Music at the Museum presents A Martin Luther King Day Concert with Taconic Chamber Players

A live-streamed virtual performance by the renowned Taconic Chamber Players featuring String Quartets by Florence Price, William Grant Still, George Walker, Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin and Jessie Montgomery.

Taconic Chamber Players are:
Heather Braun and Joana Genova, violins
Ariel Rudiakov, viola
Nathaniel Parke, cello 

This event is free and registration is not required. Simply visit Bennington Museum’s Facebook page at 2:00 PM (Eastern US) to enjoy the performance live. You do not need a Facebook account to view the program. Thank you to our friends at CAT-TV for providing the live streaming.

JOANA GENOVA is co-founder and Artistic Director of Taconic Music, Assistant Professor of Violin and Director of Chamber Music Initiatives at University of Indianapolis, second violinist of The Indianapolis Quartet, and Artist Associate at Williams College. She began playing violin at age 6 in her native Bulgaria, made her solo debut at 12 with the Plovdiv Chamber Orchestra, and is a prizewinner of Bulgaria’s National Competition. She earned her Bachelor of Music at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and her Master’s in chamber music at the Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands. In Holland, Joana was concertmaster of the Amsterdam Bach Consort and a member of Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Since 2000, Joana has lived in the United States, maintaining an active career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher and soloist. She is a frequent guest at festivals and concert series on the East Coast, the Midwest, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arizona and has performed internationally in Bulgaria, Holland, Germany, Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

HEATHER BRAUN performs as first violinist of the prize-winning Arneis Quartet and as co-concertmaster and soloist with the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music. Heather was appointed to the Boston University School of Music faculty in 2014 and the St. Anselm College faculty in 2016. Recent performing highlights include recitals at Cabot Theater, Concord Free Library, Williams College, Frederick Collection, Rockport (MA) Chamber Music Festival, and East-West Virtuosi. She has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Boston, Milwaukee, Washington DC, and Manchester, VT. Heather earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and completed her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Boston University, studying with Peter Zazofsky. While a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, she received the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize; other awards received include the Zulalian Foundation Award and Silver Medal at the ICMEC Competition. Heather has coached chamber music and violin at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Point Counterpoint, Manchester Music Festival, Taconic Music Summer Festival, and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music; she coaches chamber music for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She can be heard on the recently released, pale reflections…The Arneis Quartet and Friends on the Centaur Records label.

Violist ARIEL RUDIAKOV is co-founder and Artistic Director of Taconic Music; Music Director and conductor of the Danbury (Conn.) Symphony Orchestra, and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Indianapolis, where he conducts the chamber orchestra and coaches chamber music. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at SUNY Purchase and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was a scholarship student at Yale’s master’s program, where he studied performance with Jessie Levine and chamber music with members of the Tokyo String Quartet. He enjoys a diverse musical life, performing to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and abroad. Prior to founding Taconic Music, Ariel was Artistic Director of the Manchester Music Festival from 2000 to 2016. Resident and guest conducting positions have included the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Symphony, Bergen, and Yonkers Philharmonics, Antara Ensemble, Manchester Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Sage City Symphony and recording sessions with Dance Theater of Harlem. Ari plays a viola made by Geoffrey Ovington in 2000.

Cellist NATHANIEL PARKE is a member of the Bennington String Quartet and is principal cello of the Berkshire Symphony and co-principal cello of the Berkshire Opera Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Boston Composers String Quartet with whom he can be heard performing new works by Boston composers on the MMC label. He is currently Artist Associate at Williams College in addition to maintaining a studio of private students. Nat has served as a faculty member and chamber music coach at the Longy School of Music and Skidmore College, and is currently on the faculty of the Chamber Music Conference and Composer’s Forum of the East. As a soloist, he has been heard with the Wellesley, Berkshire, and Sage City Symphonies. His freelance work in the Albany and Boston areas ranges from period instrument performances to premieres of new works. Nathaniel can also be heard on Albany Records performing solo cello music by Ileana Perez-Velasquez. He received his training at the Longy School of Music, studying with George Neikrug, and in London with William Pleeth. He holds an MFA from Bennington College, where he studied with Maxine Neuman. Nat performs on an instrument made in 1721 by C.G. Testore. 

Music at the Museum is offered at no charge thanks to the generous support of Alison Nowak and Robert Cane.