About the Artists:
Hailed by the Washington Post for “virtuosity and penetrating intelligence,” violinist James Stern is a member of two critically acclaimed ensembles, the Stern/Andrist Duo with his wife, Canadian pianist Audrey Andrist, and Strata, a trio in which the two of them are joined by clarinetist Nathan Williams. The duo has performed throughout the United States, Canada and China, with additional recitals in Munich and Paris. The trio is featured on a compact disc of new and standard repertoire on Arizona University Recordings, and has appeared in New York City under the auspices of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Strata has received enthusiastic repeat engagements at San Francisco Composers Inc (for which they were listed as one of San Francisco Classical Voice’s “highlights of 2005”), the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and New York’s historic Maverick Concerts. Stern has recorded Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Albany Records.
He has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals as well as at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. Well-known to Washington, D. C. audiences, he has performed with the 21st Century Consort, the Verge Ensemble, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Axelrod Quartet, at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery, the German and French Embassies, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection, Strathmore Mansion and the White House, as well as the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. Stern is a professor of violin at the University of Maryland where he has been named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.
Cellist Eric Kutz has captivated audiences across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. He is active as a teacher, a chamber musician, an orchestral musician, and a concerto soloist. His diverse collaborations cut across musical styles, and have ranged from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to jazz great Ornette Coleman. His 2024 release of the complete Cello Suites of JS Bach on Albany Records was lauded by Fanfare as “one of the best in a world where there is no lack of performances.” Kutz is also a founding member of the Murasaki Duo, a cello and piano ensemble formed at the Juilliard School in 1996. The Duo has released three commercial recordings, and it performs on chamber music series throughout the nation.
Kutz summers in Chicago as a member of the Grant Park Orchestra’s cello section. He has also appeared in the sections of the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Kutz has premiered more than 30 works, and has been broadcast nationally on NPR and on PBS television’s Live from Lincoln Center. He joined the faculty of University of Maryland School of Music in 2015. Previously he was a professor at Luther College, where he served from 2002-2015, and prior to that, Mr. Kutz was the cellist of the Chester String Quartet for four years. The Quartet, called “one of the best and brightest of the country’s young string quartets” by the Boston Globe, gave two tours of Europe during Kutz’s tenure, and performed from coast to coast. Mr. Kutz holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Rice University. He performs on a cello by Raffaele Fiorini (Bologna, 1877), and a bow by Jacob Eury (Paris, 1810).
Classical pianist Futaba Niekawa seeks true expression in music through her artistry as a versatile pianist, chamber musician, and mentor. Her performance has taken her across North America, Europe, and Asia. To date, she has released five recordings encompassing solo, four-hands, duo, and chamber music from classical to newly composed works. Praised as “a beautifully balanced duo” by Gramophone Magazine, duo526 is a shared passion for Niekawa and violinist Kerry DuWors, since 2011. The duo reaches further than performing onstage, extending to their Sonata Seminar where they mentor and nurture the love of collaboration in the next generation, as well as their scholarly research and innovative projects on esoteric duo works.
Her love of collaboration led her to performances with Atar Arad, James Campbell, Charles Castleman, Mark Kaplan, and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has served on faculty as a collaborative pianist at the Banff Centre, New England Conservatory, Boston Ballet School, Meadowmount School of Music, Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, and the Perlman Music Program. Her passion for pedagogy and mentoring is shown through her appearances as a guest teacher and performer at universities across North America. From 2015-2025, she taught and served as a Lecturer in Chamber and Collaborative Music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Maryland in College Park.
This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
