse Levine, Martin Outram and John White. A dedicated chamber musician, Ms. Sung has performed in the Purcell Room at the Royal Festival Hall, Clevedon House and Lauderdale House and has worked with such famous string quartets as the Amadeus, Skampa, Alberni, Maggini, Juilliard and Tokyo Quartets. She worked as a principal violist for London Korean Symphony Orchestra for six years along with other various student orchestras in London.

Dmitri Atapine

The winner of the 2004 Iberoamerican “Carlos Prieto” Competition and the recipient of the 2005 Presser Foundation Award, Dmitri Atapine began his cello lessons at the age of five at the St. Petersburg Conservatory School of Music. Since 1992 Mr. Atapine is a resident of Spain, where he graduated with honors from the Asturias Conservatory under Prof. A.Fedortchenko. Since receiving in 2003 his BM and MM with high honors from Michigan State University under Prof. S.Bagratuni, Mr. Atapine continues his studies with Prof. Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, where he completed the Master of Musical Arts degree in 2005 and obtained the Artist Diploma in 2006.

A regular soloist and recitalist, Mr. Atapine’s recent engagements have included solo recitals in the Juan March Foundation (Madrid) and the Great Hall of the Spanish National Auditorium, as well as orchestral appearances with the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra in the Prince Philip Auditorium. Among Mr. Atapine’s multiple awards are the University of Illinois ‘Music Achievement’ Award, the Asturias Conservatory Honors Certificate, and the first prize at the Llanes International Cello Competition.