KINGA AUGUSTYN is a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree as well as a teaching assistant at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. A recent Master’s graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City, where she studied with Cho Liang Lin, Naoko Tanaka, and the legendary Dorothy DeLay, Ms. Augustyn has already released her debut CD of the Paganini 24 Caprices for Violin Solo. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Rossini Quartet (Magdeburger Philharmoniker), the Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum, the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra in Aspen, among others. She has given numerous solo and chamber recitals in the US at halls including Paul Hall, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in Europe. As a Juilliard student, Ms. Augustyn served as a concertmaster of the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra. Still involved in Juilliard’s activities and performances, Ms. Augustyn will participate in the upcoming residency of Baroque music specialists William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

Ms. Augustyn has won international awards, including 2nd prize at the Kosciuszko Foundation Wieniawski Violin Competition (New York City), the Special Audience Award at the Johannes Brahms International Competition (Austria), and the Special Prize for Virtuosity and 4th prize at the Kloster Schoental International Competition (Germany). Ms. Augustyn plays on instruments from Gregory Singer Fine Violins lent to her by Mr. Singer.

Nicolo Paganini 24 Caprices Op.1
Recorded and produced by LUNA Music
2004

Harpsichordist Alexandra Snyder Dunbar holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy. She is currently a full scholarship student in the C.V. Starr Fellows Program as a Doctoral Candidate at Juilliard in the harpsichord studio of Lionel Party. Mrs. Dunbar is also currently Teaching Assistant and Theory Teaching Fellow at Juilliard. In addition to teaching, Mrs. Dunbar is also an avid outreach performer, playing with her Baroque Ensemble Les Claires in New York area hospitals as a part of Juilliard's Gluck Community Service Fellowship program. Mrs. Dunbar has collaborated on performance projects with The New Juilliard Ensemble, The Juilliard Electric Ensemble, The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, The Dryden Ensemble, and The New York Philharmonic among others. Other performances have included such venues as Alice Tully Hall, The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Zankel and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum, and venues in Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic.

Pianist Kevin Kwan Loucks has performed at the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, La Maison Française Embassy of France in Washington D.C., and on NPR’s Performance Today, live from Aspen’s Harris Concert Hall. He was featured in recital at Prösels Castle in Italy, and as soloist performing concertos of Liszt and Tchaikovsky with the U.C. Irvine Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven with the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra in Austria. Recent New York appearances include Juilliard’s Evening of Chamber Music and Wednesdays at One in Alice Tully Hall, and Bargemusic in Brooklyn. Also active as a chamber musician, he has been featured at the Moulin d’Andé in Normandy, The American Church in Paris, in Prague’s Lichtenstein Palace with principle members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and with Edgar Meyer at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival in California. He has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and the Piano Masterclasses at The Banff Centre, where in the summer of 2008 he will be participating in the Collaborative Piano Internship program. A recent graduate of The Juilliard School, he earned his Master of Music degree as a student of Julian Martin. He received his Bachelor of Music degree studying with Nina Scolnik at the University of California, Irvine, and is currently a candidate for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at SUNY Stony Brook where he is working with Christina Dahl.