Guest Artists

Ayano Ninomiya, Violin

Second-prize winner of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and winner of Astral Artistic Services' 2003 National Auditions, violinist Ayano Ninomiya has appeared extensively as soloist with orchestras across the U.S. Ms. Ninomiya made her Boston Pops debut under Keith Lockhart, and has been featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Harrisburg and Dubuque symphonies, the Mobile and Gulf Port orchestras, the Civic Symphony of Boston, the Boston Philharmonic, and the Port City (Alabama) Symphony. She is the recent recipient of an S&R Washington Award and the 2003 Lili Boulanger Award. As a 2005 recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship, she spent the 2005-2006 season in Budapest researching the Bartok Archives and studying at the Franz Liszt Academy.

An active recitalist, Ms. Ninomiya recently gave her highly acclaimed New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall under the auspices of the Naumburg Foundation. She recorded the complete works for violin by Larry Bell; Philadelphia's City Paper placed this CD on its list of "Top 10 Classical Recordings of 2003." Also an avid chamber musician, Ms. Ninomiya performs regularly at the Marlboro, Caramoor, Rockport, and Strings in the Mountains chamber music festivals. She toured with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, "Musicians from Marlboro," for New York City's WQXR radio, and as a member of the Ravinia Festival's "Young Artists from the Steans Institute" series. As a founding member and first violinist of the Amaryllis String Quartet she won First Prize at the 1995 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in the Junior Division, and has collaborated with violinist Pamela Frank and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Ayano Ninomiya received a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Robert Mann, and holds joint degrees in Music and French from Harvard College. Her principal teachers included Michele Auclair, Marylou Churchill, Miriam Fried, Hyo Kang, and Eszter Perenyi. Born in Takamatsu, Japan, she moved the U.S. when she was one year old and began violin studies at the age of seven. The following year she entered the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and made her professional debut with the North Shore (MA) Symphony.

Melissa Reardon, Viola

First Prize Winner of the Washington International Competition, and the only violist to win top prizes in consecutive HAMS International Viola Competitions, including winner of the "best performance of a newly commissioned piece" in December, 2006, Melissa Reardon has established herself as one of the leading violists of her generation. Melissa made her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the age of thirteen and has been concertizing internationally ever since. As a collaborative musician, Melissa has performed in numerous festivals across the US, Europe, India and Korea. She has performed with the Daedalus and Borromeo String Quartets, members of the Guarneri, Mendelssohn, Brentano, St. Lawrence and Shanghai quartets and Beaux Arts Trio, the Boston Chamber Music Society, International Sejong Soloists, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, at Bargemusic and has toured with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Melissa is also a founding member of the acclaimed East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) and has spent several summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro in both the US and France. In May 2006, Melissa was chosen to participate in Chamber Connects the World with Gidon Kremer at the Kronberg Academy in Kronberg, Germany. At the festival she performed with Yuri Bashmet, Menahem Pressler and Gidon Kremer. Most recently Melissa has become the newest member of the Enso String Quartet. Performances with the quartet for this year include recitals on Ravinia's Rising Stars Series and at the Library of Congress.

A native Northborough, MA Melissa began violin studies at the age of four. At seven, she switched to viola and began studies on piano as well. Melissa was also a founding member of the Amaryllis String Quartet (1991-2000) whose engagements included performances at the Kennedy Library, Caramoor Mus ic Festival, Jordan Hall, Steamboat Springs, Boulder and Rockport Chamber Music Festivals.

Melissa received her BM from the Curtis Institute of Music, and her MM and GD from the New England Conservatory of Music. She received the prestigious Tourjee Award from the New England Conservatory for her third year of graduate study in 2002. Melissa has studied with Kim Kashkashian, Michael Tree, Joseph dePasquale, Karen Tuttle, Samuel Rhodes, and Hsin-Yun Huang. Melissa currently lives in New York City