Daniel L. Foster, Violin

Daniel L. Foster has taught violin at Eastern Michigan University since 1987. A student of Paul Rolland at the University of Illinois and of Angel Reyes at the University of Michigan, he holds degrees in violin performance from both schools.

Since 1978, he has appeared frequently throughout the United States as a solo and chamber artist, with repertoire ranging from the 16th through the 20th century. As a Baroque violinist and violist, he has performed and recorded with Ars Musica Baroque Orchestra, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Orianna, and Tafelmusik, and is a founding member of La Gente d'Orfeo. He is also a founding member of the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Ensemble and of the Alexander Trio, the faculty piano trio at Eastern Michigan University. Musical values and expression, cultivation of free physical movements, and enhancement of the mind/body connection are the emphasis of his teaching and master classes.

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Parry Karp, Cello

Cellist Parry Karp is Artist-in Residence and Professor of Chamber Music and Cello, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is director of the string chamber music program. He has been cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet for the past 32 years, joining the group in 1976.

Parry Karp is a active solo artist, performing numerous recitals annually in the United States with pianists Howard and Frances Karp. Mr. Karp has played concerti throughout the United States and gave the first performance in Romania of Ernest Bloch's Schelomo with the National Radio Orchestra in Bucharest in 2002. He is active as a performer of new music and has performed in the premieres of dozens of works, many of which were written for him, including concerti, sonatas and chamber music. As a solo recording artist, he has recorded the solo cello works of Ernest Bloch, and works of Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke, Ernest Chausson, Edward Collins, Georges Enesco, John Ireland, Alberic Magnard, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Miklos Rosza, and Richard Strauss. Unearthing and performing unjustly neglected repertoire for cello is a passion of Mr. Karp's. In recent years he has transcribed for cello many masterpieces written for other instruments. This project has included performances of all of the Duo Sonatas of Brahms, as well as compositions of Bach, Dvorak, Hindemith, Strauss, Stravinsky and Szymanowski. Parry Karp performs annually in summer music festivals throughout the United States.

As cellist of the Pro Arte Quartet he has performed over 1000 concerts throughout North, Central and South America, Europe, and Japan. His discography with the group has been extensive and includes the complete string quartets of Ernest Bloch, Miklos Rosza, and Karol Szymanowski. Many of these recordings received awards from Fanfare and High Fidelity Magazines. Other composers whose string quartets or string quintets the Pro Arte Quartet has recorded during his tenure include: Beethoven, Luis de Freitas Branco, Martin Boykan, Tamar Diesendruck, Dvorak, Brian Fennelly, Andrew Imbrie, Fred Lerdahl, Walter Mays, Mendelssohn, Karol Rathaus, Samuel Rhodes, Roger Sessions, and Ralph Shapey. As a member of the Pro Arte Quartet he has recorded the Piano Quintets of Ernest Bloch, Johannes Brahms and Armando Jose Fernandes with pianist Howard Karp. Guest artists with the Pro Arte during his years have included: the Emerson Quartet, Denes Koromzay, Leon Fleischer, Sidney Harth, Gunnar Johansen, Gilbert Kalish, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Mann, Samuel Rhodes, Robert Silverman, Christopher Taylor, Laszlo Varga and Tamas Vasary. Gunther Schuller conducted the group in the premiere of his String Quartet Concerto which he wrote for the Pro Arte Quartet. The Pro Arte Quartet was one of five finalists (the others were the Juilliard, Tokyo, and Emerson Quartets, and the Beaux Arts Trio) for the First Annual Arturo Toscanini Award in the Chamber Music Category Parry Karp's chamber music discography outside of the Pro Arte Quartet includes the three piano trios of Joel Hoffman, as well as works of Britten, Faure, Martinu, Mozart and Pierne. Mr. Karp had a visiting professorship at the University of British Columbia, and has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University. Former students of Mr. Karp's are members of professional string quartets, major orchestras, and teachers in the United States.

Mr. Karp received early training in Vienna, Austria and studied cello with Lee Duckles, David Kadarauch, Peter Farrell, Gabriel Magyar and Gabor Rejto. Inspirational chamber music teachers included Gabriel Magyar, Howard Karp, Lorand Fenyves and Zoltan Szekely.

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Howard & Frances Karp, Piano

Howard Karp - Professor Emeritus of Piano, University of Wisconsin-Madison

After a college teaching career of 46 years, Howard Karp retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied piano with Jack Radunsky and Rosina Lhevinne. Further study took him to Vienna for work at the Akademie fur Musik as a Fulbright scholar, and to Positano, Italy, for Beethoven studies with Wilhelm Kempff.

Mr. Karp has given solo recitals in most of the United States, and has been a guest recitalist for the American Liszt Society, the Maryland Piano Festival, the Shenyang International Music Festival in China and the George Enescu Festival in Central College, Pella, Iowa. He has won acclaim in Europe at many cultural centers, and has performed concertos with the Minnesota Orchestra, Amsterdam Philharmonic, Hague Residencie Orchestra, Madison Symphony, and others. In addition to his solo activities, he is a frequent performer of chamber music, appearing in duo and duet recitals with his wife, Frances, and sonata performances with his son and colleague, Parry, cellist of the Pro Arte String Quartet. He is a founding member of the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival. Despite his retirement from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000, Mr. Karp's various music activities continue.

Before coming to Wisconsin in 1972, Mr. Karp taught at the Universities of Illinois and Kentucky. Currently he has former students on the faculties of numerous colleges and universities throughout this country and In Asia.

His CD recording on Laurel Records of the two Ernest Bloch piano quintets with the Pro Arte String Quartet has won critical acclaim. Other recordings include Five Aphorisms for Violin and Piano, Op. 150, by Gardner Read, on Northeastern's Contemporary Series, Impromptu for Violin and Piano by Andrew Imbrie on the GM label, produced by Gunther Schuller, The Art of Howard Karp, a 2 CD set produced by the University of Wisconsin School of Music, a 4 CD set entitled "A Half Century of Music Making, works for 2 pianos and piano 4-hands" of Howard and Frances Karp , a 2CD set of late Romantic Sonatas by Ireland, Magnard, Strauss, Enescu and Rachmaninoff with 'cellist Parry Karp. His most recent recording , on Albany Records consists of two of the "Three Piano Trios " by Joel Hoffman. professor of composition at the University of Cincinnati.

Frances Karp, Piano

Frances Karp received her early musical training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with Maurice Lichtman, himself a former student of Leopold Godowsky. She attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, receiving both the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees with Jack Radunsky. Further study took her to Columbia University and the Juilliard School of Music.

Mrs. Karp has taught in Yakima, Washington, Lexington, Kentucky, and Urbana, Illinois. She was an opera coach at the University of Illinois, taught at the University of Wisconsin, and maintained a private piano studio in Madison for 30 years.

In addition to four-hand and two-piano repertoire with her husband, Howard Karp, and cello sonatas with her son, Parry, Frances has performed numerous chamber works with various artists throughout her career, and she is a founding member of the Red-Hot Lava Chamber music Festival.

She has been soloist with the Hague Residencie Orchestra, the University of Illinois Chamber Orchestra, the University of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Madison Symphony.Her recordings include the 4CD set entitled "A Half Century of Music Making, works for 2 pianos and piano 4-hands" with Howard Karp, released in 2002, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, the complete 'cello and piano works by Ernest Bloch, with Parry Karp, and the first Piano Trio by Joel Hoffman, with Parry Karp and Christopher Karp.

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Katrin Talbot, Viola

Australian-born Katrin Talbot studied viola with Richard Blum and Guillermo Perich and violin with Raphael Spiro and Eugene Andre. She has appeared as guest artist on several occasions with the Pro Arte String Quartet, and with the Monte Verde String Quartet and frequently performs in a variety of chamber music recitals, as well as playing in the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Oakwood Chamber Players and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Talbot joined the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival in 1999.

Distinguished as a private instructor of viola, she was honored in a ceremony with the governor when her student, currently studying at the Juilliard School of Music, was awarded the 1996 Governor's Scholarship to the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

She received her B.A. from Reed College, earned her M.S. in Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and worked in the field of molecular virology for 15 years. She currently combines her music and photography in many projects, and her first book, a photoessay of Schubert's great song cycle Die Winterreise, was recently published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

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Norman F. Foster, Clarinet

Norman F. Foster received his B.M. degree from the University of Illinois and M.M. degree from Michigan State University. He played Second/E-flat Clarinet with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for three seasons, making four recordings and touring Japan and Southeast Asia. He is a founding member of Sinfonia Da Camera, Ian Hobson, Music Director. Joining the Honolulu Symphony in 1985 as Second/E-flat Clarinetist, he has also played Acting Associate Principal for four seasons, and plays bass clarinet, basset horn, and saxophone as well.

Mr. Foster has presented solo recitals in Hong Kong, Macau, and at Hawaii Loa College, and has appeared as a guest artist with Academy Camerata, Chamber Music Hawaii, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madsion. He is a founding member and Director of the Red-Hot Lava Chamber Music Festival. He also played in many contemporary chamber music concerts during the Honolulu Symphony's Discovery Series.

Mr. Foster has been a member of the clarinet faculty at the Aspen Music Festival teaching E-Flat clarinet and playing in the Festival Orchestra. He has also taught at the Hong Kong Arts Center, Ling-Nan College, Illinois Summer Youth Music, and the Pacific Basin Band Festival, and has taught clarinet privately since 1979.

Clarinet teachers of Mr. Foster include Lawrie Bloom, Larry Combs, Gervase De Peyer, Harvey Hermann, Howard Klug, Elsa Verdehr, Richard Waller, John Yeh, and Paul Zonn.

Mr. Foster plays piano and enjoys arranging and composing, particularly piano ragtime pieces. He designs greeting cards for music lovers with his company Normzart^TM Greeting Cards.

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Christopher Karp, Piano

Violinist and pianist, Christopher Karp's extra-familial music training included violin and chamber music studies with Lorand Fenyves (University of Toronto) and Robert Koff (Brandeis University). He was concertmaster of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in the early 1980s before turning his focus to medicine and science. He has been a frequent guest performer on the Faculty Chamber Music Series at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the past two decades, and has performed on the Faculty Music Series and on the MusicX Festival at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Currently, he is the Gunnar Esiason/Cincinnati Bell Professor and Director of the Division of Molecular Immunology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation, where his research program focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying regulation and dysregulation of inflammatory responses in human infectious, autoimmune and genetic diseases. He plays the "Robert Koff" Vuillaume, a stunning copy of a grand pattern Amati made in the 1860's. A CD (Joel Hoffman - Three Piano Trios; Christopher Karp, violin; Parry Karp 'cello; Howard and Frances Karp, piano) is currently available on Albany Records (TROY864; 2006). A second CD of works by Hoffman will be released in 2008.

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Amanda Schubert, Violin

Amanda Schubert has been a member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra since the 1989-90 season. She also serves on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center (Brevard, North Carolina) where she teaches, coaches and performs during the summer. She is Past-President of the Hawaii Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. In Honolulu, Amanda maintains a large class of private violin students and free lances extensively.

Amanda grew up in a musical family, beginning her violin studies at age four with her father, Lacy McLarry. She continued studying with him through college, receiving her bachelor of music degree in violin performance from Oklahoma City University. She received her master of music degree in violin performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was first violinist of the Strelow String Quartet, a graduate ensemble coached extensively by the Pro Arte String Quartet. While in Madison she studied violin with Norman Paulu. In addition to her performance degrees, Amanda holds a teaching degree from the Talent Education Institute, Matsumoto, Japan, where she studied with Shinichi Suzuki.

Amanda has participated in many music festivals including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, the New College Music Festival (Sarasota, Florida), the Northwood Music Festival (Michigan), the Rocky Ridge Music Festival (Colorado), and the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. Her musical studies have taken her to Germany and Japan and she has performed in Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, China and Mexico.

As a soloist Amanda has performed with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the New Lyric String Quartet and the Xalapa State Orchestra in Mexico. Included among her honors and awards are the Buttram String Awards (First Place Solo Violin, First Place String Quartet and First Place Overall), National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts (Promising Young Artist), and Oklahoma Symphony Youth Auditions (First Place).

In her spare time, Amanda enjoys studying ballet (which she started at the age of eight) and Jazzercise. She is the mother of two daughters.

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