For grades 3-5 | $50 per school FREE for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Developed by Carnegie Hall, the Link Up program introduces students in grades 3-5 to the orchestra through an interactive curriculum in which they learn to sing and play an instrument in the classroom before performing with a professional orchestra. For the digital Link Up concert this year, students can learn the music in advance and sing/play along with the video, or simply enjoy the music.

Generously supported by The Mardi Gras Fund

professional development

Two 60-minute Professional Development sessions will be held virtually over Zoom for teachers who are interested in participating in this program:

Wednesday, April 13 from 4:30-5:30pm
Monday, April 18 from 4:30-5:30pm

REPERTOIRE

Thomas Cabaniss: Come to Play
Giuseppe Verdi: ‘Anvil Chorus’ from Il Travatore
Igor Stravinsky: ‘Dance of the Adolescents’ from The Rite of Spring
Carl Orff: ‘O Fortuna’ from Carmina Burana
Thomas Cabaniss: Drumlines
Jessica Meyer: Go Big or Go Home
Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode
Young Artist Competition winner performances

TICKETS

$50 per school FREE for teachers until Tuesday, May 17, 2022.

FEATURED PERFORMERS

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

(New Zealand)

Becky Bloomer

(host, A2SO musician/Teaching Artist)

Abi Middaugh, flute

Ypsilanti, MI

(2021 Young Artist Competition winner)

Lily Sullivan, violin

Bloomington, IN

(2021 Young Artist Competition winner)

Matthew S. Foster, Charles Roy and Aakarsh Verma

(Members of Michigan Marching Band Drumline)

TEACHER RESOURCES

Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks (Carnegie)
About the 2021 A2SO Young Artist Competition winners
More to come!

For any questions and further information, please contact Yi-Ching Chen (yiching@a2so.com) directly.

SEE YOU AT THE SYMPHONY!

Aaron Berofsky

CONCERTMASTER, AARON BEROFSKY CONCERTMASTER CHAIR

Violinist Aaron Berofsky has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, gaining wide recognition as a soloist and chamber musician. As soloist, he has performed with orchestras in the United States, Germany, Italy, Spain and Canada. He has performed the complete cycle of Mozart violin sonatas at the International Festival Deia in Spain and all of the Beethoven sonatas at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. His 2011 recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas with Phillip Bush has been met with great acclaim.

France’s Le Figaro calls his playing “Beautiful, the kind of music-making that gives one true pleasure”. He has appeared in such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Corcoran Gallery, Het Doelen, L'Octogone, Seoul National University, the Teatro San Jose and the Museo de Bellas Artes. Mr. Berofsky has been featured on NPR's Performance Today and on the Canadian Broadcasting Company. His acclaimed recordings can be found on the Sony, Naxos, New Albion, ECM, Audio Ideas, Blue Griffin and Chesky labels. Recent recital tours have taken him to Germany, Italy and Korea, and he was featured soloist on the 2009 NAXOS recording of music by Paul Fetler, performed by the Ann Arbor Symphony, including the debut recording of his Concerto No. 2. His recording of the complete chamber music of Franz Xavier Mozart was released in 2013 on Equilibrium.

Mr. Berofsky was the first violinist of the Chester String Quartet for fifteen years. The quartet has been acclaimed as "one of the country's best young string quartets" by the Boston Globe. Tours have taken them throughout the Americas and Europe and the quartet members have collaborated with such artists as Robert Mann, Arnold Steinhardt, Franco Gulli, members of the Alban Berg quartet, Andres Diaz, Eugene Istomin and Ruth Laredo. Some notable projects over the years have included the complete cycles of the quartets by Beethoven and Dvorak, and numerous recordings by such composers as Mozart, Haydn, Barber, Porter, Piston, Kernis and Tenenbom. The Chester Quartet has served as resident quartet at the University of Michigan and at Indiana University South Bend.

An alumnus of the Juilliard School, Mr. Berofsky was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay. Other important teachers have included Robert Mann, Felix Galimir, Glenn Dicterow, Lorand Fenyves and Elaine Richey. Mr. Berofsky is known for his commitment to teaching and is Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan and served as visiting Professor at the Hochschule fur Musik in Detmold, Germany. He taught at the Meadowmount School of Music for many summers and is currently on the violin faculty of the Chautauqua Institution. He has also given masterclasses throughout the world, including a 2013 tour of Korea which included classes at Seoul National University, Ewha Women’s University, Seoul Arts High School and many others. He has also given class at the Cleveland Institute, Oberlin, Eastman, the Peter de Grote festival in the Netherlands, Domaine Forget in Quebec, Interlochen, the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival and the Conservatorio Palma Mallorca.

Mr. Berofsky's interest in early music led him to perform with the acclaimed chamber orchestra Tafelmusik on period instruments, also makingseveral recordings with them for the Sony label. He co-runs University of Michigan’s Baroque Chamber Orchestra with harpsichordist Joseph Gascho. With a strong dedication to new music as well, he has worked extensively with many leading composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, performing, commissioning and recording music by John Cage, William Bolcom, Zhou Long, Michael Daugherty, Aaron Jay Kernis, Susan Botti, Morton Subotnick, Paul Fetler and Bright Sheng.

Aaron Berofsky has been concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Symphony since 2003. He has also served as guest concertmaster for many orchestras throughout the US and Europe.

Kathryn Votapek

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER, STRAKA-FUNK ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER CHAIR HONORING KATHRYN VOTAPEK

A member of the Chester String Quartet for 15 years, violinist and violist Kathryn Votapek maintains an active career as soloist and as guest artist at chamber music festivals throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Central America. She has participated in numerous commissioning projects and premieres and can be heard with the Chester Quartet on the Koch International Classics, New Albion, and Audio Ideas labels.

Along with pianist Ralph Votapek and clarinetist Paul Votapek, she performs as violinist and violist with the Votapek Trio.

Ms. Votapek has been Guest Lecturer of Violin and Viola at the University of Michigan and has served on the faculty of the Meadowmount School of Music, the Interlochen Arts Camp, the Las Vegas Music Festival, the Madeline Island Music Camp, the Quartet Program, the Banff International Festival, and the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival (Italy), as well as performing at the Speedside Festival (Canada), the Klosterkamp Kammermusikfest (Germany), the International Deia Festival (Spain), the Garth Newel Festival, the Fontana Festival, and with the Chicago Chamber Musicians.

Ms. Votapek is the Associate Concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. She was Associate Professor of Violin and Artist in Residence at Indiana University South Bend. Ms. Votapek received her Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University and Masters degree from the Juilliard School. Her teachers were Robert Mann, Franco Gulli, and Angel Reyes.

Mallory Tabb

Violin / Viola

Mallory Tabb is an enthusiastic violinist and dedicated teacher. She has performed and taught in Oregon, Florida, and throughout the Midwest. She performs regularly with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Assistant Concertmaster), the Lansing Symphony Orchestra (Assistant Principal Second Violin), and the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (Tenured Section Member). She occasionally appears on stage with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, and the Rochester Symphony Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, in recent years Mallory has performed with members of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in the marathon performance events “Bach Around the Clock” (2016) and “The Complete String Quartets of Dimitri Shostakovich” (2015). She is currently a member of the string ensemble Quartet Felice, the first classical ensemble to appear in the Affinity Series at the Franke Center for the Arts in Marshall, Michigan.

A trained Suzuki instructor, Mallory has sixteen years of private teaching experience. In 2013 she joined the faculty of the University of Michigan String Preparatory Program where she continues to train dedicated young musicians. She also enjoys working with students of all ages through her private Ann Arbor studio, Soaring Strings.

Mallory holds a Master of Music Degree from the University of Michigan where she studied with Stephen Shipps. Former teachers also include Leanne League (The University of Wisconsin Whitewater) and Marguerite Richardson (Jacksonville University).
For more information, please visit: www.mallorytabb.com

Barbara Sturgis-Everett

Violin / Viola
Principal Second Violin, Gates & Rudisill Endowed Principal Second Violin Chair

Barbara Sturgis-Everett has been a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra since 1989 and has served as Principal Second Violin since 1991. Prior to her association with the Symphony, Dr. Sturgis-Everett was an Associate Professor of Music at Eastern Illinois University where she was a member of the string faculty and of The Eastern Trio. She served on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp for 15 summers as well as teaching and performing summers at The Downeast Chamber Music Festival in Maine. In addition to the A2SO, Ms. Sturgis-Everett performs and records with R4, The River Raisin Ragtime Revue, a 13-piece ensemble specializing in early jazz of the Ragtime era heard throughout the midwest. Other professional activities have included performing in The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra in Door County, WI, and teaching at The Chapin School for Girls and the Manhattan Conservatory Preparatory in New York. She continues to teach violin, viola and chamber music in her studio at home and has helped organize and teach in the Summer Piano Ensemble Camp launched by the Ann Arbor Area Piano Teachers.

Barbara's early years were spent in South Carolina. The daughter and granddaughter of pianists, Barbara began studying piano with her mother at the age of 4 and violin in a 4th-grade class. She was a scholarship student at the Reston and Brevard Music Centers and a 1st place winner of the Concerto Competition for the Charlotte Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Barbara earned both her Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music in Baltimore at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Cincinnati where she was on the faculty of the Preparatory and Continuing Education Division. She is indebted to many teachers, especially Berl Senofsky, Henry Meyer, Walter Levin, Christine Dethier, Elaine Lee Richey, Derry Dean Drinkall, and Jess Casey.

Pioneer High School Choirs

The Ann Arbor Pioneer High School A Cappella Choir is one of four curricular and nine extra-curricular choral ensembles at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, the 2006 & 2011 National GRAMMY® Signature School. The A Cappella Choir has performed at the American Choral Directors Association Central Division Convention (2014), American Choral Directors Association Michigan State Convention (2014 & 2018), Michigan Music Conference (2013 & 2018), and Michigan Youth Arts Festival (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2017). In 2014 & 2015, they were selected as an Outstanding Choir and featured at the Gala Concert of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival. The Pioneer Choirs have collaborated with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings.