4/19
Sunday, 4pm
Schoenberg Trio and Sextet Bios
Cordula Merks, violin
Violinist Cordula Merks is the Concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Previous positions include First Assistant concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony and concertmaster of Germany's Essen Philharmonic, Bochum Symphony and Bergische Symphony. She has also served as guest concertmaster for many orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, American Ballet Theater at the Met, Dresden Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Portuguese National Opera.
When not playing in the orchestra, Cordula enjoys playing as a soloist and as a chamber musician and has performed in the US, Israel and all over Europe.
Cordula was born in Germany and spent her childhood in Holland. She started playing the violin at the age of 6 and was accepted to study at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague at the age of 12. Her teachers have included Theodora Geraets, Jaring Walta, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Herman Krebbers, and she holds degrees from the Amsterdam Conservatory and Northern Illinois University.
Ms. Merks has won prizes at all Dutch national competitions, at various concerto competitions and at several international competitions, including the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria.
Cordula is married to contrabassoonist Mike Gamburg, and together they have two daughters, Mia, and Emmie.
Yi Zhou, viola
Yi Zhou joined the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra as Principal Violist in December 2015.
Prior to his appointment at SF Ballet, he was named Principal Viola of the Los Angeles Opera by Music Director James Conlon and Placido Domingo. Yi has made recent appearances in the international music scene, including performing the Bartok viola concerto with the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, a recital at the celebrated St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, performances at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and a performance at the Three Rivers Music Center in California. He was selected as Principal Viola of the Pacific Music Festival in Japan in 2008 under the baton of Fabio Luisi, and returned to the Festival in 2009 and 2010. Yi has also performed with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
Yi is an active chamber musician. He has collaborated with renowned artists including Menahem Pressler, Arnold Steinhardt, Ronald Leonard, Quatuor Ebène, Fiato Quartet, and the New Hollywood String Quartet. Among his awards and honors, Yi won first prize at the 2007 British Royal Overseas League Competition and the 2005 Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition. The latter led to a public performance of the Gyula David Viola Concerto.
Yi studied with Paul Coletti at The Colburn School of Music where he graduated with an Artist Diploma degree. Previously, Yi studied with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory in Boston and Jiri Heger at Singapore’s prestigious Yong Siew Toh Conservatory.
Thalia Moore, cello
Thalia Moore is a native of Washington D.C. She began her cello studies with Robert Hofmekler, and after only 5 years of study appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. She attended the Juilliard School of Music as a scholarship student of Lynn Harrell, and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in 1979 and 1980. While at Juilliard, she was the recipient of the Walter and Elsie Naumberg Scholarship and won first prize in the National Arts and Letters String Competition.
Since 1982, Ms. Moore has been Associate Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, and in 1989 joined the cello section of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. She has appeared as soloist at Avery Fisher Hall, (Lincoln Center), Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Herbst Theater, (San Francisco), and San Francisco Legion of Honor, among others. She has also performed as guest artist at the Olympic Music Festival, (Seattle, Washington), the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Music in the Vineyards Chamber Music Festival. In 1991, Ms. Moore appeared in the last episode of the TV series, Midnight Caller, and in 1993 was featured as soloist with the San Francisco Chamber Symphony under the direction of Roger Norrington. In 1996, she performed one of the first Bay Area performances of the composer’s version of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. In 1998, she was named a Cowles Visiting Artist at Grinnell College, Iowa, and in 1999 and 2001 won election to the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
As a member of the new music groups Earplay and the Empyrean Ensemble, she has recorded works by Mario Davidovsky, Maria Niederberger, Ross Bauer, Cindy Cox, William Kraft, Jorge Liderman, Kurt Rohde, and David Rakowski. She has presented numerous premieres of works, including the 2005 world premiere of Laws of Motion, a concerto by Richard Festinger, written especially for her.
Peter Myers, cello
Praised for the warmth and color of his sound, American cellist, composer, and arranger Peter Myers (b. 1985, St. Louis) has served as Assistant Principal Cellist of the San Francisco Opera since 2017, and is internationally known as a chamber musician. He is a founding member of SAKURA, a unique and innovative quintet of cellos, as well as the Saguaro Piano Trio, which placed first in the 2009 International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg, and he has concertized in the US, Germany, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Laos, Pakistan, and Mongolia. He is a regular participant at the Marlboro Music Festival (including appearances on tour with Musicians from Marlboro), and has also appeared as guest principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Myers studied at the Colburn Conservatory with Ronald Leonard and completed his graduate studies with Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California. He has composed and arranged for ensembles and institutions including the American Contemporary Ballet, SAKURA, and the Verona Quartet. He lives in San Francisco and plays an 1876 cello by Claude-Augustin Miremont.
Caroline Lee, violist
Click HERE for bio