DEBORAH BUCK, Violin
Deborah Buck has built a rich and varied musical career as a chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist, professor, and artistic leader. Ms. Buck made her Lincoln Center concerto debut in 1997 with the Little Orchestra Society. For seventeen years, Ms. Buck was a member of the Lark Quartet where she concertized, commissioned, and recorded works by many of America’s most celebrated composers. As an active recitalist, in 2020, Ms. Buck received two commissions: one for solo violin by John Harbison entitled DeBut, and another for violin and piano entitled Fantasia on Beethoven’s Spring Sonata by Bruce Adolphe. Ms. Buck recently recorded the Suite for Solo Violin by John Harbison. Most recent performances have been with pianist Orli Shaham for the Kauffman Music Center’s Musical Storefront series (NYC) and at Off the Hook Arts and Telluride MusicFest in CO. In 2022, Ms. Buck was appointed as Concertmaster of Orchestra Lumos (formerly, Stamford Symphony). She was the tenured Concertmaster of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 2008-2013. Ms. Buck is Assistant Professor of Violin and Head of Strings and Chamber Music at SUNY Purchase. She is also Co-Executive Director and curator of the Faculty Concerts series at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont. She is a graduate of both the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California where she studied with Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, and Robert Lipsett.
Daniel Khalikov commands the world stages as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral
musician. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he is the third generation of a highly respected
family of musicians. Since 2008, Khalikov has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera
Orchestra. At Lincoln Center, and with the Met on tour, he has collaborated with such
illustrious conductors as Levine, Muti, Rattle, Gergiev, Barenboim, Luisi, and Gatti in
productions ranging from Adams to Verdi. As a member of the Orchestra, Khalikov is in
part a recipient of the numerous Grammy Award recordings won by the Orchestra. As a
chamber musician, Daniel Khalikov has performed alongside Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim
Bronfman, and Emanuel Ax, at music festivals of Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Verbier, Norfolk,
Music Mountain, the Perlman Music Program, the MET Chamber Players, and Lake Tahoe
Summerfest. Mr. Khalikov plays a 1804 Françoise Pique violin.
LAURA LUTSKE, Violin
Born and raised in New York, violinist Laura Lutzke earned her undergraduate and
graduate degrees from The Juilliard School and a Master of Music with Distinction from
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She is an avid chamber musician and was named one of the “Rising Stars” at the Caramoor International Music Festival,
collaborating with artists such as Atar Arad, Pamela Frank, and Arnold Steinhardt. She
has taught and performed at the Bowdoin International Music Festival alongside
musicians such as Frank Huang, Mikhail Kopelman, Kurt Muroki, and Paul Neubauer.
Since 2006 she has participated in festivals throughout the US, Europe, the UK, and Asia,
including Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England. She has
collaborated regularly with diverse artists and ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound,
Björk, Gabriel Kahane, Johann Johannsson, The Knights, Max Richter, Orchestra of St.
Luke’s, Paul McCartney, The National, Stars of the Lid, Roomful of Teeth, Wordless Music
Orchestra, and Yann Tiersen. She is currently a member of the critically-acclaimed
American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and Co-Leader of Le Cercle de
L’Harmonie classical orchestra in France.
WILLIAM HAKIM, Viola
William Hakim has performed throughout the United States and abroad to venues in
England, Germany, France, Finland, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Japan, and New
Zealand. Praised for his "warmth of tone and musicality" (Leipziger Volkszeitung), he is a
member of the award-winning String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC), the New York
Symphonic Ensemble, and performs with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Sonos
Chamber Orchestra, Ossia Symphony, the Orion Music Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble,
and the Mahavishnu Project among others. Mr. Hakim has recorded for Albany Records,
Decca, and Nonesuch, and has appeared on WNYC’s ‘Soundcheck’ and on the Late Show
with David Letterman. Recently he has performed with and recorded for artists such as
Renee Fleming, Chris Botti, Gene Bertoncini, BoyzIIMen, Josh Groban, and various film
and HBO scores. As a jazz player, he has played at the Jazz Standard, Le Poisson Rouge,
the South Orange Performing Arts Center, and the Iridium. William is also the violist in
the Hyperion String Quartet, based in Saratoga, which is the Flonzaley Quartet in
Residence at the Sembrich Musem in Lake George. Mr. Hakim has served on the faculty
at Brevard Music Center and Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Festival and is
currently on the faculty at Seton Hall University and Saint Rose College. He studied with
John Graham at the Eastman School of Music, where he played in the Rochester
Philharmonic, and studied linguistics at the University of Rochester. He attained his
Masters's from the Juilliard School studying with Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard String
Quartet and is currently a doctoral candidate at the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York where he studies with Paul Neubauer and is exploring aspects of
music cognition.
WENDY SUTTER, Cello
Celebrated for the passion and power of her performance, Wendy Sutter has been quoted
as “one of the great leading cellists of the classical stage” by the Wall Street Journal and
widely acclaimed as one of the leading cellists of her generation. “Sutter throws herself
into the music with something like ferocity,” wrote Greg Sandow in the Wall Street
Journal. “Sheʼs just so intense that everything feels new.” Sutter has appeared as a
soloist under the baton of such prominent conductors as Jaap Van Zweden, Tan Dun,
Mikhail Jurowski, Michel Tabachnik, and Marin Alsop and has appeared as a soloist with
The Dallas Symphony, The Seattle Symphony, The Hong Kong Philharmonic, The
Shanghai Symphony, The Brussels Philharmonic, The Residentie Orchestra of The
Hague, to name a few. She has worked in close collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov
and Jerome Robbins (on A Suite of Dances), Tan Dun (on both his cello concertos), David
Diamond (on Kaddish), and Philip Glass, who wrote several works exclusively for her,
including Songs and Poems for Solo Cello, which has sold 65,000 copies on CD and was
voted best CD of the year by listeners of NPR (2008) and was the second highest selling
CD on I-tunes classical division (2008). Equally virtuosic on the contemporary and the
classical stage, Sutter has toured five continents as a solo recitalist and also as the
cellist within the new music ensemble Bang on a Can “all-stars”. Most recently, she
performed live All Six Bach Cello Suites in one day to an online audience of nearly 10,000
and was declared the ‘musical event’ of the week by The New York Times, gave a
critically acclaimed premiere of Philip Glass’s songs, and poems number 2 ( also written
for her) and has performed the Benjamin Britten complete cycle of cello suites in New
York City, Seattle, and Italy.
JEREMY MCCOY, Double Bass
Jeremy McCoy joined the Manhattan School of Music faculty in 2009. He is the former
Assistant Principal double bass of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. After thirty-five
seasons with the Met, Mr. McCoy continues to enjoy a busy career as both performer and
educator. He has been presented in recital by CBC Radio, the International Society of
Bassists and at Lincoln Center, and performed as a concerto soloist at the National Arts
Centre and with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Classical Tahoe, and Atlantic Chamber
Orchestras. As a chamber musician Mr. McCoy has collaborated with many distinguished
artists during the regular concert season and at international summer festivals including
Marlboro, Banff, Mostly Mozart, Ottawa Chamberfest, Festival Napa Valley, and Affinis
Festival (Japan), Kneisel Hall, Grand Tetons, and Bowdoin. Mr. McCoy began studying
double bass in his native Ottawa, Canada. With the assistance of grants from the Canada
Council for the Arts, he continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, earning a
Bachelor of Music degree. At age twenty, Mr. McCoy won a position with Canada’s
National Arts Centre Orchestra and the following season joined the Metropolitan Opera.
RUPERT BOYD, Classical Guitar
“Remember the name Rupert Boyd. While there may never be another classical guitarist
like Segovia, this young Australian left his audience with the impression that someday
there may not be the likes of him again, either.” - The Washington Post. New York-based
Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd has been described by The Washington Post
as “truly evocative”, by Gramophone as “a very fine musician”, and by Classical Guitar
Magazine as “a player who deserves to be heard”. He has performed across four
continents, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to festivals in Europe, China, India, Nepal, the
Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia. Active as both a soloist and chamber musician,
Rupert Boyd regularly performs throughout the world as part of the Australian Guitar
Duo with guitarist Jacob Cordover, and in Boyd Meets Girl, with cellist Laura
Metcalf. Rupert Boyd has five commercially released albums. His most recent solo CD,
The Guitar (Sono Luminus), was called “a must-have album of 2019” by This Is Classical
Guitar, and received the following praise in The Weekend Australian: “Instantly one’s
ears are pricked up by Boyd’s interpretive directness and a sparkling technique.”
MINDY KAUFMAN, Flute
Mindy Kaufman, The Edward and Priscilla Pilcher Chair, joined the New York
Philharmonic as flute and solo piccolo in 1979 at the age of 22, after performing for three
seasons with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She received a bachelor of music
degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Walfrid Kujala, Bonita
Boyd, and James Galway.
Kaufman has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under former Music
Directors Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel. For one season she substituted as
principal flute with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Kaufman performs chamber music regularly with her colleagues in the New York
Philharmonic and has performed at the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, Moab
Music Festival, Hudson Valley Performing Arts Foundation’s Chamber Music Series,
Grand Teton Music Festival, Concordia Chamber Players, Brightstar Music Festival,
Benifaió Music Festival, and Colorado Music Festival. Kaufman teaches at the Shanghai
Orchestra Academy. She gives master classes around the world, and has taught at
Columbia University, Mannes Prep, and as a substitute teacher at Juilliard Pre-College.
Kaufman recorded Avner Dorman’s Piccolo Concerto with the Metropolis Ensemble,
Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto with New York Philharmonic, and a solo CD, French Flute
Music. She has performed at the National Flute Convention, Japan Flute Convention, and
the New York Flute Club. She can be heard on dozens of film soundtracks, including The
Cotton Club, The Untouchables, Aladdin, Julie & Julia, and Moonrise Kingdom.
