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.

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

Jonathan Yates is the Music Director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony and the conductor of the Principal Orchestra. Jonathan has earned high praise as a conductor, solo pianist, and collaborative artist for his musicianship, intellect, and the remarkable variety of his musical endeavors.

He made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert.
The following year he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. Jonathan also serves as Music Director of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, where he has been a driving force in reinvigorating the relationship between the symphony and its community.

He has collaborated as a pianist and conductor with many of the country’s most respected musicians, including Midori, Kim Kashkashian, David Finckel, Charles Neidich, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Gilbert Kalish, Paul Neubauer, Joseph Lin, and William Purvis; and the Avalon, Daedalus and Pacifica Quartets. He has been heard as a chamber musician at the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Bargemusic and Merkin Hall, as well as at the Caramoor Festival and on the Ravinia Festival Rising Stars Series. As an ardent devotee of the music of our time, he has conducted new music concerts with the Argento Chamber Ensemble and the Knights, was the recipient of an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, and has given local and regional premieres of pre-eminent composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Huang Ruo, Zhou Long, Chester Biscardi, and Chen Yi.

Jonathan received his Graduate Diploma in conducting from the Juilliard School, where he studied with James DePreist and Otto-Werner Mueller, and was the holder of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. He received his Master of Music from State University of New York, where he worked with Gilbert Kalish, and his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, where he studied with Robert Levin. His past work includes serving as founding Music Director of Camerata Notturna, as Music Director of Music Mountain, and on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. He was recently named Director of Classical Series at 23Arts Windham Music and Jazz Fest. He descends from a family that has been on the forefront of the battles for the cultural and humanistic life of our country. His grandfather, U. S. Representative Sidney R. Yates, was the principal defender of the National Endowment for the Arts in his 48 years in Congress, and his father, the Honorable Stephen R. Yates, was the first judge in Illinois to approve same-sex adoption.