Players from the NY Philharmonic

Program

String Quartet in Bb Major, Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise”

String Quartet in D minor, D 810, “Death and the Maiden”

I. Allegro

Andante con moto

Scherzo: Allegro molto

IV. Presto

Biographies

Sheryl Staples, violin

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Associate Concertmaster, The Elizabeth G. Beinecke Chair, in 1998 and made her solo debut with the orchestra in 1999 performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto led by Kurt Masur. Since that time she has been featured in concertos of Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Vivaldi with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Alan Gilbert, Kent Nagano, Jeffrey Kahane and Jaap van Zweden. She has also appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony and San Diego Symphony among many others. The New York Times wrote that “she is a perceptive musician, who plays with great rhythmic integrity and a lucid sense of phrase structure... she draws a wonderful array of vibrant and luminous colors...interpretive honesty and unmannered elegance.”

In demand as a chamber musician, Ms. Staples performs frequently in the New York area with Philharmonic colleagues as well as other esteemed artists including Yefim Bronfman and Emanuel Ax, and has performed for US Ambassadors in London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong and Beijing as well as touring the US, Asia and Latin America. She was a founding member of the New York Philharmonic String Quartet and now leads the newly formed New Jersey String Quartet. Summer festival appearances include La Jolla Summerfest, Salt Bay Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe, Seattle, Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, Sarasota and Strings Music Festivals.

Ms. Staples is a member of the violin faculty at Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard Pre-College. She also teaches at The Juilliard School in orchestral studies. Originally from Los Angeles, Ms. Staples began studying violin at age five, and her major mentors were Robert Lipsett and Heiichiro Ohyama.

Ms. Staples is married to percussionist Barry Centanni and they have two adult children, Michael and Laura.

Yulia Ziskel, violin

Yulia Ziskel has established herself as a highly acclaimed solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, praised by the Strad Magazine for “The sweetness of her sound.” A member of the New York Philharmonic's First Violin section (Friends and Patrons Chair), her activities include numerous international solo and chamber music appearances.

Ms.Ziskel stayed very active during the COVID lockdown, streaming solo and chamber music recitals from the 92nd Street Y, Merkin Hall, New York City Museum of Art and Design as well as a livestreamed festival, “Classic at Home,” celebrating Beethoven’s 250th birthday with a quartet arrangement of his 4th Symphony. She also performed in the New York Philharmonic’s “Bandwagon,” which brought live chamber music to the streets of NY in 2020-21. Ms. Ziskel’s pre-pandemic appearances include chamber music performances in West Palm Beach, FL, and tours of Italy, Spain and the Ballearic Islands. She performed recitals at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Lyric Chamber Music Society and Avery Fisher Hall, and premiered a solo violin work by Michael Hersch, commissioned for Ms. Ziskel by the New York Philharmonic. She plays regularly as a member of New York Philharmonic Ensembles.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Yulia Ziskel began her musical training on the violin and piano at age 4. She made her solo debut at the age of 7 at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall and at age 12 as a soloist with St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra. She toured extensively during her teenage years, appearing in solo recitals throughout Russia, Germany, Finland, Poland and United States. In 1994, Ms. Ziskel's family emigrated to the United States, where she completed her BM degree at Indiana University and her MM from the Juilliard School.

Yulia Ziskel’s solo CD on the Sonoris label includes works by Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Ysaye, Brahms, and Paganini. The disc is available on WWW.YULIAZISKEL.COM

Cong Wu, viola

Cong Wu joined the New York Philharmonic as Assistant Principal Viola, The Norma and Lloyd Chazen Chair, in September 2018. He is the winner of the Third Prize and the Chamber Music Prize in the Fourteenth Primrose International Viola Competition, and of the Special Prize in the Twelfth Tertis International Viola Competition. His performances throughout North America and Asia include solo appearances with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Macau Youth Orchestra, and New York Classical Players.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Wu has collaborated with Christoph Eschenbach, David Finckel, Itzhak Perlman, Peter Wiley, Pinchas Zukerman, American String Quartet, and many New York Philharmonic musicians. His festival engagements have included the Marlboro Music Festival, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Encounters, Music@Menlo, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Perlman Music Program, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany. He also appears regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, and New York Classical Players.

Passionate about teaching, Mr. Wu served as a guest faculty member of the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute in Canada and as a teaching artist at the Music@Menlo Winter Residency. He has been invited to give masterclasses at the Manhattan School of Music, Mead Witter School of Music (University of Wisconsin-Madison), China Conservatory of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University, and the Renmin University of China.

Born in Jinan, China, Cong (pronounced “Ts’ong”) Wu moved to New York in 2010 after graduating from the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. He holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music. His teachers have included Wing Ho, Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Patinka Kopec, and Pinchas Zukerman.

Eric Bartlett, cello

Cellist Eric Bartlett has been a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since 1983, and recently retired from the New York Philharmonic after 23 years. He served 14 seasons as principal cellist of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and was a guest principal of the American Ballet Theatre orchestra.

Mr. Bartlett grew up in Marlboro, Vermont, where he was a student of Stanley Eukers, George Finckel, and Leopold Teraspulsky. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School in 1978 and 1979, as a student of Leonard Rose and Channing Robbins.

Mr. Bartlett made his New York Philharmonic solo debut in March, 2015, as the soloist in Per Nørgård's second Cello Concerto on the Philharmonic’s “Contact” series, and recently performed the solo cello part of Pierre Boulez’ “Messagesquisse” both in New York City and in Shanghai. Mr. Bartlett has appeared frequently as a member soloist with Orpheus and is featured on several of their Deutsche Grammophon recordings. In addition to Orpheus, other solo appearances include the Cabrillo Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Anchorage Symphony, the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen and Juilliard Orchestras, and the New York Philharmonic’s Horizons ’84 series.

Dedicated to contemporary music, Mr. Bartlett released a CD of four commissioned works, entitled Essence of Cello, on the Albany Records label. He is an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School, where he teaches orchestral repertoire for cello and coaches the conductorless Juilliard Chamber Orchestra.