New York-based cellist Ari Evan maintains an active performing career throughout North America and Europe. From 2020–23 he lived in Brussels, Belgium, where he completed his Artist Diploma at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapelle in Belgium, under the tutelage of Gary Hoffman. Solo highlights from his time in Europe include a performance of Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Haydn’s D Major Concerto with Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Vienna Concert Orchestra, and a recital at Flagey, Brussels. Ari was featured on the Chapelle’s landmark Cesar Franck CD, recording his first three piano trios with Frank Braley. Especially fond of string quartets, Ari served as guest cellist of the Quatuor MONA, performing in the Paris Philharmonie, and toured with the internationally acclaimed Rolston String Quartet through Europe, Canada, and the US. He also served as guest principal cellist with Belgium’s Ataneres Ensemble.
A versatile chamber musician, Ari has performed with many of the world’s pre-eminent artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Shumel Ashkenasi, Corina Belcea, Colin Carr, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ani Kavafian, Robert McDonald, as well as former members of the Cleveland and Artemis Quartets. He often performs music of living composers—having world-premiered works by Augusta Reed Thomas, Aaron J Kernis, Philip Lasser, and Pieter Schuermans—and has worked with Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Zorn, Eric Montalbetti, Kinan Azmeh, Eric Tanguy, and George Lewis on their own compositions. Many of the relationships Ari cultivated through chamber music have led to CD recordings—he is featured on the Alpha Classics, DUX, MSR Classics, and Sono Luminus labels. Exciting upcoming new music projects include the world-premiere of a cello/piano work by Michael Grebla at the Australian Embassy, and the first CD recording of Aaron J Kernis’ piano trio, Bright Abyss.
Ari has also played with many of New York’s premiere ensembles, working with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, ECCO, Music from Copland House, NOVUS, Metropolis Ensemble, New York Classical Players, Frisson Ensemble, and Exponential Ensemble. Additionally, he serves as the co-founder and artistic director of the Forest Hills Chamber Music Series, which he founded in 2019 to bring works by under-represented Jewish composers to his hometown of Forest Hills.
A passionate educator, Ari has coached chamber music at Juilliard Pre-College since 2016, and held a cello faculty position at the Caedmon School for the 2023–24 academic year. During his recent performances in Hawaii, he gave a solo cello masterclass to University of Hawaii students, as well as a high school solo masterclass to students of the Iolani music school. He has also served as guest artist faculty at the Heartland Chamber Music Festival in Kansas (2021), and the Merit School of Music in Chicago (2017), where he led chamber music masterclasses. His philosophy as a private teacher is to adapt his style to suit the individual needs of each student, and to always strive to help every student connect with their innate love of music.
Ari was a member of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect from 2018–2020, and studied with Timothy Eddy at the Juilliard School, where he received his Master’s Degree in 2017. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, where he graduated with honors.
David Kaplan — piano
Photo by Dario Acosta
Pianist David Kaplan has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. As orchestra soloist, he has appeared with the Britten Sinfonia at London’s Barbican and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin at the Philharmonie, as well the Symphony Orchestras of Hawaii and San Antonio. As recitalist, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, Music on Main in Vancouver, Strathmore, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls.
Kaplan has consistently drawn critical acclaim for creative programs that interweave classical and contemporary repertoire, often featuring newly commissioned works. As a guest artist of Piano Spheres at Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall, he recently premiered Quasi una Fantasia, a program exploring the grey area between composition and improvisation through works by Anthony Cheung, Christopher Cerrone, and Andrea Casarrubios, together with Couperin, Beethoven, Schumann, Saariaho, Ligeti, and his own improvisations. Kaplan’s New Dances of the League of David, a recital infusing Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze with sixteen new works by composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Marcos Balter, Caroline Shaw, and Andrew Norman was cited among the “Best Classical Music Performances of 2015” by The New York Times.
Balancing solo performances with meaningful collaborations, Kaplan has played with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets. As a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, he performs frequently in New York’s most exciting venues, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to National Sawdust, as well as creating innovative residencies as far away as Abu Dhabi, Mexico, and Scotland. He is a veteran of numerous distinguished chamber music festivals and series, such as the Seattle Chamber Music, Bard, and Mostly Mozart Festivals, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Barge Music. He is an alumnus of Tanglewood and the Ravinia-Steans Institute, and performs regularly as an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, including with Itzhak Perlman at Miami’s Arsht Center. He serves as Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, a community series in Morris County, NJ currently in its 36th season.
Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as for Nonesuch as part of his longstanding duo with pianist/composer Timo Andres. In September 2023, Bright Shiny Things will release Vent, Kaplan’s debut album with his wife, flutist Catherine Gregory, to include music by Gabriela Lena Frank, David Lang, Mr. Andres, Schubert, and Prokofiev.
Kaplan was a student of the late Claude Frank, and previously studied with Walter Ponce and Miyoko Lotto. His mentors over the years have included Anton Kuerti, Richard Goode, and Emanuel Ax. He studied conducting at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Lutz Köhler, under the auspices of a Fulbright Fellowship from 2008–10. The recipient of a DMA from Yale University in 2014, Kaplan earned his Bachelor from UCLA, where he has also served on the faculty since 2016, and now is the Assistant Professor and Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano Performance.
David is proud to be a Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artist, and when at home in Los Angeles, he enjoys practicing on his childhood piano, a 1908 Hamburg Steinway model A. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.
Jasmin Ward — soprano
Jasmin Ward is a soprano from Virginia, currently in her first year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2025–26 season, she will cover the roles of the Strawberry Woman and Lily in Porgy and Bess, then make her company debut as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. She recently made her company and role debut as Gerhilde in Die Walküre at the Santa Fe Opera as a member of the Apprentice Artist Program. Recent operatic engagements include several roles with Juilliard Opera such as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, Rose Segal in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra.
On the concert stage, she made her Alice Tully Hall debut in 2025 performing selections from Strauss’s Four Last Songs, performed selections from Brahms’ Liebeslieder and Neue Liebeslieder with the Wintergreen Music Festival, appeared as the soprano soloist in the Richmond Ballet’s production of Vivaldi’s Gloria, and performed at the 2022 Virginia Gubernatorial inauguration. In 2024, she was awarded the Murray Rosenthal/Philip Hagemann Award from the Opera Index Vocal Competition and the following year, was named a semi-finalist in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and received the Florence and Paul DeRosa Prize from the Juilliard School.
She is an alumna of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist Program, The Denyce Graves Foundation’s Shared Voices program, and Wintergreen Music Festival’s LEAD Cooperative. She holds degrees in voice from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Juilliard School.
Laurel Gagnon — violin
Photo by Junshi Yang Photography
Violinist Laurel Gagnon’s performances have been described as “poised and mature” (The Strad) and her interpretations praised for their “naturalness that [is] both disarming and distinctive” (The Straits Times, Singapore). Performing as a soloist and chamber musician, she is currently based in New York City and is a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program for the 2025–27 seasons. Equally at home performing traditional repertoire and premiering new works, she especially enjoys exploring works written by women of previous centuries.
Gagnon recently won first prize at the 2025 Dallas International Violin Competition, and was awarded top prizes at the Elmar Oliveira and Singapore International Violin Competitions. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Flagey in Brussels, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Lynn Philharmonia, and Indiana University Philharmonic. Upcoming engagements in 2026 include performances with the Dallas Chamber Symphony and the Yale Philharmonia.
As a chamber musician, Laurel is the founding violinist of Vinola Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble with an emphasis on contemporary repertoire. The trio received the grand prize at the 2025 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and won prizes at both the MTNA National Chamber Music Competition and The American Prize. The group has performed at institutions including Boston Conservatory, Indiana University, and Truman State University, and has completed multiple residencies at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. Actively involved in chamber music education, the ensemble has led masterclasses at Boston Conservatory, Truman State University, and worked with young ensembles at the Bridges Musical Arts Youth Organization. Upcoming season engagements include performances at Odyssey Chamber Music Series, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, and a residency at the University of California San Diego.
Passionate about engaging with local communities, Laurel worked extensively with Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement, where she collaborated with community partners to present public performances in libraries, schools, and senior care centers. A teaching artist with Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative, she also participated in Indiana University’s Fairview Violin Project, introducing violin to elementary students.
A recent graduate of the Yale School of Music under the mentorship of Augustin Hadelich, she previously studied with Ben Sayevich and Mauricio Fuks.
Laurel performs on an 1809 Lupot violin, generously on loan from Canimex Inc., Drummondville, Québec, Canada.
