Violins
co-concertmaster
Jennifer Elowitch
Violinist Jennifer Elowitch is the Assistant Principal Second Violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs regularly with the Boston Symphony, with whom she toured Europe and Japan. A committed performer of contemporary music, Ms. Elowitch has appeared with Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, and the Fromm Players at Harvard. As Artistic Co-Director and Executive Director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival, she has appeared on WGBH radio in Boston and on NPR’s “Performance Today”. In addition to her work on the faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, she has presented workshops and master classes at The Boston Conservatory, Community Musicworks in Providence, New England Conservatory, and Lawrence University (WI). She will present a master class at the University of South Florida in Feburary, 2007.
co-concertmaster
Charles Dimmick
Charles Dimmick is concertmaster and frequent soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He is concertmaster of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and assistant concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. In addition to his orchestral career, he is an active teacher, chamber musician, and soloist throughout New England. His primary teachers include Joseph Silverstein and Peter Oundjian. He lives in Boston with his wife, flutist Rachel Braude.
principal
Violinist Benjamin Russell is an active performer and teacher in the Northeast. He is one of the founding members of the Bryant Park Quartet, a NY based ensemble that formed in 2006. Benjamin also holds the position of Principal 2nd Violin in the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine and has sat Concertmaster of the Symphony on several occasions. Recently, Benjamin was selected to be a New FROMM Player, Tanglewood's resident new-music chamber ensemble, and was also chosen to be in the Lucerne Academy Orchestra under the direction of Pierre Boulez. His professional concerts include solo performances in New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall and Harvard's Paine Hall. Benjamin is a teacher and chamber coach for the New York Youth Symphony and has given masterclasses for the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Conservatory. In the past year, he has collaborated with the Mark Morris Dance Group, Shakespeare & Company, and Free Speech Zone Productions. Benjamin received his MM from the New England Conservatory with Masuko Ushioda and his BM from Biola University with Mary Beth Woodruff and Ruth Meints. He currently resides in Manhattan.
Alexander Romanul
Violinist Alexander Romanul was born in Boston into a distinguished musical family of historic Romanian lineage. After making his debut at age 13 playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the New England Conservatory Orchestra under the direction of Gunther Schuller, he was invited by Arthur Fiedler to play as a soloist with the Boston Pops, soloed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall as winner of the Youth Concerts Concerto Competition, and performed as soloist with the National Symphony of Ecuador, where critics acclaimed him a poet of the violin. Subsequently Romanul was awarded fifth prize in the Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland and has performed widely as soloist and chamber musician in Europe and the Americas. In more recent years he completed a three-year tenure as concertmaster of Ars Poetica Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble based in Detroit composed of musicians from major U.S. orchestras. His honored professori include Ivan Galamian, Alfred Krips, Joseph Silverstein, and Josef Gingold. Philosophically inclined, autodidact and dedicated individualist, Romanul pursues a wide range of interests. He has a special affection and affinity for the mountains and small towns of rural Vermont.
Yasmin Craig
Yasmin Craig received her Bachelors of Arts in Music from Stanford University in 1997 and her Masters of Music in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music in 2001. Between her degrees, she was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in which she traveled to Turkey to study Turkish Folk music and play with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. In 2003 she was the recipient of the National Association of Music Teachers' STAR award for achievement in teaching. In the spring of 2004, she completed her third year of a fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida culminating with performances in the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and Carnegie Hall, in New York. She began her violin studies at the age of 6 as a "Suzuki Kid" and has received teacher training with the Suzuki Association of the Americas. Yasmin is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Maine Suzuki Association. She is a member of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Maine Chamber Ensemble. Yasmin also performs with the Improv String Quartet, Portland Ballet Orchestra, Maine Grand Opera and PortOpera. Yasmin teaches violin through her home studio and is the Suzuki violin instructor at L'Ecole Francaise du Maine.
Joanne Woodward
1st violinist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra.
Education: New England Conservatory
Began with PSO: 1974
Ferdinand Liva
A violinist and conductor, Mr. Liva comes from a musically prominent family in northeastern Pennsylvania. He began studying the violin at age seven with his father, a noted conductor and teacher, and continued his education at the Peabody Conservatory with Berl Senofsky. He then studied at Temple University with Luis Biava, where he graduated with a Master's degree. Mr. Liva spent four years as Assistant Professor of violin and chamber music at Wilkes University, and conductor of the University Orchestra. He currently teaches a private studio of students, conducts the Sea Coast Youth Orchestra and the Sea Coast Community Orchestra and is an adjunct faculty member at Bowdoin and the University of Southern Maine. Ferdinand Liva is married to composer Gia Comolli and they have one child.
