It’s a String Thing

Cellist and Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner Christine Lamprea is an artist known for her emotionally committed and intense performances. Hailed a “firebrand” (IncidentLight.com) and noted for her “supreme panache” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), she made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in 2013, and has since returned to Carnegie, the Kennedy Center, as well as performed with orchestras such Costa Rica National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony of Michoacan, New Jersey Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi across the U.S. As a recitalist, Ms. Lamprea has appeared on prestigious series at Illinois’ Krannert Center for the  Performing Arts, Florida’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Pepperdine University, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. In demand as a chamber musician, she performs regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and has performed with such musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, and Carol Wincenc. In recent years, she commissioned cadenzas for the Haydn D Major Concerto by Jessie Montgomery, and premiered Jeffrey Mumford’s cello concerto “of fields unfolding…echoing depths of resonant light” with the San Antonio Symphony. She is a winner of the Astral Artists National Auditions, Carlos Prieto International Cello Competition, and the Sphinx Competition.

​Ms. Lamprea is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College and the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University. Ms. Lamprea has given masterclasses at the University of Michigan, Florida State University, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, among others. She has worked with Ecuadorian youth in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, as part of a residency between The Juilliard School and “Sinfonia Por La Vida,” a social inclusion program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema program. Christine Lamprea is the recipient of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which supported her studies at the New England Conservatory, and a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, which supported her study with acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz. She studied with Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School and holds a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. Additional influences were Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, and Philippe Muller. Previous teachers include Ken Freudigman and Ken Ishii.

Steinway Artist Yaron Kohlberg, born in Jerusalem, is the President of Piano Cleveland, presenter of the Cleveland International Piano Competition in which he won the silver medal in 2007. He is one of today’s top Israeli pianists and has played as soloist and chamber musician in major halls in 40 countries spanning five continents, including Carnegie Hall, the Kremlin in Moscow, the UN hall in Geneva, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Forbidden City in Beijing, Residenz in Munich, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv and Bellas Artes in Mexico City. He won ten international prizes and serves regularly on juries of international competitions worldwide. He speaks six languages, including Mandarin Chinese. Yaron is part of the highly successful Israeli-Palestinian piano duo, Duo Amal, which performs worldwide with a message of peace and friendship. Alongside the Piano Cleveland team, Kohlberg creates original programming to attract audiences to piano music. His articles about the subject were published in Pianist Magazine, Musical America, International Piano Magazine, and more.