Maine Mountain Chamber Music

 

Cellist Käthe Jarka has performed widely as a recitalist and chamber musician. A graduate of Juilliard, where she was a student of Leonard Rose, Käthe was also a Fulbright Scholar. She has performed in 25 states, in Asia and in Europe. She has appeared with numerous ensembles, among them the Shanghai Quartet, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with such artists as the Juilliard Quartet, Gil Shaham, and Yo Yo Ma. She has performed at The Marlboro Music Festival and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In addition to a busy performing career Käthe has a large private studio and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School (MAP program) and the Mannes Preparatory Division. She is also a teacher of the Alexander Technique, presenting master classes in the technique at Juilliard, NYU, The Hartt School, Yale University, Aspen Music Festival and in Mexico and Norway.

 

Violinist Jasmine Lin has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the U.S., Singapore, Brazil, Uruguay, and Taiwan, and won 2nd prize in the Naumburg International Violin Competition. An avid chamber musician, she appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival and inter-continentally with the Chicago String Quartet. She is a current and founding member of the Formosa Quartet, first-prize winner of the 10th London International String Quartet Competition. The Quartet launches the first Formosa Chamber Music Festival this summer in Hualien, Taiwan. She received a Grammy nomination with the Chicago Chamber Musicians and can be heard regularly on WFMT.

 

Laurie Kennedy has been Principal Violist and frequent concerto soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra since 1981. She is the Director of the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival and co-Director, with Yuri Funahashi, of Maine Mountain Chamber Music. Prior to her moving to Maine, Kennedy had served as principal violist for the Vancouver Symphony and then the Buffalo Philharmonic. She is a frequent guest artist at various chamber music festivals in Maine and around the Northeast. Kennedy received her Bachelors degree from Smith College with Distinction, and her Masters, as well as the Performers Certificate, from Indiana University School of Music. She lives in Carthage, Maine, and teaches viola, violin, and chamber music in the Farmington area.

 

Pianist Yuri Funahashi has been a guest at numerous chamber music festivals, and has performed in Japan, Australia, Canada, throughout Europe and in many of the major halls in the U.S. She is a performing member of the Festival Chamber Music Society in New York City, and has collaborated with the Verdehr Trio, and the Brentano and Cassatt String Quartets. She has recorded for Musical Heritage Society and John Marks Records. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School. She is on the faculty of Colby College.