String Faculty
 David Carter Professor of Music — Cello carter@stolaf.edu http://www.stolaf.edu/people/carter Cellist David Carter is Professor of Music at St. Olaf College. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Indiana University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Carter's principal cello teachers include Robert Jamieson, Gary Hoffman, Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi.
Dr. Carter can be heard on Centaur Records in “3 Pieces for Solo Cello” by Phillip Rhodes and works by Amy Beach, and on the Limestone label with the Melius Trio. |
Anna Clift studied at The Banff School of Fine Arts & Indiana University with legendary cellist and pedagogue Janos Starker. She received her M.M. degree in Music Performance from SUNY at Stony Brook where she studied with Beaux Arts Trio cellist, Bernard Greenhouse.
Other musicians and mentors have been Toby Saks, Gary Hoffman, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Josef Gingold, Paul Tortelier, and Menahem Pressler.
Currently on the faculty of St Olaf College she has taught at music schools and summer programs in the United States including, Gustavus Adolphus College, Carleton College, Artaria Chamber Music School, Stringwood, Taos International School of Music, & Madeline Island Music Camp.
Founder and Director of a new international summer academy for cellists, www.celloanamericanexperience.com, Anna will be returning to China this October and collaborating with teachers and students in Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan, many of whom will be attending the academy during the summer of 2012.
She has played as a sub with the Minnesota Orchestra since 1989 and has extensive orchestral experience. As a professional cellist, she frequently collaborates with musicians from both the Minnesota Orchestra and St Paul Chamber Orchestras. She has appeared on radio with the Garrison Keillor Show and performed in chamber concerts with Gil Shaham, Sharon Isbin, the Artemis Trio and the Artaria String Quartet.
She has participated in many summer programs and festivals, Banff School of Fine Arts, Spoleto Festival, Washington Island Music Festival and the Britt Music Festival.
Dedicated to teaching and music education she has been a mentor and teacher to many young musicians in the Twin Cities area. As of 2012 Anna will be the new president of MNSOTA. |
Een earned a D.M.A. in violin performance and literature from the University of Illinois. She has studied violin with Theodore Brunson, Marilyn Box, Dorothy DeLay, Paul Rolland, Eduard Melkus, and Paul Kantor, and viola with Louis Kievman. Een has also studied chamber music with members of the Hungarian and Walden String quartets. She has a special research interest in the Norwegian folk Hardanger fiddle and has been featured on National Public Radio and on Norwegian National Television performing and talking about emigrant fiddle traditions. She is a member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, the Plymouth Festival Orchestra, and a frequent chamber music performer on violin and viola. Een has performed as a solo and chamber musician in Norway, France, Germany, Austria, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. |
Gray earned a B.M. from Wheaton College, an M.M. from the University of Michigan, and he received a chamber music certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where he pursued additions study on viola. His principal study was with Paul Makanowitzky and Sylvia Rosenberg (violin), with Atar Arad (viola), and with the Cleveland Quartet (in chamber music). Gray was the violist of the Casella String Quartet, winner of the 1981 Cleveland Quartet Competition and the 1983 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He has performed as a solo recitalist at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and as a chamber musician at the Aspen Music Festival and the Steamboat Springs Festival in Colorado. Previously a member of the Rochester Philharmonic (N.Y.) and the Grand Rapids Symphony (Mich.), and concertmaster of the Bloomington Symphony (Minn.), Gray is currently a substitute member of the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He is also employed on the music staff of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, Minn. In recent years he has been featured as a violin and viola soloist on many occasions with the St. Olaf Choir, St. Olaf Cantorei, and St. Olaf Orchestra. In September 2008, he was awarded "2008 Minnesota Master String Teacher of the Year" by the American String Teachers Association. |
Double bassist Connie Martin performs and teaches in Minnesota, where she |
Elinor Niemisto holds a BM and MM in Harp Performance from the University of Michigan, as well as Suzuki Harp Teacher Training units 1 through 4 and Practicuum. She is the Principal Harpist with the Rochester (MN) Symphony and the LaCrosse (WI) Symphony. Elinor is a Senior Lecturer in Harp at Carleton College as well as Adjunct Instructor at St. Olaf. She is serving on the American Suzuki Harp Curriculum Committee. She teaches harp lessons to students from age six to sixty and plays restful music to elderly and home-bound residents of the Northfield area. Elinor is a frequent performer with choirs and chamber groups in the SE Minnesota area and performs with "Harpourri", a quartet of professional harpists. |
|
 Miriam Scholz-CarlsonInstructor of Music — Alexander Technique scholzca@stolaf.edu |
Ray Shows received his M.Mus in violin performance from Boston University (magna cum laude) and his B.mus from Florida State University. He made his solo violin debut with orchestra in his native Atlanta. A McKnight Fellowship prizewinner in 2004, Ray is a founding member of the acclaimed Artaria String Quartet and has performed concerts in major concert halls in New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Atlanta, across the U.S. and in Europe. He has been a featured artist on ABC television, National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting and at the L'Epau Festival in France. An Artist/Teacher in Residence at the renowned Tanglewood Institute and at The Quartet Program, Shows is currently Artistic Director of the Artaria Chamber Music School, Stringwood Festival, and the prestigious Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. His students attend major conservatories, are Schubert Club prizewinners, and have appeared on National Public Radio's From the Top. Appointed to multi-year teaching residencies at Boston College, Viterbo University, Florida State University and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, Shows is the recipient of prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the Heartland Fund. In 2010 he was awarded the MNSOTA Master Teacher Award. His principal teachers were Roman Totenberg and Gerardo Ribeiro. Eugene Lehner, Raphael Hillyer, and members of the Emerson, Cleveland, Budapest, Muir and La Salle Quartets have mentored him in chamber music. Ray plays on a rare French violin made by Andrea Castagneri, Paris 1735 and bow by French archetier Pierre Simon. He has been serving on the faculty of St. Olaf since 2000. |
