Brahms Among Friends

Violinist Jason Posnock enjoys a versatile musical career both in the United States and internationally. He has performed regularly in such prominent American ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and has accompanied them on tours to Europe, South America, the Far East and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Mr. Posnock is also an active chamber musician and recitalist, having appeared in venues throughout the United States, England, Puerto Rico, and India.

Mr. Posnock made his solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of ten, and has since appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the Asheville Symphony, Pittsburgh Live Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, Bombay Chamber Orchestra, McKeesport Symphony, Princeton University Orchestra, Royal College of Music Sinfonia, Carnegie Mellon Chamber Orchestra, and the Casals Festival Youth Orchestra, with which he performed the Puerto Rican premiere of the Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1.

In recent years Mr. Posnock has been invited to numerous chamber music and orchestral festivals. He has held principal positions at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and the Cape May Music Festival in New Jersey, and has taken part in Musica Viva (NJ) and the Sangat Music Festival in Mumbai, India, performing with leading musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Orchestra of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Regular festival appearances have included the Lancaster (OH) Festival, where he held the post of Assistant Concertmaster, Music On The Mountain (MD), and Music On The Edge, a contemporary music series in Pittsburgh. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Emanuel Ax, David Krakauer, Ursula Oppens, Andrés Cárdenes, Andrés Díaz, and the American Chamber Players.

Originally from New Jersey, Mr. Posnock began taking violin lessons at the age of four. His early teachers included famed pedagogue Samuel Applebaum, and David Arben, Associate Concertmaster (retired) of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He attended Princeton University, graduating with honors in 1994, and went on to earn his ARCM(PG) from the Royal College of Music, London, where he studied with Felix Andrievsky. He continued his studies with Yumi Scott, member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, before completing the Performance Residency Program at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as a student of Andrés Cárdenes, Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Concertmaster of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Mr. Posnock has previously held the positions of Concertmaster of the Clarksburg (WV) Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster of the McKeesport (PA) Symphony Orchestra. He has often been invited to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony, as well as serve as Guest Concertmaster of ensembles such as the Bangor, Roanoke, Erie, Westmoreland, and Altoona Symphony Orchestras. In addition to his performance schedule, Mr. Posnock has devoted much of his time to teaching and working with young musicians, serving on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center, as Artist Lecturer in Violin at Carnegie Mellon University, conductor of the Intrada Strings preparatory orchestra, and maintaining a busy teaching studio. He has also coached the violin sections of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and the Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestra. Presently Mr. Posnock resides with his family in Brevard, NC, serves on the faculty of Brevard College, and is the Vice President & Chief Artistic Officer at the Brevard Music Center.

Itamar Zorman is one of the most soulful, evocative artists of his generation, distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and gift for musical storytelling. Since his emergence with the top prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has wowed audiences all over the world with breathtaking style. His youthful intensity and achingly beautiful sound shine through in every performance, earning him the title of the “virtuoso of emotions.”

Highlights of the recent season include his Wigmore Hall debut in London, which resulted in an immediate re-engagement, all-Schubert programs in Israel and New York, and a fascinating Music of the Spheres program, including works by Bach, Phillip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, and Eugene Ysaye paired with stunning visuals at the planetarium of the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. In addition, his Atlanta Symphony debut, performing the Berg Violin Concerto with Karina Canellakis conducting, was celebrated by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for “passionate playing…an exceptional violinist.” He has performed with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, the IRIS Orchestra and Michael Stern, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park Orchestra, and has premiered numerous works at Germany’s fabled Kronberg Festival, among others.

His latest recording, Violin Odyssey, released in June 2022 on the First Hand Records label, explores lesser-known works for violin from all over the world, including works by such neglected and diverse composers as Grażyna Bacewicz, Dora Pejacevic, Ali Osman, Gareth Farr, William Grant Still and Erwin Schulhoff. Many of these works are featured in his intriguing Voices From Eastern Europe program. The Arts Fuse writes, “Throughout this adventuresome journey, Itamar Zorman…plays with total command and subtle variety.”

Violist Scott Rawls has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Recent chamber music endeavors include performances with Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Ray Chen, Gary Hoffman, Lynn Harrell, Bella Davidovich, Vladmir Feltsman, Garrick Ohlsson, and the Diaz Trio. His solo and chamber music recordings can be heard on the Centaur, CRI, Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels.

A strong proponent of new music, Rawls has premiered dozens of new works by prominent composers. Most notably, he has toured extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians since 1991. As the violist in this ensemble, he has performed the numerous premieres of Daniel Variations, The Cave and Three Tales by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Holland Festival, Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Under the baton of maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. During the summers, Rawls plays principal viola in the festival orchestra at the Brevard Music Center where he also coordinates the viola program.

Dr. Rawls currently serves as Associate Professor of Viola at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is active as guest clinician, adjudicator, and masterclass teacher at universities and festivals in America and Europe. He holds a BM degree from Indiana University and a MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, and John Graham.

A native of East Harlem, cellist Nicholas Tzavaras has enjoyed a distinguished career as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator for nearly three decades. From 2000 to 2024, he served as the cellist of the internationally acclaimed Shanghai Quartet, with whom he performed in more than 35 countries and at major venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Seoul Arts Center. Under his tenure, the quartet held long-standing residencies at Montclair State University and The Tianjin Juilliard School, and became known for championing both classical masterworks and contemporary commissions. Tzavaras has recorded more than 28 albums on the Naxos, Delos, Decca, BIS, Centaur, Camerata, and New Albion labels. He also served as guest principal cellist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2024.

Tzavaras began his musical studies at age two on the violin with his mother, Roberta Guaspari—the pioneering educator whose work was chronicled in the Academy Award–nominated documentary Small Wonders and portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film Music of the Heart. He switched to the cello at age seven and later attended the Bronx High School of Science before earning degrees from the New England Conservatory and SUNY Stony Brook. Tzavaras also holds an MBA from Montclair State University.

A passionate and sought-after educator, Tzavaras has held faculty appointments and leadership positions at The Tianjin Juilliard School, Montclair State University, the Longy School of Music, and the University of Richmond. He currently serves as Senior Director of Artistic Planning & Educational Programs at the Brevard Music Center and joined the faculty of Brevard College in the fall of 2025. Tzavaras makes his home in Asheville, North Carolina, with his wife, Sophia, and their three children.

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova is in demand as a soloist, collaborator, and educator. In the fall of 2020, she was named Musical America Worldwide’s “New Artist of the Month,” a rare distinction celebrating her work and particularly the impact of her recent CD “E Pluribus Unum.” In addition to joining the Brevard faculty, other 2022-23 season highlights include a return to the Bowdoin and Songfest music festivals, solo performances as an invited headliner at the TMTA State Conference, at the American Liszt Society Festival and across the Southeast, and chamber music tours with the Lysander Piano Trio at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, in New York City, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Wyoming, and in Canada.

In August 2020, Stepanova released her second solo album “E Pluribus Unum” (Navona Records) celebrating contemporary American composers with an immigrant background. The CD, which features a commission and three world-premiere recordings, received universal acclaim with reviews in the top three British classical music journals: Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and International Piano, as well as The Whole Note in Canada and Piano Magazine in the US. The disc was broadcast widely on national and international radio including “Album of the Week” on Canada’s public radio, several plays in Australia, and across the US. Stepanova’s debut solo album “Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art” (CAG Records, 2018), recorded in New York City with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, brought together music from Bach to Ligeti that was inspired by visual art. This record was also praised in international media and continues to be regularly played on American Public Media’s Performance Today, the most listened-to daily classical music program in the United States, including multiple features as a headliner.

Stepanova has performed extensively in Europe, most recently, as a soloist with the Southwest-German Philharmonic and in chamber music performances at the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments, at the Copenhagen Music Festival, and in Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall. In the United States, she has appeared in Weill and Zankel Recital Halls at Carnegie; Alice Tully Hall, Merkin and Steinway halls in New York City; at the Kennedy Center and The Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington. Stepanova has twice been a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra led by James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and was a top prizewinner at the Liszt-Garrison, Juilliard Concerto, Steinway, and Ettlingen competitions. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to international festivals at Castleton, La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Copenhagen (Denmark), and Davos (Switzerland), where she had opportunities to collaborate with leading artists including violinist Cho-Liang Lin, violist James Dunham, clarinetist Charles Neidich, soprano Lucy Shelton, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the Atlanta Symphony. Deeply committed to new music, she has premiered works by Jennifer Higdon and Libby Larsen and worked with composers William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank, and John Harbison.

As a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, Stepanova won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and received top prizes a the Coleman and Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. The ensemble recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a new album “Mirrors” (First Hand Records, UK) dedicated to works the group either commissioned or premiered, including a world-premiere recording of a work by Jennifer Higdon. Lysander has performed at all major venues in New York City including Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival to enthusiastic reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Highlights of Lysander’s recent tours include the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Purdue University’s Convocations Series, Los Angeles’ Clark Memorial Library at UCLA and the Da Camera Society; Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concert series and Rockford Coronado Concerts; San Francisco’s Music at Kohl Mansion; and Juneau Jazz and Classics (AK). Liza Stepanova studied art song collaboration with Wolfram Rieger in Berlin and was invited by the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to perform in several of his master classes including the Hugo-Wolf-Tage festival in Austria. Since 2010, Stepanova has been on the faculty at SongFest at The Colburn School in Los Angeles and also served as the festival’s Associate Artistic Director and Piano Program Director for two years.

Stepanova received her DMA from The Juilliard School with a Richard F. French Award for outstanding doctoral work. Previously a graduate of the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, Germany, she studied with Joseph Kalichstein, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal, and George Sava, and performed in master classes for Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, and András Schiff. Following teaching positions at The Juilliard School and Smith College, she is currently an associate professor of piano and piano area chair at the University of Georgia, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, where she also co-directs the biannual Chamber Music Athens festival featuring acclaimed artists performing and teaching alongside UGA faculty and students. Her UGA students have been invited to the Aspen, Bowdoin, Brevard, Chautauqua, and Salzburg Mozarteum summer programs and received scholarships to elite graduate programs. Recent student successes include top prizes at the Liszt-Ohio International Competition, GMTA, MTNA, Atlanta Music Club, and Atlanta Mozart Society competitions, and a finalist award at the Wideman International Piano Competition.

For more information, visit liza-stepanova.com.

Brevard Music Center

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Jacquelyn and Bruce Rogow

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