Rachel Mercer - Heather Shea Lanners - Monika Kowalska
Rachel Mercer, cello
Rachel Mercer was born in Canada, studied in Vancouver and Toronto, and received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto with Shauna Rolston and Master of Music from the New England Conservatory in Boston with Laurence Lesser. She completied her studies at the conservatorium van Amsterdam, with Dmitri Fershtman.
Rachel has appeared with orchestras such as Toronto Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and her recitals in Toronto have been broadcasted in the National Radio. She has played solo with her duo partner Jelger Blanken in the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal, the Christoforl, and in numerous other venues in Holland. During the years 1994-2000 she was a member of the Metro string quartet.
Rachel Mercer has collaborated with Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kallish, and Laurence Lesser, and has appeared in festivals such as Ravinia, Verbier, Banff, Holland Music sessions, Orford, and the Juilliard Quartet Seminar.
Rachel is currently supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and plays a Forster cello on loan from the Banff Centre in Canada.
Rachel Mercer joined the Aviv String Quartet in June 2002.
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Heather Shea Lanners, piano
Heather Shea Lanners received her Bachelors Degree in Piano Performance from the University of Western Ontario. She then continued her studies in Paris with French pianist Cécile Ousset. While in Paris she also earned the Diplome Superieur en Musique de Chambre at the Ecole Normale de Musique. Since the completion of a Masters Degree in Performance and Literature with Barry Snyder at the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Lanners has worked as the Opera Coach at both the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Akron. She has performed regularly as the pianist for the Cleveland Opera on Tour and as a resident pianist for the prestigious Meadowmount School of Music String Camp. Professor Lanners has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe in both solo piano and chamber music.
She has performed in masterclasses for such artists as Jean Barr, Natalia Antonova, and Robert Silverman. In 1996 she was invited with full scholarship to participate in the Holland Summer Music Sessions, where she performed daily in and around Amsterdam. Ms. Lanners has been engaged frequently as an adjudicator throughout Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. She is also active as a guest lecturer. In July of 2000 she presented a lecture-recital at the Eastman School of Music Summer Piano Festival. In its June/July, 2001, issue, The American Music Teacher published an article she wrote.
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Monika Kowalska, piano
Född 1967 i Warszawa och uppvuxen i Stockholm. Bedrev sina studier i bl.a. Salzburg, Lübeck, London och Kanada. Bland hennes lärare finns namn som Geoffrey Parsons, Gyorgy Sandor, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling och Alfons Kontarsky.
1992 tog hon kammarmusikdiplom vid Edsbergs Musikinstitut genom att ge två offentliga konserter i Berwaldhallen och Studio 2. Hennes lärare på Edsberg var professor Greta Erikson.
Monika medverkade som solist i bl. a. Sjostakovitjs pianokonsert nr 1 och Sven Erik Bäcks kammarkonsert för piano, slagverk och stråkorkester - tillsammans med Kroumata slagverksensemble och Edsbergs kammarorkester.
1993 var hon artist in residence vid The Banff Centre for Fine Arts i Kanada. 1994 fick hon Wilhelm Freund-stipendiet från Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien. Detta resulterade i turnéer i Sverige och USA tillsammans med Jenny Lind-stipendiaten Carin Zander.
Samma år blev hon uttagen till Ung & Lovande-festivalen i Skinnskatteberg, som årligen arrangeras av Riksförbundet Sveriges Kammarmusikarrangörer. Hon har medverkat vid ett flertal internationella festivaler bl. a. The Holland Music Sessions i Amsterdam, Mozarteum-festivalen i Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein-festivalen i Tyskland, The Northlands Music Festival i Skottland och Sverige, Svenska Kulturdagar i Polen.
1994 blev hon antagen till Musik & Media utbildningen vid Uppsala universitet och 1995 följde examensarbetet – produktion av en konsertserie på Musikmuseet i Stockholm. Monika har sedan 1993 drivit firman Stockholms Concertino – en musikskola för barn och ungdomar & arrangör av musiktävlingen Unga Artister. Monika är medlem i Svenska Pianopedagogförbundet och styrelseledamot i Stockholms Kammarmusikförening.
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Rachel Mercer
Heather Shea Lanners
Monika Kowalska
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