2022 SEASON July - August
About Us
Musicians
Ariadne Daskalakis, Artistic Director
Ariadne Daskalakis leads an international career as violin soloist, baroque violinist and renowned pedagogue. She has collaborated with fine orchestras like the English Chamber Orchestras, the Athens State Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Munich, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Dortmund Philharmonic and the New Bedford Symphony. As soloist and leader she also collaborated with the Prague, Cologne and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras and with Ensemble Oriol Berlin. As baroque violinist she has led projects with the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Köln and Barokkanerne Oslo. Prizewinner in the International Competition of the ARD Munich and the St. Louis Symphony Young Artists Competition, she also received awards from the Harvard Music Association, the New England Conservatory and the Dortmund Mozart Society. The repertoire ducmented on her many recordings ranges from Biber, Bach and Vivaldi to Lutoslawski and Gottschick. Recently she released Schubert's complete works for violin on the label BIS. Born of Greek parentage in Boston, she studied violin with Eric Rosenblith at the New England Conservatory Prep School and with Szymon Goldberg at the Juilliard School. She holds degrees with honors from Harvard College and the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. She is Professor of Violin at the Cologne Conservatory of Music and Dance. For more information please visit https://www.ariadne-daskalakis.com
Diane Walsh, piano
Pianist Diane Walsh is a laureate of many competitions and has performed around the globe. She has concertized in 46 of the 50 United States as well as in 21 other countries. Highlights include recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and other major venues in cities like Chicago, St. Petersburg and Prague. Diane has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco, Indianapolis, Austin, Delaware and New Bedford Symphonies, the Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Berlin radio symphonies and toured with the Orpheus, St. Luke's and Prague Virtuosi Chamber Orchestras, among others. In 2018 she toured New Zealand, with recitals, master classes and guest appearances with the New Zealand String Quartet, As the onstage pianist in the Broadway production of Moises Kaufman's award-winning play 33 Variations (starring Jane Fonda), Diane gave over a hundred performances of Beethoven's Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli. She has made many recordings including the Diabelli Variations, two volumes of Schubert sonatas, selected Bach keyboard suites and sonatas by Barber, Bartok and Prokofiev. Diane taught at the Mannes College of music for many years and was visiting artist at Vassar College and Colby College. She performed in summer festivals including Marlboro, Bard, Portland and Chesapeake, and she led the Skaneateles Festival as artistic director from 1999-2004. Diane Walsh is a member of the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio and a Steinway Artist.
About Us
Sebastian Gottschick, composer-in-residence
Sebastian Gottschick was born to a family of church musicians, and studied violin, composition and conducting in Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg and at the Juilliard School in New York. The broad spectrum of his interests and experience – in contemporary and early music, as conductor, composer and arranger, violinist, violist and teacher at the Cologne Conservatory (HfMT Köln) - is reflected in his compositions and arrangements. Sebastian led the Ensemble Oriol Berlin and was violist of the Manon Quartet Berlin for ten years, respectively. From 1994 through 2003, he was Musical Director of the New Opera Berlin. As conductor he has worked with ensembles including KlangForum Wien/Vienna, MusikFabrik Köln/Cologne, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Düsseldorf Symphonikern, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Radio Orchestras in Frankfurt, Warsaw, Berlin, Stuttgart und Munich. He also appeared at the KonzertTheater Bern, the State Theater Saarbrücken, Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon, La Fenice in Venice and at the Basel Theatre. He enjoys a longstanding collaboration with the ensemble für neue musik zurich. Numerous recordings with that ensemble include the Charles Ives Songbook I and II, Gottschick’s adaptation of Ives songs. A further CD of Gottschick’s works was released with the label ezzthetics in 2019, and Gottschick’s arrangement of the Musical Offering by Bach was released with Ensemble Vintage Köln on the label Eigenart. His arrangements for the Alliage-Quintet have been released by Sony Classics, including Stravinsky’s „Firebird“ with Sabine Meyer. The CD Dancing Paris, for which Gottschick arranged works by Enescu, Milhaud and Copland, was awarded an Echo Prize in 2010.
Paige Riggs, cello
Cellist Paige Riggs returns to Music from Land's End from her home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she is an active teacher and performer. She serves as principal cellist of the Westmoreland and McKeesport Symphonies, and has been principal cellist and soloist with the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival for the past 14 years. Currently on the music faculty of Slippery Rock University, Dr. Riggs has also taught at the University of Virginia and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook her major teachers include Paul Katz, Janos Starker, and Timothy Eddy. While a student she received fellowships from the Spoleto Festival, the Bach Aria Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center, which awarded her the C. D. Jackson memorial prize.