Karen Yasinsky
Karen Yasinsky is an artist working primarily with animation and drawing. Her video installations and drawings have been shown in many venues internationally including Mori Art Musuem, Tokyo; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art, NY; UCLA Hammer Museum, L.A.; Kunst Werke, Berlin; the Sculpture Center, NY and at the Wexner Center in Columbus Ohio. Her animations have been screened worldwide at various venues and film festivals including the MoMA, NYC, International Film Festival Rotterdam and the New York Underground Film Festival. Her work can be found in several books including No. 1: First works by 363 Artists, Armpit of the Mole and >>fast forward: Media Art Sammlung Goetz. She is the recipient of a 2002 Guggenheim Foundation grant and teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Film/Media Studies and at MICA. She is a founding board member of the Gunk Foundation, a private foundation for public art.
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Richard Cleaver
Richard Cleaver has been carving figures out of clay for over thirty-five years . He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee . The artist has exhibited across the nation, including solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art (MD), American University Museum (D.C.), Kohler Arts Center (WI), The Noyes Museum (NJ), Bernice Steinbaum Gallery (New York and Miami), and Franz Bader Gallery (D.C.). Group exhibitions include Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, MA), International Sculpture Center(D.C.), Arizona State University Art Museum, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Erie Art Museum (PA), and Corcoran Gallery of Art (D.C.) Collections include Crocker Art Museum (Sacramento, CA), George and Dorothy Saxe ( DeYoung Museum , San Francisco, CA) , Diane and Sandy Besser (Santa Fe, NM) , Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen (D.C) , and the Delaware Art Museum. Awards include the National Endowment for the Arts, Evergreen Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, The Trawick Prize and the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund grant.
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Peter Minkler
“He makes the viola sing …” Peter Minkler, also praised by the Baltimore Sun for possessing “a darkly beautiful sound as he limned the score with clarity and communicative warmth”, has been a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 1984. He also serves as Principal Viola of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Orchestra, a position he has held since 1997. Prior to his arrival in Baltimore, he served as Associate Principal with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mr. Minkler began his undergraduate instruction with Robert Vernon at the Cleveland Institute of Music and earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Francis Tursi. He also participated in master classes at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada with Lillian Fuchs, Donald McInnes and William Primrose....more He has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Columbia (MD) Orchestra, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Buffalo Philharmonic, Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra and was the featured artist at the Finger Lakes Bach Festival in Ithaca, NY.
An avid and diverse chamber musician as well as recitalist, Mr. Minkler regularly performs throughout the Baltimore area and has been a frequent guest on a variety of series including An die Musik LIVE!, Music in the Great Hall, Sundays at Central Concert Series, Sundays at Three Chamber Music Series, Chamber Music by Candlelight, a series which he co-founded at the Second Presbyterian Church, the University of Maryland and Chamber Music UB: The BSO Musicians Series, a series he coordinated and developed in conjunction with the University of Baltimore and the musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with numerous artists including violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Stephan Jackiw, cellist Ralph Kirschbaum, flutist Toshiko Kohno, harpists Rita Costanzi and Elizabeth Hainen, percussionist David DePeters and pianists Jonathan Biss, Lura Johnson and Max Levinson.
He has actively served on both the Players’ Committee and the Artistic Advisory Committee for the musicians of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Minkler was selected by the Maryland State Arts Council to receive a FY 2008 Individual Artist Award in Solo Instrumental Performance. This grant, awarded by jury selection every two years, is based upon artistic excellence.
Recently released by Centaur Records, Mr. Minkler’s first solo CD, Viola Seul: Works for unaccompanied viola, has received critical acclaim and affirms his artistry and command of the instrument. “Minkler’s playing is…thoroughly musical, insightful, witty, and highly nuanced…this album is likely to please anyone interested in solo string works or just solid, unpretentious, musical artistry” allmusic. “Minkler has a very secure technique, pure intonation, and a warm, dark, large tone” American Record Guide. The Baltimore Sun writes, “the performance level (is) consistently high…the CD makes a powerful statement about Minkler’s gifts, and the communicative power of the sole viola.”
Mr. Minkler is currently collaborating with pianist Lura Johnson on a new recording project featuring works by Britten, Pärt, Rochberg and Shostakovich.
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