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, cellist, studied at Indiana University for her BM in Music Performance with the legendary pedagogue and performer Janos Starker. She received her MM in Music Performance from SUNY at Stony Brook on scholarship to study with Beaux Arts Trio cellist Bernard Greenhouse. She has served on the faculty of well-respected music schools and summer programs including, The St Paul Conservatory of Music, Artaria Chamber Music School, Stringwood, Taos International School of Music, Madeline Island Music Camp and St Olaf Music Camp. Other notable musicians and mentors have been, Raymond Davis, Toby Saks, Gary Hoffman, Josef Gingold, Paul Tortelier, and Menahem Pressler. Anna has played as an extra with the Minnesota Orchestra since 1989 and has extensive orchestral experience. She gives clinics and sectionals for the Minnesota Youth Symphonies, and other orchestral organizations for young players. She spent 2007/08 as conductor of the Northfield High School Orchestra, and has plans for more conducting this coming year. As a professional cellist, she frequently collaborates with musicians from both the Minnesota Orchestra and St Paul Chamber Orchestra and has appeared in chamber concerts and on the radio with such artists as Gil Shaham, Sharon Isbin, the Artemis Trio and the Artaria String Quartet. As a former member of the Artaria String Quartet Anna has performed in series and venues throughout the United States. 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. Anna Clift, teaches cello at both Carleton College and St Olaf College. She is dedicated to music education and has been a mentor and teacher to many young musicians in the Twin Cities area. |
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. |
Niemisto received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan. She was also a student at the National Music Camp, Interlochen. Neimisto was harp soloist with several symphonies in the Detroit area while in high school, as well as with the International Youth Symphony in Windsor, Canada. She has attended the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden, Maine, and has played with the Canadian Broadcasting Company in Halifax, the Las Palmas Opera Festival Orchestra (Spain), the Wisconsin Chamber Symphony, and as a free-lance artist and teacher in Finland. She is currently harpist with the Rochester Symphony, the Austin Symphony, the LaCrosse Symphony, and is also on the faculty at Carleton College and Luther College. She has completed five teacher-training sessions in Suzuki harp instruction and has a private studio of about fifteen Suzuki students. |
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 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 Artaria String Quartet and for two decades 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 and the newly created Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. His students attend major conservatories and are Schubert Club prizewinners. 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. 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 Italian violin made in 1726 by David Tecchler. He has been serving on the faculty of St. Olaf since 2000. |
