Bios
Apollo Trio Bio
The Apollo Trio was formed in 1997 after playing together in the Soirées des Junies Music Festival in the south of France and has performed to critical acclaim in the United States and in Europe. In addition to frequent appearances at American music festivals – from the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York to Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon, and on chamber music series throughout the United States – the trio has performed at prominent New York venues, including Caramoor, Bargemusic, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Apollo Trio was featured in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Great Day in New York” Festival at Alice Tully Hall, and among their performances there also gave the New York premiere of David Schiff’s New York Nocturnes, and the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s Wind Across the Sky for piano trio and soprano. The Apollo Trio made its Kennedy Center debut in 2009. In 2011, David Schiff’s Borscht Belt Follies, written for the Apollo Trio, David Krakauer, Dave Taylor and Michael Sarin, was given its world premiere at Chamber Music Northwest Encore Series. The trio has recently finished recording the complete Dvorak piano trios. (Photo by Ralph Gabriner)
Curtis Macomber
The playing of violinist Curtis Macomber was praised recently by the New York Times for its “thrilling virtuosity” and by Strad Magazine for its “panache”. He enjoys a varied and distinguished career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher, and he has for several decades been recognized as one of this country’s foremost interpreters and proponents of new music.
Mr. Macomber’s extensive discography includes the complete Brahms and Grieg Sonatas; violin concertos by Martin Boykan and Laura Schwendinger; and hundreds of critically praised recordings of contemporary solo and chamber works. His CD of Roger Sessions Solo Sonata was acclaimed by American Record Guide as “one of the best recordings of 20th Century solo violin music ever made.” A solo CD entitled “Songs of Solitude” was named by the New York Observer as one of 1996’s best instrumental solo discs (“Macomber’s intensely human fiddle…seems an entire universe, sufficient unto itself.”). He has recorded for Nonesuch, Koch, Bridge, Arabesque, Naxos and Musical Heritage and Albany; he has performed, commissioned, and made first recordings of solo violin and chamber works by, among others, Carter, Davidovsky, Perle, Wuorinen, and Mackey.
Mr. Macomber is a founding member of the Apollo Piano Trio and a member of the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Manhattan String Quartet, the Walden Chamber Players and the New York Chamber Soloists. He was for many years the violinist of Speculum Musicae and has also appeared with the New York New Music Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, and in chamber music series across the country and in Europe. He has been a regular participant at La Musica in Sarasota, at the Yellow Barn Festival and at the Monadnock Music Festival.
As first violinist of the award-winning New World String Quartet for 11 years (1982-1993), Mr. Macomber performed the standard repertoire as well as numerous contemporary works in performances in major halls throughout the United States and Europe, and, with the Quartet, was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University from 1982-1990; with that group he also recorded 14 discs and performed numerous times on Public Radio and Television in this country, and the BBC in Great Britain.
Mr. Macomber is a longtime member of the chamber music faculty of the Juilliard School and the violin faculties of the Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music, and has also taught at the Tanglewood Music Center and Taos School of Music. Other recent summer engagements have included Chamber Music Northwest and the Bard Festival. He holds his B.M., M.M., and D.M.A. degrees from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Joseph Fuchs and winner of the Morris Loeb and Walter Naumburg Prizes.
Mihai Marica
Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a First Prize winner of the “Dr. Luis Sigall” International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile and the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer, and is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. This season he joins the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Mr. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music where he was awarded master’s and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two).
Marija Stroke
Pianist Marija Stroke has performed in chamber music, concerti and solo recitals in the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Asia, and has played frequently at such music festivals as Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor, the City of London Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. Ms. Stroke is co-artistic Director of the Garden City Chamber Music Society in Long Island, New York.
Ms. Stroke has performed with Joshua Bell, Mark Steinberg, Eugene Drucker, Raphael Hillyer, David Krakauer, David Shifrin, and conductors Ransom Wilson and Reinbert de Leeuw, as well as with the Brentano, Miami, Daedalus, and Borromeo string quartets. She has appeared in concerts with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and at Wigmore, Carnegie, David Geffen, and Alice Tully Halls.
In 2015, Sony Classical released a recording of Bruce Adolphe’s Einstein’s Light performed by violinist Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke. Ms. Stroke recorded Adolphe’s Turning, Returning with the Brentano String Quartet and Mark Steinberg for CRI. She recorded the Grieg violin and piano sonatas with Curtis Macomber on Arabesque, and Do You Dream in Color? with Laurie Rubin on Bridge Records. Do You Dream in Color?, which includes music by Adolphe, Rodrigo and Fauré, was awarded “Critics’ Choice” by American Record Guide. Ms. Stroke collaborated with six other pianists, Josef Kalichstein, Orli Shaham, Orion Weiss, Bruce Adolphe, Fred Child, and Fabio Luisi, on a CD of Piano Puzzlers.
Marija Stroke is a founding member of the Apollo Trio, which has performed to critical acclaim in the United States and in Europe. In addition to frequent appearances at major American music festivals and on chamber music series throughout the United States, the trio has performed at prominent New York venues, including Caramoor, Bargemusic, Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Hall at Carnegie, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Apollo Trio was featured in The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Great Day in New York” Festival at Alice Tully Hall, and among their performances there also gave the New York premiere of David Schiff’s New York Nocturnes, and the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe’s Wind Across the Sky for piano trio and soprano. In 2011, David Schiff’s Borscht Belt Follies— written for the Apollo Trio, David Krakauer, David Taylor and Michael Sarin—was given its world premiere at Chamber Music Northwest’s Encore Series. The Apollo Trio has recorded music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Adolphe and Schiff and, most recently, the complete Dvorak Piano Trios (available on Amazon, Spotify, and iTunes).
Strad Magazine: “music making of stature and substance”
The New York Times: “delightfully extroverted, Stroke’s playing was splendid, piercing through to the composer’s melancholy soul”.
Stereophile: “spectacularly heartfelt and colorful”