Repertoire Webern: Langsamer Satz (1905)Beethoven: String Quartet in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 (1809) ("Harp")Puccini: Crisantemi (1890)Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36 (1865)About the Artists Described by Strad Magazine as being "vigorous, extrovert and emphatic players with a vitality all their own," the young Nisaika Quartet, all barely 20 years old, had just won the Deuxième Prix at the 8e Concours International de Quatuors à Cordes in Evian, France, (later the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition) from a jury presided by Polish composer Witold Lutosławski and comprising among others cellist Claus Adam (Juilliard String Quartet), Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet), Paolo Borciani (Quartetto Italiano), Milan Skampa (Smetana Quartet), and the entire Borodine Quartet. This was in 1983. This foursome of chamber-music-hungry friends and classmates at the Curtis Institute of Music had decided to spend most of the previous year locking themselves into rehearsal studios for marathon work sessions of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bartók. With the support of their coaches, Karen Tuttle and Felix Galimir, they lived one of the great adventures of their musical lives. Being young and in full development, the quartet disbanded to pursue graduate studies and job opportunities, yet somehow remained connected for all these decades, collaborating and performing during summer festivals, subbing for one another during sabbatical and maternity leaves, founding other ensembles. But their association marked them deeply and started defining their identity. Several of the choices they made then were an example of their idealism. At a time where only the Emerson String Quartet traded violin seats, the Nisaika followed suit. They chose a name that was all-inclusive, the word Nisaika meaning "we, us, our" in Chinook pidgin, a trading language of the Pacific Northwest, including elements of French, English, Salishan, and other indigenous languages. Violinist David Salness threw a bottle in the ocean a year ago with the idea of a reunion tour in 2025-26, which was pretty rapidly and enthusiastically embraced by the whole group. An artist deeply dedicated to the range of violin and chamber music repertoire, violinist Violaine Melançon is sought after both as a performer and a pedagogue. She teaches at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where she is associate professor of violin, and regularly gives master classes and guest teaches at major peer institutions, including the New England Conservatory in Boston, Glenn Gould School in Toronto, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and Guildhall School for Music and Drama in London. She served until 2019 on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Melançon was, until 2016 and during the ensemble's life span, the founding violinist of the Peabody Trio, ensemble-in-residence at the Peabody Conservatory, and the Yellow Barn Center for Chamber Music, and with them actively performed internationally. These days, she teaches during the summer months at Domaine Forget International Music and Dance Academy, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Summer Violin Institute at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in Chicago. Melançon performs as well on baroque violin and enjoys collaborating in concert with many Canadian and American early music performers. Her performances can be heard on the Naxos, Artek, CRI, and New World Records labels. Visit www.Melançonmelancon for more information. Violinist David Salness has attained international recognition as a performing artist and teacher. He has appeared in more than 30 countries and in virtually the entire United States in such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Paris's Salle Gaveau, and London's Wigmore Hall. His performances are broadcast on National Public Radio, Radio France, and the British and Canadian Broadcast Corporations. His recordings are found on the RCA, BMG, Telarc, and Centaur labels, amongst others. Salness was for 12 years a member of the critically acclaimed Audubon Quartet. He has worked with iconic composers, such as Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Krystof Penderecki, Peter Schickele, and John Cage, while premiering countless works throughout his career. A sought-after collaborator, Salness has performed with members of the Guarneri, Cleveland, and Juilliard quartets, and is currently the first violinist with the Left Bank Quartet, appearing frequently in the greater Washington, D.C., area performing in leading venues, including the Kennedy Center, National Gallery, the Smithsonian, and Strathmore Hall. Salness has been concertmaster of Northern Virginia's Fairfax Symphony Orchestra for 28 years. An alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute, Salness studied with David Cerone, Jascha Brodsky, Ivan Galamian, Joseph Gingold, and Karen Tuttle. He has served as artist faculty at the Meadowmount School, distinguished teacher of violin at the Brevard Music Center, and chamber music program director at the Chautauqua Festival. The longtime director of chamber music activities at the University of Maryland, he is currently professor of violin. Violist Ed Gazouleas has emerged as one of the finest teachers of his generation, and his students now populate the viola sections of many orchestras, including the Boston, St. Louis, and Indianapolis symphony orchestras; and many others in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. Gazouleas was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 24 years, where he held the Lois and Harlan Anderson Viola Chair and led the viola section on many occasions, notably with conductors such as Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, and André Previn. While in Boston, he was active in orchestra governance, chairing the orchestra's artistic advisory committee and serving on the search committee that selected Andris Nelsons to be the orchestra's music director. He has had a long association with the Tanglewood Music Center in leadership capacities. As a chamber music performer, Gazouleas has appeared with members of the Fine Arts, Pacifica, Muir, Lydian, and Johannes string quartets, among others. A prizewinner at the Eighth International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France, he has also collaborated with such artists as Christian Tetzlaff, Stephanie Blythe, Roberto Díaz, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and the principal string players of the Cleveland Orchestra. Gazouleas works to expand and promote new works for the viola and has collaborated with such composers as Michael Tippett, John Harbison, and Osvaldo Golijov. In 2019, he performed the North American premiere of Letters from Warsaw by English composer Joseph Phibbs. Gazouleas has also served on the faculties of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a tenured professor, Boston University College of Fine Arts, Boston Conservatory, Wellesley College, and New England Conservatory. He is also in demand as an orchestral clinician around the country. Gazouleas is a 1984 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied viola with Michael Tree and Karen Tuttle. He joined the Curtis faculty in 2017 and was named the Gie and Lisa Liem Artistic Director in 2021 and provost in 2022.Peter Stumpf is professor of music (cello) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Prior to this appointment, he was principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Stumpf's tenure in Los Angeles followed 12 years as associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His professional orchestral career began at age 16 when he joined the cello section of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music (CIM) and an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory. A dedicated chamber music musician, he is a member of the Johannes String Quartet and has appeared on chamber music series on several continents. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, as well as such festivals as Marlboro, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, the Casals Hall Ensemble, and pianist Mitsuko Uchida. He has collaborated with pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Emmanuel Ax, Jorge Bolet, Yefim Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Andras Schiff, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and with the Emerson and Guarneri String Quartets. Concerto appearances have been with the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Boston Philharmonic, among many others. As a recitalist, he has performed at the Universities of Hartford, Syracuse, and Delaware, at Jordan Hall in Boston, and at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he performed J. S. Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello on series in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. His awards include first prize in the Washington International, Graham-Stahl, and Aspen Concerto Competitions, and second prize in the Evian International String Quartet Competition. As a teacher, he has served on the faculties of the University of Southern California, Hartt School of Music, and New England Conservatory, and he was guest artist faculty at CIM, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Musicorda Summer String Program.Stephen Wyrczynski is professor of music in viola at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he has been on faculty since 2010. He has been an artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and School since 2006. Wyrczynski was a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 18 years, joining in 1992. He earned his bachelor degree from The Juilliard School in 1988 and a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1991. His principal teachers were Kim Kashkashian, Karen Tuttle, and Joseph DePasquale. As a chamber musician, Wyrczynski has performed with such artists as Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Edgar Meyer, Vladimir Feltsman, and Dawn Upshaw. He has played in many of North America's most celebrated venues as well as at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Colorado; Le Domaine Forget, Quebec; New Port Music Festival, Rhode Island; Grand Teton Music Festival, Wyoming; Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts; Kingston Music Festival, Rhode Island; Casals Music Festival, Puerto Rico; and El Paso Pro Musica, Texas; and with the Apollo Chamber Players, Denver, Colorado. Wyrczynski also performs regularly with his artist faculty colleagues at the Jacobs School of Music and participates in faculty-student collaborations. One such partnership, which he co-founded with colleague Jorja Fleezanis, violin, is an ongoing exploration of music from the Second Viennese School, in which faculty and students together perform music by Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg. Wyrczynski considers his teaching a direct result of his own relationship to performing, practicing, and listening. He approaches each student as an individual personality and potential artist. Teaching a student about the great privilege it is to serve the composers of our repertoire is one of the best ways for the students to gain ownership of their musical training. He encourages students to ask probing questions and be musically curious beyond their own instrument.Kam Kin Chen began studying cello at a young age and earned a Bachelor of Music degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the guidance of Ray Wang. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with David Geber and Julia Lichten. Chen also has extensive teaching and performance experience. In 2023, he served as resident cellist with the Pacific Cello Orchestra. Prior to that, he taught cello and group classes at Yip's Children's Choral and Performing Arts Centre in 2022 and worked as a cello instructor at Virtuosos Music Academy from 2020 to 2022. Chen was the principal cello for the New York Chamber Players' 2024 performance at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall and appeared as a soloist with the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra at the Hong Kong City Hall in 2018. He has earned prestigious scholarships, including the Manhattan School of Music Scholarship (2023-2025) and the HKSAR Government Scholarship for Outstanding Performances (2019-2023). He also earned a Fellow of Trinity College London diploma in piano (2018). Chen continues to inspire young musicians and push the boundaries of his own artistry through teaching and performance.