Tuesday, March 16, 2027 at 07:30 pm

Christian Colberg, viola, began his musical studies at the age of four in his native Puerto Rico. He is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music, and has served on the faculty of both the Peabody Institute of Music and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

As an active chamber musician, Mr. Colberg has collaborated with such artists and organizations as, Marvin Hamlish, Gary Karr, Milton Katims, Augustin Hadelich, Samuel Sanders, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, The Sitka Summer Festival, Arizona Musicfest Festival, the Muir, Cypress and Ariel String Quartets and with the Silk Road Festival in China.

In October 2018, Mr. Colberg premiered his own Viola Concerto, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He has performed this work with numerous orchestras, including the Puerto Rico Conservatory Orchestra, Carolina Philharmonic, and Música de Cámara in New York City. The second movement of his concerto was used as the competition piece for the 2014 Primrose International Viola Competition and the third movement has been used in the Sphinx competition since 2023.

In 2022 his compositions for string quartet and percussion were released on an album titled Talking to Myself in which he also played all the parts. His newest album for string quintets and percussion titled Baylamoose was released in 2024 and again, he performs all the parts on the album.

Felicity James, violin, has held the position of Associate Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2022, having previously served as Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra in addition to being offered the title of Assistant Concertmaster with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Ms. James has played as a guest musician with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony (upcoming summer 2024) on their European tours, as well as with the Seattle Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In the summer of 2023, she also played guest concertmaster of the Chautauqua Symphony.

An enthusiastic and versatile musician, James has traveled all over the world to perform in orchestral, solo and chamber music settings. Recent highlights include a tour to China and Hong Kong as concertmaster of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and a return to Verbier for their 2024 summer season, followed by another short tour in France. As a soloist, Ms. James has appeared with orchestras all over the United States, including the Minnesota Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony under the batons of their former music directors, and she has also had the pleasure of collaborating in chamber music with the Miró Quartet, the Calidore Quartet, Gary Hoffman and Anthony Marwood, among others.

Ms. James earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Robert Lipsett and worked closely with Arnold Steinhardt and Clive Greensmith.

Lachezar Kostov, cello is Associate Principal Cellist with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and holder of the Ona Hinson Dater endowed chair. He has appeared as a soloist in leading concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and Oji Hall in Tokyo.

The recipient of many awards, Mr. Kostov has appeared as a guest soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Japan, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Bulgaria. Mr. Kostov is represented as a member of the Kostov-Valkov Duo by Pro-Piano Management. Hailed by European and American critics for “the awesome purity of his playing,” and described as “prodigiously skilled protagonist”, he made his official debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in 2009, performing rarely heard works for cello and piano by Ellen Zwilich, Nikolay Roslavets, and Dimitri Kabalevsky.

Lachezar Kostov has appeared as a guest artist at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summer Fest, and Cactus Pear Music Festival. He has appeared in master-classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis, and Bernard Greenhouse. Currently Mr. Kostov teaches at the Catholic University in Washington DC, and at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Mr. Kostov is a world ambassador of Larsen Strings, and performs exclusively with the new “Il Cannone”. He plays on a rare Italian cello, dating from 1738 by Carlo Antonio Testore, graciously on loan to him by a private sponsor.

Dwight Parry, oboe, is the principal oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Oboe at Bowling Green State University. He is also Adjunct Professor of Oboe and Chamber Music at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is a versatile and passionate soloist, an avid chamber musician and an active advocate for new music, performing and teaching around the world. Mr. Parry's background in jazz has led him to pursue a career that spans from concert halls to the streets of New Orleans, where he has sat in and improvised with Dixie bands.

In May of 2022, Mr. Parry premiered a wonderful new oboe concerto, Les Belles Heures, by Guillaume Connesson, commissioned for him by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He was featured with the Springfield (MO) Symphony. Mr. Parry went on to give the US premiere of Carl Vine's Oboe Concerto with the Ohio Valley Symphony later that year. In recent seasons, he performed the Martinů Oboe Concerto with the CCM Chamber Orchestra and the Strauss Oboe Concerto with the Prague Summer Nights Festival in the Czech Republic.

Mr. Parry was formerly principal oboist of the San Diego Symphony and a Fellow with the New World Symphony. He has appeared as guest principal oboist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony, Deutsche Symphonie of Berlin and Korean Broadcasting Symphony.