Kim Kashkashian, viola
Adam Newman, viola
Edward Luengo, cello
Roberto Granados, guitar
Petra Berényi, cimbalom

Kim Kashkashian, internationally recognized as a unique voice on the viola, was born of Armenian parents in Michigan. She studied the viola with Karen Tuttle and legendary violist Walter Trampler at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Since fall 2000 she has taught viola and chamber music at New England Conservatory.

Following Grammy Award nominations for several previous recordings, Kashkashian received a 2012 Grammy Award in the "Best Classical Instrumental Solo" category for Kurtág and Ligeti: Music for Viola, on the ECM Records label. Kashkashian's recording, with Robert Levin, of the Brahms Sonatas won the Edison Prize in 1999. Her June 2000 recording of concertos by Bartók, Eötvös and Kurtág won the 2001 Cannes Classical Award for a premiere recording by soloist with orchestra.

In 2016, Kashkashian was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kashkashian has worked tirelessly to broaden the range of technique, advocacy, and repertoire for the viola. A staunch proponent of contemporary music, she has developed creative relationships with György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, Giya Kancheli, and Arvo Pärt, and commissioned works from Peter Eötvös, Ken Ueno, Thomas Larcher, Lera Auerbach, and Tigran Mansurian.

Marlboro Music and the Viennese school represented by her mentor, Felix Galimir, were major influences in developing her love of chamber music. Kim Kashkashian is a regular participant at the Verbier, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Marlboro, and Ravinia festivals.

She has long-standing duo partnerships with pianist Robert Levin and percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, and played in a unique string quartet with Gidon Kremer, Daniel Phillips, and Yo-Yo Ma.

As a soloist, she has appeared with the great orchestras of Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan, New York, and Cleveland, and in recital at the Metropolitan Museum of New York, Kaufmann Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, as well as in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, Athens, and Tokyo.

Kashkashian's musicianship has been well represented on recordings through her association with the prestigious ECM label in a fruitful collaboration that has been continuous since 1985.

Kim Kashkashian has taught in Bloomington, Indiana, and in Freiburg and Berlin, Germany, and now resides with her daughter in Boston. Kim is a founding member of Music for Food, an initiative by musicians to fight hunger in their home communities.

Adam Newman began his musical studies aged 7, learning a variety of instruments including violin and piano before focusing on the viola aged fourteen. He proceeded to study at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music with Louise Lansdown. Newman graduated with first class honours from the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Matthew Souter, Philip Dukes and Hu Kun. He then continued his studies in the class of Tatjana Masurenko at the Hochshule für Musik in Leipzig and in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Louise Hopkins. He is currently studying in Basel with Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartett.

Newman has attended Verbier Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, Thy Chamber Music Festival, Tibor Varga Masterclasses and the London Masterclasses where he has studied with renowned musicians such as Tabea Zimmerman, Bruno Giurana, Ana Chumachenco, Gábor Takács- Nagy, Thomas Riebl, Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, Lawrence Power and Alfred Brendel.

He has had considerable success in both competitions and recitals. They included a Sir John Barbirolli Foundation Award towards the purchase of a new bow and the Duchess of Cornwall / English Chamber Music Award. He was also a finalist at the Windsor International String Competition where he was awarded the Bishops Instruments and Bows Prize for the most deserving finalist.

Newman has worked with the English Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Camerata Variabile Basel, Cappa Ensemble, London Conchord Ensemble, Razumovsky Ensemble, Aronowitz Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, and with such musicians as Patricia Rozario, Nicolas Daniel, Jorg Widmann and Valentin Erben.