MusicFest

Kathryn Lockwood, Viola

Kathryn Lockwood, violist and artistic director originally from Australia, leads an active career as a performer, educator, and curator. She first came to the United States to study for one year at USC in Los Angeles—more than 30 years ago—and has since made her home in New York.

Her childhood dream to be a chamber musician came true first as the violist of Pacifica Quartet, then the Lark Quartet, and now the very unique viola and percussion duo with her husband, Yousif Sheronick. Since 2019, Lockwood has served as artistic director of the Four Seasons in Music concert series at the Sands Point Preserve on Long Island, where duoJalal is in residence. Since 2022, she and Sheronick have also been co-artistic directors of MusicFest, Telluride Chamber Music in Colorado. Lockwood is tenured faculty at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where she teaches, coordinates the string area, and curates the Immersive Residency Program, bringing internationally renowned artists and ensembles for weeklong residencies.

Yousif Sheronick, Percussion

Praised by The New York Times for his “dazzling improvisations” and “wizardry on a range of humble frame drums,” Yousif Sheronick brings percussion to life through a vibrant fusion of classical and global rhythmic traditions. A graduate of Yale University, Yousif has collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists including Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Laurie Anderson, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lark Quartet, Silk Road Ensemble, Branford Marsalis, Sonny Fortune, Ethos Percussion Group, Glen Velez, and Paul Winter. He also performs alongside his wife, violist Kathryn Lockwood, in their adventurous and genre-blurring ensemble, duoJalal.  Equally devoted to education, Yousif is the founder of Frame Drum School (www.framedrumschool.org), where over 1,400 students from 74 countries study his distinctive approach to rhythm and world percussion. His performances and collaborations have taken him from Carnegie Hall to festivals across six continents. Yousif also serves as co-Artistic Director of the Telluride MusicFest, a two-week summer chamber music festival set in the scenic mountains of Colorado.

duoJalal

duoJalal “are fearless seekers and synthesizers of disparate instruments and cultures” raves the Toronto Star. Like the marriage between Kathryn Lockwood and Yousif Sheronick, their music represents an organic amalgam of cultural traditions and musical styles. Audiences are enthralled as an Australian violist ignites her instrument with passion – one minute embodying a medieval rebec, the next a contemporary violist playing Philip Glass. Yousif, of Lebanese descent, dazzles as he manipulates multiple sounds on an array of hand drums followed by intoxicating melodies on vibraphone. duoJalal moves from Classical to Klezmer, Middle Eastern to Jazz, with a skillful confluence that is natural, exploratory, and passionate. duoJalal has performed throughout the United States, Australia and Brazil regularly performing world premieres of works composed or arranged for the group by Philip Glass, Andrew Waggoner, Derek Bermel, Kenji Bunch, Evan Ziporyn, Eve Beglarian and John Patitucci.
As the ensemble in residence for the Four Seasons in Music concert series, the duo have the luxury of collaborating with an array of top tier artists including string players, vocalists, clarinets, dancers and more! Known for their outstanding teaching skills, duoJalal offers masterclasses and clinics for string soloists and ensembles as well as drumming workshops to both children and adults. Recent masterclasses were held at Manhattan School of Music, New York University and the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention. Kathryn and Yousif are proud to announce a new position as co-artistic directors and ensemble in residence of the Telluride MusicFest. A festival housed in a gorgeous mountain home situated at 10,000 feet!
duojalal.org

Min-Young Kim

Philadelphia violinist Min-Young Kim is a founding member and first violinist of the Daedalus Quartet, and has been presented by many of the world’s leading musical venues including Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the Musikverein in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Min is also the concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and a core member of ECCO and a frequent guest with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has been featured as a soloist with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall and with the Bard Festival Orchestra and performs on historical violin and viola with Apollo’s Fire and Tempesta di Mare. She enjoys working closely with composers, commissioning and premiering new works including those of Fred Lerdahl, Anna Weesner, Huck Hodge, and Wolfgang Rihm. In her quest to play many strings, Min also plays the violoncello da spalla, a six string electric violin and the guitar. A graduate of Harvard and Juilliard, she currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

Orion Weiss

One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). With a warmth to his playing that outwardly reflects his engaging personality, Weiss has dazzled audiences with his passionate, lush sound and performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic.

Recent seasons have seen Weiss in performances for the Lucerne Festival, the Denver Friends of Chamber Music, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center’s Fortas Series, and the 92nd Street Y, and at the Aspen, Bard, Ravinia, and Grand Teton summer festivals among others. Highlights also include his third performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the release of his recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, and recordings of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta.