Described as “…truly riveting…” by MusicWeb International, the Linden String Quartet is a winner of the 2010 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. Founded in spring 2008, the Quartet has enjoyed remarkable success in three short years, also winning the Gold Medal and Grand Prize of the 2009 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Coleman-Barstow Prize at the 2009 Coleman National Chamber Ensemble Competition, First Prize at the 2010 Hugo Kauder Competition, and most recently, the ProQuartet Prize at the 9th Borciani International String Quartet Competition. Praised for its “remarkable depth of technique and brilliantly nuanced, sumptuous tonality...delivered with a palpable, infectious joy” (MusicWeb International), the Linden Quartet is currently the Graduate String-Quartet-in-Residence at Yale University, where the ensemble is mentored by the Tokyo String Quartet and was also selected recently for the prestigious 2011 A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Fellowship.
Highlights of the 2011-12 season include concerts in New York at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (produced by CAG) and at Merkin Concert Hall and two concerts at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. Across the US, the ensemble appears on the Ravinia Festival’s Rising Stars series near Chicago, the Chamber Music Societies of Detroit and Little Rock, Friends of Chamber Music of Stockton, CA, Eureka Chamber Music Series, Quick Center for the Performing Arts at St. Bonaventure (NY) and BIG ARTS in Sanibel, FL. The Quartet also collaborates with CAG First Prize-winning pianist Michael Brown in joint recitals at the University of Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and on the Purdue University Convocations series.
The Linden Quartet is the 2011-12 Ernst Steifel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, including a series of educational workshops in the school districts surrounding the Center. The Quartet previously serve as the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Quartet-in-Residence, a program established to promote the arts of Classical music and quartet playing through a series of presentations in various elementary schools in the Northeastern Ohio area.
In addition to its regular work at Yale with the Tokyo Quartet, The Linden Quartet’s mentors have included the Cavani String Quartet, Peter Salaff and Paul Kantor. The Quartet has also worked with Donald Weilerstein and William Preucil of the Cleveland Quartet, Joel Smirnoff and Robert Mann of the Juilliard String Quartet and members of the Guarneri and St. Lawrence Quartets. The Quartet has collaborated with pianist Peter Frankl, guitarist Jason Vieaux, mezzo-soprano Jana Baty, violinists Annie Fullard, Geoff Nuttall, and Peter Salaff, as well as acclaimed accordion and bandonéon player Julian Labro.
In summer 2010, the Linden String Quartet was resident ensemble at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, as well as chamber music festivals in Banff, Alberta and Stanford, California. As winners of the Fischoff Grand Prize, the Quartet toured the Midwest in fall 2009 and the 2009-10 season included appearances at the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy, a one-week concert tour throughout the state of Kentucky, and a one-week residency at the Music at Port Milford summer chamber music festival in Milford, Ontario.
Sarah McElravy
Candian violinist, Sarah McElravy received her Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), studying with Stephen Rose and Paul Kantor (Eleanor H. Biggs Memorial Distinguished Professor of Violin). A recipient of the Dorothy Richards Starling Foundation Scholarship from CIM, Sarah is a winner of numerous awards and scholarships. Sarah won CIM’s concerto competition and performed with the CIM orchestra in the fall of 2009.
Sarah is also a laureate of the 2008 International Stepping Stone Competition and she has won the Silver Medal Award from the Royal Conservatory of Music, first prize at the Ontario Provincial Finals on numerous occasions, and second prize at the Canadian Music Competition National Finals. Sarah has also performed as soloist with the Pulawy Festival Orchestra (Poland), the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra (Canada), and the Lexington Bach Festival Orchestra (USA).
Ms. McElravy has collaborated with pianists Peter Frankl and Gary Graffman, violist Roberto Diaz, guitarist Jason Vieaux, and the Tokyo String Quartet. As a member of the Linden String Quartet, she has spent summers in residence at the Norfolk and Emilia-Romagna Music Festivals, the Amelia Island Chamber Festival, the Banff Centre, and served as faculty at the Music at Port Milford Chamber Music Festival in Ontario, Canada.
Sarah currently plays on a Pietrus Guarnerius of 1682 on loan to her from Dr. Paul Morgan
Catherine Cosbey
Catherine Cosbey, a native of Regina, Saskatchewan, received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and subsequently earned a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Teachers and mentors have included Paul Kantor, Eduard Minevich, and Erika Raum. Ms. Cosbey has been a participant in the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Banff Chamber and Summer Music Sessions, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Domaine Forget Chamber Music Program, and the Centre D’Arts Orford.
Ms. Cosbey began her professional career at the age of fourteen when she joined the Regina Symphony Orchestra. Later that year, she was also accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. She continues her orchestral contribution as a member of CityMusic Cleveland and the Canton Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Cosbey has performed across Canada and Iceland, most notably with Quartetto Constanze and the Flaming Leafs. She has collaborated with such artists as Edward Arron, Kai Gleusteen, Kyung-Sun Lee, Geoff Nuttall, Erika Raum, and Barry Shiffman.
Ms. Cosbey plays on a Dalphin violin and a Voirin bow generously on loan by the Banff Centre.
Eric Wong
Originally from Lafayette, LA, Eric Wong received both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), studying violin with Paul Kantor. While at CIM, he also studied viola with Kirsten Docter and Lynne Ramsey. As a chamber musician, Mr. Wong has played in numerous ensembles around the country. He has performed in chamber music recitals sponsored by the Aspen Institute, SWR Radio (Germany), WVIZ (Cleveland’s public broadcasting station), the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and the Cleveland Chamber Music Guild. He has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, with Donald Weilerstein, Peter Salaff, and Paul Katz of the Cleveland Quartet, with Kirsten Docter and Merry Peckham of the Cavani Quartet, as well as with former Secretary of State and pianist Condoleezza Rice. Coaches and mentors include Peter Salaff and the Cavani and Miró Quartets.
Mr. Wong won first prize in the 48th Annual Lima Symphony Young Artists’ Competition, the 2007 Ohio Viola Society competition, and the 2006 Louisiana String Teachers’ Association solo competition. He was also third-prize winner of 2008 Darius Milhaud Competition and won CIM’s concerto competition with Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto in 2007. As guest solo artist, he has performed with the CIM Orchestra and the Acadiana and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestras.
Felix Umansky
Felix Umansky, hailing from Carmel, Indiana, began his cello studies at the age of seven. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in 2008 from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), having studied with Richard Aaron, and a Master of Music degree in 2009, also from CIM, as a student of Cleveland Orchestra principal Desmond Hoebig. Other teachers over the years have included Polina Umansky, Yehuda Hanani, Janos Starker, Michael Mermagen, and Eleanor Schoenfeld.
Mr. Umansky is currently a member of CityMusic Cleveland, a small chamber orchestra that performs regularly throughout Northeast Ohio. Prior to forming the Linden String Quartet, he was the cellist of the Vesuvius Quartet. With Vesuvius, Mr. Umansky performed concerts in Indiana, Ohio,Pennsylvania, New York,and Germany while receiving coachings from members of the Cavani, Cleveland, Takacs, Artemis, Tokyo,Miro, and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as the Beaux Arts Trio. The quartet was selected by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society (CCMS) to be the inaugural fellows for a new school outreach program. They worked closely with the CCMS and Annie Fullard of the Cavani String Quartet to bring music to hundreds of 3rd and 4th graders.