Online solo strings intensive (osSI)
Winter Intensive with World-Renowned Teachers
Two private lessons with your assigned faculty member
Three mock auditions
Panel discussions with conservatory teachers
Sessions with admissions counselors
Written feedback from at least 6 teachers
Encouraging community
Don’t let winter break just pass you by.
Get ahead of the game by studying with some of the greatest teachers around.
It goes without saying that this year has been weird. Difficult. Unprecedented.
And maybe for you, uninspired.
It’s hard to stay inspired when you can’t be with others or when your contact with others is very limited.
It’s hard when you have an extra long break and then a whole semester straight without breaks.
It’s hard to have the same old routine every day, feeling stressed and depressed, with nothing to excite you.
And I get it. I’ve been there for most of this year.
So let’s spice up winter break.
Let’s get back that inspiration and the joy of music.
Let’s meet new teachers, get new perspectives, new friends.
At OSSI this winter, you’ll get to meet up to 8 teachers for your instrument, get their honest perspective on what they look for in students, and get written feedback on your playing.
You’ll have 2 private lessons with your assigned faculty member, daily masterclasses, daily seminars, and social events & meals to get you geared up for the spring semester with lots of inspiration!
The OSSI community is like no other; past participants have told me how connected they felt to peers and even continued doing daily zooms after the festival was over (they still do them!).
Join us for a fruitful week of learning and preparation.
Guest artists will be hosting mock auditions, give masterclasses, and sit on a discussion panel. See schedule for more details.
Applications open October 15, 2020, and close December 15, 2020.
Mock Auditions
Every student will have the opportunity to play 3 mock auditions: 2 for faculty, and 1 in a studio-class-style “audition”. This is optional and you can opt out, but don’t discount its ability to push your preparation to the next level.
More Info
You’ll take up to 3 mock auditions and they will simulate a real audition. You’ll play for a panel or peers, and receive written comments back. Violinists will play for at least 8 faculty members, violists and cellists will play for at least 6 faculty members.
Incredible Faculty
Our faculty comes from almost every major conservatory in the US. If you are wanting to get in front of any faculty member, they’ll hear you in an audition. Your assigned faculty member will get to dive deep in your two lessons.
More Info
Along with our 12 faculty members, there will be 12 guest artists and 6 seminar speakers. Full list of all faculty, guests, and speakers are available below.
Extra Seminars
Ever wondered what teachers look for? How admissions looks through your file? What to do to alleviate nerves? We’ll have at least one session per day on important topics with knowledgable people. Feel confident to tackle those unknowns.
More Info
Learning about how to approach auditions (for the future) and what teachers & schools look for is almost as important as the lessons themselves! We’ll be having a daily session on topics from performance anxiety to essay writing to faculty perspectives and practice techniques.
The details
Each day will have its own focus: mock auditions, lessons, peer discussions, or faculty discussions. Each day will also include a morning session to get you thinking before your practice time. The end of the day will close with a special masterclass with one of our guest artists. Participants will be selected by faculty to play and anyone can watch.
These sessions will include Scheduling Your Practice, Performance Anxiety, Recording Tips & Tricks, and more to ensure you are ready to go for that live audition.
We’ll also have daily masterclasses with our guest artists – you are welcome to attend any of them, and students will be selected to play based on faculty recommendation and audition materials.
We’re bringing in so many teachers from schools across the country, and you’ll definitely walk away with a ton of feedback and inspiration for the upcoming semester.
Practice time will not be mandated, but as the semester fast approaches, you probably won’t need the forced time. However, we will be hosting practice Zooms for anyone that does want to stay on track with their practicing.
Additionally, we do NOT want this program to be competitive, catty, judgmental, or unsupportive. We’ll be doing peer mock auditions as a way for you to get over your fear of performing for others and receive constructive criticism. Faculty will be supervising and proctoring the audition.
Finally, we want you to get to know each other. When the pandemic is finally over, I can almost guarantee you will meet some OSSI students at other festivals. Meet people and develop those connections now! It really is possible over Zoom. We’ll be hosting a few evening events for fun as well as a lunchtime meal where we can all play games, take a break from practicing, and enjoy a festival experience.
Why attend ossi?
Get intensive and personal attention from faculty
Hear directly from recording engineers & admissions counselors
Be inspired for the upcoming semester
Get in-depth work with your assigned faculty member
Use your winter break wisely
Receive written feedback from teachers at major conservatories & universities
Develop a plan for the next few weeks
Meet and get to know your peers during mealtimes
Learn about recording techniques, performance anxiety, and more
Get direct feedback from top teachers and
walk into the semester excited like never before!
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Violin

Ani Kavafian, Yale University
Full Biography
Violinist Ani Kavafian enjoys a prolific career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras in major venues across the country, has premiered and recorded a number of works written for her, and has been featured on many network and PBS television music specials. Kavafian is a member of the Trio da Salo and the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio and tours internationally as an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She also appears frequently in performance with her sister, violinist and violist Ida Kavafian.

Soovin Kim, New England Conservatory
Full Biography

Connie Heard, Vanderbilt University
Full Biography
Cornelia Heard currently holds the Valere Blair Potter Chair at Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, where she is professor of violin and chair of the string department. She has served on the artist faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2005 and is co-director of the chamber music program. As a member of the Blair String Quartet, she has toured extensively throughout the United States, presented complete Beethoven and Bartok cycles and recorded for the Naxos, Innova, Warner Reprise, New World, Blue Griffin and Pantheon labels. She has recently participated in festivals in Portillo and Santiago, Chile, Guangzhou, China and Loja, Ecuador. Ms. Heard has performed on concert series at the Library of Congress and at New York’s 92nd Street Y, as well as at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. She served on the faculty of the Sewanee Music Festival from 1985 to 1999 and the Killington Festival from 2002-2004. Other summer festival appearances have included Chamber Music Northwest, Colorado, Highlands-Cashiers, Kapalua, Maverick, Music Mountain, Roycroft, Sedona and Skaneateles Festivals, as well as performances in Italy, Ecuador and Iceland.

Paul Kantor, Rice University
Full Biography
Paul Kantor is currently the Sally Shepherd Perkins Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University having previously served as the Eleanor H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard studying violin with Dorothy DeLay and chamber music with Robert Mann. For thirteen years he served as Chair of the String Department at the University of Michigan and has taught at the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, and Yale University. He continues as Artist in Residence at the Glenn Gould School of Music/ Royal Conservatory of Music since his appointment in 2008. Along with his son, violinist Timothy Kantor, he founded and directs the Gabriel Del Orbe Violin Program in the Dominican Republic.

Mark Kaplan, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Full Biography
One of the leading violinists of his generation, Mark Kaplan’s consummate artistry has resulted in solo engagements with nearly every major North American orchestra, and with many of the world’s foremost conductors, among them Ormandy, Tennstedt, Maazel, Dutoit, Rattle, Zinman, Masur, etc.
Kaplan has also maintained a flourishing international career for over four decades, with highly acclaimed concerto and recital appearances in all the musical centers of Europe – London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Milan – as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Also devoted to chamber music. Mr. Kaplan appears with pianist Yael Weiss and cellist Peter Stumpf as the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio, with recordings and concerts world-wide.
Mr. Kaplan has a wide range of repertoire available on CD. His second recording of Bach’s solo violin works was issued in 2016 by Bridge Records, and due for release this season is a Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio set of Beethoven’s complete Trios. Other recordings include concerti of Berg Stravinsky, Lalo, Bartók, Paganini, Wieniawski and Viotti, Sonatas of Schumann and Schubert, Spanish Dances of Sarasate, trios of Brahms, Debussy, Dvorak, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Smetana and Tchaikowsky.
Since 2005, Mark Kaplan has been Professor of Violin at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and prior to that he served as Professor with Distinction at UCLA. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Dorothy DeLay. Kaplan plays a violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1685, known as the Marquis.

Laura Bossert, Director of LyricaFest
Full Biography
Laura Bossert-King, violinist/violist, a Silver Medalist in the Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition, has earned recognition for her artistry as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. She is one of the most respected and sought-after teachers of her generation.

Judith Ingolfsson, Peabody Institute
Full Biography
Violinist Judith Ingolfsson is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, uncompromising musical maturity, and charismatic performance style. Now based in Berlin and enjoying a global career, she performs regularly as soloist, chamber musician and in recital as the Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel, founded in 2006. The New York Times has characterized her playing as producing “both fireworks and a singing tone” and Strings Magazine described her tone as “gorgeous, intense, and variable, flawlessly pure and beautiful in every register.”
Judith Ingolfsson made her first appearances on the international music scene as a prize winner of the celebrated Premio Paganini Competition in Genoa and the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York. Winning the Gold Medal at the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis in 1998 provided her with the final breakthrough as an internationally sought-after soloist. In 1999, National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” named her “Debut Artist of the Year” for her “remarkable intelligence, musicality, and sense of insight.” Judith Ingolfsson has concertized throughout North and South America, Asia, and Europe, performing as a soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Tokyo, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic, the Philharmonischen Staatsorchester Mainz, the Bollington Festival Orchestra (UK), and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt-Oder. She had collaborated with conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Raymond Leppard, Gilbert Varga, Jesús López-Cobos, Rico Saccani, Gerard Schwarz, and Leonard Slatkin. She was also heard as soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2000 on its highly acclaimed 15-city North American tour, highlighted by performances at Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center.
Judith Ingolfsson’s recital performances have taken her to many of the world’s leading stages including Konzerthaus Berlin, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Cleveland Museum of Art, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Reyjavík Arts Festival, Pro Arte Musicale of Puerto Rico, La Asociación Nacional de Conciertos de Panamá, Macao Cultural Center and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Center. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Avalon, Miami and Vogler String Quartets, the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, and has appeared as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two on tour and at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A welcome guest at music festivals, she has been invited to festivals in the USA, Poland, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands. In 2010 she was artist-in-residence in Villa Esche in Chemnitz.
Judith Ingolfsson was appointed to the violin faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in 2019. She has been Professor of Violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, Germany since 2008. Previous faculty appointments include the University of Colorado at Boulder, the Cleveland Institute of Music, ENCORE School for Strings and the New York Youth Symphony. Her students have won numerous national and international competitions, won Academy positions with orchestras such as the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin and are members of some of the world’s top orchestras, including Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Beethoven Orchester Bonn and the Bamberger Symphoniker.
Viola

James Dunham, Rice University
Full Biography

Matthew Lipman, Stonybrook University
Full Biography

Ettore Causa, Yale University
Full Biography

Victoria Chiang, Peabody Conservatory
Full Biography
Victoria Chiang has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across North America, Europe, and Asia. Her most recent recording of the viola concertos of Stamitz and Hoffmeister was released by Naxos to critical acclaim. Other recordings include Pleyel Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola also on Naxos as well as a recording of Shostakovich and Roslavets Viola sonatas. She has performed as soloist with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, The National Gallery of Art Orchestra, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Romanian State Philharmonics of Constantsa and Tirgu Muresh, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Acadiana Symphony (Lafayette, LA) and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Chiang has collaborated as guest artist with Guarneri, Takacs, Tokyo, American, Arianna and Pro Arte String Quartets, and with members of the Emerson, Cleveland, and Juilliard String Quartets. She has been a regular guest artist at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, a frequent guest on the Bargemusic series, and has given solo performances in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and at the XXV, XXXVIII and XL International Viola Congresses.
Chiang is a founding member of The Aspen String Trio. The group concertizes internationally, and was Ensemble in Residence at the University of Baltimore. Currently a member of the artist/faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and the Aspen Music Festival, Chiang has given master classes throughout the world. Formerly on the faculty of The Juilliard School and the Hartt School of Music, and a former member of the board of the American Viola Society, her students hold significant positions in orchestras, in string quartets, and on conservatory faculties across the US and in Europe. Additionally, Chiang has taught at the Perlman Music Program: Winter Residency in Sarasota, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Domaine Forget, Great Wall Festival (Beijing) among others.
Chiang earned the Master of Music degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and the Bachelor of Music degree from the Cincinnati College‐Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Heidi Castleman and Masao Kawasaki, viola; and Dorothy DeLay and Kurt Sassmannshaus, violin.
Cello

Paul Katz, New England Conservatory
Full Biography
Violinist Ani Kavafian enjoys a prolific career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras in major venues across the country, has premiered and recorded a number of works written for her, and has been featured on many network and PBS television music specials. Kavafian is a member of the Trio da Salo and the Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio and tours internationally as an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She also appears frequently in performance with her sister, violinist and violist Ida Kavafian.

Clive Greensmith, Colburn Conservatory
Full Biography
From 1999 until its final season in 2013, Clive Greensmith was a member of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet, giving over one hundred performances each year in the most prestigious international venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, London’s South Bank, Paris Chatelet, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has collaborated with international artists such as Andras Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alicia de Larrocha, and Emanuel Ax.
Mr. Greensmith has given guest performances at prominent festivals worldwide. In North America he has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, [email protected], La Jolla SummerFest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Cleveland Chamber Fest, and the Ravinia Festival. He is a regular guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and will undertake a national tour with Paul Huang, Wu Han, and Matthew Lipman in 2020. Internationally he has appeared at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Pacific Music Festival in Japan and the Hong Kong Arts Festival. As a soloist, Clive Greensmith has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome among others.
During a career spanning over twenty-five years, Mr. Greensmith has built up a catalog of landmark recordings, most notably The Complete Beethoven String Quartets for Harmonia Mundi with the Tokyo String Quartet, Mozart’s ‘Prussian’ Quartets with the Tokyo String Quartet, Brahms Cello Sonatas with Boris Berman for Biddulph Recordings, and Clarinet Trios of Beethoven and Brahms with Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse for Harmonia Mundi. Toccata Classics will release a live recording of his world premiere performance of the Pál Hermann Cello Concerto with Theodore Kuchar and the Lviv International Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2019.
Mr. Greensmith studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in England with American cellist, Donald McCall, where he was the recipient of the prestigious Julius Isserlis Scholarship. He continued his studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule in Germany with Russian cellist Boris Pergamenschikow.
In 1987, he made his concerto debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and went on to be first prize winner in the Sergio Lorenzi chamber music competition in Trieste, Italy, and first prize winner in the Caltanissetta Duo competition. Most notably, he was a major prizewinner in the first ever “Premio Stradivari” held in Cremona, Italy in 1991.
Deeply committed to the mentoring and development of young musicians, Clive has enjoyed a long and distinguished teaching career. In addition to his fifteen-year residency with the Tokyo String Quartet at Yale University, Mr. Greensmith has served as a faculty member at the Yehudi Menuhin School and Royal Northern College of Music in England, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. In 2013, following the final concerts of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Greensmith joined the faculty at the Colburn School where he teaches cello and coaches chamber music for the Conservatory of Music and the Music Academy. Students of Mr. Greensmith have gone on to secure major positions in orchestras throughout the world and have won a number of prestigious awards. In July 2019, he will succeed Günther Pichler as director of string chamber music at the Accademia Chigiana International Festival and Summer Academy in Siena.
Formerly the principal cellist of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Greensmith is a founding member of the Montrose Trio with pianist Jon Kimura Parker, and violinist Martin Beaver.

Natasha Brofsky, The Juilliard School
Full Biography
Natasha Brofsky is cellist of the Naumburg Award-winning Peabody Trio, which has performed on leading chamber music series throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.. The trio has been heard on numerous radio broadcasts, and has recorded on the New World, CRI, and Artek labels. She has performed as a guest artist with numerous ensembles, including the Takacs, Prazak, Cassatt, Norwegian, Jupiter, Ying, and Borromeo quartets. Brofsky has held principal positions in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under Iona Brown. She was also a member of the Serapion Ensemble, performing with the group in Germany and Austria, and the string trio Opus 3, which performed throughout Norway for Rikskonsertene, the Norwegian State Concert Agency. She recorded Olav Anton Thommessen’s Concerto for Cello and Winds for Aurora Records and was a regular participant at Open Chamber Music in Prussia Cove, England. She has given master classes at many schools, including San Francisco Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, and Boston University. She has taught at Barratt-Due’s Institute in Oslo and at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the Heifetz Institute. She has been on the faculty at the Yellow Barn Festival (Vermont) since 2001; New England Conservatory since 2004, and has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 2012 and of the school’s Pre-college faculty since 2016. She holds a BM and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School and a MM from Mannes College the New School for Music. Brofsky studied with Marion Feldman, Robert Sylvester, Paul Katz, and Timothy Eddy, and on a Fulbright grant with William Pleeth in London, where she was awarded the Muriel Taylor Cello Prize.
Guest Artists

Carol Rodland, The Juilliard School (viola)
Full Biography
Carol Rodland enjoys a distinguished international career as a concert and recording artist and teacher. First prizewinner of the Washington International Competition and winner of the Artists International Auditions and the Universal Editions Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, she made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager. Critics describe her playing as “larger than life, sweetly in tune, infinitely variegated” and “delicious” (Fanfare) and her recordings on the Crystal and Neuma Record Labels have been critically acclaimed. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, she has commissioned, premiered and recorded works of Kenji Bunch, Dan Coleman, Adolphus Hailstork, David Liptak, Christopher Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas.
A dedicated teacher, Ms. Rodland is Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Juilliard School. She is also an artist-faculty member at the Perlman Music Program, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Karen Tuttle Coordination Workshop. Previous positions have included professorships at the Eastman School of Music, where she was also Co-Chair of the String Department, at New England Conservatory, where she was recognized with the “Krasner Award for Excellence in Teaching”, at the Musikhochschule “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, and at Arizona State University.
In 2009, Ms. Rodland founded “If Music Be the Food…”, a fully volunteer benefit concert series whose mission is to increase awareness and support for the hungry in the local community through the sharing of great music. “If Music Be the Food…” has inspired musicians across the country to implement initiatives based on this concept in their own communities.
Ms. Rodland studied on full scholarship with Karen Tuttle at the Juilliard School and as a Fulbright Scholar with Kim Kashkashian at the Musikhochschule Freiburg. She had the unique privilege of serving as teaching assistant to both of her mentors.
For further information please visit www.carolrodland.com and www.ifmusicbethefood.com

Eric Kim, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (cello)
Full Biography
Cellist Eric Kim has a diverse career performing throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and the Middle and Far East as a recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra.
He joined the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as professor of cello at the beginning the 2009-10 academic year.
He served as principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony from 1989 to 2009 and has also held principal cello positions with the San Diego and Denver symphonies.
Having made his solo debut at age 15 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kim was a featured soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra on its critically acclaimed tour of the Far East and has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Cincinnati, Denver, and San Diego.
He has collaborated as soloist with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Sergiu Comissiona, Lawrence Foster, Alan Gilbert, Paavo Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in recital in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Active as a chamber musician, he has performed with such artists as Emmanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, Susan Graham, Lynn Harrell, Stephen Hough, Jaime Laredo, Menahem Pressler, and Gil Shaham, as well as collaborating with members of the Emerson, Guarneri, and Orion string quartets.
At the invitation of violinist Pinchas Zukerman, he performed with Zukerman at the festivals of Athens (Greece), Mostly Mozart (N.Y.), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), and Verbier (Switzerland).
He has participated in several tours with Zukerman to South America and Israel as a member of the Pinchas Zukerman and Friends chamber ensemble. Highlights include chamber music debuts at Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, performing both Brahms Sextets with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, and Michael Tree, among others.
Kim can regularly be heard at the festivals of Angel Fire (New Mexico), Aspen, La Jolla, Orcas Island (Wash.), Sangat (India), Santa Fe, and Savannah. He has made several recordings for the RCA, EMI, Telarc, and Koch labels.
As a teacher, he has students in major orchestras throughout the world. He is a regular teacher and performer at the Aspen Music Festival and School as well as the Music Masters Course Japan program held in Yokohama and Tokyo.
Born of Korean parents in New York City, Kim grew up in Illinois, where he began piano studies with his mother at age five. At age 10, he began cello studies with Tanya L. Carey.
He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Leonard Rose, Lynn Harrell, and Channing Robbins. Upon graduation, Kim received the first William Schuman Prize, awarded for outstanding leadership and achievement in music.

Jeffrey Irvine, Cleveland Institute of Music (viola)
Full Biography
Jeffrey Irvine is Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Viola and Co-head of the Viola Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was previously Professor of Viola at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1983 to 1999 and was also chair of Oberlin’s string division from 1992 to 1999.
His students have gone on to major orchestral, teaching and chamber music posts across the country and around the world (for further information, please go to jeffreyirvine.com). His students have often been first-prize winners in major viola competitions, including the Primrose Competition, the ASTA National Solo Competition and the Washington International Competition.
Irvine is also active as a teacher and performer at summer festivals. In 2018 he returned to the Aspen Music Festival where he had previously taught from 1981 to 1991 and from 2000 to 2011. He is also on the Artist Faculty of the Interlochen Viola Workshop and taught at the Bowdoin International Music Festival from 2015 through 2018. From 2012 to 2014 he was on the Artist Faculty of the Perlman Music Program. He was on the faculty of the ENCORE School for Strings from 1999 until 2007. He has also taught at the Heifetz International Music Festival, the Castleman Quartet Program, the Meadowmount School of Music, the Killington Music Festival, the Park City Chamber Music Festival, and Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts.
His teachers have included Heidi Castleman, Charles Castleman, David Cerone, Dorothy DeLay, Martha Katz, William Primrose, Margaret Randall, Karen Tuttle and Donald Weilerstein.
He is married to violist Lynne Ramsey with whom he has two children, Hannah and Christopher. He plays a viola by Hiroshi Iizuka, made in 1993. He is also an avid runner.

Alan Stepansky, Peabody Conservatory (cello)
Full Biography
Alan Stepansky is recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile cellists of his generation. After a distinguished orchestral career playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, serving as Principal Cellist of the Boston Pops, and culminating in a ten-year tenure as Associate Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic, he is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, principal cellist, and recording artist. He is currently Professor of Cello and Chair of the Strings Department at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. A guest at many summer festivals, he is cello faculty artist of the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.
He has performed as a guest artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has appeared in concert with a diverse array of artists including the Takacs and American String Quartets. He recently formed a piano trio with violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel – Trio SINGS – which has concertized internationally. He has recorded a series of chamber music and solo discs for EMI, which were honored by Gramophone Magazine, BBC Magazine, the New York Times, and the British Music Industry Association, and has been engaged as the solo cellist for well over 50 major motion picture and television soundtracks. He has also appeared on the albums of many noted recording artists across many genres, including Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Merchant, David Byrne, Audra McDonald, Joss Stone, Lou Reed, David Bowie, and Sting, with whom he has also appeared in concert. He was recently featured as principal and solo cellist in the Bruce Springsteen concert film Western Stars.
Recently, he served as the Principal Cellist for five major fund-raising events held in Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia, Requiem for Darfur, Mahler for the Children of AIDS, Beethoven for the Indus Valley, and Shostakovich for the Children of Syria, which featured an international orchestra drawn from leading symphonic, chamber music, and solo artists from around the world. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Pops, and appeared frequently as Guest Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. After studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated with a degree from Harvard University with the Horblit Prize, conferred for his outstanding musical accomplishments. Alan Stepansky’s students have won solo and section positions in numerous orchestras around the world, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic among others, and have successful careers as soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers.

Ayano Ninomiya, New England Conservatory (violin)
Full Biography
Winner of numerous prizes including the Walter Naumburg International Competition, Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, Young Performers Career Advancement, and Lili Boulanger awards, Ayano has performed with orchestras across the U.S., Switzerland, Bulgaria, and most recently in Carnegie Hall. Praised for her “deeply communicative and engrossing” (The New York Times) performances, she has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Moab, Bowdoin, Kingston, Adams (New Zealand), Canberra International (Australia), and Prussia Cove (England) festivals. She has been featured on Musicians from Marlboro tours in the U.S. and France, and gave a TEDx talk in 2012 at the University of Tokyo. She was first violinist of the Ying Quartet and was Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music until 2015 when she joined the violin faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. As a recipient of the Beebe Fellowship, Ayano studied in Budapest, Hungary, at the Liszt Academy after graduating from Harvard University and The Juilliard School. In her spare time, she loves to paint and practice Aikido.

Terry King, Director of LyricaFest
Full Biography
Seminar Speakers

Renee-Paule Gauthier on Practice Planning One Month Out
Full Biography
Renée-Paule Gauthier is a passionate performer and teacher whose career has taken her across the United States and Canada as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, and clinician. Dr. Gauthier joins the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra for the 18-19 season, and she performs with some of Chicago’s finest ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Elgin Symphony, and Chicago Philharmonic. She is the String Area Coordinator, Co-director of the Chamber Music Program, and Violin Instructor at North Park University.

Dr. Don Greene on Performance Anxiety and Peak Performance
Full Biography
Dr. Don Greene, a peak performance psychologist, has taught his comprehensive approach to peak performance mastery at The Juilliard School, Colburn School, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Opera Young Artists Program, Vail Ski School, Perlman Music Program, and US Olympic Training Center. During his thirty-two year career, he has coached more than 1,000 performers to win professional auditions and has guided countless solo performers to successful careers. Some of the performing artists with whom Dr. Greene has worked have won jobs with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Montreal Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem, to name just a few. Of the Olympic track and field athletes he worked with up until and through the 2016 Games in Rio, 14 won medals, including 5 gold. Dr. Greene has authored eight books including Audition Success, Fight Your Fear & Win, and Performance Success. In 2017, Dr. Greene was named a TED Educator and collaborated with musician Dr. Annie Bosler to produce the TED-Ed How to practice effectively…for just about anything. The video went viral receiving over 31 million views across Facebook and YouTube.

Nathan Cole on Home Recording: Equipment & Mindsets
Full Biography
Nathan Cole, First Associate Concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is at the forefront of online music education. He has worked with thousands of violinists of all levels, through his website natesviolin.com.
Nathan has appeared as guest concertmaster with the orchestras of Cincinnati, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. He was previously a member of the Chicago Symphony and Principal Second Violin of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. A native of Lexington, KY, he made his debut with the Louisville Orchestra at the age of ten while studying with Donna Wiehe. After eight years working with Daniel Mason, Nathan enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music. In addition to his studies there with Pamela Frank, Felix Galimir, Ida Kavafian, and Jaime Laredo, Cole formed the Grancino String Quartet, debuting in New York’s Weill Hall. Several summers at Marlboro enriched his love of chamber music.
Nathan is currently on the faculty of the Colburn Conservatory. His articles and photographs have appeared in numerous online publications, and in Strings, Symphony, and Chamber Music magazines.
Week Schedule
Monday, January 4
Orientation
Technology/microphone checks
Faculty panel on “What Teachers Look For”
Cello & Violin Masterclass
Tuesday, January 5
Mock Audition Day
Violinists: 4 teacher panel
Violists/Cellists: 3 teacher panel each
Morning session on Recording Tips
Viola Masterclass
Wednesday, January 6
Morning session on Performance Anxiety with Dr. Don Greene
First Lesson
Practice Zooms & Help
Cello Masterclass
Thursday, January 7
Faculty Panel on “Preparing for Your Audition”
Peer mock auditions with faculty oversight
Watch and give constructive criticism to other participants and be able to play for up to 48 fellow peers
Peer Roundtable Discussion on Preparing for Auditions
Violin Masterclass
Friday, January 8
Morning session on Standing Out in Your Application with admissions counselor
Second Lesson
Practice Zooms & Help
Viola Masterclass
Saturday, January 9
Morning session on Approaching Your Repertoire with One Month Left with Dr. Renee-Paule Gauthier
Mock Auditions
4 teacher panel for violinists
3 teacher panel for violists and cellists
Cello Masterclass
Sunday, January 10
Wrap-Up Debrief/Goodbye Party
Q&A with guests
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the program?
OSSI will be 6.5 days long; the program begins on Monday, January 4, and will conclude with a debrief/goodbye party on Sunday, January 10. You will receive 2 full hour-long lessons with your assigned faculty member, 3 mock auditions, 7 masterclasses to either watch or participate in, and 6 seminars.
You should expect to be practicing intensively during the program, although there are no formal practice sessions. Expect to commit at least 2.5 hours per day to the program, in addition to your practice time.
What is the tuition cost?
Total tuition is $825 and includes any masterclass(es) you may be selected to play in.
Is there scholarship available?
At the moment, there is extremely limited scholarship available. We are working on grants and donors and if scholarship becomes available, you will be notified with or after your acceptance.
You may indicate on your application your need; a written letter is the most important part of a scholarship appeal.
What are the age/level requirements?
You should be between 15-28 years of age, playing at an advanced high school or college level. If you are above or below the age suggestion, you are welcome to apply, if you feel you fit the program.
Do I have to be in the US to participate?
Absolutely not! We would love for international students to participate. You will have to be available for lessons, auditions, and sessions, but we will do our best to schedule around your time zone. All sessions will take place in the morning for anyone in Asia, and will also be recorded for future viewing.
What time zone are the events in?
All events will be stated in EST (New York time) and will occur from 10am-around 7 or 8pm. Sessions will happen in the morning and auditions/lessons will happen all day.
How are faculty assigned?
You will indicate your top 3 choices on your application and will find out which studio you have been accepted into with your acceptance email.
What are the application requirements?
You will need to submit two videos of up to 15 minutes total.
Recordings should not be more than one year old and should contain standard repertoire, such as a movement of Bach and a movement of a concerto. No formal repertoire is required.
If you are auditioning this year, we suggest sending your prescreening materials in, as faculty will be reviewing your application.
Is there an application fee?
Yes. You may submit an application to OSSI only, or IPSI and OSSI before November 10 for $40.
The application period to OSSI will continue until December 15 for the same price of $40.
Will you have a wait list?
Yes, we will hold a small wait list, in the chance someone withdraws or chooses not to accept their spot. Accepted applicants will have one week to accept or decline their spot and wait listed applicants will likely have a final decision at the end of that week period.
When are decisions released?
Applications for OSSI close December 15, and you will hear back by December 25.
Can I take lessons with other faculty members?
You may not take any lessons with other faculty members through official OSSI programming. However, you may contact faculty members and request a lesson time. Decisions on fees and available hours are up to their discretion.
How many spots are there in the program?
Each teacher will have a maximum of 8 students in their studio. There will be a total of 48 violin spots, 24 viola spots, and 24 cello spots.
What technology do I need to participate?
You will need a laptop/computer with a webcam, high speed internet, ethernet cable, quality speakers/headphones (either built-in to your computer or external), and a quality microphone. Everything is required, unless your internet speed reaches over 75 mbps download and 10mbps upload, in which case, your WiFi speed will suffice (not ethernet cable required).
If you are in need of a microphone and would like to rent one through OSSI, please contact Alyssa after your acceptance.
Start your application Today. space is limited.
Applications open October 10 and close December 15.